Chapter 40: Total War

***

“Are you already leaving?”

Youngsik's voice, full of regret, slipped out of his lips.

It had been 3 years and 6 months since the apocalypse broke out and the world was ruined.

People who were fine turned into zombies, society collapsed, and people lived days where they guarded and killed each other.

The human civilization, which had been built over 6,000 years, was on the verge of extinction in less than 4 years.

To fight against zombies that evolved endlessly, humanity tried to rally around the Awakened, but it wasn't easy.

Jealousy, envy, greed, and suspicion did not disappear even in this world. Instead, they only grew larger, gnawing at humans and slowly eroding them to shadows of what they once were.

Even Youngsik, who knew a rough outline of the future, was expelled from his own group and chased away with nothing. Didn’t that explain more than enough?

But hope is a mysterious thing, and it managed to survive and eventually blossom.

‘It’ appeared like a comet, bringing the sound of thunder along with it.

Survivors who were hiding deep underground to avoid zombies first heard the thunderous noise that sounded as if the sky was falling.

This miserable fucked up life is over now.

That was what they resigned themselves to.

But soon, they began to feel something strange. After the noise ended, there was an unusual silence.

Zombies? Awakened? Bombs? Survivors curious about the source of the noise crawled out from their hiding places. What they saw was a battlefield devastated by bullets and bombs.

However, upon witnessing the sight of streets with no zombies in sight, they turned speechless.

Youngsik reflected on the past few months he spent with Hyperion. In truth, he had to endure a grueling schedule; so grueling, in fact, that it was an understatement to call it a forced march.

But Youngsik quietly handled the schedule. He knew that the more Hyperion and he moved, the more someone could feel at ease.

In fact, all Youngsik did was menial tasks. Sometimes he met survivors to deliver Hyperion’s messages. In other times, he took necessary actions. Mostly, he performed the chores Hyperion assigned him.

But the reason he could smile was because of the incredible miracles Hyperion accomplished.

After months of searching and wiping out zombies...

There were no more zombies left on Earth.

Unbelievably, Hyperion declared the end of the apocalypse and granted humanity its freedom.

The freedom to live without fear.

“Hoho...”

Though he was bewildered at first when seeing Hyperion relentlessly search and destroy zombies as if meeting some sworn enemy, he now understood.

Hyperion changed gradually as it found and wiped out zombies, erasing the zombie waves known as calamities with bombardments.NewW novels updates at novelhall.com

It was hard to believe even with his own two eyes.

Youngsik felt a sense of inadequacy in his imagination. After all, Hyperion grew endlessly and began to equip itself with all kinds of weapons.

At that time, Youngsik almost mistook Hyperion for having the intention to blow up the Earth. By the time it swept through North and South Korea and Japan and advanced into China, calling it a spaceship would be quite shameless.

It could just be called a flying fortress, or even an aerial city. There were no zombies left alive in the path of the airborne city Hyperion, armed with all kinds of weapons.

Was that all? Hyperion miraculously found the Slaters and personally delivered fiery hell upon them.

Hyperion was as relentless in searching for zombies as it was for Slaters; it almost felt like it was chasing after its parents’ worst enemies.

“Haha...”

Youngsik recalled the time when Hyperion established a huge research complex after sweeping through China.

At that time, the largest survivor group in China came to visit.

“Zombies are also citizens and property of the People's Republic of China. Your rampage has plundered our property, so we demand compensation.”

Youngsik was dumbfounded.

Who did they think they were to come out so confidently? Were they not afraid of Hyperion?

“If you let us live in the airborne city, we can mutually benefit each other. You need workers, don’t you?”

Youngsik, who was cleaning Hyperion’s outer walls, realized something.

That these guys were seriously mistaken about something.

Hyperion was not a city, and there was no reason to take them aboard.

Youngsik tried to persuade them nicely.

“I’ll ask, but do not expec...”

“Huh? Ah... that.”

Youngsik smiled.

“I don’t mind. I rarely used it anyway. But I can leave one last review, right?”

[Do as you please.]

Youngsik logged into the [Integrated Dimensional Community].

[Welc^$&#$# to #&%& Integrated @$&% Community.]

Unlike before, the letters were broken and barely readable.

“Let’s see....”

[@*!&#^& ##^@&@ @%#@]

The letters were all broken and hard to read, but he carefully pressed the button to write a post, recalling where exactly it was from his memories.

“It’s not easy. huh.”

Soon, he wouldn’t be able to use the [Integrated Dimensional Community] at all.

According to Hyperion’s explanation, it was an unavoidable event caused by sending the Schizont across dimensions. Due to incomplete research, it had no choice but to consume his community channel.

That seemed to be the rough explanation.

Well, it did say something about the Schizont being the same entity or whatever. What a cryptic remark.

At any rate, Youngsik took a photo of the sky and wrote a heartfelt post in the community.

Cosmic Emperor! Thank you!

But... I’m not sure if it will upload properly.

Youngsik smiled as he felt the dark sky gradually brighten.

I’m sure it doesn’t matter.

Hyperion Mk.2, which had been covering the entire sky, crossed dimensions. Its size was so immense that it felt like the dark night turned into day in an instant.

***

[Moving to the target dimension.]

Pszzzzzz-

Hyperion's body moved forward through a much more unstable and intense Astral Passage than the usual Warp of the Galactic Empire.

Though it was only for a brief moment, it felt like an eternity.

Rumble-

[Engine Damage Rate: 72.01%]

[Cooling Facility Damage Rate: 62.04%]

[Front Body Damage Rate: 34.28%]

[Outer Wall Damage Rate: 46.41%]

...

[AT Barrier Remaining: 18.02%]

[Remaining Power: 37.12%]

Rumble-

[Hyperion Stage 12-17. Successfully moved to the target dimension.]

Where Hyperion arrived, a war was raging.

Tens of thousands of space warships slowly withdrew their formation upon discovering Hyperion's presence.

Beep-

[Selecting targets as per Master’s command.]

Whirr- Clink- Clink-

From Hyperion's body, which was several times larger than the Debran’s 1,800km-long Terra Class Motherships, a total of 1.28 million gun ports emerged.

Silence fell over the battlefield.

Soon, the gun ports poured out a veritable Milky Way, decorating the universe with stars.

It was at this moment when the entire combat force of the planet Debra evaporated in an /genesisforsaken