Chapter 344: Just Think of It as a Chicken
Steven quickly realized that he'd… underestimated the situation.
When he opened his minimap, intending to check where Patriot and his shieldguards had gone, he was greeted by a sight that made him pause.
Two enormous red dots were occupying a wide swath of the map.
So there wasn't just one of them?
Closing the minimap with practiced calm, Steven patted the shoulder of Yelena, who was still leaning against him.
The resting girl frowned slightly, her confused gaze meeting his.
"Hurry and take your brothers and sisters out of here," Steven said. "Give each of them one of these milk candies. That should be enough to get them out of danger."
He pulled a handful of candies from his inventory and gestured toward the unconscious members of the Yeti Squadron sprawled nearby.
Whether the Collapsal was coming for him or for them, he couldn't say. But leaving them helpless like this was too dangerous—they needed to be moved to safety.
"What about you?"
Yelena didn't know why Steven was suddenly rushing her, nor was she aware of the two monsters hurtling toward them. All she cared about right now… was what he planned to do next.
"I'll check on Patriot's side of things," Steven replied lightly. "And while I'm at it, I'll take care of that monster. It's a nasty one—and your old man might not be able to handle it alone."
He gave her a brief reassurance, then pulled Yamato from his inventory and strapped it casually to his waist.
"Then I can help you—"
"And what about your brothers and sisters here?" Steven cut her off, pointing at the fallen Yetis. "Get them to safety first. As for you charging off without me… we'll settle that later."
His words made the girl falter, the protest on her lips fading away.
"…Then can you at least tell me what that monster is?" Yelena asked with a weary sigh.
They'd only come to deal with the sudden gathering of Infected patrol squads and regular troops. For insurance, they'd brought along Patriot's shieldguards and the Yeti Squadron—yet even so, they'd run headlong into this nightmare.
She hadn't even managed to see clearly how the creature had attacked before her comrades were lying all over the ground. If her father hadn't been there at the time, they might not have gotten away with mere unconsciousness.
And now even the Emperor's Blade had been dragged into the mess. Yelena couldn't shake the feeling that this winter in the tundra was destined to be anything but peaceful.
"Tch. Don't ask. Don't wonder. Don't even think about what it is," Steven said at last, his voice firm. "Just think of it as a chicken. That's all you need to know. I'll slaughter it soon enough and avenge you all."
He had intended to explain—but Talulah's warning came back to him. These "Collapsals" grew stronger the more people knew about them.
So instead, he changed his answer.
Steven himself had no problem facing these creatures. But if the monster on Patriot's side grew stronger because of him… well, that would be a little embarrassing.
Fortunately, once Yelena heard his explanation, she didn't press further. If Steven didn't want to say, she wouldn't force him. He must have his reasons for keeping silent.
Resolutely, she rose to her feet. The dark miasma that had plagued her was gone, and with it the weakness that had weighed her down.
At the very least, she was more than capable of leading her comrades away.
She cast Steven one last worried look, then turned to tend to the gradually awakening members of the Yeti Squadron.
Steven, meanwhile, took a moment to think, then set off toward one of the crimson dots on his minimap.
Judging by the icons, Patriot and his shieldguards were dealing with one of the creatures. The other was flanked by three gray dots—likely the remaining three Emperor's Blades.
Originally, he had planned to help Patriot first. But a sudden detail on the minimap caught his eye, and he immediately changed course—heading in the exact opposite direction of the two red dots.
Before long, he reached a clearing. From there, his gaze fell on his true destination.
—A nomadic city, stopped who-knew-when in this desolate expanse.
Strictly speaking, the city itself wasn't his target. What mattered was the Collapsal beneath his feet, hurtling at terrifying speed in that very direction.
No wonder the Emperor's Blades had been unable to track its movements. An enemy that could burrow through the earth, especially with two others providing cover, was nearly impossible to detect.
—Nearly.
Unfortunately for it, the creature hadn't accounted for one thing: a Minecrafter minimap mod.
And not just any minimap mod—the modern ones came loaded with expansions. Aboveground and underground views. Day and night overlays. A ridiculous array of functions that made sneaking past him… impossible.
So when the monster tried to slip past, Steven was already there, tearing open a fissure in the ground just as he had with the last stray Collapsal, calmly waiting for his "guest" to arrive.
From the moment he'd laid eyes on that nomadic city, he understood its plan.
Cause panic by assaulting a city. Spread fear. Inflict casualties and chaos.
These monsters were far cleverer than ordinary beasts. And that only made his curiosity about them grow stronger.
They didn't look like creatures that should even exist in this world. According to Kal'tsit, their nest stretched across a massive swath of the northern tundra. Just what history was buried within that dark domain?
Still, questions could wait. For now, he had a research subject right at hand.
A perfect opportunity to see just how these Collapsals differed from one another.
Before long, the red dot beneath the earth drew closer, and the barrier he had carved into the ground began to tremble violently.
The next second, a monstrosity burst through the soil—its head spinning like a drill, grotesque and squid-like. The instant it touched the frigid air of the tundra, its form twisted and warped, reshaping itself into something even more hideous: a many-legged abomination, like an octopus fused with a centipede.
Its countless limbs writhed unnaturally, each a nightmarish tendril. And covering its body—clusters of eyes, packed together like bunches of grapes.
One glance was enough to send a person's sanity plummeting.
If someone with trypophobia saw it, they'd probably collapse screaming.
"No matter how many times I look at you things, your design sense is way too abstract," Steven muttered, shaking his head. "Sure, being a monster means you can grow however you like—but did you really have to make yourselves this painful to look at?"
He didn't care whether they were frightening. But eye-searing? That, he could do without.
Couldn't they at least take a page from the Seaborn, or that Fallingstar Beast? Same brand of monstrosity, but at least they had some kind of consistent aesthetic. Look at them long enough and they were even kind of cool.
But this one? The only word Steven could muster was: ugly.
The Collapsal, of course, had no intention of listening to his commentary. From the instant it sensed his presence, it lunged at him with instinctive hatred for all living things.
Hundreds of tentacles stabbed forward at once, too numerous for any ordinary body to dodge. And worse still, the real danger wasn't the tendrils—it was the black miasma spreading from beneath its hovering body, a suffocating aura of destruction that drained the life from the very earth, turning the soil ashen gray.
But Steven was all too familiar with this kind of attack.
At this level? He couldn't even be bothered to dodge.
He simply drew Yamato at his waist, slicing lazily through the air before him.
Reality itself split apart. A jagged tear—like a texture glitch in a broken game—opened between him and the creature. And when its tendrils brushed against that scar, they were severed clean through.
"You shall not pass," Steven declared.
Words the Collapsal could never understand. But to Steven, it was another chance to indulge his chuuni flair—so much so that a grin tugged at his lips.
Still, he could tell right away that this one wasn't in the same league as the stray Collapsal he'd fought before.
No ominous boss health bar appeared before his eyes. At best, this thing was a minecraft equivalent of a Zombie who accidently wore leather armor.
Its size gave it away too—barely two stories tall. Bigger didn't always mean stronger, but as far as first impressions went, scale was never a bad indicator.
Even the black miasma creeping across the ground was cut off by his blade. The creature let out a howl no human language could describe, then hastily withdrew its shattered limbs.
Darkness coiled around its wounds, knitting new flesh in an instant until its body was whole again—like the severing had never happened at all.
"Figures. Is regeneration just a standard feature for tentacle-types?" Steven scratched his head. "Seems like every monster with tentacles comes with absurd healing power."
Then, his eyes lit up with a flash of mischief.
"Still, with a body like that, I bet you'd make one hell of a tonic if I steeped you in liquor."
Rubbing his hands together, Steven couldn't help but think he had just found the perfect fate for the Collapsal before him.
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Note: Character Illustration is in this Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iuyfwNVFHzIi9H4rWNT_lAm7jTSiah_M
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