**Chapter 75**
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**Invader I**
**Shin Noah**
**1**
Since the topic of movies came up, let me reveal my preferences while I'm at it—I prefer alien movies the most.
To be more precise about the genre, I like movies tagged with #Disaster #Invasion #SF #Apocalypse.
You know, movies like 'War of the Worlds' (2005) or 'Mars Attacks!' (1996). Those kinds of movies.
Some people might find my taste unexpected and have questions about it.
—We're already in a situation where Earth is being invaded by strange beings, so why would you want to experience the same thing through movies? What's fun about that?
But that's a question from someone who doesn't understand. Movies and reality are not 'the same' at all, which is why they're fun.
It's like watching fantasy works, you could say?
First of all, there are no awakened individuals in those types of movies. That's already a minor 'accuracy error' right there.
"Wow... An alien that drinks human blood to replenish fuel and manipulate the environment. How novel. But the lower body of that alien robot looks a bit flimsy—if you cut through it with aura, it would collapse quickly..."
"Their strategy is strange too. They knew how to lurk for thousands, tens of thousands of years, but didn't think to scout Earth's ecosystem beforehand? Why is that? If they had organized a reconnaissance team for just one year, they would've identified all the problems."
"B-because they're stupid...?"
"Ah. Then it can't be helped."
Just listening to what Sim A-ryeon and Seo Gyu say while watching the movie together, you can tell how people of this era perceive SF alien invasion disaster movies.
The historical accuracy is so poor that you can enjoy it more like fantasy instead. Though that probably wasn't the director's intention.
If I had to pick a movie with relatively good realistic accuracy, it would be 'Annihilation' (2018)? It portrayed well how ordinary people perceive the Void.
Anyway.
There's one cliché that appears quite commonly in these movies.
'Aliens that seem completely invincible and drive humanity to despair, but ta-da! They actually had one fatal weakness-'
That kind of cliché.
Personally, I call this the 'Achilles Cliché.'
One could argue that Achilles was undeniably human, but well, from the perspective of the Trojans, Achilles was enough of an alien.
The aliens in movies join anti-vaccine movements en masse and die in droves from Earth's viruses, or their brains explode from mysterious waves caused by country music rhythms, but real-world strange beings aren't that kind to humanity.
But sometimes, very rarely—— strange beings appear that are kind enough to have an 'Achilles' heel' as if they jumped straight out of a movie.
The kindest alien I encountered was in the 98th round.
**2**
Honestly, I didn't even know it was a strange being at first.
It wasn't because I was stupid, but because it genuinely made people confuse it.
"It's a meteor shower!"
"Look, over there!"
"It won't come this way, will it...?"
From a distance, it looked exactly like a 'meteor.'
The timing of its appearance was also coincidental—exactly year 9. In other words, it was around the time when the continental-level strange being 'Meteor Shower' had already devastated Gyeongsangnam-do and was enthusiastically spraying its fluids all over the world.
Naturally, from my perspective, when something that looks like a meteor falls from the sky at this time...
'Sigh. Meteor Shower is acting up again.'
...I could only interpret it that way.
Moreover, this 'meteor' didn't fall inland but right in the middle of the East Sea. And not near Ulleungdo, but near the Yamato Basin, close to the Japanese archipelago.
I hadn't heard any news of Atlantis moving from the Atlantic to the East Sea yet, so the area was truly unmanned territory.
So naturally, I ignored it. The job of a regressor is too busy to take care of the marine ecological environment.
But starting from the rounds after the Meteor Shower subjugation, the story became a bit strange.
"Undertaker. Did you see the meteor fall toward the East Sea last night...?"
"Huh?"
"You didn't know. A shooting star fell last night. Heh. I was worried it might be Meteor Shower. It became a topic on SG Net for a while and posts were flooding in. But well, nothing happened in the end..."
"Ah, it's normal for meteors to fall in the East Sea around this time of year, so it was just an ordinary meteor."
After that, I heard several eyewitness accounts, but I lived without paying attention to this matter for a long time.
After all, about 100 tons of rocks fall from space to Earth every day. It just happened to fall in the East Sea, and it just happened to overlap with the timing of 'Meteor Shower.' It wasn't particularly a special event.
Then one day.
In the 98th round, I happened to be visiting Kanazawa City in Japan.
I had business with the largest organization on the Japanese archipelago—the 'Magical Girl Association,' which would be equivalent to the Awakened Alliance in Korea.
For reference, this group is filled with awakened individuals who are at a similar level of craziness as us but have evolved their madness in a completely different direction. I'll probably mention them later.
It would be better if I don't have to.
On this day, the meeting ran late, so I ended up walking along the beach until late at night with the magical girl dispatched from the Magical Girl Association.
"So, what I'm saying is, I hope you'll help us in the Inunaki subjugation battle with the Undertaker's abilities, meow."
"I can help. But like I said last time, hand over the camera."
"Hey, even so, the camera is... You know that's a cursed item we only have 3 of, meow. Instead, we'll provide sufficient other compensation... Oh?"
"Hmm?"
Despite the quite chilly weather, the magical girl insisted on a gothic lolita fashion with lots of frills and carried a black umbrella even in the middle of the night as she pointed toward the East Sea.
This fashion sense alone would have been a rare sight anywhere on Earth, but something even more surprising was unfolding in the direction of the East Sea.
I witnessed it. Thanks to being a regressor, my aura training was several levels higher than others, and with my tremendously enhanced vision...
"...."
"Wow! It's a shooting star, meow!"
The magical girl hopped around on the sandy beach, excited. Unfortunately, I couldn't keep up with that energy level.
Because...
"...A disc?"
"Huh?"
"No, that thing... The thing that fell in the East Sea. It's not a meteor but a disc... A saucer-shaped flying object?"
"Eh? A UFO?"
The magical girl tilted her head with a tone that made me want to bite her to death. Fortunately or unfortunately, I was already used to their behavior, so I could nod with a bitter expression.
That's right. Unidentified Flying Object (UFO).
It was the moment when extraterrestrial beings made their full-fledged debut on the front stage.
**3**
Since a magical girl was present at the scene where the strange being was witnessed, an investigation team was quickly assembled.
Perhaps due to the power of the word UFO, the Magical Girl Association took the matter seriously.
"We will sortie the aircraft carrier 'White Blossom' to carry out the investigation mission, meow. Undertaker. Please join us, meow!"
"Ah, yes. Well..."
For reference, the Magical Girl Association possessed a total of 13 regular aircraft carriers. Based on the time when civilization was intact, they were one of the strongest maritime groups on Earth along with the US Navy.
That's because they're all small fishing boats and cruise ships illegally modified and just labeled as aircraft carriers.
You might ask what correlation there is between magical girls and aircraft carriers that leads to this kind of cosplay? How would I know?
The official name of their headquarters building is '5th Neo Tokyo-Neo Dragon Castle: Unknown Shrine.' I told you they're complete weirdos, right? And they call me 'Undertaker' all the time. I wouldn't want to visit if it weren't for work.
No, anyway. Right. This episode is definitely not about these weirdos as protagonists. It shouldn't be. Because they... No. Never mind.
Anyway, we arrived at the estimated location where the meteor fell and conducted a search operation.
And.
"We found the flying object, meow!"
Seven hours after starting the operation at sea, we discovered the UFO. Aside from their mental craziness, they were capable friends, so they accurately located the flying saucer drifting on the surface.
Magical girls gathered on the deck and chattered noisily.
"Wow. It really was a UFO like the Undertaker said, not a meteor, meow..."
"Observation. Fell from atmosphere and collided with water surface. Judgment. Exterior is relatively intact. Conclusion. A product of a civilization far exceeding humanity's scientific technology."
".... ...!"
"Incredible. Waves are rippling on the surface. If we approach carelessly, won't aliens pop out from inside?"
Murmur, murmur.
The UFO repeatedly submerged briefly when waves hit and then resurfaced. Like the engine room inside a car hood, the surface of the flying saucer was densely covered with complex pipes.
First encounter with aliens.
Not only the magical girls but even I, who had been through everything imaginable, felt slightly tense.
"There's no reaction for now. We need to enter inside first to either communicate or fight to reach a conclusion."
"Hwaaah, meow..."
"I'll enter first. Anyone want to come along?"
"Meow. We suffered for 7 hours, so backing out now would be meaningless, meow. We'll follow, so lead the way, meow."
I nodded. And leaving the rear guard to the magical girls, I charged into the UFO without hesitation. Again, they may have weird mental states, but they were professional personnel when it came to hunting strange beings.
Splash, splash.
The inside of the UFO was dark. Flooding had already begun, and water had risen to ankle level. As soon as I stepped into the passage, a smell similar to gasoline wafted sharply into my nose.
"The stars- guide the dawn- of humanity, meow."
Glimmer.
When the magical girl chanted a spell, light orbs shaped like lanterns began to float slowly around her.
As soon as our field of vision was secured, other magical girls also activated their magic in succession.
"Presence- detection- visualization."
".... .... ...."
"Though there were no footsteps- your footprints- are imprinted on my heart."
In an instant, our search team was armed with vision securing, radar, telepathy, and stealth magic.
This was the driving force that allowed awakened individuals to somehow continue their resistance on the archipelago where eight million strange beings had descended. It was a different type of magic from Dang Seo-rin's Spell Chanting.
Spell Chanting was based on song and rhythm, and the Latin lyrics were merely a byproduct of Dang Seo-rin's taste added on. In contrast, this magic consisted solely of poetic words.
Actually, for magic-type awakened individuals, this 'Poetry Magic' was the basic form. Spell Chanting was a school developed single-handedly by the heretic named Dang Seo-rin.
[This is strange.]
We conversed through telepathy magic.
[No matter how much I expand the detection magic range, I sense no presence. Machines, machines, machines. It's just filled with machines.]
[Speculation. Non-living aliens. Hypothesis. In case of intelligent beings who replaced their entire bodies with machinery.]
[This is a complete maze, meow. There's a high possibility they're lying in wait, so we must never let our guard down, meow.]
[I really don't sense anything. Undertaker, is there anything strange?]
[Nothing. No, wait-.]
Halt.
At my words, the magical girls stopped simultaneously. It was a well-trained movement. The fact that no one even asked 'What's wrong?' or 'Why?' and everyone waited for my additional reaction made it even more impressive.
Swallowing the thought that they would have been truly reliable personnel if not for their strange way of speaking, I walked five steps forward.
Tap, tap.
I poked the 'object' placed in the corridor ahead with the tip of my sword. I even infused it with aura, but there was no reaction from the object. There was only the water that had risen to ankle level rippling.
"...They're dead."
Since there was no need to communicate through telepathy anymore, I muttered out loud.
"Meow?"
"They're already dead. All of them."
The dark corridor of the UFO.
The corpses of aliens, whose arms and legs had already melted to the point where their forms were unrecognizable, were densely covering the passage—more than 120 of them.
**4**
The 'East Sea UFO Crash Incident' that occurred in the 98th round ultimately remained an unsolved case.
Why did aliens, who clearly possessed technology far superior to current human civilization, end up completely dead inside their own ship? Were they already dead before crashing into the East Sea?
I couldn't hide my curiosity about this new strange being.
After all, it was a mystery related to aliens. How could I resist?
So in the very next round, the 99th round, I prepared thoroughly.
This time, instead of searching after the UFO fell, I planned to wait at the crash site in advance.
"Meow? You want to use an aircraft carrier? Tut tut. Even for the Undertaker, we can't just lend military resources that our association only has 7 of..."
"Next time you go to subjugate the Inunaki Tunnel, I'll help you without any conditions."
"The 1st ship White Blossom, set sail, meow!"