“Ugh... EX-rank crafter, my ass...”
Clatter!
The axe Suho flung went rolling into a corner of the forge.
High-grade items—items above SSS-rank by Suho’s standards—didn’t appear as often as he had expected.
If things went well, SS-rank.
Usually, the ones that came out most often were S-rank items, which could be called failures,
and when things really went wrong, even A-rank trash showed up quite a bit.
He had tried crafting items for all sorts of slots—swords, hammers, shields, bows, necklaces, rings, wings, and more—but it was all the same.
By the time standard of his subspace warehouse, hundreds of A-rank and S-rank items had piled up over the past few months.
Looking at them only made irritation surge within him.
Suho, filled to the brim with stress, threw everything aside and left the workshop.
Rabi followed after him and asked,
“Huh... Are you throwing all of those away?”
“I should. Where would I use junk like that?”
“What a waste. They look pretty high-quality, though? Maybe your standards are set too high?”
“Too high, my foot... If a guy who can make EX-rank is only turning out S-rank, then of course it’s all scrap.”
“Then why not at least put them up on the OnTower auction house and sell them?”
“...Hmm... Should I?”
He already had more than enough money, so there was no real need, but the idea of watching people compete at auction over those junk items did sound rather entertaining.
They were crafted items he’d be embarrassed to put anywhere, but still, they were A-rank and S-rank.
By Earth’s standards, they were undoubtedly top-tier items.
* * *
The time was drawing near for the meteorite “Nightpera,” which contained a considerable amount of Blacksteel, to pass by Earth.
Many countries that had been pouring effort into the space industry formed a multinational exploration team to make contact with Nightpera and mine its minerals...
But to state the conclusion first, the allied exploration team collapsed before it could even be properly formed.
The conflict over the operating costs of the multinational exploration team and the distribution of its results began to deepen due to a lack of trust in joint exploration and each nation’s excessive confidence in itself. In the end, political tension and competition between nations were added on top, and cooperation shattered completely.
If they had enough time, they might have gone through sufficient negotiation and reached a common point of agreement, but because they had no such time, the collapse happened all the faster.
While they wasted time in stagnation, Nightpera drew even closer, and each country ended up forming its own independent exploration team.
The United States, China, Russia, the European Union, and even private space exploration teams formed by conglomerates mobilized spacecraft and cutting-edge equipment to launch probes, racing toward Nightpera.
The probes launched in advance orbited Earth, then adjusted their trajectories and attempted to land when the meteorite passed its closest point to Earth—34,000 kilometers away.
A distance of 34,000 kilometers was not particularly far, and less than ten hours after the exploration teams departed, most of the probes had approached the meteorite.
Several dozen minutes later, each exploration team succeeded in landing on Nightpera one by one.
The 2.2-kilometer-diameter meteorite was rougher and larger than expected, so in fact, it seemed fortunate that multiple exploration teams had come instead of just one.
That meant more Blacksteel could be mined, and that it would be released on Earth.
Since the surface of the meteorite had almost no gravity, each exploration team secured the special mineral extraction equipment they had prepared, activated it, and began mining.
Blacksteel was an extremely hard metal, so in truth, ordinary equipment could not break and mine Blacksteel.
The only option was to crush the surrounding rock mixed with Blacksteel and take it away whole. But contrary to the initial analysis, Blacksteel was surprisingly not being detected. Most of it was nothing but stone.
“What the hell is going on? It’s all rock!”
A member of NASA’s exploration team shouted.
“Where the hell did the analysis that said 60% of Nightpera was Blacksteel come from?!”
“The other side! Let’s go to the other side of the meteorite!”
“The other side is just as unresponsive. In fact, the strongest reaction is coming from the inner core, surrounded by rock!”
“Damn it!”
The situation was growing complicated, and the exploration members cursed one after another.
If an expedition that had required enormous funding and risk ended without any tangible results, it would be a disaster.
To make matters worse, time was not on the exploration teams’ side.
The meteorite was scheduled to pass Earth’s orbit at high speed and soon disappear into the depths of space.
So every operation was a race against time. It was only natural that they had to complete the mission as quickly and accurately as possible.
And yet they were facing difficulties from the very beginning.
That was when it happened.
Kwo-kwa-kwa-kwang──── Ku-ku-koong! Ku-koong!
A roar rang out, loud enough to shake the entire meteorite.
“What was that?!”
“It seems another exploration team used explosives for mining!”
“What?! Those lunatics...!”
It was the Chinese exploration team.
Having become convinced that the Blacksteel reaction was coming from inside the meteorite, from the core surrounded by rock, they had used explosives to mine quickly.
And then,
Craaaaaack────
Due to the shock, the rocky portion of the meteorite began to split apart.
Like a nut with a huge, hard seed in the middle and a weak shell on the outside, the impact of the explosives caused Nightpera’s core and outer layer to separate.
The comparatively thin surface layer of 100 to 150 meters peeled away, and the pitch-black metal hidden within—Blacksteel—revealed its vast and noble form.
The problem was...
“My God...”
“Wh-where is that going...!?”
The massive chunk of Blacksteel that had split off was beginning to leave its trajectory.
Most of the exploration teams, riding on the shell-like crust of the meteorite, were pushed away and sent flying farther from Earth,
while the core—the seed-like central mass of Blacksteel that had made up roughly 60% of Nightpera—deviated from its orbit and headed in an entirely different direction.
Toward Earth.
“Th-this... this can’t be...”
There was no time to be lamenting the loss of the Blacksteel. Each exploration team urgently relayed the news to Earth.
A fragment of a meteorite more than 1.5 kilometers in diameter was heading toward Earth.
Earth’s scientists, engineers, politicians, and all manner of experts always speak loudly, treating a sustainable Earth as a given while saying they will leave a better world to the next generation,
but the worst crises always arrive when no one expects them.
You can get health checkups without fail,
exercise diligently,
take out every kind of insurance,
and even move to a safe neighborhood,
yet still have a concrete mixer truck take a sharp turn and topple over toward your car while you’re waiting at a red light.
At a speed of 10 kilometers per second,
Nightpera’s fragment rushed toward Earth at a comparatively slow speed,
but the time remaining until it reached Earth was only 57 minutes.
The governments of each nation, having received this information, were thrown into utter chaos.
What could they possibly do in less than an hour?
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah──── Waaaaaaah────
An untimely civil defense siren—and, considering the severity of the matter, an air-raid warning—sounded, and disaster alert text messages sent by the Ministry of Public Safety and Security were delivered to the entire population.
The message warned that a massive tsunami caused by a meteorite impact was expected, and urged people to evacuate to the highest place possible at once.
By cross-checking the information sent from the exploration teams with satellite data, NASA identified the fragment’s impact point as 200 kilometers east of Japan.
Not only Japan, but even South Korea was in danger of being completely swallowed by the tsunami.
Amid the confusion, only about 40 minutes remained.
The argument that they should launch nuclear missiles to neutralize the meteorite was also rejected.
If the falling fragment of Nightpera had been an ordinary boulder, they would have immediately launched either an ICBM or an SLBM, but the prevailing assessment was that this meteorite was mostly made of Blacksteel, which possessed super-high hardness, and therefore could not be dealt a proper impact.
Furthermore, attempting to alter the meteorite’s trajectory after a nuclear missile collided with it was itself an extremely difficult task. Especially if they failed to successfully alter its path before it entered the atmosphere, there was a high risk that the meteorite would instead fall in a completely unpredictable location or break apart into even more fragments.
In many ways, precise simulations and predictions were necessary, but there was not enough time.
There had been various existing countermeasures for meteorites of this kind, but almost none that could be applied within such a short span of time.
Not a year, not a month—no, not even a day, but less than an hour.
It was a moment so brief that there would not even be enough time for the president to hold an address to the nation and broadcast a declaration of the end of the world.
There were even countless people who still had not heard the news when only about 30 minutes remained until impact.
Who could have imagined it?
That Earth would end so suddenly.
People might have thought the world could perish from climate anomalies driven to their limit, a global nuclear war, or perhaps the emergence of even more towers that could not be cleared...
But not like this.
No one had imagined that global extinction and personal death would be decided all at once, in the span of a single hour.
[The broken-off 1.6-kilometer meteorite fragment of Nightpera is mostly composed of Blacksteel and possesses high density... As it approaches Earth, its speed has increased greatly, and it is currently entering the atmosphere at 20 kilometers per second... The estimated impact energy is 3.45 million petajoules (PJ), which is expected to cause earthquakes, fires, and storms across thousands of kilometers... If it falls into the ocean, tsunamis exceeding several hundred meters may reach thousands of kilometers away... It may trigger a global catastrophe and have fatal effects on Earth’s environment and living organisms for thousands of years to come... From 30 seconds before impact, the falling meteorite fragment will be visible to the naked eye in most regions, including the crash site...]
Even in times like this, there was a channel broadcasting analysis of the falling meteorite.
“Honestly... They sure make it hard to say it’s practically the end of the world.”
Whether to call that laid-back or a strong sense of professionalism—well, there really was nothing else they could do anyway.
It wasn’t a problem that could be solved by quickly crawling under a desk and clutching one’s head.
“Phew...”
After composing himself, Suho attempted to place a call to the presidential office.
For some reason, the president answered immediately, as though he had been waiting.
—J-Jeong Suho Admittee!
At President Choi Yunseong’s urgent cry, offered without preamble or explanation, Suho could feel his desperation and roughly understood the situation.
“Mm. There’s... no alternative, is there?”
—Th-that’s right... Right now, in the world, no country, including the United States, can do anything...
“I’ll try something. Winky and I will fly out with Taeung Admittee’s griffin, so please contact the governments of each country and tell them not to fire any missiles, just in case.”
—Ah! Understood! Understood!
Beep.
Suho, who had already come to Winky’s nest, ended the call and climbed onto Winky’s back.
Of course, he was also wearing the “Tempestbane Wings.”
He could have worn his equipment and flown alone, but it still seemed better to keep the powered armor a secret for now.
“This worked out well, Winky. It’s a good opportunity. We have justification, and we’ll have attention. Let’s show them what you can do this time, and prove just how important you are.”
25 minutes until meteorite impact.
Krrrrrrrk───
Winky spread his wings and soared powerfully into the sky.