I Became a Hive Mind in the Game

After news that Theresia, a rising star hunter, was attacked by an extreme nationalist group struck the nation, South Korean society fell into chaos.

The news that a celebrity who had appeared in TV commercials several times was attacked by a radical group, and in Seoul, which was famous for its relatively good public safety, naturally shocked citizens.

Property values near the alley where she was attacked plummeted, and in the political sphere, opposition parties continued their offensive against the ruling party day after day.

Bills restricting the possession of heavy weapons such as machine guns or high-speed grenade launchers were drafted, and the offensive against various extremist groups intensified even more. Around that time,

Bad news came that the number of monsters migrating south suddenly increased significantly on the Gangwon-do front.

The cause identified by the situation detection room was that the 68th high-grade monster, a dragon, moved north, reducing the scale of battle with the grade 1 Hive Mind—Bomb Spider—in Gangwon-do.

As a result, the Bomb Spider diverted monsters that were being used to block the dragon to the south, and as time passed, the offensive was only getting stronger.

Especially, the monsters mobilized for this offensive were different from the existing explosive-type monsters; they were monsters that had absorbed the traits and skills of the dragon and its subordinate sub-dragon species monsters while fighting them.

These monsters, armed with high abilities, defense, and psychic resistance characteristic of dragon species, as well as breaths of various attributes, became a major threat to the front line by appearing in a way that overwhelmed the front line that had been devastated by self-destructing monsters rushing in.

Monsters appearing at the scene where shields were damaged by explosions, some turrets malfunctioned, or soldiers were injured by explosions, pushed hard against the weakened front line, but… fortunately, the defense line was not broken through.

Tudududududududu—–!!!!!
Kwaaang! Kwaaaaaaang!
Piewpiewpiewpiewpiewpiewpiewpiewpiewpiewpiewpiewpiewpiewpiewpiewpiewpiew——!!!

This was because Nano-Tech’s mercenaries, who were guarding the Gangwon-do front through a deal with the government, ‘coincidentally’ joined the defense line and supported the front with cutting-edge equipment using nanomachines.

8 12-meter class Titan Armors, 24 8-meter class Giant Armors, 40 armored vehicles, 60 self-propelled mortars. And over 1,000 infantry wearing a total of 200 4-meter class Giant Armors and powered suits.

Except for tanks, which are not permitted for guilds or private ownership by related laws, they had almost all weapons—and the latest weapons applying nanomachines at that. As expected of Nano-Tech, second to none in wealth, their performance was excellent.

Although most are just pilots or low-grade modified humans with almost no high-grade modified humans or psychic users, paradoxically, this makes it easier to fill in the gaps of the military or cooperate.

Titan Armors attract the attention of monsters on the front line while withstanding concentrated attacks, while 8-meter class Giant Armors escort Titan Armors, attach firepower modules, and pour out firepower.

In addition, armored vehicles sweep away weak monsters using medium autocannons and anti-monster missiles while acting as shields for infantry, and self-propelled mortars actively provide fire support while scattered.

Those wearing 4-meter class Giant Armors act as a kind of elite infantry, and infantry wearing powered suits move organically between these large weapons to assist them.

Thanks to these hunters from the Nano-Tech guild, humans who succeeded in defense immediately began preparing for a retaliatory operation with the intention of rooting out their outpost predicted to be located in Gangwon-do.

As it was a large-scale operation that had to go back and forth on the front line with military support, the mobilized forces were beyond imagination.

Korea’s largest national guild—Daehan Guild, Seonggwang Guild with three high-grade hunters and the third largest scale in Korea, and Goryeo Guild, which is only the size of one team (200 people) but has as many as 5 high-grade hunters and 50 medium-grade hunters.

In addition, more than 8,000 civilian hunters were deployed, and the military agreed to deploy 5 infantry divisions (about 60,000 people) and use various military assets.

Of course, Theresia was also deployed to the front line as a medium-grade hunter and vice-captain of Seonggwang Guild’s 13th Division.

Moreover, as a member of the nest drop team that directly descends towards the nest being used as the Hive Mind’s outpost.

※ ※ ※

Inside the plane heading towards the drop point 9km away from the nest.
Theresia was aboard her 7-meter class Giant Armor, ready to drop at any time.

The Giant Armor, specially modified for this drop, had dozens of detachable ultra-high-output jump packs attached all over its body, and in this process, an external psychic shield generator was also additionally installed to prevent being hit.

Naturally, this old Giant Armor doesn’t have shock absorbers or parachutes as it’s not designed for air raids, but such things are only used by cowards anyway, so they don’t exist.

Anyway, while Theresia was clearing her mind aboard the Giant Armor modified for air raids, she heard the voice of her superior and 13th Division captain, Lee Sujin, in her ear.

“Are you nervous, Theresia?”
“…Yes.”

In reality, she was steeped in the joy of carrying out Mother’s orders, but she couldn’t actually say that.

So Theresia gave Sujin an appropriate response while speaking gently to Sujin, who she could feel the aura of Mother, the Hive Queen, from, unable to treat her coldly.

“When do you think we’ll arrive?”
“Hmm… about 3 minutes, I guess?”

Theresia, who asked despite the information appearing as a hologram on the interface in front of her, smiled wryly, and just as Sujin was about to open her mouth—

Kwaaaaaaang—!!!
“Kyaaaaaaaaah!!!”
“Uwah!”
“What is this?!!!”

Suddenly, from the right side of the transport plane, there was a loud explosion and a shock as if something had collided.

As people on board started murmuring at this action that anyone could guess was a monster attack, a low voice of a middle-aged man resonated through the speakers.

[This is the captain speaking from the cockpit. Our aircraft has been hit by a flying type monster! It seems we cannot reach the planned drop point as the engine part has been hit, so we will commence the drop right now!]

Some were momentarily confused by these words, but everyone on board was a veteran among veterans with plenty of experience.

The hunters calmly and quickly finished their final preparations before the drop, and just a little after that, the captain’s voice was heard again.

[Prepare for drop! 5, 4, 3—]

As practiced, Theresia operated her 7-meter class Giant Armor in sync with the captain’s signal.

She activated the jump pack, adjusted her posture, and deactivated some weapons to store them inside the body to prevent damage.

[—2, 1. Drop!]

And the moment the captain’s signal fell, the floor of the aircraft opened, and the hunters on that floor began to fall.

Kuuuuuuuuuuuuu—-!!!!

Of course, they weren’t just falling.

The hunters equipped with jump packs combining small plasma engines and plasma batteries, adjusted their falling speed and direction by spewing fire from the engines as they fell-dropped towards the dense forest on the ground—

—Kiryuryaryaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!!!!!

Towards them, some of the flying type monsters resembling wyverns that were attacking the plane suddenly turned and began attacking the dropping hunters with a roar.

These monsters, with wings instead of forelegs in the typical fantasy wyvern form, swung their claws at the dropping hunters, rammed with their bodies, bit hard, or spewed energy from their mouths.

[Shoot! Shoot!]
[Giant Armors, shoot quickly!]
“This is Theresia! I’ll respond to fire towards the target!”

Of course, the hunters also resisted with all their might.

Giant Armors fired all the weapons they could shoot, and ranged hunters with various firearms fired their weapons at maximum output to prevent the wyverns from approaching them.

Meanwhile, close combat type hunters actively used jump packs to hunt the wyverns in reverse, and psychic users focused all their efforts on support to protect the hunters during the drop.

As the aerial combat progressed, which didn’t suit most hunters’ aptitudes, the expected drop time of 3 minutes felt almost like 3 hours to them.

But even so, the hunters were able to land on the ground after paying the price of reckless dropping with only 7 deaths.

Thud!

Thanks to operating the jump packs at an output even exceeding maximum output to slow down the falling speed, the hunters who landed stably immediately began to quickly prepare for battle by detaching their jump packs and taking out stored weapons.

[They’re coming! Everyone prepare!]

This was because their landing position was 17km away from the nest.

Kishaaaaaaaaak!
Kyururyaaaaaaak!!
Kyaaaaaaak!!!!

Moreover, it was right at the location where monsters born from the Hive Mind’s outpost were passing on their way south.