Chapter 487: Super Exciting Battle Where You Shoot Blocks at Your Opponent's Face

The boss's name is apparently the Modified Base-Manufacturing Golem "Developer".
I thought a name like "Manufacture" would be more fitting... but that was only until a few moments ago.
Facing it head-on, we were now being painfully forced to understand exactly what the name Terrain Creator (Developer) truly meant.

"Sunraku! The terrain is changing!!"

"I can see that! Jump!!"

Eruption, solidification, and then a mad rush. I leap back and disengage from the trajectory of the massive cube coming to fill the "board" in a straight line just like a block-matching puzzle game.
In the next moment, the Solidified Gel [Cubes] closing in from the left and right crush together and sandwich the spot where we just were.

"Hey Sunraku, I know absolutely nothing about the wisdom of the Divine Age, but... that thing stuck to the belly of that giant golem... doesn't that mean this is going to keep happening forever as long as the slime inside it doesn't run out?"

"Look who's being sharp, that's exactly right!!"

The Modified Base-Manufacturing Golem "Developer"—I see, just as the prior information suggested, it must have originally been the mother unit for the "Ants"... the main golem meant to command them.
That grotesque form, looking like the upper half of an ant grafted onto a beehive, probably functions as a hangar for its worker ant "Ants".
But if that was all it was, it would just be a non-combat unit; those ultra-massive Storage Tanks attached to the left and right of its beehive-shaped abdomen were what transformed the bastard into an impregnable fortress.

"You just slapped those on looking like an absolute idiot, yet the synergy is way too malicious...!!"

The Aguacate unleashes a magic bullet with a brilliant Magic Light [Muzzle Flash]. The bullet flies straight and true, striking one of the Techno-Magi-Gelus closing in on us like a zombie from a zombie movie, blowing its body away along with the gel bastards behind it.

"Guess it really is impossible to pierce the core in a single shot... Saina! Can you target the tanks?!"

"Report: It is impossible to destroy the tanks via long-range attack methods from the current coordinates."

The "Developer" has two extra tanks strapped to its already overly sluggish abdomen, so naturally, high-speed maneuvers are entirely out of the question.
But the sheer mass it uses to compensate for that is way too troublesome—it's the mother unit for the "Ants" and the producer of the Techno-Magi-Gelus all at once.

Bopon, bopon! With a thoroughly underwhelming sound, chunks of gel are launched from the "turrets" equipped on the tanks. Like boba in bubble tea, those chunks have metallic Granules [Cores] mixed inside the gel, and the moment they smash into the ground, they divide and multiply while standing up in humanoid shapes, closing in on us as soldiers protecting their mother.
But if that was all—if it was just a swarm of Techno-Magi-Gelus—it wouldn't be that massive of a threat. The problem is that the bastard is a Land Developer [Developer].

Several of the Techno-Magi-Gelus launched from the tanks gather around the "Developer".
When the "Developer" uses its hypertrophied mantis-like forelegs to scrape the Techno-Magi-Gelus together into a single lump, the mass of gel squishes and changes shape like clay... ultimately creating a massive cube of solidified gel housing multiple cores inside.
And naturally, being remote-controlled, it drops from above in a straight trajectory, flies in from the right, smashes into the wall from the left... Dammit, what game am I even playing right now?! A puzzle game?! Don't tell me they're gonna explode if they line up in a row?!

"What do we do, Sunraku?!"

"Araba, thin out the Techno-Magi-Gelus! Without their cores they're just plain gel, so whittle down their total volume!!"

"Leave it to me! Let's go, Nereid!!"

"Yeah."

Araba has low mobility but high raw firepower, so combining that with Nereid's magical support makes going full Musou against mobs a breeze.
Monsters vanish and turn into items the moment they're defeated. At any rate, we absolutely have to prevent the gel from touching the "Developer".

Dammit, was I too hasty in assuming a boss in a mob area would be a pushover? Or is that tank just an indestructible-type object? And putting that aside, WATCH OUT FOR THE BLOCKS!!

"Shit... Saina, does it look like we can destroy the gel blocks?"

"Most attacks will be nullified by their mass; while destruction itself is possible, it is not realistic."

Hmm... wait, let's think.
The surrounding mobs are just over level 30, and the fact that it produces them almost infinitely means that, regardless of the main body's level, it's not the type to directly rampage itself.
The field is a square, which is exactly why the block attacks fly in straight lines.
The Techno-Magi-Gelus spawned as mob enemies fall into two patterns: those that attack us, and those used for the "Developer" main body's blocks.
Destroying the blocks isn't realistic, and the blocks remain in place once set... at the very least, it's not like we'll take damage just by touching them.

If, that's, the, case...............

"Like this?"

I hug the wall to bait a gel block. While dodging as it drops down, I fire at the wall of the boss field.
The gravity gimmick activates, and the extruded gel block smashes straight into the face of the "Developer" main body, sending Techno-Magi-Gelus flying in its wake.

".........Oho?"

Like... isn't that momentum a bit too good? Don't tell me... is this the kind of object that gets launched at a fixed speed if it enters the area of effect of a gravity gimmick?

"Which means........."

So this really is a puzzle game, huh? But now that I know that, this is gonna be quick!!

"Araba! Saina! If you break the floor or the wall, you can launch the gel blocks!! Try not to hit your allies and slam them right into that bastard!!"

And if you break the wall, the guys trying to fix it will pop out!
Sorry, "Developer", but I'll be taking control of those "Ants"!!

I slam a bullet into the "Ants" that came to repair the wall where my previous shot lodged, ripping control away from the mother unit and hopping on.

"Saina, take the wheel!"

"Acknowledged: What is your next order?"

"Ascend straight up and aim for its head!"

Baton pass! Saina backflips over me as I jump off the sprinting "Ants", landing directly in its cockpit. I just did that on a whim, but you're seriously dexterous...

"Arabaaa!!"

"What is it!!"

"I'm about to start launching blocks like crazy, so dodge them with sheer willpower."

"Haaah!?"

Time for a little warm-up! Three-tier stacked block tower launch, here we go, oraaa!

"Uno! Dos! Tres! Feuer!!"

Tch, that ant bastard countered the gel block flying at it by smashing a newly generated gel block right into it to offset the impact.

"Interesting...! Let's get fancy with a slugfest then!!"

"Wait, I'm in danger here! Stop ittt!!"

"Full barrage! Fire!!"

"Nowaaaaah!!!"

◆ 

The piled-up gel blocks fly wildly back and forth. For the gel blocks aimed directly at me, I shatter the floor to launch them straight up into the air.
Sometimes I force an evasion by blasting myself away—due to the nature of the gravity, the gel blocks fly in the same direction, but I can actually use that to adjust my horizontal axis.
When I run out of ammo, I slash a gel block to recover MP; looks like even in this state they still count as monsters.
Multiple gel blocks have already slammed into the "Developer", and its movements are visibly sluggish.

I can use them to restock ammo and use them as ammo... nice, I'm really getting into the groove now.

"Alriiiight, left sickle destroyed!"

Apparently it can't pull off anything as dexterous as unlinking them at the last second, but that doesn't matter anymore.

"Araba! Wash them away!"

"You ask for the impossible... but I'll show you I can pull it off! Nereid!!"

"Sure thing... 【Land-Surging Waves】"

Using Araba's mana, Nereid's power is invoked.
A massive wave of magic power generated from the void violently washes away the Techno-Magi-Gelus from left to right, and the "Developer", having lost the materials needed to create its gel blocks, merely swipes its remaining right sickle through empty air.

"Here's a present box, accept it without reservation."

Pumping my remaining four bullets straight into the wall sends a gel block hurtling forward at breakneck speed, parting the waters of the 【Land-Surging Waves】 covering the floor.

"Strike! Aaaand... Saina!"

"Confirmation: Initiating snipe."

Seizing the opening exposed when the gel block smashed into its face, a sniper rifle shot is slammed down from directly above. It's completely different from the one I bought; this is a high-firepower rifle designed under the premise of being operated in tandem with a Tactical Mech. There's no way a dying trash-boss could survive that.

"Stage Clear. Open the gates... Isana."

I have no idea where she actually is, but I point up at the sky and flash a smile.
Simultaneously, the "Developer" collapses with an agonizing creak... and right here, right now, the First Shell Layer boss falls.

Author's Afterword
Q. I can't destroy the tanks, isn't this game impossible?
A. It dies immediately if you punch its face.

Q. The mob enemies are in the way, isn't this game impossible?
A. Ignore the mob enemies and punch its face, it dies easily.

Q. I can't deal with the block attacks, isn't this a trash game?
A. Split into a mob-sweeping role and a face-punching role and punch its face, it'll die before it even has time to generate blocks.

Developer: "I'll get serious when I respawn as a mob enemy a few shell layers further down."