Chapter 11: The Reason to Level Up (1)

The first-floor lobby was a mess.

The first thing that caught my eye was the blood-soaked information desk.

Dried bloodstains were on the floor, walls, and scattered sofas.

‘It seems like some time has passed.’

The bloodstains had turned dark and discolored.

Judging by the amount, there must have been a big fight here.

Whiirrr

Swatting away an annoyingly buzzing insect, I looked around the lobby.

I tensed my nerves and focused my consciousness.

What I was focusing my consciousness on was the ‘Target Detection’ skill.

It’s different from putting strength into my arms and legs.

‘I think it’s working…’

When I used the skill through the wall at the police substation, I felt my senses expanding.

Recalling that sensation, I searched the first floor.

“No one’s here. No monsters either.”

I said after looking around the lobby thoroughly.

Jang Ho-seop deactivated his invisibility and appeared with a shimmer.

“Hyungnim. What about places like that?”

Jang Ho-seop pointed to a space separated by a partition wall.

“I checked everywhere.”

“That’s really amazing.”

He once again marveled at my skill.

“No, seriously, it’s like a cheat. Without even opening the doors… Could you possibly check the second floor from here?”

I shook my head.

‘The range of the ‘Target Detection’ skill isn’t spherical.’

‘It’s flat, like a pressed steamed bun.’

“Let’s finish checking.”

“Yep.”

The counseling room, break room, and so on.

I visually checked all the separated rooms as well.

There weren’t even any corpses.

“There’s nothing here.”

After finishing the check of the first floor, I advanced more boldly.

Trusting the Target Detection skill, I entered the second floor.

There were no living people or monsters on the second floor either.

Only horrific traces filled the place.

“No, I mean, it’s too empty, isn’t it? There are so many bloodstains…”

“Indeed. It’s quiet.”

“It’s creepy because it’s too quiet.”

The elevator wasn’t working.

We went up to the third floor via the emergency stairs, and this place too was full of bloodstains.

“Ugh… There are no corpses, so why does it smell like this? Is it because there’s no ventilation?”

It was a different stench from when I cut open the Gnoll’s stomach.

This was the scent of death.

Like that, we climbed the stairs amidst the stench we just couldn’t get used to.

Past the third and fourth floors, all the way to the eighth floor.

There were no living people anywhere.

---

The sun was setting.

The strong glow of the sunset was gradually weakening.

“Hoo… Hoo…”

Jang Ho-seop’s breathing was rough.

It was because he had been moving without rest.

“Let’s rest for a bit.”

“Hoo-wook… I’m fine.”

I sat down first on a chair by the window.

The eighth floor was relatively cleaner compared to the other floors.

“Hyungnim…”

“Sit down. I know you’re worried, but you need to manage your condition.”

“Yes. I’m sorry.”

Jang Ho-seop plopped down.

His face was deathly pale.

We were having a tough day.

We started moving at sunrise and fought intense battles.

We remained tense all day.

It had been like that for three days already.

It was a situation where even the healthiest person would break down.

On top of that, his worry for his mother.

Jang Ho-seop was desperately holding on right now.

“Raise your level.”

“Huh?”

“When your level increases, your stamina improves. More than what you get from exercise.”

I simply said stamina improves, but the reality is a bit different.

“Should I call it resistance, perhaps.”

“Uh… I don’t understand what you mean.”

“Even someone good at running gets tired quickly if they fight in a ring.”

“Yes.”

“They use different muscles, right? The required physical abilities are all different, but we just lump it together and call it stamina.”

Muscular strength, endurance, agility, flexibility, etc.

There are many words to describe physical abilities.

“If you break it down in detail, there are really a lot, aren’t there?”

“Right?”

“When you raise your level, all of those things improve. Literally, your body itself gets better.”

That’s what I’ve felt.

However, since what people are born with and what they’ve built up is different, there will likely be differences accordingly.

“For me, the improvement in stamina seems to be the biggest advantage among them.”

“Ah…”

“You can fight longer, and you can endure difficult situations better.”

I experienced a big change starting from level 20.

It felt like I had surpassed human limits.

For example, if I did a sergeant jump right now, I think I could easily break the world record.

But more welcome than these visible changes is the improvement in stamina.

“To survive… I absolutely have to raise my level.”

Jang Ho-seop replied, nodding his head.

“Yeah. Whatever your Fundamental Skill is.”

I didn’t awaken an amazing Fundamental Skill like Jang Ho-seop.

Someone might have awakened a very powerful and incredible skill.

Still, I think my Fundamental Skill is good.

“Level is like the basics, then.”

Because, as Jang Ho-seop said, level is fundamental.

And my Fundamental Skill helps to solidify those fundamentals even more.

Therefore, my choice to actively engage in combat was not wrong.

“Shall we go up again now?”

As we rested and talked, Jang Ho-seop’s breathing returned to normal.

“Yes. Before the sun sets… we have to finish.”

Jang Ho-seop pushed himself up.

Only two floors were left now.

The ninth and tenth floors.

“If people fled to the upper floors, the monsters would have chased them up, right?”

“Yes.”

“Alright. Let’s go see.”

Could Jang Ho-seop’s mother still be alive?

Soon, we would see an end, one way or another.

---

The ninth floor was also quiet.

Jang Ho-seop’s expression was impassive, but I could feel his emotions fluctuating wildly.

After finishing the check, we climbed the stairs again.

Just as we turned the landing and took a step.

“Jang Ho-seop.”

“Yes.”

I sensed an aura through Target Detection.

There was something beyond the entrance to the tenth floor.

“It’s right there when you open the door.”

“Yes? A p-person?”

The aura’s size was small.

And familiar.

“No. Seems like Goblins.”

“Ah… ah.”

Jang Ho-seop despaired.

“Get a grip. We don’t know yet.”

The Goblins and Gnolls we’d encountered so far had a habit of keeping people alive.

So, there was a possibility Jang Ho-seop’s mother was still alive.

“Hoo… Yes. Hyungnim, I’m ready.”

“Alright. Let’s go.”

After Jang Ho-seop took a deep breath and composed himself.

We went up the stairs and quietly opened the door.

Shwiiik Thwack

Four Goblins were huddled together in front of the door.

I immediately rushed forward and thrust the metal rod.

“Kiik?”

Their reaction was slow.

Like well-fed pigs.

Turning my body, I retrieved the metal rod I had thrust and, using centrifugal force, smashed another Goblin’s head.

Thwack!

I finished off two more before they could even stand up.

Jang Ho-seop took care of the last one by slitting its throat.

“Kiaaak!”

The moment all the Goblins in front of the door were dealt with.

A Goblin emerging from a room into the hallway let out a loud cry.

“Kirrk.”

“Kiiiik.”

There were many rooms on the tenth floor.

The nursery, observation room, bathing room, break room, and so on.

Each of those rooms was filled with Goblins, and soon the hallway was covered in green.

“Hyungnim.”

“Use invisibility.”

“Yep.”

I could have retreated and fought, like when we battled the Gnoll pack.

But I chose a frontal assault.

Tatadat

I charged towards the horde of Goblins filling the hallway.

I thrust out the metal rod and pushed forward with force.

The Goblins tumbled over each other.

Thwack, thwack, thwack!

With my gloved hand, I smashed the Goblins’ heads.

Their ugly faces were crushed.

“Kukuk.”

There was no reason for me to run.

Because I was over level 20.

Goblins, even in a group, were no longer a match for me.

---

I won.

The Goblins’ movements seemed slow to my eyes.

And a single punch was enough to cave in a Goblin’s head.

“Hyungnim.”

“Good work.”

Jang Ho-seop also fought actively.

He fought by utilizing his invisibility to get behind the Goblins.

The conversation we had while resting seemed to have motivated him.

And there must have been the desperation to save his mother.

“Are you okay?”

Still, Jang Ho-seop fought relatively safely.

Thanks to me drawing aggro.

Thanks to that, his appearance was neat.

On the other hand, I clashed head-on with the Goblins.

The police uniform I had bothered to change into was stained with Goblin blood.

“Yeah. I’m fine, so let’s hurry up and search.”

“Yep.”

Still, I wasn’t injured anywhere.

After briefly checking each other’s condition, we started checking the rooms.

“F*ck…”

Jang Ho-seop muttered a curse under his breath.

A horrific sight continued.

Human bones were piled up haphazardly everywhere.

Feces and urine too.

We found a few living people, but none of them were in their right minds.

Thud

Jang Ho-seop collapsed.

We checked the entire tenth floor.

There was nothing to ask.

Jang Ho-seop’s mother was not here.

---

I left Jang Ho-seop alone and dealt with the survivors.

None of them had any hope.

Meanwhile, I was able to briefly speak with one man.

“Rooftop… Those f*cking bastards. The rooftop.”

“Are there people on the rooftop?”

“Yes… cough. Those bastards, put them all in jail… Ugh.”

The man’s leg bones were clearly exposed.

The Goblins had eaten only his flesh while he was alive.

He mentioned the rooftop while writhing in pain.

Then he said he wanted to be at ease now.

I replied that I understood and ended his suffering.

“Sob… Sob…“

I returned to the room where Jang Ho-seop was.

The kid was crying, suppressing his sobs.

“They say there are people on the rooftop.”

“What?”

“Let’s go check the rooftop.”

Jang Ho-seop stood up, startled.

We hurried to the stairs.

“Hyungnim. This…”

“Yeah. It looks like they locked the door.”

There were an unusually large number of bloodstains on the stairs leading to the rooftop.

Bloodstains in the shape of human hands were on the walls, and fingernails were scattered on the floor.

The area around the door to the rooftop was especially gruesome.

To the point where it was hard to tell the original color of the wall.

Clank Clank

As expected, the door was locked.

And it was an iron door.

The doors on all other floors had been glass.

Bang Bang Bang

“Is anyone there?”

Jang Ho-seop knocked on the door.

At first, there was no response, but after some time, a man’s voice was heard.

“Who is it?”

“Please open the door. It’s safe now.”

The man on the other side of the door asked repeatedly.

If it was really safe.

What happened to the Goblins.

“Ah, we’re talking right now, aren’t we? If Goblins were still here…”

The standoff between the frustrated Jang Ho-seop and the man on the other side dragged on.

“What if they’re deliberately using you…”

“Then what do you suggest we do? Are you going to live there forever?”

Jang Ho-seop finally got angry.

“Step aside.”

I pushed Jang Ho-seop back and picked up a fire extinguisher from the stairs.

CRASH

I smashed the doorknob in one go.

I kicked the door open and went out onto the rooftop.

“Huh? Huh?”

A man in a white doctor’s gown was sprawled on the ground.

He looked to be in his late 40s.

There were a few more people in the corner of the rooftop.

A bucket was filled with water, and in the opposite corner, there were signs of human waste.

It seemed they had been holding out here since the first day of the cataclysm.

“Police?”

The doctor who had collapsed looked at Jang Ho-seop and me in surprise.

Then he got up and suddenly shouted.

“Why are the police only coming now!”

Everyone else was pale, but this man’s voice was loud.

“What about the others? Is this everyone? Is there by any chance a nurse here among…”

Jang Ho-seop checked the people’s faces and asked the doctor.

“I saw them earlier. Two policemen coming in.”

“But if you made it all the way up here…”

“Yes. We’re alive. We survived!”

Jang Ho-seop’s question was drowned out by the noise of people gathering and talking.

“Hey. Are there only two of you? That… what is it? Special forces or other support troops? Are two enough!”

Meanwhile, the doctor pointed his finger at me and raised his voice.

“No, Mister. Please don’t speak informally…”

Jang Ho-seop looked at me and then tried to stop the doctor.

It’s noisy.

With everyone talking at once, a conversation was impossible.

The sun had set now, and the surroundings were dark.

Shapes were still discernible, but it would get darker.

“Is informal speech the problem now? Look at the situation, the situation!”

The doctor, slapping his palm and talking in the loudest voice.

I approached him.

“I don’t know what kind of chaos this is, but the country… huh?”

I grabbed his wrist.

“Wh-what? What’s wrong? Let go of me.”

With my other hand, I grabbed the doctor’s index and middle fingers together and applied pressure.

Crack

“Kuaaaak!”

I broke his fingers.

As easily as snapping a chicken bone joint.

The doctor screamed at the top of his lungs, writhing in pain.

“Kyaaak! Director! Hey! What do you think you’re doing…”

I forcefully pushed away a woman who clung to me.

The woman tumbled to the floor.

“You crazy b*stard! Do you know who I am?”

The doctor, wheezing with a reddened face.

It seemed he still wasn’t ready to talk.

Thud

I punched the doctor in the stomach.

“Keok.”

The doctor collapsed with a thud.

I grabbed his uninjured index and middle fingers on the other hand and broke them too.

“Kkeueuk… Kkeoeoeok.”

It was quiet.

The people finally shut their mouths.

“Hyungnim…”

“Now ask.”

Jang Ho-seop stared at me with wide eyes before turning his gaze to the people.

“We’re looking for someone.”

His mother was one of the head nurses at this hospital.

Thanks to that, people quickly understood who we were looking for.

“Um…”

“Yes. Please tell us.”

“I’ve been watching from here.”

Words came from a woman’s mouth that there might be more living people.