Part 1, Chapter 1 (8)

Incheon International Airport.

Once the largest airport in Korea, it had now become a massive dungeon, a den for monsters.

After the Pyongyang Incident, the military and the Association tried their best to stop the monsters coming down from the north.

However, people grew exhausted by the overwhelming waves of monsters, and eventually, the capital itself was relocated, leaving the islands off the coast of Incheon and the northern Gyeonggi region literally ‘abandoned’.

The old airport, now untouched by human hands. This place was now a monster stronghold. A hellish place where even S-rank Heroes dared not easily set foot.

That place was now being ravaged by a single predator.

Kyaooooo!

An eagle-like monster flashed its talons and charged. Its talons, spread wide as if to snatch prey, gripped the opponent’s head, but-

Kkaaaang!

They were repelled by a light green veil. The girl swung the veil, binding the monster’s talons, and the eagle monster couldn’t tear the veil. Instead, the monster found its ankle caught by the girl’s dainty touch.

Kwaaaang!

“Kyaaaak?!”

The eagle was slammed to the ground with its ankle caught. The eagle monster momentarily lost consciousness from the pain of being slammed into the ground hard enough to dent the asphalt.

Seogeok.

That was the eagle monster’s last memory. The opponent sliced off the eagle’s head with a sharpened index fingernail.

“…Ugh.”

Purple blood from the monster splattered on her cheek. The girl, Phoenix, pulled the veil to wipe the blood away. The veil absorbed the blood like a sponge but didn’t lose its original color.

Puuk!

Phoenix plunged her fingernail into the eagle’s corpse. Flames erupted from her fingertip, instantly burning away the blood and flesh that had been twitching from rigor mortis, leaving only a baseball-sized Core.

“Number 12.”

Phoenix dropped the Core into the sports cross-body bag on the ground. Inside, it was already filled with Cores similar in size to the one she had just put in.

‘Is it still not enough?’

Phoenix slung the cross-body bag over her shoulder and stepped into the building, treading on broken glass.

One of Korea’s seven major dungeons. This dungeon, centered around the international airport, was also the highest difficulty dungeon in Incheon in the original story.

“I told Seohae Arms to occupy Yeongjongdo, but…”

Phoenix interlaced her fingers and shook her hands. Inside the building, monsters, reacting to the faint mana she emitted, began to appear one by one, salivating.

“There’s no problem with doing a little farming on the way, is there?”

‘What can it do? I’m its master.’

Phoenix swallowed her words and clasped and unclasped her hands.

Woooong-

Blue flames erupted from her hands, enveloping Phoenix’s fists.

It was shaped like a gauntlet made of rising flames.

Kiaaaak!

The closest monster, sensing the ominous mana from the flames, suddenly leaped and charged.

“Hup!”

Just before the tiger-like monster swung its massive front paw, Phoenix ducked, burrowed under the tiger monster, and then shot upwards, extending her fist towards the sky.

Her fist narrowly avoided the front paw and struck the monster’s chest, piercing its tough hide and reaching its internal organs.

Kkeueoeeoeong?!

The monster thrashed in the air from the immense impact felt in its chest, but Phoenix moved her fingers, snatching the Core hidden within its ribs.

“Thirteen.”

Phoenix tightly gripped the Core and then delivered a straight punch with her remaining fist to the monster. The monster, with its Core ripped out, flew straight into a window and fell outside.

“Ah. It got on me.”

The monster’s purple blood splattered on her clothes. Phoenix pulled the veil and rubbed it over her clothes, and the veil greedily absorbed the monster’s blood.

“It’s a gifted outfit, so I shouldn’t get it dirty.”

Though she had swallowed her pride and somehow put it on, she planned to buy new clothes as soon as she entered Seoul. Until then, she had to make do with this one outfit.

“So, why don’t we fight like gentlemen?”

Phoenix smiled with a refreshing expression, but the monsters still showed hostility. At their reaction, Phoenix, far from being intimidated, wore an even wider smile.

‘As expected, this much output is just right.’

If she revealed too much, the entire world would be on high alert, and if she hid too much, she would be devoured by Seohae Arms.

So, she adjusted her output to emit just the right amount of mana.

B-rank Yokai Phoenix. Since yokai don’t exist in this world, she would be called B-rank Villain Phoenix. After all, considering her future actions, calling her a Hero would be a million light-years away from the truth.

‘Anyway, she’s just one of the executives of an evil organization.’

Against the monsters that charged at her, baring their fangs and claws without even a reply, Phoenix clenched her fists.

“I’m in a bad mood today, you see?”

Phoenix shouted, throwing off the veil she had draped like a scarf.

“So I want to relieve some stress…!”

Honestly, she couldn’t properly gauge her strength against the tutorial boss. Therefore, she needed to figure out ‘how to appropriately control her strength’ to live in this world.

Phoenix unleashed her surging mana.

“Come on, you power level scanners! I’ll strip your flesh and blood to build a building in Seoul under my name!”

The monsters charged all at once.

Kuwooong!

A massive pillar of blue flames erupted at Incheon Airport.

* * *

Even though Incheon was occupied by monsters, its infrastructure was still functioning.

A long front line stretching from Wolmido to Gimpo Airport. If the 38th parallel was once the front line with North Korea, now northern Incheon had become the front line with the monsters.

As a result, most of those living in Incheon and the metropolitan area packed their bags and evacuated to the safer south. The final nail in the coffin for this exodus was the relocation of the capital to New Seoul.

Ultimately, the only people left in Incheon were those who hadn’t been able to evacuate yet, and hunters who came to hunt the monsters appearing in Incheon.

“Ma’am! Get your luggage off!”

“Please! I can’t go without that!”

“Then get off! Other people are waiting right now!”

A commotion between a terminal staff member and a passenger was in full swing. Only two buses departed for New Seoul each day.

Despite its small size of 28 seats, people were desperate to get tickets, even paying extra.

“It’s really chaotic. Truly.”

“They’re all just trying to survive, so what can you say?”

The ticket office staff drank their vending machine coffee from paper cups with bitter expressions. The woman, who had stubbornly clung to her bundle, was eventually led away by security personnel called by the staff and forcibly removed from the bus.

“Oh, no! My daughter is waiting! I promised to go down today!”

“Get a new number ticket! Next! Is number 1925 here?!”

“Here!”

As soon as his number was called, a gaunt-faced man pulled out his ticket and ran towards the bus. The woman, who had pushed past the security personnel with superhuman strength, clung to the man’s pant leg.

“Please! I’ll leave my luggage! So please!”

“Let go! They said it’s overweight! You have the slowest number, Ma’am, so you should have left your luggage and gotten on!”

The man kicked the woman’s hand and boarded the bus. He tried to hide his flushed face, avoiding the gazes of others.

“Oh, no! No!”

While the woman was gathering the bundle rolling on the ground, the bus door closed. Her attempts to catch the bus were blocked by the security personnel, and the woman watched the bus depart in vain, then sank to the ground where she stood.

“Uhhuhuh, uhhuuhuhuh.”

The people gathered at the terminal platform dispersed one by one, leaving the woman crying as if the world had abandoned her. No one comforted her.

Life was too grim to discuss compassion. The ticket office staff clicked their tongue at the bitterness of the sweet sugar coffee.

“How is the world going to turn out now…”

“We have to trust the Heroes. Thanks to them, this area is still safe, isn’t it?”

“Though Yeongjongdo got completely trashed.”

Although the military had retreated their front line, the Hero Association continued to maintain it.

In Incheon’s case, they had long since abandoned the Gimpo area and Yeongjongdo, cutting off Yeongjong Bridge and Incheon Bridge to establish a strong defensive line.

“Who knew the Han River would become the border between humans and monsters?”

It was absurd to use the term ‘border’ for the boundary with monsters, but that’s how much Korea was currently ‘at war’ with the monsters coming down from the north.

“Anyway, it’s all because of those North Korean bastards. If only those idiots hadn’t foolishly detonated the nukes…”

“Do you believe the government’s announcement, sunbae?”

The junior staff member lowered their voice.

“North Korea mishandled nukes and they exploded? And because of that, monsters are fleeing south to escape the effects of radiation? …You must have heard things too, sunbae.”

“Hey. Watch your mouth. I’m letting it slide because it’s you, but if the ‘Pine Tree Unit’ catches you, you could disappear without a trace.”

“I don’t own a car. And I don’t eat ramen.”

The senior staff member sighed, watching their junior, who was acting slyly and made a zipping motion over their mouth.

“…Hey. Honestly, you want me to believe the rumor that they sent Heroes to assassinate North Korean leaders, and Kindaichi detonated the nukes to survive?”

“Oh. Sunbae, do you support the assassination theory? I think North Korea tried to raise monsters, and the government sent special forces, and those monsters went berserk.”

“It’s all the same.”

Officially, the government attributed the Pyongyang Incident to ‘North Korea’s self-destruction due to failed nuclear management,’ but there was all sorts of gossip about the true cause.

“Anyway, stop spouting nonsense and get to work. Don’t let strange rumors spread and get yourself caught up in trouble. You have to leave Incheon too, don’t you?”

“Hehe. That’s true.”

The two staff members stopped talking as a user approached the counter.

“…….”

A girl with blue hair, wearing a turquoise translucent scarf. The beautiful girl, who even exuded a mysterious aura, stood with her arms crossed, glaring silently at the bus schedule.

“Uh, excuse me? Student? Do you need anything?”

At the senior staff member’s words, the girl quietly turned her gaze and then sighed.

If the junior staff member’s memory wasn’t mistaken, the clothes the girl was wearing were clearly the uniform of a high school in the outskirts of Incheon.

“…I’m trying to go to Seoul.”

At the girl’s words, the staff members pointed to a corner of the terminal with expressions that said ‘here it comes’.

“If you want to go to New Seoul, you have to get a number ticket over there.”

In the direction the staff member pointed, the middle-aged woman who had been causing a scene earlier was trudging along with a lost expression, getting a number ticket.

Waiting number 4930.

“…You know that only six buses go to New Seoul a day, right, student? So the country has instructed us to sell bus tickets by sequential number.”

Considering that an average of 200 people can leave Incheon for New Seoul each day, it was an absurd number of people waiting, but there was nothing they could do.

“Each person can carry a maximum of 15kg of luggage. If you don’t board 30 minutes before your scheduled departure time, your turn passes to the next person…. There are a few other regulations, but the details are listed where you get the number tickets, so please go and check.”

It was too bothersome to explain the regulations one by one now. The staff member pointed to the number ticket machine and lowered their head again.

“……Sunbae, sunbae!”

When the junior called out softly, the senior staff member raised their head with an annoyed expression.

“…….”

The blue-haired girl was tilting her head with a puzzled expression. The staff member presumed the situation and pulled out the second of five possible responses for such cases.

“If you’re looking for a bus to a nearby provincial city, there aren’t any. Both intercity and express buses were destroyed, so the buses that are running now can barely move, and only with Heroes on board…”

“No.”

The girl interrupted the staff member and shook her head.

“Seoul.”

“So, the bus to New Seoul is… huh?”

The staff member asked back with a dumbfounded voice. The girl tapped a spot on the faded map in front of the counter and said,

“I’m trying to go to Seoul.”

The staff member was speechless for a moment. Go where? Seoul? To a place more hellish than Incheon, where monsters appear more often than homeless people?

When the senior staff member was speechless, the junior staff member approached them and replied with an awkward smile.

“Customer. We apologize, but…”

The staff member shook their head.

“There are no buses to Seoul. Because everyone could die on the way.”