Part 1 Chapter 6 (14)

5:17 PM, New Seoul Government Complex.

“Your Excellency. This is….”

The atmosphere in the government complex’s situation room also froze at the sight of the frozen sea. It was to the point where they felt awe at the mysterious phenomenon, which was difficult for human common sense and reason to easily accept.

Seonui Cheol quickly tapped the table, rousing everyone’s spirits.

“Minister. Contact the Association. Find out the level of that attack just now.”

“Yes, yes!”

At Seonui Cheol’s words, Jang Hujeong quickly contacted the Association.

In the relayed video from the Association, Seolhwa Princess appeared to be gathering her power, clenching and unclenching her hand, and in the meantime, the passenger ship landed in the middle of the park. The park was devastated by the passenger ship.

“President-nim. At this rate, the restoration budget will….”

“Prime Minister. That’s not what’s important right now, is it?”

When Seonui Cheol glared, Baek Se-jun flinched.

“Money issues can be solved by squeezing corporations. The problem is Seolhwa Princess. Though I’m an outsider to heroes, I know that’s no ordinary feat. Minister, what do you think?”

Jang Hujeong, who had finished contacting the Association, swallowed hard. His voice trembled.

“We can’t confirm it yet, but they say the instantaneous firepower exceeded the S-rank limit. It’s not confirmed, but….”

Thump! Seonui Cheol hit the table with his hand, drawing attention.

“Contact the broadcasting stations immediately and lift the signal jam.”

“Huh? Then, let alone reporters, won’t we be calling those annoying broadcasters?”

“Tsk.”

At the Prime Minister’s remark, Seonui Cheol clicked his tongue.

“That’s why it’s hard for you to become president in this era. You’re too behind the times.”

“…….”

Baek Se-jun’s face flushed. No matter that he was the president, it was difficult to compose himself after being criticized in public by a man more than a dozen years younger than him. Seonui Cheol didn’t care and pushed up his glasses.

“If I had my way, I’d go there myself with a camera and broadcast it. Tell them to record it immediately, whether it’s public broadcasting, terrestrial broadcasting, or local broadcasting. No, it would be better to just broadcast it all live.”

“P-President-nim?”

“What are you doing? Why aren’t you moving immediately? Why aren’t you contacting the Busan mayor and telling him to send even the on-duty officials right away to film with their smartwatches!”

Only then did the Prime Minister realize the President’s intention. Seonui Cheol spread his arms wide and lectured.

“The birth of the first SS-rank superhuman in Korea, and the first in the world! Broadcast it live to the entire world right now!!”

Those involved moved busily. Seonui Cheol smiled faintly.

Gwanggeom died and Cheongsong disappeared. Some even cautiously brought up the term ‘lame duck’. Seonui Cheol intended to use this crisis as an opportunity to create a breakthrough.

“Your Excellency.”

While people were engrossed in their roles amidst the chaos, the Director of the National Intelligence Service, who had been standing behind the President, cautiously held out a smartwatch. A small screen appeared on the President’s glasses, displaying text that no one else could see.

– At coordinates 40.1, 124.4, Chinese heroes reportedly retreated during engagement with monsters.

“……I’m truly sorry, but.”

Seonui Cheol took off his glasses and glared at the Director of the National Intelligence Service.

“From now on, just say it out loud. Is this the point I’m thinking of?”

“……Yes. It seems they’ve made their move.”

Seonui Cheol clicked his tongue. It seemed ‘those people’ in Seoul had already figured out that the Chinese heroes were coming down, boasting they would stabilize Pyongyang.

“Heaven has helped us.”

Seonui Cheol drank his herbal tea and turned his eyes to the screen on the wall.

Before long, Moby Dick had approached within a stone’s throw of the coastline.

* * *

ROAR!!!

The enraged Moby Dick rammed its head into the ice island.

The sea itself was frozen, and trying to break through it with a headbutt seemed foolish at first glance, but Moby Dick was seething with rage at Harang, who was provoking it from beyond the ice.

“Already tired?”

Harang scoffed and stood at the edge of the ice island. Moby Dick responded to the provocation by firing a water cannon.

“You have no learning ability!”

Harang, having dodged the water cannon fired as a deterrent, immediately threw their body backward. Simultaneously with the deterrent, Moby Dick leaped out of the water, glaring at Harang in mid-air and opening its mouth.

Vwoom–!!

A sphere of mana shimmered in Moby Dick’s mouth. Harang clicked their tongue, froze the water surface, and slid backward. Moby Dick opened its mouth even wider and unleashed a breath attack.

Kuaaaaa! The breath attack, fired in a straight line, scraping the frozen water surface, engulfed Harang. The breath attack, imbued with waves, was fired as if to crush Harang.

“Hmph!”

Harang calmly extended a hand forward, radiating mana.

Ice spread out again from the tip of the straight ice spear, forming ribs like an umbrella, and Harang filled the canopy with ice, gripping the spear shaft tightly with both hands.

“This level of attack is nothing!”

The breath attack deflected off the conical shield Harang created, hitting the water surface and soaring into the sky. Harang very easily blocked the breath attack with the ice umbrella they had created.

“Compared to that bastard’s attack, this is nowhere close!”

Harang jumped from the ground, still holding the umbrella. Thanks to their body momentarily floating in the air, they were pushed by the breath attack and flew straight towards the land.

ROAR?!

Moby Dick, whose breath attack had ceased, fell directly onto the ice island. When its chest hit the ice island, Moby Dick was in great pain.

ROOOOOAR!!

It rampaged, spewing mana water cannons from between its scales. It seemed unable to vent its frustration at the eel-like actions of its nemesis, whose attacks repeatedly failed to land.

When had it ever tasted such humiliation? From the day it crossed the dimensional gate opened in Naha, it had been the king of monsters and a tyrant ruling the sea. It was a mass murderer who had drowned and killed a million people in Okinawa.

Such a being was now being toyed with by a Spirit in human form. Moby Dick was so ashamed that it let out a roar of fury.

ROOOOOOOOOAR!!!

A massive sonic boom spread in all directions, centered on Moby Dick. The impact on the water surface caused waves in the sea, and by the time they reached the coastline, they had become a tsunami.

“Wow. That’s really high.”

Harang, who had been shaking sand out of their slippers on the white sand beach, looked up at the wave and exclaimed in admiration. Moby Dick’s roar was so tremendous that the wave height alone reached almost 5 meters.

“But you really do have no learning ability, huh.”

Harang just smiled faintly and gently stepped on the seawater with bare feet.

“I told you it’s useless!”

Crrrack!

The sea froze in an instant. The waves that had been rushing to engulf the coast became an ice wall. Moby Dick, which had been swimming towards the land, stopped in confusion at the frozen waves.

“You, you’ve just been sleeping your ass off for almost 9 years in Okinawa, haven’t you? While someone else was training their ass off for 9 years.”

Mana overflows. Power overflows. If the Spirit’s power used until now was something painstakingly drawn from someone else’s field, the Spirit’s power being used now was like a cornucopia that could be drawn upon endlessly without running out.

“But here is….”

Harang glanced behind them. There, the fence Harang had previously erected with ice spears was stretched out. Harang quickly realized where the white sand beach they were standing on was.

“Holy crap. Did I fly all the way to Haeundae?”

Harang slung the umbrella-like spear over their shoulder. It looked quite comical, like a tourist who had come to set up a parasol.

They were relaxed. With power, a sense of inner stability definitely emerged, and it felt like they could do anything. Moby Dick was still desperate to catch them. Harang raised their wrist.

“This is Seolhwa Princess. The aggro is still on me.”

[Good job luring it! I was worried it might come towards the passenger ship!!]

“…….”

Harang pushed the slipper that had slipped to their ankle with the sole of their foot. Cold sweat ran down their back.

“Ah, hahaha. Of course, Praetor. Who do you think I am? Any casualties?”

[None at all! Thanks to the fence you made, the monsters can’t even get into the residential areas! Reinforcements will arrive soon, so just hold on a little longer!]

“…Do I really have to hold back?”

Harang aimed the spear tip at Moby Dick, which was breaking through the ice and charging.

“I feel like I could defeat it right now!!”

They took off the bothersome slippers and ran barefoot on the white sand beach. The moment they quickly crossed the beach and stepped into the sea, they froze the water surface and ran across it.

ROOOOOAR!

Moby Dick swam forward as if in response. As if to compare its charge with Harang’s lance charge, it slid over the ice wall Harang had created and leaped high into the air.

“Wow.”

Harang marveled at the dark shadow that formed over their head. Even though they were about to be crushed by a whale monster measuring 50 meters in length, Harang was full of composure.

“You really don’t know anything besides charging, do you?”

When Harang stopped in place, a flicker of bewilderment crossed Moby Dick’s eyes, but Moby Dick continued over the wave and lowered its head.

ROOOOOOOOAR!

Gracefully dodging the water cannons fired from mid-air, Harang poured mana into the ice lance held in their hand. It seemed their center of gravity would waver as they took a stance on the seawater, but instead, the sea embraced Harang’s legs to keep their body from shaking.

A white hand overlapped the hand raised above their shoulder. As if to throw the spear together, the small, childlike hand firmly gripped Harang’s hand.

Three. Two. One.

ROOOOOAR!

Moby Dick, having come over the wave, fell below the surface. The breath attack generated from Moby Dick’s wide-open mouth engulfed Harang.

If they continued like this, they might be crushed by Moby Dick. To the worried white hand, Harang drew up mana with a confident smile.

“Why would I.”

Harang spread wings of ice. They gathered all the mana into their two arms, strengthening their muscles, and threw the lance.

Swoosh-! The tip of the ice spear charged precisely towards Moby Dick’s breath attack.

“Why would I fight you head-on?”

Harang flapped their wings, using the recoil from throwing the lance towards Moby Dick’s mouth.

As they flew skimming the water surface and landed on the white sand beach, Moby Dick’s massive body crashed directly into the lance and the ground.

Kyaaaaa! As the lance pierced Moby Dick’s mouth, a massive earthquake simultaneously shook the white sand beach.

Kwaaaaa! Moby Dick slammed its forehead directly into the ground. Moby Dick’s head sank deep into the sandy seabed. At the same time, Moby Dick’s underside twitched.

Pang-!

With a crisp sound like a balloon popping, Harang’s ice spear shot into the sky. The ice lance, having pierced the uvula through the breath attack, did not lose its momentum and even pierced Moby Dick’s stomach.

Gugugu…! A high-rise building by the sea slowly began to collapse. The building, which was under construction, weakly crumbled towards the white sand beach.

“……Shoddy construction. Yeah, shoddy construction.”

Harang landed directly on the white sand beach. Moby Dick, with its head buried in the ground, convulsed and then tilted precariously.

Towards the white sand beach, in Harang’s direction.

“…Oh my.”

If that fell too, the building would be seriously damaged. Harang quickly drew up mana. At that moment, the wind rustled, tickling Harang’s hair.

“Slash (斬).”

The man who had landed beside Harang, Hayate, sheathed his sword. Hayate shrugged his eyebrows at Harang. Harang sneered with a bewildered expression.

“Didn’t you say you wouldn’t care about the finishing blow?”

“I saved you because it looked dangerous? Hehehe.”

“As if.”

“…Fuck?”

As Hayate stood up, Moby Dick’s tilting body split into dozens of pieces. Moby Dick’s body, shattered from its abdomen to its tail, fell directly onto the water surface and sank.

“H-Haeundae?!”

Harang looked at the sea off Busan, which had turned into a sea of blood, and strode over to grab Hayate by the collar.

“What the hell are you doing, polluting someone else’s sea?!”

“Hahaha! Why?! It’s fine as long as it’s defeated. Otherwise, another building would have collapsed, you know?”

Hayate smiled smoothly and pointed to the high-rise building on the east side. The hundreds-of-meters-tall building was shaking precariously. Harang realized that the super high-rise apartment, which was under construction, belonged to Yuseong, to Eun Yuha, and subtly released their grip on his collar.

“……Ha, I almost got caught.”

“What? Ah, this translator is really weird today. Is it broken?”

Hayate smoothed his crumpled scarf with his hand and rubbed his smartwatch. Harang wanted to make a crack appear on that overly relaxed face.

Beep. The Praetor’s command came through on both their watches.

[Focus! We’re still detecting monster signals from Moby Dick’s corpse!]

“……!”

“…Damn it.”

Hayate drew his sword, and Harang created an ice spear in the air. The sea where Moby Dick had died began to boil and bubble.

Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwa! White mucous began to spread from the blood-red sea, along with bubbles. Harang and Hayate recoiled in physiological disgust and checked the screen.

“W-What are these numbers?!”

“10, 100, 1000?! Are all of these Moby Dicks? Why are there so many Moby Dicks?!”

Bubbling. The two heroes’ expressions hardened as they watched the things wriggling and spewing mucus.

No way. No way. It couldn’t be.

However, that prediction, sadly, turned out to be all too accurate.

“”Kyaaaaaaak?!””

Thousands of indescribable somethings began swimming towards the coastline, spewing purple organs.

# # #

# Pyongyang Side

At that time, Amnok River.

Clang! They block the sword with their hand. The opponent quickly tries to retrieve the sword, but this one’s fist is faster.

“Cough!”

The hero’s eyes rolled back as they collapsed from the punch to the solar plexus. That makes 276. They’ve defeated quite a lot, but there are still a disgustingly large number left.

“Now that I think about it, Seok Harang seems like they’ll have quite a tough time.”

“Hey! Stop slacking and fight!”

Deokbae rolled on the ground, dodging an arrow. The snake-like arrow wriggled past Deokbae and flew towards me.

“Ah. Thanks to that, I recalled some bad memories.”

I raised my hand and burned the arrow. I could clearly see the marksman on the distant building clicking their tongue, so I grabbed Deokbae’s hood and threw them towards the building.

“Catch, Deokbae!”

“Fucking hell!!”

Deokbae drew an arc and demolished the building. A flame giant appeared from the building, destroying it, and its upper body exploded by an A-rank hero who happened to be nearby. I quickly flew up and recovered Deokbae’s Core.

Making full use of the monstrous human’s characteristic of dying and reviving, they defeated the Chinese heroes. Was this already their 7th death?

“They died again? Seriously.”

Phantom choked a hero with a tentacle and then threw them to the ground. The hero, for some reason, wore an ecstatic expression, giggling until they fainted. Phantom approached me.

“What’s wrong all of a sudden? Are you already tired?”

“No. I just thought of something wriggling, so a little…. Ah! I don’t mean you, Phantom. Don’t misunderstand.”

Phantom’s eyes behind the mask half-closed. I immediately started explaining.

“You know Moby Dick. Well, since it’s also a Shadow, it has a second phase, you see?”

“Uh-huh. I guess so. Right.”

“You don’t believe me. Oof.”

Phantom’s expression still showed no sign of softening. I picked up Phantom and flew into the sky, dodging the artillery fire falling to the ground.

Kwang! Dust scattered. Phantom, now in a familiar posture, wrapped their arms around my neck.

“What’s Moby Dick’s second phase like? Is it difficult?”

“No. It’s very easy. It’s practically a bonus stage, but….”

I flew leisurely through the sky with Phantom in my arms, avoiding the pouring artillery fire. When I reached the center of the heroes who were firing long-range attacks while flying in a large semicircle, Phantom leaped down and knocked out the heroes with tentacles.

Then I revived Deokbae and dropped them to the ground. The flame giant revived in mid-air and engulfed the heroes.

“When Moby Dick dies, its second phase begins. You have to freeze its entire massive body or burn all its internal organs; if you just wound it or cut it in half, it’ll cause a huge mess. Because they burst out from its organs.”

“…Organs?”

Phantom’s expression soured. I landed, kneeing the face of a wind mage who was about to cast a spell.

“Yes. Moby Dick’s second phase has a separate name.”

Just thinking about it filled me with disgust and gave me chills.

“Anisakis (Anisakis).”

Whale worm. I couldn’t bring myself to tell Phantom what it meant.