Chapter 346

Chapter 346. News of Victory (2)

“What on earth…?”

The sky splitting open—was the world really coming to an end?

User swallowed dryly, gazing at the enormous rift that had appeared in the sky.

Because of it, he clearly saw it. A massive black mass was emerging from the gap.

“Whoa…!”

The moment it revealed itself, it felt as though gravity had intensified.

The effort required just to stand normally left him drenched in cold sweat.

It wasn’t just him.

The Bronze rank members had collapsed entirely, and even the Silver rank members wobbled, unable to steady themselves.

Those oblivious to the overwhelming presence merely found themselves bewildered.

‘What on earth is that thing?’

Even as User felt the immense pressure, he kept his eyes fixed on the mysterious black mass.

It was descending toward the wasteland about ten kilometers from Tanta.

Gulp.

The sound of someone swallowing echoed through the air.

Perhaps it was a sound from User himself.

Since spotting the black mass, he had been in an extreme state of tension.

What could it be?

Could it be a new kind of monster?

What if its rank was greater than a nemesis-rank?

If so, complete destruction awaited this place.

Various concerns and thoughts tangled inside his mind.

And finally.

“The existing hunting team, join with the Gold ranks! We’re heading there!”

User divided his forces.

“How much time until the Hole opens?!”

“Judging by the pace of corrosion, we have about an hour’s leeway!”

“Wait without entering, and even if we don’t return after an hour, go in just by yourselves!”

It was an order to go to their deaths depending on the situation.

While it was far from reassuring, he couldn’t retract what he had already said.

Leaving his distressed subordinates behind, User began to run.

Those who had previously hunted general-rank monsters and the newly arrived Gold rank members followed him.

Soon, User glanced up at the sky again.

The black mass was still falling.

Considering its size, the descent wasn’t swift, perhaps suggesting the use of levitation magic.

As he pondered the nature of the object while keeping his eyes fixed on it, he noticed something shimmer from the still-open rift in the sky.

“Huh…?”

Before he realized it, he had vocalized his surprise.

Boom!

The rift in the sky snapped back to its original state.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck from that place.

Immediately, the slowly descending black mass vanished from view.

Thud!

Only after perceiving the heavy thud from the ground did he understand that the mass had plummeted to earth.

At that moment, everyone had to stop in their tracks.

Crackle-!

In the distance, an enormous golden light was rising.

It soared skyward as if it knew no bounds.

Then, swiftly descending, it erupted in a colossal explosion.

Kuoooom!

The members of Starfield who had been standing their ground were knocked backward by the powerful shockwave.

A tremendous sandstorm brewed, and the earth quaked as if a seismic event was underway.

The air seemed to ripple and twist.

Most of the players accompanying User fainted from the impact.

“Cough, cough! This is insane…”

Barely holding onto consciousness, User braced his trembling body.

Propping himself up with his hands, he shook his head to clear his vision and his ears, which were ringing due to the explosion.

Maintaining balance on his unsteady legs was no easy task.

The overwhelming power he couldn’t resist with his own strength left his mouth dry and parched.

“Am I supposed to go there myself…?”

The thought of discovering what was happening at the explosion’s epicenter filled him with dread.

Gravity, which grew heavier as he approached, only intensified his fear.

At that moment, a player who was still conscious, like User, cautiously approached him.

“Um, Clan Leader, perhaps that’s…”

Caked in dust, his appearance was disheveled, and his gaze was fixed on the direction of continual minor explosions.

User alternated glances between him and the source of the blast, hastily asking, “Why? Do you know what it is?”

“Well… I’m not certain, but it looks like the golden lightning that burned those tree vines a few months ago.”

“Ah.”

In the urgent situation, a memory suddenly surfaced, one he had not considered.

‘Now that you mention it…’

He recalled hearing that a woman with blue hair had scorched the black vines in Cairo with golden lightning.

As User hadn’t witnessed the event directly, it hadn’t been immediate in his mind.

“Those vines weren’t far from my parents’ house, so I was actually there.”

Thanks to that, the player claimed to have clearly witnessed the gleaming golden lightning from outside the window at that time.

“So this explosion…”

Could this be an act of an ally rather than an enemy?

Before he could voice that question, a dazzling light grabbed his attention.

He instinctively looked up, his and the player’s complexion turning pale.

“Oh…”

The sky, once clear without a cloud, was now dazzlingly radiant.

It was filled with countless golden lightning bolts.

‘Spears…?’

Their shape resembled thorns or possibly spears, but counting them was impossible.

Predicting what would happen when they struck the ground wasn’t hard.

And when that moment came, they would likely all be doomed.

Though he had resolved to face death, he hadn’t expected it to come so pointlessly.

User expelled a breath of futility as overwhelming weariness washed over him.

At that moment, the space directly ahead of him split open.

It mirrored the scene that had occurred moments earlier when the sky had torn apart.

Startled, User tightened his grip instinctively on his sword.

“Hurry and get in!”

Someone kicked him from behind.

User was drawn into the mysterious space.

The surroundings completely transformed.

The desolate wasteland of sand and weeds disappeared.

Instead, he was greeted by the bustling cityscape full of buildings, roads, vehicles, and people.

As User landed on the rooftop of an unknown building, he uttered a dumbfounded sound.

“Huh…?”

It was only then that he realized he had returned to Tanta, just as he had left it minutes ago.

Simultaneously, he heard a voice dripping with frustration.

“If I can’t stop it, I’m dead!”

Whose voice it was, he couldn’t tell, but as the shout ended, an entire golden barrier enveloped the city.

Had Temoria’s tankers combined their ‘Traits’?

That seemed impossible. There were only about 20 Tanker members from Starfield in Tanta.

And among them, only four had reached the Gold rank at most.

They couldn’t possibly have erected a barrier of such magnitude with their numbers.

The confusion from such an illogical situation was fleeting.

Golden lightning filled the distant sky and began raining down like a heavy storm.

Bang!

It unleashed an explosion so powerful that even an atomic bomb would pale in comparison.

Indeed, it was nothing short of a cataclysm.

Fortunately, the golden barrier managed to mitigate some of the explosion’s force.

Unfortunately, not everything could be stopped by the golden barrier.

Screech!

The maddening shriek seemed to invade beyond the flesh, clawing into the soul, pressing down on all existence.

“Aargh!”

“Argh!”

Many civilians fainted on the spot, while others went into shock and died prematurely.

Most players clutched their ears.

Some experienced tinnitus as their eardrums burst, while others temporarily lost their hearing entirely.

Fortunately for User, he was in the former category.

And thanks to having slightly more robust bodies than others, those with the Gold rank, including him, recovered their senses more quickly.

“Urgh…”

By instinct honed on the battlefield, User attempted to rise, a basic survival instinct ingrained in every player.

They knew that staying on the ground would render them mere snacks for the monsters.

Struggling to his feet, he saw the completely halted Tanta and something black beyond it.

It looked as if a giant skyscraper had been erected.

At the site where the explosion presumably occurred, something black simmered.

It seemed like smoke or liquid.

“Haha…”

What on earth was that, spreading wider with each passing moment?

The overwhelming incidents were enough to drain User of all energy.

In the hastily unfolding, urgent situation, all he could do was be swept along.

It was both suddenly ridiculous and utterly empty.

User stared dazedly toward the direction of the explosion.

Meanwhile, one person, unlike User, muttered while scratching their ringing ear.

“Ooh… Take it easy, will you.”

Though he couldn’t catch every word of the murmuring voice, the grumbling tone was unmistakable.

As he turned his head, he saw a young man.

He was a man with black hair and golden eyes.

“Seriously, what a temperament, how are we going to clean up this mess…?”

The voice, growing clearer, was undoubtedly that of the person who kicked him just a few minutes ago.

Now that he was regaining his composure, he could sequentially and logically revisit the events that had unfolded.

‘How did I end up back in Tanta?’

There was no characteristic shimmer of a teleportation magic.

Upon checking, he confirmed that all the clan members who had left Tanta with him were safe.

Though they were unconscious, having fainted.

Still, the fact remained that they had returned to Tanta alive.

As he was bursting with frustration at the incomprehensible situation, a voice, from a mysterious figure leaning out of a window, erupted.

“Why’s that open?!”

Realizing he had regained his senses, User leaped to his feet and checked the view beyond the railing.

“Oh no…!”

The Hole they had left was open, and monsters were pouring forth.

“This is crazy; it’ll take a bit to Absorb… Should I use Karlos’ trick? Can I dismantle that? Damn, using that guy’s thing is hard!”

The man prattled on with words User couldn’t comprehend and then extended his hand forward.

Bang!

A golden lightning bolt shot from his hand, reducing the escaping monster from the Hole to ashes in an instant.

Of course, not all the lightning bolts struck the monsters directly.

“No, no! To the right, go to the right!”

Sometimes they veered off course, striking random buildings.

Fortunately, people had evacuated the area surrounding the Hole’s generation.

As a result, no additional casualties would occur.

At the moment User let out an unconscious sigh of relief.

The man turned toward him, their eyes meeting.

He continued to unleash golden lightning while murmuring.

“Forget what you saw.”

“Sorry?”

“If I get caught, I’ll be in trouble. Honestly, this feels like an accident while trying to help, right? Can’t you understand?”

It seemed unnecessary to bring this up in such an urgent situation.

‘But we need his strength.’

Whoever he was, whatever his abilities, and why he was helping them wasn’t clear.

One thing was certain: they needed his power at that moment.

“All right, all right! No word from me, just take those things down properly.”

“Okay!”

With that, the man’s expression brightened, and he enthusiastically started firing lightning again.

It wasn’t magic or mana, but its peculiar power had evident efficacy.

Although erratically veering off course, demolishing buildings, and flipping roads.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of deluging monsters were all reduced to ashes.

How many minutes of successful defense had passed when.

“It’s here.”

Suddenly murmuring, the man ceased his lightning strikes and lowered his hands.

He was about to demand an explanation, pointing out how monsters were still emerging when suddenly, a flash of blinding light flared.

Startled by it, User squeezed his eyes shut.

When he reopened them, not only had the monsters disappeared, but the Hole itself was gone, leaving nothing behind.

Momentarily blinking in surprise, User realized the man was gazing skyward.

Then, as he instinctively looked up, a voice reached his ears.

“This time, it ended rather quickly?”

“Practice makes perfect, I suppose.”

He added, ‘Whatever that means’, before User took a closer look at his face, his eyes widening.

“… K.”

It was unmistakably K, who had vanished for over three months, prompting both disappearance and death rumors.

After a gap of about three months, he had returned.

Damned System

TL’s Corner:

So the chatterbox that saved User is probably Kim Yul, and K appeared afterwards.