Ch.134134. Assassin

I didn’t live carelessly until the end of humanity for nothing. Some stranger calls me by name and approaches me with familiarity the moment they see me?

I was even taken to the police station and interrogated.

My instincts tell me this isn’t normal. The fortunate thing is that the bowl-cut boy didn’t pounce on me immediately.

I racked my desperate brain. He’s not attacking right away? Is he trying to close the distance by appearing as a child?

This means the enemy is trying to deceive me and attack secretly. If that’s the case, I don’t need to use Risk (transformation regardless of being seen).

I smiled as much as possible while tapping my smartwatch.

It’s a signal asking the security team to come as close as possible. This morning, it should be Sister Unjeong on duty.

Suddenly, Sister Unjeong appeared beside me.

“I heard you lost something?”

“Yes. Hey kid, what’s the matter?” I asked again.

The child grinned.

“I’m lost.”

“I’ll show you the way.”

Sister Unjeong steps forward. Good, at least the danger…

At that moment, I blinked briefly. Just for that split second.

[Shit. Butting in without reading the room.]

The kid’s appearance was changing.

Revealing killing intent.

In front of my eyes, a bracelet emits light and intercepts.

“Who are you!”

Sister Unjeong’s bracelet repelled the force, but the boy wasn’t thrown back.

Instead, he was pushing Sister Unjeong back in one go.

What’s suddenly happening?

I had one job to do. Call other security team members.

Just as I was hurriedly trying to send a signal through the communication network,

suddenly a maze appeared before my eyes.

“What is this?”

This isn’t where I was before. Now stone-like structures were creating a confusing maze-like path.

“Ahhh!”

At that moment, I heard Sister Unjeong’s scream. No time to be surprised. I need to analyze the situation.

There are monsters that can change the surrounding terrain.

But this is strange for a terrain change.

This is the house where I was staying until just now. If the terrain had changed, other people should be here too.

Think calmly.

I checked both my smartphone and watch.

Hallucination. Or perhaps a subspace opened. Monsters that can open subspaces are few and far between.

Did such a creature come? Is it connected to the Apocalypse Corps?

[Communication impossible]

At least it’s not a hallucination. Then? Did it deploy its own field in this place?

Anyway, I touched the wall. The sensation is real. But it feels slightly different from normal walls?

No, there’s no time for this. What I need now is flying ability to escape this maze.

[Avian Asura]

Just as I transformed into a bird to soar upward,

I hit the ceiling.

“Ugh!”

I couldn’t fly above the maze. This isn’t illusion magic. Did it create an actual maze?

After returning to normal, I needed to transform into something that could ignore the opponent’s ability.

[Evolution]

-Mechanical Wolf

The moment I transformed into a wolf that ignores special abilities, all information began recording in my brain.

I deliberately tapped the maze quickly. Even if it didn’t work, the information would be input.

[Understanding Complete]

-Opponent’s characteristics nullified

My claws extended and slashed through the wall in one go.

As the wall began to collapse, a path appeared before me.

It’s breaking. I can go through.

As I broke through the wall and moved forward, the maze began to dissipate.

Everything returns to its original state. The exact terrain I saw before.

I stopped in my tracks.

In front of me, I saw Sister Unjeong lying covered in blood, and beside her, a void monster surrounded by dark magical energy.

No, since it has a human face, it’s a monster-human. And a kid at that.

Though the face had changed.

[Huh? Sister! There’s a monster in the maze?]

Sister? I don’t know who he’s talking to. Probably the being who created this maze. Does that matter right now? I charged at him in rage.

At that very moment, my claws passed through the void monster.

[You’re attacking me? Sister? What exactly did you trap here?]

Behind me. Suddenly, a void monster with an inconsistent form attacked from behind.

A monster that looked like it was pixelated. But it’s definitely a void monster.

I felt something piercing inside my body and reflexively swung my claws.

But once again, its form merely distorted. I need to wait for the “Understanding Complete” to appear quickly.

And above all, I need to save Sister Unjeong who’s covered in blood right now.

Since I’m waiting for “Understanding Complete” anyway.

I immediately picked up Sister Unjeong and ran.

Running through a residential area in broad daylight again, who would’ve thought?

It’s absurd, but it’s the reality I’m facing now.

However, an ominous voice whispered in my ear.

[Aren’t we on the same side?]

At that moment, a mass of magical energy hit my side directly.

A body like an octopus with a human face in its gaze, creating an imbalance, mocked me.

As I rolled on the ground, I supported Sister Unjeong.

[Wow, a monster saving a human? I think I’ve seen this before!]

It’s underestimating me!

[Understanding Complete]

Just in time, “Understanding Complete” appeared. I jumped up and charged forward.

[Haha, attacking again…]

[Skill]

-Concentrated Output

-Wolf’s Claws

The magical blades concentrated in both my hands slashed through the monster’s afterimage.

It didn’t take long for its smiling face to contort.

[Huh? Why am I… Argh!]

As the scream echoed, I didn’t miss my chance.

I was about to finish it with my skill, Energy Shot, when

suddenly, sticky magical energy emanated from the body of the creature that was in pain.

[Let’s stop playing around.]

It raised its head and emitted magical energy.

It’s not the black magical energy from before. Blue energy, similar to the magic humans use, surged.

The moment that energy attached to my arm, it was sticking like something viscous.

This is the debuff technique called Adhesion. But it’s usually cast in an area, not emitted in magical form like now.

My arm stuck. And once again, something like a shadow pounced on me.

[Debuff]

-Movement speed reduction

-Stat reduction

-Load increase

[System is experiencing load.]

Moreover, there was something different from ordinary debuff techniques.

Load? A warning message was appearing.

[It hurts! You dog bastard!]

The kid’s face was grinning. But my other hand was fine.

I immediately fired the Energy Shot I had already charged. With just one hand.

The claw-shaped Energy Shot was blocked by the creature’s body.

More precisely, it cut through but couldn’t penetrate due to the sticky substance, stretching like rubber before losing its power.

[You son of a bitch!]

The moment the kid got angry, my body was suddenly pushed back with a shock.

The sticky magical energy and the impact were transmitted to my body simultaneously.

[Load is becoming severe.]

-Arm damaged

Even as the warning message appeared, I crashed into a wall. After passing through the collapsed wall and rolling into the yard, I heard sounds from behind.

In my view, I saw people watching from windows.

“Ahhh!”

“Monsters are fighting each other!”

“Close the door! Come here!”

Commotion and screams continued.

That’s right. This is a residential area. People are everywhere.

Normally, the security team would come.

I need to leave Sister Unjeong to them for now. My job is to destroy that kid. I focus solely on that.

[Evolution]

I didn’t want to go to the evolved form due to the aftereffects, but I had to. I needed to give that smug face a proper beating.

-Mechanical Werewolf

My vision began to change again.

*

[From now on, you are executives. Real executives. You survived the culling named ‘executive.’ I vouch for your abilities.]

The chosen one.

Jino was slightly upset. With Kwon Ahseon’s help, he had trapped the target to prevent escape.

He planned to torture and kill the one who interfered with him, then hunt slowly.

But some mechanical wolf interfered.

‘What is Sister doing?’

Kwon Ahseon was also surprised. She didn’t expect her ability to be nullified like that.

It didn’t matter where this mechanical wolf came from or how it existed.

It attacked fiercely.

He thought he could handle it even in his monster-human state.

‘What? The void characteristic doesn’t work!’

What made him angrier was that he took a hit. Though not fatal, he took a hit due to his carelessness.

‘I’m an executive! An executive who beat all the other adults!’

The boy’s anger soared to the heavens as he deployed his ability.

His first assassination should have been a pleasant victory. But interference and crisis? His pride was hurt.

Eventually, he deployed the power of his summoned spirit.

The enhanced debuff would capture this annoying wolf in one go.

[Die! Die! Die!]

With angry kicks, the debuff intensified. But loud noises were heard.

Naturally, their fight had attracted attention, and people were reacting.

From other people’s perspective, it was a bolt from the blue. Suddenly two monsters fighting nearby.

The boy considered killing them all with his power.

‘They’re making annoying noises.’

But while he was momentarily distracted, he didn’t notice the change that occurred.

Suddenly, the entity that shouldn’t be able to move stood up.

[Hmph, binding again…]

And as he was spreading debuffs through his magical energy, a huge fang-sword he had never seen before moved.

By the time his pupils, struggling to follow it, looked down, this executive’s body was split in half.

At this moment, Jino saw clearly.

The mechanical wolf, which had strong bestial characteristics, had transformed to be more human-like. Its face, covered with armor on the upper part, had changed to be like a wolf mask, and its tail had disappeared.

A strange being whose two arms and two legs had changed to be like a human’s.

[Arghhhh!]

Thanks to his ability, he didn’t die despite being split, but recovery was slow.

[Sister! Sister!]

As he called out desperately, once again, a maze appeared.

But the maze returned to normal with just one blow.

Kwon Ahseon took the fallen Jino away, changing her face with her ability.

[Sister… He’ll follow. We need to stop him from following.]

Now, as the maze completely disappeared before his eyes, once again, this mechanical werewolf was glaring at him.

It was eerie.

Frightening.

Strong hostility burned toward the being that crushed the young boy’s pride.

“Try blocking this too!”

Out of pure anger, his magical energy scattered everywhere.

The moment this energy touched the walls and houses, they began to collapse quickly.

A tantrum and an action to bind the feet. The boy smiled with satisfaction.

[You bastard! Next time we meet…]

But this werewolf moved. First, it ignored the building about to collapse.

Why? Simple. Because calculations showed it could still withstand.

[Characteristic]

-Judgment of the Wild

It finds the optimal judgment and route. This wolf, like a programmed machine, deals with various attacks.

It immediately supports the collapsing building and throws its fang-sword to cut off the debuff trying to reach the gas pipeline.

It hits falling rocks with tracking lasers.

All of this happened within 3 seconds. Jino felt extreme anger.

[You bastard! I’ll definitely kill you!]

He escaped with Ahseon’s help. Their assassination plan had failed.

With this, both Doh Jonghyun and the enemy had confirmed something.

[Suspicious.]

The Apocalypse Corps confirmed that the unidentified monster was clearly on humanity’s side and was related to Doh Jonghyun. Conversely, Doh Jonghyun determined that there was definitely an informant from the Apocalypse Corps within the police.

Others were beginning to investigate why murders were targeting “those who visited a specific PC room.”

In short, the situation was rapidly changing.