Ch.69Monster or Human

[The Hongdae streets right now are truly a scene of utter chaos!!]

“Wh-what the hell is this…?”

A safety alert text that rang on my phone.

Along with the ominous beeping sounds, I immediately turned on the news on my phone.

And seeing the current Hongdae street disaster that wasn’t in the original work, I could only remain speechless.

“Yes. This is reporter Ki Dae-bak on the scene. Currently, all entrances to Hongdae street are completely blocked. It’s estimated that there are still many survivors inside the streets, and the military and Hunter Association are working hard for rescue operations.”

“Oppa, this is…!”

“What what? What happened?”

Lia and Eve, who had each approached my sides as I crouched down, ended up watching the outside news together.

The two monsters looked at Hongdae street, which had become like a fiery hell, and soon wore expressions unable to continue speaking.

‘How did this even happen?’

Since Lee Heejeong was currently on the American route, there was no scenario where Hongdae street would become a sea of fire.

In other words, this was a butterfly effect that deviated from the original work.

But I had no way of knowing from where or what went wrong to change the scenario like this.

“Oppa! I’m going back to unni right now!”

“Yeah. Then I should also start ‘departing’ soon.”

If the head doesn’t work, use the body!

To rush to the scene and stop this disaster, I stood up from my seat almost simultaneously with Lia.

I was about to start departing immediately.

But then.

“Hmm…”

“?! Wh-what! What are you staring at!”

Lia stared intently at Eve, who had run the fastest but came back and was just standing there quietly.

“Oppa, aren’t you taking her with you?”

“Uh, huh?”

“Geez… Why would you take me?! My home is here!”

“My little sister… I mean Eve. Can’t we just raise her at our house?”

“Hey! This is our house! I’m going to be raised here!!”

Did she not want to leave behind the little sister she had finally met?

Without caring about her own opinion, Lia wanted to take Eve with her, even by force.

“Oppa, let’s just kidnap her and take her!”

“K-kidnap?!”

…There’s nothing this kid won’t say.

Seeing Eve trembling at the serious suggestion to kidnap the Korean branch manager’s servant monster, I firmly shook my head.

“Lia… If we take her, Sophia will have a really hard time.”

“Unni will…?”

“Yeah, so we can’t take that kid to our house.”

“…! R-right! Just try taking me! Our mom won’t let you guys off easy!”

Eve, whose whole body was trembling but whose mouth was still alive thanks to Branch Manager Lee Jin-ah, chimed in agreement with my words.

Lia, who had been staring quietly at both of us saying this, eventually gave up and let out a disappointed sigh.

“…But why do you talk like that?”

“Huh?”

“…Butt?”

“Eek?!”

Even in the midst of this, watching the older sister establish discipline with her younger sister, I could only give a bitter smile.

***

The cyborg monster’s behavior was strange beyond belief.

No matter how much the monster focused on erasing traces of humanity, by the time it had turned a city into a sea of fire, it should have started moving to areas with more living humans.

“…Just how many laps has it been going around?”

The creature had been continuously moving around only that area for a full hour since it first appeared on Hongdae street.

Like a human going shopping.

“Does it not know where to go? Or does it have some other purpose…?”

Hongdae, also called a famous spot in Korea.

A tourist attraction that anyone in Korea, whether foreigner or local, would want to visit at least once.

But that was only for people, certainly not for monsters.

“Why is it acting like that?”

On top of a collapsed building’s rooftop.

A blue-haired Hunter secretly monitoring the creature from high up to avoid being spotted by the monster.

Kim Yoonji, Korea’s A-rank Hunter.

She was following the cyborg monster as it wandered aimlessly again, sending real-time information to headquarters.

“The monster is moving again. First it was a clothing store, then a cafe, and now it’s… tang, huru? Anyway, it’s entering a food store again…”

Who would have thought she’d live to see a National Disaster-Level monster going to eat tanghuru.

Kim Yoonji was simply confused.

But because she was there, the Korean Hunter Association branch could grasp the creature’s movements.

Even though the creature kept showing strange behavior…

“Korean, woman…!”

“?!”

“You, why, pretty?”

She had been thinking to never let her guard down and tail it while killing her presence.

‘It noticed I was following?! When exactly?’

She had no idea.

The creature had definitely entered the tanghuru shop, but when she noticed, it was somehow standing behind her.

A shadow approaching 5 meters tall covered Kim Yoonji’s body.

At the same time, the chilling and heavy ‘killing intent’ that arose from behind her

“Muay Thai – Back kick!!”

Thwack.

Kim Yoonji instantly leaped up, spun her body, and delivered a kick that could collapse a 5-story building in one blow.

However.

Slash.

“Huh?”

…She had definitely attacked first.

With one blink of her eyes, she saw sharp wounds all over her toes.

Fresh blood scattering in the air caught her sight.

And that wasn’t all.

Thud!

“Gasp?!”

Without even a chance to land, Kim Yoonji took the cyborg monster’s follow-up punch to her solar plexus, which reached her back, and with only the whites of her eyes showing, she vomited blood.

“Hmm!”

“…Huh?”

She was about to crash into the ground and die.

“…Fortunately, she’s still breathing.”

“Wh-who?”

The person who quickly ran over and rescued Kim Yoonji by holding her in his arms.

The Korean branch monitoring room, currently capturing him through drones, was truly regaining hope with surprise and relief.

“It’s Donzo Mykree…”

“Donzo Mykree! The American National Authority-Level Hunter has come to support!”

“Great! We’re saved!”

Donzo Mykree.

Currently, he had come running, feeling responsible for the unavoidable casualties that occurred contrary to their party’s plans.

“I don’t know how you can move, but given how things turned out, I’ll have to scrap this.”

With those words, Donzo started to take off his clothes first.

But the cyborg monster wouldn’t miss such an opportunity.

“Kihik!”

Thud!

A powerful punch immediately flew toward his face, strong enough to collapse all the buildings behind him.

Rustle rustle.

“?!”

“…Ptui! Please wait… My wife bought me this suit and I treasure it, so I can’t fight wearing this.”

Donzo, who toughly only bled from his nose and neatly organized all his clothes except his underwear in front of the bewildered cyborg monster.

He placed the well-arranged suit right next to the fallen Kim Yoonji.

Only then.

“Hup!”

Clang!

He delivered a punch to the creature’s face just like he had received.

The simultaneous sound of hammering iron rang out.

But without being surprised, and rather seeing the cyborg monster drop a single drop of blood from its mouth like himself, Donzo just smiled wickedly.

“What are you so surprised about? Is it that amazing that my fist didn’t get cut?”

“…!”

“HAHAHAHA!”

Donzo showed his fist, which was as big as an average person’s head, in front of the monster.

“I’ve known from the start that your ability can turn your entire body into sharp ‘blades’. And my ability is your natural enemy. I’m a Shield Hunter who can ‘harden’ all structures of my body.”

“American, man…!”

“A shield is never cut by a sword. Rather, it’s the sword that breaks from fighting a shield and dulling its edge.”

The cyborg monster spread both palms wide.

Sharp blades appeared inside each finger joint, and it intended to grab and tear apart Donzo’s head.

But Donzo Mykree hardened his entire face in response.

Clang!

“Stop it! I’m your perfect natural enemy!”

“…!!”

Seeing Donzo Mykree gaining the upper hand.

“Great! We won!”

“The Hongdae monster that could be classified as National Disaster-Level will soon be defeated!”

“Dear God…!”

Until this moment, the Korean Hunter branch’s monitoring room was truly filled with hope.

Squirm.

Inside that cyborg monster.

Squirm squirm.

Without even imagining that another monster was about to appear.

***

This place is hell.

I realized this fact at the young age of an elementary school student.

“Ta-da! Isn’t this pouch pretty?”

“Wow…”

“Mom bought it for me! Hehe. You guys live in poor neighborhood apartments so you don’t have money to buy stuff like this, right?”

The pouch I wanted so badly.

But I couldn’t buy it.

Because I wasn’t born into a family that could afford such things.

‘Why can only she buy it and I can’t?’

We’re the same humans.

We’re from the same country.

Then we should all ‘equally’ use good things together, so why does discrimination start from here?

When I’m eating discounted beef bought from home, someone else is probably cutting premium steak at a restaurant.

When I’m filling the bathtub with water and just pretending with bath salts, someone else is probably going on a real hot spring trip to completely relieve their fatigue.

The legend of a dragon rising from a stream.

Whenever I saw America’s famous CEO who started as a beggar but succeeded in establishing a huge company through effort alone, I could tell.

Without even such opportunities from birth!

Without any possibility of social mobility!

This country, where you just have to live because you’re alive, is truly a rotten country.

And I had to escape from such a place as soon as possible.

When those National Defense Ministry bastards sent me a draft notice even though I’m a woman and they’d never done anything for me before, that determination became even more solid.

So…

So!

“I can’t die yet.”

I have to climb to the very top.

They say in America, the land of opportunity, if you just work hard, you get rewarded accordingly.

To live a life where I don’t add bath salts, don’t buy discounted beef, don’t tremble at delivery fees, and don’t feel self-conscious about buying luxury goods.

“Graaaaaahhhhh!!”

“Wh-What?!”

One woman’s venomous obsession began to devour the monster’s instincts and manifest outwardly.

And as a result.

Crunch.

A human… no, more precisely, a humanoid monster that had been put in only to be absorbed as nutrients, but tore through the cyborg monster’s abdomen and came out after absorbing all of its power.

“I… have to… succeed!!”

“…A woman? No, more than that, that hair color! Don’t tell me you’re…?!”

“I can’t… go back… to being… a miserable… lower class… citizen… who only… eats… pork!”

A completely twisted scenario from the original.

This was the moment when monster Lee Heejeong, who had devoured a National Disaster-Level monster through sheer obsession alone, first revealed herself to this world.