Chapter 2: Awakening (1)

I must have lost consciousness for a moment.

My head feels dizzy.

‘Slowly…’

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was a long metal rod stuck in the asphalt ground.

If things had gone slightly differently, that sharp piece of metal might have pierced my body.

I really am lucky.

‘The train is completely derailed.’

Without moving recklessly, I first assessed the condition of my body.

I had minor scrapes on my arms and legs, but I had avoided any dangerous injuries.

It was thanks to the fat man.

He and his bag had acted as a cushion.

Ssk

Carefully, I raised my body and looked around.

The subway train had gone off the tracks and onto the road above the bridge.

It seems the fat man and I were thrown out of the train during the chaos.

‘Was it an earthquake?’

Broken glass and twisted metal plates lay hideously scattered about.

Cars were overturned, and many people were lying on the ground.

And there were more corpses turned into bloody messes inside the subway than people lying injured outside.

‘A stroke of luck…’

If I hadn’t been thrown out, there’s a high chance I would have died too.

If the subway had derailed towards the Han River instead of the road, I would have drowned.

‘This man is dead.’

The fat man who cushioned me had stopped breathing.

The ground was wet with the blood he had shed.

Seeing that the blood hadn’t dried yet, the time I was unconscious wasn’t very long.

“Excuse me… please help me.”

Just as I finished grasping the situation and was about to check for other dangers, a small voice was heard.

“Over here…”

I turned my head towards the voice.

My eyes met with a female driver inside a white car.

Her car had crashed into the overturned subway train.

“The door won’t open.”

After checking my belongings, I approached the woman.

The woman, wearing a white blouse, was struggling with the airbag, her face grimaced.

Rattle Rattle

The car door seemed bent.

Looking closely, the woman wasn’t seriously injured.

Just some scratches from the shattered window fragments.

This woman is lucky too.

“Grab on.”

The woman wrapped both arms around my neck.

The moment I safely pulled her out through the window.

[Earth begins preparations to ascend to a higher dimension.]

A voice was heard.

The voice everyone would later call the System.

To me, it sounded just like my deceased mother’s voice.

---

Smoke rose from various places.

Nearby, the groans of people regaining consciousness could be heard, and from afar, the continuous sound of something exploding carried over.

The chaos wasn’t limited to the bridge I was on.

A major collision had occurred on the Gangbyeon Expressway visible over there.

Not a single car was moving.

Beyond that, collapsed apartment buildings were visible.

Some buildings had their windows intact, but the one right next to it had completely crumbled.

‘Pandemonium…’

I thought I was standing at the scene of a horrific disaster.

Until the unidentified voice was heard.

[Mana permeates the Earth.]
[The Trials begin.]
[A penalty is applied to Earth’s dominant species, ‘Humans’.]

The voice felt like it was being delivered directly to my brain, not through my ears.

“What was that just now? Some kind of mechanical sound…”

Absorbing all the surrounding information, I let my imagination run wild.

Seoul, and perhaps even the entire metropolitan area.

To estimate more boldly, the Korean peninsula… no, the whole world.

‘Is falling apart?’

If the chaos I experienced was worldwide.

If I wasn’t crazy.

“No, really! What is this! It’s not some hidden camera prank… Hey.”

Then what should I do?

What were the Trials the voice mentioned?

I looked up at the sky, which had cleared up at some point.

Were the strange phenomena and the earthquake I saw before losing consciousness merely precursors to the trials to come?

“You didn’t say that just now, right? This doesn’t make sense…”

The voice of the woman chattering next to me grew increasingly agitated.

She raised her voice right next to my ear, so I slightly distanced myself.

Anyway, what’s clear is that I wasn’t the only one who heard this unidentified voice.

“Mana, what nonsense. This isn’t some fantasy… Ah, it stings. D*mn it.”

The woman’s reaction confirmed it.

And the reactions of the other survivors, who started appearing one by one, weren’t much different.

Everyone looked scared or bewildered.

“Please help over here! There’s someone trapped under here!”

Just then, a young man raised his voice.

Soon, people started moving here and there.

They tried to rescue people trapped in cars, and struggled to help those pinned under something.

Some kept fiddling with their phones, while others stood with blank expressions.

“Haa… Why isn’t this working either.”

The woman next to me, after talking about car insurance, was now tapping her phone repeatedly.

“Could I borrow your phone for a sec?”

“Mine isn’t working either.”

So, nothing here is working properly right now.

The phones are dead, and even the people running around to help others are stained with blood in places.

“Then what should we do?”

The woman asks, looking at me.

It seems we need to get out of here on foot first.

“To a safe place…”

As I was about to answer, the woman spoke again.

Her eyes wide.

“Huh? Th-there.”

I turned my head in the direction she was looking.

Strange things were swarming from the southern end of the bridge.

Their skin was green, and they were short like children.

“What are those?”

“I don’t know. Let’s run.”

I don’t know what they are, but running away is the best option.

An unarmed human can be in danger even fighting a wild animal smaller than itself.

What if there’s more than one opponent?

What if the ugly creatures I’ve never seen before are even drooling?

‘Sharp teeth and claws… bipedal?’

In that brief moment, I grasped a few characteristics of the green monster.

“Kiriririk.”

The creatures started screeching and running towards us.

I quickly pulled the metal rod stuck in the road, gripped it, and ran north.

Dodging the subway train and vehicles blocking the path.

Thump

But soon, I had no choice but to stop.

“Wh-what do we do!”

The bridge was broken.

---

The woman stared at the abruptly ending bridge with a look of despair.

Then she started stomping her feet and pulling my arm.

“Hey. What do we do?”

Her expression was pure panic.

Looking around, I searched for another way out.

There was only one path left.

‘Can I jump from this height?’

It could be suicide, though.

However, someone else had found a different way.

“Everyone gather around! If we stick together, they won’t attack us easily!”

It was the man who had first started helping people earlier.

He wore a hat and wielded a baseball bat he must have found somewhere, shouting at the top of his lungs.

“This way! Over here! Injured in the middle! Young people, grab anything you can hold!”

People gathered as if mesmerized by the man’s charismatic voice.

The woman who had been following me also pulled my arm, suggesting we join them.

“Let’s go.”

I gently shook off her hand and headed towards the man.

‘Patience.’

Her voice had been grating on my nerves anyway.

I also disliked how she got too close without maintaining any distance.

“Look. Their reach is much shorter than ours. They look just like goblins…”

“What are goblins?”

“They’re like monsters from movies. Everyone find something that can be used as a weapon. Hurry!”

The man cleverly chose his position.

He seemed intent on making a stand between relatively intact vehicles.

As he encouraged the people, everyone searched for weapons with determined expressions.

“We just need to block the gaps well!”

One man picked up a fallen car door and used it as a shield.

Behind him stood a middle-aged man holding a golf club.

The eyes of the people quickly preparing for battle showed a will to survive.

‘Impressive.’

That man in the hat is the focal point.

He must be flustered himself, yet he assessed the situation quickly.

It’s also surprising how most people are moving in such an orderly fashion.

“Huh? Where are those things going?”

While we were preparing ourselves in our own way.

The green monsters… Goblins, that is.

The horde of Goblins that had been charging fiercely scattered across the wide bridge.

“Kirrk.”

The Goblins, who had disappeared for a moment, reappeared.

They dragged something onto the road, gripping it in their hands.

“No way…”

What the creatures dragged out were the corpses of the dead.

The Goblins buried their snouts into the bodies.

Rip Chew Chew

The flesh of the corpses tore, and the Goblins’ snouts turned red.

The creatures cackled, enjoying their feast.

“What is that…”

“I know it’s hard for everyone, but pull yourselves together.”

The man in the hat kept his eyes wide open, maintaining his composure even in this situation.

He continued to instill courage in the struggling people.

‘Will they really not attack easily?’

The man showed initiative, that’s true.

But I felt like the people’s situation was like livestock trapped in a pen.

If you look closely, the way the Goblins scattered is uniform.

As if they are surrounding us, not leaning towards any particular side.

‘I don’t think we should just assume they’re beasts.’

Wild animals supposedly don’t attack humans readily.

Because they perceive humans as dangerous.

Certain conditions must be met for them to attack people.

I don’t know if such common sense applies to Goblins.

The eyes of the creatures I occasionally meet glint like those of rabid dogs.

“Kyaaaaaaak!”

Just then, a woman’s scream was heard.

A few Goblins had found a living person in the subway train.

She wasn’t dead, but she was a woman who couldn’t move.

The creatures pulled the woman’s arm, and one of her legs popped right off.

“C-crazy.”

“What is that.”

“Those f*cking things.”

The Goblins rushed towards the crippled woman and tore off her clothes.

Several Goblins devoured the woman alive.

The creatures didn’t distinguish between the living and the dead.

‘It’s like they’re doing it on purpose.’

My suspicion gradually solidified into certainty.

Those things don’t seem to fear humans.

And they appear to be quite intelligent.

They’re showing us their cannibalism to intimidate us.

Most corpses still have a lot of flesh left.

If it was just about filling their stomachs, there’s no reason to gather the corpses like that and take only one bite each.

“E-everyone, get ready.”

After some time passed like that.

The Goblins started looking this way, one by one.

The man in the hat spoke through gritted teeth.

“Kiririk.”

The sound the creatures made sounded like laughter.

“They’re coming! Everyone, stay sharp! We just need to hold the line!”

The man tried hard to boost morale.

Just then, the unidentified voice was heard again.

[Earth’s immune system activates.]
[The Gate closes.]
[Spirit Stones settle into place.]

Now it’s certain.

This voice piercing my mind is the same as my mother’s.

“What on earth is it saying…”

The woman standing next to me muttered.

I wanted to ask her in detail how the voice sounded to her, but there was no time.

“Kirrrrk.”

Because the Goblins started charging all at once.

Contrary to the man’s words that they wouldn’t attack easily, they charged recklessly.

[Survive.]

Gripping the metal rod tightly, I mulled over the message I heard again.

The words ‘Survive’.

It truly felt as if my mother had come back to life and spoken to me.

My mother, who always gave me wise advice.

All the behavioral patterns I had learned and practiced until now were pushed to the back burner.

Stab

I will survive.

To do so, I thrust my arm forward without hesitation, and the sharp tip of the metal rod tore through the green hide.

[Awakening a Fundamental Skill.]

A great change came over me.