Chapter 252

Chapter 252. Age of Turmoil (2)

“Ugh…”

The woman who had fainted staggered as she regained consciousness.

She had been flung outside the building due to a sudden shock.

At that moment, she had seen something horrible.

She attempted to recall the memory but was abruptly halted by a weight pressing down on her body.

It was heavy, making it difficult to breathe, and so cold that it sent shivers down her spine.

Forcing her eyes open, she was met with a shocking sight.

What she saw was the corpse of her boyfriend.

“Ahhh!”

She screamed in horror.

The commotion attracted a monster that wasn’t too far away.

Yes, it was a being that could only be described as a ‘monster.’

It towered over 2 meters.

It had eight legs covered in thick fur.

Three blood-red eyes on each side, making it six in total.

Four bizarre black stars attached to its head.

The scene was surreal; a reality that seemed to fade away.

The creature’s massive, spine-like appendage on its tail drilled into the cement ground, creating significant holes.

The woman’s eyes trembled uncontrollably as she witnessed this sight.

‘Why, why… how?’

Cement shouldn’t have holes like that.

Everything in front of her seemed to shatter her common sense and destroy reality.

But what left the deepest shock was the monster’s mouth, which opened horizontally instead of vertically.

The thing in the monster’s mouth appeared to be a human body.

As she viewed the scene with trembling eyes, a series of images rapidly flashed through her mind.

The person making calculations in front of her.

The sudden scream.

The hairy legs of the monster that burst through the window shortly after.

The expression of the person impaled by that leg and the red blood spurting from their stomach.

Chaos and screams filling every corner, and the vivid terror.

On the cold cement floor, the woman trembled and burst into tears.

“Hik, hik…!”

The events she witnessed before fainting replayed repeatedly in her mind.

Her body was beyond her control.

All she could do was sit there, forcing difficult breaths in desperation.

Unfortunately, the monster didn’t have the compassion to let her go alive.

“Kirick.”

The monster, having finished swallowing the person, stretched its forelegs toward her.

The woman stared with empty eyes at the forelegs approaching her.

Soon, she’d end up like the person impaled earlier.

Even as she screamed a terrible scream, scratching the floor until her skin tore.

In the end, she would be dragged away and disappear into the monster’s mouth.

The fear and threat to her life were intense, unlike anything she had ever experienced.

She was so overwhelmed that she even forgot the basic survival instinct of breathing.

As she stared blankly at the approaching death, suddenly something sparkled in the air, and the monster’s furry leg floated upward.

Following it, black blood sprayed everywhere.

Thunk!

The ground shook, and the monster crashed into the building next to her.

The woman failed to grasp what was happening before her eyes.

Her senses were numb, disconnected from reality.

Yet, amidst it, a word penetrated her ears clearly.

“Park Hayoung!”

It was unmistakably her name.

“Get a hold of yourself!”

Park Hayoung inhaled deeply upon hearing the familiar call.

But there was no time to catch her breath.

“Kirikkiririk.”

She saw other monsters start creeping towards her.

“Oh no! Get away, get away!”

As she struggled and tried to push her body backward, her strength was already depleted.

Fortunately, the monsters didn’t reach her.

Before they could, they were all shattered to pieces.

There was a hand forcing her to stand, grabbing her out of her daze.

“Get up immediately.”

Park Hayoung reflexively raised her head to look at the person who lifted her.

It was a Caucasian she had never seen before.

Only then did she realize the obvious question she had overlooked.

‘How does he know my name…?’

She swore she had never even seen this person fleetingly.

But how could he possibly know her?

She was fortunate enough to regain some semblance of normal thinking, but unfortunately, Park Hayoung didn’t have the opportunity to resolve that question.

“If you want to live, move.”

“What, what…?”

“Run! Keep running to the barricade!”

She turned her body, complying with the force pushing against her back.

The desire to survive was far stronger than her curiosity to solve her query.

Park Hayoung sprinted through a path intermingled with human corpses and monster remains.

* * *

Seeing someone helplessly sitting against the monster churned my insides.

Park Hayoung, she was a classmate from high school.

After ensuring that Park Hayoung had moved far enough away, I shifted my attention.

‘I wish I could personally escort her.’

Traveling to the barricade and back would be inefficient.

Besides, there were no more monsters left on the path she took.

She’d surely reach the barricade.

Just in case, I attached a thread of mana to her, so there was no need to worry about her safety.

I returned my focus to combat.

Dozens of monsters were being shredded to pieces.

Creatures with resistance roared and charged at me.

I gritted my teeth and thrust my spear toward them.

‘Damned.’

Park Hayoung’s expression, trapped in panic, remained vivid in my mind.

That could’ve been my family out there just a moment ago.

Although I saved someone this time by sheer luck, could I do it again next time?

How many times will this happen in the future?

These scenarios never failed to make me anxious.

I received a text from Squad Leader Yang Jochul, ensuring my family’s safety.

However, just because they’re safe now doesn’t guarantee their safety tomorrow.

Knowing that is why I had fervently wished for this damned war not to spill over to Earth.

With today, that hope was utterly crushed.

Yes, crushed.

Even knowing that such a day would inevitably come, I felt suffocated.

The street stood as a testament to my chaotic state.

The streets were a tangled mess of black and diluted blood.

Just looking at the path, where you could barely discern black from red, induced complex emotions from within me.

A Friday evening, in the bustling area of Gangnam.

It was hard to fathom that I was here slaying monsters in such a crowded area.

‘Damn, damn!’

The street was littered with the corpses of monsters, numbering in the hundreds or thousands.

Contrarily, there weren’t as many human bodies as one would expect.

‘More than half must have been eaten.’

Even the remaining bodies were mostly fragmented.

Few maintained their complete form.

I couldn’t even gauge how many had perished.

Had I not been here today, would these people have survived?

“Damn it…”

Objectively speaking, the System was right.

Having the Holes open in a concentrated area made it easier for players to hold off the monsters compared to them opening sporadically everywhere.

If holes had opened up randomly without the System’s intervention, the damage would have been far worse.

‘That’s why Biharin was easily overwhelmed initially.’

It was impossible to respond effectively to holes opening up unpredictably.

I understood the System’s decision was correct.

But that didn’t make the situation any less complicated.

Staring at the corpses unable to close their eyes, I swallowed hard.

It felt like I was seeing Park Hayoung’s corpse.

Followed by illusions of Mr. Seo and his sons Yeonwoo, and Jinwoo.

I clenched my teeth, desperately pushing away those haunting hallucinations.

‘I need to deal with the situation first.’

There’s no time to get lost in thoughts.

The mission briefing already showed over 600 Holes.

While more than 300 Holes had been closed worldwide, the rate of opening continued to increase rapidly.

Moreover, the Holes were growing in scale with time.

Initially, the swirling black smoke mass barely reached human height.

Now, there were ones the size of entire buildings.

‘According to the community, a general-rank monster has already appeared.’

While biting the inside of my cheek, I killed a 5-star evolved species emerging from a Hole.

With each battle, a city once reserved for humanity became layered with monstrous corpses.

An alien yet real scene.

I navigated through, sealing the Holes.

While doing so, I frequently checked the Traits on the status window.

‘Still deactivated.’

Despite holes opening for hours, there was no response from the System at all.

Even if I had divinities to utilize, there was only silence.

‘If the System doesn’t reappear and Holes continue to open at this rate…’

The thought alone painted a dreadful scenario followed by bad news.

– BunnyGirl: Apgujeong Hyundai Apartment 9, a Nemesis-rank appeared.

A hurried message with typos forced me to clench my teeth.

‘A nemesis-rank has already crossed over?’

In Biharin, they never even approached the frontlines.

Yet, they’ve already appeared openly on Earth?

‘Are they wagering everything on the initial offensive?’

It appeared that the enemies were aiming to strike hard early on Earth.

Perhaps, the reason high-rank monsters were tamed in Biharin was premeditated for this moment.

‘If today’s preparation was fueled by conserving their power…’

Without a second thought, I leaped into the air.

A nemesis-rank monster wasn’t going to stand idly by in front of the players.

It had to be eliminated before Seoul became irreparably damaged.

* * *

It had been a couple of hours since the emergency broke out.

Swift response had gathered player association forces in Gangnam within merely ten minutes.

Players from Biharin were joining successively, too.

Nearly a thousand players had already assembled in Seoul, specifically in Gangnam.

Consequently, forming the defense line was easier than expected.

Black smoke whirled endlessly spawning monsters, but they could hold their ground.

However, circumstances quickly shifted when a colossal hole appeared, spanning several meters.

What emerged was catastrophe itself.

“Ahhh!”

“It’s collapsing, everyone move!”

Desperate screams and urgent calls were accompanied by diluted blood.

Then, a thunderous rumble was heard.

A nearby building had collapsed.

In the center of the chaos stood a gigantic monster.

The quadrupedal beast was over 8 meters tall and boasted sharp horns on either side of its head.

To make matters worse, its body was engulfed in flames.

Rolling flames expanded endlessly from it, setting the surroundings ablaze.

Every movement of the beast with nine stars atop its head brought devastation.

The asphalt road was torn apart, leaving a muddled mixture of dirt.

Nearby apartments were half demolished.

If this wasn’t disaster personified, what would it be?

‘I must buy us some time.’

Having confirmed the appearance of the nemesis-rank, a message was sent to K; they had to hold on until he arrived.

However, it wasn’t simple.

Firstly, physical attacks were almost ineffective.

The weapons of players charging in with swords and spears shattered.

Arrows and daggers bounced off its water-like skin, leaving no mark.

Players who ventured too close were crushed or devoured with a single stomp.

No survivors remained.

Thus, the only option was to inflict damage from afar with magic.

‘Damn.’

Even that wasn’t easy.

Its resistance was exceptionally high.

Seeing it withstand 3rd-rank magic with ease suggested the need for 4th-rank magic.

Regrettably, there was no 4th-rank mage on-site.

To make matters worse, an immense surge of mana began to surge from the nemesis-rank monster.

Players sensitive to mana quickly noticed the anomaly.

“The monster is casting magic! It’s going to use an area attack!”

“Evacuate! Move!”

“Tanker!”

Simultaneous frantic alerts erupted from all directions.

Yang Hyewon watched in horror as the ground, cement, steel, and even players melted away.

“This can’t be…!”

Everything at the nemesis-rank’s feet dissolved, turning the vicinity into a lava area.

Damned System