Chapter 6: If you can’t fill your stomach, you’ll only die, Part 1

THUMP! THUMP!

Earth-shaking footsteps.

Jo Sung-Il sighed, watching his own movements causing such a commotion just by walking.

“This is so absurd.”

He now had a body that couldn’t move without attracting attention.

The Olympic Stadium, his new lair, was his only solace.

“I can become human for a while, but….”

The time was so short that he couldn’t use it unless absolutely necessary.

‘I need to get my phone from home.’

He needed his phone to contact Han So-Yeon.

It was fortunate that the transformation was time-based, not limited by uses.

He could grab his phone and make the call without using up the entire duration.

Growl.

Filling his stomach was the priority right now.

‘I need to move before I starve.’

He sighed. The first thing he had to worry about as a giant monster was finding food.

‘Why can’t I see any?’

He had reached the Han River, but there were no monsters in sight.

He stirred the water, but caught nothing.

‘D*mn it, did they all run away?’

He was right.

Unbeknownst to him, the monsters in the vicinity had hidden.

They had sensed the approach of a giant monster and taken cover.

Even mindless monsters instinctively fled from a monster with a king’s aura.

It was a primal instinct ingrained in them.

‘D*mn it, where should I go then?’

To fill his stomach, he had to go where the monsters were, preferably somewhere easy to find.

Jo Sung-Il wasn’t lacking in information.

During his Hunter aspirant days, he had acquired a Hunter-exclusive map detailing the monster distribution in each area.

It was expensive, but he had saved up from his part-time jobs.

Of course, the Hunter map he could afford was only a D-rank map, covering common monsters.

‘It’s a good thing I memorized it.’

He had studied it constantly, so he knew the areas where monsters frequently appeared and the locations of dungeons.

Jo Sung-Il turned towards Jamsil.

‘I shouldn’t use too much power while I’m hungry.’

He didn’t know what kind of monsters he needed to eat to satiate his hunger or the different energy replenishment rates for each type.

He had to experiment.

Therefore, he couldn’t waste his current energy.

He decided to target easy-to-catch monsters first.

The Jamsil Seokchon Lake Dungeon.

An underwater dungeon where numerous B-rank fish-type monsters respawned, but its strong currents made it difficult for even B-rank Hunters to access.

‘If it’s there….’

It required artifacts for underwater activity and offered no rewards beyond B-rank, making it unattractive to Hunters above B-rank.

Likely, no one but the Hunter Association’s management personnel would be there.

‘Well, the management personnel are a concern, but I have no choice.’

He didn’t have time to consider the risk of being discovered while struggling to find food in the Han River.

His survival came first.

“Let’s go.”

With his involuntarily adjusted speech and a sinister tone, Jo Sung-Il quickened his pace.

---

Meanwhile, at the outdoor area of the abandoned amusement park next to Seokchon Lake.

Two management personnel sent by the Hunter Association were stationed there.

“Sigh, this is so draining.”

The middle-aged man with thinning hair sighed, looking at his younger colleague.

“How long do we have to manage this fishing net?”

The “fishing net” referred to the Seokchon Lake Dungeon.

Dungeon monsters, unlike field monsters, couldn’t escape the dungeon’s confines, hence the nickname.

“The monsters don’t even come out, so why do we have to stay in this dreary place?”

Before the monsters appeared, Seokchon Lake was a famous local attraction.

On days when the cherry blossoms bloomed and crowds gathered, it was hard to even walk due to the throngs of people.

It was a tragedy that such a place had now turned into a foul-smelling pool of black water.

“Well, it’s better than being deployed to a dangerous area, isn’t it?”

The young manager said, scratching his head.

“At least Jamsil has been relatively safe since the monster wave, except for this place.”

The amusement park and buildings next to Seokchon Lake had been devastated by that monster wave.

Areas hit by large monster waves were excluded from national reconstruction plans, leaving this area in ruins.

A bleak contrast to its former glory.

“But if we keep doing this here, we’ll never build up our achievements.”

The middle-aged manager sighed.

“Haven’t you heard? They’re building bunkers.”
“Bunkers… sir?”
“Yes, bunkers. They call them the last refuge.”

The last refuge.

Even with monster extermination efforts, there were areas like dungeons where monsters constantly respawned, and unpredictable monster waves continued to emerge from Gates.

Governments worldwide, including Korea’s, were desperately searching for solutions.

One of the most common approaches chosen by Korea and other countries was the construction of bunkers.

The idea was to create humanity’s last shelters, fortified bunkers equipped with artifacts gathered by Hunters from monster hunts and dungeon explorations.

“You need recommendations to get in there. Competition is fierce for low-ranking personnel like us.”

Naturally, the number of people allowed into the bunkers was limited.

The middle-aged manager was worried about this.

“I need to bring my family in, but with this job, I’m getting nowhere. I need to do something….”
“Sir, isn’t that basically isolating humanity?”
“What?”
“Giving up the surface to the monsters and hiding underground.”

The middle-aged manager scoffed at the young manager’s words.

“So, should we fight until we die? If you can rest easy, building a wall and hiding inside is the best option.”

The middle-aged manager seemed resigned. He seemed to be recalling the countless people he had seen trampled by monsters.

“Sir, even so….”

The young manager was about to argue with his senior, fueled by youthful vigor, when Seokchon Lake suddenly started churning violently.

“W-What’s happening?”

The lake surged like the ocean.

The existing whirlpools grew larger.

“Sir, this is…!”

The young manager shouted.

“An inversion!”
“Inversion…?”

Inversion.
A phenomenon where a dungeon turned inside out, its contents spilling into the outside world.

In other words, this was…

“A Dungeon Break…!”

The monsters trapped within the dungeon were breaking free.

“Quickly notify the nearest branch!”

Just because monsters lived in underwater dungeons didn’t mean they would die outside of water.

Most monsters could operate on land as well.

They were monsters, after all.

“We need to hurry before the boss monster comes out….”

BANG!

An explosive sound.

The middle-aged manager turned around and swallowed hard.

“Oh.”

There, emerging from Seokchon Lake, was the water dragon, Atla.

KYYYYAAAAAAAAA!

A long, serpentine body covered in bluish scales, needle-sharp teeth protruding from its mouth.

The creature flicked its forked tongue and turned its gaze towards the amusement park.

Its pupils were vertical slits, a grotesque sight.

“Sh*t….”

The pale-faced middle-aged manager stumbled backward and tripped over a protruding rock, falling to the ground.

“Sir!”
“W-We need to run….”

Even though it was from a B-rank dungeon, it was still a boss monster.

They hadn’t anticipated the low-probability inversion event, so the managers stationed here were just regular Hunter Association staff.

They couldn’t fight it.

Any further delay would make escape impossible.

The middle-aged manager pleaded with the young manager,

“H-Help me up so we can escape….”

CHWAAAAAK!

Atla slithered across the water’s surface in an S-shape and stopped in front of them.

KYYYYAAAAAAAAA!

Too late.

It was the result of not expecting the boss monster to appear so quickly.

The two managers sensed their impending doom.

THUMP.

Then,

THUMP!

A heart-pounding vibration resonated from the surroundings.

“Huh…?”

The moment they turned their heads, they saw a giant monster with a body like a flaming dragon standing there.

『!%##%!@#$?』

“Uwaaaaaaaaaaah!”

The giant monster’s words, a simple “What’s going on?”, unfortunately sounded like a death knell to the managers.