Chapter 8

Chapter 8

WEEEEEEEEEE!

A siren rang out as if it would pierce the eardrums.

BANG!

In the monitoring room of the Republic of Korea Crisis Response Committee, Kang Han-seok slammed the desk as he looked at the heart of Seoul, which had turned into a sea of fire in less than half a day.

“Damn it! What the hell was everyone doing?! Get your heads on straight!”

At his fury, the atmosphere in the monitoring room froze cold.

The agents, who had been moving busily, shut their mouths and fixed their eyes on the monitors filling the wall.

Monsters that had appeared in the middle of Seoul were running rampant.

Civilian casualties were increasing exponentially.

It was because a Dungeon Synchronization phenomenon had occurred.

The emergence of the Tower affected reality as well.

Dungeons appeared in various regions, and if a Dungeon wasn’t cleared in time, a Synchronization phenomenon occurred in which monsters appeared in reality.

And once Synchronization began, that area was no longer a safe zone.

The monsters inside the Dungeon encroached upon reality, rules collapsed, and ordinary laws ceased to apply.

Seoul, at this very moment, had become that exception.

“Report.”

“Yes, sir. The Gangseo-gu Synchronization Incident was first confirmed 2 hours and 13 minutes ago, and it was identified through a resident’s report.”

“There should have been a guild in charge of the Dungeon. What the hell did they do to let things become this bad? All they had to do was handle the Dungeon on time!”

“They were wiped out, sir.”

“What?”

“Everyone who entered the Dungeon was wiped out, sir.”

That was the answer from Han-sol, a civil servant of the Tower Disaster Response Department.

Kang Han-seok froze where he stood.

“No… they were wiped out?”

The word “why…?” rose to the tip of his tongue, but he forced it back down.

It had already happened.

It wouldn’t be too late to investigate the cause slowly afterward.

Roar, BOOM!

A deafening sound came from beyond the monitor broadcasting the scene.

A tanker truck stopped in the middle of the road caught fire and exploded.

Even while this was happening, the damage was growing.

Needless to say, so were the casualties.

“Sol, issue a summons order to every Chosen we can use. We have to stop this inside Gangseo-gu before the situation grows any bigger. If we can’t stop it here, this will spiral out of control.”

Seoul was the capital of the Republic of Korea.

Until now, many countries had collapsed because of the Tower, and without exception, cities that lost their infrastructure, including their capitals, had walked the path to ruin.

He had made his judgment.

This situation had to be blocked here.

No matter what it took.

However….

“Th-that’s… going to be difficult, sir.”

“Difficult?”

“After the situation broke out, I contacted every place I knew, but every usable force was absent, sir.”

“What does that mean?! What about Kang Hae-seong of Myth Guild? There’s So-rin from Goryeo Guild too, isn’t there?”

“Kang Hae-seong is on a business trip in Busan, and So-rin is currently climbing the Tower. You know this too, Team Leader. If someone is in the middle of climbing the Tower, there’s no way to contact them from outside.”

“Tch, why at a time like this….”

With the main forces absent, he couldn’t think of anyone who could play an active role in the field.

No.

There was still one person left, wasn’t there?

Pingkkyu Gyongdyu suddenly flashed through his mind, but Kang Han-seok shook his head.

Let’s leave that person out of consideration.

‘In the first place, I don’t even know if that person is friendly toward us.’

They had contacted Pingkkyu Gyongdyu with a huge monetary offer in order to recruit him, but there had been no reply at all.

It wasn’t that the message had been left unread.

He had read it.

If there was a silver lining in this misfortune, it was that he still hadn’t pressed reject.

There was still room left.

Kang Han-seok ended his thoughts there.

The important thing right now wasn’t Pingkkyu Gyongdyu.

He was staring at the monitor with a grave expression when it happened.

Whoooosh. A fierce wind blew, and the neck of an advancing monster went flying.

At the same time, a man appeared in that place thick with blood mist.

At the sudden, unforeseen situation, Kang Han-seok shot up from his seat and pointed at the monitor.

“Rewind that footage for a second! That! Who is that?”

“Huh? Ah! That bastard! It’s Lee Min-tae! Lee Min-tae, sir!”

“Lee Min-tae? Who’s that?”

“You know! The guy who once creeped on a minor and got buried by a character scandal!”

At Han-sol’s brief explanation, Kang Han-seok let out a short exclamation.

‘Come to think of it, there was an Awakener like that.’

He vaguely remembered.

However, after being hit with nationwide criticism in one blow because of his character scandal, news of him had become sparse.

Kang Han-seok had never expected to see his face like this.

“Whew, thanks to him, we can worry a little less.”

Kang Han-seok felt one burden ease.

Putting aside the character scandal, Lee Min-tae’s combat strength itself was reliable.

At one time, he had even been mentioned as the next Seven Star because of his outstanding skill.

“If Lee Min-tae helps, we should be able to hold out for a while.”

If Lee Min-tae bought time, they could gain the leeway to search for other Awakeners.

And if he happened to resolve this situation, there would be nothing more to ask for.

Meanwhile, at the live broadcast scene, monsters were helplessly collapsing.

Every time Lee Min-tae moved, the battle situation changed moment by moment.

In a way more favorable to their side.

‘Even if I don’t like his character one bit… he really has gotten stronger.’

He had to acknowledge what deserved acknowledgment.

Putting the scandal aside for a moment, his skill was real.

Perhaps real enough that he might even claim the vacant seat of the next Seven Star.

Kang Han-seok was watching Lee Min-tae’s activity in a daze when it happened.

A sudden change occurred in the battle situation, which had been one-sided the entire time.

BOOM!

Along with an intense explosion, Lee Min-tae, who had charged boldly toward the enemy formation, was sent flying in an unsightly manner.

It was the first time.

The first time Lee Min-tae’s momentum had been broken.

At the same time, Han-sol’s shocked voice struck his eardrums from behind.

“Uh, uh… what the hell? Why is that monster coming out of the Dungeon?!”

From inside the Dungeon, an Imugi as tall as a building burst out.

It was so enormous that every time it took a step, the ground shook as if there had been an earthquake.

Compared to the monsters that had appeared so far, it was clearly in a different class.

That was when it happened.

Rumble-

Along with a faint tremor, a cluster of light gathered in the Imugi’s mouth.

And the moment that cluster of light gathered into a single point, a beam of destruction stretched out in a straight line.

BOOOOOOM!!

A tremendous quake unfolded with an ear-piercing roar.

When they closed and opened their eyes, a single blast of the Imugi’s Breath had blown the city away in a fan-shaped swath.

Gulp.

The people watching this scene through the monitors swallowed without saying a word.

In a single instant, they had been overwhelmed.

To the point that they couldn’t even gauge how to handle this situation.

In the rapidly chilled atmosphere, Kang Han-seok made a decision.

“As of this moment, we abandon Gangseo-gu.”

A shadow fell over Kang Han-seok’s face.

Even if it was Lee Min-tae, he couldn’t stop that monster alone.

To face that monster, at minimum, a party of first-string elites would have to be formed before success could even be guaranteed.

***

Ring, ring!

My eyes opened at the noisy ringtone.

It was the alarm I had set right before I fell asleep.

But something was a little strange.

‘I definitely set the alarm to ring around lunchtime.’

The room was dark.

As if it were still the middle of the night.

Was that possible…?

No matter how much the place I stayed in was a rental dormitory, and no matter how poor it was, to the point that it filled up when I lay down in the middle of the room, at least it got good sunlight.

Everything else was unsatisfactory, but the fact that it faced due south was my home’s only advantage.

“Are there storm clouds or something?”

No, no matter how cloudy the weather was, could it really be this dark?

Even that should have its limits. Don’t tell me?

The moment I fumbled around the room and looked out the window.

“Uh…?”

A dumbfounded voice slipped out of my mouth.

“What is this?”

The scenery outside the window was shocking to an almost absurd degree.

Overnight, it had turned into an open-plain view.

An open-plain view was nice.

If only my home weren’t in the middle of Seoul’s dense forest of buildings.

As if it had been bombed, the road was deeply gouged out, and the high-rise buildings had all collapsed, leaving only their rebar behind.

It was an utterly unrealistic sight.

So much so that the thought actually occurred to me.

‘Is this a dream?’

However, there was something that made that thought meaningless.

“Monsters?”

Monsters were wandering around in the middle of the ruined city.

And they weren’t easy prey you could see in the early parts of the Tower, like Goblins or Slimes.

Each and every one of them was the kind of bastard you might encounter in the middle part of the Tower.

Or even higher.

On top of that.

‘What the hell is that?’

THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!

A wingless Imugi was running over.

The path the Imugi was taking happened to be in the direction of my home.

I could roughly estimate how this would go.

If the bastard so much as misplaced its foot, there would be a catastrophe.

“Fuck.”

A curse slipped out of my mouth without me realizing it.

Alarm bells rang in my mind.

Although it was a rental dormitory, my only home was about to disappear.

I was still in the flower of my twenties.

If I didn’t want to end up sitting homeless at Seoul Station tomorrow, I had to stop it somehow.

Housing wasn’t the issue.

If that bastard charged in, the building would collapse….

“…Huh?”

I was about to be buried alive overnight.

Crash, clatter. I turned away from the window and dug through the messy room.

I grabbed the Wand I excavated from the pile of laundry.

Then, the moment I turned my head back toward the window, I had no choice but to go pale.

Because my eyes met those of the Imugi charging beyond the window.

That had to be my imagination, right?

Trying to hold on to hope, I moved my body this way and that, but the bastard’s eyes followed me.

As if my body had been smeared with honey.

“This is driving me insane! What did I even do wrong?!”

If I just stood there blankly, I was definitely getting crushed to death.

Before I became a dried squid, I had to do something.

I took out the item I had carefully kept deep in my wardrobe.

I had meant to use it sparingly if possible, but if I didn’t use it now, then when would I?

Pop, gulp, gulp!

[Using Special Ability Reset Elixir.]

-Special Ability: Instant Kill cooldown has been reset.

I threw the window open with both hands.

Whoooosh-

Along with the chilly wind, the smell of scorched ash surged in.

The five senses that reminded me of being inside the Tower calmed my excited mind, if only a little.

This is the Tower.

Once I thought that, I felt much more composed.

Composed enough to calmly look at my surroundings and make a judgment.

“Phew-”

When I exhaled, a thick breath escaped from my mouth.

Even while all this was happening, the Imugi was charging like a reincarnation truck with its brakes gone.

Let’s be honest.

With my weak body, even brushing against that bastard would be fatal.

‘So I have only one chance.’

There would be no second chance.

Four steps, three steps… two steps.

The more the distance gradually narrowed, the calmer my heartbeat became.

And finally, the moment the bastard came within one step of me.

“Blink.”

At the empty window, the curtains fluttered.