Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Immediately after the incident broke out, an evacuation order had been issued through disaster alerts.

However, believing that every resident had evacuated was an optimistic thought.

There would still be people who hadn’t managed to flee yet.

Maybe they hadn’t seen the disaster alert.

Maybe they had difficulty moving.

Or maybe they had already been caught up in an accident and couldn’t come or go.

Perhaps all three.

The Imugi’s existence was no different from a disaster.

How could a mere person deal with a disaster?

For now, they could only pray desperately.

That nothing would go wrong until reinforcements arrived.

It was in the midst of that.

As if it had been fixated on something, a building loomed in the path of the charging Imugi.

“Th-the bastard is going to collide with the building!”

One of the agents shouted, his face turning deathly pale.

Love for humanity?

Good. When witnessing a major accident, it was only natural to pray that the situation didn’t grow any worse.

In addition, there was also a rather realistic reason behind their shock.

‘The situation is already complicated enough. We can’t afford to have even more written explanations added on top of this…!’

In the end, it was up to their government department to clean up the situation.

Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do.

As civil servants—in other words, people with iron rice bowls—they had no combat power whatsoever with which to face the Imugi.

So all they could do was clasp their hands together and pray earnestly.

That there were no people inside that building, and if there were, that they had seen the evacuation text and fled in time.

Just as everyone was praying with one heart.

As if everything that had happened until now had been a lie, the Imugi’s upper body disappeared, leaving only its legs behind.

Having lost its balance, the Imugi staggered, then fell backward.

And then.

SPLOOOOOOOSH!

Red drops of blood poured down from the sky like a torrential rain.

“Wh-what just happened?”

“…It burst, sir! The bastard popped like a tomato, sir.”

“You bastard, do you think I asked because I didn’t see that? Damn it, I’m losing my mind here. What happened? Was the Imugi originally a monster that self-destructs?”

“I remember that it wasn’t, sir.”

“What are the chances that the bastard was an Irregular?”

“None, sir. Originally, an Imugi doesn’t have any organ that could make it self-destruct. When it first appeared, we also cross-checked the information and confirmed that it wasn’t an Irregular.”

They were dumbfounded.

The bastard that had been dragging Gangseo-gu toward the end had died instantly.

With only its lower body left behind.

The agents almost cheered, then stopped and began reading the room.

The situation had been so sudden that, for an instant, an error had occurred in their perception.

‘Are we supposed to be happy about this?’

The urgent fire had been put out.

However.

Their brains had stopped.

They were civil servants belonging to a government department.

From the moment this incident broke out, they had a duty to explain the circumstances to their superiors and all kinds of media outlets.

‘If someone had defeated it through their efforts, at least explaining it would be easy.’

If it had suddenly dropped dead, reporting it to the higher-ups became awkward.

While everyone there was feeling troubled, Kang Han-seok, who had been watching this situation unfold, thought alone.

‘Right before the bastard died instantly, I think a golden flash flickered… was that my imagination?’

That was the truth only he had witnessed.

***

[You have defeated the Imugi.]

I survived.

And I safely protected the home that had almost been smashed to pieces overnight.

I looked at the system window floating in my vision and clutched my startled heart.

Right before the bastard collided with the building, remembering the Special Ability Reset Elixir I had carefully kept inside my home had been a godlike move.

Thanks to that, with a quick judgment, I was able to kill the bastard instantly.

After instantly killing the bastard with Blink’s special ability, I used Blink in succession and returned home immediately.

And now, I was in the middle of my cozy little room.

I had no grand intention.

Currently, my home is on the fifth floor.

It was simply that after killing the Imugi, the only way to avoid falling to my death from a fifth-floor height was to come back.

“I really almost died.”

Looking back on it, I had been truly lucky.

If I had set my alarm even a few minutes later, I might have been buried alive in my sleep.

‘Come to think of it, I think I saw someone earlier.’

Right after I instantly killed the bastard and just before I used Blink again to return to my room, in the span of only a few seconds, I had seen a man sprinting at full speed toward the Imugi.

With a sword in one hand.

“What happened to that person?”

A question suddenly came to mind.

I should go out soon.

Both to check and to figure out what had happened while I was asleep.

Thump, thump.

The moment I held my pounding chest and stepped out of the shared entrance, my uneasy feeling proved correct.

Ha, this is driving me insane.

I had guessed as much from the glimpse I had seen beyond the window, but facing the scene directly made it feel real.

Something extraordinary had happened.

I could see monsters rampaging a fair distance away.

‘Is this a Synchronization phenomenon?’

I had heard about it in the game, so I roughly knew the concept.

I had simply been uninterested because it wasn’t part of the main content.

What happened to Korea in the game again? Has it been destroyed? Or had it gone right up to the brink?

It was one or the other.

I didn’t remember clearly, but I thought that was how it had been.

It was around the time I was walking through the middle of the ruins.

‘Oh, that bastard is…?’

A man was fighting a horde of monsters with a sword in hand.

Every time he swung his sword, flames burst out with a roar.

It was the face I had glimpsed from the air.

He had seemed fairly far away, but somehow, he had managed to come all the way here.

Perhaps he had discovered me as well, because the man approached.

“Tch, it was a man? I got my hopes up for nothing.”

What the hell is this bastard doing?

At the man’s first words, I frowned.

Whether I did or not, the man spoke as if he didn’t care.

“What, are you one of those NewTubers people say are popular these days? You’re free to poke around wherever you please like a wrecker, but don’t loiter somewhere you can’t handle. If you run into a monster, weaklings like you die without being able to do a thing.”

What the hell is this really supposed to be?

His swaggering attitude, as if he were looking down from above, caused a subtle displeasure.

“I’m a Chosen too, though.”

“A Chosen? What’s your class?”

I had been quietly listening since earlier, but.

Who was this bastard to talk down to me when we had just met?

“Mage.”

“Hmm. Just looking at you, I can tell. That’s what this is, right? You too?”

The man narrowed his eyes and sent me a suggestive look.

But I had no idea what he meant.

“Why are you pretending you don’t understand? I can tell at a glance. You committed some crime or something, couldn’t work because of it, and now you’re trying to make one big score with this chance, right? People are pigs and dogs by nature. No matter what you did, if you pull off something memorable, you know how it is. One big hit, and everyone forgets. Isn’t that why you came?”

Seriously, what the hell is this bastard?

What does he take me for?

“Ah, yes. Well, think whatever you want.”

I had no interest in that kind of thing.

Even more so becoming famous.

Am I supposed to go somewhere and introduce myself as Pingkkyu Gyongdyu with my own mouth?

‘Good God.’

Just imagining it sent a chill down my spine.

Even if thorns grew in my mouth, that would never happen.

I would rather bite my tongue.

It was in the midst of that.

RUMBLEEEEE!

The ground shook as if an earthquake had occurred.

Finding the source wasn’t particularly difficult.

Because the moment I turned my head, I saw it.

“Kiaaaaaaaat!”

On the other side of the ruins, a great army of monsters was charging over while roaring.

There were an incredible number of them.

So many that it was hard to count.

“Oh yeah, this is one hell of a jackpot.”

The man muttered while looking at that sight.

And at the same time, he added words that grated at my insides.

“You just sit there and watch quietly. Those bastards won’t go down to half-baked magic.”

“……What the hell is that bastard, seriously?”

They said if you endured three times, you could avoid disaster.

Why endure?

I didn’t endure.

I was the type to repay humiliation twofold once I suffered it.

However, I had no particular method.

Instant Kill had already been used to take down the Imugi, and I had used up all the spells stored in my Wands during my trip to the Tower.

Ha, if only I still had magic left in the Wands….

[Reward is being calculated.]

Oh?

A reward?

[We marvel at your astonishing achievement in defeating an enemy you should originally have been unable to defeat in a single blow.]

[Reward for defeating the Imugi will be issued.]

[Special Ability: Instant Kill cooldown time decreases by 20%.]

[You have acquired Memory Book.]

A new skill had appeared.

I checked it immediately.

[Skill: Memory Book]

-You can imbue a Wand with magic you have experience using.

-Only magic of Grade 3 or lower can be imbued.

-Imbueable Magic: Static Electricity, Amplification, Lightning

Apparently, luck was on my side.

Exactly what I needed right now had appeared.

Originally, to store magic in a Wand, I had to find a mage or go to a merchant who formally managed them.

For reference, the price was no joke either.

Originally, magic was the privilege of mages, in other words, the Chosen.

Wands were made so that even ordinary people like porters could use that privilege for self-defense.

Thanks to this, I had just been spared a lot of trouble.

‘Besides.’

The sky was full of thunderclouds.

Even though it was noon, it was dark enough that there wasn’t a single speck of light.

They said misfortune comes on the day you leave home.

Seems my luck is good.

Well, no one would be surprised if a Lightning Strike fell or two.

Right?

I gripped the Wands I had prepared beforehand with both hands.

[Imbuing Wand with Static Electricity.]

[Imbuing Wand with Lightning.]

Static Electricity on the right, Lightning on the left.

It was a combination as dependable as a bowl of gukbap.

“Lightning, Lightning, Lightning.”

When I activated the magic while operating the Wand, electric spheres floated in the air.

Originally, Lightning was electric magic that shot forward in a straight line.

When I changed the direction and made it rotate in a spiral, it appeared in the form of a sphere.

Magic had no fixed mold.

Everything depended on how you used it.

[Understanding of magic has increased.]

[You have acquired Lightning Ball.]

As a result of casting magic until the Wand wore down, the electric spheres connected in a straight line and soared upward as if they would pierce the sky.

The sight was reminiscent of a rope lowered from the heavens.

Preparations were complete.

All that remained was to prove it with results.

Crackle-

When I gripped the Wand, blue electricity rippled.

“Static Electricity.”

The moment the Wand touched the electric sphere, the sphere discharged and triggered a chain of explosions.

The single burst of Static Electricity I had created discharged through the spheres, then surged up along the sky like a rope.

The sight was like dominos.

At last, when the Static Electricity reached the thunderclouds, the ash-gray sky flinched, and the thunderclouds squirmed and surged as if coming alive.

In that instant.

Flash!

A dazzling flash split the sky as if a thrill were running through it.

Craaaaaackle-!

BOOOOOOM!!

Countless bolts of lightning exploded over the heads of the monster horde.

“Divine Punishment Lightning.”

Grade 6 magic that controlled a natural disaster unfolded from the hands of a single mage.