Chapter 331

Chapter 331

“Hah! I’m receiving your help again. Thank you!”

Jang Yong-beom held out a hand soaked in blood.

Zeon took that hand and replied,

“I’m glad I wasn’t too late.”

“Whew! What kind of fucked-up place is this? We almost suffered serious losses.”

Jang Yong-beom sighed and looked around.

Unlike the other raid parties, fortunately, the raid party led by Jang Yong-beom had not taken very heavy damage.

It was because Jang Yong-beom, Aiden, Giselle, and Mountain had displayed outstanding ability and minimized the losses.

Thanks to them, they had preserved their fighting strength, but the four of them had exhausted all their energy.

As if it had been aiming precisely for that moment, a powerful undead appeared.

It was a Dullahan, a headless knight.

The mad undead tucked its head under its arm and swung it like a club.

The problem was that the head contained death energy.

A single hit meant instant death.

Only those who could protect themselves with at least an Aura Shield could face the Dullahan. Naturally, there were not many people like that.

Martial-type Awakened of Grade B or higher stepped forward to stop it. But the Dullahan cunningly avoided them and attacked the lower-ranked Awakened instead.

In terms of mobility, the Awakened could not keep up with the Dullahan. It was riding a horse that had become a monster.

The horse, enormous enough to rival a decent medium-sized monster, was a terrifying weapon in itself.

It trampled the Awakened with its huge hooves, tore into their bodies with its teeth, and slaughtered them wildly.

The attacks of the lower-ranked Awakened did not even work on the horse.

The horse was undead as well, and as a being that denied death, it took no damage from most ordinary attacks.

In the end, just as Jang Yong-beom, Giselle, and the others were about to fight again without fully recovering their mana, Zeon and the Awakened appeared.

This time, Zeon did not even need to step forward.

Before he could, Seo Tae-ran’s subordinates moved first.

Having released the first-stage seal and armed themselves with gauntlets coated in holy water, they were the Dullahan’s natural enemies.

They were not even deploying Aura Shields, yet the death energy the Dullahan spewed did not work on them.

Of course, death energy could not kill absolutely everything. Still, if the target was a proper living being, it should have inflicted at least some damage. Yet for some reason, Seo Tae-ran’s subordinates were not affected at all.

Zeon clicked his tongue.

‘So they really aren’t normal humans.’

They were called Bio Soldiers, but they were no different from Chimeras.

Perhaps an even more brutal combination than a Chimera was hidden inside them.

Neo Seoul’s science and technology had risen that far.

A bitter taste filled his mouth.

They might have been an unavoidable choice for humanity’s survival, but not even a god could know what the result would be later.

Zeon erased those thoughts and said to Jang Yong-beom,

“We don’t have much time.”

“Seems that way. This is a dungeon, right?”

“Yes! And a mad Necromancer’s dungeon at that.”

“Of all the filthy bastards to get caught by, it had to be a Necromancer.”

“Have you experienced one before?”

“If I had, I wouldn’t be standing here. But I did think one would appear someday. Elves, dwarves, werewolves, all kinds of races have appeared, so there’s no reason a Necromancer wouldn’t.”

“That’s true.”

“The problem is that we met one sooner than I expected. So, what’s the plan?”

“A swift battle and quick decision!”

“Good! Let’s move right away.”

Jang Yong-beom immediately understood Zeon’s intent.

The longer this dragged on, the greater the damage to the Awakened would become, and the more of them died, the more enemies there would be.

To minimize the damage, they had to take him down in the shortest time possible.

That meant there was no time to sit around and rest idly.

He gave orders to his subordinates.

“Everyone, get up. We move now.”

“Yes!”

“Let’s go!”

His subordinates, who had been sitting on the floor and resting, rose to their feet with stiff, awkward movements.

Through their conversations with the Awakened who had joined them, they too understood the seriousness of the situation, so they tried to move even though it was hard.

Zeon estimated the number of Awakened.

‘Around thirteen hundred?’

Three thousand four hundred people had fallen into this place.

That meant they had not even rescued half of them yet.

He did not know how many remained, but they had to save as many as possible.

Numbers were power.

Once several of the groups that had been split apart and scattered were gathered together, their fighting strength naturally increased.

By several times over.

Graaah!

Huuuurgh!

Zombies attacked, but the Awakened were not pushed back helplessly as they had been before.

While the martial-type Awakened acted as tanks and held them off, the magic-type Awakened fired Skills and killed them.

When slightly higher-grade enemies appeared, Seo Tae-ran’s subordinates, Giselle, Aiden, and the others stepped forward to deal with them.

After facing so many undead, the Awakened had now learned the trick to it.

They had gotten a feel for how to eliminate them effectively.

Once the Awakened came to their senses, zombies were no longer a match for them.

At the center of it all were Jang Yong-beom and Seo Tae-ran.

Jang Yong-beom led the Awakened from the front with his charisma, while Seo Tae-ran identified the weaknesses of newly appearing undead and relayed that information.

Thanks to that, Zeon and Old Man Go had no need to step in and could focus on recovering their mana.

The Awakened smashed through the undead with unstoppable momentum and advanced.

Occasionally, when too many zombies appeared or a high-grade undead emerged, Old Man Go, Zeon, or Jang Yong-beom would step forward and deal with it.

In the meantime, survivors joined them, and the number of Awakened exceeded two thousand.

Once the number of Awakened passed two thousand, vitality began to return.

They were no longer defeated soldiers or rootless duckweed without a leader.

With people of powerful presence like Zeon, Jang Yong-beom, and Seo Tae-ran holding the center, they gathered as one and displayed formidable strength.

Levin, who had gone out scouting in Ghost Transformation, returned and spoke loudly to the others.

“There’s a group of survivors four hundred meters ahead. Their enemies are zombies, ghost hounds, Specters, and a Dullahan.”

“It’s a whole bibimbap. Okay!”

“You heard him, right? They’ve mixed everything together. Attack according to your own compatibility.”

“You don’t have to tell us twice.”

The Awakened answered with confidence.

They had already fought all of those enemies once.

They had already figured out how to respond.

One of the Awakened said to Levin,

“The Specters are yours, kid!”

“Heh! Just trust me.”

“Of course we trust you, Ghost Bird!”

“Huh?”

“That’s just the nickname we call you among ourselves.”

“Come on! What kind of name is that? Isn’t there anything cooler?”

“That’s the coolest one, you punk! Then we’ll go first. Hahaha!”

Levin smiled as he watched the Awakened run off, joking until the very end.

‘Please survive until the end…….’

Wishing for his survival, Levin entered Ghost Transformation and flew away.

Meanwhile, Seo Tae-ran was watching Levin closely.

Levin’s ability to transform into a ghost like a Specter and scout freely had left a strong impression on her.

Seo Tae-ran approached Zeon.

“That Levin boy…….”

“No.”

Zeon flatly refused before even hearing the rest.

Seo Tae-ran looked at Zeon with an expression of disbelief.

“How do you know what I was going to say…….”

“You want to research Levin’s ability. If possible, you want to give similar abilities to your subordinates as well.”

“If you want to raise humanity’s chances of survival even a little, I believe you should naturally cooperate, Mr. Zeon.”

Seo Tae-ran looked directly into Zeon’s eyes.

Her gaze did not waver in the slightest.

It was the look of someone carrying what people called conviction.

Those with eyes like hers were the most troublesome to deal with.

They would do anything for the sake of their convictions.

Though Seo Tae-ran was different in nature.

“I refuse.”

“Can you take responsibility for those words?”

“Ms. Seo Tae-ran!”

“Go ahead.”

“Can you take responsibility, then?”

Zeon also looked straight at Seo Tae-ran.

The orange eye-glow hidden within his black eyes slowly began to shine.

That eye-glow, resembling a blood-red sunset, instilled fear in Seo Tae-ran.

‘From just this much…….’

Seo Tae-ran clenched her teeth.

She was confident in her mental strength.

Confident that she would not be swallowed by something as trivial as another person’s gaze…….

At that moment, she saw an enormous mountain of sand within Zeon’s gaze.

The blood-red sunset had become a gigantic sand mountain and was crashing down over her.

The sand mountain, taller than the Mount Everest said to have existed long ago, surged toward her like a colossal tidal wave.

What she had thought was a mountain of sand was actually a sand tidal wave Zeon had called forth.

Before that enormous sand tidal wave, Seo Tae-ran’s existence was far too faint.

Like an ant beneath one’s feet, so small that no one would even notice it passing by.

Behind Seo Tae-ran, who was smaller than an ant, stood Neo Seoul. Yet even the vast Neo Seoul looked terribly small and fragile before the violently surging sand tidal wave.

No matter how much monster-repelling power Neo Seoul possessed, she could not guarantee it would withstand such a mass attack if it came crashing down.

Only then did Seo Tae-ran realize.

The scene she was seeing now was a future Zeon had shown her.

She did not know whether he could truly create a sand tidal wave that enormous, but even if only one-tenth of it were possible, Neo Seoul would suffer irreparable damage.

‘This man is too vast! He isn’t someone I can handle.’

Drip!

Blood flowed down her lips.

Merely facing the illusion Zeon had shown her had inflicted severe damage on both her mind and body.

This was something even Jin Geum-ho could not do.

She hurriedly squeezed her eyes shut and lowered her head.

“I apologize. I retract what I said.”

“One more thing.”

“Yes?”

“Please tell the rulers of the other districts as well to stop paying attention to Levin. Make sure I don’t have to concern myself with this matter anymore.”

“I…… will do that.”

Seo Tae-ran barely managed to answer.

Under normal circumstances, she would have felt extreme humiliation at this point, but right now, she did not even have the mental room for that.

That was how thoroughly she had been overwhelmed by the presence and illusion Zeon had shown her in that instant.

It had been an immense blow to her mind.

Zeon looked at Seo Tae-ran, who still had not regained herself, with an indifferent expression.

Levin’s ability had limitless uses.

He could become the worst assassin, or a scout no one could detect. He could even be used like a Navigator.

Whichever place recruited Levin would essentially be gaining a single sword of the strongest class.

Naturally, they could not help but covet him.

Zeon wanted to protect Levin as much as possible until he gained the ability to protect himself. But Levin’s secret had been exposed before the eyes of countless Awakened.

Levin’s ability was no longer a secret.

Countless guilds and raid parties would covet Levin and approach him.

Levin had to decide everything himself.

Not under coercion from City Hall or the rulers of the various districts.

Zeon intended to protect Levin only until then.

Levin’s true independence would begin from that point onward.

“Yaaah!”

“Die! You beasts.”

“You filthy monsters!”

The Awakened’s desperate shouts came from ahead.

The battle had begun in the meantime.

After moving a little farther, a massive underground space appeared.

In the underground space, the Awakened were locked in fierce battle against the undead.

Even here, Levin was displaying dazzling prowess.

Levin flew up in Ghost Transformation and chased down the Specters at terrifying speed. Perhaps because he had fought them once before, he could predict their trajectories to a certain extent now.

So before they could approach people, he cut off their paths and unleashed Purple Lightning.

And only against the Specters, at that.

Crackle!

Like flies struck by an electric flyswatter, the Specters were vanishing helplessly.

Zeon smiled.

“You’re growing well.”