The Fifth Wave (Part 6)

Having conducted nighttime sweeps across the city day after day, the survivors ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠at the Mart held a meeting to divide the surrounding territory into distinct sectors. They agreed to prioritize the zones where summoning stones had not yet appeared.

Treating the Mart as the center of a clock face, the perimeter was split clockwise into sectors A through H. Tonight's target was Sector H, a zone that had yet to see a single stone spawn.

"Doesn't feel like there'll be anything out here," one of them remarked.

"Statistically speaking, the odds are highest here," replied another.

"I know, but still…"

"Why? Did you see this place in a dream, or are you getting déjà vu?"

"No, nothing like that."

"…"

An hour dragged on after the Wave's official start time with nothing to show for their efforts. Then—

"—!"

Saebyeok and Jian dropped low, cutting their stride short. Heejin looked back and forth, wondering what had caught their attention, until Saebyeok silently pointed toward a blind angle ahead.

Largely concealed behind the corner of a building, a tuft of avian plumage jutted into view.

Flap, rustle.

Cluck, clu-cluck.

A giant chicken? An ostrich? It's huge… maybe two meters tall?

The party crept forward with held breath.

"Ah! I-I've seen that in video games before… Couldn't we tame something like that and use it as a mount?"

"Wait, you—!"

Lee Jinho, the youngest member of the church contingent after little Eunbyeol, brazenly stalked toward the unidentified avian beast without a trace of fear.

He had already closed a dangerous amount of distance. To Saebyeok's eyes, even a single step further would cross into the lethal strike ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠zone.

Gripping his spear, Saebyeok recalled what Sister Agnes had once mentioned about the boy. On the day the world went to hell, Lee Jinho had skipped high school to hang out at a PC bang. When his money ran out, he had wandered into the cathedral merely to kill time until the apocalypse caught him unawares.

Spoken like a kid whose brain is completely fried by games… Babbling nonsense when he doesn't even know what that thing is.

Saebyeok scanned the perimeter in silence. No signals had come from the lookout atop the Mart. That either meant the rooftop sentries didn't perceive any overwhelming threat, or this alleyway happened to fall right into their blind spot.

"Jinho… back off. Step away slowly and carefully…" Kim Minsu coaxed in a tense, hushed voice, trying to de-escalate the boy's reckless advance.

"No, Minsu-hyung, I think this'll be totally fine."

"Hey! You're not a Tamer or anything, are you? You're just a Warrior class!"

"Come on, Minsu-hyung, we're plenty strong! Having a mount would make life so much easier. Besides, our team is pretty damn tough right now!"

"Jinho, that wasn't your doing… That was all Saebyeok-hyung and Doyoung-hyung pulling the weight. Just because the older guys make it look easy doesn't mean we can pull off the same stunts. Back up, slowly… We have to take things one step at a time."

"Ah, for fuck's sake… You're only acting like a coward because your own class is garbage, hyung. Anyone with a combat class could easily take a chicken this—"

Saebyeok considered waiting to see how far the idiocy would go, but ultimately decided to treat the kid as an adolescent afflicted with a chronic case of eighth-grader syndrome.

Snick.

Thud, roll…

Standing several paces back, Saebyeok cleanly severed the giant bird's neck. It was a feat made possible only after his Cephalopod Spearmanship had broken through to A-rank. Rather than hurling a blade of compressed mana, it felt as though he had cleaved through the very fabric of space itself.

Damn it, that name… I can barely make heads or tails of what it's supposed to be.

With its head sheared off, the monstrous bird collapsed toward Lee Jinho, spraying a torrent of crimson blood across his clothes and face.

"—?!"

"Hey. Get your ass back in line. Stop running wild like a lunatic."

It irritated Saebyeok to no end that people only listened when he laced his voice with blatant killing intent and forced authority, but on some level, he understood. Everyone went through a phase where they felt invincible, as if the entire universe revolved around their burgeoning ego.

"…"

Covered in warm blood, Jinho slunk back into formation, his face twisted in humiliated fury.

That punk's a walking hazard…

Was it wounded pride? Or just unfocused teenage rebellion? Whatever it was, the glare in the boy's eyes unsettled everyone around him.

"Oppa."

Jian and Heejin tightened the perimeter as they fell in alongside Saebyeok, murmuring under their breath.

"He's going to be trouble…"

"Totally feels like an accident waiting to happen, haha. Guys like that always manage to blow things up sooner or later…"

"…Keep an eye on him, both of you. Make sure he doesn't get himself killed."

Jian nodded gravely.

"Got it!" Heejin chirped.

Assuming a diamond formation, the survivors maintained a vigilant 360-degree watch as they moved forward, taking measured, cautious strides.

Step by step…

Past the spot where the cockatrice's head had rolled, they pressed onward and banked around a corner to the right. Through his newly heightened senses, Saebyeok caught wind of the same creature's aura—only this time, there were dozens of them.

Cluck, clack, screech.

Flap, rustle, flutter.

Skree-cluck, cluck!

Are they inside that building?

Within a sprawling, derelict warehouse, the flock of cockatrices was multiplying at an alarming pace.

"We don't know how dangerous these strange birds are, so I'll break through first and shatter the summoning stone," Saebyeok whispered, raising a clenched fist to halt the squad. "Hold formation around Jian. Don't let yourselves get surrounded, and avoid engaging them one-on-one if you can help it."

Aside from Jinho, who stood scowling in silence, the survivors nodded with taut, focused expressions.

Saebyeok was sorely tempted to chew the kid out, but recalling his own reckless youth, he simply sighed, told himself that everyone had their foolish phase, and surged forward.

Perhaps because he was openly projecting killing intent, the entire flock snapped their heads toward him the instant he stepped into the clearing. Splitting their hooked beaks wide, they charged in a ravenous stampede.

Recalling the sensation from moments ago, Saebyeok swept his spear outward as if severing the atmosphere itself. Had he possessed a perfect grasp of his own parameters, he would have calculated the precise reach and measured his output accordingly. But with his current power still largely untested against unfamiliar monsters, he swung with an excess of brute force.

Cephalopod Wild Slash!

The technique's name flashed instinctively through his mind, catching even him off guard.

"Hah…"

Behind him, the rest of the party watched in stunned disbelief.

Saebyeok's arm had vanished in an instantaneous blur, and within a five-to-six-meter radius, the mass of squawking monstrosities was shredded as if cast into an industrial blender. Mangled feathers, severed limbs, and bisected torsos rained onto the asphalt in crosshatched ribbons, before a single beast could even muster a dying shriek.

In a heartbeat, the air turned cloyingly thick with the stench of gore.

Without sparing a glance at the carnage in his wake, Saebyeok sprinted straight toward the pulsing monolith at the rear of the warehouse.

Cephalopod Tentacle Thrust!

Another martial concept bubbled up from the depths of his instincts. Disregarding his own bewilderment, the strike burst outward like a bundle of snapping tentacles, obliterating the skulls of the remaining cockatrices shielding the monolith. Channeling mana into the spear's spiraling torque and releasing it with whip-like elasticity felt remarkably natural.

Now that feels satisfying. Pierces clean through everything.

The spearhead struck the obsidian core, shattering the summoning stone to dust.

Turning around, Saebyeok checked on the others, who were already mopping up the stray cockatrices.

The continuous combat drills and mandatory scouting excursions had clearly borne fruit. Even Kim Minsu, despite possessing a non-combat support class, held his ground admirably with a short sword. Jian dispatched the beasts with effortless elegance, while Heejin proved surprisingly lethal, conjuring daggers of dark mana and hurling them in rapid volleys—an improvised style clearly modeled after Sister Agnes's sacred blades.

Despite their imposing size, the cockatrices were not particularly tough. What made them dangerous was sheer volume; a staggering number had already spread across the warehouse grounds in a very short window.

Did the spawn batch size increase? Or is the spawn rate speeding up?

While Saebyeok pondered the shift, the team finished clearing the area and jogged over.

"Oppa, we're all clear," Jian said, wiping a streak of sweat from her brow. "That's the last of the visible ones. But why were there so many cockatrices already? The spawn speed wasn't this fast during the last wave, was it?"

"Yeah… It's worrying."

Saebyeok mulled it over for another moment, but without systemic insight or reference materials, speculation was pointless.

"Let's pile the carcasses, burn them, and head back."

"Understood!"

They dragged the avian corpses into a central mound, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠heaped nearby wooden crates and scrap lumber over the pile, and hurled several Molotov cocktails onto the mass. Once the flames took hold, they turned back toward the Mart. The return march passed in heavy silence, each survivor lost in their own thoughts while maintaining perimeter security. By the time they reached the sanctuary an hour later, the morning sun was already peeking over the horizon.

The weather was growing noticeably warmer.

Sunrises came earlier each morning, and daytime temperatures climbed into the high twenties Celsius, pressing close to eighty-five degrees Fahrenheit by Saebyeok's estimate.

"This is going to be a problem…" Saebyeok murmured, leaning against the rooftop railing.

"Hmm? What is?" Heejin asked, tilting her head innocently.

"Summer is coming."

"Ugh…" Heejin groaned, her face contorting in immediate disgust, while Jian's brow furrowed with concern.

"Once the heat kicks in, fighting monsters becomes a nightmare," Saebyeok continued. "Day-to-day stamina plummets, tempers flare, and people start picking fights over the smallest things. On top of that, we don't have the luxuries of modern civilization anymore. Right now, a few battery-powered electric fans are the best we can do."

"Oppa… don't say that! I can already picture how miserable it's going to be."

"I'm just saying we need to prepare while we still have time."

"Ugh, and why do our battery packs drain so damn fast lately? It's infuriating!"

"For now, let's pray Shasha has something useful in stock."

As they waited on the rooftop, the familiar rift of Shasha's Dimensional Store shimmered into view, tearing open a portal of swirling light.

Patter, dash!

Whoosh!

Without warning, Lee Jinho sprinted past the group and barged straight through the dimensional entrance. While the other survivors naturally stepped aside to let Saebyeok enter first out of respect, the disgruntled teenager couldn't have cared less about etiquette.

"Doyoung-hyung… about that kid…"

"Yeah, I know. You don't have to say it."

Saebyeok walked over to Doyoung, who had been conversing with Seoyeon near the stairwell.

"Lee Jinho… *Sigh.* Look, I understand where his head is at, but… should we just beat some sense into him? Though if we do, the little bastard might snap and run off on his own. *Tsk.*"

"Have we been treating him too civilly, you think?"

"Haha, probably a bit," Doyoung chuckled dryly. "Honestly, you've never been fond of running things ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with an iron fist. But truth be told, there were plenty of moments that could've exploded into total chaos if things hadn't been kept on a tight leash."

"Haah… I suppose so."