Monsters Pour into Seoul! (3)
I drilled a total of twelve holes around the staircase. The head of my pickaxe completely vanished.
The two women poking their heads out from the third floor to watch gasped in shock.
“Th-the pickaxe head fell off!”
“It didn’t fall off. Its mass was temporarily separated by magic and embedded in the ground. Just keep watching.”
Sure enough, every hole I’d drilled now held a pitch-black bolt made of adamantium.
I flipped the pickaxe handle and slotted it into one of the bolts.
Drilling
The handle spun at high speed like a power drill, driving the bolt deeper.
It repeated across all twelve holes.
Then, finally, the reaction came.
The staircase split away from the wall and the second floor.
The staircase was now precariously held in place only by its connection to the 2.5th-floor slab.
I slotted the handle into another bolt and called out to the two women.
“Watch this!”
“Watch what?”
“The spectacular sight of dozens of mad dogs turning into meat paste at the same time!”
I pressed the handle against the bolt between the 2.5th floor and the staircase.
The massive concrete staircase could no longer hold. It floated free in midair.
Then it plummeted—first the bottom section, then the top a second later.
A thunderous crash echoed as the entire staircase smashed down between the first and 1.5th floors. The dozens of dog-like monsters caught underneath died instantly without even a yelp.
New Rune Stone slot unlocked.
Skill Point +1 acquired.
The monsters behind them, however, showed no fear at all. They simply trampled over the bloody pulp of their comrades and kept surging upward.
The safety tent’s duration had just run out, so the creatures charged straight up to the second floor, barking like mad.
But that was as far as they got.
With the staircase between the second and 2.5th floors gone, all they could do was bark furiously. There was nothing more they could do.
A few of them went completely feral, desperate to tear us apart, and actually tried to leap across.
They all fell straight down with pathetic yelps.
Even if the gap had been narrow, they might have made it. Even if it had been low, they might have made it. But the staircase was both wide and high. No matter how many times they tried, they would never reach us.
Black liquid oozed up the wall like mucus and clung to my pickaxe handle. The adamantium-plated head was instantly restored.
“That should do it. Let’s head to the roof, quickly!”
“Yes, sir.”
“Okay.”
We reached the roof in no time. The steel door leading to it was tightly shut.
I banged on it.
“It’s me. Open up.”
“L-little bro?”
The door creaked open just a crack. Oh Man-do peered out with a tense expression.
“The monsters… they didn’t follow you?”
“They can’t come this way anymore. The staircase collapsed.”
Still half-doubting, he opened the door fully.
I stepped onto the roof and immediately did a headcount. Thankfully, all my classmates were safe. Including the patrons from the first- and second-floor bars, the third-floor pool hall, and the fourth-floor BAR, the total came to exactly forty-two people.
I walked to the railing and looked down at the chaos outside.
The streets were completely flooded with thousands—tens of thousands—of dog monsters.
On every floor of the surrounding buildings, unspeakable horrors were unfolding.
Once someone was bitten and knocked down, it was over. They would be swarmed by dozens of monsters and torn apart until they stopped breathing.
That was when I spotted something and shouted.
“Yejin! Take the women down to the third-floor pool hall and bring back every single billiard ball and cue stick you can find! Sara, take the women to the fourth-floor BAR and grab every bottle of liquor you can carry!”
“Why?”
My next order answered her.
“Men! Grab bricks and start throwing them down!”
With the staircase cut off, the frenzied monsters had begun climbing the building walls like lunatics.
The men started hurling every piece of construction debris they could find off the roof.
Monsters were among the weakest creatures, standing only about 130 to 140 centimeters tall. No matter how vicious they were, being pelted with bricks from above was no joke.
Oh Man-do cast wide-area spells on the ground connected to our building, thinning out the climbing horde. He also seemed to radiate an aura that boosted the morale of nearby allies.
Soon Han Yejin and the women returned, and our arsenal received a major upgrade.
Billiard balls!
They were perfectly round, had just the right weight for throwing, and delivered decent damage.
The few monsters that somehow dodged the billiard ball barrage and reached the top were met by five or six grown men who desperately shoved them back down with cue sticks.
In a melee like this, reach was everything. And since the monsters were at a severe disadvantage having to climb the wall, the cue-stick defense worked surprisingly well.
Countless dogs plummeted to the ground, only to immediately begin climbing again.
The men quickly organized themselves. Those with good aim formed the Billiard Ball Squad, while the rest became the Cue Squad. The fact that most of them had completed military service was a huge advantage in a crisis like this.
I also stationed one woman each on the sides and rear of the building. No monsters were climbing there yet, but we needed sentries just in case.
That was when Jang Sara and the women returned carrying armfuls of liquor bottles. Without waiting for orders, Sara began ripping up clothes to make Molotov cocktails. Han Yejin, Yoo Ji-min, and the quicker-witted women sat down and helped her mass-produce them.
Since they were alcohol-based rather than gasoline, their destructive power was questionable. Still, Sara went all out—adding sugar from the bar and even tearing apart the Styrofoam from the water tank.
Then one of my female classmates who had been staring at her phone suddenly cried out in joy.
“The S-class and A-class Hunters from the top five guilds are all heading this way!”
“Waaaaah!”
“We just have to hold on a little longer! Everyone, keep fighting!”
Please. Hurry up and get here!
But the same woman who had delivered the good news suddenly dropped her phone and began trembling violently.
“Yena, what’s wrong?”
“Yena?”
Another female classmate picked up the dropped phone and read it.
Then she broke down sobbing.
“W-we’re screwed. The S-classes aren’t coming this far.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Sob… The defense line is set at XX Road and in front of XX Elementary School. Anyone who couldn’t make it past that point is being treated as already dead. Sob…”
“What the fuck? How does that make any sense? What about us?!”
“This is insane! What are they going to do when survivors show up later?!”
“There won’t be any survivors. In twenty minutes… they’re going to carpet-bomb this entire area with mana nukes.”
Mana nukes.
A new type of weapon developed after the Tower appeared.
They worked on the same principle as nuclear bombs, but mana completely absorbed all radiation, eliminating fallout and contamination.
Of course, because they were artificially enhanced, they couldn’t be used inside the Tower. Still, humanity had been mass-producing these terrifying new nukes in preparation for a final strike against the Tower if necessary. With the Tower already here, no country cared about the NPT anymore.
“Fuck! Call 119 and tell them to send a helicopter or something!”
But I had already known that was impossible.
The dark sky was filled with enormous fluorescent insects.
Tinkerbell Moths.
I had never heard of them having direct air-to-ground attack capabilities.
Their true terror lay in acting like aerial landmines.
When other flying creatures approached, the moths would latch onto them, then melt into their bodies and explode after a short delay.
As long as they formed this net in the sky, no aircraft or flying mount could approach without risking certain death.
That was when I saw it—a massive flaming bird radiating brilliant light as it approached from afar.
Hundreds of Tinkerbell Moths swarmed it, glowing brightly before detonating. Yet the flaming bird endured.
“It’s a Phoenix! A Phoenix!”
“Ah! S-class Choi Cheon-yeol is coming!”
“Please! Please!”
“Over here! There are people here! Sob!”
Everyone on the roof jumped and screamed at the top of their lungs.
Sure enough, the Phoenix turned and flew straight toward our building, slowing down.
“Waaaaah!”
“We’re saved!”
“Sob! Choi Cheon-yeol really is the best! Gwanggaeto Guild is the best! I’ve always been his biggest fan!”
As the Phoenix drew near, its heat was intense enough to burn our skin. It landed on the roof of the building next to ours and folded its wings.
On its back sat Choi Cheon-yeol in dazzling, ornate armor.
An S-class Hunter. This was my first time seeing one in person.
The market capitalization of the Gwanggaeto Guild he led was said to be in the tens of trillions, right?
His public image was so good that his CF contracts alone brought in hundreds of billions a year.
Then Choi Cheon-yeol dismounted.
The Phoenix immediately collapsed onto the roof, engulfed in flames, and died. It seemed even it couldn’t withstand the suicide attacks of thousands of Tinkerbell Moths.
Choi Cheon-yeol glanced at his GPS and shouted.
“Jang Sara! Is Director Jang Sara of Jeguk Medipharm here? And… Oh Man-do from the Oh Family Guild! Both of your names are lighting up nearby! If you’re here, come out now! Your parents have put bounties on you!”
Despair washed over everyone’s faces the moment they heard those words.
Oh Man-do stepped forward.
“I-I’m here!”
“Hurry over!”
Oh Man-do glanced once at Yoo Ji-min. She wore a dazed expression. He spoke with difficulty.
“Mr. Choi, Guild Master… could you make room for my girlfriend on the Phoenix…”
Choi Cheon-yeol answered immediately.
“How much are you offering?”
Oh Man-do hesitated, then said.
“Three hundred million! No… up to five hundred million, I think I can manage.”
“What car do you drive?”
Oh Man-do scratched his head.
“An 812 Superfast.”
Choi Cheon-yeol let out a snort of laughter.
“A rich bastard like you only values his girlfriend at the price of his car? Forget it, you idiot. Jang Sara’s mother said she’d pay a hundred billion if I bring her daughter back. Would you turn down a hundred billion to carry your five-hundred-million girlfriend instead?”
Oh Man-do shook his head, then leaped across to the opposite roof.
Yoo Ji-min had been staring blankly the entire time.
Choi Cheon-yeol shouted again.
“Jang Sara! Where’s Jang Sara? If you don’t come out soon, I’m leaving!”
Everyone turned to look at Jang Sara.
She stepped forward.
“How many people can ride that resurrected Phoenix of yours?”
Everyone looked where she was pointing. In the ashes where the Phoenix had died, a baby bird was lifting its head as it was reborn.
Choi Cheon-yeol frowned.
“Including me, three people max. Any more is impossible.”
Jang Sara helped the panicking Ki Ju-hye to her feet, pressed her own phone into the girl’s hand, and whispered.
“Pretend to be Jang Sara until you land.”
“U-unnie… sob.”
“It’s okay. I have a way to escape.”
After whispering that, Jang Sara called out loudly to Choi Cheon-yeol.
“This young lady is Jang Sara. Please take her with you.”
A white, angelic hand suddenly extended from Choi Cheon-yeol’s shoulder, grabbed Ki Ju-hye, and pulled her across. He then saddled the newly resurrected Phoenix, mounted it together with Oh Man-do and Ki Ju-hye, and took off.
Ki Ju-hye was sobbing uncontrollably. Oh Man-do kept his head bowed, unable to look in our direction.
A man stepped forward and shouted.
“W-what about the rest of us? What about us?!”
Choi Cheon-yeol answered with an annoyed expression.
“Ah, I don’t know. Fuck, do I look like 119 to you? Whether you die or not is none of my business. I’m already sick of playing shuttle for these chaebol kids.”
With that, he flew off into the distance on the small Phoenix.
I looked at Yoo Ji-min. Only now did tears finally fall as she muttered under her breath.
“Son of a bitch. Sob. Fucking bastard. Piece of shit. Sob…”
A massive wave of despair suddenly crashed over the rooftop.
The men who had been fighting hard at the railing began to abandon their posts one by one.
Almost all the women started sobbing.
“Fuck! The phones don’t even work anymore! They’re treating all of us as already dead!”
“Oppa, sob… if those dogs come for me, please kill me first.”
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Thy name…”
“Sob… Please, someone save us~~ I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die here~~!”
“Mister, can I have one cigarette? I quit for three years and two months…”
In the middle of the chaos, Jang Sara quietly spoke to me.
“You can set a waypoint on the roof, right?”
“Yes.”
“How many spare Rune Stones do you have?”
“Four.”