Frozen in Time
The reason Yeon Cheong began paying attention to the deliveryman exam was simple.
It was because of the hound attack that had occurred that day.
The horrific incident where the hounds trapped inside the training facility had swarmed in a pack caused numerous casualties.
"They're coming."
Yeon Cheong grabbed his knife and stood beside Jin Hong, radiating clear vigilance.
Startled by his sudden movement, Jin Hong asked,
"Cheong, what's wrong all of a sudden?"
"A hound is coming right now."
"What are you talking about? If it's a hound..."
Jin Hong glanced at the hound cages beside the deliverymen.
The young hounds were far more agitated than before, barking and thrashing wildly inside.
"Look at these guys. They're acting strange today."
Bryce also frowned as he watched the hounds rampaging in their cages.
Normally hounds would gnaw at the bars until exhausted, but today was different.
They were extremely excited, drooling, the very image of bloodthirsty beasts.
Kurrk!
At that moment, the distant cry of hell hounds reached them. Bryce's eyes widened.
"No way!"
The instant his words ended, the hounds appeared—over a dozen of them charging straight toward the group.
"Block them! They're closing in!"
Seeing the hounds approach, Bryce barked an urgent order.
The deliverymen, Na-young included, raised their weapons and formed a defensive line in an instant.
"That's not the real problem."
Yeon Cheong had witnessed this exact battle pattern before and knew what would happen next.
The deliverymen's initial response was decent, but the follow-up attack would inflict heavy losses.
Even if they held the frontal charge, they remained vulnerable to hounds circling around from behind.
As expected, several hounds broke away and began flanking the formation.
"Damn it! Finish them fast!"
Bryce, at the forefront, seized a hound by the scruff of its neck, but none of the others could assist.
Each deliveryman was already occupied with at least two hounds.
When fighting weak monsters like hounds, maintaining one-on-one engagements was standard procedure.
"Don't get bitten! Watch the claws!"
The gap between monsters and humans was vast.
Even the weakest monsters could tear a human body apart in seconds once fully grown.
That was why humans always needed numerical superiority. Without it, serious injury or death was inevitable.
"Na-young! Use your magic!"
"And hit everyone else too? I need distance first!"
One hound suddenly broke free and lunged straight at Lee Na-young.
Thud!
With a dull impact she collapsed. The hound pinned her down, jaws opening for her throat.
"You filthy mutt!"
Boom!
The hound burst into flames and crumbled to ash, but a shallow cut now marked Na-young's face.
"You all right?"
Deliverymen nearby rushed over after the explosion.
Na-young wiped the blood from her face and replied,
"If I cast here, the whole formation gets caught in it."
"I asked if you're okay, you crazy woman!"
"If I were dead I'd be dead! Can't you see I'm still talking?"
Na-young shook blood from her hands, irritation clear in her voice.
The growing number of hounds was pushing even her patience to the brink.
"Those damn dogs are tearing the bars apart!"
One deliveryman shouted in alarm.
Bryce turned to assess the situation.
'So that's their goal.'
The mother hounds had come to free their pups from the cages.
"Cheong!"
Jin Hong called out in panic as a hound suddenly charged her.
"Stay still! They're not after us!"
The hounds' primary target was the young ones trapped inside the cages.
They wouldn't touch Yeon Cheong or Jin Hong until the bars were broken.
"Attacking now will only draw their attention. We wait for an opening."
Jin Hong swallowed hard.
"Got it... I'll stay put for now."
The moment the young hounds were released, the indiscriminate assault would begin.
'Last time, only five people survived. Even counting the deliverymen, just ten made it.'
Ten of the fifteen applicants had become hound food, and one deliveryman bled out after losing both arms.
That was why this batch had fewer applicants than usual.
Heading out on their first mission under these conditions only lowered their already slim survival chances further.
It was an event indirectly tied to Jin Hong's death, so Yeon Cheong had no desire to remember it.
Watching the horrific scene unfold again, his eyes narrowed.
But simply closing his eyes wouldn't stop what was coming.
If he knew tragedy was approaching and could prevent it, then he had to act.
"A little cleanup on my part should be enough to minimize the damage."
Just a little would suffice.
Hell hounds were troublesome only because they moved in packs; individually they weren't that strong.
Reduce their numbers and the deliverymen could handle the rest.
'Six visible, plus the ones still caged—roughly ten total.'
Yeon Cheong calculated calmly.
Killing three or four would let them escape this crisis with minimal losses.
"Jin Hong, see that one over there? The one separated from the pack?"
"Yeah, I see it."
"Can you handle it?"
Jin Hong nodded carefully.
He wanted her to target the neck of the farthest hound.
She carried a rare-grade weapon; one clean strike would be enough.
"I'll take this side."
Yeon Cheong moved toward the three hounds clustered together.
They growled and gnawed at the cage bars.
The thinning metal warned that the pups would soon break free.
"An ambush would be..."
Yeon Cheong suddenly sensed killing intent.
A chilling sensation raced up his legs.
'This is bad.'
He spun around just in time to dodge a hound lunging at him.
Sharp teeth grazed his side, drawing a thin line of blood.
"Got scratched."
Yeon Cheong frowned, pressing a hand to the sting.
He still couldn't fully manifest Yeongdeung.
He couldn't sense and conceal everything the way he had as a janitor.
"This might get a little dangerous."
He glanced behind him.
The three hounds he had been watching were now approaching.
"Completely surrounded."
He had faced this situation countless times before, and a familiar thrill stirred within him.
He had survived so many crises.
Each time he had been surrounded, and each time he had killed his way out.
It was the same now. Anything that stood in his path would be met with desperate struggle—the way a human from the ruined world fought until the very end.
"Come on then, you mutts!"
At his shout the hounds charged as one.
Then a text window opened before his eyes, displaying bizarre characters.
Stop?
The moment the message appeared, the artifact in Yeon Cheong's pocket began to glow.
"Stop?"
Yeon Cheong's eyes widened at the scene frozen before him.
The charging hounds hung motionless in mid-air.
Even grains of sand dancing in the wind were suspended.
Na-young's flames no longer flickered but pointed steadily in one direction.
Bryce's bald head gleamed with an almost docile shine.
Meanwhile Jin Hong, having apparently succeeded in her hunt, gazed at her rare-grade sword with a joyful expression.
"This is..."
The artifact's power.
The ability to stop time.
"For now, let's survive this."
Yeon Cheong moved quickly.
His first priority was severing the throats of the hounds threatening him.
Swish. Swish.
Cutting the necks of the floating hounds was effortless.
No blood even spilled; it felt like simply peeling away their hides.
"Now how do I undo this?"
He pulled out the time artifact and examined it.
It was stopped, but he had no idea how to restart it.
'The hand is moving?'
The hand fixed at three o'clock was now turning counterclockwise, racing toward twelve.
Another message flashed. Yeon Cheong hurriedly shoved the artifact back into his pocket.
Thud!
The hounds flew backward from the momentum of their charge and collapsed, bleeding out.
'The artifact worked.'
Yeon Cheong felt a surge of wonder and satisfaction.
If he could wield the artifact, he could change the tower itself.
"I still don't know how to use it properly, but..."
He looked at the hound corpses.
He still didn't understand what the "behind" time meant,
yet the fact that the artifact had activated was enough.
"What just happened?"
The deliverymen, having finished off the remaining hounds, were now staring at Yeon Cheong.
They were stunned by the hounds that had died in an instant, cut down at invisible speed.
"..."
Na-young extinguished the flame flickering in her hand.
Four hounds had been targeting Yeon Cheong; she had been about to intervene.
But he had eliminated them before she could act.
She looked at him with relief.
"Looks like the situation's wrapped up."
Na-young lifted her face, streaked with sand and blood, and asked Bryce.
"What happened to that pretty face..."
Bryce, who had just finished crushing the last hound, regarded her wound with sympathy.
"That's not the issue right now!"
"Ah, there it is. Your true feelings. Anyway, it's over."
Bryce brushed blood from his clothes.
Fortunately the hound attack had ended without major casualties.
The active deliverymen had responded swiftly, but the applicants' fierce performance had secured a victory with no injuries.
"This batch is quite impressive."
Bryce was thoroughly satisfied.
Usually a batch contained no useful talent at all, or at most one standout.
This group, however, had shown extraordinary promise.
The recent hound attack had been real combat.
Surviving it unscathed was an excellent sign.
He even began to believe the entire batch might return alive from their first outing.
If so, he might go down in history as an examiner.
"If there's one thing bothering me..."
That fleeting sense of incongruity.
The feeling that his body had stopped for a moment before moving again.
Bryce couldn't shake it off.