Chapter 264
Chapter 264
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 264
Chapter Title: Quest Route
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"Ugh... this..."
Choi Mi-na clutched her nose and mouth, her face pale as a ghost. The others weren't much better off, each reacting in their own way.
The stench of rotting food, decaying meat—no, the putrid reek of death wafting from the corpses.
"Damn it..."
"Ah..."
Sighs erupted here and there. Hollow breaths. Groans slipping out as they fought back dry heaves.
Everyone could already guess what had happened here.
The temporary structures set up for the workers' living and office needs.
The massive heavy machinery hauled in for construction.
Piles of building materials stacked like mountains.
The laborers and supervisors who had gathered for this project.
The troubleshooters and security experts who had come to protect them.
Everything looked like it had been chewed up by a savage beast and spat out—shattered, crumpled, crushed, and torn apart, scattered everywhere.
And only then did the bodies catch the eye.
Blood.
Chunks of flesh.
The buzz of flies.
The silent wriggling of maggots.
The deep pit dug for the building's foundation had turned into a swamp of death, thick with congealed blood and meat.
Even Kwak Dae-yong, with his boisterous personality, looked subdued by the horrific scene—and especially by the foul smell that made it hard to breathe.
"All of them... all dead? What about the team that came in yesterday?"
Answering Kwak Dae-yong's question was An Hyeong-gu, approaching with the whir-click of an endoscope.
"Huh—spotted their trucks over there. Serial numbers match—and, uh, judging by the bodies, looks like they got hit last night."
Apparently, the team's vehicle from yesterday was among the wrecked armed trucks turned into scrap heaps.
We were the follow-up crew.
Yeonam Construction had run two transport ops: one yesterday, one today.
"So what about the executive? Didn't Executive Mun Kyung-nam come here yesterday? Is he dead too?"
"Hmm—can't say for sure... but, ugh—hard to think anyone survives a site like this."
It wasn't like they'd split one team into two.
The group that arrived yesterday was completely separate from mine and Kwak Dae-yong's.
Some big shot from Yeonam Construction had suddenly insisted on inspecting this insanely dangerous Seoraksan site?
'Why the hell did that idiot stick his nose in?'
Mun Kyung-nam, the executive.
It might seem minor, but it was a change that shouldn't have happened originally.
Why had Mun Kyung-nam suddenly thrown a curveball like that and gotten swept up in this disaster?
Then again, maybe his showing up here was what caused the disaster.
And...
If I'd been able to move yesterday, I would've gone with that executive.
And if I had—
"Then, we would've... if we'd left yesterday too..."
Kwak Dae-yong mumbled low, clearly thinking the same thing.
If we'd moved with yesterday's team, we'd have faced whatever supernatural calamity hit this site.
Was it lucky we'd dodged the risk of ending up as those mangled corpses rolling on the ground?
Or could more people have stopped it?
"Damn, how do so many people get wiped out without a single call for help?"
"Boss, something's off."
Yeom Cheol-min cut in after scouting the ruined temp buildings.
"Didn't we contact the site before we left?"
"What? Oh, right. Yeah, we did. And... they responded, didn't they?"
"Exactly. That was just six hours ago. If this happened last night, then the guy who replied to me..."
Yeom Cheol-min continued, his face uneasy.
"Shit, don't tell me I was talking to a dead man?"
"Urgh... What about HQ?"
"They're saying check the site and assess the situation."
"Assess? You mean just sit tight here?"
Kwak Dae-yong yanked at his suit tie, looking incredulous.
But Yeom Cheol-min raised a hand, signaling he wasn't done.
"More like they're curious if Executive Mun Kyung-nam survived."
"Ha—seriously, has everyone lost their minds?"
"Heh, it's kinda important, right?"
An Hyeong-gu let out a wry chuckle at Kwak Dae-yong's words.
For context, Mun Kyung-nam was from Yeonam's parent conglomerate, the [Yeonam] family... third or so in the succession line.
Follow the line down, and Mun Seung-hee's name might come up, but she's so far back it's pointless to rank her.
Anyway, Mun Kyung-nam's survival mattered not just to [Yeonam], but to the entire stock market in this [Cthulhu World].
"They'll send a support team tomorrow... So for now, we gotta figure out how to last the night."
"Hey, Choi Mi-na. What about that guy?"
"That guy? The wizard?"
"Yeah. Where'd he go?"
"No clue. He's been messing around that pit since earlier."
"I told you to keep an eye on him—what the hell. Nah, I'll just go ask. Everyone else, spread out and watch the perimeter. Hey! Professor Kim! Professor Kim!"
Looks like he's coming to me after all.
I'm quite a ways from them.
Down at the bottom of the massive pit Yeonam Construction dug for the new building's foundation.
They can't even see my face from up there, let alone hear voices.
'Did [Enhanced Vigilance] trigger earlier? My senses are way too sharp.'
This is definitely overkill.
My senses and mana detection are feeding me every detail around me with excessive sensitivity.
The texture of the sand under Kwak Dae-yong's foot just now.
The maggots squirming over corpses, the exact number of flies laying eggs with their buzzing, Choi Mi-na's queasy expression as she brushes back her hair.
I'm just as curious as they are about what went down yesterday, but at the same time, I'm wondering what's happening to me right now.
Whoosh—he leaps down into the pit.
His landing booms like thunder. Or at least, that's how it sounds to me.
"Urk."
I reflexively clapped my hands over my ears, but no use. Just like I didn't see their faces with my eyes earlier, this sound didn't hit my ears.
"Professor Kim! Find anything else?"
"Talk quieter. And stay back."
"Urgh, what's there?"
Misunderstanding me, Kwak Dae-yong instinctively raises his war hammer. Well, not entirely wrong. Whatever.
"How many people were supposed to be here?"
"Including laborers?"
"Yeah. Total headcount."
"Dunno how many the exec brought, but at least 150."
"Then we're short. Even adding up all the bodies here, it's only about 70."
"What? Then..."
Kwak Dae-yong's gaze naturally shifts to the cave mouth in front of me.
A wide cave entrance.
Peering in, all that's visible is pitch-black darkness too deep to gauge.
Weeeeng—
Right on cue, a bizarre noise echoes from the cave.
An ominous resonance like a poorly made instrument. The sound alone sends chills down your spine.
"Seems like it. The traces show a bunch walked in on their own."
"On their own... into there?"
Kwak Dae-yong's face twists in vague dread, imagining some scene.
Probably picturing people walking into a cave that spat out a monster that butchered half their crew.
Weeeeeeng— the echo returns.
Faces blank like they're entranced by the eerie sound—wind? Or a monster luring new prey?—stumbling in one by one.
"No, Team Leader Kwak Dae-yong."
"No?"
"Order's reversed. People went in first, then something crawled out after."
"Then..."
"Maybe they triggered something inside. For now, let's block this off."
Normally I'd slap up a simple barrier, but I can't right now.
I summoned two necro golems to stand guard at the entrance, and with Kwak Dae-yong's help, piled up some nearby scrap metal for a makeshift barricade.
'Gotta defend against outsiders too.'
I positioned Achilles and the other necro golems at key spots, setting up the best defenses possible for now.
"This hold? What if more comes?"
"We'll deal when it does. It's just temporary. Hold it down till I get back."
"Huh? Get back? Wait, where you going?"
"Got some investigating to do. Plus, check Sangnok Mountaineers' reaction while moving. And follow these tracks."
I pointed to the clear marks on the ground.
Like an elephant dragging its belly along. Then it shifts to tracks of dozens of horses charging together.
The trail cuts off there... jumped? Must've leaped that far to topple the crane. Looks like it thrashed around over there like a great white beached on land.
The messy trail connects to hundreds of claw marks gouged into the ground. Frenzied spinning at high speed like it was insane. And next to it—yep, that completely crumpled halberd is the one Curtain Call carried lately.
No sign of Curtain Call's body, but with his weapon smashed, hard to call him safe.
"Weight around 10 tons."
"10 tons? What?"
"The monster that trashed this place."
Kwak Dae-yong lets out an "Ah." He wanted to hear it was a person, but these aren't human tracks.
"Sharp teeth and wings, hooves and clawed limbs, dozens of tentacles, runs faster than a train—can leap about 13 meters. Know what that is?"
"N-no clue on something that freaky."
I do.
One of the most famous monsters in the [Cthulhu World], or [Cthulhu Mythos], second maybe only to deep ones.
"Guard tight in case it shows. Gimme a radio too—need to report in."
* * *
10 km from the slaughterhouse-turned construction site, toward Sokcho.
Racing down beast paths or just bulldozing rocks and trees—KABOOM!
"Rolly—please. Slow down a bit—I'm not feeling great."
Grrrumble!
I begged, but Rolly, thrilled for a stroll after so long, just seemed to think 'Why stop the fun?' and kept gunning it. Ugh... Rolly. I'm dying...
GugugugugKA-BLAM!
If not for [Blood Volcano]'s defense boost, I might've actually died.
"Kreeee—"
Reddie's cry from overhead.
"We there? Rolly, seriously slow down now!"
I stretched out mana to yank Rolly's lid lever, and Rolly grumbled rr-rrumble, twisting (figuratively) before easing off.
"Ugh... exhausting. Nah, you did good, Rolly. Just take it slow on the way back."
Grr rumble—
Circumstances being what they are, can't complain about getting here fast.
Sky's already dark somehow.
Still around dusk, but thick, unnatural storm clouds blanket the heavens, trapping us in night.
And what I see at my destination: a worn, ancient building.
Gloomy amid the trees and woods, kinda like my [Hungry Manor], but this is a traditional single-story hanok.
Plus, the bamboo at the gate.
Wrapped in white and red cloths—that's a signpost saying a shaman lives here.
"Hmm... something feels off."
Not like I broke from the route randomly.
Normally, you'd chat with survivors at the site, pick up clues scattered around, and end up here.
But witnesses are all dead or missing, and clue items destroyed.
'What happened?'
To clear this quest, I need the shaman who lives here.
But...
Creeeak—clunk—
THUD!
Just a light touch, and the gate collapses backward.
"Someone's already been here."
Yesterday?
I cautiously entered the shrine, scanning around.
But the shaman who should be waiting...
Was already dead.