251. Guangdong Province (4)
251. Guangdong Province (4)
Vrooooooom─
The Gleus 666's exhaust note hummed quietly as it raced over the rough road surface.
But inside, there wasn't even the slightest vibration.
"Hwaaaaah─! This ride quality is insane! Awesome! You don't even need to start the engine! It moves on its own! This is really the Gleus 666!?"
Lee Yu-ri, sitting in the driver's seat, made a fuss in an excited voice.
Since it was so obvious Lee Yu-ri desperately wanted to drive the car, I yielded the first test drive to her.
At first, she hesitated, saying, 'Are you really sure? You're not supposed to let someone else do the first drive...'
But the moment I said, "Are we really 'someone else' to each other?", Gukbap happily grabbed the steering wheel.
"Whoaaaa! I don't even need to hold the steering wheel. The curves are automatic!"
'Yeah, as long as you're having fun.'
"Huh!? You don't even need to step on the accelerator? The gear adjusts itself too!"
However.
Gradually, a subtle note crept into Lee Yu-ri's voice.
"...Huh? The brakes too? A smart self-driving system that automatically takes the fastest route as long as you just select your destination...?"
Perhaps because it was such a cutting-edge, top-of-the-line vehicle, the Gleus 666 required absolutely no driver intervention whatsoever.
The only thing to do was sit there blankly and stare ahead.
To be honest, since it was even equipped with an auto-defense system, you could just lie back and sleep without any problem at all.
"S-so, doesn't that make sitting in the driver's seat completely meaningless...?"
Sitting in the passenger seat, I let out a chuckle at her words.
"So? How does it feel to drive the dream car that hunters chase their whole lives?"
"......"
At that, Lee Yu-ri pressed her lips tightly shut.
Her expression looked as if a fantasy had crumbled in an instant.
"It's empty... Reality has a much bitterer aftertaste than I thought..."
*
After Lee Yu-ri started driving, roughly 6 hours passed.
"Take over, Jin Yu-ha. Well, I wonder if there's even a need to take over... Still, I'm gonna go lie down in the back and at least catch some shut-eye."
Lee Yu-ri swapped with me and went into the back seat.
Shasha Pong sat down in the seat next to me.
Vroooooom─
Before we knew it, night had fallen and the surroundings had grown dark.
The road to Guangdong Province had not a single streetlight; it was pitch black and eerily quiet to an unnatural degree.
Gnaw, gnaw.
Shasha Pong, sitting next to me, stared intently ahead while anxiously biting her nails over and over.
"Stop biting."
I grabbed her hand to stop her from chewing her nails.
At that, Shasha Pong turned her head.
Her pupils were shaking with anxiety.
Since I knew what she was worried about, I spoke.
"Your father will be alright."
"...Really, will he be okay?"
"Yeah. Normally, it might have been too late. But you brought that with you, didn't you?"
I glanced toward the back with a look.
"Hoooohhh...!"
There was Ga-eul sunbae, still looking half-dead while charging the White Magic Stone.
"You said that as long as that thing shines, he'll be fine, right? So trust us and wait. We'll save your father."
Stroke, stroke─
I smiled, stroking Shasha Pong's head.
"Thank you... Really..."
Shasha Pong's words trailed off as she nodded her head weakly.
That was when it happened.
Screeeeech─
The vehicle suddenly came to a halt.
I narrowed my eyes and stared at the darkness-draped road ahead.
'Hah, it detected the enemy faster than me? This thing's the real deal.'
Having spotted the bastards clustered up ahead, I let out a scoff.
"Shasha Pong."
"Yes?"
"Wake up the kids in the back and tell them all to come outside. And you, don't you dare move from inside the car."
* * *
The moment my party members and I stepped outside the vehicle.
Wooooong─
A translucent hexagonal barrier materialized over the Gleus 666, enveloping the car.
The auto-defense system had activated.
Thump, thump─
I lightly tapped the barrier with my fist and thought.
'The car's performance really is insane. With this, I don't have to worry about the rear.'
Right now, the car held Shasha Pong, who was powerless, and Ga-eul sunbae, who was charging the White Magic Stone.
I had considered whether to leave someone behind to protect them before the battle.
But if the vehicle protects them on its own like this, that's one less thing to worry about.
"What's going on?"
"Hwaaaaahm─"
"Is it a rest stop...?"
The party members who came outside stretched as they spoke.
No matter how comfortable it was, they must have felt stuffy being cooped up in the car the whole time.
Among them, Kang Do-hee stared into the pitch-black darkness and spat out.
"Enemies."
"Yeah, that's right. It means we're getting close to our destination now. We could just ignore 'em and keep driving, but I figured it'd be better to clean them up here."
"Hmm, all the streetlights around are out, so I can't see very well?"
Shin Se-hee looked ahead and then stretched her hand forward.
Whoooooosh─
A gigantic fireball blazed up above her head.
And then, the bastards' forms were revealed.
"...!"
"Wh-what is that...?"
"Insane."
"Horrifying."
Everyone made expressions that showed their drowsiness had instantly evaporated.
They couldn't help it.
The appearance of the creatures that had appeared was excessively grotesque.
At a glance, they looked human, but they were not human.
A ghastly sight, as if monster flesh had been crudely stitched onto a human body.
Their eyeless, pure-white pupils, gaping mouths, and the way drool dripped down made them look exactly like zombies from a horror movie.
─ Grrrrrrrr...
─ Graaaaaahhh...
If there had just been one or two of them, it wouldn't have been that big of a deal.
But nearly a hundred of these things were clustered up ahead.
Shin Se-hee, who had been staring at them, let out a groan.
"...Are they all."
"That's right. The Shin family's failed experiments. Chimeras."
I nodded at her words.
"Shin Se-hee, can you make the fire a little bigger?"
"...Huh? Oh, sure."
Whoooooosh─!!!
At my words, Shin Se-hee increased the size of the fire.
A flame blazing fiercely, casting a ferocious light like a sun that had risen at night.
And then.
─ Gruhgh...!?
A couple of chimeras that were far away suddenly whipped their heads around.
The bastards had spotted us.
No, to be precise, we made them spot us.
─ Kreeeeaaagh!!!
From far away, the bastards began charging forward, screeching hideously.
And following them, even the ones that had been milling about in the back started running once one of them took off.
A situation reminiscent of a scene straight out of a zombie movie.
"Now that I think about it, Shin Se-hee, this is the first time you're fighting alongside us, isn't it?"
I asked in a light voice to ease my party members' tension.
"Jin Yu-ha, it stings when you say it like that. We fought together when we took down the Fire Dragon too, remember? And just recently, we went to the library together as well."
"Ah, right. My bad."
"Back then, all Flowerbed did was light fires from the back. As far as I know, this is the first time for a full-scale battle like this. I wonder if she'll even be able to keep up with us."
Kang Do-hee provoked Shin Se-hee.
At that, Shin Se-hee let out a laugh, "Ha─".
"It sounds like you're looking down on me, thinking I just sit at a desk every day. It seems you've forgotten, but I am Cheonhwa."
"Cheonhwa my foot, you're a snake."
Listening to the two of them bicker.
I formulated a strategy internally.
'Hmm, with Ga-eul sunbae missing, that's two Specials, two Damage Dealers. And one Tank. One Healer...'
Having run the simulation in my head, I lifted the corner of my mouth into a grin.
With this combination, I can pull off some pretty fun stuff.
* * *
'Good heavens, how can there be so many...!'
Shasha Pong, sitting in the passenger seat, gaped at the Chimeras before her eyes.
She knew what those things were.
Failed experiments sacrificed in live-body testing.
Her mother would forcibly bring people in and send them to a place where suspicious figures conducted bizarre research.
And those who failed in the process were discarded near Guangdong Province.
In order to prevent unfamiliar intruders from entering Guangdong.
However, even up until a month ago when she fled from home, the number of failures had not been this large.
Because of that, she had been able to somehow slip through a gap and escape back then.
Now, there seemed to be no chance at all.
'Did I do something pointless...?'
A deep regret surged in her chest that she had, out of momentary selfishness, dragged the Utopia people into her own affairs and ended up sacrificing them.
Just then.
"Huff, huff──. It's okay."
"Huh...? Are you talking to me?"
As she turned her head toward the voice heard from beside her.
She saw the older girl named Im Ga-eul.
A pitiful sight, drenched in sweat all over like a drowned rat, her hair soaking wet.
"Huff, huff. Hey, can you hand me that water in front?"
"Ah, yes. Here you go."
Shasha Pong handed a water bottle to Im Ga-eul.
Im Ga-eul took the bottle and chugged the water down, gulp gulp gulp.
"Phew─ Now I can live! Anyway, I said that because you looked worried. There's no need to worry."
"What do you mean? There are so many enemies right now..."
At that, Im Ga-eul swept her wet hair back, tied it up tight, and spoke.
"Hmm, well, they're my hoobaes whom I truly cherish and adore, but... honestly, they're just monsters."
"...Monsters?"
"Yeah. My hoobaes tend not to realize it themselves, but I know because I've attended the academy for a year longer."
Im Ga-eul turned her gaze and looked out the car window.
"Just what an absurd group Utopia is..."
Shasha Pong also turned her head, following Im Ga-eul's gaze.
And then.
She saw it.
A festival of fiery red rain blazing down from the sky.
"So, what I mean is, since you've entrusted this matter to us, nothing you're worried about is going to happen. It'll be fine."
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaang─!!!!