Cat-nim's Feast
Guardian 068 Guardian ‘Cat-nim…?’ I tried to turn my head, but she placed a hand on my cheek to stop me. Her hand was warm and soft. It felt fluffy, like a real cat’s paw pads. “Be careful. With your current mental strength, you won’t be able to withstand looking at me directly. Like that guy over there.”
Following Cat-nim’s words, I saw Park Gibeom. His face was blank, eyes unfocused. ‘So that’s what happens?’ Yet I felt no fear. It was because I could sense genuine concern in Cat-nim’s voice. It was as if some vast existence were carefully handling a precious creature it could destroy with the slightest effort.
“Nyahaha… These fools. They came for your soul.”
Her tone was the same as usual. But beneath it, I could feel a chilling rage. Cat-nim raised her hand into the air. When she extended a single pale finger and sliced through empty space, the path she traced tore open. Ziiik— No, perhaps it would be more accurate to say Stage 4 itself was being torn apart. Everything along her fingertip vanished. The sky, the clouds, the ghosts, even the world itself. The world was erased in a straight line, and the surrounding sky warped to fill the void.
Then came Cat-nim’s laughter. “Nyahaha. Delicious.”
The ghosts panicked. They circled frantically in the high sky, trying to escape Stage 4. But something was wrong—they couldn’t flee and remained trapped inside my Stage 4, screaming. Eaten, eaten, eaten. Save us, save us, save us, save us. Even from a great distance, their thoughts manifested as sound and hammered against Stage 4. Cat-nim raised her finger again. The gesture was casual, like someone deciding which snack to eat first. Then she dragged it across once more. Stage 4 was devoured again. This was no figure of speech. The world truly crumpled, and everything was being crushed into that spot as if a black hole had formed.
‘Wait… Is, is this okay?’
“Nyahaha! Free snacks!”
I read the message that had appeared earlier—the one I hadn’t been able to check amid the chaos.
[■■■ ■■■ ■■■ has partially descended into Stage 4.]
[Warning. Prepare for death.]
The content was clearly different from when the ‘Lord of a Hundred Ghosts’ had appeared. Cat-nim’s name remained in an area I still couldn’t access. At that moment, a phone rang. Ring… ring… It was Cat-nim’s phone. She paused her snack time and answered.
“What?”
[This is Special Operations Team Leader ■■■■. Pardon me, but are you currently in combat?]
“Nya… No.”
Click. The call ended. Cat-nim casually raised her finger and took another large bite out of Stage 4. “Nyahaha. Delicious!”
Ring… ring…
“What now?”
[This is Special Operations Team Leader ■■■■. The corporation ‘Yeon’ has been repeatedly sending emergency distress signals. The designated recipient is ■■■. Whatever you are doing, you must stop…!]
“Nya…” Cat-nim fell silent for a moment before speaking again. Once more, that deep rage. “Yeon, so that’s where you were?”
Click. Cat-nim’s long claws pointed not at the sky, but directly beside us. She tore open a small gap. Beyond it lay a dark-red world where blue lights flew wildly through the air. The sight alone made my stomach churn. Cat-nim gently stroked my cheek, then covered my eyes with her hand. The next instant, she vanished through the gap.
Thus, Cat-nim exited my Stage 4. Can leave, can leave, can leave. With Cat-nim gone, an exit seemed to have opened—the ghosts also fled swiftly through the tear in the sky. Like filthy sewage being sucked into a drain, the vile demons retreated. Perfect silence followed.
‘What… what just happened…?’
I was still dazed, but what needed to be done was clear. Cat-nim had eaten too much of Stage 4, and the world was collapsing. The sky was riddled with cracks, as if the end were imminent. I had to leave immediately. I quickly stored the zombies away. I didn’t forget to collect Park Gibeom’s halted resources as well. While looting items and goods, a middle-aged woman rose smoothly from the ground. The monster of the plains. She spoke with an apologetic expression.
“I’m sorry. I wanted to help, but… I thought if they came, I wouldn’t be able to evacuate my son…”
I shook my head. The ‘Lord of a Hundred Ghosts’ wasn’t something even she could have opposed. Rather, I was grateful she had returned to apologize. “It’s fine. I received far more compensation than the help I gave. By the way… this place looks like it’s about to collapse. Will you be all right?”
The woman stared at me for a moment. Then she took a small flask from her bosom and handed it to me. “Don’t worry about us. And this is an apology. I promised to shelter you from wind and rain, but I couldn’t. This is instead.”
Inside the flask, small tentacles were tangled together. Quite a curious item. But now wasn’t the time to study items, so I stored it for the moment. The woman said she needed to evacuate as well and sank back into the ground. They must have their own methods.
After she left, Baengnae arrived with the wyverns. Baengnae had also been freed by Cat-nim’s appearance and had rushed straight here. I shouted at once. “We need to move to Stage 5!”
The sky was now cracking like shattered glass. Even an idiot could tell staying here any longer was a bad idea. I picked the healthiest-looking wyvern, climbed aboard, and stored the rest. “Go! Fly, quickly!”
Crack-crack-crack— An ominous sound echoed across the heavens. A warning to leave immediately. This wasn’t something that could be stopped by physical force. ‘Cat-nim! Why is your cleanup always so sloppy!’
We found twenty dark elves at the fortress the Flame Knights had been guarding. The puppets were all halted, so there was no battle. I immediately ended the elves’ lives. Fortunately, the [Combat End] button appeared. The knights hadn’t hidden any prisoners separately. ‘Whew…’
Just before pressing the button to Stage 5, I looked around at the halted puppets. Medieval troops that perfectly reflected Park Gibeom’s tastes. They looked exactly like the ones I’d seen endlessly in his notes. ‘What a tiresome, cursed connection. Farewell.’
He really had been a terrible boss. But if I ranked the truly vile people, Park Gibeom wouldn’t even come close to the top. There were far too many absurd pieces of trash in the world. ‘Still, the world just got a little cleaner.’
I pressed [Check Reward] and moved on.
[Combat End]
[Check Reward]
***
Creak— creak—
I sat on a small raft, blankly watching the zombies row. A tiny boat less than three pyeong in total area. And all around stretched an endless sea with no visible end. I had entered Stage 5. And this ocean was the setting of Stage 5. There was no land here. More precisely, there had never been a single recorded case of land being found. Yet Stage 5 was called the Steel Archipelago. Users began their adventure on a small raft. While drifting across the sea, they encountered various floating debris. From the small raft I was currently on, to yachts, squid boats, cruise ships, even warships—every kind of vessel imaginable. The journey of connecting all the floating debris encountered to build a massive island. That was why this place was called the Steel Archipelago. Because it was the stage where one built their own island made of steel.
“Found it! Found it! Baengnae found it!”
Baengnae, sitting at the front of the boat, spotted something and shouted excitedly. Of course, I could see it too. The “front” was really just my lap. A small raft was slowly drifting toward us from the direction Baengnae pointed. A treasure chest sat atop it. ‘Is it supplies, I wonder?’
Every piece of floating debris contained at least one treasure chest. Users called the beneficial chests that gave food or items “supplies.” But supplies weren’t the only things inside. Sometimes troublesome things came out instead. Because of this trait, users often called the chests “random boxes.” Common sense suggested that small debris mostly yielded supplies. But I didn’t believe it. Having been burned several times by the community’s false common knowledge, I’d developed a habit of suspicion. In my estimation, the probability was probably the same for all of them. It was just that the “misses” from small debris instantly killed newbies, leaving few reviews behind. Naturally, this led to the strange phenomenon where small debris only had supply reviews.
‘Well, it doesn’t matter to me anyway.’
After attaching the raft, I summoned Kim Unsu, my former department chief and former colleague. Department Chief Kim, who had been captured as a puppet by Park Gibeom. Now turned into a zombie, he had crossed into the sea with me. “Chief Kim. You know what that is, right?”
“Urrgh… Random box…?”
I hadn’t just turned anyone into a zombie and brought them along. I had only selected the ones with bad behavior, the ones who looked down on others, and accepted them as members of my journey. And Kim Unsu was one of them. “That’s right. It’s a random box from Stage 5. If opening it gives supplies, I’ll attach one more arm for you.”
Right now, Chief Kim only had a head and a left arm. That wasn’t my doing—the human who had remained inside the puppet had only that much left. Inanimate puppets couldn’t be turned into zombies. Kim Unsu looked up at me with an anxious face. “Th-then… what if it’s not supplies…?”
I looked at him incredulously. “If it’s not supplies, then Chief Kim won’t be traveling with us from that point onward. Why even ask?”
“R-right…”
He crawled on all fours toward the random box. I widened the distance between the rafts just in case. Click.
BOOM—
The moment Chief Kim opened the box, he exploded into hundreds of fragments. The zombie pieces plopped into the sea. “Aigoo, it was a dud. Must’ve been a bomb.”
Baengnae, who had thought it was supplies, pouted. Supplies usually contained delicious food, so Baengnae had clearly been looking forward to it. I patted Baengnae. “Next one will be supplies.”
“Mmm… Madda.”
There was no need to worry even if more random boxes appeared. Park Gibeom had “supplied” plenty of former colleagues who were still left. “For now, let’s connect the rafts.”
My raft had doubled in size. Finally, I could stretch my legs while sitting.