That Day
The day when Rox was trying to drag Tiss underground.
The children were buzzing with excitement for their long-awaited outing.
Inside the park enclosed by a thin, transparent soap-bubble-like barrier, the blue sky and fresh grass were maintained.
Welcome to all citizens who visited the MX-46A7 District Park.
The park was under the control of the National Management Bureau and operated to maintain a safe environment, with all activities recorded.
This park is operated under the control of the National Management Bureau and all activities are recorded to maintain a safe environment.
Even the teachers and children were used to hearing these guidance broadcasts.
Only citizens with permits may enter this park and use the facilities. If you enter without a permit, the automatic detection system will activate immediately and a fine will be imposed.
If you violate this, be aware that the severity of the punishment may vary depending on the citizen's rank. The Bureau strives to maintain the safety and order of all citizens and thanks you for your cooperation.
If you violate this, be aware that the severity of the punishment may vary depending on the citizen's rank. The Bureau strives to maintain the safety and order of all citizens and thanks you for your cooperation.
The nursery had spent a precious two hours to enter the park for the children.
The children ran around happily at the beautiful natural scenery they hadn't seen in a long time.
“Are these kids this happy?”
“Yes! I love it! Teacher!”
“We’ll have lunch at twelve, so play freely until then.”
“Yes!”
The pure and bright reactions of the children made the cost seem worth it.
The thoroughly managed hygienic playground equipment, neatly arranged walking paths, and flower beds brought peace to the heart just by looking at them.
“Kyaaaa!”
The children ran and played to their hearts’ content, breathing in the purified air as if to show they would make the best use of the special time prepared by the nursery.
“Oppa! Look at this!”
“Sia, go slowly. You’ll fall.”
“Oppa, hurry~”
Siwoo and Sia found the sight unfamiliar.
The outside world where they had wandered, fought hunger, and survived was completely different from the park in the same city, even though it was a place inside the city.
Even if the wounds and pain didn’t disappear, if these bright and happy memories continued, it would become a stepping stone for them to grow into adults who could stand on the past, rise up, and recall the past.
Siwoo and Sia, who entered the flower bed where butterflies flew, began to try one by one what they had asked Tiss about doing and playing in the park.
“Here… completed!”
Sia held up the completed dandelion crown with a proud smile.
“You made it well. It’s exactly like what Tiss made?”
The dandelion crown in Sia’s skilled hands was at the level of perfectly reproducing the picture in the book.
“Right? I made it as hard as Tiss unnie taught me.”
Hahaha.
Siwoo smiled along at his younger sister’s bright smile without a care.
“Oppa, oppa, what if Tiss unnie comes and gives this? Will she be happy?”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea. Tiss will definitely like it.”
“Right? Hehe.”
Sia imagined Tiss’s happy face when she received the crown.
Imagining her praising it as “You made this?” and calling her amazing, she ended up smiling widely.
“You like it that much?”
“Yes! All of it! I like everything.”
Sia, who had been laughing, looked at the nursery with a look of regret.
“When will Tiss unnie come?”
“She said she’d help the teachers and join, so she probably won’t come before lunch.”
“It would be nice if she came quickly and played together.”
It was just the pure heart of a child who wanted to share this joy with others.
Kwaaaang!
Suddenly, something completely unexpected happened.
The ground began to shake as if an earthquake had struck, accompanied by an enormous sound.
“Everyone stay calm! Gather in the open area and lie down!”
Whether it was an earthquake or not, the teachers quickly moved the children to an open space, lay on the ground, and covered their heads and necks with their hands.
“Uwaaaang!”
The children cried out in fear at the sudden situation, but they still gathered bravely according to the teachers’ instructions and waited for the situation to end.
“What on earth is going on all of a sudden.”
“Ah, without any warning… this can’t be.”
“Is this terrorism? Are the villains going on a rampage?”
The citizens enjoying their break in the park were just as confused by the sudden commotion.
If it had been an earthquake, the Bureau would have detected it in advance and issued an evacuation broadcast.
However, after the vibration had almost subsided, no guidance broadcast came out.
At that moment when people were confused by the strangeness.
“Look over there.”
“Oh my god…”
The cause of the earlier earthquake had entered the park.
A massive pillar of fire was rising into the sky.
Thud!
“O, oppa?!”
“Sia, run!”
Siwoo immediately grabbed Sia’s hand and started running at the sight of the rising flames.
Siwoo shouted at Sia, who was hesitating while looking at the fallen crown on the ground.
“It’s not the time to pick that up now! We have to get out of here right now!”
Thump-thump.
The instinct screamed at him to sound the alarm.
“Yes!”
Sia, who had lost her composure at the sight of her brother who never got angry at anything, immediately sensed that something terrible had happened and started running after Siwoo.
Run now or you’ll die.
And the moment they realized the direction of the explosion was toward the nursery, their hearts sank.
They ran and ran, desperately denying the fact.
The mushroom-cloud-shaped flames rising up showed no sign of stopping.
The flames that rose endlessly finally collided with the outer perimeter barrier surrounding the city.
Kwaaaang!
“Kyaak!”
People watching the shockwave from the secondary explosion rolled on the ground.
Crack.
Noise occurred in the semi-transparent blue barrier covering the wall and it began to collapse.
“A hole… appeared.”
The barrier disappeared.
Beyond that was not human territory but their own.
From the hole connected to the outer area, something wriggling began to pour out.
It looked like the bizarre life forms one might see in a nightmare.
Monstrous creatures with grotesque shapes, large tentacles, and antennae flying in the sky, crawling on the walls, and roaring.
■■■■■■!
It was a roar bursting from the joy of finding prey.
The enemy of humanity.
A monster.
“W-what is that.”
Whyyyyy!!!
Like a cry that had been blocked, the siren sound began to echo everywhere.
Warning, warning. Barrier damage. Unidentified life form intrusion detected.
Monster invasion incident. Monster invasion incident. All citizens, move immediately to the shelter. This broadcast is an actual situation. Repeat, this is not a drill but an actual situation. All citizens, move quickly to a safe place.
Whyyyyy!!!
The monster had invaded the city.
It was a large-scale incident that hadn’t happened in years since the barrier was placed over the wall.
The park, a small paradise for the citizens, had turned into a hell in an instant.
People began to rush to the entrance, and the park staff hurriedly drew their weapons and started firing at the approaching monsters.
However, their weapons, which were neither hunters nor heroes, were weak and did little damage to the desperate monsters.
Thud-thud.
“Kwaaaak!”
A monster resembling a giant beetle flew in with a bullet hole all over its body, dripping ichor, and bit the staff’s neck.
Starting with him, the front line collapsed in an instant and the park was dyed with blood.
Kieeeeeek!
In the chaos mixed with the monsters’ roars, the nursery teachers did their best against the relentless wave of monsters.
They somehow managed to evacuate the terrified children to the entrance.
When the monsters approached, the teachers began to confront them using their abilities.
However.
Even if they were Gregory cult fanatics, they were only familiar with fighting humans.
Ability users who hadn’t received proper combat training facing monsters was…
“Kyaak!”
“Teacher…”
“Everyone… run… hurry!”
It was impossible from the start.
Even knowing the fact, the teachers desperately shouted to save the children and threw themselves into the fight.
To buy even one more second for the children to escape.
It was not Shan’s command or Tiss’s request.
Before they were members of the Gregory cult, they were also poor, wandering people who had grown up in the nursery.
In the ruins of the city with no place to stay, the nursery had become their new home and the children were their family.
The teachers, regardless, threw away their lives without hesitation according to their own convictions.
…
…
Run.
Run and run.
Like in the hell when the first gate had exploded, everyone was despairing and calling out to God.
A man appeared.
“A-rank hunter Chris! Everyone follow me!”
The slender young man with neat beard and sharp eyes waved his black coat and drew the jade-shining sword at his waist.
Swish.
When he swung his sword, the turquoise sword aura drew a sharp line and instantly split the air and extended.
A sword shot like a ray of light cleanly split the body of the giant monster with eight legs in half.
“Aaaah! A hunter!”
“Now we’re saved!”
Although only one hunter had appeared, the citizens sighed in relief.
It was because a firm belief that hunters could handle it was planted in everyone’s hearts.
Hunters who had gone out to the perimeter with the mission to protect people and hunt monsters that ate people.
The blade of humanity.
In this city, hunters were such beings.
Chris gritted his teeth and swung his sword as if to respond to the citizens’ faith.
Monsters that didn’t flinch even from bullets were mercilessly cut into pieces whenever Chris’s sword danced.
During this, Chris carefully watched Siwoo, who was desperately running away with Sia in his arms.
“As expected.”
The Children of Prophecy were right.
I never thought the little one’s words were true.
After a moment of admiration and joy, Chris made a decision.
“Even if this place becomes my grave today…”
The savior who would fight against the disaster and save humanity.
The hero of the new era.
If it was to protect that sprout, he would gladly burn this one life.
He would definitely save those two children.
Puuk.
Chris, who had injected the awakening medicine he always carried in his chest without hesitation due to side effects, stood in place and began to slaughter the monsters by shooting out sword auras.
The guy who came through it was not a single exception, and in one blow, he mercilessly separated the body and head.
The resolute will not to allow even a single monster in the direction where the children were was felt clearly by everyone there.
“Wow…”
“A hero.”
“No! That uncle is a hunter!”
“It’s the same for our hero.”
In the children’s eyes, Chris’s serious expression and flashy swordsmanship, which alone cut through dozens of monsters, perfectly overlapped with the heroes they had seen on television.
The fact that Chris was a hunter and not a hero was unimportant to the children.
What they saw from him was the appearance of someone fighting against danger and protecting their safety, which was itself a true hero.
Chris left a strong impression on more than half of the children who were impressed by his appearance, making them want to become future hunters.
“Amazing…”
Sia was unconsciously admiring, and Siwoo nodded with an excited face.
Soon after, hunters and heroes joined the battle and began to deal with the monsters pouring out from the holes.
…
…
Compared to the large-scale accident, the number of casualties was relatively small.
Thanks to the heroic sacrifices of the nursery teachers and the park staff who fulfilled their missions and Chris who bought time by sacrificing his body, there was time for heroes and hunters to arrive.
Those who made the heroic sacrifice would have their names engraved on the city’s hero monument, but for the survivors, there would only be the heavy responsibility and indelible scars to live with remembering their names.
The children of the nursery were all transported to a nearby temporary shelter and underwent simple medical procedures.
Even if not directly injured by the monsters, the hospital was in chaos with hundreds of patients.
“Uncle, is that the hunter who came to the nursery this morning?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
Siwoo, seeing Chris’s emaciated face, realized he was the hunter who had saved them in the park and the person who had come to the nursery.
“Uncle…! We have to go to our nursery!”
“H-hey, a friend is waiting!”
“Yeah, do whatever you can, uncle.”
Seeing Siwoo and Sia, who wanted to go back quickly because they were fine, Chris nodded.
For the two restless children, Chris used his hunter status to take them to the place where the nursery had been.
And.
Only a huge crater remained there.
Even now, firefighters and numerous heroes were busy cleaning up the scene.
“This can’t be… the nursery.”
“It’s gone.”
There was no trace left that such a facility had existed there.
“Tiss unnie…!”
Chris quickly grabbed Sia, who was about to run out.
Chris could intuit that even though there were two formal hunters besides him there, such an explosion had occurred, meaning the starting point of this incident was the nursery and it would be hard to find survivors.
“Uncle, what happened to Tiss unnie? What happened to the children here?”
“You know… the one I told you to go to was that child.”
When he left, they were all inside.
If other hunters or remaining teachers hadn’t evacuated them, it would be difficult to expect them to be alive.
“First, let’s contact the other temporary shelters.”
Thud.
Siwoo and Sia sat on the ground upon learning that Tiss had remained in the nursery when the explosion occurred.
They prayed and prayed.
Chris, who had been contacting various places and asking heroes and hunters, found the whereabouts of those who had remained in the nursery.
However, there was no Tiss in that place.
“T-that can’t be.”
“It seems there’s no name on the list. From the beginning, there was no child with that name in that nursery.”
The nursery had collapsed overnight, and their precious friend, whether Tiss was alive or dead, was unknown.
“T, Tiss unnie can’t be dead!”
“Sia…”
Sia cried out with tears streaming down.
It was shocking that the reliable Tiss had been swept away by the explosion, but she couldn’t accept the words that she didn’t even exist.
Shower…
Rain was pouring down.
“Unnie didn’t die… I promised with you, us… that we’d go play together. So unnie is alive.”
Until they confirmed with their own eyes, the two children could not accept the fact that Tiss was dead.
No, they decided to deny it.
Chris, waiting for the children to calm down, cautiously told his story.
“I, too, lost someone precious because of my own weakness. I hope you don’t repeat that pain.”
Thud.
Then he took out the Secret Society emblem from his pocket and showed it.
“The place where I belong is the Secret Society gathered to prevent such tragedies from happening again. If you…”
“Uncle.”
The children had already noticed what Chris was about to say.
“Please let us join the Secret Society.”
The tears flowing down the children’s cheeks mixed with the rain and flowed down.
“I want to become strong.”
In the face of those words spoken while chewing and swallowing with bloodshot eyes, there was even poison.
The shock and pain of losing Tiss completely changed the two children.
Siwoo and Sia went beyond defying the fate that only one of them could survive and decided to join the Secret Society to become strong on their own.
“Do you have a goal?”
“Please teach me how to protect my younger sister.”
Siwoo, who had realized that to not lose the last precious thing left to him, the only family, he had to become strong, began to pursue greater power to protect Sia.
And in the future.
Sia, upon hearing that the nursery explosion incident was caused by a monster called Abaddon’s Spawn,
“Teach me how to kill all monsters.”
He made up his mind to destroy all monsters.