Chapter 11
Chapter 11
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: Reason to Level Up
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The first-floor lobby was a total mess.
The first thing that caught my eye was the blood-soaked reception desk.
Bloodstains had dried on the floor, walls, and scattered sofas as well.
'It seems like some time has passed.'
The bloodstains had turned dark and discolored.
Judging by the amount, there must have been a major fight here.
Weeeeng
I swatted away the annoying flying insects buzzing around and surveyed the lobby.
I sharpened my senses and focused my mind.
This was the 'Target Detection' skill.
It wasn't like tensing my limbs.
'It's working...'
I'd felt my senses expand when I used the skill through the wall from the police box.
Recalling that sensation, I scanned the first floor.
"No one's here. No monsters either."
I took a broad look around the lobby and spoke up.
Jang Ho-seop dropped his invisibility and appeared smoothly.
"Bro, what about over there?"
Jang Ho-seop pointed to the areas partitioned off by temporary walls.
"I checked everywhere."
"This is insane."
He marveled at my skill once more.
"No, it's straight-up cheating. You didn't even open the doors... Can you check the second floor from here, by any chance?"
I shook my head.
The range of the 'Target Detection' skill wasn't spherical.
It was flattened, like a squished steamed bun.
"Let's check it thoroughly anyway."
"Got it."
Consultation rooms, break rooms, and so on.
I visually confirmed every separated room.
Not even a corpse in sight.
"Nothing here."
After finishing the first-floor check, we pressed on more boldly.
Trusting the Target Detection skill, we headed to the second floor.
No living people or monsters there either.
Just horrific traces everywhere.
"Man, it's way too empty. There are so many bloodstains, though..."
"Yeah. It's eerily quiet."
"The silence is giving me the creeps."
The elevator wasn't working.
We climbed to the third floor via the emergency stairs, and there were bloodstains galore here too.
"Ugh... No bodies, but why does it smell like this? Bad ventilation?"
It was a different stench from when I'd gutted that gnoll.
This was the smell of death.
And so, we ascended the stairs amid the nauseating odor we could never get used to.
We passed the third and fourth floors, all the way to the eighth.
No living people anywhere.
The sun was setting.
The intense glow of the sunset was gradually fading.
"Hoo... Hoo..."
Jang Ho-seop's breathing was ragged.
He'd been moving nonstop.
"Let's take a break."
"Hoo... I'm fine."
I sat first on a chair by the window.
The eighth floor was relatively cleaner than the others.
"Bro..."
"Sit down. I get you're worried, but you need to manage your condition."
"Yes. Sorry."
Jang Ho-seop collapsed onto the floor.
His face was ashen black.
We were in the middle of an exhausting day.
We'd started moving from sunrise and fought intense battles.
We'd been on high alert all day.
And this was already the third day.
No matter how healthy someone was, this would wear them down.
On top of that, worry about his mother.
Jang Ho-seop was holding on desperately right now.
"Level up."
"Pardon?"
"When your level goes up, your stamina improves. More than just from exercise."
I put it simply as stamina improving, but it was a bit different in reality.
"Like tolerance, I guess."
"Uh... Not sure what you mean."
"Even someone good at running gets tired fast in the ring."
"Yeah."
"Different muscles are used. Physical abilities needed are different, but we lump it all under 'stamina.'"
Muscle strength, endurance, explosiveness, flexibility, and so on.
There are tons of terms for physical abilities.
"Break it down, and there are really a lot."
"Right?"
"Leveling up improves all that. Your body itself gets better, literally."
That's how it felt to me.
Of course, since people are born with and build different things, there'd be variations.
"For me, the biggest benefit is the stamina boost."
"Ah..."
"You can fight longer and endure tougher situations better."
I'd undergone a major change around level 20.
It felt like surpassing human limits.
For example, if I did sergeant jumps right now, I could shatter the world record easily.
But more than visible changes, I welcomed the stamina improvement most.
"To survive... we have to level up no matter what."
Jang Ho-seop nodded in agreement.
"Yeah. No matter what your Fundamental Skill is."
I hadn't awakened some amazing Fundamental Skill like Jang Ho-seop's.
Someone else might have gotten something super powerful.
Still, I thought my Fundamental Skill was great.
"Levels are like the basics, huh."
As Jang Ho-seop said, levels were fundamental.
My Fundamental Skill helped solidify those basics even more.
So my choice to dive into combat aggressively hadn't been wrong.
"Shall we head up again?"
While resting and chatting, Jang Ho-seop's breathing had steadied.
"Yes. We need to finish before the sun sets..."
Jang Ho-seop forced himself to stand.
Just two floors left.
Ninth and tenth.
"If people fled to the upper floors, the monsters would've followed, right?"
"Yes."
"Yeah. Let's go."
Was Jang Ho-seop's mother still alive?
Soon enough, we'd see one way or another.
The ninth floor was quiet too.
Jang Ho-seop's expression was blank, but I could sense his emotions churning.
We finished checking and climbed the stairs again.
The moment we turned the landing and stepped forward.
"Jang Ho-seop."
"Yes."
I sensed something through Target Detection.
Something was beyond the tenth-floor entrance.
"It's right there when you open the door."
"What? A, a person?"
The presence was small.
And familiar.
"No. Feels like a goblin."
"Ah... Oh."
Jang Ho-seop despaired.
"Pull yourself together. We don't know yet."
All the goblins and gnolls we'd encountered so far had a habit of keeping people alive.
So his mother might still be alive.
"Hoo... Yes. I'm ready, bro."
"Good. Let's go."
After Jang Ho-seop took a deep breath and steadied himself.
We climbed the stairs and quietly opened the door.
Shiiiik. Thuk.
Four goblins were huddled right in front of the door.
I charged in and thrust my iron rod.
"Kik?"
These ones were slow to react.
Like fat pigs.
As I turned my body, I pulled back the rod I'd stabbed with and used the centrifugal force to smash another goblin's head.
Crack!
Before they could even stand, I took out two more.
Jang Ho-seop throttled the last one.
"Kiaak!"
The moment we cleared the goblins at the door.
A goblin emerging from one of the rooms into the hallway let out a loud cry.
"Kiruk."
"Kiiik."
The tenth floor had tons of rooms.
Newborn nursery, observation room, bath room, break room, etc.
Goblins poured out from every one, and soon the hallway was swamped in green.
"Bro."
"Use Invisibility."
"Got it."
We could fall back and fight like with the gnoll pack.
But I chose to break through head-on.
Thud thud thud.
I rushed toward the goblin horde filling the hallway.
I thrust out my iron rod and shoved with all my strength.
The goblins toppled over in a heap.
Thud, thud, crack!
I bashed their heads with my gloved fists.
Their ugly faces caved in completely.
"Kukuk."
No reason for me to run.
Because I was over level 20.
Goblins weren't my match, even in a group.
We won.
The goblins' movements looked slow to my eyes.
One solid punch, and their heads just caved.
"Bro."
"Good work."
Jang Ho-seop fought aggressively too.
Using his invisibility to flank them from behind.
Our chat during the break must've motivated him.
Plus the desperation to save his mom.
"You okay?"
Still, Jang Ho-seop fought relatively safely.
Thanks to me drawing aggro.
He looked pristine.
Me? I clashed head-on with the goblins.
The police uniform I'd just changed into was splattered with goblin blood.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's search quick."
"Got it."
No injuries though.
After a brief check on each other, we started searching the rooms.
"Fuck..."
Jang Ho-seop muttered a curse under his breath.
The gruesome scenes continued.
Human bones piled haphazardly everywhere.
Shit and piss too.
We found a few living people, but none were sane.
Thud.
Jang Ho-seop sank to the floor.
We'd checked the entire tenth floor.
No need to ask.
His mother wasn't here.
I left Jang Ho-seop alone and handled the survivors.
None had hope left.
In the midst of that, I had a short talk with one man.
"Rooftop... Fuckers. The rooftop."
"People on the rooftop?"
"Yeah... Cough. Put those bastards in cells... Urgh."
The man's leg bone was exposed clean.
Goblins had eaten the flesh off him while alive.
Writhed in pain, he still mentioned the rooftop.
Then said he wanted relief now.
I said okay and ended his suffering.
"Hic... Sniff."
I returned to the room with Jang Ho-seop.
The kid was sobbing quietly, suppressing his voice.
"People on the rooftop."
"What?"
"Let's check the rooftop."
Jang Ho-seop jumped up in surprise.
We hurried to the stairs.
"Bro, this..."
"Yeah. Looks locked."
There were especially many bloodstains on the stairs to the rooftop.
Handprint-shaped stains on the walls, and fallen nails on the floor.
The area around the rooftop door was the worst.
Hard to even tell the wall's original color.
Clank clank.
As expected, the door was locked.
And it was a steel door.
All other floors had glass doors.
Bang bang bang.
"Anyone there?"
Jang Ho-seop knocked on the door.
No response at first, but after a while, a human voice came.
"Who is it?"
"Please open the door. It's safe now."
The man on the other side asked repeatedly.
Confirming if it was really safe.
What happened to the goblins.
"Look, we're talking right now. If goblins were left..."
The standoff between frustrated Jang Ho-seop and the man dragged on.
"What if they're using you guys on purpose..."
"Then what? You gonna live there forever?"
Jang Ho-seop finally snapped.
"Come out."
I pulled Jang Ho-seop back and grabbed the fire extinguisher from the stairs.
Bang.
One hit shattered the doorknob.
I kicked the door open and stepped onto the rooftop.
"Wha-what?"
A man in a white doctor's coat was sitting slumped.
Seemed late forties.
A few more people in the rooftop corner.
Bucket filled with water, and traces of bodily functions in the opposite corner.
They'd been holding out here since the first day of the cataclysm.
"Cops?"
The slumped doctor looked surprised at Jang Ho-seop and me.
Then he stood and yelled out of nowhere.
"Why'd the cops show up so late!"
Everyone else was pale-faced, but this guy had a loud voice.
"What about the others? Is this everyone? Any nurses here..."
Jang Ho-seop scanned faces and asked the doctor.
"I saw them earlier. Two cops coming in."
"And if you made it up here..."
"Yeah. We survived. We survived!"
The gathering crowd's chatter drowned out Jang Ho-seop's question.
"Hey. Just the two of you? That... special forces or whatever backup? You think two's enough!"
In the chaos, the doctor pointed at me and raised his voice.
"Hey, mister, don't talk like that..."
Jang Ho-seop glanced at me and tried to stop the doctor.
It was noisy.
Everyone talking at once made conversation impossible.
The sun had set, and it was getting dark.
Shapes were still discernible, but it'd get pitch black soon.
"Talking casually the issue now? Look at the situation!"
The doctor slapped his palm loudly, shouting the loudest.
I approached him.
"I don't know what's going on, but the government... Huh?"
I grabbed his wrist.
"Wh-what? What're you doing? Let go."
With my other hand, I gripped his index and middle fingers together and squeezed.
Crack.
"Gaaah!"
I snapped his fingers.
Easy as breaking chicken bones at the joint.
The doctor screamed in agony.
"Kyaa! Director! Hey! What the hell..."
I shoved away the woman clinging to me.
She tumbled to the ground.
"You crazy fuck! Do you know who I am?"
The doctor fumed, face red.
Still not ready to talk.
Thud.
I punched his gut.
"Guhk."
The doctor crumpled.
I grabbed his intact index and middle fingers on the other hand and snapped them too.
"Grrrk... Gruuuh."
It got quiet.
People finally shut their mouths.
"Bro..."
"Ask now."
Jang Ho-seop stared at me wide-eyed, then turned to the people.
"We're looking for someone."
His mother was one of the head nurses at this hospital.
So they quickly caught on who we meant.
"Um..."
"Yes. Please speak."
"I've been here the whole time."
A woman mentioned there might be more survivors.