The Idle Ones
Seoul Station has entrances at both the front and the back.
I arrived at the side facing the West Station.
In front of the West Station entrance lies a courtyard-like space, which connects directly to the road.
'They've built this up quite well.'
I could see a barrier surrounding the modest courtyard. It was semi-circular and about four meters high, constructed primarily from scrap cars and similar debris.
A corner of the barrier had finally collapsed under the assault of the monsters.
At the shout of a man, the people who had been defending the top of the wall scrambled backward.
"Kuaaaaaagh!"
"Kiririk."
"Keuh. Keong. Keong."
A swarm of monsters charged through the gap created by the breach. Because the passage was narrow, they couldn't flood in all at once. Even so, the Seoul Station faction seemed doomed. The number of monsters was simply too high, and the numerous traps outside the barrier had already been rendered useless.
Thud.
Having finished assessing the situation, I jumped out the window. I headed toward the rear of the monsters crowding into the narrow passage.
'They aren't even paying attention to me.'
The monsters were all looking straight ahead. I naturally merged into their ranks and calculated my path. There were many large entities like Orcs and Goblin warriors. It looked like I could run by stepping on their shoulders.
"Kireuk?"
A Goblin turned its head and finally spotted me. I crushed its skull and kept running.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Dash.
With a few leaps, I vaulted over the monsters. It was instantaneous, and I landed safely inside the barrier.
"Wh-who..."
As soon as I entered, I locked eyes with a fallen man. His lower body was pinned beneath the collapsed barrier. Despite the intense pain he must have been in, he couldn't hide his bewilderment at seeing me.
'Almost all of them are Awakened.'
Besides the man, there were a few others who hadn't been able to retreat. They were the ones injured in the aftermath of the wall's collapse.
"Kruaaaaaagh!"
While I was turning my head to grasp the surrounding situation, the Orc whose shoulder I had stepped on finished processing what had happened. It seemed unable to believe a human had stepped on its body. The Orc roared in fury and lunged at me.
Whoosh. Crack.
I swung my club casually and blew the Orc's head off.
"Ah..."
Seeing that, the man's eyes widened. The despair that had been radiating from him faded, and hope began to bloom.
I approached the man. The swarm of monsters was attacking from all sides.
"Kieeeeek!"
I swung my club around. It looked like I was swinging it aimlessly, but I was precisely targeting their heads. Thanks to the bit of mana I infused, the sturdy skulls of the monsters crumbled like cookies.
"H-help me!"
While I moved, easily disposing of the swarming monsters, the fallen man held onto something like an iron pipe and struggled to hold on. After pleading for my help, he bit into the neck of a monster that was gnawing on his shoulder.
Soon, countless monsters threw themselves at him to tear at his flesh.
"Guhhh."
The man's form soon vanished, and only pained groans could be heard. Seeing that, I put strength into my legs and launched my body. I focused my mind, further activating the mana throughout my entire body. It was a method of mana usage I had been practicing lately. Then, I poured more mana into my club and swung it with all my might.
Kwang!!!
With my horizontal swing, an Orc's body exploded. The monsters that had been lunging at the man were sent flying like bowling pins.
"Huk... huk... I, I'm... saved..."
The man, now with a clear view, muttered while looking at my face.
Crunch.
I lightly stepped on the man's neck. He had no chance of survival anyway. He had only been holding on through the tenacious vitality of an Awakened.
Thud.
The man died, and the experience points flowed in. I lifted my head to find my next target. This time, it was a woman making a desperate last stand with her back against the debris of the wall.
"Hold on a little longer!"
I raised my voice so she could hear me and shook off the monsters that were rushing at me without pause. I hurried to launch my body toward her. I couldn't let her die to the monsters. If she was destined to die anyway, it was more profitable to finish her off with my own hands.
That was how I thinned the number of people, one by one.
I fought frantically for a long time. I tried my best to catch even one more monster with my own hands as they poured in endlessly.
"We... we stopped them!!!"
"Waaaaaaaah!!!"
The people who had been holding out at Seoul Station cheered. Their shouts were directed at me.
"Hoo..."
I exhaled a long breath and lifted my head. The morning sun, now fully risen, was blinding. I was standing on a mountain made of monsters. My whole body was sticky, as if I had bathed in monster blood. Even so, I felt good. I had achieved everything I wanted.
'Even if I tried to gather them on purpose, I couldn't have gathered this many.'
That was the first thought that came to mind as I looked at the monster legion that had swarmed Seoul Station. I saw all the monsters as experience points. Since there were so many Goblins, the experience per individual was low, but when there were this many, it was a different story. There were also a few people who were too injured to move. Thanks to that, I leveled up and reached level 43. The experience gain per time was truly incredible.
'I'm also getting a feel for how to best utilize mana...'
If you activate too much mana, your destructive power increases, but you tire quickly and waste a lot of mana. If you exceed a certain level, your body can't handle it. There is a degree that suits me. If I maintain that level, mana efficiency increases, and I can fight for longer.
'How proficient I am at using mana is important, but my body is also important.'
That was the conclusion I reached. My stamina improves the most whenever I level up. Yet, I was currently extremely exhausted. I had used up almost all of my mana, which increased the least, and my body was worn out. It wasn't because the fight with the monster army was difficult, but because I had been experimenting with mana usage.
'If I just control it well, I think I could fight all day...'
It had been a long time since I felt this kind of exhaustion. Still, I didn't show it on the outside. I maintained a rigid posture and lowered my head.
"Excuse me... this."
A middle-aged man and woman had approached me. I accepted the water the woman offered. A common emotion could be felt from both of them.
'Astonishment.'
Following that, the emotions of countless people washed over me.
'Surprise, disbelief, fear, respect.'
They weren't much different from the emotions of the two.
"Wh-who... on earth are you?"
After I drank the water, the man asked in a trembling voice.
"My name is Lee Suhyun," I introduced myself. "I came from Samira."
"Ah, Samira..."
At the mention of Samira, the middle-aged couple was startled. At the same time, a small commotion broke out among the people of the Seoul Station faction who were watching us.
"Did you hear? They said Samira."
"The Samira I know?"
"Wow... I didn't know one person could be that strong."
Experience, mana utilization. And finally, the show of force that put the Seoul Station faction in my debt. The early morning battle was the best choice, achieving three goals with one stone.
I entered Seoul Station. I was treated with the utmost hospitality and finished my post-battle maintenance. It wasn't that I received anything that would draw admiration. I was simply provided with an environment to wash up and food to soothe my hunger. However, the reason I felt I was treated with such hospitality was because of their emotions.
"Thank you so much."
"Thank you once again. I hope you didn't lack for food..."
The middle-aged couple who had approached me right after the battle returned. These two were the couple leading the Seoul Station faction. While I was doing my personal maintenance, the two of them had also been busy moving around—clearing the battlefield and tending to the people. They must have still had a lot of work to do, yet they showed their faces again so soon.
"Please let us know if you need anything."
Furthermore, their attitude toward me was respectful. The two, who looked twice my age, didn't hesitate at all to bow their heads.
"I know you must be busy, so thank you for your concern."
So, I also showed courtesy. We exchanged a brief, humble conversation while wearing masks.
"Ah, let me introduce myself formally. I am Yook Dae-jang, leading the Seoul Station Hope Bunker."
"I am Cha Dong-ja. Thank you for saving us."
Seoul Station Hope Bunker was the official name of the Seoul Station faction.
"I am Lee Suhyun, leading Samira."
"Ah... as expected."
After exchanging names, I asked how so many monsters had gathered.
"We don't know the exact cause either. It's just a guess, but..."
Yook Dae-jang said it seemed to be the aftermath of a gate collapse. He said two gates had collapsed in succession nearby, and an enormous number of Goblins had poured out from there.
"There were many variant entities like Goblin shamans. I don't know how they did it, but they gathered the monsters in the area."
As the couple explained, they naturally used the terminology we had organized. As Yuri-an had said, they had been consistently checking the Square.
"And they definitely knew we were here."
"I see. Are you not clearing the gates?"
"Yes... our thinking was short-sighted."
However, what followed was a little different from Yuri-an's explanation and feeling.
"We also saw the posts Jang Hoseop uploaded and attempted to clear the gates several times."
"Yes."
"Every time we did, there were casualties. As you know, Awakened are a precious resource, aren't they?"
The couple, Yook Dae-jang and Cha Dong-ja, said it was hard to keep watching Awakened die beyond the gates.
"The sacrifices themselves felt meaningless, but... there are quite a few family-unit survivors here. We ourselves survived with our daughter..."
"We judged that it would be better to fortify Seoul Station and endure the aftermath of the gate collapse."
I could feel that the couple cherished the people. When I only heard Yuri-an's words, I had the feeling that the Hope Bunker's executives were squeezing others dry.
"Only after things turned out this way do I realize how wrong our judgment was."
"If Lee Hyun hadn't helped us in time, we would probably be... Ah, and thanks to Lee Hyun, we were able to recover the bodies of many people. Thank you so much."
They didn't seem to know at all that I had killed people. Since they were hopeless anyway, I kept my words to myself.
After talking about the monsters that had swarmed Seoul Station, I asked the couple various things about the Hope Bunker.
"Both of us are from military backgrounds... so we ended up taking on the leader role, even though we're lacking."
"There were many soldiers on the day of the Cataclysm. Since we had the highest rank..."
Active-duty soldiers and reservists. They became the backbone and drove the monsters out of Seoul Station. In that process, the soldiers naturally came to lead the people. And this couple didn't become leaders simply because of their rank. The energy felt from the two was the greatest.
"So we are operating the group in a way we are familiar with."
"It's an emergency situation. There were many things that needed to be handled decisively with a chain of command."
The couple began to fortify Seoul Station with a system similar to the military. This was because they had sufficient living space and supplies.
'I've been to Seoul Station so many times.'
There were many spaces in Seoul Station that I didn't know about. Even this office where we were talking now, I had entered through a hallway I was seeing for the first time. They said that since the underground space was also very large, they were able to concentrate the supplies secured from the surroundings into Seoul Station.
"We thought it was better to create a secure base than to expand our territory right away. That's why we named it a bunker."
"We thought it would be advantageous to level up while holding out here."
So, they had their own reasons. The basis for that judgment was their desire to protect their limited personnel as much as possible. In fact, Samira would have had difficulty expanding its influence if it weren't for me. Gate clearing wouldn't have gone as smoothly as it does now, either.
"Many people are following our control well."
"It would be a lie to say there is no noise... but everyone understands the situation."
The more we talked, the more points differed from Yuri-an's words. Of course, people can think differently about the same event.
'More than that...'
But now, I had questions about the couple's attitude. They answered my questions too easily. It was true that they owed me a debt, but I was an outsider nonetheless. So, I was feeling that something was strange.
"Lee Hyun."
"Yes."
"May we ask a question as well?"
This time, Cha Dong-ja spoke first.
"It doesn't seem like a coincidence that Lee Hyun came here."
Cha Dong-ja spoke in a cautious tone. So that's why they answered my questions so diligently. I didn't answer for a moment and alternated eye contact between the couple. I could feel a sense of tension from both of them.
"Yes. I took the time to come here."
I let them know that I had visited with a specific intention. The couple understood the meaning and nodded.
"Hoo... would you tell us?"
Now it was time to achieve my main purpose.
"I have a proposal for the Seoul Station Hope Bunker."
I already held the psychological upper hand over them. So, I spoke openly.
"Accept Samira's protection."
Yook Dae-jang slowly closed his eyes.