Chapter 574: The Conspiracy Begins (7)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 574: The Conspiracy Begins (7)
Grrrrr…!
From beyond the rift, I could hear the growls of monsters, filled with bloodlust and hunger.
The first to appear was an orc.
It had a thick body covered in green skin and bulging muscle.
“Chwiiik!”
It was characterized by the unique battle cry it let out from its pig-like head.
The orc that had just emerged was an Orc Warrior, a type that only inhabits B-rank dungeons or higher.
It was one of the more annoying monsters to face, as it wielded a massive glaive with ease and grew stronger the lower its health dropped.
“Kwiiiik!”
“Ggyeeek!”
The monster, having set foot in an unfamiliar world, roared and swung the glaive in its hand.
Swoosh!
Crack!
A passenger car abandoned by its owner, a well-paved road, a neatly constructed building—all were smashed to pieces.
It was the merciless destruction of a monster that had traded intelligence for brute strength.
It acted as if it were destroying ominous objects that should not exist in this world.
It seemed to hate not only humans, but all of human civilization.
Looking down on this from the sky, I felt utterly helpless.
“This is a real headache.”
KABOOM!
CRACK!
RUMBLE…!
The absence of the barrier was painfully apparent.
If only it had been deployed in time, the damage to property and life would have been significantly reduced.
I heard from an association employee that the control device for activating and deactivating the barrier had malfunctioned.
That only made me more suspicious.
“Why now of all times…?”
Why would an incident that had never once occurred since the barrier’s commercialization happen now?
The technology was highly refined, and it had always been well-maintained.
Everyone knew that if the barrier wasn't deployed in time, a small problem could quickly become an unstoppable disaster.
They knew that their negligence could lead to hundreds of billions of won in property damage and the loss of hundreds, even thousands, of lives.
And that very barrier malfunctioned in the most critical situation?
“This whole thing reeks of a setup.”
Wouldn't even a three-year-old suspect this was a deliberate act of sabotage, not an accident or a mistake?
But even that didn't sit right.
It would mean that the person or group who orchestrated the malfunction knew a rift would open today.
“That makes no sense.”
This was a disaster with no warning signs, something that even the mana concentration detectors couldn't pick up.
To claim someone knew about it in advance was absurd.
If that’s the case, the only thing left is…
“What if they can open a rift at a time and place of their choosing…?”
Then it would make sense.
It would be the worst-case scenario I could imagine.
“But is that even possible?”
For an individual or a group to be able to freely open and close rifts teeming with monsters.
Just as I was about to declare that such a thing was impossible…
“Ah.”
A scene from the past flashed through my mind.
“That shadow bastard back then…”
The Apostle of Sloth, who had brazenly challenged me to a fight only to get thoroughly beaten and barely escape.
When he fled, didn't he open something that looked a lot like a rift?
“Then, could it be…?”
This wasn't a sudden disaster, but a meticulously planned terrorist attack.
“Ha.”
My head was spinning.
Dealing with this attack was daunting enough, but the aftermath was an even bigger problem.
If terror attacks using rifts continued to happen like this, how could we possibly stop them?
“No, that’s not right.”
I changed my line of thinking.
No matter who they were, it would be impossible for them to carry out such large-scale attacks consecutively.
If it were that easy, the world would have been under Hexagram’s heel long ago.
“There must be some kind of restriction.”
Otherwise, their actions up to this point wouldn't make any sense.
This had to be a plan they had painstakingly prepared.
Which meant that if I could successfully thwart this attack, I could deal them a significant blow.
“What should I do…”
The problem was how.
With no barrier to block the monsters, how could I minimize the damage and close all the rifts?
Nothing came to mind right now.
And I didn't have time to think.
There was only one thing to do in a situation like this.
“First, let’s clean this up.”
Start with the small things, one by one, and handle them methodically.
Just as I began to draw upon the vast reserves of mana I’d gained after acquiring the Body of Extreme Refinement, rain suddenly began to fall from the sky.
But it wasn't ordinary rain.
It was a rain of fire, each and every drop a blazing flame.
“Kweeeek-!”
“Kiiik!”
“Ggyeeeek!?”
It fell only on the heads of the monsters, incinerating them in an instant.
The overwhelming mana was enough to reduce a monster to ash in a single breath, and the delicate control allowed the flames to fall only on the monsters without touching anything else.
There was only one other person in this country besides me who could display such an unbelievable feat.
“What are you doing here? I believe your sector is elsewhere.”
Hearing a voice from the sky, I looked up to identify the speaker.
Scarlet Witch.
Han Ju-hee.
She was looking down at me, holding a staff as tall as herself, her crimson hair fluttering in the wind.
I sneered at her.
“You’re later than I expected. The Magic Tower is right around the corner, I thought you’d be out sooner.”
“I wasn’t at the tower.”
“Ah.”
It wasn't a big deal.
She was an incredibly busy person, so it was her job to be running all over Seoul.
Still, I found it strange.
“Are you sure it’s okay for you to be killing monsters like this?”
“…?”
She looked at me as if to ask what I meant. I continued.
“This is a terror attack orchestrated by Hexagram, isn’t it?”
Her eyes widened slightly.
Her gaze was a clear question: How in the world do you know that?
Which meant she, too, knew the source of this attack in advance.
My emotions turned cold.
“What the hell do you want? You have everything you could possibly have, and you have the power to get anything you want. So what is it that you desire so much that you’d join hands with bastards like them?”
The words poured out of me.
I hadn't intended to, but I must have gotten carried away as I spoke.
She turned her head, averting her gaze.
“Something that I can’t have, even with all my money and power.”
“What…?”
“Let’s end this conversation here. You can’t understand me, and I have no desire to ramble on to someone like that. Besides, you have a job to do, don’t you?”
She was right.
I had a job to do.
To protect my assigned sector.
And beyond that, to completely suppress this attack and land a blow on those bastards.
But I couldn't just leave it like this.
“Take a good look at Seoul right now.”
“……”
“All of this damage is your fault.”
At that, she flared up and shouted.
“I didn’t do anything…!”
“Right. You didn’t do anything. Seeing as you’re wiping out the monsters so cleanly, it doesn’t seem like you’re properly helping the Hexagram bastards either.”
And one more thing.
“You knew this terror attack was going to happen, but you didn’t tell anyone.”
“…!”
If she had, things wouldn't have turned out like this.
The barrier would have been inspected more thoroughly, we would have shifted to an emergency footing and deployed available Hunters to each region to resolve the situation the moment it broke out. Or perhaps we could have caught the culprits before they even acted, preventing the attack altogether.
But she didn't do that.
“Cut the crap with your pathetic balancing act. Pick one. Are you going to be an enemy, or are you going to stay as you are?”
That way, I could be a little more certain about my own path.
Whether I should consider her a complete enemy or not.
Hearing my words, a look of bewilderment filled her eyes.
“You…?”
The emotion in them was so strange that I quickly turned my back.
“I’ll be going now. As Hunter Han Ju-hee said, my sector isn’t here.”
“Wait…!”
I ignored her and shot straight up into the sky.
Her gaze remained fixed on me until I had sped far away from that spot.
*
Jung-gu, Seoul.
In the district assigned to Kim Do-jin, Hunters who had already arrived on the scene were in the middle of a fierce battle with the monsters.
The tide was against them.
Monsters poured out endlessly from the unclosed rift, and the number of Hunters was far too small.
The first thing to do was to get them out of danger.
I took in the sight of the monsters relentlessly pushing back the Hunters, and I took aim.
And upon their heads, I brought down a rain of fire.
「Fire Rain.」
It was a kind of defiance.
A way of saying that my fire magic was superior to yours, Scarlet Witch.
And as if to prove it, the rain of fire that began to pour down fell precisely on the monsters' heads, quickly burning them away.
Amidst the acrid smoke that rose from the aftermath, the Hunters let out a cheer.
“Hunter Kim Do-jin is here!”
“Thank you for helping us!”
“We’re saved…!”
Hope surged.
Amidst the praise that made his chest feel tight, he began to command the Hunters.
“We’re going to clear out the monsters quickly and close the rift, starting now.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Just give us the order!”
Even in a crisis, their eyes sparkled as they faithfully awaited his instructions.
Looking at them, Kim Do-jin thought of a plan.
‘What if I could give orders to all the Hunters throughout Seoul simultaneously, and support them?’
He thought he’d found it.
A way to stop this terror attack with minimal casualties.