Incheon Airport: The Monsters' Lair
Incheon International Airport. Once Korea's largest airport, it had now become a massive dungeon overrun by monsters.
After the Pyongyang Incident, the military and Hero Association had tried desperately to hold back the monsters pouring down from the north. But the endless waves crashed over them like a tidal surge, wearing down the people's resolve until they relocated the capital entirely. In the end, the islands off Incheon's coast and northern Gyeonggi Province were utterly abandoned.
With no human hands to tend it, the old airport had become the monsters' domain. Even S-rank heroes rarely dared set foot in this demonic realm.
And yet, that very place was now being ravaged by a single predator.
KYAAAOOOH!
A monster resembling an eagle lunged with claws flashing. Its talons splayed wide to snatch its prey, seizing the opponent's head—but clang! They were repelled by a veil of pale green light.
The girl swung the veil, binding the monster's claws. The eagle couldn't tear free. Instead, its ankle was caught in the girl's delicate grip.
BOOM!
"KYAAAK?!"
The eagle was slammed into the ground, ankle still trapped. The impact cratered the asphalt, and the pain knocked it out cold for a moment.
Slash.
That was the eagle monster's final memory. Its foe's index fingernail had sharpened into a blade that severed its head clean off.
"...Ngh."
Purple blood splattered from the monster onto her cheek. The girl—Phoenix—wiped it away with a quick tug of her veil. The fabric absorbed the blood like a sponge, yet retained its original hue.
Stab!
Phoenix plunged her nail into the eagle's corpse. Blue flames erupted from her fingertip, incinerating the twitching flesh and blood in an instant. All that remained was a core the size of a baseball.
"Number twelve."
Phoenix dropped the orb into her sports crossbag on the ground. It already brimmed with similar-sized cores from the monsters she'd felled moments before.
'Still not enough?'
Slung over her shoulder, the bag clinked as Phoenix crunched over shattered glass into the building.
One of Korea's seven great dungeons, centered on the international airport. Even in the original story, it was Incheon's deadliest lair.
"I told the West Sea Demon to take Yeongjongdo..."
Phoenix dusted her hands with a snap. Already, faint wisps of her mana had drawn the monsters inside, their mouths watering as they began to emerge one by one.
"Farming a bit on the way shouldn't be a problem, right?"
'They're mine anyway—what can they do?'
Swallowing the thought, Phoenix clapped her hands together and pulled them apart.
Vmmm—
Blue flames bloomed from her palms, sheathing her fists like gauntlets wreathed in fire.
KEEAAAK!
The nearest monster, sensing the ominous mana, leaped straight at her.
"Hup!"
A tiger-like beast swung its massive forepaw. Phoenix ducked low, sliding under it, then thrust her fist skyward as she surged up.
She dodged the paw by a hair's breadth, her knuckles slamming into the monster's chest. They pierced its tough hide, reaching its innards.
GRRRUUUUGH?!
The beast flailed in midair from the colossal shock to its torso, but Phoenix flexed her fingers and yanked out the core hidden among its ribs.
"Thirteen."
Clutching the core tight, she drove her remaining fist straight into the monster like a piston. Coreless, it rocketed backward, smashing through a glass wall and tumbling outside.
"Aw, damn. Got it on me."
Purple blood speckled her clothes. Phoenix rubbed the veil over the stains, and it greedily sucked them up.
"Can't dirty a gifted outfit, after all."
She'd swallowed her pride to wear it somehow, but once in Seoul, she'd buy new clothes right away. Until then, she'd make do with this single set.
"So, shall we fight like gentlemen?"
Phoenix flashed a sweet smile, but the monsters bared their fangs and claws in hostility. Far from cowed, she grinned wider.
'Perfect—this output level is just right.'
Too much, and the whole world would go on high alert. Too little, and the West Sea Demon might devour her. So she'd tuned her mana output to feel just right: B-rank.
B-rank yokai Phoenix. But yokai didn't exist here, so she'd be labeled a B-rank villain Phoenix.
Not that it mattered—her future plans were a million light-years from heroic anyway.
'I'm one of the evil organization's cadres—what's the big deal?'
As the monsters charged without a word, baring teeth and nails, Phoenix clenched her fists.
"Thing is, I'm in a real low-pressure mood today?"
She whipped off the veil draped like a scarf and shouted.
"So I wanna blow off some steam...!"
Honestly, she hadn't gauged her power properly against the tutorial boss. To survive this world, she needed to learn to throttle it just right.
Phoenix unleashed her surging mana.
"Come on, you power-level scanners! I'll strip your flesh and blood to build a skyscraper in Seoul with my name on it!"
The monsters swarmed her all at once.
BOOM!
A colossal pillar of blue flame erupted at Incheon Airport.
* * *
Even if Incheon had fallen to the monsters, its infrastructure still served its purpose.
From Wolmido to Gimpo Airport stretched a long front line. If the 38th parallel was once the frontline against North Korea, now northern Incheon marked the battle against monsters.
Most residents of Incheon and the capital region had packed up and fled south to safety. The final nail in that exodus was the capital's relocation to New Seoul.
Those left in Incheon were the ones who hadn't evacuated yet—and the hunters who came to slay the monsters prowling the area.
"Ma'am! Get your luggage off!"
"Please! I can't go without it!"
"Then get off! Other people are waiting!"
A terminal employee and passenger were locked in a fierce tussle.
With only two buses a day to New Seoul—each seating just 28—the desperate crowds were willing to pay top dollar for a ticket.
"What a madhouse. For real."
"Everyone's just trying to survive. Can't blame 'em."
The ticket booth staff sipped vending-machine coffee from paper cups, faces bitter.
A woman clutching her bundle like grim death was finally dragged off by security called by the employee.
"No, please! My daughter's waiting! We promised to go today!"
"Get a new number ticket! Next! Number 1925?"
"Here!"
A haggard man bolted toward the bus, ticket in hand, the moment his number was called. The woman shoved past security with superhuman strength and grabbed his pant leg.
"Please! I'll leave the luggage! Just let me on!"
"Let go! It's overloaded! You had the slowest number—should've ditched the bag and boarded!"
The man kicked her hand away and boarded. He averted his flushed face, dodging the stares.
"No... no!"
As the woman scrambled for her bundle on the floor, the bus doors shut. Hands reached to chase it, but security blocked them. She stared blankly at the departing vehicle before collapsing in place.
"Ugh... ughhh..."
The crowd in the terminal bay dispersed one by one, leaving the weeping woman. No one comforted her. The world was too brutal for sympathy anymore.
The ticket staff clicked his tongue at the coffee's sugary bitterness.
"What a world..."
"Gotta trust the heroes. Thanks to them, this area's still safe-ish."
"Yeongjongdo got fucked, though."
The military had fallen back from the line, but the Hero Association held firm. In Incheon's case, they'd long abandoned Gimpo and Yeongjongdo, severing the Yeongjong and Incheon bridges to solidify defenses.
"Who'd have thought the Han River would become the border between humans and monsters."
Calling it a "border" with monsters was absurd, but Korea was truly at war with the beasts from the north.
"It's all those North Korean bastards' fault. If they hadn't fucked up the nukes..."
"Senior, you buy the government line?"
The junior lowered his voice.
"North Korea botched handling nukes, they blew, monsters fled south from the radiation? ...You've heard the rumors too, right?"
"Hey, watch it. I'm letting it slide 'cause it's you, but if the Pine Tree Unit catches wind, you'll vanish without a trace."
"I don't own a car. Don't eat ramen either."
The senior sighed as his junior mimed zipping his lips with a smirk.
"...C'mon. Heroes sent to assassinate North's brass, Kim Jong-il blows the nuke to save his ass—you expect me to buy that?"
"Yeah? You backing the assassination theory? I figure North tried breeding monsters, government sent spec ops, they went berserk."
"Same difference."
Officially, the government blamed North Korea's "self-destruction from nuclear mishandling," but rumors swirled endlessly.
"Anyway, quit yapping and work. Don't get blacklisted for loose talk. You wanna leave Incheon too, right?"
"Heh, yeah."
The pair cut off as a customer approached the booth.
"......."
A girl with blue hair, draped in a translucent cyan scarf. Radiating an ethereal aura, the beautiful girl stood arms crossed, glaring silently at the bus schedule.
"Uh, um? Miss? Need something?"
The senior spoke up. If the junior's memory served, her uniform was from a high school on Incheon's outskirts.
"...Trying to get to Seoul."
The staff pointed to a corner of the terminal with resigned faces.
"For New Seoul, grab a number ticket over there."
In that direction, the middle-aged woman from earlier trudged zombie-like to draw her ticket.
Waiting: Number 4930.
"...You know New Seoul buses only run six times a day, right? Government's orders—tickets by sequence."
With only about 200 leaving Incheon for New Seoul daily, the backlog was insane, but unavoidable. One bag max 15kg. Miss your slot by 30 minutes, it goes to the next. And more rules besides—check the machine.
Reciting regs was a chore now. The senior pointed to the dispenser and ducked back down.
"......Senior! Senior!"
The junior whispered. The senior looked up, irritated.
"......."
The blue-haired girl tilted her head quizzically.
Assuming the usual case, the senior pulled out response two from his mental playbook.
"If you're looking for buses to nearby cities, none running. Intercity and express all wrecked—buses move only with hero escorts..."
"No."
The girl shook her head, cutting him off.
"Seoul."
"I mean, New Seoul buses are..."
The senior blinked dumbly.
The girl tapped a faded spot on the map by the counter.
"I wanna go there. To Seoul."
The senior froze. Seoul? Where more monsters than homeless roamed—a hell worse than Incheon?
As he gaped, the junior sidled up with an awkward smile.
"Ma'am, sorry."
He shook his head.
"No buses to Seoul. You'd die on the way."