Chapter 54
Chapter 54
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 54
Chapter Title: Goblin - 3
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This was no different from war.
The goblins were trying to climb over the barricade, and the humans were doing everything they could to stop them.
Hyung-jun and Mi-kyung held the line inside the first-floor barricade.
Soo-yeon and Yoo-hyun rained arrows down from the second floor.
As night deepened, the goblins' death cries mixed with the humans' shouts of exertion.
The balance of the fierce siege was broken by outside intervention.
A burly man had come running up at some point and begun providing covering fire with his bow.
Kieek!
Kiiik!
The goblins' attention shifted from inside the barricade to Sung-ho, who was wreaking havoc outside.
A consensus formed: Let's kill that bastard first! A few goblins stepped forward.
The moment they pulled blowpipes and paralyzing poison darts from their pouches, the distance to Sung-ho widened.
He had retreated.
Kiiik?
The goblins tried to close the gap but realized they were moving away from the barricade and turned back.
Another arrow flew in, putting one down for good.
This kept repeating, and the goblins grew furious.
Two of them grabbed wooden spears and charged, but Sung-ho had already climbed to the second floor of a nearby building.
Yoo-hyun paused his archery and tapped Soo-yeon's shoulder.
"Noona, noona, you see that?"
"Huh? See what?"
"The goblins went up the stairs and came back down in two seconds. Dead."
"For real? Whoa, that's insane..."
How the hell do you kill two goblins in two seconds flat?
She couldn't see the stairs clearly, which was frustrating.
Sung-ho emerged from the building as if nothing had happened and resumed firing his bow.
He'd fall back if a goblin lunged.
If they used the barricade as a shield, he'd advance and pick them off one by one like a ghost.
He seemed to be gauging distances visually, staying just outside the poison darts' 10-meter range.
It was impossible, but he was doing it.
And the power of those arrows was tremendous—one shot pinned a goblin to the barricade.
Soo-yeon stared at him blankly for a moment.
Well, he pretty much soloed the Murderer event.
She hadn't realized just how impressive that was until she joined the gym crew.
Kyung-hoon, who had been a member back then, had stressed the Murderer event endlessly.
If you heard its heartbeat, don't look back—just get out of the area immediately.
According to Yoo-hyun, the guy who usually bluffed nonstop had been dead serious.
That said it all about the danger...
Sung-ho seemed to know everything.
There were too many things he shouldn't have known if it was his first time.
It felt like the whole world revolved around him.
He hadn't predicted the minions' rapid reinforcements at the end, though.
Looking back now, she regretted letting him go so quickly.
She should have shown more gratitude.
Should've gone for it.
She and Sung-ho weren't the type to openly express affection, sure.
But in the apocalypse, intimacy often started physical, didn't it?
She wasn't clueless about men, and she knew her looks were appealing.
...Maybe try it next time?
Sung-ho didn't seem completely oblivious to women either...
Mi-kyung was the problem, though.
She didn't flaunt it, but she dropped hints.
Hyung-jun and Yoo-hyun didn't seem to notice.
Compete with a twenty-two-year-old?
Soo-yeon thought that far and sighed.
"Haa... What am I even thinking in a situation like this?"
"Huh? What situation?"
She shook her head at Yoo-hyun's question.
"Nothing. Just shoot the arrows already."
Thanks to Sung-ho's help, the goblin numbers were dwindling fast.
Hyung-jun and Mi-kyung, fighting inside the barricade, felt a huge sense of relief.
The goblins finally realized they were losing and started fleeing.
But the battle wasn't over.
The commotion had drawn zombies.
Uuuuuh—
They couldn't climb the barricade like the goblins, but there were a ton of them.
The barricade of furniture and heavy objects began to give way bit by bit.
Yoo-hyun, shooting arrows at zombies from the second floor while controlling paper airplanes, shouted.
"Noona, someone's running this way!"
"Toward us?"
"Yeah!"
A person approaching was a huge problem.
Who knew if they'd bring zombies along?
The moment Soo-yeon thought, What do we do? Sung-ho moved.
He fired into the darkness, and Yoo-hyun clenched his fist.
"Hyung's shooting the zombies behind him! Whoa! How does he shoot like that?"
Meanwhile, Hyung-jun and Mi-kyung, stabbing zombies with wooden spears on the first floor, were confused.
Those footsteps were definitely human.
What if he tried to jump the barricade?
Then a voice called out.
"Help... please help!"
Hyung-jun closed his eyes tight, then opened them.
He couldn't ignore someone begging for help.
He said to Mi-kyung,
"...Sorry, but I think we have to help."
"I'll go."
She nodded and blinked away.
She returned with a very exhausted-looking man inside the barricade.
"Aigoo."
Mi-kyung sat on the floor, dizzy.
The people on the second floor gritted their teeth and provided covering fire. The zombie numbers slowly decreased.
Then Sung-ho's shout rang out loud.
"Bone Creeper! Get out!"
Bone Creeper?
Everyone panicked and looked for cover.
A white skeleton burst from the darkness.
It rattled as it slammed into the barricade and exploded.
Several zombies were caught in the blast and flung away. One side of the barricade collapsed in a heap.
The power was insane.
Luckily, the first-floor people had heard Sung-ho's shout and taken shelter in the building.
But they hadn't completely escaped the explosion.
Hyung-jun, who had shielded two people and entered last, had a couple of bones lodged in his back.
"Kuh!"
He groaned in pain but held on. Mi-kyung stomped her feet.
"Potion, potion!"
The man Mi-kyung had saved checked on Hyung-jun.
"We need to pull those bones out. Can you handle it?"
His voice was deep and steady.
Hyung-jun nodded, sweating coldly.
"M-my body's tough, so do it quick."
"Bite down hard."
"Eek."
The bones came out, and Hyung-jun slumped.
His Physical Enhancement trait must have helped him endure.
Soo-yeon, having heard from Yoo-hyun, rushed down to treat him.
While they paused the attack, the zombies were on the verge of breaking the barricade completely.
The goblins were gone, replaced by zombies.
This was dangerous.
Sung-ho drew his orichalcum long knife and switched to close combat.
As zombies lunged with groans, limbs flew one by one.
Yoo-hyun couldn't believe his eyes.
"Attack Prediction is really something..."
But it didn't look like he was predicting and reacting.
More like responding the instant a zombie moved?
Well, viewing through paper airplanes wasn't perfectly accurate.
Things moved so fast; some margin for error was natural.
Yoo-hyun shrugged it off and fired another arrow.
Thanks to everyone's efforts, zombies around the barricade were falling one by one.
Sung-ho scanned the area, then vaulted the barricade in an instant.
"Get inside, inside."
Everyone ducked into the building.
The few remaining zombies flailed at the barricade, then wandered off elsewhere.
No organic signatures left—why stick around?
The building, which had resembled a battlefield, fell silent.
.
.
.
I laid Hyung-jun, whom I'd been supporting, sideways on the floor.
"Hyung-nim, you okay?"
"I won't die just yet."
He grunted as he propped himself up.
The bones had lodged in his back, of all places, so he couldn't lie flat.
Anyway, that made six of us here now.
To avoid a zombie raid, we needed to move fast.
As I stood, Mi-kyung waved us off.
"Yoo-hyun and I will head somewhere else. You all talk."
"Why me?"
Yoo-hyun protested, but Mi-kyung dragged him off with Blink.
She must have figured a serious discussion was coming and bailed.
The man bowed to everyone.
"Thank you so much. You saved my life. I worried I'd be a burden, but my body moved on its own. Guess I still want to live."
Hmm...
The man looked like a soldier in his thirties.
He wore fatigues with a granite pattern and captain's insignia. Actually, it looked like lieutenant bars.
Captain? Doesn't fit his face.
Well, could be a long-serving one.
He introduced himself.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Captain Kim Hyun-woo."
"Captain? You look more like a lieutenant..."
Soo-yeon asked, and he smiled awkwardly.
"Provisional captain."
Promotion confirmed, then shit hit the fan.
Soo-yeon looked puzzled until I explained, then got it.
Time for me to take the lead here.
Hyung was out of it, and Soo-yeon didn't know much about the military.
"Mind if I ask your unit?"
He dropped a bombshell.
"I was with the 5X Division Infantry Battalion. But my actual post was Kori Nuclear Power Plant."
"You mean the Gijang plant?"
"Yes. Up to D-Day, I escorted the plant's staff. Afterward, I guarded the perimeter. That's when I realized something huge had happened."
"What kind of huge thing?"
Soo-yeon asked. He coughed harshly, throat dry.
I handed him a water bottle from my pack, which he drained in seconds.
"Puha... Thank you. Anyway, one of the staff told me this: the plant had started emergency cooling, but it wasn't complete."
"We heard that too."
The president announced it on TV.
Bringing it up now meant...
Captain Hyun-woo continued.
"At the end, one staffer laughed and said: If smoke rises from the plant, evacuate immediately, no exceptions."
"No way..."
He bowed his head.
"Afraid so. I told you I was watching from nearby? Just a few days ago... smoke rose."
"Meltdown?"
Soo-yeon asked urgently, but he shook his head.
"I'm no expert—just a soldier. But my gut said it was bad. So I evacuated. Warned people along the way, came down the coastal road to here. Then I met you."
Now the main point.
Hyung-jun, coming to his senses, asked,
"...So what do we do?"
Captain Hyun-woo pulled out a map.
Military-grade—extremely detailed.
A circle centered on Kori stretched to eastern Busan.
"Everyone inside this needs to evacuate now."
"...All the way to Gimhae Airport?"
"Yes."
"Everyone inside?"
"Yes. Fast. Linger too long, and you risk radiation."
Radiation exposure.
As terrifying as dying to monsters.
Fear showed on Hyung and Soo-yeon's faces.
Me too, of course.
No one wanted real radiation poisoning like on the news.
So, follow the captain and evac?
Unless he was lying...
Then Yoo-hyun's paper airplane slipped through the window gap.
Wanting to hear the talk.
I set it aside and spoke again.
"So, to sum up: big problem at Gijang plant, potentially deadly. At minimum, flee to western Busan for safety."
"Yes, that's my judgment. If you disagree, nothing I can do."
Soo-yeon asked urgently,
"You came here warning people?"
He replied bitterly.
"Yes... People weren't as kind as you. Lucky to be alive."
Impressive guy.
Government and military gone, yet still on mission.
Captain Hyun-woo rubbed his weary eyes.
"If you don't believe me, fine. I'll find others."
Hyung-jun glanced at me.
His eyes said: We can trust him.
I wanted to, but one thing nagged.
I'll check when we leave later.
Hyung asked cautiously,
"So we abandon all our stockpiles here?"
"Afraid so. Can't carry it all..."
"Ah..."
Sighs from Hyung and Soo-yeon.
Yoo-hyun and Mi-kyung listening via airplane would react the same.
And understandably—massive stockpile here.
Enough for gym crew to last a year minimum.
Impossible with one backpack.
Mi-kyung's help would move some, but not solve it.
Especially water—heavy, limited transport.
I could stuff it all in my Dimension Gate, but for them, disaster.
What to do...
Everyone fell silent, watching me.
I wrote a question on the paper airplane and sent it out.
It returned soon; unfolded, it said Level 8.
Mi-kyung just needed two more levels for a new effect.
Blink-related, probably—wouldn't hurt here.
Soo-yeon muttered despondently,
"That meal a few days ago was our last supper, huh."
The lamb was tasty...
One solution here.
I drew their attention.
"Let's do this."
Goblin - 3
End