A More Chaotic World.
A More Chaotic World.
Vroooom.
The truck rolled down the road.
At first, the trip into the city center was uneventful.
We spotted the occasional wrecked vehicle in the middle of the road, but nothing completely blocked our path, so we slipped through easily enough.
Except.
-Crack.
"Huh? What's that? Don't tell me the trees are moving."
"...Looks like it."
By the time we'd made a wide detour and hit somewhere near Gangdong-gu,
the branches of an ordinary roadside tree twisted grotesquely, and then the whole thing tore itself out of the ground and came straight at us.
I'd heard about these before, but seeing it with my own eyes was something else.
And it wasn't just one or two.
A whole crowd of them came thudding toward the truck.
"Ha-yoon! Can you blast those bastards off the road? We don't need to wipe them out, just the ones blocking us!"
"Hm... I'll try."
Kim Ha-yoon conjured dozens of icy spears.
With a flick of her wrist, they began a dazzling dance under her command.
Slice, slash.
Like Gundam funnels, they drifted through the air, shredding the twisted tree monsters.
But at best, they could only hack through branches.
The thick trunks wouldn't split.
"Looks like I need to increase output..."
"So you need time to charge? Hey, Kang Ha-rin! Find us a way through!"
I thumped the back of the front seats.
Her voice came back sharp as a bell.
"Are you serious?! How the hell am I supposed to dodge all that and get through?!"
"You're resourceful! If you can't do it, we all die, so figure it out!"
"Oh, for god's...!"
Kang Ha-rin spat protests like my demand was completely unreasonable.
But when one of the tree monsters collapsed, about to fully block the road, she floored it at the last second and threaded the needle with incredible skill.
Scrraaape— the truck roof was mercilessly gouged by the trunks.
But with split-second judgment, we somehow broke through.
I wiped the cold sweat off my cheek and exhaled.
"Ha, haha. All that bitching, and she still pulled it off."
"Hey, Jjintta! Their numbers keep climbing, you know that?"
A blue flash crackled in Ha Hui-ryeong's grip.
A long spear of Thunder stretched through the air, scattering sparks as she hurled it.
-Crack.
But the effect was minimal.
At the point of impact, only a faint scorch mark remained.
"Argh, my attacks don't even do anything, dammit!"
Ha Hui-ryeong kicked the side of the innocent truck to vent her frustration.
...Bad compatibility, huh.
My Decomposition would work, but it's fatally limited to close range.
As things stood, only Kim Ha-yoon was useful right now.
Except that 'one big shot' from last time wasn't a technique she could just spam whenever.
The cast delay and mana consumption were higher than I'd estimated.
Compared to the Muscle Monster incident, she'd grown enough to fire maybe two shots, but after that she'd be completely drained and need a full day to recover.
So I had to save it for a truly dire emergency.
Like right now.
"Hey, Kim Ha-yoon! Up ahead! Up ahead!"
Ha Hui-ryeong called her name, visibly alarmed.
Kim Ha-yoon had been concentrating with her eyes gently closed, but at Hui-ryeong's urgent shout, her shut eyes snapped open.
In an instant, a chill swirled around her.
Her brown eyes slowly tinted the color of frost.
Fwoosh.
Soon, a long spiral icicle rose into the air.
Its sheer presence rivaled the size of the truck we were in.
I stared, mouth open, at the spiral icicle suspended above.
It began rotating in place, gradually picking up speed.
"Hup!"
As Kim Ha-yoon hurled it with everything she had, it vanished in a blink.
And right after, a sonic boom tore through the air, tracing a white frost trail across the sky.
Even though it wasn't the dead of winter, clear hexagonal snowflakes scattered above our heads.
-KRRRAACK!!
The icicle, moving faster than sight, punched a gaping hole straight through the obstacles ahead.
A wasteland carved by a single strike.
Dazed by firepower far beyond my expectations, I just stared blankly.
In the meantime, Kang Ha-rin drove through the freshly opened hole, and we finally bought ourselves a moment to breathe.
Slump.
"Hah... hah..."
Kim Ha-yoon collapsed on the spot, gasping for air.
After that stunning display, the strain must've been immense.
"......"
Ha Hui-ryeong and I looked at her with pure admiration.
For once, we were in perfect agreement.
How the hell were we supposed to leave a girl this incredible alone?
"Look at her, look at her! Oh, you pretty thing! So cute and lovely!"
"Wasn't I right? I told you picking her up was the call."
"Yeah, yeah, totally right! No, Kim Ha-yoon, you're the best!"
We exchanged a glance, then both threw our arms around her like it was choreographed, showering her face with kisses.
After all the chaos, we'd pulled through another crisis.
Just that fact was pure joy.
"...S-Stop it. Ah, quit it...!"
She thrashed her arms and legs to escape, but drained as she was, shaking both of us off was a distant dream.
"Now that it's come to this, should we toss her in the air to celebrate?"
"...I said, stop!"
"So shy. Hey, Jjintta. You take the top. I'll take the bottom."
"Okay."
"Ah, don't...! Ugh, quit it! I said stop...!"
Kyaaaagh!
A sharp shriek rang out.
In the middle of it all, we burst into genuinely bright, carefree laughter.
*
Current location: Gangdong-gu.
It would've been perfect if we could've gone straight to Gangnam.
Unfortunately, the Treemen attack on the way forced us onto this route.
Even though we'd finally reached the city center after all the detours, our schedule was delayed even further.
It's a shame... but it can't be helped.
"Huh? Isn't that a vending machine?"
"Looks like it. Hey, Ha-rin, stop for a second."
As we pushed forward, clearing out the swarming zombies, word of a vending machine made me thump the driver's seat.
The truck stopped immediately, and the zombies drawn by the engine noise rushed toward us.
"Alright everyone, out."
"M-Me too?"
"...That was a figure of speech. You and Ha-rin stay inside."
A bewildered question came from the passenger seat.
I waved it off and told her to relax.
Honestly, Jeong Ji-min and Kang Ha-rin weren't combat personnel; they'd just be a hindrance out here.
"R-Right? Yeah, that's definitely for the best."
Jeong Ji-min let out a relieved little laugh and rolled the window back up.
I adjusted my grip on my crowbar, while Kim Ha-yoon, having recovered a bit of stamina, conjured six ice shards.
-Grrrk.
-Graaagh.
-Urrghh.
"Finally, my turn to shine."
Muttering that, Ha Hui-ryeong cracked her neck left and right with a pop, then leaped high into the air, her bat resting on her shoulder.
-Bzzt!!
There wasn't even a second to say anything.
She charged straight in, body wreathed in blue lightning, and started tearing through the zombie horde with savage momentum.
"Kyahahahahaha!! This is it, this is it...!"
Watching her erupt into manic laughter while blasting zombie heads apart was genuinely chilling.
"She's having a blast. Absolutely thrilled."
I let out a short sigh and cleaned up the stragglers she missed.
Whoosh. As my crowbar swung, chunks of zombie flesh splattered away.
And soon, the creature oxidized into white powder and scattered.
The decay on these zombies had already advanced so far they couldn't put up even a token resistance.
They just turned to powder on contact.
"You, don't go too far ahead."
"I know. I'm not her, so why would I?"
Cold frost shards floated beside me.
Kim Ha-yoon stuck right by my side as a close escort, so I was arguably safer than being inside the truck.
"Huh?"
That's when it happened.
Ha Hui-ryeong, who'd been rampaging in the distance, stumbled slightly.
Just as I opened my mouth to ask—
Rumble, KABOOOOM!!!!
The ground shook, and with a deafening roar, something like a giant centipede erupted in front of us.
A centipede.
No, a Centipede Human.
A hard carapace covered its whole body, and human hands and feet sprouted messily from every segment.
Worse yet, a human torso jutted from its head.
If that were all, it would've been nothing but a disgusting sight.
The problem was its overwhelming size—twice that of anything I'd seen in movies.
It easily dwarfed a modest commercial building.
"No, what the hell is that...?"
I knew more mutant entities were being added, but wasn't this crossing a line?
As I stood frozen in horror, Ha Hui-ryeong shouted.
"Hey, Jjintta! Cover me!"
"No, hold on, you're not seriously trying to take that thing down?"
"You can tell just by looking! It saw us! It's clearly targeting us!"
She was right.
Its massive bulk was already surging straight toward her.
Rrrrrumble...
Every time its long body writhed, it smashed into nearby buildings, hurling debris everywhere.
At the same moment, lightning crackled.
Ha Hui-ryeong scaled its body like a flying squirrel and sprinted full-speed while wrapped in lightning.
Then she flung her bat high toward the creature's head.
In a flash, her form transformed into blue lightning, and she reappeared above its head, swinging with everything she had.
"Die already...!!"
-Clang!
A dull, metallic thud echoed, and blue sparks danced madly through the air.
[Kraaaaaaaagh!!!!!]
The effect was subtle.
Even that full-powered blow only tilted it slightly; instead, it only got more enraged and thrashed its long body even more violently.
"Damn it, shit...!"
The creature's ferocious assault resumed.
Just flailing around reduced the surroundings to a disaster zone.
"No, what the—! Its legs just regenerate?!"
Ha Hui-ryeong narrowly dodged the indiscriminate attacks and targeted the vulnerable, unarmored legs.
But no matter how many times she scorched them with lightning, the legs just regenerated and kept coming.
"W-We'll hide somewhere safe for now!"
In the middle of the chaos, Kang Ha-rin, correctly judging that getting clear was the only answer, drove the truck as far away as she could.
"Got it! Don't die on the way!"
I gave my permission without hesitation.
It stung a little, but for someone with no combat abilities, it was the best call possible.
Sticking around here had a high chance of just getting swept up in the chaos.
That's when it happened.
-Clang!
The sound of another strike rang out, and the gigantic body tilted.
That was clearly Hui-ryeong's doing.
Which meant it was my turn to jump in.
"Hey, Ha-yoon! Can you make an ice board big enough for the two of us to ride?"
"I think so... but you're not suggesting we...?"
"That 'but' is exactly right. Do it, fast."
Kim Ha-yoon looked reluctant, but given how urgent things were, she didn't argue.
She created a suitable board as instructed, climbed on first, then reached her hand out to me.
"Hold on tight. If you fall, don't blame me."
"Then Hui-ryeong will handle it."
I grinned and climbed on, wrapping one arm tight around her waist.
Right after, the board launched forward.
The ice board rose into the air, nimbly weaving through the thrashing legs as it shot toward the head.
"Uwaaahhh!!!"
The world spun around me.
The scenery flashed and twisted in an instant.
Sometimes flipping completely upside down, making it impossible to hold back a scream.
And then, we made contact.
-Crrrack.
Flesh tore away with a sickening sound, and blood sprayed everywhere.
The momentum-fueled strike gashed the creature's face wide open.
[Krugh, Kraaagh...!?]
The wound was shallow, but dark pus immediately began swelling from the spot.
Sensing something foreign, the creature clawed at its own body madly.
Or rather, the human torso attached to its head started convulsing like it had rabies.
"Haha! Too late, asshole! Once I touch you, it's over!"
Puhahahaha!!
As I burst into roaring laughter, Ha Hui-ryeong suddenly appeared in a flash of blue lightning above the creature's head.
As if she'd only been waiting for this exact opening, she let out a finishing cry.
"Just die already!! You disgusting freak!!!"
Krunch!
She spun her body two, three times in the air and brought down a devastating blow.
The weakened head crumpled effortlessly, like a crushed can.
A pathetic end, without even a proper death cry.
-Rrrrrumble.
Eventually, the creature's movements ceased, and the centipede's gigantic body collapsed onto the street.
Since it was so massive, even Decomposition seemed to be taking a while.
"Huff... hah...."
Once we'd descended to the ground, we exchanged glances and, without any need to say who went first, raised our hands.
Slap!
A high five followed.
"Hah! Fuck, we pulled it off again? We're pretty damn good, huh?"
"Agreed. Easier than last time."
"It was just big. Its movements were sluggish."
My legs were still shaking, but the satisfaction of pulling it off was way bigger.
[Achievement Unlocked. You have defeated the special mutant entity 'Centipede Human'!
You have earned coins.
Coins: 3451 → 3651]
And bonus coins on top of that.
We stared at the notification window with gleeful expressions.
"They gave quite a bit. How much did that other guy give us?"
At Ha Hui-ryeong's question, Kim Ha-yoon answered.
"Three hundred."
"Hm. So this one's weaker than him? How the hell did we even catch that one back then?"
Right. Back then, we were even weaker than we are now.
"No, we didn't catch it. You said it was only weakened, so practically speaking, that one was way more trouble."
"Is that so?"
Just as I tilted my head,
the distinctive rumble of the truck engine approached, and Jeong Ji-min's voice rang out.
"Everyone─! Are you okay─!"
"We're fine! It's all over, so get over here!"
At my answer, the truck slowly rolled to a stop.
Kang Ha-rin stared at the fallen centipede through the window and pretended to retch, going "Urp."
"So... what now? Do we just keep moving?"
"No. Let's check the vending machine first. Lucky for us, it doesn't look completely wrecked."
I jerked my chin toward the vending machine wedged in a corner.
What could be inside?
I headed toward the vending machine with an excited spring in my step.