Chapter 11
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 011
Chapter Title: Star Lord (3)
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“Huff… huff…”
The drizzle had started soaking his clothes bit by bit, and now even his shoes and socks were completely drenched.
At this point, he couldn’t tell if it was sweat or rainwater anymore, and the steam rising from the chick’s body indirectly told them how long they’d been fleeing.
“Team Leader! We have to go this way! They’re swarming from the left alley too!”
The kid keeping watch ahead finally spoke up. He had a scouting skill that let him see far without binoculars, which was why he’d been paired with someone like Dong-gil who had combat abilities.
But using the skill consumed a ton of survival time, so Dong-gil had forbidden it unless absolutely necessary… and yet, it seemed the kid had used it again.
‘Guess things are that dire right now… Damn it, at this rate, we’re all dead.’
If they both couldn’t make it, at least he had to make sure the chick survived and escaped.
It wasn’t just because the kid had a bright future ahead and was too young to die—there was also the fact that someone had to get their scouting intel back to the station.
The folks at the station would’ve seen the message about the Star Lord appearing, but they needed to know what kind of monster it was to figure out whether to run or fight back.
Dong-gil didn’t think fighting back was even remotely possible, but in a world overrun by these monsters, who could say there wasn’t some savior out there to oppose them?
‘No, stop with the wishful thinking and focus on escaping right now.’
With that thought, Dong-gil glanced back at the horde of larvae swarming in the distance.
‘If I play it right, I might be able to break through…’
On the chief’s orders, everyone left at the station had taken down at least one spider, larva, or hornet by now, and as one of the top guys, Dong-gil could handle a few small larvae no problem.
The problem was their sheer numbers…
‘And that… giant larva.’
He considered cutting through a few small ones to open a path, but seeing the ox-sized larva lumbering after them from the rear made that idea vanish.
‘Fuck, what grudge does that bastard have against us to chase so relentlessly?’
It had doggedly pursued them without mercy.
No matter how hard they shook off the small larvae and ran, they couldn’t lose it.
It was almost like it was tracking them using intel from the small ones.
‘Chasing us like it’s got some intelligence.’
He felt like they were herding him and the chick into a dead-end corner.
It was a textbook ‘drive hunt.’
‘There’s definitely a leader calling the shots among them.’
The hornets in Olympic Park had some chain of command too, but they just blindly followed their boss like a gang of thugs.
The larvae in Jamsil felt more like an organized army.
“Team Leader! They’re closing in from all sides. We have to break through somewhere!”
Snapping back at the rookie’s shout, Dong-gil scanned their surroundings.
By some miracle, one building caught his eye.
‘That’s it!’
The moment he spotted it, a flash of inspiration hit him.
“Chick, this way!”
They sprinted over and arrived at a spacious golf driving range.
The range had several truss pillars about 40 meters tall planted around, each draped with green nets to catch golf balls.
‘No idea why they’d build something like this in pricey Jamsil, but it’s a godsend for us.’
“Hey, Chick! I’ll handle things from here. You don’t look back—just run like hell!”
“Team Leader! What are you talking about!?”
The chick bristled at his words, so Dong-gil barked back.
“You stubborn little shit, you never listen! Run already! You want us both to die here so you feel better?! Someone’s gotta get what we saw back to the station!”
“Team Leader…”
Leaving the chick trailing off behind him, Team Leader Sung Dong-gil dashed to a truss pillar standing at the edge of the alley.
Bam!
He swung the baton from his belt, and a heavy thud echoed as the steel pipe crumpled.
“Run! Hurry!”
“…Team Leader, you have to survive!”
At Dong-gil’s shout, the kid tore his feet away and bolted down the alley.
“That thick-headed punk. Even sets up a death flag for me on his way out.”
He always called him worthless, but the kid was actually damn competent.
Unlike Dong-gil, who’d been specially hired as a former athlete, the chick had graduated top of the police academy—arguing with him was a waste of breath.
A guy like that could probably punch through their thin encirclement.
Bam!
Screeech—
Another swing of the baton, and the pillar shrieked as it tilted.
Thud thud thud—
He could hear the larvae swarming from ahead.
Growing desperate, Dong-gil burned survival time on his Heavy Strike skill and hammered the pillar mercilessly.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
It tilted more with each hit… but the numbers on his wrist told the honest truth.
32.
Back-to-back skill use had already eaten up a lot of his survival time.
‘Two more at most, tops.’
It’d be stolen by the monsters anyway if they caught him—might as well go out swinging.
Bam! Screeech.
Bam! Screeeeech—
Kwaaaaang!!
Whether it was desperate wishful thinking or not, his final Heavy Strike toppled the massive truss pillar, crushing the oncoming larvae.
The sound of them bursting was drowned out by the roar.
81.
Ironically, killing the larvae under the pillar had increased his survival time again.
“Die and be reborn,” as they say?
“Kekeke, fat lot of good it’ll do.”
To buy time for the rookie to escape, he had to become the bait in the tiger’s den.
Clatter. Clatter.
Footsteps echoed from the debris of the shattered building. Then one by one, they emerged.
Dozens visible at a glance.
The alley filled with larvae closed in right up to him again. Rainwater trickled down their brown shells.
Click. Click—
They wiped the rain from their compound eyes and fixed their gaze on him.
He’d steeled himself to lay down his life, but his body betrayed him—his mouth went bone-dry from tension.
He gripped the baton tight.
It had cost him a whopping 80 hours, so it’d protect him to the end.
Whoosh—
Their assault began. The frontmost one lunged, and the ones beside it followed suit.
‘Head!’
Crunch.
He smashed the head of the one dead ahead, but hooks from the sides grazed him, spraying blood.
He couldn’t afford to worry about wounds now, or the giant wave would sweep him away, so Dong-gil ignored it and kept his feet moving.
A baton in place of a bamboo sword.
He’d once been a kendo star in his youth.
Age meant he couldn’t move like back then, but his experience remained, letting him burst the bugs’ heads.
“Hoo… huff…”
His breath reached his throat, but Dong-gil didn’t stop swinging the baton.
The time gained from killing larvae vanished into more Heavy Strikes, and green ichor mixed with rain soaked his clothes.
For every three that swarmed him, he sent at least one to hell.
‘Ha, fuck… If I were just a bit younger.’
Sending one to hell out of three meant two were left sucking away his time.
Numbers were unbeatable—more and more mouths were latching onto him.
Now, even after killing a larva, he didn’t have time for Heavy Strike.
Without skills, more mouths dug into his body.
Was it blood loss or low survival time? His head spun, vision blurring.
Through the haze, he saw another larva charging.
‘Is this it?’
They say your life flashes before you like a panorama right before death.
But when the moment came, he realized that was bullshit.
Only one thought filled his mind.
‘I want to live.’
‘I’d roll in shit to live.’
Crunch!
In his final moments.
He watched the larva in front of him explode, desperately clinging to life.
‘Wait… crunch?’
Green ichor splattered his face as the larva burst.
He hadn’t killed it—why had it exploded on its own?
The sticky sensation snapped him back, and Dong-gil looked around. What he saw was unbelievable.
‘Why is that guy… saving me?’
Even staring right at it, he couldn’t believe it.
The one who’d saved him was the giant larva that had relentlessly chased them from start to finish.
Why the hell would a larva save a human?
To fatten him up and eat later? Or hold him hostage to lure the others?
Their movements so far made that plausible.
As Dong-gil debated ending his own life…
“…Huh?”
His legs gave out, and he collapsed to the ground.
Never in his life had he been so flustered. And it wasn’t just him—the bugs seemed rattled too, despite having no faces.
‘What the…’
The giant larva that saved him molted, and two humans burst out, massacring the other larvae.
‘…Are they evolving into human form now?’
Absurd thought, but even then, slaughtering their own allies made no sense.
He watched the two from the giant larva closely.
One was a sturdy man with sharp features; the other, a petite woman with a cute face.
They looked human no matter the angle, but Dong-gil’s brain, fresh from near-death confusion, wasn’t processing right.
“Mister! We almost got crushed under that pillar too! Anyway, your name’s Sung Dong-gil, right?”
“…Huh? …Y-yeah.”
Only after they approached and spoke did his brain reboot.
He’d wished for a savior, and they’d actually sent one?
Ridiculous, but after seeing something even more impossible, it felt real.
“Min-jun, this mister didn’t faint standing up, did he?”
“It’s shocking enough to faint. Anyway, I’ll buy time—handle the healing. That’s how we clear the quest, right?”
“Mister, you heard that? Let me see those wounds first.”
The woman called So-hee said that and began treating Dong-gil’s injuries.
‘“Die and be reborn,” huh…’
He’d been ready to die, and heaven dropped him a lifeline.