Chapter 39
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: Police Hospital (3)
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At Kim Hak-beom's introduction, So-hee rushed over and asked in a frantic voice.
It was probably because all the worry and concern for her father that she had been suppressing burst forth like a dam breaking.
"Um, excuse me. Do you know my father? No, Team Leader Jung Jin-ho? Is my father safe? Is there some reason he couldn't escape with you?"
"…I'm sorry."
"Sorry? Why are you sorry? Did something happen to my father?"
"So-hee."
Lee Min-jun called out to So-hee, who was pressing Kim Geon-ho as if scolding him.
Only then did she seem to realize her mistake, stepping back two paces, letting out a deep breath, and bowing her head deeply.
"…I'm sorry for being rude when we just met."
"It's fine."
"I'm Jung So-hee, the daughter of Team Leader Jung Jin-ho."
"The maknae of Team Leader Jung Jin-ho's team. Kim Geon-ho."
"Could you slowly tell me what happened? I came here looking for my father."
Kim Geon-ho, with his low and thick voice, exchanged greetings and then began to recount the past in bits and pieces.
A horde of spiders had attacked the emergency shelter where the survivors were gathered.
He and his team members had fought to hold them off, but one by one, they were captured by the giant spiders, until eventually only Team Leader Jung Jin-ho and he remained.
And that Team Leader Jung Jin-ho had bought time to save him, the youngest.
He wasn't the type to talk much usually, so his words were disjointed, but not to the point of being incomprehensible.
'Truly like my father…'
At So-hee's murmur upon learning the full story, Kim Geon-ho flinched.
He hung his head low as if he were a criminal, but So-hee did not blame him.
Her father was the kind of man who would devote himself to anyone, not just the man before her.
"…Did you see him pass away with your own eyes?"
"No. It was chaos."
'Then there's still a sliver of possibility.'
Min-jun racked his brains as he listened to their story.
According to Kim Hak-beom, that place was a demon realm you couldn't escape once entered. They would need a guide. Min-jun interjected into their conversation.
"Then that means he might still be alive. We're on our way to Garak Market to rescue So-hee-ssi’s father. I'm sorry to ask, but Geon-ho-ssi, could you guide us?"
"I… can't go. I'm sorry."
"Then at least tell us how you escaped—"
Zzzt-crackle—
"…Kuhk!"
Min-jun had no intention of forcing Geon-ho, who had escaped from a place where everyone died upon entry, to go back.
He had only asked to know the escape method and the situation there as much as possible.
If not for the sudden pain like his palm tearing open, blood seeping out…
'It's them.'
These weren't run-of-the-mill foes. This level of pain clearly meant an entity like the Sting he'd encountered in the crevice had appeared.
Wheeeeeen—!!
At the same time, siren sounds blared throughout the police hospital, and everyone in the room hurriedly looked out the window.
"…Fuck."
Kang Chang-seok, who had been silently listening until now, muttered under his breath.
Outside, a horde of spiders—easily over a thousand at a glance—was swarming toward the police hospital.
"There’s never been a group this large until now…"
Kim Hak-beom, murmuring lowly as he watched them approach, snapped to attention and bolted out the door.
There was no time to despair. They had to gather personnel as quickly as possible and establish a defensive line…
"All non-injured personnel, assemble!"
Hospital Director Lee Jong-seok operated the broadcast system to relay the situation, and Kim Geon-ho and Lee Geun-jae were already armed and following behind Kim Hak-beom.
Even from Min-jun's view out the window, the police hospital blaring its siren was operating in perfect order.
Personnel were already taking positions on the windowsills and the 4th-floor balconies serving as walls.
Roughly estimating, there were at least 200 combat-ready personnel holding composite bows, awaiting orders.
Considering the number of incoming spiders, if each person could kill about five, they could repel the assault without issue.
But the car-sized giant spiders interspersed among them and the one making the mark on his hand warn fiercely were variables.
"Min-jun-ssi, let's go help too."
"Let's do that."
Leaving Kang Sang-cheol behind, Min-jun scooped up So-hee and leaped straight from the 6th-floor director's office to the 4th-floor balcony.
As they landed with a heavy thud, a system window appeared before their eyes.
「[Sub Quest – Defense]
Difficulty: C-
Clear Condition: Defend the police hospital and survive against Atlnak's forces.
(Optional) Eliminate 'Regina' (0/1)
Reward: Karma +0.5, 2,500 hours, Low-Grade Antidote
Optional Reward: Police hospital becomes a base camp
Penalty for refusal or failure: Karma -0.5」
He had no intention of abandoning all these people and fleeing anyway, and to get Kim Geon-ho's help, they had to hold them off.
Min-jun and So-hee immediately pressed the quest accept button.
"…Looks like a black shadow is coming."
"Definitely, quite a lot."
As So-hee said, the horde swarming between the tall commercial buildings evoked the image of long shadows cast by buildings as the sun lowered.
Clack. Clack.
Spiders with jet-black bodies and eight red eyes.
The ceaseless sound of their thousands of sharp legs rang in their ears.
"But looking around, it seems they've handled this more than once or twice."
As Kim Hak-beom stood at the center of the balcony wall, drew his compound bow, and shouted, the surrounding survivors moved as one following him.
"Archers, nock arrows!"
"“Nock arrows!!”"
Click-clack.
With Kim Hak-beom leading the call, the entire police hospital personnel echoed in unison, resembling a medieval army.
Min-jun had a ranged weapon too, but since it drained him intensely with each use, he stretched and prepared for close combat instead.
Clack. Clack.
The sound grew closer.
Visually estimating, about 500 meters away.
He could hear the survivors holding their breath right beside him.
"Wait!"
The air in the police hospital grew taut like the bowstrings they held.
And in an instant, as the horde closed to 300 meters.
Kim Hak-beom released his bowstring.
Piuuuu—
His arrow flew like embedding into the low-hanging sunset, emitting a long whistling sound.
It was a crude signal arrow made from a ping-pong ball, but it fulfilled its role perfectly…
All the archers fired volleys at the charging horde.
The arrows arced through the air and mercilessly embedded into the spiders.
No arrows stuck in the ground.
Not because all 200 survivors were master marksmen.
The horde was so vast there was no space for misses.
"Archers, nock arrows!"
"“Nock arrows!!”"
Kim Hak-beom showed no disappointment at the still-swarming spiders.
He simply ordered them to nock again.
"We need to thin their numbers now. Fire!"
"Fire!"
As the horde passed the parking lot and drew near, arrows sliced through the air several more times under Kim Hak-beom's command.
By the time gaps began appearing visibly in their ranks to the naked eye…
Kim Hak-beom shouted loudly and raised an iron rod.
It was a steel rebar common at construction sites, sharpened to a point like a metal pike.
"Pikes up!"
"“Pikes up!”"
With the echoes, about 150 troops on the 4th-floor balcony—excluding those on the 5th and 6th-floor windows—raised their iron pikes.
"So-hee-ssi, our turn!"
"Yes!"
As the spiders began climbing the building walls, Min-jun charged with his greatsword.
'So-hee-ssi is the tank, so she'll block them from the railing. Then I'll…'
Min-jun leaped over the line of personnel holding pikes along the balcony railing into the air.
The ragged cloth barely qualifying as a mantle fluttered in the gentle spring breeze.
'Aim for the heads.'
Defying the pleasant wind resistance, he gripped his greatsword tighter.
With a light surge of energy, the blade gleamed faintly, and Min-jun transformed into a dark meteor trailing a white tail as he plummeted.
Kwaaaang—!
The writhing spider horde was crushed at once, the ground sinking hemispherically amid dust clouds.
The surroundings were drenched in blue ichor, with no intact corpses visible.
Min-jun slung his greatsword over his shoulder and prepared to leap again.
'I need to draw as much aggro as possible.'
To do that, he had to stand in the thick of battle.
With a thud, Min-jun rocketed up from the thick dust.
Slicing through the air once more, he plunged into the heart of the black sea.
Clack. Clack.
Countless red dots amid the black waves turned toward Min-jun.
The Apostle's Nemesis effect boasted its prowess, forcibly drawing nearby spiders' aggro.
'Star Ground effect!'
As long as the Star Ground effect benefited only him, hundreds of spiders were no different from gifts.
'This is infinite power.'
Even using skills lavishly, his survival time steadily increased.
He had amassed so much beforehand that a little depletion wouldn't matter anyway.
"Kieek—!"
In that split-second lapse in thought.
Spiders around him sprang up like springs, fangs protruding from their chelicerae.
Moth larvae with tough exoskeletons.
Bees that flew freely.
In contrast, spiders with thin exoskeletons and no flight had innate hunting as their greatest weapon, but it was powerless against overwhelming force.
Whoosh—
As the brutish metal slab swung, the crushed bodies of airborne spiders rained down.
Min-jun carried the momentum, sweeping his greatsword in a broad arc across the ground like brushstrokes.
Blue light flashed amid the pulverized spider corpses.
['Space Domination Lv.5' activates.]
[Enemy movement and attack speed within 14m radius reduced by 35%.]
Hearing the welcome message, Min-jun dove into the spider horde.
Slaaaash—!
Everywhere his sword passed was dyed blue with ichor.
Whether common spiders or car-sized giants, he swept through like a tidal wave.
'Where's the leader?'
Their fangs and webs meant to bind were useless against Min-jun… Such numbers posed no threat.
Only the one stimulating the mark on his hand.
The 'Regina' mentioned in the quest required caution.
'No monster that triggered the hand's mark has been a pushover so far.'
As he swung his sword while scanning all directions.
Min-jun suddenly felt a tickle on the back of his neck… and immediately ducked.
Swoosh—
A sharp iron lever with a beak-like wedge grazed past his head.
Reflexively swinging his greatsword at the foe, Min-jun urgently slammed it into the ground to halt.
'…!'
The opponent was human. A firefighter, clad in orange with a navy collar.
In his shock at the unexpected presence, another air-cutting sound came from the left.
'Iron clank.'
Sensing it, Min-jun slightly bent his knees and leaped back greatly.
Securing space by swinging his greatsword at the spiders, he stared at where he'd stood moments ago.
'Damn…'
Then, four 'humans' hiding among the black spider horde raised weapons and revealed themselves.