Chapter 9
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 009
Chapter Title: Star Lord (1)
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“Ugh.”
“Hold still. I’m working hard to treat you here.”
“But... is this really treatment?”
Wrapped from head to toe in bandages like a mummy... no, Lee Min-jun asked Jung So-hee in a distrustful voice.
“I told you I have the [First Aid] skill, right? It might look like this, but the bleeding will stop just fine.”
“Ah...? This is... a skill?”
“What’s with that rude reaction?”
So-hee was actually using a skill for the first time ever, but she replied with an innocent expression.
She wanted to show this lone-wolf guy that she could be a useful team member too.
“Gently...”
“Hiss!”
“...Please be careful.”
“That’s what you get for fighting like that. I have to bind it tight to stop the bleeding, so just bear with it a little.”
Guilt toward Min-jun, who had taken the falling spotlight in her place.
And overwhelmed by the ferocity of him beating up Assemblyman Lee Gi-dong while covered in blood, she couldn’t bear the thought that she hadn’t been able to help much. So-hee couldn’t properly meet Min-jun’s eyes.
But Min-jun was busy hiding his own feelings..., so he had no time to notice her mood.
Having always handled everything alone, the rough but warm helping hand felt utterly awkward to him.
As this awkward atmosphere—something best described as cringeworthy—continued, So-hee, unable to endure the discomfort, spoke first.
“Oh, right. With your condition like this, can we still head out today?”
“Oh, about that, there’s something I wanted to tell you. Could you give me your hand?”
“My hand?”
At Min-jun’s sudden request, So-hee extended her hand with a suspicious look.
Min-jun took So-hee’s hand and opened his mouth.
“[Transfer 100 Hours]”
“...?”
“What are you doing? Agree already.”
“Why are you suddenly giving me survival time?”
“I’ll explain later. Just agree first.”
“...I agree.”
Once So-hee agreed, the numbers on their wrists changed. Min-jun now had 1,563 hours, and So-hee had 402 hours.
Confirming the time had transferred properly, Min-jun got to the point.
“Let’s take a short ‘break’ for now.”
“...?”
Silence fell instantly.
Sensing something was wrong a beat too late, Min-jun tried to add more, but So-hee’s flushed hand was quicker.
Slap-!
“Eek! Wait, let me finish...”
Slap-!
So-hee’s palm began slamming into Min-jun’s back harder and harder.
Smack! Smack! Smack!
‘What the hell is this pain?’
He had survived being crushed by a massive spotlight, yet So-hee’s hand stung way too much.
“You jerk! I didn’t think you were that kind of guy, Min-jun.”
“No...”
Min-jun hurriedly grabbed So-hee’s arm to calm her down.
“No! With my body like this, I meant let’s rest one day and head out tomorrow. What the hell were you thinking?!”
“Ah?!”
Only then realizing she’d misunderstood alone, So-hee’s face turned redder than red, positively burning.
“Ah... no, I... Then you should’ve said it properly! Beating around the bush like that, of course I’d misunderstand.”
“Look at our situation. Isn’t it weirder to think dirty things in a spot like this?”
“...”
So-hee had no choice but to fall silent at Min-jun’s words, wrapped up like a mummy.
She couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d gone way too far herself.
Her face, flushed like a ripe apple, showed no sign of cooling down even after time passed.
* * *
The next morning.
Min-jun and So-hee gathered in the first-floor lobby again, organizing their gear.
“Before we head out, let’s start the briefing. Ready?”
At Min-jun’s words, she nodded with pursed lips.
“Of course!”
“No sudden actions like I said before, right?”
“That’s the tenth time. I get it, so hurry up and tell me the plan.”
At her urging, Min-jun rummaged in his bag and pulled out a sheet of paper. One corner read ‘Songpa Tourism Guide Map’.
“We’re here at Golden Apartments, right across from Seoul Tower. And So-hee’s destination is ‘Garラク Fire Station’ next to Garak Market, right?”
Min-jun marked their location and Garak Market with an X using a red pencil he’d taken out.
“Yeah, that’s right. That’s where my...”
“No need to tell me the reason. I just need to get you there and get my survival time.”
“Tch, so cold.”
“Anyway, we’ll go straight down this road.”
The tip of Min-jun’s red pencil traced from Jamsil Station intersection down Songpa-daero all the way to Garak Market.
“Straight down Songpa-daero?!”
“Yeah. You saw how many shooting stars fell from the sky, right? Even if we avoid the ‘star’ at Jamsil Station intersection, going around blindly without knowing the surroundings might run us into another one.”
“No way, you’re saying we go through that intersection crawling with larvae?!”
As So-hee bristled, Min-jun tapped the map sharply with his pencil. Tap. Tap.
“Want to go alone?”
“No, but still...”
“What we need to fear most isn’t those bugs outside—it’s this guy right here.”
Min-jun pointed to the number tattooed on his left wrist. A day had passed, and 1,563 had become 1,539.
“You’re right. I only have 378 hours left too.”
“Of course, I’m not crazy enough to just charge out blindly, but if we’re scared of the larvae, survival will be tough. We’re in a position where we have to kill those things and gain time, after all.”
“Fine, I get it. So how are we going out?”
“Follow me.”
Min-jun led the dissatisfied So-hee somewhere.
* * *
So-hee had always trusted her instincts through life.
Though her life hadn’t been long, at every turning point, her gut had played a major role.
When she got lost at the amusement park as a kid, during the civil service exam she’d now passed, even yesterday amid that absurd disaster—her instincts had always guided her to the best path.
So she thought her choice this time was right too... But the reality unfolding before her eyes now was something she didn’t want to believe.
“Min-jun? Please tell me this isn’t what I think it is.”
“I’m not thrilled about it either.”
“...Is this really a proven method?”
“At least better than going out bare-handed, I think.”
Before them lay the corpse of the giant larva they’d barely killed after a bloody fight.
Somehow, Min-jun had turned the larva corpse into a ‘larva mask’.
Hollowed out inside, it maintained its shape with the exoskeleton, and the severed head had been reattached, held stiffly upright.
“I put its bodily fluids in a small basket inside the suit. Wear it and rub the fluids all over to mask our scent.”
“Is there... really no other way?”
“Got a better idea? I’m listening.”
Realizing she had no choice at Min-jun’s response, So-hee screamed silently.
* * *
At the same time.
Songpa District Office rooftop.
A fierce-faced middle-aged man was peering out with binoculars.
“Fuck, these bug bastards are annoyingly plentiful.”
“Team Leader Sung Dong-gil, see anything?”
Whack.
A young man with an impression somewhere between meek and mild poked his head over, and Dong-gil smacked the back of his head mid-scan.
“Head, head. Pull it back in quick?”
“Ugh...”
“Rookie. What’d I say before we left the station?”
“Ask permission for everything except breathing?”
“No. Choi Woo-jin, you need permission to breathe too. The accidents you’ve caused already... Sigh. Aren’t you sorry for me, cleaning up after the maknae at my age? How’d a guy like you graduate top of the police academy...”
“Huh? Team Leader, look over there.”
Ignoring Dong-gil’s scolding, Woo-jin, who’d already been scanning outside, urgently pointed elsewhere.
The street-crawling larvae were all starting to move in one direction.
“Did they eat something bad? What’s going on?”
To find the cause of their odd behavior, Dong-gil used the telescope to check their movement direction.
The round lens captured Jamsil Station intersection. There was a ‘black star’ and a massive silkworm cocoon.
All the larvae in the area were gathering toward that cocoon.
“What the hell...”
An alarm rang in Dong-gil’s head.
Something’s happening. We need to get out of this area fast. His 20 years of honed detective instincts screamed it.
But duty and curiosity pinned his feet in place.
‘Every damn time like this, some shit went down on the scene too...’
Duty and curiosity. If he could’ve indulged them freely, he’d be at headquarters by now, he cursed inwardly as he watched.
Larvae from the vicinity swarmed toward the black star and cocoon, their numbers swelling noticeably when suddenly the cocoon began trembling.
Hundreds of larvae watched motionlessly in silence.
“Hey, just in case, get ready to bolt and wait.”
After watching another minute in mounting unease, Dong-gil felt it was time to run.
Suddenly, a dry tree-splitting sound rang out, and a black crack like lightning struck the cocoon’s surface.
From the split gap in the darkness, something long like an antenna shot out.
Then a furry head and chest.
Damp gray wings.
A plump abdomen glowing deep orange.
Four long tentacles extended from the abdomen’s end one by one.
A moth’s emergence.
Just abnormally huge—the form identical to what Dong-gil remembered from his childhood romps in the countryside.
“T-Team Leader, what the hell is that?”
“Don’t know, you punk. Just...”
“...”
“Figure if we run into that thing, it’s game over that day.”
The giant moth shed the white cocoon and climbed atop the four-story-tall ‘star’.
Countless watching larvae bowed their heads to the ground like worshipping a god, bodies low. The moth, accepting the larvae’s adoration as its due, spread its massive gray wings wide.
Shaking off after emerging, it extended tentacles over twice its body length, wrapping up four larvae.
The captured ones didn’t resist, accepting their fate.
Flutter flutter—
The tentacles writhed, sucking the larvae’s time, while light poured from the damp wings.
Hundreds of worshipping larvae shook their antennae, emitting sounds, and messages appeared before Dong-gil and Woo-jin’s eyes.
[‘Arktine’ has become the Star Lord.]
[All living beings in Songpa 2 District must properly revere her.]
「[Star Lord]
Songpa 1 District: Vacant
Songpa 2 District: Arktine
Songpa 3 District: Atlnak
Songpa 4 District: Hornet
Songpa 5 District: Vacant」
‘No more.’
Confirming the message, Dong-gil sensed danger.
Not long ago, after a similar message, everyone within 1km of Garak Market had been killed or taken by those damn spider bastards.
He dismissed the message and checked their position again through the telescope for escape.
The giant moth—Arktine’s—eyes were staring straight at him through the lens.
-Screeeeeeeee!
“Shit.”
As it flapped its wings, blasting ear-shattering ultrasonic waves everywhere, countless larvae turned their heads toward him in unison.
Gulp.
A chill ran down his back, cold sweat trickling.
‘We’re fucked.’
“Hey, rookie! Get up quick. We gotta run.”
“Team Leader Sung, look! Something weird just popped out too!”
“You little shit, we’re about to die and that’s what’s important—huh?”
About to smack the oblivious rookie’s head, Dong-gil spotted something off too.
On Olympic-daero, where countless larvae marched east.
A bull-sized larva staggered like drunk, plowing through the larva horde.