One Point
The soldier monsters were strong as expected. Park Hana, who had held out well until then, took a swipe from one of the beast’s forelegs and went flying several meters through the air. The impact seemed to have shattered the bones in her arm.
“Aaaagh!”
Park Hana thrashed about, eyes rolled back from the sheer agony. At least Ogernam managed to weather the creature’s assault—barely. Literally just barely.
Kang-jun and Jang Hwa-young quickly cleaned up the surroundings. The moment they finally had a chance to catch their breath, Hye-mi poured healing magic over Park Hana as she writhed in pain. Once the worst of it subsided, Hana managed to pull herself together. Her expression, however, was already half-dazed.
Kang-jun didn’t blame her. The level gap between Park Hana and a soldier monster was simply too vast. Being knocked out of the fight in a single blow was inevitable. She’d only survived with one arm intact thanks to her shield; without it, every bone in her body would have been pulverized.
Team 7 was struggling just as badly. On their side, Team Leader Carlos was holding the line well enough, but their dealers lacked the firepower of Kang-jun’s group. …It was about time the two teams merged. Command structure be damned—if they kept going like this, a real disaster could break out.
“What do we do now?”
“I think we should join up soon…”
Both team leaders deferred the decision to Jang Hwa-young. They were the nominal leaders, but the final call always fell, tacitly, to the S-class.
“We merge.”
Exactly the answer they’d expected. The only question left was who would take command.
“It would be best if Senior Jang Hwa-young took the lead.”
“Agreed.”
This time they offered her the new team-leader position outright. She didn’t refuse. It simply looked the cleanest that way.
So Teams 6 and 7 temporarily mixed. Positions were already fixed, so no one needed a detailed briefing—everyone already knew what they had to do.
Jang Hwa-young’s team continued following the tendrils. After the merge, they went a long stretch without combat. …And then they came face to face with another passage. Kang-jun exchanged a glance with Carlos and Jang Hwa-young, then immediately tried to raise Team 0 on the radio.
“This is Teams 6 and 7. Team 0, respond.”
—This is Team 0. What’s the situation?
“Living tendrils are leading into a passage. Request current position confirmation. Over.”
—Confirmed. Over.
“We will enter that location. Over.”
—Understood. Over.
The call ended. Kang-jun set the handset down and gave Jang Hwa-young a single nod. She signaled the team to move out. They formed two lines and slowly entered the passage.
The air here was a little warmer and stickier than outside, thanks to the heat the tendrils kept pumping out.
Haa, haa. Rough breathing and tired footsteps echoed forward and back along the tunnel.
It was the third day inside the labyrinth. Compared to the first day, exhaustion was plain on every face. Park Hana had long since lost her gentle smile. The earlier shattering of her left arm had clearly drained a good deal of her stamina.
Belita, Zixu, and Hye-mi looked haggard as well. They burned through mana far faster than they could recover it. Every fight pushed them to the brink of collapse.
…Still, they had no choice but to keep advancing. Today was the last day of the survey. Tomorrow they would have to turn around and retrace their steps.
Kang-jun kept checking the electronic map. With seventeen teams exploring simultaneously, the labyrinth map was expanding at a rapid clip. A few lucky teams had already finished their surveys.
Kang-jun wondered how much farther the tendrils stretched in other places—and whether more of those queen monsters existed…
They walked the passage carefully. The radio signal seemed to be weakening; the map’s upload speed had slowed noticeably. Communication still held, for now.
They fought inside the passage as well. In truth it was less a fight than Jang Hwa-young’s one-sided slaughter. Every monster that charged from the front she handled alone. The tunnel wasn’t wide, so they could only come at her one at a time, tournament-style.
Stepping past those horrific corpses was an ordeal in itself. Hye-mi, with her weak stomach, dry-heaved several times. The stench was appalling—enough to make actual shit smell fragrant by comparison.
The team soon cleared the passage and emerged into another wide chamber. A considerable number of monsters milled about.
Beside the tunnel they had just exited, several more passage mouths clustered tightly together—three more of them. From each, bundles of tendrils emerged and converged toward a single point.
Kang-jun instinctively knew their team alone could not wipe out a queen monster. They would need at least the firepower of a special-ops unit, like last time. …It would be smarter to map the route roughly and pull back.
Jang Hwa-young ordered a short rest. Kang-jun approached her.
“I don’t think we can handle this with just us.”
“Then what?”
“Wouldn’t it be better to expand the map a little more and head back? This survey isn’t the last one… We’ve done our share. The 55th Branch can handle the rest.”
That was his honest feeling. Headquarters had ordered them to support, but the 45th Branch had already pulled more than its weight.
Carlos, listening nearby, wore a similar look. His expression said there was no need to force themselves into unnecessary danger.
Jang Hwa-young drew a deep breath and let it out. She seemed to be thinking hard for a moment. …Perhaps she was remembering her friend, the S-class Fredrik.
“…All right. Let’s not rush. Accidents happen when you rush.”
They checked the time. 11:17 a.m.
“Okay. Just a little farther and we take a long rest.”
Ugh. People groaned as they rose. Their eyes said they only had to endure today somehow. Jang Hwa-young led the re-formed lines forward again.
Then combat broke out once more.
Four worker monsters and two soldier monsters. They simply charged without thinking. While Kang-jun and Jang Hwa-young each took a soldier, the rest of the team handled the four workers. Compared to soldiers, workers were manageable.
Having an A-class guard or not made an enormous difference. Park Hana and Ogernam felt it firsthand—exactly why Kang-jun always stressed the importance of high-level guards.
Team 6 had never been strong enough to come here in the first place. Only because Kang-jun and Jang Hwa-young carefully regulated the difficulty had they lasted this long. If the two of them had been merely average, Kang-jun’s team would already have been wiped out. Everyone felt that truth clearly now.
Our team leader… really is something else.
One or two workers they might somehow manage, but a single soldier monster would have slaughtered them all. And Kang-jun and Jang Hwa-young handled those things with ease. Meeting leaders like these was surely a once-in-a-lifetime stroke of luck.
With the morning’s final fight finished, Jang Hwa-young called the long rest. Everyone spread mats around a central lamp. After filling their stomachs a little, they flopped down on the mats.
“Ahh, I feel human again… Damn, lying down is the best. Fuck.”
The moment they hit the ground, weary sighs spilled out. Exhaustion claimed them almost at once. Men and women, young and old, they curled up on the mats and fell into deep sleep. Snoring of every variety filled the air.
Kang-jun lay down like the others but did not sleep. Out of habit he opened the chat window, saw nothing but demands for sex, and closed it again.
What a bunch of absolute bastards.
If the universe only had gods like these, what the hell would it even look like? …Fuck, it sure as hell wouldn’t be a normal place. One hundred percent.
He laced his fingers behind his head like a pillow, closed his eyes, and let his thoughts drift. What came next… work hours, labyrinth surveys, women, sex… Lexy, the three dildos, life is sometimes like alcohol… wait, fuck, that bitch is making me think weird shit again!
Then something suddenly registered on his senses. The ground seemed to tremble, ever so faintly.
Kang-jun sat bolt upright and flooded the area with mana. …His face went rigid.
“…Emergency! Emergen—cy! Everyone up! Get up! Hurry and get up! Pack your gear right now. Fuck, pack your shit now!”
The instant he shouted “emergency,” Jang Hwa-young and Carlos seemed to sense the same wrongness. Their gazes snapped in the same direction. Their expressions hardened exactly like Kang-jun’s.
…What? Emergency? What, how, what…
Kang-jun kept yelling for them to grab their packs. Jang Hwa-young shouted for everyone to move. They slung their bags and formed two lines. Carlos and Kang-jun took the rear and roared at them to run.
“Run! Run!”
They sprinted back the way they had come. As the porters began to lag, Kang-jun ordered them to dump the sacks they were carrying. Running with those was impossible.
Thud-crash. Heavy sacks hit the ground and whatever was inside shattered with a brutal noise. Now they carried only the communication gear.
Kieeeee. Monster shrieks began to rise. Oh, fuck! The team members flinched in terror at the sound. From every direction came the rumbling thunder of running beasts—dddddddd.
What the hell is going on? What the fuck is happening!
Kang-jun thought as he ran. …Some team must have provoked a queen monster. And now the swarm had gone berserk. Just like last time.
If they could just kill the queen, the rest would turn stupid, but clearly no one had succeeded yet. Failure wasn’t automatic, but dragging it out would guarantee disaster. Even Kang-jun and Jang Hwa-young had been horrified by the sheer numbers last time.
“Ruuun!”
Even as his lungs burned, Kang-jun drove the team harder. Fortunately they reached the passage first.
“In! Get in now!”
The monsters kept coming. They kept running. The chase stretched on. …But the faster beasts were gradually closing the gap.
Kang-jun stopped in the middle of the tunnel. Carlos, who had been running ahead, saw him halt, turned back, and planted himself at his side. This old man had some loyalty.
“Hey, trying to hog the cool role all by yourself?”
“…Would’ve been nicer if you were a pretty girl. Shame.”
“You little shit, same goes for me.”
Both of them grinned at each other, gasping for air.
Carlos slammed his shield down. The tunnel was narrow enough that only one monster could attack at a time. Of course the sheer numbers were still the problem…
Kang-jun drew a long, slow breath, let a little out, then locked it completely.
He settled into stance. Left foot slightly forward, right foot on the ball like a sprinter, driving power into the ground.
Then he slowly drew the sword in his right hand back—into a thrusting posture.
Carlos happened to glance sideways and asked what the hell he was doing. Kang-jun said nothing. Every nerve was already focused on the tip of the blade.
He kept pouring mana into his right hand. As much as he could possibly gather.
Time flowed slowly for him. His heart beat—thump, thump—with crystalline clarity. He had not blinked since the moment he stopped breathing. He stared into the pitch-black darkness far ahead. The lamplight was growing more distant.
…Long ago he had spoken with his old master about the idea of splitting a river. The topic had come up by chance, yet the conversation had left a deep impression that still remained.
—Master, how exactly do you split a river?
—Kang-jun.
The old master had poked a single point into the dirt with a twig. Kang-jun hadn’t understood the gesture.
—If you can put everything into this one point, you can split not only a river, but the earth itself—even the sky.
—What do you put into this point?
—That depends on the person.
The old master had smiled kindly, and the conversation had ended.
…I think I understand a little now.
And into that one point,
Kang-jun poured everything he could.
Carlos’s mouth slowly fell open.
Kang-jun drove the sword forward with every ounce of strength he possessed. A flash erupted.
—!!
A sword-shaped blast of energy shot forward like a beam of light, racing down the tunnel.
It pierced every single monster pouring through the passage. Unable to shed their momentum, they toppled forward one after another.
Hooo.
Kang-jun released the breath he had been holding.
Carlos’s raised shoulders sagged.
“…Insane.”