87화 Chapter 15. 비상사태. (4)
Jang Hwa-young sliced the latch off the rooftop door with her sword, and it swung open with a soft creak. A quiet darkness greeted them. The D-rank members swallowed hard as they looked into the maze-like, pitch-black corridor. ...No, at this point, calling this building a maze wasn't an exaggeration. It had been completely overrun by monsters.
The team leader glanced back and gave a look telling them to keep formation and follow closely. Team One stepped slowly into the darkness. Footsteps and breathing filled the corridor.
Kang-jun spread his mana out. There were three of them on the floor below, right now. Roughly level 200. Just little punks, it seemed.
Anyway, these were the kind of things Jang Hwa-young could kill with a single swing. They hadn't come here to farm experience for the D-rank members — the priority was to clear things quickly and move on to the next area.
Jang Hwa-young's steps were unhesitating. As soon as she descended to the floor below, she struck the steel pillars with her sword — clang, clang, clang. The sound carried all the way down to much lower floors, and more monsters began to swarm toward them. It was a deliberate move — she didn't want to hunt them floor by floor. Of course, for the D-rank members, it was something out of a nightmare.
"Form up!"
Jack shouted. They backed against one wall and formed a semicircle. Of course, Jang Hwa-young didn't give a damn about that sort of thing — she just stepped out alone. Ten or twenty of these little punks could come at her all they wanted; she wasn't afraid.
But the other team members were a different story. Even two or three level-200 monsters would give them a real fight. Still, they all believed that with Jang Hwa-young and Vice Team Leader Jack there, the chances of anyone dying were practically zero.
Soon the monsters revealed themselves. The creatures had ant heads and mantis bodies, scuttling rapidly on two pairs of hind legs. Especially the pincers on their front legs — the blades were so sharp they looked like they could slice through thick steel pillars in one clean cut.
Hiss. Lexy sucked in her breath the moment she saw their terrifying forms. Similar reactions erupted from several places. That was the reality of low-level D-rank members in the early 100s.
Three more were clambering up the stopped escalator. Add the three already on this floor, and six monsters had gathered almost simultaneously.
"Fuck!"
Even Vice Team Leader Jack seemed to find this a bit much, gritting his teeth and muttering a curse.
"Shields up!"
Thud — four massive shields stood like a barricade. The magic-based dealers began gathering mana. Kang-jun drew his sword and gave it a light swing left and right.
Team Leader Jang Hwa-young took on the three charging at her all at once. The remaining three attacked Team One's formation. Jack handled one, and the other two were engaged by the rest of the team.
The guards blocked the first wave of attacks well. The steel shields — perhaps reinforced with monster bone — didn't easily give way to the creatures' scissor strikes. This was why good equipment mattered.
Magic attacks followed, striking the monsters' bodies. But the damage didn't seem particularly heavy. Then the physical attackers naturally charged in.
Kang-jun had no intention of playing the brute-force concept. He'd already used that to death in his second playthrough. Right now, this was closer to the chaos of his third.
He immediately kicked off the ground, sprinted forward, and split a monster's torso in half with a single strike. Natasha, who had been preparing a follow-up attack, had her eyes widen instantly.
...He killed it in one hit?
Even she, an elite, couldn't bring herself to imagine it. From what she'd heard secondhand, these things were at least level 200.
Even accounting for the magic damage they'd taken, it was hard to explain such a result. Before she could rationalize it as a fluke, Kang-jun ran forward and killed another one. Now it was obvious to anyone watching — this wasn't luck.
—!
The teammates couldn't believe their eyes as two monsters were cut down in an instant. Even B-rank Vice Team Leader Jack hadn't killed one without several exchanges. Killing something in a single strike was only possible when you held overwhelmingly superior power.
Kang-jun flicked the monster blood off his sword once, then swept his gaze over the eyes fixed on him.
"...What are you looking at? Aren't you going to clean up around you?"
Uh, uh... Only then did the team members snap out of it, loosening their stiff bodies and scrambling to move around. Kang-jun leisurely walked over to his gear bag and slung it over his shoulder. The atmosphere suddenly turned strange.
Jang Hwa-young, who had returned after cutting down three monsters, gave the signal to move out as if nothing had happened. They fell into formation and continued descending.
"Kang-jun, you're so strong. Wow, I really didn't know — that you'd be this good. Wow."
Lexy, walking right beside him, admired him sincerely. Kang-jun looked at her and held up a finger to his lips.
"Shh. Don't talk and focus. We're not done yet."
"Ah, uh..."
Honestly, he'd heard so many compliments like that that he'd grown numb to them. Even if he did hear one, it had to come from someone of a higher level to feel good about it — hearing it from some low-level punk like this didn't stir him at all.
Kang-jun glanced at the back of Natasha's head as she marched ahead. I wonder if she's a little deflated now. He was curious about what mental changes had occurred in her — she'd been so resentful about having the spotlight stolen from her by some nobody.
If her pride breaks too easily, it's less fun. And the coupons would be fewer too.
Team One descended floor by floor. Jang Hwa-young didn't bother patrolling the building individually — she just struck the steel pillars, clank clank, to lure all the monsters out at once. Thanks to this, the time spent dealing with monsters was drastically reduced.
The nesting was most severe on the fourth floor. There were many strange masses of slime there, and inside them were human bones that hadn't fully dissolved. It seemed that was their food supply. They swallowed people and then regurgitated them, storing them that way.
Ugh, ugh. Lexy dry-heaved at the sight of that horror. She was looking at what was inside a monster's stomach, and now she was about to look at what was inside her own.
The monsters were most concentrated on the second and third floors. Roughly ten in total. They didn't seem to be particularly large, but they made up for it with numbers.
This time too, Jang Hwa-young struck the steel pillars with her sword — clang clang. The sluggish monsters immediately began running toward the sound, thud thud thud. With it echoing from all directions, the sense of dread was no small thing.
Still, Jang Hwa-young handled four or five of them alone at the front. Of course, the remaining five or six were a problem, but Kang-jun cut down another four or five of those with clean slashes. He didn't bother with the rest. They could handle that much themselves.
Team One was half-stunned by the performance of the most despised sword-wielders. Even Vice Team Leader Jack now had to watch Kang-jun's reactions. He had realized that Kang-jun was no ordinary D-rank nobody.
This was how things worked in this field. It was a bit less extreme than other dungeons, but this place too was a world where the strong held power and received better treatment.
The one who rejoiced most at this change was Team Leader Jang Hwa-young. She couldn't help but think that the "D-rank Hero" title card somehow obscured Kang-jun's aura. But now that he was peeling it off layer by layer on his own, she had to feel proud. Of course, she still maintained her expressionless face on the outside.
Anyway, Team One had cleanly cleared one building and emerged boldly through the front gate. The morning sun had already risen, illuminating the entire land. The rain-soaked roads reflected the sunlight, sparkling and gleaming.
They took a brief rest. Quite a few eyes were fixed on Kang-jun, who was sitting on a mat and gulping down water. Something like the emergence of a new powerhouse. It was the kind of look that anticipated a seismic shift in the hero landscape.
Anyone with a bit of sense could easily notice that Jang Hwa-young and Kang-jun weren't just ordinary associates. A new recruit who used a sword, on the team of the only S-rank swordsman? These battle-hardened veterans knew that such coincidences almost never happened. Some kind of influence must have been at play.
Of course, speculation could only go so far. The two of them kept their mouths shut and stayed quiet, so there was no way to confirm anything directly. The more they didn't say, the more the imagination ran wild.
Only the stupid Lexy didn't notice any of that — she still clung to Kang-jun like a dog, panting and wagging her tail. She just figured he was strong, and that was the end of it. Natasha, watching Lexy, thought: What an easygoing personality.
So that's why he was in that kind of relationship with Aunt Velita. She was convinced that was the reason Velita, famous for her high standards in men, had ended up with Kang-jun. No matter how she thought about it, Velita wasn't the type to do that just because someone was handsome — and yet, it all fit perfectly.
But her hostility toward him hadn't faded at all. ...Natasha somehow felt like her place as the protagonist had been stolen. Her status, which had been untouchable among her peers, had collapsed in an instant with that guy's appearance. For someone who had felt joy and pleasure from that position, it was only natural to be displeased. It was almost like losing the meaning of her life.
When the break ended, Team One lined up in two rows and set out again. Jang Hwa-young, leading the way, frequently checked the map. Fortunately, they were on the right path.
As they approached their assigned area, the faint killing intent grew gradually stronger. Strong enough that even Lexy, with her low mana, could sense something was off.
Now monsters were roaming even in the heart of the city. They attacked in groups of two or three. Of course, that many were handled by Jang Hwa-young alone.
"I think we're getting close to our destination."
One of the C-rank members muttered while looking at the electronic map. They were almost at their target.
Kang-jun had already seen something unusual from far away. He'd told himself it couldn't be, but the worse the feeling got as they approached, the more it turned out to be true. The other team members' faces were gradually darkening too.
"Uh, uh..."
And when they reached the open four-way intersection, they were horrified at the sight before them.
"F-fuck... What the hell is this."
The deep city center was, quite literally, entirely undergoing nesting. It was so bad you'd wonder if this was really a city where people lived... It wasn't just one or two buildings that had been consumed.
Even Jang Hwa-young, who was usually unfazed, was somewhat shocked by the sight. Past a certain point, it felt like they had arrived on a completely different monster planet.
The exterior walls of every building were covered with slime and unknown tendrils. And the number of monsters she could sense at a glance was no small amount...
Vice Team Leader Jack approached Jang Hwa-young, who had stopped for a moment.
"Team Leader, what do we do about this? ...This doesn't seem like something we can handle on our own."
She fell into thought. Then she briefly turned back. Her eyes met Kang-jun's. He stepped forward as if he'd been waiting for this. No one found it strange anymore.
"If we keep letting this go on, it won't be easy to handle."
Kang-jun stated it flatly. Judging by the expansion speed, if they left it a few more days, the entire 50th District could be consumed.
"So what do we do?"
"There's probably a queen monster somewhere."
"That's too vague..."
"Or we could just bomb everything, but if we don't kill the head, it's useless. It'll be hiding underground, so missiles obviously won't work."
Kang-jun quickly assessed the situation. If they waited for headquarters support, things would get even worse — they'd be trying to stop a flood with a spoon.
This was it. Kang-jun spotted a golden opportunity here. One that could lead to a special promotion in an instant.
Anyway, Jang Hwa-young was right beside him. If the two of them combined their strength, there was nothing particularly scary. If it really didn't work out, they could just run away again.
"How about we contact the other teams?"
"Contact?"
Jang Hwa-young asked with her eyes. Kang-jun tapped his temple with his finger.
"We form a special assault team to take out the queen's head."