Rescue Operation (1)

Two girls remained inside the classroom. Once they had watched the group that had been devouring monster corpses head downstairs, one of them finally spoke.

"Jin-ri. Shouldn't we have called out to those people just now and asked them to save us?"

"Are you insane? That teacher was eating a monster raw. He's clearly lost his mind. It's too dangerous!"

"Yeah, but still…"

"Ah-ra. Don't worry. If we wait, the police or the army will come. I'm sure of it."

Jin-ri tried to put Ah-ra at ease, glancing out the window to check their surroundings. The people from earlier seemed to have killed most of the goblins on this floor — nothing living stirred outside.

"Is it really okay for us to just sit here like this? What if nobody comes?"

"I told you not to worry. Someone will come for us."

Even as she said it, she couldn't keep the tremor out of her voice. And she had every reason to be afraid. The friends they had been talking to like any other ordinary day now lay dead beside them, throats ripped out, arms and legs hacked away. Even soldiers would struggle in a situation like this. For ordinary high school students, holding on was almost impossible.

So they stayed where they were, the classroom door locked as tightly as they could manage.

"Jin-ri. What was that message just now?"

"I… I don't know either."

At the same instant, the air around them changed all at once. Something about the hallway had turned cold and unclean.

The message appeared, and from the corridor that had been empty only moments before, a grotesque noise began to leak through the door.

Grrrrrk.

Grrrk.

Jin-ri crept toward the door and peered out.

Huh?!

The things standing in the hallway were the goblins that had died just a little while ago. No — the dead ones were still there, corpses lying exactly where they had fallen. These were new.

"J-Jin-ri. What's that sound?"

"The… the monsters are back."

"They're back?"

Jin-ri gave a careful nod. With the goblins returned, escaping from here had just become that much harder. Maybe, even if that teacher really had gone insane, leaving with his group would have been the wiser choice.

"W-what do we do now?"

"I don't know. We just have to wait here."

There was no way they were punching through those monsters now. All they could do was stay put and pray that rescue came.

And then—

Rattle. Rattle.

Something was trying to open the locked door. Jin-ri had checked only moments ago, and there had been nothing out there but monsters. It couldn't be a person.

"J-Jin-ri."

"Ah-ra."

Rattle. Rattle.

Whatever it was kept working at the door. Then, apparently deciding that opening it was a lost cause, it started slamming into the wood with raw force.

Bang! Bang! Crunch!

The door was a heartbeat from coming apart. They looked toward the window, and what stood beyond it was a goblin of an entirely different caliber — a massive thing whose bulk put the ordinary ones to shame.

"We have to run!"

They both knew that. But a giant goblin was planted squarely in front of the door, and the hallway beyond was already crawling with the rest of them. They were on the third floor. There was nowhere to go.

Jin-ri rushed to the window anyway. Through the glass she could see the group from earlier — the teacher who had been eating a monster — and she screamed down at them.

"Ssaem! Over there!"

"There are survivors up there!"

I lifted my head and looked. It was the classroom we'd heard the cry for help from right before we got out.

"Damn it. So I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hadn't imagined it."

I had heard someone begging to be saved. If I had only looked a little more carefully, I would have found those students — and I hadn't.

"Ssaem. The goblins are going to keep respawning in there, aren't they?"

"Yeah. If we leave them like that, they're in real danger…"

From the look of them, they didn't even have classes. If we walked away now, those students would die. And I was not going to stand by and let that happen.

"I'm going back for them. You all stay here."

"No. I'm coming with you."

"I said stay. It's dangerous in there."

"And where's the guarantee that it's safe out here? There aren't any right now, but there were monsters outside too."

"He's right. I'm coming too."

They had a point. There was no such thing as a safe place anymore. For all we knew, things stronger than the monsters in that main building were already roaming around out here.

"All right. Then we go together."

"Ah — Ssaem. Here."

"Hm? What's that?"

Jin-hwan held out a small box.

"I got this when I first leveled up. It said it gives you a class-exclusive item."

"A class-exclusive item?"

"Yes. But I figured you'd put it to better use than I would, being a Healer and all."

I took the box. His thinking was sound — better to put the item in the hands of someone who could actually hit monsters than a Healer supporting from the back. The kid had played enough games to find the most efficient play even in a situation like this.

"All right. I'll use it for now. If I get something good later, it's yours."

"Yes, Ssaem!"

With that, I opened the box on the spot.

The lid came up, white light spilled out, and an item took shape in front of my eyes.

It looked a lot like the kind of knife you'd get at a steakhouse — except this one was enormous, roughly the size of the sword I was already carrying, as if daring me to carve a monster up and eat it.

A four-star item. Its performance crushed the two-star sword I'd taken off the King Rat. The effects were outrageous.

The description made it abundantly clear this thing was exclusive to the Predator class. With a knife like this, those goblins from earlier would be easy work.

"Let's go."

"Yes."

And so we returned to the main building — a place that had already been rewritten into a Goblin Dungeon.

"We're going in."

"Yes."

I was just about to step inside when someone called out to us.

"Min-seong! You're alive!"

I knew that voice. I turned, and one of the people standing there was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a face I knew well.

"Kang-hyuk hyung!"

It was Lee Kang-hyuk — a fellow teacher, and someone I was close enough with to call hyung. The other three with him were first-year students. His group had gotten out of the main building with the kids the moment they'd heard the goblins were coming back to life. Then they'd heard someone screaming for help, come to check, and found us.

"You going in after those students?"

"Yes. I have to."

"Then I'm coming too. I got a class of my own."

Kang-hyuk hyung held up the deck of cards in his hand. That had to be his class weapon.

"Anyone else here awaken a class?"

"Just me. The kids don't have one."

So that's all of them? Just four?

To pull the students out of that building, even one more person with a class would have been a blessing.

"Sh-should we come too?"

"If you want to stay here, stay here."

"N-no. We'll go with you."

The students with Kang-hyuk hyung did not look like they wanted to go anywhere. Who would, walking back into a main building crawling with monsters? But they had decided that sticking together still beat standing around outside, where they had no idea what might come for them.

"Hyung. What's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠your class?"

"Me? Magician."

"Magician?"

Not a class you could figure out at a glance. Something unusual, like mine. When I asked what it actually did, he said he could use the cards in his hand to put buffs on people.

A supporter, then.

His direct combat ability looked low.

Guess that means I tank.

One of the more miserable jobs in any party. You were always the first one thrown into the worst of it. My class wasn't exactly built for soaking hits, but in a situation like this I didn't have a choice.

We started planning from there. We went over our classes and traits in more detail, shared what we ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠knew — including the points we'd earned from leveling up — and made assessing our combat strength the first priority.

"We're going in."

The messages appeared the moment we opened the door.

Boss Goblin?

So there was something special in here besides the ordinary ones.

Then another message unfolded in front of me.

What is this now? It wants me to cook it?

Watching someone eat a monster raw wasn't pretty, I'd grant that — but honestly, the taste had been incredible. And now it was telling me there was something even better. Even in a situation like this, my trait had me a little curious.

The penalty mattered more, though. Fail, and every ability I'd gained from complete predation would reset. Still, I could live with that. I had no idea how strong this Boss Goblin was. Better to walk away from a fight I couldn't win — penalty or not — than force one I couldn't finish.

Kieeeeek!

Grrrk!

The instant we stepped inside the main building, goblins came shrieking toward us in a frenzy. I met them with the knife I'd just acquired and started putting them down.

They did seem stronger than the ones we'd fought before — but so were we. We carved through them and pushed forward, floor by floor, as fast as we could. With no way of knowing what was happening to those students, we didn't have the luxury of taking it slow.

We hit the third floor. The moment we arrived, another message appeared.