39. End of Situation

‘It’s like pushing a wall.’

Just by facing it with the sword, he could feel his opponent’s weight. It was a unique weight only possessed by beings above the higher ranks. He was the one who had easily shaken off the large monster, the Mantis, but it wasn’t easy that time.

“Phew!’

Ko Byeong-gap leaned back. The Crow immediately caught up with him and attacked him.

‘This is going to be a beehive if I hit it right. But it’s not like I can’t avoid it.’

Ko Byeong-gap followed the footwork as shown in the swordsmanship manual. His body moved flexibly, sometimes as straight as bamboo grain. His sword and the enemy’s hand blades ran into each other from time to time. His body shook by itself.

‘I can’t do damage like this. I have to hit it with Karma.’

He instilled Karma into the sword. A subtle blue light spread on the blade. Ko Byeong-gap’s attack began to hurt the Crow. He took one shot on the side while he dodged the enemy’s attack.

It took one shot to the thigh while he avoided kicks that swung like a hammer. He also avoided the clapping snout and gave a big blow to its chest.

“Grrrrrr!”

About 10 minutes later, the Crow’s whole body was full of stab wounds. Blood dripped down and soaked the floor red. However, Ko Byeong-gap couldn’t be satisfied.

‘I didn’t dig deep. Is it because of the difference in karma concentration? If so!’

He prepared a decisive blow and lifted his energy all over his body.

‘Karma concentration or what? Is it enough to break it with force?’

His muscles tensed. Every muscle from head to toe interacted and created enormous momentum. The power of his body wasn’t dependent on modern civilization or Karma. Ko Byeong-gap became a beast.

Pavat!

He ran a dozen meters in a single stroke. It was so fast that it was difficult to even catch Ko Byeong-gap with normal eyes.

“?!”

The Crow reacted after half a beat. It was a golden opportunity.

‘Shoot!’

His sword swung like lightning. It was an attack aimed at the monster’s neck. The Crow managed to secure its guard by a hair’s breadth. However…

Grrrrr!

Its arm was cut off helplessly. Ko Byeong-gap didn’t stop and cut off its neck at once.

Push! Blood spurted like a fountain from the cut area. The Crow was soon knocked down.

“Gasp, gasp, gasp.” Ko Byeong-gap breathed heavily and looked down at the dead Crow.

‘I caught it. I caught a high-ranking monster by myself.’

Although he wasn’t in normal condition, his strength was drained, and he was very tired. The recoil caused by physical overload came to him.

‘Is there only one or two of them from now on…? That’s okay.’

[Current achievement rate of ‘Ancient Swordsmanship – Low-grade’: 86.98%]

[Current achievement rate of ‘Ancient Physical Training – Low-grade’: 91.79%]

Ko Byeong-gap grinned at the hologram.

‘It won’t be long until I reach the intermediate level. There’s still a lot of stairs to climb.’

He tore the Crow’s chest apart. Its body, which died with exhausted Karma, was no different from any other piece of meat. Soon after, he removed the magic stone from its heart. It was a red magic stone, the symbol of a high-level monster.

“I’m going to keep this as a souvenir.”

Ko Byeong-gap stuffed the magic stone into his pocket and moved his body again.

***

Once you have dealt with a strong enemy, the lower ones tend to feel plastic. The low-level monsters showed off their faces. Ko Byeong-gap couldn’t find any sense of compatibility in them. To add a little leap forward, it was a moving target.

“Where the hell are these pieces of shit coming from?”

The monsters scattered around out in the open. He felt like there were more and more.

‘I should go out to the street.’

Ko Byeong-gap left the villa. After a while, he entered the main road and said, “What a mess.”

The situation on the street was a mess. Randomly littered cars, dented roads, broken utility poles. In addition, the corpses of monsters were scattered around.

There were no signs of life. Either they escaped or died.

‘Was this a battlefield?’

He looked around for any survivors. At that time, he detected a large amount of gas between the buildings across the street. Ko Byeong-gap quickly turned his head.

Boom boom! Boom boom!

“Kiehhhh!”

A giant monster plummeted to the floor. Ko Byeong-gap felt a chill in his spine. The creature before him was an A-class Wyvern.

“This is crazy! A Wyvern?” He instinctively stepped back.

A Wyvern was an A-class monster with enormous size. No matter how much Ko Byeong-gap had grown, it was impossible to confront it at that time.

“Kiee-eek! Eek!”

‘Wait a minute?’

It turned out that Wyvern was in bad condition. Its whole body was full of wounds. Both sides of the dragon’s proud wings were cut off, and its gray skin was stained red.

Ko Byeong-gap soon found out why.

“It’s breathing! Come together!”

A group of humans appeared. Among them, the man in the lead shouted with his shield at the front. After a while, as he said, the Wyvern began to emit flames of red.

“Haaaaaaaaah!”

The man released Karma. Suddenly, the Karma transformed into a giant shield shape, blocking the flames. The fire of the Wyvern was soon extinguished.

Behind the shield, people that held their breath began to target the Wyvern as if they had waited.

A young man with a hammer the size of his own jumped up. His hammer was jammed with high-quality Karma.

Crack, crack!

The hammer struck the Wyvern on the shoulder.

“Kreeeeeee!”

A tearful groan rang in his ears. The Wyvern swung its neck nervously. The young man immediately fled in a flash. Only the innocent building nearby collapsed.

“Aaaaah!”

The Wyvern opened his mouth wide again. It intended to let out the flames, but for a moment, its mouth froze into ice completely.

‘Superpower? Is there anybody here with superpowers?’

Superpowers that catalyzed Karma. There seemed to be a psychic among those humans. The hammer guy hit the Wyvern on the snout, and then the ice broke, and its whole mouth shattered away.

‘It’s a flawless connection.’

The Wyvern that lost its muzzle stumbled. Its life was at its limit.

“Seokhan! Let’s finish it! Go for the neck!”

“Confirm!”

The man that hid behind the shield cried. He reached out his hands and began to manipulate Karma. While Ko Byeong-gap wondered if there was frost in the Wyvern’s neck, it froze in an instant. The man with a hammer hit the frozen area.

Kachang!

“Ack!”

The Wyvern’s neck fell off. Its huge head rolled on the floor, followed by its torso collapsing.

“Hey…”

Ko Byeong-gap let out an exclamation without realizing it.

‘Was that a high-level battle?’

It was clearly different from lower-level hunters who just fired bullets. Ko Byeong-gap came to his senses and approached them. The three men turned their heads when they felt his presence.

“Hmm? Hey! It’s dangerous to walk around! Hurry up and take refuge at home. Wait. Are you a hunter?”

“Oh, yes, a hunter.”

The Tank, Cho Woo-sung, thought as he looked at Ko Byeong-gap from head to toe.

‘He’s either C or D. What is he doing with a sword?’

Na Seok-han and Cha Myung-jin seemed to feel a sense of incompatibility in him while they stood next to him. They were able to feel instinctively the fact that Ko Byeong-gap was a low-level awakener.

Ko Byeong-gap opened his mouth regardless of the significant look in their eyes.

“Let me ask you a question. Do you know what’s going on?”

“A Monster Wave.” Cho Woo-sung replied straight away. Ko Byeong-gap frowned and said, “Monster Wave?”

Monster Wave referred to a situation in which monsters poured out of a crack. Of course, it was never used in real life. It was a hypothetical situation, and monsters never went out of the cracks.

It was a word that scholars and security experts only talked about on the table, but that was what had become a reality.

Cho Woo-sung immediately went on to say.

“There was an S-rank crack near Mt. Cheongryong, and it exploded within 30 minutes. Monsters poured out.”

“Eh… Did you say S-rank?”

“Yes, it’s crazy over there. More than 300 civilians were killed.”

“I heard that monsters also appeared in Jongno, is that correct?”

“Yes. Fortunately, things are better there than here. An A-rank crack broke there.”

Ko Byeong-gap looked in the direction of Bongcheon with blank eyes. There was an S-class monster out there somewhere, right?

Na Seok-han added and put down his hammer, “It’s not just Seoul. Apparently, Busan is also a mess.”

“Busan, really? Huh… It’s a complete mess.”

“You’re right. I want to know what the hell this is.”

Na Seok-han took a cigarette out of his pocket and bit it in his mouth. At that time, Cha Myung-jin, who was next to him, looked into his cell phone and spoke right away.

“I think it’s almost over. They killed the boss monster.”

“Of course they should. With all the S-class hunters there, shouldn’t they kill it?”

“So, can we get back to work?”

“Oh, wait a minute. Let me check.”

Cha Myung-jin scrolled down his cell phone screen. He knitted his eyebrows.

“There’s still a few more of them left. I think we’ve got a few in our section, too. We’re going to have to go around one more time.”

“Do we have to do this? I saw some kids who were hunters earlier, so can we leave it to them and go back?”

Na Seok-han grumbled with a crumpled look on his face. Cho Woo-sung cleared his bitter opinion and fixed his shield.

“Since when did hunters ever leave the monsters? Come on, let’s get things sorted out quickly. Stop them before going home. The situation is almost over.”

“Oh, yeah, I guess so.”

Ko Byeong-gap nodded his head and pulled out his sword. The three hunters disappeared in the blink of an eye. He glanced around before leaving. The cold corpses were left haphazardly on the street.

‘Can I leave them as they are?’

After all, people would soon be dispatched to collect the casualties, but the steps didn’t fall easily.

‘Let’s take a look around. There could be someone who’s still alive.’

Ko Byeong-gap looked again to see if there were any survivors, but if he looked at ten people, all ten were dead. All left in a terrible look too.

“They’ve done a fucked up thing. Son of a bitch.”

Ko Byeong-gap spat out abusive language. The sadistic nature of monsters was overwhelming. He decided to quit and go back home, but his back suddenly grew cold.

He quickly pulled out the sword and turned away. A swarm of monsters crept out of the building.

All of them were D-class or lower-level minions. Somehow, he felt like his spirits were going down.

“Good call, you sons of bitches.”

He pulled out the sword in a belligerent motion. At the time, he wanted to slash the monsters, and he thought it went well.

The swarm of monsters collided with Ko Byeong-gap. It wasn’t long before their severed limbs scattered through the sky and the rain of blood fell.

***

A woman stood at the roof of a skyscraper. She looked down at the situation with her eyes devoid of emotion.

‘It’s been cleared up.’

Sureung! Shudder!

She tucked her sword, which she had drawn halfway through, into her back. There was no blood on her blade that day.

‘In the end, it had to start.’

The woman bit her lips. Anger filled her dead eyes, and then, a voice came from behind her.

“Master.”

It was a young voice. The person who spoke to her was a girl who was probably only fifteen or sixteen. Two boys stood next to the girl. Everyone carried big swords.

“Are you going back?”

“… Yeah. Let’s go back.”

“Yes.”

“Excuse me, Master.”

That time, the boy opened his mouth. It was a boy who had his hair cut like a monk.

“Tell me.”

“Is it starting now? The Master said…”

“No, not yet.”

Not yet. No. That was the way it was. The four of them moved across the skyscraper. Seoul, which was swept away by monsters, had fallen into disaster.

The scent of death permeated all over the place.

‘Hmm?’

The woman who moved forward stopped for a moment. The three children who followed her stood with a question mark on their faces.

“What’s wrong, Master?”

“…”

The woman didn’t answer and looked down. A man was fighting a swarm of monsters, so her pupils widened.

‘That man is….’

A man who cut monsters with a disciplined movement. Something was familiar with him. The woman was soon able to find the man in her memory. She swallowed her saliva unconsciously.

“Master?”

“Let’s go.”

The lady only answered so and moved swiftly again. The children moved along with the woman without a murmur.

‘My prediction was correct, but now is not the time.’

There was enthusiasm in her eyes.