Shao Shen realized something for the first time.
Krrrrrrrummble!
If you ever witnessed an airplane with both wings engulfed in flames hurtling toward the ground, you would be seized by a terror that transcended species.
- Gaaaaaaaah!
The ogres reputed to be so fearsome screamed. The trolls screamed, too.
- Roooooar!
Even ghouls, reputed to be the slowest of all undead monsters, ran until the soles of their feet sweated.
- Sssssss!
“U-Urgh, uhhh, uhhhhh…”
The monsters that could scream were the lucky ones.
Most of them—including Shao Shen—could only stare at the airplane charging toward the ground, frozen like statues.
I need to run…
Neither his hands nor his feet would move.
More importantly, Shao Shen and the Hunters of the Public Security Armed Forces had been surrounded in the middle of the battlefield. They had not even been given a chance to escape.
Is this really the end?
The same thought flashed through everyone’s mind at that very moment.
Rrrrrrrumble!
With an earsplitting roar, the airplane’s enormous fuselage swept across the battlefield.
That earth-shaking collision began at the very rear of the monster army, which was scattering like a swarm of ants.
Krrrrrunch! Crack!
The massive hunk of steel, weighing dozens of tons, smashed and burst through everything in its path.
Green blood spurted from the monsters like fountains, and limbs of every size flew in all directions.
W-What the hell is this…?
No matter how formidable a monster’s physical defenses were, they had their limits. Nothing could stop the airplane now that it had become a monster blender.
-
Roooo…
-
Kiiiiiiik!
Krrrrrunch!
The eerie sounds of flesh being torn apart swallowed the monsters’ screams. It was a hellish scene unlike anything Shao Shen had ever seen or heard.
As Shao Shen and the other Hunters stared blankly at the unimaginable sight, someone’s crazed shout pierced their ears.
“Monsters! Ram! Kill!”
“……!”
Despite the chaos, the Hunters of the Public Security Armed Forces heard their native language loud and clear. The word reinforcements flashed through their minds, and Shao Shen was stunned.
An incredible powerhouse!
The voice carried immense mana. It had to belong to an S-rank Hunter.
“Go! Go, airplane!”
“……”
And definitely a slightly insane S-rank Hunter.
To think he’d use a method those island bastards employed back in World War II. Had he not considered that his own allies might die too?
He seemed to have been dispatched by the Central Military Commission… But did our country even have an S-rank Hunter like that?
The question suddenly occurred to Shao Shen. But it would soon have nothing to do with him.
The massive hunk of steel that had ground its way through half the battlefield was charging straight toward him and the Hunters.
- S-Sssss!
“Run!”
When it came to the struggle for survival, there was no distinction between friend and foe.
Shao Shen thrust his dagger at a monster hurling itself toward him, heedless of the human right in front of it.
Shunk!
- Grrrk.
The dead monster’s body collapsed toward Shao Shen.
Monsters surged in from every direction, leaving him unable to move even a single step. Feeling the immense weight bearing down on him, Shao Shen shouted.
“The battle isn’t over! Fight until the very end!”
He was right. The battle was not over yet. A Hunter had to keep killing monsters until the final moment, when his own breath ran out.
The Hunters who heard Shao Shen’s shout gritted their teeth and swung their weapons.
This is enough.
With lightning-fast skill, Shao Shen drove his dagger into the back of a fleeing ogre’s head, then drew a deep breath.
The airplane’s enormous fuselage was already only about twenty meters away.
Its speed had decreased considerably since the beginning, but with everyone trapped in place, evading it seemed impossible.
I have no regrets.
If he died fighting for the people as a proud Hunter of Zhonghua, that was enough.
Shao Shen closed his eyes as screams rained down from every direction.
“Hup.”
Krrrrrunch! Splaash!
Drenched in a sticky liquid that he assumed was blood, Shao Shen thought:
…Hup?
Shouldn’t it normally be “Aagh”?
The strange sound was hardly an appropriate death cry. Shao Shen cautiously lifted his eyelids.
At last, he saw it.
The airplane had stopped a few steps away, and two men stood beside it, chatting casually.
“All right, we’ve arrived. It might explode, so get everyone off quickly.”
“…Mr. Jin Taekyung. Everyone has passed out.”
“Really? How pathetic.”
“…They would have died if not for the barrier magic.”
“Then carry them out, Team Leader Choi. Oh, right. Is that bastard who called us bangzi1 earlier alive, too?”
“Yes. He’s, uh… alive, at least.”
“Then keep a close eye on him. I’m going to give him hell for a long time when we get back.”
“…I’ll do my best.”
Shao Shen could not make sense of the situation at all.
Who, when, where, what, how. Why. Even the five Ws and one H could not organize a scene this bizarre.
How did the airplane stop so suddenly, and who are those people? So they weren’t Hunters sent by the Central Military Commission?
The two men were even speaking to each other in a different language.
Shao Shen could not understand the words of the refined-looking man who resembled a young master, but he knew what country the language belonged to.
Their longtime neighbor.
Korea.
Wait. If he’s Korean…!
Shao Shen hurriedly wiped the sticky blood from around his eyes. Only then did he recognize one of the men.
A muscular young man who stood a full head taller than everyone else.
The man he had only ever seen on television—his idol—was standing right in front of him.
“E-Excuse me. Are you Teacher Jin from Korea?”
“Huh?”
The young man, Jin Taekyung, tilted his head as he looked at Shao Shen.
“I’m not a teacher.”
“Then… Sibeol-jwa…”2
“…Sibeol. What?”
That was him!
Relief and hope swept through Shao Shen, making his entire body tremble.
How does a Chinese guy even know about Sibeol-jwa?
Articles about me had briefly made a splash in the foreign press, but I had never expected my nickname to spread along with them.
Sibeol-jwa, whose name makes the five oceans and six continents tremble.
If I ever went to the United States, maybe some huge Yankee bros would come up to me with beer bottles in hand and greet me like an old friend.
Hey, you. Sibeol-jwa?
I’m fine, thank you. Sibeol.
What kind of deranged bastards came up with a nickname like this?
Anyway…
“It’s a complete mess.”
That was my brief assessment as I looked around.
Team Leader Choi, who had strung the unconscious flight attendants together like dried fish, and the Skeleton Warlord I had shoved into my inventory both answered.
“It’s a horrifying sight.”
- Vile human, I like this place. It feels familiar and strangely comforting.
“……”
There was no need to say more. A named undead monster who could be called death itself found the scene satisfying.
“We just got here, and we’re already being thrown into actual combat.”
As if responding to my complaint, a System notification rang out.
Ding.
System
- An unexpected Quest, Unexpected Assault, has been generated.
So this is why they said they were paying me so much.
I clicked my tongue to myself and spoke.
“Team Leader Choi, protect the civilians first. After that, fight as you see fit. Don’t overdo it.”
“Yes. I was already planning to.”
Team Leader Choi was a smart man. Learning the Jin Family’s Cultivation Technique had made him incomparably stronger than before, but he was not the sort to show off.
“And you, young man over there.”
“Y-Yes, Teacher Jin.”
Teacher, my ass.
I looked the young man up and down as he answered so promptly.
His face was young, but he was obviously a Hunter. And a powerful one, at that—around A-rank, judging by appearances. Unlike the Hunters around him, who wore identical armor as if they had been stamped out in a factory, he also had a red insignia on his shoulder.
“You look like you hold a decent rank, so take care of your men. Let’s save as many people as we can.”
“Y-Yes?”
“This is only the beginning.”
As I answered, I thrust out my fist.
KABOOM!
Streams of Scorching Yang Qi shot toward the monsters standing there in a daze.
Once the wave of searing heat had swept past, only dozens of monster corpses remained.
“What are you all staring at? Did someone press the pause button?”
“……!”
- ……!
My words served as the signal.
The silence pressing down on the battlefield shattered.
- Grrrrrrrr!
“K-Kill them! Hold back those monsters!”
Humans and monsters. Monsters and humans.
A battle of killing and being killed began. I pulled White Flame from where it was embedded deep in the ground and swung it.
Swish!
Forget waters so crowded they were half water and half fish—monsters were swarming everywhere.
A crescent of sword qi extended from the spearhead and grazed a tightly packed mob of monsters.
Ding.
System
Defeated Lv. 15 Undead Goblin!
Defeated Lv. 78 Undead Lycanthrope!
Defeated Lv. 93 Dullahan!
Defeated Lv. 30 Skeleton!
…
The Level gap is significant. Gained negligible EXP!
System notifications announcing monster kills and EXP gains rang out without end.
Normally, I would have let them go in one ear and out the other, or simply ignored them.
But this time, they gave me an important clue.
“Don’t tell me these guys are…”
- Ah, that’s right, vile human! What a powerful undead army!
The Skeleton Warlord’s delighted shout was enough to turn my suspicion into certainty.
No wonder something felt off.
I had already been wondering why I could not sense any life force from them.
A sizeable number of monsters were still alive, but roughly half or more of them were undead. All told, it was an army of close to two thousand monsters.
“And undead monsters are…”
The Skeleton Warlord shouted excitedly.
- Beautiful! Magnificent! Valiant!
Crash!
I cut down five monsters and muttered.
“Do you want to disappear like that guy just did? Beautifully, magnificently, and valiantly?”
- ……I misspoke. My apologies, vile human.
The Skeleton Warlord had briefly forgotten his own situation. He hurriedly added:
- Wait. Then they must be under someone’s control!
I thought so, too.
But there was one thing I still could not be certain about…
“The Lich. Did that bastard come out personally?”
- Hmm. If you mean the Lich from that holographic video you showed me last time, then probably not.
As I listened to the Skeleton Warlord’s answer, I took half a step forward.
Boom!
A massive iron club passed dangerously close to my shoulder and smashed into the ground. This was an ordinary ogre, and I could still sense its life force.
- Guwooooo!3
“Yeah, I’ll roast you.”
Boom!
The Flame Divine Palm struck the ogre in the chest, and black-green blood erupted from all seven of its orifices.
As I passed its collapsing bulk, I slashed White Flame diagonally downward.
Whoooosh! Slash!
Space split apart, and the bodies of the monsters caught between the two halves were sliced to pieces.
Leaving behind a Chinese Hunter who stared blankly at me, drenched in blood and bodily fluids, I clenched my fist.
Whoooooom.
A surge of extreme heat raced toward my fist, then shot forward.
KABOOM!
Flame-Annihilating Divine Fist.
A massive pillar of fire swallowed the monsters.
Along with the foul smell of burning flesh, the few monsters that had somehow survived shrieked in agony.
The attack had enough destructive power to make both monsters and Hunters forget to fight for a moment.
The Skeleton Warlord stammered.
- V-Vile human. You have become even more of a monster.
“It feels weird being called a monster by a monster. But if it’s not the Lich, then what bastard is causing all this chaos?”
- This commander does not know, either. But I can guarantee one thing.
“Guarantee? What?”
- That bastard’s control of the undead is a notch below this commander’s. Hahaha! My army! This commander misses you!
“……”
Should I kill this bastard or let him live?
As I was wondering, a thought suddenly flashed through my mind, and I stopped dead.
“Hey. What did you just say?”
- Hahahaha! Did you feel this commander’s majesty, vile human?
“Disappear or talk.”
- ……I will talk. But what are you asking?
“That thing you said about controlling the undead.”
- Isn’t it obvious? This commander is a Skeleton Warlord. Compared to them, naturally… Huh?
A brief silence followed.
He must have had the same thought I did. I swallowed hard, then casually broached the subject.
“Try it. That thing.”
- ……
“Are you going to do it, or do you want to disappear?”
The Skeleton Warlord opened his mouth.
- Grow, grow, skeletons, skeletons…
At that moment, the undead monsters locked in fierce combat abruptly stopped moving.
…So it works.
Comments
Comments need a network connection.