Chapter 527. First contact |
Chapter 527. First contact
—Ring, ring, ring.
At the exact moment that thought crossed her mind, the phone in her pocket rang as if it had been waiting.
[New Message]
[1 E-class monster escaped into a residential area]
Although its apparent rank was low, she could not delay handling this matter.
[Monster Information]
[Name: Blue Spider]
There were quite a few people in the world with arachnophobia.
Vroom.
Seonwoo Yeon got into her car, which she had kept on standby at the Association, and immediately headed toward the street in question. Using a search-type skill called [Searcher], she found the enemy right away. Fortunately, the monster hadn't moved far from its point of origin as it was busy spinning a web to make a home.
Since the enemy was E-class and she was B-class—
'I should take it out with as little physical damage as possible so the people clearing the monster corpses won't have a hard time.'
A sudden human storm struck. Seonwoo Yeon hunted the monster she encountered in a single blow. It was a truly easy resolution. And since an awakened civil servant typically encounters these low-difficulty tasks every week.
The next day. The day after that. And even until Friday, which had arrived within arm's reach of the weekend, a smooth schedule continued. Seonwoo Yeon was exposed to similar tasks throughout the weekdays of this week.
—Flap, flap, flap.
However, on Friday morning—a time most office workers would welcome—she began picking up a signal that was somehow different from usual.
'What is this?'
To be precise, it happened while she was returning to headquarters after helping clear a Red Gate that had appeared in the city center. Seonwoo Yeon heard a strange sound from one side of a quiet street.
—Flap, flap, flap.
To compare the noise she just heard to something else: it sounded like someone had turned on a ventilation fan with paper decorations attached to it. But for a sound to be this grandiose, that machine would have to be incredibly large...
—Help me!
She flinched. While she was focusing intensely on the noise breaking the silence, a scream appeared that she could no longer ignore.
'What is it really?'
Awakened civil servants dealt with lower-ranked monsters but often moved freely through the city, so they frequently encountered strange phenomena. Moreover, Seonwoo Yeon was someone who excelled more than others in the department of responsibility. Naturally, she took action upon hearing this plea for help.
'Ah! Over here!'
When she arrived at the source of the sound, the situation was a mess.
—Flap, flap, flap.
The bizarre noise she had been hearing was indeed caused by a monster. However, what that thing with huge wings was currently doing was even more conspicuous.
'Aaaaahhh!'
A white flying entity was grabbing an Earthling walking down the street and moving forcefully toward a Gate. In other words, it was a kidnapping carried out by a monster.
'A winged monster dragging a person into a dungeon... is a [Sadist] appearing again?'
She had a slight misunderstanding at first.
'No. Looking at its front, its shape is completely different from a [Sadist].'
In any case, she couldn't afford to be picky under these circumstances. It wasn't particularly rare for monsters designed to crave human flesh and blood to drag prey back to their nests. Since she had lost family for similar reasons, Seonwoo Yeon acted calmly to prevent the pain of the past from repeating.
'Sir! I'm a civil servant from the Hunter Association. I'll provide support right now, so don't panic!'
—Shhh-whoosh!
However, it seemed that not everything in life could be solved with attitude alone. As if an invisible, transparent shield was present, the wind Seonwoo Yeon called forth bounced off helplessly at a certain point. The monster's defense power overwhelmed her attack power.
'My god.'
Perhaps because it was so sturdy, the monster didn't seem to have anything that could be called a weapon. It simply endured the saturated wind attacks silently and focused on the kidnapping.
—Drag, drag, drag.
The human captured this time was a B-class Awakened, just like Seonwoo Yeon. However, it seemed that even with that strength, it was impossible to hold out any longer. As the flapping repeated, the person's feet dangled off the ground.
'Adding my body weight to this wouldn't mean much, would it?'
Starting from the moment the person's feet left the ground, the monster's mobility increased explosively.
—Whoosh, whoosh!
As the white monster disappeared beyond the Gate with an ominous wing-flapping sound, Seonwoo Yeon gave up on the immediate subjugation and sent a radio transmission.
'I'm glad there's something nearby I can use for location information.'
Having read the pole number plate on a nearby telephone pole, the Association would send support personnel to this location. She had fulfilled her duty as a civil servant.
'That kind of magical beast reveals its true colors once it enters its den. I have to stall for time beside them somehow until other hunters come to help.'
Now it was time to help the victim dragged into the Gate. Thinking this, she moved her feet hurriedly.
—Tap, tap, tap.
However, the scenery of the dungeon she soon reached was quite strange.
'A desert?'
To be clear, she didn't freeze because she encountered an uncommon or bizarre landscape. In this case, the problem was that the background was too familiar.
'Unless I'm mistaken, even down to the high stones embedded here and there, it's exactly the same...'
This otherworld was originally famous as the nest of the [Beginner Killer]. However, not a single red bird could be observed in a dungeon that clearly had a designated owner. Since the previous dominant species wasn't even found as corpse traces, she could affirm the characteristics of this area at this moment.
This Gate, at the very least, had not undergone an abnormal mutation.
'—It's not an abnormal mutation, but another dominant species is surviving in the home of the [Beginner Killer]?'
—She was starting to feel that this situation was not normal. The anomaly didn't end there.
—Shhh!
'Wait, what?'
Even though she was flustered by the information provided by the background, she had only been distracted for about two seconds. Suddenly, the glowing passage nearby vanished. The hole was sealed cleanly as if erased with an eraser, and it disappeared without a trace.
'I was too careless!'
But honestly, how was a mere human supposed to expect such a special phenomenon? Monsters taking people away had been repeated for years. She had simply done her job as usual today.
'Even if I run around this hard, the salary stays the same, which is why it's easy for civil servants like us to fall into a rut...'
A sudden sense of injustice rose in her heart, but her thoughts didn't linger.
Flap, flap, flap, flap.
An unpleasant sound continued, as if a flying insect had entered her ear. Looking at the sound, a new form soon entered Seonwoo Yeon's sight. It had four human arms. To be blunt, that monster, which looked quite disgusting, was floating in the air while holding a person.
'Gasp!'
Furthermore, what was even more chilling was that the celestial monster had helplessly dropped the psychic it had kidnapped.
'From this height?'
Tap, tap, tap.
Seonwoo Yeon ran in shock toward the spot where the person was falling. She managed to catch the target by mobilizing all the mysterious power she possessed, but the situation was not good at all.
'Sir, Sir!'
She had spoken in a low voice to avoid provoking the monster, but there was still no reaction.
'He fainted.'
It seemed he had a fear of heights. Or perhaps, he had a strong repulsion toward the space of a dungeon itself, much like a certain civil servant used to suffer from in the past. Seonwoo Yeon looked worriedly at the citizen who had fainted and wouldn't wake up.
—Flap, flap, flap.
The one currently unconscious was a middle-aged man who appeared to be in his 50s. He was an individual who could never be considered young. Seonwoo Yeon glanced at him with a complex gaze before looking up.
'If I keep him in a stable state, he'll wake up soon, right? So in the meantime, I have to carry him and find a way to clear this place somehow.'
—Click.
Seonwoo Yeon activated the new analyzer she always carried with her. However, what the modern device displayed was not good.
[Rank: A]
She had expected it to some extent outside, but Seonwoo Yeon frowned at the blue letters on the display.
'But if it's like this, I won't be able to leave by killing the boss.'
In this vast desert, there wasn't a single entity weaker than her. A sigh escaped her. However, it was too early to give up. A Gate is usually a door with free entry and exit. If so, just as she had been brought in, a new hole might open somewhere, allowing for an escape.
'There's no way an anomaly will end with just one person captured. Based on the statistics of all those documents the Association scrutinized, this kind of incident definitely... the number of identical victims will increase.'
Seonwoo Yeon stood up, making the appearance of a new hole her only hope.
'By the way, it's making me nervous that the monsters might suddenly notice us.'
Flap, flap.
She felt that unpleasant flapping again, just listening to it was enough. At that moment, a monster flew over their heads. Its flight was flexible enough to feel noble, but Seonwoo Yeon ducked her body in tension, fearing the monster might lower its altitude.
'Ugh.'
Fortunately, seeing as it didn't attack even though she showed this much of a life reaction... it seemed that, like the [Sadist], they were docile as long as one didn't get close inside the dungeon.
'I used one count of the [Searcher] skill, but I can't feel the direction of any of my belongings that would be at home. This place is still in a closed state.'
Whoosh—.
As soon as the monster passed, she took action. Since avoiding the enemy's eyes was the priority, Seonwoo Yeon carried the unconscious man on her back and moved to a safety zone she had in mind.
'The sunlight is too hot...'
It would only be a temporary measure, but at least this was better than openly exposing their heads in front of a flying magical beast.
'Is around here okay?'
Crunch, crunch.
This desert area was occasionally embedded with black stones, exactly like the habitat of the [Beginner Killer]. These were stones that looked like they could be made into Moai statues if only a face were carved into them; they were originally said to be devices used by [Beginner Killers] to sharpen their beaks.
However, the mysterious arm-monsters that appeared this time showed no interest in the stones. Identifying this point quickly, the civil servant...
Whoosh.
She stirred up the wind to dig out the sand around the stones. By lowering their profile even a little more, she created a place where two people could crouch down.
'At this rate, I think we'll be completely hidden by the shade and won't be seen.'
Now then, she had managed to hide their bodies for now.
—Flap, flap, flap, flap.
As expected, she didn't feel at ease. They weren't attacking now, but no one knew when those monsters might suddenly change.
'I only had to put my own mind at ease. They don't have eyes in the first place!'
But this was certainly a good measure for the rescued middle-aged man. Perhaps because they had come to the cool shade, the unconscious man's complexion had noticeably improved.
'Is he going to wake up now?'
Poke, poke.
But since he was still unconscious, she didn't know what to do. There was no exit. This was a space where a four-armed monster that could tear a human apart with short claws if encountered wrongly was roaming.
However, even though the situation had come to this, Seonwoo Yeon did not regret jumping in for the citizen in the first place.
'If only my rank were a bit higher...'
The only thing she regretted was her own lack of ability. For reference, Seonwoo Yeon had developed a certain tendency due to an incident she experienced during the year of the [Dungeon Shock].
People in their 40s or 50s. When a middle-aged person around the age of her parents got hurt, her heart ached several times more than in normal cases. Thus, she even avoided news that others watched normally, sometimes closing her eyes tightly.
When a headline appeared saying the victim was a "middle-aged head of a household," she particularly felt an instinctive urge to escape from that video.
"_"
But since the victim she tried to save today happened to fall into that age range... for some reason, her head felt dizzy regardless of the heat of the dungeon. Seonwoo Yeon, who was having complex thoughts, forced herself to snap out of it.
'I shouldn't panic.'
South Korea was a nation with many first-generation heroes who had been active for a long time. In such an environment, how did her acquaintance, Kim Giryeo, rise to the top position in one breath in the first place?
'Don't you know from all the training that you shouldn't fall into a panic no matter what happens in another world? So let's calm down...'
An Awakened couldn't be praised simply for being ignorantly strong. Dealing with these bizarre anomalies might be the first ability Earth's hunters should possess.
Kim Giryeo. Seonwoo Yeon first recalled the best example of a hunter she knew and tried her best to compose herself.
Author's Thoughts
Hi, from now on, I will update this novel 3 chapters/week. Thank you for all your support so far:)