“Gangnam Sarang Obstetrics and Gynecology, breakthrough complete. Total elapsed time is……”
I looked at the analog Casio wristwatch strapped to my wrist.
The hour hand had barely moved, and only the minute hand had gone halfway around.
“Thirty minutes. It only took thirty minutes.”
“Huh……”
Old Man Owlbear was impressed by my briefing.
Of course, I was just as impressed myself.
‘The last time I came here, I think I wandered around for more than half a day…….’
And now, it had taken only thirty minutes.
“It was an already foreseen result. At this point, there are no enemies left inside that can hinder us.”
Mr. Orc said that and plopped down.
It seemed something had gone wrong with his gun. It was a thing that broke down often as it was, so he would have to inspect it frequently.
‘So, calling it a foreseen result… is right, to some extent.’
The monsters inside the Gangnam Sarang Obstetrics and Gynecology building are all mimetic beasts.
Mimetic beasts are certainly dangerous monsters, but if you put a few bullets into them, they’re neutralized.
Inside a blackout zone, their specialty is using the darkness to launch surprise attacks……
‘Well, I’m driving away the darkness.’
In the end, the mimetic beasts have very few means of opposing us.
The gatekeepers might have been able to obstruct us with their special abilities, but those things have already been purified.
In the end, it means there was nothing that could stop us.
“Even so, thirty minutes is an incredibly fast time……”
Yu Inha timidly argued.
Well, we had been rather lucky this time too.
No, I’m not sure if this should be called luck, but……
“It helped a lot that the space was intact.”
I spoke while looking around.
The Gangnam Sarang Obstetrics and Gynecology I had seen last time had truly given the feeling of having entered another dimension.
Of course, the desolate scenery was still the same, but the feeling of another dimension had faded somewhat.
‘If anything, it was ordinary.’
If not for the mimetic beasts, it would have looked like an ordinary abandoned hospital.
Because there was no space twisted and tangled all over the place.
Thanks to that, instead of searching for a passage leading to the upper floors, we were simply able to take the stairs up.
And while we were at it, we could just ignore most of the mimetic beasts.
In any case, through this process, we succeeded in breaking through Gangnam Sarang Obstetrics and Gynecology in thirty minutes.
“Up to here, things couldn’t be better, but……”
“…The next zone is the problem.”
Old Man Owlbear picked up my words.
The old man explained with a fed-up look in his eyes.
“The next zone is the Third Hangang Bridge. This place has been notorious since long ago for its terrible traffic volume.”
The Third Hangang Bridge is the old name of Hannam Bridge. Since he was an elderly person, it seemed he was more comfortable calling it that.
Kim Jihu took over Old Man Owlbear’s lament.
“It’s a key point connected to all kinds of roads. As the first bridge over the Hangang to exceed 200,000 in entry and exit volume, it’ll be no joke.”
Because it’s an important road, many people pass through, and because of that, it gets heavily congested.
Under normal circumstances, it would have just been irritating, but in the current situation, it sounded nothing but horrifying.
As many cars as had been caught in traffic, as many people as had been on the bridge……
The number of monsters inside would increase exponentially.
Given the nature of a bridge, there would be nowhere to hide either.
Facing enemies that endlessly surged in within an environment practically no different from an open field was close to impossible.
And since it was inside a blackout zone, we couldn’t receive things like aerial support either……
“Still, wouldn’t there be a breakthrough? Before us, soldiers arrived there and got out too.”
The military had passed through Hannam Bridge once before.
So they must have identified the survivors beyond it as well.
But after all those many attempts, there was only one case in which they succeeded in returning alive.
Due to the nature of the blackout zone, which cuts off vision, they couldn’t bring back any proper information.
“The one fortunate point is that, according to reports, the mimetic beasts on Hannam Bridge did not attack first.”
At my words, Mr. Orc furrowed his brow and asked back.
“They didn’t attack first? Those monster bastards?”
I, too, had found it hard to believe when I first heard it.
Were those things ordinary monsters? They were creatures obsessed with killing people, even though they didn’t need nutrients or anything of the sort.
“But that’s what the testimony says. Aside from a few mimetic beasts, most of them were only hiding inside the vehicles.”
The reason monsters mad with slaughter were doing nothing but hiding.
There was a predator of mimetic beasts there.
“We have confirmed that on Hannam Bridge, aside from the gatekeeper, there are at least two unidentified species.”
“Two of them……”
“This is only a guess too, so there may be more than that.”
Unidentified species.
As the name suggests, they are creatures whose appearance and abilities haven’t even been figured out.
Even identifying them is only possible outside a blackout zone; inside, it’s close to impossible.
“The one fortunate point is that the soldiers before us did not engage the unidentified species. If, as we suspect, the reason the mimetic beasts aren’t moving is because of the unidentified species, we may be able to break through more easily than expected.”
If things went well, we might be able to break through Hannam Bridge without much difficulty as well.
Of course, if things went well.
“So, without provoking the monsters, let’s try to break through as quickly as possible.”
I looked around at the team members.
Everyone seemed to have finished their preparations and was slowly standing up.
Even Mr. Orc, who had seemed like he would take some time, appeared to have finished his inspection.
“Then, let’s enter.”
With Old Man Owlbear at the head, we opened the door leading to Hannam Bridge.
*
“Urk!”
I still couldn’t get used to the nausea that came when passing through a blackout zone.
Especially since the air inside wasn’t good to begin with.
Still, I didn’t empty my stomach completely.
Of course, I was in a precarious state, as if I could turn inside out at any moment.
‘Still, this much is… fine.’
I looked around and checked on the team members.
Most of them seemed all right, but Min Aji couldn’t hold it in and ended up emptying her stomach.
“The smell, the smell is…!”
The nauseating odor had not stopped since earlier.
The stench of corpses or excrement was something I could endure to some extent, but this damned fishy smell was different.
A fishy stench, whose source I couldn’t even tell, filled the space.
And it felt as if only the foulest parts of that fishy odor had been selected and concentrated, making it all the more agonizing.
For Min Aji, whose sense of smell was sharp, it must have been truly painful.
“Inha, look after Aji for a bit.”
“Yes, unni……”
Unfortunately, I had no leeway to take care of Min Aji.
I let out a deep sigh and looked around.
Cars stretched endlessly across the bridge.
They were packed so tightly with almost no room to spare, showing almost vividly what the traffic conditions must have been like when the blackout zone occurred.
Of course, the cars occupying the bridge were not entirely ordinary.
Some were crushed, some looked as if the space itself had been twisted, and some had been cut cleanly in half sideways.
It wasn’t easy to tell whether this was a problem inside the blackout zone, or whether they had somehow ended up like that.
‘…Still, there don’t seem to be many monsters.’
The fact that there were few mimetic beasts visible, at least, was reassuring.
Of course, according to the soldiers’ testimony, they would be swarming densely inside those tightly packed cars……
‘Well, they said it wouldn’t be a big problem as long as we didn’t provoke them.’
Mimetic beasts were one thing, and visibility was also a problem.
Unlike Gangnam Sarang Obstetrics and Gynecology, which had been a confined space, this place was an open field extending far into the distance.
The limit of where my light reached was far too clearly distinguished compared to before.
Even now, the light I emitted was being cut off unnaturally.
It didn’t seem to be much of a problem, but… I couldn’t help feeling stifled.
I held back a sigh and asked,
“Mr. Jihu, how far do you think the visibility is?”
“Visibility is approximately 100 meters. Same as at Gangnam Sarang Obstetrics and Gynecology.”
100 meters.
It was a figure not much different from when we had first measured it.
Even though I had been promoted to archangel, my visibility still showed no sign of increasing.
Maybe it was simply the limit of divine power, but… I wanted to believe I still had room to grow.
“…Well, it’s a hundred times better than not being able to see.”
100 meters was fairly generous too.
Of course, it still only illuminated about one-tenth of this long, long bridge.
“All right, if everyone has looked around enough, let’s move……”
“…Please wait a moment.”
Old Man Owlbear stopped me, the fur all over his body standing on end.
Wondering what was going on, I turned to look, and saw his ears pricked up while cold sweat poured down his face.
“I hear it…… I hear a sound…… The whisper of the being swimming below us, beneath the Hangang!”
Having said that, Old Man Owlbear began to convulse.
It all happened in the blink of an eye.
Old Man Owlbear turned and tried to flee, only to collide with the human barrier and bounce off.
Once you enter this place, you can’t get outside until you find the door.
The old man must not have been unaware of that fact either, but it seemed he had instinctively attempted to escape.
‘I don’t know how this happened, but……’
It was fortunate, at least.
If he had rushed forward, that would truly have been a serious problem.
Old Man Owlbear didn’t even scream.
But his pale face, plainly visible even between his feathers, showed just how terrified he was.
Even after being bounced back once, he paid it no mind and took his stance again.
Before the old man could charge at the human barrier once more……
‘Sacred Art, Protection.’
I cast a Sacred Art to protect his mind.