Episode 4
Chapter 1: My World (4)
Far from the river, on an open plain, a beetle-like monster crouched motionless.
The soldiers who had been watching the monster were all fleeing south, but whether even one of them could survive was impossible to know.
At one moment, the space beside the crouching monster fractured in all directions, cracks spreading through the air like broken glass. And centered on those cracks, the world grew dark.
It was as if darkness were gushing from the cracked space.
As the cracks crumbled away, a massive calamity beast began to appear.
It was a Dimensional Anchor Calamity Beast.
It was as if a massive building were moving forward.
An armored larva dozens of meters long wriggled forward. Soon, the calamity beast's entire body had emerged into this world.
The beast, which had been moving thus, paused for a moment once its full body was revealed.
Shortly after, the hard armor on its humps began to glow.
The multiple layers of armor glowed in slightly different colors, and at one moment the larva let out a monstrous roar.
“Kuwaaaaah.”
And the light gathered on the calamity beast's armor spread in all directions.
The light continued spreading outward, transforming into a shockwave.
An aura that rippled the air spread in all directions.
That aura passed the fleeing soldiers, crossed the fields, passed the division headquarters, passed the soldiers fleeing bare-chested from the headquarters, passed the soldiers moving by car, and stretched far, far away.
And shortly after, as if it had exhausted its energy, the larva stopped moving. However, the shell on its back still glowed faintly.
Then space rippled around the calamity beast, and various giant monsters appeared.
It looked as if the calamity beast had summoned the other monsters.
The monsters began moving south.
***
When the strike team members had all boarded the truck and started the engine, everyone felt a strange sensation sweep over them.
Among them, the senior members knew what this feeling signified.
“Damn it, we're too late.”
Yeonghun said, rising from the truck bed.
He held a K-2 rifle in his hands. For Yeonghun, a close-range ability user, using a rifle was much preferable in this situation.
The other strike team members also raised their guns. And the members experiencing this situation for the first time also raised their guns after seeing the others move.
They hadn't experienced it for themselves, but it was a situation they had heard about ad nauseam.
Yeonghun looked around.
It was quiet. Everyone had their heads bowed and stood motionless.
When those people raised their heads, hell would begin.
The truck they were in couldn't move immediately.
Engine trouble from a truck run for ten years and haphazardly mixed fuel always cropped up at times like this.
The moment the truck finally started, the soldiers around them raised their heads.
Their eyes were covered by a gray film. They had all been contaminated by the aura of another world.
This was the true terror of the Dimensional Anchor Calamity Beast.
That calamity beast possessed several abilities, one of which was the ability to scatter and maintain its dimensional power over a certain area around itself.
When the calamity beast scattered dimensional power around it, all living creatures without sufficient dimensional power to defend themselves were contaminated by the larva.
Contaminated lifeforms had their original minds corrupted, losing much of their judgment, and ended up pursuing a single goal.
Destroying the existences of the world they did not belong to became their top priority.
And there was one more problem: these contaminated humans retained their basic intelligence.
As they were now.
The soldiers who had raised their heads looked around briefly and released the safeties on their rifles. They pulled the triggers on any visible targets before their eyes.
Tatatatatang!
With gunshots ringing behind them, the truck escaped the division headquarters.
Behind the fleeing truck, electronic equipment that had been blocking the monsters' dimensional crossing was being smashed by the contaminated soldiers.
Now the monsters could cross over directly to this place.
Kwaang!
Eventually, the generators exploded with a great roar.
Leaving behind the division headquarters with smoke billowing up, the truck began racing through the center of Uiseong-eup.
“Die!”
People poured out from all directions.
Soldiers held guns, and civilians came rushing with knives, skewers, and even stones.
Countless humans threw themselves in front of the truck with their bodies.
The truck ran over the people blocking its way and passed through, while the ability users sitting in the truck bed fired their guns in all directions.
People approaching the truck were hit by bullets, spraying blood as they fell.
Shortly after, they rose again.
Blood flowed from their bodies and their movements had slowed, but they moved toward the truck.
Humans whose very bodies had been contaminated by the monsters' dimension had ended up half-straddling that other dimension.
Just like ability users who had gained dimensional power from this world and grown far stronger than normal people, these contaminated humans had also become existences different from ordinary people.
All the ability users aboard the truck knew this as well.
But they needed to hold them back so the truck could escape. As expected, when they blocked the approach of the contaminated humans, the truck was able to move.
But the truck couldn't get far.
Bullets had poured down from in front of the truck. They came from a truck that had crashed into a shop up ahead on the road and stopped.
When Yeonghun stuck his face out and looked ahead, it was the truck of soldiers who had escaped the division headquarters before them. It seemed they had barely made it here before being contaminated.
The bullets shattered the already blood-stained driver's side window and eventually blew out the truck's tires.
Screeeech!
The driver, who had ducked low due to the gunfire from ahead and couldn't confirm his surroundings, jerked the wheel the moment the tires blew, causing the truck to tip over on its side.
Kwaang!
Fortunately, the truck fell on its side with its undercarriage facing forward, blocking the gunfire from ahead.
The strike team members all safely got out behind the truck.
The ability user driving was also unharmed aside from minor injuries.
Ability users who had gained powerful physical abilities and fought countless battles didn't bat an eye at an accident of this degree.
Yeonghun, hiding behind the truck, looked around. He was trying to find an escape route.
The main road was littered with crashed trucks and jeeps that had overturned while fleeing, stretching far into the distance. It seemed impossible to escape via the main road now.
No matter how strong ability users were, there was no way to get through a road swarming with heavily armed soldiers.
Since the main road was blocked, they had to escape through the alleyways. Fortunately, the town was small and they had already made it quite far, so it seemed they needed only go a little further.
Yeonghun pointed to an alley beside the truck, and everyone agreed.
The strike team members immediately dashed into the alley.
Immediately, the contaminated humans who had been chasing the truck followed behind them.
The nine strike team members ran through the alleys of the town, and contaminated humans jumped out from behind and from side alleys to attack them.
But in these narrow alleys, the contaminated humans couldn't match ability users who had fought for over ten years.
Of course, if there were A-rank ability users, they might not need to flee, but a group of nearly ten C-rank ability users was no insignificant fighting force.
When gunfire came, defensive ability users blocked it in advance with shields imbued with dimensional power, and when contaminated humans approached, offensive ability users mercilessly cut and stabbed them with swords.
None of the members hesitated to attack people.
Because they knew there was no way to turn them back.
Occasionally they saw familiar faces, but everyone swung their weapons indifferently—no, some even smiled as they did so.
Against scout-type monsters, they had focused on thrusting attacks due to tough hides and dimensional power, but against simply contaminated humans like these, they could cut straight through to the bone.
The attacks of offensive ability users who could neutralize dimensional repulsion cut down the contaminated humans outright.
It would have been better if they had other-class ability users like the spatial movement or telekinesis ability users they had seen earlier, but they couldn't expect that much from a strike team that faced scout-type monsters.
Having felled the enemies blocking their path, the group ran forward. The end of the alley was visible.
If they kept running like this, escape seemed possible. In open areas, the contaminated humans couldn't keep up with the ability users' speed.
The group shook off the pursuing contaminated humans and sprinted forward. The finish line was right ahead.
Suddenly, Yeonghun, running at the front, raised his hand to stop the group.
The group immediately halted at Yeonghun's signal. There were three teams with three majors, but they had all acknowledged Yeonghun's combat experience and elected him as temporary commander.
Yeonghun squinted at the rippling visible at the end of the alley. It was clearly a sign of dimensional crossing.
The others also realized the situation. Everyone's expressions darkened. They were C-rank ability users.
Without an assassin-type ability user, they lacked the ability to independently kill monsters that had crossed dimensions.
“Team headcount is nine, close to the maximum that's ever taken down a scout-type monster. It's worth a shot. Well, if we lose, we die anyway.”
It wasn't as if C-rank ability users without an assassin-type had no experience killing scout-type monsters.
There had been an incident where twelve combat ability users had swarmed one and caught it after over an hour of fighting. Only, since over half had died, everyone shook their heads at the story.
Everyone nodded at Yeonghun's words. It was a straight alley with no side paths anyway.
Behind them were swarming contaminated humans, and if monsters were starting to appear now, it was clear that more would show up.
They had to break through.
The space ahead began to split, and a monster emerged from the rift.
A mantis over 3 meters tall appeared, and shortly after, another one appeared. Everyone's expressions worsened. They had trouble dealing with even one, but two had appeared.
Yeonghun looked back.
The humans who had been rushing toward them had stopped about 20 meters back.
The sight of hundreds of people holding weapons in their hands and standing quietly without a word was truly a spine-chilling scene.
They probably had no intention of interfering in the battle between the monsters and the strike team members. But they glared at the group as if intending to attack the moment the slightest opening appeared.
The giant mantises that appeared stood in a line front and back. Judging by the formation, the front mantis would fight while the rear one would block their escape.
As expected, they seemed to be getting smarter over time.
The front mantis monster unfurled its wings and shook them vigorously. The monster spread both arms wide.
Its two scythe-like hands gleamed brilliantly, imbued with dimensional power. If struck by those scythes, one would clearly be cut through space itself.
Yeonghun also raised his hand. The group all took their positions. Through long combat experience, a formation was naturally established.
They began the battle.