Encounter (2)
[Please immediately obtain as much 12.7×99mm NATO ammunition and 5.56×45mm NATO ammunition as you can right now and send it all.]
Before attacking Gate No. 8, Seon Yul had sent this text message to Seong Hyeon.
Seong Hyeon would probably think that Absolute Safety First had sent an urgent message because he was short on ammunition, but in truth, he wasn’t lacking ammo at all.
He had already stockpiled plenty of 5.56×45mm NATO rounds, and he still had around 100,000 spare 12.7×99mm NATO rounds as well.
Despite that, the reason he sent the message was that in a situation like this, legal extortion was possible.
He was already pouring out mid-grade magic stones while clearing the event, so if he also burned through ammunition freely, his personal expenditure would become too large. So he sent the message with the intention of at least using ammunition freely at no cost.
And the effect of that message appeared almost immediately.
He didn’t know where they had obtained it from, but unidentified IDs sent him through community mail, a total of 400,000 rounds of 5.56×45mm NATO and 200,000 rounds of 12.7×99mm NATO over four separate deliveries.
After instantly clearing all the Zombie Bears at Gate No. 8 and eliminating the gate itself, Seon Yul received all the attached ammunition from the mail, organized it neatly in one corner of Absolute Space, and immediately came back out.
Then he moved again in search of the next gate.
He arrived at Gate No. 15, but that place was already being handled well by what appeared to be other users working together.
Even though Seon Yul wore a mask that covered almost his entire face and a safety helmet pulled down low, making it nearly impossible to expose his identity, he still didn’t want to deliberately reveal himself in front of others. So he shifted his steps elsewhere.
If possible, he intended to find a gate where he could act alone.
“The lower the numbering, the higher the gate’s grade. Then I’ll… target the low-numbered ones.”
Judging by the situation, responses seemed to be going better than expected, so it looked like others would manage the higher-numbered gates on their own.
In that case, the ones currently being neglected might be the lower-numbered gates instead.
“Gate No. 1 is near Namsan, and the remaining Gate No. 3 is near Hannam Bridge, right?”
Seong Hyeon hadn’t simply sent ammunition.
He had detailed the currently identified gate locations and situations in his mail. And even now, he was continuously updating the information and sending real-time emails.
Thanks to that, Seon Yul had a fairly clear understanding of how the invasion event was unfolding.
“Let’s go to No. 3!”
Seon Yul immediately set his target on Gate No. 3, which was relatively close, not yet cleared, and low in numbering, and began moving right away.
***
Oracle, through her Divine Eye, could see where the man was, where he was moving… even what kind of feats he was performing.
Watching this, she came to understand why her Divine Eye was urging her forward.
The man was certainly special.
And he was strong.
If the future she last saw through the Divine Eye was correct, then she could help that man.
So she diligently moved toward him.
But… there was a problem. Gates are scattered everywhere.
Through the Divine Eye, it looked as if the man were right in front of her, but in reality, he was several kilometers away.
Moreover, since Oracle went around and around to avoid dangerous monsters as much as possible, the path toward him inevitably took even longer.
At least thanks to the Divine Eye, she was able to see the monsters scattered in all directions from afar and avoid them… that was the silver lining.
“Huff… huff…”
Oracle walked while tightly gripping a kitchen knife in her hand, constantly glancing around her surroundings.
Just by looking at her expression, one could tell how tense she was right now.
This was the longest continuous use of her Divine Eye ability since her awakening.
Even though the Divine Eye did not consume much mana except when predicting the future, the duration of continuous use had become too long.
As a result, she was on the verge of complete mana exhaustion.
“I’m tired….”
She wanted to stop using the Divine Eye now, but although she could control everything else, the Divine Eye that was fixated on the man would not shut off.
“Why is this happening… it’s never done this before….”
Just as she struggled to lift her head again to look in the man’s direction…
Grrrrrr.
A wolf-like monster appeared in front of her.
The monster’s name was ‘Shadow Wolf,’ but of course, Oracle didn’t know that.
All she knew right now was… that she was in serious trouble.
“Ah….”
Instinctively, Oracle raised the kitchen knife she was holding in front of her chest and took a step back.
At that moment, the Shadow Wolf lunged at her.
As the Shadow Wolf… Larger than a male lion or tiger she had seen in nature documentaries, charged toward her, despair filled Oracle’s eyes.
“Is this the end?”
She thrust the kitchen knife forward, but the blade didn’t even reach the Shadow Wolf’s body.
In the end, death surfaced in her mind, and she felt that within roughly one or two seconds, the Shadow Wolf would bite her head clean off.
But at that very moment…
Shrrrk…Crunch!
A single wire shot straight through the air and pierced the back of the Shadow Wolf’s head.
And at the same time, Oracle collapsed, losing consciousness.
It was mana exhaustion.
***
“Mmm…”
When Oracle regained consciousness, the first thing she realized was that she wasn’t dead. And along with that, she also knew who had saved her.
On one side of an apartment rooftop, the man was standing, having laid her down, looking out toward the Han River.
It was the very man Oracle had been trying so desperately to reach.
A safety helmet like one used at construction sites, and a leather mask covering his entire face except for his eyes.
And layers of clothing piled on to the point where he even looked slightly overheated… it was unmistakably him.
“Um… thank you.”
Oracle, having regained consciousness, expressed her gratitude first.
He had saved her life, so of course, she was grateful.
The man who had been looking toward the Han River glanced at Oracle briefly before turning his gaze back again.
“…Are you okay?”
Then, in an indifferent tone, he asked.
“Ah, I’m fine.”
Oracle had fainted from mana exhaustion, not from injury, so she replied while getting up as if nothing were wrong.
“Thank you so much. In a situation like this, helping someone else isn’t easy… I guess I was lucky to meet a good person and survive.”
Her words were not exaggerated.
In times like these, especially in such extraordinary circumstances, most people were busy taking care of themselves rather than others.
Receiving help like this was not a common occurrence.
“I’m not a good person.”
“…Pardon?”
“I’m not a good person… I saved you because I’m a fan.”
The man… no, Seon Yul, spoke again in the same indifferent way, though with a slightly embarrassed expression.
Of course, since his face was covered by the mask, that embarrassed expression was not visible.
“Ah… really?”
Oracle wasn’t particularly surprised at the word ‘fan.’
That was only natural… she was used to such situations.
Oracle’s real name was Cheon Li Yu.
As one of the most famous singers in South Korea, she naturally had many fans.
And among those countless fans was Seon Yul.
“Yes. So… please stay put there quietly. I have something to take care of, and later I’ll move you somewhere safer.”
Saying he saved her because he was a fan was only half the truth.
Of course, even if it had been someone he didn’t know instead of Cheon Li Yu, he would have killed the Shadow Wolf and saved them in that situation.
Once he had seen it happen, he could at least do that much.
But the way he handled things afterward would certainly have been different.
He would probably have left the rescued person roughly inside a nearby building and continued on his way.
It was because the person he rescued was Cheon Li Yu that he brought her all the way here.
Because he was truly a fan… Someone who genuinely loved her music, he wanted to keep her a little safer.
“So I just need to stay here quietly, right?”
“Yes.”
Since Seon Yul wasn’t going to use his ability immediately here, it didn’t matter much if she stayed by his side.
His current target was at Hannam Bridge. More precisely, it was beneath Hannam Bridge… and that was the problem.
The gate had formed right beneath Hannam Bridge, making it impossible to get a proper angle.
Worse still, the gate type was a ‘Parasitic’ gate.
The defining characteristic of Parasitic gates was that the monster was connected to the gate.
The enormous snake-like monster currently coiled tightly around Hannam Bridge was precisely such a parasitic monster.
This creature, called a ‘Manaconda,’ was a representative parasitic monster. Its trait was that after settling in a location like that, it would lay hundreds of eggs at regular intervals, and from those eggs would hatch lower-grade monsters known as ‘Snake Men.’
The Manaconda’s main body itself wasn’t particularly threatening… but the real issue was the Snake Men it continuously produced.
In short, it was like producing goblin-tier monsters in units of hundreds over and over again.
There was a reason parasitic gates started at a minimum of A-rank.
“With parasitic monsters, you ultimately have to focus on the main body, especially the part connected to the gate… but the problem is that I don’t have any line of sight at all.”
Even with a proper angle, dealing with it wouldn’t have been easy, but without one, no clear method came to mind.
It felt like the gate had spawned in an extremely unfortunate location.
“It’s not like I can just blast through Hannam Bridge to hit it… this is frustrating.”
The best method would have been to move to a position with a clear line of sight and fight from there… but that would require getting very close.
However, since the Manaconda had already completed its first hatching, hundreds of Snake Men were swarming around it.
Typically, the Snake Men born from the first hatching acted as guards protecting the Manaconda, so approaching to fight would involve too much risk.
As he pondered without finding any good solution, Seon Yul frowned and shook his head.
Then… at that very moment.
As Seon Yul had told her, quietly, obediently, and neatly seated, Cheon Li Yu cautiously opened her mouth.
“Um… perhaps…”
She continued carefully, watching Seon Yul’s expression.
“I think… I might be able to help you. Would it be alright if I helped?”
She had already seen the future.
A future where she helped Seon Yul.
That was why she roughly knew how she needed to help.
“The thing you want to see right now…I can show it to you.”
Cheon Li Yu spoke as if she knew exactly what Seon Yul was struggling with.
At that moment, Seon Yul looked at her in great surprise.
Comments (0)