Episode 81. Difficulties always happen at once (4)
-Anyway, keep that in mind and prepare yourself. I’ll head over there, too!
And with that, I couldn’t hear anything else. It was the first ti that Han Yeon-soo hung up on . I could feel how urgent the situation was.
‘…Things are getting more and more complicated.’
Why was Kim Min-jae coming here? Did he even know how serious the situation here was?
‘I just wish he doesn’t do anything stupid.’
Boooom!
A thunderous noise ca from inside the Fields. It looked like the Fla Queen and Seol Ah-rin had started to fight. Since a fight between the two was unlikely to end quickly, I could probably leave them alone for a while.
“Hyun-woo, send inside again, please.”
Then I only had one thing to do. Cleaning up the ssed-up facility, exterminating the monsters that were invading, and rescuing the innocent staff.
And at my request, the landscape around changed.
“Grrr, grrr!”
I could see Orcs gnashing their teeth and running wild, along with Goblins and growling Ogres. The staff cafeteria floor was covered in food and utensils, and the monsters were gulping down the scattered food ingredients.
I grabbed a long iron chopstick and jumped towards them. For now, my priority was to normalize this bizarre state.
“Grrrrrrr!”
“Argh!”
The long chopstick lodged itself into the green head. Red blood splattered, and Sung Hyun-woo’s telekinesis swept away the tangled monsters who fell over backward.
They probably ca here thinking it was a nice restaurant full of food, but they didn’t know it would beco their grave.
Crack, thump!
The helpless monsters died one after the other.
* * *
“Ugh, this is so annoying… What the hell!”
Seol Ah-rin touched her tangled hair and shouted, annoyed. She was still confused by what had just happened.
Soone suddenly appeared behind her, hit her over and over before she could respond, then grabbed her by the hair and sent her here.
She had never witnessed such an ability. She had seen Awakeners with teleportation abilities before, but it was impossible to teleport that much in a short ti.
Even the world’s best Espers could reuse teleportation only after resting for about three minutes. But to use teleportation dozens of tis over approximately three seconds, and even forcibly teleport soone?
‘When did I get tricked?’
Seol Ah-rin thought soone had caused her to hallucinate or tricked her sohow. She thought of potential suspects, but so many places had a grudge against her. She counted up to about 20 possibilities before she quit.
Attacks like that couldn’t cause decisive damage to her anyway. But the way he grabbed her hair and threw her had been extrely unpleasant, so she was irritated.
‘Whatever. I’ll put that on the back burner for now.’
Seol Ah-rin bit down on her lower lip and lifted her head.
That didn’t matter right now.
“You, you, you crazy bitch.”
“You’re the crazy one. Why don’t you act your age instead of shouting insanely and causing harm?”
Seol Ah-rin replied, looking at the Fla Queen, who was so angry that she couldn’t speak properly. Seol Ah-rin’s favorite sweater was already burnt black from colliding with the Fla Queen.
“Ah… So many annoying things are happening today.”
She was angrier than when she was grabbed by her hair and beaten without knowing why.
“Old lady, you can’t buy this anymore. It was so hard to get sothing made out of natural material. They make clothes out of damn monster leather nowadays! Do you know how much I paid because I couldn’t stand the disgusting sll?”
Seol Ah-rin scread angrily.
“Shut…up!”
The Fla Queen imdiately shouted without bothering to listen. Seol Ah-rin frowned, displeased by the loud voice filled with mana.
Flas flared around the tiny old woman. Mana flas that could burn everything away. They hit Seol Ah-rin like a blazing tsunami.
“Ugh, so noisy.”
Facing the fierce heat, Seol Ah-rin clicked her tongue and moved her finger.
Whoosh!
With that simple gesture, the flas pouring onto her faltered. Or, to be exact, they were swept away by a more powerful force.
Like a collapsing sandcastle, the flas died out helplessly in the face of a bigger fla.
The Fla Queen’s face hardened. If anything else, she had never been defeated in terms of powerful flas. No matter how old she was, the fact that she lost in a head-to-head confrontation ca as a shock to the Fla Queen.
“What….”
“Aargh, I can’t calm down. Ah!”
Seol Ah-rin shouted hysterically as she furiously scratched her head. At the sa ti, she pointed her finger at the Fla Queen and spoke quietly.
“Old lady, let hit you until I feel better. Okay?”
* * *
“Don’t worry. We’re safe here!”
Fortunately, it didn’t take long to rescue the people at the facility. It was thanks to the unhard hunters other than who rushed in and because many monsters were swept up and killed in the battle between the Fla Queen and Seol Ah-rin.
“Ugh… O”
“What’s going on…….”
But that didn’t an the damage was small.
There were hunters that Seol Ah-rin killed while moving along. And so civilians collapsed, unable to bear the Fla Queen’s mana, who were defenseless and eaten up by monsters.
In total, nearly 20 percent of the facility’s personnel died.
“Hey, what is this? Why did you have to die like this…? You poor bastard….”
Because of it, the mood inside was very somber. So cried, so were silent, and others looked lost.
They hadn’t even died fighting bravely against monsters. So people couldn’t overco the Fla Queen’s mana. They collapsed and died, and people who tried to save others were caught up in the two won’s battle and burned to death…… The reasons they died were too absurd.
“Si-woo, go rest for a bit. You don’t look well.”
“…No, I’m fine.”
There was no way I was okay. I hadn’t felt like this in a long while. No one around died after I ca back in ti, and I only experienced success without failure. So I was mistaken. I thought that the world was helping this ti; that I was lucky this ti.
‘There’s no way that can be true.’
This damn world didn’t help anyone. It constantly tested people and took away the lives of the weak. It took families away from children and made them hungry and thirsty. That was the world I lived in.
“Mr. Jeong Si-woo?”
Soone tapped on the shoulder. It was the woman who was always with Park Young-joon.
“The Monster Fields Commander Park Young-joon is looking for you.”
* * *
It was quite a long way from where Park Young-joon was temporarily staying.
“How much longer do we have to walk…….”
“Hyun-woo, do you want to carry you on my back?”
“No thanks.”
“…….”
Even though I said I would go alone, Kim Seung-hyun and Sung Hyun-woo insisted on following . Although we were walking along an empty hallway, Kim Seung-hyun was on high alert with his shield up, and Sung Hyun-woo also looked closely around as he walked.
They were very reassuring yet botherso bodyguards.
“You can go in here. Um… Could you two wait outside?”
“Oh, yes.”
Fortunately, they didn’t insist this ti. If they said that they’d follow into the room, I would have been a little embarrassed.
Thud.
The door opened with a creak. It slled stuffy inside.
“You ca quickly.”
Park Young-joon was sitting on a broken table looking through so papers. Despite the situation, he looked indifferent, and his face was expressionless.
“I’ve heard about the situation outside.”
“Yes.”
“I’ve also heard how much you’ve done, and I’m going to request that the Association compensate you accordingly.”
Park Young-joon slowly got up from the table. I looked at him and spoke.
“Never mind compensation… Why did you call here?”
In this tense circumstance, I didn’t have ti to exchange greetings with Park Young-joon casually. It was ti to get to the point quickly.
“You want to get to the point? Okay.”
“…….”
“To be frank, I called you to ask for more help.”
“What?”
Ask for more help? What was he talking about?
“It’s nearly impossible to maintain the Fields’ defense line right now. Even if we drive out the monsters that got in, their numbers will increase even more after sundown. Most experienced hunters were killed or injured, and the staff in charge of the facility died or are in a panic.”
“…….”
“It’s too dangerous to maintain the line in our current state.”
Park Young-joon put the papers on the table and drew a line with a pen.
“But we can’t just decide to abandon the Fields. The civilians behind it will all die.”
“Right.”
“So, I’m going to get rid of this Field.”
“…What?”
What did I just hear? I lifted my head slightly and glanced at Park Young-joon’s face. He looked serious, with no hint of a joke.
“I know it’s hard to understand. Rifts have been constant here for a long ti, and the number of monsters never dried up.”
“…….”
“But I think this is the best timing.”
Tap tap.
Park Young-joon tapped the table.
“The two won who suddenly appeared wiped out the horde of monsters, and you destroyed the Rifts that disrupted the mana concentration.”
“…….”
“There are three Rifts left now, and only 30 percent of monsters than the usual number are inhabiting the Fields. Don’t you think it’s worth a try?”
Park Young-joon’s eyes glinted. His usual dim eyes shone brightly between his wrinkles and dark circles like those of a young man.
I didn’t speak for a mont.
Then Park Young-joon started to talk without waiting for my answer.
“If you don’t help, I’m not going to do it. I’ll follow the Association’s proposal instead.”
“Proposal?”
“They suggested that we build a huge wall around the Fields. They want to manage the Rifts and monsters inside like a farm and generate steady profits.”
“……!”
It was a very familiar suggestion because it was a plan that Kim Min-jae had actually carried out in the past.
A monster farm. He had built a wall to endlessly collect mana stones and monster by-products and make money like a farm.
‘The results were disastrous.’
Because it was a risky project, he bought land in the Middle East and Africa, not in Korea, and created a monster farm. And exactly two years later, the monster farm sared the Association’s na instead of earning it large sums of money.
‘Mana concentration kept increasing, and a ga Rift occurred. And monsters poured out of it.’
It did not take long for the land of Africa to be erased from the map. I rembered how the World Federation of Hunters sacrificed themselves and deployed their full force to stop the monsters. I had seen it with my own eyes.
“It’s not a bad offer for . If they build a huge wall, the monsters won’t be able to co out. And they say they’ll grant pensions to the people who used to work here. But it bothers that the monsters will be alive. To think that the monsters will be moving around here.….”
“I’ll do it.”
There was no way I was letting it happen again.
Park Young-joon Park smiled faintly at my answer.
“I knew you would.”
All he did was slightly tilt his mouth from his usual indifferent face, but he looked much more human.
“Do you have any specific plans?”
“Oh, I plan to…….”
Since I accepted his offer, I was about to settle down and discuss.
“Commander Park Young-joon.”
But suddenly, the woman opened the door and ca in.
“Outside… Kim Min-jae, the President of the Association, is here to see you.”
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