By Zephyria 
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The man, unable to secure tickets for the World Cup match, went with his family to Dongdaemun Stadium to watch the broadcast on the outdoor screens. He never dreamed that a living hell would unfold just a few hours later. The sight of unidentified monsters, the kind seen only in movies, appearing to attack and devour people was a nightmare of absolute chaos.
The man was relatively lucky. He awakened superpowers like a hero, and his parents survived.
At the same time, one could say he was unlucky. In Seoul, where the monsters first appeared, there were more refugees who became isolated, unable to evacuate in time. The man and his family became refugees of Seoul.
The refugees waited for government rescue, but it didn’t take long for them to realize they had been abandoned.
“Hyung. Have you seen apocalypse movies?”
“You mean those disaster movies with zombies and exploding volcanoes?”
He could feel Tae-un, perched on his back, nodding.
“The situation in Seoul after the Great Cataclysm was exactly like that. It really felt like an apocalypse.”
Kim Si-baek had studied the horrors of the Great Cataclysm to some extent by watching related documentaries. However, the past recounted by Tae-un, who had been a refugee in that hell, carried a raw, visceral scent of blood.
“They were just… beasts. Not human. No, they were worse than beasts. Even beasts don’t kill their own kind for fun.”
“…….”
“It was bearable as long as we believed the government would rescue us, but…”
However, the areas outside Seoul were equally chaotic. A significant number of high-ranking government officials died in the early stages of the Great Cataclysm, and the acting president was assassinated. The military attempted a coup but was barely suppressed. Man-eating monsters appeared everywhere, and from the north, defectors streamed down, claiming it was better to die by a monster’s hand.
In those desperate days, where simply surviving each day felt like a miracle, there was no capacity to rescue the refugees of Seoul, whose fates were unknown. No matter how long they waited, not a single supply drop fell from the sky, nor did they hear the gunfire of an army attacking the magical beasts. People learned despair.
Despair bred violence. The Dongdaemun Stadium shelter was established through violence. With the stadium’s outer walls capable of blocking attacks from magical beasts and the surrounding commercial district, Dongdaemun Stadium served its role as a shelter sufficiently. The shelter leader, an Awakened, moved quickly to seize control of the stadium.
In the beginning, it was fine. The shelter leader was very rational. Supplies were distributed based on contributions, such as hunting magical beasts or procuring goods. A hierarchy naturally formed within Dongdaemun Stadium. The man, who had awakened a decent ability, was satisfied with his rank.
〈Move shelters.〉
It was the same when a boy in black appeared one day and offered arrogant advice. Not only the man, but everyone, including the shelter leader, laughed at the boy. It had been amusing enough to hear rumors that the shelter leader of Jaewoo University was a fourteen-year-old brat, but meeting him in person made him seem even more pathetic.
〈The stadium is open to the sky. What are you going to do if a magical beast that can fly appears later?〉
The brat, whose head was barely dry from birth, spouted absurd nonsense. They assumed it was a trick to intimidate them with ridiculous claims, drive them out, and then seize control of Dongdaemun Stadium. The shelter leader ruthlessly cast the boy out, and the boy simply shrugged and disappeared.
It was two weeks later that the first giant flying magical beast appeared.
Kim Si-baek clicked his tongue softly. In a stadium where the only protection from rain was a few tents and tarps, the result of a flying magical beast’s appearance was obvious.
“You probably couldn’t respond properly. The Awakened would have still been inexperienced with their abilities.”
“Unfortunately, there was no one with the ability to easily hunt flying magical beasts. Still, if we had just been prey to the beasts, it would have been a common tragedy.”
From the low voice that trailed off as if about to break, Kim Si-baek could tell what kind of horror had been etched into the consciousness of a child who was only fourteen.
“……They offered people as prey.”
Public opinion surged to flee Dongdaemun Stadium, but the shelter leader ruthlessly suppressed them. If a group of this size left the shelter and moved, the flow of power would inevitably shift. The shelter leader had no intention of abandoning his small kingdom.
A magical beast that eats humans naturally feels satiety. The shelter leader capitalized on this. He decided to cull the ‘useless’ humans who only consumed food and use them to tame the magical beast as prey.
Humans who had succumbed to violence and hierarchy could not easily resist. The few who resisted or attempted to escape were the first to become food for the beast. A few days later, after a flying magical beast arrived at Dongdaemun Stadium, ate only the offered people, and left satisfied, the shelter leader’s power became even more consolidated.
The prey were selected in order from the lowest class. They were those who had not awakened, had no skills, and could not even serve as decoys. From the shelter, the elderly, children, the severely injured, and the disabled gradually began to disappear.
The man fought magical beasts more diligently and worked harder for the shelter leader, worried about his non-awakened parents. The shelter leader recognized the man’s value and left his parents alone. The man felt relieved.
That didn’t last long.
From the moment he heard that people were being fed to flying magical beasts, Kim Si-baek sensed the future of the shelter. Beasts naturally flock to hunting grounds where prey is easily obtained.
“……The number of magical beasts must have increased.”
“Yes. People judged to be surplus personnel either died as prey or died while trying to escape. Everyone.”
The groups that appeared later were weaker than the first magical beast that attacked. They were huntable, but those who had already submitted to the beasts didn’t dare try.
By the time they realized it, there were no longer any people in the lowest class. The ‘line’ for who would become the magical beast’s prey slowly moved up to the higher classes. The man became anxious. To forget the anxiety and fear, and to prove his loyalty to the shelter leader, he threw himself even further into his work.
While searching for food at a mart, the man got into a brawl with another group of survivors and suffered a severe injury. While he was unconscious for several days, flying magical beasts arrived at Dongdaemun Stadium in a swarm, and the man’s parents were offered as prey.
Would any sane human volunteer to be food for a magical beast? People naturally resisted, tried to flee, and pleaded. At first, guards swayed by the pleas secretly smuggled people out, but as they too suffered the same fate, the situation became increasingly cruel.
It was an era where alcohol and drugs were precious. To make the prey docile, the guards beat them ruthlessly, and when a magical beast was seen in the distant sky, they broke or severed their limbs before throwing them out.
The man’s parents died that way.
“The shelter leader probably knew better than anyone that there was no future in the shelter.”
The shelter leader gathered a few close aides and attempted to secretly escape Dongdaemun Stadium. The plan, which had even reached an agreement with another shelter’s survivor group, was leaked by a drunken subordinate.
The suppressed violence and fear exploded. It was a day of slaughter.
“Like that.”
Tae-un raised his arm from behind and pointed forward. In the center of Dongdaemun Stadium, where the scent of blood surged, a Portal Keeper appeared.
It was a site of slaughter, where they killed and were killed.
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The man’s despair and hatred surpassed the fear and violence imposed by the shelter leader. The man searched for the shelter leader frantically. Since many people had rebelled against the shelter, it seemed at first as if they could tear the shelter leader apart at any moment.
It was a premature judgment. A battle involving Awakened cannot be decided by numbers alone. The shelter leader’s aides were few, but they were those with outstanding abilities in the shelter.
A chaotic brawl began. Perhaps some hesitated to kill those they had smiled at just yesterday. Those who hesitated either died or were covered in the blood of their families and lovers.
The madness of slaughter dominated the people. They killed and were killed. They killed and were killed, and killed again, incessantly.
The chaotic battle, the outcome of which could not be gauged, continued late into the night, and it was just as the rebels began to be pushed back. A giant magical beast, having laid eggs after feeding on abundant prey, flew to Dongdaemun Stadium earlier than usual to feed its young.
The hungry magical beast devoured everything in sight, including the unusually large amount of offered prey. It ate the rebels and the shelter leader’s aides with equal indifference. Eventually, even the shelter leader was torn apart and killed by the beast.
The man felt an extreme sense of futility. If he was only to die here by a magical beast, why had he struggled to survive while providing others as prey? Why had he awakened a power that couldn’t even kill a single magical beast?
He should have died. He should have killed his parents on the first day of the Great Cataclysm and committed suicide beside them.
As the man just laughed crazily while watching the magical beast fly toward him, the boy in black appeared before his eyes.