By Zephyria However, the next moment, Kim Hyun-woo opened his eyes again. Covered in cold sweat, he screamed in confusion. His team members were also drenched in sweat, panicking. In front of them, Joo Ho-young glanced at his watch. Then he grinned.
“I’ll give you 3 minutes starting now. Try to escape as much as you can. Then, let’s go~!”
“Aaaargh!”
Screaming in terror, Kim Hyun-woo ran. What was this? Why was the same situation repeating itself? Had I regressed?
But there was no time to think deeply. He ran desperately again. However, this time too, Joo Ho-young appeared and reached out with a chilling hand. Instead of snapping his neck instantly, he broke his ankle first, snap, snap. Mocking his limping, he finally grabbed him as he crawled on the floor and broke his neck. After this repeated three times, Kim Hyun-woo changed direction.
The sensation of Joo Ho-young appearing like a ghost and breaking his neck every time he tried to head towards the city center was vivid. Naturally, their steps turned in the opposite direction. A team member who had been hyperventilating earlier screamed.
“T, Team leader! If we go this way, it’s the Rift area!”
“Shut up, you bastard! Do you have any other way to escape these monsters besides this?!”
Kim Hyun-woo shouted, spitting, as he rubbed his neck, which still ached from the painful breaks. He felt like he was going to die from fear. The monsters in the Rift area were much better than Team Sun. His plan was to somehow shake them off and hide. Fortunately, this time Joo Ho-young did not appear to break his neck.
They safely entered the Rift area. After running for a long time, they hid inside the darkest, most gloomy building, and soon Joo Ho-young appeared. As he looked around, Kim Hyun-woo didn’t even breathe. Joo Ho-young, who had been lingering nearby, disappeared elsewhere.
‘I survived…’
A sense of relief finally washed over him. His team members also relaxed, collapsing onto the floor. Too scared to leave, they waited in the building all day before they could finally emerge.
“Damn it, what about the body cam footage…”
Kim Hyun-woo cursed. The body cam footage they had collected was like a lifeline. Wasn’t it the footage they had gathered to avoid being discarded by those who made them do dirty, messy work? With that gone, they could be erased at any moment.
The team’s atmosphere turned grim. Entering the Rift area without any preparation was one thing, but they were terrified of encountering Team Sun again when they left. They put their heads together and decided on foreign escape.
“For now… let’s run abroad. If we run, that’s it. This area happens to be adjacent to the port. Let’s grab any ship and stow away. And if we live like ghosts for a few years, they’ll forget about us.”
This rather plausible plan gained everyone’s approval. The experience from earlier was too terrifying. Thus, they moved towards the port, starving and thirsty without food. After walking for a long time, a team member cautiously asked.
“Team leader, are we going the right way?”
“Hey, damn it, yes! I’ve been here so many times…! If you go straight this way, you’ll see a high-rise building. Look. The skyscraper!”
As Kim Hyun-woo spoke confidently, the team members followed without complaint. However, everyone was inwardly puzzled. It had been a long time since they should have reached their destination, but it still hadn’t appeared. At that moment, Kim Hyun-woo muttered in a flustered voice.
“What the hell, why does that building keep appearing?”
The skyscraper they had seen earlier reappeared. They were clearly going the right way, but when they came to their senses, they were once again in front of the skyscraper.
“Is the Team leader corrupted and his mind is going?”
“Look at my body! I’m fine!”
Kim Hyun-woo shouted, baring his chest, but as all his team members gave him suspicious looks, he had to hand over the lead. However, no matter who took the lead or which path they took, the skyscraper kept appearing. Only then did they realize they were trapped in the Rift area, but it was already too late.
Lee Chan-ha and Yoon Seung-ryong watched from the very top of the skyscraper’s rooftop as Kim Hyun-woo and the other team members, like insects caught in a trap, circled the same distance. Unable to see the correct path due to a powerful illusion, they couldn’t escape.
Lee Chan-ha’s illusion ability is very powerful, but it has the drawback of requiring constant focus. When combined with Yoon Seung-ryong’s hallucinogenic poison, the effect was surprisingly great, even astonishing the users themselves.
These mercenaries would continue to return to the same spot, unable to pass the paths permeated with Yoon Seung-ryong’s poison, and keep circling. Asking for salvation? They had planned to save them from the start, of course. They were people who knew very well that death was a mercy…
“Shall we go?”
After confirming that the hallucinogenic poison, which induced hallucinations, was constantly seeping from the living burrows dug at every exit of the Yeongjin Building, Yoon Seung-ryong nudged Lee Chan-ha. That poison would prevent them from leaving or anyone from approaching from the outside. After scattering a sufficient amount of food here and there so they wouldn’t starve, Lee Chan-ha cast a strong illusion once more. Seo Yakrin and Joo Ho-young had already lost interest and returned to the guild long ago.
“Wait a moment.”
Lee Chan-ha, who had been leaping from building to building, stopped, leaving the screaming mercenaries behind. Yoon Seung-ryong, who had returned after going ahead, also looked in the direction Lee Chan-ha was looking, but there was only the dark, collapsed interior of a building. Then, Lee Chan-ha’s next words made his face harden.
“…I can feel traces of a Flood here.”
〈10〉
Unrest
“Traces of a Flood?”
Everyone flinched at Lee Chan-ha’s words after dealing with the mercenaries. Seo Yakrin crumpled the book he was reading, and Joo Ho-young put down his game console. Yoon Seung-ryong, as if reminded of it again, put down the bag of potato chips he was eating. No, looking closely, it was already empty…
“There’s no doubt. I can’t forget that disgusting stench.”
Lee Chan-ha revealed overt hostility. She was someone who had once convinced herself she loved the Flood out of sheer agony, but now she hated the Flood as much as that maddened insanity. Yohan, concerned, asked as he scattered light.
“Shall I go and purify it?”
Approaching Yohan politely and bathing in his light, Lee Chan-ha smiled.
“No, Yohan-ssi. For now, I intend to leave it be. By following the traces of that filthy excretion, we can find out what they were trying to do here. It seems to be related to those who attacked the memorial ceremony.”
Yohan nodded. Suddenly, the nightmare he had on his first day home came to mind. A dream where something horrific seeped out from the corrupted city, trying to swallow everything. Perhaps, just like in the Abyss, he sensed the approach of the Flood here as well. He felt uneasy, but the feeling soon subsided.
‘I even dealt with the core of the Abyss, so here, I can handle a Flood without any problem.’
Yohan bravely steeled his resolve. Above all, there were now several Purifiers here. And more were expected to appear. Lee Hyun-muk brought a laptop in front of Yohan and said.
“Then, let’s leave that matter to Chan-ha… Shall we check the video now?”
He plugged the team leader’s confiscated memory device into the laptop. As the list of videos appeared, Yohan muttered.
“What if it’s damaged?”
Yohan’s desired revenge included Park Seung-min’s social downfall. For that, clear evidence was needed.
As expected, when Yohan scanned the dates of the body cam footage owned by the team leader, the record for the day Yohan went missing was absent. This meant it would take some time to achieve Park Seung-min’s revenge in the direction he desired, and Yohan was disappointed. Yoon Seung-ryong soothed him.
“In your case, there’s no benefit in keeping it, so Kim Hyun-woo must have damaged it. However, someone among the team members might have kept a separate recording.”
“That’s right, Yohan-ssi. Let’s check another team member’s video.”
Saying so, Lee Chan-ha took out another memory device obtained from the team members using her illusion. How harmonious this team was, they each possessed secretly filmed videos. Fortunately, the video from the day Yohan went missing also existed. The beginning of the video was ordinary. When he rewound the playback bar and checked, at some point, the gaping maw of a chasm leading to the Abyss was captured.
“Ah, here it is!”
When played at normal speed, a noisy commotion came from the laptop’s speakers. Park Seung-min’s voice was particularly clear.
― Just throw one person in! We’re all going to die at this rate! What if the expansion speed suddenly accelerates?
The scene of Park Seung-min pushing Yohan is visible. Immediately, the mercenaries grabbed and bound him without hesitation. As Yohan was sucked into the Abyss, he shouted his friend’s name. ‘Park Seung-min! You…!’ The rest faded into the distance. Then, the survivors chattered.
― It disappears just by throwing one person in? That guy’s efficiency is amazing.
― Hey, did you see that guy grinning after throwing his friend in? Isn’t he a total psychopath?
― Am I the psychopath? If you saw how annoying that guy is normally, you guys would have done the same as me, right?
― Haha, Park Seung-min, this guy is really funny. Hey, when we get back, let’s go eat something delicious together.
Yohan inwardly worried if he might experience trauma symptoms, but he was fine except for the scene of himself being sucked into the Abyss. After watching the video to the end, Yohan rejoiced.