< Terror (2) >
Something I felt from far away made me frown.
It was both an outburst of intense emotion triggered by an unspecified number of people and a torrent of causality that swayed under its influence.
‘This is···.’
And I soon found out why.
-Breaking news! We have news that indiscriminate bomb attacks are occurring all over Seoul! The government…!
-Kwaaang—!
I turned on the TV screen just in case.
The news anchor’s words, which were being delivered with an urgent expression, were suddenly interrupted by a loud noise.
The anchor’s pupils shook as if there had been an earthquake, as he flinched involuntarily at the sound that was broadcast without any filtering, as if it had exploded near the broadcasting station.
Woohoo— Woohoo—
And at the same time, email notifications started popping up one after another on my smartphone that I had prepared for work.
-Jin So-ran: Lord! There was a large-scale bombing near the Blood Alliance branch and the Howard Industries store…
-Hans Slave #1: Hahoe-tal! It seems like the Bancheonhoe guys are responsible for this! The Ability Management Bureau is also on emergency alert right now…
Jin So-ran, who manages Korean vampires as Heinz II’s agent, and Ahn Seong-jin, a black magician taken in by Hans.
Even though everyone was out of their minds due to the sudden turn of events, they were trying to convey the news somehow.
And even···.
-Hey, don’t come out of the house and stay inside!
He also received a text message from Kang Tae-san, who could be called his only friend.
In a sentence that is so messy that you can feel the urgency.
Having clearly grasped what was happening, I closed my eyes tightly and accelerated my thoughts.
A large-scale bombing attack that occurred suddenly in various parts of Seoul.
The situation was clear.
‘Yeah, only the guys from the Buncheonhoe can do something like this.’
The underworld of Korea has already been pacified under the name of Blood Pact.
Even organizations specializing in smuggling could not be an exception, and naturally, it was nearly impossible to bring such weapons into the country without being noticed by the Blood Alliance.
Of course, in this world where supernatural powers are rampant, there is nothing that is 100% impossible…
‘It’s not something that just anyone can do. It’s been so quiet lately that I thought they had completely withdrawn from Korea.’
It seems that he remained hidden and held his breath until the very end, even as his tail was repeatedly cut off by the persistent beatings.
And they were prepared to cause such a major incident.
“How dare you.”
A gloomy voice leaked out from my tightly clenched teeth without me knowing.
It was a sound that came out so unconsciously that I only realized it after hearing it with my own ears.
I don’t know about other places on Earth, but Korea has now become my unshakable territory.
They must be aware of that fact.
But, for him to act so blatantly like that was no different from a provocation to me.
“Phew—.”
I took a deep breath and tried to calm my mind.
My stomach was seething with an inexplicable sense of discomfort.
It was only because the “Myeonggyeongjisu” was working hard that it was at this level. If it weren’t for that, it would have taken longer than expected to control my mind.
‘Let’s start by thinking about how to respond to this.’
First of all, solving the problem was the top priority.
If we don’t properly handle this level of unrest, Korea’s security, which we have just managed to stabilize, will fall into disarray again.
This anger can be relieved by completely exterminating these bastards.
‘Hans can’t be taken out right now.’
Unfortunately, even Kang Hwan-gye couldn’t take his eyes off of it right now.
The martial arts alliance is gathering near Beijing, and it is an imminent situation where it would not be strange for a full-scale war to begin at any moment.
If something happens while Hans, who is in charge of coordination, is away, it will be impossible to handle it.
‘Of course, it doesn’t really matter if Hans doesn’t come.’
Don’t you have a skill that would be useful in times like this?
I used that ability right away without hesitation.
Ssssss—
At the same time.
The surrounding temperature began to drop rapidly.
The light that had been illuminating the room lost its momentum and a creeping darkness took its place.
The firm skin and tough muscles melted away, leaving only a gaunt skeleton.
The heart that used to beat vigorously and pump blood was replaced by a heart that scattered death, and the limited focus of the eyeball disappeared and the sense of the dead took its place.
A strangely alien sense of omnipotence rising from my entire body.
At that, I burst out laughing without realizing it.
[Kekekekeke— Kehahaha!]
“Entity projection” that overlays the avatar’s existence onto me.
That’s how I became Hans, the Demon King who invaded the Ganghwan world.
Then, I put on a robe over my loosened martial arts uniform, as the chimera that had been covering my body disappeared, and I firmly attached the lower mask to the skull.
[Keuheu— The little rats that had been quietly hiding in their holes have finally crawled out.]
That must mean that Howard Industries’ sudden move was an eyesore.
To the point where the patience that had been building up over time while waiting for the right time finally burst.
Of course, with just this kind of guesswork, we couldn’t know exactly what kind of nerve they had to do something so blatant…
[Where, what are you guys up to—.]
——————
faqwiki.us
Join our Discord for new chapter updates!
https://discord.com/invite/xr7SxG5T6V
——————
That was none of my concern.
[—Let’s take a look inside his head.]
Just catch them and find out for yourself.
***
A young man holding a smartphone with a selfie stick attached and an action cam attached to his body ran, breathing heavily.
“Ugh, huh… What the heck is going on!”
Hong Du-sik, an internet broadcaster who filmed the moment immediately after the appearance of the past Gold Dragon from a special seat.
Thanks to that incident, the number of viewers suddenly skyrocketed, and he couldn’t forget the thrill of that day, and today he is still going out to find scoops.
One of the reasons was that viewers kept leaving as the popularity of the show declined.
Although he temporarily became known through public attention, that moment was only fleeting, and the story he told about the situation at that time became so full of worries that his skills were starting to become apparent.
But that doesn’t mean I can just give up.
So he plucked up his courage and bought an action camera, and under the pretense of searching for hidden restaurants, which is his main content, he would wander around with his eyes wide open, and whenever he saw something, he would immediately bring out the camera.
Just like when I took a picture of the dragon that day, I was hoping that a scoop that would break this situation would come from somewhere.
‘Miss, I’m not even a reporter, so what kind of scoop is this! If I had known this would happen, I would have just stayed in the corner of the room and broadcasted games!’
When I first heard the explosion, I was so excited that I thought my chance had finally come that I ran towards it.
Korea is currently one of the world’s leading countries in terms of public safety.
It was because of my complacency that I thought that whatever problem arose would be resolved quickly.
The situation was not as easy as he thought.
Rising flames and acrid smoke.
A collapsing building and falling rocks that were no different from weapons.
People howling in anguish and crowds rushing in like a herd of cattle in confusion.
I had to be more alert than ever because I could lose my life if I got swept up in something wrong.
‘In this situation, what on earth are the Guardians doing? No, what about the firefighters and police officers?’
He couldn’t know it, but this terror attack was not just a bomb attack.
Just before the terrorist attack, the fire department, police department, and other related departments were flooded with tips… no, ‘terror warning’ calls.
But there were so many of them, and while there was some truth in them, there was also so much ‘fake information’.
Reporting systems paralyzed by endless phone calls, cleanup of incidents that have already occurred, defuse of bombs that have not yet exploded, and wasted steps due to false information.
The relevant ministries were already running wild, suffering from a manpower shortage, even forcibly recalling those who had been on leave.
‘Huh? What’s that guy?’
While I was running away from the scene in a panic, swept up in the crowd.
Suddenly, Hong Du-sik’s gaze turned to an old man standing in the middle of the street with a blank expression.
Given the current situation, it wasn’t all that strange for him to have such a distraught expression, but for some reason I couldn’t take my eyes off him because of an inexplicable sense of unease.
“Huh, huh? Me, me!”
As he stopped walking, he quickly realized what was causing his anxiety.
Cheek!
The lighter the man was holding lit, and the flame spread to the wad of paper he was holding on the other side.
And the burning wad of paper fell helplessly to the floor—.
Hurrrurr—
It quickly began to spread in all directions along the lines of oil that had been sprinkled on the floor in advance.
“Whoa!”
“What, what! Hey you, what are you doing! Are you crazy?!”
“Don’t push! Go back! Go back!”
Suddenly, flames burst out from the front, and the crowd of people running frantically stopped.
But even in a situation where the surroundings were in chaos, Hong Du-sik couldn’t pay attention to his surroundings.
His gaze followed the path of fire.
Hwaruk—
The transferred flames race quickly.
The place we finally arrived at after running like that was—.
“Eww! Get down!”
It was a medium-sized tanker truck transporting oil.
He screamed and grabbed the people on either side of him, throwing himself to the ground.
Lying down wouldn’t guarantee me any safety from an explosion at this close range, but it would be better than standing there defenseless.
And right after that.
Kwaaaaang—!
Clang!
A loud noise erupted, drowning out all surrounding sounds, and windows on all sides were shattered.
‘Ah, I guess I should have just played games at home!’
Hong Du-sik lay face down and closed his eyes tightly to prepare for the hot heat that was about to come.
I heard that burns hurt so much.
They say you have to lose a certain percentage of your skin before you die?
Wouldn’t it be better to just die instantly rather than live in pain?
All sorts of thoughts swirled around in my head.
They say that time slows down when you’re near death?
It felt like several seconds had already passed, but there was still no heat or sound to be heard.
‘No, rather, it seems a little cold···.’
Surely you didn’t die before you could feel anything?
That’s when he felt something was strange.
[Hmm. This is···.]
A strange voice, seemingly not of this world, passed by my ears and burrowed into my brain.
A creepy voice that immediately reminds you of the grim reaper the moment you hear it.
‘Ah, he’s dead after all.’
All the strength left my tense body.
I bit my lip in frustration and resignation.
Hong Du-sik, who had been like that for a while, took a deep breath, slowly opened his eyes, and raised his head.
If we filmed the afterlife, it would be a huge scoop—thinking about the same pointless things.
And that thought.
“ah.”
Everything flew away cleanly as I saw the unrealistic sight unfolding before my eyes.
that-
It was a world where everything had stopped.
No, time didn’t really stop, but there was no other way to describe it.
The flames that had been bursting out were frozen in place, and the sharp fragments and debris that had been flying were frozen in the air as they were.
The space that had been so hot that it made you sweat because of the chaos and fire soon became so cold that you could feel your breath coming out.
Those who were terrified all stopped moving and stared blankly, unable to say anything.
A landscape where even time seems to have frozen.
Hong Du-sik, who was looking at the scene with his mouth open like the people around him, unconsciously turned his gaze upward into the empty space.
As if I was being drawn by some strange attraction that I couldn’t explain.
That’s the place where the gaze is directed.
In a position where you have to look up at least 10 meters.
There was ‘him’.
A pitch-black robe that seems to be covered in black, and a mask with a strange smile visible under the hood.
The bitterly cold ghost fire flowing out of the eye sockets and the cold air spewing out like fog.
A being that seems to have shaped ominousness into human form.
‘Hahoe mask···?’
This was the most famous dark hero in Korea, Hahoe-tal.
When I saw him, my dazed mind began to quickly connect my thoughts as if nutrients were finally being supplied to it.
No matter how you look at it, he looks like a god of death, but he was clearly a real being.
If he hadn’t changed from a warlock to a grim reaper without his knowledge.
Then, perhaps he is not dead…
[···Is this brainwashing?]
At that moment, Hahoe-tal, who had been quietly observing the old man who had committed the terrorist act, floated next to him and began to hum softly.
Pupils dilated out of focus and drool flowing from the corners of the mouth.
His soul, which was visible through the “eyes of the abyss,” was by no means in good condition.
‘You really planned it out and prepared for it.’
Even the brainwashing was not a continuous control type, but rather a trigger type that was activated according to certain conditions, so even if you tried to track the caster through the connection, you couldn’t identify the target.
The thoroughness of erasing the traces that inevitably remain, even if it means crushing the soul of the subject.
Because of that, all that could be found out was, at best, a fleeting thought about the person who brainwashed him and the place where he was supposed to have encountered him.
No matter how you look at it, this was something he did out of self-consciousness.
‘You want to try this with me?’
The flames leaking out from Hahoe Mask’s curved eyes burned fiercely.
I was already in a bad mood, but facing this situation made me feel like my insides were twisting.
There are no real internal organs though.
‘If you are challenged, it is common sense to respond with all your might.’
And it wasn’t just the power of the body that he possessed.
He immediately conveyed his will to someone through his mind.
[Andrew Weaver, that’s it.]
-Huh! Yes, okay?
For those with the best unique skill in terms of tracking and information, “Trajectory Observation”.
Although it would be difficult to help with this disaster if we focus on this, there was a way.
Because he wasn’t alone.
***
“Save me! Please save me!”
“Knock knock knock, come this way… please…!”
People screaming incessantly while isolated on the roof of a burning building.
Death approached them with its red tongue every moment, as they fell into despair.
Then at one moment.
Hwaruk— Whoosh—
Without any warning, the fiercely burning flames quickly died down.
The black smoke that had been rising was swept away by a refreshing wind blowing in from somewhere and disappeared cleanly, and the hot air, laden with moisture, settled down calmly.
“People live… huh?”
“uh···?”
A sudden change that made even those who had been screaming just blink.
As they were blankly exchanging glances at each other in a situation that had suddenly changed as if it had been hell, the same strange phenomenon was already happening repeatedly in other places.
‘Ah… This is annoying… It’s hard to breathe… I want to finish this quickly and go back…’
Following the movements of the motorcycle helmet monster flying through the air with no motivation and a limp body.
***
And another place.
“It’s AXXON man!”
“What the heck… Is this real?”
“But that thing in your hand… isn’t that SpaX the Man?”
A mysterious hero covered in futuristic metal armor was flying around at high speeds.
Quickly rescuing those in danger with the black thread extending from his right hand.
‘Neither.’
He let out a small sigh and licked his lips.
I intentionally made the design quite different, but it seems like everyone’s thoughts were all the same.
<92 meters ahead. Life signs detected under the rubble of a collapsed building. 6 seriously injured, 8 slightly injured. Survivors' locations are marked on the field of view.>
Of course, that wasn’t important right now.
‘I didn’t know it had such an ability. Well, I guess that’s to be expected since it’s something from a machine civilization.’
Under the guidance of “Machine Inside: Calicas”, Hesperon accelerated even faster.
Leaving an unforgettable first impression on the public from their unexpected Earth debut.
