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[Chapter 168]
[Still, The Night Passes (3)]
At that time, at the Mana Management Organization.
An emergency summons was issued to the Mana Management Organization located in Jongno-gu.
"This is no ordinary crisis."
"Hmm..."
The old men who sat down first sighed deeply.
Due to the calamity currently occurring throughout Gangbuk, Players couldn't participate even if they received the summons.
Moreover,
Even
Additionally,
Also, it's said that
Thus, only two of the Twelve Seats could respond to the summons.
"For now, we'll have to wait for Seong-jin to quickly get the library working normally, and for Mo Ra-yul to compile information and relay the situation to all Players in the area."
"Before that, we need to activate protective magic to minimize confusion."
"I heard from people we sent to check that the Cocoon has completely shattered... If so, we'll have no choice but to use manpower to activate protective magic as a temporary measure. It's uncertain how effective it will be though."
"Still, we must do it. To calm the current chaos, we have no choice but to present an alternative to the Cocoon. Even if we wonder how effective it will be, what people want is hope for something to replace the Cocoon."
"I suppose... In the current situation, if protective magic that looks like the Cocoon appears in the sky, even panicked people could calm down. But if that happens, only you can solve this. Who's supposed to command the situation if the leader is taken away at this critical time?"
"You're here, aren't you?"
"..."
In the conference room with only two people.
The two old men conversed while facing each other.
Baek Seo-jin sighed.
Eventually, he nodded.
"─Alright. I'll command the situation. I'll leave the protective magic to you."
"I'm counting on you."
"Are you thinking of manifesting mythology?"
"There's no other way."
"With your body... it must be hard to endure even now. Can you handle it?"
"If it can be resolved with this body alone, wouldn't that be getting off cheap?"
"You really haven't changed."
Two people who have gone through a long time together.
They sometimes faced each other as enemies, and sometimes as comrades.
And as a long time passed, now that there are few people left who remember the distant past,
The two have now become the only ones who can understand each other.
─Mythology Manifestation
Atlas
☆
On the way to Itaewon.
Eun-ha suddenly raised his head.
─
Magic covering the skies of Gangbuk.
Dozens of magic formulas illuminated the night sky, covering Gangbuk in a hemisphere.
It was
In his previous life too, he had activated magic that could cover all of Gangbuk in place of the Cocoon.
"Amazing... How is this possible?"
Kang Si-hyung seemed impressed.
He couldn't take his eyes off the night sky, seeing the magic spread by one person.
It wasn't just Kang Si-hyung.
The clan members were the same.
The screams have subsided.
The monsters' movements have also slowed down a bit.
On the other hand, Eun-ha was on high alert.
The screams that had been heard from everywhere were subsiding.
Those who had fallen into panic calmed down seeing the protective magic spread in the sky.
Conversely, monsters were growling lowly, their movements slowing slightly.
The protective magic is just a temporary measure.
Unless it's the Cocoon, the monsters' power remains unchanged.
They're just receiving a debuff now, who knows what will happen as time passes.
As far as Eun-ha remembered, around this time, Guardians would be helping to maintain the protective magic in various places with
Even so, the burden
Then in his previous life, he ended up passing away while blocking Ye-gyeong's attack.
He won't be able to hold out for long. We need to deal with the monsters trapped inside while the protective magic is maintained to reduce the burden.
At most a day or two.
The situation needed to be alleviated before then.
We need to preserve as much military strength as possible until Im Ga-eul returns to Gangbuk with the Twelve Seats.
Eun-ha once again recognized the situation.
Right then─
─Bububububu
A sound vibrating the air rang out.
Eun-ha and the clan members were startled and looked in the direction the sound came from.
""""...."""
Grasshoppers the size of a person.
Creatures that seemed to boast thick armor were flying in swarms over their heads.
Some monsters discovered them and dove down, but most were heading somewhere without even noticing them.
"It's Violent Hoppers. I can't believe those guys have appeared..."
Level 6 monster Violent Hopper.
Han Chang-jin, who identified the monsters, sighed with a serious face.
They traveled in swarms.
Those guys caused serious food shortages, leaving nothing edible where they passed.
The food left behind by those guys contains poison that spoils food, so we can't even touch it.
We really struggled because of those guys.
After killing a few Violent Hoppers,
Eun-ha frowned as he quietly watched the swarm disappearing in the distance.
Just 3 days.
They had gone around Gangbuk for 3 days and almost wiped out all the food.
As a result, Players had to fight without being able to eat or sleep properly.
"But usually when they move in swarms, doesn't that mean there's a monster commanding the swarm? When I saw earlier, there didn't seem to be a monster that looked like a leader..."
"It's better not to think that what we saw earlier was all of them." "What?"
"Those guys are a separate unit. You should think that there are more and stronger ones lurking in Gangbuk."
""""...."""
Meanwhile, Kim Min-ji muttered.
To this, Eun-ha shook his head.
He knew very well how fear-inducing the monsters that had just passed by were.
The clan members might not know, but those guys formed an army, not just a swarm.
In other words, the monarch they follow is one of the army commanders who invaded Gangbuk, excluding Ye-gyeong.
In the previous life, there were three army commanders. But in this life, I eliminated the Lizard King.
I don't know what happened to the vacant position, but we should think there are at least two army commanders excluding Ye-gyeong.
Along with the Level 3 overrank Ye-gyeong.
Level 3 Caesar Hopper.
Surely it too would be trapped by the protective magic, somewhere in Gangbuk.
"Let's hurry. For now, let's think about protecting Itaewon first and gathering forces."
Pandora Clan's members alone cannot oppose the calamity.
That was the reason he had reached out to Korean-born foreigners early on.
Eun-ha decided to make a forced march.
Thanks to this, they were able to reach Itaewon not long after.
And they─
─Whiiiiieeeaaaaeeaooo
""""...!!""""
A sound that made their bodies tremble involuntarily.
They froze seeing the huge whale that revealed itself under the night sky.
Damn, why this guy of all things.
Talk about rotten luck!
Level 3 overrank monster Ye-gyeong.
The whale with huge horns was deploying magic targeting Itaewon they had just entered.
Eun-ha clicked his tongue loudly.
He quickly ran towards the creature trying to bombard Itaewon.
☆
With the Cocoon collapsed, the danger was that monsters using Uijeongbu as their habitat could come over.
In the end, Zenith Clan had no choice but to have their feet tied to protect Dobong-gu and Nowon-gu in the current situation.
As a result, the role of protecting Gangbuk had to be the responsibility of S-grade clans with jurisdictions in Seoul.
─Bububububu
Southwestern Gangbuk.
Myeongwang Clan with jurisdiction in Seodaemun-gu and KK Clan with jurisdiction in Mapo-gu currently had to deal with locust-type monsters rampant mainly in the southwest.
"It's maddening that Kang Hyeon-cheol isn't here at a time like this."
Myeongwang Clan Lord
Do Wan-jun, who hurriedly appeared when the Cocoon collapsed, groaned seeing the monsters filling the skies over the city.
The sound of the monsters' wings was so grating.
"My magic won't be very effective against those guys either."
Violent Hopper swarm.
Those guys and other locust-type monsters.
Do Wan-jun frowned as he identified the enemies.
He had seen Violent Hoppers before, but never on this scale.
Moreover, those guys─
─Crunch crunch
Were wreaking havoc in southwestern Gangbuk using their ability for aerial combat as an advantage.
Their detection networks were agile.
They quickly rushed to restaurants and grocery stores with food, crudely tearing and eating.
And the food left behind by those guys rapidly decayed and became poison.
Whoever they are, they're acting quite intelligently. Is their strategy to exhaust the food supply and weaken us in the long term?
Shadows fell over Do Wan-jun's face.
Even knowing the locust-type monsters' intentions, there was no way to deal with such a large swarm.
Even if he rallied the local Players and took down a few of them, they would multiply more than that.
"This really fits the saying 'there's no use for dog poop'."
The most effective way to deal with them would be to set fire and burn them.
There would be no better method than
But he happened to be away on a business trip to Gangwon-do with
Even if he calculated the time it would take for him to return after learning of Gangbuk's invasion, it would take at least three days.
─By then, there probably won't be anything left to eat in Gangbuk.
Do Wan-jun smiled bitterly, assuming the pessimistic situation.
Anyway, he had no choice but to struggle without
At that moment, he sensed a presence approaching him.
"─Myeongwang Clan Lord."
"KK Clan Lord. Why are you here..."
The sound of a tiger roaring was heard.
Two great tigers landed on the ground, tearing through the monster swarm.
He got off the familiar's back.
"It's impossible to take them down one by one. The best strategy..."
"Would be to take down the army commander-level monster commanding them, right?"
Hwang San-gun discussed his thoughts.
Do Wan-jun realized what he was going to say and opened his mouth.
Hwang San-gun nodded.
"I felt that guy's energy coming this way, so I came."
Hwang San-gun looked up at the night sky.
Do Wan-jun's gaze also turned upward.
""...."""
The night sky covered with grasshopper swarms.
For a moment, those guys created a space.
And in the space they created, a humanoid monster covered in armor landed with a thud.
A monster exuding a presence incomparable to the grasshopper swarms.
The Players, including the two of them, tensed up facing a monster they had never seen before.
Kiiiieek
Flashing red eyes,
The bipedal hopper-type monster revealed its intimidating presence.
☆
At that time, in central Gangbuk.
Regulus Clan with jurisdiction in Gangbuk-gu and Silla Clan with jurisdiction in Seongbuk-gu were also struggling.
"That guy... what kind of monster is it?"
Regulus Clan Lord Gu Yeon-su.
He frowned looking at the monster that suddenly moved from Seongbuk-gu and appeared in Gangbuk-gu.
Grooooar
Its intimidating presence was Level 3.
A monster reminiscent of a sphinx. A monster with the body of a lion and wings of a griffin was rampaging.
People couldn't do anything and could only be swept away by its swinging hands.
They couldn't even resist.
"Be careful. It seems to be using brainwashing-type magic."
"Silla Clan Lord."
One Level 3 monster along with a swarm of monsters with similar forms.
While Gu Yeon-su was gauging how to deal with them, Silla Clan Lord Kim Yu-jin appeared.
She relayed that there were mass casualties in Seongbuk-gu due to that monster's magic.
"It's undoubtedly powerful brainwashing magic. The symptoms that appear when affected by the magic seem to be two types for now."
"Two types?"
"One is brainwashing that stops movement as if in a groggy state, and one is brainwashing that makes everything visible appear as an enemy, unable to distinguish friend from foe." "Ugh... This has really become troublesome."
Currently, the roads were filled with people and Players, and monsters mixed in as well.
As they were rampaging under hallucinations, Players were in a situation where they could hardly cope.
Gu Yeon-su groaned.
"So the only way is to take down the guy..."
To dismantle the swarm.
It was when Kim Yu-jin was about to say that.
Boom─!!
Suddenly with a boom,
The army commander in the sky landed in front of them.
The monster flashed its cat-like eyes.
Question─.
It transmitted a thought.
A thought in human language.
Gu Yeon-su and Kim Yu-jin flinched.
Must block it.
But they felt an inexplicable compulsion upon hearing the word 'question'.
─How do you put an elephant in a refrigerator?
""...What?""
Voices tinged with tension.
But the content was completely different.
An unexpected thought.
The army commander grinned.
☆
Southern Gangbuk.
The
"─I thought there would never be something like this again... I was wrong."
Before the
Such a man survived the destruction while commanding foreigners.
And he made every effort for himself and others to be recognized as legitimate Koreans.
"..."
David Kim.
He abandoned his name to become Korean himself.
He created a new name combining his English surname and a Korean surname.
Thus, he hoped that the people following him would adapt to this country.
After more than 50 years have passed, he has now forgotten the name he used to have.
─I am David Kim.
A Korean in name and reality.
But he didn't obsess over it.
The moment he obsessed over his old name, the resentment that Itaewon people held towards Korea would explode.
But the current situation was getting worse and worse.
"─Save me! My family is still left there! You guys go...! Please save my family!"
"Help us...! Please save us!! You're the only ones who can deal with those monsters!"
"The clan in Yongsan-dong was annihilated. Now those monsters will come here! So we must fight back! I'm telling you to go out and fight right now!"
People who were in locations bordering the Han River.
They rushed to Itaewon in a hurry as soon as the monsters attacked.
Then they found David Kim, kneeling and pleading.
"..."
Go out and fight now, they said.
Isn't this why we accepted you as Koreans, they said.
Don't you have the power to do this, they said.
People shouted.
David Kim kept his mouth shut listening to their words.
"Father! Why should we fight for them!? I won't fight!"
At that moment, Dominic shouted in discontent.
Most foreigners agreed.
In their eyes, the people who came begging to be saved couldn't look good.
"..."
But he knew.
The reason they could be here, as these people shouted in panic, was for days like today.
If I, if we go out and fight... The children under us could live better lives.
Although he himself was being mistreated.
The children born in the future would someday be treated properly as Koreans.
If only they, sacrificed themselves.
David Kim pondered.
Foreigners who sensed his intentions, mostly older foreigners, sent gazes saying they would follow him.
"We will..."
Save Yongsan-gu.
David Kim was about to say that.
But he hesitated.
At that moment, the words the Pandora Clan Lord had said flashed through his mind.
'There's no one here who wants to die fighting only for others like in the old days, right? Or is there?'
David Kim opened his eyes.
There, people were gathered waiting for his answer.
"..."
Could he, as he had done before, order them to give up their lives this time too?
No, he couldn't.
No, he shouldn't.
His decision was firm.
He stood up from his seat.
"─Release all weapons!!" """"...!!""""
"Children, the elderly, and those who can't fight, fall back!! But everyone who can fight, take up weapons!!"
With a thud,
The
He shouted.
"There are no exceptions! Everyone living here who can fight must fight those monsters! Those who refuse to fight, those who try to run away leaving it to others, I won't let them be!"
""""...."""
"If you're going to live in this land from now on, everyone take up weapons and fight!!"
There are no exceptions.
Everyone take up weapons.
At the
"I will take the lead! So everyone, don't fear death and fight!"
A choice that seemed forced yet not forced.
People pressed by their aura all had to engage in battle.
And so, people who couldn't mix for decades unite.