Chapter 528. First contact (2)
—Flap, flap, flap, flap.
Even before she could fully catch her breath, an anomaly occurred within the dungeon, just as her ominous foreboding had suggested.
—Aaaaaaagh!
A scream. Knowing she couldn't leave the unconscious man behind, Seonwoo Yeon slung the middle-aged man over her shoulder and looked toward the source of the sound.
‘A person?’
But the scene was slightly different from what she had imagined.
‘Where and when did they even co in?’
Earlier, she had resolved to run toward any new opening that appeared... but this was the limit of a creature whose mana had not yet evolved. Since Seonwoo Yeon could not perceive the flow of external mana when a passage was newly pierced, it was difficult to witness the kidnapping with her own eyes if the monster started it from a distance.
Thus, she encountered a new victim belatedly.
‘The person caught this ti seems to have even lower awakening levels?’
Tap, tap, tap.
Seonwoo Yeon approached cautiously without provoking the monster and spoke to the person.
“Are you alright?”
“Uuugh, uuh!”
“Just in case, don't attack the monster right away. You're a low rank, right? But that monster is A-rank...”
“Nan to imashita ka? (What did you say?)”
“Gasp! A Japanese person...”
This was unexpected. Based on the answer, the person she just encountered was a foreigner.
‘This phenonon is exactly like the ti with the [Sadist].’
As the saying goes, “a dog at a scholar's house recites poetry after three years,” and though Seonwoo Yeon didn't enter dungeons often, she was a civil servant who had seen countless related docunts in the office.
‘It seems a global problem has erupted, just like back then.’
She grasped the situation faster than others.
‘This person seems to have almost no mana. If a new victim appears, I, being the fastest, should run to the passage and wedge my finger in! Since a space doesn't collapse as long as a living person is inside... If I do that, the door won't close.’
But what good was a sharp mind?
—Shhh.
The next ti.
—Shhh.
And the ti after that.
This kidnapping process repeated five tis in the blink of an eye, yet Seonwoo Yeon failed to touch a single generated passage even once.
‘The speed at which the Gate opens and closes is too fast!’
Furthermore, even if the luckily approached a passage, the A-rank monster would flap its wings and suddenly turn aggressive. What could she possibly do?
‘Ugh.’
This place was not much different from that Gate that reeked of a terrible stench. If a challenger tried to escape, the monsters reacted instantly.
‘What should I do? I hadn't even planned on going to a dungeon today, so more than anything, I don't have drinking water...’
Seonwoo Yeon wiped away cold sweat and stepped back for a mont.
—Shhh.
However, it seed there was a way out even in the direst straits. Just as her mind was a ss of complicated thoughts, another change occurred.
‘Eh?’
The Gate, which had been snatching up humans from the streets one by one, finally admitted a psychic of a special nature.
‘This mana pressure! It's familiar.’
The entrance of an S-rank psychic. She wondered how they had managed to bait such a big shot, but seeing his disheveled appearance, it seed he had been dragged in haphazardly while sleeping.
‘The monster rank is A, and he is S!’
Now she had to look forward to his performance.
One S-class.
One A-class.
One E-class.
And for B-class... there were two, including herself, who had entered of her own accord.
It wasn't precise, but when she regained her senses, she realized the surrounding group was composed this way. In fact, it seed exactly one person of each rank had been captured.
‘This is chilling for so reason.’
Seonwoo Yeon, who knew so of the truth behind the [Dungeon Shock], felt a slight unease. But she quickly shook off the thought.
‘It's okay. Now that hunter who was captured will take down the monsters for...’
‘...I thought he would, but he isn't?’
The S-rank hunter was not engaging in the hunt at all.
—Shoo, shoo, shoo.
She could see his eyes were bloodshot from just waking up, and in that state, the first thing he did was wave his hand to drive people away. This was quite different from what she had expected. The person who entered last took an aggressive stance whenever others tried to approach him.
‘Is he wary of people?’
It was clear at a glance that he wasn't friendly. Seonwoo Yeon didn't give up and tried her best to use her English speaking skills, but the response was only a short word that was presumably Spanish.
‘There are so many Spanish-speaking countries; I can't even tell which country he's from based on such a short dialogue.’
It was quite embarrassing, but this wasn't actually an abnormal situation. Knowing what kind of place the Gate he was dragged into might be, he couldn't afford to be friendly to other living beings. Unknown entities like [Fairies] road the otherworlds, and since explicit humanoid monsters like [Doppelgangers] existed, the S-class hunter's attitude was actually within the norm.
—Rustle... rustle...
But when an individual like that is present, shouldn't he change his mind for the sake of other humans?
—Turn.
Seonwoo Yeon turned her head at a noise coming from sowhere. In fact, there was a child among the victims dragged into the Gate. The child looked quite young, and they had been snatched simply because they possessed an awakening level.
‘I think he's saying in English that he needs to go back to his grandma.’
Even full-grown adults were this confused; it was doubtful if soone who hadn't even established their own sense of self could survive the panic.
‘Oh no.’
Just as her worries suggested, the child soon began to snivel. For reference, this was sothing Seonwoo Yeon had learned from months of volunteering at an orphanage: once children started scrunched up their facial muscles like that, they would soon burst into tears...
—@#$@!&!
But instead of comforting the child, the S-rank hunter shouted from the side, reacting even more harshly.
‘Did he think the kid would stop crying if he just scread at him blindly?’
It backfired. When the tall, atop S-rank scread in an unknown language, the child, startled, broke into a loud wail. Perhaps the disgusting monster with four arms couldn't stand the commotion, as it began to approach, triggered by the human's crying.
‘Gasp!’
Seonwoo Yeon moved her body before she could even think. She set down the unconscious Korean man and ran forward.
‘That was definitely an aggressive action just now. It was trying to scratch him. It's different from the hand movents it showed when it was just trying to capture us!’
Since this victim who started crying felt like they were only around rank D to F, she scooped the child up and evaded the imdiate threat.
‘Huff.’
The child had stopped crying for now, but the monster's hostility remained. Whatever had offended it so much, the creature spread its wings wide and began to charge...
‘Even when soone is in danger right before his eyes, he doesn't use his skills.’
Well, she hadn't entrusted the safety to him beforehand, so she understood. But since he didn't step in even at a ti like this, she felt a slight bitterness toward the naless S-class.
—Crack.
Seonwoo Yeon's arm bone snapped while she was trying to shake off the monster's [Grip].
‘Aaaaaagh.’
Her wrist was throbbing, and the pain was killing her.
—Aaaaaaaagh!
Fortunately, by making full use of her wind-attribute awakening ability and running wildly, the monster eventually lost interest and vanished into the air, but...
‘What was that?’
The problem was the heavy scream heard imdiately after.
‘Eh?’
Seonwoo Yeon, who was running with the child in her arms, looked back. What she saw at that mont was a shocking sight.
‘Heeek!’
The beasts floating in the sky suddenly congregated soundlessly and, overlapping those marble-white hands, seized the S-rank hunter.
—Thud.
And then, as if their weight had suddenly surged, they began to drop incessantly toward the ground, before vanishing completely into the sands of the desert.
Seonwoo Yeon hurriedly called forth the wind the mont she saw it, but it was insufficient to lift the entangled cluster of living beings...
‘What on earth just happened?’
It was a bizarre sight: nurous monsters and an S-class hunter sinking into the underworld simultaneously. Flustered, Seonwoo Yeon tried to ask for an explanation from the humans gathered around. But the best response she got from one who understood English was an absurd statent: “He just suddenly beca like that.”
Hearing the eyewitness's explanation, Seonwoo Yeon lowered her gaze.
‘Then couldn't we be snatched away just as suddenly!’
Beads of cold sweat rolled down her back. There were still many monsters above the desert, and all that remained were weaklings for below S-rank. What could they do?
‘My mind is going numb... Won't soone like Kim Giryeo... soone like Kim Giryeo... co to help us...’
As the situation turned for the worse, the first person who ca to mind was, naturally, the peerless powerhouse. But this was rely escapism. Honestly, it didn't really matter how he had been rescued was quite low.
‘It's not like I haven't requested rescue, but with the Gate passages all closed like this, even he would find it difficult.’
Co to think of it, back during the [Inevitable Malice] incident, he seed to have sohow analyzed a closed world. Of course, even recalling successful examples didn't stabilize her heart. Kim Giryeo had spent a considerable amount of ti finding the location of the vanished Imugi even then.
However, the crisis she faced was currently unfolding right before her eyes. Seonwoo Yeon's face gradually turned pale.
—...
The thing that bothered her most at this mont was the middle-aged man who still hadn't regained consciousness. A person of a similar age to her deceased father or other. She wanted to at least guarantee that citizen's safety.
‘What can I do in this situation?’
Seonwoo Yeon's mind was a ss, and she closed her eyes for a mont.
—Zip, zip.
But this damn dungeon wouldn't give her a mont's rest.
—Zip.
Judging while her eyelids were closed, the sound she just heard was exactly like a zipper on a bag moving along its slider...
‘Wait, but there's no one here with a bag.’
What is it?
Filled with doubt, she turned her head. However, where Seonwoo Yeon's gaze fell, an unexpected change was occurring.
—Zzzzzzp!
Space was being torn apart.
[Kaaaaaagh...]
A spot in the air suddenly distorted and opened with a cyan light, forcing her to think that way. When she listened closely, a faint noise ca from within. To be precise, it sounded like a giant monster roaring from a deep cave.
Hearing this unknown roar, Seonwoo Yeon instinctively stepped back, but she imdiately changed her attitude after perceiving the mana that followed.
‘Ah! This mana!’
She was truly glad. In this mont when despair surrounded her from all sides, a presence she had been waiting for more than ever was arriving. It didn't matter how he had found such a remote place so quickly.
‘Hunter Kim Giryeo has already found this Gate!’
Seonwoo Yeon rejoiced at the appearance of a true powerhouse and examined the torn space. Soon, a new figure entered through that artificial scar.
Thud.
A body that wasn't particularly different in color from the desert. The length of a snake, common in the mountains. A round face.
[ o x o ]
It was the appearance of that golem. Its posture was quite majestic.
‘It was you...’
Co to think of it, she had wondered why the mana seed a bit lacking for it to be Kim Giryeo himself. As the familiar object appeared, Seonwoo Yeon's eyes lost so of their excitent.
—Murmur, murmur.
Furthermore, the kidnap victims scattered in the distance seed to have mistaken this snake-shaped thing for a monster.
‘Should I tell them the truth first?’
It was just as Seonwoo Yeon was looking back at the frantic people.
—Thud.
Within the crack that had grown to the height of a person, a new sound echoed. Additional personnel were approaching this otherworld filled with sand.
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