* * *
After hesitating for a moment, Haegum finally replied, his voice filled with regret.
“You’re the only S-rank guide in the country. Do you really think they’d fire you?”
“It still violates protocol.”
“You really do love following rules, just like someone raised by Seo Munhyun.”
Their conversation had brought them to the front entrance.
Seo Munhyuk checked the time, his expression serious.
“I’d like to go too, but rules are rules.”
In truth, Haegum was as curious as he was afraid.
He wanted to know what lay beyond the high walls of the ability user center, how different real combat was from simulations.
As he was about to turn away, trying to mask his disappointment, Seo Munhyuk, hand on the door handle, tilted his chin toward the outside.
“…Let’s do this instead.”
When Haegum and Seo Munhyuk arrived at the site, a perimeter had already been established, restricting civilian access.
Drones hovered above, dropping a large net.
Luckily, the sinkhole had formed in a non-residential area, but there was a major corporate factory nearby.
Even though the monsters were classified as low-ranking, if they breached the perimeter, the situation could turn dangerous.
As the two crossed into the restricted area, members of the Security Bureau approached with bright expressions.
“Esper Seo Munhyuk!”
“We saw the support approval, but we didn’t expect it to actually be you!”
“I’m a huge fan!”
Everyone seemed amazed by Seo Munhyuk’s presence.
Then, one of the security members turned to Haegum and asked,
“And who might this be?”
“I’m…”
Haegum, caught off guard by the sudden attention, lowered his head.
Although he had rehearsed the story with Seo Munhyuk, nerves made his hesitate.
“She’s from the center. Here to shoot a promo video.”
Seo Munhyuk answered smoothly.
“Ah, I see.”
The security personnel nodded and shifted their attention away from him.
Haegum, relieved, pulled down his hat, holding the camera Seo Munhyuk had handed him.
At that moment—
Boom!
A loud noise echoed from not far away, and the ground beneath their feet trembled.
Haegum tightened his grip on the camera, looking toward the source of the sound.
Though it was still broad daylight, the area within the perimeter was shrouded in darkness, covered in thick fog.
Screeeech!
A monster’s cry rang out through the fog.
The hair-raising sound made Haegum’s eyes widen in fear, but everyone else seemed unfazed by the situation.
“What’s the monster’s form?”
Seo Munhyuk, frowning, gazed into the dim sky. Haegum glanced at him.
His usually playful face was now completely serious, a side of him he wasn’t used to seeing.
“They appear to be standard beast-type monsters. Infrared sensors show no monsters exceeding 2 meters in height.”
Seo Munhyuk listened to the analyst’s report through the earpiece he had just inserted.
The analyst’s tablet displayed images of the scene from multiple angles.
“Keep updating me via the earpiece.”
“Yes, understood.”
“Let’s go.”
Seo Munhyuk motioned to Haegum.
The rising wails of the monsters clouded his mind, but he followed him, feeling the slight vibrations of the ground beneath his feet.
Nausea welled up inside him.
“What’s the state of the sinkhole?”
Seo Munhyuk stopped, stretching his arms as he arched his back.
As he inhaled deeply, his chest expanded, the combat uniform stretching taut.
“The sinkhole is 7 meters in diameter. A depth-measuring drone was deployed, but we haven’t received any data yet…”
The analyst’s face showed clear discomfort as he reported.
With the number of monsters emerging from the sinkhole rapidly increasing, he seemed nervous that Seo Munhyuk might insist on waiting for the drone’s data.
“Does it look deep?”
“Well… it’s hard to say. The fog is too thick for the drone to get a clear view.”
Seo Munhyuk, nodding, spread his arms wide. He addressed a man holding a black case.
“Bodycam.”
“Yes, sir.”
The man retrieved a bodycam from the small case and attached it to Seo Munhyuk’s chest.
Seo Munhyuk twisted his torso to ensure the device was secure before turning to Haegum.
“I’ll be back.”
With a playful salute, he spoke in a light tone.
“…Take care.”
It was a simple farewell, the kind you’d say to someone leaving.
But perhaps because of the peculiar situation—with sinkholes appearing and monsters emerging—Haegum felt that his words, “Come back safe,” carried a strange tenderness.
Even he found it odd. his heart raced, its pounding sounding unusually loud, as though right beside his ear.
As Seo Munhyuk turned to leave, Haegum hastily added, “Please, don’t get hurt.”
Seo Munhyuk froze in place upon hearing Haegum’s words.
Then, raising his arm, he lightly tapped his shoulder as if to offer reassurance.
The bio-band around his wrist blinked with a warning.
“Take good pictures. I’ll check them when you get back.”
With that, Seo Munhyuk withdrew his hand from Haegum’s shoulder.
A faint hunger for guiding tugged at him.
Screeeeech—.
The monster’s scream echoed once again.
Without hesitation, Seo Munhyuk dashed into the thick fog.
“50 meters to the destination, heading north,” a voice echoed in Seo Munhyuk’s ear as he focused on his steps.
“Moving.”
“It seems the monsters are not moving beyond a 5-meter radius from the sinkhole.”
“Roger that.”
As he approached the sinkhole, the mist thickened, likely from groundwater flowing beneath the surface. The monsters’ screams grew louder too.
“My visibility’s poor.”
“Shall I fire a flare?”
“Do it.”
As soon as Seo Munhyuk replied, a reconnaissance robot crawling on the ground shot a flare into the sky.
Just as the analyst had reported, the monsters were small, none exceeding 2 meters, but there were far too many of them.
“There are a lot of them. Where are the other espers?”
“A large one emerged nearby, so all espers from the Geumsan district have been dispatched there. We’re requesting external support, but it hasn’t been approved yet.”
If an A-class monster appeared, or the sinkhole exceeded a certain size, or if it formed in a densely populated area, the nearest esper would be obligatorily summoned.
But since the current situation wasn’t considered an emergency and the monster’s grade was low, they had to wait for voluntary espers.
That’s why everyone welcomed Seo Munhyuk’s arrival so eagerly.
“Waiting could take ages.”
Sighing lightly, Seo Munhyuk muttered to himself as he walked toward the fog where hundreds of monsters swarmed.
The crunch of his boots on the dry ground alerted the monsters, and their gazes all turned toward him.
The sound of their teeth gnashing together grew louder, crunch, crunch, crunch.
“Hey there.”
The sound was reminiscent of grinding sharp teeth or hard shells scraping against each other.
“Firing another flare.”
Pop, pop!
A red glow shot into the air, but the monsters’ eyes remained fixed on Seo Munhyuk.
The gnashing sound grew shorter and more frequent, crunch, crunch, crunch, and listening to it made his head throb.
“If you stay still, I can make it painless.”
With those words, Seo Munhyuk lifted the largest monster nearby into the air.
First, he needed to determine if they followed a leader or lived independently. He hurled the monster to the ground.
Screeeeech—!
A shrill, high-frequency scream erupted from the monster as it died.
“Ugh, my ears…”
The other monsters, still gnashing their teeth, shifted their bulging eyes toward Seo Munhyuk, revealing thousands of bloodshot eyeballs slick with sticky mucus.
“Fir… ing… fl…are ag…ain.”
The closer he got to the sinkhole, the worse the communication became, distorted with static and drawn-out words.
Pop, pop!
Though the flares briefly illuminated the area, darkness quickly swallowed the light.
Wherever monsters emerged, the atmosphere was always the same, whether it was noon or midnight.
Dark. Damp. Desolate. Lonely.
Seo Munhyuk noticed the monsters becoming more agitated as they realized one of their larger members had died. They emitted bizarre sounds while staring at him.
Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch.
The quiet sound of Seo Munhyuk’s breathing contrasted sharply with the monsters’ noise, as if time itself was crawling in this place.
Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch.
“Why just stand there? Come at me.”
The monsters had no intelligence.
They were mere beasts driven by survival and a thirst for blood.
Yet, as if they understood Seo Munhyuk’s command, hundreds of monsters began rushing toward him.
Seo Munhyuk summoned a massive boulder with his psychokinesis and hurled it at the monsters.
Screeech—!
The monsters trapped under the boulder shrieked, their cries echoing across the battlefield.
Observing their turmoil, Seo Munhyuk summoned another boulder and slammed it down where they clustered.
He repeated this several times.
Boom.
Boom.
Thud.
* * *