Chapter 696

-Kiaaa!!

Crack! Crack!

A monster was still a living being, no matter how devilish it may be. That was why their desperate struggle to survive led to a terrifying scrimmage.

The huge ogre wiped out five to six skeletons with a single bow. But after the first wave, more than ten skeletons charged at the ogre, biting it down with their hard teeth and stabbing it with their weapons made of bones. The ogre then fought off all the skeletons with all its might, desperate to survive.

Whenever ogres and goblins crossed paths, they would usually fight each other to death. But when the white ogre was swarmed by dozens of skeletons and screamed in pain, the goblins came to its rescue and drove away the skeletons, proving that camaraderie on the battlefield was not exclusive to humans.

Having received help, the ogre then rescued a goblin that was in danger. This caused the goblin to look at the ogre with surprised eyes. Because an ogre having a goblin's back was something that had never occurred to it before. It was indeed a moment where the monsters all united together to get through this crisis...

Crack!!

The ogre swung its club to crack the skeleton's skull, but it stopped midway. The skeleton then slowly turned its head toward the ogre, and its eerie eyes suddenly glowed.

Crackle, crackle!

The ogre's head exploded.

"Are they doing some skit or something?" Davey said in a tone that sounded as if he found the whole situation ridiculous. But at the same time, he didn't stop unleashing the black energy in his hand and even launched it toward the empty space.

[Hard Skin]

[Strength]

Even though the skeletons had no skin, the skin-strengthening magic worked, and so did the strength-enhancing magic, despite their complete lack of muscles.

The bond the monsters had was great, but unfortunately, they were facing a monster-like human that their poor intelligence could not possibly comprehend.

The skeletons that Davey had summoned were fierce fighters, despite being made from ordinary bones. And it was their sheer number that made it such a tight battle. On top of this, the skeletons were also becoming increasingly stronger, making it easy to tell what the outcome of the fight would be.

Some of the monsters lost their fighting spirit, and they eventually fell into despair and fled. Creatures with bizarre appearances, looking like they were a combination of other beings, also ran for their lives, along with the monster who had been present from the start of the fight. Even those monsters that were born to destroy and that cried for destruction until the end of their lives recoiled and bolted away from the battle.

Meanwhile, the hard-skinned monster was battered until it died, as if it had been attacked by a serial killer. The monsters that had once reduced a city to ruins were now being beaten down as they ran away.

"I almost feel... bad for them," Hyun-Ah said while looking at the monsters with a blank face.

But then in response, Davey simply grabbed her by her shirt and said, "How much longer are you just going to stand here? Don't make my efforts go to waste. Come on, follow me."

The skeletons began to take care of the city. They continued to wander around and take out any monster they came across.

After the situation had calmed down to a certain degree, Hyun-Ah's legs gave out, causing her to collapse on the ground as though she were utterly relieved that she was still alive.

"I-I can't move because of my legs..."

Davey let out a sigh as he saw Hyun-Ah at a loss for what to do. But instead of expressing what he felt, he created a barrier to conceal their presence. After then, he simply took out a healing potion from his pocket and gave it to her.

"Drink up. It'd be best if you can recover slowly without any side effects," Davey said.

"What... is this?" Hyun-Ah asked.

"Medicine that's good for you."

"..."

After his succinct explanation, she quietly took a sip of the medicine with a nervous face. She had traveled to directly oversee the transportation of supplies. But she ended up getting attacked, forcing her to make an abrupt stop. This led her to lose all of the supplies and get chased into this city.

"So you basically got hare coursed," Davey remarked.

"Pardon?" Hyun-Ah said, not understanding what he meant.

"You fell into a trap, you dumbo."

There were no longer any monsters chasing after survivors in the city. Instead, all that remained were skeletons, vigilant and ready to hunt down any monster that came into their line of sight. In fear, the monsters would then either choose to run away or hide. But even doing so was not easy.

The skeletons were just taking care of one city, so it didn't take them long before to sweep the entire place.

"I shouldn't stay put like this... There are people waiting for supplies right now," Hyun-Ah muttered with a stern face as she looked at the clock.

"Supplies?" Davey inquired.

"Eight Awakened people are on a mission not far from here, and they are currently isolated. So I beg you... Please help me..."

Deep down, knowing that Davey could control an army of such a great size, Hyun-Ah wanted to ask him to save other people too.

"I know I'm being a bit shameless... But human lives come first, right?"

But Davey didn't answer. Usually, he would've just gotten angry at someone like her, thinking she didn't even know how to look after her own life. He would've also scolded her for being reckless, but all he did instead was reach out his hand toward her.

"Uh... huh?!" Hyun-Ah said in a startled tone as Davey lifted her up.

"What... What are you doing?"

"You want to walk with your legs? I mean, I could make you walk."

Davey knew he could get her walking again with a simple recovery spell. But he decided to keep carrying her.

"Master Davey, according to Rinne's judgment, a recovery spell should..."

"Shh, read the air, Rinne," Verdandi cut her off. She then looked at Davey and said, "Let's split up here. I have something to look for personally."

"What do you want to know here?" Davey asked.

At his question, Verdandi remained silent for a moment as her hold on the magic book in her arms tightened. She then turned her back on him and said, "Something important. Not only for me, but also for Skuld and Urd.

"Alright then. Just don't go doing something stupid."

"As long as me and you are on the same boat, I won't be betraying you. At least for the time being."

Then, as if she hadn't been present at all, she vanished in an instant.

"What?" Hyun-Ah exclaimed as she looked at where Verdandi had been seconds ago. "She was..."

"A business partner. Well, that's that. You know their location, right?"

Hyun-Ah looked away, as if she were embarrassed to be in his arms. She then said, "I have a map. I'll explain in detail..."

"Give it to me," Davey, who was more than knowledgeable about Earth's geography, said.

So she gave him a detailed map and the coordinates. Davey then figured that she wasn't the one who was in charge of reading the map, but her guardian.

"I don't know about anything else, but I know I have to take this to them," she said while holding out a small, core-like object. "I don't know what it's for, but I heard it's a key that unlocks something."

Davey was able to tell with just a single glance that it felt unlike any other thing on Earth.

Hyun-Ah then carefully hid the item in her inner pocket again and pointed in a specific direction.

"Can you go over there?" Hyun-Ah asked.

"Why there?" Davey asked while looking at the electronics store she was pointing to.

"If they're still alive, I need to contact them. One of the things I learned from Director Kim was how to use and connect a walkie-talkie. Since monsters don't use radio equipment, I'd be able to connect without any trouble..."

As he listened to her, Davey looked around them and saw broken tanks and a dropped gun. No longer listening to what she was saying, he placed his hand on the ground, sent a wave, and began to walk away, heading somewhere.

In a surprised voice, she began to exclaim, "H-hey! Where are you..."

But then she suddenly stopped talking as they came into an alleyway where there were corpses that were covered in blood and were already half-rotten. The corpses of other soldiers were also lying nearby.

Davey and Hyun-Ah managed to retrieve radios from the corpses, despite them being full of maggots. The radios they got weren't the ones used exclusively by the military, like the 999K, but they were the kind that were for personal use.[1]

"They don't have any batteries," Davey said as he looked around.

"How on earth did you find these people? But more importantly... The walkie-talkies are useless without batteries, and I don't see any spare batteries..."

The last time Davey saw her, Hyun-Ah was the kind of person who couldn't bear to watch anything gruesome. But now she had enough courage to rummage through bodies infested with maggots in order to retrieve items. Davey couldn't help but wonder what on earth happened in the short period of time since their last encounter. Or perhaps the better question to ask was how did she change so much in such a short time.

Seeing Rinne flip through a calendar, he went on to ask Hyun-Ah, "How long has it been since you last met me?"

"What do you mean?" she answered while tilting her head.

"Answer me."

"Since the situation broke out shortly after you disappeared... I'd say... Six... Six months?"

Space and time had been distorted. Davey had witnessed something similar happen in the Hall of Heroes, where a thousand years was only six years in Tionis.

"No... No..." Hyun-Ah muttered as she searched through for spare batteries. She eventually let out a bitter sigh. "We have to get moving again. It's a shame, but I don't think we can use these."

"We just need to charge them," Davey said.

"What?"

Crackle!

Faint sparks flew from his fingertips. At the same time, the radio crackled to life. With the buzzing in the background, Hyun-Ah's expression filled with surprise.

"Does the Grim Reaper these days know how to do these kinds of stuff too?"

"Of course, it's the basics," Davey replied while handing her the radio with a smirk on his face.

***

Not far from Uljin, there was a medium-sized industrial complex that had now become an abandoned plant. It was where a couple of exhausted men and women were gathered.

A muscular middle-aged man clicked his tongue and muttered, "Tsk. We're stuck."

At the same time, a young girl, who was sobbing as she hugged her spear, cried out, "What should we do? I don't want to die."

In response, a young man with a grumpy face kicked her legs and shouted, "Shut up, you damn bitch! Stop making so much noise."

The girl then said, "W-what?"

"This is all your fault, you useless bitch. If you hadn't shrieked, we wouldn't have been surrounded, you know?!"

"Sob... Sob..."

For a girl who was still a student and was also an ordinary person, their situation was too terrifying and confusing to endure, even if it had only been six months and countless other people were risking their lives to survive.

"Do you all want to die? Shut up!" the middle-aged man shouted sternly as he looked carefully out of the factory's window.

Then the young man with a grumpy face said, "It's good we made it this far. But what now? The people who were supposed to bring us supplies were shot down. So now we have no weapons, no food, and no means of escape." Still with an irritated voice, he continued to grumble, "And most importantly, we have no way of opening this thing."

The young man had a point. There were a total of four survivors: Park Doo-Sik, a middle-aged man; Lee Ji-Min, a recovery Awakened who was just a girl in her late teens; Heo Jin-Woo, who desperately tried to make contact by activating nearby equipment; and Yoon Tae-Gang, the one who was irritated.

Originally, they were a team of eight that specialized in infiltration missions. But something had gone wrong with their mission, despite managing to retrieve important items from a transport ship that had crashed in the factory area.

They had risked their lives for two reasons: the fairly good government compensation and to provide for their families. The group had been together for three months but was now cut in half because of a single accident.

"Let's just die. Fuck, I shouldn't have signed up for something like this..." Yoon Tae-Gang muttered in annoyance.

Park Doo-Sik tried to say something to him but decided to stay silent instead. That was how hopeless it was for the four of them.

Although they had done their part by successfully acquiring the important items, there were still monsters that were looking for them, and so they couldn't go out or else, they would be eventually discovered. They had no other choice but to wait for government support, which was their only hope.

But then...

"There we go!" Heo Jin-Woo, who had been fiddling with the radio, shouted in joy. "This is Team Fox Shadow! Team Fox Shadow! Do you copy? Over."

-Chkk. Team Fox Shadow, please speak. Over.

"We have succeeded in stealing the supplies, but we are surrounded by monsters. Over."

In the hopes that reinforcements would come before the monsters found them, they quickly notified the other side about their situation. But despite Ji-Min and Park Doo-Sik's prayers, they only received a ridiculous answer.

-Chkkk... Team Fox Shadow, it is difficult to send support at this time. If you can get out on your own, or just stay there for two days...

"Hey, you son of a bitch! We can't last even another hour here! You think you're making any sense right now?!" Heo Jin-Woo shouted.

"Move!" Yoon Tae-Gang shouted as he rushed toward Heo Jin-Woo and pushed him away. He then began to rant, saying, "Send reinforcements right now! Fuck man, we're all going to die! We have the important items you want..."

-We are currently working on more important issues than that. I repeat. It's difficult to provide support right now. Over.

Taken aback by the lack of support, Yoon Tae-Gang shouted, "You bastards!!"

He then threw the radio in frustration. Heo Jin-Woo hurriedly picked it up, but everyone's mood had already worsened.

"Fuck... If only the Saint of Tionis wasn't such a bastard in Alf Online," Yoon Tae-Gang muttered bitterly.

There would have been no problem if only new Awakened people continued to emerge from Alf Online. It was well-known that Alf Online's destruction caused by the Saint of Tionis was the reason Earth was currently experiencing this crisis. The only thing Yoon Tae-Gang and his team trusted was the government and the association. But they had just abandoned them. Now, death seemed to be the only option left for them.

"Fuck... I can't die like this," Yoon Tae-Gang muttered. He couldn't understand what he had done wrong to deserve to die like this. But he also knew that they were surrounded by monsters so large that hoping for a miracle was futile.

Everyone seemed to be resigned to their fate.

But then, in a fit of desperation, Yoon Tae-Gang glared at Jimin and shouted, "Fuck! I might as well do what I want to do!"

Just as Ji-Min was about to react, Heo Jin-Woo, who had been talking on the walkie-talkie, suddenly yelled, "Wait! You're offering support?!"

At this, everyone turned to him with eyes wide with surprise.

"I repeat! How many do you have?! Many of the monsters here are B-Class or even above. How many..."

Buzzz...

Then the four of them heard a young man's voice, and his answer crushed their hopes once again.

"Three."

The four couldn't believe what he had just said. They knew that even dozens of people wouldn't be enough, but to hear three was devastating.

Ji-Min then burst into tears again, feeling as though the world had turned against them. She then sobbed, "Well... I can't die like this..."

"Hey, hey, are you kidding me right now?! You're going to come and support us with just three people?! Even dozens of people wouldn't be enough! You think you're the White Tiger Guild or something?!" Heo Jin-Woo shouted.

But the person on the other side didn't answer.

So Heo Jin-Woo continued to say, "Just don't come at all. We'll reject your damn support. It won't mean shit anyway."

"Heo Jin-Woo! What are you doing?!" Park Doo-Sik shouted.

"Fuck, it's all because of that box! Damn box!!" Heo Jin-Woo shouted fiercely while pointing at the items they had stolen. His anger was now directed at the objective they had accomplished.

"You said that thing has a possibility of exploding, right?" Heo Jin-Woo asked.

"You're not thinking straight," Park Doo-Sik answered in a mumble.

"Just blow it up. Bam," Heo Jin-woo shouted in an angry voice. "We're all going to die now because of that damn thing, so let's destroy it too..."

Suddenly, a voice crackled from the radio.

-I won't repeat myself. I hate saying things twice. Everyone, get down.

At those words, Park Doo-Sik reflexively grabbed Ji-Min's head and pushed it down. Yoon Tae-Gang, being tactful, crouched down as well, and Heo Jin-Woo, who had been screaming, tripped and fell.

Bang-!!!!!

A huge rumble shook the entire area.

-I repeat. This is the Grim Reaper. If you don't want to die, stay down.

1. The 999K or PRC-999K is a walkie-talkie used by the Republic of Korea Army. Equipment used in the military have a reputation for being bad, which is why the author praises personal-use equipment. ☜