Chapter 81

Episode 81. Difficulties always happen at once (4)

-Anyway, keep that in mind and prepare yourself. I'll head over there, too!

And with that, I couldn't hear anything else. It was the first time that Han Yeon-soo hung up on me. I could feel how urgent the situation was.

'...Things are getting more and more complicated.'

Why was Kim Min-jae coming here? Did he even know how serious the situation here was?

'I just wish he doesn't do anything stupid.'

Boooom!

A thunderous noise came from inside the Fields. It looked like the Flame Queen and Seol Ah-rin had started to fight. Since a fight between the two was unlikely to end quickly, I could probably leave them alone for a while.

"Hyun-woo, send me inside again, please."

Then I only had one thing to do. Cleaning up the messed-up facility, exterminating the monsters that were invading, and rescuing the innocent staff.

And at my request, the landscape around me changed.

"Grrr, grrr!"

I could see Orcs gnashing their teeth and running wild, along with Goblins and growling Ogres. The staff cafeteria floor was covered in food and utensils, and the monsters were gulping down the scattered food ingredients.

I grabbed a long iron chopstick and jumped towards them. For now, my priority was to normalize this bizarre state.

"Grrrrrrr!"

"Argh!"

The long chopstick lodged itself into the green head. Red blood splattered, and Sung Hyun-woo's telekinesis swept away the tangled monsters who fell over backward.

They probably came here thinking it was a nice restaurant full of food, but they didn't know it would become their grave.

Crack, thump!

The helpless monsters died one after the other.

* * *

"Ugh, this is so annoying... What the hell!"

Seol Ah-rin touched her tangled hair and shouted, annoyed. She was still confused by what had just happened.

Someone suddenly appeared behind her, hit her over and over before she could respond, then grabbed her by the hair and sent her here.

She had never witnessed such an ability. She had seen Awakeners with teleportation abilities before, but it was impossible to teleport that much in a short time.

Even the world's best Espers could reuse teleportation only after resting for about three minutes. But to use teleportation dozens of times over approximately three seconds, and even forcibly teleport someone?

'When did I get tricked?'

Seol Ah-rin thought someone had caused her to hallucinate or tricked her somehow. She thought of potential suspects, but so many places had a grudge against her. She counted up to about 20 possibilities before she quit.

Attacks like that couldn't cause decisive damage to her anyway. But the way he grabbed her hair and threw her had been extremely unpleasant, so she was irritated.

'Whatever. I'll put that on the back burner for now.'

Seol Ah-rin bit down on her lower lip and lifted her head.

That didn't matter right now.

"You, you, you crazy bitch."

"You're the crazy one. Why don't you act your age instead of shouting insanely and causing harm?"

Seol Ah-rin replied, looking at the Flame Queen, who was so angry that she couldn't speak properly. Seol Ah-rin's favorite sweater was already burnt black from colliding with the Flame Queen.

"Ah... So many annoying things are happening today."

She was angrier than when she was grabbed by her hair and beaten without knowing why.

"Old lady, you can't buy this anymore. It was so hard to get something made out of natural material. They make clothes out of damn monster leather nowadays! Do you know how much I paid because I couldn't stand the disgusting smell?"

Seol Ah-rin screamed angrily.

"Shut...up!"

The Flame Queen immediately shouted without bothering to listen. Seol Ah-rin frowned, displeased by the loud voice filled with mana.

Flames flared around the tiny old woman. Mana flames that could burn everything away. They hit Seol Ah-rin like a blazing tsunami.

"Ugh, so noisy."

Facing the fierce heat, Seol Ah-rin clicked her tongue and moved her finger.

Whoosh!

With that simple gesture, the flames pouring onto her faltered. Or, to be exact, they were swept away by a more powerful force.

Like a collapsing sandcastle, the flames died out helplessly in the face of a bigger flame.

The Flame Queen's face hardened. If anything else, she had never been defeated in terms of powerful flames. No matter how old she was, the fact that she lost in a head-to-head confrontation came as a shock to the Flame Queen.

"What...."

"Aargh, I can't calm down. Ah!"

Seol Ah-rin shouted hysterically as she furiously scratched her head. At the same time, she pointed her finger at the Flame Queen and spoke quietly.

"Old lady, let me hit you until I feel better. Okay?"

* * *

"Don't worry. We're safe here!"

Fortunately, it didn't take long to rescue the people at the facility. It was thanks to the unharmed hunters other than me who rushed in and because many monsters were swept up and killed in the battle between the Flame Queen and Seol Ah-rin.

"Ugh... Owww."

"What's going on......."

But that didn't mean the damage was small.

There were hunters that Seol Ah-rin killed while moving along. And some civilians collapsed, unable to bear the Flame Queen's mana, who were defenseless and eaten up by monsters.

In total, nearly 20 percent of the facility's personnel died.

"Hey, what is this? Why did you have to die like this...? You poor bastard...."

Because of it, the mood inside was very somber. Some cried, some were silent, and others looked lost.

They hadn't even died fighting bravely against monsters. Some people couldn't overcome the Flame Queen's mana. They collapsed and died, and people who tried to save others were caught up in the two women's battle and burned to death...... The reasons they died were too absurd.

"Si-woo, go rest for a bit. You don't look well."

"...No, I'm fine."

There was no way I was okay. I hadn't felt like this in a long while. No one around me died after I came back in time, and I only experienced success without failure. So I was mistaken. I thought that the world was helping me this time; that I was lucky this time.

'There's no way that can be true.'

This damn world didn't help anyone. It constantly tested people and took away the lives of the weak. It took families away from children and made them hungry and thirsty. That was the world I lived in.

"Mr. Jeong Si-woo?"

Someone tapped me on the shoulder. It was the woman who was always with Park Young-joon.

"The Monster Fields Commander Park Young-joon is looking for you."

* * *

It was quite a long way from where Park Young-joon was temporarily staying.

"How much longer do we have to walk......."

"Hyun-woo, do you want me to carry you on my back?"

"No thanks."

"......."

Even though I said I would go alone, Kim Seung-hyun and Sung Hyun-woo insisted on following me. Although we were walking along an empty hallway, Kim Seung-hyun was on high alert with his shield up, and Sung Hyun-woo also looked closely around as he walked.

They were very reassuring yet bothersome bodyguards.

"You can go in here. Um... Could you two wait outside?"

"Oh, yes."

Fortunately, they didn't insist this time. If they said that they'd follow me into the room, I would have been a little embarrassed.

Thud.

The door opened with a creak. It smelled stuffy inside.

"You came quickly."

Park Young-joon was sitting on a broken table looking through some papers. Despite the situation, he looked indifferent, and his face was expressionless.

"I've heard about the situation outside."

"Yes."

"I've also heard how much you've done, and I'm going to request that the Association compensate you accordingly."

Park Young-joon slowly got up from the table. I looked at him and spoke.

"Never mind compensation... Why did you call me here?"

In this tense circumstance, I didn't have time to exchange greetings with Park Young-joon casually. It was time to get to the point quickly.

"You want me to get to the point? Okay."

"......."

"To be frank, I called you to ask for more help."

"What?"

Ask for more help? What was he talking about?

"It's nearly impossible to maintain the Fields' defense line right now. Even if we drive out the monsters that got in, their numbers will increase even more after sundown. Most experienced hunters were killed or injured, and the staff in charge of the facility died or are in a panic."

"......."

"It's too dangerous to maintain the line in our current state."

Park Young-joon put the papers on the table and drew a line with a pen.

"But we can't just decide to abandon the Fields. The civilians behind it will all die."

"Right."

"So, I'm going to get rid of this Field."

"...What?"

What did I just hear? I lifted my head slightly and glanced at Park Young-joon's face. He looked serious, with no hint of a joke.

"I know it's hard to understand. Rifts have been constant here for a long time, and the number of monsters never dried up."

"......."

"But I think this is the best timing."

Tap tap.

Park Young-joon tapped the table.

"The two women who suddenly appeared wiped out the horde of monsters, and you destroyed the Rifts that disrupted the mana concentration."

"......."

"There are three Rifts left now, and only 30 percent of monsters than the usual number are inhabiting the Fields. Don't you think it's worth a try?"

Park Young-joon's eyes glinted. His usual dim eyes shone brightly between his wrinkles and dark circles like those of a young man.

I didn't speak for a moment.

Then Park Young-joon started to talk without waiting for my answer.

"If you don't help, I'm not going to do it. I'll follow the Association's proposal instead."

"Proposal?"

"They suggested that we build a huge wall around the Fields. They want to manage the Rifts and monsters inside like a farm and generate steady profits."

"......!"

It was a very familiar suggestion because it was a plan that Kim Min-jae had actually carried out in the past.

A monster farm. He had built a wall to endlessly collect mana stones and monster by-products and make money like a farm.

'The results were disastrous.'

Because it was a risky project, he bought land in the Middle East and Africa, not in Korea, and created a monster farm. And exactly two years later, the monster farm smeared the Association's name instead of earning it large sums of money.

'Mana concentration kept increasing, and a Mega Rift occurred. And monsters poured out of it.'

It did not take long for the land of Africa to be erased from the map. I remembered how the World Federation of Hunters sacrificed themselves and deployed their full force to stop the monsters. I had seen it with my own eyes.

"It's not a bad offer for me. If they build a huge wall, the monsters won't be able to come out. And they say they'll grant pensions to the people who used to work here. But it bothers me that the monsters will be alive. To think that the monsters will be moving around here....."

"I'll do it."

There was no way I was letting it happen again.

Park Young-joon Park smiled faintly at my answer.

"I knew you would."

All he did was slightly tilt his mouth from his usual indifferent face, but he looked much more human.

"Do you have any specific plans?"

"Oh, I plan to......."

Since I accepted his offer, I was about to settle down and discuss.

"Commander Park Young-joon."

But suddenly, the woman opened the door and came in.

"Outside... Kim Min-jae, the President of the Association, is here to see you."