Chapter 88: Cornered Mice (1)

Slam-!!

The wall was destroyed.

Baek KangHyun's eyes were full of anger.

"What... what's happening?!!"

It had been 10 days since the shadows had failed to kill Chae YeonJoo.

Something that shouldn't happen, something that couldn't happen, had happened...

The demonic energy stones implanted in monsters were going down considerably.

—It was as if they had a demonic energy stone detector.

"C-cardinal..."

Slam-!

A wall collapsed.

A loud sound as if a bomb had exploded went off.

The priests in front of him trembled every time there was an explosion.

They couldn't hide their fear.

"Oof, oof... How many fissures did we get?"

"It stopped at 50%. Most demonic energy stones were discovered before they could be fully eroded."

"Damn it!!"

Another loud sound spread through the room.

The eyes of the man wearing the red demon mask shook.

The plan had gone awry.

The cruising ship had been caught on the rocks.

He couldn't understand what was going on. Save for the members of the Demon Cult, there wasn't anyone that could control demonic energy.

But who was finding the demonic energy stones so precisely?

'Is there a traitor?'

He naturally began to doubt the members of the cult.

But he shook his head. He'd carefully selected the members that had participated in the plan to avoid such a thing.

The chances of a traitor being among them were low.

"Cancel the plan..."

"Yes?"

"We're going to use the other strategy."

"C-cardinal!"

The face of the priests paled.

There was indeed one more way besides implanting demonic energy stones in monsters...

But that...

'It's crazy.'

It wasn't just kidnapping living players and using them as offerings...

It was literally like jumping into destruction.

Even if the strategy worked, it would make the entire world move.

The Demon Cult's forces in Korea weren't that big.

—It couldn't be compared to the ones in Japan and China.

It was like declaring war on the entire world. They couldn't do something so crazy.

"It... it's too dangerous. We should ask for more support from the cult and make a new plan... Ugh!"

Baek KangHyun grabbed the priest's neck.

"A new plan? Do you think that will solve things? Huh?"

"Cough! Cough!"

"Even now, the Japanese are becoming stronger and more influential. You want me to make a new plan in this situation?"

The moment he mentioned Japan, his eyes became full of anger and anxiety.

He remembered the way he'd lost and what people said behind his back.

Crack-!

The sound of the priest's neck breaking spread through the room.

With eyes full of madness, he looked at the other priests.

"Make the preparations. I won't say it again."

"U-understood."

The priests started to move quickly.

* * *

"Everything is going smoothly."

KangWoo was satisfied.

He looked at the three demonic energy stones he'd just gotten.

He had gotten three in just a day.

The moment Kim ShiHoon participated in the search for demonic energy stones, things changed.

Up until then, they'd been beating their head against the wall.

But thanks to Kim ShiHoon, things got easier.

Thanks to his help, he'd found 14 demonic energy stones in ten days.

Considering that KangWoo hadn't been able to find a single one for two weeks, it was a considerable achievement.

"KangWoo hyeongnim, is this all for today?"

"Yes. We've looked around all the gates around here, so let's finish the rest tomorrow."

"But what are these demonic energy stones? How can something like this influence people..."

"I also don't know."

He wasn't sure how demonic energy turned humans into demons or made monsters become demonic monsters.

'That's not important.'

The important thing was that they were interfering with the plans of the Demon Cult.

...And that the demonic energy stones helped him grow.

'They're probably shitting themselves.'

Because they didn't know about Kim ShiHoon's identity, there was a chance that they didn't know what to do about it.

It was as if a treasure you thought you'd hidden in a place unknown to the rest of the world had been discovered.

It would be weird if they weren't surprised.

"Anyway, I'm glad I can be of help to Hyeongnim."

Kim ShiHoon smiled—it was a smile so fresh that it was too much to see.

"Let's go back."

KangWoo turned his head and got into the driver's seat. While driving, he began thinking.

'It's about time for them to react.'

He wasn't sure about how many demonic energy stones they had.

But demonic energy stones had so much demonic energy that they could even increase KangWoo's main stat, which was almost at 90.

He didn't think they would have hundreds or even thousands of them.

'If that were the case, they would've planted even more.'

With the help of Kim ShiHoon, they'd found about 14 demonic energy stones.

That was the amount they'd gotten after going through all the gates scattered around Korea—that's why they probably didn't have that many demonic energy stones.

'How are they going to react?'

He didn't think that they would remain silent without doing anything.

They were probably going to send a huge group of assassins or try to force the plan and proceed.

'I wish I had more information.'

* * *

He knew they were targetting Fissure Fragments...

But he wasn't sure what they were trying to do by gathering them.

Even if he wanted to guess, he couldn't do it because of the lack of information.

'Because the members of the Demon Cult know more about this than me.'

The members of the Demon Cult had more information about the Fissure than KangWoo.

From the moment the members of Andras Guild used mana stones to create a fissure or how they used offerings to summon a demon, it was obvious that they knew more about this than him.

'I guess I'll soon find out the answer.'

Trying to guess at that point could be dangerous.

"H-hyeongnim..."

They had passed Suwon and were going into Seoul when Kim ShiHoon, with a hardened expression, opened his mouth.

"What happened?"

"I just got a system message window..."

"Hmm?"

KangWoo looked at him as if ShiHoon had said something that didn't make sense.

It wasn't like they were hunting monsters, so there was no way he would've gotten a system message.

"Wh-what does it say?"

"Th-that..."

Before Kim ShiHoon could explain, KangWoo's smartphone rang—it was Chae YeonJoo.

"Wait."

KangWoo received the call.

[Wh-where are you?]

"Did something happen?"

[Answer me! Where are you?!]

An urgent shout. KangWoo's expression hardened after hearing the tone of her voice.

"I was going from Suwon to Seoul. What happened?"

[Go to Isu Station! Right now!]

"Chae YeonJoo..." KangWoo said in a low voice.

"Calm down."

[This isn't the time to calm down!]

"Calm down. Take a deep breath and concentrate. Calm down. You won't be able to solve anything if you become anxious."

[...]

There was silence. He could hear her taking a deep breath.

KangWoo nodded.

"Now, explain the situation. What happened?"

[A gate appeared in the middle of Isu Station.]

"A gate appeared?"

[No. I'm not sure if it's exactly a gate. More than a gate... It's close to a fissure. It's similar to the one that Oriax emerged from.]

"..."

A fissure...

He was starting to get a bad feeling.

"Did a demon appear?"

[No. That's not it.]

"Then?"

[...]

There was a short silence. Chae YeonJoo spoke with a trembling voice.

[A black energy came out of it... and covered the people. And then... then... the people...]

Chae YeonJoo couldn't keep talking.

He could guess why she was lost for words.

'Demonic energy came out of the fissure.'

—And that demonic energy had covered people.

There weren't many possible outcomes.

[People... began turning into monsters.]

It wasn't exactly monsters.

Because they were exposed to demonic energy without any defense, they'd probably turned into demonic monsters rather than demons that could think.

Or maybe...

'They just died.'

There weren't many people who could resist being exposed to demonic energy.

Even players couldn't resist more than a certain amount, so there was no way normal people could resist it.

It was as if they'd dropped a biological weapon in the middle of the city.

No, it was worse than a biological weapon.

—Because people that'd turned into demonic monsters were probably attacking other people.

[G-go there quickly. I'm going there with HwaYeon.]

"Okay, I'll go immediately."

He ended the call.

KangWoo turned his head to Kim ShiHoon.

"What did the message window say?"

"That the Fissure Fragment is getting bigger... It asked me to block it."

KangWoo's eyes narrowed. He began thinking.

A fissure had suddenly appeared in the middle of the city...

People had turned into demonic monsters after being exposed to demonic energy...

The Fissure Fragment was getting bigger...

There were three pieces of the puzzle.

"So they're aiming for quantity?"

KangWoo frowned.

Members of the Demon Cult were trying to turn monsters into demonic monsters and get Fissure Fragments that way.

—But that plan had failed due to him and Kim ShiHoon.

Now that they were cornered, rather than quality, they were aiming for quantity.

The problem was that to get the 'quantity' rather than monsters, they were using weak humans as sacrifices.

"These crazy bastards..."

He didn't consider himself a good human being.

He didn't feel moved by the pain of a third person; he also had a hard time feeling empathy.

He didn't feel remorse for eliminating people that could hinder him or using those that could be helpful to him...

He was cruel and cold.

He'd lived for too long in a place where he wouldn't have been able to survive if he wasn't like that.

—But even he had a good side.

Even if they were useful, he would never step over the weak who didn't have any claws.

That was the last bastion he had maintained to preserve his remaining humanity.

But the Demon Cult had crossed that line.

Vroom-!!

He stepped on the gas pedal.

The car accelerated.

The struggle of a cornered rat...

That struggle hurt more than he'd initially thought.