I Am a Legend (2)
“Hyun-woo, please go and get Zhang Wei.”
“Okay.”
Sung Hyun-woo vanished into thin air. The healer would be here soon. With a rift of this size, support forces would arrive soon as well. All I had to do was hold the monsters off until they were here.
‘Even though it appeared sooner than planned, the heroes will come.’
“Si-woo, what the hell is going on here? I got your phone call, but…”
“In short, the Great Rift has spawned another.”
I added some more quick explanations for Han Yeon-soo, who was confused. After receiving my call, she had come right away, but no one had time to explain anything to her yet.
“Oh!”
Pitch-black monsters began creeping out of the hole. It became difficult to breathe wherever they showed up. It felt like the air itself was getting heavier.
“I’ll explain more later, but for now I need your help holding them off!”
“Okay.”
Out of her shadow, other, way larger shadows, split off and formed a defense line.
“I trust you,” I patted her shoulder and ran towards the Rift. My sword, filled with radiant light, illuminated a wide area around me.
Only two hunters to stop hundreds of monsters.
* * *
“We should have enough money now. The information Kim Min-jae handed over as a bonus was already useful.”
“That it was.”
Lee Seong-yeon muttered as she bit off a piece from an apple.
She was looking through the list of villains Kim Min-jae had handed over. It was all the information the Association had on villains that were active in Korea and worldwide. ‘I wonder if the information collected by a single organization is exhaustive enough.’
‘Kim Min-jae is definitely an extraordinary character.’
As a first-generation hunter, she could gauge his power level by simply looking at him. She had done that when they had first met. She couldn’t remember exactly how strong he was, but she had estimated that he was more powerful than even her.
To be precise, she remembered that he was stronger than her in her heyday.
‘Why do you hide your strength?’
She couldn’t understand why anyone would hide their true power.
‘Thinking about it, she knew two people who did that…’ she flipped to the back of the dossier to see what they had on Jeong Si-woo. He tried to hide it, but nothing escaped Lee Seong-yeon’s watchful eyes.
‘A cadet stumbles upon an island with a Great Rift by accident and just strolls in there? He’d have to make better excuses.’
Lee Seong-yeon’s mind kept spinning. There were two possibilities.
‘This Jeong Si-woo and his gang are somehow involved in my husband’s death…’
Tuk.
She lightly tapped her fingers on the desk.
‘Or he had nothing to do with it, but somehow knows more about it than I do.’ In her experience, those who possess extraordinary power at a young age had ambitious goals. Their goals were similar to hers.
‘… I don’t know yet.’
Lee Seong-yeon picked up another apple and asked herself,
‘Since the guy was born after my husband’s death, how likely is he to be involved in it?’ She smiled a bitter smile and returned to searching for more information about her husband’s real killers.
Let’s go for who I know was involved first.
And then.
“Godmother, a new Great Rift has appeared next to the Rift we cleared!”
That was a matter she couldn’t just ignore.
* * *
The warrior was very effective against the undead monsters. An attack with a sword of the light could cut through the darkness and drive away from the powers of death.
Skeletons were collapsing in front of him. When struck by the light, the ghouls’ flesh melted.
It didn’t look good, however.
“Argh!”
A skeleton crawling along the floor had bit my ankle. It couldn’t penetrate my mana-strengthened skin very deep, but it hurt enough to make me cringe.
‘Too many.’
The hordes poured out endlessly. Moving was extremely difficult. It was like fighting underwater.
My sight had become hazy, and my body felt heavy, like wet cotton. I had difficulty breathing. I can’t stop them all on my own!
‘No, you can do it!’ if I couldn’t do it, then no one can. ‘They need you!’
Crunch!
I had stepped on the head of a skeleton and crushed it. I swallowed a potion.
“Si-woo, don’t overdo it! You don’t have to advance that far!” I could hear Han Yeon-soo’s voice from far away. Her giants were killing hundreds of monsters with a single kick. They could probably hold the crack by themselves.
“Slow down! Let me look at your ankle.”
“Okay.”
The sword’s light had dimmed a little. Mana was running out, and my legs had started trembling. Not much longer. I was fighting for the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. “What are you doing? Jeong Si-woo! Hey!”
Han Yeon-soo’s voice sounded extremely worried.
I couldn’t stop. The link was only going to be up for another three minutes. Until then, it was no longer enough just to swing the sword.
[Is it guilt for not being able to save people in a previous life? Or do you simply want revenge? Sometimes it’s okay to take a step back. Why are you so reckless?]
“…”
[The people who have reversed the passage of time are sometimes frustrated. Did they need to work so hard to resolve something that hadn’t even happened yet? Who the hell knows?]
The sword continued slashing through bones and cutting rotten flesh. My movements were like a dance. The sharp blade was perfect to kill enemies.
[Do you want to die again? The one who gave you the chance to undo things is going to regret his decision.]
Paaang!
With the sound of an explosion, hundreds of monsters spawned from the Rift. I looked at them and raised my sword higher. At the same time, the traveler’s voice kept lingering in my head.
Was it guilt? Revenge? Did I need to work so hard to resolve something that hadn’t happened yet? Who knew?
My heart was pounding in my chest. It didn’t matter if you didn’t know. It didn’t matter if you wanted revenge or felt guilty.
I couldn’t back down. I hated not being able to stop them all. I hated the monsters that I let through, and I hated that everything would happen again.
“Child… Really!”
Han Yeon-soo put all her efforts into trying to stop the monsters from advancing. A much stronger species of demons than the ones we had been fighting so far had emerged from the Rift. The queen’s soldiers smashed the monsters one by one.
At the same time, Han Yeon-soo came to me, to cover my back. Even if she was not specialized in physical combat, she still was a first-class hunter.
[Jung Si-woo, I don’t know what happened to you. I don’t know what you’re feeling.]
The link started to fade. The bright light slowly went out.
[You can’t protect everyone. It’s a mistake many heroes make. They try to save everyone, and at the same time, forget about the people close to them. You might save people that don’t matter to you, but that might cost your loved ones their lives.]
[Don’t try to save everyone. Save your loved ones even if you saved 1,000 people. Wouldn’t you regret letting your parents or your wife die?]
My heart skipped a beat. As if I had fallen into a swamp, my body was suddenly very heavy, and sticky sweat started pouring out. But the monsters behaved very strangely. Without warning, they laid on the floor, covered their heads, and started crying.
“What…what’s going on?”
Han Yeon-soo said in a panic. My pupils had dilated. I knew better than anyone what was happening.
“Han Yeon-soo, don’t stop!”
I went to work. Han Yeon-soo couldn’t grasp the situation and had stopped fighting.
“Yes…but…”
That brief moment of hesitation could be fatal in combat.
“Ahhh!”
The large Rift suddenly closed with a sound that almost made our eardrums burst. At first, I was happy that the Rift had closed, but I knew this was only the beginning.
“Ahhhhhh. Save me, save me!”
The injured hunters screamed in terror. They had already gone crazy.
“Oh…”
Han Yeon-soo’s mouth stood open. As I turned around, I saw a huge black skeleton, who was hovering there, grinning, in the same place where the Rift had just been. It was wearing a robe and holding a large staff. It was a frightening monster that the other hunters had never seen before.
“What is that? We need help immediately!”
Han Yeon-soo put her hand in her pocket, but her trembling hand could not hold onto the phone, and she dropped it on the floor. The liquid crystal broke on impact.
‘Lich.’
Tier 1 threat. A high-ranking monster. It could easily defeat multiple hunters of Han Yeon-soo’s class.
[Information browsing activated.]
[Name: Ark Lich]
[A boss who has constructed his body using the core of the Rift as an energy source. All the Rift’s mana is focused in his body, which is made up of other undead monsters. He has mastered the dark magics, and has high elemental resistances.]
[‘Please be careful. He is too powerful for you to deal with at your current level.’]
[‘I recommend you run away.’]
Around the skeleton, the sky started to turn red.
“Jeong, let’s go. Don’t be stubborn.”
Han Yeon-soo grabbed my wrist and tried to pull me back. Her face had turned ashen, which was a rare sight. The queen was scared. I suddenly realized I was trembling as well.
“Don’t pretend you could have done better. If you had such a strong will, you wouldn’t have run away scared, while 200 hunters died.”
“Haha, what could an analyst know about that? We did our best. We fought to protect the people.”
“We might be weak, but we still stood there, grabbing our swords and fighting him. We even made a few scratches on his bones.”
“The analyst is in no position to criticize us. The only people who can do that are the unfortunate civilians who lost their lives to that monster.”
I could hear multiple voices. Many different emotions resonated through me.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
I could feel the impact of the undead monsters hitting the ground through my entire body. It wasn’t a question of willpower. The instinct deeply rooted in a human’s soul was to fear the dead.
Could I fight him and win? My instincts told me there was no way. Instincts trained and sharpened over the decades.
“Quickly….”
Han Yeon-soo grabbed my hand again. She almost begged me to leave with her. She wasn’t afraid of death. She was afraid of losing me. I remembered her looking at me with the same expression before sacrificing herself.
“Ah…”
Just when I was about to say something-
Paang-
A flash of black light pierced Han Yeon-soo’s leg.
“Ahhhhhh!”
She collapsed to the floor.
Even more black flashes hit her body. I could see her blood flowing on the ground. The past and the present started to overlap.
“Si-woo, don’t overdo it. You don’t have to advance that far.”
“Let me take a look at your ankle.”
“What?”
“We’ve only come this far because of you.”
“Take a step back, don’t be so stubborn!”
My body started moving slowly towards her.
[If you’re still determined to save everyone, then you need to be stronger than anything else. Whether it’s a ghoul or a monster that can wipe out every living being on this planet. You have to be able to defeat them all.]
The traveler’s voice echoed through my mind.
[It’s frustrating, but I don’t hate it. Someone like you will eventually save the world. Let me help you once more. I hate seeing someone get seriously injured or even die. Remember what I’ve told you, and never do something this stupid again. It doesn’t suit you.]
[Activating link.]
[Linked beings, travelers, interfere with your character.]
.
.
[The traveler wants to hand over one of his stories.]
[This is a very high-level story.]
[Cannot be transferred permanently.]
[Temporary link to the story.]
It felt like something was touching my body. Strange sounds rang in my head.
Wiiis-!
The sound of someone blowing a whistle. The sounds of horses hitting the ground at full speed resonated like an earthquake. At the same time, I could see wondrous things – giant horses. Giant men with crude axes, laughing while slaughtering people. Savages.
“Humans living in the center have always feared the unexplored north.”
“They say it’s because up here it’s always cold, it’s a land where people should not be able to survive.”
“But there is another reason.”
The muscles all over my body grew rapidly. A force seemed to rage through my body, destroying everything it touched.
“There was a mountain range between the north and the center. They looked like blades reaching for the sky.”
“In their shadow lived warriors who pulled dragons from the sky with their bare hands.”
Kwa Guangwang!
A bright ray of light swept across the battlefield. Magic? No. With my improved vision, I could see a shape in the light. It was a finely crafted arrow.
[The story is almost fully complete.]
[The story is strong.]
[Part of the myth is being reproduced.]
“For the Blade’s Edge Mountains–!”
Du-du-du-du-du.
The sound that before I could only hear in my head could be heard by everyone. When I turned around, there had suddenly appeared hundreds of savages, whistling and shooting arrows.
[Don’t forget to thank my friends. They were the most interesting people I have ever met.]
Kuung!
Only
Suddenly, a massive axe fell to the ground in front of me. It looked like it was carved directly from the mountain. It felt very familiar in my hands.
“What the hell is going on?”
Han Yeon-soo lay in front of me, holding her leg, with a confused expression on her face.
“I have no idea.”
With a grin on my face, I raised the axe and threw it towards the Lich.
I had no idea why I did that.
[Savage Axe Throwing (SS) activated.]
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