‘Why is a monster outside the rift? Were they always able to come out?’

Go Byeonggap sprinted like a madman, leaping five steps at a time. In the brief seconds it took to burst out of the villa, a thousand thoughts crashed through his mind.

Was he seeing things? Was this a dream?

But that wishful escape lasted only a moment.

He came face-to-face with a monster right in front of him, and felt every ounce of common sense he’d built over three years as a hunter crumble to dust.

‘A yeti.’

The beast that had just turned a civilian into pulp was a yeti—a hulking giant easily over eight feet tall, its entire body covered in shaggy gray fur.

D-rank. Not a particularly strong monster—by hunter standards, anyway. To an ordinary person, it might as well be a walking disaster.

“……”

Go Byeonggap rolled only his eyes to the side. A man slumped against a parking-lot pillar—the one the yeti had just taken down.

No saving him now. His head had been ripped clean off. What was there to do?

Crunch. Crunch.

The yeti, its eyes flat and fishlike, tore into the man’s skull. With the creature holding it, the human head looked no bigger than an apple.

What more needed saying? Byeonggap drew his sword and charged.

“Aaaarrrgh!”

The yeti let out a slow, groaning roar and tossed the head aside. Byeonggap reflexively swung to bat it away, then pulled his blade at the last instant.

Dead man’s flesh or not, he didn’t want to cut into a human body.

“Tch!”

He bent low at the waist, dodging. The yeti had its massive hands clasped together, aimed right at Go Byeonggap. Then the raised fist came crashing down.

‘That slow attack? Please.’

Go Byeonggap twisted his body in an instant, slipping aside with ease.

“Think you can hit me?”

At the same time, he swung his sword upward in a fierce arc. From the yeti’s hip to its left side, the creature was split clean in two.

Go Byeonggap didn’t stop. He whipped the blade around and severed its neck. The yeti’s head went tumbling across the ground.

“Ugh—”

A death rattle.

Standing before the yeti’s corpse, Go Byeonggap swept his gaze across the area. Now that he looked again, the civilian casualties weren’t just one or two.

‘One, two, three… Damn it.’

Just what he could see right now—three of them. Every single one had its head ripped off.

‘To be taken down so helplessly.’

That was the truth. A single D-rank monster like a yeti could butcher unarmed civilians without mercy. If these people had had rifles—no, even just a pistol each—they wouldn’t have died like dogs.

Go Byeonggap hesitated, wondering if he should collect the bodies.

‘No. Now’s not the time.’

He felt the presence of monsters all around him. That eerie, death-dealing aura.

Go Byeonggap immediately took a step. But he froze before he could move another. A single word flashed through his mind.

‘Mom!’

His mind snapped alert.

Had the monsters reached the hospital where his mother was admitted? If so, then she…

Go Byeonggap felt like his legs might give out.

‘Calm down! Get a grip!’

He chewed on his lip, then slapped himself across the cheek. The stinging pain brought a sliver of composure back.

‘Let’s call.’

Go Byeonggap pulled his phone from his pocket.

He pressed the hold button to turn on the screen. Several missed messages were waiting.

[Emergency Alert!]

-Multiple monsters spotted in Seoul’s Gwanak-gu and Jongno-gu areas! Citizens, please evacuate to a safe location!

‘Gwanak and Jongno, huh?’

Confirming the message eased his mind a little. His mother was currently in Gangnam.

Still, he couldn’t let his guard down completely. Go Byeonggap immediately called the hospital.

-We’re experiencing high call volume. Please try again later.

The call didn’t go through. The lines were jammed from the flood of traffic.

He tried again and again, but got the same result every time. His face twisted involuntarily.

Just then, a name caught his eye.

-Kim Yubi

-010-XXXX-XXXX

‘This is…’

Not long ago. When Go Byeonggap had stopped by the hospital to check on his mother. A nurse named Kim Yubi had approached him out of nowhere.

Go Byeonggap had shared a brief conversation with her. It wasn’t exactly productive small talk, but somehow he’d ended up exchanging phone numbers.

‘She suddenly asked me to grab a meal, I said I was busy and got out of there.’

That day, she’d felt like a nuisance. But right now, she felt like a lifesaver. Go Byeonggap quickly dialed Kim Yubi.

The line rang a few times before she picked up.

-Hell—ah, hang on a second! ……Hello?

Her voice carried a note of flustered chaos.

Go Byeonggap gave a brief introduction of himself, then asked about the situation at the hospital. Kim Yubi replied with a slightly irritated tone.

-It’s safe here. No monsters, and the hunters are guarding this area—ah! Yes! I’m coming now! Sorry, I can’t talk long. Anyway, don’t worry too much.

She cut off after that. Go Byeonggap let out a relieved breath, his pounding heart settling.

‘Thank god.’

If the hospital was safe, he couldn’t ask for more. Go Byeonggap turned his gaze to the yeti’s corpse, letting anger surge through him.

Out of nowhere — like a rolling pin at midnight. What the hell were these damn monsters?

Go Byeonggap re-gripped his sword and sprinted forward with all his strength.

17.

Go Byeonggap had been in Asvillam since early dawn. That was why he didn’t know the full story behind this sudden disaster.

Still, the real-time updates coming in let him grasp the current situation.

‘It’s not just one or two.’

The monsters weren’t just one or two.

About thirty minutes had passed since he’d first spotted the yeti. So far, he’d cut down seven monsters.

But he didn’t feel for a second that this was the end. Not with the gunfire echoing from far away.

Ratatata-tang!

‘Is a battle happening over there?’

He turned his body toward the direction of the gunfire. Just then, a scream rang out from much closer.

“Aaaah! Save me! Please!”

It came from the crosswalk.

Go Byeonggap’s body moved on reflex. Before rounding the corner, he spotted another corpse. The body was horribly torn apart, as if ripped by sharp something.

‘Damn it. The only people I see are corpses!’

Everyone he encountered was dead. Gnashing his teeth, Go Byeonggap rounded the corner.

“Aaaaah!!!”

A boy was fleeing this way. Behind him, a massive monster gave chase.

“No way! A mantis mule!?”

Mantis mule. A C-rank large-class monster. It looked like a mantis — but not an ordinary one. Three scythes on each side, six in total, carried by this insect.

The bigger problem was its size. From head to toe, the bastard easily exceeded four meters in height.

‘I’m going crazy.’

As was typical for large monsters, their revolting size alone posed a serious threat. If the karma concentration had been just a bit denser, it would have surely been registered as B-rank or higher.

The boy looked like he’d be caught any second now. His face was a mess of tears and snot.

Go Byeonggap stopped thinking and let instinct take over.

The mantis mule’s scythe arced down toward the boy’s head. Byeonggap leaped with all his strength, sword raised.

Blade met scythe in a deadlock of sheer force. The boy barely survived.

“Ah—ahhh… Th-thank—”

“Shut up and run! Get inside any building and hide!”

“Y-yes, sir!”

“Grrrrh!”

From that four-meter frame came a monstrous strength—something definitely not of this world.

But.

‘Compared to Queen Anakne, this is nothing!’

Go Byeonggap had faced far worse. Measured against that, this fight felt like paradise.

He channeled power through his whole body and snapped his sword up. The mantis mule staggered, stumbling backward.

A C-rank large monster outmuscled in pure strength.

“Hyaaaah!”

Byeonggap roared and lunged. His two-handed sword punched through the mantis mule’s chest.

“Kyaaaaak!”

“Die!”

He dragged the blade sideways with the thing still impaled. Flesh ripped open; blood and filth poured out.

The mantis mule thrashed wildly. Byeonggap yanked himself free and started hacking off its flailing legs one by one.

The hind legs that held it upright were severed without resistance. When the third leg fell, the mantis mule collapsed.

It wasn’t over yet. Byeonggap dodged every scythe that came at him and split the creature’s head into three pieces.

The mantis mule’s breath stopped completely.

“Hahh, hahh.”

A mantis mule—something that took six or seven hunters concentrating fire to barely bring down. Go Byeonggap had taken this monster down alone. And in under a few minutes at that.

‘Good thing there were no meddlers around.’

If they’d met inside a rift, it wouldn’t have been this easy. That thing would’ve been swarming with support monsters.

Byeonggap stared at the mantis mule’s corpse for a moment.

“Just how high up are they deployed? Are there things higher than C-rank too?”

He hoped the mantis mule was the strongest monster in this whole mess. But a premonition whispered otherwise.

Whatever it was, he had to move.

Go Byeonggap followed the distant sound of gunfire, picking up his pace.

* * *

“Fire! Keep firing!”

“Goddamn! What the hell is this chaos!”

Curses never stopped pouring from the hunters’ mouths. One swear per bullet.

They were struggling. Not because there were too many monsters, or because they were too strong.

The location was bad.

“Fuck. Can’t even shoot freely out here!”

Their current position was a cluster of villas in Sillim-dong.

Multi-family homes packed every corner. One stray shot and some innocent bastard’s skull got cracked open.

“Kiiiiiek!”

“Goddammit!”

—Bang! Bang! Bang!

The hunters fired with painstaking caution, each shot measured and deliberate.

The monsters were vicious. They caught on to the hunters’ hesitation and deliberately ducked behind buildings or parked cars.

That left the hunters with no good move. Hit the wrong building or vehicle, and they’d be in deep shit.

Someone might ask why they’d bother with such concerns in a crisis like this. But that’s ignorance talking.

‘Fuck. If I blast some random car or building and end up footing the bill — what then? I’m the only one who loses here!’

This was the first time monsters had ever appeared on the streets. Naturally, there were no laws on the books for it. The hunters had no appetite for risking damages they couldn’t predict.

Justice or whatever — in the end, wasn’t this world run on the logic of money?

He wouldn’t be fighting street-to-street with monsters under this blazing sun if it weren’t for the money.

“Why aren’t any high-rank hunters showing up! Those bastards!”

“Haven’t you heard, Seokmin hyung? Rumor has it all hell broke loose in Bongcheon. Sillim’s a picnic compared to that. The high-rankers are probably all tied up there.”

“Goddammit. Doesn’t matter—they should still send a few our way! How the hell are we supposed to fight in a place like—”

“Hey! Seokmin hyung, watch out!”

“What? Gahk!”

A Lanky Ghost scaled the side of a villa and struck the hunters from behind.

Kim Seokmin took a tentacle to the shoulder, blood blooming across his torn sleeve.

“Kyaaah!”

“That son of a bitch!”

Jeong Yongtae snapped his rifle up, sighting the monster. But the muzzle never flashed.

“God, I’m gonna lose my damn mind!”

The Lanky Ghost clung flat against the villa’s outer wall—right next to a family’s window.

It knew it was safe here. It flicked its tentacles like it was mocking them.

“That son of a bitch! Ah, fuck it, shit!”

-Ratta-tat-tat-tat!

Jeong Yongtae, burning with rage, sprayed bullets wildly. Kim Seokmin immediately stepped in to stop him.

“Hey, you crazy bastard, what the hell are you doing! What if there are people inside!”

“I can’t just stand here doing nothing!”

The lanky ghost, caught off guard, took hits all over its body and plummeted.

That was clearly a stroke of luck. But—

-Crash!

“Uwaaaah!”

The residential house the bullets swept through was reduced to chaos. A cut-off scream came through a shattered window.

“Hunters! Look ahead, up ahead!”

At that moment, a hunter wearing glasses, Yoo Byeongseok, shouted sharply.

The other two snapped their heads around reflexively. There, a monster with an ominous aura stood stock-still.

All three men’s faces went pale simultaneously.

“Th-that thing!?”

“It’s a Craul!”

A Craul. A B-rank humanoid monster.

Two meters tall, its body was charcoal-black and brutally muscled. Its face had no features—just a single snout like an alligator’s, sitting there blankly.

The thing dipped low, settling into a stance. It was about to charge.

“Sh-shoot! Shoot!”

“Aaaagh!”

A rattling burst of gunfire stitched the air.

The hunters unloaded frantically. None of that hesitation from a moment ago remained.

Money and all that shit didn’t matter anymore.

Pop!

The Craul kicked off the ground. It shot toward the hunters like a cannonball.

The bullets the hunters poured into it did nothing—every one was stopped by the Karma Barrier it had raised.

“Aaaagh! Get away—hk!”

A massive hole blew open in Yoo Byeongseok’s chest. The Craul pulled its bloody hand free and looked for its next victim.

“Ah… a-ah…”

The two hunters right next to him lost their will to fight.

As expected, guns were useless against a high-rank monster. You’d need an RPG missile just to scratch that Barrier.

“R-run!”

“Aaaah!”

The Craul let out its guttural cry.

“Hk!”

Kim Seokmin and Jeong Yongtae threw down their guns and bolted.

The Craul gave its distinctive bellow as it chased them. It went without saying—running was hopeless.

Kim Seokmin didn’t make it ten steps before he died.

Only Jeong Yongtae was left. To make things worse, he tripped and fell. The crotch of his pants went wet.

“The Craul rumbled.”

“No, no! Please, spare me—!”

Its howl answered him.

Monsters have no mercy.

Without a shred of hesitation, the Craul stabbed its blade-hand forward.

‘So this is how I die!’

Jeong Yongtae felt death closing in. If he’d known it would come to this, he’d have turned down the guild’s call!

But regret came too late for that.

‘Huh!?’

That was when a stranger stepped in front of him. The man blocked the Craul’s attack without flinching.

‘A high-rank hunter showed up?’

As he sat in that daze, the stranger barked at him in an annoyed voice.

“If you want to live, stop lying there like an idiot and run!”

“Ah!”

Jeong Yongtae forgot to answer and just fled.

The next instant, the stranger and the Craul clashed in hand-to-hand combat.