Chapter 35

“Gasp…!”

I finally recognized the corpse’s face. A familiar face. It was the director’s body.

Goosebumps prickled my arms.

The bag of candy I was clutching fell from my hand with a thud.

“Director…?”

The director hadn’t hanged himself.

His body, from his stomach to his lower half, was stained a deep, visceral red.

Drip, drip—

Blood flowed from his body, falling into the large puddle pooling on the floor.

It was a dark crimson, vivid even in the darkness. The coppery scent of blood hit me a moment later, and my stomach churned.

“Urk!”

Bile surged up my throat.

I instinctively clamped a hand over my mouth, my eyes still fixed on the corpse.

The shocking sight of something having burst through the director’s stomach had entered my vision.

It was long, sharp, and covered in coarse hair, just like an insect’s leg…

The director was impaled on it, suspended in mid-air.

I muttered in a daze.

“What is that…?”

In that instant, the director’s corpse was flung away like a toy.

Crunch!

His body, weighing nearly 265 pounds, was slammed against the wall with immense force, turning to pulp.

I couldn’t even close my eyes to the horrific sight.

“No way.”

The thing that appeared under the streetlight truly resembled a mantis.

In particular, its bent forelegs, from which blood dripped, were identical to a mantis’s.

‘An insect bigger than me…’

The situation was unbelievable, but I couldn’t just stand there in a stupor.

That thing possessed enough murderous intent and strength to kill the director.

‘If you want to live, figure out your opponent!’

Just then, a piece of knowledge I’d picked up somewhere came to mind.

Mantises are insects that rely on sight, so they have trouble finding prey in the dark of night.

I didn’t know if that thing was truly a mantis, but it was worth a try.

I immediately froze.

It was a relief I hadn’t turned on the light. The monster couldn’t find me, hidden in the darkness.

‘I’ll just back away quietly.’

I slowly slid my foot back. So slowly, so as not to make a sound.

I had just managed to put some distance between myself and the monster.

Then I heard the sound of pants dragging from somewhere. At the same time, the monster lifted its head.

‘That wasn’t me. Who…!’

Someone who had been hiding under the director’s desk was slowly crawling out.

‘Shinwoo?’

No! Don’t move!

Before I could scream, the monster kicked the desk away with its foreleg.

Thwack! Crash!

The heavy wooden furniture flew through the air and shattered along with the display cabinet.

“Shinwoo!”

“S-Sis?”

Exposed before the monster, Shinwoo was too terrified to move.

I couldn’t do anything either.

Gripped by fear, I couldn’t even think of running. It felt like my mind had gone completely blank.

The monster looked back and forth between us, frozen in place.

Click. Click.

Its two eyes, each the size of a child’s face, made a chilling sound as it searched for its prey.

Presently, the monster’s skewer-like leg stepped onto the wooden floor.

“……!”

The monster’s second choice of prey was me.

My legs stiffened. Tears streamed from my wide-open eyes.

I was completely overwhelmed by the monster.

It was then.

Shinwoo, who had been cowering and trembling, picked up a stick and struck the monster’s back.

“You monster! You can’t have my sister! Come here! Come after me! You monster, eat me instead!”

The attack was pathetic, dealing no damage whatsoever to the monster.

But it was enough to make it pause.

The monster stopped and turned to look at Shinwoo.

As if waiting for this moment, Shinwoo pointed the stick at the monster.

“Sis! Run! Hurry!”

“Shinwoo…”

“Hurry!”

Shinwoo’s large, dark eyes were filled with resolve. The resolve to sacrifice himself to save me.

In that moment, the fear that had gripped me vanished as if it were a lie.

I no longer cared about my own survival. Instead, I desperately wanted to save Shinwoo.

‘I’ll save my brother. Even if it means I have to die.’

Once my mind was made up, my frozen body began to move.

At the same time, a window appeared before my eyes. Like a message window.

[System: 00:00:10 remaining until channel connection.]

[Countdown initiated. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0.]

[Channel connection successful.]

[The broadcast will now begin.]

I had no time to figure out how this was happening or what it all meant.

I scrambled forward, grabbed Shinwoo in a tight embrace, and threw our bodies to the side.

Crash!

We rolled across the floor of the director’s office with a loud clatter.

The monster, which had paused for a moment, rubbed its wings together menacingly.

‘Wings?’

Noticing the wings belatedly, I sank to the floor, strength leaving my body.

Even if we jumped out the window, could we escape a monster with wings?

Gurgle. Croak.

The monster made a disgusting sound as it spread its six green wings wide.

The shadow of the now even larger monster fell over us.

I quickly pushed Shinwoo behind me.

I was watching the monster’s every move without even blinking.

This time, another window appeared at the bottom of my vision.

‘It looks just like a chat window… Oh my god, am I going crazy from fear?’

— Anonymous Constellation: I’ve got a feeling. This one’s gonna die in record time. lol

— Anonymous Constellation: It’s a little girl, isn’t it? I told them not to awaken kids like this!

— Anonymous Constellation: Tsk tsk tsk, I guess I’ll have to complain to the Administrator.

— Anonymous Constellation: Hey! What are you doing just standing there like an idiot? Not gonna find a weapon? You just wanna die?

I didn’t know who, or what, they were, but as soon as I read the message about finding a weapon, my dazed mind snapped to attention.

‘Right, a weapon!’

I saw the broken leg of a desk in the distance.

But there was no way a mere piece of wood could block the monster’s sharp foreleg.

‘I need something else, something…’

Before I could find a weapon, the monster raised its scythe-like foreleg high.

‘I’ll die even if I block it!’

No matter what I used to block it, that foreleg would cut right through and split my head in two.

‘In that case, a preemptive strike!’

I instinctively fell into a stance.

I made a light fist and, using my left foot as a pivot, spun rapidly.

At the peak of my rotation, I swung my right leg out with force.

It was a roundhouse kick, its destructive power maximized by the rotational force.

Thwack!

My instep connected with the side of the monster’s head.

A shock ran through me, as if the muscles in my thigh were tearing, and then something unbelievable happened.

The monster was sent flying, far too easily.

With just a single kick.

I just blinked for a moment before coming to my senses.

“What the… This thing was just a pushover?”

— Anonymous Constellation: That’s what I’m talking about!!!!

— Anonymous Constellation: Ooh, not bad.

— Anonymous Constellation: lolololol a kick? lololol so funny lololol

The chat window was scrolling by like crazy.

Until now, Shinwoo was pretty much the only person I’d ever chatted with. And since we mostly used one-word replies, our chats were rarely long.

So this chat window, scrolling so fast I could barely read the words, felt completely alien. Just looking at it made me even more disoriented.

The problem was, I could just not look, but I could see it whether my eyes were open or closed.

Unable to take it anymore, I snapped.

“Shut up! It’s distracting, so either get rid of the… chat window, or slow it down!”

— Anonymous Constellation: Whoa… did she just yell at us?

— Anonymous Constellation: It’s not like you can hear us, so how is it distracting?

— Anonymous Constellation: Can’t get rid of the chat window. We can kick you out, though.

— Anonymous Constellation: I like this one ♥

[System: Anonymous Constellation has sponsored 10,000 Points.]

[Acquired items can be checked in your inventory.]

‘Are they all talking at once? Ugh… I’m going to lose my mind.’

I forced myself to ignore the chaotic chat window and focused on the monster again.

‘I can definitely take it on.’

I was now certain that if I could just get my hands on a proper weapon, I could kill the monster.

‘Not something flimsy like a broken table leg…’

Something hard and sharp, like the monster’s forelegs.

For instance…

“A sword!”

The director had a strange hobby of collecting real-life replicas of legendary weapons.

Swords he had spent a fortune on were displayed in his office cabinet.

But I could never touch them. The director always kept the cabinet locked.

“Sis, over there!”

I looked where Shinwoo was pointing and grinned.

The swords that had spilled from the broken display cabinet were scattered across the floor.