Chapter 43 – Seoul Station Disaster (3)

The Earth Dragon, perhaps angered by its failed attempt at a feast, opened its massive maw, releasing a rotten stench.

Tentacles sprouting from all over its body writhed like earthworms. Being a voracious glutton, it was preoccupied with indiscriminately sweeping everything nearby into its mouth.

How much space was left in my inventory? Roughly a dozen people were inside. Including that Company Man.

How many can I save?

*Swish!*

The Earth Dragon’s tentacles flew at me. They looked like earthworms, but they shot forward like arrowheads.

I swung my two-handed sword in a wide arc, slicing the tentacles in two.

Watching the tentacles writhe and spew fluid from their severed ends was immensely satisfying. But the main body was the real problem.

As I dodged the charging Earth Dragon’s maw, I simultaneously slashed at its hind leg.

No, I *tried* to slash it.

*Clang!*

With a dull thud, my two-handed sword was repelled.

*Thwack!*

Kicked by the Earth Dragon’s hind leg, I was sent tumbling helplessly across the ground.

I coughed up a mouthful of blood. Did something break? Damn, this hurts like hell.

Unfortunately, my weapon was useless. I couldn’t even cut it, let alone deal any damage.

The Earth Dragon unleashed its tentacles.

There were more than ten of them.

I braced myself and swung my sword diagonally.

The severed tentacles spewed fluid on the ground, flopping like live fish.

Seemingly feeling no pain from its tentacles, the Earth Dragon charged without batting an eye. I had to dodge this.

I didn’t get hit this time. Sliding across the ground as if tackling it, I slashed at its underbelly, but again, it had no effect.

I just ended up scraping my leg for nothing.

Ah, it stings.

I landed a few solid hits. But they were ineffective.

Let’s review my Legendary skills.

Insight is useless against this thing. It would probably just say it’s hungry.

Close Quarters Combat is only effective against humanoids. It’s powerless against giant monsters.

I can see its attack trajectory with Phantom Soul, but it’s not like I’m getting hit because its attacks are precise.

They’re just ridiculously wide-ranged.

My only offensive skill, Soul Breaker, is also useless.

This thing doesn’t use mana-based attacks in the first place.

The weapons I have are one tactical knife Katrinne bought for me, and three auto-generated daggers.

One longsword, one two-handed sword. I can’t take down a large-class monster with such flimsy weapons. Besides, their durability is terrible.

‘Damn it.’

I have no choice but to retreat.

It was humiliating, but with my current power, I had to taste helplessness once again.

“U-Uwaaah!”

A sudden scream was followed by the staccato sound of rifle fire.

It was a soldier who hadn’t managed to escape, one leg pinned by debris, unable to move.

Struck by the bullets, the Earth Dragon’s tentacle targeted the trapped soldier.

The soldier screamed again, firing his rifle wildly.

*Click, click.* But soon, he could only stare blankly at his empty magazine.

*Splsh!*

I sliced through the tentacles gripping the soldier all at once. The soldier, nearly out of his mind, was emitting a foul smell from his crotch.

Even a soldier couldn’t help but be terrified of being eaten by such a monster.

Without asking for permission, I put the man into my inventory.

And then I immediately rolled on the ground to evade the Earth Dragon’s attack.

The dust was choking.

I have to get out of here. I have to run.

My instincts screamed at me.

But I couldn’t run away from here.

“Kyaaaaah!”

“H-Help me! Help…!”

Screams and terror erupted from all directions. I threw a dagger at a Corpse Bug chasing after people who were struggling to escape.

There’s a limit to how many immobile people I can stuff into my inventory while fighting Corpse Bugs alone.

Still, if I keep moving.

If I move just one more time, I can save at least one more person.

If I retreat, people will die that much faster. It would be as if I were forcing death upon them.

My mouth felt dry.

What stupid meddling. Trying to save someone when your own life is on the line is, paradoxically, a foolish act.

“Pfft.”

I don’t know how many Corpse Bugs I’ve killed.

“Puhaha.”

For some reason, I started laughing.

Isn’t this just being a complete pushover?

When I really think about it, I suspect this is the very reason I was chosen as a Hero.

I fought with the resolve to die in another world and went through grueling training.

And I swore I would never do it again.

Even after returning to the modern world, I just wanted to get stronger, to become famous.

“Get back!”

*Slish!*

“I said get back! Run if you don’t want to die!”

*Shunk!*

I swung my sword again and again, its edge chipping away, its ether fading.

Before I knew it, my inventory was full. Wounds dotted my body, and my power suit was torn, no longer able to protect me.

“Huu, huu.”

My breathing had become ragged.

Something kept blurring my vision. Wiping it with the back of my hand, I saw it was blood.

I must have been grazed by a stone fragment while dodging earlier.

*Grrrrr.*

The Earth Dragon growled as if displeased that I was still alive. There were no more human sounds around me. This should be enough.

The Earth Dragon charged, its steps thundering.

I couldn’t guarantee I’d be able to dodge it this time.

My whole body felt sluggish.

I glanced at my status window and saw my HP was at 0. No wonder it hurt so damn much.

Now I really had to run. But my body felt limp, like a waterlogged sponge.

Ah, it’d be pretty ridiculous to die after meddling like an idiot.

I mustered all my strength to dodge its kick and simultaneously swung my two-handed sword horizontally.

*Kuaaaaaargh!*

For the first time, the Earth Dragon let out a pained cry.

The broken two-handed sword had lodged itself in its foot.

Such a drama queen. For a human, it would be like getting a single splinter.

The moment I discarded the shattered two-handed sword and pulled out sword number one from my inventory, my vision flashed.

*Crack!*

Something slammed into my side.

I felt a long sensation of floating before tumbling across the ground for a good while.

“Keoheok!”

I spat a mouthful of blood onto the ground.

It hurt like hell, but my mind was sharp.

To make me pay for my madness, the Earth Dragon opened its massive maw towards me.

Ah, seriously, using a breath attack on just me is cheating, isn’t it? Huh?

*Kwaaaang!*

Just then, an explosion rocked the Earth Dragon’s side. It staggered for the first time. The sound of continuous gunfire followed, and explosions engulfed the dragon.

“Hunter! You can fall back now! Everyone has been evacuated!”

Along with the shout from a megaphone, additionally dispatched military forces were bombarding the Earth Dragon.

The Earth Dragon, which had been taking hit after hit, slowly raised its head. In that moment, I felt a sense of dread.

It opened its enormous mouth wide. And then it spewed a wedge-shaped firestorm in all directions.

*Fwoosh.*

The inextinguishable flames incinerated everything, and horrifying screams echoed from all around.

When I slowly opened my eyes, a sea of fire was before me. The Earth Dragon began to move again.

I couldn’t breathe properly.

As my vision slowly faded, system messages began to scroll up.

-You have leveled up.

-Porter Lee Hyunbin LV25

-Your inventory has been greatly expanded.

-The Porter-exclusive skill, Domain Declaration, has been created.

-Synchronization Rate has reached 40%.

-The Hero’s Privilege will be activated.

And then, my consciousness faded.

***

“As of this moment, the entire vicinity of Seoul Station is being closed off.”

“An operation to subjugate the boss monster summoned from the Seoul Station dungeon will commence shortly.”

“Right now! Right here! Our proud Republic of Korea’s special strike team is—!”

The reporter’s overexcited shout was captured by the broadcast camera.

He requested the helicopter pilot to fly a little lower.

The pilot shook his head, but eventually gave in to the persistent demands and flew lower, planning to demand extra hazard pay.

“We here at SBC strive to bring you the fastest news with the most on-the-scene realism! As I speak, the battle has begun!”

The reporter, shouting in excitement, soon fell silent as he witnessed the horrifying scene unfold.

A barrage of artillery was being fired enthusiastically at the giant monster.

The monster retaliated by breathing fire. In that instant, the military forces positioned around it melted away, as if erased.

He had originally intended to get an exclusive on the hunting of that giant monster. But instead, he ended up broadcasting the military being annihilated in an instant.

This was a completely different development from what he and the station had expected. If they aired this news, the disaster management agency wouldn’t let it slide.

The reporter, at a loss for words, saw a text message and quietly moved his lips.

Stop filming.

It was only natural. Live broadcasting a hunt like this was strictly illegal.

More importantly, numerous people who had stood on the front lines to protect the nation were now crawling on the ground like insects, their lives being snuffed out.

It was unfortunate that a 4-star boss had appeared just when the S-rank and A-rank Hunters had been deployed en masse to a gate.

Just then, something caught the reporter’s eye.

‘A Hunter?’

There was a Hunter.

Parasitic insects emerging from that horrifying monster were chasing down fleeing people. And there was someone single-handedly cutting down those monsters.

Without receiving a single word of thanks, the man headed to where the giant monster was attacking people.

He didn’t run. Instead, he faced the monster head-on.

‘What’s with that guy? Don’t tell me…?’

His reporter’s intuition was telling him. That man wasn’t crazy.

A surge of excitement rose within him. The reporter gestured to the cameraman.

And ignoring the text to stop broadcasting, he began filming the man.

“A Hunter has just appeared on the scene!”

The reporter’s frozen mouth opened.

***

Since Lee Hyunbin wasn’t there anyway, Seo Hyun-ji had no intention of staying long at the training ground.

“Should I go buy something to drink?”

“Oh, noona! I’ll have an energy drink!”

“Just water is fine for me.”

Normally, it would be unthinkable for a top star like her to be running errands. But since they were on the same team, she felt she should take care of them at least this much.

Seeing Kim Tae-yang and Kim In-ho training so hard made them seem strangely admirable.

Seo Hyun-ji unlocked her phone as chat notifications kept popping up.

It wasn’t just her; Kim Tae-yang and Kim In-ho were getting them too.

They realized what was happening only after watching the video.

“What is this guy doing!”

Seo Hyun-ji was horrified after watching the video linked in the chat room.

Their team leader, who had taken the day off, was fighting a giant monster all by himself.

The video kept buffering badly, probably because so many people were watching it live. Annoyed, Seo Hyun-ji kept hitting refresh.

“What the hell. Why is he fighting something like that alone!”

It had no wings, but it was like a dragon straight out of a fantasy movie. Every time the building-sized monster spewed flames from its mouth, everything around it was decimated.

A single Hunter was fighting the dragon alone while saving people.

This wasn’t some movie or commercial shoot.

-We need to decide on deploying additional military forces now! If there are no S-rank Hunters, is there no one to protect the people? Right here, right now, a Hunter who was only judged to be a C-rank Porter is fighting a monster alone, risking his life!

At that, Seo Hyun-ji clenched her fists without realizing it.

As he narrowly dodged an attack, Lee Hyunbin’s sword slashed the dragon’s ankle.

The dragon, letting out a terrible scream, suffered its first major wound.

└Damn, the sword broke!

└What, he pulled out another weapon right away.

└Whoa, that delivery guy is insane. Is he really a Porter? He’s going on a one-man rampage, what the hell?

Just as people were expressing their awe, the video showed Lee Hyunbin getting hit by the dragon’s tail and sent tumbling to the ground.

Cries of dismay erupted. At that moment, the remaining troops stepped forward to provide covering fire.

Just when it seemed the tide might be turning.

The flames spewed by the dragon blew everything up.

Kim Tae-yang, Kim In-ho, and Seo Hyun-ji all froze.

Just then, someone urgently threw open the training ground door and shouted.

“The Association President has issued a full summons! Everyone, assemble immediately!”