20. Seoul Station, Unlucky Event – 2
————————=
Approximately 10 minutes before the gate occurs.
Yongsan 3rd Port Horse Brigade Headquarters Brigade Commander’s Office.
“······what? Colonel Kim, doesn’t that sound like something you’re saying right now?”
Kim Kang-seok, commander of the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Anti-Horse Brigade, was listening to someone criticize him.
The person yelling at him was Colonel Koo Jin-tae, chief of staff of the 3rd Horse Brigade.
“Chief of Staff, I am also seriously thinking about what I am saying.”
“No, this isn’t a serious issue, man!”
Kim Kang-seok just reported three recent incidents in front of the brigade commander and chief of staff.
It was the Goblin Gate incident within the compound, the Itaewon 2-dong Kobold Gate incident, and the Namsan Oak Gate incident.
And it was not left out that at the center of it all was F-grade player Lee Hyun-wook.
The response so far has been very good.
It was even evaluated that the soldiers were well trained.
However,
when he finally expressed his desire to raise Lee Hyun-wook to become an officer, the atmosphere turned cold.
“They are now saying that they will commission a soldier, even an F grade, as an officer. Who can say that this is right?”
“······.”
“Ha… do you really think this makes sense right now?”
Amid the chief of staff’s criticism, Kim Kang-seok looked at General Choi Jeong-cheol, commander of the 3rd Port Horse Brigade.
“······.”
He sat cross-legged without saying anything.
However, the fact that he did not stop Gu Jin-tae’s harsh remarks meant that he also agreed to some extent.
However, Kim Kang-seok did not give up.
“Chief of Staff, I do not believe that the quality of an AMT officer lies in his/her ability to play as randomly given by the game.”
“what?”
“······Rather, the will to fight in any situation that can overcome everything called this system… I am confident that that soldier has that quality.”
“hey! Kangseok Kim! What do we dig, draw troops and fight? Already, all players who have completed the player training center are entering private guilds, but if F-ranks are commissioned as officers, who on earth will support AMT officers? You man! You know that the AMT abolitionism is on the verge of happening, don’t you?”
Gu Jin-tae thought that if a grade F becomes an officer, the reputation of AMT will be tarnished.
‘It’s unfortunate, but honestly, it makes sense.’
Kim Kang-seok also acknowledged it.
Now, the battle against monsters was no longer driven by a mission to save humanity.
Powerful players want fame and money.
Creating an environment that can satisfy them… was undoubtedly one of AMT’s biggest challenges.
However, if an officer candidate is asked to stand side by side with an F-rank player…
‘······There’s no way they’ll be happy.’
At that time, Choi Jeong-cheol slightly raised his left hand.
“······Chief of Staff, please stay still for a moment.”
“Brigade Commander, this is not really…”
Gu Jin-tae was about to protest, but stopped speaking when he saw Choi Jeong-cheol’s smile.
It was obviously a nice smile, but it felt quite different to them.
“Chief of Staff, I also want to say something.”
“ah! sorry. “Say it, Brigadier General.”
Gu Jin-tae, who was burning with anger, bowed his head.
Brigadier General Choi Jeong-cheol, commander of the AMT 3rd Port Horse Brigade.
He had a short, stocky build, a bald head, and a cute appearance reminiscent of an old bulldog. He looked particularly small as he sat in front of Kim Kang-seok, who looked like a bear, but no matter how good a player he was, no one would dare ignore him.
The reason was simple.
This is because he was the 31st ranked A-class player in the Korean player rankings.
With the power of one of the few ‘tactical weapons’ that can cast ‘large-scale wide-area magic’ alone, it burned down an island on the southern coast that the ‘Fishmen’ had conquered, roasting hundreds of fishmen whole. Anyone who knows what he looks like…
“Hmm, fun. “I can’t believe the commanders are so upset over the F grade…”
You could read the fear hidden in this gentle face of his.
Even Kim Kang-seok felt the majesty of this man and was tensed, knowingly or unknowingly.
“Well, I think the battalion commanders all have their own thoughts. But I think the battalion commander has already seen something in that friend… I think it would be nice to take the test a few more times, but that’s okay, right?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Okay, the officer’s commission is not like a Japanese police officer’s sword, beak, or armband during the Japanese colonial period, and it’s not something that can be put on and taken off so easily, so I need to be sure. Do you understand my thoughts?”
He said that and laughed out loud.
Even though he received a positive answer, Kim Kang-seok did not feel at ease.
‘If it were the Brigadier’s test, it would actually be impossible.’
If Kim Kang-seok considers the attitude of a soldier as the top priority, Choi Jeong-cheol thoroughly values only his skills. If it didn’t produce perfect results, he wouldn’t like it.
It was then.
Knock – Knock –
At that time, someone knocked on the door of the brigade commander’s office and cautiously entered.
He was the deputy head of the brigade commander.
For some reason, his expression was not very good.
“Brigade Commander, this is a call looking for none other than the 1st Battalion Commander. It seems urgent.”
An urgent phone call… Kim Kang-seok instinctively stood up.
“Okay, hurry up and get it, battalion commander.”
“yes!”
Kim Kang-seok hurriedly went outside.
And after a while, Kim Kang-seok returned to the brigade commander’s office and his expression was not very good.
He opened his mouth without even sitting down.
“Brigade Commander, this is news of a gate occurring within the 1st Battalion’s guard area. But the place is…”
I stopped talking and swallowed dry saliva.
“······Seoul Station.”
“Seoul Station? That’s really not good.”
“And I don’t know how it is in English…”
Kim Kang-seok held out the tablet PC he had brought from somewhere to the brigade commander.
A video started playing.
It was a real-time scene screen through a drone cam, but Seoul Station was not actually visible.
To be precise, Seoul Station was covered by something.
“Dom?”
It was a black dome.
A huge black dome closed Seoul Station like a lid.
“you’re right. The entire Seoul Station was covered with a black dome like this.”
At that point, Choi Jeong-cheol also made an impression.
“It’s a big deal. This is an [unlucky event].”
“Yes, that’s how I see it. There seem to be various restrictions… It is estimated that well over a thousand civilians are isolated inside.”
The basic characteristic of the Unlucky event was to ‘isolate’ a certain area.
“Brit- There must be a level limit for entry into the event area, right? If that’s the case, I don’t think the station guards alone will be able to hold on…”
“We will have to check the exact information, but it is presumed that such conditions were definitely involved. We will report it accurately.”
Choi Jeong-cheol nodded and stood up from his seat.
“ah! Now that I think about it, that F-rank friend probably won’t be level 15… How about giving him a rescue mission this time? “With that test I mentioned earlier.”
“that is······.”
Choi Jeong-cheol presented the test earlier than expected, but Kim Kang-seok couldn’t help but look embarrassed.
“What’s wrong?”
“Brigade Commander, that friend is already in the dome.”
“······huh?”
“They say they received a report that he arrived at Seoul Station with a female non-commissioned officer while returning from vacation. But right after that, an unlock event occurred at Seoul Station.”
Choi Jeong-cheol nodded.
“Oh, what should I do about that? Anyway, it could be a test. Just surviving in there with my bare body would be enough.”
“······.”
“Battalion commander, go quickly. This isn’t normal. “Inevitably, many people will be sacrificed, but we must somehow save at least one more person.”
“Yes, I understand!”
It’s ironic. He says he will risk someone’s life to do a ‘test’ and then talks about his ‘mission’ to protect someone’s life.
However, this was the realistic mindset that a soldier must have as a soldier who had to protect the lives of other citizens, even at the cost of sacrificing and taking his own life.
***
Wow!
With the explosion, pieces of the spider’s skin burst and scattered in all directions.
The legs exploded one after another, first on the back and the second on the tail.
In the blink of an eye, the spider peeled off its skin and became like a crayfish that had finished molting. Even pieces of broken skin burrowed into the soft flesh, and green ooze flowed out.
Squeak! Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!
No matter how big the guy was, the pain was unbearable and he had no choice but to let out a weak cry and step back.
It was then.
Kung-goo-goo-goong! It was on Lee Hyun-wook’s side
that the vibrations continued to echo through the floor
.
When I turned my head, another spider was running towards Lee Hyun-wook, stomping its 8 legs.
“Aww! “It’s dangerous!”
someone shouted.
However, Lee Hyun-wook did not move at all from the spot.
Huh –
this time I just raised my left hand.
‘The poisonous armored spider probably first appears here.’
It was the first monster to appear at this point.
However, Lee Hyun-wook already knew everything about that terrible creature.
‘It has a poisonous gas inside its metallic body. If you break it carelessly, it will be a big deal.’
He focused his metal control in the direction of his outstretched left hand.
You can feel the metal without necessarily reaching out, but it acts as a kind of antenna.
In other words, you can focus your power on a more precise point.
That’s how I sensed the hard skin of a very heavy piece of metal that existed there.
“······You are inevitably in my hands.”
Lee Hyun-wook muttered softly.
Metallic monsters were easy prey for Lee Hyun-wook, regardless of their strength.
He was able to go beyond manipulating the body of such things freely and even crush them like this.
‘You can virtually dominate.’
Lee Hyun-wook grabbed the guy’s skin and shook it as if he was tearing it off.
Squeak! Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!
With just that small gesture, the bastard began to cry out in pain and struggle.
That was just the beginning.
‘······Shred!’
– Mana (131/159)
Ugh! Ugh! Ugh!
This time, its hard shell broke into small pieces and rained down in all directions.
“Huh! “What is it?”
The Seoul Station security team leader stood awkwardly behind Lee Hyun-wook and let out an exclamation.
“I’m crazy…”
In his opinion, it was a truly absurd scene.
How could just one AMT player, even a single soldier, subdue that enormous monster with such ease?
‘And that is clearly a mechanism similar to the abilities of an S-rank player!’
Players from E to A, which are the level growth characteristics, honestly do not demonstrate overwhelming ‘mystery’.
Of course, if he grows up as his level rises, he will feel like a ‘superman’ someday…
‘······warrant!’
I couldn’t give the impression that it was like any ‘miracle’ or ‘power’ that transcended human beings.
However, S grade was different.
The ability they displayed could be called ‘authority’ rather than a skill.
Beyond simply acting as an outstanding warrior, he has the ability to sweep the battlefield with a single wave of his hand… the power to be treated as a tactical or strategic weapon in the body of one man…
‘I am reminded of the scene two years ago when an inferno burned down a contaminated building in Busan.’
Of course, it could not be said that the power that the man was showing right now was on the same scale as the power of Inferno, an S-rank play. If you compare closely, it would be nothing more than the blood of a new foot.
But the impression was definitely similar.
There was a glimpse of some kind of mystery that transcended the superhuman.
It was then.
The man slowly raised both hands, wondering what else he was planning to do.
S-s-s-s-s-s-
Then, the hard pieces of the spider’s skin on the floor wriggled one by one…
Hung- Hung- Hung- Hung- Hung-
The next moment, they all came together as if they were attracted by a magnet. It flew vertically.
“······omg!”
Everyone gathered at the entrance raised their heads at the mysterious sight.
Those unbalanced pieces of metal sparkled, reflecting the light from the ceiling LED lights.
“and······.”
Someone was impressed.
Yes, at first glance, it was a beautiful scene.
Like some installation art made of crystal.
However, the moment he dropped both his raised hands to the floor,
the genre changed.
Char-Left-Left-Left-Left-!
They instantly turned into a swarm of fierce wasps and flew towards the spider.
Squeak! Squeak! Squeak! Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!
Hundreds of pieces of metal began to tear the spider’s flesh, bit by bit, all at once, tearing the spider’s thick flesh to shreds.
“and······.”
“Are you the Seoul Station security guard over there?”
“······yes?”
The security team leader, who was watching the scene in fascination, made eye contact with Lee Hyun-wook, who was looking at him.
“Oh yeah! you’re right!”
The security team leader was using polite language without even realizing it.
“Control the citizens and go up to the third floor. Because of the ‘unlucky event’, you won’t be able to go out right now. So, we need to evacuate citizens to a place that can prepare for a second eruption in the future.”
“Oh, I definitely should!”
“Oh, and that spider can squirt venom.”
“······Do you mean poison?”
“Yes, I saw something leaking out of the shell. “It seems to be in gaseous form.”
“Oh yeah!”
Gas The guard commander realized that meant preparing gas masks.
He immediately instructed his team members on what he heard from Hyunwook Lee.
“ruler! Everyone wake up and we do our job! “We must protect our citizens!”
Seven station guards are back on duty.
“everyone! Calm down and listen to us!”
Controlling hundreds of people in panic was not easy, but people of this era, who experience gate incidents as a daily occurrence, followed the player’s control without hesitation.
“Okay, we’re going to the third floor right away! We must move slowly and orderly!”
So, we followed hundreds of people up the stairs and moved to the third floor.
Meanwhile, Lee Hyun-wook was smashing metal to suffocate the two poisonous armored spiders while organizing the future route in his head.
‘You had to survive at least two eruptions, the second eruption and the third eruption, before the dome would open.’
however······.
‘There are always hidden paths in games.’
Lee Hyun-wook already knew another way.
***
Unlucky Event The area where those hellish rules were applied was not that large.
Or perhaps it should be said that Seoul Station is incredibly spacious.
“Looking at it, it seems that only the reception room on the second and third floors of Seoul Station is isolated.”
While taking refuge in the reception room on the third floor, one of the station guards said that.
And that assumption was correct.
However, the number of isolated citizens alone seemed to be well over 800.
However, there were only 7 station guards guarding that section… No matter how you look at it, it was the worst situation in which there was no choice but to be annihilated.
It certainly would have happened if an AMT soldier hadn’t appeared out of nowhere and saved them all.
Everyone recognized that fact and thought it was fortunate…
“It’s so fucking shit…”
Yang Joo-seop, one of the citizens stranded there, was not very pleased with Lee Hyun-wook’s appearance.
‘What the hell is that bastard… Why is such a talented person here?’
He glared at Lee Hyun-wook, the player who was suffocating a poisonous armored spider, with blazing eyes.
At the same time, I read a line of system messages floating in the air in my field of vision.
– (!) You have failed to achieve the main quest ‘#1’ goal.
It was about a quest given to him failing, and it was because of Lee Hyun-wook.
‘Oh shit! Where did that bastard suddenly come out of? There’s no way a player with that level of ability could get on the subway or train, so why is he standing at Seoul Station? And that’s AMT…’
Yes.
Yang Joo-seop He was a ‘villain’.
At this point, the existence of the villain has not yet been clearly defined.
An era in which nothing was made public, such as how they were born or what purpose they were active in… Villains were given certain ‘quests’ like this and were eating up the world little by little.
However, Yang Joo-seop was not yet an official villain.
– You are currently a ‘villain candidate’. Perform quests to increase your level!
* Once you have accepted the quest, if you do not perform it properly, it will be ‘game over’.
Not just anyone could become a villain.
First of all, this quest to become a villain candidate was not given to just anyone.
Even if you received the quest, the probability of clearing it was not very high.
I even said it all because the penalty for failing the quest was game over, i.e. death.
Only after completing several life-threatening missions was he able to become an official villain and join a ‘secret organization’ made up of true villains.
In the case of Yang Joo-seop, if he completed just one more quest here today, he would be promoted to an official villain…
“It’s all ruined because of that bastard. If I take the opportunity and stick a knife in the back… Huh?”
He mumbled like that and then was startled for a moment.
It was because I made eye contact with Lee Hyun-wook.
“······.”
He turned his head and was looking directly at Yang Joo-seop.
But there was something strange about his eyes and his pupils.
I felt hostility… no, life inside.
Gulp –
Yang Joo-seop felt a chill down his spine for a moment.
An unexplainable anxiety weighed on him, much stronger than when he made eye contact with an orc during his first gate blockade operation a year ago when he was in E-grade.
‘What is that…is it staring at me?’
I was shocked for a moment without realizing it, but he soon snorted and turned his head away.
“What the fuck do you know? I guess I just happened to find out. Do you think I knew what it was?”
He said that and smiled.
To begin with, the world still doesn’t know the existence of villains.
If I kept my head straight and followed the plan, there was no way I could fail.
Yang Joo-seop thought so and secretly left the group to clear the remaining quests.
