# 69
069
Who would dare to look at the scene unfolding before their eyes and realize that this place was originally a ‘forest’?
[Oh my god…]
The butterfly girl quietly expressed her admiration as she looked at the field that had been devastated by the dust explosion.
The hard dirt floor was charred and turned over, and the huge trees with deep roots were cruelly uprooted, leaving no trace of them.
It looked closer to a wilderness than a forest.
‘…the scale of the idea is different.’
The butterfly girl took a vain breath as she saw a forest where real ‘explosive smoke’, not dust, was rising.
‘You go beyond killing the enemy and destroy the base where they live…’
The Butterfly Girl is a being who has been given the life of a demonic beast by Daeseong.
Thanks to the cause and effect forcibly instilled in her by the system, she was born with the realization that Daesung was a great being.
but.
This was my first time directly witnessing the true nature of the strength of that great being.
Creeping, shivering –
[Hehehe…]
What is the identity of this shivering feeling that is shaking in my heart?
The pleasure you feel from the fact that an ordinary forest has been transformed into an inferno?
Or is it fear of the Absolute that caused all this chaos?
No, no.
This is ‘reverence’ for the absolute.
And it is ‘shudder’.
‘I exist for this person!’
The butterfly girl was sure.
He said he was willing to sacrifice his body, mind, and soul to Daesung.
He is a person who is fully worth it.
[Master! This reminds me, I will follow my lord for the rest of my life, whether it rains or snows!]
“Really?”
For some reason, Daesung did not show any questions or complaints as to why the butterfly girl was suddenly making such a fuss.
Swish –
Instead, he threw the dagger of judgment that was stuck at his waist at the butterfly girl.
[Hi…!]
When a dagger similar to the size of her body flew out, the butterfly girl struggled and barely managed to catch it.
She asked, struggling to hold onto the handle with both arms.
[My lord… why did you give me a dagger…?]
“It’s a test of loyalty.”
When Daesung raised his finger and pointed somewhere, the butterfly girl’s head also slowly turned.
There, Kid’s charcoal body was strewn across a forest path crackling with embers.
“There must be red gems somewhere inside their bodies. “Go and dig it up.”
[You mean the red gem?]
“Why. no?”
[no! No, that is absurd! I will sing it again. My mission is to mine the red gems that are located somewhere inside the enemies’ bodies!]
“If you understand, go.”
The butterfly girl quickly flew to the place where the body was, sweating profusely but with a truly happy face.
At that time, Daesung felt somewhat satisfied that he had obtained a useful servant.
thud-!
The ground began to shake lightly.
Daesung turned to the epicenter behind him.
thud-!
Every time the giant feet covered in brown fur took a step, the ground shook loudly.
“I was wondering when you would show up.”
Sereung –
Daesung took out the fire-fire greatsword strapped to his back and looked ahead.
And I could see it.
The boss monster at the gate finally appears.
It was a huge monkey, clutching a machete three times larger than an adult man.
Grade 2 boss monster. Manhood.
Kkkkkk-!!
There was very clear anger in its roar.
Anger towards humans who burned down their precious home and killed their comrades!
“I will dig up that damn ether.”
But to Daesung, despite his anger and frustration, he seemed like nothing more than a walking money chain.
Boom boom!
Keekeeeeek-!!
Manhood, who had not even an ounce of reason left, rushed towards Daesung almost as if he had lost his mind.
Hung-!
Muscles exploded from his forearms, which were thicker than the pillars of a giant tree, and the machete, which received all of that power, swung at terrifying speeds.
Ka-ga-ga-ga-!!
However, the Fire Flame Greatsword, which moved faster than that and cut through the air laterally, tore off Manhood’s right shoulder in one go.
Blood spurted out, and Manhood’s right arm, holding the machete, spun around and flew backwards.
Wow!
Before the pain overtook me, my sense of reason, which had been messed up by anger and resentment, regained its proper place a little bit.
Like an ape, Manhood realized.
The fact that the human in front of you is not an enemy you can defeat no matter how you attack him.
Keekeeeeek-!!
This time, in a different way, Manhood screamed as if he had lost his mind and ran away without even looking back.
Even though his entire shoulder and right arm had been torn off, and the flesh was shaking even around his pelvis, the survival instinct that transcended the pain enabled him to kick up his legs.
at that time.
Chin-…
?
Manhood, who was trying to somehow escape from the human in front of him even just a few steps away, felt something strange.
No matter how much strength I put on my feet and how much I struggled with my legs, I didn’t feel like I was moving forward at all.
“Where are you running away to?”
Manhood’s face turned bright blue and he turned around at the sound of a clear voice that showed no change in distance from when he delivered the first blow.
Daesung was holding a handful of the animal’s long tail with his left hand, which was not holding the sword.
“I don’t have time to chase you.”
Wow!
As soon as Manhood was shocked, he let out a cry filled with extreme fear.
Hung-!
Kwazijijijik-!!
This time, the large sword, which had a longitudinal piercing pattern, came down on the top of Manhood’s head, slicing through his solar plexus and abdomen.
Threads of red blood hung thickly between the body that was split in two.
[Ugh…]
The butterfly girl narrowed her eyes weakly, turned her head away, and then concentrated on digging for ether.
***
“You’re skipping lunch?”
KHA headquarters.
A few minutes before lunch time, a senior employee asked with wide eyes.
Nod.
Oh Jae-ik showed a slightly uncomfortable look above the smile on his face.
“Oh, is it because of the late night snack I ate yesterday? “I felt a little strange since I left for work.”
“For some reason, your expression seemed unusual earlier, huh… then what should I do? Jae-ik, are you sure you don’t have to eat lunch?”
“yes. Don’t worry about me, everyone go and come back. “I need to go to the bathroom and empty my stomach or something.”
“Well then, there’s nothing we can do. “If you feel like you’re having a hard time, take some medicine in the break room and get some rest, Jaeik.”
“yes. “Wow….”
Oh Jae-ik got up from his seat and left the office, clutching his stomach.
Since he had built a good image with his sincere personality, his colleagues were looking at Oh Jae-ik with worried eyes.
Jae-ik
Oh suddenly entered the bathroom, closed the door, and headed toward the cubicle in the far corner.
“….”
Oh Jae-ik’s expression, standing in front of the toilet, was so peaceful as if it had never been that way.
No, it was just expressionless. He
slowly
stretched out his hands.
It was not intended to raise the lowered toilet cover.
widely.
As if in a pantomime, his hands seemed to be grasping empty space.
And the moment he flexes his forearms and spreads his arms.
Ahhhh-
the atmosphere began to split wide to the left and right, as if a transparent membrane was being torn apart.
A vivid black darkness lurked in the gap.
“….”
Oh Jae-ik, who was glaring at the darkness, stuck out his head.
like that.
As his body disappeared into the darkness, cracks disappeared everywhere.
“Whoa…”
He let out a long, quiet breath as he threw himself into the world beyond the darkness.
My muscles were shaking and I felt dizzy.
“It’s not normal to go back and forth here and there.”
Oh Jae-ik muttered, patting his throbbing head and steadying his breathing.
And then I looked ‘up’.
“Okay, where…”
It was the inside of a ‘tower’-like place that was completely empty except for the stairs and railings installed at the edge.
In a place where the distance to the top is so far away that you can’t see the ceiling.
Grrrr-
Kiik-!
Countless monsters were standing inside the railing, sticking their heads out and letting out bloody cries.
Oh Jae-ik looked up at the monster and asked in a light tone.
“How many sacrifices were made?”
***
I knew this for the first time.
That human joints can bend in that direction.
no.
Was he forced to break it?
Crump!
The last remaining new member’s neck was bent in a direction it shouldn’t have been.
“omg! omg…!”
Tears were welling up in Kang Ki-beom’s eyes as he hit his butt and was struggling to breathe.
I was familiar with the sight of people dying because I had seen it many times.
It was not a simple death of being cut by a knife or being shot, but a cruel death of having one’s flesh torn off and eaten by a predator called a monster.
But hunters have to get used to it.
When it’s time to look away from death, you must come to your senses and kill the predator.
Because that was the mission and sorrow of the hunter profession.
And Kang Ki-beom, an A-class hunter, knew this fact very well and put it into practice.
But this time the case was different.
“What what…! “What on earth is happening now…!”
No matter how many times he experienced mountain and mountain air combat, this was his first time experiencing something like this.
The situation in which members who were alive and well and having conversations suddenly found themselves twisting, bending, squeezing, and dying.
“What the fuck…. What on earth are we going to do now?!”
Kang Ki-beom screamed like he was half out of his mind.
In the blink of an eye, twelve new members died.
It’s so cruel that it’s hard to open your eyes and look at it, with the joints bent strangely, like a ball-jointed doll whose strings have been cut.
The reason he was able to muster the courage to face the predator despite facing the death of his colleague was because the enemy was at least ‘visible’.
But now it was different.
In the face of an unknown fear that he could not resist, Kang Ki-beom could only shed tears helplessly.
‘Change… Could it be that the mutation entered the gate? Are you unlucky?’
Kang Ki-beom shed tears and increased his Auror output.
However, there was no change in the wavelength of the gate itself or any change in atmospheric components.
‘It’s not a mutation gate… Then what on earth is this… There’s no way something like this could happen at a level 4 gate…!’
That was when Kang Ki-beom, who sensed that something was wrong, quickly tried to get up.
Slurp-
“Huh?”
Jet-black dust-like things gathered in front of him and slowly began to take the shape of a person.
Facing an unidentifiable phenomenon, Kang Ki-beom was able to intuit it even though he was speechless.
“This is…”
It is not the fact that dust gathers and takes the shape of a person, but that something that was ‘hidden’ in a transparent form is slowly coming out of hiding.
The ‘thing’ that appeared floating in the air landed on the ground as lightly as a feather and suddenly said
:
“Your skills aren’t that bad. “It’s too bad to sacrifice you.”
***
Daesung, who collected Manhood’s ether, felt the forest shaking.
It was none other than a sign that the gate was about to close.
‘Gedrak and Dolph will take care of it, but… I’m worried about the rest.’
Now that this was resolved, it was necessary to check whether the suppression of other gates was progressing smoothly.
Daesung spoke to the butterfly girl who was whining and throwing the mined ether into subspace.
“let’s go.”
[Ha, I still have to do all the missions my lord ordered-]
“That’s it. “Because I’m not so leisurely that I’m taking care of each and every one of these guys’ ether cores.”
[ah! Yes, yes!]
The butterfly girl’s face lit up when she finally realized that the tiring labor was over.
The two returned to reality through the place they came from.
“omg!”
The person who let out a loud expression of astonishment was the soldier who had been waiting in front of the gate.
It must have only been 20 minutes since Daesung entered the gate, but does he already clear it?
As expected, the soldier was surprised by his incredible skills, just as he had heard.
“20 minutes… well, compared to last time, it took a bit longer.”
Likewise, Seong Chan-ho, who had been waiting for Daesung to come out, looked at him from the driver’s seat and nodded as if he was now used to it.
Daesung didn’t pay any attention to the two’s reactions and took out his cell phone.
The purpose was to access the KHA site and check the current gate clearing status in Seongnam City.
But at this time.
-Master.
Suddenly, a heavy and low voice rang in his head.
It was the voice of Commander Dolph, who was currently in the midst of attacking a level 3 survival gate.
“what’s the matter.”
– Well… there is a problem.
“problem?”
When he heard the word ‘problem’, Daesung felt something was out of the ordinary and wiggled his eyebrows.
Meanwhile.
“Why is he talking to himself over there like a crazy person?”
Embarrassment appeared on Seong Chan-ho’s face as he looked at Daesung from afar.
From a third party’s perspective, it looked like Daesung was muttering something to himself.
Seong Chan-
ho, who pressed the button to lower the driver’s window, craned his neck and shouted.
“Hey! If you’re done, hurry up-”
But the moment when Seong Chan-ho finished speaking did not come.
Flap-!
Suddenly, black dragon wings appeared behind Daesung’s back.
Daesung hit the ground as if he was pushing, jumped into the sky and flew somewhere.
“Why is that guy acting like that all of a sudden?”
Seong Chan-ho looked up at the sky with a bewildered expression.