After Ten Millennia in Hell

Screams rang throughout the area as buildings burned, and dense clouds of smoke hung in the air.

"M-Mom..."

"C-Come here!"

A middle-aged woman ran while holding the hand of her young son, who was still in elementary school.

"Huff! Huff! M-Mom. I'm... t-tired."

Her son was out of breath.

Upon hearing her son's labored breathing, the woman stopped and turned to look at her son, tightening her grip on his hand.

"Kiieekk!"

Crack! Boom!

"ARRGGHH!!"

Demonic beasts with black skin, sharp teeth, and long claws were charging at people. One of them pounced like a hungry wild animal onto a man who had fallen to the ground, biting off chunks of his neck. A fountain of blood sprayed out from the man's wound as he screamed his last.

The middle-aged woman's face turned deathly pale.

“D-Don't look," she told her son.

"Mom?"

The woman turned her son's head away from the gruesome scene. Then they were running again.

A scorched smell wafted into her nose, and her heart beat so fast that she felt like it was about to explode. However, she couldn't stop running. The moment she stopped, they would become food for the monsters.

'Why is something like this happening again…?'

The memory of a dire moment from her past resurfaced—a scene of people being killed by monsters. It wasn't the first time she had experienced something like this. Five years ago on the Day of Calamity, a Gate suddenly appeared, and waves of monsters emerged from it.

It had been just as hellish back then as it was now. No, it felt much more horrifying now.

The woman muttered, "H-How could something like this..."

Black energy had flown into the area, and those who came into contact with it suddenly contorted and turned into monsters. Even the monster that she had just watched kill a man, had been a young man shopping in a supermarket before all this.

"Huff. Huff. M-Mom, I-I'm too tired. I can't run anymore."

The boy's lips were starting to turn blue. The middle-aged woman bit her lip and carried her son in her arms.

"I'm s-scared," the boy said.

"Huff, huff. Just a bit further. It's okay. Mom will protect you."

The woman kept running for her life. Running by herself was hard enough, but it was impossible to flee from those monsters while carrying her son. It did not take long before a monster had moved right behind her.

Tears dripped from the woman's eyes as she said to her son, "Y-You can run now, right? Go on ahead."

"Mom...?"

"Hurry!"

The middle-aged woman picked up a few rocks from the ground. She knew that she wouldn't be able to fight against monsters with things like these, but if she did nothing, she wouldn't be able to earn enough time for her son to escape.

'Dear God...'

The woman prayed for someone to help her. She hoped for a savior who could rescue them from this hell. She didn't need to be saved; it was enough if her son could be rescued.

"Waaaahhh! Moooom!!"

"Please, run!" the woman shouted.

She threw the rocks at the monster.

Bash!

"Grrrrrk!"

The monster's movements became slowed slightly after being hit with a rock, but that only lasted for a few moments.

Soon after, the monster screeched and leaped. Seeing the monster coming toward her, the woman screamed while raising her arms to protect her body.

Slash!

"Kiieekk!"

Right then, the monster was cleaved in two. A handsome young man wielding a blue sword had killed it.

The woman uttered, "Wh-Who..."

"Evacuate from this place quickly," the young man said softly.

The woman gulped and grabbed her son.

Kim Si-Hun—the young man who had saved the woman—stared at the streets of Isu Station, which had become like hell. It was absolute chaos; people had turned into demonic beasts and were attacking those who were still human.

Si-Hun's hands trembled.

Those demonic beasts had been humans until just a few moments ago. He wasn't sure if he should be killing them.

In his hesitation, Si-Hun recalled what Oh Kang-Woo had told him.

"Listen carefully. People who have turned into demonic beasts can never go back to normal ever again. You can just think of it as they died the moment they were exposed to demonic energy, and that energy is controlling their corpses. They're pretty much undead monsters like zombies and skeletons."

Si-Hun clenched his fists. He bit his lips so hard that blood leaked out.

"Don't hesitate. The damage will spread further each time you hesitate. Use the time you have for hesitating to keep moving. Use the time you have for being sad to swing your sword. Don't get needlessly emotional. Use that time to do as much as you possibly can."

"Okay, hyung-nim," Si-Hun replied to his memory of Kang-Woo, who wasn't with him, and continued making his way through the area.

Riiing.

[Commencing the protector's unique quest.]

[Quest Information: Kill the demonic beasts to eliminate the Rift Fragments (1 / 2789).

Reward: Extreme boost in EXP. Will be distributed among party members in the case that the quest is commenced alongside them.

P.S.: I beg of you, protector. Please put a stop to this so that an even bigger disaster does not occur.]

'This is...'

Si-Hun frowned after reading the message window.

The first thing that he noticed was the huge number of demonic beasts— 2789. It meant that the number of civilians who had turned into demonic beasts had reached four digits.

Given that Isu Station was situated in one of the most populous places in the country, that count was relatively low. However, when considering the value of each civilian's life, that was not a number that could not be taken lightly.

'P.S.?'

Kim Si-Hun tilted his head when he read the last line in the message window. It seemed as if the system had a will of its own. He had never seen anything like this in a system window before, nor had he heard about it before from other players.

'This isn't time for that.'

Regardless, he didn't have time to think about this now. Si-Hun gripped his sword tightly. The damage was increasing while he wasted time.

'Cloud Dragon Steps.'

He concentrated the Qi from his dantian at his feet. A faint haze flowed out of Si-Hun, and he shot forward, parting the haze.

Slash!

"Kiieekk!"

Si-Hun swung his sword and split a monster in two with a single slash.

The demonic beasts weren't strong. They were only as strong as D-rank Orcs. However, that was just from Si-Hun's point of view. For ordinary people, every single demonic beast present was disaster incarnate.

'There are too many of them,' Si-Hun thought. 'I have to be faster!'

He raced through the streets and killed one demonic beast after another. Nevertheless, killing them with just one slash wasn't swift enough for him.

'Faster!'

Si-Hun's body screamed in protest at his excessive strenuous movements, but he ignored the pain and continued spilling the blood of demonic beasts. He could feel that his meridians, which were being overloaded from his Qi circulating at speeds far past the limit, were becoming distorted. Nevertheless, Si-Hun paid no mind to it.

Slash! Slaaaash!

"Kiieekk!!"

He just kept killing more and more. He couldn't even hear what the people he'd saved said.

Si-Hun only concentrated on killing as many demonic beasts as he could. It was as if his sword and his enemies were all that existed in this world.

Riiing.

[You have reached a trance.]

[You have acquired the unique Trait ‘One With the Sword'!]

[You have fulfilled one of the conditions of Metamorphosis!]

The chime of bells rang noisily in his ears.

"Huff, huff," Si-Hun panted heavily.

He finally stopped for a moment and turned to look around him.

"Wh-Whoaaaa!"

"A-A hero!!"

"Thank you! Thank you very much!"

Before Si-Hun even realized it, the people he had saved had gathered behind him. They knew instinctually that the safest place was near Si-Hun.

"... Damn it," Si-Hun cursed under his breath.

It seemed like they had no intention of staying away from him even if he told them to.

Si-Hun looked over at the burning buildings. He could still hear people screaming.

'I knew it. I can't do this by myself...'

He couldn't face thousands of demonic beasts by himself.

"Si-Hun oppa!"

"Si-Hun! It's you, right, Si-Hun?"

"Tae-Soo...? Eun-Bi?"

"I'm here too."

"You too, Seol-Ah? How did you get here so fast...?" Si-Hun wondered.

Then a little girl suddenly approached him.

It was Echidna. At first glance, she looked like a cute little girl, but in reality, she was a dragon like those in myths and legends.

Si-Hun quickly realized how Kang Tae-Soo, Han Seol-Ah, and Choi Eun-Bi had been able to get here so quickly. It wasn't just the three of them though. Cha Yeon-Joo and Baek Hwa-Yeon appeared through the smoke.

"Where's Kang-Woo?" Yeon-Joo asked in a sharp voice.

"Kang-Woo hyung-nim..." Si-Hun began.

He looked at the giant Rift that had appeared in the air. The area around the Rift was covered in black energy, so they couldn't see a thing inside.

Si-Hun concluded, "He headed toward the Rift."

* * *

Kang-Woo stomped on the ground and shot forward, destroying the concrete floor under him in the process. He quickly passed by scenes that were full of demonic energy. The area around the Rift was being eaten away by demonic energy. Seeing that made Kang-Woo feel like he was back in Hell, which he had spent ten painstaking millennia in.

"Ehh? If it ain't Kang-Woo? How didja get here?"

Kang-Woo saw a familiar face right by the Rift.

'Baek Kang-Hyun.'

It was Baek Kang-Hyun, Korea's unprotested number-one ranker. Not even Yeon-Joo nor Jang Hyun-Jae, the captain of Hwarang's first squadron, were a match for him.

Kang-Woo narrowed his eyes as he looked around at what seemed to be the corpses of Players.

"Ya must've run all thuh way here after seein' this weird-ass Rift too. It's dangerous here, so git tuh safety. Ah'll close this Rift.”

Kang-Hyun approached the Rift while laughing in his usual good-natured way.

Despite hearing what Kang-Hyun said, Kang-Woo raised his right arm without stopping his charge.

'Authority of Iron Axes.'

Demonic energy gathered in his right hand and formed a black axe. He merged the Authority of Iron Axes with the Authority of Freezing, and a suffocating chill emitted from the axe.

"Leviathan," Kang-Woo said to activate a skill.

Then he swung the axe toward Kang-Hyun.

Boom!!

There was a thunderous sound as the impact from Kang-Woo's attack sent Kang-Hyun flying backward. The latter's good-natured smile could no longer be seen behind his two arms, which he had used to blow the attack.

"... How did you know?" Kang-Hyun said ferociously.

Kang-Woo raised his axe and replied, "Because there aren't any corpses of demonic beasts in the area."

"..."

"There are corpses of Players, but not the corpses of those that killed them. There's no way a single demonic beast killed this many Players, so it was probably you."

"Wow," Kang-Hyun uttered, his eyes gleaming with great interest.

Kang-Woo rested the axe on his shoulder and said, "Stop the bullshit and put on the mask, bitch."