Chapter 14
Dead Bees were relatively low in durability, but because they possessed the tricky ability of Mana Absorption, when they swarmed, even Lee Eunho would have a hard time.
Even more so with the burdens of me and Do Minyeong.
Therefore, facing them on an isolated rooftop was a foolish decision.
Even if we were to fight, getting Do Minyeong to a safe place first was the priority.
Under that judgment, I hastily stopped Lee Eunho, who was about to fight.
He quickly recognized the disadvantage of the situation, and we took refuge in the basement of a building according to my opinion.
“So there was a place like this.”
“Yeah, kids from our division said there was a hideout here. ……I just happened to overhear it, though.”
A poor excuse.
I looked around as if it was the first time I had ever been here.
The place where we took cover was a space of about 8 pyeong, hidden in the corner of the top-floor building's underground parking lot.
Simply put, it was a secret hideout where cadets would sneak into when they were slacking off.
The hideout, having been built to avoid the instructors' eyes, had a narrow entrance and a sturdy door.
Of course, it would not be completely safe from the mana-reacting Dead Bees, but it was undoubtedly the best place available in the current situation.
“For now, it’s best to lay her down on this sofa.”
Lee Eunho laid Do Minyeong on an old sofa.
As he did, old dust rose up, and he quickly moved far away from the sofa.
“Because of the static electricity. If I’m close, the dust will keep flying around.”
A disadvantage of the lightning attribute that was not much of a disadvantage.
I nodded as if in understanding and knelt on the floor in front of the sofa.
Do Minyeong’s body temperature was very high.
So high that I thought the back of my hand touching her forehead might get burned for a moment.
Even looking with the Demonic Eye I used for a moment, the mana in her body was unstable, and she was feeling a severe cold all by herself in this small, hot hideout.
Furthermore, there was fresh blood flowing from the corners of her mouth that had not yet dried. It did not seem to be an external wound; it looked like she had vomited blood once while escaping earlier.
“How is her condition?”
I pulled my sleeve and wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth as I answered.
“The worst. If this continues any longer, she might have aftereffects even if she’s treated.”
“So there’s a possibility of treatment……”
A possibility…….
In truth, it was hard to be certain about her condition.
In the original work, there was no description of Do Minyeong vomiting blood.
This was probably also a setting intervention by the devoted reader.
It was difficult to clearly grasp their intention, but it was clear that they were trying to increase the episode’s difficulty by worsening Do Minyeong’s condition.
……By the way, is this what they call ‘kill the heroine before she becomes one’?
I let out a self-deprecating sigh and said.
“Treatment is a secondary problem. If we just wait indefinitely for the power source, Do Minyeong will die first.”
“…….”
“In the end, if we don’t escape the training ground on our own, avoiding the swarming insects, we won’t even be able to save our own lives, let alone treat her.”
Lee Eunho bit his lower lip firmly.
A habit of his when revealing a troubled heart.
If he had his way, he would want to wipe out all the Dead Bees, but realistically, the risk was too great.
Especially since he had seen that their numbers were in the hundreds when he last checked before entering the hideout.
Even if Lee Eunho managed to annihilate the monsters on his own, the situation would not change unless the power source was restored.
Unless someone outside the training ground divined our crisis, the best option was to hide in the hideout like this and watch Do Minyeong die.
“……This is fucking ridiculous, really.”
“I agree.”
Originally, Do Minyeong would have drunk the antidote by now.
Also, Hong Dahee would have been captured and used to reveal Park Oseok’s accomplice.
For reference, the extra who had teamed up with Do Minyeong and drunk the poison in the original work had lost their life to Hong Dahee.
The character was so minor that I could not even remember their name.
“Did I even give them a name in the first place…….”
“Huh?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
I stood up from the floor and carefully sat on the armrest of the sofa.
Then I thought about the true intentions of Park Oseok’s accomplice.
No matter how much it was a setting intervention, it was absurd for Dead Bees to just pop up in the training ground.
If they were truly a ‘devoted reader,’ there was no way they would enjoy a story without at least a minimal sense of cause and effect.
In this case, it had to be that Park Oseok’s accomplice smuggled Dead Bee eggs into the training ground.
They could probably control the hatching time of the eggs by periodically injecting mana.
“…….”
But why on earth did they go so far as to sacrifice Hong Dahee?
Could it be that they had gauged Lee Eunho’s abilities to be greater than in the original work…….
It was not an entirely far-fetched possibility.
The Park Oseok of this world had been exposed to the shard of greed for a longer time and had used a stronger power than in the original.
According to this reasoning, Park Oseok’s accomplice had hidden the Dead Bees in the training ground to ensure a certain outcome.
Also, based on the fact that it was difficult to distinguish between the corpses of Demonic Beings and Ghouls, they must have intended to pin everything on Hong Dahee.
And they themselves would have planned to hide deeper within the Hero Preparatory School.
In the end, it was a result that had spread because I had helped Lee Eunho defeat Park Oseok.
The devoted reader had added flesh to the cause and effect that had gone awry because of me.
Well, anyway, no matter what I did, I had to produce the same result as the original work.
Survive in this training ground, heal Do Minyeong, and reveal the identity of Park Oseok’s accomplice.
Anymore, at least in this episode, the process did not matter.
“Haa…….”
I drifted through my thoughts for a long time.
Several strategies came to mind along the way, but they were useless without dealing with the Dead Bees.
……Should I just act crazy and send Lee Eunho out?
No, against hundreds of Dead Bees, it would be difficult to last even five minutes.
“Five minutes……”
I checked the time.
The current time was 5:47 PM.
About 30 minutes until sunset…….
“……!”
Sunset.
Recalling that word, I clenched both my fists.
Damn it, why didn’t I think of this from the beginning?
Before being insectoid monsters, Dead Bees were a modified species of undead that craved mana.
A species with a weakness to the light attribute and sunlight for reasons different from Demonic Beings.
In other words, if we broke the ceiling of the training ground at sunset, they would naturally be defeated by the sunlight.
Because sunset, along with sunrise, was the only time sunlight entered the Seoul grounds.
Moreover, this building was a top-floor building where the ceiling was closer than the barrier.
The ground above this place was a park used as a rest area, and since all the cadets were in class right now, it was no different from an empty lot.
In my haste, I cut out all the preceding and succeeding explanations and spat out the words.
“Let’s collapse the ceiling!”
“Ah…… what?”
At that, Lee Eunho made a rare negative expression.
He was probably concerned that the training ground was built with materials specialized in mana resistance.
But that was not a big problem.
It was effective in resisting mana, not that mana could not get through at all.
“What if we can weaken the ceiling’s mana resistance?”
“……If that’s possible, it would be the fastest way to cure the poison.”
Lee Eunho pressed for an answer.
“But how on earth?”
There was not much to how.
I was planning to use the Bind ability I had.
Bind could restrict the movement of a target connected by shadow, and even restrict the flow of its mana.
In other words, neutralizing the target.
As long as the materials used for the ceiling were items with mana, they were no exception to Bind.
Therefore, if Bind could weaken the mana resistance even for a moment, Lee Eunho’s electric shock would penetrate the gap and tear off the entire ceiling.
Because he was a monster I had created.
The problem now was how to persuade Lee Eunho…….
It seemed that mentioning the Demonic Eye, just as I did with Yun Jeongseop, would be the most effective.
Since I did not need to pretend to be a non-awakened to him while proceeding with the episode anyway.
“Lee Eunho.”
Having finished my thoughts, I faced Lee Eunho and opened my Demonic Eye.
“Listen carefully. I’m only going to say this once.”
***
The operation was carried out immediately.
Lee Eunho headed to the next building first, and I carried Do Minyeong on my back and ran towards the rooftop of the building where the hideout was.
The height of each building was about seven stories, as they were underground facilities.
By the time I reached the rooftop, panting, Lee Eunho was already on the rooftop of the next building, releasing electric shocks in all directions.
“That’s some murderous mana……”
Naturally, the Dead Bees swarmed towards Lee Eunho, chasing the mana, and were fried by his electric shocks, falling away.
ZAP, ZAP, ZAP!
It was a unique sight you could not see even if you paid for it.
However, I could not be completely at ease.
No matter how strong Lee Eunho was, there was a limit to releasing electric shocks in all directions without any blind spots.
“……About a few dozen seconds.”
To be blunt, the number of Dead Bees gathering from afar was far greater than the number of Dead Bees falling down.
If Lee Eunho were to let his guard down even for a moment, the Dead Bees would not miss the opening and would jab their stingers into his flesh.
Without delay, I undid one of the clips of the ‘Suspenders of the Brilliant Manager.’
Then, I used it to clip Do Minyeong’s clothes and carried her tightly on my back.
“Just endure a little longer……. It’d be unfair to die without even awakening your ability.”
The height to the ceiling was about 8m.
The effective radius of Bind was about 10m.
Distance-wise, it was a position where I could use Bind, but the shadow was greatly distorted by Lee Eunho’s electric shock.
I undid one more clip and threw it towards the ceiling with all my might.
Then, the suspender strap stretched out and fixed itself accurately to the ceiling.
The ability of the suspender’s clip was to fix onto any object.
The thin, long shadow of the suspender strap held onto the ceiling without wavering, even in Lee Eunho’s light.
I followed the shadow and used Bind.
The target was the surface of the ceiling connected to the clip.
“……Hmph!”
For a moment, an indescribable headache arose.
I lost my balance and almost fell to the ground, but I grabbed the suspender and used Bind again.
The headache was not due to a lack of mana.
It was simply because the scale of the target was too large to maintain Bind with a mere 10 points in the intellect stat.
It was also because the mana resistance item used on the ceiling was of a higher grade than my level.
And I was not yet used to using mana.
“……!”
Before I knew it, a bluish-white mana was pulsating greatly on the opposite rooftop, visible from the corner of my eye.
A light source so bright it felt like my eyes would go blind just by looking at it directly…….
Even without using my Demonic Eye, I could clearly see a huge amount of mana being condensed.
I knew that.
Thousand Strikes, which I had described countless times while writing the original work.
Lee Eunho’s ultimate attack in the early stages, which condensed a significant amount of his mana for a certain period and released it.
Watching that clear blue light expand thickly with high-voltage electricity, I clicked my tongue without realizing it.
“Monster……”
But this was no time for admiration.
The problem with this plan was after the ceiling was broken.
As soon as I judged that the expanding mana had reached its proper time, I restricted the mana of the bound ceiling and shouted with all my might.
“Lee Eunhoooo!”
Then, as if it had been waiting, a shimmering blue light…….
VROOOOOOOM……!
KRA-KOOM!
In an instant, a pillar of indescribable light rushed fiercely towards the ceiling.
CRRRRAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSHHHH─.
***
The Hall of Faith, the main building of the Support Division.
A large stone statue modeled after a gracefully sculpted angel in its rooftop garden.
Tactical Instructor Lee Gangju was leisurely enjoying the sunset under the shade of the statue’s wings.
“Hey Gen, I told you the work is proceeding without any problems.”
Sunlight was poison to Demonic Beings, but there was no place where one could feel as much thrill as the borderline between the sunlight reaching one’s toes and the shade.
Especially in a moment of being intoxicated with victory like now.
─I was just advising you not to be careless.
“Hey, have you become a coward from living among humans? It’s only been 80 years since we crossed the rift.”
At a glance, it seemed like Lee Gangju was talking to himself while looking at the empty air.
But he was talking while holding a feature phone that would have been used in the 20th century.
To be precise, a flip-style mobile phone with a thick antenna.
─You know very well how much it costs to smuggle the Dead Bee eggs, don’t you? If you fail this time, even I will have a hard time defending you unconditionally.
“Ha! How much, you say. You seem to have become thoroughly engrossed in human civilization. Value is not important. We just take what we want. Wasn’t that our creed?”
─Creed……. Are you still holding on to that? We are not going back beyond the rift. Whether we like it or not, we have to adapt here.
“Damn it. I’m sick and tired of that soft way of thinking……. Huh?”
It was then.
The ground began to shake.
RUUUMBLE!
Emergency alarms blared from all directions.
─What, what’s going on! What’s happening!
An urgent question could also be heard from over the receiver.
Lee Gangju, without a moment to answer, turned his head towards the rumbling of the ground.
A place where the ground was collapsing in real time along with a short pillar of light.
‘That location is…….’
It was undoubtedly the 5th Tactical Training Ground, where the power source restoration was in full swing.
Was there a possibility that the ground would suddenly collapse in his scheme?
For example, a monster other than Dead Bees had multiplied, or an abnormality had occurred in the power source being restored, causing an explosion…….
No, that possibility was slim.
Rather, in this case…….
─Hey! What the hell is going on!
“……Lee Eunho.”
It was more accurate to see it as the ability of Lee Eunho, who had been trapped inside the training ground.
Lee Gangju irritably closed his phone.
He had to run away.
If their testimonies followed, the plan to use Hong Dahee as a sacrifice would be ruined.
With that thought, he looked around, but…….
Except for the statue, there were no shadows left to step on.
“Holy, shit.”
The rapidly setting sunlight grazed Lee Gangju’s cheek through the shadow of the statue.