NOVEL NEXT Chapter 72
Chapter 72: School
Early in the morning, Yoo Ji-han arrived near the office by taxi, just like any other day.
The only difference today was that he deliberately didn’t get off right in front of the office.
He was in the mood for a bit of morning exercise and wanted to walk a little.
‘Si-hoo said he’ll choose the MA.’
There had been various happenings outside the MA, like visiting the museum for the Queen Goemi delivery and unexpectedly forming ties with the Sky Shelter.
It was about time to unfold the party’s next activity.
There are plenty of Rank 4 MAs around the metropolitan area, so he just had to pick a place to work.
‘Come to think of it, should heroes be happy there are monsters…?’
Heroes are fundamentally beings meant to respond to monsters and intruders.
Conversely, if those things disappear, heroes become less necessary.
In various comics and novels, there exist villains so that heroes can rise.
But if the villains vanish, wouldn’t the purpose of the heroes also fade?
‘A world without monsters.’
In a world devoid of villains, how would powerful heroes be treated afterwards?
Many predictions could be made, but it was still an unknown story.
‘Maybe they’ll be used for this world development.’
In every country, including the United States and Japan, they have only been observing the phenomenon of entering this world from Earth so far.
However, rumors circulating on the internet say that many research institutes are investigating ways to travel from Earth to this other world.
If realized, humans from Earth could become invaders of this world.
A challenge towards a new world overflowing with resources and opportunities!
Perhaps one day, traveling to this other world might come true.
‘This is interesting.’
Yoo Ji-han walked along the street, enjoying his own musings.
This was a habit he had formed back when he was with the Kim Hyun-tae party.
At that time, even when putting on equipment, he would change at the office, hiding himself as much as possible in front of those who weren’t party members.
Perhaps because of this, he often found himself lost in his thoughts.
That habit continued even after leaving the Kim Hyun-tae party.
“…?”
But then, something caught his attention.
Yoo Ji-han sensed a presence nearby and stopped in his tracks.
Screech—
Screech—
He concentrated all his senses on the sounds he heard.
This was different from the sound of footsteps made when shoes hit the ground.
Swoosh—!
Something that had appeared from behind attacked Yoo Ji-han from his back.
Slash!
Drawing his sword, Yoo Ji-han swiftly turned around and slashed at the enemy.
The badly wounded creature tumbled to the ground.
“Goene?!”
Yoo Ji-han couldn’t help but be surprised as he recognized the creature he had attacked.
It was a long body with several jointed appendages attached, and it had at least 25 pairs of short, thin legs—50 in total—a creature that was nothing but a giant centipede turned monster.
‘Goene isn’t supposed to spawn around here…’
It was surprising to encounter a Goene in broad daylight.
Due to their nature of staying underground or in soil-rich areas, it wasn’t easy to encounter them on the streets of a city like this.
Yoo Ji-han quickly called Kim Si-hoo.
“Si-hoo.”
—Hyung! A monster has appeared in the office building!
“What?!”
—I’ll call you back later!
Click.
It seemed urgent since the call abruptly ended.
Just as Yoo Ji-han was about to dash towards the office, he heard a rustling sound from above.
Shhh—
He looked up towards the high sky.
A transparent, bluish curtain-like barrier was spreading wide from the ground to the sky.
“It’s a barrier.”
He was witnessing the real-time emergence of a barrier.
The barrier that arose quite close to where Yoo Ji-han stood merged with another approaching barrier, forming a large, round shape.
It was quite a sizable barrier just by looking at it.
Bzzz—!
[An emergency MA has been declared within a 3 km radius!]
[Confirmed monsters to date: Unidentified]
[Distance from current location to MA: -13m]
[We ask for the cooperation of many heroes for rapid regional stabilization.]
An emergency MA alert pinged on his mobile phone.
The distance to the MA was -13m.
If a distance less than 0m appeared, it meant they had already entered it.
‘An emergency MA…’
When the Hero Department hastily declared an MA due to unfavorable circumstances, it is considered an emergency MA.
Because of the unknown dangers, only parties of Rank 3 and above are allowed entry into the MA.
Rank 5 heroes are included in the evacuation targets along with citizens, and evacuation is recommended even for Rank 4 if possible.
“Everyone! We need to get away from here quickly!”
“Let’s get outside!”
The area was chaotic with people trying to escape the MA.
As the barrier was hastily formed, its strength was likely weak, so it wouldn’t be a problem to exit from places other than the entrance.
“…”
According to regulations, Rank 4 heroes should evacuate here with the citizens.
However, Yoo Ji-han ran straight towards the office of Sweet Fun where Kim Si-hoo was.
*
[Wind Arrow]
Multiple magic arrows flew toward the Giant Cat Monster.
“Meow!”
The giant cat monster jumped around to avoid the arrows.
But even with such movements, an arrow eventually struck its head.
“Everyone, keep up!”
Kim Si-hoo was leading the people residing in the same building outside.
Since Sweet Fun was the only guild in this building, he had no choice but to take responsibility for the entire group alone.
They quickly descended the stairs and reached the door on the 1st floor.
As Kim Si-hoo glanced outside, he clenched his teeth.
“Yaaahk!”
“Shiiiy—!”
Numerous monsters were already surrounding the building.
“Ugh…!”
“There are too many!”
While he might find a way out alone, seven terrified civilians were trembling behind him.
Moreover, if a monster charged in, the glass doors could shatter at any moment.
But he couldn’t just stand still.
“I’m going out anyway!”
“Really?!”
“We can’t survive long just waiting here!”
Just as he resolved to open the door wide—
“Si-hoo!”
“Hyung!”
Yoo Ji-han arrived just in time.
The monsters’ gazes turned towards Yoo Ji-han, who stood alone outside.
“Be careful!”
Whoosh!
[Haste]
Yoo Ji-han summoned a Sylph, buffing his body and dashed through the monsters.
He quickly slashed down four monsters with his sword.
Upon reaching the entrance of the building, he turned his body to keep watch of his surroundings.
‘If they come closer, they’re dead.’
His sword dripped with the mixed blood of various monsters.
The growling monsters were cowed by his aura and dared not approach.
In the meantime, Kim Si-hoo and the others exited the building.
“Let’s go to the entrance.”
“Okay!”
Even in an emergency MA, there’s always an entrance.
While aiming at the monsters that looked eager to charge, Yoo Ji-han led the people toward the confirmed entrance on the MA map.
“This way!”
As they got closer to the entrance, they saw other heroes.
Most were heroes affiliated with the Incheon branch of the Hero Department.
Though not many in number, they were sufficient to protect the people he brought along.
“Which guild are you from?!”
“The party of Yoo Ji-han from Sweet Fun.”
The expression of the Hero Department staff member, who was tapping on the broad tablet screen with a digital pen, scrunched up.
On the screen, Yoo Ji-han’s party appeared as a Rank 4 party.
According to regulations, they should have been sent away, but right now it was an urgent situation.
Yoo Ji-han spoke to the staff member, who appeared worried.
“We’ll help too.”
“Still…!”
“This isn’t the time to hesitate.”
“…Understood. Then let’s consider the Yoo Ji-han party as not having met here.”
“I understand what you mean.”
In an emergency MA, the staff of the Hero Department would agree that they hadn’t met the Yoo Ji-han party.
This meant they would permit them to act independently without following regulations.
Of course, once this situation was resolved, an investigation would likely reveal everything.
The Hero Department staff member, who lowered his head, ran to guide the citizens who had reached the entrance.
“Hyung, there are way too many MAs around.”
Kim Si-hoo showed Yoo Ji-han his phone screen displaying the MA map.
There were four emergency MAs shown within a 3 km radius.
Beep—
His phone buzzed with an alert, indicating another MA had occurred nearby.
The number of MAs was steadily increasing in real-time.
“P-please save me…!”
“…!”
At that moment, a blood-soaked man staggered towards the two.
It was a young male student with a heavy backpack on his back.
Yoo Ji-han rushed to the student and caught him before he collapsed.
“Stay with me!”
“Urgh…”
There were serious wounds all over his body!
The male student, presumably having hurried from school, began foaming at the mouth and fainted.
“Come this way!”
Yoo Ji-han loaded the bloodied student onto an ambulance waiting nearby.
His palm turned red from the student’s blood as he helped carry him onto the stretcher.
With a sorry expression, Kim Si-hoo picked up a middle school textbook that had fallen on the ground and said,
“I think I know which school that uniform belongs to.”
“Lead me there.”
*
Yoo Ji-han and Kim Si-hoo raced towards the nearby middle school.
The fainted male student’s uniform belonged to that school.
Bang! Bang!
Outside the middle school declared as an MA, a hero was already engaged in battle.
Yoo Ji-han joined him to deal with the monsters blocking their way.
“Thank you!”
“Let’s go inside!”
They entered the school yard together.
The large yard was filled with monsters.
From commonly seen Giant Cat Monsters to the Goene that had attacked Yoo Ji-han, and even several Giant Monsters were mixed in.
“Ahhhh! Help!”
“…!”
A man was running across the yard toward Yoo Ji-han’s group.
The heroes calmed him down after defeating the monsters.
‘This is strange…’
Yoo Ji-han frowned as he surveyed the monsters filling the yard.
A combination of Giant Monsters and Giant Cat Monsters.
It was unheard of for such incompatible creatures to appear in the same place at the same time.
“Ah! There are students who just arrived at school!”
“Are you a teacher here?”
“Yes, yes!”
Fortunately, the man who survived was a physical education teacher at that middle school.
“How many floors are the students on?”
“Uh… I’m not sure.”
“Too bad. We’ll head inside.”
“That’s too dangerous!”
“There’s no better option right now.”
Yoo Ji-han left the PE teacher in the care of the hero who was fighting in front of the school and dashed into the main building.
Though monsters kept obstructing his path, the really troublesome monsters were not yet in sight.
‘Not on the 1st floor.’
The two checked through the glass doors of the building to see if any students were present.
Unfortunately, there were no students on the 1st floor, where the first-years were located.
“Break down the front door!”
[Wind Lance]
As Yoo Ji-han shouted, a massive wind spear formed in front of the school’s entrance.
Kim Si-hoo swung his staff with all his might, sending the spear surging toward the monsters blocking the door.
Crashhhh—!
Filled with magical energy, the Wind Lance effortlessly tore through the obstructing monsters, creating a narrow path.
Dust arose from the magical backlash, filling the school’s entrance.
Without any hesitation, Yoo Ji-han’s party jumped into the dust.