Chapter 48

“B-Boss…! S-Seolhwa is…”

“Mina. I’ll chase after that thing right away, so you wait here.”

“W-What if…”

I tried to reassure Mina, wiping her tear-streaked face with my fingers, but who could have expected this situation? Mina’s sobbing showed no signs of stopping.

“It’s okay. Seolhwa isn’t dead yet.”

Even though she was swallowed whole.

Yeah, whole.

If I can just chase down and kill that monster, I can make it work somehow.

That was the only conclusion my overheated brain could come up with.

…Even if she’s dead, I still need to recover her body.

I threw my bag aside and picked up the steel pipe that had fallen to the ground.

The thing Seolhwa was holding.

Feeling the cold touch of the steel pipe, I looked at Mina.

“I-I’ll…hide well…”

“I’ll be back.”

I wondered if leaving her behind was the right choice…but I couldn’t take her with me.

With a complicated look, I glanced at Mina and then ran in the direction the monster had disappeared.

The direction it went was downward.

So it must be on the first floor, or even lower.

Unfortunately, since it’s not a monster from the original work, I don’t know its habits.

From what I observed last night, it seems to rely on brute force…but who knows.

I forced myself to stay calm and checked the traces the monster left behind.

Blood with a tar-like color and a rotten smell.

Is it injured?

Maybe it’s one of those that survived being hit by a tank yesterday.

To think such a thing was hiding in the hospital…or maybe it smelled us and came here from somewhere else.

I kept speculating as I followed the blood trail, tracking the monster.

The sound of movement still being audible meant it was still on the move. Its location…first floor, or maybe outside.

Either way, the fact that it hadn’t gotten too far was a relief for me. It would’ve been troublesome if it had gone too far.

There wasn’t enough evidence to be sure there was only one.

“Basement level 1…”

There’s a parking lot here too, since it’s a commercial area.

I guess that’s somewhat better.

On the way, I went into any room I saw and grabbed anything that looked useful.

A rusted box cutter.

Sharp pieces of steel.

A sharp rod that looked like a medical tool.

I took anything that could serve as a weapon.

“…Seolhwa should still be alive.”

If it were Mina, survival would’ve been hopeless the moment she was eaten.

But…Seolhwa is different.

Seolhwa’s ability guarantees extreme survivability as long as there’s a food supply.

It’s not for nothing that she was the main villain of an episode in the original work.

Even after taking a fatal wound, she recovered in just two days and fought a second round.

“…Let’s go.”

To save Seolhwa.

———————

The grotesque creature, a mix between a lizard and a nutria, twisted its body and let out a low groan as it felt a piercing sensation inside.

A different reaction from the prey it had eaten so far.

What went wrong?

It felt like it should spit it out immediately, but the monster, even in its dying state, had no intention of letting go of the prey it had barely managed to swallow.

It just crouched in the corner of the parking lot, waiting for it to digest.

Then, an uninvited guest arrived at the parking lot.

“Damn you. Give Seolhwa back.”

At the voice filled with hostility, the monster slowly rose its truck-sized body.

Eyes scattered across its body, like a poorly fused creature, observed the intruder.

A well-built adult male.

But to the monster, it was just another piece of prey.

The man, Park Yi-sak, relied on the light seeping through the collapsed parking lot ceiling to observe the monster.

‘It’s not in perfect condition, after all.’

Blood was flowing from the side of the grotesque creature, leaving a long, bloody trail behind its tail.

Yi-sak slowly rolled his head as he saw one of its legs missing.

‘It’s big. Fighting it head-on would be insane.’

He recalled the monster he had dealt with by dropping an elevator on it.

Half-hearted attacks wouldn’t work.

But…he wasn’t the same person he was back then.

‘I’ll take out its eyes first.’

Yi-sak pulled out a piece of metal from his pocket.

Not a steel ball, but an old, rusty piece of metal that could give you tetanus if you weren’t careful.

That made it even more threatening, but its small size compared to the monster was disappointing.

Still, Yi-sak decided he had to accept that level of uncertainty.

‘Even if it’s Seolhwa, who knows what could happen if it takes too long.’

If it were the Seolhwa from the original work, maybe, but he couldn’t be sure about the current Seolhwa. So, to minimize variables, he had to rescue her as quickly as possible.

At the very least, he needed to buy time.

Yi-sak stepped forward.

He narrowed the distance and rolled his eyes.

‘I need to make the most of the environment.’

What’s the characteristic of a parking lot?

The parked cars and the concrete pillars supporting the ceiling, right?

Yi-sak checked the number of still-intact pillars and extended his hand forward.

First, one shot.

The pieces of metal gathered in his palm scattered like buckshot, piercing through the air.

An attack that a massive body couldn’t dodge.

But the monster’s choice was—predictably—a head-on charge.

The monster’s hide wasn’t something that could be injured by mere pieces of metal.

‘It’s coming.’

Yi-sak used repulsion to bounce his body and hid among the old, rusted cars. A position the monster couldn’t easily penetrate. At the same time, Yi-sak kicked off a pillar and stood upside down on the ceiling.

The ceiling was high enough that the monster couldn’t easily reach him.

As the monster confirmed his position with the eyes on its back and let out a roar, Yi-sak immediately started running across the ceiling.

An inverted view.

A position where the monster couldn’t attack.

Like a dog chasing a chicken looking up at the roof, the monster tried to use the cars as a stepping stone to reach him, but Yi-sak moved too quickly, leaving the monster biting at the air.

With a laugh mixed with frustration, Yi-sak threw the pipe in his hand at the monster’s eye, which had shown a gap.

Infusing it with repulsion to the fullest, the pipe flew like a cannonball, scattering the air as it went.

The steel pipe pierced the eye on the monster’s back and embedded itself into its body.

“!*@&!#(*!!”

“We haven’t even started yet.”

As the monster writhed in pain.

Yi-sak released the gravity keeping him on the ceiling and dropped onto the monster’s body.

It was hard to stand steadily due to the monster’s thrashing, but he stood as if on flat ground and grabbed the pipe.

“Let’s see how deep this can go.”

Repulsion, maximum!

Without any restraint, he poured all his power into the pipe.

A repulsion output that surpassed even his usual limits.

Even as pain surged through his hand, as if it were being crushed from the excessive use of his ability, he didn’t stop.

His hand could be fixed later—

But if he didn’t save Seolhwa quickly, who knows what could happen.

Finally, the pipe dug into the monster’s body until only the very end was visible.

The monster, which must have had pain receptors, began thrashing wildly, smashing cars and pillars. Yi-sak jumped off the monster’s body and pulled off the hood of a relatively intact car.

“Let’s see how long you can last.”

Grabbing the hood with both hands, he spun his body like a shot putter. The monster, writhing in pain from the steel pipe embedded in its body, didn’t notice his actions.

“Take this and die, you damn thing.”

The hood left his hands, spinning like a disc, and flew toward the monster’s torso.

Using repulsion and gravity to fix its direction, he added more power to the throw.

The car hood, now a massive weapon, tore through the monster’s skin and embedded itself.

It didn’t go deep, but in this state, even the monster could guess what kind of attack was coming next. The monster thrashed and pulled out the hood embedded in its body.

“Persistent bastard…”

Yi-sak’s face showed irritation.

‘If one won’t do…’

Then just throw more.

Yi-sak started tearing off nearby objects and throwing them at the monster.

Car parts, hoods, glass shards, pieces of metal retrieved with gravity.

The monster tried to dodge Yi-sak’s barrage, but with its massive size, it wasn’t easy to avoid every attack.

But charging in head-on was a headache-inducing situation.

Yi-sak opened the trunk of a nearby car and pulled out a golf club that still retained its shape.

“You won’t die easily, huh?”

Yi-sak kicked off the ground and charged at the monster.

A seemingly reckless charge.

The monster didn’t miss the opportunity and swung its leg to strike Yi-sak.

But to Yi-sak, who had fought through countless battles, it was a predictable move.

He tilted his body to dodge the attack and swung the golf club, smashing one of the monster’s eyeballs.

A disgusting sensation of something squishy being pierced, accompanied by a roar that pierced his eardrums.

As the monster writhed in pain again, Yi-sak began relentlessly beating its body.

“Die, die, die, die, die! Just die!”

Anger and hatred enveloped his body, eventually condensing into the golf club.

A repulsion force strong enough to crush a person was infused into the golf club, tearing through the monster’s hide.

The wounds it had sustained last night and the accumulated injuries rendered its body unable to function properly.

And then…

“!*@(#&*(#(*!!!”

The monster twisted its body and let out a roar.

And as if something inside was trying to break free, its skin twisted grotesquely.

Yi-sak’s face lit up.

“Seolhwa!”

“Oppa!”

A pale white arm burst out from the wound he had created.

Paler than before, but he was sure it was Seolhwa’s arm. He immediately shoved his arm into the wound and unleashed repulsion on both sides.

The wound, forced open by the immense power, soon became a hole, and from within, the figure of the girl he had been desperately searching for began to appear.

“Oppa!”

Yi-sak hugged Seolhwa as she clung to him, patting her back.

“I was scared…and it tasted bad…”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s get out of here first.”

Yi-sak took off his coat and put it on Seolhwa.

It was only natural—Seolhwa was completely naked, as if she had just been born.

Seolhwa didn’t mind, but Yi-sak couldn’t help but feel uneasy.

“Where’s unnie?”

“She’ll be fine. Let’s hurry up.”

The two left the parking lot, leaving behind the monster that stubbornly clung to life.