Chapter 571

Busan.

Before and after the Great Cataclysm, it had been one of the three most populous cities in the country.

A very long time ago, a handsome, clever elementary school student on a family trip to Busan spent his nights practically glued to the window.

“Taekyung, what are you looking at?”

“That leg! It’s sparkling! It’s pretty!”¹

“Whoa, you’re right. Is she a fit model?”

“…Not that kind of leg, Dad.”

“Oh.”

“That bridge over there! The long, sparkly one!”

“Aha. Gwangan Bridge?”

“Gwangan Bridge? What’s that?”

“It’s the name of that bridge. You saw it earlier, but it’s even prettier at night, isn’t it?”

“Yeah! I want to go! Take me to Gwangan Bridge right now!”

My father looked at his demanding young son as though he couldn’t have loved him more.

“Oh, my boy. Your dad’s exhausted from driving all day, and look at you thinking only of yourself. Who did you get that from?”

“Then can I ask Mom what a fit model is?”

“…You really are my son. Pack your bag.”

It was one of the moments I would never forget. Walking hand in hand with my dejected father to Gwangan Bridge left a vivid impression on my young mind.

The bridge was impossibly huge and glittering. Beside me was my father, who was always too busy for us to spend much time together.

I even got him to carry me on his shoulders by threatening him, despite his complaints about a bad disc in his neck. What more could I have wanted?

“Dad, let’s come back next week! And the week after that! And next month too! You have to carry me on your shoulders again!”

“Haha. What am I going to do? If we do what you want, I don’t think I’ll make it here next month.”

“Why?”

“Because at this rate, my neck will break the week after next. How many bowls of rice have you been eating a day lately, Taekyung?”

“I haven’t had much of an appetite, so only five!”

“……That’s my good boy. No wonder the night sky looked yellow.²”

It was a happy memory. We talked about all sorts of things that day, and when we got back to the hotel, I excitedly told my little sister Hayeon and Mom all about it.

Watching me, my father rubbed his neck, gave a quiet laugh, and made a promise.

“When Hayeon’s a little older and you’re in middle school, let’s come back to see the ocean. All right?”

“Really?”

“Of course. Here—promise.”

He never got to keep that promise.

As his two children grew, there were more and more expenses. When my mother fell ill from pushing herself too hard at her side job, my father grew busier still.

Then, on an ordinary day, an extraordinary accident took his life.

But I remembered his promise.

My father was no longer with us, yet even after more than twenty years, the Gwangan Bridge I’d seen as a child remained vividly etched in my mind.

And now—

Ruuuumble.

Gwangan Bridge was collapsing before my eyes.

“Ah.”

A sigh escaped between my lips before I could stop it.

My mind screamed at me to get over there with everything I had, but my body wouldn’t move. It was as if an invisible hand held me in place.

It’s… already too late.

I wasn’t the only one thinking it.

The Skeleton King, who had come with me, and the mage who had brought us here watched with exhausted eyes as the disaster unfolded several kilometers³ away.

“N-no!”

The cry of the mage whose name I did not know was hollow, and the scene spread out in the distance below us was overwhelming.

That’s…

A wave.

A wave dozens of meters⁴ high had struck the place where my father’s promise could never be kept, the bridge crossed by thousands—tens of thousands—of vehicles every day.

Whoooosh!

Carrying tremendous weight and force, the wave slammed into the middle of Gwangan Bridge, a suspension bridge thirty-five meters⁵ high and 7,420 meters⁶ long.

Spray burst in every direction, and screams were swallowed by blinding white foam. Hundreds of cars cruising along at the speed limit were flung away like toys.

Boom! Crash!

With a deafening roar, the suspension bridge’s towers and anchors shattered.

Hundreds of cables snapped. No longer holding up the bridge, they became gigantic whips lashing out in every direction.

Whoooooosh—boom!

It happened in an instant.

People and cars that looked like ants were swept away by the cables and vanished.

Red blood flowed where they had stood, unable even to leave a final scream behind. Chain explosions, the screams of those who had survived by sheer luck, and the frantic blaring of car horns all reached my heightened senses.

Honk! Hooooonk!

“Back up! Back the fuck up, you bastard!”

“Aaaaaaah!”

“Please! Please get my child out! There’s a kid here……!”

I felt dazed, as though I were dreaming.

An advanced civilization built on magic and science was crumbling like a sandcastle.

Gwangan Bridge, which held my childhood memories, collapsed beneath the weight of destruction and death. Those who survived abandoned their cars and ran for their lives, crying desperately for someone to help them.

“Save me! Please save me!”

“Mommy!”

Their screams woke me from where I stood frozen like a statue.

“Ah.”

I had to save them. I had to stop this disaster.

I’d been still for only a few dozen seconds, but hundreds had already died. If I hesitated any longer, thousands—tens of thousands—would die.

Smack!

I slapped both cheeks as hard as I could. The sharp pain brought me back to my senses.

I spat out the blood from my split mouth and grabbed the Skeleton King by the collar.

Grab!

“W-what?”

“I’m going. Get a grip.”

“W-wait. Where are you—”

Before he could finish, I took a running start and threw him out the window with all my strength.

No. I launched him.

Crash! Whoooosh!

The magically reinforced floor-to-ceiling glass shattered, and the Skeleton King shot out like a cannonball.

Hearing his scream disappear into the wind, I kicked off the ground with all my strength as well.

I did not forget to leave one instruction for the mage, who had already collapsed from exhaustion.

“Call for rescue using my name. Anywhere—right now!”

I didn’t know whether he’d heard me properly in his exhausted state, or where he would send the request.

Nothing mattered more than what was happening in front of me.

Boom!

The force of my leap made the high-rise building where the Teleport Magic Formation had been installed tremble.

As I shot through the sky, an angry shout reached me.

“You lunatic!”

The Skeleton King. He had fashioned wings of bone with his own power and was flapping toward me at high speed.

Or he would have been, if I hadn’t blocked his path.

“Go somewhere else.”

“What?”

“It’s too widespread. We split up and cover it.”

A Monster Wave—and in Busan, of all places, with its dense population.

It might have been different in a desert or a sparsely populated military zone like the ones I’d seen in Magic Johnson’s footage. Here, thousands of people were packed into a radius of just a few kilometers.⁷

I had to keep the disaster from spreading, no matter what it took.

“I’ll take the bridge first. You…”

“Damn it. Got it.”

I didn’t have time to say more, but the Skeleton King understood.

He swallowed hard and looked far below.

His gaze swept over the road swallowed by screams and chaos and the people running for their lives. Then it suddenly began to tremble.

“Fuck. What are those?”

“What do you think?”

I answered shortly, pulled a spare spear from my Inventory, and aimed it at the ground.

Through my greatly enhanced eyesight, it looked as grotesque as any other monster. The scales covering its entire body and the fins extending down to its jaw were repulsive.

Merman.

An aquatic monster that lived in places like the sea.

It had the form of a male merperson, but it was neither beautiful nor kind like the ones in fairy tales.

The hundreds of Mermen surging out of the sea and descending on the people below made that clear enough.

“Ssssss!”

“Karruk!”

They charged with unintelligible cries, barnacle-covered tridents flashing in their hands.

Beyond those flashing points sat a little girl, collapsed on the ground and crying.

“Waaaaah! Mommy!”

“Minhee!”

The child’s cries. Her parents’ screams as they turned back.

And hundreds of monsters rushing toward their first prey.

Now.

I shifted my weight.

My body, angled through the wind, turned sharply downward. Internal energy flowed through my dantian and burst from my feet.

Bang!

I began a steep descent, using Stepping on Empty Air to kick off the air itself.

But no matter how quickly I hurried, the girl would inevitably die before I arrived if things continued like this.

Go.

With a short breath, I hurled the spear I’d aimed at the ground.

Whoooosh!

A single spear plunged down like a bolt of lightning from an unreachable height.

Cutting through the wind, erasing space, carrying the two characters for certain death—

It pierced its target.

Splurch! Crunch-crunch-crunch!

The Merman leading the charge toward the girl, along with a dozen or so monsters around it, turned into a handful of blood.

Hundreds of Mermen stopped at once and stared up at the sky, mouths hanging open.

As I met their gazes, half ferocity and half confusion, I muttered, “What are you looking at, you sons of bitches?”

Inventory Open. Summon.

Click.

The instant two spears appeared in my hands, my arms were already swinging toward the ground.

Boom! Crack!

Scales harder than steel shattered, and fins tore apart.

One Merman, lucky enough to lose only half its body, let out a mournful death cry.

“Krruk, krruruk!”

So noisy.

Inventory Open. Summon.

Whoosh! Boom!

It was around noon, with the sun high overhead. Fireworks erupted where none belonged.

Sticky blood trickled down the railing of the tilted Gwangan Bridge.

More. More. One more time.

Open. Summon. And summon. Summon again.

It happened in the blink of an eye. The System operated instantly, and my movements were faster than the wind and more powerful than lightning.

As soon as I thought of it, my hand shot out. In only a few seconds, I seized dozens of spears and hurled them at the ground.

Die.

Whoooosh—boom-boom-boom!

They split apart. They burst.

Those who tried to block the spears died along with their tridents. Those who tried to run died before they could take a step.

When the girl who had been crouched and crying just three meters⁸ away began to hiccup, there was nothing left around her.

“Hic. Sob.”

She looked about nine years old. Sobbing hiccups escaped through the little hands clamped over her mouth.

What did she see when she looked at me with those enormous eyes?

A monster that had defeated monsters? Or an angel come down from the sky?

I didn’t know. But one thing was certain.

Unlike me… you won’t have any good memories of this place.

A bitter taste filled my mouth. I landed lightly and, instead of trying to comfort her, crooked a finger.

Shhh.

Seizing an Object Through Empty Space. Qi reached out gently and pushed the girl toward her parents, who were running to her with anguished cries.

But that family’s ordeal wasn’t over.

Ruuuumble.

The sea had turned black beneath the sun.

I stared at the thing hidden inside another wave rising dozens of meters⁴ high and lowered the spearhead of White Flame.