Chapter 11
“Then, let’s hold the door open from both sides, and one person throws the bait from behind.”
“Okay. I’ll open the door.”
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
Please. Come out quickly before it’s too late. Please, please.
“Let’s use that soldier bastard as bait first.”
“That monster will love it. Lots to eat. Hehehe.”
“Hey! Come out!”
I heard them calling out to Baek Yi-heon.
“Hey. You know what? I’ve always hated guys like you who act so superior. But seeing you like this now, I’m starting to like this new world. Haha!”
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
“What’s that sound?”
“Leave it. They’re probably just anxious.”
I heard two men grunting in the corridor.
“Ah, why is he so heavy.”
“Must be all that muscle. This is why I didn’t like him from the start…”
As I heard them grumbling and moving away, Mom and Park Ji-in soon entered the large room.
“Noah-ya…”
I glared at Park Ji-in, who was approaching me, my eyes wide open.
She came closer with a tearful face and whispered softly in my ear.
“Hey. How does it feel?”
Her face, right in front of mine, showed clear superiority and cruelty.
A familiar face.
It was the expression those thugs used to wear when they tormented me during my school days.
“Hm? Say something. You acted so high and mighty… How does it feel knowing you’ll soon be monster food?”
Tap, tap…
“Ah, f*ck! So annoying! Stop tapping that damn stick—Kyaa!”
Boom—.
At that moment, the entire bunker, built to withstand nuclear war, shook with a thunderous sound.
It’s here.
I smiled in victory.
“Wh-what’s that sound? Is it that tentacle monster again?”
No, this tremor isn’t from the tentacle monster.
Boom! Crash—!
“Kyaaaa!”
Park Ji-in sat down, covering her head as the vibrations began to shake the entire bunker.
“What is this… Aagh!”
Screams from the soccer guy and suit guy echoed from the corridor.
“Are you alright?”
And shortly after, Baek Yi-heon came running towards me.
As a special forces member, it must have been easy for him to subdue two civilians and undo their amateur bindings.
Without hesitation, he ran to me and quickly untied the knots binding my hands.
“We need to leave.”
As soon as my hands were free, I grabbed him and led the way.
‘That’ will be here soon.
We had to get out before the bunker completely collapsed.
Just as I was about to run out.
From behind, I heard a faint voice that sounded like it was about to give out.
“Just the child… Please, take the child… Please. Please.”
I flinched and turned around.
In a pool of blood, the Mother was barely raising her head to look at me, her hand twitching.
“Please… Please…”
I recalled her contemptuous gaze that had been glaring at me just moments ago.
“They say she’s the daughter of a murderer…”
“Mom, mommy…”
Even as the whole room shook, the child was still clinging to her mother’s back.
An eternity seemed to pass in an instant.
“Damn it.”
I spat out a harsh curse, then ran and snatched up the crying child.
This isn’t out of compassion. I’m a psychopath without emotions, after all.
It’s just, just…
Right. It’s because the protagonist is watching me so intently.
Because I need that man’s help to survive, that’s why.
Without asking any questions, he took the child from me, lifted them up, and then grabbed my hand and ran quickly.
I didn’t hesitate any longer and ran towards the door.
“Thank… you… I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”
I thought I heard something like that from behind.
Passing by the two men rolling on the corridor floor, we ran quickly and reached the iron door.
Baek Yi-heon put down the child he was carrying next to me. Then—.
“Wait! Where are you going!”
I shouted, urgently grabbing his arm as he turned to run back inside.
Then, with a face that was incredibly calm and cool even in this situation, he said,
“I need to save the remaining people.”
“What? Are you crazy?!”
The people who tried to kill him?
Baek Yi-heon, understanding my unspoken words, replied with a serene expression.
“A life is a life.”
This frustratingly moral textbook protagonist!
Fortunately, before he could go inside, we saw figures running towards us from the corridor.
“Move! Get out of the way! I’m going out first!”
Soccer Guy was running at full speed at the front.
“See? You don’t need to go save them, right?”
“…..”
“Then hurry up and help me open this door!”
Together with Baek Yi-heon, I grabbed the heavy iron door and opened it from both sides.
At that very moment.
As if it had been waiting, a huge tentacle shot in like a bullet through the gap in the open door.
“Everyone mo…”
The tentacle wrapped around the torso of the soccer guy running towards the iron door, and then, whoosh, it flew outside.
Now’s our chance.
“Let’s go!”
Trying not to look towards the tentacle monster’s mouth, I sprang out of the bunker.
People poured out behind us.
And just as Park Ji-in, who was running last, was about to completely pass through the iron door.
Rumble—.
With a thunderous sound, the bunker began to collapse from the inside.
“Moooom!”
Park Ji-in, half-buried under the suddenly massive pile of rubble, screamed in agony.
“Ji-in, Ji-in-ah…”
Mom, who had escaped just moments earlier, stopped briefly.
The tentacle monster, which had swallowed the soccer guy in an instant, stretched its tentacle towards the bunker again.
Terrified, Park Ji-in grabbed onto Mom’s ankle and wailed frantically.
“Mom! Mom! Help me! Don’t go! Don’t leave me behind!”
“Ah, I, I…”
Mom hesitated for a moment, looking back and forth between the desperately crying Park Ji-in and the approaching tentacle.
Thwack—.
“Aagh!”
She stepped on Park Ji-in’s hand to free her ankle, then turned and ran away.
“Mo…”
But just as the tentacle was about to reach Park Ji-in.
Something enormous emerged from the collapsed bunker debris.
Eyes that had degenerated and disappeared. A massive body covered in stiff dark gray fur. Five sharp claws extended long, perfect for digging.
And a huge mouth lined with bumpy protrusions, opened wide as if ready to decompose and swallow anything that entered it.
It was the ‘Giant Mole’, classified as a D-rank monster in the novel.
This was why I had been tapping the ground at regular intervals.
This giant monster that lives underground has a weaker ability to sense human life energy, but instead detects living beings through ground vibrations.
‘And as far as I know, that tentacle monster should also be D-rank.’
The best-case scenario would be for these two similar-ranked monsters to fight each other, but that was too optimistic an expectation.
Crash!
The two monsters immediately reached out towards the others.
“…..!”
For a moment, my heart sank to my toes at the sight.
But in the face of survival, any human emotion is a luxury, as I’d read in some survival story.
Without a doubt, those disgusting monsters will target us next.
“We, we need to go…”
Without hesitation, I grabbed the child and jumped into one of the cars scattered on the street.
Thanks to the owners fleeing in a hurry, the car keys were still in the ignition.
But Baek Yi-heon wasn’t there.
I quickly turned my head and was shocked to see Baek Yi-heon standing firm in front of the tentacle monster.
“Hey!!! Are you crazy?! Aren’t you getting in?!”
Harsh words involuntarily burst from my mouth.
There’s no way he couldn’t have heard my shout, but Baek Yi-heon just stood there with his shoulders squared in front of the monster.
No matter how good his physical abilities are, he’s still an unawakened person without any proper weapons.
There’s no way he could face a monster barehanded without any armor.
“Do you want to die?! What are you doing not getting in…”
“Revenge.”
A short answer came back.
What? What does that…
Only then did I realize that this crazy man was trying to avenge my mother?
✦
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