Episode 126. Once things go wrong, they spiral out of control (3)
I kicked the ground and jumped up into the air.
“Krrrrrr!”
The predators smelled prey and the scent of human flesh and bared their teeth as they rushed forward.
A swarm of monsters gathered through the thick clouds of dust. Their disgusting smell and the scent of dirt mixed together. It was the scent of the front line. I smelled it so much before I came back in time, and the smell had saturated my clothes and my body.
[Outstanding Insight has been activated.]
From the memories in my head, I recalled their behavior and habits I had deduced from repeated analysis.
Their species’ names, how they inhabited the front line area, and what habits they formed. What instincts were stimulated when they spotted prey and how they acted. All that information blazed in my mind like a flame.
‘On the left.’
A gust of wind blew. I instinctively looked in the opposite direction, and a hideous claw reached out towards the space where my face had just been.
[Even though you trained and trained, I didn’t think you could acquire all that knowledge in such a short period…. It’s an abnormal rate of development, although you own the Akashic Records.]
I kicked the ground and drew up my foot. The tip of my foot smacked the monster in the jaw. Even with my conditioned, strengthened muscles, I couldn’t break its solid skin. But my intention wasn’t to hack away at its body until it died.
“Krrk….”
The ‘Ki’ that was concentrated at the tip of my foot surged like a wave. The soft flesh and intestines inside the monster’s skin collided with each other and ripped into pieces. Black blood spurted, and the monster’s huge body collapsed.
‘Downward right, then above.’
I leaped up into the air. The scythe-like claw of a monster swept the ground below me. After checking the attack, I swung my upper body back. A sharp-pointed object flashed by like a bullet.
I didn’t make the slightest mistake. Front line or not, there were very few monsters in the world that I didn’t know about entirely. And here, there wasn’t a single one that I didn’t know.
Cla-clang-!
I could hear the sound of metal clanging. The confused monsters had bumped into each other.
I landed on the floor and flicked my finger again. The duration of Link was not over yet. The power to destroy the monsters at once was still vividly present in my body.
『Magic was originally something you studied.』
『Until that man appeared.』
『It was a field of study that was classified along with mathematics and astronomy.』
The tip of my finger heated up. A warm sensation. It meant that the mana writhing inside me was ready to reveal itself.
『Who knew?』
『Who knew that the complex field of study that explored the mysteries of the world could become a means of terrible destruction in the hands of a person?』
『If it weren’t for him, ‘magic’ wouldn’t have been corrupted that way.』
Sizzle.
Smoke rose in the air. The cool air around me rapidly heated up. The water in the air boiled, and my mana surged violently towards the creatures that were registered as ‘enemies’ in my eyes.
“Krrr…Krrk….”
The monsters rushing forward fell and dropped to the ground, unable to get back up. The smell of cooking meat came from the flesh inside the monsters’ skin. Melted intestines spilled out of the holes in their bodies, and not a single intact monster reached me.
“Hm… I think we’re done with this area.”
“…….”
I muttered in front of the pile of monster carcasses. The hunter silently watched, and Han Yeon-soo looked accustomed to the sight as she just stood there.
“…Hm?”
And then.
“That’s it.”
While looking for any remaining monsters, I saw something hanging in the air.
It was a transparent opening. A shape that was too small to be a -Rift- but too ominous to ignore. That was probably it.
“What? Mr. Si-woo, what are you talking about? I don’t see anything…….”
“Be quiet for a moment.”
I kept staring at the opening in the air. I was looking for something more trivial and more decisive than what the other hunters would have seen.
To determine whether it truly was the thing I knew.
I activated Outstanding Insight, enabled Access to Information, and glared at the phenomenon without blinking once.
“…Whew.”
Nevertheless, nothing changed from my first impression of seeing it.
“I was right.”
The phenomenon that foreshadowed the emergence of the Great Overlord. The phenomenon that was his most ‘dangerous ability’ and a ‘warning’ that terrorized the world.
“It’s a Small Rift.”
* * *
“Hmm… So, did you guys see anything else? Or feel strange about anything?”
“Nothing other than that mirage-like thing.”
“How about any effects on your body… Were there any?”
“If we had any problems like that here on the front line, we wouldn’t be smiling and talking right now, would we? We’d either be in a coma or be dead and having our funerals.”
“… You’re right.”
I replied awkwardly to his matter-of-fact answer.
It was good news. Only the ‘First Precursor’ had appeared.
‘That means the Great Overlord hasn’t gained his full power yet.’
He wasn’t a creature that suddenly fell from the sky. He lived within the Monster Land ecosystem beyond the front line, gradually building up his strength.
He didn’t realize his power at first, but he turned into a ‘tyrant’ due to a certain incident. And he became a Disaster that ruled over the monsters and strived to destroy humankind.
‘He’s the most difficult Disaster to deal with.’
If I tried to nip him in the bud before he gained power, it could cause him to explode into an uncontrollable bomb. But if I left him be, humanity could be wiped out by the overwhelming wave, like what happened in my past life.
“Okay, thanks for telling me.”
All I could do was go along with the flow and establish a more thorough and complete plan to shut out any potential aberrations. I had to find a way to kill him without repeating previous mistakes.
“Um, are you guys done talking?”
“Oh, yes. I took up too much time; sorry.”
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