Chapter 168: To Seoul (3)
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Choi Baram guided them around. The rest of the people went inside City Hall to rest, while Kim Hwiyeon, Geum Junggeun, and Kang Taesan followed Choi Baram around to get a tour of the area.
It didn’t take long for Taesan and his party to realize something.
“There are hardly any intact buildings.”
Most of the buildings, including City Hall, were destroyed.
“They’re all wrecked. Half by monsters, half by people.”
“By people?”
Choi Baram chuckled.
“Even in a world going to ruin, some folks still crave power and go wild for it.”
Kim Hwiyeon closed her mouth. Upon reflection, their situation wasn’t much different.
The first to stir up trouble was the Easy Mode player, Choi Joonghyuk.
He created a conflict between Easy and Normal Mode players. If Taesan hadn’t dealt with him early, many lives would have been lost.
Then there was Seo Jangsan from Hard Mode. He claimed that Easy Mode players should be shields for Hard Mode players.
Taesan also dealt with him in advance, but if he hadn’t, the resentment among Easy Mode players would have led to a rebellion eventually.
Without Taesan, their situation wouldn’t have been different from Seoul.
“Was it any different on your side?”
“We…”
“Well, who would dare rebel with the strongest human around.”
Choi Baram muttered as if he understood. The Taesan he saw was not a soft-hearted person. He was a cold-hearted individual who dealt with what needed dealing with and cut off what needed cutting off.
Such a person wouldn’t sit idly by and watch people fight.
“I envy you. If we had someone like that, fewer people would have died.”
Choi Baram muttered gloomily.
He gave a thorough tour, even outside City Hall, and then spoke.
“This is our territory. Any other questions?”
“How many survivors are there?”
From a rough look around, the number of people visible was noticeably fewer than those who came from Yongin. Choi Baram spoke plainly.
“About twenty thousand.”
There were about fifty thousand survivors from Yongin.
Kim Hwiyeon kept silent at the less-than-half number.
“Please. Save us.”
Choi Baram’s face, though smiling, was filled with desperation.
After the tour, everyone scattered. The reactions of people from Gyeonggi Province, seeing Seoul, weren’t much different from theirs.
“Hungry…”
The people in Seoul were starving.
Seeing this, people used makeshift cultivation to quickly produce food. Those from Seoul hungrily devoured the food they were given.
“Oh!”
“This is the makeshift cultivation I heard about! The rumors were true!”
While they didn’t know the exact numbers, those from Yongin noticed that the number of survivors in Seoul was clearly fewer than theirs.
And they heard that most people had died fighting each other, unable to fend off the incoming monsters.
The fear that if it weren’t for Taesan, they would be no different from these people crossed their minds.
Meanwhile, Taesan was on the half-destroyed City Hall roof, looking out at the horizon.
“A lot of people died here.”
Twenty thousand starving people from Seoul and the few survivors from Gyeonggi Province.
Even combined, they were not enough to fend off the monsters.
In the previous life, after countless sacrifices, only ten thousand barely survived and returned to the labyrinth.
This time, he wouldn’t let that happen.
And to ensure that, there were issues to resolve.
The next day, people from Uijeongbu arrived.
Their number was much smaller, only fifteen thousand.
As they arrived, a quest window appeared.
[Special Quest Started.]
[Defend Against the First Wave. The wave will start in two days.]
[Condition: Eliminate the monsters trying to enter the safe zone.]
[Reward: Rank reward upon return to the labyrinth.]
Seeing the quest window, people despaired. The realization that they had to fight monsters again drove some to madness.
However, most people from Yongin calmly prepared to face the monsters.
“We have Taesan.”
“If we follow Taesan, we can survive.”
With Taesan as their emotional support, they did not easily crumble. But Choi Baram’s face, inspecting the safe zone, remained tense.
“It’s too… wide.”
This quest was to prevent monsters from entering the safe zone.
In other words, they had to protect the entire perimeter of the safe zone from monsters.
Naturally, the narrower the safe zone, the easier the defense, but the current safe zone was too vast.
The safe zone was set as a 1km radius around Seoul City Hall. Considering the strength of the monsters, even eighty-five thousand people surrounding it couldn’t guarantee safety.
“This is troubling.”
Choi Baram scratched his cheek.
He wasn’t the only one thinking this. Kim Hwiyeon also realized the expanse of the safe zone and was troubled about manpower allocation.
In the last return, if Taesan hadn’t stopped the five-digit monsters, they all would have perished.
They were heavily reliant on Taesan.
But with such a wide area, even Taesan would struggle. Though monstrously strong, he was alone. His capacity to defend was limited.
And Taesan knew this too.
The ancient gods were trying to kill him. They wouldn’t present an easy quest. They would attempt to drain his strength and prevent him from using it fully.
So he called Lee Taeyeon and Kang Junhyuk again.
“Is there a problem?”
Lee Taeyeon asked cautiously, sensing something different about Taesan’s demeanor. Taesan shook his head.
“It’s not that. We’re running out of time. You know what this quest entails, right?”
The two kept silent.
It was too vast an area for Taesan to cover alone.
They needed to get stronger to assist Taesan.
But they still hadn’t mastered the Ability Sword. They hadn’t even grasped the basics.
“It’s too difficult.”
Kang Junhyuk lamented.
“I’ve been practicing alone, but I can’t grasp it. I don’t know what to do…”
Kang Junhyuk hadn’t been idle. Except for the times he sparred with Taesan, he had constantly trained, trying to learn the Ability Sword.
But he couldn’t grasp it at all.
He even doubted if it was a swordsmanship that could be learned.
But Taesan thought differently.
From his perspective, both Lee Taeyeon and Kang Junhyuk could definitely learn it.
After a moment’s thought, he asked.
“How did you learn Flow and Strong Strike?”
“I don’t really…”
“I just got them while fighting monsters.”
They answered with unsure faces. From their answers, Taesan was certain.
He drew his sword.
“This time, both of you come at me at once.”
“Huh?”
Until now, Taesan had sparred with Lee Taeyeon, then with Kang Junhyuk when she got tired, and repeated this cycle.
But now he planned to spar with both simultaneously.
“And the rules of the duel will change too.”
He removed some equipment and switched his weapon to one with lower attack power.
“This should prevent you from dying quickly.”
[Kang Taesan has challenged Lee Taeyeon and Kang Junhyuk to a duel.]
“Huh?”
Lee Taeyeon hesitated.
Until now, their duels had equal settings and were non-lethal.
But this time, both conditions were missing.
“Uh, Taesan?”
“I thought about it, and there aren’t many reasons why you wouldn’t be able to learn the skill.”
One possibility was that they had no talent.
Or the method was wrong.
From Taesan’s perspective, it wasn’t the former.
That meant the method was wrong.
“You said you learned Flow and Strong Strike unconsciously, right?”
They had learned them in extreme situations, fighting for their lives against monsters.
It wasn’t unusual. Taesan too had acquired good skills in life-and-death battles. People tend to bring out their best only when pushed to the extreme.
“So I’ll do something similar.”
“Uh, Taesan…”
Lee Taeyeon began to speak but was cut off as killing intent washed over her. Her face turned pale, and she quickly drew her sword.
“If you don’t defend, you’ll die.”
Taesan kicked off the ground. Seeing Taesan charging with killing intent, she instinctively knew.
If she didn’t block, she would die.
But even if she blocked, she would die.
She quickly moved her sword, trying to deflect Taesan’s attack with the cleanest movement she had ever managed.
‘But that’s not enough.’
The swords clashed, and Lee Taeyeon was flung back.
“Kyaa!”
“You too.”
Taesan lunged at Kang Junhyuk, who hastily reacted.
But Taesan easily dodged and struck with his sword.
“Ugh!”
[You dealt 123 damage to Kang Junhyuk.]
He was serious.
Taesan was seriously trying to kill them.
Kang Junhyuk gritted his teeth and gained some distance. Lee Taeyeon also gripped her sword with a pale face.
Satisfied with their reactions, Taesan moved.
He went for Lee Taeyeon first. Seeing Taesan charging, she let out a short cry and moved. She swung her sword to block his attack.
Taesan dodged her swing and struck the back of her neck.
“Ugh!”
The force sent her crashing to the ground. But she planted her foot and barely held herself up, using the rebound to swing her sword.
Taesan smirked and blocked her sword. The impact sent her arm flying back.
“Ah…”
Taesan kicked her away and turned to deflect Kang Junhyuk’s sword.
Kicked away, Lee Taeyeon quickly charged again.
They began to attack Taesan together. But he blocked every attack and continued
to wound them.
Crash.
Taesan tripped Lee Taeyeon and clashed swords with Kang Junhyuk. Kang Junhyuk was sent flying.
He quickly got up, his heart pounding wildly.
His health was already below half.
“Hyung, wait…”
Taesan cut him off with another swing, forcing Kang Junhyuk to block.
‘What is this!’
Kang Junhyuk cursed inwardly.
He couldn’t keep up. Every clash sent him flying, and even light attacks dealt triple-digit damage.
Taesan swung his sword, muttering.
“Can you even clear the labyrinth?”
The labyrinth was a place of unfair challenges. As they descended, monsters grew stronger faster than adventurers did.
Taesan had grown so strong that he didn’t notice, but from the 30th floor, every monster was a life-threatening battle.
Even if not as strong as Taesan, powerful enemies could appear anywhere in the labyrinth.
Lee Taeyeon had cleared the labyrinth in the previous life, but it was largely due to her extraordinary luck. She had admitted she wouldn’t be able to clear it if she went back.
Though both had grown significantly, Taesan felt they were still far from sufficient. At their current level, luck was more important than skill in clearing the labyrinth.
Even a small variable could be deadly for Lee Taeyeon and Kang Junhyuk.
To reduce these variables, they needed to become much stronger.
“If you can’t even learn this, you might as well die here.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Taesan pressed them even harder.