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Chapter 150: The Land of the Cataclysm Pt. 2

Lee Jun-Kyeong couldn’t believe his eyes.

He could see the red light along with the sunlight as well as his body as it visibly healed.

“The world is…”

It was on fire.

The sight before his eyes was horrifying.

Buildings were burning down into ashes, and the fire that was yet to be extinguished was engulfing the city.

But.

The screams.

He couldn’t hear them.

“How long have I been unconscious?” Lee Jun-Kyeong asked in a low tone.

“One day,” Yeo Seong-Gu answered instead of Jeong In-Chang.

Yeo Seong-Gu was watching the city of ashes alongside Lee Jun-Kyeong and was also subdued.

“It’s only been one day since you’ve lost consciousness.”

"In just a single day...”

To think the world could change like this.

"Where are we?" Lee Jun-Kyeong asked.

"Incheon."

They had come all this way, dragging the survivors behind them.

After a whole day on foot, they arrived at Incheon after a day on foot. The city had turned into a city of ashes and the roads were cut off, unable to be traversed by cars.

‘Just how…’

Lee Jun-Kyeong’s memories suddenly surfaced.

The cataclysm that he had seen in the book of the Demon King and in the annals of history.

It was a catastrophe that could be compared to the first advent of the gates, but was rated worse in severity.

The cataclysm.

He was seeing it unfold firsthand before his very eyes.

“In history…” Lee Jun-Kyeong murmured to himself.

He wondered, in history, how did the Hunters overcome this crisis?

In the city, he couldn’t hear a single scream or feel the presence of a single person.

Could all of the people that lived in this huge city have died?

Lee Jun-Kyeong shook his head.

‘No, that can’t be possible.’

They must have all hidden somewhere in order to avoid this disaster.

As Lee Jun-Kyeong looked at everything and sighed.

“Sob… sob…”

He could hear people sobbing around him.

They were the people who they had rescued from Incheon International Airport, or those they had found on the broken roads.

They were howling at the sight of Incheon burning. It was as if their world had collapsed.

“We will move on,” Yeo Seong-Gu said as he stepped forward. “There is a place we have to go.”

Filled with firm determination, Jeong In-Chang and Lee Jun-Kyeong nodded.

***

Incheon had been a city of splendor.

However, that splendor had turned into ash.

Step.

The group stepped on the ashes of the city.

They had tried to take an abandoned car to get past, but it was difficult to drive through the ruined cityscape.

“Chwiik!”

"We\'ll take care of it!"

Instead of the bustling sounds of people, only the sound of monsters crying and rampaging spread throughout the city of ashes.

The White Tiger Clan had found their opponents and were searching throughout the city and dealing with the monsters.

Fortunately, the monsters in Incheon weren’t very highly ranked.

They were just orcs and trolls.

However.

"Don\'t let your guard down."

As Lee Jun-Kyeong warned, they weren’t allowed to be careless.

The cataclysm had begun.

“Ugh!”

Just as Lee Jun-Kyeong warned, the monsters had become stronger than ever.

In the past, these monsters were at a level that anyone could deal with just by becoming a Hunter and receiving some sponsorship were evenly matched with the White Tiger Clan, the elites of Heaven Lake Village.

Of course, the White Tiger Clan wasn’t just being beaten.

They had tried to grow as much as possible as fast as possible with all of their might.

They were a unit that had obtained great support and connections with the help of Ungnyeo. Unfortunately, the monsters at the international airport had been too strong.

“Chiiiik!”

The White Tiger Clan cleared out the surrounding monsters after a fierce battle, and thanks to this, Lee Jun-Kyeong, Jeong In-Chang, and Goongje’s recovery was becoming faster, while Yeo Seong-Gu was guarding the survivors in case of a possible attack.

Step.

Their footsteps grew faster as time went by.

The survivors were becoming exhausted, but they didn’t ask where they were headed, just walking as they sobbed forward without a single word.

They just wanted to go back home.

"Unfortunately, all of Korea will look the same.”

They closed their mouths and stayed silent after listening to Lee Jun-Kyeong and Yeo Seong-Gu.

The survivors all talked about family members they had been separated from and friends that they couldn’t find.

However, they were still all ordinary humans.

They were limited in what they could do in the midst of this disaster, and it was safer for them to just obey the will of those who guarded them.

“Thank you…”

The survivors thanked them every time they dealt with the monsters.

In the midst of an unspeakable crisis, these people were unable to do anything, so the only thing they could do as they followed behind was offer their thanks.

“I…they call me Siegfried…!”

Jeong In-Chang said in the midst of it all, as if he wanted to make his name known, even now.

“Thank you so much… Mr…o…ogre’s… Um…”

However, in response, all he heard was some nonsense…

The White Tiger Clan also received some thanks as well, as Lee Jun-Kyeong and his party were gathering energy amid the gratitude of the survivors.

‘Ungnyeo…’

Lee Jun-Kyeong thought of his companions in Seoul.

In his history, in the book of the Demon King, it had been Seoul that had been the most affected by the cataclysm.

The main cause of the cataclysm was the condensation and saturation density of mana. Hunters were also a form of collected mana. Thus, the cataclysm would grow even more severe in the presence of strong Heroes.

Seoul was where the Association was located.

Thus, they were most likely facing the greatest changes.

‘Ungnyeo, Won-Hwa, Fenrir…even Sangun is there as well.’

Moreover, Asgard and the Association were most likely moving quickly in order to handle matters there.

“Let’s hurry.”

Most likely, instead of the capital, he would have to worry about the situation outside of Seoul, or in the countryside.

“Yes. We are almost there,” Yeo Seong-Gu nodded.

The Hunters could also feel that they had almost reached their destination, even if it wasn’t for Yeo Seong-Gu’s response.

They were running into the same monsters over and over and over again.

The party could feel a cluster of mana somewhere ahead of them.

Even with the increased difficulty in mana sensitivity due to the explosive increase of mana due to the aftermath of the cataclysm, they could still feel this cluster of mana ahead.

That could only mean one thing.

‘There are many Hunters gathered in one place.’

And that was where Lee Jun-Kyeong and his party were headed.

“It’s Inha University,” said Lee Jun-Kyeong as he looked at the building in front of him.

This was the only site that had remained standing amid the ashes of the ruins.

Inha University was located in Incheon.[1]

“It’s here,” Yeo Seong-Gu said, almost afraid to finish his sentence.

Shhh.

Something was moving toward them.

Something stealthy and fast.

The moving figures, which a low-grade Hunter wouldn’t even be able to notice, was coming toward them.

Soon after.

“Guild Leader.”

Hunters appeared before them.

***

“I had also tried to figure out some plans in my own way after you warned me about the cataclysm.”

The decently standing building seemed to be full of everything.

Food and clothing were piled to the brim—all of a sudden, the university had become a sort of refuge.

“You’ve had a hard time,” Lee Jun-Kyeong said.

"Oh, my..."

"Eun-Mi! Eun-Mi!"

The university was full of survivors, some consoling the newly arrived survivors and some lamenting the situation outside.

There were even some who were shouting at the newly arrived crowd, hoping to find some of their lost family members.

Although they were still busily moving, their expressions looked much better than before.

Yeo Seong-Gu stated, “I purposefully set up a League Guild branch in an area where the Hunters were scarce. That’s how the League Guild has been able to rapidly expand for some time.”

“Wait, the League Guild expanded?”

The League Guild was a guild that advocated for a few elite members.

While it wasn’t a small number of members by any means, if there were a few more branches like the one they were currently in, then they really would have expanded just as Yeo Seong-Gu had said.

No, it would have actually been reborn as a completely giant guild.

“Yeah. We absorbed some guilds and allied with others. I told you, I prepared in my own way. What do you think?”

Lee Jun-Kyeong expressed his sincere gratitude, “Thank you.”

This was a person who had listened to him, believed in him, and acted. In both the original time zone and now, Yeo Seong-Gu was someone that Lee Jun-Kyeong could only be grateful to.

Yeo Seong-Gu shrugged as if he was embarrassed.

“So, what are we going to do from this point on?” asked Jeong In-Chang.

The League Guild had gathered alongside the Hunters from the Incheon branch of the Association at this place in order to plan for the protection of the survivors and to slowly restore Incheon.

However, their communication services had long been down.

There was already a small veil hanging over the sky of Incheon. Something similar to what was in China.

It meant that gateization was already in progress.

Their communication services had been cut off, and the Hunters would have to save people directly by running to find them.

In this situation, Lee Jun-Kyeong’s next move was important.

“We will…”

Lee Jun-Kyeong began to speak slowly.

He had also made his own preparations for the cataclysm: when the cataclysm began, how to move, what direction to take. He had constantly simulated it in his head and set his own plans.

It was time for their first order of business.

Although they would have to start in Incheon at this point, and not Seoul, it was something that had to be done anyway.

“We need to take control of the Incheon metropolitan area.”

“We need to become the ruler of the Incheon metropolitan area?”

"Yes."

It was an idea completely out of the blue.

To think they would have to take control of Incheon.

“I don’t know how to end the cataclysm, but I know how to mitigate the situation.”

There was only one way to end the cataclysm, and that was to wait for it to all be over, which would only happen when the Hunters had taken control of the world once again.

However, it would take quite a long time for that to happen.

At the moment, it was enough for them to just ease the situation at hand.

“At the beginning of the cataclysm, all gates that had opened would have collapsed simultaneously. Moreover, any that appeared later would also continue to collapse.”

That was what the cataclysm was.

Until it ended, the gate breaks would continue to occur and the mana trapped inside would flood out, leaving monsters to continue to rage and people to die.

“The cause of the gate breaks must be eliminated.”

“Huh? If that’s the case…”

“I know what you’re thinking.”

As Lee Jun-Kyeong had said, they would have to remove the cause of the gate breaks.

Jeong In-Chang was trying to ask if that was the case if they would be ending the cataclysm.

“Even if we remove them, that would only be for a while, as the ruler will appear once again.” Lee Jun-Kyeong continued, “However, if we deal with the ruler, we will be able to buy some time.”

Then, Yeo Seong-Gu raised a question, “However… You definitely said that you didn’t know about any way to end it any faster in the Nile.”

While they were in the Nile, figures from the various countries had asked Lee Jun-Kyeong about how to end the cataclysm, or at least ease the severity of it.

However, Lee Jun-Kyeong had replied to them that he didn’t know.

Unfortunately, this was something that he really didn’t know.

“This is a method that can only be used in Korea. I don’t know how things would work in other countries.”

“...”

“There are many facets to the cataclysm. Everything that I know is limited to just Korea.”

The cataclysm wasn’t the same everywhere.

There were many differences in how it could be alleviated or resolved regarding the situation that was unfolding in each country.

All Lee Jun-Kyeong knew was the path that the Demon King had walked. This was the only way to ease the impact of the cataclysm in Korea.

“Then why didn’t you say anything earlier…” Yeo Seong-Gu asked.

If he had told Yeo Seong-Gu first, then he could have told the Hunters the truth of what was happening when he had wanted to set up a branch to rescue people in the first place and reduce the damage they had suffered.

For a moment, doubt and anger seemed to flash across Yeo Seong-Gu’s face.

“That\'s…”

Lee Jun-Kyeong spoke carefully.

“Because I’m the only one who can do this.”

Lee Jun-Kyeong looked up at the sky.

<The Sky of the Apocalypse>.

[<The Sky of the Apocalypse> looks down upon you.]

The bastard was staring down on him.

***

“…”

Inside, there was a room full of silence.

Outside, they could see the visage of a burning world.

The outside was burning and dissipating into ashes, but there was only silence in the room.

This place was a location where not a single piece of furniture was even out of place, and somewhere that no one could ever determine its location.

In this room were three men.

All three of them were wearing black robes.

Shh.

One of them took off his hood.

His exposed face was scarred, completely burnt. However, rather than making him seem weak, it instead made him look even stronger.

His name was Set.

He, who had disappeared from Egypt, was standing in front of the two men now.

"Egypt\'s cataclysm has begun,” he said in a ringing voice.

Soon after.

Shhh.

Another man also took off his hood. His left eye was covered with a black eye patch.

"I\'ve been in contact with... the Underdog."

The one who spoke uncomfortably.

It was Odin.

Set and Odin were reporting to another man in a black robe.

He was receiving reports from the ruler of a leading power of the world, from two of the world’s leading Hunters.

That man also threw off his hood.

“It’s all beginning now,” he said.

Rather than answering the reports, he looked out of the window.

Odin stared at him.

It was a face that he couldn’t get used to, no matter how many times he looked at it.

The person he reported to had a striking resemblance to someone he knew.

‘The Underdog…’

A striking resemblance with a Hunter who was currently making incredible waves around the world.

1. In as in Incheon, and Ha as in Hawaii. Inha is a university founded by the first president of South Korea, and is a collaboration school founded in partnership with Koreans who had emigrated to Hawaii decades earlier.