The Player Who Stands Above All

Chapter 159

"Huh? Hey, what's that over there?"

"What? Is a stray cat tap-dancing or something?"

One of the two men, who were walking down the night street with a cup of coffee each, pointed to a spot on the road with his finger.

At that, the man's friend, thinking it was the usual prank, asked playfully, but.

"No, I don't think such a cute sight is about to unfold."

Not a single trace of playfulness could be found in the man's voice.

At the man's voice, his friend looked in the direction his finger was pointing.

And he froze in the posture of bringing the coffee to his mouth.

"What's that? It looks like a newly created dungeon, but why does it look so unstable, like it's about to explode?"

"No, even so, were dungeons also created in the sky?"

The two looked at the dungeon being created with anxious faces, as if they had encountered a masked assailant in an alley in the middle of the night.

And it was the same for the other people around the two.

The problem wasn't just that.

Woong-

"Hey, why are those guys acting up again when they were fine?"

"I'm not a professor of dungeonology, how would I know?"

As if reacting to the dungeons that had appeared in the sky, the dungeons that had been quietly swirling until a moment ago were slowly distorting.

"Ah, come to think of it, I heard they're using a method of throwing trash into dungeons that are about to disappear to prevent environmental pollution. Is it because of that?"

"The trash is going beyond destroying the Earth's environment and is now destroying the dungeons?"

"Isn't that the most plausible reasoning?"

And so, the two forced themselves to suppress the anxiety that was crawling up from the depths of their hearts by making jokes.

Jijijijik-!

But as if to mock the two, an unpleasant sound, different in its grain from ordinary sounds, as if space itself were being torn apart, directly pierced the minds of everyone present.

They knew this phenomenon.

Although it was a little different from what had happened before, it was a disaster phenomenon where the monsters inside the dungeon came out, a dungeon break.

"Damn it! What's happening all of a sudden in the middle of the night!"

"I was trying to rest for the first time in a while, but my luck is so bad, really!"

The Players nearby, including the two, took out their weapons from their inventories.

Kiryooooo--!

The monsters that had escaped the dungeon roared loudly and fell from the sky.

A chicken with blue feathers and three combs.

Although it looked a little ridiculous, it was a monster that belonged to the top tier of LV.2.

On top of that, the strength of each of those guys was a problem, but the biggest problem was that they handled poison.

If things went wrong, damage incomparable to an accident like a gas explosion could occur.

"Damn it! Those chicken heads are hard to hunt because they fly around, even though they're chickens!"

"I'll cover you with magic, so you take care of the ones that have fallen down!"

And so, in the middle of the night with a crescent moon that seemed to be laughing at the world, battles between monsters and Players broke out simultaneously in the middle of several cities.

A battle between Players and monsters.

Just hearing this, an overwhelming victory for the Players is drawn.

Because Players were people whose job it was to enter dungeons and hunt monsters.

But the situation is different.

Of course, not everyone was like that, but most Players were closer to hunters who, after thorough preparation, hunted monsters from the position of a challenger.

"Ugh!"

In other words, it was the first time for them to have a full-scale battle with a large number of monsters in a city like this.

"Why are so many monsters coming out at once!"

"Move your hands instead of your mouth, you idiot!"

On top of that, as if resonating with the dungeon break that had occurred in the sky, the existing dungeons also had continuous breaks, starting from the lower-level ones, and monsters literally poured out.

Although fights between monsters were also happening here and there as different species of monsters appeared at once, most of them aimed for the weakest person first.

This was happening simultaneously all over the world, not just on the scale of a single city or a single country.

It was the beginning of a disaster.

"Hah, I've heard about it roughly, but seeing it for real makes it feel a bit unreal."

"Now, get up! We will now begin the extermination of the monsters, centered on the guild!"

"Emergency protocol activated. We will proceed with life-saving and monster extermination simultaneously, centered on the guild."

In that turmoil, the people who had been waiting for and preparing for this disaster began to move to bring this disaster that had attacked them to its knees.

***

Jjiik-! Jjiik-! Jjikjjik-! Jji-iiik-!!!

"Keuleok! These crazy rat bastards keep sticking to me!"

"Damn it! What kind of sudden disaster is this on my day off!"

"Why are you asking me, you crazy bastard!"

The two shouted with their wounded bodies and continued to swing their weapons at the monsters blocking their way.

Every time one swung a sword and the other activated magic, the green rat-like monsters were sent flying like popcorn without even being able to scream properly.

But the two, even while watching that, did not stop their hands and feet and continued to move.

Their goal was to break through the encirclement created by the monsters in front of them as quickly as possible, even if it meant taking some damage, and escape from this place.

At first, they hadn't thought like this.

The two were named Players who had recently reached LV.3.

That's why they were confident that they could laugh off something like LV.1 or LV.2 monsters coming out.

But the situation had taken a strange turn.

When they dealt with a group of monsters from one dungeon, three groups of monsters attacked.

When they dealt with those three, nine groups rushed at them, baring their fangs.

Even if they were Players, their essence was human.

Naturally, they couldn't help but get tired if they continued to swing their weapons.

Their anxiety peaked at the same time as the LV.3 dungeon broke, and so they decided to retreat while they still had some strength left.

It was natural.

Reality is not a game, and you only have one life.

Of course, if they overcame this fight, they might gain enlightenment and become even stronger, just as the protagonists in manga do.

But that was not a reason to risk their lives.

There are many humans who want to become stronger.

But most people become satisfied when they gain a certain amount of strength.

Humans who wanted to become stronger so desperately that they would gamble with their lives were a minority.

In other words, their choice was definitely not wrong.

So if there was a problem, it would have been that their decision was a little late.

"Heok, hey, you went to church every Sunday. Heok, but why is this happening?"

"Heok… damn it, I prayed not to die in a dungeon, and they're trying to grant my wish like this."

The two could not escape the monsters' persistent pursuit.

They were out of breath, their hands holding their weapons began to lose strength, and their legs felt as heavy as if they had weights attached to them.

"Damn it, should I have moved a little faster."

"I know, right, I told you to run away quickly."

The situation is the worst.

Because the two, completely exhausted, had stopped in the middle of the monsters' encirclement.

In that desperate situation, as the two were slowly feeling the pressure of death and steeling their resolve.

"Charge!"

"Kill! Kill the monsters!"

"Over there! There are people over there!"

As if to praise the two, a voice full of strength began to be heard from the exact opposite direction they had come from.

"Damn it, I believed in you, God!"

"If I just survive, I'll go to church from tomorrow too!"

The two for a moment were confused, wondering if they had heard wrong.

But by making eye contact, the two, who had noticed that they were hearing the same sound and thinking the same thing, rushed in the direction the sound was coming from with all their might.

And thanks to succeeding in that life-or-death gamble.

"Excuse me… are you okay?"

The two were able to protect their lives.

The two looked at the girl in front of them, gasping for breath.

The girl, who looked to be about a middle school student, was looking at the two with worried eyes.

Was it because of her appearance, which was cute enough to be called cute from an objective point of view?

Or was it because this girl was one of the people who had saved them?

In the eyes of the two, the girl looked like an angel.

"Excuse me, you're injured here and there and your body seems a little tired, so please drink this."

No, the girl in front of them was not an angel.

She was an archangel who had descended to the present world to teach them about mercy.

The two sincerely thought that as they received the potion the girl handed them.

***

"Ugh, thank you for your help. And for giving us a potion like this…"

"I really don't know how to repay this kindness…"

"Don't mention it. It's natural to help in a situation like this."

Ja-yeon smiled gently and looked at the two.

She was quite fond of the two, who did not lose their manners and spoke politely despite her clearly looking young.

So Ja-yeon decided to give these two a little more service.

"I'm a little sorry, but… that potion isn't free."

"Yes? What do you mean…"

While the two were flustered by Ja-yeon's incomprehensible words, she activated her magic and enveloped the two in light.

The two, thinking it was an attack, reflexively tried to swing their weapons, but they soon felt strength beginning to fill their bodies and took their hands off their weapons.

"By any chance, could you help us for a moment in exchange for the potion? Ah, but don't worry."

Ja-yeon smiled slightly and tapped the guild mark on her clothes.

"Because you won't die."

On the place she had tapped, the guild emblem of [Wonderland] was drawn.

"Ah, Wonderland! You were a guild member of that place?"

"Certainly, if it's that place, it's not strange that there are so many skilled people like this."

The two, who had finally realized who they had been rescued by, nodded their heads at Ja-yeon.

"Alright."

"We'll help you."

This was not a decision made for the simple reason of repaying a kindness.

It was a decision made after their own rational calculations.

In a crisis situation like this, a powerful guild like [Wonderland] had appeared.

Considering the current situation, it was a situation where they should have gotten on their knees and begged to go with them.

But since the other side had asked them to join first, there was no reason for them to refuse.

"But what should we do?"

"Seeing as you gave us a buff, do we have to help with the monster extermination?"

The two, who had realized that Ja-yeon was a guild member of [Wonderland], asked with an even more polite attitude.

At the two's words, Ja-yeon shook her head lightly.

"No, we already have enough military power, so it doesn't matter."

Saying that, Ja-yeon pointed to the surroundings, which had already been cleared.

The monsters that had been glinting their eyes a moment ago were now all corpses.

"Then what kind of help?"

"I want to create a space to protect people in this vicinity. You can just follow us and help with the life-saving."

Ja-yeon had not forgotten her role.

The role of the five [Wonderland] team leaders, including her, was to protect the city and the people.

For that, they had brought their guild members and had spread out to their respective locations.

And while they were saving people, their guild master, Cheon Yuhwa, would focus on exterminating the monsters.

And it wasn't just Cheon Yuhwa who was moving to exterminate the monsters.

"Ha! Everyone, get a grip! First, kill the monsters and then think!"

"Hahaha! We've finally escaped that stuffy cage! Go wild! It's a hunt!"

"Nock your arrows. We will prioritize the extermination of the monsters."

The moment the large-scale dungeon break occurred, the demi-humans who had been trapped in the dungeons also came out and began to roam the city, hunting the monsters.

That scene spread to the people through videos, and a wind of hope began to blow among the people.

But the people didn't know.

That the proper dungeon Cheon Yuhwa had been worried about had not even appeared yet.

(End of Chapter)