Chapter 39: The Fallen (2)

Shin Su-jin and Kang Ju-hyeok stared in bewilderment at the string of messages appearing before their eyes.

The Fallen?

What on earth did that mean...?

Then, without warning, black smoke began to rise from the man’s corpse.

“Get back!”

Kang Ju-hyeok, who had been standing nearby, scrambled away.

Crack, crack, crack...

The man’s skin turned deathly pale, and a single horn erupted from his forehead.

The transformation took place in the blink of an eye.

Grrraaah...

With a long, guttural moan, the man rose to his feet.

The whites of his eyes had vanished, leaving them entirely black.

Aside from the fact that all four of his limbs remained intact, there was nothing human left about him.

“A-a monster...!”

“Aaaaahh!”

The onlookers screamed and scattered.

The man’s head jerked from side to side in sharp, insect-like twitches as he scanned his surroundings.

Then he lunged toward the crowd.

Thwack!

Shin Su-jin caught him by the arm.

The force of his struggles far exceeded that of an ordinary human.

She twisted his arm behind his back, slammed him to the ground, and pinned him there.

“Hey! Snap out of it!”

“SHRAAAAHH...!”

The man did nothing but shriek and thrash beneath her.

Communication was clearly impossible.

Keeping him pinned, Shin Su-jin furrowed her brow and spoke.

“Have someone bring climber-grade restraints.”

“Yes, ma’am, but... will they hold him?”

“He’s weaker than Level 10. They’ll hold.”

She tried to make sense of the situation.

The message had clearly stated that the dead would be revived as Fallen.

Did that mean all forty thousand of those people had transformed into monsters like this...?

While Kang Ju-hyeok frantically made calls, a transmission crackled over the radio.

—Terrorist incident reported inside Seoul Arts Center, Seocho-gu. Multiple casualties suspected. Requesting emergency support from nearby Tower Monitoring Division personnel...

Both of their expressions hardened.

A terrorist attack.

There was no chance it was unrelated to what was happening now.

Something had clearly gone wrong there as well.

And Seoul Arts Center was nearby.

Shin Su-jin clenched her jaw.

After wrestling with the decision for a moment, she brought her fist down.

Crunch!

The man’s skull caved in.

He died instantly, his body going limp beneath her.

“Handle the situation here. I’m heading over.”

“Yes, ma’am...! Be careful!”

Shin Su-jin did not even bother with the car.

She took off toward Seoul Arts Center at incredible speed.

She reached the building moments later and approached the police officers who had their weapons trained on the entrance.

“Stay back! It’s dangerous!”

“Section Chief Shin Su-jin, Tower Monitoring Division, Tower Climbing Special Agency. What’s the situation inside?”

The officers lowered their weapons once she showed them her identification.

At that moment, someone staggered through the entrance, covered in blood.

Their face was white with terror.

“M-monster... There’s a monster inside...”

“Officer Park! Get this person out of here, now!”

One of the officers hurried away with the injured survivor.

The police were visibly on edge as well.

A senior officer stepped forward to brief Shin Su-jin.

“The thing is... we haven’t been able to assess the situation properly either. A monster appeared during a performance, and it seems a large number of people are still trapped inside. We were ordered to hold our position and not enter, but...”

Shin Su-jin nodded.

“I’ll go in. Everyone else should move farther away from the entrance and remain on standby.”

“What? It’s too dangerous! We need to wait for backup...!”

Shin Su-jin walked straight past the officers and entered the building.

***

The meeting place changed every time I went to collect the magic stones.

Honestly, the deal was not so secret that we needed to go to such lengths, but there was nothing wrong with being careful.

“Thank you.”

Today, we met near one of the exits at Gyodae Station.

As always, the foreign man handed me a bag stuffed with magic stones.

I gave him the bag of Supreme Magic Stones in exchange, and he left without another word.

I slung the bag over my shoulder and started walking.

I would sell them at the magic stone exchange, then perhaps wander around the city for a while before going home.

Ah...

Come to think of it, isn’t it almost time?

I checked Nightmare’s remaining time limit.

[Nightmare]

Personnel: 230,901

Time Limit: 1 year 57 seconds

Floors Reached: 4F

“One minute left.”

Once the time limit reached exactly one year, the first-wave climbers who had never entered the Tower would begin to die.

Not that watching it happen would allow me to do anything.

I stood still and waited until the time limit reached one year.

[Nightmare]

Personnel: 230,982

Time Limit: 1 year 1 second

Floors Reached: 4F

The moment it reached exactly one year—

[3 years have been exceeded.]

[A total of 43,456 climbers who did not enter the Tower will die.]

The messages appeared.

...More than forty thousand people are going to die?

On a global scale, that number might not have seemed enormous.

But it was still tens of thousands of lives.

Tens of thousands of people, erased in an instant.

“Tower, you piece of shit.”

What the hell do you gain from doing this?

I was muttering curses under my breath, a bitter taste in my mouth, when another series of messages appeared.

[Climbers who died by the Tower’s Curse will be reanimated as ‘The Fallen’.]

[There is a 90% chance of a Stage 1 Fallen appearing.]

[There is a 9% chance of a Stage 2 Fallen appearing.]

[There is a 0.9% chance of a Stage 3 Fallen appearing.]

[There is a 0.09% chance of a Stage 4 Fallen appearing.]

[There is a 0.01% chance of a Stage 5 Fallen appearing.]

...What?

What was this?

“The Fallen?”

I could not make sense of it, but one thing was immediately clear.

Something serious was happening.

I opened the Communication Channel.

[Ecstasy: yo what is this? did everyone see the messages?]

[Ghost Blade: it says they’re revived as Fallen?]

[Gabriel: holy shit, the dead people turned into monsters]

[Kingdom: monsters? what are you talking about?]

[Bell Chime: the climbers who just died turned into monsters with horns!! fuck, i gotta run so can’t answer questions!]

The Communication Channel had descended into chaos.

I skimmed through the posts and quickly pieced together the general situation.

So the dead climbers... had turned into monsters?

Was that what it meant to be revived as Fallen?

‘What the hell.’

The Tower was clearly pulling some new kind of bullshit.

I looked around at the peaceful streets, which stood in stark contrast to the pandemonium on the Communication Channel, and decided I should head home for now.

I went down into the station and was waiting for the subway when my phone began vibrating wildly in my pocket.

—[Emergency Alert] Unidentified creatures appearing nationwide. All citizens are advised to refrain from going outside and evacuate to a safe location immediately.

—[Eunpyeong-gu] Creature spotted near Yeonsinnae Station. Do not approach under any circumstances...

—[Yongin City] Creature spotted inside Everland. All visitors, please evacuate the premises immediately...

—[Busan City] Creature spotted in the middle of Busan Bridge...

Emergency alerts flooded in one after another.

What the hell is all this...?

I called my family.

Fortunately, my father had the day off, and my sister had no classes, so everyone was at home.

“Hello? Yeah, you’re all home, right? The alerts... Yes, yes. I’m somewhere safe too, so don’t worry.”

Even after I hung up, the emergency alerts continued pouring in.

Then one of them caught my attention.

—[Seocho-gu] Creature spotted inside Seoul Arts Center. Do not approach under any circumstances...

...Seoul Arts Center is close by.

‘Should I go?’

I only hesitated for a moment.

I came back out of the station and hailed a taxi.

“Seoul Arts Center, please.”

It was right nearby.

Turning away and pretending I had seen nothing would have weighed on my conscience.

Besides, I wanted to see for myself exactly what this “Fallen” was.

I arrived in no time.

As I approached the Seoul Arts Center building, I saw police cars and officers positioned around the entrance.

Wee-oo, wee-oo...

An ambulance sped past me and screeched to a halt beside the police vehicles.

It doesn’t look like things are over... yet.

The officers had their guns trained on the entrance.

I looked around before calling out to Diul.

‘Diul.’

Under Concealment, I slipped past the officers and entered the building.

My expression hardened.

A thick, vicious stench of blood drifted from deeper inside.

***

Shin Su-jin advanced through the corridor beyond the entrance, her eyes sweeping tensely over her surroundings.

The interior of the building was silent.

The sharp, metallic tang of blood stung her nostrils.

Sob, sob, sob...

A faint sound of weeping had been echoing from somewhere ahead for some time now.

She entered the opera hall and froze at the sight before her.

Several lights flickered unsteadily overhead.

In the darkness of the theater, bright red blood and bodies lay scattered everywhere.

Grrrr...

Shin Su-jin spotted a monster wandering between the rows of seats.

It resembled the man who had transformed earlier.

The difference was that this creature had three horns protruding from its forehead.

Sob... sob, sob...

The weeping came again.

This time, Shin Su-jin looked toward the stage.

Among the corpses of the performers, another monster sat curled into itself, its head buried against its knees as it cried.

That one had five horns.

Merely looking at it sent a chill crawling across her skin.

Shin Su-jin prepared herself for battle.

Yet neither monster reacted to her presence.

She observed them in silence for a moment.

Then, instead of attacking, she chose another course of action.

Muffling her footsteps, she approached the faint signs of life she could sense among the audience seats.

“Ngh... ngh...”

Beneath a row of seats near the entrance, a man and woman crouched with their arms covering their heads.

They were paralyzed with fear.

Shin Su-jin whispered to them.

“I’m here to get you out. It’s all right.”

The man, tears and snot streaming down his face, shook his head frantically.

“W-we tried to run, and they all died... That monster...”

Shin Su-jin checked the two monsters once more before calming them.

“It’s all right. We need to move now, while the monsters are still.”

She could not leave them there.

Quietly, she guided the pair toward the exit.

Neither monster reacted, and they made it out of the theater safely.

“Follow this hallway and leave the building. The police are waiting outside.”

“O-okay... Oh God...”

Still trembling violently, the man and woman linked arms and hurried away.

Shin Su-jin returned to the theater.

There were still more people hiding among the seats.

“Quietly. Come this way.”

She began evacuating them one at a time.

The escape proceeded relatively smoothly.

“Aagh...!”

Then someone climbing the stairs stumbled and fell with a loud crash.

Shin Su-jin helped them to their feet before whipping around toward the monster.

The three-horned creature wandering between the seats had turned its head in their direction.

SHRIEEK...!

“...Run!”

With a piercing shriek, the monster launched itself forward.

Shin Su-jin raised both arms to block its attack and was hurled into the wall.

The remaining survivors burst from their hiding places, screaming as they fled.

Shin Su-jin pushed herself upright.

Her arms throbbed as though the bones were about to snap.

Before she could regain her balance, the monster charged again.

CRASH!

Its speed and strength were astonishing.

At the very least, its physical capabilities exceeded Level 30.

Shin Su-jin activated Aura Blade.

She narrowly evaded its attacks, waited for an opening, and drove a clean strike straight into its heart.

Boom!

The monster’s chest exploded.

Under ordinary circumstances, the blow would have been fatal.

Yet the creature reacted as though nothing had happened and immediately counterattacked.

Caught off guard, Shin Su-jin took a fist to the side and was sent flying.

“Gakh...!”

She coughed up blood.

A dizzying wave of pain tore through her body.

Broken ribs, most likely.

The monster gave her no time to recover and lunged again.

“...!”

Something else sprang in from the side and snatched the monster out of the air.

A massive, jet-black, four-legged beast.

...Another monster had appeared from nowhere.

It had the three-horned creature clamped between its jaws and was grinding it between its teeth.

Shin Su-jin watched in stunned silence.

Crunch!

Crack, crack!

Ptooey!

The tiger-like beast chewed the three-horned monster into a pulp and spat it onto the floor.

Mangled and crushed into a heap of flesh, the creature appeared to be dead.

Fighting through the pain, Shin Su-jin forced herself to stand.

The Black Tiger had killed the three-horned monster in an instant.

Now it simply sat there, its haunches planted calmly on the floor.

...It isn’t attacking?

Confused, Shin Su-jin first checked her surroundings.

Thankfully, it seemed that everyone had escaped.

No one else remained in the theater.

But then—

Sob, sob, sob...

The wretched sound of weeping continued.

A chill ran through Shin Su-jin as she turned toward the stage.

The three-horned monster was dead, but one still remained.

The creature that had stayed curled up and crying throughout all the chaos.

Goosebumps spread across her skin and refused to fade.

She could sense it instinctively.

That thing was far, far stronger than the three-horned monster.

What do I do?

Everyone had escaped, but she could not simply leave the monsters here.

Then, without warning, a voice reached her.

“I’ll handle it, so please get out.”

Shin Su-jin looked around in surprise.

But there was still no one else in sight.

Only the monsters.

And yet, there was something strangely familiar about the voice.

Then she realized who it belonged to.

“Person123...?”

Then could this monster be...?

Shin Su-jin looked toward the Black Tiger sitting obediently nearby.

Everything clicked into place.

She finally understood who commanded the creature that had refused to attack her and had instead killed the three-horned monster.

Once again, Person123 had saved her.

‘A summoning skill... or something similar?’

How could anyone control a monster like that?

Shin Su-jin was still reeling from the confusion, but for now, she decided to follow his instruction.

Person123 was here.

And against the remaining monster, she would only get in the way.

Those two facts, at least, she understood clearly.

There were five Stages of Fallen.

And the horns on their foreheads...

If she had to guess, the number of horns indicated their Stage.

In that case, the weeping creature was a Stage 5 Fallen.

The highest rank.

“...Be careful.”

Shin Su-jin murmured the words softly into the empty space around her before hurrying out of the theater.