Chapter 88: A Cornered Rat
Slam!!
The wall was destroyed.
Baek Kang-Hyun's eyes were full of anger.
"What… the hell is going on?!"
It had been ten days since the shadows had failed to kill Cha Yeon-Joo. Something that shouldn't—and couldn't—happen was happening.
The number of demonic crystals secretly implanted in monsters was decreasing at an alarming rate.
It was as if the Red Rose Guild had a demonic crystal detector.
"Y-Your Eminence."
Booooom!
A wall collapsed, and a loud sound as if a bomb had exploded went off.
The priests in front of him trembled every time there was an explosion. They couldn't hide their fear.
"Haa, haa… How many Fragments have we collected?"
"W-We could only collect fifty percent. The demonic crystals that we planted are being discovered before the monsters are fully eroded by the demonic energy."
"Damn it!!"
Another loud sound rang throughout the room.
The eyes of the man wearing the red demon mask shook.
The plan had gone awry.
He couldn't comprehend it. Save for the members of the Demon Cult, there wasn't anyone who could control demonic energy.
But who was finding the demonic crystals so precisely?
'Is there a traitor?'
He naturally began to doubt the members of the cult, but then he shook his head. He'd carefully selected the members that had participated in the plan to avoid such a thing.
The chances of a traitor being among them were low.
"… Call off the plan."
"Sir?"
"We will use the other method."
"Y-Your Eminence!"
The faces of the priests paled.
There was indeed one more method besides collecting the demonic crystals that they had implanted in the monsters…
'But that method is insane.'
Kidnapping and sacrificing live Players paled in comparison. This other method was literally like jumping to their own destruction. Even if it worked, it would turn the entire world against them.
The Demon Cult's forces in Korea weren't that big and couldn't be compared to the ones in Japan and China.
This other method was like declaring war on the entire world. They couldn't do something so crazy.
"I-It's too dangerous. We should be asking for more support from the cult and making a new pla—Kurgh!"
Kang-Hyun clenched the priest's neck.
"A new plan? Do you seriously expect that to solve anything? Huh?"
"Kurgh! Kurghhh!"
"Even now, the Japanese are becoming stronger and more influential. And you want me to make a new plan in this situation?"
The moment he mentioned Japan, his eyes became full of anger and impatience. His pathetic defeat, the endless ridicule, and the looks of disdain filled his mind.
Crack!
The sound of the priest's neck breaking rang throughout the room.
With eyes full of madness, he looked at the remaining priests.
"Make the preparations. I will not repeat myself."
"Y-Yes, Your Eminence!"
The priests started to move quickly.
* * *
"So far, so good."
Oh Kang-Woo was satisfied.
He looked down at the three demonic crystals in his hand. He had gotten three in just a day.
The moment Kim Si-Hun participated in the search for demonic crystals, things had completely changed.
Kang-Woo had just been charging in completely blind in search of the demonic crystals, but things had become much more efficient thanks to Si-Hun.
Thanks to his help, Kang-Woo had found fourteen demonic crystals in the last ten days. Considering that Kang-Woo hadn't been able to find a single one for two weeks before, it was a considerable achievement.
"Kang-Woo hyung-nim, is that all for today?"
"Yeah. We've looked around all the Gates around here, so let's look through the rest tomorrow."
"But what are these demonic crystals? How can something like this influence monsters in such a way…?"
"I don't know either."
Kang-Woo wasn't sure how demonic energy turned humans into demons or monsters into demonic beasts.
'That's not important.'
The important thing was that they were interfering with the Demon Cult's plans involving the use of demonic crystals and that the demonic crystals were of great help to his growth.
'They're probably shitting themselves.'
Because they didn't know about Si-Hun's identity, the Demon Cult likely had no idea what to do as their demonic crystals were being found so easily.
It was as if a treasure someone had thought that they'd hidden in a place unknown to the rest of the world had been discovered.
It would be weird if the Demon Cult wasn't panicking.
"Anyway, I'm glad I can be of help to you, hyung-nim."
Si-Hun smiled—it was a smile so innocent that it was hard to look at.
"Let's go home."
Kang-Woo averted his gaze and got into the driver's seat. While driving home, he began thinking.
'It should be about time for them to react in some way.'
He wasn't sure about how many demonic crystals the Demon Cult had, but the demonic crystals had so much demonic energy that they could even increase Kang-Woo's Demonic Energy stat, which was almost 90.
He didn't think they would have hundreds or even thousands of them.
'If that were the case, they would've planted even more.'
With the help of Si-Hun, Kang-Woo had found fourteen demonic crystals. Since he had only found that many after searching through all the Gates scattered around Korea, they likely did not have that many demonic crystals.
'What will their next move be?'
Kang-Woo didn't think that they would just take this lying down. They would definitely do something, whether that be sending an enormous number of assassins or just forcing the plan.
'If only I had more information.'
He knew they were targeting Rift Fragments, but he wasn't sure what they were trying to do by gathering them. Even if he wanted to guess, he couldn't because of the severe lack of information.
'The members of the Demon Cult know more about this than me.'
At the very least, the Demon Cult knew more about Rifts than Kang-Woo did. It was obvious, considering how the Andras Guild had created a Rift by using mana stones and how the Cult had summoned a demon from the Seventh Hell.
'I guess I'll find the answer eventually if I keep waiting.'
Trying to guess at that point could be dangerous.
"H-Hyung-nim."
Just as they had passed Suwon and were heading to Seoul, Si-Hun spoke with a heavy expression.
"What is it all of a sudden?"
"… A system window popped up."
"Huh?"
Kang-Woo looked at Si-Hun in utter confusion.
It wasn't like they were hunting monsters, so there was no way he would've gotten a system message.
"What does it say?"
"U-Umm…"
Before Si-Hun could continue, Kang-Woo's smartphone rang—it was Cha Yeon-Joo.
"Just a second."
Kang-Woo answered the call.
[Wh-Where are you right now?]
"Why? What's up?"
[Answer me! Where are you right now?!] An urgent shout. Kang-Woo's expression hardened after hearing the tone of her voice. It was as if she had lost her mind.
"I just passed Suwon and am heading to Seoul now. What's going on?"
[Go to Isu Station right now! Hurry]
"Cha Yeon-Joo," Kang-Woo said in a low voice. "Calm down."
[This isn't the time!]
"Calm down. Take a deep breath and concentrate. Control yourself. Nothing will come of rushing."
[…]
There was silence. He could hear her taking a deep breath.
Kang-Woo nodded.
"Now, explain the situation. What happened?"
[… A Gate appeared in the middle of Isu Station.]
"A Gate?"
[No. I'm honestly not sure if it's a Gate or not. Rather than a Gate… it's closer to a Rift. It looks similar to the black breach that Oriax had come out from.]
"…"
A Rift. Kang-Woo was starting to get a bad feeling.
"Did a demon appear?"
[No. That's not it.]
"Then what?"
[…]
There was a short silence. Yeon-Joo spoke with a trembling voice.
[Black energy flowed out from it and… engulfed people. Then… and then… the people…]
Cha Yeon-Joo couldn't bear to finish her sentence.
He could guess why she was lost for words.
'Demonic energy came out of the Rift.'
And that demonic energy had engulfed people.
There weren't many possible outcomes that could result from such a thing.
[The people… turned into monsters.]
They weren't exactly monsters. Because they were exposed to demonic energy while completely defenseless, they'd probably turned into demonic beasts rather than intelligent demons.
Or…
'They died.'
There weren't many humans who could resist demonic energy when exposed to it. Even Players with superhuman physiques couldn't resist more than a certain amount, so there was no way regular civilians could.
It was as if someone had dropped a biological weapon in the middle of the city.
No, it was worse than a biological weapon—people who had turned into demonic beasts were most certainly attacking other people.
[H-Hurry. Hwa-Yeon and I are already heading there as fast as we can.]
"I'm on my way."
He ended the call.
Kang-Woo turned to Si-Hun in the passenger seat.
"What did the system window say?"
"That the Rift Fragment is getting bigger… and that I have to stop it."
Kang-Woo's eyes narrowed. The gears in his head quickly turned.
A Rift had suddenly appeared in the heart of a populous area. People had turned into demonic beasts after being exposed to demonic energy. The Rift Fragment was getting bigger.
There were three pieces of the puzzle.
"So they're pushing ahead with quantity, huh?"
Kang-Woo frowned.
The Demon Cult had originally planned to secure Rift Fragments by turning monsters into demonic beasts, but that plan had failed due to him and Si-Hun.
After having been cornered, they had decided to go for quantity rather than quality. The problem was that the sacrifices they had used to make up the quantity had not been monsters but powerless civilians.
"Those crazy sons of bitches…"
Kang-Woo didn't consider himself a good human being.
He felt neither sorrow nor sympathy for someone else's suffering. He always eliminated beings before they would get in his way, and thoroughly made use of anything that he could possibly use.
He was cruel and cold.
He'd lived for too long in a place where he wouldn't have been able to survive if he wasn't like that, but even he had lines that he didn't cross.
Even if they could be of use to him, he would never step over the weak who couldn't resist.
That was the final fortress that protected what remained of his humanity, no matter how small.
The Demon Cult, however, had crossed that line.
Vroom!!
He stepped on the gas pedal.
The car accelerated.
The struggle of a cornered rat…
That struggle hurt more than he'd initially thought.
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