Chapter 11
Cracks and Monsters (1)
The great brawl at the Badass Guild kept the city buzzing for a while.
The result was, of course, Kang Hyeon’s victory.
Kang Hyeon threw punches non-stop to the point where there wasn’t a single guild member who didn’t get hit by him that day.
“But, Guild Master! I’m an executive…”
“If you’re an executive, you should take responsibility for not managing the members properly!?”
Kang Hyeon completely destroyed even the founding members who were on his side, to put it crudely.
“Why is the Guild Master so strong?”
“Is he really human…”
A few days later, guild members with still-swollen faces were sighing at the guild house.
“Even the executives were completely beaten?”
“If even those monsters were helplessly defeated, just how much of a monster is the Guild Master?”
It was everyone’s common question.
Why was Kang Hyeon uniquely strong?
The reason was actually simple. During Kang Hyeon’s three-year period of death, ability users’ physical capabilities hadn’t improved for quite a long time.
Compared to when status windows existed, they had actually regressed.
Originally, the status window was a device that forced humans to overcome their limits as quickly as possible. Now that the status window was gone, it was nearly impossible to grow like the ability users of the past. This was evident in the increased use of firearms compared to before.
“Hmm…”
However, since Kang Hyeon’s physical abilities had already far surpassed human limits even without a status window, it was natural for ability users who could no longer receive help from status windows to fall behind.
Anyway, in this era, Kang Hyeon, the only muscle monster wearing a human disguise, was lost in thought.
“What should I do?”
In just the few days since Kang Hyeon’s return, he had organized Badass Town, one of the largest cities in the country. And he had completely solidified his control within the Badass Guild, which could be called the best guild in the country.
Yet Kang Hyeon wasn’t satisfied at all.
“I want to live in a world where proper people live.”
Kang Hyeon’s concern was simple. Kang Hyeon wanted to change the world peacefully. He knew well that this would be difficult in a world ruled by monsters and magic.
However, it was about minimum standards.
‘Shouldn’t people live like proper humans anyway?’
A lawless world where bullets fly at the back of your head while walking, and where people kill and rob whenever they’re bored.
Of course, being in charge here wasn’t necessarily bad. In this world without law and order, Kang Hyeon was nothing less than the apex predator.
But wouldn’t it be happier to live in a brighter, more hopeful world?
“A world where beer is common. Where beef is common.”
Though he could drink beer occasionally, he couldn’t even see beef at all. This was because the animal called ‘cow’ had disappeared from Earth now.
The reason was simple. Either all the cows were eaten by hungry monsters and humans, or they themselves became monsters due to magical power.
Anyway, these various little things really didn’t sit well with Kang Hyeon.
“We need to create currency again. Establish public security. Secure food supplies… How do we solve all this?”
“Brother. Give up on the currency. I explained it last time.”
Ahn Yu-seong interrupted Kang Hyeon’s words.
“Did you?”
“Don’t you remember? I explained thoroughly, but you said you couldn’t understand and just went to eat.”
“Ah, right.”
As his first plan, Kang Hyeon had tried to create currency.
– This isn’t the Stone Age. How can barter make sense?
For the economy to function properly, there needed to be real ‘money,’ not just exchanging things like alcohol, cigarettes, or gold trinkets.
“Why can’t the Hyeseong Group print paper money?”
“Of course that’s not possible.”
“But creating currency wasn’t as simple as Kang Hyeon thought.”
“As I said before, the most realistic method is making coins using gold and silver.”
“Then wouldn’t we need a huge amount of gold and silver?”
“That’s right.”
“Where would we get that much?”
“It’s not impossible to obtain.”
“Huh? There’s a way?”
“Just the gold stored in the Bank of Korea alone was 100 tons…”
While Ahn Yu-seong was explaining about gold.
SCREECH!
A siren loudly blared throughout the entire city.
“What’s this suddenly?”
Kang Hyeon frowned at the incomprehensible situation.
“Looks like a rift formed near the city.”
“A rift?”
“Yes. A chaos existence.”
“In other words, a rift where monsters crawl out from.”
Ahn Yu-seong said while picking up his mace.
“Brother, you haven’t seen a rift yet, right?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Want to go see? This is quite interesting too.”
“Hmm… Sure, why not.”
Kang Hyeon picked up Bilgein’s longsword after a long time and left the guild house.
***
Ippotranslation
***
The location where the rift was occurring was closer than expected.
At the farmland on the outskirts of the city.
The space above where crops were growing was strangely distorted.
“What’s the scale of the rift?”
“Based on the wavelength, it’s the largest scale ever.”
“Is that so…”
Among the busily moving people, Shin Seong-ah was examining the situation familiarly.
“What’s going on?”
“Ah, you’ve come.”
When Kang Hyeon approached, Shin Seong-ah bowed her head in greeting.
“Is this okay?”
“It’s a common occurrence.”
“Dimensional rifts are now routine.”
“Really? But this is my first time hearing the siren.”
“The siren only sounds when a large-scale rift opens near the city area.”
“This is probably the first time since you returned, Kang Hyeon.”
“Ah…”
Kang Hyeon nodded silently.
““Is that crack over there, distorted like a magma?”
Kang Hyeon asked while looking at the area that seemed to be moving as if space was being twisted.
“That’s a precursor phenomenon to the rift.”
“You’ll probably be able to see a proper rift within 30 minutes.”
While they were conversing, guild members gathered to deal with the rift were checking their equipment.
Looking at their equipment, Kang Hyeon spoke.
“Seems like everyone fights with guns.”
There wasn’t a single person carrying a blade.
Though some had swords at their waists, that was just a precaution.
It seemed that using firearms like guns was standard in actual combat.
“Do guns work on the things that come out of there? I remember we didn’t really use guns when hunting monsters before.”
Shin Seong-ah shook her head at Kang Hyeon’s question.
“The reason we didn’t use guns before was because we could level up.”
“Ah, was that it?”
“Yes. But now that the status window is gone and leveling up is impossible, there’s no reason not to use guns.”
“Hmm… But if something strong comes out, you can’t win with guns.”
Kang Hyeon didn’t like the fact that ability users were using guns.
He thought it meant setting limits on oneself.
Unless one could hone their techniques to the extreme like Shin Seong-ah, it wouldn’t matter.
For most people, a gun was just a weapon to kill enemies more easily and simply, nothing more, nothing less.
Kang Hyeon knew this fact well.
“Of course, it’s difficult to subdue powerful beasts with guns.”
“But unlike in the past, with specialized anti-beast firearms and ammunition being supplied, that rarely happens.”
“I see.”
Kang Hyeon decided to quietly observe the situation.
After all, the guild members had been preventing rifts for 3 years without him.
He couldn’t suddenly appear and criticize their use of guns.
“However…”
That’s when it happened.
Shin Seong-ah spoke while watching the rift with subdued eyes.
“This rift reportedly has the highest wavelength ever measured.”
“That’s somewhat concerning.”
“Hmm…”
“Still, everything has been fine until now, so it should be fine.”
About thirty guild members were gathered around.
They were all taking their positions as if familiar with the routine.
“Should we grab a drink after this is over?”
“You idiot.”
“If you spend all your allowance right away, what will you do later?”
“When we don’t even know if we’ll die today or tomorrow, what later are you talking about?”
There was no sense of tension among them as they engaged in casual conversation.
As time passed.
“The rift is opening!”
Finally, the dimensional rift began to reveal itself.
***
Ippotranslation
***
Crackle… Craaack…!
An unpleasant noise rang out as if something was being torn apart.
Space breaking like cracked glass. Between the gaps of the torn space was an endless deep darkness.
“Don’t waste bullets, shoot carefully!” Shin Seong-ah commanded as she watched the cracks forming.
“Yes!”
“Here they come!”
As Shin Seong-ah spoke, the space began to rapidly widen.
Crack!
As the small gap-like black space opened wide, strange monsters never seen before began crawling out.
“Kyaaah—!”
Beings of chaos with all sorts of appearances. They gave off a completely different feeling from monsters. If monsters felt like beasts, these creatures from the crack felt alien, like they were from a completely different world.
“Graaah—!”
The ones that came out were about 2-3m tall, not as big as expected. Upon discovering the guild members, they began charging at incredible speed.
“Fire!”
Rattatatata!
Bullets rained down amid thunderous noise from all directions.
“Die, you bastards!”
“Hahaha! Let’s shoot freely without worrying about bullets today!”
The guild members were firing bullets non-stop, seemingly ignoring the order to conserve ammunition.
“Kyaaah!”
Fortunately, it was effective. The charging creatures fell, spraying black blood everywhere. Bodies were piling up neatly before they could get far from the crack’s entrance.
“How many are coming out?”
“It varies each time. Usually doesn’t exceed 10, but today there’s quite a lot.”
Shin Seong-ah answered with a frown.
“Seems like over twenty have come out already. Is that okay?”
“Actually, we brought plenty of bullets, so no need to worry.”
Since each one was quite large, the bodies quickly formed a small hill. The field where crops had been growing was soon filled with monster corpses.
“Cease fire! Cease fire!”
Shortly after, the gunfire stopped at Shin Seong-ah’s shout. The acrid smell of gunpowder stung their noses.
Seeing no more monsters emerging from the crack, Shin Seong-ah gave orders.
“Now we confirm the kills.”
There was no need to waste bullets on dying creatures. Now was the time to put bullets in the heads of those still alive and sort through the remains for by-products.
The guild members carefully approached the pile of monster corpses.
“These monster bastards. So many crawled out.”
“Have we ever had this many before?”
“I don’t think I’ve seen this before. Hope we hit the jackpot.”
“As if that would happen.”
The chaos beings rarely dropped magic stones when killed. Occasionally there were ‘jackpot’ ones with lots of magic stones, but those were extremely rare. Plus, such jackpots usually had much stronger powers than other entities, so the guild members didn’t have high expectations.
“This one’s still alive.”
A guild member frowned at a monster still writhing despite being riddled with bullet holes.
Bang! Bang!
Though it had incredible tenacity, its movements stopped quickly once bullets pierced its weak eyes.
“Vice Guild Leader! Clean-up complete!”
“The crack?”
“It’s closing! Should we collect the bodies?”
“Yes.”
The torn space was resealing itself. At this point the situation was completely over, so Shin Seong-ah ordered cleanup.
“That was more boring than expected.”
“Right?”
Kang Hyeon and Ahn Yu-seong exchanged words watching the scene.
“I came because I had a feeling something big would happen today. Guess not.”
“Can your instincts be wrong too?”
“Well, now that I don’t have a status window anymore. A feeling is just a feeling.”
Ahn Yu-seong said in a somewhat bitter tone.
“Brother, let’s go back now. It’s not like you’re going to help with the cleanup anyway, right?”
Kang Hyeon nodded and turned around.
‘Something feels off…’
However, as if something was lingering, he kept turning his head to look at the crack.
-Swoosh
The crack had now completely shrunk, becoming almost invisible to the eye.
Guild members were cutting through the monster’s corpse looking for magic stones.
It was when Kang Hyeon felt a strange sense of disconnect while watching them.
“Hmm…?”
Kang Hyeon narrowed his eyes while looking at the crack.
“What’s wrong?”
“I think I just saw something move in there.”
“In the crack?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s impossible. Once a crack starts closing, it’s over. Besides, seeing something inside the crack doesn’t make sense…”
Ahn Yu-seong suddenly stopped speaking.
A chilling sensation crept up from his toes.
Looking around, Kang Hyeon was already running toward the crack.
“Everyone run away!”
The guild members turned their heads at Kang Hyeon’s sudden loud shout.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s the Guild Master?”
“Run away? What do you mean…”
At that moment, the gathered guild members instinctively looked at the crack.
-Whoosh!
Simultaneously, the crack that had shrunk to about a hand span suddenly widened rapidly, and a huge hand shot out from inside.
A black hand so massive it could cover most of an adult’s upper body.
-Crack! Smash!
It crushed a guild member’s head.
