Chapter 1866 – 1866. Eternal Eden
“Head.”
The monster grinned, then contracted its body and shot forward like a rocket. In martial arts terms, it was a ‘bowstring-like launch.’
I quickly rolled to the side, dodging the monster’s attack, and ran down the corridor. It wasn’t a straight path; after a short distance, the corridor split. I turned a corner.
‘Found it.’
The door to a large elevator.
Crack!
I converted electricity into sword energy and sliced through the elevator door. The elevator was on the 4th basement level, and there was nothing above it.
‘I can kick off the wall and go up. There are plenty of places to grab, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.’
Bang!
The monster flew in from behind. There was no time to hesitate. I kicked off the floor and stuck to the wall. The monster followed without hesitation, its hundreds of tentacles gripping the wall to support its massive body.
I entered the 2nd floor.
-That bastard, could it be…!
The lab director was in shock. His voice was trembling.
I sprinted down the 2nd-floor corridor. My target was the control room. It was surrounded by unusually thick walls compared to other areas. That had to be the control room.
Bang bang bang bang!
Gun barrels popped out of the wall, spitting fire. I couldn’t dodge all the bullets. I had to conserve my strength, so I didn’t use the electromagnetic barrier.
‘I can take a few hits.’
A bullet struck my shoulder. It didn’t penetrate but bounced off. Thanks to the clothes Na Chae-yeong had made for me. They didn’t block all the impact, and there were durability issues, but I could withstand a few bullets without any problem.
Whoooosh!
“Head!!”
The monster followed as I expected.
-The steel wall surrounding the control room is over 10cm thick! Do you really think you can do anything with that sword?!
It would be difficult.
If I took Bister I and focused on attacking, it might be possible, but there was a monster chasing me right now. There was no time to concentrate.
-It’s safe here! And you’re going to die with your brain eaten by the Brain Devourer! It’s actually a good thing, we can see what happens when the Brain Devourer eats a player’s brain!
His voice was trembling too much to say it was a good thing.
I stopped in front of the control room and turned around. A giant caterpillar monster was rushing toward me, moving its hundreds of tentacles like fins. The corridor it had passed through was a mess, with broken fluorescent lights and parts of the wall destroyed.
“Head!!”
The monster contracted its body. That was it. The rocket charge. As soon as I saw the monster flying toward me, I jumped to the side to avoid it.
Whoooosh!
The monster collided with the steel wall of the control room. The steel wall shook. But it didn’t collapse.
-Ha, hahahaha! Yes! Even the Brain Devourer can’t break through this steel wall!
The lab director laughed.
‘It’s too early to be relieved.’
The monster’s tentacles were wriggling. As if it was delighted to have found prey.
Bang! Whoooosh! Bang! Bang!
The monster retreated and then repeatedly rammed into the steel wall. It seemed to have forgotten that I was nearby.
‘In that thing’s eyes, the dozens of people inside the control room must look more appetizing.’
The steel wall was shaking. The fact that it was shaking was a sign of instability.
-Damn it! Release the anesthetic gas! Release the anesthetic gas!!
-There are no anesthetic gas dispensers on the 2nd floor!
-It, it’s going to break through!
-We’re all going to die!
-Mom, I miss Mom….
-Damn it. Grab your guns! Reinforcements are coming soon!
-There’s no way bullets will work on the Brain Devourer in that state…. You might as well leave your last words. That would be more productive.
Zzzzt!
There was a response on the radio in my ear. I pressed the radio button and spoke quietly.
“Dr. Na?”
-What are you doing just standing there! Get out of there right now! A helicopter is coming! Reinforcements! You need to escape quickly!
Listening to Na Chae-yeong’s urgent voice, I ran toward the stairs. It was closer than the elevator. The stairs leading down to the 3rd floor were blocked, but the stairs leading up were not. Gun barrels popped out, trying to stop me, but I made it out of the lab safely.
-Kkyaaaaaaak!
-S, save me…!
-Head!!
Screams echoed through the speakers. It was obvious what was happening in the control room.
-Don’t come out to the 1st floor! Soldiers have gathered right in front of the lab! Go to the 3rd floor and jump out the window at the back of the building! You won’t be seen there!
As Na Chae-yeong said, I went out through the 3rd-floor window.
Using the Thunder Sky Style’s Empty Path, I leaped over the fence and landed on the ground, just like when I infiltrated the lab. Na Chae-yeong let out a sigh of relief.
“…I can’t believe you came back alive from that situation. Releasing that monster was a stroke of genius. …The researchers are all going to die, though.”
“Here, take the AI core and the data chip. I’ve got everything we need.”
“I don’t need the data chip… but thanks. Things worked out somehow. We just need to escape now. Luckily, the monster is rampaging, so they won’t be paying attention to us.”
I glanced at Na Chae-yeong’s laptop. There were several screens. The camera hack was still working. One of them showed the control room. The monster had evolved in the meantime, and its tentacles had grown to 30cm. It was crushing the researchers’ heads and eating only their brains.
Dududududududu!
The sound of a helicopter was deafening. It wasn’t landing, nor was it leaving. The reinforcements weren’t entering the building; they were maintaining a defensive posture at the entrance.
“Are they waiting for the monster to come out?”
“It’ll be easier to subdue it that way. They must think it’s disadvantageous to fight in a confined space.”
“Do you know anything about this monster?”
“I’m sorry, but it’s a monster I’ve never seen before.”
“A monster you’ve never seen before?”
“As far as I know, there are no monsters like this in Eternal Eden.”
“They were calling it a Brain Devourer because it likes brains. Does it have any weaknesses?”
“……Brain Devourer?”
Na Chae-yeong’s expression instantly hardened. Her eyes were shaking.
“You know about it?”
“…It’s the most troublesome monster. The Brain Devourer is a giant butterfly monster with a human face, and it has the ability to emit mental waves.”
“A giant butterfly… It’s in its caterpillar form now, so it must be before it pupates. What happens if you get hit by the mental waves?”
“Weak-minded people go insane immediately, and even normal people can’t last long before they go insane. The worst part is that it’s widespread. If a Brain Devourer appears in a city… a city without any preparation will collapse in less than a day.”
Whoooosh!
I heard a familiar explosion. I turned my gaze to the laptop. The monster that had been eating human brains in the control room had disappeared from the screen.
Tatatatatatatatang!
Gunfire erupted. It was clear that the monster had come up to the ground. Na Chae-yeong quickly grabbed her laptop.
“Let’s go. The soldiers will take care of the Brain Devourer. It’s much weaker than the Brain Devourers I know. The soldiers should be able to handle it now.”
“No, they won’t. The lab was controlling that monster with a psychic awakener. But I killed him. And the monster is still emitting mental waves.”
Another explosion was heard. This time, it was from the sky. A helicopter was crashing. The monster had used its bowstring-like launch to fly like a rocket and ram its body into the helicopter. It was obvious without even looking.
Na Chae-yeong frowned. She put a hand to her forehead.
“…I’ve been feeling a headache since earlier. It wasn’t stress, it was the mental waves. …So, what are we going to do? Aren’t we going to run?”
“If we run now, Seoul could be destroyed. There aren’t many awakeners in Korea. Korea could be destroyed by that one monster.”
“…You don’t need to get involved. The military will do something about it. If they fire missiles, even that monster won’t be able to withstand it.”
“They can’t fire missiles easily. And the monster isn’t just staying in one place. You know there are cities nearby, right?”
“Why are you going so far?”
Na Chae-yeong asked, as if she couldn’t understand.
I didn’t care if dozens or hundreds of people died. But if it became a city-wide issue, that was a different story. And Seoul was close by.
“It’s a problem if Korea is destroyed.”
“…If Korea is destroyed, we can go to another country. Even nearby Japan is a developed country. No, why is it a problem if Korea is destroyed in the first place?”
“Because I’m going to be the king of Korea.”
“……Are you serious?”
I nodded at her, who was asking back as if it was absurd. It was something I had planned from the beginning. Like [Vampire Detective], there were limits to what a company could do. And I couldn’t become the king of Korea in a normal world. The people wouldn’t welcome me.
But the world of [Eternal Eden], filled with chaos and facing the end of humanity, was different. In fact, in the original [Eternal Eden], it was possible to become the ruler of a country.
“…Did you forget that this is my time? You have to listen to me.”
“You’ll be in trouble if Seoul is destroyed too. If you wanted to go abroad, you wouldn’t have chosen Korea in the first place.”
Na Chae-yeong sighed. It was a sigh of resignation.
“…Okay. What do you need me to do?”
“The monster’s weakness.”
“It’s fire. The Brain Devourer’s regeneration weakens when it’s burned. You have to kill it completely in that weakened state.”
“Fire was the answer.”
“Ugh, ahh! Stop it!”
Suddenly, Na Chae-yeong grabbed her head and collapsed. I clicked my tongue. The monster’s mental waves had intensified.
‘It’s grown since before. If I leave it like this, it will grow to an uncontrollable level. I have to kill it now.’
Instead of taking care of the suffering Na Chae-yeong, I slightly lifted my mask to reveal my mouth. I took out all the Bister I from my pocket and put it in my mouth. Crunch, crunch. After chewing a few times, my power surged.
‘The effect is weaker than when I took it last time. Did I develop a tolerance like Na Chae-yeong said? This is too fast.’
Was it because I took a large amount of the drug? Because of my recovery ability? Whatever the reason, it wasn’t the time to think about it now.
I gripped my sword in my right hand and ran toward where the monster was.
The monster was pulling a pilot out of the wreckage of the crashed helicopter and severing his neck with its tentacles. Then it grinned at me.
“Head!”
“I heard you like fire so much?”
Crack!
Blue lightning enveloped the blade. Soon, the blade began to burn.
As my lightning reached level 12, I was able to give it attributes. Right now, I had given the lightning the attribute of burning. To be precise, blue flames were rising in the places where the lightning had passed. And the result was the flames and lightning that enveloped the blade.
The monster contracted its body and flew like a rocket.
I put strength into my feet and leaped forward.
Thunder Sky Style, Flying Thunder God.
