Chapter 1882 – 1882. Eternal Eden
“Pest control’s here, you bug bastards!”
I shouted boldly at the monster spiders. I quickly scanned the number of monster spiders. There were about 20, including the queen spider, which was even bigger in person.
‘Only 20? No way.’
There was no time to look for the rest.
The queen spider let out a shriek when it saw us.
“Keeeeeek! Keeeeeek!”
The monster spiders, except for the queen, charged at us all at once.
“Fire!”
As soon as I shouted, the security team and the gangsters pulled their triggers and unleashed a hail of bullets. The combat drones did the same. They quickly approached the building windows and poured down a barrage of bullets. The windows shattered from the bullets, and glass shards flew everywhere.
The light reflected off the glass flashed all around for a moment, and the sound of gunfire filled the space.
The charging spiders were riddled with bullets and collapsed. A grayish-white slime oozed from their bodies. With thousands of bullets pouring down at once, even monster spiders couldn’t withstand it.
But the queen spider didn’t fall. The bullets couldn’t penetrate its rock-hard body. Still, it wasn’t completely unaffected; there were wounds that looked like scratches.
-Unbelievable. How can it be so unscathed after taking that hail of bullets? Its skin must be harder than steel…
Na Chae-young’s surprised voice came through the radio. I walked forward.
“Anyway, there’s only one queen spider left, so I just need to kill it.”
“Keeeeeek!”
The queen spider shrieked. It wasn’t just a simple threat.
The ceiling seemed to shake, then suddenly collapsed, and dozens of monster spiders fell down.
“Sung Yoo-jin! The elevator! The elevator doors opened, and spiders are pouring out! They were ambushing in the elevator shaft!”
Gu Tae-hee shouted urgently. It wasn’t hard to imagine the monster spiders clinging to the elevator shaft walls. The spiders didn’t charge right away but prioritized forming ranks.
We were surrounded. Monster spiders occupied the front and back. They were waiting for the queen spider’s command.
“Dr. Na, were they on the roof? There are cameras on the drones, so there’s no way we wouldn’t have seen them.”
-I checked the footage. There was a large outdoor unit on the roof… and a black cloth was covering the inside of the unit. I thought it was a shadow, but they were hiding under the cloth.
Na Chae-young’s voice trembled more and more. I knew how she felt. It’s that feeling when something you thought was nothing hits you in the back of the head.
“I have to admit it. That bastard was one step ahead. But in the end, I’m the one who’ll win.”
“Keeeeeek!”
As the queen spider shrieked, the spiders charged all at once.
“Fight if you don’t want to die!”
I ordered the security team and took out a Bister II pill from my pocket and chewed it.
-I’ll provide support from here too.
The combat drones that were flying outside charged in and made a direct attack on the monster spiders. They flew around in the air, supporting the people in danger.
The effects of the pill were immediate. My body heated up, and I was overflowing with power. Thump! Thump! With the sound of my heart beating, I ran forward towards the queen spider.
A few monster spiders blocked my path, as if protecting the queen spider. Swish. The cutlass shone silver.
“Get out of my way!”
Thunder Sky Style (雷天流) Thunder Flash (雷光).
I drew a line from top to bottom. The monster spider’s body was split in half. A new monster spider jumped out from the gap and thrust its sharp legs forward. It was aiming right for my eyes. But I was faster than it.
Swish!
I slashed upwards, cutting through its legs and neck at once, and used its collapsing corpse as a stepping stone to jump upwards.
Two monster spiders charged from both sides, as if they had been waiting. I shifted my center of gravity and planted my feet on the ceiling.
Thunder Sky Style (雷天流) Gale Lightning (疾風迅雷).
I temporarily strengthened my body by imbuing it with lightning.
Thunder Sky Style (雷天流) Flying Thunder God (飛雷神).
I kicked off the ceiling and jumped towards them. Using Flying Thunder God, I could move at high speed without any restrictions, whether in a narrow passage or in open air.
I ignored the ones charging from both sides and passed them by. I instantly approached the queen spider and swung my sword to cut off its head.
It opened its mouth. To bite me? No. It was too far away for that. A light flashed from its hideous mouth. The red light was fire.
Whoooooooosh!
Red flames poured out. I couldn’t avoid its unexpected power. I quickly swung my sword to cut off its head, but it sacrificed one of its legs to knock my sword away. It lost a leg, and I took the full brunt of the flames.
I leaned my left shoulder forward, angled my body, and took a step back to create some distance. The flames didn’t have a long range. About 1.5 meters. Considering it was coming from its mouth, I could aim for its side or back.
‘Can it use it continuously?’
The queen spider approached. I couldn’t move. My left arm and left leg were a mess. My left arm was charred black and wouldn’t move, and my leg was less damaged, but it was hard to move right away. Perhaps because my left arm and leg were burned so quickly, I couldn’t feel any sensation, including pain.
‘Recover!’
I focused my mind on my left leg. I could feel a little bit of sensation, as if it was working. But it was too late. The queen spider was coming closer to finish me off.
Crackling.
Lightning surged along the blade. Even if my left arm and left leg wouldn’t move, I could still use lightning.
‘I’ll aim for when it attacks.’
I was calculating the angle to deliver the perfect counterattack when a mace flew from afar and struck the queen spider’s head. The queen spider couldn’t withstand the force and fell sideways, writhing. I looked towards where the mace had come from and saw Gu Tae-hee. Gu Tae-hee, who was completely hyped up, was tearing off the heads of monster spiders with his bare hands.
‘Tough guy. Did he take Bister II?’
The queen spider got up.
I also got up. Thanks to Gu Tae-hee, my left leg had regenerated. I took a stance and swung my sword, which was crackling with lightning.
Thunder Sky Style (雷天流) Thunder Flash (雷閃).
A lightning sword aura flew out and cut through the queen spider’s body. It didn’t go as deep as I had hoped. The queen spider’s skin was even harder. Maybe the mace would be more effective.
“Kieeeeeeeek!”
The queen spider turned its abdomen towards me and shot out a spider web.
‘Slow.’
It was flying straight at me. There was no reason I couldn’t dodge it. I easily dodged the spider web and took out a white battery from my pants pocket with my now mobile left hand. It was a special battery that Na Chae-young had made. When I gripped the special battery tightly, it glowed silver. Crackle. Electricity sparked from the battery.
“Keeeeeek!”
The queen spider shrieked. The monster spiders that were fighting with the others rushed over and blocked my path. The queen spider was running towards the open window. It was using the monster spiders as bait to escape on its own.
“Tsk.”
I clicked my tongue and moved forward. I cut through the monster spiders and reached the window. The queen spider was climbing down the building wall.
‘A spider is a spider, I guess.’
I raised my silver-shining sword. I didn’t have the [Shooting] trait. But the target was big, and the distance wasn’t that far. Only about 7-8 meters. Even I could hit something going straight down.
I threw the sword. If I missed, I was planning to jump down and finish it. Fortunately, the sword pierced the queen spider’s large abdomen.
The queen spider twitched and then jumped towards the ground. It was determined to escape no matter what.
Crackle.
I gathered the electricity from the battery in my left hand and concentrated it in my right hand. I imbued the lightning, created by the electricity fully extracted from the battery and my stamina, with a trait. The trait was one: physical power.
I lightly bent my elbow to throw the lightning ball at it. I wasn’t worried about hitting it. The cutlass was stuck in its abdomen. The cutlass had the property of absorbing and attracting surrounding electricity. In other words, it could conduct electricity.
I straightened my elbow and threw the lightning.
Just like when I aimed at the queen spider from outside the building, the lightning drew a blue beam-like trajectory in the air and fell to the ground.
KABOOOM!
An explosion erupted on the ground with a shockwave. The queen spider lay sprawled on the ground. Its large abdomen, where the sword was stuck, had burst open, and only its head and chest remained. It pitifully wriggled its three remaining legs and then stopped, as if its life had come to an end.
Perhaps because of the explosion, the zombies that had been gathered nearby began to swarm. The zombies began to chew and swallow the queen spider’s corpse.
‘Damn. It looks like the zombies are going to get a feast.’
What Na Chae-young had asked for was the queen spider’s web, so it didn’t seem to matter.
“Aaaaaaah!”
I turned my head at the scream. The monster spiders were still fighting back. The queen spider was dead, but the battle wasn’t over. I picked up the mace that Gu Tae-hee had thrown and threw myself into the chaos to kill the monster spiders. The feel of the mace in my hand wasn’t bad at all.
• • •
Four members of the security team died. The remaining 12 were injured but alive. 14 were exhausted but unharmed. Park Hae-gil was among the unharmed ones. His experience was showing.
One of Gu Tae-hee’s subordinates also died. There were no seriously injured. Gu Tae-hee was collapsed on the floor, throwing up from the aftereffects of Bister II. Thanks to my recovery, I was fine even after the effects of the pill wore off. The problem was that I was building up a tolerance… but I decided to think about that later.
I wandered around to find the queen spider’s web to give to Na Chae-young. Most of the webs in the battle area were a mess, so I went inside to find some that were relatively intact.
And I found the queen spider’s storage.
It had wrapped its prey in spider webs, made them into cocoons, and hung them from the ceiling.
‘These must be the people the spiders kidnapped. There are quite a few. About 30.’
They were all dead.
Not a single breath could be heard.
‘Is this the queen spider’s web? It’s said to have excellent heat resistance, so I’ll know if I burn it with a lighter.’
I was planning to take all the spider webs, so I grabbed a piece of glass and tore the webs. The more research samples, the better.
‘Is this what they call a jackpot?’
I was tearing the spider web cocoons one by one when I stopped. An unexpected beauty had popped out of the spider web.
