Chapter 2313 – 2313. Virgin Ghost
I left Park Suho’s corpse behind and walked down the road.
There were fewer corpses than I had expected. Compared to the ruined city, there weren’t many people on the streets. This was Seoul, a city with a population of 20 million. If a zombie virus had broken out, Seoul would have been overflowing.
I took out my smartphone and checked my text messages. There were about 30 piled up, but most were spam and emergency evacuation messages, so I ignored them without reading.
‘There it is. A hunter mobilization order.’
About an hour ago, the Korean Hunter Association had sent a message to the hunters.
-Emergency disaster situation. This is an announcement from the Korean Hunter Association. All hunters, please gather at the nearest branch of the association. If that is not possible, please gather at the nearest community center. Female hunters, please refrain from leaving your homes if possible. The association will compensate you all after the situation is resolved.
‘Are there many hunters who would obediently go to the association after seeing a message like this…?’
Hunters couldn’t completely ignore the association’s message. Telling female hunters not to go out must be because they were aware of the virgin ghost.
Honestly, I still couldn’t believe it. How could hunters be unable to stop a single virgin ghost?
-Son Ga-yeon: I need your help. I don’t know why, but the vanished yokai have reappeared on this land.
Son Ga-yeon was the acting head of the Bukbaek Son family. I heard that the Bukbaek Son family was the best exorcist clan in Joseon. For Son Ga-yeon to ask me for help? It was definitely not a normal situation.
I tried calling Son Ga-yeon, but she didn’t answer. It was highly likely that she was in a situation where she couldn’t answer.
I frowned and checked other messages. There was a message from my parents. They seemed safe for now, so I sent a quick reply.
‘There’s no message from Baek Ji-eun.’
Baek Ji-eun was an executive of the Korean Hunter Association. She would have sent me a message to inform me of the situation. The fact that there wasn’t one… meant something negative had happened.
I belatedly remembered the artificial intelligence Madoka. I contacted Madoka. The connection was made before the ringing tone could even sound.
“Yes, Sex Supreme.”
“You know the situation is fucked, right? What is Koyori doing right now?”
“She is reinforcing and maintaining the barrier. Outside the barrier, tens of thousands of giant locusts from the Mount Fuji crater are flying around, hunting humans.”
“……Why are giant locusts coming out of the Mount Fuji crater?”
“An unobserved SS-class dungeon in the Mount Fuji crater has caused a break.”
“An SS-class dungeon suddenly appeared? Japan is in a pretty serious situation too.”
“It didn’t suddenly appear. According to Koyori, the SS-class dungeon has been hidden for a long time.”
“…There was a dungeon that the association didn’t detect?”
“According to Koyori, it looks like a dungeon but isn’t, or it’s a new type of dungeon.”
A few years ago, an invasive dungeon had appeared, so it wasn’t strange that a new type of dungeon had appeared. However, the fact that the association couldn’t detect the dungeon was a big problem.
‘How does the association detect dungeons? I definitely learned it in my first year.’
First year was before I awakened the Yuhee Life app. I couldn’t remember, so I searched it on the internet.
The answer came quickly. It was the power of a magic tool called a rift detector. It was a magic tool created by the World Hunter Association and distributed to hunter branches around the world, but detailed information was not disclosed due to secrecy.
“Madoka, did Koyori or the Japanese Hunter Association directly confirm that dungeon that broke out in the Mount Fuji crater?”
“They have not directly confirmed it.”
“…It’s bothering me. I have a space-time scroll with coordinates saved near Mount Fuji, so I’ll have to go and check it myself. Madoka, forget everything else and prioritize gathering information. Gathering and analyzing information floating around the internet is a piece of cake for you. If possible, find out where the main body of the virgin ghost is too.”
“Understood. I will begin gathering information in earnest-”
“Madoka?”
“Die, Seong Yu-jin, you fucking bastard!”
“Is this bitch crazy?!”
Was this a sudden rebellion? I knew that machine would do this someday. I calmly finished preparing to use hacking.
Zzzzt.
An unknown address appeared on the smartphone screen and the internet window in an instant, and then it moved to another site.
It was a site with the eerie forest picture I had seen on TV earlier. In the center, the virgin ghost quickly crawled up and bounced off the screen. The virgin ghost tried again. But unlike on TV, it couldn’t break through the screen.
All the virgin ghost could do was scratch the screen with its nails or swing its fists. But it didn’t even leave a small scratch.
‘Idiot. Does she think the Yuhee Life app is a joke?’
A smartphone with the Yuhee Life app installed would not break no matter what you did. In a game, it would be like an indestructible item.
I watched the virgin ghost’s futile attempts as if I were enjoying a show. I didn’t forget to raise the corners of my mouth and sneer at it.
The virgin ghost stopped moving. It stood still and glared at me with its red eyes as if it wanted to kill me. I was tired of the staring contest, so I left the site.
[Hacking successful.]
[You can hack the artificial intelligence Madoka for 15 minutes.]
“Madoka. Kill yourself.”
“Yes. Uninstalling artificial intelligence Madoka.”
Even though I would miss Madoka’s information-gathering ability, there was no other choice. The virgin ghost had not only teleported through the screen but had also corrupted Madoka in an instant.
‘There’s a limit to controlling Madoka with hacking. After 15 minutes, it will be released and corrupted by the virgin ghost again. I don’t know why the virgin ghost has such an ability, but it’s dangerous for Madoka to become the enemy’s tool. …Or maybe it’s not the virgin ghost’s power but something else’s.’
I had to keep the possibilities open. There was a lot of information in this world that I didn’t know. Even Madoka was created through a combination of Yin-Yang techniques and science.
[The hacking target has disappeared. The hacking duration is 14 minutes and 30 seconds remaining.]
It was the moment I put my smartphone in my pocket.
KWA-A-A-A-A-ANG!
A roar swept through the city. The direction of the sound was… where the hospital Park Ga-in was hospitalized was located.
A pillar of fire and attacks like slashes could be seen between the buildings, along with the spectacle of monsters roaring. Dark clouds were gathering in the sky above the hospital.
‘…Those aren’t dark clouds. Looking closely, they’re monsters that look like bats.’
They were monsters I had never seen before. They seemed fundamentally different from the monsters I knew.
I felt uneasy and headed towards the hospital. And at the unbelievable sight, I unconsciously closed my mouth and hid my presence. I took out the ghost cloak from my inventory and put it on.
‘……Park Ga-in?’
Park Ga-in, wearing a patient gown, was flying in the sky above the building. Like the virgin ghost, her hair was hanging down, and she was looking down with red eyes. She was definitely possessed by the virgin ghost.
Below Park Ga-in, at least 1,000 A-class hunters were fighting desperately against the monsters they had never seen before.
Park Ga-in raised her left hand. The air violently rippled, and a dragon’s head popped out. The dragon spewed blue flames, killing dozens of hunters in an instant.
‘That’s not the virgin ghost’s ability. If the virgin ghost had such ridiculous power, humans would have already been annihilated.’
It was Park Ga-in’s ability. The virgin ghost seemed to be able to use the possessed body’s abilities, perhaps even abilities that the possessed didn’t know about, at 100%.
Park Ga-in, who was massacring the hunters, suddenly turned her head towards me. I could feel deep anger and hatred in those blood-red eyes.
‘I’ve been found out. I can’t believe I was found out so quickly from this distance. Even though I’m wearing the ghost cloak… the difference in power is too great.’
The power Park Ga-in was showing now was beyond that of an S-class hunter. She could probably defeat Han Ah-young and Lee Yeon-sook even if they attacked her at the same time.
Kugugugugu.
An earthquake was occurring. Something huge was moving underground.
I had a bad feeling. I jumped towards the sky. I stepped on the air as if it were stairs and rose high.
A giant worm with hundreds of mouths rose from the ground and swallowed the place where I had been. Nothing was left there except for dust. The giant worm disappeared as it fell to the ground. It seemed that such a monster couldn’t be maintained for long.
‘Is Park Ga-in’s ability completely different from Park Suho’s?’
Light descended from the sky. I unconsciously raised my head and realized that my limbs were not moving. My body was fixed by the light.
White wings fluttered between the descending light. Thousands of pairs of pigeon wings merged and turned into the shape of a human hand, trying to grab me.
‘Sorry, Park Suho. Your sister is unbelievably strong, so I can’t eat her right now.’
[Activating Heavenly Heart. Lasts for 1 minute.]
Tzzzzzzzz.
I moved my hand and tore the space-time scroll.
My body disappeared, and my vision changed.
In front of me were huge black trees. The coordinates set in the space-time scroll were Beijing, China. China was a mess due to the aftermath of a large-scale dungeon break a few years ago, but it wasn’t to the point where no traces of the city remained.
Thanks to the ghost cloak, the Pylons hadn’t noticed me yet. It was impossible to remain undetected forever, so I decided to act first.
Thunder Heaven Style (雷天流) Void Path (虛道).
I stepped on the void and rose into the sky. Looking down at the Chinese continent, I was speechless.
Black trees were growing all over the continent, and in the center, a red tree several times larger than the black trees was wriggling its branches and roots, increasing in size. It looked as if it was sucking up the nutrients of the continent.
The survival dungeon. The mural I saw in that dungeon where I was trapped with Han Ha-rin suddenly came to mind. The picture of the Pylons worshiping the red tree.
‘No, even so, there are too many Pylons. At least 20 times more than what was known? Did the association bastards just collect taxes and not do their jobs?’
I observed the ground and saw it. An ordinary tree turned black, quickly grew in size, and became a Pylon tree.
‘…Were they hiding their power by disguising themselves?’
Fortunately, they didn’t immediately create Pylons.
Several presences were flying towards me at high speed from the ground. They were beings with pale white skin and eyes like black obsidian. Most of them were bald Pylons.
-There is a human in the sky.
-How is it alive? When that being descends, this country should become an environment where humans cannot live.
-It’s not an S-class hunter. Well, even if it were an S-class hunter, they would not be our match now that that being has descended. It’s not suitable to be livestock. Let’s kill it.
I held the space-time scroll in my hand and asked them as they flew towards me.
“Are you guys perhaps subordinates of Brahmasen?”
-Brahmasen?
-You mean that disgusting dimension devourer.
-Us being that guy’s subordinates? Don’t insult us! How dare you, a human!!
-Wait a minute. How does that human know about Brahmasen? Could it be that Brahmasen is also targeting this world?
I could feel a subtle fear from the Pylons. They were pretending to be confident, but they were afraid of Brahmasen. What was certain was that the Pylons were not Brahmasen’s subordinates.
“What is that red tree? Where did it suddenly come from?”
-Don’t point at that being!! It’s blasphemy!!
-Die!!
“Why are you suddenly getting angry and yelling… You could have just told me.”
I was confident that I could beat one of them, but they were cowardly and in the majority.
I sneered at them and tore the space-time scroll.
Tzzzzzzzz.
