Chapter 8

The moment the hole opened, Kyunghoon knew the limit of what he could move.

"About 40kg? It's a close call."

Of course, he couldn't carry an infinite amount. The phone had mentioned that the limit would increase as his rank went up, so he would have to wait for that.

"Well, let's get going."

Kyunghoon took a deep breath and threw himself into the hole.

As soon as he entered, the hole closed up without a trace.

The scene inside the hole remained unchanged. The universe, filled with countless twinkling stars, spread out before him again.

He now knew that those twinkling things were not stars but doors to other worlds.

'Focus.'

Now was not the time to be distracted by the sight. Kyunghoon started to ride the flow. A straight line guided him to a distant star.

The star grew closer. As Kyunghoon gazed at it, his eyes widened.

"It's not one?"

The star split into two. Or rather, it appeared as one from a distance but was actually two stars closely together.

The line leading to the star also split into two, indicating two possible destinations.

'One leads to the underground lab where I first arrived. The other leads to the large conference room on the ground floor?'

The moment he saw the two exits, Kyunghoon knew where each entrance led.

It seemed that new entrances were added when opened from different places.

He was lucky. This would make it easier to proceed with his plan. Kyunghoon decided which path to take.

Kyunghoon flew toward the new exit.

***

A black hole appeared in the large conference room. The hole opened on one side where the long chairs were scattered.

Kyunghoon burst out of the hole.

He immediately looked around.

'Fortunately, they're not here as expected.'

It had been a few days since then. The monster rats wouldn't have been guarding the place continuously.

Kyunghoon put down his military backpack and picked up his long sword and pistol.

First, he needed to scout. Kyunghoon quietly and quickly crossed the large conference room.

His movements were very natural. The effort he put into adapting to his changed body day and night had paid off.

The door to the large conference room was still broken from the last time.

Kyunghoon pressed himself against the wall and checked the lobby. The lobby was eerily quiet.

'They must not be on the first floor.'

Or they might have gone outside to hunt. In any case, this quiet moment was an opportunity.

Kyunghoon slung his backpack and went into the lobby, starting his work quickly.

***

The monster rat couple was in the nest on the second basement floor.

The male rat had no reason to go out for food since all its offspring had died, and the female rat was waiting for the two-legged creature to return.

After waiting for a few days, the two rats suddenly perked up their whiskers.

They smelled something. The scent of the two-legged creature was wafting from the corridor.

It had finally appeared.

Kaaah!

The two monster rats squeezed out of the narrow nest entrance and started running down the corridor.

The corridor was wide, but it was filled as the giant monster rats ran.

Whoosh!

The monster rats saw the two-legged creature running at the far end of the corridor. Their pace quickened.

***

Kyunghoon ascended the stairs swiftly.

Fortunately, the monster rats were in their nest. If they had been outside, he would have had to wait for them to return. He was lucky. He had brought a gun to lure them, but it turned out he didn't need it.

The rats seemed to have a good sense of smell, as they detected him as soon as he entered the second basement floor.

The fact that they could smell him from a distance worked to his advantage.

It gave him time to run.

Kyunghoon reached the ground floor in an instant and listened carefully.

Thud.

He could hear the monster rats entering the landing.

Was it because of the fur? The structure of the animals' bodies was hard to understand. He thought they might be too big to fit through the stairwell door, but they seemed to enter easily.

Of course, since they could go down the stairs, it made sense that their nest was on the second basement floor.

'They're following well.'

As he nodded and moved again, a warning sound rang in Kyunghoon's head.

Bang, bang, bang.

'Why is that?'

The sound coming from the stairs was clearly made by one rat.

Only one rat following? That couldn't be. Two rats had run down the corridor.

Kyunghoon stopped, feeling a chill down his spine. He focused his attention on his ears. A tingling sensation came over his ears, and various sounds started to reach him.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

The sound of the monster rat climbing the stairs.

Squeak.

The sound of the door in the lobby being blown by the wind.

The sound of the wind, the sound of flying insects.

All kinds of sounds reached him.

Enhanced hearing.

This was one of the things he had learned through training over the past few days after realizing his body had become stronger. He had not only gained strength and endurance but also enhanced senses.

Especially his hearing, which, if activated all the time, would make daily life difficult. Focusing his attention on a specific area improved its performance even more.

Among the various sounds, an unusual sound mixed in.

Huff, huff.

Whir.

The sound of low breathing and the sound of the wind being blocked and distorted in the corridor.

All of these sounds were coming from inside the broken elevator door in front of him.

A monster rat was lurking in the elevator shaft, waiting to pounce on Kyunghoon as he passed by.

The monster rats were more cunning than humans.

One monster rat was following from behind, and another was waiting in the corridor ahead.

If he hadn't known, it would have been a life-or-death situation, but now it was an opportunity.

Kyunghoon took a deep breath and ran forward.

Bang!

As expected, the moment Kyunghoon passed the elevator door, the monster rat burst out, breaking it.

The sturdy elevator door couldn't stop the massive monster rat.

Kraaaah!

The monster rat let out an inhuman screech and lunged, but unfortunately, Kyunghoon was not in front of it.

"Will a bullet work from below?"

Kyunghoon was lying under the monster rat. He had been sliding on the floor in front of the elevator.

Bang. Bang.

Kyunghoon shot the monster rat's belly from the ground.

Thud. Thud.

Fortunately, there was a weak spot.

The semi-transparent membrane covering the belly was pierced by the bullets. Blood spurted from the monster rat's belly, and two holes were created.

Kraaaah!

After creating the holes in the belly, Kyunghoon immediately got up as he passed under the monster rat.

The hole was not as big as he had expected, and the monster rat that had climbed the stairs was also emerging from the corridor.

It was time to run.

Kyunghoon ran as fast as he could. Although he could run faster than a human, the rats following him were even faster.

When Kyunghoon reached the building's lobby, the chasing monster rats were only a few steps behind.

The monster rats hesitated for a moment as they entered the lobby.

Sniff, sniff.

The lobby smelled strange. It was a scent they had smelled a long time ago.

But those thoughts vanished as they saw the fleeing human.

Bang!

Kyunghoon shot at the two monster rats as he crossed the lobby.

Of course, it didn't create holes like when he shot the belly earlier, but it was enough to enrage the two monster rats.

Kraaaah!

The two monster rats, which had hesitated due to the unfamiliar scent, started running again.

And in the next moment, the two monster rats passed through the center of the lobby.

"Goodbye."

Kyunghoon, standing with his back to the front door, watched the two monster rats running toward him. He pressed the remote control in his hand.

It was a very ordinary TV remote.

If this were the other world, the TV would have turned on, but there were no electronic devices around that could be turned on by this remote.

Instead, the result of the chemical experiment he had conducted for a long time the previous night reacted.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The homemade bombs scattered on the lobby floor exploded in response to the TV remote signal.

Although he couldn't bring many due to weight constraints, the amount was enough to blow up a small house.

Naturally, the two monster rats were smaller than a small house.

Kraaaah!

Kraaaah!

The area around the monster rats exploded, and they screamed.

"Guess one shot wasn't enough?"

Kyunghoon, lying on the ground, clicked his tongue at the monster rats' screams.

He had hoped to finish them off with one bomb, but the monster rats' bodies were incredibly tough.

"Well, Plan B worked properly, so it might not matter."

After the dust from the explosion settled, the monster rats were nowhere to be seen in the lobby.

Instead, a large hole had been blown open.

The monster rats seemed to have fallen through this hole.

Kyunghoon got up and cautiously walked toward the hole.

If there was any chance that a monster rat was still alive, he planned to run.

Kyunghoon stood at the edge of the hole and looked down.

Fortunately, it didn't seem like he needed to run.

On the lower floor, the first basement level, the two monster rats were lying on their backs. Various debris, all from the lobby floor, was embedded in their bodies.

Blowing up the lobby floor had been effective.

The explosive power of the homemade bombs was not enough to cause fatal injuries, but the broken lobby floor created an effect similar to shrapnel from a grenade or the beads from a shotgun.

Indeed, even with their larger size, their defenses were not invincible, just tougher.

"Phew, you died well."

Kyunghoon, spitting out phlegm from the dust, wiped his hands with a satisfied look.

After deciding to return to this world, Kyunghoon had pondered how to deal with the giant monster rats.

At that time, he didn't know where the monster rats were, and they could have followed him after he left the building.

He couldn't explore this unfamiliar world with such risks.

"After such humiliation, I can't just let it go."

Moreover, he believed that what he had suffered should be repaid tenfold.

He hadn't forgotten the memory of his desperate escape.

Kyunghoon took a deep breath and looked down at the monster rats. He had experienced this twice before. The feeling he always sensed after killing the monsters.

This time, he intended to fully experience that sensation.

After a while, a faint light rose from the dead monster rats. According to the phone he had picked up, this was definitely mana.

Kyunghoon focused on the sensation as he felt the energy entering his body.

A strange sensation enveloped him. It felt as if he were ascending to heaven.

Kyunghoon, who had let out a small exclamation, soon frowned.

Even after the energy had fully entered, the strange sensation didn't go away.

A feeling of being able to do anything. A feeling of being able to crush a rock. A feeling of being stronger.

It was a different sensation from before.

Ding, ding.

And then, the phone in this world vibrated.

Kyunghoon took the phone out of his pocket.

A new message appeared on the phone screen.