Chapter 4: Great Cataclysm (4)

“Huff, huff, huff!”

Choi Kyung-do ran frantically, drool dripping from his mouth.

“What the hell, what the hell, what the hell is this!”

While he was about to conduct a funeral as a funeral home employee, a sudden loud noise erupted, and monsters he had never seen before poured out from all directions.

At first, he found it interesting, thinking it might be a movie shoot, but when he saw a person next to him being torn apart by a giant hound while still alive, he finally realized the gravity of the situation.

He searched for places where people were gathered and, when the giant hounds attacked, he ran away again. His judgment was faster than anyone else's.

“Ah, Uncle! Help me! Save me!”

He saw a high school student who had been running with him fall and cry out for help, her legs giving out.

Without a moment's hesitation, he abandoned the fallen child.

“S-save you? You look stronger than me, how can I help!”

Desperately running to survive, Choi Kyung-do suddenly realized where he was running and his face turned pale.

“Shit, shit, it’s over…!”

Familiar with the layout of the hospital funeral parlor, he knew the path he was running down was a dead end.

“No, no…!”

Finally reaching the end of the path, Choi Kyung-do trembled violently.

With a look of despair, he turned around.

He saw a giant hound sitting quietly, staring at him.

“H-h-holy shi—!”

Overwhelmed by a chilling fear, Choi Kyung-do collapsed to the ground.

As the word "death" filled his mind, he lost control of his bladder, wetting his pants.

“No, no… I, I can’t die here…!”

As he was losing his senses, the giant hound suddenly turned its head to the right.

Then, its mouth opened quietly.

Click, click.

“Aaaah! Save me!”

The sound of its jaw bones clattering together incessantly made him grab his head and press his face to the ground.

His own bodily fluids made his face damp.

“Is anyone there?”

Hearing a human voice, Choi Kyung-do lifted his face.

Tears were streaming down his cheeks.

“O-over here! There’s someone here—!”

His shout drew a person.

To his surprise, this person was riding on the back of the mysterious monster, the giant hound.

And it was someone Choi Kyung-do knew very well.

“You’re alive. That’s a relief.”

Kang Sahoo spoke from atop the giant hound, but Choi Kyung-do just stared at him with a dazed expression, his eyes trembling.

“W-what… H-how are you here….”

“We don’t have time, so let’s move. It’s safe here, so come out.”

As Kang Sahoo finished speaking, the giant hound nimbly moved its feet.

In an instant, the two giant hounds and Kang Sahoo were gone, leaving Choi Kyung-do standing alone, his mouth agape in shock.

* * *

Bang, bang, bang!

“This way! This way, please!”

Soldiers who had just arrived were firing at the giant hounds and evacuating people.

The lower-ranking soldiers were visibly bewildered by the surreal situation.

However, their squad leader remained stern-faced.

‘It’s as if he knew this would happen,’ he calmly issued orders.

“Respond as you were trained! Stay calm!”

At his command, the soldiers fired their rifles at the giant hounds.

“Shit, all this shooting and combat training they’ve been pushing us through lately! Did the officers know this would happen?!”

A soldier who was about to be discharged but was dragged out by a direct order from headquarters cursed.

It wasn’t just out of frustration; indeed, the deployment of troops was abnormally fast, as if they had anticipated this situation.

Other soldiers had similar thoughts, but with the monstrous creatures charging at them, they kept their mouths shut and continued firing.

However, the creatures’ thick skin and solid muscles made them difficult to kill. A squad of about ten soldiers, each with a full magazine, could only manage to take down three giant hounds.

“Shit! They said it was just a Jindo dog! This calls for DEFCON!”

The soldiers, who had been deployed without knowing the situation, screamed.

Clearly, this was not a situation that could be handled by riflemen.

At the very least, grenades, and given the severity, even tanks would be needed to resolve the situation.

“Hey! Watch out!”

As the soldiers were about to reload their magazines, three giant hounds pounced on them simultaneously.

“Aaaaah!”

“I-I’m going to die!!”

The soldiers closed their eyes tightly and thrust the bayonets attached to their rifles forward.

“Ugh… Ugh?”

“What?”

When the soldiers opened their eyes, they were surprised to find no resistance from their rifles.

Eight identical monsters were tearing apart the ones that had been charging at them.

Crack, crack!

Click, click.

The monsters, with a faint green glow in their eyes, were tearing apart their own kind.

The mutilated creatures bled profusely and writhed on the ground.

“What, what is this? What should we do?”

“What’s going on…?”

As the soldiers, unsure of the situation, hesitated, the monsters that had torn apart their own kind split to the sides, forming a path.

“Huh!”

“Oh, crazy!”

The soldiers screamed when they saw dozens of monsters lined up beyond the split monsters.

They readied their guns to fire.

However, when they saw people running through the path, they hesitated and released their triggers.

“It’s soldiers! We’re saved!”

“Aaaaah! We’re saved now!”

“W-what is this….”

As the soldiers, bewildered by the series of inexplicable events, the lined-up monsters crouched down.

A person riding on the back of one of the monsters approached the soldiers.

“Hello.”

The ordinary greeting in such a critical and dangerous situation left the soldiers stunned.

The squad leader, who had been observing the situation from behind, stepped forward and stood in front of Kang Sahoo.

“Hello. Are you an Awakened? Did you control these monsters?”

“Yes, that’s correct. I’ve taken care of all the giant hounds in the vicinity.”

As Kang Sahoo, sitting on the back of the giant hound, spoke, the soldiers looked at him in disbelief.

While the soldiers were in shock and unable to speak, a voice came from the radio on the squad leader’s shoulder.

The squad leader left to take the call, and Kang Sahoo let out a long breath, relaxing his tense body.

“Thank you. And, I’m sorry. I wanted to see you off properly….”

Kang Sahoo muttered, genuinely apologetic, and Ling laughed heartily.

He laughed so hard that it was easy to imagine him clutching his stomach and rolling on the ground if he were alive.

After calming down, Ling continued in a warm voice, as if speaking to a grandchild.

Kang Sahoo couldn’t respond.

He didn’t know what the future held, and at the same time, he agreed with the thought.

“I will.”

Ling’s voice, like petals carried by the wind, faded away.

Kang Sahoo bowed his head slightly as Ling dispersed into the air.

“Take care.”

Leaving a final word of gratitude, Ling completely disappeared.

“…What’s going on?”

“W-well, maybe he’s gone crazy from the shock?”

“…Hey, don’t say that. If the person controlling those monsters goes crazy, who knows what will happen?”

The senior soldier, visibly shaken, scolded the junior, who mechanically replied, “I’m sorry,” and glanced at Kang Sahoo.

‘But if he’s not crazy, that’s even more terrifying.’

Staring into the empty air and muttering to himself, it was hard to believe that the man standing there, smiling peacefully in the midst of this chaos, was not crazy.

After Ling’s spirit left, Kang Sahoo immediately called his family.

Only then did he notice the numerous messages and missed calls on his phone.

As soon as the international roaming tone ended, his father’s worried voice came through the phone.

“Yes, Father. I’m fine. However, the situation is very dangerous, so I had to use my power….”

His voice, which had been agitated, was cut off with a “click.”

His father fell silent, and his mother’s calm voice came through.

“Yes, Mother. Are you okay?”

“Oh, you must be fine. Is Jiye there too?”

“Isn’t that dangerous? Have you heard from her?”

Worried that the same monsters might have appeared at his sister, Kang Jiye’s school, he asked, but his mother’s voice on the other end of the speaker was unwavering.

“I see… Oh, wait. Did you say Jiye has awakened?”

Kang Sahoo was taken aback by his mother’s calm delivery of such shocking news.

Still, he breathed a short sigh of relief upon hearing that his family was safe, when his mother’s voice came through the phone again.

“…I understand. Be careful.”

He heard his father, who had been knocked down, getting up and shouting, but the call was abruptly cut off.

After ending the call with his parents, he was about to call his sister, Kang Jiye, when he noticed the giant hounds staring at him expectantly.

“What should I do with these guys?”

Since they were recently deceased and still had flesh and muscle, the energy required to maintain them was not too great.

However, walking around with giant hounds would likely cause misunderstandings and was also inconvenient.

“I guess I should release them….”

As Kang Sahoo considered releasing the zombies, the giant hounds, whose wills were connected to his, began to stand up and approach him.

The soldiers, startled, aimed their guns, but Kang Sahoo, puzzled, watched the approaching giant hounds.

Click, click.

Click, click.

The zombie giant hounds, communicating by clattering their jaw bones, lined up in a long row.

“What?”

While Kang Sahoo was confused, the lead zombie giant hound, standing at the front of the line, gulped and cautiously opened its mouth.

Inside its mouth were a small bead and a gem.