Episode 75.
[The Earth is changing into a ‘New Age.’]
[Entering rest areas and dungeons is restricted until all changes are complete.]
“The New Age is a simple yet secondary school term.”
“I don’t think that’s important right now, Hyeong-nim!”
Jung Si-woo stopped looking at the message covering his retina and looked around. What was happening in this world now was a disaster that could be called a tectonic shift. Collapsing buildings and earthly energy. It was as if the earth was expanding, the outer shell of the earth was shattered, and new flesh was sprouting through the cracks. If there was a problem with that flesh…
“I can feel the deep mana.”
“I’m so glad you’ve grown into such a great Mana user…I’m not very happy with the situation right now.”
There were only small amounts of mana on earth until now, and it belonged to the players or the monsters. But this was different. The mana he felt in that stone mountain tearing apart those apartments didn’t belong to other players or the monsters, or the gods…it was the nature of the earth.
“Is this possible?”
Of course, it was possible. Jung Si-woo’s visit to the other worlds was like this. However, he thought the earth would remain the same forever. Although the Sky Castle or the Ant Cave were invaded by monsters, he thought that the earth itself wouldn’t change.
“Is this what the invaders created?”
“It’s too big, though. It’s more convincing than the earth has changed itself because of the mana of players and monsters…wait.”
At that moment, there was a memory that passed through Jung Si-woo’s mind. It was a fragmented image that stuck to a corner of his memory from a certain moment. At that time, the mana of enormous density must’ve been…
“Oppa?”
“…Oh, nothing. Let’s move quickly.”
Jung Si-woo stopped thinking. It wasn’t the time to have such vague memories or thoughts. What matters now was this bizarre change that was happening to the earth. Jung Si-woo was confident of surviving in any environment, but the problem was his mother, who was a normal person. He called his mother straight away, but no one answered.
“Oh, damn it…”
Feeling nervous, Jung Si-woo pressed on his phone, but he only found out that the Internet was dead. At that time, Soo Ah-rin was watching him from the side, carefully guessing something.
“Maybe some base stations are down because of this mess. Maybe that’s why we can’t use the phone and the Internet.”
“A few buildings…no, maybe it didn’t end with a few…”
Jung Si-woo patted his head to confirm if he was using the helmet (it was accurate to say that he had no time to take off the helmet because he was kicked out from the dungeon) and took out the phantom bike from his inventory.
“Well, that’s…!?”
“Isn’t that the guy on TV?”
“Hey, give me a ride!”
All eyes were focused on him, but Jung Si-woo ignored them and got on the bike. There was no place for those who weren’t in crisis right now.
“I can’t help but run until my phone starts working again.”
“On the premise that a newspaper will be published tomorrow, you won the front-page…”
Jung Si-woo started the engine right away and took off. He bit his lips gently as people shouted down below him. They all looked like refugees.
“What the hell is going on?”
“These people…they’re gonna die, aren’t they?”
“Maybe. A lot of them will, but it’s not something we can change.”
It would be a miracle that there were no fatalities when buildings collapsed everywhere and the land rose hundreds of meters. He drove his bike through the sky and bit his lips gently. Down there, a sign that collapsed on the road showed three kilometers to Gwangju, Jeolla-do.
“We’ve come so far.”
“That’s how much you organized the dungeons in Korea.”
“That’s a pleasure, too.”
It wouldn’t take that long to get to Seoul because they were running high in the sky…something strange was caught in the eyes of Jung Si-woo, who was running with such faith. Between Korea and China on the highway, everywhere was turned upside down and tangled, making it look like pandemonium…
“Monsters?”
“Is there a dungeon nearby that was released? I thought you cleaned up all the dungeons in this area!”
“Oh, my God, I wonder how much damage will there be with that many monsters on the loose…!”
[Guuuuuoooooooooo!]
It was a massive monster. People trapped in the overturned car were screaming as it roared. It had a huge body, dark green skin, and it was muscular…it was like a human being. It was already treading on several cars, then taking those who had been crushed and killed to eat them.
“That bastard.”
Something snapped in Jung Si-woo’s head when he saw it. Recognizing his will, the Phantom bike turned straight down.
“Huh!”
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
Right after that, the bike fell as fast as lightning from the sky. A sharply trimmed front fender hit the monster’s head. It was like watching a Cruel Charge, and its destructive power was beyond measure.
[Kugyaaaaaaaa!]
The monster falls to the ground with a terrible scream! Jung Si-woo jumped off the bike and snatched the humans he had in his grasp, and put them on the floor. Those who had already been eaten couldn’t be saved, but at least two were safe.
“Tha, thank you…”
“Run.”
It wasn’t that he wanted to pretend to be a hero. No matter what happened to the humans, he just wanted to run to his mother as soon as possible. But now, he couldn’t accept the existence of monsters eating humans like that.
“Let’s get this over with.”
Jung Si-woo got off the bike and grabbed the front paw hammer from his inventory. Soo Ah-rin carefully said to him, as she was filled with war.
“It’s a monster I’ve never met before. Based on the amount of mana, it looks like it’s over 200…”
“Hmm.”
[Geuuuu, keugaaaaaa!]
Jung Si-woo’s eyes were focused on the monster’s head that he hit with the fender. It had a deep wound that it could’ve died from, but it was raising his body without any problem. When he looked closely, he could see blood being drawn to the wound as it quickly recovered. It was a natural resilience that he couldn’t believe even with his own eyes.
“…Troll.”
Was that the only way they identify themselves? Yong Se-ha spoke in a stiff voice.
“That’s the only thing I can think of that had that kind of resilience. I’ve checked the data from the sky castle, but…”
“Do you mean the players have already challenged the dungeon with the trolls? I didn’t think it’d show up until at least the 35th stage!”
“But the features match. Green skin, giant human shape, and resilience…”
“Don’t fight — it doesn’t matter what happens.”
Jung Si-woo took off with all his strength, twisting the hammer roughly. In the meantime, the troll, who had finished regenerating, swung the car he held instead of a weapon, but Jung Si-woo lightly stepped off the fender to jump higher.
[Coo…cuuuooooh!]
“Anyway…!”
At the very moment when Jung Si-woo jumped higher than the troll’s head, the front foot of the gutter quickly became huge and covered the sunlight that was pouring onto the troll. Soon after, there was a brighter glow. It was the power of the flame option of the hammer.
[Front Paw of the Giant Wolf]
[Rank – C+++]
[Attack – 900 – 1,900]
[Skills – 420/480]
[Property – Flame C+]
In the past, that hammer had achieved miraculous growth in the process of overcoming the stress of the thunder god. The attack power and rank didn’t rise that much, but what was important is the ability did. The property that used to be only D+ rank grew to C+! He had so many great things that he had forgotten about, but in terms of attributes, C+ rank wasn’t easy.
“Just one shot!”
[Guuuuuuuooooh!]
The troll threw the car at him with a fit of temper. Jung Si-woo snorted, kicked it with his feet, swung a hammer, and hit him right in the head!
[Kkkkkkkkkkaaaaak!]
His head burst open. Surprisingly, blood was seen wriggling around the neck, trying to create a new head, but the intense flames remained to burn the blood away, making it impossible to regenerate. Soon its regeneration lost strength, and only then did it die completely. Jung Si-woo had no idea but attacking with flames was the best option.
[Experience gained]
[The level has risen.]
“Good.”
He was gaining the level-up here that he missed in the dungeon. Even after the battle, Jung Si-woo smiled quietly and recalled the body of the troll to his inventory, feeling the power in his body rising. Those who were mesmerized by the enormous sight reacted belatedly to see the body of the troll disappear.
“Tha, thank you!”
“Hey, help me out here, too! The is car turned upside down…!”
“Whoo.”
Jung Si-woo answered once he was back on the bike.
“You can do that on your own.”
“Well, still…”
“Don’t leave it all to me at this time. It’s heavy.”
He left the people behind and took off straight away. He tried to detect if there were any mana around, but there were no other monsters besides the troll he just caught.
“Does this make sense?”
“No, it doesn’t make.”
Soo Ah-rin agreed with them. If the dungeon broke out, there had to be at least a trace of the dungeon exploding. But there was no such thing. If this troll didn’t jump from far away, there was only one conclusion.
“The trolls naturally came from there.”
“Oh, my god…”
Soo Ah-rin bit her lips gently. She guessed that it could happen someday because there was mana on earth, but she didn’t know that things would happen this quickly, more so because the troll was a high-level monster!
“What the hell is going on in the world…”
“It’s not that bad.”
Jung Si-woo dropped a word when he heard Yong Se-ha murmuring. It suddenly came to mind, but this was also a clear reality.
“It’s not just the world that changes.”
Perhaps this was the fundamental change in the world to prepare it for invaders. Jung Si-woo only mumbled his speculative hindsight, speeding up the bike. Just before he left Jeolla-do, fortunately, he came into an area where his phone worked, and he was able to call his mother. His mother was safe, and she was already in a big bunker house underground…
“Where did you get that?”
[Your father had it ready. It’s amazing. Do you want to check?]
“I don’t need to…anyway, don’t feel too safe inside because you don’t know what might happen. I’ll be right there.”
[You don’t have to come because we’re safe]
“I’ll be there. Just wait.”
Mountains soared from the land, and there couldn’t be a safe place in the world right now. However, when Jung Si-woo was about to speed up, a sudden silence came to the world. The convergence of the earth, which was roaring to the point of deafening ears, stopped, and a simple message popped up.
[Entering the ‘New Age’ is complete. All changes are finished.]
[You will be able to enter the resting place and the dungeon.]
“Uh…yeah. It’s going to be okay now.”
[See, I told you so.]
After ending the call with his mother, who knew nothing, Jung Si-woo looked around the ground with a sigh of relief. Even if the change had stopped, everything would still rollback. The ground was still between chaos and destruction.
“Oppa…Oppa?”
“Oh, I dozed off for a second.”
Sky Castle, Ant Cave, monsters on earth, the heavens, changing earth…
“I just thought this might be the beginning.”
“What?”
“Well.”
It was Jung Si-woo who came up with an ominous idea momentarily, but he wasn’t foolish enough to say it out loud.
“I think my mom’s safe, so I’m going to do other things now.”
“I agree, Hyeong-nim.”
He added speed to the bike. Anyway, right now, he was thinking of getting rid of all the eye-catching things on the ground. It was the day when the new era of the earth began.
