Radioactive Leak (3)
Kim Minho leapt toward the approaching Kellikan, grabbing its neck mid-air.
Crunch!
With a chilling sound, the Kellikan's neck snapped, and its head dangled lifelessly.
The Kellikan flapped its wings briefly before it stopped moving and plummeted to the ground.
Thud!
[You have hunted Kellikan (Lv. 25).]
[You have gained experience points.]
[5,431,024 won has been deposited into Citizen Kim Minho's wallet.]
"Whew..."
Since the enemy was a flying monster, it wasn't an easy opponent for Kim Minho to deal with.
It was hard to take down unless it charged directly like that.
However, it wasn't impossible to draw their attention.
"Seongcheol! Seojun! One more time!"
"Yes!!"
Kang Seongcheol and Ha Seojun aimed their guns at the Kellikans flying in the sky.
Rat-a-tat-tat-
Triggered by the gunfire, the Kellikans reacted sensitively and started diving.
One of them folded its wings and dived straight down toward Kang Seongcheol. But Seongcheol stood his ground without a trace of fear.
Just as the Kellikan's beak was about to pierce his heart-
"Hmph!"
Smash!
Kim Minho's solid punch blew the Kellikan's head clean off.
[You have hunted Kellikan (Lv. 24).]
[You have gained experience points.]
[4,322,008 won has been deposited into Citizen Kim Minho's wallet.]
The Kellikan behind it, which had been preparing to attack, saw its comrade's head go flying from a single punch and quickly fled into the sky.
Watching it retreat, Kim Minho clicked his tongue.
"Tsk. Smarter than they look."
"...Isn't it crazy to even think about charging in after seeing that?"
Kang Seongcheol shook his head, staring at Kim Minho as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"Anyway, let's leave those to Aunt Haeri and Uncle Jiho. I doubt they'll come back here now that they're scared off."
"Yeah, sounds good."
Truthfully, there was no real need for Kim Minho to actively hunt the Kellikans himself.
He looked up toward where Nam Jiho was.
Nam Jiho was scaling the side of an apartment building like it was a cliff, and as Kellikans tried to attack him with claws bared—
Fwoosh!
They suddenly burst into flames and turned to ash without even knowing what hit them.
Screeeech!
The fire was so intense that one Kellikan turned into charcoal and evaporated before its body even hit the ground.
That's way more firepower than usual. Why?
Having spent a lot of time with Nam Jiho, Kim Minho knew his personality well.
While Jiho could unleash that kind of firepower, he wasn't the type to waste energy without reason.
Maybe Kellikans are especially flammable?
If that was the case, Nam Jiho could be considered their natural predator.
Fwoosh-!
Yup, burns real good.
Since Nam Jiho was already putting on such an overwhelming display, it looked like things would be handled without Kim Minho needing to step in further.
That was when-
"Mr. Kim!"
Moon Haeri, who had been missing for a while, suddenly reappeared.
"Hm?"
But she wasn't alone.
Trailing behind her was a disheveled-looking man and a small girl clinging tightly to him.
"Are they survivors?"
"Yeah. I saved them."
The bearded man introduced himself.
"Nice to meet you. My name is Oh Byunghun. This is my daughter, Yesul. Yesul, say 'thank you."
Little Oh Yesul bowed her head and said,
"Thank you for saving us."
Seeing her, Kim Minho couldn't help but smile warmly like a dad.
But then-
[Please evacuate all citizens into the Safe Zone immediately.]
Kim Jaehyun's voice rang out.
It was a message to all his subordinates, delivered through the Ring of Communication.
[Attention all citizens.]
[Return to the Safe Zone immediately. Leaving the Safe Zone is prohibited until further notice.]
[I repeat, all citizens must return to the Safe Zone at once.]
A telepathic warning message had been sent to everyone.
"Mr. Kim. What's this..."
"Yes. Looks like something serious just happened. We should return right away."
As Moon Haeri and Kim Minho exchanged grave looks, Oh Byunghun and Oh Yesul froze, unable to understand what was going on.
"Wh-What's going on?"
At that moment-
Rumble rumble rumble-
The ground began to shake.
"!?"
Crack!
The floor split open and began to bulge upward.
Seeing this, Oh Byung-heon recoiled in shock.
"E-Everyone get back! There's a monster underground...!"
Before he could even finish his sentence-
Boom!
The swollen ground exploded, and the surrounding area collapsed inward. A massive shadow loomed in the rising cloud of dust.
And then-
Rustle rustle-
Dozens of creatures began to crawl out through the cracked surface.
"Aaaaah!"
Oh Ye-seul let out a shrill scream as she was the first to recognize what they
were.
Large, furry creatures, a bit bigger than goblins, bared their front teeth and charged forward.
Kim Min-ho reflexively stepped in front of the group and threw a punch at one of them.
"Hmph!"
Smash!
[You have hunted a Ratman (Lv. 16).]
[You have gained experience.]
[1,887,634 won has been deposited into Citizen Kim Min-ho's wallet.]
'Ratman?'
Only then did their appearance become clear.
Giant bipedal rats.
And-
Grrrrrrrr-
As the dust settled, a massive monster appeared-looking like the mother of
all the Ratmen glaring down at them.
In that chilling moment, as everyone including Kim Min-ho froze under the gaze of the monstrous rat-
Fwoooosh-!!
A large fireball exploded right in front of the monster's face.
"Run!!"
-ScreeeeEEECH!
Although Nam Ji-ho's shout was drowned out by the monster's screech, it helped snap everyone out of their paralysis.
Kim Min-ho hoisted Oh Byung-heon onto his shoulder, and Moon Hae-ri picked up Oh Ye-seul.
-Grrrrk!
By the time the giant monster rat opened its eyes wide, no one was left in front
of it.
-Grkk...!
Crash! Boom!
Its rage-fueled thrashing only managed to destroy the innocent ground beneath it.
While they were discussing solutions to the radiation issue, Kim Da-bin spoke with a devastated expression.
"It seems like it wasn't just the nuclear plant that exploded."
Everyone in the conference room turned to her in shock.
I asked her:
"Could you explain in more detail?"
"Yes, Jaehyun. According to Director Baek Seung-min, the place they were staying at was quite far from the nuclear plant where the accident occurred."
Kim Da-bin pointed at a map on the whiteboard as she continued her explanation.
"The Wolsong facility is here, and Gangdong-where Director Baek was-is here. That's almost 10 kilometers apart. Even if all the enriched uranium at the Wolsong facility exploded at once, that kind of reaction at such a distance would be impossible."
She turned to Director Baek Seung-min, who was attending the meeting.
"You said people started showing symptoms six hours after the explosion, right?"
"Yes, that's correct."
"If they weren't at the actual site of the incident, such an acute reaction doesn't make sense. Just look at the cases of Chernobyl and
Fukushima."
"Which means..."
Kim Da-bin nodded gravely and continued.
"I'm convinced something else must have contributed to this."
Because of her firm assertion, the plan to send agents to the Wolsong facility was completely scrapped.
If Kim Da-bin was right, it was far too dangerous.
'Something else...'
Considering the emergence of monsters and awakened individuals with supernatural abilities, nothing was surprising anymore.
"We need to identify the cause first."
"Yes, absolutely."
And there was no better way to uncover the truth than to investigate the Wolsong Nuclear Power Plant directly.
Luckily, I had two retainers with abilities perfectly suited for scouting.
Seo Ye-jin and Yoo Han-gil. Among the two, the one best suited for this mission was-
[Mr. Yoo Han-gil, do you have a moment?]
Yoo Han-gil, who possessed the Clairvoyant ability.
His usual task was to explore randomly appearing dungeons. For that, we had even provided him an apartment at the center of the territory.
Closing his eyes and activating his ability, Yoo Han-gil opened them again and replied:
"Yes, of course."
"You'll need to come with me to Ulsan."
"Uh... was it my turn already?"
When Yuhan-gil referred to "his turn," he meant the maintenance duties at the forward base.
To maintain a forward base outside a designated and declared territory, a citizen with a title of [Knight] or higher had to reside there.
Currently, Yuhan-gil and Park Sae-rom were taking turns every week for this task, and it was supposed to be Park Sae-rom's turn.
[No, I'll explain in person. Can you come right now?]
"Yes, that's fine."
Yuhan-gil was immediately summoned to the conference room.
'Summoning Retainer, Yuhan-gil.'
Ziiing-
He appeared in a cross-legged position on the conference table, looking flustered.
"Dabin will give you a detailed explanation."
Kim Dabin, who understood my intention the moment Yuhan-gil appeared, gave him a brief overview of the current situation and what he needed to do.
"...Given the circumstances, we'd like you to explore the Wolseong Base using your abilities, Yuhan-gil. Will that be possible?"
Yuhan-gil nodded and replied,
"How far is it from the Ulsan outpost to Wolseong?"
"About 20 kilometers."
"I've never tried that distance before, but I think it should be possible."
"Then let's move out right away."
We moved to the Ulsan Homeplus staff lounge with the confident Yuhan-gil.
It was the same place that had once served as the command center during the vampire war.
And there-
"Yes! Godori! Triple Go!"
"Ugh, unni, you're cheating again, aren't you?"
Park Sae-rom was playing Go-Stop with her colleagues.
"Ah! Unni-!"
One of them spotted me and urgently flipped over the game table.
"Hey! What the hell are you doing?! I was finally on a winning streak, and you wanna die-!"
"Unni, look over there!"
"Huh?"
Park Sae-rom met my gaze-and instantly turned into a statue.
An awkward silence followed.
"Haha... hello! So, uh, what's up today? Where's your usual crown, by the way?"
Just a side note: After upgrading my storage skill to level 3, I no longer needed to physically wear divine relics to benefit from their effects.
A dedicated storage for divine items had been added. Simply storing them there activated their effects.
That slot also didn't count toward storage weight, making it more convenient.
I didn't bother explaining all this to Park Sae-rom.
"We'll just borrow this space for a bit."
"Ah, sure!"
They quickly cleaned up the gambling table, and Yuhan-gil sat on the sofa and said,
"I'm ready. I'll begin immediately."
Yuhan-gil closed his eyes.
He was able to find the Wolseong Base without much difficulty.
Thanks to Kim Dabin's clear and thorough explanation.
The place was in shambles due to a recent explosion-corpses lay scattered, some having coughed up blood before dying, others with skin red and blistered as if burned.
And then-
'What... is that...?'
Grruuurk-
From the debris left by the explosion, a massive green blob of liquid was writhing.
It had swallowed up an entire building and squirmed for a moment—
KWA-BOOOOM!
With a massive explosion, the green blobs scattered in all directions.
[T/L: Read extra chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : https://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]