The deeper they moved into the broken city, the quieter it became. Not the silence of peace—something else. A stillness that felt like the world was holding its breath.
Every building they passed was scorched or broken. Glass crunched underfoot. The sky, once overcast, had turned a rust-coloured gray, as if the air itself had been poisoned.
Hyun-woo kept his weapon drawn. Sweat slid down the side of his face, but his grip never wavered. Beside him, Jin-soo held a jagged iron pipe like a club, knuckles white.
"You notice how even the monsters are gone?" Jin-soo muttered.
Hyun-woo gave a short nod. "They're not gone. They're hiding."
"And that's supposed to be comforting?"
"It means something worse is nearby."
The street ahead opened into a once-bustling intersection. Now, it was a graveyard of twisted cars and overturned buses. Craters pockmarked the ground, and a black, tar-like liquid had seeped into the pavement in strange patterns.
Hyun-woo crouched near a collapsed newsstand and touched the liquid with his blade. It sizzled.
"Acid," he muttered.
"Acid?" Jin-soo leaned closer, frowning. "What kind of monster does that?"
Hyun-woo didn't answer. He didn't have to. They both knew what lay ahead.
They navigated the ruins carefully, ducking behind cars and staying low. The deeper they moved, the more signs they saw—mangled bodies, claw marks along concrete, a light pole twisted like wire.
Jin-soo finally broke the silence again. "Do you really think we can beat this thing?"
"No," Hyun-woo said bluntly. "Not if we play by its rules."
Jin-soo let out a dry laugh. "You know, I liked it better when you lied and said, 'Just follow my lead.'"
Hyun-woo gave him a half-glance. "Then follow my lead."
They pushed forward. Eventually, they reached a raised highway split in two by a collapsed building. Beneath it, a wide clearing opened—once a parking lot, now a battlefield. Bones littered the cracked asphalt, melted weapons scattered like toys.
And then they heard it.
A low, dragging growl. Guttural. Wet. Close.
They stopped.
Hyun-woo's fingers curled tighter around his weapon.
From behind a nearby bus, something massive shifted. Rubble slid down, revealing a distorted limb—its skin a patchwork of matted fur, armoured scales, and pulsing flesh. Then came the eyes. Dozens of them, mismatched and twitching, embedded across its misshapen head.
It was a nightmare stitched together from the monsters that had plagued the city—goblin limbs, ogre muscle, insectoid plating fused over exposed bone. Jaws too large for its face opened and closed with a sickening crunch.
The creature didn't roar. It didn't charge.
It just stared.
Hyun-woo held his breath.
Then it moved.
In a flash of unnatural speed, the boss monster lunged, leaping from the shadows like a living catastrophe. It slammed into the ground between them, sending debris flying. The shockwave launched Jin-soo backward into a crumpled sedan with a loud crash.
Hyun-woo barely rolled away in time.
Dust clouded the air. The scent of scorched earth and rot filled his nose. Through the haze, the creature began to rise to its full height—easily over four meters tall, hunched and pulsating with twitching muscles and mismatched limbs that writhed unnaturally. Parts of its body shifted as if still mutating, never stable, never settled.
It didn't speak. It didn't taunt. It simply existed—an overwhelming presence, a reminder of the chaos that birthed it.
Jin-soo coughed from behind the car, dazed but alive. "What the hell—was that supposed to be a sneak attack?!"
Hyun-woo stood slowly, eyes never leaving the monster. His heart hammered in his chest, but he forced the panic down, burying it beneath steel focus.
So, this was the boss.
No system message. No warning.
Just death, waiting to be claimed.
His fingers twitched. Blood ran down his arm from a cut he hadn't noticed.
And yet, he smiled.
Not from joy.
From recognition.
This was the wall he had to climb.
This was what would separate the survivors from the predators.
Behind him, Jin-soo groaned, dragging himself to his feet.
"Hyun-woo… what do we do?!"
Hyun-woo didn't answer right away. His gaze remained locked on the towering abomination before them.
Finally, he spoke.
"We kill it."