The night streets of Seoul were quiet.
Ever since the monsters appeared, people stopped going out at night. Bars closed early, and overtime work and night study programs disappeared. The economy was in turmoil, but the government merely tried to reassure people by promoting the Awakened Training Center.
Cars sped down the roads, and the empty alleys occasionally showed glimpses of patrolling officers. Even the police had no special countermeasures. When monsters appeared, they would just fire blanks from inside their cars.
In fact, the police were hoping not to encounter any monsters.
In reality, incidents caused by monsters didn’t happen all that often. There were only about ten deaths in a week. Compared to traffic accidents or other fatal incidents, the number was far lower.
Still, when people feared serial killers, it was easy to understand this level of extreme fear.
The taxi arrived at the outskirts of Seoul. Yonghoon got out and began to search the area. After all, F-type monsters were animal-like and would obviously hide in forests or the darkness of the city. Yonghoon was moving swiftly through the night streets.
Scientists had once theorized evolution, noting how monsters behaved similarly to animals.
But since all monsters had a Dimensional Core inside their bodies, the theory of evolution became meaningless.
He wandered for over an hour, scanning the area with the detector. The detector displayed the surroundings like a map, making it very convenient to assess the situation.
It was when Yonghoon was passing by an unfinished apartment complex.
A red dot began to flash on the detector. It was inside the apartment complex. Yonghoon ran toward the marked location.
In one corner of the 15-story apartment building, where only pillars and floors existed, a black beast could be seen. The beast was a black panther, its entire body covered in dark fur. The panther was lying flat on the floor, suppressing its irritation.
The air here was unbearably unpleasant. It felt like swimming through water, and the sensation severely agitated the panther’s mind.
The first place the panther had fallen was a nearby park. The panther monster tore apart every human in sight, driven mad by the unfamiliar environment and foul air.
But the real problem came after. It couldn’t taste the flesh of the humans it devoured.
Although the energy spreading from its heart throughout its body kept it from feeling hunger, not tasting meat was a serious issue.
The moment it couldn’t taste flesh, the panther monster became fully alert. It realized it was in too exposed a location. The panther had leapt away in haste and hidden itself in this tall, deserted building.
The panther peeked out with just its face to scan below. Behind it lay several corpses with twisted limbs and caved-in bodies.
These were the corpses it hunted every time it got annoyed.
It was then.
The panther monster raised its head. It sensed an unpleasant presence from afar. The panther narrowed its eyes. A human cloaked entirely in black was approaching from outside the apartment.
The aura coming from the black-clad human was dangerous. That human wasn’t prey-he was an enemy.
The panther monster rose to its feet. It seemed it needed to prepare. The monster disappeared into the darkness.
Seeing the red dot vanish from the detector, Yonghoon stopped moving.
“A stealth type?”
Yonghoon frowned. This was a troublesome situation.
It seemed he had encountered a difficult opponent right from the start. Unlike physically enhanced monsters, those with special abilities were much trickier to deal with.
Moreover, the more special the monster, the better their basic physical abilities tended to be. In the other world, such monsters were marked with a plus sign.
In the end, the monster before him was an F+ rank monster.
‘But still, it’s just level F.’
Yonghoon turned off the now-useless detector screen and entered the apartment ahead.
The building, with only pillars and main walls, was eerily desolate. With no lighting inside, only the city lights faintly illuminated the surroundings.
Fortunately, after becoming an Awakened, his vision had improved significantly, and by using Dimensional Power to enhance his eyesight, he had no trouble surveying the area.
Still, he felt a bit frustrated. If his level were higher, he could have used other senses as well, but for now, he had to rely almost entirely on sight and hearing.
No, his sense of smell was now kicking in.
Yonghoon stopped and took a stance at the edge of the stairs on the 8th floor. The apartment had been clean up to the 7th floor, but from the 8th, things changed. The stench of blood was thick in the air ahead.
Yonghoon was wearing black gloves on both hands. Walking around with glowing hands at night would be like advertising his location.
He opened his hands and raised them halfway. Then he slowly moved forward.
After advancing about 10 meters, he saw a person collapsed against the wall.
Yonghoon stopped in his tracks.
The person ahead was in an odd posture. It looked like someone had placed them there.
‘A trap.’
His mind spun quickly. He recalled the stealth-type monster known for laying traps.
‘A stealth-type panther! Then behind me!’
He rolled his body urgently.
At that moment, a black shape shot toward where Yonghoon had just been. When it missed him, it immediately disappeared into the darkness. It was a black panther.
Rolling to the side, Yonghoon quickly got up and took a low stance. He stared into the darkness where the panther had vanished. But he could no longer sense the panther’s presence.
Anyway, when a panther monster failed a hunt, it would immediately relocate. The next battleground wouldn’t be here.
Yonghoon approached the fallen person. Up close, it was clearly a corpse. The body, with unnaturally bent limbs and a split-open chest, appeared to be a middle-aged man. His eyes were frozen in terror, staring up at the sky.
His body was covered in wounds, likely from being dragged here.
The stealth-type panther monster had a habit of collecting corpses in its hidden lair. It would then use them as traps when enemies invaded.
When an enemy approached the corpse, it would attack from behind.
Many Awakened in the other world had fallen to this stealth-type panther’s traps. Since the panther could blend into its surroundings and lay traps, naive Awakened stood no chance.
The middle-aged man seemed to have been dead for several days.
Yonghoon had felt relieved by the low death toll, but it seemed he had misjudged. There were likely far more people classified as missing.
Yonghoon resumed his pursuit of the panther. Now that he knew his opponent, all that remained was to capture it.
As he followed the panther monster’s trail upward, he saw corpses placed here and there. It seemed the monster had been very busy preparing to face Yonghoon.
But Yonghoon ignored the bodies and continued up the floors, following the panther’s traces.
Now that he knew they were traps, he didn’t approach the corpses at all.
This type of panther monster hated having its territory invaded. That’s why it laid traps with corpses-to keep intruders out.
Since he already knew the creature’s habits, all he had to do was rush to its nest with everything he had.
As he climbed higher, the surrounding shadows grew restless. The panther monster seemed agitated. Its stealth was faltering.
And when Yonghoon stepped onto the 15th floor, the entire level was filled with the stench of blood. It looked like this was the panther monster’s newly made nest.
Yonghoon walked toward the center of the building. The blood smell thickened, and blood-so dark it looked black-was splattered everywhere.
He passed a pool of blood and approached the edge of the building. It was a perfect spot to monitor the surroundings. Judging by the scratch marks scattered around, this seemed to be the panther monster’s sleeping area.
The air began to reek of killing intent. The creature was furious that its nest had been invaded.
But it was an assassin that knew how to wait. If things stayed like this, only time would pass.
Yet all Yonghoon could see were blood-soaked floors and pillars.
The stealth-type monster had the ability to blend into surrounding objects.
Higher-level monsters could turn invisible or literally melt into objects, but F-rank monsters could only change their body color like a chameleon.
Still, they could mimic the surrounding colors and patterns so well that it was hard to find them on nights like this.
Yonghoon pulled out his phone from his pocket. He searched for a video from an old animated show that had once been a hot topic.
‘So it exists in this world too.’
While keeping an eye on his surroundings, Yonghoon propped the phone against a wall. The screen faced the inside of the building.
Then he pressed the play button.
Flash!
An explosion scene began to flash rapidly on the screen.
The entire floor began to flicker at an incredible speed, changing colors.
This animated show had once been banned for causing seizures in children due to its flashy visuals.
No matter how well the stealth-type monster blended into its surroundings, it couldn’t keep up with colors changing this quickly.
Yonghoon took in the surroundings with his eyes, which now resembled a stop-motion animation.
Then he noticed a shadow on a pillar in the corner changing colors just a bit slower.
“Got you!”
Yonghoon lunged at the shadow.
“Graargh!”
Realizing its location had been exposed, the panther monster gave up on changing colors and charged at Yonghoon.
The two clashed, attacking each other amid the strobe-like flashes.
The panther’s movements were incredible. It sprang from the shadows, stepped on a nearby pillar, and leapt diagonally. It lunged at Yonghoon from the side.
But Yonghoon had already begun channeling his Dimensional Power. The energy spread throughout his body, accelerating him.
The high-speed movement of a Strike-type Awakened began.
Yonghoon dodged the panther’s claws by leaning back. Then, like a spring snapping up, he rose to his feet.
He immediately hurled himself after the panther as it passed in front of him.
The sudden movement put strain on his body, but his enhanced physique as an Awakened could handle it.
The panther, having missed Yonghoon, tried to step on the opposite pillar and vanish into the darkness. It seemed intent on moving to another floor.
But Yonghoon was too fast. He was already right behind the panther.
He formed a knife-hand and drove it straight into the panther’s chest. His glove burst apart.
But his hand, reinforced with Dimensional Power, neutralized the monster’s own energy and pierced straight into its flesh.
“Kraang!”
His hand dug deep into the panther’s chest, and the panther monster let out a scream of pain.
Feeling the heartbeat with his hand, Yonghoon tore out the panther’s heart.
Squelch!
Blood splattered all over Yonghoon’s body. Because of the flickering light, the droplets looked like they were frozen midair to his eyes.
The panther monster, having lost its heart, collapsed on the spot.
Yonghoon visually confirmed the heart he had pulled out. It was still beating.
But Yonghoon carefully turned the heart over. Soon, his expression brightened.
A small gem was embedded on one side of the heart. It was a Dimensional Core.
Yonghoon tossed the heart aside and pulled out a small stainless steel bottle. It looked like a thermos, but it was something he had prepared to store the Dimensional Core.
Yonghoon placed the Dimensional Core inside the bottle and looked around. The surroundings still looked grotesque due to the flickering screen.
He turned off the screen and hesitated for a moment. From his perspective, the longer it took for the monster to be discovered, the better. Alternatively, he considered burying the panther monster underground.
But seeing the corpses of people scattered everywhere made that difficult.
“Guess I have no choice.”
He dragged his blood-soaked body downstairs. Then, he began searching through the corpses. On the third body, he found what he was looking for.
It was a cellphone.
When he turned on the screen, it seemed the battery still had some charge.
Yonghoon used the emergency call function to dial 119.
When the call connected, he quickly and quietly explained his location and the situation, then hung up.
He had done all he could. The rest was up to the government. And so, Yonghoon left the apartment site.
Because he couldn’t call a taxi wearing blood-soaked clothes, he had no choice but to steal some laundry hanging at a nearby row house.
He slipped a few bills into the door crack, picked out a dry outfit from the clothes hanging on the rooftop, changed, and returned home.
Back home, he pressed another button on his smart watch.
It was time to check his Dimensional Power.