From Today, I'm a Player

Chapter 146: The Beginning of the Cataclysm Pt. 2

However, unlike what Yeo Seong-Gu had said, the plane wasn’t what had exploded.

“What the…”

A red blaze was dancing outside of the window.

Boom!

The blaze soared further with a series of explosions. It wasn’t the plane, but where they had to land.

"Incheon International Airport is on fire.”

The airport was burning.

Yeo Seong-Gu, panicked, also looked out of the window hurriedly.

The two could see something through the flames burning furiously as if they were being fed dry firewood.

“It’s the monsters!”

Lee Jun-Kyeong and Yeo Seong-Gu’s expressions hardened at the same time. The two looked at each other and spoke in unison.

“The Cataclysm.”

“The Cataclysm.”

The gate breaks that had happened in Egypt were now taking place at Incheon International Airport.

Bang! Boom! Boom!!

The explosions continued to spread over the planes in the field, and the planes with filled fuel tanks that had been preparing to leave the country exploded one after the other.

In the midst of the explosion, Lee Jun-Kyeong could see a few monsters between them. There were drakes covered in flames.

It seemed as though this was at least an A-Grade Gate Break.

–Please sit down and fasten your seat belts…

RUMBLE!

Even before the captain’s announcement was over, the plane began to shake loudly.

In other words, the force of the explosions had spread out into the sky. The scene outside of the plane had turned into hell due to the spread of the flames.

“Can we land?!” Yeo Seong-Gu shouted at the crew from the Association.

“That’s… I think it would be hard to land anytime soon! For now, we’ll turn the plane around and find…”

Landing an airplane into the midst of a fiery explosion was suicide. At the very least, there wasn’t a single person on board who didn’t know that.

As the flight attendants were stamping their feet in a panic, Lee Jun-Kyeong looked over at Yeo Seong-Gu.

“Not yet.”

He was asking if they could use the Bifrost yet, but Yeo Seong-Gu had shaken his head firmly.

They were stranded in the sky of the Incheon International Airport. The plane was forced to fly further up in order to escape the flames and explosions, after which a series of explosions occurred below.

‘There’s definitely people down there in the midst of the explosions.’

He bit his lips while thinking of a way to save them.

[<The Desert’s Sun> looks upon you with a hazy gaze.]

Then, he made his move.

Lee Jun-Kyeong approached the flight attendant and ordered, "Open it."

"What?" she asked confusedly.

"Open the airplane door!"

***

Swoosh!

A comet streaked down the sky and clove through the wind. Almost as fast as a diving jet, Lee Jun-Kyeong was falling to the ground.

Flap!

Suddenly, faint wings of fire moved from his shoulder blades.

[<The Desert’s Sun>’s gaze becomes ever hazier.]

Thanks to the interest he had received from <The Desert’s Sun> while he was in Egypt, Lee Jun-Kyeong was still able to use his power somewhat while he was in Korea.

Although the sponsorship had ended, he had still been able to manipulate the wings of fire using his own power through the faint link that still connected him to <The Desert’s Sun>.

Soon, the wings would disappear. Once that happened, Lee Jun-Kyeong would plummet to the ground.

Swoosh!

Therefore, Lee Jun-Kyeong accelerated his pace even further. As the piercing wind brushed past his cheeks, there was another explosion.

Boom!

However, there was something different from before.

“Ahh!!!”

He could hear the screams of people as well.

Before he knew it, the ground had gotten close, and he could see fire drakes running wild and trampling around.

People were dying around them due to the explosions they caused while the drakes just grew stronger and rushed around more violently under the power of the growing flames.

It was a chaotic mess.

Incheon International Airport, which had been the world’s number one airport, was becoming a disaster site.

Swoosh.

Finally.

Squelch!

Lee Jun-Kyeong fell from the sky.

Muspel’s Spear pierced into the top of a fire drake’s head, which had been running wild near a plane that had yet to explode.

“Keugahh!!!”

The fire drake thrashed around with a grotesque scream.

Shhhh.

However, that was only for a short while. Muspel’s Spear was absorbing the flames of the drake like a starving predator, which had been spewing flame instead of blood.

The drake was a monster that boasted of its huge size, yet it shrank in an instant.

With a thud, it fell to the floor, seemingly only left with its skin.

Squelch!

Lee Jun-Kyeong wrenched out his spear and turned his eyes elsewhere.

The timing was good. The wings of fire had disappeared only after he landed on the ground.

[<The Desert’s Sun> withdraws its gaze.]

[<The Desert’s Sun> cheers you on!]

Looking around, there were still a lot of raging fire drakes around. Moreover, Lee Jun-Kyeong had already noticed something.

‘They’re strong.’

He had been able to take out this fire drake easily. However, that had only been due to the force of gravity that had exponentially multiplied his power while falling and the almost absolute strength of his fire combined with Muspel’s Spear.

The fire drakes weren’t the normal fire drakes either.

"It's started..." Lee Jun-Kyeong muttered while looking at the next drake. “The cataclysm…”

Thud!

Lee Jun-Kyeong stomped on the ground.

The cataclysm had begun, and the monsters had begun to strengthen.

The thick mana in the air was feeding the fire, and the fire was giving the fire drakes strength.

The monsters were stronger than ever.

“Damn it.”

Lee Jun-Kyeong's brief curse lingered in the air.

***

Swoosh! Swoosh! Squelch! Squelch!

A series of sounds broke through the monotony of explosions and rang throughout the space. Lee Jun-Kyeong was constantly moving, and the force of his body ripped through the air.

[Your level has risen.]

Although it had been a while since he had heard this notification, Lee Jun-Kyeong wasn’t happy whatsoever.

There were too many drakes.

A gate was a huge space, and when the monsters that had been trapped there were released into a small space, there were too many for people to handle.

“Damn it!”

Lee Jun-Kyeong continued to hunt the drakes while spitting out curses. His experience was rising like crazy. His stagnant experience value shot up rapidly as if it was greedily absorbing the monsters that had become stronger in the face of the cataclysm.

Squelch!

Lee Jun-Kyeong’s spear mercilessly pierced through the drakes as they rushed toward him while spewing roars and cries.

“Damn it!”

Nevertheless, Lee Jun-Kyeong continued to shout out with an angry expression.

‘I don’t see any survivors.’

Incheon International Airport was filled with bodies that were in the process of or completely burned to ashes.

Even though he had been racing through the airport for nearly a quarter of an hour, he hadn’t been able to find a single survivor.

[The mana stream is active.]

He tried to track people using his mana stream as there were sure to be Hunters at Incheon International Airport. Also, there would be the Association here, waiting for him and Yeo Seong-Gu to return.

He had thought that he had figured out a surefire way to handle this mess, but there wasn’t.

“Damn it!”

Lee Jun-Kyeong had no choice but to swear again.

The mana stream wasn’t working.

The gate break, and more importantly, the beginning of the cataclysm had influenced the area.

That, combined with the incredibly chaotic mana around him that roared like crazy, was blurring the mana stream.

He couldn’t see anything using it.

“DAMN IT!”

Lee Jun-Kyeong threw his spear.

Split.

The spear had been shot into the point in the sky where the flames were the highest, but the end result was still devastating.

All the drakes that had been running toward Lee Jun-Kyeong had been pierced in a straight line and stopped moving.

The First Flame.

The skill of the Demon King.

“Gasp… Gasp…”

He had been running wildly without even managing his mana, and the surrounding flames were reducing the density of oxygen in the air. In addition, acrid smoke had been going down his throat, so Lee Jun-Kyeong was out of breath.

And then.

“Sa… sav…”

He heard a voice.

“Save m…” someone sobbed.

Lee Jun-Kyeong blasted off the ground and raced over to where the voice was coming from.

Thud, thud, thud, thud!

The burning international airport was collapsing around him as he raced even faster.

When he arrived, the sight in front of him was devastating.

“...”

Where people would have been waiting to leave the country, there was a woman sobbing, her arms wrapped around a child.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

At that moment, a drake suddenly arrived.

Lee Jun-Kyeong threw Muspel’s Spear without hesitation, and the footsteps stopped.

"Are you all right?" asked Lee Jun-Kyeong as he quickly covered the woman’s mouth.

It would be dangerous if she swallowed any more smoke.

“My daughter…” she whimpered.

Thud.

She handed Lee Jun-Kyeong the child and collapsed on the spot.

Luckily, the child was fine, but the woman had already gone beyond the point where she could be saved.

Lee Jun-Kyeong held the child in his arms, who seemed to have lost consciousness due to the acrid smoke and the series of explosions.

He then continued to run forward, moving quickly while straining his ears, but he could no longer hear any other voices.

The international airport had almost entirely collapsed and was nearly in complete ruins.

Boom!!!

Behind him, as he moved forward, consecutive explosions continued to blast outward.

He knew, deep down, that ordinary humans would have already died.

‘They already…’

Even this child’s survival was miraculous.

“Lee Jun-Kyeong!”

At that moment, he had heard a welcome voice.

Yeo Seong-Gu.

It seemed as though the Hunter had followed after him and also managed to land safely on the ground.

A subtle rainbow aura exuded around him.

It was the true power of Heimdall that Yeo Seong-Gu had never shown up to this point.

However, there wasn’t enough time to observe it.

“...”

Behind Yeo Seong-Gu’s back, there were several people who seemed to be survivors.

They all looked like they had been through hell.

With sobbing faces, they spoke to Lee Jun-Kyeong.

“Th…the Hunters…”

“The Hunters?”

“The Hunters are still over there!”

Lee Jun-Kyeong nodded in acknowledgment and handed the child to Yeo Seong-Gu.

Yeo Seong-Gu accepted the child with a difficult expression and nodded in return.

In this current situation, Lee Jun-Kyeong was more suitable to go searching than Yeo Seong-Gu.

“I’m sorry,” Yeo Seong-Gu said to Lee Jun-Kyeong for no reason.

Lee Jun-Kyeong just smiled in response and turned back into the flames.

Yeo Seong-Gu soon turned his gaze around.

He had to protect the child and the few survivors right now.

***

“…”

Lee Jun-Kyeong stared down blankly in a building where the fire was soaring.

He was looking down at a burning corpse.

The fire hadn’t yet been extinguished, so it was engulfing the dead man’s body. As he looked down, although the fire was still burning the corpse’s body, the face hadn’t been touched, so it was still recognizable.

“The White Tiger Clan’s…” Lee Jun-Kyeong murmured blankly to himself.

The body had been an acquaintance.

He had been a member of the White Tiger Clan, an organization made up of the Hunters he had brought back from Heaven Lake Village.

"Why..."

Why were they here?

Why was this man burning to cinders here?

Lee Jun-Kyeong’s gaze was empty.

Pound!

Apart from that, however, his heart was beating violently.

Anger.

Loss.

As the unknown insecurities dominated his mind, Muspel’s Spear began to tremble.

[Muspel’s Spear is revealing its devilish aura!]

However, Lee Jun-Kyeong could care less about it.

The light returning to his eyes, Lee Jun-Kyeong looked at the burning flames and the remaining shadow of the fleeing flame drake.

After that, he saw him.

“The man in black…”

A man in black was staring at where he was.

Crack.

A thorn sprang out of the tightly grasped Muspel’s Spear, penetrating through Lee Jun-Kyeong’s hand and beginning to wrap around his forearm.

[Muspel’s Spear is revealing its devilish aura!]

Step.

Despite the series of warnings, Lee Jun-Kyeong stepped forward without even recovering the body of the member of the White Tiger Clan.

He walked toward the man in black, toward the figure in the roaring blaze.

Roar!

The blaze, burning even more fierce than before, was now being sucked into Lee Jun-Kyeong.

ROAR!

As if drawing a circle with its flames, the vortex of fire raged around his body.

“Mr. Lee!!!”

Then, he heard a familiar voice heard beyond the whirlwind of flames.