From Today, I'm a Player

Chapter 177: A Changed World Pt. 2

Seongnam was a stabilized city. Lee Jun-Kyeong hadn’t known it yet, but there was another place that was similar: Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi-Do. This place, which was close to Lee Jun-Kyeong’s final destination, had also been stabilized.

Although there weren’t enough large buildings and places for many people to gather as compared to large cities such as Seongnam and Seoul, the residents of Gyeonggi-Do still happily gathered in Yangpyeong. Most of them were living in tents or store buildings, but they were living a stable life, so there were no signs of complaint from them. After all, there were no monster attacks or any worries about food.

“This is all thanks to that Lord!”

"It's really God-given luck that the Lord is with us.”

"Thank you."

"I hope you all have a fruitful day."

People cheered and encouraged each other, and the scene was starkly different from the landscape of the city behind them.

It wasn’t just because they were all residents of Gyeonggi-Do. The cataclysm had brought them all together, working for one another, thinking about one another.

And all of that was possible through the work of that Lord.

“Everyone, let’s give thanks to that Lord!”

The Lord was a person who kept Gyeonggi-Do safe and protected the people in the midst of the cataclysm, and they were also the owner of the new building being built off to the side.

The people began to move in groups, each with their own roles in their miniature society.

“Those who have awakened as Hunters, this way!”

“Those of you who are established Hunters, prepare to head out!”

The newly awakened Hunters were trained, while the other Hunters went out in groups and rescued any survivors. The rest of the residents did whatever they could, taking on whatever role they could carry out. They all moved with proud expressions, grateful and full of pride to have survived.

Then, there was the one who looked down upon them all.

“...”

He drew the curtains shut.

Click.

As the darkness fell, the man soon turned on a fluorescent light. Power still ran in Gyeonggi-Do.

“Hmm…” the man mused, nodding leisurely as if satisfied with the appearance of the city they had erected.

And.

“How abominable," a voice sounded.

A woman was sitting on a sofa to the side. Her appearance was striking, with long black flowing hair. Although she didn’t appear to be bound by any restraints, she was utterly trapped.

Tremble.

It wasn’t a physical or magical restraint.

"Let everyone go.”

Instead, the man before her was holding the people she was supposed to protect hostage, and that was why she wasn’t able to make many moves easily.

It had already been a month since she had arrived here. She tried everything she could, but she was always blocked by that monster and couldn’t do anything.

"If you want to leave, leave,” the man would say.

"I won't stop you from leaving. But it seems if you do, you won’t be able to guarantee the safety of that wolf or the White Tiger Clan,” he would say in a bored and dry manner of speech. It was a tone that would leave even more goosebumps along the woman’s arms.

“...”

In the end, she, Ungnyeo, was forced to be silent.

It had already been nearly a month since she had arrived here, a place that they had found by following the traces of the residents of Heaven Lake Village. They had arrived at this surprisingly stable city, but it was the man before her who had welcomed them.

She had been attacked by him and his men. In the end, Fenrir was chained down, and the Heaven Lake Villagers imprisoned. The man before her was someone who had the strength to chain Fenrir down with his men.

“...”

‘Sangun, Mr. Won-Hwa… Hyeon-Mu.’

If there was any silver lining, then it was that some of them had been able to flee from the chaos at the expense of Fenrir. So far, the man before her hadn’t been able to catch them yet, and she knew they would come to their rescue after retreating.

They would come back.

With him.

"It’s obvious what you're thinking. Were you really leading people with that level of ability?” he said in a mocking tone. “You must think those escapees are going to bring that bastard here.”

“...”

As his words hit the nail right on the head, Ungnyeo immediately shut her mouth.

However, he hadn’t finished just yet. He had been expressionless earlier, but a subtle change occurred to his face as he spoke in a dry tone, “Regardless of the result, rejoice in it.”

It sounded as if he was welcoming of what was to come.

“...!”

The terrifying man continued, looking straight at her, “As, I think he’s arrived.”

***

‘He’s come…?’

Ungnyeo knew who the man was referring to; he was the man that she had been waiting for. The man who would save them.

“Lee Jun-Kyeong… that brat is here…?” she said in an unbelieving murmur.

In response to her bewilderment, people walked up to her, handing over food and greeting her.

“Try some of this.”

“Thank you, always.”

Ungnyeo accepted them with a bitter smile. "Ah… yes…"

She had been here for about a month. In that time, she hadn’t just been stuck in that room with that man.

“My son is a little sick…”

"Oh, let's go together.”

She spent her time using her abilities to treat people. It was a situation where she was unable to do anything as her companions had been imprisoned. Although she was full of hate for the ruler who kept her restrained here, these people were normal humans with no sin.

Thus, somewhere along the line, Ungnyeo, who had been treating the residents as she looked for her companions, had become a person respected by the residents.

‘That brat has arrived,’ Ungnyeo thought as she went forward to her next treatment.

Lee Jun-Kyeong was finally here. After all, the ruler here wasn’t someone who would lie.

Smirk.

She knew that the ruler who held domain over this place was waiting for Lee Jun-Kyeong. Judging from his confident attitude, Ungnyeo assumed that the ruler must have prepared extensively while waiting for Lee Jun-Kyeong’s arrival.

Nevertheless, it made her smile.

‘That brat…’

Lee Jun-Kyeong.

‘He can do anything.’

It was her belief, her conviction in him.

“Is there something good that has happened?” the residents asked when they saw her smile. It was out of character for her as she usually went about with her work with a heavy expression.

"I don't think I've ever seen you smile."

"It's so beautiful I think I’m going blind."

Ungnyeo smiled even more as the people praised her.

Rumble!

But that only lasted for a while as Ungnyeo’s smile disappeared when she felt the rumble of the ground.

“...”

“Let’s hurry,” she said, trying to continue forward alongside the residents calmly.

***

"W…what is all this…?”

The voice of Yeo Seong-Gu, who rarely lost his composure, rang in the ears of the party.

He was genuinely agitated. It was to the point that he was even smiling in despair as if it was impossible for him to believe the scene that unfolded before him.

“It's the way for us to break through the veil,” Lee Jun-Kyeong responded.

Lee Jun-Kyeong hadn’t just been messing around when they had moved on to their respective roles while at Seongnam. More than anyone else, he wanted to save those who were still in Gyeonggi-Do.

‘We have to hurry.’

He had been hunting monsters along the border of the veil, moving to the point where he would even cross any thin veil that he came across, all in order to figure out a way to make a gap in the impenetrable barrier before them.

And finally, he had found a way.

“Unbelievable…”

Jeong In-Chang and Kim Su-Yeong were also very surprised.

Before their very eyes, the voices of ghosts and ghouls washed over them.

“Ughhhhh…”

“Grrr….”

“Chwiik…. Chwik…”

Thousands, no, tens of thousands…

“I think there are hundreds of thousands of them…”

Close to hundreds of thousands of monsters were waiting for orders, moving and twisting their bodies. It was an entire corps of monsters. Although none of them were really the highest ranking of monsters, it was still shocking enough that there were that many monsters in one place.

Moreover, they were all undead.

“Is this the power of Hel?”

The monsters, exuding both a disgusting rotting smell and the mana of the dead, were looking back at the party while standing in neat lines in a structured formation. Even though they didn’t attack, the Hunters could still feel quite substantial pressure.

“Well, let’s just say it’s a lot of things combined with it,” Lee Jun-Kyeong said.

“Is it even possible to manipulate such a large number of monsters?” Jeong In-Chang asked.

“I mean, with this many of them, don’t you think you can do just about anything?” Yeo Seong-Gu also commented.

Lee Jun-Kyeong was being bombarded with questions, which was an expected result considering what he had just done.

He responded, “Well, no. Normally, this is impossible.”

“If that’s the case…”

“It took a long time and an even greater amount of mana. Also…” Lee Jun-Kyeong continued with a bitter smile, “You can just consider this as the help given to us by all of those who had died.”

Hel’s ability involved dealing with the soul. However, everything had a price. It took an incredible amount of mana to revive and manipulate these monsters, especially as the monsters had been their enemies.

Thus, moving this large of a number of undead would generally have been impossible for Lee Jun-Kyeong and his Familiar.

‘However, the people helped us.’

It was the souls of the dead. The souls of hundreds of thousands of people who had lost their families and their lives to these monsters were helping.

–They have aided me, master.

.

Hel informed him that the souls of the dead had voluntarily come forward to help them with this endeavor. Still, that didn’t mean that it wasn’t a massive undertaking.

Sssss.

Even at that very moment, a huge amount of mana was escaping him like a low tide.

"Let's hurry."

"Agreed…"

"We should be moving quickly considering it all."

"So..."

Kim Su-Yeong, who had been quietly standing off to the side so far, finally carefully said, “What’s the method?”

Rumble!!

Alongside, a huge vibration could be felt from the ground. The monsters that had been standing still so far had begun to move, walking forward slowly with their backs to the party.

“This will impact many parts of the veil at the same time. Also…”

Where they currently stood was the boundary of the veil, the connection point between Seoul and Gyeonggi-Do.

“This will also spread into the veil over Seoul.”

“Is that even possible?” Kim Su-Yeong asked.

Lee Jun-Kyeong just answered simply, “We’ll see.”

"Can I ask you one more question?" Yeo Seong-Gu interjected.

"Yes."

Yeo Seong-Gu continued with a face filled with even more anxiety, an expression that none of them had ever seen. It was a question that none of them had brought up just yet.

“Everyone must still be alive…right…?”

As he asked Lee Jun-Kyeong if the Ungnyeo, the White Tiger Clan, and Fenrir, which they had so desperately wanted to find, were still alive, Lee Jun-Kyeong was able to answer confidently, “For now.”

Rumble.

The tremors were getting stronger.

***

"Take a little rest and you'll be fine."

"Thank you so much. Thank you."

Ungnyeo wiped the sweat from her forehead. During the day, she treated hundreds of people. There were survivors who had been rescued, people who suffered from a lack of medicine, and even the children who were suffering from mana sickness due to the cataclysm. Ungnyeo was using her power to heal them all.

After today’s work, she left the infirmary and headed somewhere, a wasteland some distance away from where the residents were.

From a strange building built off to the wayside, a strange rumble erupted, and as she approached it, the tremor grew stronger. Ungnyeo withstood the vibration and casually entered the building. The interior and exterior were completely different from each other.

It was as if she had entered a completely different space. In the midst of the dark, the unpleasant sound of chains jostled in Ungnyeo’s ears.

Rattle. Rattle.

When she turned the lights on in the dark room,

–GRAHHH!!!

A strong roar rang out, the vibration from its power making the very space tremble. Ungnyeo lowered her voice in sorrow and called out a name, “Fenrir..."

It was a white-haired child. He looked miserable. His whole body was chained down, bound so tightly it was impossible to move. Every time he made an effort to free himself, the chain continued to tighten, digging into his skin.

Ungnyeo wasn’t able to release him from them as it wasn’t something she could do with her level of strength. There was only one thing she could do for him.

Shhh.

All she could do was relieve his pain and heal the damage done to Fenrir’s body as he drove himself to exhaustion, trying to free himself.

“Ung…nyeo…” Fenrir said in a hoarse voice, looking over at Ungnyeo.

"Jun-Kyeong...is here...”