Song-pa District, Seoul.

11:59 A.M. The time everyone in the district will remember for the rest of their lives, as after just another minute. Their world was flipped upside down.

“Everyone Run To The South!! Please Run To The South Side!! Don’t Push Each other!! Do Not Go To The North!!” Park Chan-Yeol, an average-looking man in his late early twenties shouted desperately, but no one listened to him. And he understood the reason, his brown eyes teeming with anger when he saw the monsters attacking the scared civilians, not even sparing children or the elderly.

“Shit… Major we cannot shoot, the civilians will get hit…” The soldiers with him gripped their guns strongly. They arrived here in a hurry after the unit stationed here sent a call of distress. Since then the situation has only got worse.

“Some took a shot and it isn’t working on the taller ones… why are they even here?” Chan-yeol grimaced upon hearing that, the ones with better accuracy tried to pick off some of the monsters that had strayed off the civilians. But their bullets worked, just not on the ones who dealt the most damage.

“Tell the snipers to get the smaller green ones for now,”

“Yes sir,” His order was relayed through communication, but even then none of the soldiers felt any better.

They were pressed in a tough situation, the civilians were being killed and they couldn’t move in because of the circumstances. The most they have been able to do was send rescue teams to the nearby buildings to help the ones stuck there. But those people were better off in the buildings than to be thrown into this fray.

“Is waiting all we can do?” Chan-Yeol looked on at the chaos with a glum expression.

Right now they were standing at the gate of a midsized Software company. His team saved the civilians stuck in there nearly 30 minutes prior, and it ended quickly because most of them arrived on the first floor on their own.

[Please Run to The South!! Everyone! Do Not Enter The Buildings!! We ask you to please follow orders so we can help you!!!] The helplessness in the voice of the officer shouting from an armored vehicle outside was apparent, but even then he pushed on. They had all realized that currently, all they could do was wait and watch this massacre unfold.

“You guys were deployed unexpectedly fast,” Chan-Yeol looked back in surprise, and not just him but all of them were shocked by the emergence of this guy, some even pointed their guns at him. Even then he didn’t look fazed just appeared to be weary, but that wasn’t the reason for this reaction.

“Did… You just…?” Chan-Yeol’s eyes widened noticing the daggers in his hands. Blue blood dripped from them, it also stained his white collared shirt and black pants.

It was Lee Do-Yun, he approached the group of soldiers the moment he saw them.

‘These were the soldiers who wiped out those goblins, huh,’ He glanced at them once, before turning to examine the chaos outside.

“Well, no time for that, Gate breaks are happening outside,” Do-Yun scratched his head unceremoniously. This situation was sudden, but not something that needed to be thought about deeply.

“Gate…Breaks?” One of the soldiers in the back muttered, but Do-Yun disregarded them for now. He only had one goal.

“H-Hey! Where are you going? It is dangerous out there so just wait here, the Awakened Combat Unit is on the way.” Chan-yeol broke out of his daze and tried to stop Do-Yun. It was natural to do so, even if he killed the goblins inside the building, the situation outside was a different game altogether.

There weren’t just monsters, panicked Civilians were running out of control with limited space because crashed vehicles were everywhere. It certainly wasn’t a place to poke one’s head in, unless one had a death wish.

“Hmm? Isn’t it too early to form that sort of mindset?” Do-Yun sighed looking at how confused Chan-Yeol was. He was aware that he was missing information, but that could be gathered later.

“Gather the people inside the buildings rather than letting them go ballistic outside, you can guard the entry point with guns then,” Do-Yun said but Chan-Yeol shook his head.

‘I can tie him up in a conversation for now, and slowly change his mind,” He thought.

“It is not that we didn’t think of that, but if we allow the civilians to rush in, those creatures will follow. Then it would be more chaotic because of limited space.” He said in dismay. They tried to think of ways to help, but so far nothing he came up with could help.

‘We can’t use something like explosives with the civilians around either, and the worst thing is that this panic is getting worse with time.’ The army units on site really had their arms tied at the moment, and the higher-ups were holding their tongues on orders as they talked about securing the area outside of this zone to contain the monsters.

They gave them nothing concrete and wanted them to hold on till the combat unit arrived. So, they could do nothing, as every action they thought of taking could only worsen the situation.

“The monsters resistant to firearms are the problem, right?” Do-Yun asked and Chan-Yeol nodded. But they were just part of the problem.

‘Most importantly, what is up with him?’ Chan-Yeol didn’t have a good feeling about Do-Yun, but so far he didn’t sense anything out of the ordinary yet.

“I’ll deal with them,” Do-Yun on the other hand, didn’t have any other thoughts on the matter.

“Did the combat unit arrive?” Chan-Yeol was abruptly pulled out of his thoughts. An ear-rupturing explosion happened at that moment, but his hopeful face soon turned grim.

And not just him, everyone witnessing the scene was at a loss. The military vehicle outside was just blown up, and sadly the explosions weren’t stopping there.

“W-Why are grenades going off in the middle like that?” Another soldier questioned, but no one could answer.

‘Ugh… I should’ve paid more attention to him.’ Chan-Yeol turned back, only to find Lee Do-Yun missing.

“Has anyone of you seen him before?” Chan-Yeol asked a person they saved from the office, there was no time to lose.

“N-No, I haven’t… he might be in… a different department…” One answered, powering through the fear that made her grip at hands tightly.

“I see, thank you for answering Miss,” Chan-Yeol spoke as softly as possible, and he waited for a bit noticing her hesitate a little.

“H-Have… you not found my father? He said that he was going to look for other survivors from his department…b-but…” She had asked that question before, but couldn’t complete it this time.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“…We are still searching for him, I’ll be sure to let him know how concerned you are when I meet him,” Chan-Yeol smiled slightly as the woman nodded reluctantly.

Seeing no one else answering his inquiry, he stood up, and when he was a little distance away from the survivors, one of the men in his squad approached him. His name was Hwang Seok-Jin, and they became good friends while doing their mandatory military service.

“Chan-Yeol shouldn’t we let her know?” Seok-Jin spoke in a hushed voice, they did find her father but.

“I think she already knows, she is trying to keep herself together, so it wouldn’t be good to tell her right now,” Chan-Yeol sighed. He didn’t know how she would react to the news so the best he could do now was not confirm her suspicions.

There was something else that he needed to do at this moment.

“I think …we can help the civilians if we bring them inside the building,” He turned to look at Seok-Jin with a serious expression.

“Chan-Yeol you that’s…” Seok-Jin understood where he was coming from, but this wasn’t the time to be behaving recklessly to save more lives.

“I know that wasn’t the best idea, but we can lessen the casualties if we play our cards right. I’ll go and check if there are any monsters left up there,” Chan-Yeol was about to go ahead, but Seok-Jin stopped him as there was too much danger.

“Chan-Yeol this can get you in trouble. We have been told to be on standby.” And Seok-Jin wasn’t talking about just physical danger.

“Well, if that happens, then I’ll lose the rank as fast as I got it. It will totally make a record don’t you think?” But hearing that concern Chan-Yeol laughed unbothered, they have been on standby for a while but it didn’t change anything.

“Still the same… You do not have combat abilities so I’ll have to tag along with you again,” Seok-Jin sighed, this was the second time they would be going up this building.

‘Is it because of how that guy came out?’ Seok-Jin felt even more compelled to go along for protection, but Chan-Yeol shook his head.

“Your defense skill is the highest among us, you should hold the entrance. Also, I don’t think that there are any monsters up there,” He said while glancing at the upper floors.

“Why are you so sure?” Seok-Jin’s raised an eyebrow.

“My gut feeling, don’t you know how accurate it is?” Chan-Yeol spoke cheerily.

“Every time you have said that you have lost big time,” Seok-Jin said flatly.

“We agreed Old maid doesn’t count,” Chan-Yeol’s shoulders slumped when he saw his friend laugh.

“Well, make sure to have your skill on full blast so you can retreat quickly,” Seok-Jin’s expression turned serious and Chan-Yeol nodded.

“You should be careful down here too, the green ones might attack at any time,” Seok-Jin nodded. But before leaving Chan-Yeol glanced at the chaos on the street with his eyes taking on a green hue, and he found the one he was looking for.

‘That madman really rushed in there,’ Chan-Yeol walked inside the office building after a deep breath.

.

.

.

‘There’s the troublesome one,’ Do-Yun’s eyes focused on one of the Hobgoblins.

These were different from the short green goblins, they were tall and had a build a little smaller than the humans around them, and the way he pulled the pin of the grenade before throwing it into the rushing masses without being interrupted by the mass was impressive.

‘They are troublesome because they learn things quickly,’ Do-Yun rushed towards the Hobgoblin. It wouldn’t be easy to do that using the crowd and the state of this street, but some gaps were created thanks to those grenade explosions.

—Booom!

The Hobgoblin looked pleased as he saw the explosion, using these small round objects had helped them create panic and lead the flow of people more efficiently. They thought it was a good idea to pick it up from the corpses of soldiers who used it to attack them. A few of his tribesmen may have been injured while trying to figure out its usage, but it wasn’t something to care about. After all, they had gotten another card to use.

With him so focused on planning where to throw another grenade, combined with the hurried screams and rushed footsteps from the surroundings. He didn’t even know when Do-Yun slipped behind him and stabbed his right temple, the crooked but pointy blade went straight to his brain, and with a twist his life came to an end.

“Too careless, well the surroundings weren’t helping his senses either,” Do-Yun muttered while pulling out the dagger.

Hobgoblins were almost the same size as average humans with skin color similar to ash. Their bodies were more developed than average goblins and suited to fights with sharper senses. But with the surroundings like this, these senses were mostly overwhelmed, thus not to be worried about.

“As long as others are running around like this, I can attack them sneakily,” Do-Yun rushed towards his next target, which was another Hobgoblin. He was essentially doing the same thing as the goblins. They hid in the crowd and killed people to cause more panic, but his plans were different.

—Kiek?!

Do-Yun took down a few Hobgoblins with the same trick, and when he was on his fourth kill. Feeling itchy on his scalp, he moved to the side leaving the dagger stuck in the head and throat of his victim. The club barely missed him and struck the asphalt, making small cracks on impact.

“Following me around, have you? Cut me some slack I am a single man.” The Hobgoblin who missed the attack tried to swing the club in a hurry, but Do-Yun stepped on the club putting his entire weight on it.

It would only work for a moment, but that was enough.

“I don’t plan on making slaves. So, too bad, it is full-on extermination for you punks.” With his lips curving up in a smirk, the daggers in his hands penetrated the Hobgoblin’s temples instantly, painting the nearby white sedan with blue blood.

[You have shown an exceeding level of natural ability to detect malicious attacks and intents without the use of your five senses, Extra Skill Instinct (D) has been granted.]

[You have pushed your body despite depleting your stamina, Vitality +1]

“At least there is no change in the system so far.” Do-Yun swiped the two-meter-long wooden club from the dead Hobgoblin. It was rather heavy for him, but this was what he needed.

‘Alright, time to deal with these little troublemakers with some extra impact,’ This was the moment when the Hunters in the area, became the prey unknowingly.

Do-Yun's next targets were the smaller Goblins, and the reason for that was simple. They were the ones causing the most casualties. The Hobgoblins weren’t that interested in killing, their actions were more inclined towards a specific goal.

‘They want to tire out the people and then take them as slaves to build their base. But these Goblins are different, they didn’t come from the same gate otherwise their actions wouldn’t clash this much. There is no way that Hobgoblins—who think they are superior—wouldn’t have these green critters under their control with the seal.’ Do-Yun knew that two gate breaks happened in the surroundings when he walked out of the office building.

Currently, these two forces are running through this area, both with different motives. First, goblins who were killing everything in sight. And second, the Hobgoblins who were trying to herd all of the humans together like livestock.

In the end, both sides did not have good intentions.

[You have pushed your body beyond its capabilities and have a high level of willpower, Strength +3, Vitality +2, Agility +3, Intelligence +4]

“Looking at their levels, the Gates should be within E rank for the Goblins and D rank for the Hobgoblins,” Do-Yun concluded, bashing a Goblin’s head in with the club, watching the brain matter splash all over the people who were unlucky to witness it.

Without minding them, he turned around and stabbed a Hobgoblin–who was trying to sneak up on him–in the forehead with the Dagger in his left hand.

Thanks to his consistent culling of these monsters the number of casualties wasn’t rising as sharply as before. And this was an opportunity that wasn’t missed by the soldiers, thanks to someone taking the initiative.

[Everyone come this way and enter the building the army will protect you by barricading the building, I repeat…!] Chan-Yeol’s thundering voice rang through the street, and it got the attention of the remaining people around here.

They had been sneakily taking in people while killing every monster they could, but now there were no Hobgoblins around and Goblins were less than twenty. They doubled down on their efforts.

“His constant stalking helped me in getting the skill, so it is all good,” Do-Yun turned to meet the eyes of Chan-Yeol for a second, noticing the bloodied daggers in his hand.

‘At least he is confident,’ Do-Yun shrugged. What he wanted to do here was accomplished, so he rushed towards his next destination.

“Time to look for the Gates and deal with the Bosses.”