LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 13 - Pterosaur-Like Monster
Chapter 13: Pterosaur-Like Monster
“A monster in the middle of a city like this…?”
It had already been ten years since I found myself in this world.
Still, at moments like this, I couldn’t help but nervously swallow my saliva.
“Everyone, please evacuate to the basement of the department store!”
As expected in a world where monsters appeared, the department store employees calmly began evacuating people as soon as the siren sounded.
If there had been a shelter nearby, it would have been different.
But since this building was far from any shelter, this kind of evacuation was the best option.
“Excuse me.”
People lined up in orderly rows, heading to the basement via the stairs.
In contrast, I started running, just barely slipping out the entrance of the department store before it locked.
“S-sir?! It’s dangerous outside!”
“I’m fine, please focus on evacuating the others!”
Ten years ago.
After I safely resolved the
When the news broadcasted ‘The emergence of Korea’s first national disaster-level monster!’ and showed me on an aircraft carrier’s deck, my heart nearly stopped.
Well, at least they only did a devilish edit to make it look like I was attacking the carrier.
Fortunately, my identity wasn’t revealed, so I felt relieved.
“Thanks to that, I haven’t been able to transform into a monster since that day…”
Practically speaking, I was a national disaster-level monster, and just my appearance would trigger a state of emergency in the country.
So, in Korea, where only C-level monsters appeared on average, if I transformed just to catch a few…
“S-screech! It’s the monster of Jamsil!”
“It’s a national disaster-level!”
“Immediately declare martial law to the President!”
…It would undoubtedly mark the beginning of a massive chaos.
Transforming into a monster would be like using a fire extinguisher to blow out a candle, so I hadn’t transformed for the past ten years.
However, that didn’t mean I had done nothing but evacuate like everyone else.
I had the original work’s knowledge accumulated over the years, even without transforming into a monster.
“Screeeech.”
The bustling streets of Myeongdong, crowded with foreigners and locals alike on weekends, were now deserted.
It was an odd sight for such a busy place.
Then, I quickly looked up at the sound of a screech from the sky.
There, I saw a monster with a massive body incomparable to a bird’s.
Rather than a bird, it resembled a pterosaur, a type of dinosaur from ancient times.
“D-level monster Birdnight! These guys always appeared in groups, so there must be at least five to ten of them at once, right?”
Species name: Birdnight.
A flying monster with a body length of about three meters, a single Birdnight posed an E-level threat.
But what raised their threat level to D was their numbers.
Like pack animals, they always emerged from gates in large numbers and seemed to have a signaling mechanism within their bodies.
If one creature was in danger, the whole pack would stop hunting and swarm to the rescue, performing a bothersome ‘gang up’ attack.
“Even if it’s classified as an E-level threat, that still means only D-level hunters could comfortably deal with them. Someone like me wouldn’t stand a chance.”
No matter how weak the monster, it was dangerous for me in my current state.
Even against the weakest Birdnight, I would just be a high-quality prey that didn’t require calling for backup.
Yet, despite not being able to transform into a monster, the reason I came to the scene instead of evacuating was simple.
“Found it!”
This was the time when I could gain the most growth points.
“Hey kid, are you okay?”
“Uwaaah. I… I got separated from my mom!”
“Got it. Don’t cry. Big brother will find your mom for you.”
“Really?”
Monsters typically appeared in crowded urban areas.
As a result, just like in the original work, there were ‘stranded people’ who couldn’t evacuate in time and needed rescue, like the boy holding my hand.
Rescuing these stranded people safely provided a lot of bonus experience points.
Since the game had become reality, I couldn’t see my stat window, so I wasn’t sure if this would benefit me like in the original, but…
“If I want to get stronger, I have to do whatever it takes. Besides, ignoring people when I know how to save them would be wrong.”
I knew how to deal with almost all the monsters that appeared in Korea.
And knowing how to deal with them also meant knowing how to avoid them.
“B-brother… I’m so scared I feel like I might scream…”
“If you want to scream, you can scream as much as you want.”
“Huh?”
“Those pterosaurs flying up there. They might look scary, but they don’t have ‘ears.’ Instead, their other senses are highly developed. Unless we’re underground, they won’t hear us no matter how loud we scream.”
“Really?”
The boy’s eyes sparkled at my words.
Since all the stores had locked their doors, I had no choice but to head towards the large shelter where the refugees were gathered.
During that time, the Birdnights flew overhead, and every time they passed by, the boy yelled at them to go away.
And when the monsters just passed by, he looked at me with sparkling eyes again.
“Brother, you’re amazing! Are you a Hunter too?”
“Me? No, I’m not a Hunter.”
“Really? But you know so much about monsters!”
“Yeah. But just being smart doesn’t make you a Hunter.”
Birdnights also had the characteristic of hating dark places.
So we mainly moved through gloomy alleyways, and along the way, we encountered other stranded people who had hidden in the alleys after failing to evacuate in time.
The number of people following me gradually increased.
When we finally reached the road at the end of the alley, where a monster shelter the size of a World Cup stadium was visible, I had become the guide for about 50 stranded people.
“Look over there! It’s the shelter!”
“We’re saved!”
“Brother, you’re amazing!”
According to the setting book, over 90% of people who failed to evacuate in time were eaten by monsters.
Surviving after entering the shelter late was extremely rare, and the group of stranded people, now facing such a possibility, was filled with joy.
But the real problem was just beginning.
“Student, do you think we can all just run for it?”
“…No. The road is too open. Even if we run non-stop, it’ll take about three minutes. In that time, except for one or two people, everyone else will be caught by the monsters.”
“No way…”
“Damn. What should we do?”
Those creatures were hunters that snatched their prey from the sky, not the ground.
If the Birdnight were to dive at us at sports car speed with its jaws wide open, we’d be killed in the blink of an eye.
“Or how about just staying hidden in the alley? Those things hate the dark anyway.”
Of course, that was an option.
But if we did that…
“If the Hunters don’t arrive within ten minutes, we’ll all be eaten.”
“W-why?”
“Because those things hate the dark, but it doesn’t mean they can’t come into it.”
Right now, they were busy scouring the bright areas of the city for prey.
That’s why we were safe for now.
But once they finished their search in the bright areas and found no more food, they’d definitely start exploring the alleys like humans rummaging through a refrigerator when hungry.
I estimated we had about ten minutes until then.
“If the Birdnights find us before the Hunters do, everyone here will be devoured in an instant. Even if we try to run, they’ll smash through the alleys and hunt us down.”
“Damn…”
“Is there no way out?”
“Well…”
If only I had the strength of an E-level Hunter, then the number of escape strategies would have increased exponentially.
But this was the best I could do in my current state.
The large shelter was a three-minute run away.
We had about 50 people to take with us.
Among them were the boy I first rescued and a pregnant woman, both of whom couldn’t run fast.
“I didn’t expect the numbers to grow this much… Why did I only see one or two before, and now suddenly there’s a whole group of stranded people?”
If it were a smaller number, there were a few more strategies I could use.
But evacuating this many people was practically impossible… No, let’s be honest, it was just impossible.
And of course, I couldn’t abandon a few and leave the rest.
“Damn…!”
The last resort was transforming into a monster.
Was that really the only solution left?
“Big brother…?”
At that moment, I felt the boy who had been holding my hand since I found him being lifted higher.
“Kid?”
He couldn’t have grown taller in an instant.
I turned my head to see what was happening, and everyone around me fell silent.
A Birdnight, having poked its head through the alley, had grabbed the boy by the collar with its beak and lifted him up.
Its empty, black eyes met mine.
Then, its gaze shifted to the boy, whose face was cast in a dark shadow.
He was so terrified that he had forgotten to cry.
“B-big brother…”
His small hand trembled in mine.
“Save me…”
“Damn it!”
As I shouted, the frozen air around us was filled with the screams of people.
The Birdnight then whipped its head upward, yanking the boy from my grip and tossing him into the air to swallow him.
The boy’s small body arced through the air, heading straight for the Birdnight’s open beak.
I had thought too lightly of it.
Having succeeded a few times in the game, I guess I thought I was capable of anything.
I should have always been prepared for such a situation.
But now that it had come to this, I had no choice.
I had to do it.
“Uoooooo-!”
I wasn’t brave enough to just stand by, fearing the aftermath when I could save a child.
So, as I roared and was about to transform…
Bang!
“…Huh?”
The head of the Birdnight, which had its beak wide open, suddenly exploded into a shower of red.
Amidst the confusion, a white-haired woman in a suit landed, holding the unconscious child.
Her sharp eyes, haughty appearance, and most notably, her blood-red glowing eyes caught my attention.
She handed the unconscious boy into my arms and looked at me intently, leaving me speechless.
“Are you alright?”
“Ah, yes…”
I see.
Come to think of it, this was when the original story began.
“You’re Hunter Yu Che-ran, right…?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
Her name was Yu Che-ran.
Her profession was a fighter Hunter, and she was the protagonist’s senior Hunter who guided him when he first joined the Hunter Association.
And in the prologue battle, she was the so-called ‘fake heroine’ who died immediately.