Chapter 56
As I waited for the earthquake to subside, I shouted toward those crouching on the ground.
“Get up, we need to move right now.”
“What are you talking about! The ground’s shaking like crazy, get down immediately!”
“Yeah, it’s dangerous, sit down quickly!”
Park Siwoo and Helena looked at me as if I’d lost my mind.
If I had more time, I would’ve explained the situation in detail, but there was no time for that now.
The cause of this earthquake was the simultaneous vibration created as the Beasts moved to destroy the cages that had imprisoned them.
In short, once this quake ended, the Beasts would escape from the Beast Farm.
We had to get there before that happened.
I quickly recalled the information from the game.
This Beast Rampage event consisted of three phases.
First, the low-ranked Beasts would escape from the Beast Farm, throwing the entire Beast Ranch into chaos.
That was the signal marking the beginning of total disorder.
Second, the higher-ranked Beasts in the Colosseum would go berserk.
Because of their rampage, the Instructors’ forces would be spread thin.
And lastly — the rampage of the A-rank monster, the Drake.
Even if it wasn’t fully grown, a Drake was still an A-rank monster.
Moreover, it had regained its full primal instincts under the influence of a Demon.
Naturally, the one who would face it would be Instructor Kang Jae-seok — the Academy’s strongest combat power.
If the player, meaning us, failed to defeat the lower monsters in time and arrived late, Instructor Kang Jae-seok would die — resulting in a game over.
In short, this event’s core was party play and time attack.
Since there was no time to explain all that, I simply sprinted toward the Beast Farm.
Park Siwoo and Helena wouldn’t just let me run off on my own.
Both of them had kind-hearted natures — they would definitely follow me.
“That lunatic!”
“Let’s just go after him!”
After exchanging looks, the two began to chase after me, muttering curses under their breath.
And Dan Chun-woo…
He was already running right beside me.
“I still haven’t received an answer. Are you going to sell me that sword?”
His emotionless eyes locked onto me.
At this point, his obsession bordered on madness.
If he was this fixated on the sword, then the reason had to be…
I shouted at him.
“Hey, you shameless bastard. You think I’d sell this for just ten million won? If you’re gonna lowball me, at least make it reasonable.”
“…So you knew.”
As expected, he had recognized the true value of this sword.
Otherwise, there was no way he’d be this obsessed with it.
Even if he was a sword-collecting maniac, this wasn’t even genuine — just a fake.
On top of that, it was old, uncared-for, practically scrap metal. No one in their right mind would pay tens of millions for something like that.
With a twisted smile, he said to me,
“Even if you keep it, it’s like a pearl necklace on a pig’s neck. I don’t know how you got your hands on it, but every artifact has its rightful owner.”
“Unlucky bastard. If you listen to me today, I’ll let you use it once. The only reason you offered such a low price is because you couldn’t afford the real value, right?”
Without waiting for his reply, I quickened my pace.
I needed to hurry.
At full speed, it didn’t take long before the Beast Farm came into view.
The entrance looked like the gaping maw of a giant dragon, and people were screaming as they fled from within.
“Kyaaa! The mon—monsters are acting strange! It’s like they’re all trying to break out together!”
“Quick, call the Heroes!”
Helena and Park Siwoo arrived shortly after, scanning the area in confusion.
“What is this! A Beast Rampage all of a sudden?”
“Where are the Instructors!”
Before their words even faded, a massive explosion erupted somewhere.
The Colosseum.
Flames burst out repeatedly, and thick black smoke billowed into the sky.
Through the smoke, I caught glimpses of enormous beastly silhouettes.
The chaos around us grew more intense by the second.
Helena, pale-faced, grabbed my arm.
“Monsters are coming out of the Colosseum! Shouldn’t we go help over there?”
“No, ignore that. That’s not a place for us to interfere.”
Multicolored flashes of light streaked through the air toward the Colosseum.
They were the Academy’s Instructors.
Seeing this, Helena let out a faint sigh of relief.
“Don’t relax yet! Didn’t you hear what people said? The Beasts from the Beast Farm are rampaging too. They’ll break out soon — evacuate all civilians and gather the cadets before that happens!”
“Got it!”
Once everyone understood the situation, the group began to move efficiently.
Park Siwoo and Helena started evacuating civilians and rallying nearby cadets.
Soon, cadets from around the area began gathering one by one.
“Everyone, remember the mock wave-response evaluation last time! Think of this as no different from that! If we hold the line here, the civilians will stay safe!”
The cadets gripped their weapons and took up battle positions.
Then, the trembling of the ground finally began to subside.
Kugugugugu—
At the same time, another vibration rippled through the air.
Standing at the front with his sword in hand, Dan Chun-woo muttered quietly,
“They’re coming.”
From the entrance came the growls of the monsters.
The crimson glow in their rampaging eyes grew deeper and more vivid.
A blue aura gathered around Dan Chun-woo’s sword — then, with one swing, he cleaved open the entrance to the Beast Farm.
At that instant, countless monsters burst out from within.
“Kiieeeeeek!”
“Kiyoyoyok!”
“Graaaaagh!”
The cadets clashed head-on with the charging Beasts.
“Everyone, hold your ground!”
“Drive them back, surround them! If even one slips past, civilians will die!”
I stepped back a few paces and watched.
The situation was much better than before.
Normally, the Beasts would have already escaped and wreaked havoc across the entire Beast Ranch — but thanks to the cadets’ defensive line, they were being contained.
However, the problem was the sheer number of Beasts.
There were more here than in most in-game wave events — easily more than triple.
Even with all the cadets from the Academy, there was a clear limit to how long we could hold out — we weren’t even professional Heroes.
That didn’t mean I could take an active role in the battle either.
The moment I drew too much attention with some flashy performance, the eyes of the Villains would fall on me.
Those responsible for creating the current situation — Berid’s underlings.
The only relief was that they wouldn’t reveal themselves publicly.
After all, what they wanted through this incident was to shatter the Academy’s reputation in the eyes of the public.
I maintained the current line by taking down the occasional Monster that slipped through our defenses.
Considering the Beast Farm’s structure, the longer time passed, the higher the rank of Beasts that escaped.
For now, it was still the early stage — E-rank and F-rank Monsters — so we were barely holding on, but once D-rank and C-rank appeared, this defensive line would collapse.
The cadets at the front line were already exhausted; their movements were visibly slowing down.
Helena’s voice rang out from the front, where she was fighting alongside Dan Chun-woo.
“The other cadets can’t hold on any longer! And the Monsters are getting stronger the more we defeat them! If no additional support comes, this is practically suicide!”
Despite her grim tone, Helena and Dan Chun-woo were working together surprisingly well.
“Hold out for as long as you can! Everything else will take care of itself!”
“Do you actually have a plan?”
I quietly nodded.
If I didn’t have one, I wouldn’t have been acting so confident.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out something I’d kept for a long time.
Seeing me, Park Siwoo shouted in disbelief.
“The rear support line’s empty! What are you doing, stopping mid-battle like that! This isn’t the time to fiddle with some weird doll!”
Ignoring him, I looked down at what I had taken out.
What Park Siwoo had called a doll was a small, pure-white rabbit’s foot.
The rabbit’s foot Instructor Mabel had given me during the shard investigation.
The source of my confidence — and my insurance.
I hadn’t expected to use it like this, but that’s what insurance is — something you keep for the unexpected.
I infused the rabbit’s foot with mana.
At once, the faintly glowing rabbit’s foot began to disintegrate into light.
Did it activate?
Judging by how it vanished, it seemed to have worked — yet, there were no visible changes around me.
Was there some kind of delay?
Just then, screams came from up ahead.
“Damn it! The Monsters just keep coming!”
“Ugh! I don’t want to die like this!”
The defensive line was starting to collapse.
The formation that had barely held against F-rank and E-rank Monsters began to waver as D-ranks appeared.
With the endless horde of Monsters pressing in, the cadets’ morale was plummeting.
Then, another explosion rang out.
Followed by more screams.
“There’s a hole in the outer wall of the Beast Farm!”
“The Monsters are pouring out!”
Park Siwoo’s desperate voice shouted out.
“It’s pointless to hold the line here anymore! The Beasts are escaping through the hole in the outer wall!”
“But we can’t split our forces in half! If we do that, it’s all over for real!”
Both of them turned to me.
“What do we do, Seongwoo!”
“Come up with something fast! Or civilians are going to get caught up in this!”
I cursed under my breath.
Don’t tell me it failed?
I began channeling the Asura Divine Art.
The heat of the Asura Divine Art spread from my lower abdomen throughout my body.
Damn it.
If things went wrong, Pandemonium might think I’d betrayed them.
But there was no more time to hesitate.
“Seongwoo!”
“You!”
Their shouts struck my ears.
“Damn it all!”
The Infernal Flame of the Asura Divine Art flared violently.
At that moment, an enormous magic circle spread across the ground.
“What is that?”
“A magic circle?”
Voices filled with confusion rose from the cadets as the magic circle enveloped the entire Beast Farm.
Soon, a massive barrier began to form from the circle — as if declaring it wouldn’t allow the Monsters to escape.
Then, the barrier began to contract.
Strangely, it allowed cadets and civilians to pass through freely — but not the Monsters.
As the barrier shrank, the Monsters were herded together into one place.
The smaller it became, the more tightly packed they were, until their screams echoed from within the compressed barrier.
But the barrier continued to close in.
From within the spherical barrier, grotesque cracking sounds could be heard.
Crunch, crack!
Eventually, the sphere — now only the size of a person — turned blood-red.
The horrific sight caused people nearby to gag and retch.
Then, a voice descended from the sky — a voice that didn’t fit the gruesome scene at all.
Seductive yet cheerful — the voice of salvation.
“Answering the cadets’ call — Hero Mabel has arrived!”