Chapter 39 (1/2)

SoJ Episode 3 Chapter 39

Volume 3: Age of Ghosts / Chapter 39: Consumables (2)

TL: emptycube

Editor: Obelisk

Words wouldn’t work on monsters. Their heads were simply filled with hatred for other living creatures. There was no reconciliation or surrender. Once they met their gaze, intelligent beings were only left with two choices, either to ‘fight’ or ‘flee’.

At first, there were many who chose to flee. It was expected as 19,000 people out of the 20,000 didn’t know their mission nor did they receive an announcement. Whether they knew how to escape or not was a different story. That was the drastic difference between the fates of ‘Consumables’ and ‘Consumables (Deferred)’.

However, the ones who fled soon realized the truth. They were in the middle of the enemy camp, and there was no place to run. A hopeless fight with their lives on the line commenced.

Amidst this confusion, the ones who received a mission invaded further towards the enemy headquarters. Looking at these people who charged forward without hesitation, the ones who fought desperately regained a sliver of hope… a false hope and followed behind them.

As their destination was the same, the paths of the ones who attempted to penetrate the enemy lines naturally started to overlap. After spending a while seeing only monsters, the number of aliens they saw gradually started to increase. Though they still didn’t see any of the earthlings they caught a glimpse of in the sky.

The aliens were diverse.

Splash, splash, splas.h.!.+

Choi Hyuk’s party was running while splas.h.i.+ng in the knee-deep water.

Vrrrr!

Right beside them, a feeble-figured alien placed silver machines which emitted blue electric currents on its arms and legs, and flew one palm-width above the water.

Next to them, a 3-meter tall alien with antlers protruding from its head was running in large strides. The water that was knee-deep actually only reached its ankles.

And many green aliens with the hind legs of a frog followed behind them.

“This feels strange.”

Baek Seoin looked around and revealed an ambiguous smile. For them to be able to run alongside aliens in an unknown place! This was unimaginable even just an hour ago. A major premise of the unknown, what could be considered every sci-fi fan’s dream, intelligent alien lifeforms! However, they weren’t much different from humans. Each and every being was silently running for their lives in the darkness while rain fell on them.

Looking at their figures, they even felt a bit of sympathy. Just then, they had penetrated through a wave of monsters and suddenly found themselves in a section where they had room to relax. Baek Seoin, who was filled with curiosity and was troubling over whether to strike a conversation with an alien, suddenly became surprised.

“Huh? Ack!”

He then jumped up in place. As someone who had 2-star karma stats, he instantly jumped up as high as a 4-story building in a single leap. Instead of jumping, it was more like flying.

Choi Hyuk shouted out as soon as he saw Baek Seoin’s jumping figure. He wrinkled his forehead.

“Jump!”

Choi Hyuk jumped and Lee Jinhee and Chu Youngjin jumped after him. They instantly became distant from the ground. At their sudden jumps, four pillars of water gushed up into the air. It seemed like the surrounding aliens were glancing at them. Then…

Splas.h.!.+

Following the water pillars, something else erupted up from the water.

“$%@@#??!”

Warning signals erupted in front of them like a beehive along with the fl.u.s.tered voices of the aliens.

Poong! Palalala!

They were like an octopus’s tentacles. However, the tentacles weren’t only after Choi Hyuk’s group. They, without a sound, crawled along the ocean floor and grabbed the ankles of the aliens all at once. The 3-meter alien with antlers fell into the water as it was dragged away by its leg. “Kiwoo! Kiwooo!” It shouted sorrowfully but there weren’t any aliens who could understand it. Many of the frog aliens’ heads were fully submerged underwater and were incapable of uttering a sound.

Lee Jinhee grumbled as she started falling to the ground.

“Baek hyung! I was wondering why you suddenly jumped, but you jumped only to save yourself?”

“No… It wasn’t something I did intentionally but a reaction, okay? It’s the same thing as suddenly touching a hot pot and instantly taking your hand off!”

Baek Seoin protested. His Intuition, which only activated for his safety, was sometimes like a spinal reflex. He couldn’t do anything about it but it couldn’t be helped that his figure looked like that of someone who was only trying to save himself.

However, Choi Hyuk didn’t blame him.

“Anyways, we were able to avoid it because of you.”

He said before quickly examining the approaching ground below. The tentacles were strong. Their ability to approach undetected underwater and even the instantaneous speed and power they revealed when they latched onto their victims were on par with the wyvern. Choi Hyuk’s face turned serious.

Currently, all the aliens had fallen into the water as the tentacles had grabbed onto their legs. The strength of the tentacles was so strong that they were dragged around and hurled down onto the ground. No aliens were able to resist. The only exceptions were Choi Hyuk’s group and the alien on the silver machine.

That alien was already a palm’s width above the water so it was able to avoid the attack of the tentacles. That wasn’t all, it seemed like it was about to retaliate as well.

Pazik! Pazizizik!

Its machine became covered by the blue electric currents. Powerful karma flowed down the machine and started to move intricately. Choi Hyuk, who saw this, felt a sense of danger. They had just landed. Choi Hyuk ordered his followers.

“Gather! Jump again!”

“Iron Defense!”

Choi Hyuk’s order and Baek Seoin’s skill activation sounded out at the same time. The moment the four landed around Choi Hyuk, they all jumped up once again. Choi Hyuk unsparingly sent the karma beating in his dantian down to form a barrier. The water that splashed up hit the barrier and slid off.

Flas.h.!.+ Pazizik!

The water and sky s.h.i.+ned blue. As if a blue sun had momentarily risen, even the distant horizon brightened.

The alien was surrounded by a white light and couldn’t be seen. The streams of lightning covered the water and even stretched up towards the sky. The tentacle monster, its alien victims and even Choi Hyuk, who had jumped up to avoid it, were swept up by the electric shock.

Rumble!

A sound of rumbling thunder pa.s.sed and everything returned to darkness.

Splas.h.!.+ Splas.h.!.+

Choi Hyuk’s group dropped down into the water.

The tentacle monster and aliens who were dragged along by its tentacles were all burnt to crisp and steam was rising from the water. It was as quiet as a mouse. The corpse of the tentacle monster was larger than expected. Its figure was revealed through the moonlight and he could see that its tentacles stretched 70 meters in front of it and were tangled up like tree roots. Though, it was dead and was currently floating in the water.

Wiing! Kiriring!

The silver machine emitted a clear sound as the alien leisurely flew away. And not long after, Choi Hyuk stood up. He wordless drank a potion. Soon after, Baek Seoin slowly got up. The first to stand up was Choi Hyuk but the one who received the least damage was Baek Seoin. It was the result of his [Iron Defense] in addition to Choi Hyuk’s barrier.

Baek Seoin helped his comrades who were embedded in the water up and made them drink potions. Lee Jinhee and Chu Youngjin stood up. Even until then, Choi Hyuk was fully concentrated on recovering.

Choi Hyuk currently had the weakest endurance among his comrades. If they only looked at Endurance, Baek Seoin: 64 (★★), Lee Jinhee: 36 (★★), Chu Youngjin: 24 (★★) and Choi Hyuk: 0 (★★). It was because he had invested all his karma points into Control to kill the Wyvern of Destruction.

Currently, he had over 170 free karma points but he had not used them yet. His Endurance was low but he believed that he could dodge or set up a karma barrier to cover his weakness but…

‘There’s a problem.’

Choi Hyuk stood still as he recalled the events that had just occurred. He had never thought about an omnidirectional attack like the one just now. He couldn’t dodge it. Also, he had to spread the barrier out to protect his comrades. Because of this, he took a lot of damage. The weakly formed ‘Karma Heart’ was his last line of resistance so he didn’t lose consciousness, but his body was a mess.