4 Episode 4 - At a Large Supermarket, Part III (2/2)

There was one more element of relief here. Fire shutters! The sense of relief from the fire shutters that completely blocked all the entrances and exits on the second basement floor was incredible.

Only one person did not relax. 'The monsters suddenly appeared.'

Kim was not relieved, even the battle was over. On the contrary, now he was much more nervous than the moment he had first met the dwarf monster, which he called a Goblin for his convenience.

Once the battle began, he did not put any elements other than fighting in his mind. They could be considered after the battle.

In other words, after the battle was over, he began to consider the elements outside the battle. Now he realized something.

'The monsters suddenly appeared.' The appearance of monsters, obviously, was an event outside common sense. However, there were factors other than common sense that were important.

'If they had come through the second floor or the first floor, at least I would have felt them first.' The monsters appeared suddenly. There were two ways to enter this large supermarket where he was. One way was to come through the ground floor, and the other way was through the subway station connected to the second basement floor.

If the monsters came in from outside, those on the first basement floor in between should have noticed the emergence of the monsters before encountering them. But no one noticed them, and even he did not notice them.

'Even though I took a year off, I am on active duty.' If his senses were so dull that he could not see the monsters coming to the first basement floor through the ground floor or from the second basement floor, he would have been retired from active duty.

'It's obvious I didn't see anything… These monsters didn't come from the road. They came out of nowhere. Monsters appeared without any restrictions on space.

'It is useless to build a wall, and it is useless to hide in a bunker.' The worst situations that could be assumed in his mind began to pass by quickly.

'It could be worse than the worst.' He felt chills run down his spine as his imagination took hold.

”Big brother.” Bang stopped Kim's imagination. The appearance of Bang, who had taken off his baseball jumper and baseball cap, was quite different from what Kim first saw.

First of all, his hair was very short and was close to being shaved. His appearance was unexpectedly naive, and the big eyes reminded him of deer eyes. He was fairly big, as he unzipped his jumper. It was a feeling of well-grown rather than simply overgrown.

”I brought the coffee you had asked for.”

When Bang handed the canned coffee in his hands to Kim, Kim noticed that he did not take off his bloody batting gloves. He put down the coffee that he had received on the floor. He was going to take off his gloves and drink some coffee.

Bang sat down in front of Kim and said, ”Big brother, do you know what's going on?”

Looking at Bang asking the most curious question, Kim said while taking off his left-handed gloves, ”If I'd known this would happen, I wouldn't have been here today.”

”Haha, I see.” Bang, who laughed awkwardly, gave a long sigh and said again, ”A lot of people died. A lot of -”

”There are a hundred and two survivors.” Considering the number of customers who visited this large supermarket at the end of the year, it was not a small number but a terrible number. Not everyone died, of course; most of them ran away the moment the incident broke out, through the subway station on the second basement floor, or through countless exits on the ground floor.

But even considering that, the number of dead people was high. Right now, the number of people who had been killed on the second floor was as high as that of the survivors, with more than a hundred dead. It was a huge number. Even in a severe accident, it was unusual for more than a hundred people to die.

”They died because they didn't fight.” However, Kim did not have a big question about this terrible fact. Regardless of the number of monsters that appeared, only a handful of people fought back against monsters until he took part. Naturally, this was the result. It was like that.

A hundred adult men, armed with a knife or a baseball bat, might be able to kill a lion even if a few people died. But if they ran away, they would never kill a lion. Moreover, Goblins and Orcs were not simple beasts.

'They were gathering in groups.' They formed packs and cooperate. They were like wolves, hyenas, and humans. In addition, the efficiency of herd hunting was great, and the history of none other than the humans who survived showed why.

Kim was the main factor why a hundred and two people survived. If it had not been for him, they wouldn't have been able to kill Goblins or Orcs on the second basement floor.

”Is that so?” Bang did not understand Kim's words directly, only vaguely. It was clear that he survived because he fought without running away, and it was obvious that if Kim had not been there, the damage would have been even greater.

”Anyway, what will happen in the future? Or should we stay here? This is a food section, so if we're going to stay here, we can hold on. If the fire shutter had not kept us on the ground floor ... it would have been terrible.”

At Bang's question, Kim took off the gloves in his right hand, instead of answering. At that moment, he could see a black mark engraved on the back of his right hand, a mark that reminded him of the sun, as if it were blazing.

'This?' He found the mark of an Awakener.