— Chapter 2
“AAAAAH!”
The situation had become a complete nightmare.
Screams echoed from every direction.
Emergency evacuation alarms blared nonstop.
The Mist Burns had multiplied in an instant, and each new victim only created another one.
“At this rate, we’ll all end up like them!”
Teaching Assistant Lim screamed.
Mist Burns were far beyond anything he could handle.
And, of all monsters…
They were the one thing that triggered his deepest trauma.
Thud! Thud!
“H-Huh? Assistant! Where are you going?!”
Suho stared in shock.
The only Hunter here…
was running away.
Dodging the Mist Burns by the narrowest of margins, Lim escaped the exhibition hall by himself.
Should I follow him?
Suho hesitated for only a moment.
Then he moved.
But not in the same direction.
He ran the opposite way.
Grab!
He sprinted toward the corner of the gallery and snatched up a fire extinguisher.
I don’t know if this will work…
But he couldn’t bring himself to abandon everyone else and flee.
Gripping the extinguisher tightly, Suho charged toward the swarm of Mist Burns.
FSSSSHHHH!
A torrent of white powder blasted out, engulfing the monsters.
“Grrraaaah!”
Naturally, it wasn’t infused with mana.
It couldn’t truly hurt them.
But it was enough to suppress their blue flames for the moment.
Good. It works.
Without stopping, Suho swept the nozzle across the room.
FSSSSHHHH!
“Grrraaah!”
“Kyaaaah!”
While keeping the monsters at bay, he scanned the room.
He spotted one of his classmates lying on the floor and rushed over.
“Are you okay?”
“Ugh…”
The student’s face was soaked with tears and mucus.
“Come on! Get a hold of yourself!”
Suho shook him violently.
The student’s eyes remained unfocused.
Slap! Slap!
Suho slapped both cheeks.
Only then did the student blink.
“S-Suho…?”
The light finally returned to his eyes.
Suho glanced downward.
Looks like he twisted his ankle.
“Let’s get out of here first.”
Without another word, Suho hoisted him onto his back.
Thanks to the extinguisher, the Mist Burns had temporarily weakened.
This was their only chance.
“Sniff… W-Where’s the assistant…?”
the student asked through trembling sobs.
Everyone in the Painting Department knew Assistant Lim was a Hunter.
Yet in the middle of this crisis…
he had vanished.
“I think he was contacting the Hunter Association for reinforcements.”
Suho decided not to mention that Lim had fled immediately afterward.
He’s terrified enough already.
The student sighed with relief against Suho’s back.
* * *
They finally escaped the exhibition hall.
But stepping outside solved nothing.
If anything…
the hallway was even worse.
WHOOSH!
“ROOOAAAR!”
So it wasn’t just inside the gallery…
Suho bit his lip.
Mist Burns filled the entire museum.
So this is what they meant by a self-replicating magical beast.
He had thought escaping the exhibition hall would be enough.
He was wrong.
“AAAAAH!”
“S-Somebody help…!”
“When are the Hunters getting here?!”
Groups of terrified people huddled together, trembling.
The Korea University Art Museum had only a few routes out.
The stairwells.
The elevators.
Every single path…
was blocked by flickering Mist Burns.
If this keeps up, people are going to panic.
Suho assessed the situation immediately.
Every escape route was sealed.
The monsters continued multiplying.
Sooner or later, someone would lose their nerve.
Jumping out a window would be suicide.
Trying to force their way through would simply create even more Mist Burns.
At least they need something to defend themselves with.
Suho raised the fire extinguisher high.
“Everyone! Listen to me!”
Several frightened people looked his way.
“There is a way to fight these monsters!”
“…!”
More and more heads turned toward him.
Then they noticed the extinguisher.
“R-Right!”
“Of course! Fire extinguishers!”
“We can kill them!”
Hope returned to their faces.
Suho scratched his cheek awkwardly.
Well… not exactly kill them.
But I guess that’s close enough.
Right now…
hope mattered more than accuracy.
The crowd scattered through the hall, desperately searching for fire extinguishers.
“I found one!”
“Me too!”
Those lucky enough to grab one shouted with joy.
The others turned pale.
There weren’t nearly enough extinguishers for everyone.
Still…
it was enough.
“Not everyone needs one!” Suho shouted.
“If you’ve got a fire extinguisher, follow me!”
“…Eek.”
The volunteers’ faces immediately stiffened.
They had just realized what that meant.
The people holding extinguishers would have to lead the charge.
Without hesitation, Suho aimed his extinguisher.
FSSSSSHHHH!
Actions spoke louder than words.
“Grrraaaah!”
The Mist Burns’ flames visibly weakened.
The others watched in amazement.
“It works!”
“Alright! My turn!”
FSSSSSHHHH!
Confidence spread rapidly.
One after another, the extinguishers roared to life.
“Good! Keep pushing!”
Leading from the front, Suho forced the Mist Burns backward.
Behind him…
everyone carefully descended the stairs.
Then—
“KRAAAAH!”
The problem was…
more Mist Burns came charging from behind.
“AAAAAH!”
“They’re behind us too!”
The fragile calm shattered instantly.
Panic erupted again.
People shoved one another while racing down the staircase.
Suho gritted his teeth.
We’re almost out.
If this continued…
they’d crush each other before the monsters even reached them.
He gently lowered his injured friend onto the stairs.
“You can make it from here, right?”
“H-Huh? What about you?”
His friend stared at him in disbelief.
Suho turned toward the people carrying extinguishers.
“I’ll hold off the rear!”
“You at the front—keep clearing the way!”
“R-Right!”
Then…
Suho turned around.
And climbed back up the stairs.
I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore.
An ordinary person…
pretending to be a Hunter.
But he couldn’t stop himself.
His body had already made the decision.
FSSSSSHHHH!
“Grrraaah!”
The extinguisher blasted the approaching Mist Burns.
Then—
…nothing.
“…Huh?”
“Grr?”
The stream of powder suddenly stopped.
The extinguisher was empty.
For a brief, painfully awkward moment…
Suho and the Mist Burn stared directly at one another.
“…Heh.”
Suho let out a hollow laugh.
“Well…
I’m screwed.”
“KRAAAAAAH!”
The Mist Burn lunged.
WHOOSH!
Blue smoke swallowed Suho whole.
Its flames engulfed him…
ready to transform him into yet another Mist Burn.
Then—
SHWAAAAAA!
“…?!”
At that instant…
the Mist Burn saw it.
The unimaginably deep abyss sleeping inside Sung Suho.
* * *
Born from the remnants of mana…
Mist Burns were weak creatures driven only by instinct.
At the same time…
given enough fuel…
they could grow endlessly stronger.
Multiply without limit.
A truly troublesome magical beast.
So what was the best possible fuel?
Living creatures.
And among them…
humans, overflowing with life force, burned like perfectly dried firewood.
To a Mist Burn…
Sung Suho was the ideal prey.
But—
SHWAAAAAA!
The instant it devoured him…
the Mist Burn itself was swallowed whole by the pitch-black abyss hidden within Suho.
“…Grra?”
The creature looked around in confusion.
An endless void stretched in every direction.
Bottomless.
Infinite.
Then…
from the deepest part of that abyss…
something was watching it.
The Mist Burn bristled, its blue flames flaring violently.
“GRAAAH! GRAAH! GRAA…?”
It roared over and over.
Nothing answered.
Only hollow echoes.
Then it realized.
It wasn’t merely someone inside the abyss staring at it.
The abyss itself—
the immeasurably vast darkness surrounding it—
was looking down upon it.
Hungrily.
As though it were a delicious meal.
“KYAAAH?!”
Terrified, the Mist Burn tried to flee.
The abyss opened its mouth.
Gulp.
* * *
Pffft.
“…Huh?”
Suho blinked.
The Mist Burn that had engulfed him…
had suddenly scattered into the air.
The human body serving as its wick crumbled into ashes.
Then—
[You have defeated a Mist Burn.]
[You have fulfilled the completion conditions for the Secret Quest: Courage of the Helpless.]
“…What?”
Suho’s eyes widened.
A message floated before him.
[Level Up!]
A brilliant light enveloped his entire body.
* * *
Kim Dae-hyun barely managed to escape the museum.
Thud.
The moment he stepped outside, his injured leg finally gave out beneath him.
Collapsed on the ground in front of the museum…
his eyes instinctively searched for Suho.
“S-Suho? Has anyone seen Suho?”
“Who?”
“Oh… that student from earlier?”
Everyone remembered the young man who had led them while fighting with a fire extinguisher.
But…
Suho was nowhere to be seen.
Someone spoke hesitantly.
“He… said he’d cover the rear and went back upstairs.”
“N-No way…”
“Does that mean…”
“He’s still inside?”
The crowd murmured anxiously.
One person spoke hopefully.
“But he’ll be alright, won’t he?
He’s a Hunter.”
“Suho isn’t a Hunter!”
Dae-hyun shouted desperately.
The revelation stunned everyone.
“What?”
“He’s not a Hunter?”
“Then how did he…?”
Everyone turned toward the museum at once.
Suho…
still hadn’t come out.
At that very moment…
the Hunters finally arrived.
“Over here!”
Leading them was none other than Teaching Assistant Lim.
The first one who had fled.
Seeing that so many people had escaped safely, Lim finally exhaled.
Thank goodness…
They somehow all made it out.
He had spent the entire time convincing himself that, as an E-Rank Hunter, retreating to call for reinforcements had been the correct decision.
Yet now…
standing before the survivors…
guilt gnawed at him.
He couldn’t deny it.
He had run away.
“But…
how did all of you escape?”
The Hunters accompanying Lim looked around in astonishment.
Mist Burns had appeared inside a sealed building.
Yet somehow…
this many people had survived.
It was certainly fortunate.
But they couldn’t understand how it had happened.
“More importantly!”
Dae-hyun shouted urgently.
“There’s still someone trapped inside!
Suho is still—!”
“Suho?
Suho is still in there?”
Lim’s face went pale as he turned toward the museum.
“If it weren’t for Suho…
every single one of us would’ve died!”
Dae-hyun’s tearful words cast a heavy silence over the survivors.
The Hunters exchanged puzzled looks.
“This Suho…
is he a Hunter?
What’s his rank?”
“…He’s an ordinary civilian.”
“What?”
“A normal person did all that…?”
Before they could ask anything else—
RUMBLE…
A sinister roar shook the museum.
“…!”
Everyone looked up.
Dark, ominous mana surged from the building.
One Hunter frowned.
“So…
the corruption has begun.”
