- The Era of Great Awakening (4)
It took Jaehee a full day to come down the mountain with Jeongwoo. Though it wasn’t a particularly large mountain, they lost their way in the middle, taking quite some time just to reach the roadside.
Jaehee first wanted to find a rest area to charge his dead phone.
If I can just turn on my phone, I’ll know exactly where we are.
Fortunately, not long after, they spotted a sign marked “Rest Area.” They crossed the eerily quiet road where not a single car could be seen and headed down to the rest area. Jaehee’s expression, which had been relieved at the thought of reaching the rest area, grew increasingly tense as they approached.
Broken windows, ransacked display shelves, and bloodstains.
It seemed odd for mere robbery—the surrounding ground was strangely pitted with holes. Jaehee couldn’t bring himself to enter. The asphalt road was torn up as if something had burst through it, and the cars in the parking lot were crushed and dented. Combined with the light morning fog, it looked like a scene from a horror movie.
“Huh? W-what is this?”
“It seems like… it was attacked by something.”
No people were visible anywhere. Jaehee surveyed the surroundings with a half-dazed expression. Jeongwoo’s expressionless face had also hardened. After appearing to contemplate something briefly, Jeongwoo stepped inside. Jaehee took another look around before following him.
What could have caused this? The interior was a mess, seemingly showing the urgency of the situation at the time. The dark interior was littered with overturned tables, chairs, and all manner of fixtures, making it difficult to move around. Thankfully the weather was still cold; otherwise, the stench of rotting food would have been overwhelming.
CRASH
“Ugh.”
Jaehee, following behind Jeongwoo, must have kicked something, causing a sharp noise to echo. He turned pale and froze in place. His eyes met Jeongwoo’s in the darkness. After remaining still for a moment, he carefully resumed walking when he saw Jeongwoo nod. He was so startled that sweat trickled down his back.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything inside, so you don’t need to be that tense. Though there’s no need to deliberately make noise either. Let’s head to the convenience store section. If there’s any food left, put it in your inventory.”
“Huh? B-but… is that okay? Just taking things without the owner…”
“If you’re worried, we can leave a phone number before we go. It’s silly to leave money when there’s no owner around. Oh, and you said you needed to charge your phone, right? There should be some disposable charging batteries somewhere.”
While Jeongwoo rummaged through the counter looking for charging batteries, Jaehee began putting food into his inventory. He took out the twigs and leaves he’d put in as a joke earlier and replaced them with bottled water, ramen, and other food items.
“Ah, found it! Here’s a disposable battery. Jaehee, catch!”
Jeongwoo managed to find a disposable battery among the messy counters. Jaehee caught the battery Jeongwoo tossed and connected it to his phone. After a short while, the phone turned on with a cheerful notification sound.
Jaehee let out a brief sigh as he looked at his phone. Strangely, his anxiety eased a bit once the phone was on.
Buzz, buzz, buzz.
As soon as the phone turned on, alarms began ringing loudly.
[Emergency Disaster Alert: Due to unidentified creatures roaming urban areas, there is concern for human casualties. Citizens are urged to evacuate to the nearest shelter immediately.]
[Emergency Disaster Alert: All citizens must evacuate to shelters until further notice.]
[Parts of Mapo-gu, Yangcheon-gu, Gwangjin-gu, and Jungnang-gu in Seoul have collapsed. Residents in the area please evacuate to shelters promptly.]
[Emergency Disaster Alert: If you are unable to move to a shelter and must remain at home, please turn off the gas valve in preparation for any contingency. For your safety, please stay indoors until rescue teams arrive, and if possible, close all windows and curtains.]
[Communication facilities may be disrupted in some areas. Please remain at shelters or at home until repairs are completed.]
[For citizen safety, the government and military are doing their utmost. If you cannot reach a shelter, check your home’s water, food, and emergency medical supplies, and be sure to stay indoors.]
Jaehee’s head spun seeing the endless stream of safety alerts. There were too many to read.
“Ah… Jeongwoo. What on earth is going on?”
“It’s just that all the messages sent while we were inside are coming in at once. Since text messages are working, it means communications have been restored, and as you can see, the situation isn’t that bad. But more importantly… Jaehee.”
“Huh? What? What is it?”
“Uh, well… This is unexpected.”
“What is it? Hey! I’m dying here. What is it? What’s wrong?”
“It’s… March 2nd now.”
Jeongwoo pointed at the phone with his finger. For a moment, Jaehee couldn’t comprehend what he meant, blinking in confusion before looking at his own phone again.
March 2nd.
It was Christmas Eve when Jeongwoo had done that crazy thing in the crowded Hongdae Station. Jeongwoo’s reenactment of a scene from an old Hong Kong noir film was still vivid in his memory. Then the tutorial had started. During the tutorial, it was impossible to tell the passage of time, but he’d thought at most only a few days had passed.
But two months had gone by?
“Isn’t that wrong? Maybe the date display is incorrect? Or the phone is broken. When we entered and left the tutorial, you know, maybe the phone broke due to a magnetic field or something.”
Jeongwoo shook his head at Jaehee’s words.
Really, really two months have passed?
“It’s quite common for time to flow differently inside and outside dungeons. Though that shouldn’t happen in tutorials… Anyway, that’s not the issue. It seems quite a lot has happened during the past two months.”
Jeongwoo showed him the news he’d searched on his phone.
“A lot?”
“Dungeons have appeared.”
“Dungeons? What… dungeons?”
“There are monsters in the dungeons like the ones we saw in the tutorial. But unlike the tutorial where you can’t really get hurt, dungeons are different. It seems many people have died or been injured. But it looks like things have stabilized now that Awakened Ones who completed the tutorial have emerged.”
Jaehee went to a portal site on his own phone. Just a few clicks on the portal site confirmed what Jeongwoo had said. Hard to believe, but it was all true.
“Ha, really. What is going on?”
“The signal isn’t great, but since the internet is working, it can’t be the worst-case scenario. People are gathering at shelters, so we should go to the nearest one too.”
“What kind of monsters emerged to cause this much chaos in an instant? Are all other countries in the same situation too?”
“Since the tutorial happened simultaneously across the globe, it’s probably similar everywhere. Let’s go to the shelter and assess the situation.”
Jaehee couldn’t help but sigh as he listened to Jeongwoo’s explanation.
To think such a thing would happen in the world.
“Hey, you’re lucky, Woo Jeongwoo.”
“Huh? How so?”
“If I’d known this would happen, I wouldn’t have studied for the college entrance exam either. Damn. If it’s March 2nd, the university application period must be over too, right? Or maybe none of that matters anymore. This is truly maddening.”
Jeongwoo chuckled at Jaehee’s unexpected comment.
“It won’t be the same as before, but once society stabilizes, everything will return to normal. Of course, before that, we’d need to get rid of those things.”
“Those things?”
Jaehee turned his head to where Jeongwoo was pointing. He couldn’t quite comprehend what he was seeing. Because there stood something black, almost the size of an elephant. At first, he thought it was some kind of massive rock. He realized it was a spider only when it moved, waving its long legs.
“Ah….”
Realizing it was a living spider sent chills down his spine. He was so shocked that he couldn’t even scream. Though he’d encountered various strange creatures in the tutorial, this spider was by far the most creepy. The spider was so huge that even the hairs on its legs were distinguishable one by one. Seeing the spider’s hair swaying in the wind made him shudder with instinctive disgust.
Then the spider standing to the side turned its body. Suddenly, he was face-to-face with the huge spider’s head. The giant pincers on the spider’s mouth were as large as the grab on a forklift. Being bitten by such a mouth would likely cut a person in half.
“J-Jeongwoo. D-don’t tell me. It saw us?”
“Hmm. Probably.”
Instead of cursing, he swallowed hard.
Of all creatures, why did it have to be a spider? In fact, Jaehee detested not just spiders but all insects. All those things with either too many legs or none at all.
He could see the spider approaching, swaying its long legs. The black hair covering its massive body scattered in all directions whenever the wind blew. It was truly horrifying.
“D-damn it. What do we do now? J-Jeongwoo?”
In his desperation, Jeongwoo was his only hope.
Right. Didn’t Jeongwoo tell me to trust only him? Surely this is when the bus ticket should be used!
Jaehee looked desperately at Jeongwoo. But Woo Jeongwoo took a step away from Jaehee’s side and averted his eyes.
“Hey…? Woo Jeongwoo?”
“I’m also not good with bugs.”
“What?”
