Chapter 44
"No, uh... y-you need to be careful. This mist has the effect of causing hallucinations and auditory hallucinations..."
The man avoided my gaze.
Gone was the shout of bravado he’d been letting out a moment ago; now his voice sounded like he wanted to crawl into a mouse hole.
I see.
"Um... are you okay now?"
"...Fortunately, as long as I'm not in the fog, I seem to be fine right away."
The man kept clearing his throat and glaring at the mist.
I briefly introduced myself to the man.
"I came after seeing the rescue request post... are you an Awakened from the safe zone?"
"A rescue request..."
The man nodded to my question.
"Yes, I think so. I was just about to take a look outside where the fog had rolled in, but then I kept hearing people screaming in pain outside the safe zone, and I couldn't stand it anymore, so I rushed out to save them. There were two other Awakened comrades who came out with me, but we got separated in the fog, so I have no idea where they are now. I never thought it was an auditory hallucination..."
It was an immense relief that he hadn't been badly hurt in the fog.
The man straightened his clothes, then looked off in one direction with a worried expression.
"...Um, would it be okay if I head to the safe zone first?"
"The safe zone?"
"Yes. I'm worried about the people... they can't fight, after all..."
I was worried too.
"All right. Lead the way then."
"Just follow right behind me."
I nodded, checking the weapons on the combat drone and sniper drone floating behind me one more time.
The man took the lead and walked toward the safe zone.
Even though we sometimes detoured to avoid the mist, he said it wasn't far to begin with, so we'd arrive soon.
The man's face, as he guided us ahead, looked strangely dark.
"Are you still embarrassed about what happened earlier..."
At my half-joking, half-serious question, the man shook his head with an awkward smile.
"It's not because of that. Look at this."
He stopped walking and pointed to the tattered hem of his T-shirt and the bruises and scratch marks on his arms.
They looked like traces of a fight with a person.
"I may have gone crazy from the hallucinations, but... it doesn't make sense that a mannequin would tear my clothes like this and leave injuries on my body..."
"Uh... you did slam the mannequin around and roll across the floor of the clothing store, so maybe you got hurt from broken glass shards or the edges of furniture?"
"That's not it."
In response to my reasonable deduction, the man rolled up his sleeve as if wronged.
And then he showed me a sharp shard of glass that had earlier been stuck deep in his arm when he smashed out through the clothing store window.
"Huh?"
"See?"
My eyes widened slightly.
I had naturally assumed the shard had pierced his skin, but on closer look it had only lodged lightly against the surface, unable to pierce the man's skin.
"My skill is body hardening. My body doesn't even get a scratch from most impacts. Glass shards or furniture can rip my clothes, but they shouldn't leave any wounds."
The man tossed the shard to the floor with a clink and spoke.
"It's true I was stumbling around lost in hallucinations... but I think there really is a monster hiding in this fog, attacking people."
"...Ah."
There was definitely that possibility.
Just like with the poison fog, both the monster that emitted the poison fog and the plant monster guarding that plant had emerged together.
Here, too, two different monsters might be cooperating.
"We'd better be even more careful of the mist."
We swallowed dryly and began watching the thick fog around us even more warily.
The combat drone and sniper drone floating to my left and right also rotated in different directions, preparing for an unseen threat.
As we walked, we were able to safely reach near our destination.
"It's over there! That school is the safe zone!"
"Ah... over there."
Where the man pointed, the old middle school building wrapped thickly in makeshift barricades was faintly coming into outline.
Outside the building, fog was seeping and spreading across the playground like waves.
Fortunately, the road inside the front gate and the interior of the building still seemed untouched by the miasma, leaving the view relatively clear.
"The inside of the building doesn't seem breached yet. Let's hurry!"
"Run!"
We didn't have time to hesitate; crouching low, we dashed at full speed to avoid the fog spreading across the playground.
We slipped through a gap in the barricade and rushed straight into the school building.
Bang!
Since the fog might still come in even if we closed the door, we decided to quickly move away from the entrance.
"For now, the fog doesn't seem to be here."
The interior of the first floor was fortunately clear and clean, without a trace of fog.
"Where are the survivors gathered?"
"Usually, we use the auditorium on the second floor as our base. This way!"
We held our breath and passed through the quiet school hallway, climbing the stairs to the second floor.
"...It's too quiet... ah, th-there!"
But the moment we reached the second-floor hallway, an ominous sight came into view.
It looked like one of those will-o'-the-wisp-like things we’d seen outside had gone into the auditorium.
White smoke was seeping out in wisps from the room marked "Auditorium."
"...Damn it, one of them seems to have already infiltrated the building."
The man, his face turned pale, spat out a curse.
The survivors trapped inside might already be caught in hallucinations.
The bigger problem was that we couldn't rush in to help right away.
If we got drunk on the fog too, it would only make things worse.
"At this rate, I'll just hold my breath and...!"
"I have an idea."
I stopped the man and jerked my chin toward the two dependable drones floating on either side of me.
No matter how much the fog caused hallucinations and auditory hallucinations, it wouldn't work on the drones.
"Go in, find the monster that's spewing fog, and shoot it."
When I didn't know what the fog actually was, the drones couldn't do much inside it.
But after realizing that it was a monster, and that it could be destroyed with physical attacks, the drones were more than capable of dealing with it.
Whirrrr-!
At my command, the two drones dove into the auditorium.
A few seconds of silence. Then gunfire rang out from inside the auditorium.
Bang!
It was the combat drone's gunshot.
With that one shot, the mist seeping through the gap in the auditorium door abruptly lost momentum, and the fog that had been packed thick inside began to clear rapidly.
"Cough, hack! Cgh...!"
From beyond the door, people could be heard coughing in pain.
At the very least, the people seemed to be safe.
"Good, we made it in time. Let's go in!"
Just as the man, relieved, flung the auditorium door open and rushed inside—
"D-don't come in! There are still... still monsters in the corner!"
A survivor collapsed on the auditorium floor, coughing up mist, screamed while pointing at something.
But since it was coming from someone who had just been suffering from severe hallucinations, the man didn't take the warning seriously.
"Calm down! Dong-hoon, I understand. What you're seeing now is just the remnants of the hallucination..."
The confident man walking into the auditorium fell silent with a snap, as if a tape had been cut.
The dark corner of the auditorium where his gaze had come to rest.
In that place, not a hallucination but a real monster was hiding, its eyes wide open and glaring coldly.
"What the..."
I, too, gripped my spear as I looked at the monster.
A slender body standing upright on two legs like a human.
But its entire body was covered in unpleasant green scales, and it had a snake's head with a forked tongue flicking out.
It was different from the lizardmen I'd seen before.
There were as many as two of those disgusting things, each holding a sharp dagger in both hands, staring at the people from the corner.
"T-those bastards...!"
The jaw of the man facing the snake-headed creatures trembled violently.
Caught off guard as he faced the monsters, he flustered and fumbled inside his clothes.
Clang—
Then he dropped the one-handed axe he seemed to be using as a weapon, and that set everything in motion.
"Shaaaak-!!"
The two snake monsters let out cries like shrieks and rushed toward the flustered man.
Their speed was as quick and agile as the will-o'-the-wisps we'd seen earlier with infrared.
The man belatedly gave up on picking up the axe and assumed a defensive stance, but the daggers of the monsters were a beat faster, aiming for the nape of his neck.
"Hup!"
But my speed wasn't anything to scoff at either.
I used Leap at maximum speed and stomped hard against the floor.
Crash—!
The auditorium floor dented inward and cracked like a spiderweb.
My body shot forward, reaching the man's side before the snake monsters could get to him.
"Move!"
I kicked the man's shoulder and shoved him aside, while at the same time drawing on my strength and thrusting out the spear in my hand.
Thwack—!
"Kieeeek!"
The spear tip pierced clean through the chest of the snake monster that had raised its dagger.
Even the hard-looking scales offered no resistance at all.
The other one froze in shock as it watched the scene, but it was already within my range.
If I had been using a mace, I wouldn't have reached it, but right now I was holding a spear.
"Hup!"
Whoosh—!
Retrieving the spear and swinging diagonally as if slashing, I cut the creature's body in two.
And I hadn't even put that much strength into it.
Having good gear really was nice.
"Haah, haah... th-thank you."
The man, who had rolled across the floor from my kick, registered the situation and thanked me.
"...Thanks to you telling me, I was able to act quickly."
And then, hearing my words, he bowed his head and thanked the man named Dong-hoon who had told us there was a monster.
"Dong-hoon, thank you. Thanks to you—"
"Ugh! Don't come near me, you monster! You ugly thing! I said don't come near me!"
"..."
"...Looks like he's still not done coughing up the fog."
Dong-hoon still seemed to have mistaken the other man for a monster because he hadn't fully coughed all the fog out yet.
The man wore a wounded expression.