Chapter 61
Emergency Assembly (4)
Seven days had passed since the apocalypse began.
Society was collapsing fast, and by now players were starting to make a name for themselves in the world.
“Damn it, this is never-ending. It’s like the whole planet’s been fractured.”
“What is the Foundation even doing right now?”
“I heard the support lines to headquarters are cut. They probably have no way to act either.”
“We can’t just sit around like this forever!”
Players, exhausted from seven straight days of day-and-night extermination efforts, complained.
At the noisy scene, Sehyun simply stood awkwardly, unsure what to do.
“Teacher…”
Sehyun, who’d known about ‘players’ for only three days, had only the man who brought him there to rely on.
A middle-aged man sat at the edge of the round table, hat pulled low over his face, listening silently.
As the complaining dwindled and silence settled around the table—
“There’s only one option, isn’t there?”
The middle-aged man finally spoke.
“…Who are you?”
“Complete independence from the Foundation. Isn’t that the only way?”
He lifted the fedora that half-covered his face without waiting for an answer.
“Hailhwan Yiin…”
“You were a player too?”
Everyone’s eyes widened when they recognized him.
He was a famous figure—so well known that even the reclusive Sehyun who only made props had to know the name.
“You must abandon the belief that someone will come and protect us. Don’t you realize we have to survive on our own now?”
The assembled players were unsettled.
Sehyun’s eyes opened wide when he remembered something Hailhwan had told him beforehand.
He had hinted that these people would be afraid. When asked why—they were scared of getting up from the cradle, because once they did they’d have to walk on their own feet.
What they needed was one thing: a justification to stand up and walk on their own feet.
“12·3 Emergency Assembly incident.”
As Hailhwan named that event, murmurs began.
“If there’s precedent, why depend on the Foundation?”
“…”
Players couldn’t forget that event.
A massive crack that couldn’t be resolved even with over a hundred players deployed.
In the end, the Foundation’s decision was to forcibly seal it.
They simply vanished along with the crack.
It was likely from then that cracks in the players’ trust in the Foundation began to appear.
“The world has already changed. The only thing that needs to change now is your complacency.”
His previously coaxing tone grew cold; his eyes, which had been gentle, turned sharp.
Then one player spoke up.
“W-what do you mean? To turn our back on the Foundation means—”
Footsteps—he moved.
Hailhwan rose and stepped in front of the man.
“So? Means what?”
“…”
He slowly bent at the waist.
He brought his face close to the man’s chest and inhaled.
When the man kept silent, Hailhwan chuckled and turned away.
“People called players are this fearful… Are you scared?”
“…”
“You saw the sky collapse and still act like this. What else is there to be afraid of?”
Then, as if dropping his raised finger that had pointed at the sky toward the ground, he pointed.
“Stand on the place where the sky fell.”
That low sentence struck hearts more powerfully than any persuasion.
If an outsider like Sehyun could be moved, what about the players themselves?
His words had a kind of magic.
“What should we do?” someone asked.
When they offered the question he seemed to faintly smile.
That was the beginning of the community called “Seoncheon (先天).”
Inside the crack.
A familiar scene of the Yeoksam Station intersection unfolded.
But unlike reality, the city was empty.
The sky had a gray tint that, combined with the deserted city, made the place feel like the world had ended.
“How about it—still gonna act like a scaredy-cat when it’s this dangerous?”
“…”
Air Sniper, squad leader Yoo Geon-hyeok, grinned and sneered at Choi Seong-cheol.
Despite the cracking atmosphere, the operation was progressing smoothly.
Saint Union’s unique assault strategy was the reason.
Because Saint Union had done many large-scale, long raids, they had their own field manual.
They used the holy-type ability [Life Detection] to find monsters, set up safe points at certain intervals to secure retreat paths, and then using those safe points as bases, prepared for any ambush while locating the boss and surprising it.
This method reduced time and risk more effectively than the old bait-and-lure boss strategy.
“Because the crack is shaped like this, advance is even easier.”
Since it was a city, roads stretched straight like avenues.
Thanks to that, the vanguard led by Saint Union had no significant difficulty pushing to the central point.
In fact, there were no signs of danger at all.
But Seong-cheol was bothered by that.
‘It’s not safe. It’s just that danger hasn’t shown up yet.’
And to amplify that unease, a new order was issued.
“Monsters won’t appear for a while. From now on change from defensive formation to rapid assault formation.”
“…”
Rapid assault formation prioritized quick movement to the target.
In other words, they were being told to deprioritize guarding against monster attacks.
“What about the safe point installations—?”
“The advance route is straight. Save resources wherever you can.”
On the surface the policy change seemed reasonable.
After all, the situation allowed retreat if something unexpected happened. So the gaps between safe points could be larger and it wouldn’t be a problem.
But having Seong-cheol’s experience, such a bold change was dangerous.
‘This is a star-class crack. You never know what variables will appear.’
Though normal scheduled hunts were stable events dressed up as an event, cracks always produced bizarre phenomena.
Even if something seemed safe, one had to stay vigilant in a crack.
A small mistake could cost lives.
So carelessly changing the basic policy was extremely risky.
What’s more, the fact that they considered the current situation safe was itself suspicious.
How could there be no monster attacks at all?
“Brother, you think this is strange too, right?”
In-ha approached and asked.
Though nothing had happened yet, she seemed to sense something.
“It’s unnerving. That nothing’s happening. And… that nobody thinks anything will happen.”
Her sentiments matched Seong-cheol’s exactly.
Even if it had been three hours with no incident, it was only three hours.
In a crack, which was the monsters’ domain, it was far too early to talk of safety.
So Seong-cheol proposed to the hunting party.
“…Stay here?”
“They said they would.”
When he said he’d stay at the location of the fourth safe point, the on-site leader Yoo Geon-hyeok shouted.
“Stop acting so scared. Aren’t you ashamed to be a captain?”
“A captain’s duty includes ensuring safety.”
“Safety my ass. Nothing’s happened so far!”
“My opinion hasn’t changed.”
Yoo Geon-hyeok sighed heavily and spat in displeasure.
“Do whatever. Anyone else want to stay?”
Everyone except Seong-cheol’s team decided to follow him.
They didn’t want to cause trouble and risk later losing rewards.
“So it’s only you left behind, Captain Choi?”
“I’ll leave the front to you. If it gets dangerous, fall back anytime.”
“Danger my ass… Move out!”
Yoo Geon-hyeok laughed and led the other teams toward the center.
Soon only a single Saint Union knight and Seong-cheol’s team remained.
As the knight prepared to erect the domain circle, Seong-cheol’s team began setting up an inner safe-point tent.
“You sure know how to hype things up. Pretty cowardly of them.”
“We just responded to the call. No need to be upset about what we didn’t get.”
“If the captain says so, I’m fine with it.”
As the safe point installation neared completion, the knight paused and looked up.
“Is there a problem?”
“Oh, nothing big. We requested some materials at the previous point, but they still haven’t arrived. Maybe they got lost.”
He glanced back along the road they had come on.
It stretched straight—no chance of getting lost at all.
“…”
At that moment Seong-cheol felt a sense of unease.
Years of experience pointed him to one possibility.
“…No way. This crack—”
Before he could finish thinking, someone shouted.
“Captain!! Wave incoming!!”
“Damn! So many, all at once…!”
Sgggak—!
Something began rushing in from all sides, scraping the ground sharply.
Seong-cheol shouted at once.
“Finish the domain circle! Hurry!!”
“Yes, sir!!”
What gathered around them were thousands—at least—of spider swarms.
“Uh-oh~ Why that face?”
“…”
“He must be unhappy we came with him, right? Right, senior?”
Rachel snorted and smiled.
“I don’t know his plots, but you won’t have it easy, Nam Se-hyun.”
“…”
Rachel’s smug, ‘we won’ expression and the chatter of Kadeil made Sehyun want to smack their mouths.
But he took a deep breath to control himself.
‘…At least we got in. That’s enough for now.’
Aside from those two annoying flies, things had gone as he’d wanted.
They had entered the crack quickly and even secured the Foundation’s cooperation.
‘And above all…’
Even if Kadeil and Rachel were pests, Sehyun himself was the heir to the Adams family.
With someone of that standing moving personally, they wouldn’t lightly close the crack even if something happened.
That meant he had at least a minimal insurance policy against worst-case outcomes.
“You said it’s a labyrinth-type crack?”
“Yes.”
Rachel, scanning the area, asked, and Sehyun replied curtly.
The scenery was a dead-ringer for a city center, but people and vehicles seemed to have simply vanished, making everything eerily empty.
For a labyrinth-type, though, the place actually looked fairly open.
“Even if it seems quiet, don’t be deceived by appearances. It’ll try to fool us in any way possible.”
Boss monsters in ordinary cracks attack intruders directly, but labyrinth-type cracks worked differently.
Their characteristic was ‘delusion.’
Whether through terrain, monster pressure, or tempting objects, the crack’s star-force warped players’ rational judgement and led them into traps.
Players drawn in this way usually ended up slowly wasting away.
So if you don’t recognize a labyrinth in advance and take countermeasures, it’s fatal.
‘On the flip side, if you recognize it beforehand, it’s not that hard to clear.’
Delusion works by ensnaring you without your notice.
If you always suspect it and approach carefully, you can hold on to your sanity even when tempted. Otherwise, set up other countermeasures.
“Kadeil, did you map it?”
“Yes. I drew it up before we came in. I mapped the star-force laid across the area, the physical obstacles that block that force, and lifeforms that emit it. I shared it with Nam Se-hyun too.”
Kadeil showed a laptop where the boss location, dormant monsters, and likely paths of monster waves were marked.
“Is that the vanguard team?”
“Yes. Precisely 133 people. Twenty-nine of them are holy-types.”
“Good. Then let’s head straight that way—”
“Wait.”
Sehyun stopped the two who were about to move.
“What is it?”
“We’re here.”
“Here?”
Nam Se-hyun began walking straight to a place.
At first it seemed he was going straight toward the boss, but his direction differed from Kadeil’s map.
Sehyun pointed to a spot.
“That’s the first safe point.”
But the safe point looked strange.
The normally active domain circle was deactivated and the inside was empty—no one in it.
Moreover, its actual position didn’t match the map.
There was no possible confusion.
Since the path toward the center was a straight line, safe points should be aligned from the entrance.
But the real positions twisted oddly.
“…They got lost?” Rachel reacted incredulously, and Sehyun nodded.
“Actually, we would have been the same if we’d just followed the map.”
“What…!”
“Go out and walk a bit. See what happens.”
Rachel opened her laptop and walked, detecting waves.
But when she stepped left and marked a point, the detected point appeared on the right. Going north showed up as southwest.
Even walking directly opposite the center registered on the map as heading toward the center.
Wherever they walked, it appeared—through some kind of delusion—that they were approaching the center.
So the conclusion was simple.
This crack wasn’t only deluding what was in front of them.
“What the hell is going on?”
“It’s even scrambling the maps we rely on.”
“—As soon as we entered the crack, we got trapped in the labyrinth ourselves.”
Rachel clicked her tongue.
That meant even they couldn’t move freely.
“Wait, how did you—”
“How did you manage to find the safe point properly?”
Sehyun smiled slightly.
“I know how to defeat this maze.”
