About twenty of them, maybe?
Long hair hung down in tangled strands. The naked women were all suspended in midair, their limbs bound and restrained. Tentacle-like bindings gripped their arms and legs, pulling them taut—like a dead frog flipped onto its back.
Hyung-sik’s face, tilted upward toward the ceiling, had gone rigid. Cold sweat trickled down his stiff back. Just moments ago, his mind had been racing with countless thoughts, but suddenly, his mental circuits shut down. His mouth slowly parted. It felt as if his mind had gone completely blank.
Seeing Hyung-sik’s reaction, Hyun-ho smirked and began to stroll slowly through the center of the chamber.
For a moment, a heavy silence settled. Only the torches embedded in the cave walls cast their dull, flickering light, the occasional crackle the only sound.
Then, Hyun-ho’s voice broke the stillness.
“This place… yeah. It’s a city. An underground city, you could say.”
But Hyung-sik didn’t move a muscle. No flicker of response. His arms hung limply, as if he might collapse at any second.
“Of course, you and I—what we think of as a city—is a different concept altogether.”
“……”
“But don’t underestimate an underground city. It’s got its own facilities, you know.”
“……”
“Houses, labs, traps, prisons, mining railroads… even explosive devices.”
“……”
Slowly, Hyung-sik’s eyes, which had been fixed on the ceiling, drifted downward.
“Oh, of course, there’s no TV, radio, or computers. Heh heh!”
Hyun-ho had reached the opposite wall by now, arms spread wide as he joked. Hyung-sik struggled to speak.
“This place… what on earth is it…?”
“Good question. This is where everything in this underground city began.”
Hyun-ho answered as if he’d been waiting for that question, then calmly ran his hand along the wall. A faint change stirred in the air. The tentacles binding the women loosened bit by bit. They stretched out, and the women, who had been floating in midair, slowly began to descend.
They stopped abruptly when they reached about Hyung-sik’s waist. The tentacles tightened again, pulling their limbs taut once more.
Hyung-sik’s gaze involuntarily dropped. When he finally saw the women’s faces—something he hadn’t noticed from below—he was once again at a loss for words.
Squelch… squelch…
Squelch… squelch…
A sucking sound. The women weren’t just hanging there. Small monsters, about the size of forearms and resembling larvae, were coiled around their abdomens, latched onto their breasts, sucking vigorously.
“Th-this is…”
Hyung-sik stammered, stepping back hesitantly.
But that wasn’t all. The women’s condition was far from normal. Their swollen bellies, so distended they looked ready to burst, reminded him of women about to give birth. As the bulges shifted beneath their skin, the women let out pitiful, weak moans.
When Hyung-sik met the glazed, lifeless eyes of one woman who seemed to have lost all will to live, it felt as if a lightning bolt had struck the top of his head.
“Hee-young…?”
Yes. The woman closest to him, who still looked relatively clean, was none other than Hee-young. A fellow user who had originally planned to stand guard alongside Hyung-sik.
“Hee-hee-young!”
Why was she here? Before he could even think it through, Hyung-sik rushed forward. Though she was the most recently brought in and looked the least affected, Hee-young was no different from the others: a monster latched onto her breast, her swollen belly, and a clear, viscous fluid trailing down between her legs.
“Ahhhhhhh!”
Hyung-sik screamed, wildly flailing his hands. He grabbed at the monster, yanking it off by force. The creature resisted, clamping its mouth shut, but when Hyung-sik squeezed harder, it released a spray of fluid and dropped its head. The pale liquid dripped from Hee-young’s nipple, mixing with the monster’s secretions. It was a pitiful sight.
Yet Hee-young didn’t even flinch. Watching her like that, tears he didn’t understand began to stream down Hyung-sik’s face.
“Ugh… ugh…”
“Oh, right. Hee-young’s here too. Haven’t seen her in a while.”
Hyun-ho’s voice was eerily calm. Hyung-sik’s gaze snapped to him, burning with murderous intent. But Hyun-ho just smiled slyly and shook his head.
“Don’t look at it like that. Hee-young… it wasn’t something I could control.”
“W-what did you say?”
“I told you. To survive here, you have to prove you’re useful. But the roles of men and women are different. Women are valued just for their ability to conceive. Because the monsters here can’t receive the blessing of pregnancy.”
“What… are you talking about?”
“But you’re different. Meeting me here was your luck. If the Master recognizes you for what I’ve done, you can become special too. How about it? Just imagine.”
“……”
Hyun-ho explained everything like a teacher instructing a student. But in this situation, Hyung-sik couldn’t possibly understand. Everything was uncertain, and on top of that, he’d just been hit with a massive shock. His mind was a chaotic storm.
Seeing this, Hyun-ho smiled faintly.
“Just think simply. This is a city—a city. Only the owners aren’t people, but monsters.”
Then he slowly walked back to the center and spoke again.
“So here’s what I want to say. To put it simply: become one of us, Hyung-sik.”
At those words, Hyung-sik barely managed to hold onto the last thread of his sanity.
“Swear loyalty to the Master like I did, complete everything, and be reborn anew through the womb. Then you can truly become one of us.”
“W-womb…?”
“Yeah. A womb that will carry the new you.”
“Bullshit! Don’t talk nonsense!”
Hyung-sik shouted, but Hyun-ho ignored him and continued.
“I’ll recommend the womb for you. Let’s see… who would be good? Oh, how about Hee-young? She came in most recently, and wouldn’t it be interesting? Your old friend becoming your new mother. Heh heh, heh heh heh!”
Hee-young? New mother?
Hyung-sik couldn’t believe his ears. Then it hit him—the wild, beast-like eyes that had looked at him when he first woke up. Yeah. That guy wasn’t normal.
No. He was definitely insane. Whether he was Hyun-ho or a monster didn’t matter anymore. On the surface, he acted friendly and welcoming, but he was a monster wearing the mask of an old friend.
Just as Hyung-sik clenched his fist and began to summon his magic—
“Oh, by the way, this was my womb.”
Hyun-ho suddenly stopped in front of a woman. He grabbed her long hair and shook it, as if to say, “Look at this.”
Just before Hyung-sik’s anger exploded, his eyes were drawn involuntarily. The woman’s hair was messy but shimmered with a strange silver light—beautiful and haunting.
“You know her, don’t you?”
Hyun-ho sneered. Then, grabbing her hair tightly, he forced her head back to reveal her face to Hyung-sik.
“Hic… hic…”
At that moment, Hyung-sik felt as if a hammer had struck his head. The shock was so great that even his burning rage momentarily faded.
Morning came.
It took some time, but they had roughly selected the users who would enter the Sink Hole.
Exactly 102 people. Carefully chosen from the Southern Expeditionary Force’s best, each one a user renowned across the Northern Continent.
For example, Princess Yeon Hye-rim of Istanbul Low, the Executioner, or Yu Ji-tae, the Death Knight of the Blue Wolves. Regardless of their affiliations, individually they were a dazzling lineup.
After about two days of organizing and preparing, they were ready to move in. But the camps scattered beneath the clouds were unusually quiet today.
There was a reason for the silence. Two users who had been on guard duty two days ago had suddenly disappeared.
One was Baek Hyung-sik. The other, Hyun Hee-young. Both from the same clan and very close.
The Southern Expeditionary Force searched for them, but found no trace—only signs that someone had deliberately erased their tracks.
Opinions within the force were divided. They must have run away, since they wiped their traces. What nonsense is that? Where could they possibly run to from the Steel Mountains? Something’s definitely wrong, they said.
Despite the debate, Han So-young decided to proceed with the deployment. Two days had already been lost, and with the scheduled advance date looming, they couldn’t afford any more delays.
Honestly, no matter how you looked at it, this wasn’t a good situation. Maybe that’s why, despite the slight bustle of preparations for entering the pit today, there was almost no chatter.
“Entry into the pit will begin in 30 minutes. All assigned users, please come out and get ready.”
Soon, the amplified voice echoed through the campsite.
I tightened my gear and stepped out of the tent. Most of the clan members were already gathered. Even those who hadn’t been assigned this time had come out in a crowd, maybe to see us off.
“Is everyone here?”
“Yes. Everyone except Hangyeol.”
I scanned the group and asked, and Goyeonju quickly approached with the answer. Hangyeol wasn’t here?
Curious, I asked again.
“Hangyeol? Why isn’t he here?”
“He’s part of the first assault team’s core. They took him ahead to precisely measure the length of the descent path.”
Ah, that ridiculous method of going down.
I chuckled quietly to myself and nodded.
“Right, we’re the first assault team too. Let’s get moving.”
With that, I started walking. Since everyone was already ready and waiting, they followed silently behind me.
We didn’t walk long. Since the campsite was near the hill, we soon reached the top.
As the pit and the cluster of users gathered around it came into view below the hill, someone suddenly pressed close beside me.
“Clan Lord. Sorry to bother you right before departure, but I have something to say.”
It was Sasha Felix’s voice. I kept my eyes on the pit and spoke quietly.
“What is it?”
“I smell a monster. A very strong scent.”
“That’s obvious. We’re inside the Steel Mountains. You said the same before the raid—that the scent of death was thick.”
“No, no. It’s not that kind of smell. More precisely, it started right after the incident two days ago.”
I stopped walking and calmly turned to look at her.
“Where exactly?”
“Down here… below the hill.”
Sasha pointed toward the pit, where the users were gathered.
“Could it be that there’s a monster inside the pit?”
Yujeong, who must have overheard, quickly jumped in, but I immediately shook my head. Looking at Sasha’s unusually serious face after a long time, I spoke quietly.
“Tell me more.”
“There’s nothing more to say. The monster’s scent is faintly drifting among the users.”
“…Why are you telling me this now?”
“Because I wasn’t sure. At first, I thought I was imagining it. Honestly, I’m still not certain. If it weren’t for the incident two days ago, I might have kept quiet. It’s just…”
“……”
“I’m telling you because now that you’re leaving, I suddenly feel uneasy.”
I frowned slightly. Sasha’s words were vague—almost irresponsible.
But I knew her abilities well. I asked her to point out the exact direction as precisely as possible, and she kept pointing below the hill.
“So you’re saying a monster sneaked in? That’s nonsense.”
“Isn’t it possible? They can take human form, after all. And considering the timing with the recent incident, it’s suspicious.”
Listening to the clan members’ murmurs, I calmly activated my Third Eye and began scanning the users gathered below the hill, starting from the left.
When I reached about halfway, near the center, I suddenly felt a sharp focus in my eyes. A chill ran down my spine.
“Hah.”
…Right. Why hadn’t I thought of this before?
I spoke quietly.
“User Seon Yuwon.”
Seon Yuwon immediately stepped beside me. I lowered Sasha’s pointing finger and continued in a hushed tone.
“Look at the users gathered in a circle around the pit, near the lower center. There are about twelve of them.”
“Yes.”
“Among them, the fourth woman from the left. Short hair. Expressionless face. She just clapped her hands.”
“I see her.”
Did she realize what I was implying? I heard the twang of a drawn bowstring.
“Then shoot immediately. Aim precisely for the head.”
“Understood.”
Though the sudden order might have been startling, Seon Yuwon responded promptly. She raised her right arm as if to aim, then without hesitation, released the arrow.
---------------------------= Author’s Note =---------------------------
Today is Thursday, May 29th. As I mentioned in the last note, I’m heading down to Busan this morning for a visual novel project. I plan to return on Friday, May 30th. Accordingly, there will be no update on May 30th, and the series will resume on Saturday, May 31st. I sincerely ask for your understanding.
The warning message is not meant to disregard readers. I removed it once but some readers asked me to bring it back, so I’m including it again. Please don’t misunderstand, and I hope you’ll be understanding. (__)
I’ve replied to all messages. :D