Chapter 176

Saeum of April, the King’s Messenger, has the extremely strong and dangerous light skill ‘King’s Word’.

Of course, in modern times where transportation and communication technology were developed, there were many other channels to which a message can be conveyed to the masses without the help of messengers from the April clan.

The biggest difference between using technology and the skill ‘King’s Word’ is that the skill makes use of messengers and delivers commands.

Saeum of April’s light skill conveys the subject’s voice in a variety of ways until the command is fulfilled, regardless of the means of delivering the voice, without distorting the nature of the message.

The command that I gave was ‘Head to the Central Shelter’.

All the civilians will be affected with Saeum’s light skill until all of them are evacuated to the central center.

‘It’d be difficult for the civilians to follow a high-school student’s command out of nowhere. That’s why instead of directly using my voice, the message will be induced to the civilians’ minds naturally.

In the eyes of the residents, who went outside to see the stars, they’d witness instead the illusion of meteor showers suddenly pouring out in the north sky.

Meanwhile, the residents who were asleep will receive the message through their dreams.

A dream where they lost or left their wallet in the Central Shelter.

Or have a portrait of a deceased loved one fall from the window.

‘King’s Word’ will cause all kinds of phenomena to convince the residents to proceed to the Central Shelter.

Hoooo…

As the warm energy wave poured out from the heart of Saeum of April, lights began to light up one by one on the residents’ private houses around the coast.

I used the map from my exclusive menu and saw that many residents started to move around.

‘The people started to move!’

My head pounded even as I started to say it with glee.

Viewing the entire island on a single map and grasping the movement of each individual required a considerable amount of concentration from me, but I had to do it to secure the maximum usage time of the menu.

Whether it was Cheon Dongha’s ‘Destiny’s Eyes’ or Joo Soohyuk’s ‘Seer’, I could use an intuition skill to grasp the situation too.

However, it was necessary for me to save my strength to prepare in case an enemy suddenly attacks. I have to protect Saeum of April, who became motionless and defenseless during the activation of his light skill.

‘At this rate, the evacuations will end safely. I just have to keep Saeum safe until evacuations end.’

When I checked the location of the teachers, other students from my class, and the enemies, a chill went down my spine.

There were more enemies detected than I expected.

I planned and gave orders with an uncertain situation in mind, but I realize now that we should never have responded late.

‘Hwang Jiho was late…!’

Hwang Jiho was not where he should be at this moment.

At this rate, there’s going to be several casualties.

However, I can’t move from this location.

* * *

With Kim Yuri’s lead, Maeng Hyodon and Kwon Lena ran towards the southwest side.

Kim Yuri was using her Sprinter skills and Maeng Hyodon used his raw physical skills to run with ease, but Kwon Lena had to run as hard as she could to barely catch up with the two.

‘The both of them are too fast!’

Kwon Lena had no choice but to endure and keep running because there was no time to whine during this emergency.

She knew that the two were already running below their maximum capacity so that she could keep up with them.

‘I wonder if Yuri’s okay…’

Yuri was tired today so she slept early.

Before Maeng Hyodon arrived, Kwon Lena was in a video call with Min Geurin, carefully talking as to not disturb Yuri.

As soon as the communication was cut off and the device shut down, Kim Yuri bolted from her sleep and was seen shaking. Soon, Maeng Hyodon appeared in their room.

“Wait a minute.”

Kim Yuri halted suddenly and looked at the road.

As Maeng Hyodon and Kwon Lena turned their attention to where Yuri was pointing, they saw residents evacuating using their airboards, cars, and bicycles.

“They’re evacuating in the middle of the night?”

“Judging from their direction, it seems like they’re headed towards the Central Shelter of Seokmo Island.”

“Ah Euishin and Saeum were in charge of the evacuation right? It seems like they did a good job!”

After confirming that the residents were evacuating, the three continued to head towards the southwest side.

They finally reached the point where the coastline was visible from where they were.

Woosh!

Energy wave suddenly burst and disappeared around Kwon Lena and Kim Yuri, and the two raised their heads and looked in one direction at the same time.

Kwon Lena’s enemy detection skill and Yuri’s sense of danger skill were activated at the same time.

“What in the world….”

“….!”

Maeng Hyodon didn’t have a skill, but he saw what the other two did.

Above the ocean, enemies were swarming in like waves.

The 1 km distance between the Maeum-ri Dock and the Minmeoru Beach and Eoryujeong Port was about to be swarmed with enemies.

Even with the naked eye, the number of enemies was likely to exceed thousands.

“W-what should we do? All of those enemies have above SR rareness…!”

Kwon Lena said so in a frightened voice after reading the information.

All three of them had close-contact attack combat skills, but they did not have skills to attack against multiple objects.

Maeng Hyodon wore a defense item with a serious face, while Lena followed and picked up a weapon.

They knew that it was too late to run now.

Kim Yuri glanced at the other two as her face turned white.

She’s now in a state of panic because two of her friends are in danger because of her.

“Because of me, Lena and Hyodon….!”

If I had run north as my dream told me, we might have been able to survive until support came.

I should’ve trusted Euishin and Saeum with the evacuations, and instead went and searched for Ham Geunhyung professor!

Kim Yuri blamed herself like so, but…

“Yuri, take out your weapon! The enemies in the battle line will arrive in 3 minutes… Uhm, hey are you good?”

“….Are you hurt somewhere?”

The two people didn’t blame Yuri at all and instead comforted her.

Right then.

Yuri heard a voice in her head.

[Do you still have courage left inside of you?]

When Yuri raised her head, she saw energy wave in the form of a small butterfly hovering around her.

Yuri recalled the butterfly of the royal lineage which gave her Order.

The order from the royal lineage was that they’d help her once all the courage disappeared from Yuri’s body.

‘Was it courageous for me to come here? I think what I did was just blind courage.’

That ‘courage’ also made me pull my friends into this mess.

Kim Yuri hesitated on whether she should respond to the royal lineage.

‘If we took on the battle, would the other teachers and students come help us…?’

‘Maybe. Seeing that the Vice President evacuated the civilians from this place, it seems like he knows what’s going on.’

Unlike Yuri who was hesitating, the other two firmly believed and prepared for the battle against the odds.

Kim Yuri took out her card and actualized a lightsaber.

If she didn’t have her friends with her, she might’ve given up. She has courage as long as these two are with her.

That’s why it was still unnecessary for Yuri to borrow strength from the royal lineage.

As Yuri was preparing for battle and held her weapon, the butterfly spoke to her again.

[What a shame, things didn’t go the way I planned… I thought I could use it at least twice.]

It didn’t work out as they planned?

Use it at least twice?

What could this royal lineage be saying?

Yuri felt something odd.

At that moment, someone from the royal lineage, wearing a mesh cape engraved with butterfly wings, appeared like an illusion inside Yuri’s head.

The spirit of the Butterfly, which gives orders to Yuri, and Yuri’s consciousness continued.

The Butterfly’s hand had a thumbtack engraved with a white butterfly and a background of magnolia.

[Goodbye, Lady Magnolia]

Right after the spirit said goodbye.

White butterflies began to swarm and scatter around the area.

Flap!

Kim Yuri’s order was cut off as the shadow of the Butterfly disappeared from her head.

And…

A very strong energy pressure took over Yuri.

Kwaaaaa!

“Ahhkkk!”

She felt as if all the cells in her body burst, and all her blood vessels were cut off.

The energy wave, which had nowhere to go, was destroying Yuri’s body as it searched for an outlet.

Kim Yuri never felt such energy pressure before even as she was communicating with higher beings.

Yuri tried to suppress the Butterfly’s order through her own light skill.

The harmful effect is now showing.

She suddenly remembered what Hwang Jiho said to her on the day of the light skill sealing ceremony.

— If you continue to disobey the orders given by the higher beings, your body may be damaged by energy pressure.

‘I should’ve kept that in mind!’

Because Yuri ignored that warning, energy wave was now destroying her body in the worst possible situation.

Yuri screamed as she tried to suppress the pressure.

“Oh? What’s happening, President?!”

“Yuri!”

As Yuri heard her friends’ voices, her energy wave became stronger.

Meanwhile, the enemies approached closer to the beach and closer to the three.

* * *

Song Daesok is in a panicked state.

All the windows suddenly broke because of an energy wave sent from outside.

No matter how much he thought about it, it’s difficult to even think of such a powerful energy wave.

Soon, the poisonous enemy was close enough to launch a physical attack.

With Song Daesok’s judgment, he urgently shouted at the students.

“Hey, really! Hey, please wake up! I said wake up!”

Blood stained Daesok’s shirt as he was hit by a shattered glass earlier.

His arm was safe because of a Partial Strength Reinforcement skill, but it was impossible to be defended against shattered glass with only a fabric shirt.

“…I have to make a choice.”

Song Daesok still had a choice.

He can carry at least two, or three people, or he could run away by himself.

He has to choose which among the 20 students he wants to save.

‘Crazy, how can I make such a decision!’

Rescuing the general public is one of a player’s fundamental duties.

However, there’s a limit to a player’s ability and it was impossible to save everyone.

He learned that beyond the textbook on the fundamental course ‘Player and Ethics’, there’s a moment when he would have to make a difficult decision.

Up until now, he thought that he would be able to coldly make a decision, but now that it’s happening to him, he realized that it’s impossible to act just as he learned in school.

‘The person who will get the least damage, the person who is most likely to survive after rescue and treatment, the person who seems to be easy to rescue… In other words, should I save the small people or the big people first?’

He mechanically recalled what he learned in class, but his hands trembled and he couldn’t move.

Boom!

At that moment, the door opened and someone arrived.

“Teacher!”

The homeroom teacher of Class 2, Noh Youngmi arrived.

Song Daesok was delighted at the thought that someone had come.

However, that feeling immediately disappeared.

“…Song Daesok of Class Zero?”

Noh Youngmi was seriously injured.

There was blood flowing around her mouth which suggests internal injury, and her current energy wave seems to be weaker than the students’.

‘Did she get poisoned?! And, behind her…!’

Screeech!

Growl!

There seems to be several enemies behind her.

Youngmi closed the door as fast as she could, but it seemed like the door wouldn’t stay intact for long.

Noh Youngmi closed her eyes as she saw the collapsed female students on the floor.

And then, she said something to Daesok.

“I will take care of this from here on. Please, escape through the window and run!”

A flash appeared to Daesok as he heard the teacher’s words.

He remembered the movie that he watched with his classmates, and how the supporting role, who had a similar line, died.

Daesok gritted his teeth and spoke to Youngmi as he wore his protective equipment.

“I’m going to fight too!”

“…Song Daesok!”

Noh Youngmi looked at Daesok as he made a reckless choice. But Daesok stood his ground in front of the door with both his fists clenched.

“It’s not too late. Run away now, please…!”

“I don’t want to!”

Bang! Bang Bang!

Screeeech!

Amid all that, the enemies who were aiming for the preys started an attack to try to break down the door.

It was fortunate that nothing was blocking the window at the moment, but these enemies have the power to cover it at any time.

The walls and the door were on the verge of collapse.

“Teacher, I’ll take charge of the attack at the front and… Teacher?”

Slip.

Youngmi must have already reached her limit as she started to collapse against the wall.

“Teacher! Please, get a grip of yourself!”

Daesok approached and shook Youngmi, but she didn’t respond.

Youngmi’s face was drained of life, and her skin was cold.

‘She’s dead.’

Daesok coldly said.

Poison certainly destroyed her body.

Her combat skills were halved, but the enemy’s information was unknown.

Daesok thought that they could survive if he fought alongside a teacher from Eungwang High, but even Youngmi became unable to fight now.

He could’ve survived along with some other students if he had run away earlier. The thought that this situation was caused by his foolish behavior drove him crazy.

‘What’s the use of blaming myself.’

Even as he was on the verge of death, Min Geurin came to his mind.

Geurin made Daesok join the youth retreat so he could get closer with the other students.

If he dies now, Geurin will for sure blame herself for his death.

‘The youth retreat was fun. I’m still grateful that you made me join.’

Daesok started recording with his device.

He wanted to relay some last words to Geurin before the door completely collapsed.

“Geurin.”

However, no other words came out apart from her name.

In the end, that was the only word that he was able to say.

He felt a strong energy wave from behind the door.

The energy wave flashed through the gap of the broken door.

‘W-what is this!’

All the enemies suddenly disappeared.

Suddenly, no enemies can be seen through the gap.

It seems like all the enemies were completely eradicated in one moment.

Tap, tap.

Daesok heard someone knock on the door lightly.

Through the gap, he saw a familiar person standing.

While he was contemplating whether he should open the door or not, the door opened from the outside.

Creaak.

Song Daesok grabbed a weapon by reflex.

Then, he saw a familiar face.

“It seems like I’m a little late.”