Chapter 29 – Scavenger (3)

A few minutes after the rat swarm attacked.

What had been an open sewer not long ago was now a completely blocked area where the group looked around with troubled expressions.

Sun-woo had succeeded in hastily creating walls to block the tsunami-like attack of rats, but the rats, knowing the maze-like sewers well, kept pushing through passages from all directions.

Eventually, Sun-woo had to block all the other passages as well, and the group became trapped in a completely blocked tunnel.

But even this place wasn’t safe.

“Hayden, front!”

At Sun-woo’s shout, Hayden’s hand pointed forward, and at the same time, a rat burst out from the wall in front.

Squish!

The rat that had leaped toward Hayden was caught by telekinesis in mid-air and crushed, and the hole the rat had made was immediately blocked by Sun-woo.

“Are they mole rats or something? Why are they so good at digging holes?”

Michael vented his anger at the wall. Quite a few dead rats were piled up in front of him too.

The walls Sun-woo created weren’t invincible.

The stone slabs on the floor were thin and in sidewalk block style, so they were easy to break through with earth, but the soil beneath the stone slabs was just ordinary sedimentary layers.

As seen during the snake attacks, even if he made walls, they were ultimately just harder earth. If it was a beast that could burrow through the ground, it could sufficiently break through.

“But where did all these rats come from? Even for a sewer, it looked quite clean.”

“The ones from the gathering area.”

Stein answered Nan-seol’s question in a rough voice.

“Really? Was the gathering they mentioned about rats?”

Nan-seol’s complexion worsened. The expressions of the other party members were no different from hers.

What they called the gathering area referred to a region where rats congregated, and these people were using these rats as their staple food.

Well, there couldn’t be anything else to eat in this sewer. They seemed to have made some areas of the sewer into regions for herding rats.

“Hmm, anyway, rats that were just food are suddenly running wild. It’s definitely because of contamination, right?”

Since even the surrounding objects had become murky, there was definitely a contamination source ahead.

“It seems the rats aren’t the contamination source.”

When Sun-woo killed the rats, no experience points came in.

Even when catching snakes, at least 1 point of experience had come in, but this time, no experience points came in at all, just like when facing armor and skeletons at the mansion.

The group didn’t know how Sun-woo figured this out, but they now trusted Sun-woo’s words regarding situation assessment.

“Then this time there’s someone controlling the rats.”

“The pied piper?”

At Michael’s words, Hayden muttered quietly.

“Oh, there’s a similar story in this world too?”

Sun-woo was reminded of fairy tales he heard as a child at Hayden’s words, but it seemed to have a slightly different meaning here.

“It’s the nickname for animal-controlling type superpower users. They’re often called that because they frequently control with sounds like musical instruments.”

Whatever they were called, the group was in a situation where they had to kill rats breaking through walls in a completely blocked space.

“At this rate, there’ll be no end? We don’t even know how many there are.”

“But our group is very vulnerable to this kind of large-scale attack. We don’t have anyone capable of proper area attacks, so if we’re exposed frontally, we’ll be swept away.”

“Ugh, but we can’t just keep sitting here. I’m starting to feel stuffy. The air seems to be running out.”

At Daniel’s words, Michael thumped his chest as if frustrated. It seemed the earth that was tightly sealed to block the rats was also blocking the air. But it was difficult to loosen the walls because of the rats’ attacks.

“It seems bad things come together.”

That’s when Hayden, who was watching the opposite side, pointed to the lower wall.

Water was leaking through the earth from one wall. It had already been quite some time since they blocked the passages with walls. Eventually, the blocked sewage was starting to overflow.

But there was no way Sun-woo didn’t know about the water overflow. Shortly after, Sun-woo shouted to the group.

“I blocked the sewage on purpose. Everyone gather in the center. I’m going to burst the water soon.”

“What?”

Everyone was bewildered by Sun-woo’s words, but starting with Nan-seol who remembered the flood incident, everyone gathered around Sun-woo.

“You’re going to sweep them away with water?”

“It sounds like a good idea, but we’re not going to get swept away by the sewage too, are we?”

Michael’s worried words followed, but there was no more time to delay. Sun-woo placed his hands on the floor.

“Starting now!”

Rumble!

The walls that had blocked all sides began to collapse.

Screech!

At the same time, rats began pouring in from all directions over the collapsing walls.

Roar!

At that moment, torrents poured in from the opposite side, and finally the floor where Sun-woo had placed his hands began to rise.

“Ugh!”

When the floor suddenly rose, Stein was startled and almost fell down, but Hayden caught him with telekinesis so he didn’t fall.

The rats rushed toward where the group was, ignoring the sewage rushing in, but the water was faster.

All the rats were swept away with the pouring water.

The place where the group was located was like a small island in the torrent, and after some time passed, the sewer was cleared of all rats, leaving only traces of dirty sewage.

“We should hurry. The current wasn’t strong enough, so I couldn’t push them far.”

Sun-woo could feel the rats gathering again from afar.

“My clothes are ruined too, I can’t fight rats again.”

Even though they had risen above the water, the violent torrent and the rats’ chaos had soaked the group’s clothes completely. Thanks to this, even the usually calm Nan-seol looked unpleasant.

***

Throughout the passages where the group was running, dead rats were scattered everywhere, and various types of moss and mushrooms hung wetly on the walls.

The moss and mushrooms scattered everywhere, along with the rats, were what the scavengers living in these sewers ate to survive.

Thanks to this, Stein’s expression looked very gloomy as he ran following the group.

The surroundings had now completely changed to a murky color. But this change was only perceived by the group who were summoned, and Stein couldn’t notice the changes in the surroundings at all.

While guiding the group, Sun-woo’s frown deepened.

The human presence felt ahead seemed to be the target, but the problem was that a battle seemed to be taking place there now.

And shortly after, the other party members could hear sounds too.

Thud! Bang! Screech!

Explosion sounds and impact sounds came along with the noise of the rat swarms.

“Keep your distance! It’s dangerous if you get too close to that guy!”

“No, how long do we have to keep blocking! Wasn’t it supposed to end if we just lured him here?”

“It’s because the opponent keeps trying to go down! If you have time to talk, block the approaching rats!”

Following this, the sounds of people shouting through the noise could also be heard.

The group hurried their steps, bewildered by the unexpected sounds.

When the group passed the next corner, a large plaza appeared.

It was a place where sewage gathered from all directions, and according to what Hayden told them later, the sewage seemed to be primarily purified using some kind of purification stone in the pond at the center of the plaza.

Anyway, in the plaza made large for such reasons, a battle was currently taking place.

At the entrance to the passage opposite where the group came out were several rats the size of humans and mutants and superpower users fighting those rats.

And beside the pond in the center of the plaza stood a person whose face was completely covered with fur, watching the fight.

“Another summoned team?”

Daniel expressed doubt about their fighting, but seeing that there were even ragged mutants with distorted appearances, they were definitely scavengers living in this underground.

Moreover, the fight stopped immediately when the group entered.

When the scavengers saw the group, their eyes lit up and they just fled to the passages, while the rats didn’t chase their fighting opponents but began running toward the group.

“What the hell is going on?”

For once, everyone agreed with Michael’s grumbling.

But the situation was too urgent to solve the mystery. Five ox-like giant rats were attacking the group with sharp teeth and claws.

“Careful! Boss rats! They’re the ones that don’t come out of their nests!”

Stein warned about the rats, but the group actually looked excited.

“As long as it’s not overwhelming with numbers, we can handle it.”

Michael set his rifle to full auto and began spraying at the giant rats charging at them, while Hayden stopped an approaching rat with telekinesis.

Daniel and Nan-seol also raised their swords and leaped at the rats.

This time, Sun-woo didn’t even need to step forward.

The giant rats also seemed to be a kind of mutant, having tough skin and quick movements, but they weren’t enough to block the magic bullets Michael fired.

Moreover, Nan-seol’s sword, having reached the peak level, cut through the tough rats without hesitation.

Eventually, all the rats collapsed on the floor.

“That guy’s the contamination source, right? This time I’ll finish it? This mission was really dirty and long.”

Surprisingly, Michael asked the group for permission, then aimed his gun at the furry man standing blankly in the center.

But he couldn’t fire his gun. He suddenly trembled from pain rushing into his head and collapsed.

That wasn’t all. Hayden and Daniel also collapsed, clutching their heads.

Sun-woo also knelt from a big shock. It felt like a shell exploded in his head. And that shell seemed to be trying to distort and scatter Sun-woo’s ego.

‘Could it be mental manipulation?’

That thought briefly crossed Sun-woo’s mind, but even that thought soon scattered.

At this rate, his ego would collapse before long.

That’s when a strong voice was heard in Sun-woo’s head.

“Sun-woo, snap out of it! Draw up your internal energy!”

It was Nan-seol’s voice. She had shouted toward Sun-woo.

Sun-woo reflexively began drawing up his internal energy at her words.

Though the level wasn’t high, the <War Wheel Divine Demon Art>, famous for mental stability, immediately responded to Sun-woo’s call, and the internal energy surged through his entire body and rushed to his head.

Soon Sun-woo was able to regain his senses.

The time he had lost was very brief. But many things seemed to have happened in that moment.

The contamination source in front of him didn’t seem to be an ordinary animal controller. His abilities seemed to have improved after becoming contaminated.

After becoming contaminated, he seemed to be able to control not only animals but also humans at close range.

The group was helplessly caught by his sudden attack, but Nan-seol, who had reached the peak level and always had internal energy circulating through her body, had succeeded in blocking the opponent’s mental attack with the help of internal energy.

But even she couldn’t eliminate the contamination source. When she tried to rush at the contamination source, Hayden had used telekinesis to restrain her.

Moreover, Michael had raised his gun and aimed at Nan-seol.

Daniel and Sun-woo, who had some form of qigong, were still resisting, but Hayden and Michael had immediately fallen under mental control.

When Nan-seol was subdued, the contamination source slowly began walking toward the group.

That’s when Nan-seol had shouted toward Sun-woo.

Sun-woo, who regained his senses, immediately grasped the situation, but his body still wouldn’t move properly. Control of his body hadn’t returned due to the mental attack.

Sun-woo forcibly tried to draw up his internal energy, but Michael’s gun pointed at Sun-woo first.

Ta-ta-ta-ta!

Michael indifferently fired his gun at Sun-woo, and the bullets penetrated Sun-woo’s body.

Blood gushed from Sun-woo’s body.