Chapter 92 – Contaminated World (1)

“What’s going on? You definitely said you rescued that spatial ability user from here. Then didn’t you clean everything up?”

Michael shouted toward Hayden while spraying bullets toward the rear.

“It was just a rescue! We barely escaped with just a few people!”

Hayden answered Michael while blowing back the contaminated human rushing at him.

The party was now running toward the back of the castle through the inner castle corridor. Behind the party, contaminated humans were rushing toward them.

Soldiers holding swords and cooks holding kitchen knives, maids rushing with mops. All the people who lived in this castle and surroundings were attacking transformed.

It would be easier to deal with if they were like zombies from movies, but these people retained some reason. They possessed all their usual abilities and their stamina and abilities were even enhanced by contamination.

Sun-woo’s party and even the other summoners were formidable forces, but the endlessly continuing attacks from contaminated humans and monsters made it difficult to hold their ground there.

Eventually, they had no choice but to flee through the path Hayden previously used to evacuate the spatial ability user.

While fleeing through the corridor, the ability users with guns and other summoners continued providing cover, so fortunately it seemed major dangerous situations wouldn’t occur.

“But at this rate, even if we get outside, it seems like we’ll keep being chased? Looking at the situation, it seems more of them are gathering around because of these guys.”

As he said, the humans rushing from behind were shouting loud shrieks. Seeing the numbers gradually increasing, those shrieks seemed like sounds calling surrounding humans.

Fortunately, the distance between them didn’t narrow until the party escaped to the back of the castle. Even after the party all escaped, there was still a distance of several dozen meters.

But the problem was from now on. Behind the castle, a cliff of several dozen meters stretched downward. Because the castle itself was positioned on high hills.

It was a castle that defended the front using castle walls and defended the back with high terrain.

“How did you escape last time?”

“Back then, Sergeant Sophia used spatial movement to take the party down below the cliff.”

“No! What good does it do telling us that now! There’s no spatial ability user now!”

“Sun-woo-ssi is here! Something like height difference…”

Having seen Sun-woo’s activities in missions, Hayden didn’t seem very worried.

At that appearance, Sun-woo’s party ended up laughing helplessly, but the other summoners were just bewildered.

Sun-woo and Nan-seol with martial arts, and the two superpower users seemed able to descend without being late, but for the others, descending the cliff before they rushed over was too much.

“It’s a rock cliff? It’s too much to change the terrain quickly.”

“See that! I thought you became an adult a bit, but the finish is sloppy!”

Michael gave Hayden a word and reloaded his gun. Along with him, others also turned their bodies, preparing to face the surging enemies.

Sounds of contaminated humans rushing were heard not only from the passage the party exited but from other passages too.

The party that didn’t think they would surge from other passages too had clearly tense expressions.

That’s when it happened. Sun-woo stepped forward before the party.

“If time is insufficient, we just need to increase time.”

Sun-woo spread both arms forward and drew up the internal energy filling his dantian, converting it to sorcery. The Earth Spirit with much stronger power than before ran toward the castle through the ground.

It was a castle damaged in many places from this incident, but the castle was a sturdy castle built with large stones. For the past Sun-woo it would have been difficult, but with his internal energy now strengthened, collapsing the corridors where enemies were surging seemed doable.

Plus, among the current party was a summoner who could help greatly.

“When I signal, can you increase gravity as much as possible toward the exit and castle?”

At Sun-woo’s words, the red-haired woman, gravity ability user Diane, nodded. She had also seen Sun-woo’s abilities, so she knew what he would do.

The Earth Spirit informed Sun-woo of gaps and structures throughout the castle, and Sun-woo converted all the internal energy obtained this time to sorcery and poured it into the castle wall gaps.

“Now!”

At the same time, he shouted toward Diane, and Diane spread both hands toward the castle following his signal.

Several times the gravity poured onto the entire castle.

Kugugugu.

The powerful gravity and Sun-woo’s sorcery displayed tremendous synergy. In an instant, the passages on both sides began collapsing.

The contaminated humans who barely escaped outside couldn’t get up due to the aftermath of the passage collapse.

Sounds continued coming from the collapsed passage side. Since he was cleaning up anyway, Sun-woo intended to bury as many personnel here as possible.

Sorry to this world’s people, but it was a situation where they didn’t know when they’d be tracked. They had to reduce the numbers as much as possible.

With such thoughts, Sun-woo poured sorcery, and when Sun-woo didn’t stop, the red-haired gravity ability user didn’t stop her superpower either.

Thanks to that, most of the passages collapsed, but the problem was Sun-woo’s internal energy was stronger than expected, and thanks to that, the sorcery was also in an enhanced state.

Kwaagwagwang! Keeeing!

Between the sounds of passages collapsing, other sounds mixed in. And the party all became pale.

“Everyone fall back!”

With Daniel’s shout, the party all ran to the cliff, and simultaneously, cracks ran wildly through the giant castle wall.

Kwaagwang!

Eventually, the cracked castle wall collapsed. As the castle wall collapsed, the castle tower and inner castle simultaneously collapsed too.

The prestigious castle that continued for hundreds of years collapsed in an instant.

A little later, the party looked at the castle with only ruins remaining with blank expressions. That party included the gravity ability user and Sun-woo too.

The two people hadn’t expected the castle would collapse either. They just thought to collapse the passages as much as possible, but the matter had grown several times larger than expected.

“It was one of the Empire’s national treasures.”

Hayden’s mutter made Sun-woo even more uncomfortable. But Sun-woo decided to be shameless.

“There don’t seem to be any more contaminated humans on this hill. The monsters approaching from around also all fled when the castle collapsed.”

At Sun-woo’s words, people could come to their senses. They were just surprised the castle suddenly collapsed, but the summoners had no particular interest in the Empire government’s cultural properties.

That’s when Nan-seol came beside and whispered small to Sun-woo.

“Seeing when you collapsed the castle, it seems your internal energy tremendously increased. Don’t tell me you underwent body transformation?”

It seemed difficult to deceive an absolute-level martial artist. Sun-woo had no choice but to nod, and Nan-seol’s eyes became the biggest he’d ever seen.

Body transformation!

She had only asked as a joke. She too knew from traditions passed down long ago that such things existed, but hadn’t actually believed they existed… At Nan-seol’s surprised eyes, Sun-woo decided to explain in detail later, and the party could now finally discuss future plans.

“Since the starting point was wrong, it would be good to return to the underground city, right?”

The words Hayden brought up to unfold the story immediately met opposition.

“I’d like to go straight to the objective. If we have no choice but to go to the scavengers’ den that’s one thing, but I have no intention of going deliberately.”

Diane opposed with a serious expression. She was also an Empire ability user, a woman who lived hearing bad rumors about the scavengers.

Hayden, who had no discrimination between those scavengers and mutants, was rather the unusual side.

“I have no ill feelings toward them, but I think the same. Unless that facility happens to be beyond the underground city, going straight seems good. Here, the entire area can be seen as enemy territory. It seems we won’t have leisure to stop elsewhere.”

Daniel also agreed with her opinion, and the other summoners had similar opinions.

“That’s true. Then I’ll tell you.”

Hayden took out a folded map from his pocket and spread it on the ground. It was a fairly modern map with various contour lines drawn.

“The place we’re at is a baronial territory 100km south from Stuttgart where the underground city is.”

Hayden pointed slightly above where it was written as Delung Fortress in their language.

“There are currently three known places where facilities exist. One place is where the person sent returned alive, and the other two places they couldn’t return from.”

Hayden pointed with his hand to one point in the northeast, one point in the south, and one point outside the map.

Looking at the map, one place seemed dozens of kilometers from here, the other place seemed about a hundred kilometers away, and the last place looked much farther.

“Originally we were thinking of receiving support from underground city Eden and checking the close place first… From here, the other place is closer.”

To Hayden’s words, Inspection Office’s Seo Jung-hyun answered.

“Then let’s divide into two. Since we’re just checking information anyway, too many people is rather bad. Moreover, since there’s one summoner from this world in each team, there seems to be no problem.”

It was as he said. The reason the Summoners sent these two teams to this world might have been that too.

After opinions exchanged briefly, the party decided to divide into two teams and go. Doing so increased danger when discovered, but the probability of being discovered decreased greatly.

And checking two places seemed more advantageous for obtaining information than checking one place.

“Will there be no problem finding it?”

“That place is close to my hometown. Finding it and checking it won’t be difficult.”

To Hayden’s question, Diane answered with a hardened expression. Because she was worried about her family and friends in her hometown.

She tried not to think about it forcibly, but when hometown talk came up, her expression inevitably hardened.

At her story, Hayden nodded and asked Sun-woo.

“Do you happen to have more of the <Contamination Vaccine> you gave before?”

What he called contamination vaccine was the <Contamination Spreader> purified by the Holy Maiden.

Sun-woo used this medicine to return psychic ability user Sylvia to normal when she was contaminated, and passed part of the medicine to Hayden when leaving the underground city.

They didn’t know when they’d be contaminated wandering contaminated areas. There was a need to carry it for emergency use.

When Sun-woo said he had more, Hayden passed the medicine he had to Seo Jung-hyun.

“If by any chance there’s a summoner with contamination symptoms, feed them this medicine. They’ll return to normal.”

Jung-hyun who looked at the medicine briefly expressed thanks toward Hayden.

“Thanks. I’ll use it well.”

At his thanks, Michael standing with the party grumbled.

“Ugh. Being generous with what someone else gave.”

But the other party members were impressed looking at Hayden. His appearance proactively handling work was very different from before.

After organizing the medicine and map, Jung-hyun and his team first descended the cliff. Since it wasn’t urgent, the gravity ability user came forward to float the party in the air and slowly sent them down below.

After that was the party’s turn.

Unexpectedly, Nan-seol stepped forward first.

“Your internal energy and martial arts seem to have tremendously strengthened, but it seems your lightness kung fu didn’t change much. I’ll go down first, so follow right away. You’ll get used to it quickly.”

Nan-seol seemed excited at Sun-woo’s changed appearance. Nan-seol immediately jumped from the cliff, stepping on the rock face and shot downward, and Sun-woo also chuckled and jumped off the cliff following her.

At their appearance rushing down urgently, Hayden unconsciously used telekinesis to drop down below, and the last remaining Michael shouted downward with an absurd expression.

“Fuck! What do I do if only you guys go!”