SALT 03

Chapter: 03

Day of Ruin (3)

[You have acquired the title ‘First Apostle Slayer’!]

[As an achievement reward, Strength, Agility, and Stamina have increased by 3 levels.]

[You can equip ‘Titles’ in the status window.]

[Since the title slot is empty, the acquired title is automatically equipped.]

Several messages appeared before his eyes, but he didn’t have the time to read them carefully.

Because all around him had turned into a slaughterhouse of insects.

Grabbing a fallen “Bicycle Only” sign with his left hand, he stood up. Then, striking the sign hard with his tomahawk, he shouted:

“If I’m gonna die from a brain tumor anyway, let’s do this! Hah… come at me!! You bastards!”

He had been called stubborn, but he had never really been involved with physical activity throughout his life.

Yet now, his body was moving exactly as he wanted.

Whether it was his natural athletic sense or the effect of leveling up—none of that mattered right now.

If he couldn’t kill them, he would die. That was the only thought in Minjun’s mind.

‘Hup!’

He stepped forward with his right foot and charged.

At that moment, a hook lunged at him from about 60 degrees to his left, but having half given up his attachment to life, instead of dodging, he rushed forward.

Before the hook could even reach him, he smashed the larva’s head with his axe, and dark green fluid burst out like a water balloon, splattering everywhere.

‘…!’

Perhaps judging the rampaging human as a threat, several larvae rushed at him from all directions.

But Minjun used the triangular head of the detached sign like a buckler to deflect two incoming ones, then swung his axe at a larva that had already stuck its straw into his calf.

And so… one, two… eventually ten.

By the time he couldn’t even count the number of larvae he had killed on his fingers anymore—

What surrounded him was an endless wave of larvae.

No matter how many he killed, they kept appearing.

‘This… there’s really no answer, is there?’

He was pushing forward blindly, but the larvae showed no fear and refused to retreat.

They simply tried to stick their straw-like mouths into him from all directions.

As his overheated mind began to cool, all his senses started screaming warnings.

His initial determination to kill all the monsters had been good—but there were far too many of them.

Realizing he would truly die if he didn’t find a way out, he desperately pushed back the incoming larvae and scanned his surroundings.

After a short time passed—short like his remaining lifespan—

‘Huh?!’

Behind a larva whose head had just been split open, an apartment building briefly revealed itself through a gap in the swarm.

‘Even if the apartment can’t completely block them, if that many people are gathered there, it has to be better than here.’

He still had to break through the larvae, but at least now he had a direction.

‘…’

The moment he stopped moving, he would die.

Minjun stepped forward again, trampling over the corpses of the monsters.

Once more—one, two… over ten…

After repeating the act of smashing incoming larvae heads dozens of times to the point he couldn’t keep count—

Minjun finally arrived at the entrance of ‘Jamsil Golden Apartment.’

* * *

Golden Apartment, located right above Jamsil Station.

Dozens of people had already gathered there.

And… while he had been running here, the number of people had only increased—it hadn’t decreased at all.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

“Please open the door! Let me in!”

“Help us!”

“Please… save me.”

Just like he had intended to do, people stood at the apartment entrance, desperately begging for the door to be opened—

“Go somewhere else!”

“You’re bringing monsters here! Get lost!”

“Y-Yeah! Don’t bring those things here, get out!”

The people visible beyond the glass wall showed no intention of helping anyone outside.

Rather than helping, they were yelling at them to leave and not attract monsters.

Watching this, he bitterly realized—

He had been far too naive about this hellish situation.

Yes, this was human nature. If you wanted to survive, you couldn’t rely on others.

Just like in the past, if he wanted to survive, he had to endure with his own strength alone.

“Haah… ha…”

He understood it, but… the rising anger couldn’t be suppressed.

As he steadied his breathing and leaned against the glass wall of the apartment entrance, dozens of larvae had already gathered here too, surrounding the area.

“…What, because there are many people here, you’re not charging right away? …Damn. I thought you guys had no intelligence.”

As he muttered while staring at them, more larvae kept appearing until the entrance was completely blocked.

Then, a new quest appeared.

[Quest has arrived!]

「[Tutorial – Chain]

Difficulty: F

Clear Condition: Escape the danger and move to a safe location.

Time Limit: 0.5 hours

Reward: 100 hours

Failure: Death」

‘30 minutes… what kind of tutorial quest pushes you to die from the start… Ah!’

He turned his head and looked at Exit 7 of Jamsil Station.

‘Even if the difficulty looks insane, would the system really give an impossible quest?’

And the difficulty was F.

That meant there had to be a safe place nearby that could be reached within 30 minutes.

‘That’s about 70 meters.’

The larvae covering the path ahead… were too many to count at a glance.

Still, no matter how he thought about it, there was no safe place nearby other than Jamsil Station.

‘Then…’

He needed to gather people.

It didn’t matter if none of them had weapons.

Even those who had ignored him and run away earlier—didn’t matter.

If it helped him survive even a little, this wasn’t the time to be picky.

The more people there were together, the higher the chance of survival.

So Minjun stepped forward in front of the panicking crowd.

Staring at the creatures twitching their antennae, he shouted:

“Did you all see the message saying you can buy weapons from the ‘Space Market’? You can’t kill those things without weapons! First—”

“But buying that costs almost all of your survival time—”

“If you kill them, you get time back! You can earn time again!”

At his words, the panic among the people subsided slightly.

“The only place nearby worth going is Jamsil Station! I’ll clear the path—anyone who wants to live, follow me!”

The moment he finished speaking, he threw a fist-sized chunk of concrete at one of them.

Fueled by his increased strength, the stone cut through the air—

Smash!!

The larva’s body burst like a watermelon.

That became the signal for a brutal melee.

He didn’t try to dodge every attack—instead, he used his shield-bearing left arm as bait.

From experience, being pierced by their straws didn’t mean instant death.

‘Until they suck all my survival time, I won’t die.’

Whenever their straws or hooks were blocked by his shield, their heads were split in half in return.

Some larvae latched onto his legs and back, sucking his time—but he killed more than enough to compensate.

And so, his entire body was drenched in their fluids, and broken hooks and straws were embedded in his limbs—

‘…’

Minjun finally arrived alone at Exit 7, swarming with larvae.

* * *

‘Damn… is this not it?’

Since the larvae had poured out from black stones embedded in buildings, he had assumed the safe place might be underground.

But seeing the subway entrance crawling with larvae, it didn’t seem safe at all.

Just as he was about to turn back—

“Block them!”

“Hold on! Just a little longer!”

Voices came from underground.

As if possessed, Minjun smashed a larva’s head with his tomahawk and went down the stairs.

At the subway entrance, he saw about ten people engaged in a desperate fight with the larvae.

Judging by how long they had been fighting, everyone was covered in green blood.

“Sir! Now’s the time!”

“Ugh… just wait a second! …Got it!”

While others pushed back the larvae, a middle-aged man in a shirt struggled to lower the fire shutter.

It made sense—they couldn’t fight all night.

But if the shutter closed, he wouldn’t be able to enter Jamsil Station.

“Hey! Wait!”

At his urgent shout, a short-haired woman at the front noticed him.

“Sir! There’s someone outside! Don’t close it yet!”

“What nonsense! If we don’t close it now, we’ll all die!”

“So we just abandon him?!”

“Everyone else is at their limit—we can’t hold on any longer!”

Despite her protests, the man pressed the switch.

Rumble—

The shutter began to descend slowly.

“Are you insane?!”

“Then what do you want us to do?!”

“Ten minutes ago, you were in the same situation! And now you’re abandoning him?!”

“I’m doing this to repay that kindness! I’ll be the bad guy! I’ll take all the blame—just let’s survive first!”

“Sir!!”

Even as they argued, the shutter continued descending.

His heart raced as it lowered, but larvae kept blocking every step.

‘Damn… at this rate, it’ll close first.’

The quest said he would die if he didn’t reach safety within 30 minutes.

Considering the time it took to get here, there was no other option.

Thud.

Pulling his tomahawk from a larva’s head, he gauged the height of the stairs.

‘Can I jump it in one go?’

Normally, it would be impossible.

But now, his physical abilities had clearly improved.

‘If I fail, I die anyway.’

There was no other choice.

Once he made up his mind, he moved instantly.

Whoosh—

The moment he pushed off—

His body soared through the air.

Crunch!!

He landed, crushing a larva beneath him, and a sharp vibration shot up his legs to his head.

‘That hurts like hell.’

But he couldn’t stop.

As the shutter was about to close, he jammed the axe handle into it.

Creeeak—

As the motor struggled, he shoved his head into the gap filled with green fluid.

“What the—get out!”

“Bastard, would YOU go out?!”

The middle-aged man kicked at him, but Minjun forced his body inside with his enhanced strength.

In this shitty world, he wasn’t going to die so easily.

“Hey, you bastard—I want to live too!!”

As the larvae’s straws pierced into his half-stuck body, Minjun desperately grabbed onto the legs of those inside.

Dragging them worked.

Fearing they might be pulled out as well, their force pushing him weakened noticeably.

Bang!

Finally, as both Minjun and his axe rolled inside—

The larvae’s straws snapped, and the shutter completely closed.