As Min-ho stood still, his body mildly aching from the rough landing, he tried to get a grasp of everything that was going on.
Around them, the hall had changed drastically. At the far end of the hall was an enormous grotesque Spector that looked like a blobby ape with the lower-half of an octopus.
It was surrounded by an orange cylindrical forcefield with a strange enormous sword above its head.
Looking at its tentacles, he saw them laying eggs at its base, each egg hatching almost immediately into human-sized tentacled ape-like Spectors.
Each of them sprinting down the center of the hall toward the glowing line, while tearing into any Z-Streamers in their path.
Min-ho looked away, sweat beading on his skin.
On the floor, where his gaze now was, he could see an orange glowing line which was too reminiscent of a finish line at the end of a race track.
A finish line stationed near the sealed entrance they came in from.
Lifting his gaze, Min-ho almost lost his footing when he saw one of the ape-like tentacle Spector reaching out for him.
At once, Jang-book manipulated the ground under Min-ho's feet, so it moved and pushed him back. Barely finding his balance, he didn't once take his gaze off the Spector that was racing for him.
He attempted to call his dagger, but just then, once the Spector had crossed the glowing line, its glow intensified and the Spector vanished.
BEEP!
The sound called their attention. Everyone who could, looked up. What they saw was the skull transforming once again. Except this time into a set of numbers.
15:00
14:59
14:58
'A countdown,' Min-ho thought, his heart pounding into his ears.
Out of the corner of his eye, Min-ho could see a blazing light.
He didn't have to turn fully before realizing what it was.
"Get down!" Min-ho screamed at the top of his lungs as a ball of fire shot across the sky toward them.
BOOM!
"AHHHH!"
The ball of fire exploded in a cacophony of screams and cries.
Looking around, Min-ho watched in terror as things went from bad to worse.
Fingers, hands, entrails all littered the ground in a pool of blood.
He just lay dazed, his ears ringing as he wondered how things could have gone so bad.
More over, as the carnage intensified, the numbers above each Z-Streamer's Z-Eye shot up.
'We have to,' Min-ho thought, getting onto his feet. 'We have to figure a way out of this.'
"Are you okay?" A muffled voice called out through the ringing.
Turning to it, Min-ho saw Sae-wee making her way toward him. Behind her, Im-hee, Dok-su and Ji-su followed.
Min-ho turned away from them, looking for Jang-book and fearing the worse.
He had spotted him at the center of the hall and was left utterly astonished.
CRASH!
The ground rumbled as spikes protruded from every location, impaling the horde of Spectors and killing off a good chunk of them.
Seeing this, Min-ho's eyes widened.
"How the hell?" Dok-su said, his voice still muffled in Min-ho's ears.
[Your Subject Has Slain A Tier One E-Ranked Spector 'Krakong']
[You Have Received A 20% Coin Bonus As Monarch]
[You Have Acquired 100 Coins]
[Your Subject Has Slain A Tier One E-Ranked Spector 'Krakong']
[You Have Received A 20% Coin Bonus As Monarch]
[You Have Acquired 100 Coins]
[Your Subject Has Slain A Tier One E-Ranked Spector 'Krakong']
[You Have Received A 20% Coin Bonus As Monarch]
[You Have Acquired 100 Coins]
The notifications appeared over a dozen times before finally coming to a stop. Min-ho couldn't believe it. No one could.
"Is he defeating Tier One Spectors by himself?" Ji-su asked the question on everyone's mind.
"How is that possible?" Im-hee added.
Though Min-ho wanted to ask the same question for the third time in a row, he instead focused on something more important. The Spectors.
Looking at the ones on the floor, he noticed them crawling toward him, ignoring the Z-Streamers close to them.
He watched one of the Spectors come close to the glowing line. When it crossed, the line's glow intensified and the Spector vanished.
BEEP!
14:30
13:30
Min-ho gasped upon witnessing this.
'It... ran down a minute,' he thought.
"Look out!" Sae-wee screamed as she pushed Min-ho onto the floor. Everyone else ducked in response.
BOOM!
A ball of fire shot forth, this time several emerged from unknown locations, raining down on them like a hailstorm of flames.
"AHHH!"
Screams erupted as the chaos continued.
"Dammit!" Min-ho groaned, getting onto his feet.
"Don't let any of the Spectors cross the line!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. "If you do, the timer will run down and we'll all die!"
His words reverberated like a trumpet of judgment. What he had said did not sit right with anyone, but there was nothing they could do about it.
The surviving Z-Streamers pushed back, regrouping and fighting back the Spectors.
With Jang-book taking most of the weight off them, there was a chance to advance.
"Is there anyone injured amongst us?" Min-ho asked while pinning his gaze on the large Spector at the edge of the hall.
He could see strange markings on the wall beside it, but he couldn't make it out from here. Yet he knew they were important to this Event.
"I'm okay," Im-hee said.
"Me too," Sae-wee said.
"We're both good," Dok-su spoke for himself and his brother.
"Okay then, Dok-su, stay here with your brother, Sae-wee and I will get closer to the big Spector. I have a suspicion it's our ticket out of here," Min-ho elaborated, then summoned his dagger from his Inventory in a puff of smoke.
Sae-wee did the same as she got onto their feet.
"Let me come along," Dok-su said, prompting a glance from Min-ho "I may not have a weapon but I can still use my Instinct to help."
Min-ho hesitated, then, he outstretched an arm toward Dok-su, and with a thought, a Gem formed in his palm as he mentally willed 10,000 Coins away from his being.
"Take it and purchase a weapon, when you do, meet us on the battlefield," Min-ho said as Dok-su took the Gem with astonishment in his gaze.
Once he felt his Coins leave his body, he rushed into the foray. Sae-wee followed behind, none of them waiting for Dok-su to make his purchase.
"Do you have a plan?" Sae-wee asked.
"Not exactly, I just need to get a closer look," Min-ho said.
Not too far into their race, a Spector had burst out from the group of Z-Streamers they were running past.
It opened its maw wide, aiming for Min-ho's throat.