Chapter 156

Chapter 156

Chapter 156 – Seoul Restoration (7)

The sheer pressure radiating from Lee Jun-hyuk was absolutely staggering.

As someone capable of commanding water fluidly within his vicinity, he was effectively the ultimate counter to mankind, given that the human frame is composed mostly of water.

What was more,

‘Following his clash with JHS, his mastery over Control Water reached new heights.’

His specialized skill, which previously sat at grade S, had successfully ascended to grade SR.

This evolution meant that Lee Jun-hyuk’s combat efficacy had climbed to an entirely different league.

The instant Lee Jun-hyuk arrived on the scene, everyone in the vicinity became utterly paralyzed.

He was actively binding the circulation of their blood, stripping them of any ability to take a step.

Still, a select few managed to resist the paralysis slightly.

“What are you all standing around for? Get moving, now!”

The most formidable individual among the enemy faction, who also happened to be situated furthest from Lee Jun-hyuk, was the sole person capable of forcing words through his throat.

‘Park Seong-hyun.’

When he had initially discovered this man’s existence, he had spent a long time agonizing over whether he should execute him on the spot.

Ever since his first glimpse of him manipulating Seo Ye-jin’s mouse, the man had been actively taking lives.

Upon closer monitoring, the tally of victims who had perished at his hands was rapidly approaching three digits.

Even so, he had stayed his hand until now because he recognized that slaying him prematurely would only plunge the region into far greater lawlessness.

‘I have anticipated this precise moment.’

Park Seong-hyun’s pathological drive to slaughter stemmed directly from his unique awakened trait.

Interspecies predation.

Despite what the title of his awakened trait suggested, he did not actually feast on human flesh.

Rather, by ending lives with his own hands, he could siphon the victim’s innate strength and assimilate it as his own.

For someone like him, committing murder served as an infinitely faster path to power than slaying beasts, proving dozens or even hundreds of times more effective.

The more formidable the human target he executed, the greater the power surge he received.

Reflecting on his current tier of strength, it was terrifying to contemplate just how much blood he must have shed to reach this point.

But now…

“Move… damn it, move! I will tear every single one of you apart—!!”

At this moment, Lee Jun-hyuk possessed a level of 60.

This was the absolute peak level he had managed to secure by pouring an astronomical sum of wealth into his stats during the final stretch of his clash with JHS, all to avert a catastrophic outcome.

On top of that, the diverse array of enhancements and buffs provided to him by the system transformed him into an absolute juggernaut whom no ordinary being could hope to challenge.

With slow, deliberate steps, Lee Jun-hyuk began closing the distance to Park Seong-hyun.

Step— Step—

As I stared at the raiding party Park Seong-hyun had gathered, the faces of his accomplices flashed through my mind.

I had meticulously tracked the individuals aligned with him, drafting a precise roster of those marked for execution.

Aiming directly at them…

‘Summon Warehouse, Arrow.’

Zing—

I released the prepared projectile.

Whooosh!

The moment the shaft found its mark…

Boom—!

The physical form of the degenerate who had lingered by Park Seong-hyun’s side, participating in his murderous sprees and cruelties, ruptured violently from within, raining debris in every direction.

‘Summon.’

With every fresh mark designated by the arrow, another criminal’s body underwent a horrific, explosive demise.

Boom—!

The crimson stains of the guilty sprayed across the cracked pavement.

One accomplice had willingly taken part in Park Seong-hyun’s ‘human hunts,’ subjecting captives to violations and torture, while another had developed a horrific obsession with consuming human flesh, favoring it solely for its tenderness.

Unlike Park Seong-hyun himself, these subordinates had not unlocked any unique abilities derived from his trait.

Boom—!

Deprived of any opportunity to mount a proper defense, the villains perished one after another as their bodies turned to ash and blood.

At that exact instant…

“Aaaargh!”

Park Seong-hyun, his muscle fibers and circulatory system bulging to monstrous proportions, lunged directly at Lee Jun-hyuk.

It was nothing more than a desperate, final struggle.

Faced with Lee Jun-hyuk, Park Seong-hyun was merely an insect thrashing in vain.

And yet…

Boom—!

It truly was nothing but the futile twitching of a bug.

Park Seong-hyun burst into nothingness before he could even throw a single punch.

That concluded the matter.

An insect crushed beneath a boot has no recourse, regardless of how violently it squirm.

Lee Jun-hyuk whispered toward him.

[…You have fought hard.]

A wave of pity washed over him.

Even if the target was a wretched murderer who took pleasure in taking lives, the burden of executing another living soul still weighed heavily on his conscience.

He had originally intended to handle this entirely by himself, but practically speaking, it was too overwhelming.

By utilizing Seo Ye-jin’s mouse alongside the sudden strikes permitted by his Warehouse capability, he might have successfully neutralized a handful of the ringleaders, but the remaining members would have scattered in panic.

More importantly, even if he wielded Ha Dong-geon’s spear personally, he could not guarantee a single-strike kill against Park Seong-hyun.

Convinced that only Lee Jun-hyuk possessed the capability to clean up the threat without a hitch, he had sought his intervention.

He could not help but feel anxious about how this might impact Lee Jun-hyuk’s psyche.

Yet, Lee Jun-hyuk seemed far more collected than he had anticipated.

Casting a quiet gaze over the remains and the blood of those he had just executed, he turned to ask.

“What is the plan for the survivors? Shall we escort them toward the Gangnam Station sector?”

[No.]

The individuals remaining here were all awakened elites who occupied high-ranking posts within Park Seong-hyun’s syndicate.

[Leave them where they are.]

Though they might not have been as thoroughly corrupt as the ones who were executed, they were far from blameless.

They were merely bystanders who chose to look the other way.

[We will not grant them entry. They possess their own powers, so they will have to find a way to endure on their own.]

He acknowledged that the environment they inhabited was brutal.

He understood that they had adopted such stances simply to keep themselves alive.

But if they had turned a blind eye to atrocities, was it not right that they face the consequences?

[Right now, we are processing a massive influx of refugees at Banpo Bridge. I need you to assist with their integration.]

“Understood.”

Following the demise of Park Seong-hyun, no other faction dared to make an aggressive move against them.

Yang Ha-young, who held dominion over the Gangseo District, Bucheon, and Gimpo International Airport, shared a close personal connection with Cha Hyun-seung, which allowed their negotiations to progress seamlessly.

She made the decision to align with them immediately after consulting with Cha Hyun-seung.

As for the factions residing in the northern territories of the city, their lack of intelligence regarding the coalition led them to initially decline the invitation. For the time being, they established a cooperative relationship by sending them desperately needed emergency rations and aid.

Consequently, the flow of refugees migrating from the northern sectors began to swell significantly.

With the primary survivor factions of Seoul uniting under one banner, members of minor enclaves also started pouring in.

Exactly as orchestrated, the grand integration had been realized.

For the immediate future, their efforts had to be directed toward onboarding the new citizens and identifying the unique traits of the incoming population.

Under the direction of Commander Lee Hak-gi, a specialized division was formed to root out criminals, with their punishments scaled precisely to the gravity of their transgressions.

Throughout this process, active legal professionals, including prosecutors and judges, lent their expertise to ensure that justice was meted out fairly and systematically.

Even those who had committed severe violations were not stripped of their status as residents. Instead, they were stripped of their civic privileges and system perks—such as access to the trading market and personal inventory—and placed in confinement.

Exiled criminals stripped of citizenship and cast out of the protective zones posed a high risk of becoming a rogue threat later on.

After roughly seven days, the wave of incoming residents began to taper off.

The registered population had officially crossed the 900,000 threshold.

‘Only 900,000…’

With his consecutive level-ups and the physical growth of the Busan domain, the total number of residents had approached several hundred thousand.

In reality, the new arrivals from Seoul proper amounted to only about 400,000 individuals.

When considering that Seoul’s pre-collapse population hovered around 10 million, the survival rate in this region was a meager 0.4%.

‘Given how packed the urban areas were, the initial devastation must have been absolute.’

It was a logical conclusion.

Simply surveying the utterly ruined cityscape was enough to paint a picture of how horrific the cataclysm had been.

‘Regardless.’

This foundation was sufficient for the time being.

‘Now I can commence the monster hunts in earnest.’

The territories of the local boss-tier entities had already been thoroughly charted.

[To all of you.]

He projected his voice toward his vassals, who stood ready at their designated stations.

[Begin the hunt.]

Almost instantly:

[You have successfully slain a Flame Tyrant (Lv. 49).] [You have successfully slain a Rotten Specter (Lv. 51).] [You have successfully slain a Shadow Hyena (Lv. 47).]

…

…

Alerts confirming the defeat of these high-level boss monsters began flashing rapidly.

Simultaneously:

[The monster purging initiative has officially begun.]

He transmitted mental directives to the hunting units stationed across various coordinates.

With goblin and orc instances manifesting in rapid succession, a multitude of hunters who had attained level 30 fanned out across the expanse of Seoul, commencing a systematic extermination of the beasts.

And after a considerable period:

[Your proficiency with the skill has risen.]

He took note of the notification signaling his growth.

Sizzling—

[Tranquil Mind (明鏡止水) has been triggered.]

His core territory, the Busan domain, was expanding at a breathtaking pace.

The speed at which the boundaries of Oh Eon-ju and Ha Dong-geon’s lands had grown was trivial compared to the rate of this current expansion.

[A target matching the requirements for citizenship has been identified.]

[Do you wish to bestow citizenship?]

‘Bestow citizenship.’

He maintained constant vigilance, manually approving the statuses of the incoming refugees.

In the midst of this:

[The auxiliary territory has been completely absorbed into the primary domain.]

The annex, which had been erected near the residence where the World Tree stood, was now entirely swallowed by the expanding borders of the primary domain.

As the main territory spread, the auxiliary domain had reached roughly 70% of its parent’s scale.

Because the annex was built relatively close to the main house, the rapid expansion of the primary domain inevitably overran and incorporated the auxiliary space entirely.

[The unique features of the annex have been deactivated.]

[10,000,000,000 won has been successfully returned to the Absolute Dweller’s treasury.]

With the deactivation of the annex’s unique systems, the initial capital investment of 10 billion won was returned to him in full.

‘This means I am free to construct the annex once more, right?’

If there was one structure in his construction options that felt slightly underutilized, it was the annex.

Even though it required a mere 10 billion won to build, it possessed the incredible utility of converting a massive territory into an absolute safe zone.

Regrettably, it was a structure restricted to a single active instance.

At the time, securing the area around the main house where his grandfather and companions resided had been the logical priority, but as his level soared and his domain boundaries pushed outward, the massive overlap of territories made that initial placement feel redundant.

‘Open Construction Mode.’

He quickly brought up the interface.

‘It is available! Wait…?’

Annex (100,000,000,000 won)

Just as he suspected, the option to build the annex had returned.

However:

‘Ten… hundred… thousand… ten billion… one hundred billion?’

The required funds had inflated exponentially compared to the original price.

‘Even with that price tag, the tactical utility of the annex is massive.’

At present, the Count’s personal domain extended outward in a radius of about 5 kilometers.

By contrast, the annex, which scaled relative to the size of the main base, possessed a radius exceeding 10 kilometers.

That was essentially vast enough to encapsulate an entire metropolis.

‘Furthermore, unlike standard domain expansion, the annex claims territory instantaneously.’

If there were monsters lingering nearby, the annex’s boundary would simply overtake and neutralize them.

‘I can turn this to my strategic advantage.’

As he was brain-storming methods to weaponize the annex’s instant claim, a sudden anomaly drew his focus.

‘What is this?’

Through the multiple feeds provided by the Absolute Dweller’s Eye, an anomalous event was registered.

‘… Is that snow?’

The phenomenon initiated from the northern sector.

Flurries of snow began descending around the positions of the vassals tasked with protecting the forces of the Gangbuk District, quickly sweeping across the entirety of Seoul.

‘Snow?’

The only times he had ever witnessed snow during his stay in Busan was throughout his period of conscription.

But the sheer existence of snow was not the only source of his bewilderment.

It was currently May.

It was absolutely not the period of the year for winter weather.

This was glaringly obvious from the light attire of the citizens below.

A vast majority of the population were clad in short sleeves and light trousers to cope with an early summer heatwave.

‘This is highly irregular…’

Moreover, in the northern areas, the flurries rapidly transformed into a raging blizzard, and the gales grew fierce.

There was no way to interpret this as a natural weather event.

Moments later:

‘What in the world is that…?’

A colossal beast manifested amidst the cloud of falling snow in the sky.