A loud, whistling sound tore through the silence and echoed throughout the city.
The mad grin on my lips faded instantly, and my eyes narrowed as I shot an inquisitive glare at the sudden half-darkness that covered the world outside the shop.
Finally, let's see what this 'end of the world' is all about.
The whistling sound slowly faded until it disappeared entirely, like it never rang out in the first place.
But the entire city was still swallowed by the heart-stopping silence.
"W–what's happening?" The old man's weak, shaky voice streamed into my ear.
I paid no attention to the man, and instead, I took my hand off the counter, my other hand still grasping my ribs as I began limping slowly toward the broken entrance.
Each step I took caused a jolt of pain to ripple through my waist. A really painful side effect of landing on the ground with it. But I gritted through the pain.
Tap–
The sound of my footstep echoed. And I took a deep breath.
While limping toward the door, a faint, muffled shrieking sound trickled into my ears, and I frowned, halting where I stood.
Huh?
It wasn't the sound of the whimpering old man muttering inaudible words — probably his prayers — behind me. It was a rather different sound. One that came from somewhere outside the shop.
My heart tensed up.
Judging from the faintness of it alone, the source of the shrieking sound that pierced the silence was pretty far.
I gulped. And from where I stood, I turned my neck backward to face the old man.
The old man's eyes were closed, and his trembling lips moved ever so slightly, spitting out inaudible words as tears rolled down his cheeks.
"Hey, Oldie," I called out, my voice barely above a whisper. It didn't feel right to yell at that moment.
Oldie jolted as soon as he heard my voice; his eyes snapped open as he immediately ceased his muttering. Then, his lips slowly parted as his shaky gaze found mine.
"Y–yes?"
I didn't say anything else. I just maintained steady eye contact with him. Not that his eyes could hold steady, though.
"You called?" He asked, limbs trembling.
I turned my neck away from him and faced the door as once more, I began to limp toward it.
As I halted a few inches away from the door, I asked, "Did you hear that sound?"
My brows knitted.
"W–what.. what.. sound?"
Aha. So he didn't hear it then.
I shook my head.
"Never mind."
Under my shoes, the shattered shards of glass were crushed as I stood, raising my neck skyward.
My knitted eyebrows dissolved as my eyes widened, the realization instantly dawning on me.
My neck remained frozen in place, and my widened eyes remained fixated skyward.
A lone, nervous sweat slid across my forehead, down my cheek as my lips slowly crooked.
"Haa…" I exclaimed softly. At that moment, it was the only possible reaction I could muster.
"You've got to be kidding me.." I muttered.
A black mass hung above the sky, impartially shielding the rays of the sun.
No, it was not a black mass.
The black smoke-like expanse was like the clouds themselves. Except the clouds were blue, and they were black and thicker than the clouds.
Within those black clouds, glowing streaks of violet lights danced randomly, zapping across the black mass like.. like they were lightning.
And I could tell that the black cloud was much more than an irregular lightning conductor.
How, one might ask?
The answer was right in front of me.
Uncountable numbers of indescribable entities spilled out of the black cloud, descending upon the city with chaos raging in their every movement.
Monsters.
They were all.. monsters.
My heart began to pound within my chest, and all the hairs on my body stood on end as my breathing spiked anomalously.
"So this is that kind of 'world end' huh..."
The kind where humanity is destroyed by monsters.
But what exactly is the meaning of all this?
Is the universe really trying to tell me that.. my.. My 'wish' caused all this?
Staring at the downpour of monsters, my pupils began to tremble, and I struggled hard to catch my breath.
Sounds began to muffle in my ears as my blood boiled.
I think the old man even tried to talk to me, asking, "What exactly is happening outside?" But I couldn't hear him properly. And I couldn't give him an answer.
I was too absorbed in my thoughts.
[Passive Skill {Cold-Blooded} is reacting…]
I blinked.
My tense heart calmed, and the vibrant rush of blood in my body quelled as I shook my head.
My breathing stabilized, and my blood cooled.
I turned to the old man with pity etched in my eyes.
"Oldie, by the count of three, you run. Run as fast as you can. Do not look back, do not even stop to observe your surroundings. Just head to the subway station, as it's the only secure underground position in this city. Do you hear me?" The delivery of my tone was etched with a high degree of seriousness.
"H–huh? W.. what exactly do you mean by–"
"One." I raised one finger and turned to look outside.
All this while, I had been looking at the skies and not the ground or the streets.
Damn.
"Two." I raised another finger.
People were dying.
"Please, boy! Tell me what's happening! I have.. I have a wife at home, my grandkids also came to visit.. tell me so I can inform them.."
Then, the screams erupted.
I hardened my heart and deepened my scowl.
Screams of anguish, of terror, of pain, and… of fear.
The screams tore through the silence like a knife to butter. The screams enveloped the atmosphere, incessantly streaming into my ears.
I nodded.
There was no way Oldie hadn't understood by now.
Outside this shop, buildings fell, cars were crushed, and people ran frantically on the streets.
How funny.
It only takes one second to transform a fairly peaceful world into one plagued by disaster.
As soon as Oldie heard the screams, he jumped over the counter and ran toward me.
I could practically hear his breathing. It was loud, shaky, and tinged with that layer of desperation that only came with fear.
A cold, trembling palm tapped my shoulder.
"Three." I raised the third finger.
Oldie didn't try to ask questions anymore as he ran past me, immediately jumping out of the already shattered door and into the streets.
The pace of his sprint was ridiculously slow as his knees quivered while he ran.
He was dressed in a fine, black suit, and I was dressed in rags.
But at that moment, the crumbling world didn't care about what we wore. And it quite frankly didn't matter too.
A game of survival had begun.
I'm sorry, old man.
A bitter smile stretched at my lips.
Well, not really sorry. It's not my fault that when in desperation, people — like fools — absolutely obey the words of one whom they think is a 'leader figure.'
..Wait.
I sounded really smart just now?
I didn't step out of the door, and I didn't run behind him.
I simply observed.
There were monsters all over the streets. Different shapes and different sizes.
Some flew high above the air, some crawled on the ground, and the rest ran. And the few gigantic ones calmly stood on top of buildings, as if waiting for something.
Well, not exactly all of them.
They were larger than the rest, and the ones that weren't on top of buildings went around destroying buildings, while the smaller monsters chased, killed and ate humans.
The large ones were all black. Their shapeless bodies had dark blue eyeballs wriggling all over them.
On each side of their shapeless bodies were three wings. All together, numbering six stretched wings that were as long as the height of two fully grown men.
Talk about disgusting.
I looked left, staring at the one that relentlessly destroyed all buildings in this block as it slowly approached this building.
And then, I moved my neck right, toward the direction oldie had run off to.
My forehead squeezed as I pursed my lips.
Oof.
As expected.
Oldie had been killed by those smaller yet terrifyingly dangerous monsters.
They resembled hyenas. That was.. if hyenas had no eyes, were all black, and had black goo-ish substances leaking out of their bodies.
They roamed all over that area Oldie had run into in… packs? And they were very, very fast, speedily striking down those random, terrified and fleeing people with their claws.
Oh, boy.
And the place they gathered housed the shorter path that led to Jericho.
It took one of those monsters just five seconds to catch the snail-paced Oldie.
It meant that if I had ran at a faster pace. Say ten times the speed of the old man, then it would've taken one of those monsters about fifty seconds to catch and strike me down.
And if I decided to run toward the left side of the road, I'd eventually find a path that would lead to Jericho, but that path would be longer than the one I currently considered. And there.. was no need to even weigh my chances of survival if I chose to follow the long way. Those giant things would kill me.
Hence, the reason I needed to see someone different from the panicking people run with full speed down the right path, so I could know if, truly, I could outrun those hyena-like monsters at my top speed. And how long I would last.
Now, it was certain.
Although it wasn't any safer than the left path, the right path was much more 'doable'.
I breathed out.
Boom–.–Crack–!
I flinched slightly, gazing left at the incoming gigantic monster.
Damn. Not even giving me a second to breathe properly, huh.
The giant, shapeless, eyeball-riddled thing was just a few inches away from this building.
Staring at it, I wondered,
What the actual hell is that thing?
[Endorath. Tier 2 Reaper Grade Monster.]
My eyes widened as I spotted the glowing red... status window? Floating on top of the head of the giant.
"Endorath.." I whispered.
I shook my head.
Immediately, I gritted my teeth, enduring the pain in my waist and the rest of my body as I leaped out of the building.
Man, you really owe me for this, Jericho.