Drip. Drip. Drip!!!
Choi watched Ivan walk toward him with a vicious grin. His mind started cracking. His vision blurred as deep, hopeless black slowly ate away at his pupils.
Thick nosebleed poured out like a broken faucet, running down his chin and pooling into a dark red puddle on the floor.
"I want to live… I want to live…" he kept mumbling.
"Good. Stay conscious," Ivan said coldly, eyes freezing behind the glasses. He raised his right arm. His fingers twisted into grotesque tentacles and shot forward, wrapping around Choi's limbs.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
All four limbs snapped like dry branches.
Infected people didn't turn instantly. From what Ivan remembered, it took about a week. There was also that short "gray zone" period afterward—maybe an hour at most. If you fucked them up badly enough during that window, the damage stuck. No healing.
"Stay alive until you turn. Don't die on me before that," Ivan said, pulling the tentacles back. He turned to leave the room.
Pyeon had been feeding this piece of shit the whole time. As long as he didn't starve, he'd survive. Human bodies were tougher than they looked, especially when twisted by that much raw desire.
...
Meanwhile, Cha Hyun-soo, freshly awake, sat down at his computer and started searching keywords: fainting, nosebleeds, sudden aggression. He had no idea what the hell was happening to him, but he knew one thing for sure—this shit wasn't normal. He'd never experienced anything like it before.
At the same time, Lee Eun-hyuk was doing the exact same search on his laptop.
Both of them quickly landed on the same post. The username was "Kkul-kkul."
The second Cha Hyun-soo clicked it open, the first line hit him like a slap.
"This is not a disease. This is a curse!"
"Infected people report frequent nosebleeds and auditory hallucinations… Cause unknown… They don't belong here anymore… They grow desperate and twisted… That thing hunted me too. Humans cannot win against it. If you have symptoms, kill yourself now. Staying alive will only cause more problems.
But if you're dead set on surviving to the end, there's one thing you absolutely must—"
Cha Hyun-soo tried to scroll further, but the page suddenly froze. "Unable to connect to the website."
He sat there like an idiot, frantically clicking refresh. The screen kept showing signal lost no matter what he did.
That clicking sound drew the half-headed monster straight to his room. The bastard hadn't died. Getting its skull chopped during the gray zone had only made it evolve.
Its skin was now thick and rough like tree bark, body bulked up bigger than before. The most fucked-up new feature was a pair of massive, pointed ears like some twisted elf. With only half a head left, it was completely blind and navigated purely by sound.
Cha Hyun-soo watched in silent horror as the monster groped its way into his room. He slapped both hands over his mouth, barely breathing.
The half-headed monster shuffled around his room for a moment, then its huge ears twitched toward noise coming from next door.
"I can't see! I can't see!" it growled, dragging its fingers along the wall as it headed straight for room 1419.
The instant it reached Ivan's door—bang!—the door flew open from the inside.
A razor-sharp tentacle lashed out like a whip, punching straight through the monster's chest and wrapping around its neck like a steel python. It yanked the creature violently into the room.
"Come on in," Ivan said casually.
He swung his arm and smashed the monster hard into the wall.
The Giant-Ear Monster thrashed wildly. It grabbed the tentacle with both hands, trying to tear it apart.
"Find your own fucking death then!" Ivan snarled in French-tinged rage.
Two vertical slits ripped open beneath his eyes. Two sharp, living eyeballs pushed out from the sockets. Blue light flared bright.
Twin beams of searing blue laser exploded forward.
The monster's hands instantly burst into black smoke and turned glowing red. The whole room filled with the sickening stench of burning meat.
A few seconds later the Giant-Ear Monster was howling nonstop, both hands reduced to charred black stumps.
"Before they chopped your head off you were just another boring freak. Now you're actually a little interesting," Ivan muttered. The slits under his eyes sealed shut. He activated his analysis ability again.
To make sure the monster couldn't break free, he morphed his other arm into a thick tentacle and pinned it harder against the wall.
Ivan tilted his head, watching the creature flail, and waited patiently for the results.
Right when he thought he had it under control, wooden vines exploded out of the monster's arms and slammed into him. Bang! The force was brutal. Ivan's entire back smashed deep into the concrete wall.
The Giant-Ear Monster ripped itself free and bolted for the door.
"Almost forgot you could pull that shit," Ivan said from inside the cloud of dust. He spread his arms, pushed against the broken wall, and stepped out casually.
He watched the monster's retreating back with zero emotion and brushed the dust off his clothes.
His carbon-enhanced body gave him insane defense. That attack hadn't even come close to breaking through.
[Analysis Complete]
[Innate Skill: Treeform Giant Ears]
[Fusion Condition: Kill a complete Giant-Ear Monster]
[After fusion, the player will develop an overwhelming desire to listen to all sounds. The more sounds absorbed, the stronger the desire is satisfied. The player's body will mutate, growing massive ears while the skin turns woody. The player can also transform flesh into vines to kill or trap prey.]
[This skill has growth potential. By constantly feeding the desire and hearing more sounds, the player's physique will keep improving…]
"Fucking boring ability," Ivan scoffed. He'd hoped the enhanced hearing might be worth something. Turned out it was a complete letdown.
The scene cut to Cha Hyun-soo.
He heard noise coming from the floor below his window. When he stuck his head out, he saw a man climbing down the building on a rope while his kids tried desperately to stop him.
"Dad, don't go! It's too dangerous!"
"Su-yeong, stop crying. The noise might attract monsters. You know Daddy used to be special forces, right?" The man was heading down to look for help. He figured there had to be other survivors out there, maybe even the military.
He never saw the massive eyeball slowly rising behind him.
Cha Hyun-soo's eyes widened in horror as the Giant-Eye Monster crept closer. He started shouting at the top of his lungs, "Watch out! Behind you! Get out of there!"
The man turned his head. A huge, bloodshot eyeball stared up at him from below. Pure terror hit him. He scrambled upward in panic, but his grip slipped. His body dropped like a stone, smashing to the ground right in front of Cha Hyun-soo's window.
Cha Hyun-soo slammed the window shut and curled up on the bed, hugging his knees tight. His whole body shook uncontrollably.
He could still hear the two kids screaming for help downstairs. His mind was tearing itself apart. If he did nothing, they'd die.
But if he helped, the monster would come for him next.
The image of the father's body hitting the ground kept replaying in his head. Fear crashed over him like a tidal wave.
Finally his eyes hardened with resolve.
Cha Hyun-soo grabbed the computer monitor off his desk. The second he saw the Giant-Eye Monster attacking the kids, he hurled the screen out the window with everything he had, trying to draw its attention.
It worked.
The monster whipped its long, fleshy neck upward, burst into his room, and wrapped around him like a python. The coils tightened fast. Cha Hyun-soo gasped for air, vision going dark. He thought this was it.
Then the monster's giant pupil suddenly went dull. The crushing pressure vanished and the creature collapsed heavily onto the floor.
Cha Hyun-soo gasped wildly, sucking in desperate breaths. Once he was sure the thing wasn't moving, he leaned out the window again.
That's when he spotted an older man on a lower floor aiming a homemade weapon straight at the monster. Only then did he realize the uncle had just saved his life.
Then the older man, Han Du-sik, held up a sign telling him the monsters were attracted to sound and that the bastards didn't die easily. Their regeneration was insane. If Cha Hyun-soo wanted to save the two kids downstairs, he had to come meet up with him.
The uncle lived right next door. Cha Hyun-soo pushed his own door open and stepped out.
This was the first time he'd left his room for someone else. The moment the door swung wide, daylight from the hallway spilled in and lit up his dark apartment, like he'd finally stepped out of his own prison.
"Why is there blood here?" He noticed Ivan's doorframe was smashed to shit and there were bloody streaks on the floor. A horrible thought hit him instantly. "Doctor Ivan… did a monster get him too?"
He gripped the steel pipe he'd ripped off a mop handle and hurried over. After a quick glance at the blood, he carefully pushed Ivan's door open.
"What the hell happened in here?"
The room looked like a war zone, furniture wrecked, walls cracked like a demolition crew had gone crazy. Suddenly a noise came from the side. Cha Hyun-soo whipped the pipe up, ready for an attack.
"Want some water, ami?" Ivan stepped out casually, holding a bottle of mineral water.
"No, I'm good. I'm just glad you're okay. What the fuck happened? The place is trashed," Cha Hyun-soo said, breathing a huge sigh of relief once he saw Ivan was fine. He looked around the destroyed room. "Seriously, what went down?"
"Nothing much. Some monster tried to jump me. It failed and ran off. Was pretty close though. Almost got me," Ivan replied, twisting the cap off the bottle and taking a long drink, his French accent relaxed as ever.
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Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69