Although they started off as average B-Rank monsters, ogres are sturdy, and their offensive power skyrockets the more they consume human meat. That was why the longer it takes for hunters to rescue humans, the harder it would be to fight them, unless a stronger hunter came.
"Haa…"
Clank!
Han Jiwon tightened her grip on her chains. Behind her were a group of civilians she rescued along the way.
Half an hour before this, she was still smiling while waiting for her turn at the yogurt shop. She wondered what her young master was doing at that time, hoping he was enjoying his alone time.
"Ah!"
Suddenly, she heard a scream a few meters away from the shop. Everyone was stunned and looked at each other, completely at a loss where it came from.
When they didn't hear a second scream, the people around simply shrugged it off. Except for Han Jiwon, that is.
As a hunter with years of experience, she could tell very well. Something was wrong. She unlocked her phone, checking if her young master had sent her a message but there was none. She put it in her back pocket that was a little smaller than the front pocket of her pants.
Just now, that was a man's scream. What's going on? Where was it?
Was there a fight somewhere? But there was no ruckus in sight. Then, what happened? Han Jiwon raised her guard up, getting ready to move as soon as she saw a sign of trouble.
The yogurt shop was at the corner of the ground floor, near the restrooms. Jiwon stared to her right where it was located, making sure if her hunch was right. Her eyes narrowed, and her heart thumped faster.
One more… if I hear one more sound, then I…
Just before she swallowed and she clenched her fists, another sound was heard at where the restrooms were.
"S, save me!"
Clank!
Han Jiwon dashed to that direction.
"Excuse me!"
It was a restroom for men, but she opened the door with no hesitation. However, what she saw next was out of her expectations.
The stalls were thrashed, and there was blood all over. The body of four men swimming in their own blood, limbs sliced up as monsters with the pig of a head munched on it.
"Don't tell me…"
Jiwon's hands trembled.
Today was a weekend. A day where families go out to gather and spend time together, in a mall where a crowd forms.
A monster showing up here out of nowhere should have been impossible. A dungeon breaking in here, of all places, should have been impossible.
Places where crowds form had always been the priority to be cleared in order to avoid as much casualty as possible.
Yet you're telling me there're monsters here?!
"H, hel, p… m, me…"
A man with his ankles removed crawled to her, pleading for help.
Han Jiwon clicked her tongue and quickly summoned her chains from her inventory. She doesn't have her other gears, but with a weapon, she could easily take down an ogre.
The chains wrapped itself around the ogre's head, rotating it 180 degrees. She pulled her chains back to her and ran to the man on the floor, but another ogre instantly pulled its axe and cut his head.
The blood splattered across the wide restroom, adding further to the already flooding floor of blood.
Jiwon's eyes flashed, her teeth grounded against each other.
"You fucking pigs…"
Her chains flew in the air, enveloping the monsters' bodies. It tightened around them until their bodies burst from the pressure.
Their smelly blood got all over Jiwon, but it didn't faze her. She proceeded to attack the next ogres, slaughtering them one by one spontaneously.
When she saw a hollow space below the sink, she instantly moved away from it. It glowed and an immense mana emanated from it.
This is… the gate?
To think a dungeon would show up at a men's restroom in a mall, and at a location where it could easily be overlooked.
Not to mention, the gate looks way too small for it to be an ogre's dungeon. Just how in the world did it come to be?
Han Jiwon gazed at it as if she was looking at a bizarre phenomenon.
Then, an ogre's foot stepped outside the gate. As if it were being forced to go out of a narrow space, its hands also showed up in between the space, tearing the gate to make it wider.
Every time an ogre stepped outside of the dungeon, they all had to stretch it wide to make space for their bodies that were way bigger than the gate.
What in the world…
When she saw more ogres coming out of it, Han Jiwon decided to make a run for it. She went outside of the restroom and started screaming at the people present.
"Everybody, run! It's a dungeon break! The monsters are coming!"
Everyone around flinched. A few of them quickly ran away, but most of them only looked at each other, wondering if it was a prank.
A dungeon break in the middle of a mall? Who in their right mind would believe that? It wasn't as if the first dungeons had only appeared recently.
It has been ten years since dungeons and monsters came to this world. Humans have developed countermeasures and technologies to avoid having such troubles, so a dungeon breaking out in the middle of good weather like today left them dumbfounded.
Han Jiwon frowned when she saw hardly anyone move from their spots. She looked behind her, and saw the door to the restroom opened.
She clenched her chains and shouted once more.
"Run! Everyone, run! They're coming! Dammit!"
Jiwon used her chains on the first ogre that showed up, but she retreated when she saw more of them come.
Just looking at their sheer numbers, it would have been impossible for her to defeat them all on her own. She decided to save as many people as she could in the meantime, meeting a few other hunters.
However, they were far weaker than her, who is an A-Rank hunter. In the end, she was the only hunter left standing in the group of people they rescued.