Chapter 30: The Fourth Game

It’s already been half a month since the end of the Third Game.

It had also been three months since the Spaceship invaded.

While Yohan’s Shelter continued to focus solely on gathering supplies, its territory gradually expanded, including fields and rice paddies, and was now surrounded by walls even more solid than the iron fortress the Bucheon Brothers Clan had built.

During that time, new factions appeared nationwide, and people were caught up in power struggles.

There was never a peaceful day.

Bucheon was no exception, with villains appearing in droves and fights breaking out everywhere.

Amidst all this, electricity was finally cut off in some areas of Bucheon.

Although electricity hadn’t been cut yet in Jungdong and Songnae, where Yohan’s family stayed, they couldn’t help but prepare in advance.

“Okay, Junga, flip the breaker!”

“Oh, Dad!”

“I’ll do it! I’ll flip it!”

“No, I don’t want to. Unni will do it.”

Thunk.

As soon as the main breaker was flipped, Yohan confirmed that all power inside the Shelter was cut off, then turned to Jeonghu.

“Start the generator!”

“Yep!”

Jeonghu, waiting on one side of the Shelter, touched the giant khaki machine, and soon, with a loud noise, power returned to the Shelter.

“Oh, it’s working!”

“Wow!”

While Sejeong and Soyul marveled, Juhui looked at Yohan and asked,

“Now we don’t have to worry about electricity, right?”

“That’s true, but that thing eats up too much fuel. We installed it just in case, but we can’t use it often. It’s noisy too.”

“Ah…….”

As Juhui let out a short sigh, thinking electricity would become precious, Yohan put a cigarette in his mouth, feeling troubled.

Summer was slowly approaching.

Because the kids resembled Yohan and were all sensitive to heat, the Yohan family had turned on the air conditioner, even if it meant paying a huge electricity bill due to the progressive tax, rather than suffering from hunger.

But now, that too seemed difficult.

Of course, if things got worse, they would adapt, but being cut off from the conveniences of civilization was more than bitter—it was frightening.

“How much more inconvenient will things get from now on. From small things to big things, countless inconveniences will arise.”

“Isn’t there any item or ability that makes light or cool air?”

At Juhui’s words, Yohan chuckled.

“I’m sure there is. The problem is where to find it.”

“Dad, I have something like that!”

At that moment, Sejeong, who had been quietly listening nearby, spoke up.

“What is it?”

“An item that makes things cool!”

“Where did you get something like that?”

“I picked it up in the warehouse?”

Now that he thought about it, most of the items obtained from the fight with the Bucheon Brothers Clan were still in the warehouse.

They were high-grade and rare items, so they had been collected rather than discarded, but since they didn’t seem very useful, they had just been piled up to maybe be absorbed as inner energy someday.

Sejeong must have been bored and played with things in the warehouse, picking something up.

“Where is it?”

“Wait!”

Sejeong grinned brightly and ran into the house, soon returning with something in her hand.

“Tada!”

“Hmm…….

Yohan took the item Sejeong handed him and examined it quietly.

[North Sea Pearl (High Grade)]

—A rare treasure of the North Sea that emits cold by absorbing energy, possessed only by direct descendants of the North Sea Ice Palace.

Looking at the item, Yohan spoke to Juhui.

“There really is an item like this?”

“Haha…….”

Curious, Yohan infused it with inner energy.

There was no reaction.

“Wait, this doesn’t do anything?”

“No, that’s not how you use it!”

Sejeong said, then brought something else.

“Isn’t that a strange stone?”

“Yeah, give me the pearl!”

When Yohan handed her the North Sea Pearl, Sejeong struck the strange stone and the pearl together.

The strange stone emitted its unique eerie light, and the pearl absorbed it, immediately releasing enough cold to be felt right in front of them.

“Ah…… What is that, some kind of interaction?”

“What does interaction mean?”

“Um…… It’s just a word. Anyway, so if you use the strange stone, it emits light?”

“Yeah! Oh, I think you can also put it in water! But it’s cooler to keep it with this stone than in water!”

“Ho……!”

Just as Yohan’s Heavenly Demon Divine Art absorbed energy from the atmosphere, this thing seemed to need to absorb energy as well.

It felt a bit cold normally, but using a strange stone condensed with Mana made it emit even colder air.

Anyway, it was definitely a useful item.

“I’m telling you, the strange stone isn’t useless at all.”

It was helpful for increasing one’s inner energy, but seeing it could also be used for things like this, the strange stone was more useful than it seemed.

“Should I research this a bit?”

“This?”

“Yeah.”

Yohan took the strange stone from Sejeong and examined it.

A stone condensed with Mana that only came from Monsters.

Seeing that Mana reacted just by colliding with the North Sea Pearl, he thought it might work for other things as well.

“What would happen if I set fire to this strange stone?”

While he was pondering that, Juhui spoke carefully.

“Um…… Sejeong’s father.”

“Yes?”

“I think it’s time for us to leave.”

“……What?”

Juhui looked at Soyul.

“I think I need to go look for my husband. It would be nice if he stayed at the company, but……”

“But Soyul’s mother, you know the outside world has become very dangerous, right? Soyul will be in danger too…….”

“Still, I have to look for my husband. And it’s shameless to stay in a place your family worked so hard to build.”

“Shameless? Because you were here, we were able to leave Sejeong and fight like this.”

At Yohan’s words, Juhui just smiled.

She was just a person with a five-minute ability, not enough to be trusted.

In fact, she had only been protected by this family.

“I just want to know if my husband is alive or dead.”

“Then at least leave Soyul with us……. Our family will take good care of her…….”

“I’d like to, but……. If another Game starts, we might never be able to return to Bucheon. It might be selfish, but being separated for life isn’t right.”

“Umm…….

If the Game had rules or consistency, he could say something, but as she said, it might suddenly become impossible to move to another area.

During the Game, you can’t leave the region.

After thinking for a moment, Yohan decided he had no right to refuse her decision, since she wasn’t family, and nodded heavily, letting her go.

Still, feeling uneasy, he handed her a rare-grade item suitable for fighting.

Though she could only transform into a witch for five minutes, he believed she could survive if she used it well.

“Here’s food and water for a few days, and a car. I can’t help you any more than this.”

As Yohan scratched his head, Juhui looked even more troubled.

“I keep receiving help like this…… I feel so sorry.”

“Does there need to be a reason for people to help each other?”

Yohan smiled.

Juhui thought Yohan and his family were truly amazing people.

With the power to topple the Bucheon Brothers Clan, abundant supplies, and a safe Shelter, they had little greed.

In a world where everyone was becoming villains and building factions, this was rare.

And how kind they were.

She didn’t know what luck had brought her to meet such people.

“Instead…… Please survive. Find your husband, become stronger, and come back. Let’s be together again someday.”

“Yes…… Yes, I will!”

***

Juhui left in the SUV.

Sejeong, who said a tearful goodbye to Soyul, cried all day.

Though the rest of the Yohan family didn’t shed tears like Sejeong, they all felt an emptiness somewhere inside.

They say you don’t notice when someone is there, but you feel their absence. It was just like that.

Still, there was no time to rest.

Not knowing what would happen next, they busily gathered more supplies.

And on the fifteenth day after Juhui left.

—The Fourth Game begins.
—This Game is a Force War.
—Register your force and operate it.
—The rules of the Loot War continue as before.
—Stronger Monsters will appear.

The Fourth Game began.

Yohan and Jeonghu, returning to Bucheon at dawn to avoid people’s eyes, exchanged glances.

“Did you hear, Dad?”

“Yeah.”

“They’re telling us to form a force?”

“No, what’s more important is that stronger Monsters will appear.”

“Right…… Will Orcs show up?”

Even without saying strong, things like Orcs appeared. Giant Hunters, our Janggun and Menggun’s Mother showed up too.

As he spoke, Yohan’s expression grew tense.

“So that means even stronger ones will appear……?”

Yohan nodded heavily.

As soon as Yohan finished speaking, Jeonghu slammed on the accelerator and sped toward the Shelter.

Meanwhile, countless red lights began to pour from the Spaceship like a meteor shower.

“Wow…… Not only are the Monsters stronger, but there are more of them dropping than usual.”

“Right……. Huh? Is that it?”

“What?”

Among the many lights in the sky, several particularly large ones stood out.

“So many lights, and some of them are huge…….”

“Quiet. Hurry up, this is making me nervous.”

“Yes, Father.”

Just then, as Jeonghu tried to speed up even more—

Thud.

The ground shook violently, and Jeonghu slammed on the brakes in surprise.

“What, what was that? An earthquake?”

“An earthquake during the Game? Is this round going to have disasters too?”

Just in case, Yohan and Jeonghu hurriedly got out of the car and looked around.

“Uh……? Maybe it wasn’t an earthquake?”

“I think so…….”

Then what was that tremor?

While they looked around in confusion, Jeonghu’s eyes widened.

“D-Dad……..”

“What?”

“Look over there.”

“Where?”

“Litsia…… It’s Litsia!”

Litsia was a 66-story skyscraper, a residential complex so tall that most people living in Bucheon could see it.

It was collapsing now.

Although not as tall as Litsia, a massive Monster dozens of meters high flew through the sky, exhaling white breath and swinging its tail, causing half of Litsia to crumble in an instant.

“W-What is that? A d-dragon?”

“How would I know?”

One thing was clear.

As the Notification had said, stronger Monsters had appeared.