Chapter Text
Kim Rok Soo, Choi Jung Soo, and Lee Soo Hyuk are standing in a high building to the southwest of the monster's lair. With the monster's lair as the center of the circle, a 600-meter radius of the building has been razed by the monster, and as far as the eye can see, there are crumbling concrete walls and exposed steel bars, so the building they are in is the only place where they can observe and overlook the battle.
This building is also in a precarious state and could have collapsed at any time. The way to upstairs is completely blocked by concrete blocks, and Kim Rok Soo would not have been able to reach the top floor without Choi Jung Soo carrying him on his back, jumping up and down like a panther.
Before the cataclysm, the monster lair was once a shopping complex leased to famous international brands, thus there are many usable household goods. The government and the guilds have tried to reclaim this place many times, but so far, every attack has only been meals for the monsters.
Overall, this monster lair is definitely not as difficult to deal with as the unranked monsters that attacked the Seomyeon shelter. However, these monsters, who are clearly not used to living in the high-rise building, have formed an ecosystem here, as if someone had deliberately brought them together, making this place extremely difficult to break.
In the sky, there are level-two monster vultures hovering around, responsible for vigilance; on the ground, there are a large number of level-two monsters, majorly led by direwolves, roaming. Sometimes these monsters eat each other, and sometimes they cooperate to hunt. Inside the building, according to survivors, each floor was filled with a mix of Sphinx cubs and full-grown ones that could not only glide and breathe fire, but could also tear people to pieces with a single claw, making it difficult to win at either long range or in close combat. The top floor was home to the first-class leader monster, which looked like a Sphinx in the myth. The fact that it was perched in the building does not mean that the leader monster is small, but rather that the top floor was once a grand, high-ceilinged exhibition hall, so it can accommodate this five-meter-tall monster inside and out.
In the past, each force attacked separately to the advantage of these monsters. For them, these scattered attacks were simply a welcoming free delivery service.
After losing many teams, the guilds and the government finally gave up on this mouthwatering lair. They threw the hot potato to the company, and it ended up in the hands of the team 1.
Kim Rok Soo spent a few days digesting the data record and tapes the government handed in. Like all leader monsters, this leader sphinx's roar can induce all monsters whose ranks lower than it to go into a frenzy, while its other abilities are the same as those of a normal sphinx.
‘Would it be that simple?’
Kim Rok Soo didn't think the leader monster only had these abilities. He looked at the list of deployment of the attacking teams in the past. Most of the attacking teams consisted of both ordinary ability users and sentinels, but only the non-sentinels survived in the records.
Of course, this could be explained by the fact that most of the sentinels were at the front line and therefore had a higher death rate...
... But it is more likely that the monster had the ability to target sentinels specifically.
Among those records, the most valuable one is the tapes recorded by an ability user - he was not immediately killed by the monster, but hid in a ventilation duct while the others were attacked by the leader monster, and stayed there for almost a month before he died of exhaustion. The government dispatched on ability user with stealth to recover data from the corpses, in an attempt to develop a plan to break the lair, only to find that these data was useless.
The government must not have realized the importance of these tapes and handed the valuable information to the company. The deceased had recorded eight tapes, each one lasting 90 minutes, but with a lot of blank, mostly were just the noisy howling from monsters, mixed with occasional fear-filled mumbling and last words from the recorder.
The most important thing is that the deceased pointed out the current time at the beginning of each tape. Therefore, after listening to the eight tapes, Kim Rok Soo could clearly understand the time sequence of events. After sorting out the timing of the monster's howls and activities, Kim Rok Soo realized that the eight tapes were in fact a repetitive record of the three monsters' hunting times, but the recorder seemed to have been so confused that it was difficult to state what he wanted to record.
Kim Rok Soo wrote down the timing when the three monsters began to howl, and then deduced the interval between the monsters' hunting time - the exact target Kim Rok Soo intended to pinpoint.
With a pocket watch in one hand and binoculars in the other, Kim Rok Soo looks at the monsters leaving the entrance of the mall and whisper into the intercom, "The little sphinx are coming out."
Lee Soo Hyuk and Choi Jung Soo are able to see the scene Kim Rok Soo was pointing out with their bare eyes without the use of tools because they are sentinels. Lee Soo Hyuk watches as the group of about fifty Sphinx cubs gradually dispersed in all directions, seemingly in a chaotic manner, but indeed in the direction Kim Rok Soo had mentioned in his battle plan. The rest teams from the company are ambushing them in the direction they are going.
In a short time, the direwolves also leave their original patrol route and start to head to the north of the mall.
Kim Rok Soo smiles lightly.
"Although these monsters are smart enough to cooperate with each other, they are still no match for the biological clock."
These monsters have a very regular hunting schedule.
Those teams came in without plans would not have noticed this. These people were breaking into the lair continuously, therefore these monsters didn’t have to hunt like their usual schedules. However, when no one came to the door, they would follow their biological clock and go out to hunt without interfering with each other. When the time comes, most of the monsters will leave the place and prey further away.
Therefore, as long as they know the time interval when they go out to hunt, they can use the simple math to calculate the exact time point when the three main monsters leave the nest and kill them separately. As for the directions, they can be confirmed by the traces left by the monsters trekking.
Lee Soo Hyuk looks at Kim Rok Soo's winning smile and couldn't help but feel excited. Their enemy this time is the leader Sphinx on the top floor of the mall, and Lee Soo Hyuk hasn’t faced the leader monsters in a while and is feeling the itch. His right hand strokes the cold hilt of his sword as the black hawk standing with its head held high over Lee Soo Hyuk's left shoulder, occasionally turning its head and observing the scene with red eyes.
Until the last direwolf disappeared from view, Kim Rok Soo finally releases his own spirit animal, a Swinhoe's white-eye, which prefers singing and bathing rather than lurking.
After training, his Swinhoe's white-eye is no longer afraid of Lee Soo Hyuk's black hawk and Choi Jung Soo's golden retriever. The little bird flies on to the window frame with great vigor, and raises his chest to confront the black hawk with no fear in his eyes.
The black hawk raises his left wing and gestures the Swinhoe's white-eye to come under his wing, then the little bird lands precisely inside the black hawk's fluffy feathers. After the black hawk folded its wings, little Rok Soo was left with only the green feathers on the top of its head and a pair of eyes showing.
No matter how many times Choi Jung Soo see this, this scene always reminds of the swans he have seen in the park's lake. The swans often used their feathers to protect the chicks from getting wet by the water.
"Although my hypnotic induction can make the monsters recognize you as a non-threatening object, they will still find out if you get too close to them or make too much noise." Kim Rok Soo warns.
"I will stay close to the captain and will never let Rok Soo your ability to fail!"
Although the spirit animal can extend the guide's influence, the further away from the user, the weaker the effect, and the more effort Kim Rok Soo need to consume.
"Rok Soo-ah, Jung Soo-ah, then I will go first."
Lee Soo Hyuk smiles and waves, then turns around and walks to the other side of the building. He pulls out the sheath of his knife that is hung on his waist and jumps out of the broken window, slowing down with the tip of the sheath and sliding to the ground in a few seconds, waving at them.
Choi Jung Soo bents down and let Kim Rok Soo climb on his back.
“Hey, don't pick the rough way again this time...”
Choi Jung Soo summoned a foggy sword aura to aid his balance and walked on the sloping wall as if he were on level ground.
“What did you say—I can’t hear you—” Choi Jung Soo sings.
Kim Rok Soo only wishes his arm is strong enough to strangle the guy who deliberately makes everything hard.
