Book 1, Epilogue 1 - Let me be your student (1)


    “This is crazy!”


    March 2003.


    People around the world were in a state of shock. The reason was the public statement put out by the US.


    [As of today, we acknowledge the existence of the unknown civilization. ording to the Deration of Boston, the US cannot im independence and sovereignty within the territory of the US. We promise not to exercise any other of our rights.]


    In reality, it was a deration of surrender, and this deration had stunned humanity.


    “Hey, did you hear? The government will send ten thousand civilians to them as food.”


    “What? Is that really true?”


    “Damn it! I heard our armed forces have no chance of winning against them…”


    “Shit. This is the end!”


    Not even three months had passed since the unknown civilization had appeared. Yet, their attacks had made the powerful nations of the earth raise their white gs. People were ruthlessly taken as food. Humanity had no choice but to despair.


    However, something changed after the fourth month.


    [Did you see it? The superhuman of the north, Stevens, killed the monsters!]


    [The Saintess from the west, Sophie, is healing the wounded!]


    [The witch of the east, Haiji, is holding off the monsters!]


    “Ohhhhhhhh!!”


    Inside the Korean International exhibition hall, a variety of goods rted to survival were on disy, and the exhibition hall was filled with cheers.


    “I should have expected this from the superhuman of the north!!”


    “There is no way they are human!”


    “Justice always prevails!”


    People yelled in delight when they saw the news on the electronic disy. Of course, everyone had different reasons foring to the expo, but at that moment, they were united as one.


    This was also true for the two men who were ying a fighting game against each other at a game booth.


    “Hey, Junwoo. Did you just see that?!”


    “Wow! Boss! Did you see that? When you make your next game, you should model it after them!”


    The two young men ying against each other were the twenty-year-old Lee Gun and Hugo Otis. They weren’t awakened beings yet, and they still didn’t know each other at this stage.


    The two of them forgot that they were ying a game as they started cheering.


    “They are the best! We won again!”


    “Hey. The east has a witch, and the west has a saintess! And the north has a superhuman! I wonder who’ll represent the south?!”


    “No way! I doubt we’ll get anyone from the south.”


    The three people on the news were currently the most famous people on the earth


    The eyes of the two young men twinkled as they watched the disy.


    “As expected, the superhuman of the north, Stevens, is awesome!”


    “Indeed, the witch of the east is amazing!”


    The two, who had been ying against each other, turned to look at each other. They furrowed their brows when they saw each other’s faces.


    At this point, Hugo was still clumsy when it came to speaking Korean, but he could fully understand what others said.


    “Superhuman of the north?”


    “Witch of the east…?”


    In the end, the two of them looked at each other with dumbfounded faces. Then, they both snorted.


    The first one to open his mouth was Hugo. “If you have sense, you should be cheering for the superhuman of the north!”


    “Hmm! How can you say that musclebrain is great?” replied Lee Gun.


    “It’s obvious. You probably got bewitched by how the witch dresses.”


    Hugo and Lee Gun red at each other. The two of them were angry and about to argue when…


    “Hyung… You are about to move past that line.” The young teen standing next to Lee Gun pointed at the monitor. He was the sixteen-year-old Ji Junwoo.


    Hearing his younger brother’s words, Lee Gun screamed as he moved his joystick. He immediately re-centered the character that was trying to go out of bounds and moved it further into the ring.


    After saving his character, heughed as he looked at Hugo. “You have a bad eye when ites to taste. I can see why you are bad at ying games.”


    Hugo got angry; he and the guy in front of him had yed twenty matches, and Hugo had lost all of them. He angrily asked, “What did you just say?”


    “I’m asking why you are so bad at this game when you like that macho guy? You aren’t supposed to use your character like that.”


    Hugo was about to say something in response, but…


    “Really? Hyung, I thought you really liked the superhuman of the north. Why are you acting like this?”


    Junwoo’s innocent words made Lee Gun’s face turn red. He retorted, “Hey! I don’t like him!”


    “What? You said Stevens is the best. You started a scrapbook of his new articles, and you record all his appearances. You said the same thing yesterday.”


    “I…I didn’t do that!! I recorded it because you liked him!”


    “Uh. I don’t like him at all?”


    “What? Who do you like the best?”


    “You. I like you the best, Hyung.”


    Faced with his younger brother’sughter, Lee Gun decided to drop the subject. He took up his joystick once again.


    Junwoo had wanted toe to this game booth, but somehow, Lee Gun had started winning. He was on a seventy-game win streak.


    “Anyway, the witch of the east is the best! Her costume is the best.”


    Hugo put down his joystick as if Lee Gun wasn’t worth dealing with.


    “Anyway, the game was really fun. I’ll be sure to buy it when it is released, boss.”


    Lee Gun yfully whispered to his younger brother, “See, Junwoo? He is running away because he isn’t confident that he could win.”


    In the end, an angry Hugo rushed toward Gun.


    Beep!


    “Ahhhk!!”


    He pressed the button that turned off the power to Lee Gun’s station.


    Lee Gun’s game screen instantly reset, and he shed tears of blood. “Ahhk! That was my best record! I didn’t even get to save my name!”


    Hugo didn’t care. He snorted as he turned around.


    From a distance, he could hear Lee Gun saying, “That foreigner is acting like a bully” and other angry ramblings. However, Hugo ignored them.


    He didn’t even bother remembering Lee Gun’s face since it wasn’t as if they would ever meet again. Instead, he answered a call.


    “Ah, Noona. What’s going on? Shouldn’t you be busy at this time of day?”


    It was a call from New Zend.


    Hugo hade to a Korean university as he wanted to help out his grandmother in Korea. However, he got an ominous feeling when he received the sudden call.


    - Hugh. Have you tried contacting Grandpa?


    “Yes. I talked with him yesterday. Why? Grandpa is in Australia.”


    - Listen to me, Hugh. Grandpa’spany was attacked!


    “What?! Grandpa’spany?”


    - I’m not sure if the monsters did it or if it was something else… However, the loss of life and property was heavy. It was enough to endanger thepany''s existence.


    “…!”


    Hugo was shocked. It was to be expected since his grandfather’spany wasn’t small at all.


    Thepany wasrge enough that people in Australia knew its name.


    Hugo had heard that thepany had poured a lot of money into its defense and made thorough preparations. Apany of that magnitude was on an uncertain footing right now.


    ‘I thought monsters haven’t appeared in Australia yet.’


    This was why Hugo had nned on taking his Korean grandmother there. It was the reason he hade here.


    - Anyway, that isn’t important right now, Hugh. I can’t get in touch with Grandpa.


    “…!”


    - We want to hurry up and go check up on him, but there are too many patients here. I can’t go outside.


    “Patients areing in right now?”


    - Yes. We just had a terrorist attack.


    “…!”


    Hugo’s grandfather was a businessman, while his parents and his older sister were doctors at a university hospital.


    Hugo was the youngest son of a family of doctors. His family was also wealthy.


    ‘Of course, I don’t have any interest in following in their footsteps.’


    However, if it weren’t for the monsters, Hugo probably would have followed the path of his parents and siblings.


    - Hugh? Are you listening to me?


    “Alright. I’ll head over there.”


    - Wait a moment, Hugh!!


    Hugo immediately ended the call and headed toward the airport.


    ‘The world has changed because of the monsters.’


    Hugo dreamed of bing an author, so he grabbed his face at this unbelievable situation. Anyway, he just wished nothing bad had happened to his grandfather, but his hopes seemed to have been in vain.


    “What? What did you just say?”


    “I said there were no survivors.”


    He had rushed to his grandfather’spany, but he fell into despair when he reached it. He found out that the person he couldn’t contact would never return.


    The more shocking part was that his grandfather’s corpse couldn’t be located.


    “M-My god! What is that!!!”


    “The capital is gone.”


    Yes, parts of Canberra were nowhere to be seen. Buildings and people were missing. And an enormous holey where they used to be. It was as if someone had dug out the capital with a shovel. Half of the capital city was gone.


    The taxi driver shook from fear as he held onto the steering wheel. The road in front of him was gone.


    “W-What the hell? It wasn’t like this a minute ago…!!”


    In the end, people screamed as they exited their cars. They started running away as fast as they could. But…


    Koo-goo-goong!


    “Ahhhhhk!!!”


    The people screamed.


    Hugo also couldn’t keep himself upright when the sudden earthquake hit them.


    “What is going on…!”


    “Shit! Stop blocking the road. Get out of the way!!!” A man was about to push aside Hugo.


    Poo-hahk!!!


    “…!!”


    However, Hugo’s face turned pale when blood sshed on him from the side. The man who had been about to push him had been bisected. That wasn’t all.


    Kwahng! Kwahng!


    “Ahhhhk!!!”


    People screamed asrge orbs fell from the sky.


    The ck orbs encased the humans and turned them into clumps of meat.


    Kwah-jeek! Kwah-jeek!


    “Ahhhk! Help!!”


    Hugo sank to the ground.


    “Ah… Ah….”


    A monster was spitting out those orbs from the sky.


    [Kee-ehhhhhhk!]


    Hugo was sure of it. This monster had made the capital city like this.


    ‘The only ones who can defeat it are the three superhumans…!’


    Hugo wanted to call the police to ry this information to them when he heard a voice.


    “Hugh!”


    “!!!”


    Hugo was surprised by the familiar voice.


    “Noona!”


    It was his older sister, who was riding along with their parents.


    “Hugh! Hurry up and get in!”


    Hugo trembled as he clumsily got to his feet. “How… How did you know toe here—”


    Suddenly, Hugo vomited blood.


    “Kuh-huhk…!”


    A monster hiding under the surface had pierced through his stomach.


    Hugo’s older sister and parents got out of the car and ran toward him.


    “Hugh!!”


    Hugo screamed at them, “No! Hurry up and get out of here!”


    “!”


    As soon as he spoke, a ck orb fell from the sky. The sphere was falling on top of his family! Hugo couldn’t watch what happened next.


    Kwah-jeek!


    It was because a ck sphere had fallen on top of his head too.


    In the end, the bloodied Hugo shed tears.


    ‘I’m also going to die.’


    At that moment…


    [Oh. It seems you have the best face in this city.]


    “…?”


    [Alright. I choose you.]


    “…???”


    Hugo''s crappy life as a ve started at that instant.