While the tragedy was happening at the Gil Dong station, at Jirisan, a confrontation was happening.
Oh Chulgun, a.k.a. The Squidmaster, and Jung Saeryu, faced each other.
" How ?! " Chulgun was the one to make noise.
The same question rang in Saeryu's head.
They both were intelligent people. The answers formed in their heads before they could so much as assess the opposite person.
Who would know that an event dungeon occurs here, if not for the man who released information about the portals ?
Who else could know this place, if not for another reborn character ?
" Squidmaster ? " Saeryu asked.
" Regressor ? " Chulgun asked.
'F***! @#*&%&(*&)(&()*(*' Curses ran in their heads as they assessed the other person.
Chulgun had an office man's physique, but Saeryu could tell he possessed more gene mods than himself.
Saeryu had a soldier's physique. Chulgun could tell at a glance he is not an opponent to take on just because he loaded up on gene mods.
On top of that, all of Chulgun's gene mods are minor.
' The chances of me winning are … ' Saeryu thought.
' The chances of me winning are … ' Chulgun thought.
' Fifty-fifty. ' They both finished their thoughts at the same time.
It's utterly silly to get into a fight at this early phase. There's plenty to be accomplished as long as they go hard.
" Ah ! How about little brother yielding this dungeon to me ? I am sure there's no one at Hallasan portal right now. That is also a good mod. " Chulgun tried.
" Since big brother is so sure, how about big brother take on Hallasan ? I am sure this portal is too big for my big brother to swallow alone, even with all your … special traits. " Saeryu replied.
" Hey ! Don't be like that. How about this ? I will give you another location on top of the one at Hallasan. Here, let's connect ! " he extended his cellphone.
Despite the expansion, the cellphones are still working. It goes on to prove how many mountains they have and how densely their country is dotted with cellphone towers.
Saeryu checked the portal information sent by Squidmaster. It's eagle-eye, the trait he wanted so badly, but could not get in previous life.
" This alone is not enough to yield to big brother. " Saeryu said.
Chulgun's hands on his sword tightened. After all, he has shown his utter sincerity by giving the location of the darling genemod, one which was even rated higher than the portal they are fighting over.
The current portal contains black Monkey, when there were no known monkeys in the country, now or in the past. God knows why this portal opened in Korea.
This portal gave out a specific gene mod for soft bones, which when combined with his other mod floating muscles, could literally make him a rubber man like " Luffy ".
" However, it is enough to give big brother an hour of head start into the portal. If we meet again after an hour, I will consider brother a free game. " Saeryu warned.
Chulgun breathed out, relieved that Saeryu is not insisting on fighting with him today.
However, just from those words, he knew, the other side is probably a marksman. If he did not finish the dungeon within the relevant time, Saeryu could literally just pop-in and snipe him from any place.
Thus, Chulgun entered the portal, determined to finish it all within forty five minutes.
On the other hand, Saeryu rushed over to the hawk dungeon.
He had missed it in his last life.
Some mysterious man got it, and nobody knew who had the mod. Saeryu regretted nothing more than losing such a good ability tailored for him.
Just like that, a potential fight was avoided.
Three hours later, Saeryu crawled out of the eagle dungeon, one of his eye sockets was empty. Both his arms have flesh missing. His left arm hung limp, blood dripping off his left palm's fingers,
His right hand fingers are locked around a half moon dagger.
One look is enough to know it's more of a side effect of shock that his fingers are locked around the dagger rather than him actively holding it.
Squid master is not faring too well.
The entire portal is filled with rain forest like a jungle, full of dew drops, lush vegetation, and trees with far too many aerial roots. If Tarzan was here, he could move throughout the forest without his feet touching the ground. In some places, they were hanging, in other places, various creepers went up these aerial roots, creating the illusion of thousands of slender vine pillars holding up a green sky.
The monkeys are abundant in the cave. Ideally, as long as he threw the net, he should catch some.
Imagination is rich, while Reality is skinny.
The monkey's reaction speed is far greater than he expected.
Even if he throws a net around the baby monkeys, who are supposed to be slowest, they run away from the net before it unfurls.
Simply put, they are the BMW's who can go from 0 to 120 miles in a second.
He had a feeling they could dodge bullets real time just like matrix.
That's how fast these monkeys are.
Sometimes, he sees multiple after images, because his eyes could not keep up with the speed of the monkeys.
Chulgun is starting to wonder how in the world any one killed these monkeys in the first place.
He brought anesthetic spray, but in order to spray it, he needs to get within five meters of the beast, and they need to be exposed to the spray for at least a second.
A feat that he was unable to accomplish till now.
Fortunately, unlike the beasts outside, these monkeys did not actively attack those who entered the portal.
However, at this point, Chulgun's spidey senses tingle.
There is something distinctly wrong here, he could tell. Most of his genemods came from the Otters. When enough mods come from otters, a surprising bonus in terrain perception occurs. He had a feeling that he had moved around in a spiral, and was heading towards a center in a mage.
As the monkeys ran for one more time, instead of following, Chulgun stood stock still.
He slowly remembered the terrain he moved through. The sentries blocking the escape route.
The result of the analysis … he had been led into a trap.
He underestimated the event dungeon too much.
He retrieved both his twin sabers, and held them at the ready.
Then, without any indication, he started running out, choosing the shortest path to exit the portal.
At that moment, the mood in the portal changed.
The monkeys which were playing with him escaping the net all jumped back on to the vines, getting to a higher terrain.
On the contrary, few of the larger size monkeys emerged from god knows where.
They held onto the vines then jumped on him.
As they become airborne, they fold into themselves, making their body similar to a round ball. If a twenty or thirty kg round ball hit you in the back while you were running, what would happen to you ?
You will roll like a pin on a bowling alley, breaking at least one bone in your body.
The moment Chulgun chose to run, he increased all of his battle senses to the extreme.
His brain ran triple speed as he was running, analyzing the terrain.
'Damn ! these ape bas**rds are smart ' Chulgun cursed, as he realized the entire forest was a valley, despite looking like a flat ground.
On top of it, as the monkeys went down, they made him avoid all the traps in the jungle, such as jutting out deadwood, poisonous shrubs, etc. on his reverse journey, if he steps one foot off course, his life is forfeit.
While crossing over is this difficult, the other monkeys are actively attacking him by throwing their bodies at him.
All of their attacking directions threw him up in the air towards a jutting deadwood.
Chulgun realized with growing dread that these sharpened deadwoods are placed extremely thoughtfully, allowing for the death of any animal, from the size of a fox to the size of a mammoth.
This is not a black faced monkey, this is a bloody assassin monkey !
He needs to get out of here !
As fast as possible.
His brain is put to overdrive.
His years of experience is telling him he is in the worst sort of bind here. An animal which can plan ahead and arrange the terrain is not an enemy he wants to face without preparation.
His genemods are awesome, but they all come from killing minor beasts. Terrain perception of the otter is great, but his speed slows down as he uses the ability.
His extreme perception from rats is great, but his body could not respond in time to what his brain is telling him. On top of that, it comes with the debuff of debilitating fear.
' F**k ! ' he thought as the rhythm of two monkeys from left and three monkeys from right was broken all of a sudden.
He wanted to take the turn to avoid the monkey jumping for his jugular, but he knew .. he would not make it.
Even if he avoids it, the momentum takes him all too close to the sharpened log on the other side.
In the end, his chances of getting out alive … are zero.