"Cough!"
He vomited a handful of black blood.
Oddly enough, he felt clearer-headed than before.
'Is this some kind of last burst of strength before death?'
With death approaching, he found himself thinking such nonsensical thoughts.
Even stranger, he heard a peculiar voice ringing in his ears.
Perhaps he wasn't in his right mind due to the shock and fear.
'I can still hear it...'
[Converting power to nano healing factor.]
[Warning! Unable to locate connected power source.]
[Searching for alternative energy.]
[Found alternative energy within the user's body.]
[Commencing emergency treatment due to critical condition.]
In that instant, he felt the tiny amount of mana he had at zero level being consumed rapidly.
And then...
Crack! Crack!
His broken bones set themselves, and the wound in his abdomen, which had seemed like it would burst any moment, healed instantly.
"What, what is this...?"
A female voice, seemingly created by electronic sounds, echoed in his ears.
Was it not a hallucination?
[Of course not, Master.]
Amazingly, the voice seemed to read his thoughts and respond.
[Warning! An RS-type bio-weapon will attack in approximately 5 seconds. 3 seconds, 2 seconds...]
"Whoa!"
There was no time to check what had happened. As soon as the warning came, he jumped to the side.
And just as the voice had warned, the monster lunged at the spot where Hyeon Su-ho had been standing.
Thud!!
[Screech!]
He barely dodged the attack.
The voice spoke again.
[The monster is newly born and may flee. Survival probability is about 37%.]
"Damn it!!"
As soon as he heard that, he reflexively stood up.
As the voice said, the monster's movements were somewhat awkward.
It was like a giraffe that had just been born.
However, with each passing second, the monster seemed to be adapting to its movements.
Hyeon Su-ho ran towards the room where the expedition team was without looking back.
Thud, thud, thud!!
He gritted his teeth and ran.
He couldn't remember the last time he had run at full speed like this.
He was so desperate that his arms and legs were almost in a tangle. Despite doing his best, he felt as slow as a snail.
Then the voice spoke again.
[Detected acidic fluid attack. Evade to the side in exactly 3 seconds. 3 seconds, 2 seconds...]
He felt a chill down his spine at the voice's warning.
He was so tense he could hardly breathe.
He had prided himself on having faced many dangerous expeditions over the past seven years, but never had he been this close to death.
However...
"I'm not going to die!"
The voice had said 'exactly' 3 seconds.
He resisted the urge to dodge a second earlier and rolled to the side at the precise moment.
"Now!"
Tap!
The green saliva the monster spat barely missed his back.
No, a few drops seemed to have landed on his clothes.
Sizzle!
Even his cheap monster-skin leather armor melted instantly.
If not for the armor, his body would have melted instead.
"Ugh!"
He threw off the half-melted armor and reached the door, frantically pressing the button.
Thud, thud, thud!
"Damn it! Open up already...!"
Whirr!
As soon as the door opened, he jumped inside.
He turned around to look...
"Huh, it's gone?"
The monster was nowhere to be seen.
"Huff! Huff!"
Relief was short-lived.
As a thought crossed his mind, he ran madly.
"This is bad!"
The expedition team was still resting peacefully, unaware of anything.
When Hyeon Su-ho shouted loudly, a few people glanced at him, but no one got up.
'I need to find Jin Seo-yeon...'
Fortunately or unfortunately, his appearance was so disheveled that it drew attention.
He was still drenched in cold sweat from head to toe.
"What's that now?"
"Isn't that the repair guy from earlier? Why does he look like that? Did he have a nightmare?"
Some laughed, unaware of the situation, but Hyeon Su-ho didn't care and desperately searched for Jin Seo-yeon.
"Captain! I need to see the expedition captain..."
If it had been a typical expedition, they might have dismissed a support member's words.
Or they might have listened too late.
Fortunately, Jin Seo-yeon was different.
"What happened?"
Jin Seo-yeon and Hong Chang-shik approached with concerned looks.
"Why are you sweating so much... Are you okay?"
It was rare for an expedition captain to show such concern for a support member.
But that wasn't important right now.
"This is serious! The monster here is an infection type!"
"Infection? Explain in detail."
Jin Seo-yeon was shocked by Hyeon Su-ho's words.
Even among monsters, infection types were on a different level of danger.
The story of an expedition, including rankers, being almost wiped out by a zombie virus was well known.
This monster was a hundred times more dangerous than zombies.
"Just a scratch on the palm made me a host for the monster! We need to hurry! There could be infected among those with even minor wounds!"
He tried to explain as clearly as possible despite his panic.
Fortunately, Jin Seo-yeon and Hong Chang-shik understood immediately.
"Guys!"
"Healer! Where's the healer?!"
The hunters who had laughed at Hyeon Su-ho when he ran in now realized something was wrong as Jin Seo-yeon and Hong Chang-shik shouted seriously.
One person among those sitting in a circle raised their hand and spoke.
"I am the healer."
"Check anyone who has been injured, even slightly."
"Oh… yes."
Among those sitting and talking, there was someone who had been injured. They had a minor wound on their thigh from the monster's attack. The injury wasn't severe, so the healing skill hadn't been used.
The healer approached with a doubtful expression and used their skill.
"Heal!"
A warm energy enveloped the hunter's body. However, contrary to expectations, there was no reaction.
"What's this? I'm perfectly fine."
Everyone shot accusatory looks at Hyeon Su-ho, as if they had been worried for nothing. Jin Seo-yeon and Hong Chang-sik also looked puzzled.
But Hyeon Su-ho didn't back down and spoke again.
"Don't you have a skill for curing status ailments, not just healing wounds?"
"Oh!"
The healer clapped their hands in realization and used another skill.
"Cure!"
A warm light enveloped the hunter's body again. This time, the reaction was different. The treated hunter suddenly screamed in pain.
"Argh!"
The male hunter who had been healed grabbed his stomach and collapsed, retching violently.
"Ugh! Ugh!"
After several heaves, something finally came out of his mouth.
"Bleeegh!"
What he spat out wasn't his lunch, but a wriggling monster.
Everyone watching was horrified.
"Ahh!"
"It's a monster! A real monster…!"
The creature was about 20 cm long. Thankfully, it was much smaller than the one inside Park Kwang-yeol.
Thinking back, Park Kwang-yeol was the first to be injured. It seemed the creature grew rapidly inside its host.
The group went into a frenzy upon seeing the monster.
"Hurry! Treat anyone with even a minor injury!"
Vomiting sounds began to echo from various places.
Most people managed to expel the dead monsters, but for a few, it was too late.
As soon as the healing magic was cast, the monsters burst out of their abdomens.
[Keek!]
"Aaagh!!"
Some creatures were almost a meter long.
"Ahh! It's a monster!"
"Dammit! Die!"
The newborn creatures could barely move. The hunters easily took them down, but the hosts didn't fare as well.
"They're dead."
"Can you save them?"
"I'm a healer, not a god! Do you expect me to resurrect shredded corpses?"
No matter how skilled the healer, reviving mangled bodies was impossible.
Three hunters died almost instantly.
Jin Seo-yeon, with a grim expression, bit her lower lip hard and then bowed to Hyeon Su-ho.
"Thank you. Because of you, we could minimize the damage."
If it weren't for Hyeon Su-ho's warning, the casualties wouldn't have been just three; it could've been everyone infected.
Over twenty hunters had been injured.
Imagining all those hunters dying made Jin Seo-yeon's head spin.
But there was no time to relax.
Hyeon Su-ho, still with a hardened expression, spoke.
"As you saw, the creatures eat their hosts and grow rapidly. The ones we saw earlier are just juveniles."
"Is that… a problem?"
"Remember the aliens' bodies we saw earlier? They were all eaten from the inside, right? Where are the creatures that grew from them?"
"Oh!"
Jin Seo-yeon finally understood his point.
There were at least hundreds of alien corpses.
The creatures that grew from them would have grown to over a meter by now.
So, where were those creatures now?
Hyeon Su-ho spoke again.
"Despite their appearance, these creatures are intelligent. They might be watching us right now. Probably… from places like that!"
He pointed to the ceiling.
Throughout the spaceship, there were ventilation ducts at least a meter wide.
"No way…!"
"If they realize we've dealt with the parasites, they won't wait any longer. We need to clear the quest quickly."
Hyeon Su-ho's words flowed like he was reading from a script.
The reason for his newfound eloquence after being paralyzed by fear of death just moments ago was the voice in his head explaining everything about the monsters.
And it didn't forget to warn him.
[Estimated time until the creatures' attack: 2 minutes 24 seconds. Evacuation is advised.]
He still didn't know who the owner of this voice was or how it provided such detailed information.
The miraculous healing of his fatal wounds and the precise briefing on the monsters' movements were just too much to comprehend now.
"We must move without rest!"
Hyeon Su-ho's urgency prompted quick action from Jin Seo-yeon.
"Everyone, get into formation! We are moving out immediately!"
Having witnessed the horror, the group started to move quickly.
The spaceship was vast, and they still had a long way to go to reach the command center.
Once ready, they began to move swiftly.
"Move! Move!"
After a few minutes, the lead member touched the door to the next room, but there was a problem.
"Ah!"
The electronic door, which should have opened automatically, was corroded and broken.
The issue was that the acid that corroded the door was still fresh.
The dripping, sticky acid continued to corrode the metal, filling the air with a sharp, acrid smell.
[Hissss!]
It was clear that the creatures had intentionally spewed acid to disable the door.
This meant the creatures understood how the automatic doors worked and had trapped the hunters deliberately.
"The creatures are coming!"
Someone shouted, and looking up at the ceiling, they saw monsters pouring out of the vents.
These weren't the small ones they'd seen initially, but fully grown monsters over 1 meter tall. Some were even over 2 meters.
The biggest problem was the monsters ambushing them from the vent directly above.
They quickly crawled out of the vent and hung from the ceiling at regular intervals before simultaneously dropping down.
It was a strategic attack.
Clear evidence that they could communicate.
[Keek!]
"Aaaah!!"
The hunters looked like they were about to be overwhelmed by the sudden attack from the falling monsters.
Even if they tried to intercept them mid-air, the monsters' blood was a potent acid. If they got covered in it, their bodies would melt.
In this impossible situation, thankfully, there was a ranker in the party, a fireballer.
While everyone else was panicking, Hong Chang-sik calmly reached out his hand towards the sky.
"Fire Storm!"
The flames that started swirling in his palm quickly began to spin in a spiral.
Wiiiiing!
The fire, spinning like a top, turned into a spherical shape. After momentarily compressing, it rapidly expanded, erupting upwards.
Boom!
A massive firestorm shot up like an inverted waterfall.
The falling monsters vanished as if they had been erased by an eraser the moment they touched the flames.
"...!!"
There was no time to even scream.
Even the hunters who were not directly affected by the flames had to turn their heads away from the intense heat.
"Grit!"
The intense fire, which seemed like it would pierce through the spaceship, disappeared without a trace as if it was a lie.
When the hunters looked up again, nothing remained.
The fierce flames had vaporized even the monsters' bodily fluids without leaving a single drop.
This was the power of a ranker within the top thousand in the world.
The hunters, who witnessed this power, were so amazed that they forgot the urgent situation and stared with their mouths agape.
"Wow! That's insane."
"Is this the power of level 8?"
Unlike the other astonished hunters, Jin Seo-yeon thankfully did not forget the situation.
"Repairman! Fix the door quickly!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
While the monsters on the ceiling had been eliminated by Hong Chang-sik's magic, there were still monsters swarming from behind.
No matter how powerful Hong Chang-sik was, his mana had limits.
They had to get out of there quickly.
At Jin Seo-yeon's command, not Hyeon Su-ho but a nearby repairman stepped forward.
Sometimes, repairmen had to fix not just hunters' equipment but also structures required for quests.
"Repair!"
The repairman calmly used his skill on the corroded door.
They needed to repair it quickly and get out, but for some reason, he turned around with a troubled expression.
"It's impossible. I can't fix this with my skill."
Just as not all injuries and diseases could be healed with a healing skill, not everything could be repaired with a repair skill.
The complex and advanced technology of the spaceship couldn't be fixed with hunters' skills.
Then a hunter wielding a huge axe stepped forward.
"I'll break it down!"
Without waiting for an answer, he swung his axe at the door with all his might.
"Smash!!"
It wasn't just a regular attack; it was a skill-infused strike.
A force that could split a boulder in half was put into it, but...
Clang!
Surprisingly, the door remained intact. It didn't even dent, let alone break.
Instead, the hunter who swung the axe dropped it in pain from the recoil.
Clang.
"Ugh!"
Seeing this, Hong Chang-sik shouted.
"It's an alloy that even my flames couldn't melt. The acid from the monster is unusual!"
Even Hong Chang-sik said he couldn't melt it with his power.
While everyone was perplexed, Hyeon Su-ho stepped forward.
"I'll give it a try."
The monsters and hunters were already clashing behind them.
Seeing the endless swarm of monsters, it was clear that any more delay would increase casualties.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Hyeon Su-ho approached the door.
"Restore!"
The repair skill of the EX-grade job that consumed a lot of mana.
He had often cursed it, but fortunately, it was useful this time.
When the skill was activated, the corroded door was restored as if nothing had happened.
Weeeing!
"It's done!"
Jin Seo-yeon shouted joyfully as she saw the door open.
"Alright! Everyone, move calmly!"
Hong Chang-sik, seeing the door open, poured out his mana again to incinerate the approaching monsters.
Fwoosh!
The overwhelming firepower seemed to instill fear in the monsters, causing them to hesitate.
In that gap, the group managed to move through the door.
"Let's move quickly before they catch up!"
Just when it seemed like they could reach the captain's quarters, a voice in Hyeon Su-ho's head spoiled it.
[The probability of safely accomplishing the objective is 12.4%, Master.]
Startled, Hyeon Su-ho responded inwardly.
'What? Is that all? Isn't something wrong?'
[My margin of error is within 0.001%. You must trust me fully, Master.]
What to do now?
Should he inform Jin Seo-yeon and Hong Chang-sik?
Even if he did, wouldn't they think he was crazy for hearing a voice in his head?
Luckily, the voice spoke again.
[There's an item in the next room that will increase the success rate by 24%.]
As soon as the voice finished, a translucent image appeared before his eyes.
'A hologram? A gun?'
The item that appeared was a sleek gun that seemed straight out of a sci-fi movie.
There was no visible barrel on the gun.