The Second Coming of Gluttony - Chapter 9

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 9. Awakening (2)

[From: Guide]
[1. Escape the Gymnasium within the marked time and gather at the Main Building 2nd Floor Waiting Area]
[2. Time Remaining: 03:59:38]

Bang!
The metallic screech of the door giving way rings out again. No—rather, “giving way” would be the precise word; it would soon shatter entirely.
Bang! Bang!
It was hard to believe even witnessing it directly. Only two blows, and already the massive iron door bore a deep dent, while several thick hinges dangled precariously, threatening to tear free.
“Stop—hold it back!”
It was less a shout than a desperate wail.
Humans under threat of death move with remarkable speed. Starting with Lee Seol-ah, who bolted forward gripping a chair, nearly a dozen bodies surged toward the entrance.
Some hauled additional chairs over; others climbed onto the platform searching for anything heavy enough to serve as a blockade; the rest threw their own bodies against the door.
“Ugh!”
“Argh!”
Crash, crash. Under the furious, thunderous barrage, three or four bodies tumbled backward.
“Move aside!”
A group arrived just in time, hauling the teacher’s desk from the platform and ramming it against the door. It alone wouldn’t seal the entrance perfectly, but it was better than nothing.
Desks and chairs piled up in layers in an instant. With nearly twenty people pressing against it with a desperation born of survival, the door soon stabilized. Only after someone had the presence of mind to wedge a chair leg through the door handle as a makeshift lock could they finally catch their breath.
“Hah…”
Lee Seol-ah, who had been bracing the door with her back, sank down as dizziness overtook her.
Perhaps it was the sight of the slender girl’s frantic struggle that moved the middle-aged man; he wiped the sweat from his brow and spoke.
“That young lady is no ordinary person.”
He said this having witnessed her charge forward first. Indeed, several who had followed her lead nodded in agreement. If Lee Seol-ah hadn’t acted so swiftly, the door might well have been breached.
Lee Seol-ah, unsure how to respond, quietly lowered her gaze.
“It’s nothing…”
“I was frozen with fear, couldn’t move at all. When I saw you running, I jumped. By the time I came to my senses, I was running too.”
“We all helped together. I couldn’t have held them back alone.”
Lee Seol-ah’s embarrassed demeanor eased the tension that had gripped the group. Her refined appearance matched her gentle nature, and her status as an Invitee combined with her leadership moments ago made her presence a potent draw for the group’s favor.
Yet the warmth of such a moment could not take hold—what they had just experienced was far too shocking.
“What do we do now…”
The murmured sigh forced everyone to confront reality. Some cast expectant looks toward Lee Seol-ah, but even she had no obvious solution.
The Contractors’ eyes naturally shifted toward the Invitees.
Once the commotion subsided, Lee Seong-jin examined his mobile phone. Two additional messages had arrived beyond the Guide’s notice—a special gift: a copy of “A Student’s Diary.”

[From: Unknown]
[#Gymnasium (A Student’s Diary – Page 2)]
The Gymnasium has only one door. We managed to block it in a panic, but now we’ve sealed off our own exit.
Silence has settled outside.
Sadly, my classmates split into two camps.
Some wanted to wait longer; others wanted to escape…
As the argument intensified, we momentarily forgot about the presence outside.
We quickly realized that ‘it’ was no mere monster or zombie.

[#Gymnasium (A Student’s Diary – Page 3)]
Pandemonium. There’s no other word for it.
The door we’d so carefully barricaded became useless.
In the chaos, I barely managed to spot a ‘hole’.

‘A hole?’
When Lee Seong-jin looked up from the final line, he found himself already surrounded by a cluster of Contractors drawing closer.
“Wow, this is no joke right from the start. I got goosebumps on my arms.”
Gang Seok, rubbing his forearms, still appeared remarkably composed.
“Since the door’s blocked, which way do we go…”
Some looked to him with hope, expecting answers from his seemingly unflappable demeanor,
“Let’s go. We’ll scout around and see what we can find.”
But watching him leave with only Lee Hyeong-sik and Jung Min-woo left them all staring in stunned silence.
The shabbily dressed man who had praised Lee Seol-ah stepped forward hurriedly.
“Hey, you there.”
“Hyeong-sik, search around the podium. And Min-woo—”
“You! Over there!”
“…Me?”
Gang Seok answered a beat too late. It might have been a misunderstanding, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that the man had done it deliberately.
“What are you trying to do?”
“Ah… searching the gymnasium.”
“Searching the gymnasium?”
“Yes. Like those people over there.”
Gang Seok pointed at the podium, where Yun Seo-ra and Hyeon Sang-min were wandering about, their heads turning this way and that.
“What are you looking for?”
“No idea. Either way, the door’s sealed, so we have to find something. Just in case.”
“Right, yes. That’s the way to think.”
From nodding his head too vigorously, the man had to adjust his loose glasses.
“Then should we help too?”
“Huh?”
Gang Seok squinted.
“Why would you… Do what you want. I’m not the one telling people what to do.”
“That’s true, but. You three are, how should I put it. Anyway, you’re different from us, aren’t you? Right?”
“Different how, sure. So what are you trying to say?”
Gang Seok’s tone was blunt throughout—not unlike the Guide’s.
“What I’m saying is, let’s help each other.”
The man, swallowing hard, continued in a coaxing tone, but all he got back was a thin laugh.
“I’ll have to decline. Too many people makes things annoying. I hate that.”
“Annoying?”
“Forget it. We’ll do our own thing. We’ll move separately.”
Gang Seok turned and walked away without hesitation. The middle-aged man bristled—*this* kid!—but Gang Seok didn’t spare him a glance.
“Pathetic bastard.”
His footsteps stopped. Gang Seok looked up at the ceiling for a moment, then exhaled a long breath and turned back. A woman sitting with her knees drawn up was staring at him with venom in her eyes.
“What did you just say?”
“Selfish bastard. Like you’re the only one who gets to survive.”
“What… that’s not it? I’m trying to survive with these two.”
Gang Seok linked arms with the two men and slouched, and Shin Sang-ah’s glare became even sharper.
“Look at those eyes. You’re about ready to kill someone.”
“Hey, isn’t that the kid who was crying about a bag earlier?”
Lee Hyeong-sik and Jung Min-woo snickered. A meddling sister-in-law was worse than a nagging mother-in-law, the saying went.
“Do you not see the people here? There are women, and children too?”
“I see them. See them just fine. My eyesight’s perfect.”
Shin Sang-ah spoke sharply, but Gang Seok didn’t blink.
“You… in a situation like this, you three are just going to save yourselves?”
“There are only three of us. What do you expect?”
“That’s why we said we’d help!”
“I swear. Is your comprehension really that bad? We don’t need your help, and we don’t want it either. Why do you keep trying to dump your burden on us?”
“Burden?”
“Yeah, you deadweights. I can see right through you—you’re trying to cling to us. Get lost.”
Shin Sang-ah’s mouth fell open as if she couldn’t believe her ears.
“Are you… even human?”
“Funny. Are you a parasite, maybe?”
As Gang Seok kept needling her, Shin Sang-ah’s rage finally erupted. She rose to her feet as if to slap him. Gang Seok smirked and unlinked his arms from his companions.
In that razor’s-edge moment, a girl with long hair burst between them, her hair flying. The one who had thrown herself between them was Lee Seol-ah.
“Stop it, please!”
Shin Sang-ah whipped her head around, her clenched fists trembling. Gang Seok simply shook his head.
“Why are you fighting when we can barely afford to stand divided!”
“Stand divided? What are you talking about.”
Gang Seok said flatly.
“The three of us met back on Earth, and we’ve already made all our plans coming in.”
“But—”
“But nothing. If you were an Invitee, you’d know.”
Gang Seok let out a short laugh and extended his hand toward Lee Seol-ah.
“Don’t be like that, Seol-ah. Come with us instead. Lee Seong-jin, was it? We’ll take your brother too.”
“…Why are you accepting me, then?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Because you’ll be useful.”
“You really are a cruel person.”
Lee Seol-ah spoke with visible effort, her expression growing melancholy.
“I thought you were good…”
Gang Seok shrugged, then raised his hand sharply.
“Hey! What about that one over there?”
The one in question was a young man standing some distance away, perfectly motionless.
Set.
“Don’t you want to wrap up this Tutorial nonsense and move on? I think we could make it possible if you joined us.”
The optics were a bit ridiculous, but that didn’t matter.
The value of Set at this moment couldn’t be overstated.
A man the Guide himself didn’t dare treat carelessly.
Something exceptional about him.
“Please help us!”
Lee Seol-ah cried out as well.
“Please help us! Don’t abandon these people!”
Set, suddenly the center of attention, felt deeply uncomfortable.
Gang Seok and Lee Seol-ah.
Invitee and Contractor.
One appealed to self-interest; the other to emotion.
Before he could choose, his Ability activated reflexively. The entire Gymnasium flooded with light.
‘What?’
Set felt a momentary illusion of drowning in blood.
No—not an illusion. The entrance door, which had been crimson, shifted to emerald. Gang Seok was yellow. Lee Seol-ah’s color was invisible.
But the colors ceased to matter. The entire floor was drowning in red—a scarlet sea of blood.
‘Withdrawal Recommendation.’
The moment the thought crossed his mind, Set’s head rang with a violent alarm.
Boom!
The gymnasium floor convulsed. The old wooden boards buckled upward. Everyone standing lurched and staggered, their feet slipping out from under them as if dancing.
“What—what is this?”
“An earthquake?”
That interpretation was far too naive.
What came next happened in an instant.
Crack! The floor exploded open. Through the rupture surged a single rotting, elongated arm. At its tip dangled six curved hooks.
Arcing sharply downward, that limb seized Lee Seol-ah’s hair as she stood frozen and dragged her screaming back into the hole.
“Ahhhhh!”
Her head struck hard against the floor and tumbled into the gap like a golf ball disappearing into a cup.
“Sister!”
Lee Seong-jin lunged forward, grabbing at his sister’s thrashing calves.
“Help me!”
Roused by his screams, the others rushed toward him, piling on. Shoes flew off in a dozen hands; socks were torn away. Someone managed to grip an ankle, and a terrible game of tug-of-war began, with Lee Seol-ah as the rope, everyone pulling from above.
“Hold on! Don’t let go!”
“Pull! Pull her up!”
The gymnasium became a maelstrom of chaos. Shouts and screams filled the air as everyone strained with every ounce of strength.
Nearly a dozen people had rushed to help, yet Lee Seol-ah wouldn’t budge. Whatever gripped her from below pulled with such savagery that the arms holding her lower half thrashed violently, knuckles whitening.
“Ahhhhh!”
“Don’t let her go!”
Then it happened.
Crack-crack-crack-crack-crack!
It was unmistakably Lee Seol-ah’s voice, yet the sound that pierced the air was inhuman—a shriek that couldn’t have come from her throat.
Splash!
From the hole erupted a vivid red spray. Like a blender overflowing with tomatoes, pulp and juice spraying in all directions—blood gushed upward in a small, terrible fountain.
“Sister! Sister!”
The calves that had been windmilling suddenly went rigid, angled straight down. All ten toes flexed inward at once. Thighs trembled violently. Then, like a puppet with severed strings, knees buckled with a sickening snap that traveled through their hands.
A man landed hard on his backside, his eyes squinting as he stared at his palms.
He was holding a slender ankle. Above it, a calf with its smooth curve and a bloodstained blue skirt.
Beyond that, nothing remained connected. Only the remains of mangled organs spread across the blood-soaked floor.
And.
“Huh….”
A single silhouette slowly rising from the hole.
“Huh-aah….”
Long, matted hair caked with flesh and blood.
“Huh-aah-aah….”
A head four times the size of an adult man’s, and enormous eyes that consumed half its face.
“Huh-aah-aah-aah-aah-aah!”
The middle-aged man could bear no more. He bolted to his feet and ran for his life, no thought of direction—only the frantic need to flee, to put distance between himself and that thing.
Pandemonium.
There was no other word for it.
People seized by terror at the grotesque, unspeakable visage scattered in every direction, screaming, collapsing over one another.
‘…Consciousness…’
Lee Seol-ah snapped back to awareness and realized she was already running toward the exit.
‘Why…’
Sound should have been deafening, but the noise around her faded to a distant murmur, and everything slowed. Impossibly slowed.
People yanking chairs aside and shoving the teacher’s desk out of the way. The Monster, now fully revealed, descending like a spider on elongated limbs. All of it registered in her vision at half speed.
Each moment unfolded before her eyes as if caught in slow motion.
‘Why…’
Breathing became difficult. Sweat dripped from her eyes like watercolor, blurring her vision.
‘Why…’
How many had died? Her feet felt slick. Sticky. Her body grew heavier, her running speed flagging. It was sloppy—limbs flailing as if she were wading through invisible depths.
In the end, Lee Seol-ah stopped dead. Only a few steps short of the exit.
Her breath came in a sharp gasp. She could hear herself exhaling, and a breeze from the open doorway swept across her overheated body, bringing a moment of clarity. Her heart thundered in her chest.
She understood perfectly well how stupid and dangerous it was to ignore the Withdrawal Recommendation. She should flee now, while she still could.
But.
‘Why… am I so calm?’
The acrid air stung her nostrils. Her body burned. Her temples spun with a familiar vertigo. The dreamlike haze that had clouded her mind lifted, and her surroundings snapped into sharp focus.
Crunch, crunch. The Monster, still feasting on its macabre banquet, suddenly jerked its head. It swiveled like a second hand, then locked its gaze on the human standing before the entrance. It surged forward on all fours.
Kee-hik?
It tilted its head at her stillness, then extended its neck. Before consuming its prey, it lingered, savoring the details with a predatory gaze.
Something brushed her cheek. A reek so repugnant it turned the stomach.
Yet it felt oddly familiar. The scent was one she knew.
Her senses, sharper than ever before, picked up every detail. She cracked open her eyes and found herself staring into vertical pupils set deep within irises of crimson red, burning with malice. In that instant, as her gaze met the gleam of those murderous eyes,
“…….”
A smooth, graceful smile spread across Lee Seol-ah’s lips.
Kee! The Monster suddenly recoiled, yanking its neck back.
Still with eyes barely open, Lee Seol-ah lightly kicked a broken chair leg near the entrance.
To stand and fight, or to flee with her back turned.
The answer was already decided.
Her dreaming self was telling her.
That a creature like this was nothing. Hadn’t she crossed far deadlier thresholds before?
Even the self she had been—before losing her Ability to gambling—whispered the same.
This was the moment to gamble everything.
Whirr—her hand snapped out and caught the chair leg spinning through the air. It fit her grip as if made for it.
She gripped it not like a chair leg, but like a spear, and planted her stance.
Moments later.
Lee Seol-ah’s eyes snapped wide open.

(To be continued in the next episode)

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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