Hiro, Liberty, Nichesz, Spyro, and Monica walked through the ruins that had been the walls of the Underworld City. They walked close to each other while keeping an eye on their surroundings.


    They really didn’t know if something they never imagined was waiting for them secretly behind the ruins of that building.


    “It’s too quiet. It just gives me goosebumps,” Liberty muttered as she tried to lean on Hiro’s shoulders while repeatedly ring at Nichesz with mocking eyes. She still couldn’t ept Nicheszing with them because of what the girl had done to Hiro.


    “Ssst!”


    Hiro heard a faint rustling sound. The voice came right after Liberty said that the atmosphere in that ce was strange. Out of curiosity, he approached the source of the rustling sound that had been recorded in his head. In front of him now towered a pile of ruins that looked like a hill as if most of the rubbles of the ruined city had been moved to that ce.


    “Mmm Hiro, I have a bad feeling. Shouldn’t we just go straight to the tower you’re aiming for?” Liberty pulled Hiro’s hand from behind. The girl was very sensitive to her surroundings, and right now she could feel the dread surrounding her. And, whatever Liberty predicted was usually true.


    Suddenly, the pile of the ruined building in all directions moved at once. They came from all the dozens of points. The rubbles were pushed from below as if there was a giant cockroach hidden under the pile, trying to get out.


    Hiro didn’t run. His legs just walked backwards when he realized that something familiar appeared from under the ruins of the building. However, even though he firmly believed that he had seen the forms of some of them, right now … he couldn’t recognize any of them.


    Dozens of NPCs with demon bloodlines emerged from the pile of ruined buildings. Their bodies were covered with wounds, and their skin darkened like rot from the inside. Some of them had horns that were broken or partially missing while leaving blood that was still pouring out profusely.


    Not only were their appearances far different from what Hiro remembered, but the foul smell that suddenly filled the air in the ce made him want to spit out his stomach.


    “Oh, no! My nightmares, Zombies!” Liberty’s voice trembled when she said that. It seemed the girl had a certain fear of the sci-fi creature.


    This time, Hiro agreed with the term called by Liberty. The demon NPCs who were supposed to be the guardians of the Underworld City did look like zombies right now. They walked in strange footsteps. Their bodies gave off a foul odor, and their gazes were nk. In fact, it seemed that most of them were already blind. Not because their eyes were loose or stuck in the rubbles, but because of something imnted in their bodies.


    Growl!


    They began to utter meaningless growling sounds. The NPCs who appeared close to each other suddenly pushed one another, causing not a few of them to fall down from the hill of the ruined buildings and break their bones. Even so, no one was killed by the incident.


    “Hiro, we have to run,” cried Liberty with a choked voice. She didn’t dare to raise her weapon this time because the monsters she had to face were one of her nightmares.


    “Run!” Hiro eximed without thinking.


    However, it was toote. He should have run a long time ago. Because this time, two hands suddenly appeared from the ground beneath his feet and gripped his ankles.


    “Arghhh!”


    Liberty screamed as three dirty, half-rotten hands with blood still perfectly attached suddenly grabbed her legs and tried to pull her down.


    St!!


    Hiro cut off the hand that was gripping Liberty’s leg first. “Run! Libe!”


    Liberty nodded and ran away, while Hiro was being pulled to his knees on the ground as more and more hands appeared from underground. “Damn!”


    “I’ll go with her!” Ace, who was still recing Monica’s AI brain, immediately ran after Liberty and ignored Hiro who was still trapped there. Nichesz had run without even being ordered. She followed Liberty’s footsteps because the girl didn’t seem to be able to run as fast as Liberty.


    [Night Bombing]


    Boom! Boom! Boom!


    Five ck mes shot out from Spyro’s mouth, burning the hands holding Hiro’s legs and causing them to squirm, like they were in pain.


    St!


    Hiro cut off the hands that were holding him in one sh and then stood up. “Thanks, Alice.”


    However, now the two of them were trapped. The NPCs who had turned into zombies had already advanced to surround them. When they opened their mouths to growl or just make scary sounds, it was not saliva that came out of their mouths but rotting and ck blood.


    “That’s so disgusting.”


    St!


    Hiro shed the NPCs’ head without a second thought due to the close range and what they had just done. Their heads were cut off just like that, but the one thing that made Hiro feel something bading was… they didn’t issue a health point bar. Not even information about new monsters existed, as if they hadn’t been registered.


    And Hiro’s fear was proven when the heads of the NPCs that had been cut off and fallen under his feet suddenly floated into the air. They moved towards their body and rejoined with it perfectly.


    [Warning!]


    [Immortal Object]


    This time, a notification popped up. However, it wasn’t a notification that Hiro wanted to see.


    “Damn.”


    Crash! Boom!


    [Health -15,000]


    “Ugh! That hurts!”


    A ck fireball suddenly hit Hiro’s back from behind,ing so quietly that he didn’t even notice it. Ambush attack. And the iing damage was sorge that it felt quite painful.


    Groaa!


    St! St!


    Hiro immediately shed down the zombie who was now very close to him because he was pushed by the fireball. As Hiro looked towards the source of the fireball, he saw a silhouette he recognized as NPC Lucille, the NPC who served as a Chief for the Halfblood Demon Student Council. He was right. The woman even carried the exact same type of weapon, even though the fireball didn’te from there.


    “What is NPC Lucille doing here? Shouldn’t she be at the academy?”


    Lucille raised her left hand again, and a ck ball of fire appeared there, from the size of a marble, growing to the size of a basketball before being fired at Hiro.


    Whoosh!


    Hiro dodged it quickly.


    Boom! Kabooom!


    The fireball blew up dozens of other NPCs who couldn’t dodge the attack. However, even though their bodies had been shattered to the point that their organs had popped out, they were back in shape again in a matter of seconds like disassembly.


    “Hiro, we should run!”


    Hiro was about to search for a gap to escape. But, the sound of the heavy engine charging at him suddenly sounded in his ears. And the source was a giant Gatling gun machine, which has been activated right now. NPC Lucille had pointed it at Hiro.