For someone who had claimed to suffer as long as Han had, this was the first 'funeral' he had ever been to. It occurred to him that he'd made a closer friend in those few hours he had spent with Chul than he'd made all his life as a normal boy in Korea.
He wondered then; was he to make even more friends now that he was... abnormal? Was that the way of the world?
'What am I on about? Friends? Since when did I want friends?'
How easily humans lie, ever ready to protect themselves in the delusions of their minds. Still, in Han's heart of hearts, he could already feel the chill of loneliness creeping in.
Today, he could lie and say he did not need comrades. But what of tomorrow, and the day after that? What of the time when he would shed all semblance of his humanity and be left a human mind trapped in the shell of a bee? Alone, at the top of the tower, as Beelaques had mentioned. Would he say he needed no friends then?
Han's ponderings were brought to a halt as a darkness engulfed the lands out towards the horizon.
『Quest zone is expiring...』
『1 minute 30 seconds left.』
Han glanced over the notifications; his time of rest was nearing an end.
'So what's the plan now?' he thought to himself. He had come out of this quest both stronger and weaker at the same time.
To his benefit, he had acquired the Hive skill —the ability to conjure summons— and a powerful new body.
But simultaneously, he had lost a powerful comrade. And with this new form, he had likely lost any true chance he had at forming alliances with his fellow humans.
'That just means I'll have to compensate my losses with my wins,' he thought.
With the time remaining, his best bet was to try and better understand his new body. After all, his main goal was simple enough: gather information on the tower. And the best way of doing that was by going there himself.
And so, he stretched; slowly... carefully. Each bend of a limb was deliberate; his mind was used to controlling single pairs, and so the additional pair of arms was foreign to him, so he had to give them special care.
After around a minute of this, he came to two annoying conclusions.
The first was that his extra set of arms was essentially useless at this point. Try as he may, they barely reacted to his instruction. Whether this was because he had little practice with them or because something had gone wrong during his evolution was beyond him.
The second conclusion, and perhaps the most annoying, was that he could not fly. At least not truly.
His wings reacted to instruction, fluttering when he commanded them to, but he could achieve flight no better than a chicken could. At the very least, it gave him a few seconds of airtime and made him swifter in some of his movements.
However, he did not have the prenatal knowledge of actual flight; that was something he would have to learn over time.
With these two things still clinging to his mind, the field of flowers around him had more or less succumbed to the impending darkness. As the countdown notification reached zero, he closed his eyes.
'Please, no headaches this time.'
*
Han awoke —a sack of throbbing pain— tossed to the side of the road. It seemed even his new body did not make him immune to the pains of 'dimensional' travel.
He took a moment to gather himself, allowing the headache to subside as he got to his feet.
It was nighttime, and the moon's silver glow was the only source of light. But even that was faint, barely allowing him to make out his surroundings from the shadows they cast.
And what odd surroundings they were.
Trees, carved from rotting rosewood, had claimed the road; this line of almost-forest blocked his view of the houses on the other side. Vines like bleeding intestines strangled their trunks, vomiting orange pus into a river of filth that drained down the road towards other parts of the city.
The stench was sweet... sickly sweet, like honeyed rot.
'What the fuck is this?' he thought, scattering away from it.
He rubbed his aching head, staring at the shadows that lurked in between the trees. For a moment, he thought he saw a pair of eyes, but they were only the reflections of stolen moonlight bouncing off crystal leaves.
The scene was something out of an alien fantasy.
Where had they come from? Han had no clue.
His best guess was that this was a symptom of nighttime here in Apocalypse. One of the twisted fetishes that the Architect painted to keep its victims on edge.
After staring for a few silent breaths, Han decided it was best to ignore it. He had other things to think about.
'So where to now?' he thought.
He could head for the tower. However, Nolan had mentioned that travelling by foot was nearly impossible, what with the climate changing and the monsters growing closer one got to it.
'My best shot is to learn how to fly. I might be able to avoid unnecessary fighting that way,' he thought. But that only took care of one problem.
The tower was likely a prison to monsters beyond comprehension. If someone like Heron, level 294, had yet to conquer it, then he still had a ways to go.
But still, he had to try. If he could gather a few more summons and learn to control a larger number, then perhaps he would have a shot at conquering at least the first floor. Who knew, maybe he would get to level 294 faster than the almost 100 years it had taken Heron.
'Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. First, I need to find a place to rest and practice my flight,' he thought, turning around.
His eyes landed on the convenience store. 'I can probably close off the doors with shelves to keep monsters... and people from entering.'
Just then, a soft chime echoed.
Han snapped around, heart pounding. He knew, of course, the sound had come from his system, but something about the alien fuckery around him put him on edge.
He wasn't the sort who believed in ghosts, but anyone standing alone in a city eaten by rotting vines and unseen monsters was bound to whisper a prayer or two.
Slowly, he peeled his gaze from the trees and focused on the notifications.
『Quest: 'At your earliest convenience' complete!』
『Quest reward: 'Coffee machine' has been stored in inventory.』
Han raised a brow. 'Coffee machine? Great, just what I needed,' he thought sarcastically. 'Where will I even get electricity for this?'
While he looked over his inventory, one of the shadows on the edge of his vision twitched. Or at least he could've swore it did.
He froze.
'What the fuck was that?'
A few silent breaths passed, and nothing happened. He sighed before breaking out into laughter.
'Look at me, shivering like a little child scared of the dark.'
He looked back at his notifications screen.
'I'm the only monster out here.'
Well, he was half right. He was a monster, but he knew he wasn't the only one.
'Yeah, I'll stay in the convenience store for the night. Maybe I can get a few practi-'
Before he could finish the thought, something twitched on the edge of his view once again.
This time, he snapped around quickly.
Something was there. Something was hiding in those goddamn trees fucking with him.
"Queen's Gaze!" he shouted.
Golden light shot out of his eyes, bathing the area in a yellow hue.
Han's breath caught in his throat as he stared at the scene in front of him.
'You've got to be kidding me.'