“She Could Control Everything.”
Silence hung over the crowd for three seconds.
Then, everyone who had been patiently lining up completely lost control, surging toward the steel gates in a mad stampede.
“Civilians into the shelter first!”
“Aim and fire! Hold your positions! Cover the civilians’ retreat!”
The commanding officer barked out his orders.
At first, under the concentrated barrage of gunfire, the fish-scale monster was unable to get close.
But it quickly seemed to realize that the people holding those black weapons were difficult prey.
Its gaze shifted instead to the panicked civilians fleeing in every direction.
With several powerful leaps through the air, it lashed out its long proboscis, instantly snaring a terrified man who had been trying to escape.
Before he could even scream, he was reduced to a shriveled husk.
Wendy had kept her eyes fixed on the fish-scale monster that the little girl had become.
Seeing this, her expression darkened.
This monster was far stronger than the ones they had encountered downtown.
The fish-scale monsters in the city center could only crawl on all fours like crocodiles.
None of them had developed such a long feeding proboscis.
Is it because it drank human blood?
The little girl had devoured both her mother and several soldiers immediately after completing her mutation.
That was why she had evolved so dramatically in such a short time.
The man had been trying to squeeze into the shelter when he was caught.
The entrance was already packed shoulder to shoulder with desperate people.
Everyone pushed against everyone else.
No one was willing to give way.
Then, in the blink of an eye, the monster’s proboscis yanked the man into the air.
The people nearby froze for an instant.
Then panic completely erupted.
No one listened to the officer’s commands anymore.
Everyone shoved wildly toward the entrance.
The orderly evacuation dissolved into utter chaos.
Amid the crush of bodies, Wendy’s group was split apart.
Tong Yang and Tong Yu were forced inside the gate.
Wendy and Yu Wan were shoved back outside.
“Mom! Wendy!”
Tong Yu turned around and screamed anxiously.
She struggled desperately, trying to pull them back.
Beside her, Tong Yang fought to carve out a small pocket of space, preventing her from being knocked down by the frenzied crowd.
But in the face of death, reason had vanished.
Swept along by the stampeding masses, Tong Yang could only watch helplessly as his wife and student were pushed farther and farther away.
Eventually, they were forced completely outside the crowd…
Exposed to the monster’s attack.
Those left behind desperately tried to force their way forward.
During the pushing and shoving, Yu Wan was knocked to the ground.
Seeing people about to trample her, Wendy reacted instantly and yanked her back to her feet.
Even so…
Yu Wan twisted her ankle.
“Everyone retreat! Move!”
Following the command, the soldiers continued firing while withdrawing in an organized retreat.
One young soldier noticed a middle-aged man collapsed on the ground, pleading silently for help.
Without thinking, he lowered his rifle to help the man up.
That single moment of hesitation…
Was immediately seized upon by the heavily wounded fish-scale monster.
Ignoring the bullets tearing into its body, it lunged forward at incredible speed.
Its feeding proboscis pierced straight into the young soldier’s chest.
Within only one or two seconds…
The young soldier became nothing more than a dried corpse.
A few drops of blood splattered onto the middle-aged man’s face.
Before he could even scream—
Splurt!
A huge, translucent, mucus-covered proboscis shot through his abdomen.
“Close the gate!”
Watching the heavily wounded monster rapidly regenerate after draining two more victims, the commanding officer’s pupils shrank.
He shouted toward the soldier holding the gate controls.
The soldier glanced at the several injured evacuees lying outside the gate, unable to make it inside after being trampled.
Closing his eyes to hide the pain in them…
He finally pressed the control button.
Seeing the gate beginning to descend, Wendy immediately supported Yu Wan and ran toward it.
But Yu Wan’s injured ankle slowed them considerably.
At the same time…
Having finished feeding on the middle-aged man…
The fish-scale monster turned its attention toward them.
Wendy sensed the sudden change in the airflow behind her.
A wave of foul, fishy stench rushed toward her.
She tightened her grip on the cleaver.
Spun around.
And swung with all her strength.
The incoming proboscis was slashed open with a deep wound.
Dark green blood gushed out.
The monster shrieked in pain and instantly withdrew its feeding organ.
Taking advantage of that brief opening, Wendy shoved the stunned Yu Wan toward the gate with all her strength.
At the same moment, Tong Yang and Tong Yu finally broke free from the soldiers restraining them and dragged Yu Wan safely inside.
The next second—
Amid the frantic cries of the Tong family—
The massive gate slammed shut.
Seeing the shelter sealed…
Wendy finally relaxed.
She rolled her neck before turning around to face the fish-scale monster’s furious glare.
Just as she had concluded earlier…
These monsters held grudges with frightening intensity.
Even though several ordinary civilians still lay injured nearby outside the shelter…
The creature ignored all of them.
Panting heavily…
Its venomous eyes remained locked solely on Wendy.
As though it would never rest until it tore her apart and devoured her.
The instant Wendy turned around—
The monster released a piercing screech.
It charged toward her with inhuman speed.
Its damaged proboscis, still dripping dark green blood, whipped toward her with a gust of putrid wind.
Yet…
To Wendy…
Everything appeared to slow dramatically.
She could clearly see the rows of suction cups and hooked barbs inside the proboscis expanding and contracting in midair.
Locking onto one of the contracting suction cups…
She hurled the butcher’s cleaver.
The blade struck dead center.
It plunged directly into the open suction cup.
Driven by its momentum…
It sliced off nearly half of the monster’s proboscis.
The instant the suction cup was pierced, the creature let out an agonized scream.
It hurriedly retracted the remaining half into its mouth.
Its atrophied forelimbs clutched desperately at its wound as it rolled across the ground in agony.
Standing where she was…
Wendy slowly raised one hand.
Under the stunned gazes of the survivors nearby…
The cleaver that had fallen to the ground after severing half the monster’s proboscis…
Rose into the air.
Following the movement of her hand…
It flew once more toward the monster’s neck.
This time…
The blade failed to cut through.
Instead…
It struck the scales around the monster’s neck with a harsh metallic clang.
The edge of the blade curled instantly.
The monster hissed in pain.
Its throat emitted strange rasping sounds.
It looked as though it wanted to attack…
Yet…
It was afraid.
After staring at Wendy for a single second…
It slowly backed away.
Then suddenly turned…
And fled.
The remaining survivors, who had been holding their breath the entire time, finally relaxed.
But Wendy wasn’t finished.
Ever since her body had begun changing several days earlier…
She had sensed a mysterious power steadily accumulating inside her.
She could feel it.
She could control things.
Manipulating the cleaver moments ago had merely been a test of her body’s limits.
Controlling a single kitchen knife had been effortless.
She hadn’t experienced the slightest discomfort.
Which meant…
She could try something bigger.
A faint smile curved Wendy’s lips.
She extended one hand toward the fleeing fish-scale monster.
The remaining survivors watched in utter disbelief.
The monster that had slaughtered so many people…
That even heavily armed soldiers couldn’t stop…
That had seemed utterly terrifying to them…
Was now fleeing from a lone young woman.
Before it could even leave their sight—
Wendy raised her hand once more.
Just like the floating cleaver…
The monster itself slowly rose into the air.
A satisfied smile appeared in Wendy’s eyes.
She watched as unmistakably human terror spread across the monster’s hideous face.
Its limbs and proboscis flailed wildly.
It struggled desperately against the invisible force holding it…
But it couldn’t break free.
The next instant…
Wendy’s eyes sharpened.
Her raised hand swung violently downward.
The suspended monster smashed into the ground with tremendous force.
It let out a miserable howl.
Before it could recover—
She raised her hand again.
The monster floated back into the air…
Only to be slammed down once more.
Three times.
Four.
Five…
After repeating the process five or six times, Wendy felt herself becoming increasingly proficient at controlling the mysterious power.
Looking at the barely living monster sprawled across the ground, dark green blood continuously flowing from its body, she tilted her head.
This method is too slow.
Even after smashing it into the ground so many times…
It was still alive.
Right now she was facing only one fish-scale monster.
Yet it had already taken this much time.
If several attacked her at once…
She could easily become overwhelmed.
She needed…
A way to kill with a single strike.
She looked at the monster.
The monster looked back at her.
Strange rasping sounds escaped its throat.
After its mutation, it could no longer speak.
It could only make meaningless animalistic noises.
Yet…
For some inexplicable reason…
Wendy understood exactly what it meant.
It was surrendering.
Begging for mercy.
But…
A monster was still a monster.
Even after evolving by feeding on several people…
Even though its intelligence had surpassed that of newly mutated fish-scale creatures…
It couldn’t hide the hatred in its eyes.
It wanted to pretend to submit…
Then devour her the moment she lowered her guard.
Wendy smiled softly.
She opened her palm toward the monster.
Then…
Slowly…
Closed her fingers.
The monster’s body began compressing inward as though squeezed by an invisible hand.
The sound of bones snapping echoed through the silent surroundings.
Before it could even release another scream…
Its body had already been crushed into a mangled mass of flesh.
Seeing that…
Wendy clenched her fist.
The compressed body exploded.
Yet…
Instead of blood and flesh scattering everywhere…
An invisible barrier seemed to trap the explosion.
The shredded remains simply collapsed straight onto the ground.
Several sharp gasps sounded behind her.
Turning around…
Wendy saw the people who had failed to enter the shelter before the gate closed.
A middle-aged man wearing glasses.
A slender young woman with a scholarly air.
And a middle-aged couple.
As the young woman who had just killed the fish-scale monster with an unknown power turned to face them…
Everyone fell silent.
They had seen her standing among the evacuees only moments earlier.
They had watched her kill the monster and save their lives.
But…
The unknown power she had displayed filled them with instinctive fear.
Every one of them looked at her with wary caution.
What… exactly was that terrifying power?
“Is she really… human?”
“Is she going to kill us too?”
Wendy looked at the three people staring at her with undisguised fear and vigilance, then turned to leave.
However, the bespectacled man suddenly scrambled to his feet and grabbed the hem of her clothes.
“No! You can’t just leave like this!”
he shouted hysterically, his eyes bloodshot.
“If you’re going to save people, then save them all! You have to take us with you!”
Wendy lowered her gaze to the hand clutching her clothes, then looked up at the man.
For some reason…
He looked familiar.
She took a step back, shaking his hand off.
The moment he was pushed away, the man’s expression twisted with madness, his eyes filling with hatred.
“You can’t abandon us! I’ll die!”
“You’re already so powerful! What’s the big deal about taking me with you?!”
He roared, then suddenly spun around and glared viciously at the other three survivors, who had been frightened by his outburst.
“And you lot too! You pieces of trash! If you hadn’t been blocking my way, I’d already be inside the shelter!”
As he spoke, he suddenly burst into laughter.
“Haha… If I can’t get in, then none of you should either! Weren’t you all standing in front of me? Now you’re stuck out here with me!”
At that moment…
Wendy remembered who he was.
When everyone had been desperately rushing through the gate, the crowd had been so chaotic that she couldn’t clearly see what was happening.
But after she and Yu Wan had been shoved aside…
She had briefly seen someone use their momentum to force his way into the space they had just vacated.
Now…
That figure slowly overlapped with the bespectacled man before her.
Oblivious to the growing coldness in Wendy’s eyes, the man had already lost his sanity.
Turning back toward her, he shouted threateningly,
“You’re a monster too! You bitch! If you don’t take me with you, I’ll tell everyone you’re a monster! They’ll skin you alive and cut you open for research!”
The words had barely left his mouth…
When a hand suddenly closed around his throat.
His entire body was lifted off the ground.
The bespectacled man instantly sobered.
He kicked and struggled with all his strength…
But it was useless.
The strange young woman’s hand gripped his neck with terrifying strength, utterly unmoved by his resistance.
“You pushed me and my family outside the gate…”
“And now you still have the nerve to ask me to save you?”
The young woman tilted her head slightly.
Her ocean-blue eyes, as deep as the sea itself, regarded him with cold mockery.
What… did she say?
He pushed her… and her family?
The lack of oxygen made his thoughts sluggish.
He desperately tried to remember.
But he couldn’t.
He had shoved too many people.
At the time…
He had cared only about surviving.
Anyone standing in front of him had become an obstacle he hated.
He vaguely remembered pushing aside two women…
He seemed to recall hearing a father and daughter scream…
At the time, he had only felt exhilarated.
Who told them to block my way?
His thoughts ended there.
The next instant—
His body exploded.
Blood, flesh, and shattered bones burst outward into the air…
Only to be intercepted by an invisible barrier before they could scatter, falling straight to the ground instead.
Wendy slowly turned her gaze toward the remaining three survivors.
They had been frightened senseless.
The moment they saw her looking at them, they trembled violently and stumbled backward.
“W-We won’t tell anyone…”
“Please spare us…”
“D-Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!”
“I didn’t see anything…”
“I didn’t see anything at all!”
Wendy looked at them thoughtfully.
She could feel the moisture in the air growing denser.
The sound of crashing waves, which had long echoed faintly in her ears like tinnitus, was becoming increasingly clear.
And with it…
The mysterious summons grew stronger.
The world-ending rainstorm was about to descend.
Soon…
The tsunami would swallow every stretch of land.
These people had failed to enter the underground shelter.
That meant they had effectively lost their chance of survival.
They were, in all likelihood…
Already dead.
That was why she hadn’t bothered hiding her powers from them.
Originally…
She hadn’t intended to kill them simply to keep her abilities secret.
But the bespectacled man’s words had made her wary.
They would probably die.
But what if they didn’t?
What if someone rescued them?
What if they survived…
And later revealed everything they had seen?
Whether anyone believed them or not…
It would still become a serious threat to her.
She couldn’t allow herself to leave behind a potential danger.
Killing them to silence them would be the safest option.
But…
They had never harmed her.
They were merely strangers who had crossed her path.
Was that alone enough reason to kill them?
She could control objects.
Then…
Could she control people as well?
The moment the thought crossed her mind…
She inexplicably knew…
That she could.
She walked toward the three of them.
Stopping in front of the terrified survivors, who had collapsed to the ground and didn’t dare move, she crouched down and looked directly into their eyes.
“Forget everything you just witnessed.”
She spoke softly.
Reflected within the woman’s pupils, Wendy saw her own eyes.
The deep blue irises slowly swirled like whirlpools beneath the sea…
Emitting a faint, otherworldly glow.
Instantly…
The light vanished from the three survivors’ eyes.
Several minutes later, Wendy stood up.
The three gradually regained consciousness.
Their faces were blank with confusion, as though nothing had happened.
Satisfied, Wendy turned around.
Then she walked toward the Tong family’s electric car, still parked outside the armored vehicle perimeter.