Chapter 40
The Strange World (4)
"WAAAGH!"
As the orcs charged in unison with thunderous battle cries, Yeongwoo could only stare blankly.
"Didn't they just shout, 'All units, charge'...?"
For a moment, he wondered if he had misheard.
But the next commands from the orcs confirmed everything.
"Vanguard! Raise your shields!"
"Execute all combatants immediately! Secure the vehicle and capture the remaining humans!"
The fact that the orcs could speak human language was shocking enough.
But what they were saying was even more unbelievable.
"By 'combatants'... they mean us."
Just as the order suggested, the two orcs leading the formation raised their shields.
The "vehicle" obviously referred to the SUV behind them.
Which meant...
"Their plan is to kill the fighters protecting the vehicle and capture the people inside alive."
But why?
Why kill only some humans while taking the others prisoner?
The question flashed through Yeongwoo's mind, but there was no time to think.
The enemy was already upon them.
"ROOOAAAR!"
Clang!
"Die!"
The orc vanguard crashed into Woonho.
"...!"
His fighting spirit had already collapsed.
Even as a shield as tall as he was came crashing toward him, Woonho remained frozen in place.
"Damn... he's already broken."
Yeongwoo had experienced something similar himself through Yechan.
He knew exactly what kind of words could snap someone out of it.
He shouted,
"Jung Woonho! If you die, your mother—!"
But Yeongwoo himself was one of the orcs' execution targets.
Before he could finish speaking—
Five orcs rushed toward him, their massive bodies casting dark shadows.
「Perception temporarily increased from 100 to 134.」
「Perception temporarily increased from 134 to 168.」
Golden messages announcing Sense Theft appeared.
At the same time, holographic sword trajectories from the Gyeongbok Sword Art unfolded before his eyes.
Break.
Kill.
Break.
"...Damn."
The more enemies surrounded him, the more complicated the optimal sword paths became.
Fortunately, his rapidly increasing Perception allowed him to follow every one of them.
His movements bordered on the miraculous.
Like flowing water, he slipped between flashing blades and thrust his sword into the orcs' necks.
He looked every bit the sword prodigy.
Then—
Just as he pierced the fourth orc—
Someone screamed from behind him.
"Mr. Yeongwoo!!"
"...?"
The raw desperation in the voice sent chills down his spine.
He turned around.
Myeong-ae had jumped out of the SUV.
Her face was filled with terror.
"..."
The instant he saw the tears streaming down her face, Yeongwoo spun toward the opposite side.
Then he saw it.
Woonho.
His face was covered in blood.
He was crawling desperately between the orcs' legs.
He hadn't survived even a single exchange before being knocked to the ground.
Then—
One of the surrounding orcs raised a gigantic axe.
WHOOSH!
"..."
"Ha... huff..."
The motion resembled a fishmonger chopping apart a fish.
And the result was exactly the same.
THUD.
Woonho's head rolled away across the ground at an unnatural angle.
Yeongwoo knew instantly.
His head had been severed from his body.
Then an orc casually kicked the corpse aside.
Only then did Myeong-ae realize what had happened.
"N-No... AHHHHHH! WOONHOOOO!!"
The scream that burst from her tiny body was almost inhuman.
Perhaps because of that—
A familiar whistling sound echoed through the sky.
"Those bastards..."
The orc support troops had mistaken the scream for another horn signal.
Without even a second to warn her—
Yeongwoo threw himself forward.
He tackled Myeong-ae to the ground.
Moments later—
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Another rain of spears crashed down exactly where she had been standing.
By then, Yeongwoo had dragged her behind the SUV.
Several spears smashed through the windows and embedded themselves in the passenger seats.
"...Huff..."
At least Myeongho survived.
He simply sat frozen behind the steering wheel, staring at the spears filling the vehicle.
Meanwhile, the remaining orcs slowly approached while holding their shields overhead.
"We almost got killed ourselves."
"Why did they fire without warning?"
"That human screamed so loudly they probably thought it was another horn."
"Idiots."
As the voices drew closer, Yeongwoo quietly spoke to the emotionally shattered Myeong-ae.
"Your eldest son is still inside the car. I'll bring him. Please don't move."
She couldn't even answer.
Yeongwoo stepped out from behind the SUV.
Shing.
He drew his black sword.
The approaching orcs froze.
They had all witnessed him kill four of their comrades alone.
Coincidentally...
Exactly four of them remained.
One of them pointed at Yeongwoo with his chin.
"You."
"...What?"
"Just leave."
The orc pointed his axe toward the road behind them.
"Go."
He meant it.
They had no intention of fighting him.
"...What nonsense."
Yeongwoo could already see multiple Kill indicators floating in his vision.
He prepared to attack.
The orcs exchanged troubled looks.
At that exact moment—
Yeongwoo exploded forward.
BANG!
Before they could react—
The foremost orc collapsed.
Then—
A five-meter-long black blade of energy swept across the battlefield.
SLASH!
"W-What?!"
"What is that?!"
"Please... spare me!"
The surviving orcs all reacted differently.
Their terror felt so genuine that even Yeongwoo momentarily forgot he was fighting monsters.
"What...?"
"They're too real."
Until now, he had assumed monsters were simply beings created to play the role of game monsters.
Like NPCs.
But the expressions...
The fear...
The desperation in the orcs' eyes...
Those weren't the emotions of disposable creations.
They possessed something that should never exist in programmed beings.
An attachment to life.
A soul.
Of course...
Perhaps they were simply monsters designed to imitate living beings perfectly.
But...
What if they weren't?
What if they truly existed?
Then what exactly were they?
Where had they come from?
Within moments, Yeongwoo killed three more orcs.
Just before piercing the final one's throat—
He stopped.
The last orc slowly opened the eyes it had squeezed shut.
It had expected to die.
"...?"
Again.
The reaction was painfully real.
Instead of counterattacking, the orc looked back and forth between the sword at its throat and Yeongwoo.
"Y-you... why...?"
Even its inability to speak from terror felt authentic.
Keeping his sword at the orc's neck, Yeongwoo asked,
"What are you? Why are you here?"
He had never imagined he'd spend a day interrogating an orc.
The last orc swallowed.
"We..."
It finally answered.
"We're... pioneers."
"What?"
Yeongwoo stared blankly.
The answer only confused him further.
Not only was the orc intelligent enough to identify itself as a pioneer...
But...
"If they're pioneers... that means they have a homeland."
A homeland.
For orcs.
Could such a thing even exist?
"How can orcs be pioneers? You're fictional creatures."
The moment Yeongwoo said fictional, the orc's expression changed.
"You humans are the fictional ones!"
"...?"
"Aren't you the 'Humans' from the Karmol Myth?"
For an instant...
Pride flashed across the orc's face.
It genuinely believed its own words.
To the orcs...
Humans were mythical beings.
The situation was simply the reverse of Yeongwoo's own beliefs.
"...What is this?"
At this point, Yeongwoo could only arrive at one impossible conclusion.
Perhaps...
Humans and orcs both existed.
Each race had believed the other to be fictional.
Until now.
"But orcs have a known origin..."
"Tolkien created them. Dungeons & Dragons and Warhammer expanded the setting. That's actual history."
Then again...
From the orcs' perspective...
Their own mythology also contained humans.
"What the hell is going on?"
His head throbbed.
Countless questions flooded his mind.
But he couldn't continue the conversation.
Behind the SUV—
Myeong-ae spotted the surviving orc.
She screamed again.
"L-Look out!!"
The sound was loud enough to attract yet another bombardment.
The orc knew it too.
Its face turned pale.
"W-Wait! Please!"
"Spare me! We can understand each other! We can talk!"
But Yeongwoo's sword was already moving.
Slash.
The orc's head flew off.
Without wasting another second, Yeongwoo shouted toward the driver's seat.
"Start the engine! Unless you want everyone here to get skewered!"
"...!"
Myeongho had been frozen, listening to the surreal conversation between a human and an orc.
Only Yeongwoo's shout snapped him back to reality.
He slammed the gear into Drive.
Pressed the accelerator.
The rear door burst open as his mother was practically thrown into the back seat.
His heart felt as though it had turned to stone.
Yet he couldn't complain.
There was only one thing left for him to do.
He floored the accelerator.
The SUV lurched violently forward, bouncing over both the orcs' bodies and Woonho's corpse.
Like a ship crashing through rough waves.
As Myeongho gripped the steering wheel...
His hands became soaked with cold sweat.