I Level Up With In-app Purchases

I Level Up With In-app Purchases – 70

EP.70 Hunting Monsters in the Contaminated Zone (3)

Kuuuuuung!!!!!!!!!

The massive monster’s body collapses to the ground.

The soldiers, who had been trembling in the face of death, unable to resist the overwhelming power, rubbed their eyes in disbelief at the incredible sight.

“Huh?”

“We… we’re alive?”

“It’s dead…? No, how on earth?”

The monster’s head being cleanly severed was an astonishing sight.

Even though they saw it with their own eyes, the soldiers kept checking their vision, unable to believe it.

It was understandable, given that they thought they were doomed, only for a miracle to occur.

“It… it’s really dead!”

“Who did this?”

“That girl over there!”

“A girl??”

The soldiers identified who had taken down the enormous monster.

Then, the small figure they had glimpsed quickly disappeared from sight.

Of course.

She had to hide because her identity couldn’t be revealed.

‘Stealth stealth stealth stealth stealth!!!’

Please, just stay hidden!!

“Who is that? Not in uniform?”

“Excuse me, which unit are you from? We’re alive thanks to you. Thank you!”

“But why are you backing away slowly?”

“What’s wrong? Are you injured?”

The soldiers, unaware of the situation, kept showing interest in her, seemingly overjoyed at being alive.

The tension was much higher than just before killing the monster.

‘Should I run? Yeah, running is probably the right call.’

She tried to conceal herself as soon as she beheaded the monster.

With her small frame, it might have been possible if she did it right!

But unfortunately, the flashy technique had already caught people’s attention.

Once in their line of sight, it was impossible to escape without being noticed by the soldiers.

She was trying her best to stick close to the dead monster’s body to avoid being seen.

‘Go away… just go away, please…!’

But the merciless soldiers seemed to sense something was off and were slowly approaching me.

‘Crisis! Total crisis!!’

She thought she should at least cover her face to avoid the worst-case scenario.

But all she had in her hand was a dagger!

Looking around frantically, she spotted something round and large.

She rushed over, grabbed it, and covered her face.

“Oh my, of course you should take the spoils. We don’t have any greed for it.”

It seemed they mistook her action for claiming the spoils rather than hiding her face.

It was convenient that they misunderstood on their own.

“That’s right. We have no greed.”

“We’re alive thanks to you. Thank you!”

“I thought we were goners for sure, but you’ve given us ten more years of life.”

As they laughed and spoke, her heart was pounding.

She absolutely must not be discovered.

“W-wait!”

“Huh?”

“Stop right there. Don’t come any closer.”

She lowered her voice as much as possible to disguise it.

“It’s dangerous if you come closer.”

She tried to act as if there was something important going on to keep them from approaching.

“Gasp!”

“Could it be the special forces we’ve only heard about?”

“Isn’t this bad? We’ve seen something we shouldn’t have!”

And once again, they fell into their own strange misunderstanding.

It seemed the soldiers were gripped by fear that they might be silenced for witnessing something they shouldn’t have.

‘I only said a few strange words…’ she thought.

It looked like she could ward them off more easily than she thought!

“If you keep what happened here today a secret for life, there won’t be any problems.”

“!!!”

While she wasn’t really special forces, their misunderstanding was overwhelmingly advantageous for her.

She could use this misunderstanding to hide her true identity.

‘Let’s try to look as impressive as possible,’ she thought.

To begin with, it would be harder for those people to believe the truth.

Who would believe that an academy student was in the contaminated zone?

“I’ll trust that you’ll keep this secret. I’ll be going now.”

“Huh? Uh…”

“But we haven’t properly thanked you yet…”

“Shh, shh, just let her go. She is doing this for our sake.”

Covering her face as much as possible with what she was holding, she backed away before quickly fleeing.

‘They didn’t see, right? They didn’t see? They don’t know, right?’ she thought frantically.

She couldn’t pay attention to which direction she was running.

It was more important not to give the soldiers any information that could help them deduce her identity.

…But that was a mistake.

As the distance grew and she came to her senses, she started to realize things had gone wrong.

“Huff huff… Wow~ That was scary. I’m alive!”

She couldn’t remember the last time she ran this hard, gasping for breath.

She had been using stealth while running from the middle, so no one should have followed her.

With a sigh of relief, she plopped down on the ground.

Then, the musty smell from her chest brought her back to reality.

“Ugh! Why did I bring this?!”

Realizing that what she had used to cover her face was the monster’s head she had cut off, she threw it to the ground.

It had been great when she boldly set out to deal with this creature, but now, after all the trouble, she just resented it.

“It’s all over me.”

Her clothes and dagger were covered in monster blood.

She plucked a leaf and wiped here and there vigorously, trying to get rid of the pungent smell and filth.

Of course, a leaf wouldn’t clean blood stains.

She should probably use something from her bag… huh?

“My bag!!”

This was bad!!

She remembered that she had carelessly thrown it on the ground when she went to catch the monster.

She had put all her belongings in the bag to focus on facing the monster.

The compass, food, and even the tracker were all in there.

She absolutely couldn’t be without the bag.

Her head started to spin.

“What should I do? I’m doomed!”

Come to think of it, without the bag, she had no way of knowing her location.

She had run so frantically that she couldn’t even remember which direction she came from.

She should at least know the direction she ran from, but by sitting down without thinking, even that had become ambiguous.

Where’s north, where’s south?

How could she know without a compass?

“Don’t tell me I’m stranded?”

She shook her head in disbelief, trying to deny the unbelievable reality, but she couldn’t change the facts.

No matter how hard she looked around, all she could see were identical trees and grass.

“Why did I take off my bag? Stupid! Idiot!”

Among all the situations the mercenary boss had warned her about and advised on, this one wasn’t included.

What to do if you lose your bag, that is!

It seemed even the mercenary boss hadn’t anticipated this situation.

‘I should probably try to get out of the contaminated zone first,’ she thought.

The problem was deciding which direction to go.

If she didn’t choose the right direction, and if she happened to head west…

She remembered the warnings the mercenary boss had given her.

“But I can’t just stay here doing nothing.”

To get help from the mercenary boss, she had to get out of the contaminated zone somehow.

It was a situation where she had to make a choice.

After pondering, she picked up a fallen branch from the ground, stood it up, and let go.

Since she had no sense of direction, she thought it would be easier to just rely on the branch to decide which way to go.

Thud ㅡ!

“Sigh… that way, I guess?”

Even if it’s wrong, there was nothing she could do about it.

She couldn’t just sit still like a child because she was lost.

Hoping this direction would lead her to her bag, she started walking.

If not the bag, she hoped it would at least lead her out of the contaminated zone.

“Please, just one of the two!”

She hoped for anything but the worst.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

“Ugh.”

As I feared, something must have happened, right?

Two days had passed since Ariane disappeared, but there was no news.

The fact that there’s no news even after this much time has passed means one thing for sure.

“She must have lost her way.”

“Hmm… what should we do? We can’t just wait indefinitely, can we?”

“Wouldn’t it be better to go to the city and organize a rescue team? And inform her family.”

The mercenaries who came along expressed their concerns about the current situation with no news.

Given how dangerous the place itself is, they must have felt burdened by holding out longer than planned.

“She’s probably not in danger. The problem is that she’s lost. I’ll wait here a bit longer.”

In a situation where it was almost certain that Ariane had lost her way, there was no reason to keep the luggage with us.

Moreover, even the luggage carriers didn’t want to risk staying any longer.

“Please pack up and return. If we all continue to wait, we’ll run out of food.”

The mercenaries were both relieved and surprised by my decision to stay alone.

“You’re staying here? How will you manage alone…”

“I can handle it just fine. I’ve been hunting monsters, so this level of challenge isn’t a problem. Don’t worry and just pack up and leave.”

If it weren’t for the food, I could have made them stay for a few more days.

But in a situation where we didn’t know how long the search would take, it wasn’t good to keep these people here.

‘It’s not like they’re helping with the search anyway.’

If there’s one thing I learned from being a mercenary, it’s that you need to discard what needs to be discarded clearly and decisively.

After cutting out what needed to be cut and cleanly staying alone, I set my direction north and started moving.

‘I’ll head north for now.’

I was also curious why she hadn’t even sent up a flare.

If she had at least used that, I could have somehow gone to rescue her.

‘Well, she doesn’t know that I’ve awakened.’

I guessed that in her lost situation, she might have tried to somehow get out of the contaminated zone.

‘I hope she’s not going around in circles in the same place.’

When wandering in forests, people often lose their sense of direction due to the dense trees.

That’s why I had given her a compass.

“Was breaking through the contaminated zone too much for a beginner?”

Even though I had prepared so thoroughly…

I was worried that the kid might be too scared.

The one consolation was that I had packed plenty of food in the bag, so she wouldn’t starve.

‘Surely she wouldn’t just mindlessly eat everything in the bag.’

When stranded, you need to ration your food.

I’m not sure if I told her that or not.

“Sigh…”

How long had I been heading north?

Finally, I reached a point where I could visually confirm the contaminated zone.

The contaminated zone was easily distinguishable, with the color of the ground clearly different.

Once I cross this line, monsters that I couldn’t even dare to face before would be everywhere.

How many people have given up, unable to cross this place?

A place only accessible to the chosen ones.

Yet, a place where despair and death coexist.

I finally took my first step into the contaminated zone.

To rescue Ariane.

Rustle- Rustle-

The leaves brush against my entire body as I pass.

For ordinary people, these leaves might as well be coated with poison.

If they touch the skin, the entire body turns bright red and burns.

And if not detoxified immediately, it turns blue, and that blue color starts to spread throughout the body through the bloodstream.

Isn’t it horrifying just to imagine?

And this is just from a leaf brushing against the skin.

“I’m fine.”

There’s a musty smell, but I can breathe without any problems.

I didn’t expect stepping into the contaminated zone to be this easy.

Somehow, I felt like I had found complete freedom only after entering the contaminated zone.

“If 100% of the land becomes a contaminated zone, only the awakened ones will be able to survive.”

Won’t those people gather together and somehow continue the human lineage?

Just like the animals and plants that have adapted their bodies to the toxins to survive in the contaminated zone, we humans might eventually have to adapt to this toxicity.

‘Of course, we need to prevent the world from ending before that happens.’

For that reason, Ariane is a child who must be rescued safely.

Although it’s daunting to think about where to find her in this vast contaminated zone.

“I guess tracking her traces is the best option.”

I didn’t have a tracker, so that was the only method available to me.

Time to show off the skills I honed while tracking monsters as a mercenary.

“Traces… there seem to be some faint footprints.”

I looked around with wide eyes.

Since I knew which direction she had gone, finding the faint traces was surprisingly simple.

The problem was that these traces were much fainter than I expected, and with more time, even these traces would disappear.

Why are there scrolls for finding monsters but none for finding people?