Chapter 67: Gyeyang Mountain Temporary Camp (7)

It was quiet, so quiet.

The camp, viewed from the gravel-covered plaza stained with blood as I lit my pipe, was enveloped in an eerie stillness and silence.

Not a single sound of insects or animals that would usually be heard - a perfect silence.

The only movements left in the camp were the occasional sounds of wind blowing through the alleys and slowly stirring shadows.

All the camp residents were dead.

The camp that had been full of life and cheerful just a day ago had become a communal graveyard with those buildings as tombstones.

This extremely quiet camp was so silent that even heartbeats would be difficult to conceal.

Only the ninjas melted into the darkness remained.

Now, even in this corner of the plaza, there was a ninja hidden in the shadows, watching me.

A ninja who had been relentlessly exterminating campers, burning pipes, and ignoring me in my yellow suit.

It seemed like an operation targeting only the camp residents, but even after turning Gyeyang Mountain Camp into Gyeyang Mountain Communal Graveyard, they continued wandering around, seemingly searching for something.

I had a hunch here.

That these men in black were searching for the 'anomaly' of this camp.

And that 'anomaly' would be the clue to solving the request.

I felt that intense hunch.

Bang!

Piercing the stillness of the camp, an intense gunshot rang out.

Unless the ninjas were actually hiding guns, it must be the gunshot from the revolver I handed over to Junior 2.

The gunshot came from a place not too far away.

Just as I started moving to find Junior after hearing the gunshot, the ninjas also began rushing towards the direction of the sound.

Bang! Bang!

Consecutive gunshots rang out.

Was the situation more dangerous than I thought?

The revolver I gave had 6 bullets, so the shots just now must have used them all up.

When I arrived at the place where the gunshots came from, it was a spot piled high with construction materials.

As I was thinking about climbing over the wall of construction materials, a loud sound tore across the sky.

Piiiiiiiiiiiiiip-!

It was an ear-piercing screech, large enough to be unsettling.

The ninjas who had been lurking in the shadows, as well as those climbing over the construction material wall, all stood up at once and started running somewhere.

The number of ninjas that suddenly emerged was considerably more than I had expected.

All the ninjas headed towards somewhere in the north.

In the north of the camp, I knew there was supposedly a large underground waterway entrance, but could there really be something there?

With that doubt, I moved my steps into the vacant lot the ninjas had vacated.

***

Reaper (MC) POV:

---

One of the ninjas surrounding me took something out from inside their clothes.

What could it be? As I was watching curiously, it was something completely unexpected.

Pudding!!!

It was a cutely packaged premium pudding.

Why would a ninja be carrying something like that?

The ninja carefully unwrapped the packaging in a manner reminiscent of a religious ritual.

The solemn act felt so reverent.

After unwrapping the pudding, they raised it with both hands, then knelt down and offered it to me on their upturned palms.

It felt like they were presenting an offering to a king.

Wondering what it would taste like, I tried the offered pudding.

Omnom nom~

Wow, it's delicious.

More delicious than the ones I ate at the Sehee Research Institute.

It was a pudding with packaging I had never seen in Korea, but the taste exceeded expectations.

As I happily wiggled my feet in delight, the ninjas gathered and started making something.

A giant human pyramid!

A throne as wide as a bed!

It was an enormous pyramid made by stacking their own bodies, with a throne placed on top.

?

So I'm supposed to climb up there? But there are no stairs?

The barrage of strikes from all angles made me feel the ninja's level of training was in the realm of a master.

However.

None of them reached me.

Anticipating the ninja's sword strikes, I swung my hammer.

Like a cannon firing a shell, my swing shattered the ninja's blade, crushed his right hand, and blew apart his head beyond that.

The headless and one-handed corpse fell backwards.

With a dull thud, blood belatedly pooled on the container floor.

Haah.... haah...

My breath was ragged from the excessive adrenaline rush.

But there was no time to rest.

Another ninja was climbing over the wall of construction materials to infiltrate.

I readjusted my grip on the hammer and faced the charging ninja.

This second ninja that joined was more cautious after seeing his comrade's corpse.

He stared at me intently like a still lake, seeming to wait for an opportunity.

Tap tap tap.

Rhythmically tapping the floor with his feet, making sounds.

The ninja who seemed to be waiting for something suddenly sprang forward, swinging his sword at me.

It looked like a reckless, life-risking strike.

But it was a meaningless outburst against my hammer!

I put all my strength into swinging down to smash that blade.

The moment I felt something was off was right as I started that swing.

Another ninja sprang out from behind the first one.

Not one, but two?

There was no way to block the stabbing blade of the second ninja.

Ah, so this is how I die?

As I had that thought, a loud sound rang out.

Bang!

The revolver left behind by the senior spat out a flame, and the ambushing ninja was struck in the head and fell down.

"Haah, thanks, Hyejin."

Although we had fended off two more ninjas, it was not yet time to rest.

The ninjas kept coming in, exceeding two, three, four.

Hyejin had 2 bullets left in the remaining revolver.

Fortunately, the container entrance was narrow.

We didn't have to worry about being surrounded, but...

Could we win this?

There were 5 ninjas in the standoff.

There may have been more ninjas outside, but I decided to think about what was in front of me first.

As the air inside the container became increasingly tense, with a silent signal, the ninjas charged at us all at once.

I tried to swing my hammer at the approaching ninja, but the ninjas no longer seemed to give me a chance to swing my hammer.

There were always at least 2 sword strikes coming at strange angles.

I could barely block or avoid those strikes, let alone counterattack.

I was gradually pushed into a corner.

The distance between Hyejin and me became closer.

At this distance, the ninjas could directly target the client...

Dangerous.

What should I do now?

Bang! Bang!

Two more gunshots rang out.

But those bullets missed uselessly.

The ninjas recognized the existence of the revolver and deliberately lured the shots.

Piiiiiiiiiiiiiip-!

Just when I thought it was the end, a loud whistle sound reverberated.

Frightened by the sound of the whistle, the ninjas distanced themselves from me and slowly retreated, hiding their bodies in the shadows.

By the time the long blast of the whistle had subsided, the ninjas who had been in the standoff had vanished into the depths of the shadows.

Haah, I survived.