NOVEL WEB Chapter 4: The Absolute Dweller (4)
[Episode 01] The Absolute Dweller (4)
The moment our eyes met, I felt my entire body freeze.
Fear wrapped around me, and my feet stiffened.
The creature, with its massive size and predatory eyes, was the epitome of a predator.
Gulp.
The sound of swallowing saliva resonated loudly.
In the next moment, Kellican abruptly thrust its mouth toward me.
Thunk!
[Unauthorized entity attempting entry.]
“Ugh!”
Blocked by the transparent wall, the creature slid down, but soon flapped its wings and ascended.
In that state, it pressed its teeth against the wall, aiming at me.
Squeak!
[Unauthorized entity attempting entry.]
[Unauthorized entity attempting entry.]
[Unauthorized entity attempting entry.]
…
…
Right in front of me, watching the creature’s teeth and the inside of its mouth live, a sudden uneasy thought crossed my mind.
‘It won’t break through, will it?’
Anxiety that the creature’s fierce teeth might penetrate the invisible wall and reach my throat.
As I imagined this, I snapped back to my senses.
‘I have to do something somehow!’
Without hesitation, I rushed to the kitchen, grabbed a kitchen knife, and stood in front of the Kellican.
Ignoring my movements, the creature remained focused on chewing the invisible wall.
While estimating the length of the knife and the distance to the creature, I reached a conclusion.
‘The knife is too short.’
The typical kitchen knife had a length of only about 20 centimeters. Considering that my body would be blocked by the transparent wall, the effective range of the knife was barely a handspan.
Naturally, to strike the creature, I needed to target a spot close to the transparent wall, but the only place fitting that description was the creature’s mouth, chewing on the transparent wall.
The tough beak and the teeth inside it.
Shoving a kitchen knife there didn’t seem to have much effect.
‘If I want to stab it in the throat, I need to make it like a spear.’
Luckily, I had the right materials.
I fixed the kitchen knife to the end of a mop I bought from Daiso and tightly wound it with tape.
As I did this, a plausible weapon was completed.
Checking that the kitchen knife was securely fixed, I smiled with satisfaction.
‘This should be enough.’
Squeak!
[Unauthorized access attempt.]
The creature remained absorbed in the transparent wall, unaware of anything.
‘Now!’
With all my strength, I thrust the spear into the creature’s neck, sinking it halfway.
Squeal!
The creature recoiled in terror, causing the spear to come out and further aggravate its wound.
Splurt!
The blood spurted from the creature’s body, blocked by the transparent wall, but the amount was quite substantial.
‘Got it!’
However.
Squeal!
Despite the blood flowing from its neck, the creature was still moving perfectly fine.
Thud! Thud!
[Unauthorized entity attempting entry.]
It rammed the transparent wall with its head, venting its frustration. The sight of it violently hitting the wall resembled a wounded beast determined to kill me even if it meant its own death.
“Ha, one more time!”
Regaining composure, I reached out with the spear again.
However.
Whoosh!
“Oops!”
This time, the creature was attentive to my movements. As I thrust the spear, it caught the spearhead with its beak and pulled it towards itself.
Squelch!
The plastic spearhead from Daiso shattered inside Kellican’s beak, causing me to lose the kitchen knife attached to its front.
“If this continues…”
Squeal!
There was another small fruit knife, but it wasn’t as sharp as the kitchen knife. Probably wouldn’t inflict much damage.
‘Plus, with the creature watching me, my attacks are unlikely to hit.’
The only hopeful thing was that even in its frenzy, the creature continued to spew blood from its neck.
[Unauthorized entity attempting entry.]
The transparent wall was perfectly blocking the intrusion, so it wasn’t particularly frightening anymore.
Just wait patiently, and it would be over.
As time passed and the creature’s blood smeared the transparent wall, it was clearly getting exhausted.
Finally, the creature, which had completely stopped moving, merely stared at me without attacking the transparent wall anymore.
It seemed to be contemplating something.
As I locked eyes with the creature, an unsettling hypothesis came to mind.
‘Wait a minute.’
It seemed like the creature had realized that breaking through the transparent wall was impossible.
So, what if the creature gave up like this?
If it flew away to the sky before dying from excessive bleeding, what would happen?
‘Looting is only activated when the corpse is nearby.’
The reason for formulating this hypothesis was simple.
During my time hunting goblins, success wasn’t guaranteed.
Some of them were hit by the dumbbell on their bodies or other places, and among them, there were undoubtedly those in a state of imminent death.
‘But if the group took the creature away, they weren’t subject to loot distribution.’
They must have died.
Those hit in the chest rather than the head by the dumbbell couldn’t have survived until now.
‘In that case, it means loot distribution won’t happen if this creature moves a certain distance away.’
It couldn’t be like that.
“How much money was this? Are you just going to let it go like that?”
A captured prey too.
‘Is there no way to finish this?’
I urgently looked around the house.
And in my desperate gaze, cooking oil caught my eye.
‘Right!’
Maybe I could finish it with that.
“Shop open! Purchase 10 sets of canola oil!”
[Are you sure you want to make this purchase?]
[Yes / No]
“Yes!”
Zzing—
Suddenly, twenty canola oil containers, each with 900ml, appeared in a row on the living room floor.
“Warehouse open! Only put cooking oil in, excluding plastic containers!”
Zzing—
Storing all the cooking oil in the warehouse, I continued to move quickly.
I placed kitchen towels next to the broken end of the spear the creature was holding, securing them tightly with tape.
Then, I rushed to the kitchen and turned on the gas stove.
“Summon cooking oil!”
I poured all the cooking oil into a large pot and waited until it was sufficiently heated.
Tatadadak—Hwarruk!
As the cooking oil heated up, my anxiety also intensified.
Cardddeuk! Carddeuk!
‘Is this enough?’
The waiting time felt incredibly long.
“Store!”
I stored the summoned cooking oil in the warehouse as it came pouring down, and after soaking the kitchen towel in cooking oil, I immediately lit it.
Hwarruk!
The gas stove flame smoothly transferred to the end of the spear, and I ran to the living room window with it.
The creature was still watching me carefully.
It seemed particularly wary of the flaming spear.
Staring at the creature’s head, I said, “Summon cooking oil!”
Right after that.
Zzing—
The boiling 18 liters of cooking oil summoned above Kellican’s head poured directly onto its body.
-Kiyeek?!
Caught off guard by the sudden cooking oil attack, the creature’s gaze turned to the sky.
“Die!”
I stabbed the flaming part of the broken spear’s end into the creature’s body.
-Kkieeeek!
Whether startled by the surprise attack or in pain, the creature flailed as it fell from the apartment wall.
While the creature was leaving, I could finally smile.
‘It’s done.’
Cooking oil had a high flashpoint, making it not easily flammable.
However, despite the high flashpoint, since it was oil, once it caught fire, it burned very well.
Due to that, it sometimes become the cause of kitchen fires.
A flaming spear was stuck in the Kellican’s torso.
The small flames slowly but surely began to spread over the creature’s body, thoroughly soaked in cooking oil.
Hwarruk—
Initially spreading slowly, the flames soon engulfed the Kellican entirely.
Hwarrururuk!
As the flames intensified, I could see the startled Kellican frantically moving.
Perhaps trying to extinguish the fire, it desperately flapped its wings, but such actions only made the fire even bigger.
-Keeeeek!
With an otherworldly scream, the creature fell to the apartment promenade.
Quack! Kuwoong!
Its hefty body crashed, completely destroying a tree on the promenade.
Whether the tree served as a cushion or not, the creature was still alive and moving.
-Kkwaaeeaak!
Desperately rolling around to extinguish the flames clinging to its body, its efforts only managed to spread the fire around, and the flames wouldn’t go out.
Hwarrururuk!
Its struggles didn’t last long.
[Hunted Kellican (Lv. 27).]
[You have gained a massive amount of experience points.]
[Skill level increased.]
[Skill level increased.]
[Learned a new skill.]
The system notification informed that Kellican’s life had been extinguished.
[There are items nearby that meet the conditions for loot.]
[Initiating loot assessment.]
As the assessment began, the Kellican’s corpse, previously engulfed in flames, started to gradually disappear from below.
Unlike the previous case where some parts remained, this time the body vanished completely before the notification appeared.
[Loot assessment complete.]
[9,347,487 won has been deposited into the wallet of the Absolute Dweller.]
Upon seeing the amount, I couldn’t help but be astonished.
“Ni-, Ni-, Nine million won?!”
Given the high level and the fact that I hunted it entirely on my own, I anticipated a decent amount, but I never expected it to be this much.
“Almost ten million won!”
Considering the remaining money I had, I practically had an amount exceeding ten million won.
This was a significant sum, and the satisfaction of earning it directly was immense.
“Haha.”
However, the gift from Kellican was not the end of it.
[Residential Area Expansion is beginning.]
“Hmm?”
Wooong.
With the appearance of an unfamiliar message, I felt that something was changing.
‘What’s happening?’
A faint, rippling sensation spread throughout the entire house.
At the peak of it,
“!!!”
Suddenly, my field of vision expanded.
Wooong!
At first, I saw myself sitting in the living room.
‘Is this… me?’
After that, my field of view quickly began to expand. I could see every corner of the living room, the kitchen, the rooms, and the bathroom.
No, it was more like feeling than seeing.
I could sense the overall shape of the house, the real-time flow of electricity, the arrangement of furniture, and even the tiny dust particles on the floor.
It felt as if I had become the house itself.
Wooong!
“Ugh!”
At that moment, I felt a sudden surge throughout my body. My entire body swelled as if it would burst at any moment.
And…
“This, this is!”
In reality, my body was expanding.
No, to be precise, the area I perceived was increasing.
Beyond the front door, through the corridor, wrapping around the elevator, and even extending to the neighboring apartment.
Eventually, I could vividly see what was happening in the neighboring apartment.
“A person?”
There were people in the neighboring apartment.
A young couple in their late thirties with two children.
“These people?”
While I didn’t know the others, the husband was a familiar face.
I had occasionally bumped into him when going to the convenience store or taking out the trash.
“People next door?”
Their conversation sounded as if it was happening right next to me.
“Honey, what should we do? I smell something burning. Is something wrong?”
“It’s okay. We’re on the 30th floor. Most monsters can’t come up here.”
“We’ve been hearing thumping noises for a while. Is everything really okay?”
“Dadad. I’m scared.”
“Seoyeon, shh!”
“Ugh.”
I could guess why they were trembling in fear.
It was probably because of the noise created by the Kellican.
Then it happened.
“Ugh!”
The moment I felt that the residential area had expanded to the entire 30th floor, I regained control of my body.
“What was that…”
As I tried to organize my thoughts, a new notification appeared before me.
[A being satisfying the conditions to be recognized as a citizen has been found.]
[Grant citizenship?]