I Activated Cheat Mode in a Bizarre Game

Hanbit’s new item—his bizarre rifle—was truly powerful.

Its loading mechanism, which required using monsters as ammunition, was a bit complex, but the effect it produced was undeniable.
Every time he stepped forward and fired, the fog echoed with the gruesome screams of monsters and the wet sound of flesh bursting.
Despite his earlier claim that it could only handle small fry, we were making remarkably smooth progress across the bridge.

But this fog-covered bridge showed no sign of ending.
Because of the thick fog, we couldn’t even estimate how much farther we had to go, and to make /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ matters worse, our phone GPS had been dead for some time.
“This time, the support team was so busy with vehicle control that they couldn’t even get us the in-ear radios... I’m a little worried,”

Park Sunja murmured anxiously.
Losing contact with the support team meant we were now completely cut off from the outside world.
Just then, as always, Hanbit—who had been at the front firing his rifle—suddenly stopped in place.

He turned back toward us and gave a sheepish smile.
“Hmm... I think it’s finally time for you all to step in.”
It meant an opponent had appeared that even his gun couldn’t handle.

As soon as the words left his mouth, a massive silhouette emerged from the fog ahead.
At first glance, it looked like a giant ball with limbs—an odd and grotesque shape.
And as the monster slowly approached with an eerie, grinding noise, we finally got a clear look at its horrific true form.

It was... a grotesque mass, like a giant meatball formed by crushing and compressing countless human bodies into one.
Limbs jutted out from all angles, and twisted, pain-wracked faces were embedded across its surface.
The sight alone was enough to make one nauseous. The hideousness triggered a deep, instinctive fear, and every member of our team frowned instinctively.

Shiiing.
Without a word, I pulled the Return Sword from my inventory.
I didn’t want to let my bare fists touch something so revolting.
Bora and Park Sunja briefly looked confused at the sight of me drawing a sword from thin air, but they seemed to agree that the top priority was dealing with the monster ahead.

Bora was the first to test the waters.
“Hup!”
She threw a talisman. Blue electricity crackled around it as it shot straight toward the monster.

Whoosh!
Though it had a huge body and oddly thin limbs, the creature twisted its torso grotesquely and ducked low as if collapsing, nimbly dodging the attack.
A creature of that size moving like that—this was no ordinary enemy.

“Ah... Aaahhhhhh!”
After dodging Bora’s strike, the thing turned its massive body toward us and began to scream.
But the scream didn’t come from its main body.

It erupted all at once from the dozens of pain-distorted mouths embedded across its flesh.
The horrifying chorus echoed, and from beyond the fog, countless monster shadows began to surge toward us.
On the cold metal railings of the bridge, words began to carve themselves into the surface.

[Jumpjumpjumpjumpjump]
[Giveupgiveupgiveupgiveup]
[Die die die die die die die die]
Hopeless cries and curses surrounded us from every direction.
It was like being trapped in a nightmare.

And in the middle of that nightmare, I—truly, for the first time in a while—felt raw, unfiltered fear.
My mind went blank. My legs trembled uncontrollably.
I thought I had overcome so much... but why, of all times—now—

Now was exactly when my power was most needed by the team.
And yet my body refused to move.
Unconsciously, I crouched down and, with shaking hands, opened my inventory to take out the candy I had obtained not long ago.

The candy that made you feel good. I was tempted by the thought that maybe it could help me forget this fear, even for a moment.
But while I was consumed by that weak thought, the rest of the team was already preparing for battle in their own ways.
Bora was pressing talismans together in her hands, readying her spells.

Shun calmly stretched, judging the right moment to charge.
Hanbit already had his rifle trained on the enemy.
They were all waiting for me.

Just then, Park Sunja quietly approached me.
“...You’re scared, right?”
She gently stroked my back, as if to say she understood completely.

I glanced up at her.
Her hand was trembling slightly, too.
Truth be told, the person who should be feeling the most fear here wasn’t me—it was Park Sunja.

Among all of us, she had the weakest combat ability.
And yet, she was standing there, trying to comfort me even while trembling herself.
In that moment, the fear that had completely consumed me melted away like snow.

I silently returned the candy to my inventory and slowly stood up.
Then I walked over and stood shoulder to shoulder with Shun.
I reset my mindset.

Why should I be afraid right now? I have Cheat Mode.
In the past, I thought thoughts like that were dangerous in horror games.
But this isn’t a horror game. Not for me.

I have Cheat Mode.
This is an action game.
If I step up, it’ll lessen the burden on my teammates.

A monster trying to kill humans?
“Bad monsters get punished.”
Only good monsters are allowed in my house.

I reached deep inside and drew out a feeling completely unlike fear.
What boiled up from within me was anger.
And the only way to overcome emotion is with an even stronger emotion.

“Hoo...”
I felt something inside me shift completely.
I didn’t hesitate any longer. Leaving my ready teammates behind, I stepped forward—straight into the fog toward the monsters.

And they, trusting me, followed right behind.
That gave me an incredible sense of reassurance.
Tadadak!

I charged into the writhing grotesque shapes within the fog.
Every one of them looked like they had been born for the sole purpose of inducing fear.
Monsters that crawled along the ground like threads of corpses knotted together. Ones with gaping maws where their stomachs should be. Even ones with no head—just a neck ending in nothing.

BOOM!
The asphalt beneath me cracked like a spiderweb.
Stones flew upward.

Fwoosh—
My body shot forward like a missile.
The scenery blurred into streaks. As I tore through the fog like it was paper, a dozen foul stenches slammed into my nose.

Monsters surrounded me. They reached out their arms toward me, the lone intruder.
Whoosh! Whip!
I swung my sword at them without mercy.

It couldn’t even be called swordsmanship—it was closer to a rage-fueled frenzy.
More monsters were crushed to death by my arms and legs than by the actual blade.
Thwack! Crunch!

I rammed into them, sending them flying.
Sometimes I kicked them down into the blood-colored Han River below.
Even when I simply parried their attacks with a light swing of my arm, their limbs broke and shattered like twigs.

It was like eggs hitting steel.
Our bodies weren’t even in the same league.
The more I fought, the more I understood.

Now, finally now, I truly realized.
There was no longer any need for me to fear monsters of this level.
My strength had already far surpassed the realm they belonged to.

And then, powerful support flew in by my side.
Bora’s talismans crackled with blue lightning, Hanbit’s bullets radiated red energy, picking off monsters from afar.
Shun delivered precise, heavy kicks to the small monsters I’d missed.

Most of the monsters were being torn apart—literally.
This wasn’t even a fight anymore.
It was a one-sided massacre.

The hideous monsters that once filled our surroundings were now just sagging, deflated corpses.
We stepped over them and pressed on.
The thick fog began to lift, and before long, we saw it.

The round one—summoner of monsters, inscriber of curses on the railing.
“Let’s finish this.”
As I approached it to land the final blow, the thing suddenly panicked and turned to flee down the bridge.

For something that big, it was surprisingly fast—but there was no way it could outrun us now.
We all chased it down, and finally, it came to a stop, as if it had run out of road.
And then we understood.

We saw why it had stopped—why it hadn’t run further.
Standing behind it, previously obscured by the fog, was a monster far, far larger.
A humanoid monster, its entire body grotesquely overbuilt with bulging muscle.

It looked like a bodybuilder pumped full of a truckload of steroids—or like it was wearing armor made entirely of muscle.
Just standing there, it radiated a crushing aura, as if the air itself were weighed down by its presence.
“I’ll try shooting first,”

Hanbit was the first to react.
He raised his rifle, aimed at the new muscular monster’s chest, and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
BOOM! The red energy round struck it dead center in the chest.

But the thing didn’t even try to dodge.
The blast that could turn small fry into meat paste merely left a tiny scorch mark on its rock-hard chest before dissipating completely.
“...”

Finally, a tougher one.
I couldn’t help but smile in satisfaction as I raised the Return Sword—despite not being very good at using it.
“...That’s scary,”

Shun said, watching me.
Well, yes. These monsters were definitely scary.