The aircraft shook wildly, and an ear-piercing alarm blared without pause, startling everyone.
“Uwaaaaaah!”
“What is happening!?”
“We’re crashing!”
Inside the rapidly descending plane, Lee Taeseong cursed and looked out the window.
“This is seriously insane.”
KWA-GWANG!
Outside, lightning and storms raged endlessly, as if the apocalypse had arrived.
One of the plane’s wings had snapped off. Seeing this, Taeseong immediately headed for the cockpit.
The moment he opened the door, the first thing that caught his eye was the unconscious pilot. Checking his condition, it was clear he was already dead.
“Spiders?”
The cockpit was filled with hundreds of spiders. The difference from ordinary spiders was that these had cow heads, and each was as big as Taeseong’s leg.
Judging by the shattered front windshield, they had likely infiltrated through there.
Before he could even question why such creatures had entered, Taeseong’s body had already moved.
KWAAJIK!
He instantly crushed the head of the first spider that lunged at him.
Green liquid splattered in all directions, and wherever it touched, it sizzled and melted away with a hiss. It seemed to contain a potent acid.
Killing them one by one with his bare hands would be a waste of time. Taeseong lightly snapped his fingers, and a pure white frost spread around him.
CRACKLE!
In an instant, the hundreds of spiders surrounding him froze solid.
At best, they were insignificant creatures, likely no stronger than Delta-class.
After a brief consideration, Taeseong left the cockpit. It was unfortunate that the innocent pilot had died, but there was nothing he could do about it now.
Even for someone as capable as Lee Taeseong, piloting a plane was impossible. If it were a car or a tank, maybe—but he had zero knowledge of aircraft.
This wasn’t some movie or novel where grabbing the controls without a plan would magically make the plane fly.
Upon reaching the corridor, Taeseong spotted his companions. If they had been ordinary civilians, they would have been paralyzed with fear, but these people were administrators.
Sitting on the floor, drawing something furiously, Lee Eunha muttered nonstop.
“Nothing ever goes smoothly, seriously. I swear, ever since I got involved with you, Taeseong, things like this keep happening more and more.”
“Haha… it must be your imagination.”
“It’s done.”
What Eunha had drawn was a parachute and a boat. After materializing the parachutes, she handed them out to the group.
Next, Oh Haeyoung swung an axe, slicing through the plane’s wall.
SHWAAAAA!
The pitch-black sky was a chaotic storm of wind and lightning.
The hole in the plane tried desperately to suck them out, but unfortunately, none of these people were the type to be moved against their will.
Haeyoung was the first to leap out.
“See you down there!”
Next was Taesan.
“Hahaha! This is fun!”
Then, Go Yeonghui.
“…I didn’t even finish my manga yet.”
Then Eunha.
“Chief Go Yeonghui, you still want to read manga? I’m sick of books at this point. What if you get possessed again…?”
Finally, Taeseong and Sooah.
“I told you, I can go alone.”
“It’s safer if we go together.”
They jumped simultaneously.
The storm was so fierce that the parachutes were difficult to control.
If someone with psychokinetic abilities had been present, they might have been able to adjust their descent in midair.
Taeseong could see his companions in the distance, but they were drifting farther apart. If this continued, they would all scatter.
“……”
As he pondered a solution, a particular yokai flashed through his mind.
Daitengu.
A high monk who, after harboring resentment, had fallen into corruption and transformed into a tengu.
Seeing Taeseong suddenly tear his parachute, Sooah shouted in alarm.
“Oppa!? What are you doing!?”
At that moment, massive black wings grew from Taeseong’s back.
SHWAAAK!
Taeseong soared effortlessly through the air.
The sight of him flapping his giant wings evoked an eerie sense of unease.
If a black bird from mythology truly existed, it would look like this.
“So this is how it works.”
As he flapped his wings, the air currents around him shifted.
Although the area was engulfed in a raging storm, with the power of the Daitengu, he could at least control the immediate surroundings.
One by one, the scattered companions began gathering in one place.
Watching the winged Taeseong, Haeyoung gasped in admiration.
“Wow! Taeseong, you look amazing! I want wings too—can I get some somehow?”
Eunha shot her an exasperated look.
“…Do you really think that’s possible, Haeyoung?”
“Well, Taeseong doesn’t exactly follow common sense!”
At those words, Eunha fell silent.
She thought about it and realized Haeyoung was absolutely right.
‘Seriously, what is he? That level of predation ability is unheard of. And his assigned ranking must be fake—so what’s his true rank?’
Thanks to Taeseong manipulating the wind, they landed safely on a small island nearby.
“Shipwrecked in just a day, huh.”
“What the hell happened? The plane was fine—why did it suddenly crash?”
Taeseong answered.
“There were multiple impacts. Judging by the broken wing, something must have snapped it off. And this damn extreme weather didn’t help either.”
“Was it a creature?”
Taeseong nodded.
“When I entered the cockpit, the windshield was shattered, and the pilot was already dead. The place was swarming with spiders that had cow heads.”
“But… am I the only one seeing that? I can barely make it out, but… what is that?”
Haeyoung pointed toward the far edge of the sea.
Taesan and Taeseong, both possessing superior physical abilities, could see it, but the others could not.
“There’s something there.”
“I don’t see anything.”
“…Neither do I.”
“Same here.”
Dark clouds filled the sky.
Thunder rumbled loudly, and heavy rain continued to pour.
But Taeseong saw it clearly.
“A dragon.”
Haeyoung and Sooah gasped.
“A dragon?”
“A dragon, seriously?”
At that moment, a voice like roaring thunder echoed through the air.
It was immense and powerful, incomparable to anything they had ever heard before.
[I am the dragon. The one that hunts wherever you may flee! You are nothing more than my prey. When I drag you down and tear you apart, you will come to know my madness. Like a rampaging lunatic, I will trample you underfoot. As I defend this land and bring about your destruction, my frenzied cries will deafen your ears! This land is my eternal domain, and you are nothing more than the unfortunate ones chosen to test my devotion!]
[Come find me wherever you wish! I will stand guard over this land, and you will have no chance to appear before me again! The wound you have left behind is seeping into my flesh and blood, awakening deep within me. You have nowhere left to run. I will crush you completely!]
Taeseong, who had been listening in silence, muttered under his breath.
“He sounds pretty unhinged.”
“Y-yeah… maybe he’s hurt or something?”
Meanwhile, Lee Eunha’s mind was racing. She was piecing together the information they had, trying to deduce the identity of the creature before them.
Finally, after arriving at the answer, she spoke.
“That dragon… it’s probably King Munmu.”
Sooah’s face filled with shock.
“What!? King Munmu!?”
“Yeah.”
“You mean… King Munmu, the ruler who led the Unified Silla to prosperity? King Munmu the Great (King of Wisdom and Strength), Kim Beopmin!?”
When Lee Sooah’s eyes sparkled with excitement, Eunha flinched and answered hesitantly.
“Uh, y-yeah. That King Munmu. The hero who became a dragon after death to protect the land from foreign invaders.”
“The Guardian Dragon… So it was real all along. That’s incredible…!”
In truth, Lee Sooah had always been fascinated by stories of the Three Kingdoms era since childhood. She had spent years listening to, reading, and researching tales from that time. That was why she was reacting with such enthusiasm now.
“The Guardian Dragon does exist.”
Taeseong stated matter-of-factly.
“But he seems completely out of his mind. Should I just go kill him?”
“Are you insane!? That’s a protected entity!”
They had figured out what he was, but based on the way he spoke and acted, he was clearly beyond reasoning. If they could escape, avoiding conflict would be ideal.
But it didn’t seem like things would be that easy.
After all, the dragon was the one who had created this chaotic weather and destroyed the plane’s wing. It seemed likely that he had mistaken them for invaders…
‘Then what was that spider all about?’
The plane’s crash was also caused by the pilot’s death.
And the one who killed the pilot was that spider.
“Eugh! That’s disgusting! What the hell is that!?”
“Uh… It looks like a spider, but… its head is a cow’s!?”
“…What the hell is that? That’s terrifying.”
Before they realized it, spiders identical to the ones from the cockpit had surrounded them. Even at a glance, there had to be over a thousand. Their grotesque appearance made everyone grimace in disgust.
“Look over there.”
Beyond the swarm, something loomed in the distance—a spider so massive that it resembled a mountain of stone. Its long tongue flicked out as it observed them, and the aura it radiated was comparable to the Beta-class entities they had encountered in the Jukai Forest.
“A… an entity!?”
“Why is something like that here…?”
Taeseong’s eyes narrowed in certainty.
“It’s that thing.”
“What do you mean?”
“The one that drove the Guardian Dragon insane.”
“How do you know?”
“Just a hunch.”
Eunha quickly turned her focus inward.
She dove into the mental library she had constructed—a catalog of her accumulated knowledge and memories.
To improve her efficiency in recalling information, she had structured her thoughts in this way.
After her dispatch to Japan, she had also studied various reports on entity management with the administrators’ approval.
She understood that her role leaned more toward support rather than combat, so she had dedicated herself to research in order to be more useful during missions.
‘I know I’ve seen this somewhere before…’
She searched through her mental archives until she finally recalled what it was.
[B-Class Entity Management Report]
No. 09929
Entity Name: Gyuki (Ushi-Oni)
Class: Beta (B-Class)
Threat Level: 5
Warning: Red-class danger entity.
Information: A yokai that lives in the water and hunts humans. While numerous Gyuki once existed, it is believed that only one remains today. However, this lone survivor has devoured so many humans over the years that its power far surpasses that of ordinary Gyuki.
Notable Details:
- There are unconfirmed rumors that it formed a marital bond with the snake yokai Nure-onna.
- If its spiderlings are scattered in an area, immediate evacuation is advised. That place is already Gyuki’s hunting ground.
[Observation Record #008]
Access Denied.
[Observation Record #009]
Access Denied.
TL : This is what a Gyuki looks like
