If only a small number of people had been trapped here, they might have been able to act more leisurely.
But now, with kids who don’t know anything about the monsters also trapped, it seemed like there wasn’t much time left.
“Teacher, I’m hungry…”
“I’m… scared… Ugh!”
“Are you okay? I’ll pat your back.”
“Ugh… Teacher, is there a bathroom somewhere?”
“Yes. If it’s a bathroom, I’ll try to transform the kitchen into a makeshift one for now.”
Yoon Ha-eun, who was busy caring for about twenty elementary school students in a near-panic state.
As the strongest S-Class hero among them, she would be busy just staying vigilant.
Yet, she was perfectly fulfilling her duties as a student teacher while never relaxing her guard.
“You’re amazing…”
“I don’t want to admit it, but it feels like I’m looking at my mom.”
Her ability to carry out her mission was becoming a good example for the two princesses who would become heroes ten years later.
But no matter how capable, there would always be limits.
I, too, was in a difficult situation where it was hard for me to turn into a monster due to being trapped with many others in an enclosed space.
If even S-Class hero Yoon Ha-eun were to collapse in this situation, then it would truly be a crisis.
So, who could this monster be?
Flipping through my thoughts.
‘There must be a clue somewhere.’
It felt like we had been trapped here for about a day, but there was still no movement from the enemy.
I was just hungry or feeling sluggish after waking up.
I thought of two possibilities here.
First, the hypothesis that the S-Class hero, Yoon Ha-eun, was being cautious and waiting until she exhausted herself.
No matter how much the enemy had brought her into their space, she was still an S-Class hero, known for her ability to even hunt down monsters of danger level 1.
Fighting her directly would be quite burdensome.
So, my guess was that the monster was waiting quietly until Yoon Ha-eun, exhausted by the scared kids, collapsed.
The second possibility was the remaining one, and honestly, it was a bit uncertain, but not entirely impossible.
It was that the monster that trapped us had no combat abilities other than its ability to separate spaces.
‘Actually, when playing <Monster Frontline>, there were monsters that used space separation to form teams with combat-type monsters.’
A representative example was the Eternal Monster.
This monster used a pattern to trap others in a space forever, and while its ability was bothersome, it had almost no combat power.
So, the Eternal Monster would hide somewhere in the space it trapped, putting other cooperating monsters into the space to fight.
‘But, this space seems too flat for the Eternal Monster to have created.’
At first, I thought the Eternal Monster was behind this incident, but thanks to waking up with a clearer mind,
I began to suspect that the Eternal Monster wasn’t the one behind this.
Because, to create a space it could trap someone in, the Eternal Monster needed a setting with “stairs” or “hallways” to constantly go down or walk.
But the restaurant we were trapped in…
There was no hallway to walk through, no stairs to go up or down.
It was a small, circular hall with just tablecloth-covered tables and a kitchen.
This was far too “one-dimensional” of a room for the Eternal Monster to have used its power here.
‘Prison? …It wouldn’t be fitting for the monster to create a prison, because it had the ability to create servant monsters that attacked. It also didn’t have patience.’
Even calling it a “Repeating Monster” didn’t quite fit, because its attack patterns weren’t like this.
So, the only remaining monster that came to mind was a “Domination” type… but honestly, that didn’t make much sense.
‘The Domination Monster is watching quietly because it’s scared of Yoon Ha-eun? That “Witch” wouldn’t fight like that.’
In conclusion, there was a high chance that the monster behind this was one I hadn’t encountered before, despite playing <Monster Frontline> for over five years.
So, what should I do?
“Jang Hoon, are you okay?”
“Miss…”
As I was lost in thought…
“Did you keep rummaging through the kitchen because you were hungry? If so, I brought some chocolate bars, so please eat these.”
Hoshino and Carmilla, who had somehow joined me in the kitchen, squatted next to me.
They were looking at me with very young and worried expressions.
“No, I’m not really hungry.”
“Don’t lie! You’ve probably been starving all day, how could you not be hungry?”
Carmilla, who had brought snacks for the field trip, was trying to give me a chocolate bar.
However, I declined.
I didn’t want to eat from the kids in such a tense situation.
Waving my hand, I told her to take the chocolate bar back, as I didn’t know when we might escape.
Then…
“Just eat it already!”
Ugh!
Carmilla returned to her fierce expression from when we first met and shoved the chocolate bar into my mouth.
“Ugh?!”
“It’s a woman’s duty to protect a man! Besides, as a hero, I can’t let Jang Hoon-kun worry about me!”
Nodding vigorously.
Carmilla, who had fed me the chocolate bar, was now angrily scolding me.
As if it was the most natural thing in the world.
Even though she was a hero, she must have been just as hungry.
Hoshino, sitting quietly beside her, nodded in agreement, also as a fellow hero.
The two of them made sure I couldn’t spit out the chocolate bar, using both hands to force my mouth to move.
Gulp.
“You didn’t have to go this far…”
“No, this is the right thing to do.”
“Right, Jang Hoon. Before we’re kids, we’re heroes. And the biggest role of a hero is to protect the ‘socially vulnerable.'”
The socially vulnerable in Hero City.
There are many kinds, such as the elderly or disabled, but without a doubt, the number one vulnerable group would be young boys.
‘Even though you say that, it’s still a bit overwhelming…’
The chocolate bar I just ate would have been more useful for the kids outside, crying from hunger.
…No, wait.
In this world, the young girls enrolled in prestigious elementary schools would probably be like Carmilla just now.
Even if I offered them a chocolate bar, they might refuse just like this:
“I… I don’t need it!”
“How could you take a boy’s?”
Still, they probably wouldn’t be so cowardly.
But even with the kitchen tap water filling their bellies, there’s a limit to how long the kids could endure.
How much longer could they last, just replenishing water without any food…
“Maybe I should have boiled the chocolate bar in water earlier and shared it with everyone.”
“Jang Hoon-kun…”
“Thank you, Carmilla. But I’m not just some cowardly guy like the other boys.”
“It’s… It’s okay! And I brought two chocolate bars in total, one for each pocket!”
Luckily, Carmilla had brought two chocolate bars in a 1+1 deal.
Thanks to her unexpected resourcefulness, I filled as much water as possible into the pot in the kitchen and thought I could make some chocolate water to ease the hunger, even just a little.
But then…
“By the way, this is interesting.”
“Miss?”
“The kitchen here. Both the water and the fire… everything’s working so well for a separated space.”
…Now that I think about it, you’re right?
The lady, who had been turning on the gas stove, commented in surprise, and up until this point, I hadn’t quite understood, but…
“Yoon Ha-eun, teacher.”
“Yes, Jang Hoon.”
“Does the electricity work too? I mean, the chandelier above us.”
“Chandelier…?”
A restaurant with gas, water, and even electricity.
‘Does this make sense?’
I paused, pondering for a moment in this mysterious space, which, aside from being trapped, seemed to allow just about everything.
Suddenly, I remembered a particular monster that could only trap people in a space.
“Could it be…?”
Beyond the restaurant, where the entire 1st-grade class of Almighty Elementary School was trapped,
As you might have guessed, this place was no longer the world of humans, but a monster’s world.
In other words, it was a realm from another dimension.
“Hehehe… I always thought you were just some worthless trash hiding somewhere, but it turns out you have some use after all.”
“Th-thank you…!”
“But don’t get cocky. ‘The Monster of Disappearance.’ You’re just a trash monster who can only trap things in one space, nothing more.”
“Th-that’s… of course, yes! O Great Monster…”
For the second day, two monsters had been observing the situation inside the restaurant, hidden in the thick fog.
One of them was a humanoid monster with a very introverted way of speaking, the kind that seemed like it would just stay locked in a room forever.
Her pink eyes trembled uneasily under her black sclera.
Her hair was the same shade of pink as her eyes, and the only clothing she wore was a loose t-shirt that covered her entire body.
She was the very definition of a lazy, reclusive person.
Despite her reclusive appearance, the reason she was now attacking humans in such a dangerous way was because of the high-ranking monster beside her.
The threat that humans wanted to exterminate.
The worst kind of insect, the source of the “pests.”
She had been dragged into the fight by the ‘Mosquito Monster,’ a hideous creature with bulging muscles of red and yellow like veins, and sharp claws.
“Don’t be so upset. The Monster of Disappearance.”
That woman is the one who killed the ‘Cockroach Monster,’ my distant relative. I was forced to borrow your insignificant power to deal with her.
“Heheek?! Y-yes…”
“You better be grateful for being used, trash!”
“Th-thank you!”
This was ridiculous.
They kidnapped me, but now they were treating me like this.
However, the Monster of Disappearance, who didn’t want to be killed, silently nodded and did as instructed.
“Ah… I just want to go home and play PS…”
She shivered, wanting to get away from the repulsive high-ranking monster as soon as possible.
“Gr-r-r…”
Shiver… Wait, “Gr-r-r”?
“Hm?”
“Who… are you?”
Out of nowhere, another monster appeared behind the lazy monster.
It was a bizarre, unheard-of monster wearing a dark red horned mask, grinning as it slapped the Mosquito Monster’s cheek.
Slick.
“Ugh?!”
“Ugh?!”