Prologue

The rush hour on the central line in Seoul was always crowded with people. Of course, all routes are full of people during rush hour. There were many more notorious routes than the central line. However, the central line had longer intervals between stations than other lines, so the conditions of the people using it were particularly hellish.

People on the subway could only ride by laying on each other down like matches in a matchbox.

Whatever their height, they were forced to stay close to each other, and eventually, those heading to work had to wait for their station to get off in a state where it was hard even to breathe.

So, naturally, the faces of people going to work were stiff.

It was the time of the notorious summer heat, August.

At least the strong wind of the subway’s air conditioner sometimes touched their faces or shoulders, so they could endure the irritation of pushing their heads between the gaps of the sticky flesh.

Usually, in this situation, all thoughts flow negatively.

Enduring all this damn time, thinking about whether you should go to work at a company with a boss that shouts every day, a company that doesn’t even pay very well, and still having to pay off loans and so on.

Or, to pass the time, you will stare blankly at an entertainment show you can watch without thinking on your phone or hum a song playing through your earphones.

If you don’t, I’m sorry for you.

‘Can’t this world be turned upside down by war or anything?’ This is what they think.

-This station is Wangsimni, this is Wangsimni Station. Doors are on the right.

Upon arriving at Wangsimni Station, some citizens sighed in relief.

It’s a transfer station, so many people would get off, and everyone thought it would be a little easier to breathe.

Even so, hell would continue for people transferred to Line 2 or Bundang subway. Still, people sighed and wanted to run away from the subway as soon as possible. Even a short time to transfer to the subway could liberate them from the hell that puts pressure on the chest.

Many people boarded the escalator that went down to the basement to transfer.

At that moment, something strange appeared in the people’s eyes. It was a sphere of fluorescent color, floating like a goblin fire, emitting a bright light.

‘What’s that?’

At that moment, a man who was closest to the shining sphere stopped in the way he was going.

He looked around, wondering if only he could see it. He had thought he had slept so badly that he had hallucinations.

He didn’t seem to be the only one, as some people passing by stopped walking one by one. Most of them were busy on their way, so they didn’t pay much attention.

The man carefully approached the sphere one step at a time.

‘Who put this here?’ The man forgot where he was going on the hellish subway from early morning.

He reached for it right after looking around again. As he reached out his hand, the people who were glancing nearby watched him attentively.

It was warm. It hasn’t even reached the fingertips completely yet, but he could feel the warmth.

‘Is it a new type of lamp?”

As soon as his hand touched the sphere, a huge light emanated.

As the light disappeared, a roar broke out, and 300 meters around Wangsimni Station blew up just like this.

At the same time, a mushroom cloud rose with flames. The mushroom cloud had a sphere-like fluorescence, not the grey soot like a normal explosion.

The bloody ball of fire did not dissipate but grew bigger and wider, creating a circular band. When viewed from the sky, the inside of the circular band shone white, and when viewed from the ground, it was blacker than the night sky.

Dark clouds appeared beyond the circular band. The dark clouds soon covered all of Seoul and Gyeonggi Province.

It was then that monsters began to appear in the dark part of the circular band.

The monster looked like a lizard and varied greatly in size. Some even had a form very similar to that of a dragon from mythology.

The monsters hunted and devoured the people as soon as they appeared.

Screaming was everywhere. People struggled to escape, but there was nowhere to escape from the beasts rushing in from all directions.

As soon as the army finished preparing, they were deployed throughout Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, but the scales covering the monsters’ bodies were thick and flexible, making it difficult for ordinary rifle bullets to work.

Of course, if it is the military’s firepower, it is not impossible to penetrate the scales, but using that method was practically impossible. The citizens and monsters were mixed, the infrastructure of the capital and citizens’ property could be severely damaged. Above all, there were too many monsters.

In the end, it reached the point of running out of ammunition due to monsters constantly popping out of nowhere even after killing them.

Eventually, the military defense line was pushed back without being properly built, and the capital was temporarily moved to Daejeon due to a series of events.