I put a leash on Catastrophe

‘Martin is understandable, but why this one?’

Although Martin, blindly devoted to him, could act like this, it wasn’t like the behavior of the pharaoh who had been ignoring Zhi-wu until now. Zhi-wu looked at him in confusion, but the pharaoh didn’t let go of his hand.

In the darkness that had become so deep that even the phone’s flash was useless, the cries of monsters continued to be heard.

However, if earlier these were desperate and angry cries, now they sounded a bit different.

These were cries full of grief and despair. So much so that Zhi-wu felt guilty for a moment. But even these sounds gradually faded, absorbed by the darkness.

When no more sounds could be heard and nothing could be seen, Zhi-wu clearly felt only the warmth of two hands holding his arms.

At this moment, the darkness began to crack.

Bam!

With a sharp sound, the darkness shattered into pieces. The fragments falling down disappeared without a trace as soon as they touched the floor.

When all the darkness crumbled and disappeared, they found themselves not in the forest, but inside a building. Unlike how it was when they entered, the moss had disappeared without a trace.

If not for the blood traces on the floor and the corpses of giant rats, one could think it was a dream, so little remained.

* * *

Both online and offline, panic arose.

In the center of Seoul, where wild animals are at most stray cats, rats, or pigeons, a flock of giant rats attacked people.

[Eyewitness video]

[10 PM, Myeongdong. People in shock from the sudden appearance of giant rats. (Screams)

It’s not one or two, but a whole flock – more than 10 individuals at a glance.

Giant rats show strong aggression and even bite people nearby.

Citizen: At first, I thought it was some kind of animal. I didn’t think such a large creature could be a rat…]

The hotel TV was broadcasting news about yesterday’s attack. Although more than half a day had passed since the incident, all channels continued to repeat the reports.

‘Well, for modern society, this is really a shocking event.’

It’s not often that fatal cases occur in the city center due to wild animal attacks. As a result of yesterday’s incident, 3 people died, and the number of injured was in the three digits. Not to mention the colossal material damage.

Therefore, people were looking for someone to blame. They discussed whether these were wild animals or escapees from some farm, but no one knew where they came from.

Thanks to the involvement of the military, it seems almost all rats were caught.

Zhi-wu, watching the continuous stream of news, felt his phone vibrate and checked the screen. Kim Hwan-su’s number appeared on the screen. When he pressed the answer button, a loud voice was heard.

– Hey, are you alright?

“Yes.”

– Ai-ai-ai, what is this. We also suffered yesterday because of this incident.

Even in a hidden place, it was impossible to completely prevent invasion. Regardless of whether it’s an underground facility or above ground, ventilation was needed, and through ventilation holes, one could penetrate inside.

Although ventilation channels were made as narrow as possible to avoid such cases, this didn’t help when the intruders weren’t human.

– These rat pups, apparently due to their size, very deftly crawled through channels that even a person would find difficult to get through. We, of course, have protection against external attacks, so there were only injuries, but no deaths… Who would have thought we’d be attacked by animals.

Hwan-su talked for a long time about the difficulties they faced, and then, after a pause, asked:

– By the way, when we were destroying these rats, we discovered something strange…

It seems they found ether stones. He talked about finding pearl-like balls inside the rats’ bodies, and that each rat had one such ball the size of a fingernail.

Zhi-wu felt a heaviness in his heart. If Hwan-su knew about this, then probably the government was already aware.

‘So, the properties of ether stones will soon become known.’

It was obvious that greed for ether stones would again take hold of people and contribute to the creation of farms.

Even if Zhi-wu, who had no power, tried to warn about this, people wouldn’t listen to him. So nothing could be done.

‘I’ll have to close all the Gates that appear in the future myself.’

Zhi-wu pondered, stroking the monkey’s hand. He tried to remember the locations of other Gates, but fortunately, apart from those he closed yesterday, it seems no new ones had appeared – the hand remained clenched in a fist.

After talking with Hwan-su, Zhi-wu thought. Although now he could determine the direction, the problem was that he didn’t know the distance.

‘If Gates appear nearby, it’s not a problem. Mountains or rivers can be overcome.’

But what if it’s on an island? Or in another country? If he goes east, and the pointer shows across the sea, how to know if the Gates are in Japan, on some island in the Pacific Ocean, or pointing to America? Going blindly was not only dangerous but also too primitive.

‘Is there no way to use this more effectively?’

Zhi-wu lowered his gaze to the hand for a moment, then raised his head. His gaze fell on the pharaoh.

The pharaoh was indifferently watching TV, but feeling Zhi-wu’s gaze, he turned his head. Zhi-wu raised the monkey’s hand and asked him, who was looking with an indifferent expression:

“Can you tell me about this?”

The pharaoh made a displeased face. Seeing this, Zhi-wu was about to give up, thinking he wouldn’t tell anything, but suddenly the pharaoh, as if changing his mind, spoke:

“It’s a conductor.”

“A conductor?”

“Yes. A conductor that points the way to what you desire.”

While Zhi-wu was absently looking at the monkey’s hand, the pharaoh continued to explain:

“You already know how to use it. You just need to ask about the place you want to find, putting your desire into the question. It’s not difficult to make, but the downside is that the materials for it are hard to obtain.”

“Hard to obtain materials?”

“Yes. You can’t just take and cut off the hand of any animal.”

An mischievous smile appeared on the pharaoh’s indifferent face. Seeing him hesitate with the answer, Zhi-wu waited patiently. Looking at how Zhi-wu didn’t show impatience, the pharaoh looked a bit disappointed, but still continued:

“You need an animal possessing divinity, that is, a sacred being.”

“Divinity?”

“Yes. Although I’m talking about an animal, it can actually be a human too. It’s just that people value their own kind too much, so they’re not used as material.”

“What is divinity?”

Judging by the meaning, it was something sacred, related to gods. Zhi-wu could only roughly imagine, but didn’t understand clearly, and the pharaoh, looking at his puzzled face, seemed to be thinking about how to explain better. At this moment, Martin spoke:

“It’s this.”

Hearing his words, Zhi-wu turned, and Martin held out something to him. Zhi-wu reflexively extended his hand, and Martin placed the object on it.

This object turned out to be an ether stone. The very one that the pharaoh had given him inside the Gates, as if playing.

“An ether stone? Is this divinity?”

“To be precise, it’s just a fragment. Such a small fragment that it’s even embarrassing to call it divinity.”

The pharaoh casually answered Zhi-wu’s question and took the ether stone from his hand. From the fingertips of the pharaoh holding the stone, something began to spread, like diffusing paint. Inside the transparent stone, it seemed as if a rainbow-colored fire had ignited.

“It seems that because it’s a low-class fragment, even at maximum filling, only this level is achieved.”

The ether stone fell back into Zhi-wu’s hand. Unlike how it looked in the pharaoh’s hand, the rainbow fire wasn’t burning, but one could see a soft rainbow glow, as if through a prism.

Looking at this, Zhi-wu roughly understood what they meant by divinity.

‘A rainbow ether stone.’

And the minor disasters threatening humanity were those very sacred beings they were talking about.

‘So this is the hand of that minor disaster?’

But why is it so small? All the disasters Zhi-wu knew were huge. Even the owner of the ether stone, which was now considered an insignificant fragment, was the size of a tank.

However, the monkey’s hand, the conductor he was holding now, was even smaller than Zhi-wu’s hand. And this is considering that Zhi-wu didn’t have such big hands.

Not understanding this, Zhi-wu looked at both of them, but they didn’t seem to be going to give further explanations. In the end, Zhi-wu gave up trying to learn more. After all, it wasn’t important now why the conductor was so small.

“Is there no way to use this more effectively?”

Although the conductor was a wonderful item, it had its inconveniences. It would be good if they could be eliminated. When Zhi-wu looked hopefully at the pharaoh, he, unlike his previous silence, spoke this time:

“If the user knows how to handle divinity, it can be used better.”

“Handle divinity?”

“Yes. If you enhance the conductor’s abilities with divinity, you’ll be able to know the approximate distance at your will.”

Hearing this, Zhi-wu became interested. To the question of how one can obtain divinity, a smile appeared on the pharaoh’s face. Zhi-wu felt some anxiety from this cunning smile, which felt like there was some catch.

“The easiest way is to be chosen.”

Zhi-wu was curious, chosen by whom, but the pharaoh didn’t specify.

“But that’s something you need to be born with, so it will be difficult for you.”

Zhi-wu’s face frowned, thinking whether the pharaoh was mocking him, making him hope, but the pharaoh spoke again:

“The second easiest way…”

With these words, he again took the ether stone from Zhi-wu’s hand.

“You need to eat it.”

“…What?”

Zhi-wu wasn’t sure if “eat” meant literally swallowing it like food, or if it was a metaphor for absorbing some energy. However, it seems the pharaoh meant the former.

“This, with the mouth?”

Although he asked again, not believing, it only confirmed his suspicions. No matter how he looked at it, he didn’t like the idea of swallowing something that came out of a monster’s body.

“Is there no other way?”

“There are, but these are ways you won’t be able to use even if you die and are reborn.”

When Zhi-wu inquired, it turned out these were indeed difficult methods. One needed to either become an immortal Taoist saint, achieving enlightenment, or reach nirvana as spoken of in Buddhism.

He didn’t have time to try to reach a level that’s difficult to achieve even with a lifetime of practice.