BCGWR Chapter 2

The Cataclysm 1

Around 4 PM on January 1, 20XX.

What was then called the sinkhole incident, and is now known as The Cataclysm, occurred.

From the very first day of the new year, the ground in some areas shook as if from an earthquake. The first area in Korea to be affected was an apartment complex located in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province.

While nearby areas felt no earthquake, the ground around this apartment complex alone convulsed as if it would collapse at any moment, until a massive sinkhole formed. In an instant, four apartment buildings were swallowed into the earth.

Fire authorities and experts from various fields were mobilized to search for survivors, but they couldn’t even determine the sinkhole’s depth, let alone enter it.

Starting with the Suwon sinkhole, similar phenomena soon occurred across the country, with reports pouring in not only from South Korea but also globally.

As the entire world trembled with anxiety, striving to grasp the scale of the disaster, time passed, and the date changed. Then, around 7 AM on January 2, the very next day, a red light began to emanate from the first sinkhole in Suwon.

Just as rescue teams, believing it to be a signal from survivors, began to prepare, the blazing red light from the sinkhole grew increasingly intense, and something started to emerge from the opening.

At that time, the area around the first sinkhole was crowded with reporters from various broadcasting stations and streamers using all sorts of equipment for live broadcasts.

Everyone rushed past the police line around the sinkhole to film the rescue site, and amidst the standoff with police trying to control the crowd, a scream erupted from somewhere.

Before anyone could even figure out who screamed or why, everyone gathered at the scene and those watching the live broadcast were horrified.

Something was crawling out of the sinkhole.

Something very large and massive.

Naturally, it wasn’t the survivor everyone had hoped for. No, it wasn’t even human to begin with. It was a giant insect, many times larger than a person.

Starting with winged creatures, and including incredibly jumping crickets and camel crickets, all sorts of giant insects larger than cars poured out and began hunting people.

At the same time, a sinkhole that appeared in Gangwon Province, while not releasing monsters, generated immense heat before exploding, devastating the surrounding area. From a large sinkhole in Chungnam, two-legged beasts resembling humans poured out.

People were slaughtered without proper resistance, caught off guard by the sudden appearance of monsters straight out of kaiju films or novels.

Even though the unbelievable spectacle was broadcast live on TV and the internet, it didn’t cause a huge stir.

Because other countries besides South Korea were in the same situation.

In short, the entire Earth was in chaos.

If the story ended here, it would perfectly fit the title “The Last Day of Humanity,” but as always, humanity, boasting a tenacity comparable to cockroaches, evolved.

On the day The Cataclysm struck Earth, a species-level upheaval occurred in a small number of people.

Individuals awakened powers that could not be defined as human, and they, in turn, began hunting monsters.

In the initial desperate months after The Cataclysm, with civilization rapidly collapsing, humanity was pushed to the brink of extinction by the monsters. However, at a certain point, a few individuals awakened special powers, and the tide quickly turned. Humanity began to adapt rapidly to The Cataclysm.

As the simultaneous disasters were somewhat brought under control and stabilized, it was a natural progression for these individuals with special powers to gain attention.

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