According to the story of this cowardly officer, the B dimension, where Yonghoon originally came from, seemed to be connected to the dimensional Warp Zone located in the capital of the ruling nation of this world.
They managed the conquered A dimension and the nearly conquered B dimension from the capital, while for the still ongoing C dimension, they were sending monsters and Dimensional Beasts from the dimensional Warp Zones in major cities.
‘London, United Kingdom.’
The capital of The World, the sole nation of this world, was New London.
Originally, New York in the United States was the capital. However, due to the Dead Zone consuming the entire American and African continents, they eventually moved the capital to New London.
Yonghoon raised his hand to stop the endlessly chattering officer. He had heard all the important information. The rest could be listened to slowly later.
Yonghoon looked around. He began to sense signs of people with his senses.
Night had fully fallen. It was the time when the Deathmen, as people called them, would appear.
Deathmen were lifeforms created when ordinary humans were contaminated and mutated. They were different from the corrupted humans contaminated by the Dimensional Beasts Yonghoon had seen in his world. These were scarier and more grotesque.
Red eyes began to appear in the windows of the surrounding old buildings. Black shadows darting between buildings also caught his eye.
In the old city center of New Warsaw they passed through yesterday, the Dead Zone was too close, so they hadn’t seen these creatures, but in the old city center of New Berlin City, surviving Deathmen roamed at night hunting for prey.
“Eek!”
Robert, whose story had been cut off by Yonghoon, noticed the situation around them and let out a small scream. His face turned pale again. His reluctance to pass through the old city center at night was partly because of Yonghoon, but mostly because of the Deathmen.
Yonghoon raised his hand and released Dimensional Power. A dimensional tunnel formed in front of him. He grabbed the startled Robert by the collar and jumped into the tunnel.
They reappeared on the coastline of an island. Robert looked around with wide, astonished eyes.
It was a small island, less than a kilometer across. Most of the island was overgrown fields, with a forest on one side. Windbreak trees surrounded the island.
However, this was information only known to Yonghoon, and Robert was simply bewildered by the sudden appearance of the coastline.
“This is a small island off the coast of Germany. If you spend just one day in that house, I’ll come back to get you tomorrow.”
Where Yonghoon pointed, there was an old house that looked like it had been abandoned for a long time.
It was a small island about 200 kilometers away from Berlin’s coast. Yonghoon had discovered it while scouting the area and found it perfect for imprisoning someone.
Robert, who had been dazed by Yonghoon’s words, regained his senses after a moment. He shouted at Yonghoon.
“How am I supposed to survive in a place like this……”
But when he turned around, Yonghoon was nowhere to be seen. He had already left.
“I’m doomed.”
Robert muttered as he stared at the isolated house.
Yonghoon appeared at an old building in front of the dimensional Warp Zone and looked westward toward where the United Kingdom was.
He couldn’t go there yet. According to the cowardly officer, it was crawling with powerful armies and Awakened.
If he rushed in recklessly and caused trouble like yesterday, he wouldn’t be able to undo it.
‘Next time.’
Yonghoon forcibly turned his head away. Right now, he had to destroy the Warp Zone in front of him.
He pulled out the second spear from his back. The spear began to glow brightly.
Brigadier General Mitterrand was sitting with his eyes closed, wearing armor. A shield leaned against his chair, and his fingers tapped the handle in rhythm.
“How about getting some sleep?”
Colonel Gilbert spoke to him. She was also fully armed, sitting across from him.
But the brigadier general didn’t respond. He kept tapping the handle until his hand suddenly stopped.
His face turned toward the window. He felt a massive surge of Dimensional Power from afar.
He tilted his head.
“This isn’t C-Rank level.”
As the Dimensional Power continued to intensify, his expression changed. He hastily grabbed his shield.
At that moment, the surrounding air trembled. The brigadier general’s expression shifted.
“Dimensional Power explosion?”
He desperately lunged toward Gilbert. He hugged her and raised his shield above them.
The surface of the shield shone brightly, and a green barrier enveloped their bodies.
KWAANG!
The wall above the green barrier burst apart.
Yonghoon watched as flames erupted from the side of the building that had exploded.
A quarter of the building, including the eastern wall he was facing, had been blown away. Flames were rising everywhere, and debris scattered all around had made a mess.
But Yonghoon looked disappointed. The building was larger and sturdier than he expected. It didn’t seem like it would collapse from this level of attack.
Moreover, the Dimensional Beast visible through the broken wall was completely unfazed. It didn’t even budge from the impact.
It seemed he would have to finish it off directly. He had hoped to take care of it from a distance, but as expected, Dimensional Beasts couldn’t be handled so easily.
Yonghoon checked his Dimensional Power. It was still sufficient.
Although he had used his innate ability twice and traveled quite far with spatial movement, moving slowly over time had allowed his Dimensional Power to recover significantly.
He wanted to spend more time replenishing his Dimensional Power, but he didn’t know when Awakened from the city might arrive. He had to finish this quickly.
Yonghoon drew his sword and teleported toward the collapsed building.
Yonghoon appeared in front of the blasted wall. The surroundings were a mess of rubble from the destroyed building. Flames and heat still filled the air, but it didn’t bother Yonghoon. Only his clothes were singed by the heat.
The massive dome-shaped building looked as if someone had taken a bite out of a cake. Yonghoon peered inside through the torn opening.
He began to see the Dimensional Beasts he had seen yesterday.
‘Two of them.’
According to the cowardly officer Robert, one had already been sent to the C dimension. There were two left here.
It would be difficult for the Awakened of the C dimension to handle the Dimensional Beasts. He had to eliminate them as quickly as possible and return.
Yonghoon, scanning the surroundings, looked at the pile of debris ahead. His forehead furrowed.
It was at that moment.
BANG!
The debris in front of him exploded. Some of the scattered debris flew toward Yonghoon.
“Kugh!”
Yonghoon reflexively swung his sword at the falling debris. The debris was sliced midair and scattered in pieces.
Yonghoon cleared the debris and looked ahead.
Where the debris had exploded, a green barrier had formed. Inside it, two people were visible.
A middle-aged man in armor and a young woman with a sharp impression and short hair.
The green barrier was emanating from the man’s shield. It seemed to be the shield’s ability. Meanwhile, the woman was raising her hand toward the sky.
The debris that had shot upward stopped midair before touching the green barrier. Other debris around them also began to float upward.
‘A-Rank Defense-type Awakened and B+-Rank Telekinesis Ability User. Close range is dangerous. Retreat!’
Yonghoon threw himself backward. He had just used spatial movement, so he couldn’t teleport again immediately.
Various debris rained down toward the retreating Yonghoon. The ground and walls shifted, and sand and dirt rushed at him.
Yonghoon didn’t suffer physical damage, but he couldn’t completely withstand the impact of objects hurled by telekinesis. He couldn’t retreat any further.
Yonghoon’s clothes were torn to shreds as debris slashed through them. But he calmly endured her attack.
It was a battle against time anyway. Once his Dimensional Power stabilized, he could escape immediately.
Suddenly, the telekinetic assault stopped. Yonghoon hurriedly raised his sword. The moment the telekinesis ceased, a massive surge of Dimensional Power rushed toward him.
BANG!
Yonghoon coughed up blood from the sudden impact. It felt like his organs were about to burst out.
As he was flung backward, he looked ahead.
There stood the middle-aged Hunter, raising his shield.
He had just swung his shield at Yonghoon. Fortunately, Yonghoon had blocked it with his sword, but the opponent’s Dimensional Power had flowed through the sword, sending shockwaves through his entire body.
‘Innate ability!’
It was the Defense-type Awakened’s innate ability. When team leader Han used it against monsters, it was reassuring, but experiencing it firsthand was hellish.
Moreover, after being hit by the innate attack, he felt his entire body stiffen.
Yonghoon, rolling along the ground, lay on top of the debris and looked up.
An enormous amount of debris floated above. Sharp metal bars, rebar, and massive chunks of cement-all of it targeted Yonghoon.
But with his body paralyzed, Yonghoon couldn’t dodge.
“Die!”
Gilbert shouted as she lowered her hand.
KUKWAKWAKWANG!
The debris that had been floating in the sky poured down toward the fallen Yonghoon. An explosion and a cloud of dust erupted where he lay.
“Huff, huff, huff… Did we get him?”
Gilbert gasped for breath, clutching her knees. She had pushed her ability to its limit.
But seeing her opponent buried under her power, she looked satisfied.
“It seems like it……”
The Brigadier General brushed off the incoming dust and made a strange expression.
No matter how strong a B-Rank Defense-type Awakened was, they couldn’t block an attack of this magnitude. Even as an A-Rank Defense-type Awakened, he couldn’t withstand it with his body alone.
Yet he couldn’t shake off a strange sense of unease. It had ended too easily.
Moreover, he couldn’t understand the opponent’s first attack. It had been a Dimensional Power explosion that appeared out of thin air. Clearly, Dimensional Power had been drawn from afar, but the explosion had occurred inside the building.
Spatial movement and an impact-type innate ability-yet even a Linker couldn’t use both abilities simultaneously.
He muttered as he looked outside the building.
“Is there another one?”
“No.”
Someone answered his muttered question.
Startled, the Brigadier General turned his head. The voice had come from Gilbert’s direction.
Following his gaze, he saw her leaning against someone.
It was the man who had been buried under the debris earlier. His clothes were completely torn to rags, and the sunglasses he had been wearing were nowhere to be seen.
She was leaning against the man with her eyes closed.
The man, his black pupils gleaming, reached toward Gilbert’s chest.
Yonghoon slipped his hand between Gilbert’s armor. When he withdrew it, a Dimensional Core stained with blood was in his grasp.
Yonghoon let go of her body. Gilbert collapsed to the ground.
Gilbert’s fallen chest was rising and falling.
“You didn’t kill her.”
The Brigadier General’s eyes gleamed as he looked at her.
Yonghoon gave a bitter smile at his words. Without realizing it, he had gone easy on her. It was because of Sunhee and the others.
Still, since he had knocked her out and extracted her Dimensional Core, she wouldn’t be able to participate in the battle. For now, he decided to finish things with the man in front of him.
Yonghoon’s sword and Brigadier General Mitterrand’s shield began to glow.