The trucks were lined up neatly on the plains beside the national highway. Unconscious people were lying on one side, while others, bruised and battered, leaned against the trucks treating each other.
The middle-aged man, staring at the scene in disbelief, once again rubbed his reddened nose.
He could feel the cloth that was stemming the nosebleed at his fingertips. He was no different from the others. He sighed and looked at the people before him.
A young man with a strong impression and two beautiful young women were sitting in front of him. Moreover, one of the women looked strikingly similar to a witch he knew.
As he looked closely at their faces, something felt off. It was clear they were wearing makeup or some kind of disguise.
Karel Capek, the head of the New Prague branch of the organization known as the Resistance among themselves but called rebels by the Empire, didn’t know how to deal with the Awakened before him.
They were high-level Awakened who could block bullets and grenades with their bare bodies. The Resistance’s intelligence wasn’t bad, but he had never heard of them.
In the end, he decided to wait for the other side to speak first.
Yonghoon hesitated. He had hidden his identity in various ways until now. But the chances were high that hiding it here would accomplish nothing.
Yonghoon glanced at Sunhee and Eunseo before speaking.
“I think it’s better to tell the truth.”
Eunseo, who didn’t want to be misunderstood, immediately nodded at Yonghoon’s words, and Sunhee, after a brief thought, agreed as well.
Yonghoon opened his mouth toward the middle-aged man and Elena sitting in front of him. As he began to speak, he felt a bit sorry toward Elena, who had been kept in the dark.
“We are Awakened from another dimension.”
Yonghoon raised his hand to his eye and removed his colored contact lens.
His black pupils were revealed.
Karel and Elena’s eyes widened.
Yonghoon continued his story.
Explaining everything up to his world, the B dimension, would make things too complicated. So he briefly explained the current dimension, the attack on the C dimension, and how he crossed over while fighting against monsters.
Even with just that, it took a considerable amount of time.
The sun began to sink beyond the horizon, painting the sky with a sunset glow.
Elena and Branch Leader Karel listened to Yonghoon’s story with their mouths agape.
“Let me introduce myself again. I am Kang Yonghoon, an A-rank Linker from the C dimension.”
“I’m Eun Sunhee.”
“I am Eunseo Lee.”
At Eunseo’s words, Karel flinched in surprise.
“Could it be, Lieutenant General Eunseo…?”
In response to the branch leader’s words, Yonghoon answered.
“The same person. Existing in another dimension.”
At Yonghoon’s words, the branch leader fell into deep thought with a grave expression.
It was an astonishing story.
It wasn’t easy to believe immediately, but even if he did, it wasn’t a simple matter.
Elena, sitting beside him, couldn’t regain her composure. She finally understood Yonghoon’s actions, but the sudden flood of information left her confused.
The values she had built up over the years had been shattered one after another over the past few weeks.
Meeting Yonghoon had started to crack her beliefs, and meeting the Resistance had completely destroyed them.
She had thought there was nothing left to surprise her, but meeting Yonghoon again showed her yet another world.
After much contemplation, Branch Leader Karel finally spoke. His face, worn by hardships, had turned stiff.
“It’s an incredible story. I’ve heard about otherworlders while working in the organization, but this is my first time seeing one.”
He pressed his temple as if he had a headache and continued.
“However, it’s still hard to trust your words right away. Although, given the current situation, it seems believable.”
He looked around at the members lying down. These people were the Resistance’s fighters in this city and his hunting party. They were connections he had built over twenty years.
The fact that they had survived a sudden attack thanks to these strangers made him want to trust them, but the world wasn’t that simple.
“I understand. I just wanted to get a little help from Miss Elena, but things progressed faster than I expected. It surprised me too.”
At Yonghoon’s words, Elena smiled faintly, feeling somewhat praised.
“What kind of help are you referring to?”
“We were trying to enter the city, but the inspections had gotten stricter. They were checking each person one by one, making entry impossible. I was hoping to find a way in through Miss Elena.”
At Yonghoon’s words, Branch Leader Karel’s face darkened.
“It’s gotten worse than before the hunting trip. After the New Berlin incident last week, inspections tightened, but now even more so–“
His eyes widened mid-sentence.
“Don’t tell me you were the ones who caused the incident in New Berlin?”
At his words, Yonghoon wore a bitter expression.
“During the fight at the Warp Zone, a Dimensional Beast went berserk. There were considerable civilian casualties.”
“Huh.”
The New Berlin disaster had thrown the Empire into chaos. Officially, the Empire blamed it on a dimensional larvae rampage, but internal Resistance sources suggested it might have been a rebellion within the personal guard units or uprisings by other rebel forces.
And now, the perpetrator was right before his eyes.
Branch Leader Karel’s expression darkened.
Hearing that it might have been a terrorist attack, he had cursed the culprits as madmen harming civilians, but now he realized they were victims of invasion. They weren’t someone to be angry at.
Still, Karel felt complicated. No matter how much he opposed the imperial government, he was still a native of this world. Their situations were different.
Fortunately, the other party seemed reasonable. If they had been the type to indiscriminately destroy soldiers and civilians alike, Karel would have personally stepped in to stop them.
Elena, listening from the side, didn’t seem too surprised.
She had been suspicious of Yonghoon ever since hearing about the New Berlin incident and his parting words.
However, she hadn’t told the Resistance members about it. Even she found it hard to believe, so convincing them would have been even harder.
These were people she had known since she was a child. When she first joined the Resistance in the city, she had been shocked to see who the members were.
Especially the branch leader sitting beside her-he had been like an uncle to her since childhood, extremely close to her parents. She had never imagined he was part of the Resistance.
Thanks to that, she had been able to join the Resistance easily. She had been shocked to learn that this world was invading another.
Since then, she had been hunting and receiving education about the Resistance alongside them.
After organizing his thoughts, Branch Leader Karel spoke.
“We will help you enter the city. We’ll also arrange lodging. Is there anything special you plan to do once inside?”
Karel looked at Yonghoon with a slightly worried expression, concerned about potential damage to the city.
Yonghoon shook his head.
“I intend to gather information. We came to this city because of Miss Elena.”
Branch Leader Karel let out a sigh of relief.
It was getting darker. If they delayed any longer, they wouldn’t be able to enter the city. They had to leave now.
Fortunately, all the unconscious people had come to, and the injured didn’t seem to have any serious wounds. Everyone could move without major issues.
“Everyone is ready to depart.”
A young man with a large bruise on his face came to report to the branch leader.
All the trucks were running, and the branch leader guided Yonghoon and the two women to his truck.
He entered the truck and removed the passenger seat. Behind it was a large hidden space, enough to fit three adults lying down.
“You need something like this to do Resistance work. Just hide here. I’ll get you out once we’re inside the city.”
Yonghoon nodded at his words.
Although he was a little worried since he couldn’t visually check the surroundings in the enclosed space, he could monitor the area using Dimensional Power. It wasn’t a big problem.
Yonghoon decided to follow the branch leader’s instructions.
Yonghoon, Eunseo, and Sunhee squeezed themselves into the space behind the seat.
It was a space created between the truck and the cargo bed. They couldn’t lie side by side. Yonghoon and Eunseo lay down first, and Sunhee climbed on top of Yonghoon.
Sunhee lay on Yonghoon’s chest, and seeing that, Eunseo chuckled.
“I’ll put the seat back now.”
With the branch leader’s words, the seat was reinstalled. The narrow space with Yonghoon and the two women went completely dark.
Soon after, the truck started moving.
The truck drove for a while and then gradually slowed down. Soon it stopped. Voices of people murmuring could be heard nearby.
Yonghoon could hear Eunseo’s heartbeat in his ears and feel Sunhee’s heartbeat against his chest.
“It’s a mess. Karel, how was the hunting?”
A young man’s voice came from beside the truck.
“As you can see, a mess. It’s tough these days. But what’s all the commotion?”
“There’s chaos upstairs. Seems like there’s a wanted fugitive. It’s been years since we had a top-priority fugitive.”
“Will we have to wait long?”
“No need. I just checked. Go ahead.”
“Thanks! I’ll buy you a drink later.”
“I should be the one thanking you.”
With that, the truck started moving again. It seemed they had passed the checkpoint safely.
The truck moved forward, weaving left and right. Before long, it came to a stop.
The passenger seat was pulled out again, and in its place appeared the face of Branch Leader Karel. Yonghoon let go of the sword hilt he had been gripping.
“We have arrived.”
He grinned as he looked at Eunseo clinging to Yonghoon’s side and Sunhee nestled in his arms.
He seemed to be a naturally cheerful man.
The group escaped the stuffy secret location and got out of the truck. It felt like a quiet back alley of the city.
The truck was parked beside a building, and the street was empty of people.
“Come this way. Stay here for now. You must not have much money if you came from far away.”
At his words, Yonghoon gave a small nod of gratitude. He had a little money he had obtained from the abandoned village, but it wasn’t much, so their help was appreciated.
Elena was unloading the hunting equipment with others from the back of the truck. She waved at Yonghoon.
Branch Leader Karel led them into the building where the truck had stopped. It was a three-story building with a red roof, like the others.
“Welcome to the headquarters of Hunting Party Czech.”
Unlike its shabby exterior, the interior was neat. The first floor looked like a cafeteria or café.
Karel led Yonghoon and the two women up the stairs. He took them to a room on the third floor.
“This is the cleanest room in the building. You don’t need two rooms, do you?”
Judging by the way Karel glanced between Yonghoon and the two women, he seemed to have misunderstood something.
However, Yonghoon didn’t feel the need to correct his misunderstanding. For safety reasons, it was better to stay together.
The room was clean and cozy. The women smiled brightly at the sight of it. They had struggled with poor sleeping conditions until now.
“Rest for now. I’ll go deliver the beasts we hunted and gather some news.”
Yonghoon expressed his gratitude to him. Things were going better than expected. It felt like the bond he had formed during the last Dimensional Movement was bearing fruit.
“Let’s rest.”
After Branch Leader Karel spoke and left, Yonghoon spoke to Sunhee and Eunseo.
Seizing the opportunity, the women headed straight for the washroom.
Yonghoon sat down on a chair and let out a sigh. This Dimensional Movement felt more mentally exhausting than physically.
As time passed, Eunseo and Sunhee finished their showers and were sparkling clean, and Yonghoon also finished washing up.
They were discussing what to do next.
They heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Judging by the sound, it seemed to be Branch Leader Karel.
Shortly after, he knocked on the door, and when Yonghoon told him to come in, he entered.
His expression was stiff.
Facing the surprised Yonghoon and the women, Branch Leader Karel began to speak with a serious expression.
“When I went to the Association, there was an announcement from the government. It seems they’re broadcasting it repeatedly over the city’s radios as well.”
Due to the influence of the Dead Zone, the radio waves in the atmosphere of this world were quite unstable. Communication outside the city was extremely unreliable.
“The problem is the content of the announcement. They said there will be a large-scale Dimensional Movement to the C dimension within a few days. Several dimensional larvae, high-level beasts, and multiple personal guard units will be dispatched for management.”
At his words, the group’s expressions hardened. He continued speaking.
“There has never been such an announcement before. Dimensional transfers usually pique people’s curiosity, so the government has always proceeded as quietly as possible. But this time, they made a massive announcement for the first time. It’s probably related to you.”
He was right. Yonghoon’s expression turned serious.
“It’s a trap, right?”
Eunseo said in a startled voice.
Yonghoon nodded. It was indeed a trap. Just as they were preparing, so were their enemies.
And unlike them, it was a trap they would have no choice but to walk into, even knowing it.
Yonghoon’s expression sank heavily.