“Are you okay?”
Yonghoon asked Sunhee, who had a dazed expression.
Sunhee shook her head and pouted at Yonghoon.
“Please, think about your own body first instead of worrying about others.”
At Sunhee’s advice after regaining her senses, Yonghoon gave a bitter smile.
She was definitely right. He could feel his body aching all over from hastily drawing out his power.
But saving people came first.
Fortunately, after the B-rank lizard monster was killed, no more monsters were visible nearby.
However, he could sense corrupted humans swarming from afar. They needed to get out of here.
Yonghoon approached the fallen Representative Seo and hoisted him onto his back. Beside him, Grace was looking at Representative Seo with a pained expression.
It was understandable.
His powers had disappeared due to his rampage. Though his life was saved, he had now become an ordinary person.
“Let’s go!”
Yonghoon said to Grace.
“Yes! Thank you.”
Grace expressed her gratitude to Yonghoon and took the lead, holding a shield and guiding the group.
This group had about twenty people. Around five were severely injured and being supported by others.
When they parted ways with team leader Han, there had been about forty people, so it seemed half had been lost in a short time.
Judging by the bodies of Awakened lying around, it appeared the heaviest casualties had occurred here.
Yonghoon, carrying Representative Seo, moved at the front with Grace, while Sunhee followed at the rear, using her abilities to subdue corrupted humans emerging from the surrounding buildings.
Fortunately, there were no monsters chasing them, and not many corrupted humans appeared, so Sunhee could manage them on her own.
As he ran, Yonghoon felt his body gradually recovering.
Indeed, if he wasn’t in a combat situation or using spatial abilities, his Dimensional Power and stamina would recover.
But only those with Dimensional Cores could do that. Grace and the other Awakened were visibly struggling.
After running for about thirty minutes, they finally reached the rendezvous point.
It was Dobongsan Station, located between Seoul and Uijeongbu-the very place where they had defeated the ant queen not long ago.
This area, situated between Uijeongbu and Seoul, had few residents and a train depot, so the government had steadily cleared monsters here, leaving almost none.
This place was the gateway to entering Seoul. If it fell, the northern part of Seoul would be devastated.
Fortunately, the members from Team Crazy had arrived safely too.
However, the other scattered teams had not been as lucky as Team Crazy and Link Corp’s team.
Though Awakened who had scattered were arriving one by one, even excluding those who fled or were stranded, their numbers were extremely low.
“It looks like not even a third survived……”
Team leader Han wore a grim expression as he looked at the people resting inside the train depot.
Less than a hundred Awakened were resting on the seats inside the train cars or receiving treatment from others.
Hearing team leader Han’s words, it seemed over four hundred people had participated in the defense.
About a hundred had been evacuated to the rear yesterday due to injuries and Dimensional Power depletion during the first advance of the Dimensional Beasts, leaving three hundred to defend, who then had to retreat after the Dimensional Beasts’ assault.
“Among all Awakened in the metropolitan area above E-rank, about 50% participated.”
Grace explained from beside him.
Yonghoon looked around.
They were inside one of the train cars brought into the depot for maintenance. Team Crazy and Grace were gathered in this car.
Team Crazy was sitting on the floor and seats inside the train, listening to team leader Han and Grace speak.
Eunseo and Sunhee were sitting on the seats opposite, Jimin was on a seat, and Dohyeon was lying on the floor with his eyes closed, looking exhausted.
Representative Seo was also seen unconscious on one of the seats.
Lastly, Hyangseol was seen holding onto Yonghoon’s arm, dozing off while leaning against him.
“Have all the civilians evacuated?”
Grace answered Yonghoon’s question.
“Yes, the government issued an evacuation order and moved everyone from Gangbuk to Gangnam. Even those in the Safe Zone have relocated to Gangnam.”
Team leader Han added to Grace’s answer.
“The problem is that some people ignored the evacuation order and stayed behind. The corrupted humans attacking us now are those people.”
Everyone’s expressions darkened at team leader Han’s words. It was different from Jeju Island. This time, the blood of people was on their own hands.
Many Awakened would likely suffer psychological trauma after this battle.
“There’s an even bigger problem. The people from the Safe Zone refuse to evacuate further south. Although they crossed the Han River, they don’t want to move farther down from the southern Safe Zone.”
Since the creation of the Safe Zone, humanity had effectively been split into classes.
Awakened and non-Awakened, those living inside the Safe Zone and those outside.
The consequences were now becoming apparent.
People who had lived outside the Safe Zone were evacuating farther and farther south. For them, living among monsters was normal. Even though monsters lurked everywhere, they boldly moved south.
But those inside the Safe Zone couldn’t do that. They were used to a life without monsters. They couldn’t endure a situation where monsters could appear at any time.
“In the end, we have to stop them here.”
“Yes, the problem isn’t the Dimensional Movement Blocking Devices. If the Dimensional Beasts reach Seoul, the contaminated zone will include everything south of the Han River. Then, tens or hundreds of thousands of civilians who didn’t evacuate will become corrupted.”
At Grace’s words, Yonghoon let out a sigh. Still, it was a relief. The Awakened had bought time for the civilians to evacuate and for him to arrive.
“It’s good we bought time, but the damage is too great.”
Eunseo said, looking at the Awakened resting outside the train window.
At her words, team leader Han sighed.
“They misjudged the situation. Having seen the captain defeat Dimensional Beasts several times, they thought they could defend-or even handle it-without him.”
Grace nodded at team leader Han’s words.
“We tried to stop them many times, but the government Awakened and others didn’t listen. The government wanted to see results without Yonghoon. After several large-scale attacks failed, they finally switched to defense, but only after tremendous losses. Everyone’s Dimensional Power is depleted.”
“Well, without a way to pierce the Dimensional Beasts’ shells, and without an Assassin-type Awakened to contaminate them, even thousands of low-level Awakened are no match for a single high-level one.”
After team leader Han finished speaking, the inside of the train car fell silent. Their situation briefing was over.
Now that Yonghoon had arrived, it was time to counterattack, but judging from his and the two women’s conditions, it wouldn’t be easy.
However, the Dimensional Beasts were approaching every moment. There was no time to hesitate.
“Is the Dimensional Beast’s movement speed about 5 km per hour?”
At Yonghoon’s words, team leader Han nodded.
“If unimpeded, yes.”
Yonghoon checked the time on his smart watch. It had already been over ten minutes since they arrived here.
“There are about 30 to 40 minutes left until the Dimensional Beasts arrive.”
Team leader Han and Grace agreed with Yonghoon’s words. Yonghoon asked Grace a question.
“Do you currently have command authority over the Awakened?”
“We have to follow the Control Room’s orders, but I have field command authority.”
“At any rate, like team leader Han said, numbers don’t matter much against Dimensional Beasts. Please have all the Awakened retreat. Since we’ve mostly dealt with the monsters escorting the Dimensional Beasts, we should only have to face the Beasts themselves. Low-level Awakened won’t be much help then.”
Grace nodded at Yonghoon’s words.
“I’ll contact the Control Room and arrange the retreat.”
Grace began contacting the Control Room through her phone.
Yonghoon looked at team leader Han.
“Team leader Han, please oversee the Awakened’s retreat with our team members. The northern part of Seoul has already fallen into the contaminated zone. Many people who couldn’t evacuate must have become corrupted humans. It won’t be easy to retreat through them.”
Team leader Han accepted Yonghoon’s request.
“I’ll handle it. But who will you move with, Captain?”
At team leader Han’s question, Yonghoon looked at his team members.
Eunseo, whose arm injury hadn’t healed yet, Sunhee, lost in thought, and finally Grace, who was talking on the phone.
Yonghoon decided to move with Sunhee and Grace.
Grace finished her call.
“The Control Room agreed. The General sends his regards.”
At Grace’s words, Yonghoon gave a bitter smile.
After a while, Yonghoon, Sunhee, and Grace, who remained at the train depot, watched the Awakened move away into the distance.
They were all retreating on foot or running.
There were injured among them, but they couldn’t use vehicles. If the sound of vehicles reached the corrupted humans, they would swarm like bees.
In Yonghoon’s hands and back, new spears could be seen.
They were the spears Hyangseol and Jimin had carried. Knowing that Yonghoon had used up all his spears, they had given him theirs.
Yonghoon was quite surprised when he received Jimin’s spear. It was a Relic spear. Even knowing he would throw it away, she had still entrusted him with a spear imbued with power.
After handing him their spears, they had left, carrying ordinary iron spears in their hands.
And in Grace’s hand was the shield that team leader Han had carried, the one that created a shield barrier. When facing the orbs of Dimensional Power from the Dimensional Beasts, there was nothing more useful than this shield.
Once everyone else had left, the group climbed up to the rooftop of the train depot. They planned to settle things from there.
Yonghoon checked over his own body.
Considering he had spammed his abilities after Dimensional Movement, he had recovered quite a bit. There were still plenty of issues, but he was much better off than right after the Dimensional Movement.
But Grace and Sunhee were in no better condition. Grace had overworked herself for more than a day, and Sunhee was still suffering from the aftereffects of Dimensional Movement.
Especially worrying was Sunhee, who needed to contaminate the Dimensional Core, but it was uncertain if she could manage it in her current state.
But it was already too late. All they could do was give it their best.
A faint vibration began to shake the ground. And from afar, a strong Dimensional Power could be felt.
They had arrived.
Over the tops of the low buildings, the backs of the Dimensional Beasts began to appear. Two giant Larvae were squirming forward.
Just as Yonghoon had anticipated, no other monsters were visible around the Dimensional Beasts. Occasionally, corrupted humans matching pace with the Dimensional Beasts could be seen, but none had climbed up this far yet.
Yonghoon thought he might be able to finish this more easily than expected.
He placed his hands on the shoulders of the two women. His plan was to jump directly onto the body of the Dimensional Beast and contaminate it.
Yonghoon opened a dimensional tunnel and teleported onto the back of the leading Dimensional Beast.
Fortunately, the teleportation succeeded without issue. Sunhee placed her hand on the Dimensional Beast’s back and began to probe its Dimensional Power, while Yonghoon and Eunseo stood on either side of her, keeping watch.
Suddenly, as a foreign Dimensional Power surged into its body, the Dimensional Beast began to tremble.
The Dimensional Beast had no way to attack enemies clinging tightly to its body. It looked like they could wrap this up quickly.
It was at that moment.
Around the second Dimensional Beast that had been following behind, glowing orbs began to form.
Yonghoon shouted in surprise.
“Grace! Shield up!”
At Yonghoon’s shout, Grace raised her shield, and green light burst forth from it. A green barrier appeared around the group.
‘Hold out!’
Yonghoon cried out in his heart as he saw the green shield appear.
But the glowing orbs created by the Dimensional Beast were different this time.
Instead of firing in all directions, several glowing orbs simultaneously shot toward the green shield.
Boom boom boom!
“Kyah!”
With a loud crash, the shield shattered, and Grace staggered back, screaming.
And once again, glowing orbs began to form-not just one this time either.
“Damn it!”
Yonghoon, unable to reflect simultaneous attacks from multiple directions, couldn’t think of a proper countermeasure.
The contamination of the Dimensional Core wasn’t complete yet, and Grace, whose Dimensional Power had been shaken, couldn’t create another shield. Moreover, his reflective technique couldn’t block attacks from multiple angles.
The glowing orbs were fired.
With no other options, Yonghoon instinctively poured Dimensional Power into his spear.
Time slowed down.
The wind around him slowed, Grace’s staggering movements slowed, and even the trajectories of the incoming glowing orbs became visible.
‘Ah! This spear is Jimin’s Relic spear!’
Jimin’s spear was one that, when infused with Dimensional Power, accelerated its wielder. Yonghoon quickly grabbed Sunhee and Grace and jumped off the Dimensional Beast’s body. Landing on the ground, he sprinted away at full speed.
Boom!
He could feel the explosion erupt behind him.
As soon as he exited the area of unstable Dimensional Power, Yonghoon teleported.
They reappeared back on the rooftop of the train depot.
The flames rising from the back of the Dimensional Beast were clearly visible.
But as expected, the Dimensional Beast’s shell was tough. Although its body shook, the beast itself appeared unharmed.
However, the Dimensional Beast seemed startled. Its movement speed increased.
Yonghoon frowned as he looked at the Dimensional Beast. Using the spear’s acceleration ability had consumed a tremendous amount of Dimensional Power. Thanks to the Dimensional Core, his power was quickly recovering, but it didn’t seem like an ability he could use recklessly.
Yonghoon’s prediction had been wrong. Two Dimensional Beasts weren’t simply one plus one. Trusting in each other’s defenses, the Dimensional Beasts were difficult to penetrate.
If he teleported with Sunhee like before, they would be attacked by the other Dimensional Beast, and even if he and Grace tried to distract one, Sunhee would have no way to approach unnoticed.
Yonghoon shared his concerns with the two women, but Grace also had no clear solution.
And Sunhee looked a bit dazed, as if she was grappling with some other thought.
Meanwhile, the Dimensional Beasts were approaching the train depot. In just a little more time, their attacks would reach the building. But if they kept retreating, it was certain that the citizens of Seoul would continue to be contaminated.
Yonghoon began infusing Dimensional Power into his spear. Whether it worked or not, he felt he had to settle things with his innate ability.
It was then.
Sunhee opened her mouth.
“Yonghoon, Grace, please keep the rear Dimensional Beast in check. I can approach the Dimensional Beast alone.”
Yonghoon turned his head in surprise at Sunhee’s words.
Tears were streaming down Sunhee’s face as she spoke.
And a sad smile formed on her lips.
“Please. From now on, she… it’s my turn to move.”
As she spoke, the expression disappeared from Sunhee’s face.
With a blank face and tears still falling, Sunhee vanished before Yonghoon’s eyes.
It was the invisibility ability.
A slight ripple brushed past Yonghoon’s side, his face frozen in shock.
“I came because it was too late.”
The ripple disappeared below the rooftop, and Yonghoon was left stunned by the voice that brushed past his ear.