The island, about 300 meters wide and 1 kilometer in diameter, was now bustling with people, unlike before.
The two-story house that once stood alone on the island now had several antennas installed on its roof, and a circular structure-what appeared to be a warp array-was placed on the clearing in front of the house.
And around it, buildings had been erected. They looked like containers, with various wires and antennas extending outside.
Sunhee guided Margaret and Elena, who were looking around curiously, toward the wooden house.
The moment the women with gray eyes appeared, the people who had been on alert relaxed after seeing Yonghoon by their side and Sunhee greeting them, and they resumed their work.
They followed Sunhee with startled eyes.
Now that the people seemed to have lost interest in the newcomers, they brushed past them indifferently. Most of them were East Asians with black eyes, but a few had blond hair and blue eyes.
As they entered the house under Sunhee’s guidance, the women were once again astonished.
From the outside, it had looked like a slightly large but old building, but the interior of the two-story house was packed with all sorts of electronic devices.
In the living room, dozens of monitors were arranged in a circle, each displaying different scenes.
In the center of the living room were rows of desks and chairs, where people sat typing away while watching the screens.
Margaret, who had visited other dimensions, could roughly guess what this place was, but Elena was simply bewildered by the unfamiliar technology.
Standing dazed in the living room, Margaret muttered.
“Your dimension has really advanced.”
Not to mention this place, but even the A Dimension that Margaret had visited had stagnated in the 1980s due to monster attacks, and the B Dimension where Yonghoon was originally from had halted its development in the early 2000s. However, the C Dimension boasted mid-2010s scientific and technological prowess.
Moreover, even after the monster attacks two years ago, the developed nations had stubbornly survived and continued advancing their technology.
“It’s thanks to support from the United States.”
Sunhee said, pointing to one side.
There, Yonghoon, who had entered the house first, was seen talking to a white man.
Margaret and Elena didn’t know who he was, but he was Marcus, the man Yonghoon had met while fighting Dimensional Beasts in the United States. He was now the representative of Link System Company in America and a B-rank Linker.
He had joined this expedition as the U.S. representative, bringing along many high-grade military supplies and other high-level Awakened.
“Oh my gosh, that’s New London! And there’s New Paris too!”
Elena exclaimed in surprise while looking at the screens. As she said, each screen displayed aerial views of cities.
“All the footage was taken by small unmanned aircraft called drones. The transmission of footage and flight control are being relayed by a stratospheric airship floating above us. When we first launched them, Yonghoon used spatial movement to place them near each city. They all use solar panels, so they boast an incredible lifespan.”
Sunhee kindly explained, but Elena barely understood. Even though it was in English, she didn’t recognize half the words.
Margaret also shook her head. This dimension was on a completely different level from the one she had visited.
Seeing their confused expressions, Sunhee sighed and led them upstairs.
The second floor contained ordinary bedrooms. Just by dusting and changing the bedding, the atmosphere had become quite cozy compared to before.
They were guided to an inner bedroom, and as they sat on the beds, Yonghoon, who had followed them up, spoke.
“Please rest here for now. I’m sure you’re all very surprised. Let’s talk after you’ve had some rest.”
Yonghoon continued, looking at Elena.
“The Branch Leader Karel we rescued has decided to stay in New Prague. It seems he plans to act alongside other hidden organization members.”
At his words, Elena let out a sigh of relief. She must have been worried because she hadn’t seen the branch leader.
Unlike Elena, Margaret’s expression darkened.
“It seems you don’t really need our help. With machines like those, you can grasp the situation in the cities at a glance.”
At her words, Elena tilted her head.
“But still, you can’t know what’s happening inside the buildings, right? Rumors too-you can’t catch everything with machines.”
Yonghoon nodded at Elena’s words.
“It’s true that we can’t gather all information with drones. Even though they’re called reconnaissance drones, they can’t see through multiple layers of walls. That’s why we also use people to gather information.”
Elena looked puzzled at Yonghoon’s explanation.
The field office of Research Director Pasha, located in the building housing the dimensional Warp Zone, was a complete mess of blueprints and machine parts.
The chief of staff sighed upon seeing the office so cluttered that there wasn’t even a place to sit.
“I’m sorry for disturbing you while you’re working.”
At his words, the elderly director, who had been wrestling with blueprints at his desk, lifted his head.
He had intended to scold the person disturbing him, but seeing that the other looked just as worn out, he simply clicked his tongue.
“What business brings a busy man like you here? Wouldn’t it have been enough to just fill the place with guards?”
“They’re not guards but bodyguards.”
“Same difference.”
At the director’s sharp words, the chief of staff sighed inwardly once again.
It seemed the director was in a foul mood. He decided it would be best to soothe him gently.
“Thank you for personally taking charge of the work. Thanks to you, the progress has been incredibly fast.”
At his words, the director frowned.
“Do you think I’m doing this to please others? I’m doing it because of Eunseo.”
Hearing this, the chief of staff smacked his lips. It seemed to have backfired.
He had wondered why the scientist, notorious for shirking tasks, was now working so diligently-now he knew the reason.
The director, who had always doted on Lieutenant General Eunseo, must have been deeply shocked by her death.
Relaxing his frown, the director spoke to the chief of staff. He seemed eager to quickly get rid of this uninvited guest.
“According to the schedule, the dimensional Warp Zone should be operational in three weeks. If you just want to use it once and discard it, it could be ready by next week, but there’s no point in that… Anyway, since that’s not why you’re here, hurry up and tell me what you want.”
The chief of staff, who had been thinking of how to persuade him, surrendered to the director’s rapid-fire speech and explained the reason for his visit.
“It’s about manufacturing warp array cores. Too many warp arrays were destroyed this time, so we’re facing a shortage of cores. Even the regular warp arrays were destroyed along with the dimensional ones, so we’re likely to have a problem securing cores. I came to ask if you could spare some time to produce them.”
At his words, the director scowled again.
“Use the stockpiles-that’s what they’re for. If I start making those, I won’t be able to focus on building the dimensional Warp Zone.”
Hearing this, the chief of staff could only sigh. This was indeed the director’s usual attitude.
He was the Empire’s greatest scientist and inventor, still monopolizing the production of warp array cores.
The chief of staff cautiously opened his mouth.
“Is it still impossible for other Awakened to manufacture them?”
He feared he might be accused of trying to steal the technology, but it was crucial for the Empire.
However, the director didn’t seem particularly displeased.
After thinking for a moment, he sighed and spoke.
“I’m the only one who can make dimensional Warp Zones, but I passed on the technology for regular warp arrays a while ago.”
The chief of staff’s face brightened at Pasha’s words. But he was puzzled by the director’s last remark.
“You passed it on?”
“Yeah, but they all died in the recent battle.”
“What?”
Ignoring the chief of staff’s shocked voice, the director continued.
“Not long ago, I taught a few spatial ability users how to make spatial movement cores. We even succeeded in manufacturing cores in the laboratory dimension. It’s not that complicated-you carve a pattern into a dimensional core and pour spatial power into it in a specific way. I even left the pattern designs behind. I was planning to announce it once commercial production succeeded…”
The director shrugged.
“But they all died in the last fight. I even taught an A-rank spatial ability user just in case, but he was the first to die, unexpectedly.”
The chief of staff was greatly shocked by the director’s words. He cautiously asked him.
“Director, were you a spatial ability user?”
At the question, the director shrugged.
“Well, everyone who knew that is dead now. Since I haven’t mentioned it since, no one knows. But there’s no need to keep it secret anymore.”
The director spoke to the chief of staff with a look of pity.
“How else do you think I was able to make spatial or dimensional Warp Zones? I could do it because I had the ability.”
“So you’re saying you could perform dimensional movement too–“
“That’s right. I’m an Awakened capable of dimensional movement. I thought no one else would appear, but now another has. Thanks to that, my secret has become meaningless.”
“So it’s not that you refused to pass on the core manufacturing, but you couldn’t?”
“If I were to pass it on now, I’d have to teach the newly appeared spatial ability user from another dimension.”
The chief of staff’s face darkened.
“Why did you keep this a secret?”
At his words, the director gave a lonely smile.
“Destroying other dimensions isn’t exactly something to be proud of. Even if it was for our survival, it’s like boarding a one-way ticket to hell. I made quite a few dimensional movement cores, and I figured it would be fine if the technology disappeared with me. I never expected another dimensional ability user to appear. Let’s just call it a scientist’s self-satisfaction.”
It seemed the director, who had tried to conceal his dimensional movement ability, had changed his mind after Yonghoon’s appearance.
“We’ll have to start recruiting spatial ability users immediately. And look for dimensional ability users too.”
“Once the dimensional Warp Zone is completed, I’ll pass on the spatial Warp Zone core manufacturing again. But finding a dimensional ability user is close to impossible. They need to have an instinctive, intense longing for another dimension before their powers awaken-that’s nearly impossible. The fact that one appeared this time is miraculous.”
A middle-aged man in a suit stood up with a grim expression.
His lips moved.
[First, I’ll report to the President and begin the recruitment.]
The elder in front of him nodded, and the man left the room.
In the corner of the alley, a woman who had her hand on the wall lowered it. The faint scene of the room that had appeared on the wall slowly faded away.
Having deciphered the conversation in the scene through lip-reading, she memorized the contents once more in her mind and immediately turned to leave the alley.
“Stop!”
A loud voice rang out in front of her as she stepped out of the alley.
Startled by the sudden shout, the woman raised both hands. Then, two soldiers approached her.
They were soldiers patrolling near the Warp Zone. They had grown suspicious of a woman emerging alone from a quiet alley.
“What’s the matter?”
Fluent British English flowed from the woman’s lips.
“Ah, there have been a lot of terrorists around lately, so we’re conducting inspections.”
Briefly flustered by the sight of the beautiful Caucasian woman revealed under the flashlight, they checked the ID she presented and asked her a few questions.
Unable to find anything unusual in her calm responses to their questions, they had no choice but to apologize and let her go.
This was because they couldn’t sense any resemblance between the beautiful Caucasian woman with a typical British accent and the person on the wanted poster, who appeared to be of Asian descent with halting English pronunciation.
The British woman with gray eyes and brown hair smiled at them before disappearing into the heart of New London.
An hour later, the woman appeared on the rooftop of a building in the old city center of New London.
It seemed she had safely passed through the entrance door of the London Fortress as well. As she waited on the rooftop for a moment, the space in front of her wavered, and Yonghoon emerged from within.
“Welcome.”
The woman smiled at Yonghoon,
“Miss Samantha, thank you for your hard work.”
Yonghoon greeted Samantha, a Linker from the United Kingdom.
Her expression, which had been smiling toward Yonghoon, turned serious.
“I think I’ve heard something important this time. Let’s hurry back.”
Having leveled up to become a B-rank Linker, Samantha could now see through dozens of layers of walls. Using her British identity to her advantage, she was operating as an informant.
At Samantha’s words, Yonghoon placed a hand on her shoulder, and their figures disappeared from the old city center of New London.