The children were running across the orphanage yard.
The kids, infamous even at the orphanage for being little troublemakers, set their sights on Jimin, who was walking by carrying laundry baskets in both hands.
“Charge forward!”
The little kids rushed at the laundry baskets Jimin was carrying, but she smoothly dodged, and they ended up tumbling over each other without even touching the baskets.
“No rough play.”
Carrying the laundry baskets that looked like they weighed dozens of kilos, Jimin lightly hopped over the fallen children and warned them.
“Tch, let’s find a new target!”
Since they had never once succeeded in attacking Jimin, the troublemakers quickly gave up and swarmed off elsewhere.
“Good grief. Such little rascals.”
Among the running children, there were also some girls. They were the ones who had lost their parents to the turtle monster in Asan. Now, they seemed to have regained their innocent smiles.
Jimin looked at the children with a gentle smile.
After the battle in the other dimension, Jimin gave up hunting.
It was because she had witnessed too much death during that battle. Jimin realized she wasn’t suited for fighting or hunting.
Fortunately, there were plenty of strong Awakened even without her, and the hunts were proceeding well.
She had returned to the place she most wanted to be-the orphanage where her family was.
In the meantime, the number of children at the orphanage had increased, and they welcomed her back with open arms, burying Jimin under a mountain of work.
The orphanage was always short on people and money.
Although Jimin had brought a lot of money, the director refused to accept all of it. He gratefully took only a portion and returned the rest to her.
And then he piled a mountain of work onto Jimin.
Even with just the money they accepted, it was enough to run the orphanage without difficulty. However, the director divided the money equally among nearby orphanages. Thanks to that, their orphanage was always short on funds.
The orphanage was always waiting for a helping hand.
“Welcome!”
Jimin set down the laundry baskets and waved.
Kangwoo was stepping out of a luxury sedan.
Kangwoo, the CEO of Shilla Heavy Industries and one of the wealthiest people in the world, was the biggest sponsor of this orphanage-no, of all Korean orphanages.
“Heave-ho.”
Kangwoo easily lifted the laundry baskets Jimin had set down and walked alongside her.
Under the pretext of inspecting the orphanage he sponsored, Kangwoo visited once or twice a week.
Everyone found it meaningful that someone as overwhelmingly busy as him personally visited a specific orphanage, but for now, the two of them remained good colleagues, just as they had been as teammates.
Jimin was happy to see Kangwoo.
Since living at the orphanage, she hadn’t heard much news about her former teammates or the outside world.
Sometimes, her teammates visited the orphanage, but they were all busy people, so it wasn’t easy for them to find time.
“But isn’t it tough? I heard there are constant protests in front of your company these days.”
Jimin asked in a worried voice.
“Dealing with that is just part of the job. Besides, they’re people with a lot of grievances, so everyone understands.”
As he said, most of the people camped out in front of Shilla Heavy Industries had lost family members to monsters or had loved ones turned into vegetative states by Dimensional Beasts.
They had gathered in Yongsan, where the government complex was located, and Suwon, where Shilla Heavy Industries was, demanding the quick production of Warp Zones.
Burning with vengeance, they wanted to cross into the Zero Dimension and take revenge on those who had killed their families.
These protests erupted after each government proudly announced their deeds following the battle of New London.
The mighty enemy had fallen, and the governments needed an outlet for the public’s pent-up rage.
As the governments had predicted, the public’s anger focused in one direction, and the Awakened who fought in the New London battle became heroes.
Meanwhile, the bereaved families and citizens, burning with vengeance, camped in front of Shilla Heavy Industries, pleading and threatening to be sent over.
“Anyway, the Warp Zone was based on Yonghoon’s spatial movement ability, and now that he’s busy, the dimensional movement array has become practically useless. There’s nothing we can do.”
No one was bold enough to ask Yonghoon to stay stationed at the dimensional movement device and repeatedly transport people.
Of course, there was a time when Kangwoo had possession of the Warp Zone core that Yonghoon had handed over. But when Yonghoon returned, Kangwoo gave it back to him.
“We can’t tell the public, but it’s not the time to build Warp Zones yet. Once everyone calms down a bit, there will be a time to talk again. Right now, they’re just blinded by revenge.”
Speaking with a slightly somber expression, he soon brightened up again.
“Still, now that people in vegetative states are starting to wake up, the mood is improving a lot. Given time, everyone will regain their senses.”
That was thanks to the contaminated Dimensional Core extracted from the chest of the moth queen.
Although only a small amount of the core remained after being released into the atmosphere, it was discovered that the remaining core had the ability to awaken those in vegetative states.
Shilla Heavy Industries had asked Yonghoon to retrieve the moth’s corpse and embedded part of the core to create a sort of recovery device.
And now, people who had been in vegetative states were beginning to wake up one by one.
“Sunhee hasn’t woken up yet, right?”
At Jimin’s question, Kangwoo nodded.
It had been a month since Sunhee lost consciousness.
The final battle seemed to have inflicted deep wounds on both her mind and body. As an ordinary person now, it must have been too much for her to bear.
Even after a month, she had yet to wake up.
“I hope she wakes up soon.”
Jimin consciously avoided thinking about what would happen after Sunhee woke up.
“Anyway, since you’re here, you have to help all the way, okay? There’s tons to do.”
As they talked, they arrived at the backyard of the orphanage, where endless rows of laundry lines were spread out.
Seeing the massive amount of laundry, Kangwoo let out a small sigh, rolled up his sleeves, and began helping Jimin.
Hyangseol was standing with a spear in one hand, gazing northward.
They had barely arrived near Pyongyang. There were still hundreds of kilometers left to reach home.
“Team leader, the team members are ready.”
An Awakened approached her and reported. He was a man in his late thirties, but he spoke respectfully to Hyangseol.
A man who looked like a mountain bandit in his late thirties speaking so politely to a cute teenage girl was a rare sight elsewhere, but among those gathered here, no one found it strange.
It was because Hyangseol, a hero who had returned victorious from the Dimensional War, a member of Team Crazy, and the strike team leader of the National Restoration Corps for the past month, was respected and loved by everyone here.
“Thank you.”
Hyangseol thanked him and approached Eunseo, who was standing at the front.
“Commander, the strike team is ready.”
“Good work.”
Eunseo, who had been checking the map, put it away upon hearing Hyangseol’s report.
Now, they just had to wait for Dohyeon to return to be fully prepared.
Unfortunately, unlike the giant monsters of the Zero Dimension who had lost their powers after the New London battle, the monsters transferred from other dimensions remained unchanged.
Scientists speculated that the monsters had become independent entities due to the Dimensional Cores they carried when crossing dimensions, but the truth was still unknown.
Thanks to that, the world was still fighting monsters.
However, there was one difference now. In areas where monsters had been eliminated, they did not reappear.
Unlike before, governments around the world actively began clearing out domestic monsters. Hope had emerged.
Among them, Korea showed truly outstanding results.
Within a month, the Korean government had cleared monsters from all areas except deep mountain regions and began advancing into North Korea.
Except for a few members, Team Crazy and top-tier Awakened formed the National Restoration Corps (the name caused some Awakened to hesitate to join) and crossed the demilitarized zone to advance northward.
Team Crazy participated with all members except Yonghoon, who was operating independently, Jimin, who had left the team, and team leader Han, who stayed with his pregnant wife.
“Still, it’s a relief we haven’t seen those wolves.”
At Hyangseol’s words, Eunseo nodded as well.
The wolf pack centered around the A-rank-looking white wolf would have been a tough opponent even for Eunseo and the gathered Awakened here.
When Yonghoon said he would take care of the wolves himself, everyone stopped worrying, and it seemed he had handled it thoroughly.
Boom boom boom!
A rumbling sound shook the ground from afar.
Eunseo and Hyangseol, who had been talking, turned their heads.
The area around them was an overgrown field. It had once been called the Pyongyang Plain, a fertile farmland, but now it was a wasteland choked with weeds.
In the far north, the cityscape of Pyongyang could be seen faintly.
From far to the north, the ground was sinking.
A massive trench with a diameter of over ten meters was forming in real time.
The ground kept sinking, and eventually, a trench reached the area in front of Eunseo and Hyangseol.
And from within the sunken earth, a man emerged.
It was Dohyeon.
Since the New London battle, Dohyeon had changed a lot. He no longer shouted out skill names and had become much more serious in his work.
Moreover, through growth using Dimensional Repulsion, he had now acquired abilities close to A-rank.
Dohyeon was the strongest Telekinesis Ability User in this world.
“Oppa, good work.”
At Hyangseol’s words, Dohyeon smiled and nodded.
Eunseo also thanked him and looked at the creation Dohyeon had made.
A massive Y-shaped trench, over 10 meters wide, had been formed.
It was the same shape as the trench they had made to herd monsters during the Safe Zone installations.
Unlike other regions, Pyongyang had an extremely high density of monsters. Moreover, the downtown destroyed by the war made monster hunting even more dangerous.
Eunseo had decided to lure and eliminate the monsters inside the city from here.
And Dohyeon had delivered sufficient results at Eunseo’s request.
“Everyone, into battle formation! As soon as Team Leader Park Dohyeon lures the monsters, we start the hunt!”
At Eunseo’s command, the Awakened began forming up in front of the trench.
Defense-type Awakened stood at the front, preparing a defensive line, while behind them, Strike-type Awakened formed up around Hyangseol. Finally, support teams and Special Ability Users gathered at the rear.
“Then I’ll go lure the monsters.”
“Please do.”
At Eunseo’s words, Dohyeon soared into the sky, scattering sparks from his entire body.
With his abilities enhanced, Dohyeon flying through the air now looked just like a superhuman from the movies.
“It would be so much better without that cape.”
“In that case, he’d have a hundred times more female fans.”
At Eunseo’s lament upon seeing Dohyeon, Hyangseol chimed in.
Dohyeon, who had far more hardcore fans than female fans, began flying toward Pyongyang with his red cape fluttering.
A pack of wolves was crossing a snow-covered white plain. They were white wolves boasting snowy fur, followed by numerous gray wolves.
And at the very front of the pack, a giant white wolf was leading them.
It was a pack of wolves from the North Korean region.
They had left the North Korean lands they had lived in until a month ago. Since then, the wolves had been steadily moving northward.
The giant white wolf leading the pack recalled the human who had visited it not long ago.
Having continued to grow, the white wolf had now acquired intelligence comparable to that of humans. However, possessing human intelligence and communicating with humans were different matters.
But the human who had come to it had been able to converse with it. It was a communication of senses.
He had requested that the wolves move to a cold, remote place without humans. He had said that humans would soon encroach upon the wolves’ territory. Although the wolf had immediately resisted upon hearing that humans would invade its home, it had been overwhelmed by the enormous Dimensional Power emanating from the human.
It had felt as if, if they did not move, the human before them would slaughter them all.
In the end, the wolf had no choice but to bow its head to him.
And now, the wolf pack was moving farther and farther north, leaving their original home behind.
They did not feel the cold, nor did they feel hunger. As long as there were no humans, it didn’t matter whether it was a desert or a glacier.
Though the surroundings were desolate, if they kept moving toward the northernmost point, they would eventually find a place untouched by human hands.
The white wolf planned to grow their numbers there and create a paradise for wolves.
Along the way, monsters native to the area would attack them like now, but that only served to strengthen them.
“Awooooo~”
The giant wolf howled toward the sky and began to run forward. Following behind, the wolf pack formed up and chased after the white wolf.
Before them, a massive white bear, standing on two legs, was baring its teeth at the wolves.
The wolves lunged at the bear, biting into it.