Uiseong-eup, south of the Nakdong River in B Dimension.
Awakened were fighting against a mantis monster.
The mantis monster swung the scythes attached to its arms. Thin lines of energy flew toward the Awakened, and Captain Ganghyuk stepped forward to block them with his shield.
A long scratch formed on the shield, and Captain Ganghyuk charged forward.
His team members moved in behind him, and while the captain blocked the mantis monster’s pincers with his shield, the team clung to the monster.
After a prolonged struggle, they were able to eliminate the mantis monster.
One of the team members severed one of the monster’s arms, and after Ganghyuk knocked it down with his shield, everyone stabbed the mantis monster with their spears.
This was the last one. There were no more monsters left in Uiseong-eup. With this, the entire area south of the Nakdong River was cleared.
While the team members cheered, Gangcheol looked at the giant Dimensional Beast stationed in front of the town office.
It was a Dimensional Beast whose head had been split in half, now lying dead.
It had been a monster that even several A-rank Awakened and dozens of others struggled to kill, yet it had turned into a lump of meat by the hand of a single person.
Until a few months ago, Koreans hiding in Jeju Island believed they would all die before long.
They had all fallen into despair as one by one, the governments of island nations disappeared.
But after Major Sunhee crossed over to another world, the tide turned.
Awakened crossed into another world and became Linkers, and soon after, news of victory arrived.
The Awakened with gray eyes who had appeared in this world had all vanished, and the Jeju Island government decided to reclaim the mainland.
The problem was the Dimensional Beasts entrenched in various places. But that problem was solved by a man who crossed dimensions.
It was C-Rank Awakened Major Kang Yonghoon, who had become a superhuman.
Monsters and Dimensional Beasts alike were mercilessly cut down by the sword he swung through the air.
Thanks to his appearances flashing east and west, Dimensional Beasts scattered across the world were eliminated one by one, and today, Korea was finally able to reclaim the south of the Nakdong River.
When he happened to meet Yonghoon recently, his appearance had changed slightly from a few years ago.
Once filled only with a dark aurora like them, he now seemed a little more relaxed. He even looked like an ordinary person.
Thinking it was because he had a lover by his side, they asked about Major Sunhee, but he diverted the conversation with a slightly dark expression, saying she was doing well.
Well, recently there had been talk that Linkers who crossed over were struggling with interpersonal relationships. Judging by the situation, it seemed Major Sunhee was no exception.
In fact, there were even rumors that Major Gangcheol, who crossed over recently, fell for a lover in that world and that both of his personalities were dating her.
“Well, it’s none of my business anyway.”
He shrugged his shoulders and shouted to his team members.
“Hey, you lot! Hurry up and clean up, and let’s go drain the water. Some fine ladies are waiting for us!”
“Ohhh!”
At his shout, the team members cheered and began moving busily.
Military trucks started pulling in behind the team members.
Unlike the strike team members, who were planning to hand over the cleanup to the soldiers and go on leave, the soldiers’ work was just beginning.
They had to dispose of the dead beasts and monsters, take care of the unconscious corrupted humans, and even restore the division headquarters that had been here. There was a mountain of work to do.
But their faces were filled with hope. They could finally return to their hometowns.
The atmosphere in the city was extremely dark.
New London, whose downtown had been turned into a wasteland, was undergoing continuous restoration efforts, but progress was slow.
At the end of the New London battle two months ago, all the people and beasts of this world had fallen asleep. When they awoke, they realized their powers were gone.
Fortunately, the beasts had also lost their abilities, becoming nothing more than giant animals, but the people felt a profound sense of loss over losing their powers.
Moreover, the broadcasts from each city before the battle had revealed all the Empire’s secrets, causing all the former government officials to fall from power.
The cities’ administration was taken over by rebels and citizens, and each city became a loose federation.
The mood across the cities was uniformly bleak.
The citizens didn’t know it, but their lives until now had been built on the sacrifice of billions of lives from other dimensions.
On top of that, the Empire had lost the battle of New London against another dimension, and all humans had lost their powers.
Although the victors from the other dimension had not made any demands yet, no one knew when or what they might demand.
New London, once the Empire’s capital, was in even worse shape than other cities. Many citizens were families of imperial officials, and countless people had died in the final battle.
But they could not direct their anger at the enemy. All the suffering they endured was their own doing.
As a result, the city was steeped in a gloomy atmosphere.
A warm breeze brushed through the temporary prime minister’s office and drifted outside.
“Still, shouldn’t we chase down the escaped war criminals?”
Elena asked Margaret in a sleepy voice. With dark circles under her eyes, she could barely remember when she last slept.
She had come to see Margaret but ended up suffering greatly.
She had fled to Margaret to escape the workload dumped on her by Branch Leader Karel, who had recently become responsible for New Prague.
But as soon as she met Margaret, she realized she had stepped into hell.
Margaret, now the acting mayor of New London, had thrown several times more work at her than she had in Prague.
This was just one of those tasks.
“We don’t have the manpower or time to chase them. If we fight unnecessarily, it could easily lead to civil war. We must avoid that at all costs.”
Half the officials and soldiers in the underground control room of Buckingham Palace had died in the collision with the moth monster that day.
Most of the President and generals had also perished, and the only survivors were a few operators, the senior secretary, and the general overseeing the control room.
The government collapsed, and the soldiers surrendered to the Awakened from another dimension.
Having lost their powers, they had no way to resist the Awakened from another dimension.
After imprisoning the leaders and disbanding the soldiers, Margaret seized power, and the victors all returned to their own dimension.
Two months later, personal guard units raided the prison, escaping into the wasteland with the general and senior secretary.
“Still, it seems they’ve already joined forces with the Raiders and are forming a new faction? I heard they’re calling themselves the Resistance. I’m worried they might grow and attack the cities later.”
Margaret shook her head at her words.
“Don’t worry. He was just here a little while ago. I told him about the escape, so he’ll take care of it.”
“Huh? When?”
Elena was startled by Margaret’s words.
“While you were passed out in the corner for about an hour. I was going to wake you, but he said you looked exhausted and told me to let you sleep.”
“Ugh! I wanted to see him. You should have woken me up.”
“You were sleeping with your hair a mess and drooling. Like I’d want to wake you up.”
“Eek! Yonghoon saw that?!”
The two of them chattered on about it for a while. Before they knew it, their worries about the escapees had vanished.
At the same time, just as Elena had worried, the Resistance, with the escaped general as their leader, had completed their departure ceremony to reclaim New Paris.
The Resistance, made up of Raiders, escaped personal guard units, and soldiers, had gathered in a small village in the Normandy region, about 150 kilometers from New Paris.
They had quietly amassed various weapons and vehicles, and now over a hundred modified vehicles equipped with machine guns and mortars were lined up in the village plaza.
The senior secretary smiled with satisfaction as she watched the general, who had just finished his speech from the temporary platform set up in the plaza.
Her speech draft had turned out quite well.
Memories of the hardships she endured to please the President came to her mind. Now, just like with the President and chief of staff, her relationship with the general, the new leader of the Resistance, would continue.
The former imperial soldiers and Raiders who had become the Resistance intended to reclaim all the lost cities, but she and the general had a slightly different plan.
They intended to seize a few cities and then negotiate with the Awakened from another dimension.
In any case, this world was now under the control of dimensional ability users. The rebels currently ruling the cities were clearly puppet groups created by those users.
Having no experience in city administration, they had naturally turned the cities into a mess.
She intended to exploit that gap. If she seized a few cities and demonstrated her capabilities before the dimensional ability user returned, she believed she could survive as the second-in-command.
The general and the senior secretary boarded the foremost vehicle. Looking ahead with excitement, she frowned slightly at the sight of a person blocking the road in the distance.
A man was standing at the village entrance.
It was an East Asian man with black hair, wearing two antique-style swords at his sides.
He was holding a spear in one hand and staring in their direction. His appearance was oddly familiar.
Unlike her, who tilted her head in confusion, the general’s face had gone deathly pale.
“The devil has appeared.”
At the mention of the devil, a certain figure surfaced in her mind.
A dimensional ability user.
He had shown up too quickly. Since he hadn’t appeared for a while, she and the general had assumed they still had time.
But apparently, that wasn’t the case.
The senior secretary-no, the Resistance’s secretary now-hurriedly leaned out the window.
She had to explain the situation quickly.
Yonghoon had no intention of listening to the explanation.
Yonghoon intended to give this world time.
He intended to sever the connections between this world and the others, allowing each world to recover to some extent.
Afterward, whether they chose to compensate, apologize, or retaliate would be up to each dimension to decide.
However, he had no intention of letting the humans who had actually caused the incidents go free.
If they were imprisoned, they could rot there for life, but if they resisted, he would simply eliminate them as enemies.
Yonghoon raised his spear. It was an ordinary steel spear.
But now, Yonghoon had gained a certain understanding of space and Dimensional Power. An ordinary steel spear and a monster spear embedded with a Dimensional Core were not all that different to him.
Yonghoon pulled the spear back and thrust it forward. The spear crossed space and appeared in the center of the village plaza.
Boom!
A tremendous explosion erupted. Not only the vehicle at the center of the blast but also the car carrying the secretary and the general, who had tried to speak to Yonghoon, were caught up in the explosion.
A massive mushroom cloud soared into the sky.
Flames rushed toward Yonghoon, but a dimensional tunnel appeared in front of him and devoured all the flames surging his way.
A moment later, only a giant crater remained where the village had once been. No people, no vehicles, no houses were visible-only the area around Yonghoon remained intact.
This would be the last time. Yonghoon prayed there would be no more battles with people.
After gazing at the crater for a moment, Yonghoon opened a dimensional tunnel and returned to his world.
Shortly after, Yonghoon appeared on the rooftop of a general hospital in Gangnam.
The rooftop of this hospital was used as a kind of rest area, so a few people looked startled at Yonghoon’s sudden appearance.
However, patients who had seen Yonghoon over the past two months greeted him warmly despite the surprise.
Yonghoon nodded back at them and headed downstairs.
He descended the stairs and walked along the highest floor hallway of the hospital ward. Grace’s voice reached his ears.
Yonghoon turned his head. The voice was coming from the TV in the lounge.
“Isn’t it time to abolish this so-called martial law that doesn’t even feel like martial law? We should send the soldiers back to their posts and transfer the parts managed by the government back to the civilians. How long is the government going to keep controlling everything?”
Grace was gripping the desk with both hands, leaning forward, and almost spitting out her words in protest.
As soon as she finished speaking, the screen showed Director Jang, who was sweating profusely.
“There are still many unstable areas. However, we are gradually transferring control to civilians, so please be patient a little longer…”
“Gradually? When exactly is that? You need to give us a date!”
The broadcast screen looked like some sort of debate program.
It seemed to be a promotional debate show about government policies.
But when Grace, the most famous Awakened in Korea and everyone’s sweetheart, began to harshly criticize the government, everyone visibly panicked.
Yonghoon chuckled when he saw Director Jang wiping his cold sweat.
Director Jang’s acting was impressive.
He had expected Grace’s performance, but Director Jang was no slouch either.
This entire situation had been orchestrated by Director Jang.
As the march north began and the economy boomed, causing Korea to rise prominently on the world stage, civilian demands started growing stronger.
However, some of the high-ranking officials in the government seemed reluctant to give up the powers they had held.
Internal grumblings within the government grew louder, and Director Jang, fed up, decided to take the initiative.
He had asked Grace to act, while he himself played the role of the one taking the brunt of her attacks.
This way, they would be forced to relinquish their authority, and he would step down, taking responsibility.
He had been crying out that he would retire this time no matter what, but whether things would go as he wished remained uncertain.
Having heard about the situation in advance, Yonghoon silently cheered them on and resumed walking.
For the past two months, he had walked this hallway every day. At the end of this hallway, in a single room, Sunhee lay unconscious.
Sunhee, who had seemed like she would wake up at any moment, had remained asleep for a long time.
Awakened who had gone on a rampage usually woke up within two days to a week. But Sunhee had been asleep far longer than that.
Just as Yonghoon had feared, the shock inflicted on Sunhee must have been severe.
Everyone was worried, but Yonghoon calmly handled his tasks and waited for her to awaken.
Sunhee, who had waited for him for two years and had finally come to him.
Sunhee, who had waited two years just to look at him from beside him.
It had only been two months now. Compared to her, it was a short time.
During that time, many thoughts had crossed Yonghoon’s mind.
There were times he worried about who would wake up, and times he felt guilty toward another Sunhee when her image surfaced in his mind.
But now, he simply waited calmly for her to wake up.
Arriving at the door to the hospital room, he quietly opened it and stepped inside.
His eyes took in the clean room.
A large window, a small sofa, a TV, a small refrigerator, and a door leading to the bathroom.
And the bed placed under the window, where Sunhee sat, gazing outside.
Yonghoon’s steps came to a sudden halt. His heart pounded heavily.
Taking a deep breath, Yonghoon placed his hand over his chest.
He could feel the small ring case he had tucked into the inner pocket of his chest.
Inside the case was a single ring. It was a gold band prepared by Yonghoon, embedded with a gem crafted from a fragment of the beast queen’s Dimensional Core.
As he touched the ring case, his pounding heart gradually calmed.
The Relic swords he had obtained from another dimension clinked softly against each other.
Sunhee turned her head and looked at Yonghoon,
and Yonghoon walked toward Sunhee.
Thank you for reading. I will return next time with an even better story.