The ant monster thrashed wildly, startled by the unfamiliar energy digging into its body.
As a result, Instructor Seo, who was riding on the ant’s back, was shaken in all directions as if he might fall off. From the look of it, Yonghoon figured this was his first time ever riding on a monster’s back.
“What the hell is going on here?!”
Yonghoon shouted as he ran forward. The spear in his hand began to glow.
He started stabbing the ant monster with the spear. The spear, filled with Dimensional Power, began to pierce deeply into the ant’s shell.
Yonghoon kept stabbing the same spot over and over.
It was something he could only do now, while the ant wasn’t paying attention to him. All the better if it turned to face him.
Thud!
At last, Yonghoon’s spear pierced through the ant’s shell.
“Kyaang!”
The ant monster screamed. Then it glared at Yonghoon with glowing eyes.
“Eunseo, block it!”
Yonghoon shouted to Eunseo and threw himself behind her. Acid shot from the ant flew past him. The acid melted the floor around them.
“You never said this fight would be like this!”
Eunseo, her face pale, screamed as she raised her shield.
Yet even then, she blocked the acid precisely with her shield. As expected, she not only had a high level cap but also an innate sense for combat.
Yonghoon finally succeeded in drawing the ant’s attention to himself.
Still clinging to the ant’s back, Instructor Seo finally succeeded in linking his Dimensional Power to the ant’s. Moments later, the ant monster’s Dimensional Core was corrupted by Instructor Seo’s power.
The ant monster, which had been firing acid at Yonghoon and Eunseo, came to a sudden stop. The green glow surrounding it began to fade.
It was the moment when a creature from another dimension transformed into a being of this world.
Instructor Seo, who had been clinging to the ant’s back, fell down. Yonghoon rushed toward him.
Yonghoon grabbed Instructor Seo by the scruff of his neck and dragged him as he ran. Instructor Seo’s body scraped along the ground, but Yonghoon didn’t care.
The ant’s eyes turned blood-red. It looked around wildly. It was searching for Instructor Seo.
But by then, Yonghoon was already far away from the ant.
And now that the green glow had vanished and Yonghoon was at a distance, it was time to throw the grenade.
The waiting Awakened threw a grenade at the ant.
The grenade flew toward the ant, and everyone nearby dropped to the ground.
Boom!
The grenade exploded spectacularly above the ant’s head.
The blast echoed through the tunnel and completely destroyed the already weakened safety door. The transparent barrier shattered, and now the tracks and the platform were directly connected.
Moments later, Yonghoon, who had been lying flat, lifted his head. The ant monster’s head was gone. It had been blown off in the explosion. The ant collapsed to the ground.
After confirming the fallen ant, Yonghoon stood up. From behind him came Instructor Seo’s muttering voice.
“Scary, scary, I’m just a normal person. Get out of me. I don’t want to do this.”
Yonghoon turned to look at Instructor Seo. He was clutching both shoulders with his arms, trembling violently.
It was a textbook case of post-battle stress. Yonghoon tilted his head. He had never seen Instructor Seo like this before.
“Are you okay?”
At some point, Eunseo had come up beside him and asked.
“Yeah, nothing seems wrong.”
Yonghoon answered her. He was confused by what had happened with Instructor Seo, but physically he was fine.
“Instructor Seo is amazing, right?”
She seemed to be referring to Instructor Seo using an assassination ability.
Yonghoon nodded. That was exactly what he was most curious about right now.
“I was shocked too when I first heard he could use two abilities. What’s even more surprising is that there are more people like him in the company’s Awakened team.”
‘Two abilities?’
At her words, Yonghoon recalled a term used in the other world for someone who could use two abilities at once.
‘Linker!’
“The company calls those Awakened Linkers. It’s a random name, but everyone uses it.”
Yonghoon had thought the same. There had once been rumors in the other world about Awakened who could use two abilities, called Linkers. At the time, he had dismissed it as a silly rumor because of the awkward name.
But now, he had seen proof of that rumor in this world.
“But he seems to have some kind of mental issue……”
Yonghoon said cautiously. Honestly, he wanted to say he seemed crazy, but he couldn’t say that with the person right there.
“Let me explain that.”
The instructor answered Yonghoon’s question.
Somehow, he was now standing with a composed face. It was the usual gruff Instructor Seo. But tear stains still remained on his cheeks.
Yonghoon sighed in relief. He was glad he hadn’t said what he was really thinking. To recover so quickly-it was absurd.
“Unlike others, I ended up with two abilities, and along with that came a second personality. This one now is the new one. I used to be normal, but when I got the second ability, it seems a new personality emerged with it.”
Yonghoon listened carefully to Instructor Seo’s words. Obviously, it was a lie.
But there was a hidden clue in it.
Yonghoon recalled what happened when he crossed over to this world. At that time, his counterpart in this world had suffered major brain damage in an accident. He had assumed that meant the mind of this world’s version of him had died.
‘So that’s it. Instructor Seo, unlike me, originally had a living mind. When his mind crossed over through the Dimensional Connector, his original mind was still there-so now two minds exist in one body.’
Yonghoon’s thoughts continued.
‘Could that be why he has two abilities?’
As Yonghoon was lost in thought, Instructor Seo called over another Awakened.
“Help me up. I used up all my Dimensional Power and can’t move.”
Instructor Seo decided to head upstairs where the others were. They needed to gather everyone and assess the situation. There were so many deaths and injuries-it would take a massive effort to clean up.
Eunseo and another Awakened helped Instructor Seo. And they slowly began moving upstairs.
“Hurry up!”
Eunseo shouted at Yonghoon while supporting Instructor Seo.
“Go ahead. I’ll follow shortly.”
Yonghoon waved his hand, telling them to go on ahead.
He continued thinking.
‘Then do all Spatial Movers end up with two abilities? If there were Linkers in the other world, that means there were people there who came from yet another world?’
Yonghoon shook his head.
His thoughts were going too far. He reined in his mind that was starting to wander.
“Do I have two abilities too?”
Yonghoon began to probe his Dimensional Power.
He could feel the Dimensional Power flowing through his body. And he could still sense a sluggish flow. A foreign energy inside him was disrupting the Dimensional Power.
‘This is it!’
Yonghoon finally realized what had been interfering with his Dimensional Power. It was the seed of another Dimensional Power. He focused his mind. And forcibly made the seed sprout.
A new Dimensional Power surged through Yonghoon’s entire body.
Yonghoon awakened once again.
A moment later, Yonghoon opened his eyes and stared blankly ahead.
He was too busy trying to grasp the new Dimensional Power he had gained.
Soon, he figured out what his new Dimensional Power was.
And he succeeded in recalling how to activate it, as told by someone who had used it in the other world.
He said this:
“Imagine the location of the target and create a hole in space.”
Yonghoon muttered the words from his memory while focusing on the space before him. The air began to ripple.
Yonghoon focused even more.
When Yonghoon didn’t quite get it, the person had explained it again.
‘Just imagine it. You’re connecting one space to another.’
Yonghoon followed the instructions and used his imagination. He envisioned the space before him and the target location becoming one.
The rippling space began to take a clearer shape.
And finally, a hole the size of a fist opened in midair.
Sweat poured down Yonghoon’s face like rain. He looked utterly exhausted.
But his expression was bright with the joy of success.
Behind the joyful Yonghoon, the leg of the fallen ant monster twitched.
Then the rest of its legs began to move, and the monster’s body started to rise.
It was the post-death movement often seen in insect-type monsters.
The headless ant monster finally lifted itself up. Then, silently from behind Yonghoon, it raised its front leg. That front leg was aiming for Yonghoon’s head.
In front of the ant, Yonghoon was sweating as he maintained the hole in the air.
Yonghoon kept following the instructions from his memory.
‘Keep imagining. And move. Send it through the hole while maintaining it.’
The moment the ant monster brought its leg down toward Yonghoon’s head from above–
He thrust the spear he was holding forcefully into the hole.
Thunk!
The spear drove into the hole, and at the same time, there was a cracking sound as the ant’s back shell was pierced.
The ant froze with its leg still raised. Its foot was right above Yonghoon’s head.
Then the ant monster collapsed with a thud.
At the same time, Yonghoon’s spear sank deep into the hole.
Yonghoon let go of his tension and collapsed right there. The hole in front of him disappeared instantly.
“Dimensional Power gets consumed like crazy. It won’t be easy to make this practical.”
Yonghoon let out a weary sigh and looked behind him.
Behind him, the headless ant lay collapsed with Yonghoon’s spear stuck in its back.
Yonghoon stared blankly at his spear. It had traveled through space.
“So it’s a spatial-type.”
Yonghoon still wasn’t used to his new ability.
In the end, Yonghoon shook his head and decided to head back to where his group was waiting. He pushed off his knees and stood up.
As he stood, he staggered.
It felt like both his Dimensional Power and physical strength had been completely drained. He figured he needed to rest soon. He was finally starting to understand why assassin-types struggled so much.
He definitely needed more training.
Yonghoon pulled the spear from the ant’s body and slowly made his way toward the platform.
Only the corpse of the headless ant was left behind him.