The Line 5 subway monster extermination mission ended in complete disaster.
Eight dead, four injured-this was the highest death toll ever recorded in a single Hunting operation.
But the bigger problem was the appearance of an E-Rank monster.
The government and the company did their best to cover up the subway incident, but it leaked within a few days. It was simply too big an event to silence public opinion.
Yonghoon had been bedridden with body aches during that time.
That day, Yonghoon was debriefed and returned home late at night. His body felt like it weighed a ton, and he thought he might collapse any second, but he finally made it home.
And for the next few days, he couldn’t move at all. He had kept going without rest after completely depleting both his Dimensional Power and physical energy. Once Dimensional Power was gone, he was no different from a normal person. On top of that, moving with no energy left had caused him to fall ill.
But he had no choice if he wanted to keep his new ability a secret.
It took two full days for Yonghoon to finally regain his strength.
He checked his condition with some light exercise. He finally felt like he was back to normal. It was no wonder problems had occurred, considering he had used his Dimensional Power to the max right after Awakening.
Back at home, the first thing he checked was his smartwatch.
Level: E
Dimensional Power: 6.0 / 50.0
As expected, it hadn’t increased much. Most of the gain likely came from killing ants. Now that he had leveled up, the Dimensional Power gained from fighting F-Rank monsters had dropped to half.
From now on, he would need to hunt E-Rank monsters to level up quickly.
Yonghoon’s expression darkened.
Hunting alone was no longer feasible. Starting from E-Rank, it became difficult for Strike-type Awakened to kill monsters of the same rank.
He would now have to form a team to hunt.
But there were hardly any E-Rank Awakened to begin with. He had to find another way.
He turned off the smartwatch and checked his bank account.
He was worried the payment might be delayed due to the high number of casualties. Thankfully, the payment had been made accurately. On top of that, a sizable bonus had been added.
“I’ve got 50 million won left……”
It was the total from his two previous hunts and the subway mission. Even after spending nearly 5 million won over the past month, he still had a large sum left.
‘Guess I’ll have to move.’
Yonghoon looked around his house. The small space looked even smaller with the triangular iron pillars. On top of that, the landlord had visited several times because of Yonghoon’s training.
The landlord had come by, curious about the noise made by the Dimensional Core during his training.
In the end, he had received a final warning not long ago.
He figured he needed to find a soundproof officetel.
Yonghoon looked at the Dimensional Power training device, which was now just a half-broken metal structure. The F-Rank Dimensional Core he had first used had been completely depleted and crumbled away, and he hadn’t collected even four new ones yet.
On top of that, now that he had leveled up, training with an F-Rank Dimensional Core wasn’t very effective anymore.
Yonghoon shook the iron rod.
Screeeeech.
The metal was worn out and made a strange noise. It was no longer usable.
Yonghoon let out a sigh. Even Dimensional Power training had become difficult now.
He pushed aside the various problems and sat down on his bed. He had something more important to do.
Yonghoon took a proper posture and stared into the empty air in front of him.
As he furrowed his brow and focused, the air at the center of the room began to ripple into a small sphere.
“Kgh!”
Yonghoon immediately stopped using the ability. His face was drenched in cold sweat. Just as he’d heard, it wasn’t an easy power to control.
[Spatial Type Ability]
This was the ability Yonghoon had acquired.
It looked quite fascinating and had the potential to become a tremendous power if it evolved into an A-Rank. In fact, Jumper, the Spatial Mover from the other world, also possessed a branch of the Spatial Type Ability.
But like all Special Abilities, there was no clear way to develop it. Since Dimensional Power grew through repulsion with monsters’ Dimensional Cores, non-combat abilities couldn’t grow that way.
In the other world, Special Ability Users had initially given up on increasing Dimensional Power altogether, until Dimensional Core training was discovered and allowed them to grow their abilities.
But even that required a huge amount of money and time. The A-Rank Awakened Jumper mentioned earlier had been raised by the government pouring in a massive budget.
“In that sense, I guess I’m lucky?”
Since he could raise his Dimensional Power through combat, he was in a much better situation than other Special Ability Users.
“But it’s not that helpful in battle……”
Yonghoon gave a bitter smile. Since he had to maintain his Spatial Type Dimensional Power, he couldn’t imbue his weapon with Strike-type Dimensional Power.
Monsters with intact Dimensional Cores would just deflect his weapon.
‘There’s got to be a way if I keep developing it.’
Yonghoon sighed and began focusing again. Since it was a new ability, he had to make it useful somehow.
For the past few days, he had received several calls from Eunseo and Instructor Seo. They were asking if he was interested in joining the Link System Company.
They needed more people anyway, and someone like Yonghoon would be a valuable asset regardless of his level.
Yonghoon regretted having been too reckless.
Unlike before, he seriously considered it. Now that he had hit a plateau, joining a company with E-Rank Awakened could be a great help.
But the bigger issue was not knowing what would happen if his secret was exposed.
After learning the truth about Instructor Seo’s split personality, he began to suspect that the company had intentionally created Linkers.
Creating a split personality on purpose?
If it was revealed that he had two abilities in one personality, who knew what they might do to him?
In the end, Yonghoon declined their scouting offer.
The risk was just too great. Yonghoon decided to take a different path.
The world was once again suffering from a major crisis.
E-Rank monsters had appeared. The first one had shown up during the subway hunt in Korea, and afterward, similar monsters began appearing in other countries as well.
At first, people just thought stronger monsters were showing up, but they soon realized that F-Rank Awakened couldn’t kill the new monsters.
Despair began to spread among the people once again.
The stock market plummeted, agricultural prices soared, oil prices spiked, and gold prices skyrocketed.
In the end, people had no choice but to rely on the Link System Company, which had given them hope when monsters first appeared.
And the company delivered results.
Yonghoon was staring at a computer screen. On the screen, Awakened from the Link System Company were fighting monsters with spears and shields.
Three Strike-types, two Defense-types, one Assassin-type-a textbook E-Rank Awakened team.
The video ended with the contaminated monster being killed by the Strike-type Awakened after being attacked by the Assassin-type.
The video had been uploaded a few days ago, and the Link System Company’s reputation had skyrocketed.
The comments below were full of praise.
-Pretty sure it’s a company run by aliens.
-Is this a hero company? Either way, it’s awesome!
-F-Rank Awakened can become E-Rank by gaining experience? It’s just like a game!
-But seriously, it’s amazing. Why do only their Awakened get stronger so fast?
-Damn…… I need to get in there. Hunting with scrubs doesn’t give me any XP.
-Maybe you’re the scrub? Might not even be an Awakened.
With a bitter expression, Yonghoon moved to another page.
The company had already established itself firmly. He was starting to feel a bit anxious.
Then Yonghoon found the page he had been looking for.
It was the hunting recruitment page on the Awakened forum.
Yonghoon began filling out the application form.
“Leave it to Crazy Kang!”
The team leader shouted at the Awakened who was struggling in a power contest with a boar monster.
“Damn it, that’s gonna cut into my pay!”
Even as he was being pushed back, the Awakened found it hard to give up. Light was fading from his hands as he held onto the boar’s tusks.
“Better than dying! Get out of there!”
The team leader shouted again,
“Damn it!”
In the end, the Defense-type Awakened rolled away to the side.
With the obstacle gone, the boar monster staggered for a moment. But then it resumed its charge forward.
And standing in its path was Yonghoon, wearing black gloves.
“Kaaang!”
The boar monster charged at the human in front of it, intending to trample him. Its sudden acceleration made it clear this wasn’t a normal F-Rank monster.
But Yonghoon timed his jump perfectly and leapt upward. He landed on the boar’s back as it passed beneath him and drove his hand into its neck.
“Kkwaaek!”
The boar monster let out a grating scream and tumbled forward. In the end, it stopped moving after crashing into the wall of a building.
“Wow! We got it!”
People erupted in cheers.
It was the moment the F+ rank boar monster that had terrorized the area around Anyang for days was finally caught.
Yonghoon, now back on the ground, brushed the dust off and looked around.
This was a playground in a residential neighborhood of Anyang. Other than them, no one else was in sight.
Due to the boar monster, this area had been declared off-limits. All the residents had evacuated to nearby schools.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
The young team leader expressed his gratitude to Yonghoon.
“As long as the payment is accurate, that’s all that matters.”
Yonghoon responded businesslike to the team leader. The team leader grumbled inwardly at his words, but he couldn’t argue. This was the Awakened who had taken down not only F-rank monsters but even F+ rank ones solo.
People had cursed him as a lunatic after seeing his solo hunting profile on the Awakened forum, but strong Awakened were always in short supply.
So it was only natural that his nickname became Crazy Kang. Still, the fact that the first person to call him a lunatic in the comments had been Instructor Seo was something worth thinking about.
Of course, Yonghoon planned to show the instructor what a real lunatic looked like the next time they met.
Yonghoon looked at the Awakened chatting in front of the fallen boar monster.
This was the fourth time he had joined a hunting party as a mercenary. He had applied to teams recruiting online, and thanks to his hunting experience, he was accepted right away.
Yonghoon’s goal was to find a capable team that could help him grow. He needed a team with an assassin-type Awakened.
He had considered using his knowledge from the other world to create a team of his own, but in the end, he gave up and said-
Most of the B-rank or higher Awakened with limited abilities were already affiliated with the Link System Company. The company had access to information on high-level Awakened.
Yonghoon had known about high-level Awakened since four years ago, but since so many had died by then, few others knew.
Searching alone took too much time. And even if he found someone, there was no guarantee they’d join his team. As long as a powerful company like the Link System Company existed, Yonghoon alone was powerless.
So Yonghoon was looking for a team of Awakened he could work with, even if they were E or C rank.
But once again, this team didn’t seem promising to Yonghoon. The previous teams had all had issues too-teams made up only of strike-types, teams treating hunting like a hobby, teams without an assassin-type. They were all dead ends.
And today was no different.
Yonghoon wondered if maybe his standards were too high.
He decided to give mercenary work one last try. If he couldn’t find a team this time, he’d either join a company or challenge E-rank monsters on his own.
In front of Yonghoon, who had arrived at Seoul Station Plaza, stood seven Awakened.
Five men and two women. Their ages ranged from twenties to forties.
They were all F-rank Awakened, but it was a balanced team with a defense-type, strike-type, and even an assassin-type.
Yonghoon stared intently at the assassin-type Awakened among them.
She was a young woman in her twenties.
She was a pretty woman with a shoulder-length bob and a bright smile. When she noticed Yonghoon looking at her, she smiled shyly and introduced herself.
“Hello. I’m Eun Sunhee.”
A woman with the exact same face as the lover he had left behind in the other world was introducing herself to him.