After resting for a while, the Awakened stood up again. Around them, silkworm monsters were scattered everywhere.
Team 2’s members were gathered around their fallen teammate. It seemed the shock had hit them hard.
Everyone else checked their gear with grim expressions.
The objective wasn’t far now.
Instructor Seo looked around at the people.
“If anyone’s running low on Dimensional Power, speak up. If you use it all up, you’re more likely to suffer radiation damage, so be careful.”
Everyone nodded at Instructor Seo’s words.
Fortunately, no one in the group seemed to be having issues with their Dimensional Power.
Among the Awakened, the injured were being transported out of the industrial complex. The waiting F-Rank Awakened carefully drove in low-noise buses to evacuate the wounded and the dead.
Luckily, it seemed most of the monsters in the rear had been cleared out, as no monsters attacked while the buses passed through.
About thirty people were left. There were quite a few injured. But about two-thirds of the group still remained.
Instructor Seo reorganized the four remaining teams, excluding Team Crazy, into three new teams and set off again.
And until the group reached their target building, no monsters appeared.
Their objective was to eliminate the moth monster stationed at the center of the first floor.
According to the researcher who survived yesterday, the moth monster had taken up residence in the center of the first floor of this building.
Many had died from the moth monster’s attack, and even those who survived collapsed while trying to escape the industrial complex. As a result, today’s Awakened hadn’t been able to gather much intel.
But the objective was clear. They had to destroy the moth monster to activate the Cooling Pump located at the center of the building and cool the reactor.
Instructor Seo carefully entered the building with the others. Yonghoon and Team Crazy were the last to step inside the building labeled Energy Research Institute.
The door’s lock seemed to have been destroyed, so they entered without any resistance.
As Yonghoon stepped inside, he couldn’t move further due to the people who had entered before him. They stood in place, not going deeper, staring ahead with shocked expressions.
Yonghoon turned his head to scan the entire hall. His eyes widened.
It was different from what he’d heard from others.
The massive hall was full of strange threads. Not sticky like spiderwebs, but soft, thin strands covered the entire space.
It was a sight no one had mentioned. That meant it had appeared between yesterday and today.
Yonghoon furrowed his brow.
It was a familiar sight.
Yonghoon looked at Instructor Seo. His twisted expression showed that he recognized it too.
Yonghoon scanned the interior with his smart watch. Dozens of dots appeared at the point marking the building’s center. Many dots were clustered together.
Red dots, and among them, a yellow dot.
They seemed to be F-Rank silkworm monsters and an E-Rank moth monster.
But he noticed something unusual. Around ten orange-colored signals stood out.
‘Metamorphosis Zone.’
Yonghoon gritted his teeth.
As expected, this was the place where silkworm monsters transformed into moth monsters through pupation.
Although they had seen both silkworm and moth monsters in this industrial facility, neither Instructor Seo nor Yonghoon had anticipated that a Metamorphosis Zone would form here.
In the other world, due to the low temperatures in Korea, moth monster metamorphosis zones had never formed.
But beneath this building was a reactor. And with the pump shut down, the reactor’s rising temperature had significantly heated the building’s interior.
That’s why metamorphosis, which usually occurred in tropical regions, was now happening here.
At this rate, all the cocoons inside would definitely turn into moth monsters.
“Damn it, we’ll have to be ready.”
Instructor Seo wiped cold sweat from his forehead and looked ahead.
It was a dilemma.
If they attacked now, they had to be prepared for total annihilation.
But if they retreated, not only the reactor but also the fully metamorphosed moth monsters would pour out.
Even though they had killed many silkworm monsters, there could still be more in other buildings. If they left things as they were, moth monsters would keep emerging endlessly.
On top of that, calling for reinforcements was impossible. Even if they were only F-Rank and E-Rank, they were still Dimensional Beasts-ordinary weapons couldn’t harm them.
And this place was directly above the reactor, so they couldn’t just collapse the factory to destroy the Metamorphosis Zone.
The E-Rank Awakened here had to handle this situation.
In the end, Instructor Seo decided to proceed by the book. They would break through head-on and kill the silkworm monsters in the middle of metamorphosis.
There would be casualties from the moth monsters, but there was no other choice.
He raised a hand to his ear and spoke quietly.
“Everyone, reduce noise as much as possible and move forward.”
His words were relayed to each team leader, and the group began quietly advancing.
The inside of the factory was a tangled mess of massive pumps on both sides and pipes running everywhere.
Fortunately, the pipes overhead ran in the direction they were heading, providing enough space for everyone to move forward.
Dozens of signals were detected behind a massive pump 50 meters ahead.
Yonghoon was leading Team Crazy from the front. He turned his head and scanned his teammates. Everyone looked slightly tense from the fierce battle earlier.
Fortunately, since the last battle had been a major victory, they didn’t seem too shaken by the sight of the fallen Awakened.
But this battle would be different. In the worst case, they might have to prioritize retreat.
A moment later, just as the group approached their target, they were spotted by the monsters at the center.
“Beeeeep!”
A shriek from a moth monster rang out from beyond the front pump.
“Everyone, run! Once you reach the center, destroy the cocoons first! If you’re late, they’ll all become moth monsters!”
Instructor Seo shouted to everyone and began running forward. The other Awakened rushed after him.
Yonghoon ran with his teammates.
Instructor Seo was right. The metamorphosis speed of these moth monsters was incredibly fast. Since no one knew when the current ones would finish transforming, it was best to kill them mid-metamorphosis.
The group turned around the massive pump in front of them. And then they saw the central area of the factory.
It was covered in white, thread-like strands, like snow. In the center lay dozens of white silkworm cocoons.
Some of the cocoons had cracks and were shaking violently, as if moth monsters were about to emerge.
There wasn’t much time left.
About thirty silkworm monsters near the cocoons began charging at the group.
“Defense team, block the silkworm monsters as much as possible! Strike team, destroy all the cocoons!”
As soon as Instructor Seo finished speaking, the Awakened rushed forward. And just before reaching the cocoons, they clashed with the silkworm monsters.
“Block the front!”
“Make an opening!”
The shouts of Defense-type and Strike-type Awakened and the roars of silkworm monsters echoed throughout the factory.
The Defense-type Awakened did their best to push back the silkworm monsters and create a gap. That gap was needed to send in the attackers to destroy the cocoons.
At last, an opening was made. Through it, the Strike-type Awakened began to charge forward.
Jimin and Kangwoo also tried to rush out. But Yonghoon blocked their path.
Surprised, they looked at Yonghoon, who pointed upward.
When they looked up, a moth monster was already hovering high in the air, flapping its wings.
“But there should be some time before it comes down, right?”
Jimin said to Yonghoon, sounding disappointed.
“No, it won’t come down. That monster is a Special Ability type.”
Shocked by Yonghoon’s words, Jimin looked back at the moth monster. Unlike the ones they’d seen before, this one had wings with ornate patterns.
The moth monster flapped its wings widely. From its tail, silver threads began pouring downward.
Seeing that, Instructor Seo shouted.
“Everyone fall back! It’s poison thread!”
Hearing Instructor Seo’s voice, the Strike-type Awakened quickly stopped in their tracks. Some immediately retreated.
But those who looked up out of curiosity or couldn’t stop in time were covered in the poison threads.
The people confused by the thin white threads covering their bodies soon began to scream.
“Aaaagh! My body’s burning!”
“Help me, it hurts! It hurts!”
Those covered in the threads screamed and rolled across the ground.
The threads left dozens of black lines on the Awakened’s skin. Their skin was being poisoned.
“Damn it, take out the silkworms up front first! We can’t do anything about that now, so focus elsewhere!”
Instructor Seo looked up at the moth. After releasing its threads, the moth monster slowly began to move forward. It looked like it was preparing to unleash more poison threads on others.
Instructor Seo clenched his teeth. He hadn’t expected an E+ Rank moth monster to be here. The presence of the reactor had thrown off all their predictions.
He had no way of taking down that special-type moth monster.
Instructor Seo looked ahead. Behind the people who had fallen and were screaming, the cocoons were splitting open, and moths were already emerging.
Those moths also had vibrant patterns on their wings.
Instructor Seo shouted in a firm voice.
“Everyone, charge forward! The monster doesn’t have enough time to attack yet. We’re running straight to the cocoons!”
Saying that, Instructor Seo also started to run. The Awakened who had fallen back rushed forward again, and the Defense-type Awakened pushed past the silkworm monsters and charged ahead.
The members of Team Crazy who heard him also dashed forward. They also saw that now was their only chance.
But Yonghoon stood still and stared at the moth monster.
The moth monster wasn’t unable to attack-it simply hadn’t. It was preparing to shoot threads at the humans rushing toward it.
Yonghoon looked around. Awakened were fighting silkworm monsters all over, some were charging toward the cocoons ahead, and overhead, the moth monster was about to shoot its threads.
For a moment, it felt like time had stopped for Yonghoon. In the stillness, tension surged through his entire body.
A smile formed on Yonghoon’s lips. The scent of the battlefield filled the air. Screams, madness, sorrow, rage-intense emotions surged through him. It felt like he had come home.
In that moment, he realized why he couldn’t use his second ability, the Spatial Ability, together with his first.
He focused his Dimensional Power on the space in front of him. The space shimmered, and a hole began to open.
Then he poured his Strike-type Dimensional Power into the sword he held. The sword began to glow. The hole in front of him remained stable.
He finally understood.
Until now, he had thought of his Strike-type Dimensional Power and this world’s Dimensional Power as separate. He hadn’t truly accepted this world as real.
He thrust the glowing sword into the hole like a bolt of lightning.
“Beeeeep!”
The moth monster, about to shoot threads from the sky, let out a scream. Excrement Powder burst from its wings.
The Awakened looked up in surprise. Again, Excrement Powder burst from the moth monster’s wings. Something seemed to be striking the moth’s wings.
And the moth monster lost its balance and began to fall.
Instructor Seo was startled.
They had been prepared to suffer heavy casualties as they charged, but the moth monster had fallen on its own.
“Half of you, go for the moth! The rest, attack the cocoons! Focus on the moths that come out! Move quickly!”
The Awakened split into two groups and dashed like the wind.
A smile appeared on Instructor Seo’s face.
Yonghoon planted his sword into the ground and leaned on it. Then he took a deep breath.
That was close.
If the monster had held on just a bit longer, his Dimensional Power would’ve been completely drained.
If that had happened, he might have been contaminated by the radiation.
Having barely caught his breath, Yonghoon lifted his head.
There stood Sunhee, her eyes wide, staring at Yonghoon.