Yongsan US Military Base.
There had been many stories, but until this spring, the US military was stationed there. However, when the monsters appeared, the US began withdrawing its troops from around the world back to the homeland.
Everyone was confused by the rapid withdrawal of the US forces, but now they saw it as foresight.
After the US troops withdrew, the area where the base had been became completely deserted.
Normally, the economic and political sectors would have fought over this area, which was two-thirds the size of Yeouido, but now no one had the time or energy for that. As a result, the area was left neglected by all.
Since morning, a large number of vehicles had arrived at the entrance of the quiet military base. Buses and four-wheel drives stopped in the parking lot and unloaded people.
The people who got out of the vehicles gathered to one side. They were all superpowered individuals armed with spears and shields.
A man with a large build and commanding charisma stepped forward in front of them.
It was Instructor Seo Donghyuk.
“Everyone line up. Let’s finish this quickly.”
At Instructor Seo’s words, the people lined up by team.
Instructor Seo checked the people and began to speak.
“You probably heard this before coming, but I’ll say it again. Today’s task is to clean out this base that’s been left unattended. We don’t know how many monsters are hiding inside. It’s a fairly large area, so we’ll advance little by little and clear it out.”
Instructor Seo paused and looked ahead.
In front of him, nearly a hundred E-Rank and F-Rank superpowered individuals were gathered. They were the main force of the Korean Link System Company.
“Let’s move out!”
Instructor Seo stood at the front with his team and entered the abandoned military base.
Eunseo, her long hair fluttering, followed after him.
It was the beginning of a three-day operation to clean the US military base.
The Dimensional Movement Blocking Device had been airlifted from the United States and had arrived in Seoul. The device was waiting in a nearby warehouse for the base to be cleared as soon as possible.
Four days to go.
The people living in Seoul were moving frantically.
Yonghoon stood in the center of the ground-level parking lot and looked around. The parking lot was quiet.
Team Crazy was the only one present in the empty parking lot.
Team leader Han stood at the front holding a shield, with Kangwoo and Sunhee at his sides.
Yonghoon looked even farther out.
Except for the large building in front, people in various military uniforms were stationed on surrounding rooftops and strategic points, armed with rifles and grenade launchers.
[Support team fully deployed.]
Yonghoon nodded at the voice coming from his earpiece.
At last, a proper hunting team had been set up.
After the crocodile monster hunt, team leader Han had completely lost his temper. He didn’t just slack off-he contacted other team leaders and filed a group complaint to the government.
On top of that, he added the threat that they wouldn’t hunt anymore, putting pressure on the government.
The government, caught off guard, didn’t know what to do and eventually backed down.
Every hunting team was now supported by mercenaries and soldiers, and the government had no choice but to announce the installation of the Dimensional Movement Device sooner than expected.
Naturally, the country erupted over the location issue. Those whose areas were excluded criticized the government.
People from Seoul and the provinces fought, and even among Seoul residents, those included in the zone fought with those who weren’t.
But it was something they had to go through eventually. The hunting teams were just satisfied to have support.
Mercenaries could now carry proper weapons. Sensing opportunity, private military companies were springing up like mushrooms after rain.
Team Crazy also received many offers, but Yonghoon contacted the company they had hunted with in the subway last time and decided to work with them again.
Yonghoon looked at the large five-story building in front of him. It looked like a massive structure modeled after a traditional Korean hanok.
[We’ve lured it out! Coming out now!]
Jimin’s voice came through to Yonghoon’s ear.
“Everyone, get ready!”
Yonghoon spoke in a low voice. His words were transmitted to the team members and mercenaries through his earpiece.
Tension was evident in everyone’s expressions.
Bang!
The central entrance of the five-story building burst open as if it would shatter, and Jimin came flying out. She bounded down the stairs like a squirrel.
And right behind her, a giant lynx monster, seemingly several times her size, leapt out the door.
The lynx monster, unaware, ran down the stairs and suddenly came to a halt.
Something felt strange. Next to the human it had been chasing, there were other humans.
Feeling like its body was being pricked, the lynx sensed danger.
As it hesitated and stepped back, it spotted a woman behind the other humans, staring at it.
It was the human it had been chasing all along.
The lynx lost its mind.
“Kyaaaah!”
The lynx monster charged at the group. It collided with team leader Han’s shield at the very front of the group.
The lynx and team leader Han engaged in a battle of strength.
“What in the world did you do to make the monster that crazy?”
Sunhee asked Jimin with a curious expression.
“I don’t know!”
Jimin replied with a pout and charged at the lynx.
From the other side, Kangwoo also charged forward, channeling Dimensional Power into his spear.
Yonghoon watched the group’s fight from behind. Now, they could handle E-Rank monsters without his help.
Sometimes dangerous situations arose, but by the standards of hunting teams from the other world, this team was decent-aside from their level.
Team leader Han blocked strongly from the front with his shield, while Jimin and Kangwoo emerged from behind the shield and stabbed at the lynx monster with their spears.
That was when it happened.
Sunhee silently approached the lynx from behind.
The Assimilation Ability that assassin-types typically possessed concealed her movements from the monster’s senses.
While the lynx was caught up fighting the team, Sunhee climbed onto its back. She grabbed its mane and pushed her Dimensional Power into the lynx’s back.
The lynx went wild trying to shake her off, but even Yonghoon jumped in to restrict its movements.
A moment later, the lynx monster froze in place, and the team members scattered. Yonghoon carried Sunhee on his back and ran while contacting the mercenaries.
“Fire.”
All kinds of firearms rained down on the lynx monster.
Bullets riddled the creature’s body, and grenades launched from the grenade launchers exploded on it.
Boom boom boom!
The area where the monster had been exploded in all directions with a massive blast. Naturally, the monster at the center was torn to shreds.
After a moment, the attack ceased and the dust settled.
The team members, who had been lying prone away from the monster, lifted their heads.
What they saw were a deep crater, blood splatters, and chunks of flesh scattered everywhere.
“We’re screwed.”
Ji Eun was stunned by the scene before her. To her, it looked like piles of money had turned to ash and scattered.
Yonghoon, who had run in the opposite direction, got up.
He strode toward the explosion site.
Sunhee, exhausted, got up and looked at Yonghoon.
Yonghoon stood in the center of the blast zone and focused his mind. He was trying to sense the surrounding Dimensional Power.
A moment later, he walked to one side of the crater, reached into a lump of flesh, and pulled out a small gem. It was a Contaminated Dimensional Core.
Yonghoon shouted to Jimin, who was still in shock.
“They say Contaminated Dimensional Cores are used in Dimensional Movement Blocking Devices. If we talk to Link System Company about this, we won’t be at a loss.”
Jimin snapped back to reality at Yonghoon’s words. Her expression as she looked at him was like a child seeing Santa Claus.
Yonghoon shook his head and looked at the children’s center ahead. The empty building looked desolate.
Behind the center was a large park.
Children’s Grand Park.
It was the area Team Crazy had to clean over the next three days.
Three days passed.
It was a large control room. In the center was a huge screen, and many soldiers were talking through headsets while watching monitors. This was the command room of the Capital Defense Command.
“Children’s Grand Park and Seoul Forest Park have been cleared. We also just received word that the Yongsan US Military Base has been cleaned.”
A soldier wearing a headset and watching the monitor shouted toward the back.
The people standing in the center and talking turned to look at the large screen up front when they heard the report.
The screen displayed a full map of Seoul, with various parts marked in red.
The operator sitting at the bottom of the screen typed on a keyboard to update the display.
Several of the red-marked areas on the map turned clear.
“Thank goodness. At this rate, we’ll be able to activate the device on time.”
The general looked at the screen and let out a sigh of relief.
“So we’ve cleared about 70%, huh?”
A man in a suit asked the general.
“Roughly that much. The rest will have to be handled on-site tomorrow.”
At that moment, an elderly man standing beside them, who looked quite stubborn, spoke up.
“If I had known it would be cleared this quickly, we should’ve done it this way from the start.”
The general and the man in the suit turned to look at him.
The man in the suit sighed slightly and began to explain.
“Assemblyman Kim, all the E-Rank Awakened across the country and a massive number of F-Rank Awakened are working together to clean up. This speed is to be expected. As a result, the number of monsters in the provinces is increasing exponentially.”
At his words, the old man cleared his throat and closed his mouth.
The general looked at the screen with a puzzled expression.
“But Children’s Grand Park is strange. Wasn’t that the place we half gave up on due to lack of manpower?”
The man in the suit nodded at his words.
“Yes, but we still sent one team to try to reduce it as much as possible. They’re called Team Crazy… I guess there were fewer monsters than expected.”
The general nodded.
“Still, that’s impressive. One team handled such a wide area.”
Manager Oh from the Link System frowned, seemingly displeased.
“Well, they are an exceptional team among the regular Awakened teams.”
The general looked at Manager Oh’s frown with amusement.
And then it happened.
A liaison officer shouted to the Capital Defense Commander.
“We’ve lost contact with the Dive Team!”
The people who had been talking turned back to the screen.
Another X mark appeared on a red spot on the screen, making it two.
“Where is that?”
The old man, unsure of the location, asked Manager Oh beside him.
“Mapo Subway Station.”
Manager Oh answered Assemblyman Kim.
The general made a regretful expression and gave the order.
“That’s the second team already. We’ll have to give up.”
Manager Oh nodded at the commander’s words.
“Yes, I think it’s best to stop now.”
Manager Oh, who had been blocking subway access all this time, responded with a bit of bite in his tone.
The company considered that place, the first E-Rank monster emergence site in Korea, to be a Singularity.
Since the appearance of the ant monsters, the area had already been declared a Dead Zone and blocked off from public access, but now it had devoured two teams of Awakened.
“Three teams lost during cleanup…”
The commander wore a troubled expression. They had lost nearly thirty Awakened even before activating the device. There were even more casualties among mercenaries and soldiers, but he kept their deaths in his heart.
Seeing the commander’s hesitation, Assemblyman Kim spoke up.
“The Blue House and the party both insist on activating it on time. We can’t afford any more delays.”
Manager Oh added from the side.
“If we give up now, the monsters will soon reappear in the areas we’ve already cleared. That would render the Awakeneds’ deaths meaningless.”
After a moment of deliberation, the general made his decision.
“Proceed as planned. The Dimensional Movement Blocking Device will be activated tomorrow.”
The general stared intently at Mapo Subway Station, now marked with two Xs.
The tunnel between Mapo Station and Yeouinaru Station had remained untouched by humans ever since subway service was suspended.
Built beneath the river, the tunnel was still quite bright, suggesting that power was still running through it.
Inside the tunnel, an E-Rank ant monster was moving while carrying something in its mouth. After walking a bit, it placed what it was carrying on top of a pile of corpses. It was the body of an Awakened.
The grave of corpses was quite large-just by looking, it seemed like dozens of people had been stacked up as dead bodies.
Another ant appeared beside the one that had dropped the body. It too placed the corpse it had been carrying. And the number of ant monsters continued to grow.
From the darkness, an ant different from the others appeared. It was more than twice the size, with sharp fangs and a powerful jaw-
A D-Rank Soldier Ant monster.
Two more Soldier Ants appeared behind it. The Soldier Ants gazed at the pile of human corpses before them with apparent satisfaction.
The day had come to activate the Dimensional Movement Blocking Device.