“Hey, you! Are you ignoring me?”
The young Awakened shouted at Yonghoon, clenching both fists.
But he was hesitating and backing away at the sight of Yonghoon, who was clearly a higher level than him.
The team members, confused by Yonghoon suddenly getting out of the car, followed him out.
“Why did you suddenly get out?”
Sunhee asked Yonghoon on behalf of the team.
Yonghoon closed his eyes slightly and focused his mind on his ears. With the ears of a reinforced C-Rank Awakened, he could hear the sounds of battle and screams.
The sounds were coming from behind the purification plant building.
Yonghoon shouted to Dohyeon.
“Get your weapon! It’s an emergency!”
Dohyeon, who had been stretching after getting out of the car, snapped to attention at Yonghoon’s words and dashed back inside the car.
The other team members also started grabbing their weapons to help Dohyeon.
The young Awakened standing in front of them raised both hands and blankly stared at the members of Team Crazy amidst the sudden situation.
“Damn it! I can’t hold them off anymore!”
“Two more E-Ranks showed up! We should’ve expected more to pop out from the mountain at the sound of fighting!”
Insect monsters wearing thick armor were pounding on the shields blocking their path.
They were stag beetle monsters.
Each time they swung their long, sideways-protruding mandibles at the shields, the shields cracked with a snap and the Defense-type Awakened were pushed far back.
Even Kafka Team, which had two Defense-type Awakened and was usually stable, struggled to hold out against two E-Rank monsters appearing at once.
The team was already in shambles.
The Assassin-type Awakened had contaminated the Dimensional Core of the E-Rank monster they were originally supposed to capture and had used up all her Dimensional Power, now lying limp to one side.
Some of the Strike-type Awakened had also been badly injured after being attacked by the suddenly appearing monsters while resting after dealing with the contaminated monster.
At the sound of her team members’ screams, Kafka Team’s team leader Lim Hyunji’s face darkened.
Rushing over at the mention of a single E-Rank monster had been a mistake. Her anxiety over her stagnant level and Dimensional Power had led her to make a critical error.
She glanced at her smart watch.
Level E
Dimensional Power 50/50
It had been stuck for a month now.
After becoming an Awakened, she had hunted diligently like the others.
But over time, other Awakened who hunted more leisurely began to surpass her.
She gritted her teeth. With her competitive nature, it was hard to endure being overtaken.
After that, she ran around the hunting grounds several times more than others.
She didn’t quite reach Team Crazy’s level, but even she was often called crazy by others.
She had been happy to catch up to the others, but now she was once again crushed by her stagnant level and Dimensional Power.
Her vision blurred. The teammates who had followed her despite her impatience were now collapsing before her eyes.
She gripped her spear again. Even in death, she would stand with her team.
Team leader Lim stepped in front of the Defense-type Awakened who had been flung away with their shields.
A stag beetle monster appeared before her. It swung its massive mandibles at her.
Bracing for the end, she raised her spear and swung it at the stag beetle’s mandibles.
Kang!
As expected, the spear bounced off the stag beetle’s mandibles. Only a faint mark was left on the long mandibles. She sighed at the sight of her barely effective attack.
‘Huh? A sigh.’
She looked at the stag beetle in front of her with a puzzled expression. The stag beetle, about the size of a compact car, had raised its long mandibles high and was frozen in place.
Then, the surrounding noise flooded into her ears.
Boom!
A loud explosion erupted beside her, and another stag beetle was blasted backward.
“Get out of the way! Why are you just standing there?!”
A young woman’s voice rang in her ears.
“Huh?”
A man and a woman passed by her confused self. They raised glowing spears and thrust them forcefully at the frozen stag beetle.
Thud! Thud!
The same stag beetle whose shell had only been scratched by her spear was now pierced through by theirs. The stag beetle, with two large holes in its chest, screamed and staggered back.
Two Strike-type Awakened rushed at the retreating stag beetle.
A pretty bob-haired woman approached her, who was still standing dazed.
“Are you alright?”
The woman asked, seemingly concerned about team leader Lim who was standing blankly.
“Ah, yes… Who are you?”
Still not fully back to her senses, she spoke without thinking.
A young male Awakened, who still looked like a high school student, answered her question.
“We’re Team Crazy. It looked dangerous, so we stepped in.”
She snapped out of it at the mention of the name Crazy.
It was the most famous Awakened team in Korea.
“Huh? Those lunatics?”
Dohyeon, who had mentioned the team name, clicked his tongue. Since their name was Crazy, he couldn’t even refute her reaction.
But it seemed Lim team leader didn’t even remember what she had said. She hurriedly grabbed Sunhee and spoke.
“We have to take down the monsters quickly. We can’t drag this out!”
Sunhee tilted her head at her words.
“We’ve already taken down most of the E-Rank monsters here. You don’t need to worry.”
Just as Sunhee said, Kangwoo and Jimin had taken down one of the stag beetles, and team leader Han was rushing toward the one he had pinned.
“No, when we first arrived, there was only one. Two more came out after hearing the fighting. If we make more noise, more might show up!”
She fired off her explanation to Sunhee like a machine gun.
Sunhee’s eyes widened.
She immediately checked the monsters.
Including the one collapsed to the side, there were three in total.
Having rushed over in a panic because of Yonghoon, she now remembered that there had only been one monster at this purification plant.
If that was the case, more could appear just like she said.
She was about to shout to her team.
“They’re already here.”
Before she knew it, Yonghoon was standing next to Sunhee. His gaze was fixed on the rooftop of the three-story building in front. A massive insect was visible atop the solar panels.
It looked similar to a stag beetle but had thicker armor and a long horn on its head. It was a rhinoceros beetle monster.
Following Yonghoon’s gaze, Sunhee spotted the rhinoceros beetle and frowned.
“It’s pretty big. Doesn’t look like an E-Rank.”
To her comment, Yonghoon replied while walking forward.
“Who knows?”
The spear in his hand began to emit light.
Kafka’s team leader Lim grabbed Sunhee and began talking rapidly.
“We have to gather the team quickly! Judging by its size, it’s probably a D-Rank!”
Although Sunhee found her a bit annoying, she held it in and began drawing out her Dimensional Power. Yonghoon would have a hard time alone, so she figured she should help.
Drawn by the loud noise and the human Dimensional Power, the D-Rank rhinoceros beetle monster had come all the way to the purification plant. It looked down through its compound eyes. Humans were scurrying everywhere.
The rhinoceros beetle monster’s instincts began to whisper.
‘Kill the humans. Kill the humans.’
The rhinoceros beetle couldn’t resist its instincts.
It spread its wings. The monster trembled its wings as it prepared to take flight.
The rhinoceros beetle identified its first target. It was the human holding a glowing spear who was radiating a powerful killing intent.
The rhinoceros beetle kicked off the solar panel and shot into the sky.
Yonghoon stared at the massive rhinoceros beetle diving toward him. It was bigger and more heavily armored than the beetles he’d seen before.
As the monster charged at him, Yonghoon continued to pour his Dimensional Power into his spear.
Just like how Sunhee awakened her special ability upon reaching D-Rank, there were times when Strike-type Awakened would also unlock specialized abilities upon reaching a certain level.
He too had obtained this skill the moment he became C-Rank in the other world.
However, he hadn’t had many chances to use it there.
This skill consumed nearly all of his Dimensional Power when used, and it wasn’t particularly effective against monsters of the same rank.
But the biggest problem was that the skill posed a considerable danger even to the user.
And not long ago, when he became a C-Rank in this world, he instinctively realized he had awakened another innate ability.
Now was the perfect time to test it-against a monster one rank below him, with teammates backing him up.
Moreover, hardly anyone had noticed the monster’s sudden appearance.
Yonghoon poured all his Dimensional Power into his spear.
His spear, now filled with Dimensional Power, began to glow brightly.
As the rhinoceros beetle approached, he raised his spear and aimed it at the monster.
The air in front of him rippled. The rippling space soon turned into a hole. Beyond the hole, the face of the rhinoceros beetle was visible.
Yonghoon thrust his spear into the air with all his might.
His spear pierced through the hole in space and skewered the falling rhinoceros beetle’s head.
As the spear penetrated the head, the Dimensional Power stored inside it burst outward. The energy instantly converted into explosive force, and the rhinoceros beetle’s head exploded.
But Yonghoon didn’t have time to witness the explosion. The moment he drove in his spear, he tumbled to the ground.
Boom!
The rhinoceros beetle, with half its head blown off along with its horn, crashed into the spot where Yonghoon had just been.
Everyone stared blankly at the rhinoceros beetle.
The sight of a monster the size of a minibus lying on the ground with its head blown apart was enough to leave everyone stunned.
Even Jimin and Kangwoo, who had just taken down the second E-Rank stag beetle monster, and team leader Han, who stood nearby holding a shield, stared at the creature in a daze.
The Kafka team members, who had been scattered around tending to their wounds, also stared blankly at the monster’s corpse.
None of them had noticed the rhinoceros beetle’s arrival, so it felt as if the monster had erupted from the ground with a thunderous boom.
They hadn’t seen a single moment of Yonghoon’s battle.
Only Papka team leader Lim, who had at least been aware of the rhinoceros beetle’s appearance, muttered blankly as she looked at the monster.
“It definitely looked like a D-Rank… How did he take down a monster like that in one blow?”
Sunhee, who had been staring blankly at the monster, suddenly snapped to her senses.
She had to insist.
Dead monsters didn’t trigger the smartwatch. If she pushed hard enough, she could make it work.
“No. That monster was E-Rank. Who could possibly take down a D-Rank alone? That’s ridiculous.”
Sunhee firmly insisted that it was an E-Rank monster.
Team leader Lim tilted her head at Sunhee’s words.
But there was no way a D-Rank member of Team Crazy could have made a mistake, and she wouldn’t lie after saving her life.
Though a bit puzzled, she nodded.
But then curiosity struck again, and she tilted her head once more.
“But didn’t it seem like the spear suddenly got really long? It looked like the monster’s head exploded from a distance the spear shouldn’t have reached.”
Sunhee stiffened her face and replied.
“That must’ve just been how it looked because our captain is so skilled with a spear. A spear getting longer? Ha. Ha. Ha.”
Sunhee glared at Yonghoon, who was sitting beside the rhinoceros beetle monster catching his breath.
For the first time, Sunhee felt like punching Yonghoon.