Team Crazy had gathered in front of a neighboring building, avoiding the spot where the bat monster had collapsed into a wreck.
Team Leader Han scolded the team members who were resting on the building’s entrance steps.
“The hunt is way too dangerous for everyone! It’s already risky enough even when hunting safely, so what are you thinking charging in like you’re trying to die? It’s one thing for the captain to be reckless, but if Sunhee also charges in like that, what are we supposed to do?”
Team Leader Han’s gaze moved from Sunhee to Dohyeon. Dohyeon, who had been watching the scene over the wall like a spectator, flinched in surprise.
“And what was with the glass shards flying everywhere! How are we supposed to deal with the damage caused by that?”
Dohyeon, who had been excited about becoming a D-Rank, looked apologetic.
The building behind where the bat monster had fallen had already had all its windows shattered by the bat monster’s ability, but Dohyeon’s flying glass shards had embedded into the walls, making the situation even worse.
Yonghoon, half-listening to Team Leader Han’s lecture, noticed people approaching from a distance. Two women.
The team members turned their heads one by one to follow Yonghoon’s gaze, and even Team Leader Han, who had been talking animatedly, shifted his attention when he realized no one was listening.
Two beautiful women, one blonde and one with black hair, were approaching Team Crazy.
“Oh, oh, it’s Grace noona!”
Dohyeon’s eyes widened when he saw the blonde woman.
Dohyeon tried to immediately get up and greet her, but his body, drained of Dimensional Power and stamina, refused to move.
“Argh, move, body!”
Leaving Dohyeon flailing his arms, Team Leader Han stood up. Dealing with external guests was the team leader’s job.
“Hello? I’m Grace Kim.”
Grace greeted all of Team Crazy with a bright smile.
The team members nodded in response to her greeting, and only Dohyeon welcomed her enthusiastically.
Grace felt a bit awkward seeing the team members not as welcoming as she had expected. It seemed her popularity didn’t work on capable hunting teams.
“It’s been a while.”
Following her greeting, Eunseo waved at Yonghoon. Sunhee’s expression immediately soured, and Grace looked baffled at Eunseo’s sudden move.
However, Yonghoon only nodded calmly.
Watching this, Team Leader Han spoke to the two women.
“Come on in. But what brings you here?”
Both Team Leader Han and the team members looked curious. No matter how they thought about it, it didn’t seem like they had any business with Team Crazy during a hunt.
“I’m just the guide. The one with business here is Grace Kim.”
Eunseo spoke in a businesslike tone and stepped back.
Grace felt a bit awkward.
It seemed she had earned quite a bit of dislike from Eunseo.
Knowing she wasn’t the type to be popular among women, Grace accepted it as fate. She sighed inwardly and answered Team Leader Han.
In truth, she had the most business with Yonghoon, but since Team Leader Han seemed to be the representative, she decided to go along with it.
“I came to greet Team Crazy.”
She paused for a moment and then continued.
“The cleanup work in my assigned area is finished, so I’m going around greeting the other teams. I’m a new recruit, so please be kind to me.”
Grace smiled at Team Leader Han. His lips curved into a smile in response to hers.
Grace exchanged a few words with Team Leader Han and then greeted the team members.
Except for Dohyeon’s enthusiastic welcome, the greetings with the other team members were ordinary.
Finally, Grace approached Yonghoon.
Grace’s eyes sparkled as she studied Yonghoon closely.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Grace.”
“I’m Kang Yonghoon.”
Yonghoon responded calmly to her greeting. Grace, still smiling, asked him a question.
“You’re C-Rank, right?”
The sudden question made the team members tense up.
No one knew that Yonghoon had reached C-Rank. Yet Grace had recognized it at a glance.
Grace was smiling inwardly with satisfaction.
She had suspected it while watching the hunt. Even from a high place, it was hard for a D-Rank to kill a monster of the same level in one blow.
So as she greeted Yonghoon, she confirmed it-his Dimensional Power felt almost equal to hers.
Yonghoon chuckled inwardly.
She had found out because he hadn’t hidden his Dimensional Power.
Anyway, once they fought together during the Safe Zone installation, it would have been obvious. There was no need to complicate things by hiding it.
He answered Grace.
“Yes, I’m C-Rank.”
Grace felt awkward at Yonghoon’s calm response.
Until she arrived, there hadn’t been any C-Rank Awakened in Korea, and judging by the team members’ reactions earlier, it seemed they had been keeping it a secret.
Yet the person himself showed no signs of being flustered.
She had thought it would be a critical blow, but it had no effect. All the stories she had prepared to pressure him with were now useless.
“You’re C-Rank?”
Instead, it was Eunseo nearby who was surprised.
Yonghoon had reached C-Rank faster than she had. For someone who had prided herself on being the fastest in Korea, it was quite a shock. After Grace, now even the second spot had been taken from her.
Holding the grim-faced Eunseo, Grace decided to retreat for now. It would be hard to continue the conversation like this. She decided to be satisfied with just the greeting, as originally planned.
Grace and Eunseo greeted everyone and then left, using the excuse that they had to greet other teams as well.
Yonghoon watched Grace leave.
Watching her freely flaunt her abilities made him feel a bit stifled about having to hide his own.
Two days later, the day to install the Safe Zone in Asan and Cheonan had arrived.
It was the day Korea’s sixth Dimensional Movement Blocking Device would be activated.
Yonghoon gazed at Asan City from afar. The morning city was silent.
This time, because the cities were small and close together, the Safe Zone would cover both cities. It would be installed in the area between Asan and Cheonan.
Yonghoon turned around. Behind him was a massive industrial complex. It was the Asan Display Complex where the blocking device would be installed. This high-tech industrial complex was one of the reasons this area was chosen as the sixth Safe Zone.
Many citizens had doubts about this Safe Zone installation. Until now, installations had been accepted as being for major cities.
But compared to other major cities, the Asan and Cheonan area was much less important.
Especially citizens from Incheon, Ulsan, and Suwon, which had larger populations but were excluded from installation, protested fiercely against the government.
However, the government only reiterated its basic stance that installations had to be prioritized by region and pushed the plan forward.
Citizens grew even more dissatisfied seeing the government push through without listening to public opinion, but the government had no other choice.
The government also wanted to install Safe Zones first in populous and important cities.
But they couldn’t do that.
The repulsion between Safe Zones, as explained by the Link System, was much more serious than expected. Experiments showed that installing a Safe Zone in Incheon would reduce the combined Safe Zone area of Seoul and Incheon by about 50%.
Thus, the government had no choice but to install Safe Zones in cities far from existing ones first.
The government couldn’t announce this situation to the public. If they did, the residents of cities near Safe Zones would not sit quietly.
Therefore, the government agreed with other developed nations and the Link System Company to only announce it after installing as many Safe Zones as possible.
Shaking off the fleeting thoughts, Yonghoon looked around. He was standing in the middle of a wide field with Asan City visible ahead.
Here were the members of Team Crazy, three teams of E-Rank Awakened, support troops, and a D-Rank Awakened team from the Link System responsible for defending the Asan side along with Team Crazy.
Team Leader Grace of Link System’s Team 2 waved at Yonghoon with a bright smile.
Yonghoon ignored her and continued scanning the surroundings. Sure enough, small heli-cams floated in the sky at a distance. Cameras with telephoto lenses were probably filming from the industrial complex buildings behind them too.
Yonghoon recalled the team assignments from earlier.
Hearing that Grace’s team was assigned to the same area as his own, he understood what was going on.
Most likely, when Grace came to greet his team a few days ago, she had actually been checking out their hunting skills. She must have been satisfied and changed the team assignments accordingly.
After the assignments were finalized, broadcast station staff had asked Team Crazy for permission, offering to blur their faces before airing if they wished.
However, realizing that he and his team were being used in someone else’s plans left Yonghoon feeling unpleasant.
After briefly recalling the earlier events, Yonghoon shook off the bad mood.
He needed to focus on the operation first.
[All team placements confirmed. Starting the operation.]
The Control Room’s message came through Yonghoon’s earpiece.
Right behind him, a massive surge of Dimensional Power shot up into the sky. The energy then descended and spread out in all directions.
Yonghoon gazed steadily at Asan City ahead. The city, which had been quietly asleep, began to stir.
This Safe Zone covered an area that spanned both cities. The Dimensional Movement Blocking Device was installed in the parking lot of the aforementioned industrial complex.
The advanced industrial complex where the device was installed was positioned between Asan and Cheonan, with fields in between, and the mountain ranges extending from Dundeoksan wrapped around the back.
Due to the heavy mountain presence around the blocking device, the operation headquarters had no choice but to focus more on clearing monsters from the mountainous areas rather than inside Asan and Cheonan.
Currently, the defense forces were concentrated not toward the two cities on either side, but toward the north, in the directions of Daedeok-ri and Dundeoksan.
As a result, the monsters in the city that had gone unnoticed began to stretch and move toward the blocking device.
A moment later, the team members seemed to sense the presence Yonghoon had felt. It seemed their senses had also sharpened through the long battles.
“We need to minimize damage to the city……”
Sunhee looked worriedly toward Asan City. She was right. No matter how much the monsters ignored their surroundings and charged toward the blocking device, there was no way the city would escape unscathed.
[The monsters appearing in each area have started to group together. First wave confirmed. Estimated arrival: 3 minutes from Dundeoksan, 6 minutes from Cheonan, and 5 minutes from Asan City. Please prepare.]
The voice of the soldier in charge of communications came through calmly. It seemed even the soldiers in the Control Room had gained experience and were now reporting the situation composedly.
Smoke began to rise from Asan City. Fires had broken out due to the monsters’ rampages. Soon, the monsters would appear.
Yonghoon shouted to his team members.
“Everyone, prepare for battle!”
From the side, Yonghoon could hear Grace giving orders to her own team. The group lined up as much as possible. In the distance, the figures of monsters began to appear.
Dozens of monsters of various types, including insect-types and animal-types, began to spread out and run across the dry fields.
This place was a wide open plain. There was no way such a small number of people could block the monsters spreading out like that.
Even if they tried their best to hold them back, it was clear they would not be able to stop even 30% of the monsters.
However, there was no way the Control Room was unaware of this situation. They had prepared as much as they could and were now ready to see the results.
Yonghoon confirmed the approaching monsters and sent a signal to the rear.
The engineer officer stationed at the rear confirmed Yonghoon’s signal and reported to the Control Room.
The Control Room immediately issued the execution order.
The officer shouted loudly enough for everyone present to hear, and everyone dropped to the ground.
“Detonating! Three, two, one!”
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWANG!
A tremendous explosion erupted in front of the monsters. And the explosions didn’t stop. Starting from the center, the blasts began to spread outward to both sides.
The Awakened lying on the ground were astonished by the incredible spectacle.
Earth soared tens of meters into the air. The wall of dirt that cut almost straight across the monsters and Awakened alike didn’t stop there. The explosion began rushing back toward Yonghoon from the center of the wall. From above, the explosion looked like a Y-shape in English.
After a moment, the explosions subsided and the dust began to be carried away by the wind.
As the explosions settled, an enormous trench more than 5 meters deep, 10 meters wide, and 700 meters long was created. From above, it looked like a funnel, and at the very bottom of that funnel were Yonghoon and the Awakened.
Yonghoon brushed off the dust that had flown over him and stood up. The other Awakened around him were also getting up. Though the explosions here had ended, the rumbling of the ground and distant booms could still be heard.
The sounds were coming from the direction of Cheonan. It seemed the operation had begun there as well.
Yonghoon looked ahead. Monsters were charging toward the long trench.
It was time to check the results.
The results were a success.
With the deep trench in front of them, the monsters blindly leapt into it and began running along the sloped path.
If there had been no way out of the trench, the monsters might have gone into a rampage, but the gently sloping path urged them forward.
In the end, the monsters that had been spread out side by side were now lined up front to back as they ran through the trench, and at the end of that trench, Yonghoon and the Awakened were waiting for them.
Grace smiled. It was the perfect terrain for her to unleash her abilities.
Grace and the Defense-type Awakened of each team stood side by side at the very bottom of the Y-shaped trench, waiting for the monsters to appear.
And shortly after, the monsters and the Awakened clashed.
At Sinjeong Lake, located south of Asan City, the once-still waters had begun to ripple a short while ago. It felt as if something enormous was moving beneath the surface.
The alligator snapping turtle that had sunk deep into the waters of Sinjeong Lake slowly began to move its body. The monster could no longer suppress the instinct that urged it onward.
When the monster crossed over into this world, it had luckily been night, and with the lake right beside it, it had been able to hide deep beneath the water, away from human eyes.
The alligator snapping turtle monster’s instinct for laziness had been stronger than its instinct to eliminate humans, which was imprinted into its very being. Even without eating, the monster could survive, and so it had been leisurely enjoying its time at the bottom of the lake.
However, the sensation it had been feeling for a while now made it impossible for the turtle to endure any longer. This sensation was something fundamental, surpassing even its laziness.
The massive alligator snapping turtle, thirty meters in length, surfaced. Looking like an ancient beast, the alligator snapping turtle monster began swimming across Sinjeong Lake.
In front of the massive alligator snapping turtle lay Asan City, home to 300,000 people.