The next morning, the broadcasts and the internet were ablaze from the start.
Although the relics that had been shining brightly returned to normal within an hour, videos and photos capturing the scenes began circulating online, and the incident was reported as top news on broadcasts.
After morning training, Yonghoon, checking the internet, found the article in question. The video in the article seemed to be from a museum in the United Kingdom.
It was CCTV footage, and judging by the screen, it looked like it had been recorded at night when no one was around.
The CCTV was showing a large exhibition hall displaying medieval armor, swords, spears, and the like. After about a minute with no changes, light began to emanate from the armor in the corner of the screen.
The light was a soft green glow, and the footage continued until people came to check it out, then stopped.
It seemed the time had come.
Yonghoon started searching the internet. Dozens of videos and photos immediately came up. They were uploaded from various places like the United Kingdom, Romania, Russia, Japan, China, and more from around the world.
Yonghoon checked a few of the videos. They were all videos of glowing relics.
The videos were flooded with comments. But the comments were different from those in the past.
-Where the heck is this world heading?
-Now we just need elves and dwarves to show up.
-Isn’t this a good thing for once? After all, these are our items.
-Hmm, what if a spirit inhabits the armor and it starts moving?
-Well, they say there are no special functions?
-Please, just let there be no bad incidents.
Among the comments, there wasn’t a single one questioning the authenticity of the videos or photos. Everyone was calmly accepting the events.
Yonghoon turned off the computer and got ready to head out. It looked like today would be a very busy day.
That day’s morning meeting for Team Crazy started with discussions about the relics.
“Hey, did you see the news this morning?”
Jimin brought it up first, and the meeting room instantly became lively.
“It’s amazing! One appeared in our country too. The Royal Sword of King Taejo at the National Palace Museum started glowing!”
Dohyeon’s eyes sparkled. It was clearly a story he loved.
“I checked the Awakened forum, and there’s talk that it might be due to Dimensional Power, like with us Awakened.”
At team leader Han’s words, all the team members nodded in agreement.
“So, are Awakened going to swarm there to check it out? It would be hard to control the museum then.”
Sunhee seemed worried about the museum.
“I don’t think there’s any need to worry.”
Kangwoo, who had been checking the internet on his phone until then, turned it off and answered Sunhee.
“It looks like military forces or government-affiliated Awakened have been dispatched to museums in each country. Some countries seem to be working with Link Corp too.”
“Ugh, that’s a shame. I wanted to see it for myself.”
Dohyeon made a genuinely regretful face.
“But they’re really moving fast, huh? When it comes to monster-related incidents, they act so quickly. It seems like countries are cooperating with each other.”
Kangwoo nodded at team leader Han’s words.
“There were signs of that. Link Corp seems to be the connecting bridge… but it’s still amazing that a single company is playing that role.”
Uninterested in Kangwoo’s words, Dohyeon asked the team with a hopeful look.
“If you actually wear glowing armor or wield a glowing sword, wouldn’t you gain incredible powers? Like flying through the sky or shooting beams?”
But the other team members had no way of knowing. They all shook their heads.
Yonghoon also responded negatively to Dohyeon’s question.
It was only natural.
Yonghoon had once used a glowing relic in the other world.
It was a spear said to have been made during the Goryeo Dynasty, and during the economic boom, he had borrowed it a few times from his hunting party’s team leader.
From that experience, Yonghoon had concluded that while relics were decent, they weren’t anything extraordinary.
The glowing relics naturally had the ability to absorb and amplify Dimensional Power better than regular equipment.
However, many Awakened, especially Team Crazy, already possessed such items-equipment made from monster corpses.
Most relics found had abilities similar to equipment made from monster corpses. Moreover, relics often lacked durability compared to corpse-made gear, making them less valuable.
Thus, many glowing relics ended up not being used due to their low utility.
Some, however, were quite usable-those relics had special abilities and could rival equipment made from the corpse of a turtle monster with regenerative powers.
Therefore, for Team Crazy, which already had equipment made from turtle monsters, there was no particular need to covet them, but other Awakened or nations still needed them.
Yet among them existed truly special relics.
After quietly listening all this time, Yonghoon finally spoke to the team.
“I think I’ll need to take some personal leave.”
The team members were all startled by Yonghoon’s sudden announcement.
Yonghoon had never even taken a day off for personal reasons before. The team members, worried, asked him why, but he only said it was a personal matter.
Yonghoon was planning to go retrieve the sword he had seen years ago.
Of course, he also knew of a few other outstanding relics.
But he was sure other Linkers or the Link System knew about those relics too.
And just as he expected, the places the Link System moved to today were locations where he knew relics existed.
However, the sky-blue sword, according to the story of the Awakened who had owned it, had not yet been discovered by anyone.
This time, he intended to move alone. This was a personal mission.
Moreover, he was acting based on the words of someone from the other world who was already dead. There was no guarantee this world matched the words of that dead Awakened.
Moving into dangerous areas with the team to search for an uncertain relic was out of the question.
While the team members were unsure how to respond, team leader Han stepped forward and asked.
“How long are you planning to take for your leave?”
Yonghoon recalculated the time before answering.
“I’m thinking about two weeks. If things get complicated, it might take a bit longer. But even if I’m late, I’ll be back within three weeks. I’ll be able to join the team before the next Safe Zone installation.”
Safe Zone installations were scheduled every two months. Since it had been almost a month since the last one, as Yonghoon said, returning within three weeks would allow him to rejoin before the next installation.
“Still, it’s so sudden.”
Jimin grumbled while looking at Yonghoon. Yonghoon also felt sorry to his teammates for that.
“Hmm. Without the captain, hunting will be tricky. Should the whole team just take a break?”
Team leader Han fell into deep thought.
“I apologize for the sudden notice. It was an urgent matter. And even without me, you’re already one of the strongest Awakened teams in Korea. You’ll have no problem going hunting on your own.”
Yonghoon was right.
There wasn’t a single member below D-Rank, and besides Yonghoon, they had Sunhee, a C-Rank Awakened. Plus, they had equipment with special abilities that others didn’t possess. Even without Yonghoon, they were a team that could hold their own anywhere.
Reflecting on their abilities after hearing Yonghoon’s words, the team members sighed. It seemed they had relied on him too much.
“Still, we should stick to safer hunts. I feel like our sense of security has dropped sharply.”
All the team members agreed with team leader Han’s words.
Luckily, Team Crazy had been somewhat prepared before the relics awakened. Yonghoon felt a little relieved seeing his teammates.
Once the decision was made, it was best to act quickly.
Yonghoon immediately packed his gear and returned home.
As Yonghoon was leaving, Sunhee followed him out to see him off.
“Take care. Please come back safely.”
Her voice, as she looked into Yonghoon’s eyes, sounded as if she knew what he was about to do.
But there was no way she could know. Yonghoon simply nodded calmly and returned home.
The Awakened who had owned the sword smiled softly as he recalled the past.
He had told Yonghoon that he was an ethnic Korean living in Jian City along the Yalu River.
He had awakened two years after the Aurora incident, but by then, Jian City had been almost completely cut off from communication with the outside world.
Although radio signals still worked, the fields and mountains dominated by monsters had completely isolated the city.
As he grew stronger, he joined forces with other Awakened to defend the city from monsters.
It happened during one of those hard-fought battles. A B-Rank monster attacked Jian City. At that time, he, a B-Rank Awakened, fought the monster along with others at a ruin on the outskirts of the city.
Many Awakened died fighting the monster, and he was wounded too, but they eventually managed to kill it.
In the process, the ruin was heavily damaged by the monster’s attacks, and he found a sword inside the destroyed ruins.
He tapped his sword lightly, saying that was when he had discovered it.
Afterward, unable to withstand the constant monster attacks, he and his family fled to the Korean Peninsula, the nearest place where humans still survived.
But while crossing North Korea, all his family members died, and he alone survived to reach here. His expression darkened as he finished speaking, clearly thinking of his lost family.
Gripping the steering wheel, Yonghoon, who had been reminiscing about the past, soon opened his eyes.
All preparations were now complete. From the beginning, Yonghoon had only one goal: a single Relic. The sky-blue glowing sword was the one and only Relic Yonghoon had been aiming for.
Moreover, it was clear that no one from this world would recognize the sword. Until now, he hadn’t been sure if the Relics would actually glow, so he hadn’t made a move, but now it was best to act as quickly as possible. Although no one here knew about it, if what had happened in the other world happened again, the sword might fall into the hands of an Awakened.
Yonghoon double-checked his equipment and backpack, then started the car.
He had thought of various ways to travel from here to Jian City.
It was already difficult for him to leave the country through normal means.
Since the overseas movement of Awakened had changed from a notification system to an approval system, high-level Awakened like him could no longer leave the country easily.
So Yonghoon had looked into ways to secretly reach Jian City, located on the Chinese side of the Yalu River.
First of all, airplanes were out of the question. He had also considered sneaking onto a ship or secretly acquiring a boat to move, but those methods were impossible too.
Stowing away on a ship bound for China and entering through China was risky because the chance of being caught was high, and not speaking Chinese would make things extremely inconvenient.
Moreover, China had already been shattered into pieces by monsters, and he would have to cross distances several times larger than the Korean Peninsula through monster-infested lands.
Secretly acquiring a boat and moving that way was no better. The Korean navy was still intact. Especially with refugees pouring in from various countries, the coast guards were in a shoot-first situation when encountering unknown vessels. Trying to sneak around by boat would only make him shark food.
In the end, only one method remained: crossing through North Korea.
Fortunately, North Korea’s regime had already completely collapsed. It seemed that only Pyongyang was still being defended by the remnants of the regime, with other cities barely holding on thanks to Awakened.
Furthermore, most soldiers from both countries who had been guarding the demilitarized zone had already withdrawn. Due to monster damage, regular soldiers who weren’t Awakened could no longer defend the densely forested DMZ.
For Yonghoon, it was simply a matter of running toward Jian City while avoiding monsters.
For an ordinary person, it would have been a daunting task, but Yonghoon, who had already reached C-Rank and entered the superhuman level, could continue running at 100 meters per second for over ten hours.
It was a distance he could easily cover in less than a week.
Fortunately, the car wasn’t attacked by monsters while driving. However, as Yonghoon drove farther north, the number of cars on the road gradually decreased until eventually he was driving alone.
After driving for a long time, Yonghoon reached Shintan-ri, the northernmost village in Gyeonggi-do.
Yonghoon parked his car in the village’s public parking lot.
The village was practically a ghost town. Understandably so, as villages close to the mountains were vulnerable to monster attacks. It was clear that the people who had lived here had all relocated to nearby cities or larger towns.
Thanks to that, Yonghoon, unimpeded, got out of the car carrying his weapon and a backpack weighing about 40 kilograms.
Then he pulled out his phone and turned on the navigation app. Fortunately, the navigation accurately indicated the direction and distance to his target.
Satisfied, Yonghoon began to run slowly toward the mountain ahead.
His destination was the Tomb of King Jangsu in Jian City, China.