The girl, Hyangseol, was gritting her teeth as she ran through the forest. Today had been an incredibly sad and exhausting day. Yet the sun was still shining its rays in the afternoon sky.
Her mind was tangled with countless thoughts.
She grew terribly sad as she thought about the deaths of the Awakened men who were close to her brother, and she worried about the people left behind after she escaped.
On top of that, anger and fear toward the villains chasing her swirled within her heart.
Although she had spoken firmly to the South Korean man just a little while ago, the more she ran, the more fear and loneliness surged within her.
She tried to think of other things to shake off the fear.
She recalled the South Korean man she had just met. He was someone her brother had known. But giving an important sword to someone she had just met-it felt like she had acted too hastily.
However, even that thought quickly vanished.
She was just too exhausted now. The stamina she had recovered with a brief rest was already depleted after running a short distance. Now she was moving purely on willpower.
She even wondered about the explosion she had heard earlier. She imagined the South Korean Awakened man risking his life to fight the villains for her sake.
But she shook her head. That kind of thing only happened in novels or movies. There was no way he would fight them, and if he did, he would surely be killed by those powerful villains.
He must have taken the sword and gone far away. The girl could only hope that he wouldn’t be discovered by the villains.
‘Then what was that explosion?’
Even as she panted and ran, she couldn’t help but wonder about the earlier explosion.
“The little brat’s pretty fast, huh?”
Bruce Hwang said as he ran forward. His large body, big even for an Asian, smashed through the small trees blocking his path.
“Still, now that we can detect Dimensional Power, we’ll catch her soon.”
Devil Dog said as he ran alongside him. His height made it less noticeable, but running next to Bruce, the difference in their builds was hardly noticeable.
Unlike Bruce, he dodged trees and leapt over rocks with agile movements.
Devil Dog frowned as he ran. His instincts kept sending him warnings.
Back in the other world, there had been plenty of times like this. Most of the time, nothing happened, but on a few occasions, it had led to serious danger. Because of that, he had learned to tense up whenever he felt this way.
‘Damn it, should I have checked that guy?’
Devil Dog shook his head. No matter how he thought about it, capturing the girl in front of them was the right call. That guy had attacked them. If he were fine, he wouldn’t have run away like this.
Devil Dog decided to focus on the target ahead. They picked up their speed even more. The figure of the girl, panting as she ran, began to come into view.
“Got her.”
Bruce muttered as he saw the girl running ahead. The distance to her was about 30 meters-not far now.
It seemed the girl finally heard the sounds of her pursuers. She turned her head back.
With a face drenched in sweat, she turned and saw the Awakened men behind her, her expression falling into despair.
Yet she didn’t give up until the very end. She turned her head forward again and pushed more strength into her legs. But her exhausted body couldn’t pick up any more speed.
“Cute little thing.”
Bruce grinned as he watched her struggle. He stretched out his hand, the one not holding his shield, and clenched the air.
Boom!
As his hand closed, an explosion erupted in the air in front of the girl.
“Kyaah!”
The girl screamed and tumbled to the ground.
The game of tag was over. Devil Dog slowly walked toward the girl. Bruce followed behind him, smiling.
Devil Dog frowned as he looked down at the girl writhing on the ground. There was no sign of the sword anywhere on her body. She might have hidden it somewhere along the way-or entrusted it to someone else.
He replayed the memory in his mind with a serious expression. He recalled the Awakened who had charged at them with a spear earlier.
A sharp-looking Asian with black hair. Judging by the red Dimensional Power flowing through the spear, it was clearly made from a monster’s corpse.
‘Damn, we let him slip too easily.’
Right now, there were hardly any countries capable of utilizing monster corpses. And among those nearby, only Korea fit the bill.
‘Was he dispatched from Korea?’
If the government was involved, things would get messy. But he pushed that thought aside. The priority now was finding the sword.
Devil Dog continued thinking. The Asian had worn a modern-looking upper body armor that seemed to be made from a monster’s shell, and a sword hung at his waist.
“Damn it, was he carrying it?”
Thinking back, the sword’s design looked similar to what he had seen in the city. It had all happened too fast for him to notice properly.
Since he hadn’t witnessed the fight between Snake and Yonghoon, he was only now realizing where the sword was.
With that, the girl’s usefulness had dropped significantly. Devil Dog decided he needed to quickly extract any information from her.
He thought maybe the warnings from his instincts were about this.
They arrived next to the collapsed girl and looked down at her.
Hyangseol, barely regaining consciousness after the explosion’s shock, first saw the faces of the villains staring down at her.
She clenched her fists tightly. It was all over. She felt sorrow at her impending death, but she was a little relieved that at least they wouldn’t get their hands on the sword.
She lay there and let her strength drain away. Tears poured from her eyes, but she ignored everything and focused on gathering her remaining Dimensional Power. She wanted to land at least one final blow before dying.
The Awakened men watching her chuckled. The girl was doing her best in her own way, but her gathering of Dimensional Power was obvious. Anyone could sense it when she gathered it so openly.
Bruce casually flicked his finger, planting a small Dimensional Bomb above her head. If she tried anything foolish, he planned to detonate it and knock her out.
Devil Dog stared at the girl for a moment, then asked,
“What’s your relationship with the man you gave the sword to?”
His words in English were translated into Chinese by Bruce, and the girl’s eyes widened.
Bruce calmly waited for her answer.
From now on, her actions would determine her fate.
Hyangseol was bewildered by the villains’ words. Their question was completely different from what she had expected.
Her mind quickly pieced together the situation. Judging from their words, it seemed the villains had encountered the South Korean man. Moreover, there were originally three villains, but now only two remained, and they didn’t have her sword.
Adding the earlier explosion into the mix, she could roughly guess what had happened.
The South Korean man had fought them, and at the very least, he hadn’t died or been captured. One of the villains might be chasing him or could have been injured.
Her childish hope had come true.
She felt both resentful and grateful toward the South Korean man who had disobeyed her and fought them.
She changed her plan from launching a final attack to stalling for time. She had to buy as much time as possible.
Whether he was fleeing or hiding, she needed to delay them. A tiny sliver of hope remained that he might come back to save her.
“I-I don’t really remember?”
Forcing out a hoarse voice, she answered. Whether she got tortured or beaten, stalling for time was enough.
Hearing her words through Bruce’s translation, Devil Dog chuckled and said to Bruce,
“Kill her. She’s trying to buy time.”
The girl’s usefulness was almost gone.
She was adorably trying to stall, but there was no reason to keep watching. After realizing their opponent had used the girl as bait, they had no intention of playing hostage games.
If she had answered immediately, they might have spared her for a while. But that chance was gone.
The girl understood the villain’s English words.
The foreign language lessons her brother had forced on her were finally paying off.
She couldn’t die like this. She immediately tried to collide the Dimensional Power she had gathered inside her body. She was planning to trigger a rampage.
But that was the end of her attempt.
Pop!
A small explosion erupted above her head. Bruce had detonated the Dimensional Bomb he had prepared. Fortunately, it was a stun bomb meant to knock her out. She fainted from the shock.
“Stupid girl. Thinking about a suicide attack.”
Bruce shuddered and pointed at her again. This time, he intended to kill her.
It was then.
Suddenly, Devil Dog swung his spear forward and leapt back. His spear clashed with a sword that appeared out of thin air and was knocked aside.
It was Yonghoon’s spatial sword attack.
Devil Dog was a Linker who also had assassin abilities.
Thanks to spreading Dimensional Power all around him, he barely managed to sense the spatial sword. Realizing the opponent was a spatial-type Linker, he barely managed to block the attack.
‘Crap!’
After leaping back, Devil Dog realized his mistake. He turned his head toward his subordinate.
Bruce shuddered as the sword that had pierced from his back to his chest was pulled out. The shield he had been holding dropped to the ground.
When Devil Dog leapt back, Bruce immediately tried to shield himself. He had also expected an attack.
But the sword hadn’t come from the front.
Bruce knelt to the ground, blood gushing from the wound where the sword had been pulled out. But he wasn’t dead yet. He coughed up blood and shouted,
“Damn it, let’s die together!”
Kneeling, he raised both hands. Blood poured from his wound like a waterfall. Dimensional Power erupted from his body like a storm. He intended to blow up the entire area.
“Shit!”
Feeling Bruce’s Dimensional Power, Devil Dog immediately turned and sprinted away. He had to get out of the blast zone fast.
“Ha! Ha! Ha! Die!”
He activated the switch on his Dimensional Power.
‘Huh?’
Bruce was bewildered. He had definitely flipped the switch, yet the world remained unchanged. Moreover, the world he saw was strangely spinning. He felt a brief sense of absurdity and then lost consciousness.
The clearing fell silent for a moment. The Dimensional Power that had gathered in the clearing scattered into the air as Bruce’s head flew off, cleaved by Yonghoon’s spatial sword, and Devil Dog seemed to have already fled the scene.
A person appeared in the clearing that had gone quiet.
It was Yonghoon. His face was deathly pale.
The consumption of Dimensional Power had been too great. Although he felt a slight sense of relief as his Dimensional Power began to recover, using such a massive amount had left him drained. He could feel his Dimensional Power nearly depleted.
“Huh.”
A bit of color started to return to his pale face.
His Dimensional Power was beginning to recover again. Yonghoon looked at the sword he was holding. The difference from before was that he had killed an Awakened with this sword.
“Is it like a vampiric sword or something?”
Yonghoon tilted his head and looked at the unconscious girl.
He needed to get out of here quickly. If the enemy realized that the place hadn’t exploded and that he wasn’t being pursued, the lone Awakened would likely return. The opponent was a Linker specializing in assassination. For someone like him, whose Dimensional Power was depleted, it was a dangerous foe.
Yonghoon looked at the collapsed girl and said,
“What a burden.”
With a bitter smile, Yonghoon slung the girl over his shoulder and disappeared into the forest.