Yonghoon drew the sword strapped to his waist as he jumped off the bridge. Beneath him, the spider monster was falling. Yonghoon created a small dimensional tunnel aimed at the monster’s forehead. The space below him began to ripple.
The spider monster flailed its face and front legs in pain, but it seemed unlikely it could block Yonghoon’s attack that crossed through space.
Yonghoon could see the purple Dimensional Core of the falling monster through the rippling space before him.
Yonghoon thrust his sword toward the Dimensional Core.
Yonghoon’s sword passed through the dimensional tunnel and touched the monster’s Dimensional Core!
It was at that moment.
A massive burst of flame erupted from the monster’s face.
Boom!
The range of the explosion was considerable.
The erupting flames hurled the monster faster toward the ground and flung Yonghoon toward the center of the river.
‘What the hell was that?’
Even as he was flung away, Yonghoon couldn’t help but be bewildered by the sudden explosion.
“Eek!”
Dasom, who had unleashed the flames at the monster’s face with a confident expression, turned pale when she saw Yonghoon being blown away by the explosion.
Instructor Seo, who had been watching the situation from the side, was also dumbfounded.
He had never imagined that their ally would get caught up in the special ability they used to lure the monster.
Just moments ago, Instructor Seo and his team members had been rejoicing when they saw the monster fall after the bridge exploded, but they were shocked when it clung to its web and started climbing back up.
However, Instructor Seo’s team, which only had Dasom’s flames capable of damaging the monster from a distance, could do nothing but stomp their feet in frustration.
Fortunately, it seemed Team Crazy on the bridge had responded well.
The spider monster, which had barely climbed back onto the bridge, was struck by Team Crazy’s attacks and fell again. This time, it fell completely prone, making it seem difficult for it to shoot another web.
Instructor Seo immediately ordered Dasom to lure the monster, and as soon as his command was given, Dasom used her flame ability on the monster.
Instructor Seo and his team members couldn’t understand why Yonghoon had jumped after the monster.
Yonghoon, who had been flung by the explosion, fell into the river. Fortunately, the center of the river where he fell was deep, and he sank into the water.
Dasom asked Instructor Seo with a trembling voice.
“Is he… is he dead?”
“No way. He’s the kind of guy who might survive even if he fell on solid ground. If he fell into water, he’s definitely alive. Yep.”
Instructor Seo asserted firmly with his mouth, even though he wasn’t entirely convinced inside.
Although Instructor Seo was worried about Yonghoon, his team had a job to do.
Instructor Seo shouted to his teammates.
“From now on, it’s luring! Everyone move according to the plan! Dasom, don’t worry and keep firing flames at the spider monster!”
Instructor Seo glared ahead.
The spider monster that had fallen by the riverside flailed in the shallow water, then flipped itself over and stood up. As its legs sank into the water, it frantically fled from the river.
Toward the fleeing spider monster, Dasom’s flames burst forth again.
However, the flames didn’t inflict any damage on the monster. Ignoring the flame attacks, the monster fixed its gaze toward where Yonghoon had fallen into the river.
Another burst of flames struck the monster. Finally, the monster began to slowly turn its body.
The spider monster started moving downstream along the river.
As soon as the monster started moving, Instructor Seo’s team began running. They couldn’t tell if Dasom’s attacks were effective, but she kept attacking, and the monster, occasionally shaking its head from the explosions, moved toward the mouth of the Seomgang.
The members of Team Crazy on the bridge were utterly stunned. Shocked by Yonghoon’s sudden leap off the bridge, they ran to the broken edge of the bridge, only to see Yonghoon being flung by an explosion.
“No! The water’s shallow here-he’ll hit the bottom right away!”
Jimin shouted, grabbing Sunhee, who was about to jump down.
The team members were busy holding back Sunhee and checking on Yonghoon, who had fallen into the water. They no longer cared about the monster slowly moving south.
“Oh! It’s the captain! The captain has surfaced!”
At Dohyeon’s words as he looked down into the water, Sunhee immediately leaned out from the edge of the bridge and looked below.
Yonghoon was swimming with his head above the water near the center of the river. Sunhee, drained of energy, collapsed onto the ground.
Yonghoon, floating on the water, held back his frustration as he watched the monster disappear into the distance. He couldn’t believe how rare this opportunity had been.
‘If only the flames hadn’t been fired then!’
Yonghoon gritted his teeth at the Special Ability User in Instructor Seo’s team, but gradually felt his anger subside.
It clearly wasn’t her fault.
Although her timing had been a bit early, her job was to lure the monster. It had been him who recklessly charged at the monster and caused the problem.
Yonghoon took a deep breath and swam toward the riverbank. As he did, he heard Team Leader Han’s voice in his ear.
[Your body’s okay, right?]
Team Leader Han had urgently contacted Yonghoon through the team’s shared channel.
Having barely made it to the riverbank, Yonghoon answered Team Leader Han.
“Yes, I’m fine. I just couldn’t surface immediately due to the shock. My body’s fine.”
[Why did you jump?! We were worried sick!]
Sunhee’s voice struck Yonghoon’s ears.
Startled, Yonghoon pulled the earpiece from his ear. Sunhee must have been really frightened. He figured he should apologize to the team.
Yonghoon put the earpiece back in and spoke to all the team members.
“The monster’s wound looked severe, so I tried to land a finishing blow. I’m sorry for acting so recklessly.”
Once again, Yonghoon had no choice but to lie.
Had he succeeded, he could have shared the results with the team. But he had only barely touched the Dimensional Core with his sword, making him sigh.
Yonghoon’s ear was filled with a barrage of scolding from the team members, and he then gave them new instructions.
“It’ll be hard for me to get back onto the bridge from here, so I’ll pursue the monster from here. Please take the car and head to Cheonan first. Let’s meet again in Cheonan.”
The team members agreed to Yonghoon’s proposal.
Since they had redirected the monster toward Cheonan, it was better to go ahead and wait.
[You have to come quickly.]
After Sunhee’s words, the team members waved at Yonghoon and disappeared from the bridge.
Yonghoon turned to look at the spider monster, which had now gotten quite far. The spider monster was already covered in fur again. It was truly a monster whose fur grew quickly. The wound on its head was surely hidden by now.
Yonghoon checked his smart watch.
Level C
Dimensional Power 1500/1500
Seeing his unchanged Dimensional Power, Yonghoon felt a pang of frustration.
However, he had confirmed something this time.
The moment his sword touched the Dimensional Core, he had felt the same sensation as when he overcame the level cap in the other world.
He was certain that if he struck the B-Rank monster’s Dimensional Core, he would be able to overcome his level cap.
Although he had failed this time, he was sure another opportunity would come.
Yonghoon began running toward the monster.
News that the monster had changed direction was immediately relayed to the Awakened gathered in Singal.
Fortunately, at that time, over 80% of the E-Rank and higher Awakened teams in the metropolitan area had gathered.
Grace dispatched the Awakened gathered in Singal toward Cheonan. The cars carrying the Awakened sped out of the clearing and onto the Gyeongbu Expressway, racing toward Cheonan.
Grace and Officer Jo boarded a helicopter waiting on one side.
Having seen countless helicopters fall in the other world, Grace was terrified of getting on a helicopter again, but she gritted her teeth and boarded.
She prayed that no flying-type monster would appear before they reached Cheonan.
The helicopter arrived in Cheonan in less than 20 minutes.
Fortunately, no flying-type monsters appeared during that time, and Grace let out a sigh of relief. However, Officer Jo, who had never seen a helicopter shot down by a flying-type monster, couldn’t help but find Grace’s reaction strange.
The helicopter landed in a field 2km northeast of the Display Complex where the Dimensional Movement Blocking Devices had been installed. This place had once been farmland, but after monsters appeared, farming became impossible, and even after the Safe Zone was established, it was left as a field just in case.
Grace had chosen this place as the battlefield against the monster.
She had no intention of intercepting the monster outside the Safe Zone. Fighting there would surely turn into chaos with monsters popping out from everywhere.
There would be some damage, but it was better to deal with it securely inside the Safe Zone.
Moreover, this place had a large T-shaped trench created during the last Safe Zone installation. If they could drive the monster into the trench like last time, they might become the first in this world to capture a B-Rank Detection-type monster.
Officer Jo, hearing Grace’s plan, was filled with hope. She looked at the soldiers preparing traps with explosives in the distance and asked Grace,
“At this level, don’t you think we can really catch it? Team Leader Grace, what do you think our chances are?”
Grace glanced at Officer Jo. She sighed inwardly at the rookie Awakened’s question and answered.
“About 30%?”
“Only that much?”
Officer Jo looked shocked at Grace’s words.
“The probability I mentioned assumes that Instructor Seo’s team and Team Crazy, who are currently luring the monster, arrive on time and our preparations go according to plan. We’re lucky to even have this much chance because Seoul has many strong Awakened. There probably aren’t many countries in the world that could even reach this probability.”
Grace spoke firmly to Officer Jo and began to move. They had to quickly prepare the traps and formation.
There was still time before the monster arrived, but the more preparations they had, the higher their chances of success would be.
Grace prayed that Instructor Seo’s team would safely bring the monster here.
However, contrary to her expectations, Instructor Seo’s team was not luring the monster. Instead, they were chasing after the spider monster.
Instructor Seo sighed as he watched the monster running wildly ahead. He had no idea what was going on anymore.
There had been no major problems until Instructor Seo’s team lured the monster across the Namhan River by crossing the Namhan River Bridge.
At first, it had shown signs of trying to move toward Seoul, but the high mountains blocking the way and the shallow yet unpleasant waters had eventually caused the spider monster to start heading toward Cheonan.
Thanks to that, Instructor Seo’s team was able to comfortably lure the monster toward Cheonan. Dasom had continuously attacked the monster with flames, but Instructor Seo couldn’t tell whether the monster was moving toward Cheonan because of Dasom’s flames or because of the Dimensional Movement Blocking Devices.
The monster was moving toward Cheonan without reacting much to Dasom’s attacks.
However, when they were about 40 kilometers away from Cheonan, a problem occurred. The spider monster, which had been following well, suddenly began to look around.
The monster wandered left and right for a while and then suddenly rushed in one direction. From the thicket ahead where the monster was running, a person jumped out.
It was Yonghoon.
Yonghoon immediately started running away when he saw the monster charging toward him.
His Dimensional Power had not fully recovered yet. In this situation, it was difficult to pierce the monster’s fur with just the dimensional sword. He needed to recover more Dimensional Power.
Therefore, Yonghoon had been secretly following the monster without being noticed.
But it seemed the chase would end here. The spider monster had found Yonghoon.
Yonghoon immediately started running toward Cheonan as the spider monster began chasing him madly. To the monster, Yonghoon, who had inflicted real pain, was the perfect target for revenge.
Instructor Seo, who had been staring blankly at Yonghoon and the monster rushing past, snapped back to his senses.
“Chase them quickly!”
At Instructor Seo’s shout, the team members began running after the monster.
However, the speed of the enraged monster was incredible. The team members began to stretch out in a long line according to their levels. Instructor Seo, feeling like they were about to lose the monster, pushed more strength into his legs.
But the monster only widened the distance from Instructor Seo.
Watching the monster getting farther and farther away, Instructor Seo was dumbfounded. He couldn’t even imagine how fast Yonghoon must be running to be chased by such a fast monster.
Yonghoon tilted his head at the sight of the monster chasing him.
Visually, the spider monster’s speed was definitely very fast. Yet, despite that, it couldn’t catch up to him.
Yonghoon found the situation puzzling. His physical abilities had improved. While running, Yonghoon checked his smart watch again. It still showed C-Rank.
Yonghoon shook his head and sped up his legs again.
Since the monster was chasing him, he had to lead it to where Grace was waiting.
Yonghoon and the monster ran faster and faster, crossing fields and low hills.
Cheonan City began to come into view ahead.