As Yonghoon lured the spider monster closer to Cheonan, the Awakened and soldiers preparing to intercept the monster went on high alert. Yonghoon and the monster were moving too fast.
Team Leader Grace shouted at Officer Jo.
“Please tell Yonghoon to stall for time, no matter what! We’re running out of time.”
Officer Jo raised her hand to her ear and contacted the Control Room.
Watching her, Team Leader Grace looked around.
Most of the preparations seemed to be complete. The soldiers who had been setting up explosives in the fields had already withdrawn, and Awakened were being deployed to the left and right of the Y-shaped trench.
However, there were still Awakened running toward the area, and the full deployment wasn’t finished yet.
Since the outcome of this battle would decide the fate of the Safe Zones in Cheonan and Asan, they couldn’t afford to be sloppy.
Fortunately, the monster’s advance route didn’t overlap with Cheonan City, but if the Safe Zone was destroyed, a Singularity could trigger, turning both cities into ruins.
They had to stop it here no matter what.
Team Leader Grace looked at the teams that would block the monster’s advance in this battle. They were positioned below the Y-shaped trench, tasked with preventing the monster from reaching the Dimensional Movement Blocking Devices. If they could just stop the monster’s advance, the success rate of the operation would skyrocket.
Team Leader Grace felt a bit regretful about the deployment of the Awakened.
If they had more time, they could have reorganized them based on abilities, but now they had no choice but to deploy them by team.
So, the teams assigned to block the monster’s advance had to be the strongest Awakened teams.
The teams gathered here were truly the best in Korea.
From Link Corp, there was Team 2 led by Team Leader Grace, and Team 3, whose leader had recently been promoted to C-Rank.
There was also a team composed of government soldiers, a regular Awakened team with a D-Rank Defense-type Awakened, and finally, Team Crazy.
Team Leader Grace sighed.
It still wasn’t enough.
First of all, there weren’t enough Defense-type Awakened.
The team originally luring the monster-Team Leader Grace sighed at the changed roles-Instructor Seo and Eunseo needed to arrive to make up the numbers.
And they needed Yonghoon.
She found it hard to trust the strike-type Awakened here. Having seen Yonghoon fight, she had become captivated by his combat style.
She felt like she could actually accomplish something if Yonghoon was here.
She didn’t realize that her thoughts mirrored what Instructor Seo had thought when he saw Yonghoon.
Lastly, to contaminate the B-Rank monster, they needed at least a C-Rank assassin-type. Of course, even then, the odds weren’t high.
In Korea, the only known C-Rank assassin-type Awakened was Instructor Seo.
However, Instructor Seo was also needed for the defensive formation. Because of that, Team Leader Grace had tried to find another C-Rank assassin-type but failed, leaving her inwardly frustrated.
But when she saw Team Crazy at Singil, hope had bloomed. According to her check using Dimensional Power, Team Crazy had three C-Rank Awakened.
And among them, there was even an assassin-type.
Team Leader Grace stared intently at Sunhee.
“Grace is glaring at you.”
Jimin whispered to Sunhee, who was standing next to her.
Team Crazy had only just arrived at the scene.
They had hurried to find their positions and stand by, but they hadn’t yet been briefed on the operation.
Sunhee turned her head at Jimin’s words and looked at Team Leader Grace.
But what she saw was Team Leader Grace talking with Officer Jo.
Sunhee shrugged her shoulders.
“She probably just glanced at our team.”
“No, she was frowning while looking at you just a moment ago.”
Jimin raised her voice slightly, sounding a bit wronged.
“Maybe it’s because of the captain? It seemed like they were panicking because the monster sped up.”
Dohyeon, who had been listening nearby, quietly chimed in.
“If that’s the case, Team Leader Grace would have been looking at our whole team, not just Sunhee.”
But since the other team members hadn’t witnessed the situation, Jimin’s words didn’t gain much support. Jimin pouted.
It was then.
A voice came from behind Sunhee.
“Sunhee? Could we have a word about the operation?”
Sunhee turned around again. Standing behind her was Team Leader Grace, who had approached without her noticing.
“See? I told you so!”
Jimin grumbled quietly.
“Should we talk separately?”
Sunhee asked Team Leader Grace.
“No, I think all of Team Crazy should hear this.”
Team Leader Grace began explaining the operation to Sunhee, the C-Rank assassin-type.
Yonghoon was in a bind.
The request coming through the earpiece wasn’t easy to fulfill. Cheonan City was already visible in the distance, but now they were asking him to stall for time, and Yonghoon could only shake his head.
He was already too close to the Dimensional Movement Blocking Devices. If he changed direction, there was no guarantee the spider monster would follow him.
But he figured he had to at least try.
Moreover, the team originally luring the monster-Instructor Seo’s team-hadn’t caught up with him and the monster yet. He had to hold on until they reached the Safe Zone.
Yonghoon looked around as he ran. He was running through a rice field that had been abandoned and turned into wasteland. Since it was still outside the Safe Zone, it seemed the owner had given up farming here.
To his right, he could see a reservoir, and on the opposite side, a dense forest stretched out.
Yonghoon sighed. He had unconsciously been running along the open paths to make it easier for himself.
Yonghoon slightly veered left and ran toward the forest.
The monster chasing Yonghoon tried to follow his movement but faltered and stopped.
The monster alternated its gaze between Cheonan and Yonghoon.
Even though Yonghoon had moved diagonally, the Dimensional Movement Blocking Devices were so close that the monster seemed to hesitate.
‘Damn, is it not going to follow?’
Yonghoon drew his sword and opened a dimensional tunnel in front of him. The monster’s eyes began appearing inside the tunnel.
Yonghoon thrust his sword into the dimensional tunnel.
His sword struck one of the smaller eyes among the monster’s four eyes with force. The monster immediately let out a screech and resumed chasing Yonghoon.
Yonghoon immediately dove into the dense forest, and the monster followed. It barreled through the trees blocking its path.
Trees toppled left and right under the monster’s assault, creating a path as it pursued Yonghoon through the forest.
“He’s really fast. Even moving in assassin mode, I only just caught up.”
Instructor Seo marveled at Yonghoon’s movement as he ran parallel to the forest.
To catch up with the monster, he had switched to his assassin-type Awakened form. Even moving at assassin-type speed, it had taken him some time after Yonghoon and the monster entered the forest to catch up.
In the forest, trees were continuously falling with loud crashes.
“Could he have an innate ability that increases movement speed?”
Next to Instructor Seo was Eunseo, running with a calm expression.
In Instructor Seo’s team, only Eunseo, who was at the same level, could keep up with his speed.
“I’m not sure. He might have some hidden ability.”
Saying that, Instructor Seo pushed his running speed even further.
With Yonghoon buying them time, they had to join up with Team Leader Grace as fast as possible.
Eunseo also sped up, glancing to the left.
Trees were falling at a terrifying pace. Although it was slower than their movement speed in the open field, it was still faster than a track athlete’s sprint.
Eunseo found it amazing how he could maintain such speed while weaving through the forest. He definitely had some secret she didn’t know about.
Lately, with women appearing around him and herself being busy with work at Link Corp, she hadn’t been paying attention to Yonghoon, but now she realized she had been wrong. The man who intrigued her most was still Yonghoon, running through that forest.
She figured she would have to approach him again after they stopped the monster.
With that thought, Eunseo sprinted forward.
Instructor Seo and Eunseo quickly passed Yonghoon and the spider monster moving through the forest. Soon, the rest of Instructor Seo’s team members also came into view behind them.
Yonghoon was once again amazed at his own movement. Until just recently, it had only been his running speed that improved, but now even his reflexes had heightened.
Yonghoon dodged the trees ahead like lightning as he ran forward.
The spider monster was smashing through the trees behind him, but Yonghoon, marveling at his own body, even felt a bit exhilarated.
After running for a while in a race against the monster, the forest finally ended.
At that moment, a message came through Yonghoon’s earpiece from the Control Room.
They said the preparations to hunt the monster were complete.
Yonghoon calmed his excitement and looked toward the direction where the flare was shining.
He pushed his speed up again. The spider monster that had burst through the forest behind him also began chasing after Yonghoon at a rapid pace.
“Damn it, I feel like I’m going to die. That crazy bastard ran like a maniac and then just dumped his body on me. What a sneaky bastard.”
Instructor Seo, who had just arrived at the gathering point for the Awakened, was gasping for breath. Leaning on his shield, he kept cursing at his other personality.
Next to him, Eunseo calmly took her position and prepared herself. Her face was dripping with sweat too, but it was flushed red with anticipation for the upcoming battle.
Grace stepped forward and looked around at the D-Rank and C-Rank Defense-type Awakened who were forming a formation.
Team Leader Seo Donghyuk of Team 1, Eunseo Lee, other Awakened from the Company, as well as the team leader and general members of Team Crazy were all lined up.
Behind them, the Strike-type Awakened holding spears could be seen.
Up to this point, it looked just like when they had installed the Safe Zone in Cheonan.
Unlike back then, the Awakened gathered here were Korea’s top Awakened, but Grace couldn’t help but recall the previous situation.
However, the assassin-types who should have been positioned behind the Strike-type Awakened were nowhere to be seen. And even among the Strike-types, a few were missing.
Grace turned her head to look at both sides of the trench.
There, many Awakened were lying in wait for the monster to enter the trench. Among them, she could spot members of Team Crazy’s assassin-types as well.
“It’s coming!”
A loud voice echoed from the upper part of the trench.
Grace narrowed her eyes and looked into the distance.
A large cloud of dust was approaching from afar.
It was the arrival of the spider monster.
Grace shouted to the Awakened.
“Operation start! We are commencing the Raid now!”
Grace shouted the operation name and chuckled inwardly.
It seemed that both this world and the other world were full of game enthusiasts. She found it quite fascinating that the same operation was called by the same name in both worlds, even though she wasn’t particularly fond of games herself.
Grace raised her shield and entered the trench. Following her, the other Awakened also rushed into the trench.
This trench was just the right width for about eight Defense-type Awakened to stand in a line and form a defensive formation.
Moreover, once the monster entered the trench, it would only be able to move forward and couldn’t turn around due to the narrow width. If they blocked it from the front, there was no way it could get past them.
Standing side by side inside the trench and checking the formation, Grace suddenly recalled a mistake she had made.
“Oh no, I forgot to tell Yonghoon about the trap locations.”
Boom!
An explosion rang out in the distance.
Yonghoon broke out in a cold sweat at the sound of the explosion coming from behind him. The landmine that had just gone off was something he had almost stepped on if he had been careless.
For Yonghoon, it was incredibly fortunate that the soldiers had hastily installed the mines and booby traps, leaving their concealment sloppy.
He poured Dimensional Power into his eyes and scanned for mines and booby traps. Even a slight mistake would mean hearing the explosion right under his own feet.
However, the spider monster chasing after Yonghoon didn’t understand what the things on the ground were for, and explosives detonated under its feet.
These explosives had been prepared to separate the monster from the Awakened who were luring it, and their locations had been shared in advance with Instructor Seo’s team.
However, since Yonghoon had hijacked Instructor Seo’s task, he didn’t know the locations of the explosives, and as a result, he was dashing across the field with bloodshot eyes. If he slipped up, he would die not by the monster’s hands, but by friendly fire.
Fortunately, Yonghoon safely passed through the mine and booby trap area and leaped into the trench ahead. He sprinted toward the Awakened standing with shields raised.
And shortly after, the spider monster, its pace slowed by the mines and traps, also leaped into the trench. The spider monster found the trench walls on either side a bit annoying but continued charging toward Yonghoon ahead.
Yonghoon passed between the shields, and at Grace’s command, the Defense-type Awakened raised their shields. White, red, and green lights burst forth from the shields.
The spider monster collided with the Defense-type Awakened holding the shields.
A huge flash of light exploded between them.