Chapter 21

〈 Chapter 21 〉Part 1, Chapter 2 (7)

“Did she take her medicine?”

I muttered some strange words as I lost consciousness and kicked the unconscious woman’s hand away with my foot. Her hand, which had been gripping her skirt, fell off and she collapsed onto the floor.

“Not a vagrant.”

For a vagrant hiding in Seoul University—no, S University—she was strangely clean. Her clothing gave off a modest college student vibe, like a freshman who just moved up from the countryside.

“Tch.”

I didn’t know why or who she was, but for some reason, it felt wrong to just leave.

“Even if I make another veil, it’ll be fine.”

I sprinkled the residual magic power from my scarf around my neck. If any monsters sense my presence embedded in it, they’ll stay far away from the scarf.

Rustle.

I carelessly threw the scarf over the woman.

“Don’t waste time helping random people on your way out.”

I’d already incinerated the monsters attacking fleeing people on my way up long ago. Some of the monsters directly crossing over from Tera gain “chaos attributes” due to the influence of the otherworldly spirits, and their destructive willpower and intelligence are used solely to mock and “slaughter” humans.

A crushed van caught my eye in one corner of the parking lot. The dead were beyond saving.

“Well, then…”

Just as I was touching my empty neck and about to spread my wings, the unconscious woman at the edge of my vision started to bother me.

Wide parking lot. Fallen woman. A carelessly tossed veil over her.

“…Gh.”

I lifted the woman and laid her on a nearby bench in the parking lot. Surrounded by the warm heat emitted by the veil, the woman slept soundly like a baby bird in its nest.

I wrapped the long veil around the back of her neck and let it drape all over her body. I took a step back from the woman and inspected her face.

“Huh? You look kinda like Cheon Gaeul. Crazy.”

I chuckled and tidied up the woman’s messy hair. If you remove the venomousness and hatred towards the world from Cheon Gaeul, she’d probably look exactly like this. Maybe with a few more wrinkles. And richer maturity.

Possibility that it’s her? None. Cheon Gaeul doesn’t have this kind of youthful appearance. Compared to her, this person looks at least ten years older.

“…Eh? No way.”

I slapped my cheeks with both hands and shook off my wild thoughts.

Masquerade. One of the heroines known as the Masked Ball.

There’s no way that witch, who takes killing lightly, could be such a sweetheart. I erased the absurd assumption that popped into my head and quickly leaped between buildings.

…then turned my steps again. Thankfully, no monsters appeared in the span of about ten seconds.

“For now, let’s hide her somewhere.”

If it really is Cheon Gaeul, the dimensional gate is irrelevant now.

I picked up the presumed Cheon Gaeul lying in the middle of the parking lot and rushed into the relatively intact lecture building.

* * *

“How many heroes responded to the call?!”

“Seven from Gwangmyeong! Five from Anyang! There’s still no response from Seongnam!”

“Call them already! Either by phone or whatever! We need to establish a defensive line so they can’t come down!”

Soyeon anxiously bit her nails with her thumb. The third dimensional gate to appear in Korea happened to open right smack in the middle of Seoul, the hardest place to deal with.

“Damn…!”

After confirming the location of the dimensional gate on the screen again, Soyeon couldn’t hide her frustration. Not only was there a dimensional gate, but the location was where they were supposed to shoot today.

“Director! The calls keep coming in!”

“Ignore them! Just hang up!”

The phones at the external association office haven’t stopped ringing for even a second. Calls from the media, individuals, and even entertainment agencies poured in relentlessly.

[Breaking News] Dimensional gate opens in Gwanaksan (Third Update)

[Breaking News] <Last Love> filming team missing near Gwanaksan

[Breaking News] The Association promises to destroy the dimensional gate by mobilizing nearby heroes

[Related News] Seoul drama filming continues despite lack of crisis awareness

“Aaaah!!”

Soyeon pulled her hair and threw a tantrum. Everyone in the headquarters sympathized with her hysteria but avoided eye contact.

“Why the hell did we have to do this?! I told you this would never work!”

Currently, the most popular drama in Korea, <Last Love>. The PD wanted the first date scene of the main characters to be filmed specifically at S University and requested cooperation. Soyeon argued passionately against filming in Seoul until blood came out of her nose.

– Is filming in Seoul…that difficult?

An association official summoned by the government testified that the president, an alumnus of S University, expressed regret that the first date scene wasn’t filmed at S University.

Despite that, Soyeon firmly declared it impossible. The one who insisted on filming in Seoul despite her fiery opposition was none other than the director himself, Seung-hyeong Lee.

“When he gets back, I’m gonna kick his knees out, that bastard.”

Soyeon calmed her boiling insides by chugging cold water.

“Director! It’s BH!”

“…Ugh.”

Soyeon straightened her posture and took the call handed to her by an employee.

“Yes! This is Gang Soyeon from the New Seoul Branch of the Hero Association!”

[Glad to hear from you, Officer Soyeon.]

Soyeon gritted her teeth at the voice in her ear.

“…Yes, Director.”

[…The VIP has specially instructed us. We must ensure no issues arise from this filming…]

Soyeon gritted her teeth. With a dimensional gate opening, why are we talking about filming?

“Yes, Director. Heroes have already responded to the emergency assembly. We’ll soon dispatch heroes from New Seoul-”

[That’s something you should handle yourselves. All we ask is that our agent Seung-hyeong returns unharmed to New Seoul. Possible, right? Hehe.]

“Director-”

The phone was suddenly snatched from Soyeon’s hand by someone. A middle-aged man with heavy dark circles under his eyes took over the call.

“This is an emergency situation due to the dimensional gate opening. To ensure efficient operations, unnecessary external communications will be blocked.”

[What? Hey! Who are you!?]

“Please send your request via official correspondence. That’s all.”

Click. The man ended the call, completely powered off his smartphone, and handed it back to the employee.

“Don’t answer useless calls during work hours.”

“How could you not answer the Director’s call?”

“Are you some civil servant getting paid by taxpayer money? If you have complaints, tell them to show up personally. Or we’ll deport them. I’m already busy enough…”

The man neurotically popped open a can of coffee and drank it. On his chest, pinned to his white lab coat, was a name tag reading ‘Hero Association Tactical Planning Team Leader <Yu Yinghuo>‘.

“Soyeon. Microphone.”

“Yes, yes!”

Yinghuo took the microphone offered by Soyeon, put it on his ear, and brought up a holographic map in front of him.

He simultaneously possessed overwhelming hero power and the talent to command these heroes as a ‘commander’.

“This much should suffice below the mountain.”

He transferred signals from nearby heroes to surround Gwanaksan in a large circle. The movement orders relayed through operators quickly reached each hero, who moved according to instructions.

“Ah. <Administrator> broadcasting. Closing the dimensional gate. Follow orders. Absolutely do not die. Over.”

Though Yingho’s words and expression seemed indifferent, his fingers moved so fast they were barely visible as he selected each hero’s position and transmitted commands.

Crackle, crackle.

A green signal from a hero appeared in the center of the map, halfway up the mountain. It was the signal of a registered A-Rank hero.

“What? An A-Rank? Who’s that?”

The massive magical waves spreading from the dimensional gate interfered with the signal.

Seeing Yingho bang the screen like a woodpecker, Soyeon quickly brought up the hero’s information and answered.

“The hero Bear was here! Currently, we can’t reach him since his signal is lost, but he must’ve gone to block the dimensional gate.”

“Bear? …Is that Seung-hyeong?”

Yingho clicked his tongue and checked his watch.

It had been about 15 minutes since the dimensional gate opened. Based on the last known location of Seung-hyeong and his abilities, Yingho mentally simulated the situation.

“And it hasn’t closed yet?”

From the S University campus to the summit of Gwanaksan, it wouldn’t take a hero more than 10 minutes to cover that distance. Especially for Seung-hyeong, a physical enhancement-type hero, it should take less than 5 minutes.

Yet the dimensional gate remained unclosed, indicating two possible scenarios:

Either he’s tied up fighting a powerful monster that emerged from the dimensional gate, or he’s running around rescuing people unable to evacuate due to the dimensional gate.

“But why is Seung-hyeong even in Seoul? Isn’t he busy filming his drama? Did he take on a monster extermination request or something?”

“That, uh, well…”

Soyeon hesitated while answering. She didn’t want to bear the consequences of the man in front of her finding out the truth.

“Ah, I get it without you saying anything. Fine.”

Yingho quickly caught on and sighed. Though he had recruited him based solely on his enthusiasm, Seung-hyeong was quite a headache of a hero in terms of ability and background.

“Seung-hyeong… sigh.”

Yingho recalled the day he first met him. The bold youth declaring in front of his peers that he’d go close the dimensional gate.

Judging from his experience training and commanding countless heroes, Administrator Yingho believed that people like Seung-hyeong often acted contrary to what they proclaimed.

Plain-looking types tend to cause big trouble when they act out. That was Yingho’s personal theory.

“We need to close it fast. Korea isn’t a place where you can cultivate dimensional gates and eat them later.”

In hero powerhouse countries like America, they intentionally grow dimensional gates to gather as many monster cores as possible. But Korea lacked enough heroes with sufficient suppression power to pull off such stunts realistically.

Thus, they set tactics assuming the dimensional gate would be closed quickly.

“…Should I trust him?”

Yingho fell into thought.

Plan 1: Deploy all heroes to seal the dimensional gate.

Sure, it might destroy the dimensional gate faster, but they’d have to endure monsters slipping through the cracks between heroes.

Plan 2: Assume Seung-hyeong will close the dimensional gate and deploy a massive monster defense network.

With the strength of an A-Rank hero, the dimensional gate would close quickly, and casualties would be almost zero thanks to the defensive lines established by the heroes.

While Plan 2 seemed most efficient and appropriate in his mind, his damn intuition was screaming a sliver of ‘distrust’ towards Seung-hyeong.

“…Guess I have to trust him.”

Please let my intuition be wrong. Yingho instantly repositioned the heroes into regional defense formations and anxiously awaited the signal.

Beep—

“What kind of signal is that?!”

It’s not the signal that the dimensional gate has closed. One of the operators turned pale and shouted.

“Monster detected near Deoksan Station! A-Rank!”

Following Yu Yingho’s order, images showing Deoksan Station were immediately displayed on the screens. A towering blue flame pillar reaching high into the sky.

Roaaaaar—-

The flame pillar, easily 40 meters tall, gradually took on the shape of a human figure as it burned fiercely.

“What the hell?!”

Soyeon screamed. It was like a bolt from the blue—an A-Rank monster appearing out of nowhere. Even if an SS-Rank monster showed up in the middle of New Seoul, it wouldn’t be this shocking.

“Director! The hunters are changing direction toward the monster!”

“Which monster?!”

“The A-Rank at Deoksan Station!”

Small marks on the map all began moving toward Deoksan Station. Although allies, hunters ultimately moved toward places where they could make money.

“Change protocol!”

Yu Yingho infused his microphone with magic power and shouted.

“Assume no support from the hunters! Set up defensive lines as usual! Divide the Anyang team into A and B teams! A-team intercepts the A-Rank at Deoksan Station, B-team maintains the defensive line! We’ll cover the gaps left by A-team!”

Yu Yingho’s fingers moved rapidly.

“Hold out until Bear closes the dimensional gate! Over!”

A dimensional gate opened without warning.

An unexpected 40-meter giant humanoid monster appeared out of nowhere.

Coincidence? Yu Yingho couldn’t shake off the uneasy feeling.

“We need insurance.”

If Bear fails to close the dimensional gate or an unforeseen event like the appearance of a giant humanoid monster occurs, Seoul will turn into a sea of fire.

“Strongest Sword!”