Delegates from each country had gathered in South Korea. The Chinese delegate, Gyonho Wang, was inside of a VIP hotel room, using his computer for a video conference. An old man with round glasses was on the other side of the feed.
“Plans have already been made, and the schedule is set.”
“You’ve done well, Delegate Wang.”
“I only did my very best.”
“Any plans on where to attack first?”
“No. They’ve set up teams and are starting training, which will take place nearby, in Japan.”
“Hm. The Rockefeller family sent someone this time?”
“Yes, Jennifer Rockefeller is here.”
“Did the Dark Knight join them?”
Wang shook his head and answered, “If that had been the case, they would’ve started attacking the dimensional tears in the US first. I’ve already talked to delegates from Russia and India about it. There won’t be a problem.”
“OK. The Dark Knight’s team will be composed of experts. Can they carry transmitters?”
“I instructed them to assess the Dark Knights strength when training. They’ll contact me then. If we can stop dimensional tears on our own, we won’t need to follow the Dark Knight’s lead.”
“Find out who he is first. If he doesn’t agree to our terms, we can always kill him.”
“The Dark Knight will show up again once the teams are set. He seems to have the power to teleport, but this time, we won’t let him escape.”
“I’ll trust your decisions.”
Wang bowed and cut off communications.
Once the old man finished talking to Wang, he took off his glasses and asked, “Did it go well?”
A woman was massaging the old man’s shoulders, and she smiled.
“Delegate Wang is very capable.”
The old man smiled and patted the top of the woman’s hand.
“Anna, you’ve been a big help since you came to us.”
Anna smiled and kept on massaging the old man’s shoulders.
—
Forty-five novices and five experts.
Junhyuk had selected them, and they were all in the same place now. They were inside an American military base, boarding a Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, a plane. They were on their way to Japan, but they weren’t the only ones inside the plane.
Each country kept a support team for its members, so the monster special forces of each country had also joined them. There were three-hundred and sixty people within the C-5, and it felt crowded.
Junhyuk had decided to use the entire day as he wanted. He was going with them to make sure no accidents happened, but he also wanted to see the Japanese dimensional tear for himself.
Junhyuk had felt the dimensional wall around his training facility with his new senses, and because he wanted to activate his ultimate, he thought he needed to see a dimensional tear in person.
Wearing his equipment the entire time was a problem, but nobody checked him for a civilian ID. The ring that he’d just acquired was the best thing, though. Because of it, others always saw him with his armor on. Even when he wasn’t wearing it, people saw him as if he was.
That way, even if it seemed like he was armored, he could eat anything. However, he did not want people to watch him eat, so he hid and ate by himself.
Junhyuk looked out at the people that had gathered there. Most experts had experience in the Dimensional Battlefield and weren’t wearing Guardians equipment.
If an expert lacked some sort of equipment, Guardians provided it to them. However, most experts just weren’t wearing any, which meant that they could summon their equipment at will. Realizing that they had probably engraved their equipment, Junhyuk thought that they would be helpful.
The novices, however, only had equipment made by Guardians. They were all wearing the Wolf Warlord leather armor made by Elise, and each of them carried a weapon of their choice.
The novices were also carrying firearms with ammo coated with monster decomposition liquid. They were going in to battle on Earth, so they were fully equipped.
Each team was made up of five people, and there were nine such teams. The experts formed a team of their own.
Junhyuk had decided to keep Jeffrey and Sarang from joining. A champion and an expert, they didn’t have to train with the others. They were already veterans, and he did not want people to know about them.
Helen, the Rockefeller’s expert, did not join them either. She had to be protecting Jennifer, which meant that some countries were definitely holding back their experts.
Junhyuk did see an expert he was looking for. Her name was Ling Ling, and she was the Chinese expert with the wind powers.
Ling Ling was fully equipped in Guardians gear, including two Wolf Warlord claw swords. The weapons weren’t made of genuine A-ranked monster bodies, but he still thought they were decently strong.
He looked at her and thought about her powers. Both of them were attack-focused. She had the power to make wind blades to slice her enemies, and the power to trap her enemies in a tornado, tearing them apart.
Junhyuk thought she had probably activated her second power somewhere between when Junhyuk and Sarang both became experts, Expert 02. If she was the one to activate her power then, she had to have gained a lot of gold by now, which also meant that she had to have great equipment of her own. Junhyuk thought that she had to be stronger than the others.
He was going over many things in his mind when Peyton, the expert from England, said something to him.
“Is that Bebe’s Black Armor?” Peyton asked him while smiling.
Junhyuk looked at Peyton. Experts often used Bebe’s store, and Peyton had probably already done so. Even among novices, if a novice was lucky enough to kill a hero, that novice would want to get a new item.
Junhyuk gave a slight nod, and Peyton smiled at him.
“I saw you stopping the first dimensional tear. You have some unbelievable powers. How many times have you been to the Dimensional Battlefield?”
“How many times have you been there?” Junhyuk asked Peyton back.
Peyton answered calmly, “I’ve been there five times.”
It seems like Peyton had gone to the Battlefield before the monsters started attacking Earth, but he had only activated his powers after the attacks began.
Junhyuk thought about Peyton’s powers. He could raise a rockwall with one and bury people a meter underground with the other.
The first power could be used to block enemy advancement, and the other could keep an enemy from moving. Peyton couldn’t actually kill anyone with his powers, but from the heroes’ position, Peyton showed some utility, so they had saved him.
Peyton was smiling with confidence, and he looked at the expert and said, “I am not so sure… I can’t remember.”
Junhyuk didn’t really trust him. Peyton belonged to MI6, the English intelligence agency, so he might be digging for information.
Realizing that Junhyuk didn’t want to talk, Peyton tried to talk to Sean, an American major, instead.
“Sean, what are your powers?”
Junhyuk already knew all of their powers, and he was probably the only one in the plane that did. The different countries’ powered didn’t share information with each other.
Sean, who was sitting comfortably, looked at Peyton and looked away.
Junhyuk chuckled as he watched. Peyton was just about to try talking to others when a broadcast was made.
“With Japan’s cooperation, we will land at Narita International Airport. After that, ground transportation will be waiting for us to take us to the site.
The plane soon landed, and Junhyuk waited until it had fully stopped before he got up. He was in command of the powered people and he wanted to lead them.
“I’ll explain everything after we get to the site. Move.”
The C-5’s door opened, and they saw cars parked outside, military vehicles. Junhyuk got out, and a Japanese military officer ran to him. The officer spoke very fast, “I’m responsible for transporting you, sir. I’m Major Jiro.”
“Thank you.”
“Come this way, sir.”
Jiro took him to a command vehicle, and he looked at the novices and experts, who were all assigned ordinary military vehicles. Without saying anything, Junhyuk got in the command vehicle, and the convoy started moving.
Jiro’s eyes beamed as he looked at Junhyuk, but Junhyuk ignored him and asked, “What’s the situation?”
“There’s a dimensional tear in Tokyo, sir. There are B-ranked monsters coming out of it and moving around. They move around alone. However, C-ranked monsters move in packs. Still, they keep to their territories and don’t leave the area’s limit, sir.”
Junhyuk nodded. The C-ranked monsters would make good practice targets.
That day, he would train them on dealing with B-ranked monsters and other monster packs. Looking out the window, Junhyuk thought he wanted to have zero casualties during practice. He was deep in thought, and Jiro did not bother him.
The vehicle raced for a while before military bases started appearing outside. There were barricades, and the soldiers were preventing people from entering them.
When his vehicle stopped, he got out of it, staring straight at the monster area ahead of him and the monsters within it.
The other vehicles stopped, and the novices and experts, along with the monster special forces teams, got out of them.
They were silent while looking at the monsters, but Junhyuk could see something they couldn’t. He was looking at the border of the area. He sensed the distinct change in space between the two sides and feared whoever, battlefield management or otherwise, had set up that border.
Looking at the border, he gathered himself. Humans could cross it, so he walked alone.
Jiro tried to stop him, but the other experts kept him from interfering. Jiro turned to Peyton, and Peyton said, “He stopped a dimensional tear by himself. He won’t die.”
Jiro looked at the other powered, and they were all staring at Junhyuk. Everyone was watching him as he stepped closer to the border. The monsters behind it were agitated, all crowded together staring at him.
Junhyuk did not care, but after he crossed the line, he got really scared.
“They were able to split space like this?!”
Now that he could sense it, Junhyuk feared whoever was behind the area’s spatial shift.
A wolf tried to lunge at him when he crossed the line, but Junhyuk punched the wolf’s snout.
Boom!
The wolf practically exploded with the hit. When he turned around, he saw a giant wolf try to attack him, but he walked toward the rest of the group instead.
