Sunday.
They were in a vehicle heading for the monster area when Ling Ling said carefully, “I have something to tell you.”
Junhyuk had been thinking about Elise. She had become an expert, which meant she had an extra life in the Dimensional Battlefield. He was relieved that she was somewhat safe now. Her new power had to do with summoning the things she had created.
He was preoccupied with many things, but when Ling Ling spoke to him, he naturally looked at her.
“Please, speak.”
“The battlefield manager gave me a training facility.”
Junhyuk stared at her as she spoke. It hadn’t been that long since the new batch of champions had evolved. Ling Ling had been the first one, and Dakeda and Zenon came after.
Dakeda and Zenon. One was Japanese and the other Greek. Junhyuk was thinking he should pressure them into joining, but he also thought they might be under some powerful people’s protection.
He didn’t say anything, however, simply looking at Ling Ling thinking.
“B-ranked monsters spawn there, and other champions used to use that place.”
Junhyuk laughed at what she said. He had initially built the place to absorb mana, and Agenchra had built upon it. Now, the facility didn’t belong to him. He could have earned more money by selling mana tree leaves that grew there.
Junhyuk had thought he would’ve been able to make money by working with Elise, but now, he had lost the place. It would be a lie to say he didn’t want it, but he decided to give Ling Ling some advice.
“That’s right. I used to use that place.”
Ling Ling’s eyes beamed, and he continued calmly, “The place is full of mana. When you absorb mana while using your powers, they’ll evolve. Use your powers as much as you can in there, and deal with the monsters like you would in a real battle.”
“Thanks for the advice.”
Curious, Junhyuk asked, “By the way, have any other champions shown up there?”
“Other champions?” she asked, shaking her head. “Well… Are there other champions?”
Junhyuk didn’t answer. He wasn’t sure if they had offered Dakeda and Zenon another training facility.
Looking ahead, he said, “We should deal with the monster area. Focus on it. It’s not our job to recruit others.”
He closed his eyes. They would destroy the New York monster area that day. He tried to focus on the job at hand. The monster areas were becoming more dangerous, and he did not know what awaited him, so he was both worried and excited.
The vehicles stopped, and he gathered everyone. They were gathered to destroy the New York monster area, so he said calmly, “You’ve been through this before. Stay alive.”
Junhyuk turned around. Just like in China, they had lured the monsters to one side of the border. About 70 percent of the monster in the area had been lured there.
The experts and novices weren’t scared because they knew just how strong Junhyuk was. He led them to the border. King Kong was on the Empire State Building, and he was thinking about it.
A total of 17 B-ranked monsters and 220 C-ranked monsters had been lured to the border. Although he was leading the group, Junhyuk would deal with the hundreds of monsters alone. He was just far superior to everyone.
Junhyuk ran forward, and the others followed him. Dozens of drones with cameras were flying around. That day’s battle would be broadcast worldwide. As he led them, he massacred the monsters. Some of them were huge and had remained outside of his shockwave’s range, but he did not care.
Junhyuk accelerated, and the cameras were unable to keep up with him. He managed to kill hundreds of monsters by himself. He could do it because of his abilities, but the experts and novices would have had to risk their lives. He was straining himself for his team.
The team’s task was to wait for him by the Empire State Building. He swept through the monsters on the way to the tear.
The Giant Gorilla at the top of the Empire State Building watched him and the humans approach and tore pieces of the building’s facade to throw at them.
Junhyuk shouted, “I’ll go in first!”
He accelerated. Considering the height of the Empire State Building, he was worried about if he could climb it, but he was full of confidence.
Junhyuk dodged the chunks of building thrown at him. As he climbed up, those at the bottom raised their heads to look at him. They had seen him climb a ten-story building before, but they didn’t know he could climb to the top of the Empire State Building.
Junhyuk ran up the building completely confident, and while the gorilla continued to throw debris at him, he dodged it all easily.
Junhyuk closed in quickly, and the gorilla swung its palm at him, hitting him. Junhyuk blocked the palm with his sword, slicing it in the process, but the shock threw him off. He couldn’t do anything without a foothold.
So, he teleported and stabbed down on the gorilla’s neck.
“Roooar-aaaahhh!!” it screamed and roared loudly. The gorilla tried to tighten its muscles, but the sword sank deeper. A shockwave triggered from within the gorilla, and it sliced the gorilla’s head off.
Junhyuk looked further up, to New York’s dimensional tear.
“I’m going.”
He teleported, appearing inside. Once there, he started running.
Junhyuk killed the B-ranked monsters while making his way, and he felt like it was taking him less time than before.
“Is it gonna get more difficult?” he muttered as he ran.
A monster was waiting for him in the path. It was the dragon he had fought in China. As it opened its mouth, lightning crashed in the tunnel.
“You don’t need clouds?”
Junhyuk accelerated. He couldn’t dodge everything, so he got hit twice as he closed in. However, when he got close, he used his Spatial Slash.
He had fought that monster before, so he knew he could kill it with the Spatial Slash. He hit just at the right scale, beheading the dragon in the process.
Junhyuk expected to come across more monsters. He expected something worse. From far away, he could see a Wolf Warlord, a Queen Harpy and a Salamander.
It wouldn’t be easy. As he ran ahead, he triggered a Spatial Collapse on the Salamander. The Salamander exploded, and the Wolf Warlord and the Queen Harpy were sucked into the collapse.
Junhyuk teleported. His Spatial Slash was still under cooldown, so he teleported again and stabbed the Wolf Warlord in the neck. Blood splattered everywhere. He twisted the sword and pulled it out. As he did, the Queen Harpy attacked him, but Junhyuk raised the force field.
The queen’s talon bounced off the forced field, and he turned around and slashed at its leg. Junhyuk was accelerating, so the Queen Harpy couldn’t dodge it, losing the leg in the process. Midway, Junhyuk changed the trajectory of his sword, slicing the Queen Harpy’s head off.
A-ranked monsters were no match for him anymore. After killing the three, he ran further in and saw the third tower core.
“OK. I’m getting another core.”
Junhyuk wanted to give Elise a core. Since now he had no way to give it to Vera, he thought Elise would know what to do with it.
He swung his sword at the tower.
Clang!
One hit didn’t do the job, but he didn’t stop there. Junhyuk continued to slash at the tower until he finally destroyed it. Once it was destroyed, he took the core out.
He put it away and pressed the button on his item. His surroundings changed. When he looked around to where he had teleported, he sighed with relief.
However, there were many monsters heading toward the Empire State Building. Looking around, he exclaimed, “So many!”
Ling Ling was taking care of the B-ranked monsters. The C-ranked monsters were surrounding him, so he started slashing all of them.
Junhyuk killed them easily, and once he had, he slashed the air, like Layla cleaning her katana, to get rid of the blood.
Looking at the others, he asked, “Did anyone die?”
“Three of the novices died, and five are seriously injured. They are receiving treatment now.”
Junhyuk told them to retrieve the bodies as he looked at the sky. His powers were working. The dragon had been difficult to deal with at first, but now he could kill it alone.
However, the future wouldn’t be so simple. He had to find more champions and heroes.
The dimensional tear was gone, and the monster area was cleared. The monster team and the U.S. military were coming, and Junhyuk wiped the blood off his armor.
—
On his way back, Junhyuk met with Charles Rockefeller, who asked him to head for New Delhi, India.
Junhyuk told Guardians about their next target. He would be going to New Delhi. However, he prepared a separate flight for himself. He told his team that he would visit South Korea first and sent the rest of them straight to New Delhi.
Junhyuk had lost his training facility, so he had to travel to meet people. He stopped at Guardians first, and there, he met with Eunseo and the rest of the delegates. After that, he went to see Elise.
He went to her private lab at Guardians, and once he saw her, he realized that she really was an expert now.
She opened her arms wide for a hug and said, “Thanks for coming! Even though you are so busy! This is my new power, by the way.”
Junhyuk was shocked when he saw Zaira next to Elise. The jade android looked different from an iron soldier.
He turned to Elise and asked, “What did you make?”
