Chapter 69 – New Team Member (Part Three)

A Gate shimmered with an ominous green light.

A crack over five meters wide had appeared right in the middle of the city, and the citizens had all fled in a hurry.

But two women sat calmly in front of the Gate, completely unfazed.

“Do you understand everything?”

“Yes.”

Having flown thousands of kilometers from Korea, Lee Soo-yeon and Hyeon-seo were waiting on a park bench for the Gate to activate.

Hyeon-seo was wearing various pieces of Aegis-issued equipment, including a communicator, a watch, and combat boots. She fiddled with the gear, looking a bit awkward, as Soo-yeon helped her get situated.

Soo-yeon kindly explained how to operate the equipment and how they would be dealing with the Gate.

The empty park was occupied only by Soo-yeon and Hyeon-seo, but that didn’t mean the other team members weren’t on site.

A triple Gate had appeared, activating simultaneously, forcing them to split up.

Normally, Soo-yeon would have handled one rift on her own, but this time, she had Hyeon-seo with her.

The Gate in the park, which the two of them were assigned to, had the strongest energy signature. As a result, Il-hyeon had to take on a Gate on the rooftop of a distant building by himself.

Of course, with his summons by his side, there was no need to worry about him being overwhelmed.

Besides, if things got dangerous, Hyeon-seo could teleport to his location in an instant, which was why they had chosen their positions this way.

“What did you do after you got in yesterday?”

“Yesterday? Oh, I just read a book. Why do you ask all of a sudden?”

“Just curious. I tried a donut for the first time yesterday. It was really delicious.”

“Ah, is… is that so?”

Soo-yeon broke into a cold sweat as she responded to Hyeon-seo’s occasional, off-the-wall remarks.

She thought she was used to strange comments because of Ghost, but Hyeon-seo was on another level.

‘Il-hyeon’s going to have his hands full.’

*Vwoom—!*

The Gate began to hum loudly, pulling in the surrounding air.

Soo-yeon and Hyeon-seo shot up from their seats, drew their swords, and prepared for the monsters to appear.

“You remember what I told you?”

“Avoid it head-on at all costs. If its body changes color, retreat immediately.”

“Good.”

Nodding in satisfaction, Soo-yeon pulled the black combat goggles hanging around her neck up over her eyes.

Hyeon-seo quickly followed suit just as monsters began to emerge from the Gate.

The monsters were covered head to toe in sturdy, blue-tinged scales.

They were humanoid in shape, resembling lizards, and each one was twice the size of a person.

Their ferocious faces and the scars dotting their muscular bodies gave them the look of formidable warriors.

The monsters lumbered out of the rift, and upon spotting the two humans, they charged without hesitation.

Most of them swung their bare fists, but some carried absurdly large axes or greatswords.

At a glance, the weapons looked crude despite their size, but each time one struck the ground, it cracked the earth as if causing a tremor.

Soo-yeon and Hyeon-seo fluidly evaded the relentlessly brutal attacks, plunging their blades into the creatures.

Due to the monsters’ height, they focused their attacks on the legs, shattering or slicing them. Occasionally, one of Hyeon-seo’s daggers would fly with deadly precision and embed itself in a monster’s neck.

The corpses of the beasts began to pile up on the ground at a rapid pace.

But even as the battle raged on, with every pulse of the Gate, dozens more monsters poured out until they were completely surrounded.

“They’re breaking through over there!”

Soo-yeon shouted when she saw a monster trying to slip out of the park amidst the chaotic brawl.

Hyeon-seo raised her arm, and a translucent barrier materialized, enclosing the area.

The force field that had sprung up around them blocked the monsters trying to escape.

The force field ability was incredibly effective in combat, but it was also extremely useful in situations like this.

Monsters rarely appeared in small numbers, and the ones in Gates handled by Aegis were tough enough to challenge even skilled Awakened. Thus, preventing any from slipping through was a top priority.

But thanks to Hyeon-seo’s ability, they had nothing to worry about.

*Bang! Bang!*

The blue-scaled monsters, startled by the sudden appearance of the force field, began to pound on the translucent wall with all their might.

But the sturdy barrier didn’t even flinch.

Just then, daggers flew from behind, piercing the monsters’ heads. They lost their strength and slid down the side of the force field.

“Twenty-eight… twenty-nine… thirty!”

Hyeon-seo counted each monster she killed.

She slid between the legs of a beast swinging its arms at her, then leaped high into the air, spinning and swinging both her blades to sever its neck.

Using the blood-gushing corpse as a foothold, she jumped forward again and threw the sword in her left hand.

The thrown blade struck a monster squarely in the heart, and in that same moment, Hyeon-seo brought her other sword down on another monster’s head.

*Thud!* Three monsters collapsed to the ground almost simultaneously.

“Thirty… three! How many have you gotten?”

“Hmm, I haven’t been counting.”

Soo-yeon spoke as she cleanly sliced off a monster’s legs, then pierced its throat as it lost its balance and fell forward.

Her movements were clean and swift, without a single wasted motion.

“That’s strange… I thought everyone did that.”

Hyeon-seo tilted her head in confusion at Soo-yeon’s reply.

In her mind, she had a clear image of an Awakened fighting while keeping a tally of the monsters they killed.

She had naturally assumed it was necessary for the process of distributing the cores based on who killed what.

But that was a common misconception held by ordinary people who had only seen Awakened through media like movies or comics.

In the heat of a battle where countless lives were on the line, there was no time to count how many of what kind of monster you had killed.

Except in the case of a few high-rank ace monsters, the spoils were simply divided according to a pre-determined ratio based on rank, experience, and skill level.

Aegis team leaders, for example, received an unimaginably high base salary, on top of having the highest distribution ratio from the field.

Of course, Alpha Team had a slightly different system due to Il-hyeon’s habit of consuming cores, and Il-hyeon himself unknowingly took a slightly larger share.

It was a decision made by Representative Ryu Jin-tae, so it wasn’t as if he was taking from his teammates; the company was just giving him more.

In any case, without pre-established standards like these, disputes could easily arise among team members over even trivial matters.

Moreover, to prevent potential conflicts over high-rank cores, Aegis’s Defensive Coats were equipped with built-in micro-cameras that recorded automatically.

Neither the company nor the employee could access the footage unless an incident occurred or the Awakened requested it, so no one had any objections.

*Drrdrdr!*

Suddenly, the Gate in the center of the park began to vibrate more violently.

Then, something started to emerge.

A long, blue body continued to pass through the rift.

“There it is!”

The ace monster, Pinumir.

It was a giant electric eel monster with a massive body over ten meters long.

It floated leisurely in the air, so huge it could have been mistaken for a dragon. The creature circled inside the force field, its long whiskers trailing behind it.

Although it was a B-rank monster, its bizarre and nasty patterns meant that facing it unprepared was a recipe for disaster.

In fact, the team of Awakened who first encountered it sixteen years ago had been wiped out despite having more than enough firepower.

“It’s not attacking right away like the reports said.”

“The data on it is limited…”

Soo-yeon and Hyeon-seo conversed as they watched the massive beast circle in the air.

In twenty years, the creature had only appeared four times worldwide.

So far, all records indicated that Pinumir attacked with an intense flash of light the moment its head emerged from a Gate, but its current behavior was slightly different from the data.

*Keeeeee!*

Just then, Pinumir let out a shrill cry and twisted its body. As expected, a powerful flash of light erupted.

It was a light so intense it could instantly blind even an Awakened.

Even the other monsters from the same Gate couldn’t withstand it, collapsing to the ground clutching their eyes.

But thanks to the special goggles they were wearing, the two women’s eyes were unharmed, allowing them to stare directly at the creature.

Unaware of this, Pinumir opened its maw wide and swam through the air toward its supposedly blinded prey.

Soo-yeon and Hyeon-seo stood still, waiting for the beast to get closer, only reacting just before it was about to swallow them.

As if they had choreographed it beforehand, they split to the left and right, moving swiftly.

Taking advantage of its unguarded state, they closed in from both sides and swung their swords with all their might.

*Shhhlick!*

Three blades sliced long gashes across the creature’s body.

Its scales were as tough as its massive frame suggested, so the attack wasn’t fatal. Still, the impact was significant enough for it to shriek in pain and thrash its body wildly.

Realizing its opponents were not blind, Pinumir quickly turned its head and began to move with incomparable speed.

*Craaash!* Each time its tail whipped around violently, the ground shattered with a deafening roar.

Soo-yeon and Hyeon-seo dodged the long body moving at incredible speed while thrusting their swords.

All the while, they constantly avoided the angle the beast’s head was facing.

Frustrated by its opponents’ movements, which seemed to anticipate its every move, Pinumir pulled back and let out a great roar.

Its body began to glow with a reddish light, and an unknown energy surged around it.

Seeing this, the two immediately withdrew their blades and retreated a good distance.

*Crackle!*

A massive electric current exploded in all directions.

The blinded monsters that couldn’t evade in time were all electrocuted to death, and half the park was destroyed.

It was an attack powerful enough to be dangerous even with the high-performance Defensive Coats they were wearing.

*Fwoooosh!*

But it didn’t stop there. A green breath attack shot out from Pinumir’s mouth.

They threw themselves aside to dodge the breath, which melted everything in its path.

But the creature pursued Hyeon-seo, who had split off to the side.

Hyeon-seo extended both hands, creating a powerful defensive barrier to block the breath.

*Hiss!*

The potent acid seethed as if it could melt through anything, but it wasn’t enough to break through Hyeon-seo’s force field.

In that moment, Soo-yeon instantly closed in on the beast from behind and leaped high into the air, a dark energy gathering in one of her arms.

*Shhhlick!*

A massive slash cleaved right through the middle of Pinumir’s long body.

Gushing an incredible amount of blood, the tail half of its body fell lifelessly, and the remaining half with the head lost its balance in mid-air.

*Kugugung!*

Pinumir crashed to the ground and thrashed its long body around in agony.

But it was only for a moment. It squirmed as if trying to take flight again. Seeing this, Hyeon-seo dispelled the barrier in front of her and used her ability once more.

An invisible force field appeared above Pinumir’s head, crushing it down.

As the beast struggled to break free, Soo-yeon appeared before its head and, with several powerful strikes, severed it completely.

She took off her goggles and turned her head to the side.

The unsettling Gate, having disgorged all its monsters, had vanished without a trace.

“How was I? Was I okay?”

Hyeon-seo asked as she approached.

It seemed she was curious about her performance, as this was her debut fight as part of the team.

Soo-yeon chuckled at the sight and said.

“You were brilliant. Couldn’t have been better.”