Chapter 16 – Actual Combat (Part One)

“Hey, hey…!”

“Sorry, I’ll explain when I get back.”

Leaving his friends, who couldn’t even begin to guess what was happening, Il-hyeon followed Lee Soo-yeon, who was already opening the door to leave.

As he left the building, he put on the coat he was given and strapped on his sword.

Passing by the gazes of countless people, Il-hyeon quickly boarded the transport aircraft.

He slipped inside, feeling a subtle pressure, but the interior of the transport was cleaner and simpler than he’d expected.

In war movies, these things were usually cluttered with strange equipment, but here in the back, there were only seats and a single monitor mounted near the door.

The transport soon lifted off without a sound.

As expected of a VTOL aircraft, it shot straight up at high speed without needing a runway.

Through the crack of the open door, he could see the scenery from high above.

He’d had a fantastical experience on the back of a hawk he had summoned, but seeing it from here was something different.

While he was staring blankly, the door automatically descended from above and closed.

“I told you before, but now that you’re a team member, I’ll speak casually. This is Ghost.”

“We meet again. Haha.”

As they shook hands, Ghost suddenly pulled off his mask.

Il-hyeon, who had assumed there was some grand secret behind the mask like most people would, was startled when he took it off without warning and stared at his face.

There were no massive burns or scars as some rumors suggested, nor was he exceptionally ugly or handsome.

It was the face of a perfectly ordinary young man.

“Uh… you look very different from what I imagined.”

“I get that a lot.”

Ghost spoke casually, as if used to Il-hyeon’s reaction.

“If you don’t have scars like the rumors say, why do you cover your face?”

“It’s a bit much to explain right now. There are some very complicated circumstances…”

“What complicated circumstances?”

Hearing him, Lee Soo-yeon, still sitting with her arms crossed, scoffed.

Ghost tried to ignore her and changed the subject.

“Ah, and I’m twenty-four. You can drop the formalities. You’re older than me, right?”

“Huh? Oh… yeah.”

Flustered by his forwardness, Il-hyeon answered without thinking.

He had expected all successful Awakened to be arrogant, but Ghost was the complete opposite of his public image.

Ghost, having heard a few things about him, approached him without hesitation.

“Right, that ability you showed last time was insane. How did you break the core?”

“Ah, that was…”

His face was different from what he’d expected, but his actual personality was even more so.

When he was active publicly with his mask on, he always maintained a serious demeanor, with a low, deep voice and a weighty presence.

But now, he was chattering away almost frivolously.

Meanwhile, Lee Soo-yeon glanced at her watch, then stood up and interjected.

“It’s good that you’re getting along, but save the chit-chat for later. We’ll be there soon, so I’ll brief you on the mission.”

“Um, by the way, how did you know where to find me?”

Il-hyeon couldn’t hold back his curiosity and asked.

“I told you we’d use your location data for missions.”

She said, pointing to the phone sticking out of Il-hyeon’s pocket.

Only then did he remember plugging something like a USB into his phone after signing the contract.

They had said it was a necessary procedure for anti-hacking, location tracking, and identification.

“You don’t, like, monitor me all the time, do you? That’s a bit of a privacy violation…”

“If they did, I would’ve been the first to quit.”

All the team members, including her, the other Timjang, and even the Daepyo, had gone through the same procedure.

A small company full of nobodies might get away with it, but if Aegis, home to all sorts of high-ranking Awakened, tried something like that, whoever orchestrated it wouldn’t keep their head for long.

“Where are the other two?”

Ghost, who had put his mask back on at some point, asked while looking around.

Come to think of it, there were only three of them, including himself. The other team members were nowhere to be seen.

Jeong Jin-seong, famous for being a co-leader with Lee Soo-yeon, and Seok Pil-joon, whom he had met once before.

He remembered his first impression of Seok Pil-joon being particularly unpleasant.

“Those two are temporarily assigned to another team. No point in them sitting around doing nothing here.”

“Things have been getting busy overseas again lately.”

“Well… the cycle is approaching.”

Lee Soo-yeon let out a deep sigh, which was unusual for her.

He’d heard that the cycle when Gate generation became more active was a nightmarish hassle for the Awakened.

Many civilians thought it was a good thing since it meant more income, but seeing Lee Soo-yeon’s reaction, it was clearly not that simple.

“You’ve familiarized yourself with the equipment, right?”

She turned her gaze to him and asked, and Il-hyeon nodded.

He had diligently memorized the guidebook he’d received two days ago.

He had to know how to use things like the communicator for missions, not to mention the coat, which had all sorts of functions like air purification, temporary hemostasis, and body temperature regulation.

Lee Soo-yeon handed him a white communicator.

Il-hyeon took the communicator, which was about half a handspan long, and placed it in his left ear.

Wearing it, he felt like a real agent or an Awakened.

It was a similar thrill to when he had worn the fake coat right after he’d first awakened.

Of course, unlike last time, this was all real equipment in a real situation, so he felt a little emotional.

“We prepared a sword for you, as requested. It’s a standard choice, but reliable.”

Il-hyeon partially drew the sword from his waist.

It had a clean, overall design, and the smooth blade was sharpened to a razor’s edge.

Even though he wasn’t an expert, Il-hyeon could tell it was on a completely different level from the temporary sword he had made with his ability.

The Aegis AT Sword and Defensive Coat he had received were monstrous pieces of equipment, both crafted by cramming a whole B-Rank’s worth of Ether into them.

Aegis was the only place that would hand over equipment of this caliber to a newcomer without any special conditions or procedures.

“This is the data from the analysis team.”

Lee Soo-yeon tapped the monitor screen.

A 3D graphic appeared on the monitor, showing the surrounding structures along with some text.

The nearby streets and the target building were displayed.

“An hour ago, a double Gate appeared inside a hotel in Ulsan. The domestic government Response Team is handling another case, so we took this one.”

Lee Soo-yeon touched the screen again, and the map zoomed in to show a detailed layout of the hotel’s interior.

Two Gates in different locations were marked in red, standing out clearly.

“It’s a B5-grade Gate, with openings in the hotel hallways on the 17th and 5th floors. Fifteen minutes until activation. The B-Rank ace monster will only appear on the 5th floor, so the two of you should be able to hold the 17th. Keep in mind that the monster generation speed is pretty fast.”

Unlike Lee Soo-yeon and Ghost, who spoke and listened casually, Il-hyeon was quite tense.

‘I expected it to be on a different level from the sites I’ve been to so far, but…’

Il-hyeon knew that any Gate requiring Aegis’s intervention would typically be B-Rank or higher.

But that was easier said than done. A B-Rank Gate was a place where even veterans could die or cause a major disaster the moment they let their guard down.

For Il-hyeon, who had never even been to a D-Rank site, it was like he’d been hunting rabbits in a beginner’s zone and suddenly joined a high-level party on a trip straight to a demon’s den.

The only consolation was that Lee Soo-yeon would be handling the B-Rank ace monster.

The base monsters, even if much stronger than usual, would be E-Rank, and he could handle that easily.

Even though he had just barely scraped by, he had received a C-grade in the Awakened evaluation, which meant he had the power to somehow deal with at least one C-Rank monster.

“The hotel owners requested we preserve the property, but honestly, don’t worry about damaging the building. It’s a B-Rank Gate; they’re asking for too much.”

‘Huh? Wait a minute…’

Listening to her, Il-hyeon looked at the monitor, saw the words ‘Base Monster – D-Rank’, and rubbed his eyes.

He thought he must have misread it, but after looking several times, he confirmed it was correct.

“Um, I think there’s a mistake here…”

“Where? I don’t see anything wrong.”

“Well… isn’t D-Rank for ace monsters?”

“Ah, usually, yes. But that’s the general standard. In B-Rank Gates, they’re the base monsters.”

“Hah…”

Il-hyeon put a hand to his forehead.

The news that D-Rank monsters—ace-level in most Gates—would be appearing by the dozens as base mobs was not welcome at all.

He foresaw a difficult road ahead before he could adapt.

Looking at the slightly tense Il-hyeon, she said.

“Well, I don’t plan on giving you anything impossible from the start, so there’s no need to be nervous.”

Lee Soo-yeon said.

She had assigned Ghost to him and given him the Gate without an ace monster, so there was no real danger.

It was the perfect mission to test his capabilities.

Just then, he felt the aircraft begin to descend.

Lee Soo-yeon slammed a button with her fist, and the transport’s door opened, revealing the brightly lit streets below.

A large hotel and the wide barricades surrounding it came into view.

‘Already…? It’s only been a few minutes.’

The trip from Seoul to Ulsan felt like it had taken no more time than passing two or three bus stops.

Compared to the past, advancements in Ether and related technologies had made even regular passenger planes several times faster.

On top of that, the V-74 Whisper, a model developed by Aegis, used high-grade Ether Cores directly to achieve incredible speeds.

A single one of these transports was worth a fortune.

Given the nature of Aegis’s work, which required them to traverse the globe in a short amount of time, it was an essential asset.

The transport made almost no noise as it landed smoothly in a vacant parking lot.

And the three Awakened disembarked.

A police officer who had been waiting nearby trotted over.

His face was full of excitement.

He could guess the reason why.

“Hello! You’re here!”

“Thank you for your hard work. Has the civilian evacuation been completed?”

“Yes, the area is secure. We haven’t cut the internal power; it’s being maintained as is.”

“The building could collapse and send debris flying, so please maintain a safe distance.”

“Yes! Understood. Good luck! I’m a big fan!”

Lee Soo-yeon and Ghost took it in stride as if it were a common occurrence, but Il-hyeon found it hard to hold back a smile at the enthusiastic officer.

Twelve minutes remained until activation.

The three of them entered the hotel through the main entrance.