After eating a hearty lunch, Dohyeon decided to enjoy a comfortable nap.
The house had no fewer than ten rooms.
Aside from the third floor, where his sister spent most of her time, he was free to use any of them.
Dohyeon’s room was on the second floor.
After giving Song Ha-jun a room as well, they each retired to their own rooms and fell into a deep sleep.
How much time had passed?
RUMBLE—!
A violent tremor shook even the sturdy reinforced-concrete house.
Dohyeon sprang awake, opened the balcony window, and looked outside.
“What the hell is that?”
At one end of the broad road before the house, rainbow-colored light rippled like an aurora.
“You don’t know what that is? It’s a Gate Precursor Phenomenon!”
Song Ha-jun stuck his head out through the neighboring balcony window and shouted urgently.
“I’m asking why it had to appear there at this particular time!”
“What do you mean, why? Have you ever seen a Gate care about where or when it appears?”
“Ah, fuck. My sister won’t let this go if her house gets destroyed.”
Once the Gate Precursor Phenomenon appeared, it meant a Gate would open at that location in ten minutes.
It was less than a kilometer away.
At that distance, there was nearly a seventy-percent chance that the house would be damaged during the battle.
He had received reward leave and planned to rest comfortably at home, yet a Gate had chosen to appear near the house of all places.
“Stay here. Don’t get involved for no reason and lose your life somewhere you shouldn’t.”
Dohyeon immediately jumped from the balcony.
They were on the second floor, but a drop from that height posed no danger to an Awakened.
“I’m coming with you. Staying here doesn’t seem particularly safe either.”
Song Ha-jun jumped down after him.
However, both of them quickly had to return to the house.
They had forgotten to put on their shoes.
After putting them on, they ran toward the source of the rainbow-colored glow.
Roughly seven hundred meters later, they saw a hole the size of a human head suspended in the air above the middle of the road.
A timer floated above it.
[00:08:23]
Eight minutes and twenty-three seconds remained before the Gate opened.
They could not determine how large the Gate would become, but no matter what Grade of monster emerged, everything within a two-kilometer radius was certain to be devastated.
That area included Dohyeon’s house—or rather, his sister Kim Yuha’s house.
WEEEEOOOO—!
A siren suddenly wailed loudly enough to make their ears sting.
Soon, two armored vehicles carrying soldiers, fully equipped troops, and more than ten police cars rushed onto the scene.
‘It’s a Defense Unit.’
Following the Gate crisis, every region came to host a Defense Unit tasked with protecting the local area.
With only a single company, their numbers were not particularly large.
They were essentially there to buy time.
It usually took around thirty minutes for a Gate Response Unit or Guild Hunters to reach the site of a newly emerging Gate.
The Defense Unit had to buy that time to minimize civilian casualties.
“Civilians, evacuate to the shelter! If you linger around here, monsters will tear you apart!”
A police officer approached and attempted to push Dohyeon and Song Ha-jun away from the Gate’s predicted emergence point.
Song Ha-jun produced his Awakened License.
“We’re Awakened from the MSU.”
“Huh? What are MSU Awakened doing here......?”
“We’re on leave, and unfortunately, our home happens to be nearby.”
Song Ha-jun glanced at Dohyeon, who had dragged him here.
His gaze was filled with resentment that said, ‘You’re the reason I’m about to fight a battle that was never part of my plans!’
“Then could you provide us with support?”
“That’s why we came, but we don’t have any weapons.”
“That won’t be a problem. Follow me!”
The officer led Dohyeon and Song Ha-jun away.
About one hundred meters from the Gate, members of the Defense Unit were busily establishing a defensive position.
Their company commander had spread out a map there and was issuing operational orders.
“Company Commander! We have reinforcements from the MSU!”
The company commander welcomed the officer’s report enthusiastically.
“Oh, what excellent timing! Come over here!”
The company commander was a man in his mid-thirties with a good-natured face.
“Which MSU are you from?”
“The 9th MSU. We were on leave when things became complicated.”
Song Ha-jun, knowing Dohyeon disliked stepping forward, spoke to the company commander in his place.
“You may put it that way, but you still came to help us, and I’m truly grateful. Neither of you seems to be an ordinary soldier.”
“That’s right. Our Talent Grades are low, but we’re Awakened.”
“The heavens are helping us! I know this places a heavy burden on you, but please help us hold out for just thirty minutes. By then, the Gate Response Unit composed of Awakened should arrive.”
“That’s why we’re here. But we don’t have any weapons.......”
“We can provide as many weapons as you need. Corporal Lee! Guide these two to the armory. Give them anything they want from there!”
To the company commander, Dohyeon and Song Ha-jun were nothing less than a lifeline lowered from the heavens.
It typically took about thirty minutes between the Gate opening and the response force arriving.
Yet it was common for half of a Defense Unit’s forces to collapse within that brief period.
The situation would be better if Awakened were stationed with them, but there were not enough Awakened to spare for deployment to Defense Units.
Those with C Grade Talent or higher entered government Response Units or Guilds, while nearly everyone with D Grade Talent or lower ended up in the MSU.
Not a single Awakened wanted to serve in a Defense Unit, where the pay was meager and the danger high.
Under those circumstances, Dohyeon and Song Ha-jun’s assistance could increase the soldiers’ survival rate by at least ten percent.
Dohyeon and Song Ha-jun were escorted to an armory constructed roughly thirty meters behind the defensive line.
There, they were each issued a melee weapon suited to them, one rifle, and ammunition.
Song Ha-jun selected a bow, while Dohyeon strapped a sword to his waist.
“Please take good care of our soldiers.”
The sergeant in charge of the armory earnestly pleaded with them.
At that moment, a man came running toward the armory in a breathless hurry.
“Oh dear! I’m sorry, truly sorry. My stomach hurt so badly that I’m a little late.”
The tall, generously built man was an NCO.
He appeared to be the armory’s highest-ranking officer.
“Staff Sergeant Hwang, you’re really something else. You only received your commission yesterday, yet you’re late to your first battle. Good grief.......”
The armory sergeant shook his head.
“I’m heading out first.”
Dohyeon glanced at Staff Sergeant Hwang, then immediately turned and moved toward the Gate.
Song Ha-jun followed him.
They stopped approximately forty meters from the Gate.
Then they checked the timer displayed above it.
[00:01:28]
Only a little over a minute remained.
This was Dohyeon’s first time fighting alone without the members of his MSU squad.
At least having Song Ha-jun there was somewhat reassuring.
Dohyeon suspected that Song Ha-jun might be an Elf, but surely he would not betray him here.
Song Ha-jun had even prepared a delicious meal for him, so Dohyeon wanted to believe that much.
“Focus on what’s in front of you. The Wave will begin soon.”
At Song Ha-jun’s warning, Dohyeon spun around and thrust his fist energetically into the air.
Watching him, Song Ha-jun’s bow hand trembled as he shouted.
“If you weren’t my squad leader, I’d put an arrow through the back of your head!”
“Go ahead and try.”
Dohyeon snorted at Song Ha-jun and slowly advanced.
Just then—
WHOOOOOSH—
The hole, previously only the size of a human head, abruptly expanded to five meters across.
The timer had already reached zero.
And the Wave began.
RUMBLE—!
Two-meter-tall Orcs with green skin charged out from within the Gate.
They continued pouring through four or five at a time, and the area before the Gate was soon filled with approximately fifty Orcs.
‘Damn it! Why did it have to be Orcs?!’
Orcs were powerful.
Dark Elves could block bullets with magic, but these Orcs deflected bullets with their hardened muscles.
Killing Orcs required Explosive Magic Bullets or Penetrating Magic Bullets.
However, those two types of Magic Bullet were extremely expensive, so Defense Units received only limited supplies.
Even if they had some, it would amount to no more than a few hundred rounds.
Dohyeon possessed only two twenty-round magazines of Explosive Magic Bullets.
And Orcs were not the only things emerging from the Gate.
“GRRROOOAAAR!”
“GRR! BARK! BARK!”
Large Lycans bared their pointed teeth and snarled.
The creatures, almost as large as tigers, came flooding through the Gate.
A Lycan’s Disaster Grade was 2.
An Orc’s was 3.
The problem was that when the two species appeared together, their combined Disaster Grade soared to 5.
The swift Lycans would charge first and throw the allied formation into disarray. Once the immensely strong and durable Orcs followed, a human army would quickly collapse.
The Defense Unit’s company commander knew this and waited no longer.
“Fire!”
The order came down.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM—!
The armored vehicles’ autocannons spewed fire.
RATATATATATAT—!
Bullets poured from the soldiers’ rifles.
But the monsters were not foolish enough to passively endure the attack.
The Orcs that had exited the Gate first pulled the enormous shields from their backs and raised them to block the barrage.
Ordinary rifles could leave only small scratches on those shields.
Only the autocannons could shatter them and wound the Orcs behind them.
The one-sided attack continued for roughly ten seconds.
Yet fewer than ten percent of the Orcs fell.
Most of the monsters brought down were Lycans that had been darting around wildly.
The moment the barrage slackened for even an instant—
“GRRROOOAAAR!”
The Lycans began pouncing on the soldiers.
The Orcs also advanced behind their shields.
Despite the forty-meter distance, they closed in rapidly.
The situation could no longer be resolved through long-range fire.
“I’m going in!”
Dohyeon instinctively knew that it was time for him to act.
He kicked off the asphalt and charged, extending his sword toward a Lycan that had leaped high into the air.
CRACK—!
The sword penetrated the Lycan’s forehead with absurd ease.
Dohyeon passed the collapsing Lycan and swung his sword toward the neck of a second one.
A slash derived from Infinite Path cut halfway through the second Lycan’s neck.
Song Ha-jun, watching from behind, stared with wide eyes.
‘Did he get stronger?’
The Dohyeon slaughtering Lycans before him was not the squad leader Song Ha-jun knew.
Until recently, Dohyeon had struggled desperately against a single Lycan.
Yet now he had killed two of them with ridiculous ease. It was utterly astonishing.
‘Killing the Dark Elf chieftain wasn’t luck? Or...... has he been deceiving us all this time?’
Dohyeon’s swordsmanship had reached such a different level that Song Ha-jun could not help entertaining the thought.
Dohyeon plunged fearlessly into the monsters’ formation.
At this rate, he would soon be buried alone amid nearly a hundred Orcs.
Song Ha-jun ran after Dohyeon and loosed an arrow.
THWIP—
THUD—!
His arrow struck a monster’s weak point with perfect accuracy.
Arrows were weaker than bullets.
But an arrow infused with mana was stronger than a Magic Bullet.
Every arrow Song Ha-jun fired carried powerful mana.
His arrows pierced Lycan skulls and even the Orcs’ hardened muscles.
Archery was not Song Ha-jun’s only specialty.
He was also highly proficient in magic.
The skill he had Awakened was Fire Cannon.
When he extended his palm and shouted the activation phrase, a fist-sized orb of flame shot forward.
The flaming orb possessed enough explosive force to shatter boulders.
It could not be fired repeatedly, but he could use it once per minute.
That made Fire Cannon ideal for breaking open an escape route on a perilous battlefield or destroying an enemy defensive line.
“Fire Cannon!”
When Song Ha-jun extended his hand, a magic circle appeared and an orb of flame shot forward.
KABOOOOOM—!
The orb exploded, completely blowing away the upper bodies of two Orcs that had been targeting Dohyeon.
“You’ve gone too far ahead! Slow down!”
At Song Ha-jun’s shout, Dohyeon slowed his advance.
Absorbed in his swordsmanship, Dohyeon had failed to realize that he had ventured too deeply into enemy lines.
“Great support!”
Dohyeon shouted excitedly as he retreated.
He also knew perfectly well that advancing any farther would leave him isolated.
Dohyeon held his position and confronted the monsters converging on him.
He accurately read the Lycans’ swift movements and cut through their openings.
Then he drove his sword into the necks of Orcs charging with enough force to crumple steel plates.
Dohyeon’s swordsmanship was incredible, as though a god had possessed him.
Who among those present could possibly know?
The swordsmanship Dohyeon now displayed was the product of tremendous effort, forged over the long span of 698 days.
More than twenty minutes passed that way.
Monsters continued pouring endlessly from the Gate.
Except for the front that Dohyeon was blocking, the defensive lines in every other direction had long since fallen into disarray.
At the thirty-minute mark, the defensive line on the left completely collapsed.
After forty minutes, the right defensive line collapsed as well.
The Defense Unit deployed here numbered approximately three hundred.
Even with the police officers included, there were fewer than three hundred and fifty people.
Ordinarily, the Response Unit and Hunters should have arrived long ago and begun driving back the monsters, yet no reinforcements had appeared.
Thirty percent of the Defense Unit had already lost their lives.
Without Dohyeon and Song Ha-jun, the entire force would have been annihilated long ago.
“Reinforcements! When are the reinforcements coming?!”
Song Ha-jun shouted desperately, but no one answered.
Dohyeon and Song Ha-jun were the only two people there still fighting with clear minds.
Then it happened.
THUD—
Another monster emerged from the Gate.
It stood four meters tall.
Its body was twice the size of an Orc’s.
Rather than muscle, its enormous frame was packed with fat.
It was an Ogre.
A powerful monster with a Disaster Grade of 4 all by itself.
Dohyeon was left speechless when even an Ogre appeared.
Unless the Response Unit arrived immediately, they would all be annihilated.
If Dohyeon remained any longer, even he would struggle to survive.
It was time to withdraw.
He had to escape this place if he wanted to live.
‘Let’s kill that bastard before we get out of here.’
Monsters of Disaster Grade 4 or higher dropped items when killed.
This was not greed. It was a rational choice made for the future.
The moment it appeared, the Ogre charged toward Dohyeon while swinging an axe the size of a person.
It understood as well.
If it killed Dohyeon, it could easily seize control of the area around the Gate.
Dohyeon pulled his left foot back and lowered his stance.
It was the opening stance of Infinite Path.
If he wanted to kill the Ogre in one blow, he had to use Infinite Path.
Using Equivalent Exchange now would be dangerous because it required him to pay a price.
Dohyeon watched the Ogre’s movements intently.
‘Now!’
BOOM—!
He kicked off the ground and shot forward like an arrow.
Dohyeon angled his sword to match the trajectory of the Ogre’s swinging axe.
SCREEEEEECH—!
A tremendous shower of sparks erupted as the axe slid along his blade.
Dohyeon stamped off the ground and whipped his upper body around, thrusting his sword with all his strength toward the Ogre’s heart.
At that moment, an ominous chill swept through his entire body.
His eyes shifted sideways without conscious thought.
THUD—!
An intense pain erupted in the back of his head, and everything went dark.
Then—
TOOT-TOOT, TOOT-TOOT-TOOT, TOOT-TOO-ROO-TOOT-TOOT...
Dohyeon’s eyes flew open at the sound of the morning bugle.