Episode 16
Episode 6: Monster (3)
Seo Donghyeok.
A man who had become a vegetable affiliated with Link System.
Yeonghun couldn't help but suspect that he was from the other world. He observed the man carefully. Clearly, something about him would give him away.
Manager Oh, who had come from Link System, continued speaking.
"Thank you for coming. Most of you who were contacted have made it here."
Which was to say, some people hadn't come.
Yeonghun turned his gaze away from Donghyeok. Right now, he looked like nothing more than an ordinary, large-built man.
Someone who had experienced the battlefield carried a certain air about them, but his face was gentle, like a man who had never fought a day in his life.
Yeonghun put aside the matter of Donghyeok for now and focused on Manager Oh's words.
"The reason I have gathered everyone so urgently is due to incidents that have been occurring around the world over the past few days."
Manager Oh looked past the crowd.
Click!
The conference room lights went out. When the people turned to look back, a man was lowering a switch.
And the projector hanging from the ceiling finished warming up, casting an image onto the screen ahead.
The screen showed a snow-covered field. Behind it, a forest stretched endlessly into the distance. Judging by the scenery, it seemed to be a foreign country.
Westerners holding guns walked toward the camera. They wore thick clothing and spread out widely in all directions as they advanced. Judging by the quality, it seemed someone behind them was filming with a phone.
For a moment, the people searched their surroundings. They looked like hunters tracking a beast. But suddenly, something burst from the bushes.
Bang! Bang!
Gunshots rang out, and the screen shook.
"Krrraaagh!"
The creature that had leaped from the bushes rose onto two legs.
It was a massive bear.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
They fired at the bear from all directions.
But the bear, standing on two legs, only flinched slightly. It was unharmed. No blood was visible whatsoever. It was as if it had been hit by rubber bullets.
Yet the smoke and sound pouring from the guns made it clear this was live fire.
When the useless volley ended, the bear lowered itself again and lunged forward. The people before it were its targets.
Right in front of the camera, one man's head burst from the bear's forepaw.
"Uwaaaagh!"
Screams erupted from all around, and the screen shook wildly as it faced the ground. The cameraman seemed to be fleeing.
The intermittent gunshots ceased as well, and after a moment, the bear's breathing could be heard as the video ended.
The conference room was silent.
Most people wore grave expressions. Some were dry-heaving, looking nauseated.
But some people wore bewildered expressions.
They were the ones who still didn't know about the monsters. They seemed to think this was a scene from a movie.
"This was an incident that occurred in Russia two days ago. Including the cameraman, four died and three were injured. The bear that killed the people disappeared leisurely into the forest after taking dozens of bullets."
At Manager Oh's words, the bewildered people's eyes went wide.
"Unidentified creatures that appeared three days ago have been discovered in hundreds of locations worldwide up until yesterday. In the process, over a hundred deaths have occurred as well. The animals that have appeared this time were not injured by guns, let alone knives or other weapons. The biggest problem is that these animals are hostile to humans."
Manager Oh drank the water placed on the desk, as if his mouth had gone dry.
"My God, do animals use superpowers now too?"
A young woman sitting in front asked in a surprised voice.
People certainly couldn't help but think that way.
The aurora had appeared, and superhumans had emerged. Now that bulletproof animals had appeared, they couldn't help but think that animals had gained superpowers as well.
Looking at the internet, others seemed to think the same as her.
"We still don't know if it's superpowers or something else."
Manager Oh glossed over her words vaguely.
"We're internally calling those bulletproof animals 'monsters' rather than animals. The governments of various countries and our company have tried fighting those monsters with all sorts of weapons. But we have reconfirmed that they cannot be injured with conventional weapons."
The people's expressions darkened. Manager Oh continued.
"But fortunately, those monsters were not invincible. Though completely uninjured by conventional weapons, they could be killed through other means."
After he finished speaking, another video appeared on the screen.
This time, it was a Western-style city alley. On the screen, a huge cat was cornered at the end of the alley. It looked like a cat, but it was the size of a fully grown leopard.
Around the cat, faint green light flickered.
And standing before the cat as it bared its teeth and growled, a handsome blonde man clenched his fists in confrontation. Light flowed from the blonde man's fists.
Shortly after, the blonde man charged at the cat. The cat dodged around and counterattacked, but eventually collapsed from the man's shining fist.
The video ended. And immediately after, photos scrolled across the screen. Photos of dead wolves, dead cats, and dead leopards were shown as well.
"Most of these are monsters hunted by our company's Espers, and some are photos taken when corpses were discovered."
He looked around at the people in the conference room.
"The weakness of those monsters was Espers. Though uninjured by ordinary weapons, your attacks can damage the monsters and even kill them."
Everyone was surprised by his words. It was the first time they had heard this.
But the people who had found it fascinating soon frowned. According to what Manager Oh was saying, it meant they had to step forward and kill the monsters themselves.
As ordinary people, they couldn't help but feel resistance to Manager Oh's words.
When the crowd's mood sank, Manager Oh immediately continued.
"Currently, according to the information gathered by various governments and our company, incidents are continuing to increase. Therefore, we have arranged this gathering to request your cooperation."
Manager Oh looked around at the people and continued.
"Since you are civilians, we have prepared some compensation."
When talk of compensation came up, the people with sour expressions changed.
"First, if you catch the monsters you saw earlier, we will provide compensation ranging from 10 million won to 20 million won per monster."
The corpse of the large cat the Esper had caught appeared on screen.
"We plan to pay 10 million won for this cat monster and roughly 20 million won for the bear monster you saw first."
The expressions of the people turned serious. They seemed to be calculating the numbers inwardly.
One man raised his hand and asked.
"Couldn't you just catch a regular animal and insist it's a monster?"
"Ah, you don't need to worry about that."
Manager Oh took out a small gem gleaming with red light.
Yeonghun recognized what it was. It was a Dimensional Core.
"This is a gem obtained from the monsters you just saw. Inside every monster's body, there is a gem like this. If such a gem comes out of the animals you catch, we will recognize them as monsters."
Eunseo, who was sitting near Yeonghun, spoke to him with a serious expression.
"Will they really pay that much? The amount is so large I can hardly believe it."
Yeonghun smiled bitterly at her words. It wasn't a large amount at all.
Even excluding that Dimensional Core, the monster's flesh alone would undoubtedly fetch that price.
Moreover, a Dimensional Core was worth several times that amount. It was exploitation.
"It will be paid properly."
At Yeonghun's decisive words, Eunseo looked at him again.
Yeonghun ignored her and looked at Manager Oh.
Manager Oh continued speaking.
"Participants will undergo training for a certain period, and we will help ensure your safety as much as possible. And afterward, we plan to provide some equipment to aid you in fighting monsters."
Yeonghun's eyes sparkled. He needed that equipment. Running around as he had been, it wasn't easy to encounter monsters. He desperately needed a dimensional power detector that could find monsters within a certain distance.
But the company called Link System was impressive as well.
The fact that they were already talking about equipment meant they had prepared in advance. Which meant they had known monsters would appear.
And after Manager Oh finished speaking, more people than expected volunteered to participate. Eunseo signed the contract as well, and Yeonghun finally signed too.
Training would begin the following Monday. And the training period would be one week.
***
Having returned home, Yeonghun immediately went to a nearby metalworks.
There, he bought six 2-meter-long iron rods and had holes drilled into the ends so they could be connected to one another.
After making and modifying a triangular pyramid-shaped steel structure several times and completing it, he disassembled the steel structure and carried it back home.
The iron rods were quite heavy, and if he hadn't become an Esper, it would have been a real struggle.
Yeonghun entered the house and connected the iron rods beside his bed once again, forming a triangular pyramid-shaped structure. The finished structure looked like the pyramid structures said to be used for health. The small room was packed full of the steel framework.
He took out the Dimensional Cores he had hidden deep away. And he carefully fixed each Dimensional Core to the vertices of the triangular pyramid. Fortunately, he had managed to obtain four at once, which helped.
Yeonghun entered inside the triangular pyramid and sat in a comfortable posture.
And he slowly began to draw up dimensional power.
Crackle!
As he drew up dimensional power, small sparks began to burst around his body. It was the repulsion between dimensional powers.
The method Yeonghun was currently using was the fastest way to raise dimensional power outside of combat.
It was a method created by an Esper who had realized that raising dimensional power relied on the repulsion between dimensional powers, using Dimensional Cores obtained from monsters.
In the other world, it was a method frequently used by wealthy Espers.
Of course, growth was much slower than when fighting monsters, and causing repulsion like this gradually rendered the Dimensional Cores useless, unlike when they were inside the monsters. But there was no better method for dimensional power growth.
Right now, they were only F-rank Dimensional Cores that were easy to obtain, but when his level rose to D-rank or C-rank, obtaining Dimensional Cores would clearly become increasingly difficult. Because he had to obtain four clean Dimensional Cores uncontaminated by the Assassin.
Anyway, later matters could be thought about later. Yeonghun pushed aside idle thoughts and continued maintaining the drawn-up dimensional power.
A small, bean-roasting crackle continued to echo in the room.
From that day until Monday, Yeonghun trained his dimensional power at night and wandered the mountains and city alleys during the day for exercise. It was in case he might encounter an F-rank monster. But in the end, he couldn't find a single one.
By now, TV and the internet were in an uproar over monster stories, but the actual number discovered worldwide was less than a thousand cases. Even in Korea, the number of discoveries was only around ten, so there was no way to meet them easily.
"So I really do need a dimensional power detector after all."
Yeonghun smacked his lips, thinking of Link System. Having something and then losing it was truly inconvenient.
And Monday dawned. The meeting place was a corporate training center on the outskirts of Seoul. Yeonghun woke up early in the morning and took a bus toward the training center. Fortunately, it wasn't far from his home, so it didn't take long.
He got off the second intercity bus he had transferred to and looked at the training center. [Link System] was written at the entrance. The letters sparkled, looking as if they had been made not long ago.
When Yeonghun verified his ID at the main gate and entered, he saw Instructor Seo Donghyeok standing in the middle of the athletic field wearing a tracksuit in the distance. And several people were doing one-armed push-ups before him.
When Instructor Seo Donghyeok saw Yeonghun coming, he shouted.
"This punk is slow as hell, hurry up! Want me to cripple your legs?"
The man's entire demeanor had changed. Like a completely different person. Yeonghun's mind snapped to attention as he looked at Instructor Seo Donghyeok.
From him, Yeonghun felt the reek of the battlefield.