Beneath the terraforming ruins.
The underground plaza with the teleportation device was terribly noisy.
It was because the main Korean force was coming over from Earth.
Hannah was beside me, but people could continue to come through.
That was because David was at the underground ruins to transport them.
Since Hannah had to come with me, another administrator was needed, and it was only natural that David become that administrator.
So I gave David the sub-administrator authority over the terraforming ruins that I had given to Hannah.
It was a little regrettable, as if the terraforming ruins were passing into someone else’s hands, but I had the ice planet and the underground city.
I willingly handed the authority over to him.
Thanks to the increased workload, it became hard to see David, but that was none of my concern.
“Those who have arrived, hand over your bags and follow the guides!”
People descended from the altar one after another, and those who came down were led by the follow-up team up to the surface.
The people who had come to this planet seemed to have many questions.
They looked around and asked the follow-up team members guiding them all sorts of things.
“We really came to another planet, right?”
“The atmosphere is different from what I imagined. What’s this place like?”
“I don’t know what you heard, but it’ll be very different.”
The guides thoroughly frightened the people.
Of course, the follow-up team members acting as guides had plenty of questions too.
“Can you tell us what the situation in Busan is like?”
“By any chance, what happened to the stock market?”
Some asked about prices, while others asked about real estate or news of their families.
Thanks to that, both the stairs and the underground plaza were as noisy as a bustling marketplace.
But even that commotion fell silent the moment we passed by.
There were too many people they had to be mindful of.
Me and the exploration team, as well as Catherine and the Americans.
The follow-up team members who knew us stopped talking, and when they shut their mouths, the people from Earth also began watching our reactions.
When we arrived in front of the altar, the people there stepped aside.
I placed my hand on the console and called Soph.
[Please.]
[Wait a moment.]
Operating this teleportation device was something I could do even without Soph’s help.
However, what I was doing now was not something on that level.
A hologram rose in front of the console, and the characters changed.
They changed from the characters indicating the underground ruins to the characters indicating the terminal in the ruined city.
[It’s done. Now you can go directly to the city ruins from here. I’ve also entered the coordinates for the fifth planet, so you should be able to go straight there as well.]
Soph had manipulated this ruin’s system and added new coordinates.
The ruined city with the monsters, and even the ice planet.
Now there was no need to pass through the underground ruins.
[It won’t work for going to Earth, will it?]
[That is impossible. Interstellar teleportation is not so simple.]
I had thought as much.
After all, one could not board a plane at an airport and fly to Mars.
At the very least, one had to board a spaceship at a rocket launchpad.
I relayed Soph’s words to the people waiting.
“It’s done. We can go directly from here now.”
“……Something like that is possible?”
At my words, Catherine’s eyes gleamed.
Sterling also looked at me with a frown.
Though it was limited to this planet, the ability to manipulate a teleportation device was an extraordinary thing.
Even the scientists on Earth, who had researched the ruins for years, had only barely managed to restore them.
If I had no power, it would be the sort of thing that would get me dragged away and interrogated immediately.
But there was no need to worry about that now.
Since I would be going with them, I had agonized over how much of my abilities I should show.
We would be moving together and fighting together, so I had to show a lot.
Considering who our opponents were, I could not fight while hiding things.
So I had decided to show them most of it.
Unlike before, there was no longer any need to hide.
Magreta’s answer had been no different.
“Even if you show your skills, no one will mess with you now, Hyeon. On the contrary, they’ll cling to you and make a nuisance of themselves.”
In response to my question, Magreta had answered refreshingly.
Being pestered a little was something I could easily endure.
There was no one on this planet who could pester me, and even on Earth, I could shake off such people easily enough.
However, Magreta’s answer had not ended there.
“It would be best to hide the fact that you can use your abilities on Earth. If something strange happens on Earth, you might be misunderstood.”
As she said that, Magreta winked at me.
At that meaningful wink, I could only make an awkward expression.
In any case, just as she said, I decided not to hide my abilities except for what was absolutely necessary.
The things I had to hide were the fact that I could use my abilities on Earth, and things like Soph and the ice planet.
Other than that, I intended to show them everything.
[For someone saying you’ll show everything, it seems like you’re hiding quite a lot.]
Soph’s nitpicking came through, but I ignored him and gathered my luggage.
I took several military bags out of the box and piled them on the floor.
Since I could not put them in the box during teleportation, they were things I had prepared in advance so they could be carried.
We had already handed over the scout monster caught by the main force, and the magic monster we had caught, along with the other items, had once again been buried in the sandy desert.
Even Catherine looked fed up when she saw the luggage, which seemed to weigh several hundred kilograms.
“Are you taking all of that?”
“Yes.”
“I heard you could transport a lot, but you really are taking an incredible amount. But what are those military bags?”
Unlike the backpacks containing food and camping gear, the military bags bulged out unevenly as if they were packed with lumps of metal.
“I’ll tell you once we arrive.”
When I pointed at the Koreans watching from afar, Catherine nodded and stepped back.
Now that we had even checked the luggage, it was time to depart.
The people climbed onto the altar one by one.
Hannah, carrying her bow, stepped into the portal in front of the altar first, and after her, Magreta, Tom, and Sergeant Woo teleported in order.
Magreta held a whip, but Tom and Sergeant Woo were empty-handed.
Their weapons were inside the military bags in front of me.
After the team members, it was the Americans’ turn.
Catherine entered the portal first with an expressionless face, and after her, Sterling teleported with a stiff expression.
After those two, two Americans whose names I did not know entered the portal one after another, and finally Carlo climbed onto the altar.
Carlo was still pouting.
As a member of the advance party, he had wanted to remain here.
“I really don’t understand why you picked me. Aren’t there plenty of people in the main force better than me?”
“Carlo, you are the fastest person I know.”
His objection did not work on Catherine.
“There are people I need to protect here, and… every time I moved with that side, it was dangerous.”
“This time will be different.”
Even the complaints he poured out while pointing at me had no effect on her.
Catherine was not exactly wrong.
It was not that our side was not dangerous, but that the hunting team’s side was simply more dangerous.
Carlo teleported.
Now it was my turn.
I lifted all the piled-up luggage.
Exclamations rose from every direction as they saw me lift luggage weighing nearly a ton.
I ignored the sound, climbed onto the altar, and stepped into the hologram floating in the air.
Fwaaaah!
The world was covered in bright light, and between the light, I saw paths made of energy.
I could see the path leading to the underground ruins, the path leading to the ice planet, and even the path to the city ruins that I was moving along now.
It was only a brief moment, but by now, I could tell the instant I would arrive at the city ruins.
At the final moment before the light disappeared, I saw one more path.
An unfamiliar streak of light extending from the city ruins in the opposite direction.
That was clearly a path leading somewhere else.
Flash!
At that moment, the light vanished, and I was standing somewhere else.
An underground plaza with a massive magic circle drawn on it.
It was the teleportation facility of the ruined city, which we had previously called the terminal.
The Americans who had arrived first were looking around, and the exploration team members gathered around me.
Unfortunately, they had not gathered to look at me.
“These are the right ones, yes?”
“I’ll take them out.”
Tom and Sergeant Woo snatched the military bags I was holding.
It was an absurd action, but I had no choice but to understand.
They had thought they would be unable to use Earth’s firearms, only to be able to hold guns again, so of course they were thirsting for them.
Tom, who opened the military bag first, looked at me in surprise.
“Huh? You brought this too? And there isn’t just one or two of them.”
“Yes. There were more left than I expected.”
Seeing the item he pulled out, I called Catherine, who was looking around.
At my gesture, Catherine immediately came over.
“Is this the final operation check?”
“That too, but please take this first.”
In response to Catherine’s question, I handed her the item Tom had taken out.
Seeing what I handed her, Catherine’s eyes widened.
“Is this, by any chance… a radio?”
“Yes. A PRC-152 military radio. I packed twenty of them, and four are left. You’ll need it to communicate. Take one.”
I had wanted to avoid using them if possible, but this time there was no helping it.
She stared at the radio with a shocked expression, then abruptly turned her head.
“If you have radios, then…”
As she checked my team members, she stopped speaking when she saw Tom and Sergeant Woo.
The two were taking weapons out of the military bags.
Sergeant Woo was taking out a sniper rifle, an assault rifle, and ammo cans, while Tom pulled out a grenade launcher and a heavy machine gun.
“To carry all those weapons around, that’s incredible strength.”
Seeing Tom sling the weapons over himself, Sergeant Woo let out an exclamation in English. Sergeant Woo’s English had improved tremendously.
At Sergeant Woo’s words, Tom shook his head.
“I’m nothing special. Captain Hyeon brought all this luggage with him, didn’t he?”
“You have to leave Captain Hyeon out of it.”
“That’s true.”
I was listening to the team members’ banter, which was almost like a comedy routine, when I felt a sharp gaze beside me.
“You can transport firearms?”
At her question, I glanced at Magreta.
Magreta gave a small nod.
In truth, I had told the Intelligence Department that it was a test, so there was no problem.
“Yes. The test succeeded this time. I don’t know if my ability is unusual, but I was able to bring some of them over.”
It was slightly different from the truth, but because of what I had already told the Intelligence Department, I could not tell the truth.
[And you said you would tell the truth for the most part?]
Soph nitpicked again.
The old man must have been bored.
At my answer, Catherine let out a sigh.
A sigh from that expressionless face looked extremely strange.
“……Not a single thing is like what I was told.”
She bit her lip, then muttered quietly.
“This is troublesome… At this rate, I’ll have to redraw the entire plan.”
It was a soliloquy unlike her.
Her voice was so quiet that others would not have heard it, but I could.
Her voice was trembling slightly.
It seemed she had made some kind of plan regarding me.
I was curious about that plan, but I could not ask now.
I pretended not to have heard her.
The other Americans also stared at Tom and Sergeant Woo, who were holding guns, with surprised eyes.
They seemed to want to ask questions too, but this was not the time to take them.
After a short meeting, we crossed the underground plaza and walked toward the place where the stairs leading to the surface were.
The stairs were covered with dirt.
“The stairs are blocked.”
At the American’s words, I stepped forward.
“One moment.”
I pressed my staff to the ground.
Soph cast magic, and the dirt covering the stairs moved.
Dudududu.
As the dirt withdrew, the stairs revealed themselves again.
The Americans looked at me with astonished eyes.
Sterling’s expression became even worse.
However, Catherine merely nodded as if she had accepted everything.
“They’re open. Then let’s go.”
We climbed the stairs again.
When we emerged from the stairs, we saw the ruins of the city.
A defensive-type monster was visible in the distance.
At a glance, I could also see humanoid monsters moving about.
I looked toward the west side of the city.
Our target was the sewage treatment plant located underground in the western part of the city.
And the control entity hiding beneath it.
“Let’s go.”
Leading the group, I set off west.
City Infiltration (2)