Chapter 56 - Staggered (5) (1/2)
Staggered (5)
As usual, at the entrance of the road to the center of the city, there were many reporters in a protected location, and they were making a news report.
“I’m directly at the scene where the great event occurred. With all the means of communication lost, more than 100,000 citizens are believed to have been trapped, but the government has yet to reveal the details.”
The reason why they gathered is because of the enormous force field and an open gate.
If it were the usual, they would’ve turned off the media reports and sent out a few short articles later, but this time, the situation has become too big to simply hide.
The scope was also broad, and the number of people trapped was enormous, so the government couldn’t easily handle it.
There was a temporary operation room for specialized people belonging to the government.
It was dispatched outside the gate, and the team leader of Awakeners was controlling the situation.
“Park Sang-ho, Park Sang-min, and Lee Tae-hee—all three were killed,” an employee monitoring in front of numerous complex screens said gloomily.
It was usually not that serious, but there was a heavy silence in the operation room for a while.
In the middle of the city, more than 100,000 people were in danger of being isolated and killed.
No, that was as long as they were not already dead. Then, someone broke the mood and continued arguing.
“That’s why I asked you to dig a tunnel!”
“The connected subways were all blocked as well. How are you going to break through the force field?”
There were two little boys in the middle of the operation room, which only looked like junior high school students.
It seemed like an unexpected visit, but they were an exclusive help sent by the government.
Their bodies stopped aging when they were 15 as a side effect of their Awakened instinct.
They were always sent to any of the government-affiliated situations related to the barriers.
“Even if it’s useless, you have to do everything you can. What are you doing here? You are not helping.”
“What are you saying, are you in the Absolute Class?” The boy screamed at the words that touched his nerves.
It was a classification of exceptional instincts that acted in any way other than interfering with the users ability to resist other physical forces.
As described, it was treated as a rare and valuable ability, and Lee Tae-hee’s two instincts also belonged to this.
Although now, it’s a feature that can’t be found on anyone other than her.
“Soo-Yeon, I want to stay…!”
“Get out,” Lee Soo-Yeon said with her head up, standing up with her hands on the desk.
“What? Get out…?”
The two who talked all the way stopped at the same time while looking at Lee Soo-Yeon’s eyes.
In recent years, they heard that she tends to be very forceful, but now they saw her appearance as the one they saw in situations 5 or 6 years ago.
They stepped out of the place without being able to make a sound.
“What happened?” Lee Soo-Yeon asked while looking back.
“There…seems to be a mix of mutant species that aren’t caught in the gate analysis,” the government staff grumbled and replied as he displayed a video in the middle of the main screen.
The appearance of the guy was definitely a monster of the first type.
Two large blades with long tails that were out of balance made it look like a Chaser that had been roughly modified.
“It seems to be a mutant, and the guy who created the force field by looking at the wavelength seems to be it too.”
“How many are they?”
“It’s not exactly known, but the estimate is more than just the Chaser that appeared. It also exceeded a level that can be ignored. This is…?”
Although blurry at that time, the monster’s image splitting the building in half was caught on the screen.
Kugugung!
The building that collapsed was shown.
The staff gasped at its frightening appearance.
“Now, what do we do……?”
Il-Hyun was visible on the screen.
He was among the wrecks created by the monster.
“It seems unlikely. His opponent is too strong—”
“We have no choice but to hope for a miracle,” said the staff.
Some people closed their eyes and prayed, or they couldn’t stand to watch as he failed to take down the monster.
Meanwhile, Lee Soo-Yeon watched the screen silently.
* * *
Bang!
The building was cut out in the dark.
The nightmare monster was cutting out all the ugly things in front of it.
Beyond the destroyed buildings, the other Awakeners in the city were forced to be helpless.
“Danger!” A man exclaimed.
The sword was approaching fiercely as if the three Awakeners were about to be swallowed up.
Something flew in and stopped in front of them, when it was too late to avoid it.
Bang!
A massive fireball burned after being hit by the sword.
No, it seemed right that it swallowed the sword rather than being beaten.
The fireball slowly shook and took shape, forming the body of a phoenix.
The startled Awakeners looked around and found an incoming man.
Like them, the Awakened that wore a black coat was coming at them.
Il-Hyun walked with an expressionless face, and he headed straight in the direction of the monster.
“Wait! If you go that way—” the woman trying to stop him glanced at the passing Il-Hyun’s face and stopped talking.
Obviously, it was a familiar face that they’d seen a few times somewhere.
Then, she ultimately saw the English phrase on his coat’s arm.
Awakener of Aegis.
He was the last hope of those trapped in this terrible place.
“Are you going to fight?”
Asked the man who was shedding bright blood from his head.
He was frowning from one of his torn eyes, and both big and small wounds were all over his body.
Il-Hyun nodded without answering his question.
“Good luck,” the woman with scattered long hair said while crying.
Losing her younger brother here, the tears under her eyes were fresh even when she was full of the dust.
“Please kill me.” The man sitting on the floor raised his head.
He had lost one leg while dealing with a monster trying to hit citizens.
The blood that was pouring right now had stopped, but he had already shed too much, and his face was pale as was the color of his body.
Colleagues couldn’t leave him too, so they were caught up in this dangerous situation.
Il-Hyun just walked silently past them.
It wasn’t the first time.
He had encountered tragic situations several times as he approached just a few blocks.