Chapter 114: Void Energy (2)
A small village in Punjab Province, Pakistan, once located in the northeastern region bordering India.
Now it was completely overtaken by a contaminated zone, with only traces of human civilization remaining.
Monsters roamed as if it were their own home.
A monster resembling a dog but the size of a hippopotamus sniffed around, exploring the surroundings.
“Grrr?”
Then, a delicious scent wafted from somewhere.
Contaminated zone monsters could sustain life purely on the demonic energy emitted from Creeps, so they had no real need to hunt for food.
But passing up a rare delicacy whose availability was uncertain would be a disgrace for any monster.
“Sniff sniff.”
The creature began moving across the Creep following the scent.
Though the smell was very faint, its highly developed sense of smell tracked it accurately.
The scent grew stronger the farther it went.
Just as the excited monster quickened its pace.
Boom!
The monster’s body suddenly exploded, and only its head flew off somewhere.
“Kieee…?”
Utterly confused, the monster stuck out its tongue and whimpered.
Its head had stuck firmly somewhere.
On either side of it, massive boar and wasp heads were also attached, mouths gaping.
“Kikikik…”
“Kweeeeek…”
And it wasn’t just those.
Hundreds—no, thousands—of monster heads were fused onto a gigantic sphere, emitting all sorts of grotesque sounds.
It looked like a demon risen from hell itself.
And floating above it, controlling the massive sphere, was a single human.
Or rather, something that looked almost human but not quite.
If anything, it resembled a goblin more closely.
Except for the tall stature and pale skin.
Beside the goblin-like man walked a perfectly normal-looking woman.
A 1st-grade Hunter from Thailand, known by the alias “Nia.”
“Prophet Zhang Weiren, there are no more monsters left in this sector.”
At Nia’s words, the half-goblinized prophet Zhang Weiren replied.
“Which direction is the next sector?”
“The core area.”
“Already the last sector? For the largest contaminated zone on the Pakistan-India border, there are disappointingly few usable monsters.”
Zhang Weiren shook his head.
He was in the middle of collecting only monsters of Danger level 3 or higher, yet he hadn’t even reached a thousand yet.
This was supposed to be the contaminated zone where one of the Horsemen of Calamity—the White Knight—resided.
The fact that it was teeming only with low-level monsters was deeply unsatisfying.
“There should be quite a few high-quality monsters in the core area.”
“There had better be. Otherwise, carrying out Father’s orders will become problematic.”
Zhang Weiren once again recalled the instruction given by Godfather.
The dimensional gate opening experiment.
The most suitable location for the experiment was a contaminated zone inhabited by one of the Horsemen of Calamity.
Right now, he was roaming the contaminated zone, carrying out preliminary preparations for opening the dimensional gate.
Nia took the lead toward the core area, and Zhang Weiren followed, pulling the massive sphere behind him.
“Still no word on the False Prophet?”
“Unfortunately, yes. Information flow has been completely cut off. The Korean Awakener Intelligence Department has launched a large-scale spy hunt, so our surviving brothers are all lying low.”
“I didn’t expect the Koreans to respond so quickly. Is Intelligence Department Director Jeong Bo-hoon leading it?”
“Yes. He’s rapidly absorbing the politicians we had been slowly turning to our side.”
“Hm. Once this job is finished, we should deal with Jeong Bo-hoon first.”
Godfather had dispatched shadow clones of himself across the world to command GODS spies.
Zhang Weiren, in the Asian region, was assisting one of those clones in causing social chaos.
His home country, China, had fallen easily. The next target was Korea.
But the plan to first corrupt politicians and take control of society as a whole had spectacularly failed.
The cause was none other than Jeong Bo-hoon.
“I’ll register it as the next schedule.”
A tablet materialized in Nia’s hand, and she quickly entered the task.
Meanwhile, the two had drawn closer to the core of the contaminated zone.
Her sensors picked up a large number of high-risk monsters.
“Shall I lure the monsters right away?”
“Yes. Let’s get this done quickly. I want to head to Korea as soon as possible.”
Zhang Weiren rotated the massive sphere halfway.
The pitch-black space—still not fully filled with monster heads—came into view.
Sss…
Nia closed her eyes and released mana.
Rumble rumble…
Soon after, monsters began pouring out in droves.
***
Shuu—
Chae Jin-young and Dolsae stepped through the portal into the contaminated zone.
For some reason, the air felt strangely empty, and Chae Jin-young furrowed his brow.
Sure enough.
『There’s no trace of monster energy in the vicinity at all.』
The tentacle confirmed his suspicion.
“This is going to be a problem.”
To properly grind Dolsae, he needed monsters. A lot of them.
“What’s wrong?”
Dolsae, whose senses were duller than Chae Jin-young’s, simply tilted his head and asked.
“Nothing. Let’s move.”
Chae Jin-young assumed they had simply landed in an area with no monsters and headed straight for the core zone.
High-risk monsters were abundant there anyway.
And the White Knight he was looking for would also be in the core zone, so it was the right direction.
The only question was how well Dolsae could withstand the aftermath of the White Knight’s attacks.
“This sticky, unpleasant place still doesn’t feel familiar no matter how many times I come.”
Dolsae muttered while stepping on the Creep.
Wearing the latest improved contaminated zone protective gear, he looked perfectly comfortable.
Thanks to the Creeper suppressant developed from research on the ash-gray orb, the gear’s defensive capabilities had been greatly enhanced.
Seeing that, Chae Jin-young reached out with psychokinesis and lightly touched Dolsae’s protective gear.
Crack— Crackle crackle—
The mask, boots, gloves, and other pieces tore apart and flew into Chae Jin-young’s hand.
Startled by the sudden action, Dolsae shouted.
“What the hell? What are you doing taking my protective gear?”
“What else? Circulate your mana to purify and expel the poison. Have you already forgotten, sunbae?”
Facing Chae Jin-young’s clear gaze after so long, Dolsae immediately softened his attitude.
Otherwise, his own body might end up crumpled.
“Forget? Even if my mana is lacking, there’s no way I could forget that. I couldn’t forget even if I wanted to.”
Dolsae recalled the memory of rolling across Creeps alongside Choi Hee-yeon and other Intelligence Department agents.
Thanks to Chae Jin-young’s “guidance”—or rather torment—back then, he could now activate Berserk while properly maintaining his sanity.
His mana circulation ability had also improved dramatically from enduring Creep poison all day.
Though he had grown rusty from not visiting contaminated zones for a long time, he could never forget the method itself.
Sss…
Dolsae quickly released mana to counter the Creep’s poison.
“Good thing. If you’d forgotten everything, I’d have had to waste time reminding you.”
“No need. A true man finds his own solutions.”
“Wearing state-of-the-art protective gear from head to toe didn’t seem very manly.”
“…….”
Dolsae stopped mentioning “manliness” and focused on blocking the Creep’s poison.
Chae Jin-young smiled in satisfaction and continued toward the core zone.
Known as the Punjab Contaminated Zone, this place was also the largest contaminated zone in Asia.
Spanning the northeastern Pakistan region bordering India, it was roughly the size of Gyeongsang Province.
About 80% of the zone lay in Pakistani territory, with the remaining 20% in India.
Both the monsters here and the White Knight posed a major threat to both nations.
“By the way, who paid more for this business trip service?”
Dolsae asked.
The cost of Chae Jin-young’s “disaster cleanup service” was split between the two countries.
Pakistan, seeing it as a chance to reclaim its territory, had readily agreed to pay in cash and magic stones without hesitation.
Emperor Prasad Bachchan of India had also accepted without complaint.
The ratio was exactly—
“Fifty-fifty, apparently.”
“Prasad is paying half?”
Dolsae asked in surprise.
Right now, Prasad had no time to worry about minor issues, so he hadn’t even bothered negotiating the split with Pakistan.
Just like in East Asia, India had also fallen into chaos due to GODS’s schemes.
In the past, Prasad would have suppressed it with brute force, but after being thoroughly crushed by Chae Jin-young, he had gone quiet.
With such a vast land and population, he was clearly struggling.
Chae Jin-young had no intention of helping—and it wasn’t something he could help with anyway.
“Still, if the White Knight invades India on top of the current situation, it’ll be quite the spectacle. He probably figured it’s better to just throw money at it without thinking too hard.”
“That makes sense too. Honestly, India’s current mess is just Prasad’s karma coming back to bite him. Fitting for a Buddhist country.”
Though Dolsae said it, the credibility might be low, but there was truth to it.
For so long, Prasad had ruled as emperor through sheer force as a Zero-grade Hunter, pushing India into the abyss with fear-based politics.
Whether India survived as a nation now depended on how quickly this problem was resolved.
Of course, Chae Jin-young hadn’t done nothing at all.
“Still, I already crushed the heads of the main instigators, so if Prasad has any competence, he should be able to handle it.”
When he had subdued Godfather’s clone that had been scheming in Korea.
That clone had shared consciousness with countless others scattered worldwide, and through the tentacle’s mental attack, he had successfully exploded all their heads.
Now that the leader was gone, the subordinates were in disarray—this was the perfect opportunity.
“You blew up the spies’ heads? Even in India? Do you have ten bodies or something?”
Dolsae spoke in disbelief.
While he was marveling at his junior’s astonishing feats.
『I sense something suspicious.』
At the tentacle’s words, Chae Jin-young spread his psionic energy wide.
‘Which direction?’
『It’s coming from the core area we’re heading toward. One has the aura of a prophet, and the other is slightly weaker.』
So that was why there were no monsters around.
It seemed GODS was up to something in the contaminated zone.
What a coincidence.
‘Can Dolsae handle the weaker one?’
『No. In his current state, it’s impossible.』
‘Perfect, then.’
Chae Jin-young grinned.
At that moment, he met Dolsae’s eyes as the other man turned toward him.
At the sight of Chae Jin-young suddenly flashing a suspicious smile, Dolsae’s face hardened instantly.
He was quick on the uptake in moments like this.
“You’re up to something shady right now. Aren’t you?”
“Shady? This is official business.”
“How is this official business?”
“Because the Director approved it.”
At the mention of “Director,” Dolsae swallowed his retort.
“Why are you putting me through this trial, Director…?”
He recalled the days when he had used the excuse of being busy disguising himself as the head of a villain organization to slack off on missions.
Thinking back on how he had avoided meeting the Intelligence Department Director except for truly critical matters, he resolved to endure this trial.
“Yeah. Today’s the chance to prove my manliness again. I’ll blow away every last one of those monsters.”
“Finally coming to your senses, sunbae.”
Chae Jin-young nodded in satisfaction at Dolsae’s resolve.
“I’ve always been clear-headed. But I admit I’ve been complacent. Starting today, I’m reborn.”
By now, the two had drawn close to the core zone.
Dolsae was exhaling roughly through his nose—whether from tension or excitement.
It was understandable to be nervous.
The toxicity and pressure of the Creep dominating the core zone were on a completely different level.
Compared to the core areas of other contaminated zones, the pressure here was overwhelming.
For an ordinary person, it would be no surprise if their body were crushed and killed instantly.
Tss-ts-ts—
Dolsae continuously circulated mana, resisting not only the poison but also the pressure.
“Sunbae, ready to be reborn?”
At Chae Jin-young’s question, Dolsae nodded with a determined expression.
The next instant.
Sss—
A woman appeared right in front of Dolsae.
“…!”
He hadn’t sensed any presence at all, leaving him no time to react.
Boom!
With a single punch, Dolsae was sent flying far into the distance.
“You said you were ready.”
“…….”
Naturally, no reply came from Dolsae.
Chae Jin-young shook his head and turned to look at the woman.
She was clearly the culprit behind abnormally intensifying the poison and pressure in this area.
“You’re with GODS, right? What are you doing here?”
“…….”
The woman gave no answer.
She simply vanished from her spot.
Sss—
She seemed to disappear in an instant.
Shuu—
Then she reappeared behind Chae Jin-young like a ghost and threw a punch.
Crack crack crack!
“…!”
But without even turning around, Chae Jin-young crushed her fist with psychokinesis.
He sent her flying in the same direction Dolsae had gone.
She was no match for him anyway.
Rumble rumble rumble—
Chae Jin-young looked up at the massive sphere rising above the toxic fog covering the core zone.
—Kiiiiik—
—Kekekekek!
—Kyaaaaah!
Thousands of monster heads attached to the sphere let out various screams and groans.
But Chae Jin-young’s attention was focused beyond it.
‘There’s more than just black mana inside that thing. Isn’t there?’
『Yes. It’s small, but I can feel energy.』
The tentacle smacked its lips.
Chae Jin-young immediately pulled the sphere toward him with psychokinesis.
Crackle crackle crackle—
It resisted fiercely with tremendous repulsive force.
But this level of power was nowhere near enough to shake off Chae Jin-young’s psychokinesis.
Shuuuu—
The gigantic sphere rapidly flew toward him.
At that moment, Chae Jin-young’s eyes widened at the wave emanating from the sphere.
Tss…
For only a fleeting instant, a glimpse of another world’s scenery flashed across the sphere.
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