Junhyuk had deployed the iron soldier too late to check out the novices’ powers. Suddenly, his phone rang gain. When he looked at the number, he saw it was Elise and picked up.

“The iron soldier has been deployed.”

“I have a more serious problem.”

“What problem?”

“There are more dimensional tears than there are iron soldiers deployed in every country. To be more accurate, there are two more dimensional tears in every country.”

“Are you saying the novices are their new targets?”

“You expected that, and things turned out just like you said.”

Every country had gathered novices and trained them. Although, in South Korea, Doyeol was the one doing that job.

The dimensional tears appeared at the locations of those novices, which meant that management was trying to kill them.

“Don’t send iron soldiers to where the novices are gathered. They will deal with the monsters anyway.”

“What if the monsters’ strengths are equal to the novices’?”

“If that’s the case, there is nothing the iron soldier can do now.”

“Right. I’ll consider you advice.”

Junhyuk knew that the weeding out had started in full swing. This was a worldwide event, and it was possible that some novices would evolve into experts.

Junhyuk hung up the phone and pondered everything. There were still so few novices.

If they were to count up all of the novices currently, there wouldn’t even be three hundred. The number of people that would evolve from this, if any, wouldn’t be high. He was thinking about things when the iron soldier feed focused on a large factory building. It’s roof had been torn off.

“Approach slowly.”

The iron soldier looked down into the building through the roofless opening. When Junhyuk looked down at what was below the iron soldier, he scowled.

“A golem?”

The large golem was at least a C-ranked monster. Even novices with attack-focused powers, they were no match. The novices would have a hard time finding its core.

Still scowling, Junhyuk said, “They will all die.”

“What do we do?”

He sighed. The iron soldier would also have issues reaching the golem’s core.

Then, the attacks started. A novice extended his hand toward golem, creating an explosion. The golem simply walked through while another novice extended his hand. The golem stopped all of a sudden.

“Focus fire!” Junhyuk ordered right away.

“Yes, sir!”

While the golem was paralyzed, the iron soldier let loose a ferocious barrage on it. The golem’s upper body cracked, and it ran forward.

After it regained its movements, the golem stepped on the novice, killing him. Then, it swung its arm.

A man created an ice spear and threw it at the monster, but it didn’t damage it at all. A woman stepped in front of the golem and extended her hand while the golem punched at her.

Her hand enlarged, and she blocked the golem’s fist.

Boom!

The shock from the block sent the woman rolling on the ground. Meanwhile, the golem attacked the others.

“Prioritize rescuing those people rather than destroying the golem!” Junhyuk said, still scowling.

“Yes, sir!”

The iron soldier fired at the golem’s head, flew down, s.n.a.t.c.hed the woman and then flew back up. The two men left on the ground shouted after it.

“Save us!”

“Save me!”

The broken pieces of the golem started regenerating, and the iron soldier fired at its chest, but it was unable to bring the golem down. The iron soldier could only buy more time.

The iron soldier was able to hug the man, but was unable to grab the high school student. The golem swung its giant fist at the student first and smashed right through him.

Unmoved by what he was seeing, Junhyuk asked, “Are we safe?”

“Two people have died.”

“How many do you think have died due to monster appearances? Relocate those that have been rescued and go back and deal with the giant golem.”

Brita asked carefully, “Can it deal with the golem?”

“An incendiary bomb will deal take the golem down.”

The iron soldier had to find the golem’s core to be able to destroy it. After placing the two people on a roof far away from the scene, it flew back toward the golem.

The golem hadn’t attacked the surroundings. Instead, it had followed them, and it was on top of an adjacent building, readying itself. The shattered parts of its body had already recovered.

When the iron soldier flew over it, the golem kicked the roof and jumped. Junhyuk hadn’t expected to the golem to have a jumping power like that.

The iron soldier shot at the golem, but the golem ignored the attacks, focusing instead on the people that had been left on the top of the other building.

The two quickly retreated, but when the golem landed on the roof, it crushed it.

Junhyuk frowned.

It seemed like the golem had been designed to kill novices. The golem was only attacking them.

With the roof destroyed, the building started to tilt, and the two novices started rolling toward the edge of the building.

As Junhyuk watched, he said, “Attack the golem’s chest!”

The iron soldier fired the incendiary bombs from its shoulder. They were small, but they were highly destructive.

When the bombs. .h.i.t the golem’s chest, they exploded.

Boom!

The explosion was ma.s.sive, and the flames raged from within it. Cracks appeared everywhere on the golem, but its core was still safe, and it did not fall down.

Scowling, Junhyuk said, “The iron soldier has a weapon that use the energy of its core. Can you use it?”

“Wait a moment.”

The screen displayed the weapons’ categories, and Brita found the one. She asked, “Shall I use it?”

“Target the golem’s stomach.”

Brita gave the commands, and the iron soldier extended its hand toward the golem’s stomach. The incendiary bombs had hit it and left a hole, so the iron soldier took advantage of that and released the bright blue beam from its hand toward it. The golem jumped and punched the ground, killing the man that had survived up to now. Then, the golem’s core was shattered, and shrapnel made of its destroyed body parts flew everywhere.

The iron soldier’s hand had been destroyed from the shock of the attack, and Junhyuk frowned while a.s.sessing the situation.

Luckily, he saw that the woman, Eunkyung Kim, was still alive.

“Take that woman to a nearby hospital.”

“Sure.”

The iron soldier took the woman and flew away, and Junhyuk took a moment to think about her. People with defensive powers usually had higher rates of survival. Attack and magic powers could be used against heroes, but heroes could also easily kill those foes. However, defensive powers were different.

Junhyuk walked out of the building and got in a car. While heading toward Incheon, he called Brita.

“Use the iron soldier to take her to the hospital.”

“Sure.”

He drove toward the hospital to where the iron soldier was headed. Driving toward the closest emergency hospital to the fight, he inhaled deeply.

“She has high survivability. I have to see her.”

He drove to St. Mary’s Hospital at the Catholic University of Incheon and, as he parked his car, he saw many people moving around.

They were all looking at the iron soldier in front of the ER. Junhyuk hadn’t sent it back yet, so he teleported to the roof of the hospital and called Brita.

“Send the iron soldier to the roof. I’ll deal with it.”

When the iron soldier arrived on the roof, he walked up to it and stashed it in his Spatial Bag. Then, he teleported back to the parking lot.

Appearing inside his car, he casually opened the door and walked toward the ER. Junhyuk had driven really fast, so the reporters weren’t there yet.

He walked over to Eunkyung, who was lying on a gurney, waiting for a room. She had been hit by the shrapnel, and her shoulder was shattered. However, if she were to be called to the Dimensional Battlefield, that injury would heal.

Eunkyung looked at him and asked, “Who are you?”

“I’m the owner of the iron soldier that rescued you.”

“What?! Doesn’t it belong to Guardians?”

“No.”

He pulled out a pen and paper and wrote Max’s contact.

“Doyeol can’t help you now. If you need help at any time, just give me a call. However, I hope you will memorize this number and burn the paper.”

Eunkyung memorized the number. She was surprised that the iron soldier was privately owned, but she was certain that he would help her. Doyeol had failed to protect her, so she wanted to memorize the number.

“But Doyeol made me an offer I can’t refuse,” she said.

“The $1 million annual salary?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll pay you $2 million a year. Don’t get tied up because of money. I can give you money. But if you die, everything will be meaningless.”

Junhyuk saw people coming, signaled with his hand to warn security and left. He was getting away, and that’s when she saw the reporters swarming in.

The iron soldier had brought her there, and the reporters wanted to know why. A doctor arrived and moved the gurney.

“Where are you taking me?”

“To a ward. Let’s move.”

She lay on the bed, relieved that she had escaped the reporters and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she was inside a VIP room. The reporters couldn’t get in there.

As she lay there, the door opened, and Doyeol walked in. He straightened his clothes and walked over to her.

“Are you OK?”

“I’m fine.”

“Are you the only survivor?”

“Yes.”

Doyeol sighed and said, “OK. Get some rest. I’ll be back later.”

“OK.”

When Doyeol walked out, he joined Jeffrey and said, “That monster showed up like it knew where the novices were.”

“And it was a higher-ranked monster.”

“Really!?”

They had thought that the novices would be able to kill monsters, but the novices had been ma.s.sacred.

If the iron soldier had not saved one, they would have all died.

“Sigh! I lost some valuable people.”

Novices had powers that went beyond the laws of physics. A novice’s power could only be stopped by a novice’s defensive power, and without anyone knowing, he had been collecting novices to use them. Now, he had lost most of them.

“Keep an eye on this place’s defenses.”

“I will.”

Jeffrey had the authority to delegate Doyeol’s orders. He made a call while following Doyeol out, gave out a few orders and continued walking. Before walking Doyeol out, he looked back.

She had survived the monster attack in the only way she could. Jeffrey didn’t know the details, but the important thing was that she had survived. He hadn’t been interested in the others anyway. Instead, he thought of recruiting her.