The Black Turtle’s strength lay in the poison breath it spewed from its turtle head, on the snake head’s high speed, and finally, on its unbelievably thick sh.e.l.l. Junhyuk wasn’t confident that he would be able to break through the sh.e.l.l.

The snake head moved toward him, and he dove to the side. His movement speed was really high, but he couldn’t completely escape the attack.

Junhyuk got hit on the side and pushed back. Meanwhile, the snake head wrapped its long tongue around him and slowly raised its head, trying to swallow him whole.

He looked into snake head’s eyes and said, “You think you’ve won?!”

The Black Turtle did not speak. Instead, it opened its mouth wide and tried to bite him. He looked at its sharp teeth and, without hesitation, raised the force field. The snake’s head was nearly swallowing him when the force field appeared, and it had a radius of five meters, so it tore through the snake head’s mouth. Then, Junhyuk shrunk his force field quickly.

As the force field made a layer over his body, he swung his sword, attacking the mangled mouth of the snake head. The head was going berserk.

He attacked a few more times, but the snake head was moving erratically, and it hit him in the process. He got launched off, so he took the time to access the injuries on the snake head.

They were only scratches, and he wouldn’t be able to kill the turtle if things kept going that way, so Junhyuk stopped attacking and gathered his thoughts.

This dimension was no like the Dimensional Battlefield. There were no constraints to his powers. Junhyuk could trigger acceleration, but acceleration wouldn’t help him.

As he slowly raised his sword, he kept on thinking. Junhyuk had moved the living spirit to the tip of his sword, and he gathered the mana around him on that point. The snake head was moving toward him, but he just kept focusing, ignoring the snake head.

Boom!

He got launched back from the shock again, so he moved the living spirit to the tip of his sword once more. When the living spirit reached that point, the mana gathered there turned thicker than before. Finally, Junhyuk was able to split the living spirit. The process had been different from what had taught him.

Artlan had told him to split the living spirit first and then send it out. Junhyuk repeated the process, and the tip of his sword shone brightly from the mana gathered on it.

The snake head was about to attack him again, and again he moved the living spirit to the tip of his sword, like a wave. Every time it reached the tip of his sword, that part of the sword shone brighter.

The snake hit him again, and he got launched off, but the living spirit was moving toward the tip of the sword at a faster pace.

At that point, the tip of the sword was shining very brightly, and Junhyuk couldn’t look at it, so he ran toward the snake head. The snake head was making to attack him again, so he pointed his sword forward.

The sword hit the snake head, and at that moment, he sent the living spirit to the tip of the sword again. All of the force gathered there exploded.

Boom!

The explosion was huge, and Junhyuk got pushed back from the shock. He got up slowly, and when he looked at the snake head, he saw it was destroyed. Junhyuk was relieved then, thinking that he had killed the Black Turtle. However, that’s when the turtle head appeared.

Junhyuk chuckled and swung his sword, which disappeared into the turtle neck. He used his Spatial Slash as soon as it came off cooldown and smiled.

“So hard!”

It wasn’t an easy thing to kill an A-ranked monster. He was tired, but he walked forward. Junhyuk did not want to wait for something strong to come to him.

After walking for a little while, he sped up, running forward. During his fight with the Black Turtle, he learned how to use the single-point explosion. Even if it was different from what Artlan had told him, he had accomplished it.

Junhyuk ran faster.

He could see the tower from far away. It was shining bright white, and his eyes beamed at the vision.

“This the end.”

He picked up the pace and approached the tower, almost there. Then, he readied his Spatial Slash. It would be better to destroy the tower from a distance rather than from close range, so he used the Spatial Slash.

Clang!

But the tower was covered with a translucent barrier that blocked the Spatial Slash.

“What the?!”

The tower had a force field, just like a castle. Suddenly, someone spoke up from behind him.

“Why don’t you quit now?”

Junhyuk frowned and looked back. Only monsters had shown up so far, so who could it be?

He pointed his sword at the person speaking, a person covered in bandages. The person was wearing a suit and gla.s.ses. The person’s eyes shone bright red.

“Agenchra?”

“I am not Agenchra.”

Junhyuk looked around and noticed that time had frozen in that place.

“Who are you?”

“I am the Monster Administrator Eltor.”

“Eltor… I’ve been wanting to meet someone from monster management.”

Junhyuk had many questions for the monster administration, and Eltor raised his gla.s.ses a little bit and said, “I heard about you from Agenchra, but I had no reason to visit you before.”

“But there’s a reason for us to meet now?”

“Yes.” Eltor looked at him and repeated, “You should quit.”

“Quit what?”

“Destroying the tower core.”

Junhyuk scoffed.

“Nonsense. Do you know what kind of damage this thing is causing right now?”

“I know exactly.”

“The total damage won’t be like before. Why did you release the monster waves?”

Eltor spoke calmly, “You people brought this unto yourselves.”

“What?”

“Humans created those who could open dimensional tears.”

“They were infected by the porings you sent.”

Eltor did not reply, simply smiling. Junhyuk was about to say something when Eltor spoke up first, “This will be good for humans.”

“That’s absurd! Monsters waves like this will kill everyone, even those with powers!”

Eltor chuckled and said, “These monsters are territorial. With the dimensional tear as its center, they can only survive within an area of a three-kilometer radius.”

Junhyuk hesitated before asking, “Are you creating a monster zone?”

“Correct. We want a monster zone.”

Junhyuk’s eyes widened slightly as he stared at Eltor.

“You wanted those people to open up the tear.”

“We wanted it, but we did not force it to happen.”

He inhaled deeply.

“What are you going to do with a monster zone?”

“People with powers will venture into it to try to stop it. And more will evolve, while others will die.”

“They might give up.”

Eltor laughed.

“As time pa.s.ses, the area will get bigger. Humans will feel threatened by it and send in more people with powers.”

“You already weeded out some!”

There had been many novices, but most were weeded out. How many of them would have activated more powers?

Eltor continued, “We don’t simply want novices. We want people who’ll survive the battlefield.”

Junhyuk didn’t answer, simply staring at the manager. He knew what they wanted, but they wouldn’t get what they wanted in a day.

“What is your plan?”

“From now on, we’ll make more monster zones.”

“You mean you will make more infected people who can open dimensional tears?”

Eltor simply smiled without answering, and Junhyuk could get what he was thinking: Make a few monsters zones on Earth, and collect those who can keep it from expanding. If monsters ranked higher than B show up, things would become problematic.

Could novice teams stop them? No, not really.

Junhyuk didn’t speak those things, just staring back at Eltor.

“If that’s your plan, I don’t have the power to stop it right now.”

“You’re wise.”

“But this is not a good spot.”

After speaking, he did not wait for Eltor’s answer before swinging his sword against the tower core.

Clang!

Sparks came out of the tower core, and Junhyuk continued swinging while Eltor sighed.

“Who told you about the tower core?”

“No one. I figured it out myself.”

He pounded against it without stopping, and Eltor sighed once more and said, “You can’t protect the Earth alone.”

Junhyuk didn’t answering. Instead, he continued attacking the core.

“We can give up on the first monster zone, so I won’t interfere. But there will be more monster zones,” Eltor said with a shrug.

Junhyuk just kept silently attacking the core, but it was still not destroyed. So, Junhyuk aimed his sword and sent the living spirit to the tip of his sword, where it dumped some mana and returned. He repeated the process, and the tip of his sword shone brighter and brighter. Once finished, he didn’t think twice before swinging his sword.

Clang!

The tower core started cracking, and Junhyuk ignited the single-point explosion. In the end, he destroyed the tower core.

Boom!

When he turned around, he saw Eltor in front of him.

“You can’t make a zone here.”

Establishing a monster zone would yield more negative effects than positive effects. Yongsan station was in the center of Seoul, so he couldn’t allow a monster zone there.

Eltor did not debate with him, just staring at him instead.

“This place will close in one minute. If you stay here, you’ll be lost through s.p.a.ce.”

Junhyuk started running. The dimension’s closure wouldn’t be a simple problem. If he remained there, he might never be able to get back. So he ran with all his might, triggering acceleration whenever possible and running faster and faster.

“You can’t do everything alone,” Eltor murmured and disappeared.

Junhyuk was running as fast as he could, but he still had a long way to go. The tower core was too far away from the exit, and he wouldn’t be able to get out of there by simply teleporting. Instead, Junhyuk focused on the living spirit and triggered acceleration while pressuring the living spirit and transferring that energy to his teleportation.

He did it again, but there was still a long way to go. Junhyuk grimaced, realizing that he hadn’t thought about this when he entered.

“Whoever destroys the tower core won’t survive.”

He kept on triggering acceleration. Junhyuk was not as fast as Sora Shin, but he still went well beyond the limits on human speed. However, he was not confident that he would be able to get out of there.

“This trap is dirty.”

He ran as fast as he could. When he pressured the living spirit, he could run faster. Then, from far away, he saw the dimensional tear, and the area around it was crumbling.

Junhyuk teleported twice in a row and dove through the dimensional tear’s opening in the nick of time.

After leaving that bright white world, Junhyuk saw Yongsan Station had been destroyed, and the bodies of the monsters were everywhere. He fell on top of them.

Thunk!

There was a rumble through the ground, and Junhyuk raised his head. The dimensional tear was up in the air, and it shook chaotically before finally getting sucked into itself. It disappeared.