The borders of fourteen monster areas had collapsed, and Junhyuk was moving through them at full force. However, even he had a limit.

The champions had taken one of the teleportation devices, so Junhyuk was carrying four with him. Using all four teleportation devices, he tried to move as fast as he could, but destroying a dimensional tear and erasing an area took time.

Junhyuk and Sarang were able to pierce through the enemy formations. Without the two, there would be no way for humanity to destroy the tears.

The monsters were surprisingly strong, and while the experts and novices were able to keep them occupied, they could only do it for a short while, and many powered people died in the process.

Some had activated more powers, but many were dead. With support from the armies, they started retreating.

Nearly every weapon was used, but that was all they could do to resist A-ranked monsters. The powered people lured the monsters to areas empty of regular civilians.

Junhyuk and his team used the teleportation devices to stop the dimensional tears one by one. He had trained against A-ranked monsters, so he could destroy the tears, but this was a race against time.

He used the teleportation devices to stop four dimensional tears. By that point, there were two more champions and seven experts, but three times that number in experts and novices had died. They did not know how many of the military personnel had died.

After Junhyuk destroyed the dimensional tear, those holding teleportation devices moved right away, and the world organizations supported the powered people during their struggle to erase the fourteen areas.

They had wanted to use Core Bombs, but with the borders gone, it was possible that the Core Bombs would be too destructive.

They had limiters, but they hadn’t had to rely on those yet, so they didn’t know if the limiters would work. In essence, they couldn’t take the chance. Even without the bombs being radioactive, if anything went wrong, things would be worse than the monster attacks.

As they moved to destroy the tears, they slept less. If they rested, more people would die.

Little by little, the monsters were getting killed off.

Now, they had already destroyed seven dimensional tears and were on a plane flying to a different place. Junhyuk and Sarang and the champions had been a.s.signed their own plane.

Inside, Junhyuk looked at the others. Dakeda and Zenon had joined. On top of that, two others had become champions: Aleksei, from Russia, and Major Sean, from the United States.

Junhyuk sighed heavily. He wanted the champions to become heroes, but it wasn’t that easy. However, more experts were becoming champions. Unlike in the Dimensional Battlefield, the experts knew that if they died on Earth, it would be the end for them, so more experts knew the life-and-death need to activate more powers.

However, that was not so with champions. The champions were risking their lives, but none of them had activate another power. More people were activating a second power, but they weren’t as likely to activate a third. That activation wasn’t easy.

More experts were dying than becoming champions.

“Sorry to bother you while you are resting,” Junhyuk said.

Everyone turned to him.

“Seven more targets remain. If we are lucky, we’ll stop them all before Friday.”

Junhyuk looked at them one by one. They were all wearing equipment created by Elise. To deal with A-ranked monsters, regular powered people wouldn’t be enough. Most of them would die in a single hit from an A-ranked monster.

Junhyuk was glad to see that the number of champions had increased. They would go to the Champions’ Battlefield, where they would be able to train without dying.

That way, hopefully, a hero would come out of the bunch. But, he needed three more.

Each champion had a 5 percent chance of becoming a hero.

“I must ask one thing of you all,” Junhyuk said and looked at each of them. “Don’t die.”

They thought he was being silly by speaking the obvious, but their eyes were still beaming with determination. On Earth, every powered person could die.

“The monsters are getting stronger, but we can stop them. However, even after we destroy all of the tears, the waves won’t stop. To put a stop to the whole thing, we need three more heroes.”

“Three heroes?”

They all knew how rare heroes were and, now, they were also sure that Junhyuk was a hero. Humanity faced annihilation, but only two heroes existed. People had a specific chance of becoming novices, and the same could be said for experts, and champions. With each stage, the chance of becoming something more decreased. A hero couldn’t be borne out of pa.s.sion alone.

Very few people became heroes. Of the champions gathered there, none of them knew if they would become heroes.

“Nowadays, more of the hidden experts are coming forward, but no one knows how many of them will become champions.” Junhyuk looked over the group and said, “I trust those who are already champions.”

The champions felt burdened by the responsibility, and as he watched them, Junhyuk smiled.

“If you survive, you’ll become heroes.”

The champions wanted to become heroes. Heroes didn’t die at the Dimensional Battlefield and heroes could fight monsters on their own.

“So, rest up.”

Junhyuk sat down, and Sarang asked, “Are you OK?”

“I am more worried about you.”

She shrugged and replied, “Having this plane is nice.”

This was their first time resting in the plane, and it would probably be their last. They had to destroy the monster areas.

Junhyuk caressed her head. She hadn’t rested in ten days.

Leaning back on her seat, Sarang said, “I’ll take a nap. You rest as well.”

Junhyuk nodded and leaned back. He had destroyed the tears at a quicker pace than he had expected and he was maintaining a fast rate of destruction, but the casualties were heavier than he had expected.

The experts and novices were fighting hard, but they were being pushed back by A-ranked monsters. Helicopters were being used to evacuate them, and how many of those soldiers had died?

It was a good thing that only one A-ranked monster had been released per tear. If the managers had decided to release more A-ranked monsters, the number of casualties would be astronomical.

While resting, Junhyuk decided to take a short nap. He wouldn’t be able to sleep well unless he destroy all of the remaining dimensional tears.

Junhyuk closed his eyes and fell fast asleep.

—

The plane landed in Bogota, the capital of Colombia. The entire group flew off on drones. They were hovering over to the area, to where the novices and experts had lured the A-ranked monster, and they all pulled out their weapons.

The team worked together well enough to use the flying drones as a group. Junhyuk looked at the monster in the distance. It was a golden bird and it was huge.

Frowning, Junhyuk said, “I have to deal with it.”

At first impression, the bird seemed to be a magic-based monster, so Junhyuk was the right opponent for it.

With the drone, now he could fight and fly. He flew ahead and triggered a Spatial Slash. The bird was ma.s.sive, and it did not dodge the attack. However, Junhyuk didn’t know how strong the bird’s feathers were.

Clang!

The Spatial Slash had dented the feathers, but the bird did not bleed. Then, the golden bird opened its mouth.

“Kwwaaakk!”

The cry created shockwaves that headed in his direction, and Junhyuk teleported. He reached the damaged part of the bird’s feathers and stabbed down at it. The golden bird tried to throw him off, and a blood arrow headed for its eye. However, the bird deflected it. It was certainly a magic-focused monster, so Sarang wouldn’t be much help.

Junhyuk shouted, “Those with physical attacks, attack the bird!”

He did not spare the champions. They had to fight risking their lives so that they could activate more powers.

They all attacked the bird, but the golden bird focused solely on Junhyuk.

Junhyuk tried to lure the bird. His defenses were superior to the others’ and so was his swordsmanship.

He muttered while fighting the bird, “Is this even an A-ranked monster?”

The golden bird was the most difficult monster to deal with so far, so it had to have evolved somehow. It was a magic-based monster with high defense, and although he was doing little damage, he was able to attack it.

Finally, the golden bird went down. After it was killed, he took the group inside the tear with the drones.

Sarang fought another A-ranked monster inside, which was also difficult. Junhyuk even thought of using the champions against the monster.

He was in front of the tower when time stopped again, and Eltor appeared. The manager looked at him and Sarang and said, “Honestly, you never cease to surprise me.”

“Why?”

Both stared at the manager, and Eltor replied, “I did not think you would have had enough time.”

Junhyuk did not speak, simply staring at the manager. Eltor lifted both arms, seemingly giving up.

“OK. Your struggle has been successful.”

“So?”

“I’ll shut down the remaining dimensional tears.”

There were six tears left, but Eltor would get rid of them himself. The manager extended his hand, and suddenly, the tower disappeared.

“Then, see you later.”

Eltor was gone, and Junhyuk got an eerie feeling. Agenchra had already told him the plan wouldn’t stop. Eltor was giving up for now, which meant something bigger was coming.