No. 161

Yoo-seong took the action cam out of his slot and turned it on.

The United States should have provided him with their action camera. However, they must have been thinking about the gray curtain’s ability to block reception.

It would be impossible to send out footage from an action cam.

‘Still, it would have been possible for me to record and show it to them once I’m outside,’ Yoo-seong thought. However, in the end, there was no request for such.

He also felt the lack of instructions was confusing.

‘It’s as if they don’t care about this operation at all,’ he thought as he looked at the gray wall ahead.

Then he pressed the button.

Swish-!

Auto-Hunt threw him directly against the wall.

He didn’t feel anything as his skin touched the fuzzy surface. However, as soon as he was inside, he felt something abnormal in the air.

The composition of the air was far different from the outside.

It wasn’t impossible to breathe, but a normal human would have had difficulty doing so because of the low amount of oxygen in the air.

Of course, that wasn’t a problem for hunters like Yoo-seong.

Despite the abnormal state of the air, it felt somehow familiar to him.

‘This…’

Yoo-seong briefly turned off Auto-Hunt and hid in the nearest building—a gas station.

The smell and taste in his nose and mouth… It was the same sensation he’d felt in the alien world, where he had stayed for six months!

From the inside, the gray film was not visible. He could see far beyond the boundaries as if the curtain did not exist at all.

As Yoo-seong moved closer, he observed that the film was there, but it was transparent.

He could feel the wind flowing through it.

‘That means that objects could pass through this barrier,’ he realized.

electronic devices, there should be no problem going in and out of the gray-curtained area.

However, the gray film did seem to have a function, probably to control a specific land area and make it the same as the world beyond the crack.

Yoo-seong looked down.

On the side of the paved road, where the soil was exposed, a young, purple leaf was shyly sticking out.

“Purple dip?!” Yoo-seong muttered.

It was a plant that had the efficacy of a tranquilizer without any side effects. However, it only grew in the alien world, making it hard for it to be researched for commercialization.

However, now, it had taken root and sprouted in the middle of the Nevada desert.

Yoo-seong looked up at the crack above them. Humans considered it to be hell, but it was closer to being an entirely different world, with its own ecosystems. Therefore, it was not uncommon for plant seeds or harmless creatures such as insects and rodents to fall out of cracks.

The authorities required mandatory reporting and confiscation of objects from the rift in order to prevent accidents.

Moreover, these things did not survive in this world.

However, the land within the gray curtain seemed to be ignoring this law of nature. Yoo-seong raised his head and looked around.

It seemed that the Purple Dip wasn’t only the alien living thing in Nashville.

Bouung-!

He heard the familiar sound of a Bascofly’s wings.

The six-winged dragonfly darted in front of Yoo-seong’s eyes. This harmless insect, almost as thin as paper, was like a honeybee in the alien world. They carried pollen around with their legs, fertilizing plants and making reproduction possible.

If this were to go on for one or two months, Yoo-seong pondered, Nashville, which looked like an abandoned western village, would be completely transformed into a part of the alien world.

Yoo-seong looked up the crack once more.

‘Strange,’ he thought, ‘there don’t seem to be any monsters.’

He had not been attacked since he arrived. The only reason why no monsters would appear in a wide-open crack would be…

‘A strong presence that could drive them away.’

Perhaps the gray film was produced by a single monster. Through the Habaek and the Thunder Ape, Yoo-seong was already familiar with beasts that could control natural phenomena. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled to no one in particular. “I got in your way.”

Then he pressed the button again to let Auto-Hunt continue what it was doing.

Go-oh-oh-!

Aura filled the tattoo on Yoo-seong’s left leg. There were a total of six tattoos on his body, and even he would not know their exact abilities until they revealed themselves, as with the one on his left arm.

‘What kind of ability is in the left leg?’ he thought.

It didn’t take long for the answer to manifest.

“……!”

Enhance.

It was a principle that was widely used in Tech as well as in martial arts. It was also a process of increasing the strength and function of a body part by using Aura.

However, if you were to go into a more profound state from there, you would soon reach a level where your senses were maximized. With this, a hunter could become tens of thousands of times more sensitive than ordinary people.

Hunters themselves knew about this potential, but enhancing their senses wasn’t really a priority.

It was a martial arts technique that read life energy, and through it, predicted another creature’s capabilities and even intentions.

Naturally, it was a pointless skill for modern hunters. They didn’t have any need to feel empathy toward the monsters they hunted.

However, Yoo-seong had experience with the Turtle Dragon, the Habaek, and the Thunder Ape. He understood that these beings had the ability to manipulate CE, even more so than veteran hunters. But what Yoo-seong was feeling right now was…

“Oooh.”

Yoo-seong’s tattoo was currently detecting tens of thousands of CEs in a matter of seconds. It was not an ability that could just detect giants, but…

“Three hundred… no, maybe five hundred meters…”

A radius began spreading out from where he stood, and he could feel all subjects with CE clearly.

Not only beings like the Habaek; he could even capture the movements of wild beasts and insects within that radius.

These included even creatures at the microscopic level, which Yoo-seong hadn’t even been aware of before. His head began to spin at the unexpected overload.

‘You need to get used to this.’ He gritted his teeth.

On the other hand, Yoo-seong caught something.

Southeast.

In a straight line of about four hundred meters from his current location, fifteen CE vessels were moving about, albeit in a limited space. Then…

Bang-!

Auto-Hunt began speeding toward the group. Perhaps wanting to be discreet, it did not use Explosive Acceleration or Steel Steps.

Rather, it chose the most basic Spider Walk to move quickly.

Yoo-seong quickly arrived in a half-constructed building. It looked as if the construction had been abandoned abruptly, and machines and equipment lay around unattended.

Someone immediately recognized his presence.

“Who is that?!”

The man spoke in English, and tension was high in his voice. Yoo-seong immediately turned off Auto-Hunt and raised his hands as a sign of peace.

“Don’t worry. Here to rescue,” Yoo-seong responded in broken English.

There was no answer for a while. Then, after a few minutes, a hunter came out and beckoned to him.

“Come this way.”

Yoo-seong followed him behind a pillar of the building and found a group of hunters.

“You came to rescue us?”

“Are you alone?”

Strangely, they were asking him in Korean.

Yoo-seong immediately counted them in his head. There were only fourteen.

The one who seemed to be their leader stepped up and introduced himself to Yoo-seong.

“My name is Mark Dukov, Team A leader.” He, too, spoke in Korean.

“Oh Yoo-seong.”

After completing the brief introduction, Yoo-seong immediately asked him, “Can’t you get out of the gray curtain? No one here seems to be injured.” Mark shook his head. “The situation is not that good. I’m not sure what kind of danger lies outside.”

“I haven’t encountered any danger so far. I can’t even feel a monster around here.”

Mark was silent for a while; then, he turned to one side. “I have something to show you.”

He pointed toward a hole in the floor leading to the basement.

“There’s a beast… we hunted it down there.”

Yoo-seong nodded. He felt fifteen CE vessels and counted fourteen hunters. The last vessel must be somewhere in the same building.

“What type of beast was it?” he asked.

“Very quick. It was alone, but we would have been annihilated if we hadn’t worked together. It was a four-legged beast, something we have never seen before. We managed to drive it down to the basement…”

“No one else came here? Other teams?”

“We’ve been here a long time, but you’re the only one who’s come. The other teams are probably annihilated or trapped like us. Communications are also jammed, so…”

Yoo-seong paused for a while and considered his options. Then he asked, “So, are you going to stay here? If not, I can cover for you as you leave through the gray curtain.”

“No.” Mark was determined.

The other team members looked the same.

“We cannot risk our lives on an uncertainty.”

“Then, what should we do?”

Yoo-seong shrugged. “I have work to do. You are free to stay here if you want, but I can’t hang out and hide with you,” he said.

Then he turned to leave the building. However…

“Wait up,” Mark called out.

“Yes? Do you want to go with me?”

“Yes. But before that, I want you to see the beast with your own eyes,” Mark said. “The beast over there… is special. It’s something you won’t understand unless you actually face it.”

Yoo-seong raised his eyebrows. “What are you saying?”

“Go down there and observe it yourself. If you figure out how to deal with it, then we’ll accompany you.”

“…There is nothing that can’t be done,” Yoo-seong smiled.

Mark smiled back as if he was satisfied with Yoo-seong’s answer. Just then…

Pagak-!

It was a sensation that Yoo-seong hadn’t felt for a long time. That of a human’s face crushing against his fist.

Mark couldn’t defend himself against the sudden blow. His body was thrown back, unconscious.

Upon hitting the ground, it convulsed several times.

“You were clever, but you made a mistake. Three, actually,” Yoo-seong said.

The team members silently surrounded him with expressionless faces. They didn’t even blink.

‘Just like dolls,’ Yoo-seong thought.

“The first mistake was… Well, it’s a trade secret.”

The fifteenth CE that Yoo-seong had felt was huge beyond imagination. Based on what Mark had described, was it possible for a beast with such excellent abilities and enormous CE to be contained in the basement?

“It’s the same with the second mistake. That’s also a trade secret.”

The place where the fifteenth CE vessel was located was not underground, as Mark had described. It was on the rooftop of the building.

Then why was Mark leading him in the opposite direction? Was it to keep him from the beast or to trap him in the basement?

Perhaps it was both. What was certain was that Mark and the rest of Team A were acting for the benefit of the beast.

“Oh, but the third mistake was too much. Really.”

Almost simultaneously…

Tatak-!

The thirteen team members ran toward Yoo-seong in unison.

“It’s impossible for all of you to be that good at Korean.”

Everyone in the team looked Caucasian, even Mark.

Although he had met Americans who could speak Korean well, what were the chances that an entire team of active American hunters knew how to speak his language?

They didn’t even know he was Korean in the first place.

Yoo-seong’s fists moved as he yelled out, “Korean is not that easy to learn, kids!”