Chapter 162: Variable (1)
The Kraken, an Alpha hazard ent.i.ty presumed to be an S-cla.s.s, died and fell back into the ocean. Everyone had seen it die, and their eyes were filled with greed.
An S-cla.s.s core which was so incredibly difficult to find that it was impossible to set a price, but to Murim warriors, it was the highest treasure.
‘Where did that monster go?’
‘Did it disappear?’
The energy that suppressed everyone in every direction dissipated as some doubted the ident.i.ty of the Golden Gumiho, but they couldn’t see the majestic fox anymore so they looked at the Kraken instead.
But their attention was only on the Gumiho for a while. Seeing the Gravity Witch, Baekgi, and Ark Young approach the beast, they held themselves back.
“What is it doing?”
Baekgi asked, puzzled while looking at the golden fox that was poking through the corpse of the Kraken. Yu So-hwa replied.
“Probably looking for the core.”
“Core?”
Baekgi had no idea about this era’s strange occurrences, and with him coming from the past, it would be even stranger if he knew about the Gates and cores.
Ark Young tried to articulate the ideas in a way that Baekgi could understand.
“Cores are like a dantian of such beings.”
“Ah! Got it.”
Baekgi nodded to show that he understood.
“That fox too must be a spirit creature then, but it’s unusual for one to be aiming for another spirit creature’s dantian.”
Hearing Baekgi’s words, Ark Young wasn’t sure how to explain the tiny fox’s ident.i.ty as one of the Three Yokai, which was different from other creatures.
Baekgi asked Ark Young, who kept answering him,
“Is that fox my Lord’s pet…?”
‘!?’
Ark Young was fl.u.s.tered at the question, and tried to change the topic.
“Ah! I think there was a person Teacher asked me to secure, so I’ll go ahead and check on him first.”
Ark Young looked at the Golden Gumiho searching through the corpse of the Kraken. Even though she looked rather cute, she was very mean to everyone apart from Chun Yeowun.
‘It would be best not to touch her.’
Phat!
Ark Young hurriedly moved and headed to the collapsed dome.
Jo Hogi, one of the ten members of MS Group, was still in there with his blood points sealed. He was put in a safe room to avoid the chaos and danger of the fights outside.
“Why’s he acting like that?”
Baekgi was puzzled at Ark Young’s suddenly moving away, to which Yu So-hwa whispered,
“Because he hates talking about the fox. It’s better to not mention it.”
“Hmm...”
Baekgi sighed as if he couldn’t understand. However, he figured that if the fox had such immense power, then the outstanding fear of his comrades was justifiable.
‘How did the Lord tame that fox?’
He saw the fox find something the size of a human body that was glowing with a dazzling light.
“The core!”
It was the core of Kraken, an S-cla.s.s Alpha Ent.i.ty.
-Found it!
The Golden Gumiho excitedly jumped and licked the core, thinking about using it to recover her energy that was drained and regrow the two tails that had been cut off too.
Shhh!
The tails of the Gumiho grew even bigger and wrapped around the core as she began to absorb the vast energy inside it.
Goooo!
As the energy was absorbed, an even stronger golden light shone from her. The fox purred in delight.
Baekgi who saw the fox’s growth, mumbled.
“Is it not… a fox?”
He couldn’t figure out why it was acting like a cat. Yu So-hwa tilted her head when Baekgi turned somewhere with a darkened expression.
‘What?’
Yu So-hwa asked Baekgi, who acted strangely,
“What is it?”
“The people around us have vanished.”
“People?”
Confused, she looked around. As Baekgi stated, the people who were on the speedboats just a moment ago were nowhere to be seen.
“Where did they all go?”
The sea was frozen and the speedboats were stuck, so it didn’t make sense for all of the people to have simply disappeared.
Shh!
Someone approached so fast that they left afterimages. It was a middle-aged man with a dark blue hood, sungla.s.ses, and a mustache: Kohaku.
‘He must be a warrior from the east.’
Baekgi recognized the technique in an instant, to which Kohaku asked,
“見たのか？”
[Did you see that?]
Since Baekgi didn’t know j.a.panese so he couldn’t understand, Kohaku tried speaking in horrible Chinese.
“See that? While back… people disappeared.”
Unlike them, who had their eyes on the kraken, Kohaku witnessed the people disappearing right before his eyes. They all suddenly vanished as if they were sucked somewhere else.
Realizing that something strange was happening, Kohaku escaped so fast he looked invisible, trying to give himself enough time to grasp the situation.
“What’s going on?”
Yu So-hwa frowned at the ominous feeling. Around one hundred and fifty people who came had disappeared in an instant.
“This!”
Baekgi hurriedly moved in the direction of the dome. Back at the collapsed safe room, inside was a fainted Jo Hogi.
Shhh!
Ark Young brought him out, checked the pulse, and sighed in relief one he was sure the man was fine. It seemed like he just hit his head during the shaking and fell on the ground.
“Should I bring him?”
Ark Young carried him over his shoulders and exited out of the safe room, lightly stepping on the broken floor to climb out. Then, he suddenly felt something behind him.
‘What?’
The moment he looked, he suddenly felt a presence behind him.
‘Behind?’
Ark Young moved back right away.
Kw.a.n.g!
The propulsion from his movement caused part of the dome to collapse, but luckily no one was there.
‘A Ghost?’
It was strange that he couldn’t feel the mysterious ent.i.ty, but a voice from behind said,
“I recommend you put down that burden on your shoulders.”
It was a slightly hoa.r.s.e voice with an underlying threatening tone. Ark Young asked without turning his head,
“And you are?”
“You don’t need to know.”
“… if you say that, you must be from MS Group!”
Ark Young stepped forward and tried to use the knocked-up debris as a defense, but in that brief moment, something unknown flew towards them. Confused, Ark Young moved to the side.
However,
‘!?’
Jo Hogi, who was on his shoulder, disappeared.
‘What is this!’
It didn’t feel like he was pulled away from his hands, but the voice then asked,
“Where would you like to go?”
“What?”
Whoop!
At that moment, everything in Ark Young’s sight spun as he felt a strong sense of moving, as if his body was being sucked into something.
Something unbelievable happened the moment Ark Young tried to get rid of this foreign energy.
Wheing!
There was a cold wind on his skin. It looked like it was nighttime, but he wasn’t sure.
The whole area was white and snowy, and even the mountains around were dyed in white. Up until that moment, he had been on a ship in the middle of the sea.
“Where am I?”
Ark Young opened his eyes and tried to move, but the only thing he could see around him were the mountains covered in snow.
Ark Young opened the phone on his wrist and checked his coordinates. Seeing them, he felt like he had been hit in the head.
“Ru… Russia?”
His location was in the middle of Russia. In the blink of an eye, he went from Shanghai to Russia.
At the same time, the dome of the auction house…
Bang!
Part of the dome was destroyed, along with a loud sound. Debris was thrown in all directions. Someone could be seen through the debris and dust.
It was Baekgi.
‘Where is he?’
Baekgi, who felt that something was off, witnessed his own eyes Ark Young disappear as if he was sucked somewhere.
Baekgi attacked the opponent without another thought, but the man suddenly disappeared.
‘Where?’
He tried to detect the man, but at that moment felt something behind.
“Huh!”
Baekgi stretched out his hands towards the weird energy.
Pach-chik!
At that moment, there was a flash of lightning, causing sparks to scatter everywhere. Baekgi frowned, as his opponent was nowhere to be seen.
‘Where is he?’
Baekgi tried to concentrate on finding the opponent. When he felt the foreign energy again, it was exactly where he was standing.
“Kuak!”
Phat!
Baekgi tried to move his body to the side right away, but in that brief moment, the place he was just at shook.
‘What is this?’
It was strange.
Startle!
Baekgi kicked towards the unknown energy that he felt. Then he formed the Invisible Kick.
Bang!
The area that was. .h.i.t shattered and broken, but Baekgi’s expression wasn"t good. Since he had used the Invisible Kick, he thought he would at least unveil his opponent’s presence, but it was to no avail.
‘Where is he?’
Baekgi moved at high speed to find the man.
At the western end of the ship, far from Baekgi. The s.p.a.ce shook, and a man with curly hair, a white researcher suit, and black horn-rimmed gla.s.ses appeared.
“Haa…”
Drip!
Blood dripped from the man’s nose as the veins on his forehead were popping out.
‘Like a ghost.’
He was trying to send Baekgi to a different location, but somehow, Baekgi kept sensing his intent and moving away. He was confident he could send Baekgi away if he had more time, but his brain’s overload from using this ability was too much.
‘I need to accomplish my mission.’
The man looked at the ship that was 300 meters away, where the real body of Chae Mun-tak, one of the MS members, was.
Woong!
The s.p.a.ce shook and the figure of the man disappeared.
Chae Mun-tak’s point of view.
A large number of people were gathered in the wheelhouse, and since there was a very audible roaring and windows being smashed, it wasn’t impossible for them to notice something wrong.
“Senior Researcher!”
However, they didn’t enter the wheelhouse because Chun Yeowun, who was standing there, had sliced off Chae Mun-tak’s arms.
‘Among all of them, there is no one who can save me.’
Chae Mun-tak was desperate.
Everyone was afraid after they witnessed Chun Yeowun’s skills in the dome, now knowing that this man was able to take down the 4th Gen humans.
“Tell me where you guys are from and what you’re trying to do.”
Chun Yewun deliberately asked the question because no intention of keeping the man alive. All he wanted was for this man to think of the answer.
“I… I will not say!”
Chae Mun-tak answered, with his face full of fear. He didn’t want to beg for his life when so many of his subordinates were around, to which Chun Yeowun smiled.
“It doesn’t matter. Who is your lead–”
It was then.
Shh!
The s.p.a.ce shook and someone appeared in the wheelhouse: the man with the curly hair, white researcher suit, and gla.s.ses.
‘Hm?’
Chun Yeowun narrowed his eyes at the sudden appearance of the man, whose movement he couldn’t sense.
Chae Mun-tak’s face instantly brightened.
“E!”
The curly haired man was one of the 10 MS Group executives, and was one of the two most powerful.
‘He’s alive!’
The reason why Chae Mun-tak was happy was simple. While E wasn"t suitable for combat, he had a s.p.a.ce mobility a.s.sumed to be at the SS-cla.s.s level.
He had the ability to move not only himself, but also people and even monsters as well with no constraint. Of course, he could only move to places he had been to, and overusing the ability would cause his brain to overload. Nonetheless, it was safe to say he was one of, if not, the best.
“You all must leave.”
E reached out to those outside the wheelhouse, who all disappeared in an instant.
‘They really disappeared.’
Chun Yewun frowned at the sight, as his senses confirmed their disappearances when he couldn’t detect anyone around.
“What are you?”
At his question, E laughed.
“Don’t rush me, Chun Mu-seong. Even if you don’t want to, we will meet sooner or later.”
With that, he reached for Chae Mun-tak.
“Who says you can do what you want?”
Chun Yeowun tried to stop it.
“It"s no use.”
At that moment, the s.p.a.ce shook and E’s view rotated. He didn’t intend to fight with Chun Yeowun, knowing how strong Chun Yeowun must be if he could deal with Baekgi.
His objective was Chae Mun-tak.
Woong!
His view changed to reveal a large hall with a round table in front. Sitting in that hall were four men and one woman, all in white research suits.
Drip!
“Kuak!”
E staggered and grabbed the table, feeling like his brain was going to explode. However, he was able to achieve his purpose.
E spoke to the others in researcher clothes.
“Haaa… Haa… even I escaped. What a s.h.i.tty business. All this hard work just to save the person who ruined our plans…”
E frowned. It was unpleasant to see the four men staring at him with stern expressions.
“What’s up with you guys?”
At that, the middle-aged man with thin eyes asked,
“E, whom… just whom did you bring with you?”
‘!?’
E turned right away, hearing his heart beating quicker with each pa.s.sing second.
“You… how?”
The person behind him was none other than Chun Yeowun.
E was only aiming to bring Chae Mun-tak, so it was no surprise to say he was shocked.
Chun Yeowun smiled and said,
“It’s been too long, MS Group.”