All one hundred dimensional tears had appeared on a Sunday, which people were calling Bloody Sunday now. The Friday before that, people had felt elated since there hadnât been any cases of abnormal narcolepsy, but on Sunday, they were crestfallen.
The monsters appearing through the tears were of a different level than the ones that had appeared previously. Up to that point, the military had been able to stop monster attacks, but now, all branches of military had been defeated, and they were focusing on containing the monster areas instead.
The monsters with superior strength seized the cities. Many people had died, and the families of the victims were angry, but even the military couldnât enter the monster areas.
Each of the tears appeared in a countryâs major city and highest populated area, and because of that, the world economy had suffered. Real estate business and the stock market had crashed.
People who had not cared about monsters were now deeply concerned about monster areas. Those with money and power got angry, and the military gathered again.
Publicly, the military was gathering to retake the monster zones. They were equipped with monster decomposition liquid, but in the end, they failed to even get close to the tears. They had been able to easily advance in the beginning, but when B-ranked monsters appeared, everybody was wiped out.
People felt hopeless after the annihilation, and God was merciless on hopeless people.
â
Wednesday.
Monsters fell from the sky, five times as many than ever before. To stop them, both iron soldiers and the military were deployed, and they were able to do it only after heavy civilian casualty.
While watching TV, Junhyuk sighed.
Sarang, who was sitting next to him, said, âSouth Korea remains unaffected.â
âIt must be intentional.â
It might be because Junhyuk had shut down a dimensional tear. No monsters fell from the sky either, and the world started looking at South Korea differently.
âIf no monsters show up in South Korea, land prices will skyrocket.â
âDo you own land?â
Junhyuk shrugged and answered, âThree buildings in Guro. Two houses in Paju. Iâm also building a lab in the Gyunggi province. Are these enough?â
âYou are something else.â
âNot long until the math test?â he asked nonchalantly.
âNot long.â
âAre you taking it?â
She nodded.
âIt hasnât been that long since I gained more intelligence, so I have to take the test to go to a nice university. My previous grades werenât good.â
Junhyuk thought about what she said and asked, âYou are ranked number one in the country. You can go anywhere you want. Have you thought about your major?â
She shrugged and answered, âIâm so intelligent now it gives me a headache. Where should I contribute?â
Junhyuk answered, âYouâll get even more intelligent. Each runestone will make you more intelligent, and you may become the smartest person on Earth.â
âHm. What should I study?â
âYou can study anything you want. You donât have to focus on a single major.â
She laughed.
âRight. When I have time, Iâll get certifications.â
He nodded and said, âYou are so cool.â
She had been gathering intelligence runestones, but he was focused on strength runestones. Junhyuk got up.
âYou should be heading home.â
She checked her bracelet and nodded.
âThe mana is recharged, so I should be going. Are you going to the training facility?â
âI am.â
She stared at him.
âAre you really just going to watch the whole thing?â
âWhat?â
âThe monster areas.â
He stared at her for some time.
âJust be sure to remember one thing: the monster areas are really dangerous. Iâm just getting ready to attack them.â
âIsnât crafting equipment taking a while?â
âIf we have the equipment, we can attack. But not right now.â
They were able to kill an A-ranked monster, but he remembered that there were more than one inside a tear. The truth was that he didnât know what was inside each tear, so he had to be careful.
He had to know more about the tears. If a tear ended up being longer than the previous one he had visited, he might not survive getting out of it.
âWe need to know more about dimensional tears.â
âHow?â
âThrough Vera.â
Sarangâs eyes beamed.
âShould I ask her?â
âNo, Iâll do it.â
âLetâs both do it. We can group chat now.â
Junhyuk nodded and tried to raise Vera through the communication orb. Sarang did the same, and Vera appeared soon after.
âI can see you both. Junhyukâs dragon friend did this for you?â
âYes. By the way, I have something to ask.â
âWait. I just want to let you know everyone got paid because you won the Championsâ Battlefield.â
Junhyuk smiled.
âThatâs nice.â
âBut you won too easily this time, so the returns wonât be that high next time. You shouldâve gone easy on them!â
âI was just trying to win.â
âEven with lower odds, you still need to win. Can you?â
âIf things are normal, weâll win. They wonât be able to get into the Dimensional Battlefield before the next battle to upgrade their equipment.â
âRight. Iâll bet on you again next time.â
Vera smiled.
âI wanted to ask you about dimensional tears.â
After some thought, Vera smiled again.
âOh, yeah! What happened to the last one?â
âI went into it myself. There were A-ranked monsters crawling within it, and I definitely needed more time to escape after destroying the tower. I was in danger even when I had teleportation at my disposal.â
Vera touched her chin and said, âYou guys normally wonât have enough time to get out.â
âWhat do you mean?â
Vera said calmly, âWe can get out just by running, without the need of teleportations.â
âWhat?!â
âThere are constraints to our movement speed in the Dimensional Battlefield. Ordinarily, we can run out of a collapsing tear.â
Junhyuk started pondering things, and Sarang said, âBut there are no dimensional tears in dimensions with heroes.â
Vera smiled.
âCorrect. We heard about the dimensional tears from others who became heroes. They also told us how to destroy them. Just in case, we listened carefully.â
Junhyuk sighed.
âIs there a way to safely extract ourselves from dimensional tears? Itâs more dangerous to return than to destroy the tower core.â
Vera raised her hand.
âWait a minute,â she said and got up. When she came back, she had something in her hands. There were two of them, and they were the size of her palms. âThis works with mana stones. It can teleport things within a five-meter radius to somewhere else. It has teleportation magic, but each use will consume a mana stone of about this size.â
He looked at the gesture she made, and it looked like it would cost at least $10 million per use.
Curious about something, Junhyuk asked, âIf you feed it a bigger mana stone, can you use it more than once?â
âIt may be possible. Itâs not a complex object.â
âCan you give it to me?â
Vera pondered the idea.
âMy Junhyuk has earned me some money. Sure, I can send it to you. They come in pairs, so how many do you need?â
âHow will you send it?â
âJust like Artlan did. Itâll cost me a fortune, but I can do it for you.â
Junhyuk looked at Vera. She should definitely have enough money in her own dimension. It would be easy for her to do it.
âJust in case, can you please send me five?â
Sarang asked, âTears are dimensions of their own, at least thatâs what I heard. Will that work within tears?â
Vera laughed brightly.
âYou are a curious being. Iâve already checked it and have used it in other dimensions.â
âDo other dimensions have dimensional tears?â Junhyuk asked.
âThatâs right. Thatâs how I found out about tears. They had the most difficult time stopping them.â
âWe have a hundred dimensional tears.â
Vera cocked her head.
âItâs not that easy to make tears! People have to activate powers to open up dimensional tears.â
Junhyuk sighed. They could only do it by accident before, so management must have created the poring to find out how to open tears.
âNow, battlefield management can create tears anytime if they have the tower cores to do it.â
Vera frowned.
âThatâs a terrible situation. With a hundred dimensional tears, your world may disappear.â
âThat wonât happen.â
He wouldnât let Earth disappear. Vera would send him her things, and with the new equipment, he could always destroy the tower cores by himself. Getting to the tower core was hard, but he didnât have to do it alone either.
He would gather novices and experts, gift them new equipment and destroy the cores. After Vera had sent him the teleporter, would it be possible to mass produce them? If so, he would be able to attack multiple areas at the same time.
Vera shrugged.
âRight. Our Junhyuk will do well.â
He asked carefully, âLast time, the space collapsed within itself, so is there a way to send those things without destroying my place?â
âThereâs no way to avoid that. Moving within different dimensions is not easy.â
Junhyuk would find a place for the transfer, and Vera said, âIâll let you know when Iâm sending them. Be ready.â
âThanks.â
Junhyuk had finished talking to Vera. He had helped Vera make some money, but he couldnât buy the things that would save the world from destruction with money.
Junhyuk turned to Sarang and said, âInside the tear, I came up against an A-ranked monster, but that tear was relatively new. Time has passed now, so I donât know how many monsters are inside the new tears.â
Sarang swallowed dry.
âIâll get the stuff from Vera and wait until the equipment is ready.â
They both could deal with A-ranked monster now, but the ones they were dealing with were also under constraints. However, even if a real A-ranked monster appeared, they would be able to deal with it together. But if more than one appeared, they would need more allies.
He would need powered people around the world to provide him with strength.