Chapter 494 - Age After Ending (8)

“You mean something bad happened in Asadal? Terrorists attacked there?”

“Yep. It’s still going on.”

Sungwoo expected this kind of thing would happen, so he took some measures to cope with such a contingency while he was away. Even if Sungwoo was the most important pillar of the World Tree camp, it would not make any sense for a building to collapse just because one pillar was missing.

‘I think the security was pretty tight because they dispatched the 213th Task Force to defend Asadal and had Hanho on standby.’

Nonetheless, they were urgently asking for Sungwoo’s help.

‘The enemy mounted a premeditated attack.’

Sungwoo and Sangoon immediately boarded the Messenger.

One ‘Hypergate’ was installed on the gray cliff facing the Messenger.

They installed it and had it ready to use after being supplied with emergenc mana.

“Skip all inspection processes! Start immediately.”

As soon as the chief secretary ordered it, the Hypergate was ignited.

Woooooooooo-

But there was some problem.

“What the heck? The engine won’t start!”

There was a problem with the Hypergate. It suddenly stopped while mana was beingsuppliedd, but that wasn’t all.

“Emergency! All engines are out of order!”

“We can’t figure out the cause!”

Even the engine of the ‘Messenger’, which was preparing for flight, was turned off.

‘Oh my God…”

Sungwoo looked at the King of the Great Mountains, Sangoon.

“Maybe…”

The king was frowning at that moment. He made an unpleasant expressio then nodded by himself.

“Damn it, I’m sorry, but I just feel anxious. I’ve sensed the reaction…”

His eyes began to glow blue.

“Everything is alright, but why now?”

– ??%%%&@?!(%67#)

-????#1$%?$##%!!&*

Something terrible began.

***

“Move fast!”

On top of the gray wall surrounding Asadal, hundreds of troops moved in a formation.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

They felt their hearts beating rapidly when they heard the explosions in the distance.

“Damn it! They’re already getting close to us!”

The ‘Beast Terror’ directed at Asadal took place simultaneously in three places. As a result, Asadal’s defensive forces were divided into six units.

There were three teams in charge of going directly to the ‘Hypergate’ to hunt boss monsters and three other teams who were responsible for guarding the firewalls to prevent monsters from entering the city. They were moving in an organized way.

“How come they struck us in three places at the same time? What’s the matter?”

Sungwoo couldn’t help but be embarrassed by the unprecedented development.

The defenders of the northern wall mounted their weapons on the wall and watched the gray smoke rising in the distance.

At that moment, the defense captain shouted, “We are playing the role of firewalls! If our guys fail to put out the fire, we have to stop the monsters from coming over here by all means! So stay alert, everybody!”

Hanho was in charge of defending the abandoned factory area in the west, while the World Camp fleet led by Inho moved out to the south.

The problem was how to defend right here, namely, the northern area. There were no proper weapons deployed in the north.

“Our allied forces are on the defensive! The enemies are approaching us fast!”

When he received the report through the magic drone, the defense commander spat out a swear, “Damn it!”

If those in charge of fire extinguishment failed, there was no way for those responsible for the firewall protection to stop the monsters because most players who could confront boss monsters were dispatched to the fire control team.

At that moment someone just arrived here.

Rattle- Rattle-

“Defense Commander, what’s going on?”

A large man in white armor approached him with a huge sword around his waist.

It was Junghoon, the Crusader Commander and the Director of Strategic Intelligence Bureau. He mainly worked to gather intelligence behind the scenes rather than fighting at the forefront, but he could offer help anytime when something unexpected happened.

So the Defense Commander reported to him about the situation.

“Well, four boss monsters have appeared in the North Hypergate, and one of them is the ‘warlord’ level, so it seems that he has summoned a large number of subordinates. That’s why our allies right there are asking for our reinforcement…”

“Do you have any surplus troops here?”

“Right now, we don’t.”

Asadal was a pretty huge city. So they had to defend its outskirts by mobilizing troops, unlike the city center that was protected by the ‘Shadow of the Divine Tree’, or the invisible barrier of the world tree.

Since the rampart reached as long as 4.8 km, it inevitably required a considerable number of defending troops, so they could not afford to assign some of them to any other mission.

“Then try to mobilize the remaining troops defending the western wall. Hanho and Hyunmoo are defending there, so they won’t need a lot of defense forces.”

“Understood!”

Junghoon placed his hand on the rampart, staring at the smoke that was getting closer. The trail of explosions and smoke that started from far away was fast approaching them.

‘Three boss monsters and one warlord-level monster? Man, this is a tough army that is very hard to beat.”

Thump- Thump- Thump-

“Our defense line in the north is in jeopardy!”

Junghoon frowned at that.

“The hordes of monster rats are trampling on the defense line and coming here! I think they number more than a few thousands!”

Junghoon was just listening to that report.

“Um…”

He couldn’t fight like Sungwoo, Jisu, or Hanho because he did not yet attain divine power like them.

Divine power was difficult to obtain even before the ending, but it became much more difficult to obtain after the ending.

‘It’s unfair to me.’

According to the GMs taken as POWs, the “update” for this game has been stopped, so nobody was allowed to obtain the divine power or deity status.

So Junghoon was not as strong as the three heroes Sungwoo, Jisu, and Hanho. That’s why he was in charge of collecting the intelligence about the enemy, at which he was the best.

Nonetheless, Junghoon seemed relaxed in such a situation. He was not in a position to take any action.

“Did you contact our alliance through the hotline?”

When he asked, the Defense Commander said with a nod, “Yes, we did through a normal channel. And the chief secretary also contacted the Necromancer.”

“Really? Man, he must be very busy now…”

“I know, but the situation here is so urgent…”

While trying to dispute Junghoon’s words, he hesitated a bit because he realized that even though he made the rational judgment on his own, his judgment was not as good as the intelligence chief’s.

“Then tell everyone to stay alert. Everything will be fine,” Junghoon said.

Junghoon was the head of the Intelligence Bureau of the World Tree camp, so he knew the most about what’s going on anywhere as the “eyes and ears” of the world tree.

As far as he knew, this city was not about to collapse so easily.

“Did they commit the Beast Terror by opening three Hypergates? Well, it’s unprecedented. But soon…” he murmured, then turned his head to look inside the rampart where the world tree was standing tall.

“More Hypergates will open on our side.”

He even offered an optimistic assessment of the situation.

“Well, I think we can throw a big celebration party if everybody gathers on this occasion.”

The World Tree camp was no longer small enough to be shaken by terrorism.