Episode 101.
About four hours later, Jung Si-woo and his group had successfully killed all the monsters. Many elite monsters were powerful, but only a few could pose a threat to Jung Si-woo’s group and Marina. Jung Si-woo became more and more proficient in the Five Senses skill as he fought and naturally developed his intuition, and there was a small resonance around him by the end of the battle.
[Your level has risen.]
“I think I’ll just have to wait a little longer, but I can’t…I wish I had a strong opponent to bring my senses to the max.”
“Why does Si-woo get so much stronger every time I see him? I don’t understand what he just did!”
Jung Si-woo clicked his tongue out of grief, but Marina was dumbfounded by his performance. When Jung Si-woo thought there was nothing to hide, he told her about turning his five senses into a skill, and Marina’s big eyes widened. She wasn’t surprised by his idea but by his ability to turn that into reality.
“I’ve noticed since you created the critical bullets, but this is insane…”
“Anyone can do it if you practice hard enough.”
“I don’t know what you’re saying, but it sounds like you’re making fun of me!”
Marina stomped her feet and grew angry. Seria approached her and spoke up in a calm voice.
“Thanks to B&Y’s cooperation, I think we can collect all of the monster’s bodies. There are no civilian casualties from the battle. And all crew members are safe.”
“That’s a relief.”
“There’s not much time left until the meeting, so let’s hurry! Everyone else is already there!”
“Marina, the others didn’t get attacked on the way here?”
“Nope.”
Marina nodded thoughtlessly.
“No one was acting suspiciously. The Master of the Soaring Tempest Guild kept bothering me, but he’s always been like that.”
“He’s the most suspicious…”
Soo Ah-rin was fed up with meeting Kim Ha-ryong at the City Hall conference hall, but she regained her composure by remembering that Jung Si-woo beat him. Jung Si-woo would be the only one who can beat up Kim Ha-ryong just because they had a quarrel. At that time, Jung Si-woo cut off the two women.
“The power I felt from the monsters here is different from the power I felt from Kim Ha-ryong. The assumption that more than one god is cooperating is possible, but not yet clear.”
“There are more than ten names of gods I’ve learned from clearing the 32nd stage of the dungeon, and it’s terrible to think that all of them are trying to take over the earth.”
“You don’t have to think about it now. We need to stop them before their powers grow. Setnak’s power and Louisos’s became less powerful as soon as we drove them off the planet.”
Seria’s words were extremely strong-minded and hopeful, perhaps because she was the one who possessed the power of god herself. Her words reminded Jung Si-woo of the time he destroyed the temple of Laia, the thunder god. He didn’t just drive them away from the earth, but he also blocked the passage to the earth and prevented damage to the world beyond it. The effects of blocking god’s power were magnificent, but perhaps it was only possible for Jung Si-woo.
‘Yeah, I was going to the Grand Canyon.’
His consciousness naturally headed to the Grand Canyon, where fragments of Setnak appeared. There was no passage found at that time, but it wouldn’t be strange if a passage to a world related to Setnak existed, as it was a place where such great power was revealed. He wanted to run and search for it right now, but the World Player representative meeting comes first. While talking about the power of God, he became a little discouraged and put his hand on Lee Seo-hee and Seria’s shoulders.
“Let’s go attend the meeting for now.”
“Yes, we must stop all future tragedies with our own hands.”
“But humans are stupid, and they always make the same mistakes…”
“Don’t discourage us right now!”
The group headed straight to the B&Y headquarters in Silicon Valley and successfully landed at the gate at the B&Y branch in New York City. Thanks to the amazing magic engineering, they had enough time to battle against the Chimera army!
“Nobody else knows about this yet, right?”
“I think we’ll get caught sooner or later, but I don’t care if we do. The source itself isn’t only in the Sky Dungeon. But in the end, our goal is to create as many gates as possible on earth.”
After the outbreak of monsters, all humans had the common goal of driving them out. B&Y’s principles of behavior were also based on this. In terms of market logic, keeping their technology was the right choice, but it was meaningless if the market itself falls before.
“Maybe if we add information from the Ant Caves, I’ll be sure of B&Y’s dominance.”
“So you want to get that information for free?”
“I know I can’t do that. Hehe.”
He didn’t know why she laughed shyly. However, Jung Si-woo didn’t intend to step into it, so he decided not to provoke Marina anymore. He turned away instead. He realized that he was in a foreign country after he saw and skin colors of the people walking on the street. But soon, he found something even more unusual. There was strange energy from the people passing by the streets.
“New York is all over the place.”
“Because it is the safest city in the world today.”
“…There are 80 players with a minimum level of 210, including the players that escort them, and there are means to protect governments and business people in this city.”
Come to think of it, it was true. Since monsters appeared on the ground and the earth entered the New Age, people around the world had been in a situation where they couldn’t relax even for a moment. They said they were building a system to detect and prepare for the monster’s appearance, but it would take some time to work on that. So all the strongest people gathering in New York put a smile on the faces of the citizens.
“Is this a national status?”
Feeling the power of the nation, Jung Si-woo smiled bitterly. Even if the whole world turned upside down, the powerhouse would still be a powerhouse. But he didn’t know how long the U.S. would be able to take this advantage.
“Come on, Si-woo.”
“Okay, okay.”
He drove his bike behind Marina, who was rushing him with a happy face. Soo Ah-rin and Yong Se-ha returned to their mini mode and entered his arms, and Lee Seo-hee and Seria flew from both sides of him as if they were escorting him. The appearance of a player flying in the sky in New York was nothing special in today’s world, but Jung Si-woo, who drove a flying bike, stood out to everyone. It stood out so much that he could hear the sound of people taking pictures from the ground.
“How can you hear that?”
“Oh, so you can’t hear properly.”
Marina squinted her eyes at his words, rolled up her fist, and asked Soo Ah-rin.
“Ah-rin, can I hit Si-woo?”
“No, I’m the only one who can hit Oppa.”
“I’ve never given you that kind of qualification.”
It didn’t take much time to leave the B&Y branch in midtown Manhattan to the UN headquarters building on the East River. If there was a minor problem, he was in a state of concentration as much as the attention was focused, but he put his bike in and set foot on the ground, focusing his attention on the building rather than the people.
“Hey, this…”
“Right. We’re a little unlucky.”
Marina smiled bitterly, and Seria shrugged. Of the four buildings, about 30% of the headquarters buildings in the south were gone. There were signs of recovery, but there was a lingering scent of mana that could never be erased.
“There has already been a monster attack. In the middle of Manhattan, even at the UN headquarters?”
“It happened before the earth changed. I thought it was pretty well-known…”
This wasn’t the natural occurrence of monsters on earth, but the work of the monsters that originated from the Ant Cave dungeon. When Jung Si-woo frowned, Seria came to his side and whispered.
“It’s not just here. Major facilities around the world, including the UN headquarters in Geneva, were attacked by monsters. At the time, Marina and I were really busy. It was around the same time that I came into contact with Louisos…”
“And they thought about holding a meeting here…no, is it the other way around?”
Jung Si-woo was dumbfounded and changed his words. Holding a meeting in a place where monsters attacked as if nothing had happened would mean that humanity wasn’t afraid of monsters. Of course, it was unclear whether the monsters would recognize it, but it would have had enough impact on the frightened citizens of New York (although the UN headquarters wasn’t U.S. territory).
“Still…”
When Jung Si-woo was attacked, he was worried when he detected strange mana with his new sense of smell skill.
“It wasn’t just an attack. It was an epicenter.”
“I know what Si-woo is worried about. There’s no guarantee that there won’t be any hidden monsters in here…but that’s why we need to hold a meeting here. Not only for America but for the United Nations, and for humanity.”
“If the monsters come back today, don’t worry too much since the people gathered here will be able to stop it.”
“…Yes, that’s true.”
Rather, if there was a dungeon left in this place, Jung Si-woo might have been able to clear the dungeon and get rid of it quickly. However, he couldn’t confirm the existence of the dungeon with his current ability. Hopefully, all the monsters that appeared earlier would be the last…he felt something strange about what happened earlier.
The chimera group was attacking Jung Si-woo and Seria. The traces here were different from those of the chimeras, but he couldn’t resist being more worried. If monsters who believed in different gods cooperated in different dungeons as they did in Mt. Seorak, and if they were trying to deal with Jung Si-woo as a common enemy and the players who were gathering here today…
“I’ll protect Si-woo if I can! Don’t worry too much!”
“I’m not worried, but the other people who are here today are the problem.”
“You’re already assuming something’s going to happen, Oppa…”
Knowing that his intuition had rarely been wrong, Soo Ah-rin sighed and worried about what else would happen. Only Marina, who didn’t know, reacted innocently.
Two hours later, “all” of the world’s important figures gathered in one place to hold the world player representative meeting.
