The Hero Returns

* * *

Fifteen days.

That was the accepted minimum grace period before the dungeons would start entering the outbreak stage one by one.

And the entire world had to watch the timer to apocalypse count down ever closer to that 15-day mark.

In the World Cup Stadium located in the city of Seoul, from the inside of the stadium to its edges, hundreds of thousands of people could be seen, and Hak-joon, Lee Ju-ho, and Thomas were standing near this very place.

The island of Yeoui happened to be the location of the highest concentration of dungeons. An indigo-colored dungeon showed up here as well.

Lee Ju-ho was urgently phoning various places. Since he was the chairman of the Korean Awakener Association, he was naturally in command of the current crisis.

He asked, "What's the number of the remaining awakeners?"

"It looks like about one-third has escaped to the other side, Ju-ho. They are probably thinking that there's no hope on this side."

"Gimme a f*cking break," Lee Ju-ho could only hold his head at Hak-joon's reply.

Around one-third?

That was the total number of awakeners who fled to the Tower of Trials and chose not to return. Currently, the remaining two-thirds were protecting the helpless citizens.

"How long do you think we will be able to endure, bro?"

"Not sure. Still, we gotta endure until we can't anymore."

"What about Su-hyeun, though? Still can't reach him?"

"Well, he did send me a text message earlier. He said that he'd pass through Korea briefly and that he needs to get going immediately. He's not answering his phone now, though."

"Which means, he must still be on this side..." Hak-joon lowered his voice and asked, "The media still doesn't know, right?"

"I think they have cottoned on to it by now, but for them to also survive, they are trying to gag the news from coming out."

Su-hyeun was currently absent, and it didn't take a genius to realize that his no-show would not be treated as good news.

Judging from how Su-hyeun alone managed to raid every single dungeon in South Korea, there was no doubting that he could easily do the job of thousands, no, tens of thousands of people by himself.

Yet, someone like that had disappeared. By "running away," he left behind a large impact on other awakeners.

Of course, those who knew him didn't think that way, but there were far more people out there who had no clue on what Su-hyeun's real personality was like.

Hak-joon sighed, "Just where did he even go to in this sort of situation...?"

"It sounded as if he had a plan, though."

"Really?"

"Yeah, that's the vibe he gave off."

"Eh? He didn't actually say it?"

"Uwaaaah—!" Thomas suddenly broke out in an impressed cry.

"I guess it has begun, then."

Buzz, vrrr...

At the same time, the dungeons near the World Cup Stadium began humming ominously. That was the first sign of the impending dungeon outbreak.

Normally, witnessing such a phenomenon had been difficult. A dungeon outbreak was basically a natural calamity that would devastate the surrounding area, so it was strictly managed to the point where one wouldn't really occur unless something freakish caused it.

But now, the situation was different.

Hak-joon muttered, "In a way, this is one really memorable scenery, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah. Dozens of dungeons are simultaneously entering the outbreak phase, and that hasn't happened before, right?"

"Yes, it certainly isn't a common occurrence."

Shu-rung...

Hak-joon pulled out his sword.

All the dungeons that had appeared in the vicinity of the World Cup Stadium entered the outbreak phase simultaneously. From red to indigo, all of these varied dungeons began spitting out monsters to the outside world.

"I hope he's not going to take too long."

"We can only hold on and wait for now while thinking that there will be good news sooner or later."

"Well, then..."

Chwa-rururu...

Hundreds of swords began floating up into the air.

"We'll have to somehow defend this location."

Only three people were protecting this huge stadium, and they were Hak-joon, Thomas, and Lee Ju-ho.

Out of all the combat-capable awakeners in the Paragon Guild, two of them were defending this place. The other awakeners were currently dispatched to different areas.

"Wow, there are so freaking many of them," Lee Ju-ho sighed and pulled out his own sword as well.

He had stopped raiding dungeons quite a long time ago. Sure, his A-rank wasn't exactly low, but when compared to the other awakeners in the Paragon Guild, he couldn't help but notice how pathetic he was.

"An old man should just step back, though. It's too dangerous to butt in, you know?"

"I know, you fool. I'll just focus on eliminating monsters that come this way."

"In that case, I'll leave it up to you," said Hak-joon before lowering his hand.

When he did, all those swords in the air pointing downward began falling like raindrops.

Crash, rumble, chwa-rararak—!

Stab! Pow, staaaab—!

The rain of swords stabbed and sliced apart the countless monsters. Lee Ju-ho spectated with great interest Hak-joon's skill at work.

"That's called the Sword Manipulation through Energy Technique, right? With the use of magical energy to store or summon various swords and even freely manipulate them without touching them, it's easily top-tier in the realm of AOE skills," he silently observed.

Most of Hak-joon's skills didn't stray too far from what one would call the conventional path. Like most awakeners, he would start off from "normal" sword techniques and train until he attained complete mastery over them to acquire the skills as his own.

That was Hak-joon's way of doing things, and the final form of the evolution his skills had taken was the Sword Manipulation.

Swords flew around freely in the air. With this technique, Hak-joon became someone capable of solo-raiding an indigo-colored dungeon.

Also...

Ruuumbleee...

Pitch-black clouds were blanketing the sky above.

The moment Lee Ju-ho saw them, he began thinking to himself, "It has begun."

[The Dark World]

[Blackened Rain]

Sshwa-aaaaah...

Even if Hak-joon was now capable of wielding hundreds, no, thousands of swords through his technique, in the end, the role of being the main AOE damage dealer fell on a different awakener.

That person was none other than Thomas.

The Dark World—the skill that was known to be unrivaled as far as wide-area skills were concerned—could freely change its shape depending on the level of its user.

What was happening now was the very first form of the Dark World meant to attack a large area at once.

Hiss, sizzleeee...

Drip, tumble, driiip...

Ki-aaaaaah—!

Monsters screamed in torment. The falling black rain pelted the figures of the monsters to melt their hides and seep into their internal organs. These raindrops weren't simply toxic, however. If that had been the case, the surrounding buildings would have melted down as well.

The black rain actually contained Thomas's will—his animosity and killing intent were directed solely at the monsters.

The raindrops sensed his will and seeped under the hides and bodies of the monsters to decompose and melt them down.

"Wow," Lee Ju-ho ended up letting out a soft exclamation of amazement.

He couldn't help but get surprised and be awed at the same time. These were his fellow guild members, whom he shared laughs with and worked with for so long.

Now that he saw them fight, he thought he would start respecting them even more than before.

"Thomas! Fight while conserving your strength!" Hak-joon called out to Thomas while still activating his Sword Manipulation technique.

Krrrrr...

Ki-aaaah—!

This commotion caused the howls and screeches of the monsters to become even more ferocious. In an instant, all of their attention was focused here. The attention of all the monsters spread out in a wide area far beyond had been successfully attracted to this side and not just around the World Cup Stadium.

"We don't know how long we need to endure, after all."

Grit...

Only two of them were here, realistically speaking.

If Hak-joon and Thomas fell here, then hundreds of thousands of people being sheltered inside the stadium would die.

His shoulders felt heavy. Only then did Hak-joon finally get to understand one percent of Su-hyeun's burden.

"Su-hyeun has been fighting this sort of battles for so many years, hasn't he?" he thought.

This battle had only just begun. Not only that, but the lives of the people on Su-hyeun's shoulders were also incomparably greater in number than what Hak-joon was tasked with protecting.

Eventually, though, everyone still died in the end back then.

Knowing about Su-hyeun's personality where he couldn't just sit back and do nothing as people died before his eyes, Hak-joon couldn't even imagine what Su-hyeun must've felt in those moments.

"That's why, at least this time..."

Krrrr...

Hak-joon glared at a particular monster made out of crimson viscous liquid in the distance. The creature's eye was gleaming eerily.

It was a boss monster found within the indigo-colored dungeons called "Mad Doom."

Hak-joon strode forward toward that creature while muttering, "Let us share your workload."

* * *

Several hours later, Mad Doom was lying unmoving on the ground, its crimson liquid spreading out everywhere, while its eerily glowing eye lost its light and was rolling around on the floor.

Hak-joon was huffing and panting heavily after chopping Mad Doom to death. It wasn't just that monster either, though, as he had to fight countless other monsters all around him as well. That took a bit out of his stamina reserve.

"Man, so persistent."

Mad Doom had already appeared once before as a boss of an indigo-colored dungeon. At that time, Gordon Rohan was responsible for felling it, and more than anything else, the monster was noted for its truly resilient life force.

The creature relied on its defenses and life force afforded to it by its large size, as well as its recovery ability, to stubbornly cling on to its life.

Hak-joon spat out a long groan, "Fuu-wuu..."

Thanks to him conserving his magical energy and stamina, he wasn't all that exhausted. However, the number of monsters remaining was still a big problem.

"There are just too many of them."

Krrrr...

Kkyah-ak, khyak—!

Those monsters that didn't die from Thomas's skill, "Blacked Rain," were glaring at Hak-joon with vicious light in their eyes.

Despite screaming and howling in torment, these monsters continued to pounce around. All of them were fairly large monsters that showed up from blue-colored dungeons or higher.

By now, corpses of monsters had piled up like small mountains. Because monsters were still rushing in from other districts of Seoul, their numbers weren't decreasing at all but gradually increasing instead.

"Something similar to this happened in the past, right?"

Indeed, Hak-joon did experience something similar to this situation back when countless dungeons manifested in Gangwon Province.

Monsters piled up like mountains and crashed in like tsunami waves, and back then, Hak-joon fought without rest to stop their tides. In the end, though, he still had to receive someone else's help.

It was none other than Su-hyeun's help, of course.

"But I can't expect that help to come this time."

There was only one Su-hyeun, and the current crisis was quite different from that outbreak of Gangwon Province. It was happening throughout the whole world.

Places requiring Su-hyeun's help were just too many to count. Meaning, it was unrealistic to expect Su-hyeun to appear here this time.

"Thomas!"

"Yeah! What?"

"Take a short break! I'll stop the monsters for now, so preserve your stamina and magical energy. Their numbers have decreased by a lot, so let's start taking turns from now on."

"But I'm still fine."

"Yeah, for now. But it'll be bad if both of us get tired at the same time, so stop arguing and take a break."

Giii-iiing—

The sword that Hak-joon had in his grip began emitting a bright light.

[Thunderclap Sword]

Fwhooosh—!

KA-RUUUUMBLE—!!!

The sword light exploded with blinding lightning. Monsters that were barely hanging on were instantly ripped apart, decreasing the size of the horde.

"Okay. Hurry."

"Yeah!"

Thomas did as Hak-joon said and plopped down right where he was.

Not too long after that, though, a new horde of monsters appeared while stepping over the corpses of their kind. Hak-joon stared at the new batch and let out another long groan, "It's literally one thing after another, isn't it?"

Around slightly less than half of his magical energy reserve remained. The skill he used just now did exhaust him quite a bit.

"How many more hours will I be able to hold on at this rate...?"

While thinking that, Hak-joon trained his sword toward the incoming monsters, but the moment he did...

Grrrrr—

The monsters began reacting rather strangely.

Only a second ago, they bared their fangs and displayed naked hostility in Hak-joon's direction, yet now, they had all turned their heads away simultaneously.

"What's going on?"

Did some other awakener appear or something?

He too turned his head in that direction, but he couldn't see anyone there.

Hak-joon cautiously observed the strange reactions of the monsters but didn't do anything. Then, the monsters suddenly began moving again.

Boom, bang, crash...

Tumble, rush...

They were moving in the opposite direction—away from the World Cup Stadium packed with countless people.

Hak-joon remained standing on his spot, eyes blinking nonstop. However, he didn't feel the need to chase after the monsters that were moving away from the evacuation shelter.

He still felt quite stupefied at what happened. "What was that all about?"

He wondered if those bastards had been entranced or something.

* * *

Back at the peak of Mount Everest...

Standing tall there, Su-hyeun muttered softly, "That's right, gather here..."

The top of Everest, usually covered in pure-white snow, was now dyed in black and red blood, which came from the remains of the monsters that were strewn about in the vicinity.

With Mount Everest in the center, Su-hyeun's eyes took in the sight of a long purple line.

This line was splitting into many, many different directions, however, and these lines all ultimately connected to the peak of Everest, where Su-hyeun was currently standing.

"All of you...get over here."

[Provocation - Wide Area]

Giii-iiiing—

He activated his skill in the center of the huge magic circle he had constructed. As for the affected area...

The entirety of planet Earth.