Part 1, Chapter 9, 23

11:38 PM, near Qinghai Lake, Qinghai Province, China.

Heroes from various countries gathered in Qinghai, which the Emperor had declared as the initial interception zone. The largest number were, as expected, Chinese Heroes, but there were also Heroes dispatched from neighboring countries like India and Russia.

“This has become awkward.”

The 100-plus Korean ability users who had landed from afar and walked over expressed their dismay at the already occupied positions. Geographically, it was easier for Central Asian countries to access, and the Baeknaro-ho had to traverse more than half of China to get there.

“Still, we arrived faster than Japan, so that’s something, isn’t it? Heh heh.”

“Elder-nim, don’t say meaningless things. We’re about to get screwed over too.”

“Should we try asking them? I think we could request the Association to mediate.”

While the Heroes were searching for good defensive positions, a great commotion broke out among them. Blond Westerners and black-haired East Asians were arguing with each other with the help of translation devices.

“We secured this place first! It’s a spot recognized by the Association!”

“But your combat power is weak, isn’t it?! What are you going to do if even one S-rank Black Scorpion comes while ten B-ranks are defending?! Just share the front line willingly!”

“Nope! We can’t! We need to earn cores!”

“Ah, seriously! They’re impossible to talk to! If this place is breached, the Black Scorpions will immediately break through into densely populated areas!”

Arguments weren’t happening in just one place. Even with the Association staff diligently trying to mediate, they couldn’t mediate all the territorial disputes among thousands of Heroes.

“Praetor. Where should we go now?”

Fire Fist Lee Seunghyung asked as their representative. Baek Huia was both the captain and the commander leading the unit, and she was also the effective head of this dispatched force.

“…….”

Baek Huia had been lost in her own thoughts since before disembarking from the airship, showing no sign of snapping out of it. No one dared to disturb her as she mumbled something to herself, but now, someone had to bite the bullet and wake Baek Huia up.

“Praetor-nim?”

“Fire Fist. Have you ever fought a ‘Phoenix’?”

“…No. Unfortunately, not even once. Harang… Seolhwa Spirit has fought one, hasn’t she? Even if it was during her S-rank days, she has experience fighting one.”

“But Seolhwa Spirit is currently….”

Baek Huia clicked her tongue and turned her head. The ice butterfly flying in the night sky was building a massive ice barrier around the wide mountain range encircling Qinghai.

“It seems we can’t even talk to her like that. So why did you bring up the Phoenix?”

“…It’s nothing. I just asked out of curiosity.”

Baek Huia couldn’t cause unrest among the Heroes with the Black Scorpions right in front of them. Hoping her worries were just groundless speculation, Baek Huia called over a busy Association staff member.

“I am Baek Huia, Praetor of the Korean Hero Association. 107 Heroes, led by S-rank Fire Fist, have arrived as reinforcements.”

“Ah, Korea… you mean.”

The staff member scanned the surroundings with a grateful yet troubled expression. The Heroes who had been raising their voices and arguing began to grumble at the appearance of the Korean Heroes.

-The Beast Tamer swept up two S-rank cores, and now they want to catch more? Isn’t that too much?

-I heard that core exports have almost tripled since the dimensional gate opened in Seoul. It’s really too much. How can they come all the way to a neighboring country to mine cores?

-At least Seolhwa Spirit conceded. Ugh.

“It seems we’re getting a lot of flak?”

Tempest Lady Yang Seonwoo’s expression hardened at the complaints she heard. Other Heroes were no different.

“It’s alright. We didn’t come here to earn cores!”

“Fighting the Black Scorpions will be a good experience.”

Fire Fist and Unsa warmed up, waiting for the time. There were no materialistic thoughts in their minds; they only thought of defeating the Black Scorpions and eliminating the threat to humanity.

“But if we catch them diligently, we’ll get cursed for sweeping up cores. And it’s not like we can just not take any of the cores from the Black Scorpions we catch.”

“If you’ve come all the way abroad for a business trip, shouldn’t you get business expenses, heh heh. Then, of course, we’ll be assigned to a position where it’s hard to be active.”

Wusa, Pungbaek, and the elders pointed out the realistic aspects, gesturing to the ground beneath their feet. The Praetor nodded calmly and asked the staff member again.

“Is this definitely the area assigned to Korea?”

“Yes. It’s a request from the Association Headquarters, asking you to assist Seolhwa Spirit-nim and wait at the final defensive line.”

Heroes from various countries were building defensive lines around the lake, forming a crescent shape. The spot assigned to Korea was in the middle of that wing, with the front blocked by the lake.

“Is that a request or a notification? Heh heh. I guess we’ll have to pick up crumbs.”

“It’d be a relief if we could even pick up crumbs. What if we can’t catch even one? I see a lot of countries that dispatched S-ranks over there.”

“…Are we really going back empty-handed at this rate?”

Complaints slowly began to emerge from the Heroes. Fire Fist and Unsa wanted to reassure them, but most Heroes prioritized the gains from hunting Black Scorpions over a sense of justice.

“Damn it. This is all because that bastard Seon refused Association support. Can’t we even raise our voices anywhere? Have Heroes been dispatched anywhere for the past 8 years? All those requests that came to the deceased Elder Gwanggeom were ignored, and now it’s coming back to bite us.”

“Still, shouldn’t we start changing things now?”

The Praetor walked right up to the water’s edge and squatted down.

“Let’s surprise the whole world. Let’s show the villains who might be watching our Heroes’ power, enough to make them tremble.”

At the Praetor’s idealistic words, the Heroes shrugged or shook their heads. Everyone wanted to show off their power, but this was not the environment to display that power to the world.

“So, our current position is….”

“Unless they cross the lake in a straight line, nothing will happen.”

The defensive line was not positioned with Qinghai Lake behind them, but rather stretched out long with Qinghai Lake in front. This was to individually defeat the two groups that would split from the lake and to utilize ‘water’, which was a weakness of the Black Scorpions, as much as possible.

“I quite like this terrain, but….”

“Considering the condition of ‘hunting as many as possible’, it’s the worst position.”

Why were they assigned to this position? It was because of Cheonghwa. Even though Cheonghwa was an independent entity not affiliated with any nation, in the eyes of other countries, Cheonghwa was still Korean. So, they made a judgment lumping Cheonghwa and the Korean Heroes together.

To tell them to take it easy.

“It’s alright. What flows in will be enough for us.”

The Praetor tried to boost the Heroes’ morale. But their morale, which had already fallen to rock bottom, showed no sign of rising.

“Why are you all so gloomy?”

An ice butterfly landed from the sky. Seok Harang, who had finished building all the defensive lines and descended, felt the funeral-like aura and came down personally.

“What about the defensive lines?”

“I’ve built them all. Now that I think about it, the position is… a bit bad.”

Seok Harang immediately grasped the cause of the gloom. As he had been observing the entire battlefield from above, Seok Harang was also slightly annoyed that the Korean Heroes had received such unfair treatment.

“Just a moment.”

Seok Harang pressed his watch and called someone. The Praetor and other Heroes secretly peeked at the other party, and surprisingly, it was Mao Zeping, the director of the Monster Management Bureau.

“Excuse me? Ahem. Why is Korea’s position assigned here?”

[……I thought it was the best spot, relatively speaking.]

Mao Zeping’s reply, with his dark circles prominent, irritated the Korean Heroes. But at his next words, they were dumbfounded.

[‘He’ said that place was the best for catching them.]

“Huh?”

[Ask him directly. Haha. I need to arrange our own deployment, so I’ll be going.]

Click.

Mao Zeping hung up the phone, and Seok Harang closed his eyes and put a hand to his head. The blue butterfly hairpin began to sparkle even in the night, and after about a minute, Seok Harang let out a hollow laugh.

“Wow, this motherfucker, really….”

“Seolhwa Spirit. Who is ‘he’?”

The Praetor questioned Seolhwa Spirit with a stern face. Other Heroes were no different. After the failure of the Seoul Recapture Operation and Gwanggeom’s death, Seok Harang’s actions were more independent than those of a Hero organization. Even if it was the Round Table.

“Oh, him? Hmm… Should I call him oppa, or that bastard? It’s hard to describe him in many ways. …Is it okay to say?”

Seok Harang stroked his chin, drawing up his mana.

“He’s just a guy who knows everything. So, it’d be best for everyone to wait here.”

Spreading his wings again, Seok Harang soared into the sky. To repel any Black Scorpions that might enter the city from the rearmost part of the defensive line, he stood alone on the tens of meters high ice wall he had built, looking down.

“Shouldn’t we secretly move our position?”

“I don’t know. There are only 5 minutes left, what can we do?”

“This is a prime spot?”

The Heroes were agitated, but they couldn’t retreat any further.

“Even if Seolhwa Spirit-nim joined the Round Table, he is a Korean Hero. He would never betray us or lead us into a trap. Let’s trust Seok Harang-nim.”

At the Praetor’s declaration, the Heroes made a resigned decision. Whether Seok Harang’s words were true or not, they had to defend this position, which seemed like the worst at first glance.

“Ah, this is just like that time.”

“What are you talking about, Elder?”

“The lake is Gwanaksan, and this is Anyang. Didn’t we split into two groups during the Seoul Recapture Operation too?”

“Is the land area the same now as it was then? Sigh, Seunghyung-ah. What are we going to do? According to the Elder-nim, this is Seoul. You’re not going to vomit blood again, are you?”

“Sunbaenim!”

The veterans teased Lee Seunghyung, easing their tension. A faint tremor slowly began to rumble beneath the ground, and it was not a natural earthquake but one caused by a massive horde of monsters charging forward.

“All units, prepare for battle. Hold your positions and suppress the monsters that flow in.”

The Praetor tightly closed her eyes, desperately hoping that at least a few Black Scorpions would push through to the rear.

* * *

At that time, in the hospital room – Azure Syndicate’s temporary secret base.

“If they do that, won’t they get nothing?”

Deokbae pointed out the Korean Heroes’ position. The groups of ability users stretched out to their left and right were all wary of each other, positioning themselves to hunt more.

“Right. Both sides are blocked, so they won’t come through. Will even one Black Scorpion come through?”

“Of course.”

“On what grounds?”

I pointed to the Black Scorpion horde rushing towards the lake and picked up a piece of fruit that Gaeul had peeled. It was quite clumsy, but I didn’t point it out.

“The current formation is based on the assumption that ‘Black Scorpions will split in half and enter along the lake.’ If the premise itself collapses, the front line will naturally change.”

“You mean they won’t scatter to the left and right?”

“Exactly.”

Now, it was one minute before. The vanguard of the Black Scorpions reached close to the water’s edge. The Heroes waiting at the entrance of the lake were drawing up their mana, preparing to fight the Black Scorpions.

“Now they’ll split… right?”

Splash!

The Black Scorpions in the video began to leap into the water. They started swimming across the lake at a faster speed than their running speed. The Heroes’ stirring movements were clearly visible.

“It’s a misunderstanding that Black Scorpions live in the desert. They’re good swimmers too.”

They were swimming across the lake even faster than they ran in the desert. The Heroes, who had been expecting a collision, were dumbfounded, and the Black Scorpions ignored them, moving directly to the opposite side of the lake.

“Oh, dear. It seems no one knew. I didn’t say anything because I thought everyone knew.”

The spearhead of the Black Scorpions, swimming in a spear-like formation, was aimed at the Korean Heroes. Deokbae and Gaeul glared at me with meaningful eyes, and I merely shrugged.

“Heh heh, you act like you don’t care, but you secretly look out for them, don’t you? Is it because you’re both Korean?”

“……I’m not looking out for them.”

It was just because Eun Yuha, who had gone all-in on investing in the Korean Heroes’ hunt, was pitiful. And also to see Park Raon in action, and because I felt sorry for Baek Huia, who was making a sad face.

“…Should we go see it ourselves? What if something happens?”

“Calm down? With Seok Harang there, do you really think something will happen?”

“……Right?”

Although I was more worried about the safety of two people than the safety of thousands of men, I decided to trust Seok Harang. If they got even slightly hurt, I’d shove an espresso down their stomach with an endoscope.

“I don’t know who you’re worried about, but don’t worry. He went too.”

“Who?”

“Hwanryong.”

“……I wonder if Bonghyo followed.”

Please, let nothing happen.

And about 30 minutes later. The Black Scorpions crossed the lake and landed on shore.

The first Hero to greet them was Fire Fist, Lee Seunghyung.