Ch.208208. Compatibility

In truth, the current situation was extremely shocking even to them.

For Jeonghyun Do, there might be struggles, but defeat was never an option.

But now, the monster that appeared was different.

A ferocious appearance, a massive upper body, and long arms.

Like a giant beast, it lunged forward and now had knocked Jeonghyun down.

“No!”

Ariel’s voice filled with rage echoed as she suddenly rushed forward.

“Wait!”

“Don’t go recklessly!”

Yuhua Seol hurriedly followed, and meanwhile, the monster was concentrating its magical power again to finish the job.

Yuhua desperately tried to move the position of its arm, but the monster roughly flung her away.

“Ugh!”

Ironically, the impact headed straight toward the charging Ariel, turning everything into chaos.

“Ah! What are you doing?”

“Again…”

The one fortunate thing was that the monster’s attention had shifted toward Ariel.

Yuhua tried to control it again with Brisingamen, but this time she couldn’t even slow it down slightly.

“Ugh!”

As Ariel released magical power to evade, a shockwave of magic energy stretched nearly 100 meters in a straight line from where she had been.

That deadly power demonstrated that this monster was different from any they had seen before.

Ariel also maximized her output, pushing Gram to its limits.

“We can’t be careless! Yuhua! Block it for me!”

“I know that!”

Meanwhile, Serin Eun had somehow managed to return to where Jeonghyun was.

She held a phone in one hand, talking to someone.

“It’s good that your abilities have gotten stronger.”

After finishing her call, she looked at Jeonghyun’s enlarged body.

The two people in front of her were somewhat out of sync.

“Oh dear… Yuhua was supposed to shake it up so Ariel could charge in next.”

After the first attempt, everything had gone wrong.

The timing was off… Ariel would attack, but Yuhua’s attacks would miss their mark. Or just as Yuhua would begin to control it, Ariel would attack and break her control.

‘They’re all such smart girls, too.’

Serin was infusing magical power into Jeonghyun.

If he could recover even a little and regain consciousness, they could evacuate.

Her judgment was wise. As she concentrated magical power on his head, Jeonghyun woke up.

“Come into my arms!”

The moment she fled while holding Jeonghyun, who had returned to his original state, the opponent showed an ominous sign.

It was enveloping its entire body with magical power and expanding it.

This area was about to be blown away.

Just as everyone feared the impact, a woman in a business suit descended above the monster’s head.

“Could you move somewhere else for now?”

Suddenly, a massive spatial rift occurred, instantly swallowing the monster.

In an instant, it was thrown into the sea about 300 meters away.

Sunghee Jo. She had appeared on the scene.

Serin welcomed her with a glad expression.

“It must be convenient to travel around once you reach the level of an Avatar?”

“Even so, I can only go from Seoul to Busan at most. But why is your husband lying there like that?”

“It’s strong.”

At Serin’s serious gaze, Sunghee raised her head, feeling resistance in her hand.

“It certainly seems unusual.”

Before their eyes, the monster became even more ferocious, causing violent tidal waves with an explosion of magical power.

Sunghee blocked the enemy with one hand and stopped the tidal wave’s impact with spatial distortion using her other hand.

It was an amazing sight—the high tidal wave instantly calming. Even Ariel and Yuhua were impressed.

But her other hand wasn’t having an easy time.

Sunghee felt that the space between the distortions wasn’t flowing smoothly.

“Impressive?”

In front of her eyes, the monster was breaking through Sunghee’s space by releasing magical power.

But her now-free other hand appeared at the monster’s neck.

“You know, those who just show off their strength are the easiest to deal with.”

As it struggled to escape from one side, another spatial distortion tried to twist its neck.

But again, her power to cut through space itself was met with resistance.

“…This is no ordinary strong one.”

But at that moment, Sunghee overlapped spaces, using the impact to shake the enemy.

At some point, Serin’s magical power pierced like a beam of light, and when the monster showed an opening, she immediately cut off its head.

“It’s over.”

Just as they were about to feel relieved, strange signs erupted from the corpse. Like a pupa, the monster’s body began to split, and another monster jumped out from inside.

It resembled a Hercules beetle. Among its three giant horns, the largest one at the bottom, and its entire body was like a sleek armor.

As the muscular beetle began to roar, the atmosphere turned cold.

“I’ll hold it off until the staff evacuation is complete. You go ahead first.”

Sunghee opened a space to quickly transport them away.

Soon, the monster began to charge at Sunghee.

*

I woke up two days later. Without knowing what had happened, I was listening to Taesung Park’s explanation.

“Sister Sunghee was badly injured too. I guess the ancient species was really powerful.”

The situation was developing very rapidly.

After I collapsed, Sunghee fought to protect us and was severely injured.

While escape itself was easy due to her abilities, it became clear that the monster was too powerful even for someone at the Avatar level.

“I see.”

“Sister should have fled immediately, but she got caught while evacuating people until the end… But how did you lose when you’re so strong as a monster?”

“It was stronger than I imagined.”

The power of an ancient species, and from what I heard, it even transformed into a second form.

To catch this thing, I’ll need good cards. Plus, I need to collect 10 silver cards. I should invest all my points in drawing cards first.

“Wait. What about Ariel and the others?”

“They’re waiting at the hospital now. If your condition is okay, we’re planning to strategize an interception operation against that thing while you stay here.”

“An interception operation?”

“Serin told us. Like other monsters, ancient species also have weak points equivalent to hearts.”

“Ah, most monsters have weak points. Some have weak points that aren’t really weak points. But knowing there’s a weak point and actually targeting it are two different things.”

The point is, it’s like putting a bell on a cat’s neck. Weak points exist in many monsters.

But if it were easy, there wouldn’t be so many casualties.

With that creature’s strength, a direct confrontation won’t be easy either.

Taesung shrugged his shoulders.

“But we’ve fought countless monsters before. If we can identify its weak point, there’s nothing we can’t do. So, can you transform now?”

I looked at my evolution card. Its state appears to be only at an ethereal level.

“Not yet.”

“Then there’s nothing we can do. Let me know as soon as you recover.”

I’m already busy drawing cards.

Whether it’s monster points or DNA points, I’m drawing and organizing cards.

I’ll invest the rest when I’m resting like now. I poured all my remaining points.

[Silver]

“Nice!”

That’s one. Now I have 9. Just one more to make 10. Then I can exchange them for a gold card, which should be good, though I don’t know what it is.

I hope it’s something that can turn the tide of battle.

But unfortunately, among all the cards I got by investing all my points, no more silver cards appeared.

Instead, I collected a few other high-grade cards.

[Copycat]

-Steals and uses the target’s characteristics.

[Volcano of Rage]

-Explodes magical power inside the body, causing explosive damage to the surrounding area.

[Doppelganger]

-Creates a doppelganger.

[Energy Conversion]

-Makes all skills benefit from your strongest stat.

[High-Speed Directional Change Armor]

-Shows extreme maneuverability in the air.

These are the useful ones. I looked closely at Copycat.

If used well, this could be quite interesting.

“Uncle Taesung. Can I ask for a favor? If there’s a monster corpse…”

I mentioned the monster corpse I needed and returned to my place.

Doppelganger would be good for evasion or deceiving opponents, and Volcano of Rage for area damage.

Energy Conversion would work well with stat boosts.

I tried drawing new cards by converting the dozens of remaining cards.

[Shock Absorber]

-Redirects and stores impact.

“I should keep this in mind too.”

With a total of 6 new cards given to me, once my body recovers, I’ll fight that thing again.

I took a deep breath. My first defeat in monster form. Naturally, I have to pay it back.

“Just you wait.”

I suppressed the frustration deep in my heart and waited for time to pass.

*

Serin was busy with analysis.

She’s the one who has handled ancient species genes and has extensive knowledge from using various samples.

“The core of this giant Hercules beetle exists under its shell. As far as I know, insect monsters of this type were ‘built with that structure.'”

“But they’re not exactly the same, right?”

“Based on my analysis of ancient insect species, monsters of that form hide their weak points in the safest places. Usually, those areas have high defense too.”

Serin’s analysis had identified the estimated location of the weak point.

The problem, as Jeonghyun predicted, was who would target it.

Jeonghyun himself needed to wait for recovery, but the problem was that the monster wouldn’t wait patiently.

“That thing is sweeping through Vietnam!”

The issue was that since even Sunghee couldn’t handle it, resort areas were being destroyed.

This monster, which had moved from Phuket to Vietnam, had defeated the Jaegers who rushed to confront it.

Gojun Dokgo had gone to the United States for monster elimination and couldn’t return.

Here, they could only wait for Jeonghyun to heal.

In the midst of this operation, Ariel called out to Yuhua.

“What?”

“Yuhua. Our coordination is really off, isn’t it?”

“Well…”

“I was probably too hasty.”

Ariel was surprisingly willing to admit it.

“Since things have turned out this way, I shouldn’t be too concerned. I think I was being stubborn. So let’s be clear about our goal.”

“Goal?”

“I’ve never seen Jeonghyun fall like that before. I don’t want to see that again. I’m going to think of this as cooperation, not competition.”

Yuhua looked at Ariel and smiled wryly.

“You’ve changed quite a bit too.”

“It’s all because of Jeonghyun anyway. So, I’m saying we should coordinate.”

“Will there be room for us to intervene?”

At Yuhua’s words, Ariel shook her head.

“We’re not intervening; we’re taking action. We’re going to target that weak point.”

“You’re confident.”

Ariel had completely abandoned the mindset of being rivals. All for her man.

And it wasn’t just Yuhua who was moved by her determination.

“I told you two would make a good match. I’ll actively recommend it.”

Serin began training them after seeing their resolve.

But they didn’t have much time.

This monster was on the verge of devastating Vietnam.

The Jaegers below the Avatar level had no chance against a monster that even an Avatar-level fighter couldn’t handle.

Taesung was buying time, but targeting the weak point wasn’t easy.

And at this moment, Ariel stood before the monster without anyone’s permission.

Like Dohyun Geum, she had awakened the power of a priestess through her connection with Jeonghyun.

“Ha, scary.”

In front of her eyes, a beetle over 30 meters tall was destroying villages just by flying.

It seemed like nothing would work against the roaring monster.

“I’ll trust you.”

With Yuhua behind her, Ariel jumped in.

Activating her priestess power, she swung Gram and instantly created a storm of magical power.

Its scale was powerful enough to reach the monster’s face. But the monster had already noticed her circling to its side.

Yet it couldn’t turn its head.

Because Yuhua had applied control.

“!”

The monster was strong. It resisted the control just by straining its neck.

It roughly raised its wings, not its spines, and blew Ariel away with air pressure.

The massive pressure sent her fragile body flying, displaying its might, but surprisingly, Ariel withstood it.

“Yuhua, you’re amazing?”

Amazingly, Yuhua had redirected the air pressure in another direction.

At the same time, she ‘controlled’ Yuhua’s body in the opposite direction.

A tactic that the previous Ariel would never have allowed. It was an action of trust, literally entrusting her body because she believed in her.

And Ariel unleashed her power to the fullest.

She concentrated magical power in her sword, making the wings open again before they could close.

The magical sword struck the inside of the wings, and she successfully approached the exposed back.

“Yuhua, you know where it is? Like with the Living Armor!”

Ariel entrusted control to Yuhua here. From the beginning, Yuhua had been judging exactly where the weak point was.

And controlling Ariel’s body, she stabbed at the part where the body stiffened.

In other words, the part it was trying to protect the most.

[~~~!]

The monster’s howl rang out as the magical sword exploded.

She had successfully pierced the exact weak point she wanted.

“We did it!”

Ariel’s joyful cheer was short-lived as she suddenly realized her body was moving on its own.

“It’s not over?”

[!!!]

But with a howl, the monster was getting up. It was staggering, indicating it had taken significant damage.

She needed to go deeper. She still couldn’t exert that level of power.

She tried to escape, but the monster’s yellow eyes looked at Ariel as it spread its wings.

A moment of death was about to unfold instantly.

“Ah…”

Ariel gritted her teeth as the monster easily outpaced her and gave chase.

Death.

As the word struck her head within the vast image, Ariel began to turn pale.

“Jeonghyun!”

The pitiful call of her lover’s name. And as if responding to it, a flash of light fell from the sky.

[High-Speed Directional Change Armor]

There was an insect monster covered in mechanical parts that pierced through the ancient species’ body.

“Jeonghyun!”

Ariel shouted with joy, and the monster collapsed to the ground with a large hole through its weak point.

The mechanical insect also collapsed, unable to maintain its balance.

“You fool! Don’t push yourself!”

As Ariel affectionately tried to approach him, her body wouldn’t move again.

“Yuhua! What are you…”

And at this moment, Ariel froze. Unable to move forward, an alarm was already sounding.

[Hello?]

In front of her stood Jiho Eun with an all-too-calm attitude.

[How convenient. I’ll sweep you all away at once.]

Jiho’s magical power was echoing throughout the place in an instant.

With Jeonghyun injured and Ariel in front of him, Jiho extended his hand.

The ground and buildings were collapsing like a tsunami rushing toward them.

[Die!]

As the destruction approached, when it seemed like everything was about to end, a miracle occurred.

[Silver Card]

The tenth and final silver card had just been drawn in Jeonghyun’s hand.