Joint Operation (5)

From a long distance, hidden behind several buildings beyond Il-hyun’s view, a man and two women stood at a rooftop in the middle of the city.

One of the men, about 197 cm tall with a muscular body, spoke.

“I’m at the designated backup area, the targets were brought down safely

He was Lee Jeong-hyeop. With his size, he looked like a monster compared to the slim women standing by his side.

They were surrounded by huge spears.

-We’re almost done here, more than half the monsters are gone.

One of the women, Sarah, grumbled.

“If not for the team leader, I wouldn’t have put the spear in your hand.”

Lee Jeong-hyeop and Sarah struggled as usual.

They were both members of Team B, but Lee Jeong-hyeop was quite rough in appearance and attitude.

Sarah’s personality was as strong as his, and they usually end up clashing.

Cho Yoon heard them over the communicator.

-Don’t make useless sounds on the communicator during the operation.

-Yep.

Lee Jeong-hyeop turned his head and looked at the other woman standing next to him.

She had long, straight hair and was also clad in a black coat.

She quietly closed her eyes, held it for a few moments, then opened them carefully.

“What do you think?” Lee Jeong-hyeop asked her.

“I got them. We have two more Craigs at 34 degrees,” she responded.

“Isn’t that right near where I threw it?

“Right.”

“Let me have the details,” he said.

The woman nodded and closed her eyes as he grabbed her hand.

The moments their hands touched, the exact coordinates flowed into his head.

“Good,” Lee Jeong-hyeop remarked as he pulled out one of the numerous spears.

He extended one leg, like throwing a baseball, and swung his arm mightily.

Bang!

The spear flew exactly in the direction the woman showed him.

It flew quickly through two buildings blocking the target.

Then, it pierced the head of a running monster.

Kyap!

The B-ranked ace monster fell with one powerful attack.

Another spear was flying in.

The other Craig has barely recovered from witnessing his colleague’s death, and couldn’t react in time to avoid it.

Instead, it raised its arms to block it.

It was the wrong choice.

Bang!

The spears went through the Craig’s arms and pierced through its skull easily.

“Targets down,” the woman spoke, opening her eyes.

Her name is Joo Hye-Jin.

She had [Detection], the ability to locate the existence of enemies even without seeing them directly.

It was a skill that sounded useful in many ways, but in reality, it was not looked high upon by other Awakeners.

In fact, she was only given an E rank by the performance tester.

The reason was simple.

The ability was useless on its own. An Awakener with this ability alone requires a partner.

Compared to other abilities, Detection ability holders were pretty high in number, but among them, only a few can be useful.

Only a handful of people appeared to be awakened enough to grasp locations within a ten-meter radius, and even that range is considered high-level.

There were many uses for Detection abilities, such as anti-terrorism and tracking missing monsters.

Because of that, governments around the world try hard to recruit people with high-level Detection.

But Joo Hye-jin from Aegis stands out.

Her range can cover an entire city.

The speed and accuracy of her Detection were also unmatched.

Aegis’ Joo Hye-jin is a rare Awakener.

Companies and governments around the world tried to recruit her, but the fact that she’s still with Aegis says a lot about how much other groups can offer.

No one could match Aegis.

“There are more monsters…” she murmured.

“Are they Creeps? Probably not worth it. I don’t know if we have enough spears,” Lee Jeong-hyeop muttered as he glanced over their weapons.

Normally, they only carry a few, but it was different this time because it was a B0-ranked gate.

“By the way,” he continued. “There was an Awakener near the targets earlier? If it was a team leader, the monsters would have already been gone before we threw the spears. Is it Team A’s Ghost?”

“No… it’s a different energy. Maybe it is the new Team A member. Kang Il-hyun, if I remember correctly?”

“Ah, the rookie everyone was talking about,” Lee Jeong-hyeop said quietly as he picked up a spear.

“What’s your impression?” he continued, curious. “Do you feel anything special?”

The news about team leader Lee Soo-yeon’s decision caused a lot of interest to him.

“Well…” she said in her quiet voice. “He only awakened three months ago, but he’s already on Team A, so he must be fairly strong. I don’t know otherwise. I can’t feel anything special.”

Lee Jeong-hyeop looked at her eyes.

If the rookie had something extraordinary, it should have been caught by Joo Hye-jin.

Because she didn’t catch anything, he must not be something worth the attention.

“Hmm…” he sighed.

“Let’s get to work.”

* * *

Thud!

The black Craig crashed helplessly after being slashed by the AT sword.

“Finally! That was hard,” Il-hyun, who killed the Craig, breathlessly sat down on the ground.

How many have I faced today? He was covered in sweat.

Ghost fell beside him, also panting with exhaustion.

“It was really hard today, arghh,” Ghost complained as he stretched his legs.

“But at least, it’s all over now,” Il-hyun said with a smile.

The monster that lies before them was the last.

The other corpses on the site are being sorted and processed.

Ghost placed a cigarette on his mouth.

However, the moment he lifted his lighter, a pebble flew exactly at his cigarette, then there was a little explosion.

The cigarette end was lighted.

“Ai, you shocked me!” he cried out.

“Is it all over?” Sarah smiled as she approached them.

She was walking leisurely.

“You almost killed me!” Ghost yelled at her.

“Haha, you’re overreacting!” she yelled back.

Suddenly, a voice came through their communicators.

-The situation is over. Everyone, gather at my location right now.

It was Lee Soo-yeon’s voice. It seemed that she contacted the entire channel as it came through Sarah’s communicator as well.

The three looked at each other for a moment and hurriedly moved.

They arrived at Lee Soo-yeon, a short distance away.

It seemed they were the first to arrive, and no other team members were visible.

Lee Soo-yeon, who noticed Il-hyun, pointed at the man he caught.

“This is him, right?”

“Ah yes. Yes,” Il-hyun replied as he recognized the man.

The scavenger was still held and bound tightly.

He reported the incident to Lee Soo-yeon before he went to his designated location.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, as Lee Soo-yeon looked serious.

“When I heard your report, I thought it was a simple scavenger… the situation is worse than I thought.”

As Lee Soo-yeon replied, she held out her palm.

There was an unidentifiable object that could barely fill her small hand.

She explained to the group in a grave voice.

“This guy brought this disturbance device.”