CH 234

Thud. Thud.

The Cyclops kept coming out of the dungeon, but they did not seem to be attacking anything.

People ran and screamed at the sight of them, but for some reason, these one-eyed giants did not seem to care about the humans.

Once thirty or so had crossed through the portal, another five appeared in different apparel—robes, staff-wielding Cyclops emerged from the dungeon one by one. Following these five, yet another Cyclops came out of the portal, one was at least fifty percent larger than the others. He looked around for a moment, then proceeded to speak.

Most people could not understand their language, but those with translation skills could.

[Priests, begin the sanctification! Warriors, build barriers and go into defense mode.]

There were many monsters that had their own language, but this was the first time it had been broadcasted live to the public.

When the larger Cyclops finished talking, the average ones began to destroy the buildings around them. Buildings dozens of stories high came crashing down, and the Cyclops piled up the wrecks into a massive rubble barricade around them. Some people were caught in the collapsing buildings and died.

At the center of the wall of rubble, the robed Cyclops began a strange ritual. Light emanated from their staff, resonating with the energy coming out from the dungeon Portal.

It was a ritual that had never before been seen by mankind.

Suddenly, dozens of helicopters flew over and began to fire missiles.

Normal firearms didn’t do much to monsters, but ammunition containing pieces of Magic Stones was somewhat effective outside of the dungeons.

However, they were not well-matched. A volley of light beams from the Cyclops’ eyes shot down every missile, then struck the helicopters.

Boom!

With a loud bang, the helicopters crashed. The Hunters inside the helicopters jumped out and threw every skill they had at the Cyclops.

They used all types of skills—lightning, storm, wind, and flames. Their powers all worked well with each other, and their synergistic attacks rained down on the Cyclops, but to their dismay, they barely managed to give the monsters some scratches.

The ensuing beam volley slaughtered the majority of the Hunters.

There were thousands of people on the ground who were able to stream footage of the battle to GodTube, and it quickly spread around the world.

The Korean hero, Um Ji-Cheok, was also watching the livestream.

Disaster had struck the United States.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

“It has begun.”

Ji-Han stood inside a crudely constructed concrete building, on top of a giant pile of corpses, calmly watching the GodTube livestream.

The building appeared to be a hangar for small airplanes or tanks on a military base. However, all there was inside was dead people, and a river of blood was flowing out the door.

North Korea’s Manaformed regions were a good hiding place for secret societies because the environment was too inhospitable for normal humans. He had taken out quite a few over the years, but there were still a few left.

The bodies he was standing on now belonged to one of these secret societies. If he hadn’t taken care of them, they would have committed acts of terrorism that would have affected China and Russia, and killed countless people in his home country.

With these people taken care of, he went on to watch the livestream on GodTube.

It was a sight he had already seen too many times to count: the appearance of the one-eyed giants.

Ji-Han had never been able to stop them. He had tried many times before, but all his attempts had ended in failure. He had long since concluded that he was better off doing something else for humanity. Each of those Cyclops was a raid boss monster that required dozens of high-level Hunters to take down, so he had always thought that he was making the right choice.

There were dozens of such monsters, and that didn’t even include the Priest and Wizard Cyclops, who were considered higher-level beings than the regular Cyclops. In addition, there was also the formidable being that led them—the Warlord, the ruling class of the Cyclops race.

If dozens of them went on a full-scale rampage, even the United States would suffer terrible damage. However, at the moment, they focused solely on defense without even attacking once, appearing like an impenetrable fortress that would never be breached.

“When the United States government sees these one-eyed giants, they make a big mistake and only try to stall for time instead of going all-out.”

That was the future he had seen time and time again. He thought that it would not change this time either.

“The future I saw begins now…”

In the livestream, the ritual had begun. The entrance to the dungeon grew larger and larger.

In three days, it would grow even larger. And on the fourth day…

“An army of thousands of Cyclops will march out and burn New Jersey down to the ground, planting things from their own world and forcefully Manaforming the land. And when their temple is complete, even New York will burn to ashes.”

Ji-Han kept watching the livestream.

Then, just as he always did, he turned the corpses into particles of light, sucked them into his clock mechanism, and left.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

‘Cheok-Liang, I need you to find a skill for me.’

«You want a skill that allows you to observe what is happening directly, right?»

‘Exactly. Or a skill that will allow me to travel over there in one move.’

«Here you go, Master.»

[Steps of Hermes — 20,000,000 Likes]

[Class: Legendary (Non-Upgradable Rank S)

A skill created by imitating the gait of a being who could travel anywhere in the world of the dead and the world of the living.

The user can leap through space to reach any place they have seen. Mana consumption increases with distance.]

[Gaze of Argos — 20,000,000 Likes]

[Class: Legendary (Non-Upgradable Rank S)

A skill that was created by drawing on the abilities of the giant Argos, who is said to have a hundred eyes and could see through anything.

He was once slain by Hermes, but since the Gods are immortal by nature, he was later resurrected.

Allows the user to see whatever they want to see. Mana consumption increases with distance.]

Both of these skills cost twenty million Likes, which seemed like a bargain to him at this point.

Of course, Ji-Cheok bought both of them. He turned off GodTube, then closed his eyes.

‘Activate Gaze of Argos.’

When he used the skill, he could see the entire world in front of him, as if his eyes were wide open, even though, in reality, they were closed. It felt as if he was looking down on the entire mankind from the sky.

He saw what the Cyclops were doing. They were performing a ritual, making the entrance of the dungeon bigger. The power emanating from it made his hair stand on end.

«If we leave them alone, there is going to be way more than just a Dungeon Break.»

‘I think so too. There must be a reason why they’re increasing the size of the entrance.’

«Yes, Master. New Jersey will suffer terrible damage, and it will also damage the very dimensional wall.»

The giants did not care about the humans. They were, however, ripping out the Magic Stones from the rubbles around them.

Batteries made from small shards of Magic Stones held a much higher charge than those made with previous technologies, and they were consequently used everywhere now. The Cyclops were tearing those batteries apart, picking out the Magic Stones, and tossing them at the robed Cyclops performing the ritual. As they flew through the air, the Magic Stones turned into light and were sucked into the magic circle at the center of the barricade.

Besides enlarging the portal, the ritual also seemed to be doing something else. The walls that the Cyclops had stacked like Legos after smashing the buildings nearby into pieces now flashed with blue light. Clearly, this was done in order to reinforce the ‘fortress.’ In order to attack the Cyclops on the ground, people would first need to lay siege to this barricade, which was likely impossible with normal means.

‘What are the major American guilds doing?’

«I see no major movements from those guilds, Master.»

‘What?!’

Ji-Cheok was so stunned that he accidentally canceled his skill.

‘What are you talking about?’

«You can see for yourself.»

CHeok-Liang put a video in front of him.

⌜Are you crazy, Bill? You know it would take our entire team to take down just one Cyclops! There are dozens of them! Besides, I’ve never even seen a Cyclops Warlord before, and you want me to go in there?⌟

⌜I would rather break the contract and pay the penalty! You know the clause in our contract gives me veto rights in times like this!⌟

Ji-Cheok saw a vaguely familiar face on the screen. He was a Caucasian man, over two meters tall and muscular. He was the Titan, one of America’s top-tier Hunters and the poster boy for GOF, the largest Hunter guild in the United States.

He was known for having the skill [Indomitability], but it was believed that his true strength was due to the skill [Scion of the Titans]. It was the skill given by the bloodline of Titans, giant ancient Gods. It gave him fearsome strength, stamina, and physical toughness.

He could not fly or move at the speed of light, but his sheer strength was great enough to make those irrelevant.

Right now, that Titan was trying to run away.

«The Hunters in the United States are all capitalists. Since corporations do not have full powers over them, they cannot be coerced. Well, the highest level Hunters cannot be coerced by the state anyway…»

“Ha…”

Ji-Cheok put both of his hands on his face.

‘I know. I know this is normal. Even in Korea, I know there are tons of Hunters who would run away if something like this happened. But I didn’t expect them to be so blunt on television. How about their military? The only thing you can count on is the army of the United States. What’s happening with them?’

«They are on the move, Master. They are planning on bombing them with missiles.»

‘I hope they’re not nuclear missiles… Are they?’

«They have 192 Tomahawk cruise missiles ready. It appears that the Americans have developed a special warhead that is supposed to pose a threat even to powerful monsters in case of a Dungeon Break, and I believe they are about to launch them.»

‘I really hope this will work, but I don’t really have high hopes for them.’

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«There is too little information to know whether the missiles will work or not.»

‘Damn it. We need to do somethi—’

“Hm~ I’m sorry to interrupt your concentration, but could you spare a bit of attention for me, too?”

Ji-Cheok heard Reable’s voice. He had been so focused on the Cyclops that he had forgotten about Reable.

“I’m sorry. I was just shocked…”

“It’s okay. You’re just trying to save humanity from a brutal and immediate ending. I understand.” Reable smiled.

It was a kind of smile that could have convinced Ji-Cheok that Reable was a good being if it hadn’t been for the horrific, evil monster that the latter was riding on.

“The thing is, you know, I understand that there’s some funny stuff going on in the States, but I believe there’s nothing you can do about it anyway. You have to realize that grumbling isn’t going to change anything.”

“You’re wrong.”

“Huh?”

“I’m grumbling because I’m thinking to myself. I am planning to do something about it.”

‘I have the Likes. Maybe I can do something about it. Maybe I can stop them. But the problem is that I don’t know exactly how to do it, that’s why I’m talking to myself.’

“Of course, I know that~ I also know that you can draw upon the powers of the other Gods.”

“...”

“I also know that you can get your hands on the ability to observe everything that’s going on, and even to travel through space to the United States. But those monsters are still too powerful for you to deal with.”