Beyond The Control

Chapter 53

The noisy alert stopped only after the same notification was sent twice in a row.

Song Ji-hyeok grabbed his car keys without any hesitation and left the house. He had heard the clause about always following guild orders so many times it was almost brainwashing, and above all, the area where the dungeon break occurred was familiar.

No wonder there hadn’t been any news about it disappearing even after several days. It seemed the monsters had finally spilled out of the gate.

When he arrived at the guild, about twenty people had gathered. Considering that more than a third were A-rank Awakened, it wasn’t a large number.

Lee Su-hyeon wasn’t among them. He might not have arrived yet, or he could have gone directly to the scene.

Song Ji-hyeok tried to contact him, but there wasn’t enough time. As soon as everyone changed into their combat uniforms, an Esper with teleportation ability sent them all to the scene at once.

As the momentary darkness lifted, the scenery before their eyes changed instantly. Giant monsters were trampling buildings and the ground like paper, acrid smoke and the smell of burning flesh filled the air – it was utter chaos.

Some monsters were already dead and fallen, while others were struggling with large holes in their bodies or severely damaged. As if that wasn’t enough, Song Ji-hyeok mercilessly launched energy transformed into a spear at a monster just crawling out of the gate. While most Espers use weapons with amplification devices to attack, Song Ji-hyeok preferred to emit raw energy directly from his hands.

“—-!”

With a chilling sound, the monster’s head disappeared in an instant. To be precise, the head separated from the body and plummeted to the ground as if in free fall. Given the monster’s enormous size, only its neck was cleanly severed, but if it had been a smaller creature, it would have been completely pulverized by the force.

Nearby Espers were shocked by this sight, but in the chaotic battlefield, being stunned for too long was tantamount to suicide. Everyone quickly regained their senses and launched attacks with their specialties. Where ice-attribute Espers were, shattered monster corpses rained down like hail, and where fire-attribute ones were shooting flames, the smell of burning was overwhelming.

Song Ji-hyeok also unleashed his skills at every monster in sight. Because he put his full power into each attack, most monsters had their necks blown off or holes punched through their hearts with a single strike. As he was about to launch another skill at a roaring monster in the distance, someone fearlessly grabbed his arm.

“Excuse me! Are you Esper Song Ji-hyeok?”

His face automatically scrunched up at the sudden interruption. Turning around with a fierce expression, he saw an unfamiliar person standing there.

Although it was their first meeting, he immediately recognized where the person was from. The man was wearing the blue jacket worn by guides from Moonlight Guild. The reason Song Ji-hyeok knew this was because of Song Tae-hyeok. A large photo of that bastard with his team members hung in the living room of his parents’ house, put up by his mother.

Anyway, as soon as he realized the man in front of him was from Moonlight Guild, he felt a surge of displeasure. Before he could express it, the man pleaded urgently and desperately.

“There’s a boss mob in that direction! Please help us!”

When he turned his head, indeed, he saw an overwhelmingly huge monster standing like a mountain. The situation was clear at a glance. Despite bearing several seemingly fatal wounds, the monster was still going strong. With one swipe of its tail, the upper part of a nearby small building crumbled like sand.

Even a three-year-old knows that you have to defeat the boss mob to end the battle. So, despite his still displeased expression, Song Ji-hyeok quickly moved in that direction.

When he had closed the distance somewhat, he gritted his teeth and gathered all his strength into one hand. In that brief moment of manifesting the huge energy into a spear, he suddenly remembered something Lee Su-hyeon had told him.

‘Reptile-like creatures are really hard to attack. Their whole body is as hard as if covered in steel. The best approach is to pierce their eyes first, then attack the inside of their belly when they’re stunned – that’s the surest way to finish them off.’

He managed to recall this and changed his target point. If he used full power and the monster somehow deflected it, the damage would undoubtedly be taken by the surrounding Espers.

Honestly, he didn’t care what happened to others, but there was one thing that bothered him. The fact that Lee Su-hyeon was somewhere at this scene.

Although it seemed likely that with his experience and sensibility, he would dodge well… if by any chance he got hit by a fragment, he could be seriously injured. That would obviously cause major problems for guiding.

Song Ji-hyeok gritted his teeth again. Suppressing his impatience with the patience that Espers are said to absolutely lack, he waited for an opportunity. And soon after, that moment came. Whether by chance or not, the moment the monster’s head turned in his direction, Song Ji-hyeok forcefully launched the concentrated energy at its bright yellow eyes.

“—-!”

The monster, with one eye pierced, writhed in pain, letting out an ear-splitting roar. Its tail thrashed violently, decimating surrounding buildings.

Regardless, Song Ji-hyeok launched the same attack once more. The energy, honed sharp like a spear, flew towards the monster’s other eye, and once again penetrated its target.

“—-!”

The monster’s howl grew even louder. Even in the face of life-threatening fear, there were some Espers who didn’t lose their composure. When an Esper near the boss mob shouted at the top of his lungs to aim for the monster’s belly, everyone gathered their wits and concentrated their attacks on its abdomen.

But the creature before them wasn’t called a boss mob for nothing. Even under concentrated fire that would have been fatal for most, it refused to fall.

Song Ji-hyeok joined their group. Moving from behind the monster to its front, he once again gathered strength in his right hand. The output was so extreme that the blood vessels in his eyes were on the verge of bursting.

KWAAANG-!

The energy he launched was shot towards the monster’s abdomen. When it finally collided, there was an explosion loud enough to drown out the monster’s howl, and pieces of the monster’s flesh scattered in all directions.

When everyone instinctively closed their eyes tightly and opened them again, they could finally see the scene they had desperately hoped for. The hated monster that they couldn’t defeat even after suffering casualties inside the dungeon, which had ultimately earned them the disgrace of a dungeon break, now had its abdomen blown wide open like a cave entrance.

Behind it spread the pitch-black night sky. The sight was so unreal that everyone was momentarily speechless. Yet instinctively, they realized one fact.

…It’s over now.

Expressions of mixed emotions flashed across the Espers’ faces. Even though Espers are a breed full of useless pride and ego, some even collapsed as if all strength had left their bodies.

But then, not far away, someone’s shout was heard.

“The core! We need to find the core!”

As soon as he looked in that direction, Song Ji-hyeok’s brow furrowed deeply. The one going on about the monster’s core as soon as the battle ended was none other than Kim Kwang-in. While personal attacks shouldn’t be made, his half-bald head was particularly irritating today.

Ignoring him, Song Ji-hyeok set out to find his guide. Being a Dual, he might have participated in the attack, but Song Ji-hyeok headed to the base camp first.

“Water! Bring water!”

“More bandages, please!”

The base camp, where the leadership and guides were gathered, was set up at the farthest point from the gate. But it too was in chaos. People shouting loudly, Espers being carried away covered in blood from severe injuries, guides desperately pouring energy into unstable pair Espers – it was truly a scene of pandemonium.

In the back corner, there were a few partitions set up like portable toilets. It was obvious what they were for without looking.

Song Ji-hyeok also frantically searched for Lee Su-hyeon. The abnormal symptoms that appear as a consequence of using energy don’t show up immediately after use, but a few minutes later, and damn it, now was exactly that moment.

The relatively calm state he had maintained even after delivering the final blow was nowhere to be seen. His unfit energy surged dramatically, causing the blood flow in his body to go haywire. While pressing his throbbing head, he searched for Lee Su-hyeon, when suddenly a familiar face quickly passed by. It was Park Sang-chul, the head of the Human Resources Management Department. He grabbed his arm and spoke through gritted teeth.

“Where’s Senior Su-hyeon?”

“Pardon?”

“I said, where’s Senior Su-hyeon?”

A curse followed his irritable words. No matter how capable an Esper Song Ji-hyeok was, this was not behavior to show in front of a high-ranking guild official.

In the guild, he would have been reprimanded, but now wasn’t the situation for that. Song Ji-hyeok’s condition was visibly concerning, and there seemed to be an even bigger problem. Director Park pushed up his glasses and unconsciously spoke in a troubled voice.

“Guide Lee Su-hyeon is not here.”