Chapter 41
Part 40
"Close, but wrong."
"?!"
Yugeon was greatly startled when the woman read his thoughts.
He hadn't expected her to be capable of something like that.
"Anyway, whether you accept the gift is entirely up to you. But there's one thing you should know. Even if you accept it, you won't suffer any harm."
"How am I supposed to believe that?"
"I swear it on my name as the Goddess of Myriad Nights."
RUMBLE!
The moment she spoke, the entire space began to tremble.
"I can't tell you my True Name, of course. And that's for your own sake."
"...Because I wouldn't be able to withstand the power of your existence."
"Correct."
The Goddess of Myriad Nights smiled and playfully snapped her fingers.
What if I used Infinite Interval and Heaven-Annihilating One Sword to listen to it?
Would he be able to hear her True Name?
If he temporarily reached the realm of the Martial God, he might be able to withstand it.
"But if you do that, you won't be able to receive the gift we've prepared. The Sanctuary would notice."
"..."
At her words, Yugeon slowly closed his eyes.
At least one thing was certain.
This gift would benefit him.
Receiving it would be far more advantageous than learning her True Name.
Besides, hadn't she promised that it wouldn't cause him any harm?
"Understood. I'll accept the gift."
"A wise decision."
Snap!
BZZZZT!
She snapped her fingers, and the ceiling of the mountain cabin began transforming into a vast expanse of space.
Then...
SHAAAAAA!
A single beam of light descended from the distant universe and enveloped Yugeon.
"Make good use of it. Although its applications are rather limited, it's something you desperately need right now."
"This is..."
Yugeon's eyes widened in surprise when he saw the message appearing before him.
At that moment...
"Goodbye. It was a pleasure meeting you."
WHOOSH!
The Goddess of Myriad Nights smiled gently and waved her hand.
Yugeon's body began to disappear.
WHOOSH!
"?"
Having returned to the base, Yugeon looked out at the darkness beyond the window.
It had been around four in the afternoon before he disappeared.
It certainly hadn't been dark then.
He reached for his phone.
This is...
Yugeon picked up the phone he had left on the dining table and frowned when he checked the time.
An entire week.
A full week had passed since he entered that space.
It was now one in the morning.
I expected time to flow differently there, but...
This was much more extreme than he had anticipated.
He had spent ten minutes there at most.
Yet an entire week had passed in his original world.
I'll have to be careful if I ever receive another invitation.
If there was an emergency or something he needed to deal with immediately, he absolutely couldn't afford to accept another invitation.
Of course, there was no guarantee that he would ever receive one again.
The gift from the Outer Realm...
Yugeon opened the message window again and let out a disbelieving laugh.
Just as the Goddess of Myriad Nights had said, the ability had very few applications.
Nevertheless, it was incredibly important to him.
[Heavenly Anomaly Sense]
Grade: Transcendent
Category: Passive
Consumption: None
[Passive Effect]
Displays the time of the next Monster Wave on the user's Status Window.
"Haha."
Yugeon couldn't help laughing.
After experiencing the previous wave, a certain anxiety had taken root in the back of his mind.
The wave happened earlier than it was supposed to.
Ten minutes.
It was only ten minutes.
Someone else might have wondered why he was so worried about a wave occurring just ten minutes early.
But to Yugeon, those ten minutes were an enormous warning.
It definitely happened earlier than the time I remembered.
While witnessing the world's destruction, he had repeatedly checked and memorized the historical records of every Monster Wave.
There were several reasons for that.
He wanted to calculate when the next wave would occur and what conditions triggered it.
And sometimes, he had simply revisited those records out of regret, wishing things had gone differently.
But the last wave really did happen ten minutes early.
Before his regression, he had traveled around the world and cross-checked the records of the waves.
He wanted to make sure different countries hadn't recorded different times.
But every record around the world was identical.
That meant the wave had unquestionably occurred earlier than it should have.
BZZZZT.
When Yugeon activated the ability, the Status Window before him began to change.
[Time of the Next Wave]
June 5, 2040
Boss Appearance Location: Incheon
"..."
Yugeon's expression turned serious.
The next Monster Wave had been brought forward again.
And this time, the change was much greater than before.
Only three weeks remain.
Originally, the next wave should have occurred three months later.
It was the event known as Humanity's Turning Point.
In his previous life, people had given the wave that name.
Why?
Because another wave had occurred before humanity had even finished recovering from the damage caused by the previous one.
That was the wave that inflicted irreparable damage on humanity.
As he had mentioned before, the monsters that emerged from Choibalsan, Mongolia, had swept through Hulunbuir and continued south across China.
The commanders leading the monsters had also caused devastating damage in other countries.
And with another wave arriving only a few months later, humanity suffered an enormous blow before it could recover from the previous disaster.
Smaller nations, in particular, reached a point from which recovery was impossible.
That was when Korea lost half its territory, too.
Incheon, Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, and Gangwon Province.
Everything down to the area just north of Daejeon had been reduced to ruins.
Monsters had swarmed through the streets, and corpses had littered the ground.
But things are different this time.
He had already stopped the previous wave.
And he had done so while minimizing the damage.
Once the boss died, the wave had been reduced to an ordinary monster attack.
The Awakeners had quickly eliminated the remaining monsters before they could inflict significant damage.
So even if another wave happens in three weeks, it shouldn't cause any major problems.
However, the fact that the date had moved forward remained his greatest concern.
Awakener Association Headquarters.
Step. Step.
The moment Yugeon passed through the automatic doors and entered the lobby, the receptionist jumped to her feet in surprise.
"Huh...?"
"Isn't that...?"
Other people in the lobby began stopping one after another.
Soon, whispers spread throughout the building.
"That's Han Yugeon."
"It really is him. I've never seen him in person before."
"Why is he here?"
The Association employees exchanged uncertain glances.
After all, the person who had just entered their lobby was the Awakener who had caused a worldwide sensation.
He was the man who had cut down thirty thousand monsters in Mongolia with a single strike.
There was even widespread speculation that he was a newly emerged Great Star, and many people were already treating it as an established fact.
I didn't expect someone this important to show up out of nowhere...
The receptionist swallowed nervously.
Whenever a Great Star visited, the entire Association went on high alert.
Of course, Han Yugeon hadn't officially been recognized as a Great Star yet.
But he was still incredibly famous.
And now he had arrived alone without any prior notice.
He was even wearing an ordinary hoodie and jeans.
"Hello."
"Ah! Y-Yes! Welcome!"
When Yugeon greeted her, the receptionist hurriedly stood straight and bowed.
"Is Manager Kim Seunggil here?"
"Yes...? Ah, Manager Kim Seunggil? J-Just a moment! I'll contact him immediately!"
She hurriedly picked up the office telephone.
At the same time, people throughout the lobby began making calls.
"Awakener Han Yugeon has arrived in the lobby."
"Yes, yes. He's alone."
"An appointment? Well, I'm not sure..."
Urgent voices rang out from every direction.
They're certainly busy.
Yugeon surveyed the scene with a faint, disbelieving smile.
Before his regression, the Association building had been half-destroyed and converted into a temporary medical clinic.
He had never seen its employees bustling around like this.
This is how things are supposed to be.
Yugeon sat on a sofa in one corner of the lobby and waited.
Before long, several men in suits came pouring out of the elevator.
And leading them was...
"Awakener Han Yugeon!"
Kim Seunggil was running toward him while adjusting his tie.
"You could have contacted us before coming."
Seunggil set down his glass of water and smiled awkwardly.
They were in a reception room.
Judging by the lingering smell of coffee, the room had been cleared out in a hurry.
"I thought you'd be busy making preparations if I called ahead."
"Haha..."
Seunggil let out an awkward laugh.
If Yugeon had contacted them beforehand, even the Association President would probably have come down to greet him.
There was undoubtedly already a commotion upstairs.
"So, how did it go?"
"Pardon?"
"The National Alert Authority."
"Ah..."
Seunggil's expression stiffened slightly at Yugeon's question.
After a brief silence, he carefully spoke.
"We... managed to secure the National Alert Authority."
"That's good news."
"However..."
Seunggil trailed off and pressed his fingers against his forehead.
This was difficult.
How was he supposed to bring up the next part?
"Then what about the Independent Operational Authority?"
"..."
When Yugeon brought it up himself, Seunggil finally lowered his head.
"I'm sorry. We haven't received approval for that yet."
"What's the reason?"
"I'll be completely straightforward with you."
Seunggil straightened his posture.
If he tried to evade the question, the man in front of him would immediately notice.
"The National Alert Authority is ultimately just the authority to issue warnings. Even if a warning turns out to be wrong, the government doesn't stand to lose much beyond some embarrassment. Well, to be precise, there would be public criticism, and we'd probably have to provide some supplies or other compensation as an apology... But the Independent Operational Authority is different."
"Because it means operating outside the chain of command."
"...Yes. Exactly."
