Chapter 176
Chapter 176. Chase (2)
“Chirp….”
“It’s okay. Get on.”
“Chirp!”
Wobble!
As Chilla climbed aboard, the boat rocked significantly under the weight.
Fortunately, as long as it wasn’t jumping around on deck, boarding wasn’t a problem.
To keep balance, Yoo Ji-han seated Chilla in the center of the boat and then said,
“Let’s set off.”
“How fast will we be going?”
“Of course, at max speed.”
Vroom!
The engine emitted a sound similar to a motorcycle as the boat moved forward.
Nam Ho-yeol gradually increased the speed, following the light illuminated by magic.
With the salty sea air hitting his nose, Yoo Ji-han adjusted it slightly.
However, his eyes were focused on the ship of the people from another world in pursuit.
‘They’re increasing their speed too.’
The people from another world noticed the heroes following them and accelerated.
But whether it was thanks to their larger ship or a better engine,
Even when Nam Ho-yeol maxed out the speed, they couldn’t catch up.
“I’ll help.”
“Can you do it?”
“If I can’t, I’ll make it happen.”
[Magic Propeller]
Kim Si-hu generated a large propeller made of magical energy at the back of the boat.
It slowly rotated in one direction and pushed the wind backward.
While there was also the option to use powerful wind magic, this was a more stable and excellent spell.
“I didn’t know there was such magic.”
“It’s not a public spell; it’s one I used when I was a kid playing with paper boats on the lake.”
“You attached something so foolish to a paper boat?”
“Of course, the scale of the magic back then was different… I did get scolded by the lake keeper a few times though.”
“Sounds about right.”
It was magic developed for toy purposes being used here now.
Though the purpose and use had changed during development, the performance was certainly there.
Swoooosh——!
With the added propulsion, the fishing boat broke through the limits allowed by the engine and soared across the sea.
“Whoa……!”
Feeling speed like never before, Nam Ho-yeol felt his knees buckle.
However, he gritted his teeth and refused to let go of the handle.
The expeditionary force had to bear burdens big and small to keep themselves safe.
He thought it was meaningful to be of help at a time like this, given they had come this far.
‘We’re getting faster!’
Thanks to the wind magic, Yoo Ji-han’s group successfully surpassed the speed of the ship carrying the people from another world.
The distance between the boats gradually shortened.
But then Min Yu-ri shouted.
“Be careful!”
“……!”
The people from another world were attacking from the front.
Swish! Swash!
Leading the group, Yoo Ji-han slashed through the incoming spells with a sword infused with aura.
To nullify magic with aura, it was important to hit the target at just the right moment to consume their spells.
‘Now!’
Yoo Ji-han found that timing almost instinctively and scattered the wind aura.
Combined with support magic rising from the surface by Kim Si-hu, they could handle it well enough.
“From above too!”
“Chirp!”
The dealers, including Min Yu-ri, picked off the sharp feathers of birds falling from the sky one by one.
Chilla raised a large shield to safely protect the boat.
With the experienced support from Yoon Do-ha’s party, it could be said that the ship suffered almost no damage.
‘We’re almost caught up.’
The outline of the ship shimmering in the darkness became visible to everyone except Yoo Ji-han.
Calculating the distance between the two boats with his eyes, Yoo Ji-han prepared to jump over first with his movement skill.
However, something felt off.
When they were farther away, the people had been trying to keep them at bay, but now, as the distance closed, they were just staring without taking any action.
‘What’s going on?’
Why are they suddenly acting like that?
Yoo Ji-han questioned their sudden calm demeanor.
At that moment, he spotted Rius standing on the deck.
Rius’s eyes flicked quickly between Yoo Ji-han’s face and below the sea.
‘…Could it be.’
A single hypothesis formed in Yoo Ji-han’s mind, and he sucked in his breath.
Then he shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Increase the speed a little more!”
“If we go any faster, the boat might capsize!”
“Ho-yeol! Can we change direction now?”
“I can, but….”
Wobble!
Suddenly, a shaking was felt from below the boat.
Expressions grew tense as everyone sensed the anomaly.
Some noticed the sea below, but Yoo Ji-han calmly gave instructions.
“Yuri, shoot that!”
Phew!
Min Yu-ri’s arrow pierced through the body of the ship belonging to the people from another world and lodged deep.
Inside the magic arrow, he had embedded an artifact for long-range tracking.
“Everyone, hang on to something tight.”
“Bwooooom——!”
With a deafening roar, a huge whale emerged from below the boat.
And it had turned into the monster known as a grotesque whale.
Thud!
Yoo Ji-han’s fishing boat was thus swallowed whole by the mouth of the grotesque whale.
*
“This is ridiculous….”
In the hero department’s crisis response center operating 24/7,
As the head of the crisis response team was caught as a spy at such a crucial time,
Due to orders from higher-ups, Yang Ji-cheol was temporarily managing the crisis response team.
With heavy dark circles under his eyes, he addressed one of the staff.
“Report the deployment status of the heroes.”
“We’re calling all personnel from the MA side to meet the minimum criteria and bringing them all to the hero department branches.”
“I already know that, but tell me specifically which regions and what level of parties are being deployed. The info came in 20 minutes ago, remember?”
“U-uh, please hold on a moment…….”
The assigned staff appeared somewhat flustered.
Seeing the clumsy handling of the work, Yang Ji-cheol sighed.
It was unsettling that they couldn’t even gather info under the title of crisis response.
True to the organization that had spies hiding, there was no proper work system in place here.
“Ji-cheol.”
“Ah! You’ve arrived!”
Yang Ji-cheol jumped up from his chair to greet a woman entering through the door.
Fluent in multiple foreign languages, she was an employee mainly responsible for communications with overseas hero organizations in the hero department.
With the first-class heroes missing and Korea in a near-civil war situation, requesting cooperation from other countries was essential.
Her role was more important than ever.
“It seems like it might not work out…”
However, her reaction was quite grim.
“I heard something urgent happened in other countries as well.”
“What about the U.S.?”
“The U.S., Europe, China, Japan, Vietnam… I contacted several countries, but we couldn’t get the cooperation of their top heroes.”
In Seoul, communication abilities were still functional.
Requests for assistance had been made globally, but everyone seemed too busy dealing with their internal crises.
It seemed like the incidents were of a different nature than what was happening in Korea, primarily involving monsters or natural disasters.
“If that’s the case, what about the UN! What about the UN?!”
“For now, they’ve responded that they’ll be monitoring the situation…”
“Damn them!”
Yang Ji-cheol ground his teeth at the thought of the UN.
Under the ideology of world peace, the UN had its own powerful hero organization.
That was why, when IUPC members were detained in Korea, the hero department had gotten considerable support from the UN, taking their position statements into account.
But the price for that came back as ostracism in a crisis like this.
“They always defended the IUPC like it was their pet! And now they’re not helping when the situation has gotten dire?”
“Huh, I’ll try to contact them again.”
“This time, please take a firmer stance. After all, they should be the ones rushing here first.”
As the woman exited the crisis response center,
Yang Ji-cheol pressed his temples with his fingers, thinking.
‘It’s too perfectly coincidental to be just a coincidence.’
To have incidents that make it difficult for multiple countries to cooperate,
Could this really be seen as an accident?
Unless someone had orchestrated it beforehand, it was hard to believe this was a natural occurrence.
“Nothing from Ji-han’s side in Yeosu yet… I’m losing my mind.”
“Just calm down a bit?”
“Nirochi. How can I calm down right now?”
“If you don’t calm down, it’ll get even more chaotic for everyone here.”
“……”
Yang Ji-cheol closed his mouth at Nirochi’s advice.
It sounded right to him.
“And I heard Yoo Ji-han is doing well as an expedition leader?”
“That’s separate, it’s frustrating because communication is difficult. I don’t know their situation….”
“Worry about here. He’ll manage just fine.”
Phew—
Nirochi answered leisurely while sipping coffee and savoring its aroma.
Then Yang Ji-cheol asked her.
“On what basis do you say that?”
“He’s not the kind of idiot who would crumble easily with that kind of power.”
Nirochi appeared more confident in Yoo Ji-han than even Yoo Ji-han himself.
*
“Uagh!”
“A grotesque whale! It’s a grotesque whale!”
“Protect the Vice Guild Master!”
“Light some fires!”
The group that had entered the grotesque whale with the seawater was tossed about wildly.
As the magic-generated light illuminated the darkness, the grotesque whale’s red flesh came into view.
Crash!
The fishing boat collided violently with the grotesque whale’s flesh and broke apart immediately.
“Chirp!”
“Th-thank you!”
Amidst the chaos, Chilla took care of Nam Ho-yeol.
Yoo Ji-han directed Kim Si-hu.
“Somehow, block its mouth!”
[Bubbling]
Small bubbles created by Kim Si-hu spread over the grotesque whale’s mouth.
The bubbles were thicker and more plentiful than expected, covering the whale’s entire mouth.
With seawater from outside no longer entering, Yoo Ji-han let out a sigh of relief.
‘I didn’t expect a grotesque whale to show up.’
He realized late that the enemies could control marine creatures.
But he never expected them to use a grotesque whale to swallow them whole.
The last appearance of grotesque whales in Korea was about ten years ago.
Even Yoo Ji-han had only seen footage from back then.
“Is everyone okay?”
“Yes.”
“We’re fine.”
“Shouldn’t we get out of here quickly?”
“There’s poison in the grotesque whale’s blood.”
The grotesque whale that had swallowed Yoo Ji-han’s group was moving in an unknown direction.
If they stayed like this, they would be greatly distanced from the people from another world.
But the issue was the poison hidden in the grotesque whale’s blood.
‘I could have escaped on my own, but…’
It wasn’t a very strong poison.
It would only cause skin to burn and make someone feel very heavy.
However, considering the underwater environment and that Nam Ho-yeol was an ordinary person,
They couldn’t recklessly touch the grotesque whale.
“Ugh, the smell!”
“Cough!”
At that moment, Yoo Ji-han’s group suddenly caught a sharp, stinging smell.
It seemed to be coming from the stomach of the grotesque whale.
As everyone felt it, they became extremely uneasy.
Thud thud thud!
Suddenly, the Sylph began to vibrate its body and flew upward.
Soon it flew deep inside the grotesque whale’s body on its own.
‘Where is it going?’
It was like it was trying to dive deeper when they could barely even go outside.
Yoo Ji-han had no choice but to follow the Sylph.
Stepping in the squishy, twisted esophagus of the grotesque whale, the already unpleasant stench intensified.
Just as Yoo Ji-han was about to cover his nose in disgust,
“……?!”
He doubted his own eyes.
Inside the wide space that appeared to be the stomach of the grotesque whale,
There were heaps of shiny magic crystals mixed with trash and dead fish.
“Why are there magic crystals in a place like this?”
Only then did Yoo Ji-han discover magic crystals at his feet as well.
The red magic crystals had blended with the red flesh and were hard to see.
Vroom!
The Sylph swam gleefully through the heap of magic crystals like a fish in water.
The magic crystals in its path all turned into gray powder.
——Just because you feed it a lot at once doesn’t mean it’ll get stronger rapidly, so be careful.
Recalling Yoon Do-ha’s advice, Yoo Ji-han suddenly exclaimed,
“Hey! Stop eating that!”
Vroom!
The Sylph, ignoring his instructions, greedily devoured the magic crystals.
By the time Yoo Ji-han tried to intervene, it was already too late.
But…….
Thump!
In the blink of an eye, having eaten over 100 magic crystals, changes began to occur in the Sylph’s body.
