Chapter 52

“What… What do you mean!?”

[“A Gate just opened! Fk!”]

“Why the hell is there a Gate in Gangwon Province!?”

[“I don’t know! Anyway, I’m carrying Mom and Dad and running for my damn life—whoa—!”]

A mix of crashing sounds and monstrous roars filled the phone.

From the way the noises blended together, it was easy to picture Yeo Do-yeon performing some acrobatic maneuvers mid-combat.

“Where are you—”

CRACK.

Something shattered.

A flood of thoughts rushed in at once.

Was it a monster that got crushed?

Or a person?

“……”

[……]

……It seemed like the phone was what got destroyed.

—

It was a familiar feeling. Something heavy settled deep in my chest. I wanted to break down and cry, but no tears came.

I silently returned the phone.

Everyone was staring at me in silence.

I made my decision quickly.

Turning to the balcony, I looked up at the sky.

No visible Gates in the vicinity.

At least, none that I could see.

“……Ji-yoon?”

I extended my hand, and she quickly scampered over to grasp it.

The moment we made contact, it felt like I was being pulled into a raging current.

This was something on a whole different level compared to other Hunters.

I could feel the world.

Above Uijeongbu, a massive vortex.

A surge of mana was sweeping through the region.

Small Gates were getting torn apart by the storm.

“……”

As I focused on the swirling mana, Yang Il-ho, ever perceptive, turned on the TV.

It was already on the news.

I had missed the start of the broadcast, so I couldn’t catch the full context, but the caption scrolling at the bottom of the screen was clear enough.

[Scattered Gate Incidents Near the Capital Region]

A few moments later, the caption changed.

[Over 200 Small Gates Detected]
[Once again, we urge all citizens to stay indoors or take shelter in nearby evacuation centers—]

I glanced at the Gate map displayed in the top right corner of the screen.

Then, I snapped a photo of it with my phone.

It wasn’t a perfect map.

The report hadn’t mentioned anything about a Gate opening in Gangwon Province.

Considering how tightly the government and media were cooperating, it was understandable—officials were still piecing things together.

“……Damn it.”

But one thing was clear.

“There are no Gates near Uijeongbu.”

The red dots marking Gate locations were strangely sparse around Uijeongbu.

The problem was—

“The closer you get to Uijeongbu, the denser the Gates become.”

It looked like the eye of a typhoon.

Uijeongbu was the eye.

And at its center, that enormous vortex of mana had yet to take shape.

The chaotic scatter of Gates across the capital region might have seemed random at a glance. But to me, it was a ring of blood surrounding Uijeongbu.

A massive vortex of mana in the sky above Uijeongbu.

And a concentrated cluster of small Gates encircling it.

A horrifying future flashed before my eyes.

If things continued like this, millions would die.

Uijeongbu itself was a major city with a population of 450,000.

Its numerous former U.S. military bases had made it the central command for the campaign to reclaim Seoul.

Meaning—there were a lot of soldiers there.

That’s why Uijeongbu had become the top destination for refugees from Seoul.

And now, with small Gates popping up all over, millions of displaced people were expected to flee toward the “safe zone” of Uijeongbu.

“……”

If a massive Gate opened under those conditions—

If that vortex of mana turned into a Gate—

The resulting disaster would be unlike anything before.

A thousand thoughts raced through my mind.

My family, missing in action.

The deaths of millions.

Priorities.

Utilitarianism.

The Gate crisis.

The greater good.

Pi Chae-won.

Lee Ho-jung.

The Uijeongbu refugees.

Catastrophe.

What needed to be done?

I made my decision swiftly.

I turned to my group and spoke, my voice calm but firm.

“……Let’s take care of what we can first.”

“……”

“Lee Ho-jung, Pi Chae-won. Anyone else we need to get?”

Gam Gi-ja’s entire family had gathered outside the prison to celebrate Chun Hwa-ran’s release.

Yang Pan-seok’s family, being privileged elites with little attachment to him, had already evacuated to Jeju Island, leaving only him behind.

Which meant—

Yang Il-ho, who had left his lover trapped in the heart of the chaos, was the first to react.

His bloodshot eyes widened as he shot to his feet and bolted for the door.

As the others moved to follow, I raised a hand to stop them.

“……No need to rush out there.”

People’s instincts were predictable.

They would either hide or flee.

About half of them would attempt to escape or, like us, dash off to rescue their loved ones.

The apartment complex was already in chaos.

As expected, the emergency stairwells were jammed with people, panicked screams ringing out as some were trampled in the rush.

The elevators were overloaded, yet no one was willing to step out.

Yang Il-ho returned, looking flustered.

“I—I don’t think we can get downstairs.”

“……Open the window.”

“!”

The moment I spoke, Yang Il-ho rushed to the balcony and flung the window open.

He must have already guessed my plan, because he immediately sprinted to the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and sliced through the mosquito screens.

I limped onto the balcony, the icy wind whipping through my hair.

Placing a hand on the railing, I scanned the ground below.

Then, I gave the order.

“We’re flying down. Get your shoes on.”

Gam Ji-yoon had once worked at a construction site, moving heavy machinery.

She had cleared debris, carried steel beams weighing several tons from the ground to the rooftop.

Lifting seven people?

That was nothing.

And—

“……Ji-yoon, can I carry three?”

“U-uhm! No! I’ll carry four!”

“Wow, your math is spot on.”

Gam Ji-yoon times two.

—

The sensation of not having solid ground beneath your feet was terrifying.

Hand in hand, we slowly descended along the exterior of the apartment building.

No matter how strong someone’s abilities were, dropping too fast could break their spine.

Extreme caution was necessary when carrying people.

The icy, fierce winter wind from above swept past us.

Whether it was fear or cold that gripped us, we didn’t know. We clung to each other, trembling.

We could feel each other’s fear. Through our clasped hands, through the tightly shut eyes of those around us. We shared that terror.

And then—

After what felt like hours but was only minutes—

Two telekinetics safely landed seven people on the ground.

“Haaah….!”

“Huff… haaa…!”

“Gasp…! Hahhh…!”

Everyone collapsed, legs giving out beneath them.

Among us, only two people weren’t visibly shaken by their fear of heights—one was the oblivious baby, Gam Seok, and the other was Yang Il-ho, who was too consumed by worry for Lee Ho-jung to care. Even Yang Pan-seok had turned pale, gripping my hand and trembling.

But not a single one of us had complained.

Because we knew the value of our lives.

Small Gates had already begun appearing nearby.

I glanced up at the dark sky, where eerie blue dots were starting to emerge. Then, I checked on our group.

“……Dr. Chun, are you alright?”

Chun Hwa-ran, heavily pregnant, managed a strained smile.

“…Yes!”

I didn’t press further. There was no time to waste.

There were two cars in the underground parking lot, but right now, we had to move as one.

I scanned the area for a large van.

Limping with the help of my trekking pole, I searched the nearby parking spaces.

Perfect.

A clean, well-maintained Starex van.

“We’re taking that one.”

I took Gam Ji-yoon’s hand and pressed it against the windshield, manipulating the lock mechanism.

Click.

The door unlocked.

The mana control skills I had honed six months ago under Hong Seon-ah’s guidance hadn’t rusted.

I didn’t feel like laughing, but to ease the group’s tension, I flashed a grin.

“Anyone here got a Class 1 driver’s license?”

Gam Gi-ja, who had plenty of experience driving stolen trucks in African war zones, hurriedly took the wheel.

Yang Pan-seok and I supported each other while keeping an eye on our surroundings. Chun Hwa-ran cradled baby Gam Seok as she climbed into the van, while Gam Ji-yoon hovered anxiously above her.

By the time everyone was inside, Yang Il-ho, who had been frantically calling Lee Ho-jung, looked close to tears.

“Her phone keeps going straight to voicemail…!”

“……”

We were in Dongducheon, the heart of northern Gyeonggi Province.

South of us was Yangju.

South of Yangju was Uijeongbu.

And above Uijeongbu—

The vortex.

And—

Lee Ho-jung was near Yangju City Hall.

Pi Chae-won was at Uijeongbu University Hospital.

Chun Hwa-ran’s family and Pi Chae-won had been living in the hospital’s VIP wing, and the hospital’s attached research lab had been repurposed as a foundation laboratory. Naturally, the entire surrounding apartment complex was now the Han Seung-moon Foundation’s support center for minors.

So, our route was clear.

We’d head south, picking up people along the way.

The problem was that Lee Ho-jung’s phone was dead.

“……There’s no way her battery just ran out.”

If the phone had shut off, she would’ve found a way to turn it back on. Or borrowed another to make a call.

“That means she had to turn it off on purpose.”

“……”

“She couldn’t risk it ringing.”

Yang Il-ho’s face turned ghostly pale.

I doubt mine looked any better.

“……So, uh.”

From the driver’s seat, Gam Gi-ja hesitated.

“I can’t drive if I can’t start the engine…”

“For fk’s sake!”

Yang Il-ho swore, half out of his mind.

What was the point of unlocking the van if we didn’t have the keys?

Everyone had been too flustered to realize it, instinctively piling into the vehicle. But I wasn’t so easily thrown off.

“We’re not taking the road anyway. Traffic’s jammed solid.”

I grabbed Gam Ji-yoon’s hand.

“I never planned on driving in the first place.”

The van slowly lifted into the air.

—

Flying too high would make us a target for airborne monsters.

Flying too low risked getting tangled in power lines or attacked by ground monsters.

It was my first time controlling a flying vehicle, but as long as I held onto Gam Ji-yoon’s hand, it wasn’t difficult.

The way I perceived the world had changed.

Moving through the air felt as natural as taking a step forward.

The van glided swiftly and smoothly.

While a few exclamations of awe filled the vehicle, Yang Il-ho sat silently, nervously biting his fingernails until they bled.

In the distance, Yangju City Hall came into view.

Soldiers and monsters were locked in battle.

Several bat-like creatures clung to the windows, sucking the life out of the trapped civilians inside—like larvae feasting in a honeycomb.

I bit my lip and veered away, heading towards the residential district.

There were too many monsters.

I looked up and saw two mid-sized Gates nearby.

The space between Yangju and Uijeongbu was narrow, meaning the Gates were clustering together.

Regardless.

Lee Ho-jung had turned off her phone.

Which meant she was hiding from the monsters.

And that the monsters were close enough that a ringtone could give her away.

Maybe her battery had died.

But judging by the situation, that didn’t seem likely.

A horde of monsters lingered near the house where Lee Ho-jung was supposed to be.

Yang Il-ho turned to me with an expression I couldn’t quite describe.

He was so anxious that he didn’t dare speak, afraid that even a word might break my concentration.

I glanced down at the little girl huddled in my arms.

Gam Ji-yoon had been covered with my suit jacket so she wouldn’t have to see the carnage outside.

“……Ji-yoon.”

“Y-yeah?”

She squirmed uneasily, lifting her head under the jacket.

“You’ve cleared a lot of debris at construction sites, right?”

“Um…?”

Well, clearing debris often meant finding dead bodies.

No one would have made a child do that.

“Have you ever done demolition work?”

“Uhm… I wasn’t supposed to! But I did it once! Just a little!”

“Did you bring down a big building?”

“Yeah! It was huuugge!”

“Was it easy?”

As soon as Gam Ji-yoon nodded eagerly, I adjusted our altitude and brought the van onto the rooftop of Lee Ho-jung’s hiding place.

Yang Il-ho and Lee Ho-jung had bought this house together—

A rare, two-story detached home, snagged cheap after a market crash.

Inside that house, we should find Lee Ho-jung and Kang Seok-ho’s younger brother, Kang Si-ho.

If we were unlucky, there’d be monsters too.

If we were even more unlucky, the house would be empty.

“Il-ho, your house doesn’t have an attic under the roof, right?”

“W-We had a housewarming party here, remember?”

I reached out toward the window.

“Just wanted to double-check.”

CRACK!

I tore the rooftop clean off.

It took more effort than expected, but it wasn’t beyond my capabilities.

Without hesitation, I dumped the debris onto a passing monster below.

From beneath the hovering van, the entire interior of the house came into view.

It felt like looking at a cutaway diagram of a building.

The second floor had a hallway and two rooms.

In the hallway, there was a monster—something that looked like a grotesque hybrid of a human and an insect.

Lee Ho-jung and Kang Si-ho were nowhere in sight.

Then—

They crawled out from under a bed in one of the rooms.

Lee Ho-jung was clutching Kang Si-ho tightly.

I didn’t hesitate.

I twisted the hallway monster’s neck and yanked its head clean off.

Something trailed behind it as I pulled—so it did have a spine, after all.

“Open the rear door!”

From inside the van, Chun Hwa-ran threw the back doors open.

Carefully, I lifted both of them into the air.

I had to be precise—one wrong move, and their spines could snap.

But the problem was—

We had made too much noise.

In the distance, a two-story-tall wolf with twin tongues and black saliva dripping from its maw began sprinting toward us.

“Ji-Ji-yoon! That thing! On the left!”

Gam Ji-yoon peeked her head out from under my suit jacket.

“Kyaaaah!”

And immediately ducked back inside.

Right.

What was I expecting from a twelve-year-old?

I turned back to check on the charging wolf.

It had become a rolling, furry ball of meat.

I quickly looked away.

“……”

“……”

“……”

Nobody spoke.

Even as Lee Ho-jung and Kang Si-ho clambered into the van, silence lingered.

It was only when a flying monster nearby got obliterated by a tank’s sniper round that we finally snapped back to reality.

The black Starex lifted into the air once more, soaring past the Gates.

This was no longer the world we knew.

(T/N: Wow, I’ve read lots of novels who has this telekenisis ability but this is the first time I’ve seen it used as a medium to fly a car lol.)