Dirty Sweet Baby Chapter 30

“They usually move in packs, so be careful. More could pop out.”

Heeheon, who had finished off an entire pack of wolf-type β-creatures, warned as he delivered confirmation kills to their heads one by one. Cha Moogyul was watching Heeheon quietly from behind. At some point, the smile that had been playing on his lips had disappeared. Then again, he figured that even Cha Moogyul must have been a little surprised by now.

He muttered lowly.

“You’re pretty good.”

“…”

Heeheon did not say anything back.

But for some reason, upon hearing those words, a subtle and somewhat incomprehensible emotion raised its head. It felt strange. It felt a little itchy inside, and a little exciting. To be precise, he was slightly… overwhelmed. It was as if he had been acknowledged by Cha Moogyul.

Heeheon wiped the rainwater flowing down his cheek with his black-gloved hand. He did not want to accept it, but it felt as if he had only ever secretly admired Cha Moogyul from afar or chased after him as he climbed to unattainable heights, and now, for the first time, he was standing before him.

Cha Moogyul had always been a distant being. And he was still a distant being now. He did not know why this foolish emotion was suddenly welling up.

Over a single passing compliment.

It is not like he is a teenager in puberty…

“…It’s not far to the gate. Let’s keep moving forward.”

Heeheon, having reloaded his rifle, once again walked ahead. Above the area where wild trees grew densely, a large mass of energy was gathered. Upon closer inspection, a wormhole, continuously expanding its size in a fractal structure, was floating in the sky. A mysterious energy shook the atmosphere and made the ground tremble.

A gate.

It was just beginning to germinate and open its entrance, like a sprout from a newly sown seed. As they got closer, they could feel the monstrous screams and fearsome killing intent emitted by the creatures.

Grooooaaan.

Kieeeh, kieeeeek!

From the crack of the gate entrance, which was slowly tearing open the empty air, creatures fell out one after another. They each had different forms. Some were wolf-type, like the ones Heeheon had just killed, and there were various others, such as a much larger hippopotamus-type, and bat-types and eagle-types that flew around flapping their wings. They poured out endlessly like raindrops.

Heeheon raised his rifle calmly and cautiously. He was about to shoot them one by one, but there were too many creatures. At this rate, he would run out of ammunition.

‘I just need to take care of them until support arrives from the center.’

Heeheon knelt on one knee on the ground and assumed a stable shooting position. He shouldered the buttstock, pressed his cheek against it, and, without hesitation, fired at the creature that came into his scope. The sound of gunshots rang out in succession.

But just then, a drop of rain fell on the scope, blurring his vision. In that very instant, as he lowered his rifle to wipe away the moisture, a flock of eagle-type creatures flew towards Heeheon from the sky like a shot.

“…!”

Heeheon raised his rifle. His depleted core screamed from within his chest. His head went dark with a sharp pain. He tried to get into a precise shooting posture, but his tired arm was as heavy as a waterlogged cotton ball. And it was actually so, as the rain had soaked his combat uniform. His aim, which had been perfect all along, missed, and the bullet pierced the creature’s wing instead of its core.

Kieeeeee!

The eagle-type creature let out a monstrous scream, spun once in the air, and then plunged straight down at Heeheon. It charged directly for his neck. To make matters worse, from behind, two wolf-type creatures were approaching at a terrifying speed.

‘Ha, damn it.’

Heeheon gritted his teeth. He once again pulled himself together and aimed at the eagle creature.

At that very moment.

A blue lightning bolt struck down from the jet-black sky.

Rumble!

The dark night sky brightened in an instant, and the world was dyed white. He thought it was a lightning bolt from the rain clouds, but it was not. An immensely powerful energy enveloped the entire swarm of creatures and blew them up all at once. The remains of the creatures scattered in all directions, as if a huge bomb had exploded.

It was Cha Moogyul.

Cha Moogyul was raising his psychic energy and annihilating the creatures. The two wolf-type creatures that had been charging at Heeheon from behind were also immediately pierced through the chest by his blue psychic energy and died. Heeheon slowly turned his eyes and looked at Cha Moogyul.

He could feel the flow of psychic energy swirling around him.

His power stretched vertically between the sky and the earth, as if electricity were flowing through the raindrops. It even created the illusion that he was dominating every place where it rained.

Cha Moogyul was omnipotent in that moment, and the swarm of creatures pouring out of the gate was no match for him at all.

He lifted his fingertips and shot a tightly condensed ball of psychic energy like an arrow. The psychic energy, which flew in a clean trajectory, burst with a pop, and a flash of light, creating a large hole the size of a manhole in the black creature’s chest. Countless creatures all rolled on the ground.

He let out a smirk.

“Watching Baek Heeheon was quite interesting, but it seems the show is over. Why don’t you get some rest?”

Heeheon forced strength into his eyes and gripped his rifle tightly. He wiped the rainwater from the scope and assumed a shooting posture again. Bang! The bullet, which hit its mark without fail, killed a bat-type creature.

“Rest what. We need to reduce their numbers by even one more before the combat unit arrives from the center.”

“Stubborn. Anyone would think you’re protecting the world all by yourself. You, hyung, look like you can barely even stand.”

“Don’t worry about me, and you stop using your psychic energy so much. If you can’t control it properly, you’ll go into a rampage.”

“Ha, it’s almost as if you’re hoping I’ll go into a rampage.”

“Don’t overdo it, you’re a complete novice who’s just manifested.”

“Exactly. So who’s the one overdoing it right now, huh?”

“…”

It’s because of you, you bastard.

Heeheon, who could not bring himself to spit out the following words, fired at the creatures as if taking out his anger. Cha Moogyul chuckled and raised his psychic energy even more. A wave of pure energy rippled around him.

By that point, the creatures, sensing the threat, began to flee one by one. Cha Moogyul’s psychic energy crashed over them like a wave and swept them away.

It was truly overwhelming.

It was so amazing that his worries about training or real battles seemed pointless. He even wondered if his meddling had been unnecessary.

“Hyung.”

He, who was annihilating the black and wicked things from the face of the earth as if exterminating them, called out to Heeheon.

“Don’t act so precariously.”

His tone was calm, like a passing moment. It was no different from when he would read the news with a cup of coffee in the afternoon.

He did not know if everything, even a real battle where he had to risk his one and only life, was really that easy for Cha Moogyul.

“If you try too hard, you become pitiful.”

“…”

“I might start to think I was a bit too harsh… and I might even feel a bit of sympathy, so stop it.”

His psychic energy occupied this space. Everywhere his vision reached was filled with Cha Moogyul’s power. The crackling lightning was reflected in the raindrops, emitting a brilliant light in all directions. The psychic energy, which spread out in the seven colors of the rainbow as if passing through a prism, was so wondrous that it looked divine and beautiful.

The night sky was bright. Like day.

Even the sinister foreboding of the opening gate could not challenge his stronghold. Everything is being erased white.

As if bleached.

Without leaving a single stain or blemish on the world.

“…”

Heeheon blankly lowered his rifle. There were no creatures to be seen anywhere to target. The clean sky and the beast corpses piled up like a fortress wall below it were like an unrealistic masterpiece painted in a religious mural. Where God exists, and the devil, and heaven and hell…

A notification popped up on his goggles. It was a message that the support sent from the center had arrived at the designated coordinates. However, there were no creatures left for the combat unit members to deal with.

From the transport vehicles that arrived one after another, armed Awakened got off with dazed faces just like Baek Heeheon. They were all captivated by the untimely white night.

“…”

“No…”

“How can this be, all of them…”

Above their heads, a transport helicopter that had just arrived was also hovering. The elite special mission unit members, who had come fully prepared to immediately enter the gate, looked around with bewildered eyes.

Everyone here could immediately tell who the master of the psychic energy that dominated the area was. Any Awakened would.

The core in their chests was resonating, reacting to the core of the powerful S-class Awakened.

Each of them resonated in their own different way, overwhelmed by the grand source latent in Cha Moogyul’s core. The difference in class was too great.

“…This is Headquarters. 9th Special Mission Unit. Transmitting live feed of the scene.”

Among them, the commander of the special mission unit was the first to come to his senses. As someone who had risen to a position of command, his experience was exceptional. He operated his goggles and transmitted the live feed of the scene to the center.

“Report the situation to the higher-ups. S-class Esper Cha Moogyul… I repeat. This is S-class Brigadier General Cha Moogyul.”

Following the commander’s instructions, the live feed was transmitted, and the unit members also came to their senses one by one and quickly formed ranks. This was because even if the creatures crawling out of the gate were annihilated, the gate itself would not disappear. They had to enter the gate and destroy the core in its depths.

Heeheon watched until all the special mission unit members who had gotten off the helicopter quickly entered the gate entrance, and only then did the tension leave his entire body and his strength drain away. His body, which he had pushed to its limits, had long since passed its breaking point, and he had been holding on almost solely with a sense of duty, mental strength, and grit.

“…Ugh.”

His vision flickered. At some point, his head had also become as hot as a ball of fire. His body, soaked in the summer rain, slowly collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.