Chapter 264

Chapter 264

The Shadow Unit was largely composed of four teams.

Team 1 gathered information on Neo Seoul, Team 2 gathered information on the slums, Team 3 established countermeasures based on the information they collected, and Team 4 projected force.

Of course, the members of Team 1 and Team 2 who gathered information were all Awakened as well.

Their martial power was not strong, as they were Grade D, but every one of them possessed a concealment-related Skill, and with the help of items, they could display power close to that of Grade C Awakened.

Those who had been monitoring Zeon were Team 2, which had been monitoring the slums from the beginning.

From the moment Zeon was judged to be a dangerous figure, they had monitored him from long range. Their method was simple.

They had simply purchased houses near Zeon’s home and along his major routes of movement, then used them as safe houses.

They lived naturally inside those safe houses as if they were local residents and only watched his movements, so it was only natural that Zeon had not noticed.

Until now, Team 2 had carried out its mission successfully.

They were also the ones who had discovered Zeon’s contact with Duduyan and the others.

That meant they knew better than anyone how terrifying Zeon was. In an environment with sand, he was practically invincible. And almost all of Earth was sand.

In a way, the entire Earth was Zeon’s weapon.

The moment the sand-laden wind struck, it was only natural that the members of Team 2 thought of Zeon.

On top of that, a sand human in human form had appeared.

At that moment, they acted according to their prearranged plan.

They scattered in every direction and fled.

They abandoned the safe houses they had secured and headed straight for Neo Seoul.

No matter how much of a Zeon he was, he could not casually kill people in Neo Seoul. Neo Seoul was not Zeon’s domain.

‘I just need to get into Neo Seoul.’

‘I have to move by the shortest route......’

They ran at full speed along the escape routes they had identified in advance.

Rather than twisting and turning in an attempt to shake Zeon off, sprinting at full speed gave them a higher chance of survival.

Robinson, a member of Team 2, muttered while sweating profusely.

“Damn it! How did he notice? We were so careful. Was there a problem during the interrogation?”

No matter how much he thought about it, that was the only possibility that came to mind.

“That’s why I told them to be so careful......”

WHOOOOSH!

At that moment, the thick sand-laden wind swallowed Robinson. But because he was focused on running, Robinson did not notice that fact.

Tap, tap, tap!

Robinson sensed something strange because of the footsteps he heard right beside him.

Someone was running in step with him.

When he turned his head and looked to the side, a sand human was running at the same speed as him.

It was a Sand Soldier.

“What the hell?”

At that moment, the Sand Soldier slammed into Robinson.

It was a simple body check.

But with the heavy weight of sand added to the speed of the run, tremendous energy was generated.

CRASH—!

“Aaaargh!”

The Sand Soldier crumbled back into sand, and Robinson was sent flying far away from the impact, as if he had been struck by a car.

No matter how much of a Grade D Awakened he was, it was not easy to stay conscious after receiving that kind of impact.

While Robinson lost consciousness for a brief moment, the sand-laden wind wrapped around him and vanished.

“Gah!”

“Hrk!”

Similar screams rang out all over the slums.

They were all the sounds of Team 2 members being taken down by Sand Soldiers.

Like that, most of Team 2 was dealt with in an instant.

The only one left was Boyd, the leader of Team 2.

As befitted the leader of Team 2, Boyd was a Grade C Awakened.

Naturally, he was far stronger than the other team members.

BANG! BANG!

The Sand Soldiers attacking him were instead being destroyed.

The broken Sand Soldiers returned to sand.

The problem was that sand was inexhaustible, and Zeon had the ability to recycle even broken Sand Soldiers.

Seeing the Sand Soldiers that had been broken rise again, Boyd cursed.

“Fuck! This is cheating. What is this, some kind of resource? Recycling?”

Even so, he could not simply let himself be beaten, so he unleashed an attack Skill and destroyed a Sand Soldier.

SMASH—!

Sand burst outward, and the Sand Soldier shattered.

But as if mocking Boyd, the broken Sand Soldier regained its original form.

The bigger problem was that the number of Sand Soldiers attacking him was increasing.

That meant only one thing.

All the other team members had been taken down.

The more his team members fell, the more Sand Soldiers appeared.

The Sand Soldiers surrounding him numbered exactly twenty.

The same as the number of people in Team 2.

Boyd was not stupid enough to fail to understand what it meant that all the Sand Soldiers, one assigned to each team member, had now gathered around him.

‘Does that mean everyone was taken down?’

He was too strong, and too fast.

So much so that they, who were well versed in creating variables in unfavorable situations, had been unable to respond at all.

Papapak!

Twenty Sand Soldiers attacked him all at once.

They used body tackles with their heavy bodies or simple punches.

Their attacks were frighteningly fast and concise. But Boyd could handle that much.

After all, Boyd was a Grade C Awakened.

The problem was that there were twenty Sand Soldiers, and that they felt no fear whatsoever.

SMASH—!

The Sand Soldier at the front turned into sand and scattered in every direction under his punch. Then, with a powerful knee strike, he sent the second Sand Soldier back into sand as well.

But eighteen Sand Soldiers still remained.

They had no concept of a comrade dying or being destroyed. Because of that, they did not fear Boyd’s powerful attacks and charged recklessly.

Thud, thud, thud, thud!

Boyd was subjected to a group beating.

Boyd did his best to block their attacks, but he could not block all thirty-six fists with only two of his own.

His flesh tore, his muscles ruptured, and blood sprayed in every direction.

One of his arms broke, and the cartilage in his knee was destroyed, preventing him from putting strength into it. Even so, Boyd resisted with all his might.

As a result, he managed to destroy as many as ten more Sand Soldiers. But that was his limit.

“Guh!”

Under the merciless beating, Boyd eventually vomited blood and collapsed.

When Boyd collapsed, sand surged in like the tide and swallowed him.

When the sand withdrew again like an ebbing tide, Boyd was no longer there. Just like that, every member of Shadow Unit Team 2 vanished from the slums.

---

“What does that mean?”

“We have lost contact with every member of Team 2.”

“Every member?”

At the Team 3 Leader’s report, Ho Cheong-yeon frowned.

“What about the Team 2 Leader?”

“Likewise, all contact has been completely lost.”

“They should have had emergency communication devices.”

“Yes! But no signal has come in at all.”

“Are you saying they were taken down before they even had time to make contact?”

Ho Cheong-yeon’s voice sank low.

As the captain of the Shadow Unit, he was the one who had monitored countless dangerous figures.

That meant he had experienced many dangerous moments as well. But he had survived to the end and become captain of the Shadow Unit.

What had helped him most in surviving and becoming the captain of the Shadow Unit was his ability to sense danger.

His senses, several times sharper than those of others, were now warning him of danger.

“How many safe houses do we have in the slums?”

“Seven.”

“Close them all. We are withdrawing as well.”

“Captain? Then what about Team 2?”

“They were all taken down by Zeon.”

“Then we will have to give up on rescuing them.”

The Team 3 Leader also possessed judgment as quick as Boyd’s.

They were shadows who could not step into the light.

The moment the name Shadow Unit rose to the surface, the reason for their existence disappeared.

Even if they died, they had to die quietly.

Leaving not even a single line of their names behind was the unwritten rule of their world.

Ho Cheong-yeon bit his lip hard.

Hot blood flowed from his lip, but he did not care.

“Why did Zeon suddenly attack?”

“Could he have found out about what happened with Aslan and retaliated?”

“How would he?”

Boyd began to question the Team 3 Leader’s words, then immediately shook his head.

Their opponent was a man who defied common sense.

In that case, Boyd could not judge him by his own common sense.

Just as the Team 3 Leader said, the only reason Zeon would suddenly attack the Shadow Unit was the matter related to Aslan.

“We definitely erased the traces well, so how did he find out?”

Even Aslan himself had not realized that he had been affected by the truth serum.

The components of the truth serum also vanished without a trace before a day passed. Yet Zeon had discovered that fact and taken revenge on the Shadow Unit.

It was a response so decisive that it sent chills down the spine.

“We underestimated him.”

Until now, Zeon had always shown restraint, so frankly, Ho Cheong-yeon had thought he would do the same this time.

But he had not.

“He is telling us that he has a blade too, so if we touch him, we should be prepared to get stabbed as well.”

“It seems we need to change our surveillance method.”

“Hmm!”

Ho Cheong-yeon nodded.

There was no reason to insist on a method that had already failed.

No good method came to mind immediately, but if several of them put their heads together and considered it, they would surely be able to find a new one.

Now was the time to withdraw.

Because the place they were in was also part of the slums.

The one fortunate thing was that they were in Dongdaemun, outside Zeon’s sphere of influence.

No matter how much of a Zeon he was, he would not recklessly storm into Dongdaemun.

If he stirred this place up, he would give Johan a pretext.

A Team 3 member ran in and said,

“All materials have been destroyed, and preparations for withdrawal are complete.”

“Then we withdraw.”

Ho Cheong-yeon immediately gave the order.

It happened just as every member of Team 3 was exiting through the safe house’s emergency exit.

WHOOOSH!

A powerful wind suddenly blew in.

It was wind mixed with sand.

In an instant, Ho Cheong-yeon’s face hardened.

“A sand-laden wind? It’s him.”

CRASH—!

As if to prove his words, a massive explosion rang out.

Perhaps because the Shadow Unit members had prepared for Zeon’s attack, fortunately, they felt no impact.

“What is it?”

“What happened......?”

But none of them knew what had happened to them.

That was because the hazy sand-laden wind still completely covered their vision.

Ho Cheong-yeon widened his eyes.

“What on earth......?”

At that moment, the sand-laden wind slowly cleared.

Once their vision fully recovered, the source of the explosion was revealed.

It was an enormous rock.

A huge round rock made by compressing sand under high pressure lay before them.

Cold sweat trickled down Ho Cheong-yeon’s back.

No one had to tell him for him to guess well enough that this was Zeon’s work.

The problem was the identity of the round rock.

If it were simply sand gathered together, Zeon would have no reason to go through the trouble of sending it here.

There had to be a reason he had left this mass of rock to them.

“Zeon......”

After hesitating for a moment, Ho Cheong-yeon suddenly punched the round rock. That was because he had heard the sound of human breathing inside the rock.

CRASH—!

The enormous rock shattered into pieces and flew in every direction. Then the things inside the round rock tumbled out.

They were humans.

Every member of Team 2 who had been dispatched to directly monitor Zeon had been inside the round rock.

“How can this be?”

“That crazy bastard! He sealed living people inside like this.”

Fortunately, every member of Team 2 was alive.

If Ho Cheong-yeon had been even a little slower in breaking the rock, they would all have suffocated to death.

At Zeon’s bloodless, tearless method, every member of Team 3 felt great fear.

“We have been thoroughly played.”

If Zeon had simply killed every member of Team 2, they would have burned with vengeance instead. But by sending back every member of Team 2 alive, Zeon had shown Team 3 that they too could end up like this.

Now that they had tasted fear, it was impossible for them to monitor Zeon with the same composure as before.

“How unfair. The one man on Earth with a unique ability also has such an outstanding mind.”

For the first time, Ho Cheong-yeon felt a towering wall.

The wall named Zeon.