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The aerial mechanical monsters that had been waiting in midair reacted immediately. Several beams and lasers rained down.
However, none of the attacks properly struck the team members. A large portion of the shots curved off course and hit completely different places. Some units even failed at energy focusing from the start.
Among them, a few beams fell in relatively intact form. Those were blocked by the Infinite Corridor Hyeonseong had deployed.
KWAANG—!
One beam that failed to be absorbed by the Infinite Corridor ricocheted and struck a monster suspended in midair. Whether it was luck or precision, it hit the core or engine, and the thing turned into scrap metal with a deafening explosion.
‘Lucky.’
Most of the team members landed safely in the open area outside the building. After confirming that, Hyeonseong prepared to jump down as well.
‘Close that for a moment right after landing….’
“Excuse me for a moment.”
Just as she was thinking about pulling out an air mat at the timing of the jump, Kwon Seojin spoke to her.
“Huh? What— Aaaah!”
Kwon Seojin wrapped an arm around Hyeonseong’s waist and threw himself down to the first floor. Forced to jump bare-bodied without warning, Hyeonseong screamed.
‘This crazy bastard, without even explaining—!’
“Sorry. It looked like closing that right now would be a problem.”
While Hyeonseong was cursing internally, Kwon Seojin spoke again.
“I know that, but….”
“No, I don’t just mean the current situation. Soon—.”
KWA-AANG—!
An explosion even louder than before drowned out Kwon Seojin’s voice.
The strongest beam attack Hyeonseong had seen since entering the dungeon struck the Infinite Corridor head-on.
The blast was so massive that it briefly caused a status ailment. A sharp ringing echoed in her ears for a moment before quickly subsiding.
Thud
Kwon Seojin’s foot touched the ground, followed by Hyeonseong safely standing as well.
“That just now—was that it?”
Hyeonseong asked while looking up at the sky.
“Yes.”
“How did you know?”
As she asked, Hyeonseong frowned. A unit so massive it should be called a battleship rather than a fighter jet had appeared. It looked like it had come to erase this side along with the research facility building itself.
“I also have an intuition-type skill. More importantly, I think we need to move again.”
While Hyeonseong was checking the battleship’s information, Kwon Seojin spoke, gesturing toward the other team members.
Those who had descended first were regrouping into small units and forming a formation optimized for fast movement.
Hyeonseong and Kwon Seojin rejoined the team. Once everyone was together, the raid party immediately began leaving the research facility.
“So we’re heading back that way for now, right?”
A team member asked Hyeonseong. Their current destination was the area with the tallest building in the field.
“Yes. Focus only on moving without getting bogged down.”
Stopping to fight here would be bad. A non-huntable entity was mixed in.
If it were a lower-rank unit, they could ignore it or endure. But the aerial battleship relentlessly pursuing them was a super-large A-rank entity.
Its presence was far too overwhelming to ignore.
‘If we don’t deal with that, the fight becomes way too unfavorable.’
Even non-huntable entities were not impossible to eliminate. There had to be some clue somewhere in the field to stop or destroy it.
‘If there’s a place with authority to deploy a battleship like that, it’s usually obvious.’
There was a high probability that the building they were heading toward had that authority. They needed to go there anyway to find city control rights or other clues.
“The jamming skill is about to end!”
“Monsters approaching from the front-right—!”
Even while moving, voices flew back and forth busily.
As the engineer’s particle-jamming skill neared its end, the mages deployed defensive magic. Vulnerable areas were covered by Hyeonseong’s Infinite Corridor.
Awakened ones carrying air purifiers stepped up to harass monsters attempting rapid approach.
When the front runners slowed the monsters, the next step was attack. Mages who did not deploy barriers and Awakened wielding ranged weapons finished the monsters off.
‘So far, so good?’
She checked the situation while deflecting another beam with the Infinite Corridor.
Several people looked tired from the frantic running, but no one appeared seriously injured.
“I’ll use the jamming skill again!”
The engineer shouted. It seemed the cooldown was over.
The same system message from earlier appeared again. As the disruption field spread, the mages partially lowered their barriers, switching to offense now that they had more leeway.
Before long, all the monsters blocking the road on the ground were eliminated. The machine monsters turned into scrap were instantly absorbed into Hyeonseong’s Infinite Corridor.
“Move, hurry!”
Once cleanup finished, several team members shouted. Thanks to their hard run, they were not far from the tallest skyscraper.
The raid party resumed movement, blocking or evading attacks falling from the sky.
As they were nearing their destination, Constellation messages appeared before Hyeonseong’s eyes.
‘Here we go again.’
Things had been quiet for a while, but now they were nudging in again at this timing. It was a bad sign.
As expected, one of the Constellations said something ominous.
‘Can’t we go any faster?’
Seeing the ongoing conversation messages, Hyeonseong felt they needed to reach the destination as quickly as possible.
But their current speed was already at the team’s absolute limit. They had no more buffs or items to push further.
Judging by the flow of the conversation, it seemed nothing would happen immediately.
‘If only that pathetic pride fight dragged on a bit longer….’
A message instantly shattered Hyeonseong’s hope.
‘Overclock? That’s definitely for machine-type spirits or monsters….’
A dark red warning message followed.
“What?”
“What is it—what evolved?”
Team members shouted in confusion. Some were already scanning the surroundings with detection skills.
“That—!”
Several team members soon spotted the evolved monster. Following their gaze, Hyeonseong looked up at the sky.
“Damn it…!”
The non-huntable monster that had been A-rank jumped up a full rank. Among the fighters and drones escorting the battleship, several had also increased in rank.
‘Definitely the Overclock effect….’
Hyeonseong recalled the Overclock skill’s effect. It was essentially a machine-species version of berserk.
‘Use it once, and lifespan gets shaved off or a shutdown occurs, but overall performance spikes temporarily. Which means….’
As she finished recalling the effect, Hyeonseong hurriedly opened the Infinite Corridor toward the sky.
KWA-AANG—!
Not long after opening it, a thunderous blast erupted. A beam cannon fired by the aerial battleship ricocheted off the Infinite Corridor and struck a fighter jet dead on.
‘Damn it, the density’s even higher now!’
Hyeonseong clicked her tongue after confirming the deflected beam.
“Can’t we take that down that somehow?”
One of the team members asked the programmer.
“If it’s a few small ones, maybe, but something like a battleship….”
The programmer replied while urgently deploying skills. It seemed the skill bestowed by the Constellation was of a higher grade.
“For now, keep moving! Re-deploy defensive skills!”
Hyeonseong gave orders. As some monsters’ ranks rose, the accuracy of beams and lasers also increased.
The engineer’s particle disruption alone was no longer enough. They needed the mages’ defensive skills again.
At Hyeonseong’s command, various defensive skills were deployed. Even then, attacks fired from the sky struck the barriers.
The ripples spreading across the shields were more violent than before. The attacks’ power had increased significantly.
The number of lasers directly hitting the shields had also risen. It meant the skills had grown strong enough to overcome the disruption and land hits.
‘The defensive skills won’t last long either.’
She opened the Infinite Corridor once more and deflected beams and lasers. The redirected attacks struck flying machine monsters and nearby buildings.
Because the angles were poor, the damage was not particularly impressive.
“Run!”
Still, they gained enough breathing room to move again. Hyeonseong shouted at the team.
The raid party sprinted once more toward the skyscraper, now just ahead.
New Constellation messages appeared before Hyeonseong’s eyes as she ran.
‘You’ve got to be kidding me…!’
She had thought it was good that they were fighting among themselves, but then a lightning-strike conversation popped up.
Other Constellations chimed in with idle chatter. Somehow, there seemed to be more unfamiliar and careless names than before.
‘Where did they suddenly hear about this from?’
“Over there!”
A team member running ahead shouted loudly. The skyscraper’s entrance was now right in front of them.
“Just a bit more—!”
Just as they tried to push their speed even further—
“Damn it, they’re swarming again!”
All kinds of machine monsters and zombies rushed in from both sides. As expected of an important facility, the monster count was enormous.
Worse, they blocked the skyscraper’s main entrance as they approached. To get inside, they had to clear them out.
“Everyone, prepare for combat—!”
With no choice, the raid party stopped in place. Everyone prepared weapons and skills.
A new message appeared, followed by an ominously colored warning.
“Uh…!”
“What is it this time—?!”
A semi-transparent barrier formed in a certain radius centered on the raid party. It cut off front, back, left, right, and even the airspace above.
Naturally, all ground and aerial monsters were trapped inside the barrier as well.
The entire barrier zone rose slightly upward, its shape reminiscent of a stage.
Messages poured out the moment they were trapped. These were commonly seen in dungeon concepts related to stage performances.
“Damn it, a play all of a sudden?”
“I’ve never even been through a theater-type field—!”
The sudden appearance of a barrier completely mismatched with the dungeon concept threw the team into confusion.
Regardless of the team’s panic, the system messages continued explaining.
“Wait, what is this setting?!”
As the details were revealed, several team members screamed.
“If there are only three survivors, does that mean the rest have to die?”
Team members unfamiliar with theater-type dungeons or barriers reacted irritably.
“Everyone, calm down!”
Hyeonseong shouted at the team.
“Ignore that setting and prepare for combat!”
When the team focused on her, Hyeonseong looked up and continued.
With the field environment changed, the monsters’ attacks had paused briefly. But all the new field conditions were now revealed.
The monsters would attack again soon.
“What? Ignore it…?”
“There was that earlier, remember!”
“That?”
“Block it!”
A shout cut off a team member questioning Hyeonseong, and combat resumed.
“I explained it earlier! Either achieve the objective, or satisfy the audience!”
Hyeonseong shouted while opening an empty section of the Infinite Corridor toward the sky.
“Ah…!”
Only then did several team members gasp in realization.
KWAANG—
KWA-AANG—!
The moment the Infinite Corridor opened, several beam cannons fired. The corridor, opened at an appropriate height, deflected all of them.
‘You get the hang of this once you keep doing it.’
After deflecting the beams, Hyeonseong quickly assessed the situation.
‘This isn’t great.’
The area inside the barrier was small compared to the number of people trapped. And given the location, there were no obstacles to use as cover.
Even ground-type machine monsters were hard to deal with in this environment.
‘And that’s not all.’
There were monsters attempting bombardment from the air as well.
They had to defeat all monsters in an environment where dodging or blocking attacks was difficult.
‘And we’ve been running nonstop and are already exhausted—while constantly deploying defensive skills.’
Team members with low stamina or grit stats in particular showed visible fatigue.
They were holding on for now, but one slip would cause everything to collapse instantly.
‘Being trapped in a stage-type barrier is also a problem.’
She had told them to ignore the setting, but completely disregarding it while satisfying the Constellations was not easy.
To begin with, that stage setting reflected what the Constellations wanted to see to some extent.
‘In other words… they want us to suffer and die here.’
It wasn’t her first time dealing with this. Still, it made her blood boil every single time.
‘Like hell it is.’
Hyeonseong ignored all the taunting messages.
Whooong—
KWAANG—!
She blocked part of the aerial bombardment again with the Infinite Corridor, grinding her teeth.
Ignoring all of that setting and satisfying the Constellations was certainly not easy—but it wasn’t impossible.
The Constellations’ tastes were usually predictable. When you blatantly survived a mission meant to kill you, they found that entertaining too.
‘A way to save everyone….’
Chaeng—
Puh-eong—
“Duck!”
“Help over here!”
Kkwaang—
Kwa-ga-gak!
She examined the raid party’s fight once more. Even amid the chaos, they maintained basic formations and combat roles, each holding their position.
As long as they could endure like this while maintaining order, she needed to come up with a method.
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