Nonhyeon-dong Dungeon Explosion Incident (10)

‘First, recovery potions.’

Before heading to the battlefield, Hyeonseong went to the Jinri Workshop staff.

The staff had been tossing potions into the fight or carrying them over themselves, but it could not help feeling slow.

“Hand over half of the recovery potions, split by type.”

“Huh?”

At Hyeonseong’s demand, the Jinri Workshop staff asked back with flustered faces.

“From now on, I’ll handle urgent resupply. You focus on helping the people who’ve fallen into a non-combat state and withdrawn. And…….”

This time as well, Hyeonseong gave Nemesis a command. A dialogue window appeared in front of the staff.

“If it’s urgent, you’ll call me with that.”

“B-but even if you say that, half is…….”

“Was that decided as part of an operation?”

“Even if you’re the boss’s family…….”

The Jinri Workshop staff each spoke up. Every single line made Hyeonseong’s stomach flip.

‘We’ve already wasted minutes.’

No more time could be squandered. Hyeonseong immediately pulled out her phone and called Hyeonju.

“Hey, Hyeonju. I’m busy, so I’ll cut the crap and get to the point. Give your employees one instruction.”

What instruction?

“Until this hunt ends, treat my words like the boss’s words.”

-…….

“I’ll take the swearing later, so hurry.”

Ignoring the silence that made her thoughts painfully obvious, Hyeonseong switched the voice call to a video call. When Hyeonju’s face appeared, she turned the screen toward the Jinri Workshop staff.

-You were probably listening to that whole conversation just now.

Hyeonju spoke the moment their eyes met.

-Do what she’s asking. She’s definitely a weird one, but she’s not the kind of idiot who talks nonsense.

“What the hell?”

Hyeonseong frowned at the sudden insult.

-When the fight ends, upload the consumption log immediately.

Whether Hyeonseong was annoyed or not, Hyeonju said what she wanted and ended the call.

“She just made me the ‘weird one’ out of nowhere and ran.”

Hyeonseong grumbled as she pocketed the dark screen. Naturally, no one reacted.

“Anyway, you heard her. Hand them over.”

All consumables under the workshop staff’s management had clear ownership. To take them via the Infinite Corridor, the staff recognized by the system as item owners had to grant permission.

“……Fine. Take them.”

In the end, the staff handed the items over. Using the Infinite Corridor, Hyeonseong took exactly half of the consumables.

‘Now, what I need to do is…….’

Hyeonseong sprinted straight to the battlefield.

Just then, the Enemy Knight was about to attempt a mounted charge.

‘Defense first.’

At the front, the Awakened shouted as they tried to dodge the Enemy Knight. An empty lane opened directly ahead of it.

Right after, the Enemy Knight spurred the horse into a charge. At that exact moment, Hyeonseong opened the Infinite Corridor in the Enemy Knight’s path.

THU-UUUMP—

The Enemy Knight collided with the suddenly opened space and yanked hard on the reins.

It did not fall off, but it clearly felt the impact. The Enemy Knight stepped back two or three paces and stopped.

‘Next, resupply anyone who needs recovery…….’

From the feeds Nemesis had brought, Hyeonseong quickly picked out the people who urgently needed recovery items.

It was not hard. The feeds were still floating around her. Only now they had been switched to be visible to Hyeonseong alone.

“Just now, that…….”

“What was that, a mana potion?”

When a potion suddenly dropped out of thin air, the recipients quickly looked around. It did not take long for them to find Hyeonseong.

‘Drink it instead of staring at me.’

Ignoring who was looking, Hyeonseong gave Nemesis an order. She intended to use the hologram message function via the electronic devices the Awakened carried on-site.

‘First: if you received a potion, drink it immediately and recover. Second: return to your original teams and move by team.’

She composed the content in her mind. Then the message window she had written appeared before the Awakened’s eyes.

“What is this—who sent it?”

“My phone doesn’t have a function like this……?”

“Is this really an official tactical directive?”

The Awakened did not accept the floating message easily. They used the recovery items quickly enough, but they did not immediately follow the instruction to restructure formation.

‘Knew it.’

Hyeonseong had Nemesis send another message—this time to the tactical staff.

The moment she sent it, she pulled a mana potion from the Infinite Corridor. After using Nemesis’s skills several times, her mana had dropped significantly.

‘Because hacking and message sending are running dozens of threads at once?’

The Infinite Corridor consumed almost no mana. Skill cards generally did not consume additional mana either. So experiencing mana drain from skills was rare for Hyeonseong.

‘I didn’t carry many mana potions. I should start carrying a lot more from now on.’

Thinking that, Hyeonseong downed the mana potion.

“They say the directive is correct.”

“Return to our original teams?”

“Following Ye Hyeonseong’s orders—what is this…….”

It seemed the message had been relayed, because even while facing the two boss monsters, the Awakened’s gazes shifted toward Hyeonseong.

“Focus!”

Hyeonseong shouted loudly, and pulled a megaphone item from the Infinite Corridor.

“Then what the hell is this supposed to mean?”

While turning their eyes back to the monsters, the Awakened demanded answers.

“What do you think it means? Exactly what it says.”

“No, why, when there’s a perfectly fine tactical team—”

“Is now really the time for that kind of suffocating talk?”

“I don’t understand—”

“Ah, argue about that crap later!”

Hyeonseong shouted into the megaphone. Her voice boomed across the battlefield. The Awakened who had kept arguing clamped their mouths shut for a moment.

In that gap, Hyeonseong continued.

“That directive was agreed on, and I sent that message. You can send questions if you want, but I’m not taking questions that aren’t about tactics. That’s all. Hurry and get back to your teams!”

After finishing quickly, Hyeonseong turned her eyes to the feeds and rosters floating around in all directions.

‘They’re finally moving.’

Right in front of her, and on the opposite side visible in the feeds, Awakened were moving toward their teammates.

Not everyone could move. Some had no room to disengage while the Enemy Knight and Do-ol rampaged. Seeing them, Hyeonseong checked the feeds quickly.

‘I need to move the teams that have fully gathered, and the people who joined alone without a team.’

Hyeonseong called Nemesis again and sent out messages.

Orders were sent to the teams that had fully assembled and to the Awakened moving alone without affiliation.

‘And lastly…….’

There was one more person she had to message. It was an extremely burdensome target, but unavoidable if they were going to clear this.

Pinning down the Enemy Knight’s feet would be manageable with just Song Jiwoo and Hyeonseong.

This time, the reply came immediately after Hyeonseong sent the instruction. Seeing the hologram full of nonsense, Hyeonseong’s brow furrowed.

Hyeonseong sent messages to Song Jiwoo and the others she had given attack orders to. Light from activated skills burst in multiple places.

KWA-GWA-GWANG!

POO-UK!

Attacks fired from all directions struck Do-ol.

KWA-AANG—!

The red sword aura Song Jiwoo fired also collided with its target, the Enemy Knight. The Enemy Knight blocked the aura with the sword in its hand and tried to charge again.

At that timing, Hyeonseong opened a small Infinite Corridor right in front of the Red Horse’s forelegs.

KUDANGTANG!

The horse’s foot caught on the Infinite Corridor and it toppled forward. The Enemy Knight was thrown off as well.

“Move! Move now!”

With both boss monsters showing an opening, the Awakened who still had not regrouped by team hurried to move.

In that gap, Hyeonseong messaged Song Jiwoo again.

She had not been expecting the Enemy Knight’s dismount. But since it happened, she had to exploit it immediately.

With the short reply, Song Jiwoo fired sword aura at the Enemy Knight. The Enemy Knight, having just regained its stance, raised its sword to block.

In that opening, Song Jiwoo closed the distance and swung her greatsword fast. Soon, Song Jiwoo and the Enemy Knight entered a one-on-one duel.

While Song Jiwoo pinned down the dismounted Enemy Knight, every team regrouped to their original positions.

‘Good. Minimum organization is done.’

From here, it was time to shift team positions more precisely while attacking the monsters.

‘Perfect—Enemy Knight and horse are separated.’

Hyeonseong instructed the people who had attacked Do-ol earlier to keep it pinned.

She ordered everyone else to attack the Red Horse. She divided attack, aggro-drawing, and defense according to each team’s tendencies.

The raid teams of each guild and the unaffiliated Awakened who had been assigned roles launched fierce attacks at the Red Horse.

“Over there! Stab its flank so it can’t charge!”

“All mages, they’re saying attack at the same time!”

KWA-GWA-GWANG!

“Shields! Raise your shields!”

Each time Hyeonseong sent a new directive by message, the Awakened shouted the contents aloud. It was to share instructions among themselves.

‘In moments like this, speaking directly is definitely better than messaging.’

After sending a few directives, at some point Hyeonseong lifted the megaphone again. It was an item loaded with a Taunt skill, but if she did not will it to activate, she could use it like a normal megaphone.

“If you blocked the back-kick, fall back! We attack from the side again! If you land a meaningful hit, pull out immediately!”

Hyeonseong shouted through the megaphone.

With each shout, the Awakened blocked the Red Horse’s attacks or struck it, exactly as Hyeonseong directed. Damage stacked steadily on the Red Horse.

Hiiihiiing—

Having taken repeated hits, the Red Horse let out a whinny. It was a noticeably weakened sound.

‘It’s tired—both body and mind.’

Reading the monster’s condition from its cry, Hyeonseong judged it was about time to prepare a fatal strike that pierced the vital point.

‘The teams on Red Horse look a bit tight.’

Among the Awakened fighting the Red Horse, there were three A-ranks. One of them was Geum Seoa, who used high-penetration skills, but even so, the overall firepower still felt slightly lacking.

‘And one of the other two didn’t seem to have strong piercing-type skills. If that’s the case, even with Geum Seoa, it ends up plus-minus zero.’

Hyeonseong’s gaze shifted to Song Jiwoo, who was facing the Enemy Knight alone.

If they needed to supplement firepower, no one was better than Song Jiwoo. Her main skills were slashing-type, but her thrusts were not weak either.

Even factoring in that her thrust skills were lower-level than her slashes, they should still hit around A-rank power.

‘If anything goes wrong, she can switch to slashes or defense, and even swap positions. Song Jiwoo is the right person.’

She still had skill cards received from Hyeonyeong, but now was not the time to use them. Those were, in a sense, reserve power.

‘Use them when firepower is just a little short of the calculation—or when we can secure the kill.’

Next, Hyeonseong looked to Do-ol. Between twenty and thirty Awakened were engaging it according to Hyeonseong’s instructions.

They could not cut off Do-ol’s head, but they flawlessly kept it from leaving its position by clinging to its ankles.

‘That side can stay as it is.’

She handed a few potions via the Infinite Corridor to people who looked low on stamina or mana.

Then she instructed them by message to maintain the current attack-defense routine, and returned her gaze to the Red Horse.

‘One more distraction to create an opening, then a vital strike.’

With her thoughts organized, Hyeonseong was about to issue a new directive.

“…….”

Seeing the Constellations’ messages, Hyeonseong felt her big-data-based intuition kick in.

‘When they act like that, something always goes to hell…….’

Before Hyeonseong even finished the thought, a new notification appeared.