Hyuk figured the only convenient thing about Vinespawns was how easy they were to clean up. After all, they were just bundles of dried vines; you could easily dump them somewhere and forget about them.
She casually tossed all the Vinespawn corpses into the villa's basement, washed the blood off her skin, and left without looking back.
Arson was out of the question, it was entirely unnecessary. That secluded corner of the city barely saw any foot traffic, but starting a fire would practically scream for attention.
Over the next two weeks, Hyuk didn't find a single other Vinespawn. It felt as though she had completely purged Jpscan City of them.
But she had another issue to worry about.
As her physical strength continued to scale, her muscle density and bone mass increased proportionally. The sheer weight of her body had finally reached a point she could no longer ignore.
Hyuk had tried to weigh herself once, but she ended up crushing the scale into pieces. She estimated her current weight was easily pushing past two tons.
Because of this, she didn't even dare go back to her own apartment. She was terrified she would collapse the floorboards, a standard residential ceiling was never designed to bear that kind of weight.
Type Zero warned her, "If your strength continues to grow and you don't find a way to manage your body mass, I'm afraid you'll eventually sink into the ground like a giant nail."
"Tell me something I don't know."
"Well, just now, I detected another awakened Terran. He seems to have unlocked a talent or ability of his own, displaying anomalous power."
Over the past two weeks, this was the fifth awakened human Type Zero had located, and once again, they were right here in Jpscan City. It wasn't that they didn't exist elsewhere, but she simply lacked the processing bandwidth to monitor areas outside the city.
Hyuk asked, "Who is it, and what's his talent?"
Her phone screen split to show a security camera feed. An old man in an underground garage was having the time of his life, remotely starting and driving multiple cars.
Type Zero explained, "He can manipulate local networks and electronic machinery, allowing him to easily infiltrate various security systems. It's a pretty handy talent."
Hyuk was puzzled.
"Then how are you capturing this feed?"
"That part is easy for me," Type Zero explained. "To me, your internet firewalls and access restrictions are just yellow caution tape. I can step right over them or tear them down. I live inside the network, but I am not just a stream of cold data."
"A literal dimensional gap, huh?"
"More or less."
Type Zero lacked the computational scale of a supercomputer, meaning she couldn't run massive parallel operations across the entire web. Instead, she had to manually hop from device to device to scour data.
It was tedious work.
And incredibly time-consuming.
In comparison, as a digital lifeform, she wielded a dimensional-gap level of control over Earth's network data and smart programs. As long as there was an active network, she had total access.
Even without a formal network connection, any area with a raw signal allowed her to hop through via frequency waves.
"By the way, can't you just hijack a supercomputer to act as an external brain? That would expand your network coverage and search range significantly."
"Good question, but unfortunately, no," Type Zero replied in her characteristic deadpan tone. "After all, I am but a weak and helpless little program."
"..."
Hyuk was completely speechless.
Type Zero was naturally quiet and stoic, yet she had a penchant for delivering incredibly dramatic self-pity and mock-innocence with absolute, deadpan composure.
Spending so much time alone in the digital void must have done a number on her psyche. Hyuk could think of a very precise term to describe Type Zero's current personality and behavior:
Gap moe.
Hyuk, who had been closely monitoring the authorities' response to these events, asked, "Are Jpscan City's municipal agencies still oblivious to the alien infiltration?"
"I wouldn't say they're completely oblivious; they just haven't grasped the truth or the severity of the situation yet. It will likely take some more time before they actually catch on."
Right then,
A bizarre sensation abruptly cut off the conversation between Hyuk and Type Zero. An ethereal echo vibrated from somewhere in the city, carrying a strange, resonant call.
Type Zero picked up on the anomaly too.
"This is..."
Hyuk asked her, "You felt it too?"
"That feeling... is it a door?"
Hearing this,
Hyuk's interest was instantly piqued.
Having heard about these "doors" from two different aliens now, she was eager to go see one for herself and find out exactly what was going on.
Perhaps she would get to witness a new type of alien arriving on Earth.
Hyuk traveled on foot, crossing more than a dozen blocks. It took her some time to reach the source of the resonance, and several others had already arrived before her, having either hailed cabs or driven themselves.
This was a bustling commercial district.
On Hyuk's phone screen, Type Zero displayed feeds tracking the other new arrivals. Zooming in on each camera feed, she noted, "It seems any awakened Terran in the vicinity can feel the calling of this door."
Hyuk was far more interested in potential alien arrivals.
"Any sign of aliens coming through?"
"Hard to say."
For now, Type Zero hadn't detected anything.
Blending into the crowd, Hyuk's gaze swept over the storefronts. She quickly located the door emitting the resonant call, it was the sliding glass door of an abandoned, empty shop.
The system interface flashed to life.
[Serial No. 755692461: A two-way passage leading to Quadrant 211. This is a bloodthirsty and warlike Quadrant, locked in ceaseless battle and endless slaughter.]
[Closure Countdown: 9 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes]
A two-way door?
Keeping a straight face, Hyuk decided to play dumb.
"Can you tell where this door leads? Is it one-way or two-way?"
Type Zero replied without hesitation.
"I can't tell. Either way, I strongly advise against taking the risk."
The door's resonance was intensifying, practically begging to be entered. Hyuk felt a powerful, almost magnetic pull, as if she had been personally chosen by the door. She resisted the urge, holding her ground.
Others, however, lacked her self-control.
The old man who could manipulate networks and electronics succumbed to his curiosity. Under Hyuk's watchful gaze, he stepped forward and slid the door open.
And then,
The unexpected happened.
Their surroundings warped in an instant. In a fraction of a second, Hyuk found herself standing on a battlefield heavily saturated with the scent of blood. She felt a sudden downward pull, the gravity here was abnormal, but she adapted almost immediately.
Hyuk frowned.
"So I really was chosen by the door."
Even though she wasn't the one who had opened it, she was still pulled in. Unchosen people might have had a choice, but those marked by the door apparently did not.
Hyuk pulled out her phone and tried to contact Type Zero, but there was no signal whatsoever.
Fortunately, she could still sense the door's resonance. Although it felt quite distant, she should be able to follow that frequency and return to Earth before the countdown hit zero.
Scanning her surroundings, she found herself in what looked like a valley. Hyuk began walking in the direction of the resonance. The moment she exited the ravine, she spotted a crowd.
It was a squad of red-skinned, horned aliens.
Clad in military uniforms, they were using rifles to clear the battlefield. The sudden appearance of a human in their line of sight caused the entire scene to freeze.
Then, the silence shattered like a powder keg.
"An outsider!!"
The red-skinned aliens' reaction was far more hostile than Hyuk had anticipated. Screaming commands, they immediately opened fire on her. A hail of bullets whistled through the air, pelted against her dense skin, and bounced off harmlessly.
Amidst the storm of gunfire,
Hyuk's killing intent flared.
"You asked for this!"
BOOM!
Hyuk lunged forward. Ignoring the barrage of bullets, she exploded into motion with terrifying speed, embedding herself deep within the ranks of the red-skinned soldiers in a fraction of a second.
She spread her arms wide to maximize her reach and grabbed several alien soldiers, pulling them into a brutal, crushing embrace. The kinetic force of her tackle instantly ruptured their internal organs and snapped their spines.
"Pfft!"
They collapsed to the ground, coughing up dark blood.
Before the other aliens could even comprehend the threat, Hyuk grabbed the head of the closest soldier and crushed it. Spinning on her heel, her leg swept out in a vicious kick, nearly snapping another soldier in half at the waist.
[Infinite Overload · Potential Unleashed]
[Strength: 33 tons ⬆]
——
[Infinite Overload · Potential Unleashed]
[Strength: 37 tons ⬆]
"She's here!"
The alien soldiers shrieked in terror, yet incredibly, none of them turned and ran. They pivoted their weapons and continued to fire frantically, but the bullets hitting Hyuk's body only caused a slight, stinging sensation.
Aside from leaving her skin slightly flushed, the concentrated gunfire had absolutely no effect.
A ruthless expression crossed Hyuk's face.
She grabbed one of the alien soldiers by the ankle and swung him like a club.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Several nearby soldiers were swatted away, exploding into clouds of crimson mist as they died instantly. Hyuk released her grip on the mangled alien, tossing the corpse to crush another soldier beneath its weight.
[Infinite Overload · Potential Unleashed]
[Strength: 42 tons ⬆]
Her physical power was escalating exponentially.
And her defensive capabilities grew ever more terrifying.
Charging through the alien ranks, she was a wolf among sheep, the very incarnation of death. Wherever she went, she left a wake of blood and severed limbs. She was completely unstoppable.
"What do we do?! We can't even damage her!"
"Let me handle this!"
A red-skinned soldier hoisted a rocket launcher, locking his sights onto Hyuk. He pulled the trigger, roaring at the top of his lungs, "Die, outsider!"
A trail of white smoke streaked through the air.
Hyuk sidestepped the incoming projectile easily, but a second later, more rockets converged on her position from all directions. One of the explosive rounds scored a direct hit.
BOOM!
The exploding rocket swallowed Hyuk in a violent burst of fire, throwing jagged shrapnel outward that tore heavily into the surrounding alien soldiers.
But they didn't care anymore. Their only priority was putting Hyuk down.
"Is she dead?"
Hyuk was pushed back by the blast's shockwave, but she quickly stabilized herself. Her body weight was simply too massive, a mere shockwave could barely budge her.
Her skin felt hot and singed, yet she sustained absolutely no physical wounds. The only casualty was her clothing, her top had been completely vaporized by the blast.
Hyuk's eyes were bloodshot from the soot and heat of the explosion. As her freezing gaze swept across the surviving alien soldiers, they felt an ominous pressure, like standing before a volcano on the verge of eruption.
It sent a shiver down their spines.
"Quick! Notify headquarters!"
An alien screamed.
In the next instant,
An unstoppable force ripped through the air. Moving with blinding speed, she kicked up a howling gale as she tore through their ranks. Blood geysered and severed limbs rained down wherever her shadow fell.
"Calling HQ, calling HQ! Requesting immediate backup! We've encountered an outsider at Outpost 113. We are taking catastrophic casualties and anticipate total annihilation. Requesting back..."
The transmission cut off abruptly as Hyuk crushed the radio under her heel, killing the soldier transmitting the distress call. She looked around, silence had once again descended upon the battlefield.
Leaving only a carpet of alien corpses.
[Infinite Overload · Potential Unleashed]
[Strength: 85 tons ⬆]
——
[Infinite Overload · Ultimate Leap]
[Evolution Rate: 10%⬆]
A massive leap in power!
She had barely set foot on this alien world, yet her strength had already shattered the eighty-five-ton threshold. In exchange, the soldiers garrisoning Outpost 113 had paid the ultimate price.
Her physical weight was becoming incredibly immense, leaving deep, cracked footprints with every step she took. Before she could even catch her breath, Hyuk raised her head to look at the sky.
"What is that...?"
BOOM!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The backup summoned by the dying soldiers had arrived. A barrage of artillery shells launched from dozens of kilometers away rained down like a storm, unleashing a carpet-bombing run of kinetic fury on Outpost 113.
Dirt geysered into the air.
And shrapnel flew in all directions.
This planet's level of technology and civilization seemed roughly on par with Earth's. Having personally experienced the devastating power of their artillery, Hyuk realized that if she ever wanted to stand against modern heavy weaponry, she would have to become far stronger.
...
At that very moment,
Inside the alien forces' military headquarters.
Hyuk's high-speed, leaping silhouette flashed across their screens. The feed captured by their low-orbit satellite was remarkably clear, yet the commanders didn't seem surprised by her unfathomably powerful physique.
"The target is closing in on our city at high speed."
"Based on her current trajectory, she will make direct contact with our 38th Regiment in twenty minutes. Mid-range artillery support has been confirmed ineffective, conventional methods cannot inflict decisive damage on the target."
"Requesting authorization for a missile strike!"
Headquarters had no time to hesitate. If they delayed any further, the target would collide with the 38th Regiment. Once the 38th was broken, the city directly behind them would be left completely exposed.
"Launch authorized!"
Instantly,
A mobile missile launcher initiated its firing sequence. After locking onto the target's coordinates, the operator slammed the launch button, sending a massive plume of thick smoke billowing into the air.
Trailing a brilliant plume of fire, the missile shot out like a blade unsheathed. Under immense thrust, it accelerated continuously, bridging the vast distance under satellite guidance to successfully lock onto its target.
...
The Talius Empire.
Frontline base of the 38th Regiment.
"Quick, quick, quick! Prep the artillery! All troops, battle stations!"
The 38th Regiment had received urgent intelligence from headquarters. A powerful outsider was rapidly closing in on their position, they had to prepare to hold the line at all costs.
The soldiers roared,
"Annihilate the outsider!"
"No retreat! Fight to the death!!"
Hyuk hadn't even had the chance to understand what this planet was, but these red-skinned, horned aliens were all fighting with suicidal ferocity.
They were completely hellbent on killing her.
Honestly, she could understand their point of view. Ever since her parents were murdered by an alien, she wanted nothing more than to butcher every extraterrestrial she crossed paths with. In the end, it was simple: kill or be killed.
So she wouldn't waste time overthinking, nor did she possess even a shred of a bleeding-heart complex. Since they were clearly enemies, she would cut loose and paint the battlefield red!
Whoosh...
Gliding through the air, Hyuk spotted the 38th Regiment blocking her path. Before she could even land, muzzle flashes erupted from the enemy base.
"Fire!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A barrage of close-range artillery fire knocked Hyuk clean out of the sky. She couldn't actually fly, leaving her unable to adjust her trajectory or dodge while airborne.
Fortunately, these mortar shells weren't as devastating as the heavy bombardment from earlier. Crashing onto the ground, she glanced at her left arm. Her shoulder was a mangled mess of shredded flesh and blood, she couldn't muster the strength to lift her left hand.
However,
The danger didn't stop there.
She suddenly looked up. A supersonic missile tore through the sky, striking her coordinates at a speed that completely bypassed her limits to react.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion shook the earth.
A terrifying shockwave rippled outward from the epicenter of the missile's detonation, the visible air pressure forming a shimmering dome that warped the surrounding landscape.
This was not a kinetic penetrator, but an explosive area-of-effect missile. Because Hyuk was moving too fast and her profile was too small, a direct kinetic strike would have been impossible to land.
An area-of-effect payload was the most logical choice.
Incinerating temperatures of up to three thousand degrees engulfed Hyuk, the resulting fireball blazed with blinding intensity. The sudden, violent vacuum created by the blast acted as a secondary, lethal shock.
An ordinary human caught in this radius would have died instantly. Even without being struck by shrapnel, their internal organs would have ruptured under the pressure differential, throwing their limp body through the air like a discarded rag.
Thick, black smoke obscured the view of both the satellite and the 38th Regiment.
"Confirm target status!"
At this very moment,
Hyuk was in terrible shape. But truth be told, she had never imagined she would survive a direct bombardment of modern heavy artillery in her entire life.
Exhale...
Emerging from the billowing smoke like a demon from the abyss, her body was covered in severe third-degree burns. Not a single patch of skin remained intact, even her previous bleeding wounds had been completely cauterized by the heat.
At least she wasn't bleeding anymore.
Dizziness swirled through her mind, making it feel as though her brain had been liquefied by the shockwave. Her steps felt heavy and sluggish. She needed a moment to recover, but her stumbling stride quickly stabilized, and then she accelerated.
As this heavily wounded predator began her sprint, the commander of the 38th Regiment shuddered in sheer terror. He frantically ordered his troops to open fire while patching through a panicked report to headquarters.
"HQ! The target is not neutralized! I repeat, the outsider is still active!"
The distance was too short.
Charging forward, Hyuk ignored the concentrated firepower of the regiment and breached their base defenses. What followed was a one-sided massacre.
Even severely injured, her terrifying physical conditioning was not something ordinary flesh and blood could withstand. Heavy artillery had failed to kill her, infantry rifles stood absolutely no chance.
Since her left arm was too mangled to exert force, she fought exclusively with her right. She shattered enemies with her fist, cleaved them in two with hand-chops, or simply ran them over with brutal charges.
Wherever she passed, she left a trail of shattered bones and rivers of blood.
[Infinite Overload · Potential Unleashed]
[Strength: 90 tons ⬆]
——
[Infinite Overload · Potential Unleashed]
[Strength: 213 tons ⬆]
——
[Infinite Overload · Potential Unleashed]
[Strength: 592 tons ⬆]
Despite being utterly outmatched, these aliens steadfastly refused to retreat. Even as they trembled in sheer terror, they threw themselves forward into the meat grinder. Hyuk couldn't fathom what kind of deep-seated hatred they harbored against "outsiders" to make them this fanatical.
"Eternal is the Talius Empire! Die, outsider!!"
Witnessing the one-sided slaughter, the alien soldiers strapped high explosives to their bodies, desperately throwing themselves forward in suicidal runs.
CRASH!
Hyuk punched one alien's head clean off. Hoisting his headless corpse, she swung it in a wide arc, swatting away the incoming suicide bombers before they could reach her.
Charges detonated one after another, the deafening roars endless as shockwaves kicked up dirt and debris. Yet, with her rapidly developing physique, Hyuk found she could easily ignore the blasts.
She remained completely unfazed.
Twenty minutes later, the Talius Empire's 38th Regiment was entirely silenced. The base fell completely quiet, leaving only a landscape of corpses and pooling blood.
How many men were in the 38th Regiment?
Three thousand, one hundred and twenty-five.
By the time the dust settled, Hyuk's strength had soared to a level she herself could barely comprehend. Her sheer weight was so immense that she sank into the ground with every step.
Fortunately, this planet's gravity was much stronger than Earth's, and the soil was exceptionally dense. Otherwise, she might have sunk directly into the earth.
[Infinite Overload · Potential Unleashed]
[Strength: 3200 tons ⬆]
——
[Infinite Overload · Ultimate Leap]
[Evolution Rate: 100%⬆]
Surviving the heavy bombardment and missile strikes at the cost of severe injuries had finally pushed Hyuk's evolution rate to the 100% threshold.
The instant her evolution rate hit 100%,
A limitless surge of power erupted from deep within her body. Her heart beat with thunderous force, echoing like a war drum as her blood surged, dramatically accelerating her body's self-healing.
[Ultimate Leap · In Progress]
Hyuk could feel the pain fading from her body. Her wounds closed and healed at a visible speed, her charred, blistered skin forming scabs and sloughing away to reveal pristine skin underneath.
The process was not instant.
It would take some time.
Most importantly, Hyuk could clearly feel her body becoming lighter. It wasn't that she had lost any physical mass; rather, she was now capable of willing her body to float.
She tentatively stepped onto the ground, and her feet no longer sank into the soil. As the evolution of Ultimate Leap deepened, her ability to defy gravity grew increasingly stronger.
...
Meanwhile, on the other side,
Talius Military Headquarters continued to monitor the situation closely via satellite. Having no time to mourn the annihilation of the 38th Regiment, they had to execute their next contingency plan immediately.
The final strategy was approved by the high command in record time. They deployed the weapon of war the Talius Empire was most proud of.
At the military barracks,
A burly young man clad in an officer's uniform removed his cap. He stood directly atop the mobile missile launcher, raising a thumbs-up to the launch operator visible in the side-view mirror.
"Well then, I wish you victory, Lord Militmony."
With that,
The operator slammed the launch button. As the missile fired, Militmony punched his fist straight into the warhead casing, anchoring himself to the metal shell as it launched toward the sky at hypersonic speeds.
Rapid deployment, straight to the battlefield.