Chapter 89
Chapter 89
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 89
Chapter Title: Piercing the Barrier
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"What did you say?"
Orca shouted, his face etched with shock.
An object rapidly closing in on headquarters airspace?
"Is it a transport plane?"
"No. It's way faster than any transport. Doesn't seem like any kind of aircraft."
"Not an aircraft?"
Orca hurriedly glanced at the radar monitor. Just as the operator said, a fast-approaching blip was visible.
"Activate the barrier right now! Raise the defensive shield!"
"Yes, sir!"
At Orca's command, the operator frantically activated the barrier shield.
Magic circles and barriers had long been scientifically analyzed, so with magitech, they could be switched on with the flip of a lever anytime.
"Did those lunatics from the Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan fire a missile or something?"
Orca scowled at the radar screen.
"Looks like the Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan's assault has begun."
At that moment, the man on the monitor smirked.
"Seems that way. But our barrier won't be pierced by some missile strike."
Orca's face filled with confidence.
The circumstances pointed to an attack from the Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan.
It had only been about three days since Ironclad Syndicate struck the Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan.
The Hunter Association or the Korean government wouldn't move their heavy asses that quickly.
So the only option left was that the Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan had pinpointed their location and launched a preemptive strike almost immediately.
"Missile attack? What a foolish move."
Orca sneered.
Even a nuclear missile wouldn't faze the barrier.
The barrier was the pinnacle of magitech—conventional weapons couldn't even scratch it.
Only mana or aura attacks could damage it.
And this barrier was built slathering on an enormous amount of magic stones.
Breaching it was unthinkable.
"Barrier activation complete! Impact in three seconds!"
The operator reported then.
"Two, one! Unknown object colliding with the barrier."
"Status?"
"The unknown object is intact!"
"What?"
Orca frowned at the operator's report.
It should have vanished on impact.
But the object was still there?
"Ah!"
"What? What's happening?"
"Th-the barrier's been breached!"
"What...?"
Orca stared blankly at the operator's report.
The barrier was breached?
The one they'd built pouring in billions of won worth of magic stones?
"Layers two and three penetrated. Colliding with layer four! It's broken! Only the final layer left!"
The operator's scream-like reports came one after another.
The island-encompassing barrier shield had a multi-layered structure, five layers total.
And four were already gone?
"No way the final layer's getting pierced too..."
The moment Orca spoke with unease.
"It's breached!"
The operator's scream echoed.
"Damn it all!"
Sweat beaded on Orca's brow.
The barrier, built at the cost of tens of billions, had been shattered.
"Hope you make it through safe."
Then the young man on the monitor muttered before cutting the line.
"Ah, wait..."
Orca tried to call him back too late.
The connection was already severed.
"Those damn Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan bastards!"
Orca ground his teeth, clenching his fist tight.
His gripped fist trembled, his face twisting into a demonic snarl.
"Unknown object that destroyed the barrier confirmed. Intruder! A superhuman's breached!"
At the operator's follow-up report, Orca barked into the comms to the Ironclad Syndicate members on standby at the base.
"Find out who the hell it is! Capture them alive, no matter what! I'll make them experience a living hell as an experiment!"
"First hurdle cleared?"
Vrooom!
Shin Yu-hyun landed in what looked like a grassy plain.
After extracting the base coordinates from the Ironclad Syndicate executives, he'd made preparations.
First, he'd gone to the armory with Ishia and asked Shin Ji-ah for some favors. The Black Tortoise Sword Division members' gear was subpar, so he requested support.
Then he'd prepped skeletons up to the limit of his Dominance and Ka-mang-i's transport capacity.
'My Dominance is plenty now.'
Shin Yu-hyun smiled.
His unique trait Dominance Enhancement was at proficiency level 4, allowing him to command four undead per point.
With Shuv joining, efficiency doubled, and Hades' gauntlet Quinear from the underworld god added another fourfold boost.
At this rate, he could recreate the Immortal King's hundreds of thousands of undead he'd seen before time reversal.
Ka-mang-i's transport limit was the bottleneck, though.
Even feeding it 3-star and 4-star magic stones nonstop, it couldn't keep up with his cheat-level Dominance.
But Shin Yu-hyun hitting 4-star had some upsides.
Dia’s sub-space storage skill had upgraded, letting her carry some skeletons now.
Shuv could too.
'More than enough to collapse the Ironclad base.'
With all preparations done at the clan, Shin Yu-hyun mounted Hecaton Hyper Beetle Chiron and headed for the Ironclad Syndicate's uninhabited island base.
As the executives said, it was a natural fortress.
Vortices swirled around the island, and the airspace was turbulent.
Sudden gusts made aerial approach tricky.
The biggest issue was the barrier enveloping the entire island.
With its illusion effect, without exact coordinates, finding the Ironclad island would've been tough.
That's how they'd operated from this West Sea islet all this time.
'Not anymore.'
Shin Yu-hyun patted Chiron's head and looked up.
A defensive dome shimmered over the island.
Chiron had struggled because of it.
Spinning like a drill with vibrating horns to shatter the barrier.
A combo of Horn Charge and Super Vibration Wave.
They'd finally broken through to the island.
"Shuv, Dia, Ka-mang-i."
Shin Yu-hyun called his summons.
"You called?"
"Yes!"
Kyuu!
His summons emerged from the elongated shadow where they'd rested.
"We've breached the barrier into the Ironclad base. They're probably hiding underground. Shuv, find and block their escape routes."
"Got it."
Shuv's black sclera gleamed with golden demon eyes, flashing a beautiful yet dangerous smile.
"If any try to flee that way, don't kill if possible. We need intel."
"Understood."
Shuv's smile turned chilling at Shin Yu-hyun's order.
To Shin Yu-hyun and his allies, endlessly kind and gentle; to enemies, merciless.
Shin Yu-hyun had sensed it watching Shuv interrogate the executives.
The interrogation was brutally cruel.
But he didn't care or stop it.
They deserved no mercy.
Whoosh!
Shuv vanished in an instant.
Off to find the island's sole entry-exit passage.
Per the executives, they used submarines to access the base island.
So there had to be a sub dock somewhere.
"Shall we head in too?"
"Yes!"
Kyuu!
Dia and Ka-mang-i replied cutely to Shin Yu-hyun.
Patting their heads, he surveyed the area.
The uninhabited island was vast, with plains stretching before him.
'No surface entrance, as they said.'
He'd scanned before landing, but no sign of the base entrance.
'Gotta make one.'
"Chiron."
Kieeeeng!
At his call, Chiron spun its horns again.
Krunch!
It soon burrowed into the ground.
Emitting Super Vibration Wave.
'Pretty versatile, huh.'
Shin Yu-hyun chuckled at Chiron.
Big enough to ride, and it could dig too.
Moments later.
Rumble!
Chiron dropped into what seemed the Ironclad underground facility corridor.
Shin Yu-hyun peered into the hole Chiron dug. Looked like a hallway, too narrow for Chiron.
He took Dia and Ka-mang-i down the hole.
"Good job. Rest now."
Gruk!
Chiron raised its horn once before slipping into the shadow.
"Alright."
Shin Yu-hyun looked around. A long straight corridor, with a door at the far end that looked like an exit.
"Summon Sabers."
Clank, clank.
Ten skeleton sabers emerged from his shadow.
He assigned two to Dia for escort.
Kyuu!
Ka-mang-i raised two tentacles from its slime body over Dia's head.
Its way of protecting her.
'Bad feeling about this.'
Shin Yu-hyun eyed the long corridor.
His senses prickled all over.
Something was in there.
"Defensive formation."
Clank, clank.
At his word, the eight sabers clustered in a circle, raising kite shields outward.
They advanced toward the door that way, backpedaling ones in the rear.
The moment the sabers took a few steps.
Shwick!
Suddenly part of the corridor wall slid open, firing small mana-infused arrows!
Krunch!
The arrows embedded in the skeleton sabers' shields.
Some pierced through, scratching their bone armor.
"Traps, as expected."
Shin Yu-hyun clicked his tongue.
His bad feeling led him to send sabers first—spot on.
He reinforced the sabers and pressed on.
The traps grew deadlier.
Whirr!
Without warning, both walls opened, revealing two spinning circular sawblades.
Krunch!
They grazed past the sabers in a flash.
Crack!
Four sabers on the sides shattered into pieces and vanished.
"That was close."
Shin Yu-hyun sighed in relief.
If it'd been Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan members instead of sabers, heavy casualties.
Even he might've gotten hurt if not on guard.
'Super Regen heals it, but pain's pain.'
Trap wounds healed fast, but hurt all the same.
"Next batch, come out."
Swish.
He replenished sabers from Ka-mang-i's shadow.
Still a ways to the door.
With fresh sabers ahead, he advanced again.
Countless traps triggered as they went.
Sizzle!
Green poison rained from the ceiling.
Whoosh!
Flames burst from side walls.
Shunk!
Steel spears shot up from the floor.
'Kinda old-school.'
The corridor was sleek and modern, but traps classic.
Yet effective and deadly—mana infused in arrows, saws, spears.
Shin Yu-hyun lost quite a few sabers, the tankiest skeleton class.
But they cleared the trap hallway safely.
Creak.
A saber opened the end door, revealing stairs down.
"Down to the next level?"
"Yes!"
Kyuu!
Shin Yu-hyun nodded at the cute replies and descended.
To capture the fools who'd dared touch the Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan.