Half naked, his colleague, leaning on a chair and sipping a cold Americano, said, "What's for dinner tonight?"

"As usual. Canned food and stew."

As if he had asked what was too obvious, his colleague shook his head.

"Believe it, next time you supply, please send me some vitamin-infused fruits. You're going to get sick later."

He smiled bitterly at his colleague's complaint. "Okay, let's ask for a can of fruit."

"Yes. Now, let's change!" He got up from his seat and stretched himself.

The monster alert post's schedule involves three people working in 12-hour rotations. It was difficult to even meet women, let alone loved ones because they were deployed in mountainous areas every six months. State positions and high salaries were the only reasons they did this job.

It was when he walked lightly and tried to leave the control room...

Zing! Beep beep! Beep beep!

Suddenly, with a loud alarm, the machines in the room began to operate with a loud noise. The screen flashes red, and the words "alert" immediately switches to "emergency."

"What's wrong with this?" The colleague, who was about to step outside, hurried back to his seat and shouted. He was surprised because the devices installed at the guard post began to ring in unison. Almost all of the measuring instruments were announcing the changes in mana concentration, which makes no sense because their area was nearly 100 kilometers in diameter.

"Is this crazy? Why is it malfunctioning?"

It was reasonable to suspect the malfunction of the device at first because it did not make sense otherwise.

"Was it like this before?"

"No, I've never seen this since it was fixed three months ago?"

"Believe it, how the h.e.l.l did they fix it?"

According to the original manual, the first priority was to send all data, including observation records, to the headquarters after calling a colleague who would be resting at a rest area immediately, but Jenkins concluded that the device malfunctioned for now. That was the only explanation they had.

And as if he had been right, all the devices went silent a moment after.

"d.a.m.n it, I'll have to call the repairman back."

"Shouldn't we report it?"

"What kind of report do you want to do? Do you want to send it? Detection of increased mana across 100 kilometers on all sides?"

A man shook his head in his words. Yes, that's why he didn't understand common sense.

"How much has the figure gone up?"

"Number?"

At his colleague's word, the man who was sitting manipulated the monitor and said shortly, "It has to be a malfunction. It jumped from 3mc to 200mc in a second. And the rise is uniform..."

"200mc is the measurement limit."

"Exactly, it's nonsense."

Even though their equipment had been used for decades, the mana figure, 200mc, indicates the emergence of a 500m gate in theory. No, one couldn't even tell if it's 500m or 700m since it's up to the measurement limit. If they were to send this record to the headquarters right away, they will be reprimanded for dozing off or dreaming.

"Yes, it must be malfunctioning." A man shook his head and left the control room.

It's time to take a full rest. Of course, it's been a long time since he's erased the memory of the device malfunction from his head, but it wasn't a system malfunction. They don't know, but what they've been through now had happened all over the world simultaneously.

#2

A black shadow was cast over the huge landing site, which was about the size of four football fields put together. The light plate that reflected the landing site shook in the gusty wind.

SWOOSH....

A short time later, a plane landed with a strong wind. As the four rotors on all sides slowly began to stop, the people waiting around dragged their equipment towards the aircraft.

"Move!"

"Yes!"

It was Atlas, the personal fighter jet of the Master Archer. When a mechanic manipulated a large lever on the underside of the Atlas, its Dual Mana battery, which was equivalent to the size of a ton-heavy car, came down with a chirping sound.

"Hey! Don't touch it and let it cool down first! wake up!"

There was a loud voice.

"Oh! Yes, I am sorry!"

A maintenance worker, who had just taken his hand towards the Mana battery, connected a long hose on the side to a pipe attached to the mana battery at the cry of the old man. While normal mana batteries would not require such a complicated procedure, the dual mana batteries on the Atlas were severely heated by using two seven-tier mana stones.

Because it was such an expensive battery, when the gas was not operated, liquid nitrogen should be injected and be forced to cool the battery before storing it. Then, the side of Atlas opened and a man appeared. He looked around for a moment and stepped down to the floor from the hatch.

"Thank you for your hard work," the man with a bandit beard, who appears to be the team leader of the maintenance team, approached him and said with his head down.

Then, the man on the opposite side beckoned a giant flying object seen as a backlight.

"No, I'm afraid I came too late tonight. Let's take a break today and do it tomorrow."

The maintenance team leader shook his hand in his words. "No, we can't be as tired as you are. You flew to Germany and raided the monster before coming here."

"Haha, yes."

Coming right back from the end of the raid in Germany, it just dawned. He felt sorry for waking those who were sleeping, and he looked at those who were working by sticking like a swarm of ants around Atlas.

"When you're finished, let them rest a day tomorrow. Maintenance is important, but for me, your health is more important."

"Yes, sir," the bearded man answered, but he knew that it won't be followed anyway.

He had no intention of pointing that out. Their thorough maintenance had left Atlas with no minor malfunctions ever happening. All the maintenance workers from the U.S., who sold Atlas, were tired and were pa.s.sing on their maintenance know-hows to them one by one.

Watching the chilly autumn wind and the stars in the early morning sky, In-Yeong, who was waiting in front of the front gate, bowed her head towards Jaehw.a.n.g. "Welcome home"

"Yes."

Irumi walked quietly behind Jaehw.a.n.g. "The next week's raid at Russia has been canceled."

"Is that so?" Jaehw.a.n.g nodded at his words.

In the case of running a Clan, who usually goes overseas, they should've played a penalty for those who do cancel their request, but Jaehw.a.n.g didn't do that. Some of the contracts they deal with in the first place were with weaker countries, and the penalty would allow developed countries to take advantage of those with less national power

Its side effects were the case now.

"The maintenance team must be happy not having to fly to Siberia."

In response to Jaehw.a.n.g's answer, Irumi was hesitating to say something but soon shook her head.

"Don't be angry."

It's Jaehw.a.n.g who already knew how Irumi felt. Recently, there have been more and more raids being canceled in this way. Of course, she was not upset simply because the raid was canceled. Irumi's anger was due to their ambivalent att.i.tude. Even if the cancellation was due to their choice, they announced to the media as if the negotiations with Master Archer had gone wrong. What's funny was that when a gate occurs or a Tier-9 monster moves its habitat and causes a wave, they would ask Jaehw.a.n.g again for a helping hand, and Jaehw.a.n.g never rejected their requests. Irumi would want to withdraw all of their later bids, but Jaehw.a.n.g had them all accepted.

"But I think we should take some actions."

If Jaehw.a.n.g uses his influence a little more aggressively, it was not possible to get a taste of business with Jaehw.a.n.g this way in the first place. It was not just the U.S. or Russia. In recent years, other countries were slowly turning to the World Hunters' Office to change the existing conditions of the raid.