Chapter 264
The Shadow Unit was largely divided into four teams.
Team 1 gathered information within Neo Seoul, Team 2 collected intelligence from the slums, Team 3 established countermeasures based on the information gathered by the first two teams, and Team 4 projected military force.
Of course, the members of Teams 1 and 2 were also all Awakened.
Though they were only D-rank and lacked overwhelming combat power, every member possessed stealth-related skills, and with the help of items, they could display power close to that of C-rank Awakened.
The ones monitoring Zeon belonged to Team 2, the group originally assigned to surveil the slums.
From the moment Zeon had been classified as a dangerous individual, they had observed him from afar. Their method was simple.
They outright purchased houses near Zeon’s residence and along his main travel routes, using them as safe houses.
Living naturally among the residents while pretending to be locals and merely watching his movements—it was no wonder Zeon hadn’t noticed them.
Until now, Team 2 had carried out their missions successfully.
They were also the ones who discovered Zeon making contact with Duduyan and the others.
Because of that, they knew better than anyone how terrifying Zeon was.
In an environment with sand, he was practically invincible.
And most of Earth was sand.
In a sense, the entire planet itself was Zeon’s weapon.
So the instant the sandstorm erupted, it was only natural for Team 2 to be overwhelmed by fear.
And then sand figures resembling humans appeared.
At that moment, they acted exactly according to protocol.
Scatter in all directions and flee.
Abandon every safe house secured so far and head straight for Neo Seoul.
No matter how powerful Zeon was, he couldn’t kill recklessly inside Neo Seoul. Neo Seoul was not Zeon’s territory.
‘We just have to make it into Neo Seoul.’
‘We need to move along the shortest route possible…….’
They sprinted along escape routes they had already prepared beforehand.
Rather than weaving around trying to shake Zeon off, running at full speed gave them the highest chance of survival.
Robinson, a Team 2 member, muttered while sweating profusely.
“Damn it! How did he notice us? We were so careful. Did something go wrong during the interrogation?”
No matter how much he thought about it, that was the only possibility he could come up with.
“That’s why I told them to be careful……”
Shhhhh!
At that moment, the thick sandstorm swallowed Robinson whole.
But so focused on running was he that he failed to notice.
Tap tap tap!
Robinson only sensed something strange when he heard footsteps right beside him.
Someone was running in stride with him.
Turning his head, he saw a sand humanoid matching his pace.
A Sand Soldier.
“What the hell?”
At that instant, the Sand Soldier lunged at Robinson.
It was nothing more than a body slam.
But when the tremendous weight of sand combined with the speed of the charge, it generated terrifying force.
Boom!
“Gahhh!”
The Sand Soldier shattered into sand, while Robinson was sent flying as though he’d been hit by a car.
Even for a D-rank Awakened, taking that level of impact made it difficult to remain conscious.
And during the brief moment Robinson lost awareness, the sandstorm wrapped around him and carried him away.
“Ghk!”
“Ughhh!”
Similar screams echoed throughout the slums.
All of them were the cries of Team 2 members being attacked by Sand Soldiers.
In an instant, most of Team 2 had been dealt with.
Only one remained.
Void, the leader of Team 2.
As befitted the captain of Team 2, Void was a C-rank Awakened.
Naturally, he was far stronger than the other members.
Boom! Bang!
The Sand Soldiers attacking him were being destroyed instead.
The shattered Sand Soldiers reverted back into sand.
The problem was that the supply of sand was endless, and Zeon possessed the ability to recycle even destroyed Sand Soldiers.
Watching shattered Sand Soldiers rise back up again, Void cursed.
“Fuck! This is cheating. What is this, some kind of infinite resource recycling?”
Still, he couldn’t just give up.
He unleashed attack skills to destroy the Sand Soldiers.
Boom!
Sand exploded outward as another Sand Soldier shattered apart.
But as if mocking Void, the broken Sand Soldier restored itself to its original form once again.
An even bigger problem was that the number of Sand Soldiers attacking him kept increasing.
And that meant only one thing.
The other team members had all been defeated.
For every fallen teammate, another Sand Soldier joined the assault.
There were now twenty Sand Soldiers surrounding him.
Exactly the same number as Team 2’s total members.
Each team member had originally been pursued by one Sand Soldier.
Void wasn’t stupid enough not to understand what it meant that all of them had now gathered around him.
‘Does this mean they all got taken down?’
Zeon was too strong.
Far too fast.
Team 2 specialized in creating opportunities even in disadvantageous situations, yet this time they couldn’t respond at all.
Papapapak!
All twenty Sand Soldiers attacked him at once.
They used simple body slams and straightforward punches with their heavy frames.
Their attacks were frighteningly fast and concise.
But that much, Void could still handle.
Because he was a C-rank Awakened.
The problem was that there were twenty Sand Soldiers.
And none of them felt fear.
Boom!
The leading Sand Soldier exploded into sand from Void’s punch.
Then with a powerful knee strike, he turned the second Sand Soldier back into sand as well.
But there were still eighteen remaining.
To them, there was no concept of a comrade dying or being destroyed.
That was why they charged forward recklessly, completely unafraid of Void’s powerful attacks.
Bam bam bam bam!
Void was subjected to a brutal group beating.
He tried his best to block their attacks, but there was no way two fists could stop thirty-six fists at once.
His flesh tore open, muscles ruptured, and blood sprayed everywhere.
One arm broke, and the cartilage in his knee shattered, leaving him unable to put strength into it.
Even so, Void resisted with everything he had.
As a result, he managed to destroy ten more Sand Soldiers.
But that was his limit.
“Ghk!”
Under the merciless beating, Void finally collapsed while coughing up blood.
The moment Void fell, sand surged over him like a rising tide and swallowed him whole.
When the sand receded like an ebbing tide, Void was nowhere to be seen.
And just like that, the entirety of Shadow Unit Team 2 vanished from the slums.
“What do you mean by that?”
“We’ve lost contact with all of Team 2.”
“All of them?”
At Team 3 Leader’s report, Ho Cheongyeon frowned deeply.
“What about Team 2’s captain?”
“Same situation. All contact has been completely cut off.”
“They had emergency communication devices.”
“Yes. But not a single signal came through.”
“So they were taken down before they even had time to report?”
Ho Cheongyeon’s voice sank low.
He was the commander of the Shadow Unit, the man who had monitored countless dangerous individuals.
Because of that, he had faced many perilous situations himself.
Yet he had survived them all and eventually become the commander of the Shadow Unit.
The thing that had helped him survive more than anything else was his instinct for sensing danger.
His senses, several times sharper than ordinary people’s, were now warning him of imminent danger.
“How many safe houses do we have in the slums?”
“Seven.”
“Shut them all down. We’re withdrawing too.”
“Commander? Then what about Team 2?”
“They’ve all fallen to Zeon.”
“Then I suppose rescue is impossible.”
Team 3 Leader possessed judgment as quick as Void’s.
They were shadows that could never step into the light.
The moment the existence of the Shadow Unit surfaced publicly, their reason for existing would disappear.
Even if they died, they had to die quietly.
Leaving even a single line bearing their names was forbidden in their world.
Ho Cheongyeon bit his lip hard.
Warm blood trickled down from it, but he paid no attention.
“Why did Zeon suddenly attack us?”
“Could it be revenge because he found out what happened with Aslan?”
“How could he possibly know?”
Ho Cheongyeon questioned it at first, then soon shook his head.
Their opponent was a man who defied common sense.
That meant they couldn’t judge him using ordinary logic.
Just as Team 3 Leader had said, the only reason Zeon would suddenly attack the Shadow Unit was because of what happened with Aslan.
“We erased all traces perfectly. How did he find out?”
Even Aslan himself had failed to realize he’d been drugged with a truth serum.
The substance itself disappeared without leaving any traces within a day.
And yet Zeon discovered the truth and retaliated against the Shadow Unit.
It was a response so decisive it sent chills down their spines.
“We underestimated him.”
Until now, Zeon had always shown restraint, so honestly, they thought he would act the same way this time.
But they were wrong.
“He’s telling us that he carries a blade too—and if we provoke him, we should be prepared to get stabbed ourselves.”
“I think we need to change our surveillance methods.”
“Mm.”
Ho Cheongyeon nodded.
There was no reason to stubbornly cling to a method that had already failed.
No good alternatives came to mind immediately, but if enough of them put their heads together, they would surely find a new approach.
Right now, the priority was retreat.
Because they, too, were currently inside the slums.
The only fortunate thing was that this area was Dongdaemun, outside Zeon’s sphere of influence.
No matter how powerful Zeon was, he couldn’t recklessly invade Dongdaemun.
Causing trouble here would give Johann an excuse to act.
A Team 3 member ran in and reported,
“All materials have been destroyed, and preparations for retreat are complete.”
“Then we withdraw.”
Ho Cheongyeon immediately gave the order.
Just as all of Team 3 began escaping through the emergency exit of the safe house—
Whoooom!
A powerful gust of wind suddenly blew in.
A wind mixed with sand.
At once, Ho Cheongyeon’s expression hardened.
“A sandstorm? It’s him.”
Boom!
As if proving his words, a tremendous explosion erupted.
Fortunately, the Shadow Unit members felt no direct impact, perhaps because they had already prepared for an attack from Zeon.
“What was that?”
“What happened……?”
But none of them knew what had occurred.
The thick sandstorm still completely blocked their vision.
Ho Cheongyeon widened his eyes.
“What in the world……?”
At that moment, the sandstorm slowly began to clear.
Once their vision fully returned, the source of the explosion was revealed.
A gigantic rock.
A massive spherical boulder created by compressing sand under extreme pressure sat before them.
Cold sweat trickled down Ho Cheongyeon’s back.
No one needed to tell him this was Zeon’s work.
The real issue was the nature of the boulder itself.
If it were simply a lump of hardened sand, there would’ve been no reason for Zeon to go through the trouble of sending it here.
There had to be a reason he left this stone mass behind.
“Zeon……”
After thinking for a moment, Ho Cheongyeon suddenly threw a punch toward the spherical rock.
Because he had heard human breathing from inside it.
Boom!
The gigantic boulder shattered apart, fragments scattering everywhere.
And what burst out from inside were—
People.
Every member of Team 2, the ones dispatched to directly monitor Zeon, had been sealed inside the spherical rock.
“This can’t be……”
“That crazy bastard! He trapped living people in there?”
Fortunately, all of Team 2 were still alive.
If Ho Cheongyeon had delayed breaking the rock by even a little longer, every one of them would’ve suffocated to death.
Zeon’s merciless method filled all of Team 3 with fear.
“We were completely toyed with.”
If Zeon had simply killed all of Team 2, they would’ve burned with thoughts of revenge instead.
But by sparing them and sending them back alive, Zeon had shown Team 3 a message:
This could happen to you too.
Now that they had tasted fear, it was impossible for them to calmly monitor Zeon like before.
“How unfair. A man who possesses Earth’s one and only unique ability, and his mind is this exceptional too.”
For the first time, Ho Cheongyeon felt the existence of an enormous wall.
A wall named Zeon.