The Novel's Extra - Side Story 35 – Dream in a Dream (35)

Did he have this handgun in his pocket the entire time?

Yoo Yeonha tilted her head in confusion, but didn’t have the luxury to think about it too much. She quickly took his handgun.

Click… Clack!

Yoo Yeonha learned how to shoot a long time ago since Essential Dynamics sold firearms as one of their main businesses.

Kieeeek!

Her hands tightly gripped the handle. She slowly turned towards the monster, but tried her best not to look it in the eye as she aimed.

“Kieeeeeek!”

The monster slammed against the barrier with its tentacles again. Sparks flew all over as the electric barrier formed from millions of volts collided with the tentacles. The monster seemed unaffected by the electricity.

First, it was those moles and now it’s this thing? Do all monsters living underground here have resistance to electricity or something? Yoo Yeonha inwardly grumbled in disbelief.

“Haa…” she sighed and composed herself.

“Gueeeeek!”

Yoo Yeonha waited until the monster swung its arms at the barrier again before pulling the trigger.

Bang!

The bullet zipped through the air and penetrated the monster’s body.

“Kieeeek!”

The monster hideously shrieked after being struck.

Yoo Yeonha realized that the Desert Eagle actually worked and kept pulling the trigger.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The sound of gunshots filled the underground bunker.

She finally stopped after using all the bullets in the handgun.

“Kiie… Kieeek…”

The monster’s red eyes slowly faded and black blood similar to tar flowed from its body. The monster convulsed a few times before going limp and finally died.

“You weren’t anything after all…” Yoo Yeonha muttered while trembling in her chair. She looked at the Desert Eagle in her hand and wondered. How could a handgun pack so much firepower? This Desert Eagle also looks like an older model. Should I just keep it for myself?

“Ughh…” She groaned at the hideous monster’s carcass.

It looked much more horrifying than a ghost. She had grown used to grotesque insect monsters after working as a hero, but felt the urge to vomit when she saw this one.

“Ugh… Uek… Euk…”

Yoo Yeonha turned to Kim Hajin and tried her best to forget about the hideous monster. She only focused on him and suppressed her turning stomach.

“Sigh…” She returned the Desert Eagle to his pocket.

“I survived thanks to you,” she said with a smile and tapped his cheek twice.

Her attention returned to the monitors. The power had been restored to London while the police and heroes scoured the streets investigating.

Yoo Yeonha began thinking after witnessing that.

Did Lancaster send that monster here? Has our location been compromised? But… why would he do something so inefficient if he knew where we were? It would’ve been better to send his main forces to deal with us…

“Hmm…”

Regardless, she concluded that the underground bunker was no longer safe. The alarms in her head began ringing when she sensed a sinister aura lurking somewhere nearby.

Yoo Yeonha immediately stashed the portable monitor and walkie-talkie into her bag and carried Kim Hajin. She chose to evacuate for now.

***

Bam!

A gigantic sword smashed the ground. It smashed into the ground so many times that a part of the Thames River wharf crumbled. Only a crater remained where Chiffelin stood a while ago.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Chae Nayun smashed her gigantic sword a dozen more times. She struck in a very systematic and rhythmical manner as she minced up Chiffelin.

“Huh?” Chae Nayun stopped swinging her sword.

The dust cleared and the djinn stood again.

She raised an eyebrow and muttered in amazement, “What a surprise.”

Chiffelin seemed much tougher than she initially thought.

However, Chae Nayun didn’t give him time to recover. She took the initiative again and minced the bastard into pieces. She didn’t care even if it took hundreds or thousands of strikes.

She planned to simply overpower the enemy with strength without being careless or arrogant. Chae Nayun called this battle style, Beat the living hell out of your enemy with strength.

Her giant mana sword smashed Chiffelin again, but the djinn didn’t dodge and faced it head-on. However, visible cracks began to form on his body after taking Chae Nayun’s onslaught.

Then…

“Stop!”

Chae Nayun looked around and saw that she had been surrounded.

“Are you a djinn?!” one of the heroes asked while aiming a bow at her.

“Huh? No, that bastard I’m beating up is a djinn,” Chae Nayun replied while tilting her head in confusion.

“How insolent! How dare you accuse Sir Chiffelin!”

“Ah…” Chae Nayun realized that this was how things went in this world. She found herself in a dilemma after being surrounded.

She wouldn’t lose against the hundreds of heroes surrounding her. In fact, she felt confident that she would definitely win. However, killing other heroes didn’t sit well with her.

She briefly pondered before suddenly grabbing the closest people to her, Chiffelin and Marcus.

“Ack!” Marcus exclaimed in surprise after being yanked.

“I’ll kill these two if you come any closer!” Chae Nayun threatened everyone.

“H-Hey! Let them go!”

The heroes tensed up and readied their weapons. One of them shot a mana arrow at Chae Nayun, but she easily blocked it.

“Are you crazy?! I’ll cut their heads off if you try that again!” she angrily shouted.

“Enough! Everyone, stop! Sir Chiffelin’s safety is our utmost priority right now!” the hero who seemed to be their leader exclaimed.

Chae Nayun slowly retreated with her two hostages. She glanced at her smartwatch and noticed that twenty minutes had passed. She figured that Rachel would’ve already safely met the others coming from underground.

“Take this!” Chae Nayun smacked Chiffelin’s back.

Baaam!

The djinn, no, Sir Chiffelin flew and crashed into the heroes. A cloud of dust kicked up and the sudden turn of events caused disarray among the heroes.

Chae Nayun took this opportunity to grab Marcus and jump into the water.

“Bastard!”

The heroes rushed over, but they couldn’t catch up to Chae Nayun swimming away as fast as she could while using mana.

***

Rachel slowly opened her eyes.

Pat!

A water droplet fell from the ceiling and a gentle breeze whispered in her ears.

Was this still underground or in the afterlife?

She looked around in a daze when something shone near her collarbone. It came from the necklace Kim Hajin gifted her.

The necklace shone in four different colors. This light symbolized all four major elements working in harmony.

“Ah!”

Only after seeing the necklace did Rachel finally stand up.

She checked the well-being of her guild members first: Fermin, Dale, Karen, Spleen, and Sliven. Sehat, Tilma, and Maurice from Reislaufer also came. Thankfully, none of their lives seemed to be in danger.

“Hmm?”

The guild members brought numerous sacks that caught her eye. She opened one and found all sorts of potions and medicine.

“Wow…” Rachel muttered in amazement.

Who knew they would come so prepared? She opened the potions and fed them to her comrades.

Around thirty minutes passed before Fermin finally woke up.

“Eh?!” she exclaimed while looking around.

Rachel bitterly smiled and asked, “Are you alright?”

“Y-Yes, Vice Leader! Huh? Vice Leader!” Fermin cried out and jumped into Rachel’s embrace.

The others woke up one by one thanks to the commotion. Most of them had the same look on their faces before rushing over to Rachel like Fermin.

“Wait, hold on a minute. Calm down, everyone.”

Rachel placed a finger between her lips and motioned for them to be quiet. She felt happy to reunite with them too, but they didn’t have the luxury to rejoice right now.

“Things aren’t looking good,” she said. Rachel went straight to the point since they didn’t have time to sit around and chat. “Listen up, everyone. The owner of this place is Lancaster.”

“Huh?!”

“What?!”

“Lancaster?!”

“Yes, Lancaster is here,” Rachel replied and explained his plans to them.

At first, they seemed to be at a loss while listening to her. However, their faces slowly distorted into anger and confusion towards the end.

“Is something like that even possible?” Fermin asked.

Switching this recreated England with the real England sounded absurd.

“We can’t let it happen at all costs. Replacing what’s real with a fake… We can’t let such a thing happen. That’s why we have to stop him at all costs,” Rachel told them.

“…”

Sehat rubbed his chin and muttered, “It’s crazy that he even thought of something like that.”

Rachel nodded and looked west as the breeze from that direction seemed to call her. She turned to her guild members. “I’m sorry, but we don’t have time to rest. Also, Lancaster is over there. Will all of you be okay?”

They nodded without a hint of hesitation as if saying, We wouldn’t have come in the first place if we weren’t ready. Rachel truly felt grateful to have them.

“We’ll help too.”

“What?”

On the other hand, she felt slightly burdened by Reislaufer’s assistance. This was England’s business. Rachel and her guild members were prepared to put their lives on the line to stop this madness, but dragging a third party into their problems didn’t sit well with her.

Sehat smiled and said, “We might be members of Reislaufer, but we’re all heroes before that. A hero shouldn’t turn a blind eye to saving people, upholding the peace, and stopping evil.”

“…”

Rachel looked at the other two members, Tilma and Maurice. It seemed that both of them had already made their choices as well.

She hesitated for a second before finally nodding.

“I’ll definitely reward you for your help.”

The word Reislaufer basically meant Swiss mercenary. Rachel made a joke by referencing it.

Sehat and Tilma laughed in response.

“Yes, we’ll make sure to charge you heftily for this.”

“Alright, that sounds good. Let’s work together to stop this madness.”

Rachel’s forces multiplied by three times as she made her way west towards the Hampton Palace.

***

Meanwhile, Yoo Yeonha walked along in the sewers while checking the monitor and spirit mirror. She headed towards none other than the Hampton Palace.

“Ah… Stop tossing and turning will you?” she grumbled when Kim Hajin suddenly moved and almost fell off her back. She immediately held and repositioned him.

“Sigh…”

Yoo Yeonha decided to check the location of the others.

Both Chae Nayun and Rachel were underground as well. Rachel headed west from the Thames River towards the Hampton Palace and Chae Nayun seemed to be right behind her. This meant that all three of them were heading to the same place right now.

“Then that means…”

Yoo Yeonha deeply pondered when Kim Hajin’s arm suddenly slid down and touched her somewhere very intimate.

“Ack! Where the hell do you think you’re touching?!” Yoo Yeonha exclaimed and jumped in surprise with her face flushed red.

Splash!

Kim Hajin fell into the sewage.

“Hey! You’re awake, aren’t you? Answer me!” Yoo Yeonha shouted while covering her body with her arms.

“Sigh…”

However, she didn’t receive any response from him and picked up the walkie-talkie instead.

“Can anyone hear me right now?”

— Me.

Chae Nayun quickly responded.

Yoo Yeonha looked around before asking, “What about Rachel?”

— No idea. I’m with that Circus guy right now.

“Circus?”

— It’s Marcus! Who the hell is Circus?!

— Oh, right. Marcus.

“Ah… I see…”

It seemed that Marcus, who was either a traitor or an ally, had met with Chae Nayun.

Yoo Yeonha looked at the portable monitor and confirmed Chae Nayun’s GPS location.

“You’ll find Rachel if you keep going straight from where you are. Try to meet up with her first and provide me with an update on what’s going on.”

— What about Kim Hajin? No, what about you?

Yoo Yeonha grimaced. Who did this girl really worry about?

“He’s safe, for now.”

— For now? What do you mean? Hey, did you abandon him by any chance?

“No, a hideous monster infiltrated the underground bunker. I suspect that the location has been compromised, so I decided to head towards you.”

Shwaa…

A chilling breeze blew.

Yoo Yeonha flinched and turned around.

Shwaa…

The dark sewers looked like a monster opening its jaws to devour her.

— Alright, so we’re meeting at the Hampton Palace then?

“Yeah… I think that’s what’s going to happen. Anyways, I’ll switch my walkie-talkie off for now.”

— Alright.

Yoo Yeonha had no idea when another monster would pop out.

Ah… Damn it… the moles were a thousand times better than that hideous thing…

Yoo Yeonha picked up Kim Hajin and began walking again. A brilliant idea suddenly flashed in her head.

“That’s it!”

She found a long wooden plank lying in front of her and tossed it into the sewage. Then, she infused her mana underneath the wooden plank to create an electric current.

Bzzzt… Bzzzt!

The current stabilized the wooden plank on top of the water. Yoo Yeonha sent a powerful burst of mana into it that made the wooden plank spring forward like a speedboat. This would be a hundred times better than walking.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

She rapidly sped through the sewers, but soon found herself in a completely different environment.

“What the hell?”

Her surroundings had changed in an instant. The sewage dried out and a huge door stood in front of her.

“This is?”

Yoo Yeonha got off the wooden plank and looked at the door with various extravagant engravings.

Should she try opening it or just wait here?

“Grrr…”

However, it seemed that she had no other choice as a sinister aura approached from a distance.

Something lurked in the darkness and her hero senses continually alarmed her of the looming danger. She could smell the same repulsive scent from the hideous monster in the underground bunker.

Yoo Yeonha opened the door with no other choice.

Creak…

The huge door eerily creaked open.

She surrounded herself with mana just in case, but hadn’t expected what lay beyond the door.