## Chapter 678 – 678. Vanguard – Alien Invasion
678. Vanguard – Alien Invasion
“Alright, Cloud! Let’s see whose life gets more screwed up!”
It was when I shouted that with bravado. Corn stalks taller than me swayed.
My head and hers turned towards the cornfield at the same time. There was no wind at all right now. Something moving was in the cornfield.
“Come here!”
Cloud shouted urgently. I chuckled.
“Do you think I don’t know your intentions? You’re pretending to be urgent so that when I get close, you’ll snatch my smartphone and beat me up. I won’t fall for such a pathetic trick.”
“That’s not it! I have a bad feeling! The situation is dangerous! Come to my side now!”
Cloud gestured towards me. Her expression was so real that I almost fell for it.
“I’m not falling for it.”
“You’re so frustrating! Fine! I’ll go, so stay put!”
The moment she moved towards me, something black rushed out of the cornfield towards her. Even I had difficulty reacting.
“Kyaaaaak!”
Cloud screamed and threw punches and kicks at the black thing.
‘A dog? A lizard?’
I narrowed my eyes at the thing attacking Cloud. Its whole body was covered in carapace, but its head was similar to a ferocious dog, and its tail was long like a lizard.
“Get lost!”
*Thwack!*
A shockwave occurred, sending the black dog flying far away. The black dog, which had fallen into the cornfield, moved quickly and disappeared. The cornfield was so large that it seemed impossible to chase it.
I cautiously approached Cloud, who was sitting on the ground.
“Are you okay?”
“Does this look okay to you?!”
I asked out of concern, but all I got was hysteria. I understand. It would be strange if she wasn’t annoyed after being suddenly attacked. Moreover, she had been bitten and trampled by the black dog, so her cloak was in tatters, and her skintight suit was torn, revealing some of her white skin.
Blood flowed from her wounded skin. If it could wound her, the black dog must be something special. Though it was only a scratch at best.
“…It’s a relief that you seem relatively fine. But that skintight suit is always getting torn. Why do you keep wearing it when it’s so flimsy?”
“This may look like this, but it’s a suit made of advanced materials! And don’t call it a skintight suit.”
I reached out my hand. But she didn’t even glance at my hand and got up on her own.
“That black dog is dangerous. It was enough to hurt me. If an ordinary person is attacked, they’ll die without being able to do anything. We have to get rid of it here.”
“I agree, but it hid in the cornfield. It’s difficult unless we find it or lure it out. It would be better to request support from headquarters.”
“No. That monster is a monster that can wound me. Even special forces will be taken down in an instant. If we want to catch it without casualties, we have to do it.”
“We? Did you say something wrong?”
“You’re not an ordinary human. I know that your physical abilities already surpass humans, don’t I?”
“I’m an ordinary human compared to you.”
She and I headed towards the building.
Our mission, or rather, my mission, was to destroy the planetary coordinate transmitter located somewhere on this farm. That transmitter gathers energy in the atmosphere and transmits the planetary coordinates of the Brakhtasia planet. And when it receives a signal from the Brakhtasia planet, it turns into a warp gate and connects to the Brakhtasia planet.
We opened the door of the farmer’s house and were faced with a horrific scene.
Four bodies, torn to pieces, were scattered everywhere. Already hardened blood and maggots wriggled in the decaying entrails. Arms, legs, and heads were all smashed in various places. The faces were relatively intact, so we could tell they were a family of four.
“Ugh.”
Cloud retched. It seems that even though she plays the role of a hero, she hasn’t experienced many such horrific scenes.
“If you’re going to throw up, do it outside.”
“I won’t. Why are you so calm?”
“I’m not surprised by something like this.”
“……”
She looked at me with strange eyes. There was no hostility. Rather, she was looking at me with pity. It was clear that the still immature hero was misunderstanding something. It was too bothersome to clear up the misunderstanding, so I left it alone.
She and I rummaged through the building.
“Ugh, what are these?”
Cloud forcibly pried open a steel safe hidden in the corner of the house and took out the contents. Dried-up lizards, a black book with a red magic circle drawn on it, goat horns, and so on. The safe was full of bizarre objects instead of money.
“This is a demon summoning book… the others are probably something related to magic.”
“…Demon summoning? Are you crazy?”
She said with a serious expression. Demons existed in this world. There were also psychics and aliens, so there was no reason why there wouldn’t be demons.
“It seems that the family in this house were demon worshippers. It’s not unusual. There are all sorts of crazy people in this world.”
“And it’s your job to find and deal with those crazy people?”
“Something like that. I find and eliminate things that could be dangerous to the country. Ople is a secret organization that exists for that reason. It doesn’t seem like there’s a planetary coordinate transmitter in the house, so let’s go to the next building.”
The next building was a warehouse. A warehouse containing trucks and farming equipment. And we found the planetary coordinate transmitter on a table in the warehouse.
It looked like a small steel castle about 1 meter in size. Small red lights flickered slowly all over the castle.
“Is this it?”
“Yes. It matches the form that the higher-ups told us about. If we smash this, the mission is complete.”
“We have to kill the black dog.”
“Yes, yes. I know. Let’s smash this first.”
“Why is this here? They seemed like people, not aliens…”
“Even if they are aliens, there are aliens who cooperate with us, and even if they are Earthlings, there are Earthlings who want to destroy Earth. They either hated this world, or they received it as a gift from aliens.”
“……Move aside.”
I stepped aside. She clenched her fist and swung it powerfully towards the planetary coordinate transmitter.
*Flash!*
A transparent energy barrier protected the transmitter. Her fist couldn’t smash the transmitter.
“This is too hard!”
“The energy isn’t infinite. If you keep attacking, it will break.”
*Thwack! Thud!*
Her small fist pounded the energy barrier. *Crack*. A part of the barrier cracked. It was on her third punch.
‘You brute.’
Actually, headquarters had told me how to smash that thing. Pour water on it and send electricity through it to break it.
“……!”
I felt killing intent.
A chill ran down my spine, and the hairs on my whole body stood on end.
Cloud also felt it, as she stopped her actions and looked around.
‘Not all around. It’s above…!’
*Crack!*
The black dog broke through the ceiling and fell on Cloud. As if it was trying to protect the planetary coordinate transmitter.
‘The black dog was indeed a guardian from space.’
I created some distance and took out my gun. Even though I knew it wouldn’t be of much help, I shot at the black dog that was biting Cloud’s arm. The bullets bounced off the black dog’s skin without penetrating it.
“You’re just the one I wanted to see! It’ll be different from before!”
Cloud grabbed the black dog’s leg and slammed it down. Her technique was clumsy, but her physical abilities were outstanding.
“Krrraaa!”
The black dog screamed. But it didn’t fall and rushed at Cloud again. Cloud, also provoked, didn’t use her abilities and fought back with her physical abilities.
It was a great dogfight.
“Cloud! Cheer up! Fighting!”
“Shut up!”
Cloud, covered in scratches, shouted irritably. Did she know? That her skintight suit was torn by the black dog’s claws, revealing her left breast and butt crack.
‘She probably doesn’t know. She’s too focused on the fight.’
It was a good sight. If possible, I wished the black dog would completely tear apart Cloud’s skintight suit.
“You’re too dangerous!”
Cloud grabbed the black dog, spun around, and threw it. Her target was the planetary coordinate transmitter. It seemed she was planning to deal with the black dog and the transmitter at once.
*KABOOM!*
The barrier shattered, and the planetary coordinate transmitter was crushed.
*Thump thump thump.*
The air suddenly became heavy. I barely managed to stop myself from falling. On the other hand, Cloud fell to the ground and couldn’t move.
*Wee! Wee! Wee!*
The planetary coordinate transmitter flashed with a bright light. Something was wrong.
The space in front of the transmitter distorted, and a new space appeared, but it was shaking unstably. I had a strong feeling that if I left it like this, it would explode.
‘Hacking.’
[Hacking successful.]
[The planetary coordinate transmitter can be hacked for 4 seconds.]
‘Stop the warp gate immediately.’
The planetary coordinate transmitter faithfully followed my command. The space that had been distorted as if it would explode gradually shrank and began to stabilize.
And 4 seconds passed. The effect of the hacking skill ended. The distortion of space didn’t completely disappear, but I thought this was enough.
It was arrogance.
The distortion of space suddenly exploded and swallowed me and Cloud.
‘……Was I mistaken?’
I was fine. Cloud also got up from the ground. I wasn’t hurt, and Cloud’s skintight suit was torn here and there. As soon as she got up, she covered her chest and crotch with both hands and screamed.
“Don’t look over here! Turn your eyes away! And give me clothes!”
“Oh, for crying out loud….”
I sighed and took off my jacket and gave it to her. Then I paused as I looked at the black dog’s corpse and the planetary coordinate transmitter.
I felt something was off.
First of all, the black dog was definitely dead. Its head was caved in, and it wasn’t breathing.
The strange thing was the planetary coordinate transmitter. The red light that had been flickering slowly was still shining. And the feeling was different. It felt like the world itself that was surrounding me had changed.
“Cloud. Don’t you think something’s strange?”
She, who was wearing the jacket, narrowed her brows at my words and then was startled.
“……It’s strange. Something’s strange. I can’t feel the wind that I’ve been feeling since earlier.”
And the surroundings felt stuffy. We were outside, but it felt like we were trapped in a prison.
I raised my fist and hit the planetary coordinate transmitter hard. Since the energy barrier wasn’t activated, I could smash it with my strength. But the transmitter only slid back slightly, and it didn’t break or even get a scratch. Only my hand hurt.
“What are you doing? Can’t you even break that?”
“……Try it yourself.”
“Haa.”
She sighed and swung her fist.
The transmitter didn’t break and slid back, falling to the ground. There was no change in the transmitter that had fallen to the ground.
“……It’s strange. What is this?”
I looked around and tried to go outside. It was hard to bear the stuffiness. I pushed the door. It was stiff.
‘It wasn’t this stiff before….’
When I applied more force, the door opened. I doubted my eyes when I went outside. It was because the cornfield was stopped. The corn leaves had stopped swaying in the wind, and the clouds in the sky weren’t moving at all.
‘Time has stopped…?’
That was the only conclusion I could come to.
“My abilities aren’t working! You! Did you do something again this time?!”
Cloud approached from behind, angry.
“Your abilities aren’t working?”
“Yes! Tell me honestly! What the hell did you do?!”
“I didn’t do anything. More importantly, look outside. It seems like time has stopped.”
“Another joke…”
She looked at my face and realized that I wasn’t joking, and then she ran outside. She looked at the stopped cornfield and then looked up at the sky.
“Oh my god….”
I opened my smartphone. The smartphone worked. However, there was no connection for calls, and the time was also stopped and didn’t move. It seemed certain that time had stopped.
‘The only cause I can think of is… the planetary coordinate transmitter. Damn it. Don’t tell me I have to live forever in a world where time has stopped? Is this quest screwed?’
I sighed. It felt like my random skill ticket was flying away.
‘Should I go to the Vampire Detective world and find out about this phenomenon?’
As I was thinking of a solution, I saw Cloud standing there in despair.
‘……Maybe this is a good opportunity.’
I licked my lips with my tongue.
