I sat with Gaeul in the break room assigned to us at the research facility.

Watching the unusually serious-looking researchers, I carefully chatted with Gaeul.

“Gaeul.”

“Nyeng.”

“Could you bring any adult who can fight from home?”

At my question, Evelyn flinched.

Had I said something wrong?

Though I tried to remember, nothing stood out.

This felt awkward.

As I glanced at Evelyn, Gaeul flashed a bright smile.

“Aratto!”

“Ah, yes.”

Not ‘nyeng’ or ‘heuk’ but ‘aratto.’

Gaeul had learned a new response[1].

As I felt happy about Gaeul’s growth, she pulled out a cloth from her chest.

“Shuin gaerik.”

“Hm?”

Gaeul moved to a corner of the break room and raised the cloth above her head.

It was a large cloth that covered her entire body.

Was she going to demonstrate spatial movement magic before leaving?

But there was nowhere to hide in the corner.

Just as I approached Gaeul to help position her:

“Yak!”

Gaeul shouted and threw the cloth to the floor.

Behind the quickly falling cloth, Gaeul was nowhere to be found.

“Huh…?”

Gaeul had really teleported.

What’s this, was our Gaeul actually a genius?

I wasn’t the only one surprised – the researchers resting in the break room chairs jumped up.

“She vanished?”

“How…?”

The researchers and even the soldiers.

Everyone examined where Gaeul had been.

The researchers swept the area with buzzing machines and even tapped the ground with their hands.

Finding no trace of the teleportation, their expressions grew serious.

‘How fascinating.’

Could no one find any trace of our Gaeul?

As we all stared at where Gaeul had disappeared, I sensed two familiar presences behind us.

“Shuin!”

At the back of the break room where no one was paying attention.

There stood Gaeul, waving her hand.

Beside her was Han Yeoreum, completely covered by a blanket.

“Gaeul, why did you cover sister with a blanket…”

Han Yeoreum removed the blanket and started speaking but stopped abruptly.

She looked around with bewildered eyes.

It seemed Gaeul had covered Han Yeoreum’s head with the blanket and brought her to this world.

“Gaeul, can you travel to any dimension?”

“Annya.”

“No?”

“Nyeng. Shuin.”

Gaeul pointed at me with her finger.

She seemed to want to convey something.

“Um… can you only go to worlds connected to me?”

“Heuk…!”

I see.

So she wasn’t completely all-powerful after all.

In the brief moment we were learning about Gaeul’s abilities, Han Yeoreum cut the death worm’s long body in half.

“Wow.”

Cutting it in two with a single strike.

Last time we went hunting death worms together, had she been taking it easy?

Looking at the dead death worm, I asked Evelyn:

“Has the portal activated?”

“No, it’s still inactive.”

“Oh…”

I thought the portal would activate once we killed the monster.

Maybe monster hunting wasn’t the goal.

Then what could be the problem?

I crossed my arms, deep in thought.

‘They said portals open from someone’s desperate wish…’

There must be some reason why this portal, which had only spat out monsters for years, suddenly spat out me, a person.

Could someone in this lab have such a desperate wish?

I decided to examine the people around me one by one.

“Evelyn.”

“Y-yes…?”

Evelyn stammered.

She had a strangely frightened look in her eyes.

“Do you have anything you desperately want?”

“Want?”

“Yes. Something you really, desperately want.”

At my question, Evelyn took a moment to think.

Hmm, stroking her chin, she glanced between me and Han Yeoreum, who was extracting the death worm’s mana stone.

“Right now… I most want to understand your strength.”

“Our strength?”

“Yes. I want to know how you’re so strong.”

“Hmm…”

Was she frustrated about not being able to kill monsters?

I decided to explain about mana to Evelyn.

“It’s probably because of mana.”

“Mana?”

“Yes. Mana is like a barrier. Attacks without mana have a very hard time penetrating mana.”

“…So it’s not that monsters have high hardness, but that this ‘mana’ protects them?”

“Yes, that’s right. Though having mana doesn’t make you invincible.”

At my answer, Evelyn’s expression showed understanding.

She looked much relieved.

“So you need mana to break through mana’s protection?”

“Yes. Mana can break through mana. Without it… breaking through is extremely difficult.”

“Ah…”

I approached closer to the nodding Evelyn.

I wanted to show her an example.

“Actually, I’m very weak physically. I’m probably the weakest person here.”

“R-really?”

“Yes. Want to see?”

I hugged Evelyn tightly.

Using mana to lift her body, my arms and legs trembled.

Evelyn flinched before putting her hand on my head.

The patting felt nice, but she was too heavy to properly enjoy it.

“Whoa…”

My body swayed back and forth.

She was too heavy to lift, so I quickly put her down.

“…You’re right. You’re not very strong physically.”

“Yes. My mana enhances my speed and reflexes.”

“Ah… so different mana does different things?”

“Yes. It’s each person’s individual trait.”

Though I was physically weaker than others, I liked my current traits.

Looking down at my palms, I looked back up at Evelyn.

“Would you like to try attacking me now?”

“A-attack?”

“Yes. Try punching me.”

“Hmm…”

After hesitating, she raised her fist and lightly bonked my head.

It was so weak the mana barrier didn’t even activate.

“Hit harder.”

“Umm… even knowing about mana protection, it’s not easy to hit…”

“It’s okay. It won’t hurt at all.”

“Well then…”

Having learned about mana, she raised her fist without hesitation.

Then she struck my head like giving a knuckle tap.

Bam-!

“Nyaak!”

Pain shot through with a loud sound.

My body staggered and fell backward.

‘Huh.’

Why did that hurt?

As I fell, I could see:

“Aaaang!”

Gaeul letting out a loud alarm, and Han Yeoreum running over at the sound.

“Uu, uuu…”

My head hurt so much.

I sat down and kept rubbing my head.

Evelyn fidgeted anxiously in front of me.

“I-I’m so sorry…”

“No, I told you to hit me…”

While rubbing my aching head, I could see.

The tiny amount of mana in Evelyn’s hand.

I see.

So they weren’t completely unable to use it.

Though very weak, it seemed people in this world could unconsciously handle mana too.

Just not enough mana to harm monsters.

“Though weak, people here can use mana too.”

“Really?”

“Yes. That’s probably why the attack worked on Gyeoul.”

At Han Yeoreum’s explanation, Evelyn tapped her tablet.

She modified information at an angle the otherworlders couldn’t see.

[MS132-Han Gyeoul]

[Seems possible to subdue if necessary]

[However, may call in more associates]

[Associates appear very protective of MS132-Han Gyeoul]

[In emergency, use child as hostage…]

Through everything so far, she knew Gyeoul was a good child.

However, planning for worst-case scenarios was Evelyn’s job.

Evelyn tapped her tablet screen, probing carefully.

“I was so surprised when Gyeoul got hurt.”

“Hehe, our Gyeoul is still young so her physical durability is low.”

“Ah…”

That’s a relief.

So physically weak then.

If they needed to take the child hostage in an emergency, there might be room for negotiation.

Just as Evelyn looked down at her tablet:

“But Gyeoul’s low durability doesn’t matter.”

“Why not?”

“Because nothing can actually hit Gyeoul. Even I probably couldn’t catch her if she was serious.”

“What do you mean…”

Evelyn had watched Han Yeoreum fight the death worm.

She had swung her sword faster than the speed of sound.

Someone with such incredible speed that needed slow motion to be seen couldn’t catch that child?

It made no sense by Evelyn’s logic.

“Want to see?”

Han Yeoreum tapped Gyeoul’s shoulder.

The moment Gyeoul, who had been rubbing her forehead with a pained expression, turned to Han Yeoreum.

Without warning, Han Yeoreum threw a punch at Gyeoul.

Bang-!

With the impact sound, Evelyn’s hair nearby flew backward.

Such destructive power from just a punch.

Evelyn quickly checked Gyeoul’s condition, but Gyeoul had simply tilted her head slightly to easily dodge Han Yeoreum’s attack.

She had dodged an attack as fast as a bullet.

“Um… did I do something wrong…?”

“No, sister just wanted to show off Gyeoul.”

“Show off?”

“Yes. Our Gyeoul has amazing reaction speed. I wanted to show people. Sorry.”

“Ah… I was shocked thinking you were angry.”

“As if.”

Han Yeoreum patted the relieved Gyeoul’s head.

Then carefully spoke:

“Gyeoul, want to try ghost form?”

“Ghost form?”

As Gyeoul tilted her head curiously, her body began floating.

Han Yeoreum put her hand through Gyeoul’s body.

Whoosh-

Gyeoul’s ghostly body phased through everything.

Seeing this, Evelyn inwardly gasped.

‘Oh no.’

So this is what they meant by uncatchable.

Amazing reaction speed plus an untouchable technique.

What if she started pouring out otherworldly beings in that state?

‘This is disaster.’

She’d heard there were at least dozens of people around Gyeoul at Han Yeoreum’s level.

And plenty who were even stronger.

If Gyeoul ever became malicious…

Evelyn involuntarily squeezed her eyes shut.

A perfect Grade I with no countermeasures.

—

[1. raei: I swear Gaeul used to talk normally. Though it was sometimes slurred or mispronounced. Is my memory that bad? I thought the sound responses were a new thing introduced. Maybe I only just noticed.]

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep