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Table of Contents
Chapter 201

Chapter 202

Chapter 203

Chapter 204

Chapter 205

Chapter 206

Chapter 207

Chapter 208

Chapter 209

Chapter 210

Chapter 211

Chapter 212

Chapter 213

Chapter 214

Chapter 215

Chapter 216

Chapter 217

Chapter 218

Chapter 219

Chapter 220

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Chapter 221

Chapter 222

Chapter 223

Chapter 224

Chapter 225

Chapter 226

Chapter 227

Chapter 228

Chapter 229

Chapter 230

Chapter 231

Chapter 232

Chapter 233

Chapter 234

Chapter 235

Chapter 236

Chapter 237

Chapter 238

Chapter 239

Chapter 240

Chapter 241

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Chapter 242

Chapter 243

Chapter 244: Side Story 1 - I am an employee of the Hunter’s

Association.

Chapter 245: Side Story 2 - Reunion (1)

Chapter 246: Side Story 3 - Reunion (2)

Chapter 247: Side Story 4 - Return

Chapter 248: Side Story 5 - Igrit’s memories

Chapter 249: Side Story 6 - Your daily routine (1)

Chapter 250: Side Story 7 - Your daily routine (2)

Chapter 251: Side Story 8 - Your daily routine (3)

Chapter 252: Side Story 9 - Your daily routine (4)

Chapter 253: Side Story 10 - Your daily routine (5)

Chapter 254: Side Story 11 - Your daily routine (6)

Chapter 255: Side Story 12 - Decision

Chapter 256: Side Story 13 - A day in Fangs’ life

Chapter 257: Side Story 14 - Only I’m Max Level

Chapter 258: Side Story 15 - I’m going there to meet you right now
(1)

Chapter 259: Side Story 16 - I’m going there to meet you right now
(2)

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Chapter 260: Side Story 17 - I’m going there to meet you right now
(3)

Chapter 261: Side Story 18

Chapter 262: Side Story 19 - Twelve years later (1)

Chapter 263: Side Story 20 - Twelve years later (2)

Chapter 264: Side Story 21 - Twelve years later (Fin)

Chapter 265: Recollections/After Stories Part 1 - Beru’s memories

Chapter 266: Recollections/After Stories Part 2 - Until we meet again

Chapter 267: Recollections/After Stories Part 3 -Approach

Chapter 268: Recollections/After Stories Part 4 -Forward! Forward!

Chapter 269 Recollections/After Stories Part 5 - Conclusion

Chapter 270: Recollections/After Stories Part 6 - Goodbye

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Chapter 201

Jin-Woo had a bit of history with the monsters called Ice Elves.

Didn’t he encounter these creatures when he stumbled into a Red

Gate for the first time in his life? How rueful did he feel back then,
after seeing the boss mob ‘Baruka’ slipping out of his hands while
leaving only a dagger behind?

Just remembering that event brought back all the bad emotions he
felt then after failing to extract that monster’s shadow.

‘And here I was, having just barely forgotten about it….’

Naturally, his strength while gripping this creature’s wrist and neck
increased.

Wuduk!

[Keok!]

In any case, why was a high-ranking monster that should have been
confined to a dungeon roaming freely around here?

Jin-Woo got here by switching his position with his Shadow Soldier.
Next up, he used ‘Ruler’s Authority’ to keep his balance and float in
the air about 7 or 8 stories high. While gripping the monster tightly,
he asked this mysterious Ice Elf a question.

“What the hell are you?”

Seeing those pointy ears, or the long whitish hair, or even its pair of
silvery eyes, this thing seemed to be a White Phantom alright, but
then again, he could also sense the trace of an unfathomably lengthy
passage of time from this creature, too.

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Not only that….

[Kuwuaaahk!]

The monster gritted its teeth and shook off Jin-Woo’s hands.

‘….!!’

What an incredible physical strength!

Even before he had the chance to get surprised from the monster
slipping out of his grasp, Jin-Woo picked up on this chilling aura
coagulating around the creature’s mouth.

Inexplicably, the image of Demon King Baran shooting lightning out

of its mouth overlapped with this b*stard. By sheer instinct, Jin-Woo
tilted his torso away.

Kawahh-!!

The bitterly cold air shot out from the monster’s mouth, sped past
Jin-Woo’s original position, and poured out into the air behind him.

After confirming the scary amount of magical energy being poured

out by the monster with his two eyes, Jin-Woo quickly retreated an
adequate-enough distance away.

‘…..’

He lightly dusted the particles of ice clinging onto his shoulder and
stared intently at the Ice Elf – no, the Sovereign of Frost.

That thing was no ordinary monster. His ultra-sharp senses were

warning him that this thing was much stronger than any monster he
had faced off against so far.

Jin-Woo wasn’t the only one getting surprised, though.

[But, how can you….??]

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The Sovereign hurriedly looked at Jin-Woo’s shadow and, after
confirming the number of soldiers hiding in there, couldn’t hide the
fact that it was feeling deeply surprised right now.

[You have managed to amass that many soldiers, so why haven’t you
contacted us already?]

When Jin-Woo made no effort to reply, the Sovereign began looking

into his eyes. And then, a pained gasp leaked out from the creature’s
mouth.

[So, that’s how it was…. You’re the variable he talked about, aren’t
you?]

What was this fool talking about?

Jin-Woo was getting rather curious about the meaning behind this
monster’s constant babbling, but too bad, he didn’t have enough
leeway to hold a cordial Q&A session with this creature.

Just one moment of carelessness and the enemy’s blade would reach
him. And that blade wasn’t dull enough for him to ignore it and hope
for the best. As a matter of fact, his shoulder that got frozen for a
moment just a few seconds ago was still aching even now.

Jin-Woo took a glance at the hurting shoulder and quietly summoned

the ‘Demon King’s Shortswords’ from his Inventory.

Weapons silently appeared in his hands.

‘Is it a Mage-type creature?’

Judging from how it barely managed to get out of his grasp, its
physical strength or defences didn’t seem to be as high as its magical
energy reserve suggested.

Which was a relief, actually.

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He knew from his vast experiences in fighting many different types of
monsters up until now that the Mage-type enemies were the easiest
to deal with since they could be killed in an instant.

Just one hit would be enough to determine the winner.

If they both possessed a similar level of magical energy reserves,

then the one needing to dodge the magic attacks would hold an
advantage.

His opponent must’ve known that too because it didn’t immediately

try to go on the offensive, even though it had clearly sensed Jin-
Woo’s hostility.

The Sovereign of Frost deliberated on its options very seriously – but,

only for a brief time – before deciding on what it would do next.

[….We shall stop here. I didn’t come here today to hold a life-or-
death struggle with you.]

“What was that??”

Jin-Woo frowned deeply. He had no desire to let this guy leave, so

just who decided when they would stop fighting?

Besides, this creature wielded a massive amount of magic energy.

Jin-Woo couldn’t even begin to imagine just how many experience
points he’d earn if he successfully killed this monster. His level might
even jump up by another ten, just like back when he killed the King
of Giants.

‘….Hang on.’

When his thoughts arrived there, Jin-Woo finally deduced the

identity of the monster.

‘Could that thing be….??’

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Meanwhile, the Sovereign pointed towards the broken wall of the
Hunter’s Association building.

[Did you not come here to save that human?]

Technically speaking, he came here because the ant soldier he left

behind in the Association President’s shadow sent him an urgent
alert, that was all.

Jin-Woo’s gaze shifted towards the location the Sovereign’s

outstretched finger was pointing at. And he found Goh Gun-Hui lying
on the floor there.

‘….!!’

The unconscious Association President was covered in blood from

head to toe, and even at a casual glance, he could tell that the man’s
life was hanging precariously on the edge.

It was then.

[Now, choose.]

A large, incredibly sharp ice lance suddenly formed on the left hand
of the Sovereign.

[Choose between fighting me or saving that human.]

The moment the creature’s words came to an end, the lance flew
towards Goh Gun-Hui.

Jin-Woo’s eyes widened. He pushed his concentration to the

absolute max, causing the flow of time to slow down greatly. He
watched the lance fly agonisingly slowly, but accurately, towards the
unmoving Association President.

‘Ruler’s Authority!’

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He tried to use his invisible hand to stop the ice lance, but the
magical energy of the one who threw it easily thwarted his attempts.
Enraged, Jin-Woo shifted his glare at the Sovereign of Frost.

The b*stard was waiting. For Jin-Woo’s answer, that was.

He bit his lower lip before dashing towards the spot where the
Association President Goh Gun-Hui had collapsed on.

Wuuwung-!!

The air where Jin-Woo used to be wavered and tumbled about from
the explosive power. Just before the lance landed, he arrived by Goh
Gun-Hui’s side first with almost no time to spare and dragged the
unmoving man away from the weapon’s trajectory.

Kwajeeck!!

The lance stabbed straight through the floor and the bitter coldness
rapidly flooded out to freeze up the surroundings in an instant.

Kwa-du-duk, kwa-duk!!

In the blink of an eye, the entire floor of the President’s office froze
up solid from the extremely low temperature.

‘D*mn it!’

Jin-Woo picked Goh Gun-Hui up and lightly jumped up in the air to

avoid the freeze, and once this incredible biting coldness stopped
spreading around, he settled back down on the floor.

Further enraged by this cheap tactic, Jin-Woo raised his head to look,
but the b*stard was already jumping into a small Gate to escape
from this battle.

In a rush, he quickly summoned ‘Baruka’s Dagger’ from the Inventory

and threw it.

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‘Dagger Rush!’

Swishhhh-!

The dagger flew in a dead-straight line and accurately stabbed into

the Sovereign’s shoulder.

[Kuwahk!!]

The Sovereign of Frost glared at the dagger in its shoulder, then

glared at the one who threw it next – at Jin-Woo – and gnashed its
teeth. It soon disappeared into the depth of the Gate.

Jin-Woo was thinking of chasing after the creature, but seeing the
Gate’s gradually shrink in size, he gave up on that idea. Besides, Goh
Gun-Hui’s current condition wasn’t good enough for him to focus his
attention elsewhere.

“Euh-euhk….”

The older man gasped out a pained moan.

Jin-Woo’s lips closed shut in a straight line as he watched the

Association President Goh Gun-Hui teeter precariously on the edge
of life and death.

‘This can’t be healed with a healing potion.’

In that case, the best response he could come up with was to….

….Jin-Woo yelled out at the top of his lungs.

“Beru!”

Right away, he sensed the familiar aura hurriedly fly out from his
apartment from a far away.

Kwa-boom!!

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Beru smashed past several walls after flying in with all his might and
entered the President’s office, before kneeling down in front of Jin-
Woo.

“Have you called for me, oh, my king?”

Jin-Woo cautiously lowered Goh Gun-Hui’s upper torso on the floor

and took a step back.

There was so much blood dripping out from the Association

President that Jin-Woo’s hands were now painted crimson just from
supporting the older man’s torso for a few seconds.

Drip, drip….

Jin-Woo’s complexion grew gloomier as he stared at the droplets of

blood fall to the floor from his fingertips.

Beru did as his master willed it and approached Goh Gun-Hui. He

began using up all of his magical energy healing the gravely injured
man.

Wuuonng… Wuuwuong…

Unfortunately, the complexion of the dying man didn’t want to

improve at all even with such a concerted healing effort. Beru
panicked and opened his mouth.

“M-my king….”

Beru’s scared eyes shifted over to Jin-Woo as he spoke.

“My healing magic… isn’t working on him. I can’t heal this man.”

“What??”

He didn’t seem to be exaggerating, because Beru’s hands were

shuddering as he continued on with his healing magic. Even Jin-Woo

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could sense the enormous amount of Beru’s magic energy being
spent right now. At this rate, even the former ant king would keel
over from exhaustion.

Jin-Woo halted the healing effort and sat down next to Goh Gun-Hui
to take a closer look at the man’s current condition. Despite Beru’s
near-selfless efforts, the Association President’s vitality had
weakened even further than before.

Whatever that attack was, the hole in Goh Gun-Hui’s chest didn’t
want to close up even after Jin-Woo poured in a whole bottle of the
most expensive healing potion sold in the Store.

‘D*mn it!’

Jin-Woo’s breathing became urgent as the critical moment for Goh

Gun-Hui approached closer and closer. The man who did his best for
Jin-Woo’s sake was slipping away and he couldn’t do anything.

Out of sheer desperation, he even summoned out the bottle of

‘Divine Water of Life’, but before he could use it, someone grasped
his wrist.

“Please…. stop.”

It was Goh Gun-Hui. He managed somehow to force his eyes open.

“Association President!”

His breathing remained heavy as if it was on the brink of cutting out.

He still got to confirm the faces of Jin-Woo and Beru next to him,
though.

“….You did come for me. Thank you.”

A weak smile spread on Goh Gun-Hui’s face.

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“Please, hold on for a little bit longer. I’ll take you to a hospital right
now.”

Jin-Woo’s urgent voice only managed to earn a shake of Goh Gun-

Hui’s head.

“It’s useless… the attack that got me far exceeds the level of being
curable with medicine or magic.”

“But, sir!”

Jin-Woo was about to get angry after hearing those words of

weakness from the Association President, but he had to stop. Goh
Gun-Hui’s trembling hand was grasping his, that was why.

“Listen to me!”

As if he was spurring on the dying embers of life for one last hurrah,
Goh Gun-Hui’s brows rose up high, his eyes opening up wide.

“I was able to get in touch with the will of the great beings. I saw
their plans, who our common enemies are, and the things that we
must do….”

The blood pooling in Goh Gun-Hui mouth gurgled and welled up.

“What a relief that you’re here with us… to think, you’d possess that
kind of power…. Thank you, God….”

Tears began welling up in Goh Gun-Hui’s eyes as he stared at Jin-

Woo. He then grasped the young Hunter’s hand with both of his own
and spoke with a trembling voice.

“Gates and dungeons weren’t for them. In order to protect us, they
chose this method, and…. Cough….”

At that moment, Goh Gun-Hui coughed and reddish-black blood

spluttered out from his mouth.

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Jin-Woo hurriedly tried to use the Divine Water, but Goh Gun-Hui
shook his head. He knew the condition of his own body better than
anyone.

“Sometime in the future… there will come a time when you must
make a decision. When you do… I pray that you remain on the side of
mankind.”

Hearing the pained gasping voice of Goh Gun-Hui, Jin-Woo felt as if

his heart was being ripped to pieces. But, all he could do right now
was to quietly listen to his words. That’s all he could do.

“Cough. I always wished I could fight alongside young people like

you. But…. This body of mine made sure that would never happen.”

For the first time ever, Goh Gun-Hui poured out what was in his
heart without holding back.

Some people pointed their disapproving fingers at him, accusing him

of establishing the Association to rake in more money. Some even
insulted him as a senile old fool who was blinded by the allure of
power.

The thing was, the man they were criticising was feeling angry that,
even though he was blessed with this incredible power, he couldn’t
even use it properly.

He sought out other avenues to use his powers and, after spending
every cent to his name, created the Hunter’s Association. And
through this organisation, he got to be near other Hunters and
fulfilled his calling to its fullest.

“Even then, cough, I don’t regret anything. I can now entrust the
future to young people like you. That’s all I ask for.”

Drop….

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Goh Gun-Hui’s hands holding onto Jin-Woo’s powerlessly fell to the
floor. And he was no longer staring at the young man, but at the
ceiling of his office.

Was it because his tears had spread out? The lights hanging on the
ceiling, the ones he always thought were a bit too dim for his liking,
seemed excessively blinding today.

Goh Gun-Hui shielded his eyes to block those lights.

“I’m truly relieved…. Thank you, thank you….”

At the end of those words, the Association President Goh Gun-Hui

stopped murmuring altogether.

Confirming that he was no longer breathing now, Jin-Woo wordlessly

closed the deceased man’s unmoving eyes shut. Like his final words
of gratitude, the expression on his face was one of peace.

Jin-Woo raised his head above to stare outside.

Drip, drip…

He saw through the destroyed wall the raindrops falling from the
cloudy sky. The sky that had been gloomy since the early morning.

***

Next day. Several headlines dominated the front pages of countless

newspapers.

The first news item was about Brazil’s greatest Hunter, ‘Jonas’ being
found on the vicinity of a river – as a corpse. The second one was
about the grisly murder of the Korean Hunter’s Association President
after his chest was stabbed through by an unidentified assailant.

And finally, the news of Hunter Seong Jin-Woo returning to South

Korea.

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Chapter 202

First, it was Christopher Reid.

Next, Brazil’s top Hunter, Jonas.

And finally, the Korean Hunter’s Association President, Goh Gun-Hui.

The news of these Hunters dying, thought to be some of the world’s

best, was revealed to the public one after the other and caused
substantial chaos in their wake.

If the enemies were capable of murdering the Hunters who stood at

the apex when it came to fighting power, then just who would be
able to catch them?

The world’s mass media continued to talk about nothing else other
than the deaths of these three Hunters for several days and nights.
America’s own Hunter Bureau even issued an official statement
regarding these events, too.

And it said that the Bureau had gotten in contact with various Guilds
from other nations to focus their resources in tracking down the
culprits responsible.

Unfortunately, the public’s fears couldn’t be assuaged with a simple

statement like that. It was obvious why – the trusty walls that
defended them like an impregnable fortress from the dire threats of
monsters had been breached, after all.

As the Hunter communities and the mass media around the world
were going through an upheaval, the Korean Hunter’s Association
suddenly released video footage to the public. It contained scenes
recorded from Association President Goh Gun-Hui’s office at the
time of his death.

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“Oh, my god!”

“Heok!”

Everyone who clapped their eyes on the footage in question couldn’t

hide their shocks and astonishments.

Two men were shown on the captured footage.

One of them was, without a doubt, the Association President Goh

Gun-Hui. As for the other ‘man’ stabbing the former’s chest with
something very sharp, he was… no matter how one looked, that
thing was not human.

It was a monster.

‘An Ice Elf!!’

The shocking sight of a monster that should’ve been confined in a

dungeon murdering a top-ranked Hunter was captured so vividly in
the video. The creature’s face in a close-up soon spread out to the
rest of the world.

The shockwave from that video was massive.

People finally realised that, although Hunters existed to hunt down

monsters, they too could be hunted down in turn by their supposed
prey, just like everyone else. This only served to create yet another
layer of terror in the people’s hearts.

Regular folks were being protected by the Hunters, but then, who
was protecting these Hunters?

Things got bad enough to the point where some people began saying
that the nation’s best Hunters shouldn’t be let outside their own
borders, citing that Jin-Woo was not in Korea at the time of the
Association President Goh Gun-Hui’s murder.

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And so – as the chaotic atmosphere ruled supreme, the focus of the
general public quickly shifted over to Jin-Woo. Everyone knew the
close-knit relationship he had with the Association President, so
people naturally became curious as to what his response would be.

However, Jin-Woo didn’t say anything to the media.

A few days went by like that.

By this time, the investigation into the Association President Goh

Gun-Hui’s cause of death was complete. The day before the funeral,
Jin-Woo paid an unannounced visit to the Hunter’s Association.

***

Woo Jin-Cheol, looking wane and exhausted, came to receive Jin-

Woo at the waiting area.

“I’m sorry about the wait, Hunter-nim. It’s been really hectic for the
last few days….”

Woo Jin-Cheol rubbed his scruffy, unkempt beard and apologised. On

that day they returned from the United States, he was greeted with
this out-of-nowhere news and had to rush straight back to the
Hunter’s Association.

The meeting of these two men was taking place exactly three days
after that. Before they got down to business, though, Jin-Woo asked
him a question.

“Why did you… hide the rest of the footage taken by the CCTV
camera?”

The Association’s footage went only as far as revealing the face of

the Sovereign of Frost. As for Jin-Woo or Beru who entered the
Association President’s office afterwards, their footage was not
revealed to the public.

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Woo Jin-Cheol scratched his head and replied with a bitter
expression on his face.

“We at the Association will always prioritise the safety of our

Hunters. We decided that we can’t carelessly reveal one of your
hidden abilities to the public.”

A Hunter’s skills were like all the hidden trump cards he or she
possessed. Publicly revealing a skill would be akin to unveiling one’s
hands. Quite obviously, the higher the one’s Awakened rank was, the
more likely it was for one to hide one’s skills, as this act could save
one’s life in an unexpected situation.

Jin-Woo’s skill that allowed him to travel in the blink of an eye from
America to the Hunter’s Association building in South Korea – the
Association decided that they couldn’t reveal a skill this monumental
to the world without the consent of the Hunter in question.

“I’m sure that the Association President would have made the exact
same decision if he was still with us.”

Chief Woo Jin-Cheol respected Goh Gun-Hui greatly and one could
even say that he was closer to his late boss than anybody else in this
organisation. So, when he mentioned the term ‘Association
President’, his eyes reddened automatically.

“Ah, I see. That was why your expression looked so scary and
unforgiving before we got on the plane heading back home.”

Jin-Woo admitted to Woo Jin-Cheol’s guess with a simple nod.

The latter felt as if a mystery was solved the moment he watched the
footage – the mystery regarding why Jin-Woo’s atmosphere came
across as so heavy on the day they were about to depart for South
Korea.

“Was that monster so strong that you couldn’t stop it, Hunter-nim?”

22
Jin-Woo shook his head.

“When I got here, it was already…..”

Jin-Woo formed a gloomy expression again and Woo Jin-Cheol’s

head dropped lower in the end.

“I’m sorry…. I’m sure you’re also feeling really bad right now. I was
just frustrated and that ended up troubling you….”

Woo Jin-Cheol knew better than anyone that Jin-Woo was not
responsible. That was perhaps why the latter’s attempt at trying to
console the former only made it worse.

“I still can’t believe it.”

Woo Jin-Cheol’s gaze remained fixed on the floor as he carried on.

“How could he die…. He was urging me the day before to return as

soon as possible because he wanted to hear about everything that
happened in the U.S…..”

Jin-Woo patiently waited for Woo Jin-Cheol as the latter struggled to

finish his sentence.

“What did…. What did the Association President say to you? Before
he closed his eyes?”

“He said that he felt relieved.”

“Pardon?”

Woo Jin-Cheol raised his head, surprised.

“He felt relieved that the future could be entrusted to the young
Hunters, like myself….”

“Ah.”

23
That’s what he meant.

Tears began falling from Woo Jin-Cheol’s eyes as his emotions welled
up. He felt moved by the generous heart of Association President
Goh Gun-Hui, who worried for the future of his fellow men right up
until the end.

He dabbed around his eyes with the back of his hand and hid the
tears away before nodding his head.

“Thank you. Thank you for being there for the final moments of the
Association President.”

The thing about him being relieved couldn’t have been a lie. If it was,
how could he have formed such a serene expression as he passed
on?

Woo Jin-Cheol’s gratitude was genuine, it came from the depths of

his heart.

“…”

Jin-Woo kept his mouth firmly shut, opting to not reply. He felt as if
his complicated thoughts had been untangled somewhat by having
this conversation with Woo Jin-Cheol.

“….I’ll kill that b*stard.”

“Excuse me?”

Jin-Woo’s expression became extremely cold.

“The monster that murdered the Association President. I’ll definitely

hunt it down.”

Not just for the sake of avenging Goh Gun-Hui, but to send the clear
message to those b*stards threatening him.

24
Gulp.

Woo Jin-Cheol swallowed his dry saliva.

He knew that this killing aura wasn’t even directed at him, yet he
could hardly breathe right now from the intense pressure. As a
matter of fact, this cold and heavy murderous intent was squashing
down hard on his shoulders.

Jin-Woo spotted Woo Jin-Cheol’s complexion becoming pale and

quickly withdrew his aura.

“You can save your thanks until then.”

“Oh….”

Woo Jin-Cheol did his best to calm the pounding heart in his chest
and nodded his head.

“I understand.”

Only then did he realise that Jin-Woo still hadn’t told him about the
purpose of his visit to the Association. A Hunter on his level wouldn’t
have come here to ask about the latter part of the security video
footage.

So, Woo Jin-Cheol asked politely.

“I apologise for my inattentiveness…. I even forgot to ask you why

you are paying us a visit, Hunter-nim.”

Jin-Woo told him about the decision he had come to after a few days
of deliberation.

“Can you organise me a press conference?”

***

25
Reporters descended on the press conference venue like a flock of
vultures. Jin-Woo was being seen as a walking, talking bundle of big
news waiting to happen to these reporters for a while now.

And such a man had called for a press conference, the first time ever
that he did that, so which reporter worth his or her salt wouldn’t be
interested in that?

Noisy, noisy….

The conference venue became quite noisy, as befitting the large

number of the gathered crowd. But, just like a lie, every single one of
them shut their mouths as soon as Jin-Woo made his entrance.

Right away, the expectant silence filled up the venue.

Jin-Woo could feel each of the focused gazes from the reporters
landing on his skin as he began addressing them.

“A group of monsters possessing a high level of intelligence is

currently hunting down humanity’s top-ranked Hunters. They are
stronger than any Hunters out there, and they also employ all sorts
of means to get to their targets.”

A group of monsters?

There was more than one monster that murdered the Association
President Goh Gun-Hui?

The reporters were immediately thrown into confusion.

However, Jin-Woo got his information straight from the mouth of the
King of Giants, the Sovereign of the Beginning. There were nine
Sovereigns, and he said that soon, a battle between them and the so-
called ‘Rulers’ would commence.

26
The Sovereigns were prioritising targetting the Hunters at the top of
the pile who were borrowing the powers of the Rulers. Three
Hunters had been killed already. And it was unknown how many
more victims would arise in the near future.

For the time being, he did attach his boys to those Hunters that the
Hunter Bureau had pointed out, but realistically speaking, he
couldn’t keep his eyes on every single Hunter in the world who was
called ‘strong’.

For instance, there could be another victim from an unexpected

quarter like Goh Gun-Hui.

Jin-Woo’s sudden press conference was meant to serve as a message

of warning to the potential victims who were fighting against
monsters in some parts of the world.

“These monsters employ special magic that separates the targetted

space from the surroundings. That’s how they isolate their targets.”

This was incredible information. He could reveal this without

hesitation because he had met a Sovereign already.

“That is why, if you fear that you might be their next target, please,
stay as close as humanly possible to your comrades that could
protect you. However, just in case…..”

‘Just in case’, he said.

Jin-Woo finally revealed the reason why he wanted to hold this press
conference in the first place.

“If you don’t have a comrade that can fulfil that role, contact the
Korean Hunter’s Association. They will put you through to me.”

“Oh, oh!”

27
Exclamations of admiration came out from the lips of the reporters.

Such unwavering confidence!

The Hunter responsible for beating Thomas Andre to a pulp was

emitting a confidence-inspiring aura as if such monsters were a
trifling matter to him. This sure was a surprising announcement
capable of blowing away the fog of anxiety from the public’s hearts.

The thing was, though – Jin-Woo was actually aiming for something
else.

‘I’ll lay a trap using all the Hunters that might be targetted by those
b*stards.’

With this, he’d be able to trace the movements of the Sovereigns

even if they targetted the retired or inactive Hunters like the
Association President Goh Gun-Hui. He had no doubt that at least
one of them would fall into his trap sooner or later.

When Jin-Woo was about to end his announcement, a barrage of

questions descended on him almost immediately.

“I’m a reporter working for the X Daily! How do you know so much
about this group of monsters, Hunter-nim?”

“I’ve encountered them before.”

To be more specific, he had run into them twice already. He met the
King of Giants in Japan, while the other one in Korea.

Noisy, noisy….

Reporters couldn’t immediately recover from their surprises but still,

they didn’t forget to jot down what Jin-Woo had said.

“Does that mean you were unscathed even after encountering them,
Hunter-nim??”

28
Jin-Woo replied concisely, his eyes burning with the flames of
confidence.

“Yes.”

Hunter Seong Jin-Woo was unhurt even after encountering those

creatures! Reporters hurriedly operated their cameras as the
expected scoop happened yet again.

Click, click, click, click-!!

It was then, a certain reporter sitting a bit away from the front row
raised his hand up high. He was none other than the same reporter
who accompanied Chief Woo Jin-Cheol to document the sacrifices
the Hunters had made trying to battle the angel statue. Jin-Woo
shifted his gaze over to him.

Reporter Kim slowly lowered his hand and, quite unlike his frenzied
peers, voiced his question clearly and concisely.

“What will you do when you meet the monster responsible for the
murder of the Association President Goh Gun-Hui?”

Jin-Woo studied the still-furious expression etched on the face of

Reporter Kim without saying anything, before switching the mic off.

“….That will be all.”

Reporter Kim stared for a long time at Jin-Woo’s departing back as

the latter descended from the platform. He thought that, even
though there was no verbal answer, he could still hear the young
Hunter’s determined voice somehow.

***

“Guild Master.”

“Master!”

29
The two security guards on duty jumped up from their seats in
surprise after seeing Thomas Andre walking towards their guard
station, but he simply signalled at them, telling them to settle back
down.

Beep.

He pressed his thumb on the fingerprint scanner, and the automated

door slid open. He and the top manager of the Guild, Laura, stepped
into the underground storage facility located below the Guild’s
building.

The two guards who got spooked by Thomas Andre’s presence were
rank A Hunters in reality.

Since he stayed in the building’s penthouse suite and would be

informed immediately if something happened, the number of people
who could step into this storage facility were extremely few.

Thomas Andre didn’t hesitate for a second and headed straight into
the deepest part of the underground facility.

“Are you really planning to gift him with ‘those’, sir?”

Beep.

They finally gained access to the chamber housing ‘those’ after

another round of fingerprint scanning.

“What’s the matter? Do you believe this is too much for the price of
my Guild members, as well as my life?”

“No, sir. That’s not it, but….”

“Well, you think he’s not good enough as a Hunter to wield these
guys, then?”

“….”

30
Laura knew that talking to him now was a waste of time. Since she
knew retorting to him wouldn’t work anyway, she decided to close
her mouth shut for now.

Meanwhile, Thomas Andre stood before the items he was searching

for. These weapons didn’t even suit him at all, yet he couldn’t help
but feel his heart tremble every time he stood before them.

“….No matter how many times I look at them, they still look cool.”

Thomas Andre murmured in admiration, and Laura tried to dissuade

him one last time, her voice sounding slightly unwilling.

“Sir, there are only two of these in the entire world.”

“Yup, that’s true.”

“And it’ll stay that way.”

“I’m sure it will.”

“Even then, will you still give them away?”

“That’s why I’m giving them to him.”

Thomas Andre formed a smirk.

It had been almost eight years since these guys were crafted, but the
searing light coming off of them hadn’t diminished by a single bit.

“The best Hunter needs the best weapons. Don’t you think it’s too
much of a waste to let them rot in here?”

As if to answer him, a pair of shortswords resting within the metal

case reflected the spotlight, the glare of the blades remaining sharp
and cold.

31
Chapter 203

Streets were filled with the gloomy atmosphere of a funeral.

Someone had to perform that role, but no one wanted to step

forward to do it – that was the position of the first President of the
Hunter’s Association.

Goh Gun-Hui.

When the nation needed someone to rally the powerful Hunters, he

unhesitatingly closed up his own successful business and rolled up
his sleeves to get to work.

And under the command of its President Goh Gun-Hui, the Korean
Hunter’s Association was able to achieve so many things.

The organisation controlled and protected various Hunters; at the

same time, it took the lead in compensating the victims of the
monster attacks, while also silently aiding the families of the
deceased Hunters, as well.

Many victims who had received Goh Gun-Hui’s aid in the past
gathered at his memorial service and cried their hearts out in
genuine sorrow.

Citizens filled up the venue until there was no room to even stand;
the people paying their respects remained until deep into the night,
burning their candles and grieving for the life lost.

Even the various TV stations interrupted their regular broadcasting

schedules to play the video packages summarising the life of the late
Association President and his various accomplishments.

32
One of the gigantic electronic advertising boards hung up in the
middle of the city played the scene of Goh Gun-Hui taking shots at
Assemblyman Nam Joon-Wook during the parliamentary hearing.

[“I’d like to urge you to think about this carefully. If and when
another rank S Gate appears in our land, just who will step up to
protect your life? You will not be able to buy back your life even if
you are willing to pay hundreds of times, no, make that thousands of
times the price you paid for your new residence.”]

The pedestrian lights changed colour to green, but no one moved

from their spot. They stood still, unable to rip their eyes away from
the electronic boards or from their smartphones.

Next up was a clip of an interview featuring the longtime personal

physician of Goh Gun-Hui.

[“Back when Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim was fighting against the ant
monsters on Jeju Island, I was watching the raid broadcast by the
Association President’s side. He turned around to tell me that his
biggest wish had now come true, and he had no more regrets left.
But to think, he’d really leave us like this….”]

His eyes were red and swollen even before the interview began, and
the good doctor eventually broke down and cried.

The viewers watching all became lost for words. They began recalling
the sight of the Association President Goh Gun-Hui standing before
the families of the victims and wordlessly shedding tears after the
previous three attempts to take Jeju Island back all ended in failures.

Just as the number of people who respected and admired him was
great, the number of those who hated him and were jealous of him
was quite high, as well. However, even these people paid their
respects to him on this day, their hearts all feeling the same sort of
emotion.

33
*

Late at night.

Jin-Woo stood on the rooftop of the 100-stories-tall Daesung Tower.

Powerful gusts of wind constantly blew at him as he stood at this
dizzying height, but his body didn’t even sway for one second.

His eyes were fixated on the cityscape below. He could see the
streets of Seoul filled with the palpable air of grief.

One of the electronic advertisement boards was playing a

documentary detailing the life of the Association President Goh Gun-
Hui.

‘…..’

Jin-Woo’s sharp glare scanned every corner of the city like a hawk
searching for prey.

Meanwhile, his Shadow Soldiers were searching through Seoul with

greater efficiency than before, perhaps owing to the fact that they
felt familiar with the order as it was similar to the one he issued in
America.

A great deal of information flowed into Jin-Woo’s mind, but none of

them was what he wanted to know. No matter how much of the city
was searched, no traces of that ancient White Phantom could be
detected.

‘As expected, this method isn’t going to work.’

Jin-Woo knew all too well that using a method like this to catch a
monster who was capable of freely entering and exiting a dimension
through Gates was not the answer.

34
Back then, he tried to stick a Shadow Soldier on the b*stard before it
made its escape so he could chase after it later. But that ended in
failure. Because… that creature didn’t have that one little thing that
all existences possessed. It didn’t have a shadow.

‘It’s supposed to be a spiritual body or some such, right?’

The King of Giants did say that both the Sovereigns and the Rulers
were made up of the ‘spiritual bodies’ so they couldn’t be turned
into Shadow Soldiers.

If that was the reason why that Sovereign didn’t possess a shadow,
then Jin-Woo no longer enjoyed the benefit of having the greatest
method of tracking someone down.

However….

‘….It doesn’t matter.’

The King of Giants warned him back then – once Jin-Woo’s existence
was known to the remaining Sovereigns, they would not sit back idly
and suck on their thumbs. That’s what he said.

Meaning, these Sovereigns would come knocking on his doorstep

sooner rather than later. Not to target the Association President Goh
Gun-Hui, but him, as their sole target.

But when that happens, he would…..

The heavy and intense killing intent spread out from Jin-Woo.

Ever since he got the System, his reward for surviving the terrors of
the first dual dungeon, he had never missed his enemy. The only one
to buck this trend was that ‘Ice Elf’.

35
Jin-Woo had ensured that his enemies would meet their ends,
regardless of whether they were monsters or humans. And he wasn’t
planning on letting that thing become the only exception.

But then….

‘Uh….?’

He had to take a pause there.

Jin-Woo was going through all the enemies he fought until now and
realised that something was a bit odd.

Now that he thought about it…

‘….Wait, when I was fighting Hwang Dong-Su or Thomas Andre, I

didn’t see any messages from the System, did I?’

In the past, the System always warned him with messages if

someone nearby directed murderous intent towards him, and soon
after that, issued emergency quests.

It happened with Hwang Dong-Seok, Kahng Tae-Sik, and finally, with

Kim Cheol. There was no exception.

Hell, he even received a warning message during that sparring

session with Goto Ryuji just because, for the briefest moment, the
Japanese Hunter attacked him with the intent to cause real harm.

‘But then, no messages popped up when Hwang Dong-Su was trying

to get revenge for his brother, or when Thomas Andre declared that
he’d kill me. Why?’

What a strange development this was.

No matter how he dissected it, it didn’t sound right. Jin-Woo

pondered this mystery for a second or two, then pulled out his
phone in order to confirm a theory of his.

36
Thankfully, he still had the contact number he got from that
American’s blonde lady manager.

It was 1 AM in Korea, but when thinking about the time difference to

the Eastern United States, he shouldn’t be unduly inconveniencing
them.

Ringgg….

As he expected, the ringtone didn’t last long before the other side
answered the call.

– “Hey, Mister Seong. I didn’t expect you to give me a call first.”

Perhaps puzzled by the phone call, Thomas Andre’s voice sounded a

bit surprised.

“Actually, there was something I wanted to ask you about.”

– “You have a question? Not a problem. I’ll try to answer it as

truthfully as I can.”

“That day, when we were fighting….”

– “….When we were fighting?”

“Did you attack me with the intent to kill?”

Since Thomas Andre was rather unwilling to recall the events of that
day, Jin-Woo quickly explained that he simply wanted to satisfy his
curiosity and nothing more.

There was no reason to hide anything, though. Thomas Andre took

his time before answering as truthfully as he promised earlier.

– “Well, when I get angry, I can’t really control myself, so…. Yeah, I
was thinking of really killing you that day.”

37
As expected – the murderous intent the American carried was all for
real. Even then, the System maintained silence.

Something definitely….

‘….Has changed.’

His hypothesis that started off from suspicion was quickly morphing
into a sure thing.

– “Mister Seong?”

Thomas Andre must’ve felt the ensuing silence from his answer a
wee bit uncomfortable because he tried to change the topic with an
excited voice.

– “How about we change the subject from this uninteresting story to

the fantastic thing I prepared for you…..”

Ttuk….

Jin-Woo wasn’t really in the mood to share a jokey banter with

Thomas Andre right now, so he mumbled a quick goodbye and
ended the call right there.

That answer confirmed it for him. The System didn’t react to the
presence of enemies with hostile intentions against him. This was
totally different from before. What a big change this was,
considering that in the beginning, it tried to make him protect
himself no matter what.

‘This is not a problem that I can take lightly.’

When it happened for the first time – when he saw the overtly-
threatening quest telling him to kill his enemies or his own heart
would stop beating, he began to hold a vague notion on just what
the end game of the System could be.

38
It was likely that the System was trying to goad him down a certain
path – that’s what he thought.

So, now that there were no emergency quests being issued, this
could signal a change in the goal of the System.

Thanks to this, he now enjoyed the luxury of having more choices,

and he also got to spare Thomas Andre even though the American
had bared his fangs like that.

‘If another emergency quest was issued, then well, such a thing
wouldn’t have happened.’

It sure was a welcome piece of news that he now had a wider variety
of options available, but still, he couldn’t help but be curious as to
what the real reason for this change might be.

Did it have something to with the original owner of this power

supposedly betraying the other Sovereigns? Or, did the death of the
‘architect’ of the System throw a wrench in their plan, whatever it
was, and everything had gone down the crapper?

Jin-Woo continued to dissect each guess and hypothesis that popped

up one after the other in his mind before ruefully shaking his head.

‘I should clear my mind.’

There was a need to set a clear goal for the time being. And that
would be to kill that ancient White Phantom, as well as to get as
much information on other Sovereigns from the b*stard while he
was at it.

If the creature came for him first, that would be good. But, even if it
targetted other Hunters instead, he was in the midst of increasing his
traps, anyway.

39
As long as that thing fell for it, then he’d be able to catch two birds
with one stone.

The problem was with time.

Since he didn’t know when the Sovereigns might appear again, he

needed to adequately prepare himself for the battle against the
unknown enemies who were, no doubt, incredibly powerful.

Thankfully, he had already got himself a perfect place to keep

earning more experience points.

That would be none other than Japan. It had not recovered fully from
all the destruction caused by the Giants. Several parts of the country
were still left abandoned in ruin.

While Jin-Woo was in America, countless Gates went on to become

full-on dungeon breaks, and monsters emerging from them settled
down and began increasing their territories.

To the Japanese people, those monsters might be the source of

terror, but for Jin-Woo, they were nothing more than juicy prey just
waiting to be converted into experience points.

One by one…

His heart began pounding hard just from imagining his level climbing
up by pushing back the monsters occupying the land there.

It was then, his phone vibrated for a short moment and alerted him
to the incoming message. He looked at the screen to find a text
message from Thomas Andre.

[Mister Seong? Can you give me another call? There was something I
still wanna tell you about….]

40
The old saying went along the lines of ‘the ground will harden after a
rainfall’; it seemed that Thomas Andre wanted to form a friendship
on the basis of them having fought against each other.

Jin-Woo welcomed the idea, obviously. His social skill wasn’t poor
enough for him to refuse the hand of friendship the other side was
offering first.

Still, they could chat at any time they wanted to, no? He liked
Thomas Andre and his lack of ulterior motives, but it was a bit too
late in the evening to share banter with him, he thought.

Jin-Woo quickly typed his reply and sent it on its way.

[OK. But later. I’ve got this urgent thing to take care of.]

Beep.

A smile spread on Jin-Woo’s face after he tapped ‘Send’ icon.

‘Nothing will change.’

Indeed, he’d continue to raise his level in preparation for the days
ahead. It was the same story back then or now.

‘Good.’

He felt better than when he was climbing up here. His steps now
taking him back down the Daesung Tower were lighter than ever
before.

***

However, Jin-Woo wasn’t the only one getting ready for a battle.

The Sovereign of Frost, after successfully escaping to the hideout,

summoned other Sovereigns who had already descended on this
planet.

41
Three men and one woman appeared within this frozen cave. The
Sovereign of Frost addressed these four ‘kings’.

[The Shadow Sovereign is in this world.]

And then, it proceeded to explain what it saw and heard to its new
guests.

[…..]

[…..]

The Sovereigns weren’t even bothered in the slightest by the

coldness of the cave capable of freezing a person’s flesh and blood,
but after hearing the story, their atmosphere became incredibly
frosty in mere seconds.

[I thought there was no vessel good enough to contain his power?]

Also, wasn’t that the reason why the Dragon Emperor couldn’t
descend to this world, too?

The Sovereign of Frost resolutely shook its head.

[I saw it clearly with my own two eyes. That being was real.]

Two of the Sovereigns who had sensed the lingering power of the
Shadow Sovereign back in Jeju Island could only agree with their
comrade at this point. The atmosphere remained frosty as the
Sovereign of Frost continued on.

[He will prove to be an even bigger threat to us than the Fragments

of the Brilliant Light. I shall dispose of him. Are any of you willing to
lend me your aid?]

Too bad, the response to its request for aid was indifferent, to say
the least. This made some sense. Their opponent this time was seen

42
as one of the most powerful ‘kings’ among the nine kings that ruled
over the Chaos World.

A battle against him was the same as killing yourself. It was only
obvious that these Sovereigns would become extra hesitant by the
prospect.

One of the Sovereigns spoke up.

[How about we wait for the Dragon Emperor?]

The Sovereign of Destruction. If it was ‘him’, then the betrayer would

be dealt with quite swiftly.

However, the Sovereign of Frost growled angrily at its comrades.

[We might be on the run, but do not forget that we’re kings of our
own armies. How long will you cry out for the Dragon Emperor to
come and save you?]

The dagger that stabbed into its shoulder – the wound inflicted from
that encounter was no ordinary physical injury, but one that directly
bruised its ego. The Sovereign of Frost had a score to settle with the
Shadow Sovereign.

[If we wish to remove him from the picture, then now is the chance
as he is still a human. Lend me your aid. I shall make sure to send him
back to the void.]

Even though its resolution was unwavering, one of the Sovereigns

still stepped away.

[I shall not partake in this venture.]

Another Sovereign brought up the incident of the King of the

Demons, Baran, who unwisely went up against the Shadow
Sovereign and disappeared from the spot, as well.

43
[I do not wish to end up like the Sovereign of the White Flames.]

[….Cowards.]

The Sovereign of Frost clicked its tongue as two of its comrades

disappeared from the view. Out of the five kings that had gathered,
only three remained. A muscular giant of a figure threw a question at
the Sovereign of Frost.

[Where’s the proof that he’s still a human being?]

As if it was waiting for this chance, the ancient White Phantom

showed the dagger that used to be stabbed into its shoulder. Its tip
was gleaming in a greenish hue.

[Poison has been applied to the blade.]

More precisely, it was the poison of a Manticore. It might not be

effective against Sovereigns, but it was still a fatal substance
powerful enough to rot away the flesh of the regular denizens of the
Chaos World just from simple, innocuous contact.

That man had coated his blade with the poison in preparation of the
future events. It was indeed a meticulous and smart thing to do, but
it was also not the Shadow Sovereign’s original style. This was the
clear evidence that the human was in charge of that body.

The Sovereign of Frost respectfully asked the two remaining

comrades.

[Are you with me on this one?]

Its powers were about the same compared to the Shadow Sovereign,
who was still a mere human. However, if two other Sovereigns
supported its cause, then it was sure of subjugating the human
Shadow Sovereign.

44
The two remaining ‘kings’ exchanged glances between each other
before nodding their heads.

[I shall aid you.]

[We shall kill the Shadow Sovereign.]

The Sovereign of Frost swore in its heart that it’d teach the true
meaning of terror to that puny little human responsible for
wounding its shoulder with a dagger.

The corner of the ancient White Phantom’s lips curled upwards.

45
Chapter 204

To fill the vacant Association President’s position, an executive-level

meeting was held among the Vice-President and the chiefs of various
departments, as well as directors from the regional branch offices.

Over thirty members filled up the large conference room.

Even though these people boasted societal authority exceeding the

directors and managers of regular parastatal entities or large
corporations, all thanks to the Hunter’s Association, the complexions
of every single one present today were clouded by deep anxiety.

As this heavy atmosphere bubbled on, a couple of unimportant

topics were discussed to bring everyone up to speed on what was
happening around the globe.

“….Looks like it’s time to decide on who’ll follow in the footsteps of

our late President.”

Finally, the time had come. Along with that declaration from the
Vice-President, nervous tension brushed past the expressions of all
the attending staff members.

Gulp.

Even the sounds of saliva being swallowed could be heard here and
there. This moment could decide the fate of the Hunter’s
Association, after all.

The number of Hunters were increasing, while the Gates appeared

more frequently now. All these people forming the core of the
Association’s command structure knew full well that the instability of
their organisation could lead to the nation itself becoming unstable
as well.

46
“Well, then….”

The Vice-President, in charge of leading the proceedings, closed the

documents in front of him before the topic could get on the way.
This gesture signalled that the words written on these pages were
insignificant compared to what was about to be discussed.

“After a lengthy, in-depth discussion between the board of directors

and myself, we decided to nominate Chief Woo Jin-Cheol as the new
Association President.”

The person in question, Woo Jin-Cheol, hadn’t been told before the
meeting, so rather understandably, he raised his head up in great
surprise. He quickly looked at the Vice-President.

‘But, why me….?’

His eyes were silently asking this question, and as a reply, the Vice-
President stared straight back while pulling the head of the
microphone closer.

“Chief Woo has learned what the job entails by serving our late
Association President from the closest vantage point. Not to
mention, he possesses more than adequate power to make other
Hunters acquiesce, as well.”

Those were all undeniable facts.

The late Association President Goh Gun-Hui deeply appreciated Woo

Jin-Cheol, the man who willingly chose to work for the Association
despite receiving many scouting offers from major Guilds. And the
Chief of the Monitoring Division was rank A, infinitely close to the
threshold of ‘S’.

If only his magic energy evaluation numbers were a bit higher, the
Association would’ve been blessed with its second rank S Hunter
alongside Goh Gun-Hui.

47
He possessed four years of on-field job experience and also
possessed powerful abilities that easily exceeded regular rank A
Awakened, too.

There were no opposing voices on whether or not he was fit to

command countless other Hunters affiliated with the Association.

The staff members initially began murmuring to each other after the
nomination of Woo Jin-Cheol was made, but soon, they grew calmer
from the Vice-President explaining the executives’ decision.

Unfortunately, the man in the spotlight still couldn’t really accept

this outcome.

“I’m lacking in several key areas to take on that role. Not only are
there executives holding higher offices than mine, aren’t I too young
to hold such an important office?”

He was only in his mid-thirties. No one here would disregard his four
years of experience in the Monitoring Division, but still, he was far,
far too young to lead an organisation of this magnitude as its leader.

At least, that’s what Woo Jin-Cheol believed.

“We have you, the Vice-President. What about the directors of the
executive board? Directors from the various regional branch
offices?”

Woo Jin-Cheol looked at the faces of all these powerful men and
asked the Vice-President once more.

“There are this many excellent candidates present, so why am I being

nominated as the replacement for the late Association President,
sir?”

“Fuu….”

48
The Vice-President turned his head away to his side and sighed out
softly under his breath. He did expect to run into this sort of
resistance. However, he didn’t count on that resistance to come
from Woo Jin-Cheol himself.

The Vice-President switched his mic off. The official stance of the
board of the directors had been communicated in full by now. So, it
was time to get to the meat of the matter, the unofficial stance.

The mic being switched off prompted the attending staff members to
pay even greater attention. The Vice-President opened his mouth.

“No personnel within the Association, including myself, possesses

the ability to persuade South Korea’s greatest combat potential.”

The greatest combat potential ‘affiliated’ with the Hunter’s

Association – there was no need to mention that person’s name as
everyone present could already picture his face.

“He has clearly demonstrated the extent of his powers in Korea,

Japan, as well in the United States. It’s already happened, but well,
without a doubt, the Hunter’s Association would not be able to
function properly without his presence.”

The ‘Special Authority-rank’ Hunter, capable of shifting a country

with his individual power, had to kneel before Seong Jin-Woo. How
could a measly little Association demand anything from someone like
that?

The only thing they could do was to politely make a request and wait
patiently for a reply. That was all.

Just like how the Association President Goh Gun-Hui was able to
rescue the Jeju Island raid team by borrowing Hunter Seong’s power,
the organisation needed someone, a line of communication as it
were, to request for his aid once more in the future.

49
And the closest person to Hunter Seong Jin-Woo currently working
for the Association was Woo Jin-Cheol. That alone was enough of a
qualification.

The Vice-President had spoken his opinion on the subject matter to

the board of directors, and they, in turn, agreed with his analysis.
And now, the staff members sitting inside the conference room were
also nodding along as well.

“Just like how it is with Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim, we can’t force

you to make this decision, Chief Woo.”

The power was with the Hunters. The Vice-President declared that
he wanted to make that distinction crystal clear.

“That is why, will you not accept our nomination in good faith and be
our leader moving forward?”

Everyone was now looking at Woo Jin-Cheol. A brief bout of silence

later, he finally opened his mouth, still aware of the expectant gazes
prickling his skin.

“I…..”

***

“Hul…..”

Jin-Woo was unaware that he just muttered out a gasp that his little
sister used to make rather often. He was flipping through the articles
found online through his phone, and his hand movements became
faster.

[The new master of the Hunter’s Association, following in the

footsteps of the late President Goh Gun-Hui, is President Woo Jin-
Cheol!]

50
He was momentarily surprised and worried after seeing that Chief
Woo’s name appeared as the number one real-time search result,
but now that the confusion was cleared up, his racing heart began to
slowly calm down.

It was a welcome piece of news, after all. To think that Chief Woo, a
personal friend, would climb up to the position of the Association
President.

Jin-Woo formed a smile and congratulated the man in his mind

before shutting the device’s power off and chucked it lightly behind
him. An ant Shadow Soldier standing there just barely caught it.

Jin-Woo watched the ant stuff the phone in a bag and warned the
creature.

“Your predecessor was much better at stuff like this than you. You
gotta bring your A game from now on, okay?”

Yu Jin-Ho was too busy performing the role of the Vice-Chairman of

the Guild and couldn’t accompany him this time, so this ant Shadow
Solder was elected to replace him as the luggage carrier. As if the
creature was feeling sheepish about his new role, he continuously
bowed while scratching the back of his head.

“Okay, good.”

Jin-Woo chuckled and lightly tapped the soldier on his shoulder

before turning around to leave. He had finished eating lunch, so it
was now time to recommence with the hunt.

But then…

“Hah-ah…. It’s these guys again?”

Jin-Woo scratched his forehead as he scanned the dense forest of

trees dyeing his view a sea of green.

51
Only a short while ago, there used to be a village right here before it
got trampled on by the Giants. But to think, it now resembled the
Amazon rainforest….

One didn’t even need to be able to sense magical energy to realise

that something was very wrong with this sight, indeed.

However, it seemed that regular animals weren’t suspicious of this

forest, as various traces of them being devoured could be seen here
and there. Jin-Woo stared at the bones of the dead animals and the
flies buzzing around them before clicking his tongue.

He then picked up a stone from the ground and threw it at the

forest.

Swish-!!

It was no longer a plain stone, though. No, it was a stone thrown by a

rank S Hunter – no, by Jin-Woo of all people.

Smack!!

The stone accurately struck where the face of the tree-type monster
was. The creature’s closed eyes shot wide open. It began frowning
angrily and stood up from the spot to run straight at him.

“Kiiiieeehk!!”

It seemed that you’d get p*ssed off after getting hit by a rock
whether you were a person or a plant.

Jin-Woo summoned out the ‘Demon King’s Shortswords’ and rushed

forward. The huge tree creature swung its thick branches at the
approaching human.

‘So slow….’

52
This monster was indeed, far too slow. Jin-Woo leisurely slid past the
two branches currently being used like fists and took a closer look at
the tree’s ‘face’.

The tree monster was struggling to spot him with its eyes.

‘Even its reactions are poor.’

Whenever the branches smashed the ground, the earth was deeply
gouged out, but even then, Jin-Woo was still clicking his tongue.

‘Compared to how big it is, its power is nothing to write home

about.’

The monster looked tough and powerful because of how large it was,
but when compared to the Giant-type creatures of similar size, its
power simply lagged far behind. But then again, maybe this was the
trade-off for it being very sturdy.

Jin-Woo gripped the shortswords tightly as the blades sliced and

diced past the trunk of the tree monster.

“Kiiiechk, kiieeehk!”

The monster kept screaming in pain but it didn’t want to go down at

all.

‘Violent Slash!’

Sword slashes pouring out at once like a buckshot stabbed and sliced
and ripped into the tree monster.

Dududududududu!!

“Kiiiiieeehk!!”

The monster actually squeezed its eyes shut at the continuous

barrage of attacks and flailed its ‘fists’ around in a frenzy. Jin-Woo

53
evaded those attacks and approached the body of the monster again
before sending his shortswords back into his ‘Inventory’. He then
clenched his fist tightly.

The muscles of his right arm expanded in an instant as magical

energy flooded there in a great quantity. And then, he punched out
just once.

WOO-JEECK!!

The tree was folded in half as it got flung away.

“Kiiiehck?!?!”

The creature tumbled around on the ground as a painful scream

exploded out from its mouth. Even then, it began dragging its broken
body back towards Jin-Woo again.

“Huh….”

This thing possessed truly shocking durability, that’s for sure. These
tree monsters, spotted for the very first time here in Japan, boasted
a frightening level of endurance. Only after Jin-Woo beat the living
daylights out of the creature for the umpteenth time did it stop
moving altogether.

“K-kiechk…”

The dying tree moaned out a short gasp of death and spat out some
kind of a liquid possessing an unbearable stink.

“Euhk.”

Jin-Woo covered his nose up.

What irritated him more than the monster’s tenacious vitality was
this atrocious stink.

54
While the ‘Yu Jin-Ho replacement’ ant soldier diligently dug through
the monster’s remains to find it’s Magic Crystal, Jin-Woo shifted his
glare towards the forest where the same type of monsters were in
hiding.

‘And I’m supposed to repeat the same thing over and over again…..’

Just how long ago was it since the dungeon break occurred nearby?
A deep frown etched on his forehead as he stared at the monsters
that had already formed a dense forest.

The thing was, though – humans were intelligent creatures.

Jin-Woo had fought against these monsters and now knew what
their weaknesses were. So, he came up with a plan.

‘I knew something like this would happen. Good thing that I had
them on standby.’

Jin-Woo grinned and summoned out a few Shadow Soldiers.

“Hey, come out.”

As if they were waiting for that summons, Fangs and the three Magic
Soldiers emerged from the shadow. As it turned out, Jin-Woo made
the correct call to have these guys on standby even though he sent
others out on their own expeditions.

“Okay, begin!”

As soon as Jin-Woo issued his order, Fangs quickly grew into his usual
massive size and spat out his trademark pillar of flames, while the
remaining three Magic Soldiers also began their spectacular fire
magic show.

Kuwaaaah!!

Boom!! Ka-boom! Bang!!

55
Flames rapidly spread out, causing the tree monsters to twist around
and scream out in pain.

“Kiiieeehk!”

“Kiiehk!”

“Kiiiiiaaaahk!”

These flames were ripe with magical energy and easily burned their
targets into ashes, even though these trees weren’t dry, to begin
with. Even that liquid with the terrible smell was quickly evaporated
by the heat, so Jin-Woo standing at an adequate-enough distance
could spectate on this sight in a relaxed manner.

Jin-Woo smiled as his plan came together rather perfectly. In the

meantime, the System’s messages kept on piling up in his vision.

[You have defeated the enemy.]

[You have…]

[You have…]

Countless messages climbed up non-stop in his view.

The monster’s rapid rate of reproduction might sound like bad news
to some, but actually, it was a good thing for him. It meant that his
experience points earned would be higher.

And sure enough, a cheerier-than-usual mechanical beep went off in

his head.

Tti-ring.

[Level up!]

‘That’s what I’m talking about!’

56
Jin-Woo tightly clenched his fist. To confirm the increases in his Stats,
he quickly summoned up his Status Window.

‘Stat Window.’

Tti-ring.

Name: Seong Jin-Woo

Level: 133

Class: Shadow Sovereign

Title: Demon Hunter (extra 2)

HP: 78,230

MP: 136,160

Tiredness: 3

[Stats]

Strength: 308

Endurance: 307

Agility: 316

Intelligence: 321

Perception: 298

(Available points to distribute: 0)

His level was now sitting on 133.

Thanks to his soldiers currently doing their things throughout the

whole of Japan, the quest to raise his level was progressing rather

57
quickly. All those countless monsters pouring out from the Gates
were proving to be a boon for Jin-Woo.

Almost all of his Stats had exceeded 300, with the sole exception of
Perception, which still required two more points to reach that mark.

‘I’m going to spend all the points from tomorrow’s Daily Quest on
Perception.’

Jin-Woo grinned brightly as he closed the Stat Window.

The war that the King of Giants had spoken of, as well as the scheme
‘they’ had cooked up as mentioned by the late Association President
Goh Gun-Hui – Jin-Woo had no clear idea what any of them could be.

However, it didn’t matter, did it?

All he had to do was to prepare as much as he could so he’d be ready

for any and all eventualities. Meaning, he should focus on diligently
raising his levels.

But then – Beru was supposed to lead the ant battalion and kill the
monsters in a location far from where Jin-Woo was, but he suddenly
got in contact with his master.

[Oh, my king…. May I be permitted to address you regarding a

certain matter?]

“Mm?”

Why was Beru calling him up all of a sudden?

Jin-Woo was puzzled by this occurrence and quickly sent Beru a

response.

‘What’s the matter?’

***

58
[“….Contact the Korean Hunter’s Association. They will put you
through to me.”]

After Jin-Woo’s press conference was broadcast to the rest of the

world, countless requests and inquiries began inundating the
Hunter’s Association.

Most of them belonged to the top Hunters from other countries.

Some of them even came to visit Korea in secret just so they could
speak to Jin-Woo and get his advice.

Germany’s best Hunter, Lennart Niermann, was one of those.

‘Even the Special Authority-rank and a top-ranked Hunter got done in

by those things. How can I be safe from them, then?’

He possessed an outstanding sensory perception as well as a good

deal of modesty. He thought that, rather than shivering away in fear,
he’d place his faith in Hunter Seong Jin-Woo’s declaration, the one
about him possessing a way to defeat the unknown monsters.

And that was why he decided to travel to South Korea.

Stepping foot into the Incheon International Airport, he breathed in

the Korean air that had this different flavour to it compared to that
of Germany’s or America’s.

‘So, this is what Korea smells like….’

Feeling somewhat excited by his first trip to Asia, he spoke to the

clerk manning the immigration checkpoint in a clearly-eager voice.

“Is this Hunter Seong Jin-Woo’s country?”

“Pardon? Ah, y-yes, it is.”

59
The clerk got flustered and nodded his head. Lennart Niermann
formed a satisfied smile. He’d soon be able to have a chat with the
world’s strongest Hunter.

He ended up missing Jin-Woo by a hair’s breadth during the banquet

at the end of the International Guild Conference. But to get another
opportunity like this! Just thinking about it made his heart flutter in
excitement.

He took a deep, deep breath to rein in his wildly-racing emotions,

but then, a huge, hulking man standing close behind him spoke up in
irritation.

“Hey, if you’re planning to waste time here, get out of my way.”

Thick veins suddenly popped up in Lennart Niermann’s once-

peaceful face.

Who dares to…!

How could anyone speak so rudely to him, one of the best Hunters in
the entire world??

‘I shall fix your attitude for good today!’

The German Hunter took off the sunglasses he wore to hide his
identity and turned around.

“Look here, friend! What you said just now, you think you can repeat
word for word straight to my face?”

Lennart Niermann stood with a heavy frown etched on his face. The
man in front of him, taller than the German by at least a head, took
off his own sunglasses and growled menacingly.

“Get. The. F*ck. Out. Of. My. Way.”

60
Lennart Niermann immediately recognised who this burly man was
and his expression hardened like a rock right there and then. He
hesitated before opening his mouth.

“P-please, go ahead first.”

Thomas Andre used his wide shoulders to brush past the German
Hunter and stepped into immigration control. The act of apologising
was the job reserved for Laura following him from close behind.

That was a bona fide Special Authority-rank Hunter. The airport’s

workers felt their breathing becoming much heavier and harder after
seeing the actual Thomas Andre, often referred to as the world’s top
Hunter.

What a giant he was; it was not for nothing that people attached the
nickname of ‘Goliath’ to him.

Thomas Andre discovered the face of the immigration officer rapidly

turning pale and put the sunglasses back on before forming a genial
smile.

“Is this Mister Seong’s country?”

61
Chapter 205

[Oh, my king…. May I be permitted to address you regarding a

certain matter?]

Beru contacted Jin-Woo out of the blue.

What did the most powerful Shadow Soldier, tasked with leading the
ant battalion to kill monsters far away, want to say to his master?

‘What’s going on?’

Jin-Woo inwardly asked him. Beru then cautiously sought out

permission from his master.

[May you be gracious enough to drive the prey to this servant’s

location?]

Drive the prey to his location?

The ‘prey’ Beru was talking about was, of course, monsters that
roamed outside of the Gates after the various dungeon breaks took
place. It implied that the former ant king wished to take care of all
the monsters by himself.

Even Greed couldn’t compare to Beru in terms of power, although

they were supposed to be in the same Commander-grade. So, it was
unlikely that his subordinates started a rebellion or some such and
he wanted to do things alone now.

Jin-Woo pondered the reason for this request for a bit, but then, a
certain possibility quickly entered his head.

‘Could it be….??’

62
[Every time I defeat a prey, I can feel a sensation similar to ‘moulting’
throughout my entire body, my king.]

As he thought! His guess turned out to correct.

‘Moulting’, Beru said. Meaning, he was about to break through to

the next stage.

Ever since his inclusion into the Shadow Army, Beru stood at the
forefront, always, and fought off more enemies than anyone else.
And finally, he was being rewarded with an opportunity to advance
to a higher grade.

When recalling how much stronger high-grade soldiers like Igrit and
Iron became after the advancement…..

‘….This is wonderful news.’

Beru was already strong enough to toy with rank S Hunters even
before he became a part of the Shadow Army. His current grade, too,
was the highest among all of his existing Shadow Soldiers.

‘Does this mean I finally get to see the grade above ‘Commander’?’

Jin-Woo was getting really curious about just what kind of changes
Beru would go through after his stats jump up greatly via his
advancement. He quickly replied to his ant soldier, no doubt
anxiously waiting for his king’s answer.

‘Alright. Let’s do it.’

[Oh, I thank thee, my king. I shall send back the ant battalion to your
side right away.]

‘No, there’s no need.’

63
Jin-Woo smirked to himself. Of course, Beru wouldn’t be able to see
the expression his Sovereign was making, since they were dozens
upon dozens of kilometres away.

‘Shadow Army.’

Jin-Woo called out, and his soldiers, almost 1200-strong, responded

back to him simultaneously.

From Igrit, in charge of leading the knights, Fangs leading the High
Orcs, Jima leading the Nagas, No.6 leading the giants, Tank leading
the Ice Bears, and even Greed leading the leftover soldiers.

He thought he could hear their loud roars. Every single one of them
began focusing all of their attention on Jin-Woo’s summons. He
sensed their tension oh-so-clearly, even this far away.

While enjoying this feeling of satisfaction, Jin-Woo issued his new

command.

‘Everyone, withdraw.’

[….!!]

‘I want you guys back.’

The moment his order was given, the entirety of the Shadow Army
began moving again. Soldiers all reverted back to their shadow state
and rapidly headed in the direction where Jin-Woo was waiting for
them.

[Oh, my king…. Why have you recalled your loyal soldiers?]

Jin-Woo replied with a chuckle at the surprised-sounding Beru.

‘From here onwards, only you and I will defeat the remaining
monsters.’

64
This seemed to be the best option available in order to speed up
Beru’s advancement.

Just like how a high-levelled player helped out the lower-levelled

friend in a game, he was planning to fight alongside Beru and greatly
speed up their hunting speed, gifting a whole bunch of experience
points to his subordinate in the process.

He was going to ‘power level’ Beru, in other words.

There were still quite a few areas where dungeon breaks had
occurred, so if the two of them went around clearing them, the
required level cap would be met pretty soon.

Of course, as the ground they had to cover was vast, the efficiency of
this method fell far behind the one with sending out his soldiers to
sweep the enemies clean, but Beru’s advancement was the priority
here.

[Oh, my king….]

Beru couldn’t finish his sentence, his voice overflowing with

emotions.

‘Hah. This guy.’

Seeing that his emotions had become richer as time went on, there
was little doubt that he had been hiding in the shadows watching TV
the whole day when he was supposed to protect his mother and Jin-
Ah at home.

As the recalling of his shadows was just about complete, Jin-Woo

asked the question to his soldiers.

“Is there anyone else beside Beru who feels that their advancement
is just around the corner?”

65
Perhaps inevitably, there was no reply. It wasn’t easy to advance to
the next grade, after all. And one would need an excellent
perception to sense the approaching advancement, too.

There was a reason why only Beru could sense his own advancement
out of all his Shadow Soldiers.

Just as his thoughts arrived at this point…

Shururuk….

As Beru stood there, itching to go on the intimate solo hunting with

his liege, yet another Shadow Soldier emerged from the ground next
to him.

While a look of disappointment flashed on Beru’s face, Jin-Woo’s

own expression brightened up even more.

“Nice.”

As he would do normally, Igrit politely knelt down on one knee.

Jin-Woo always felt kinda uncomfortable with Igrit’s unyielding

dedication to the formalities, but still, seeing the gesture again after
a long while made him happy regardless.

Igrit’s advancement – that too, was something he had been looking

forward to, wasn’t it?

“Alright. Let’s get started.”

Jin-Woo summoned the ‘Demon King’s Shortswords’ and smiled

deeply.

What an amazing rate of reproduction this was – it hadn’t been that

long, yet new sprouts were rising up from the scorched-black
remains of the tree monsters.

66
“Kiiieehk!”

“Kiiehk!”

There were around 40 or so dungeon break locations left to clear in

Japan beside this one.

Every second and every minute was precious if these three were to
clear them all.

***

Within the Ah-Jin Guild office.

For Yu Jin-Ho, this office had become far more comfortable than his
own place. But right this moment, it felt as if every passing minute
was as agonisingly long as an hour. He sneaked a glance at the clock
hanging on the wall.

It said, ’16:10 PM’.

It had been over two hours since ‘that man’ had shown up here.

Gulp.

Worried that his unconscious saliva swallowing had made too much
noise, Yu Jin-Ho quickly sneaked a glance at the unannounced guest
to the side. Unfortunately, his gaze ended up meeting the guest’s
eyes hidden behind a pair of sunglasses. The big man replied with a
refreshing grin.

Yu Jin-Ho forced his stiff facial muscles to form a grin of his own, or
something that roughly resembled one, and hurriedly averted his
gaze elsewhere.

Thick sweatdrops formed on his forehead. He then hurriedly pulled

out his poor phone and tried to call his dear hyung-nim, but it was a
waste of time.

67
Ring…. Ringgg….

It had been two days since the last communication with hyung-nim.
For some reason, he wasn’t picking up his phone at all. Even today.

“…”

“…”

Yu Jin-Ho lowered his phone and closed his mouth real tightly. It was
the same story for other employees of the Guild.

These talented individuals who chose to work for the Ah-Jin Guild
after seeing its potential were all overwhelmed by this awkward
atmosphere and, as if they had made a promise to do so, resolutely
maintained this heavy silence.

Of course, none of this was their fault. No, anyone who found
themselves in a similar situation would react in the same manner.

Especially so, when the man sitting on a chair by the corner of the
office happened to be one of the most powerful Hunters in the
entire world, who also was happened to be known as the man with
one of the shortest fuse in the world.

Not only that, the owner of this office was the very man who beat
this Hunter to a pulp and sent him to the hospital. So, how could
anyone be able to smile and jovially chat amongst themselves in
front of this man?

He was, of course, Thomas Andre.

The Hunter standing on top of the world had come to visit Ah-Jin
Guild to meet Jin-Woo. All thanks to that, the Vice Guild Chairman Yu
Jin-Ho and his employees had no choice but to deal with this
unannounced guest and consequently, felt like they were dying a
little bit with every passing second right now.

68
Yu Jin-Ho began wondering whether he should attempt contacting
hyung-nim one more time or not, but then…

Shururuk…

The automated door to the Guild slid open.

The heads of every single employee, including Yu Jin-Ho, instantly

snapped in that direction.

Right away, his eyes grew wide. Yu Jin-Ho jumped up from his seat in
sheer joy and spoke in a voice that contained the desperate pleading
hearts of everyone working for this Guild.

“Hyung-niiiim!!”

***

‘I was wondering why there were so many reporters camping

outside, but this….’

Jin-Woo helplessly stared at Thomas Andre grinning back at him.

Looking at that expression, the American didn’t seem to be hung up

over what happened before, so what brought him all the way out
here? Funnily enough, though, it was Yu Jin-Ho who welcomed Jin-
Woo way before Thomas Andre could.

“Hyung-nim!! Why couldn’t I get a hold of you for so long?!”

“Well, uh, I was busy.”

“Hang on a minute, now that I see your clothes…..”

Yu Jin-Ho faltered and stopped moving. Jin-Woo’s clothing bore

countless pieces of evidence of the harsh battles he must’ve gone
through. It was like looking at hyung-nim after he concluded his
Giant monster hunting trip.

69
‘If hyung-nim was fighting non-stop, to the point he couldn’t contact
anyone for two days straight, then…..’

Just how many monsters were sent back to hell by hyung-nim’s

shortswords? Trying to imagine the carnage brought up a nasty case
of goosebumps on his skin.

It was at this point in time that Thomas Andre stood up leisurely

from the chair to walk up to Jin-Woo. Since he was such a big dude,
to begin with, he didn’t need to take that many steps to close the
distance between him and his target.

Soon, the American stood before Jin-Woo.

‘Heok….’

‘No, hang on. They aren’t going to fight again in here, right?’

The Guild employees were unaware of these two’s current

relationship, so understandably, they were busy swallowing nervous
saliva as their eyes locked onto the two men standing before each
other.

The sounds of their racing hearts were so loud that Jin-Woo’s ears
were actually aching right now from the noise assaulting him.

“Mister Seong.”

Thomas Andre extended his hand first. Jin-Woo grinned and held the
offered hand to shake it. The two men shared a brief greeting that
way.

But then, the smile on Thomas Andre’s face was wiped off in an
instant.

How….

‘How could this be??’

70
For some reason, the American felt that Hunter Seong Jin-Woo was
different from before. It was only by a little bit, but this Seong Jin-
Woo was different than the one he met back in America.

Was it because the impression had changed?

For sure, Jin-Woo’s attire back when they first met, or when they
were in the banquet, was remarkably different from his current
duds, which were in a really sorry state.

However, a certain sense of ‘sturdiness’ unrelated to clothing could

be felt from him right now.

In a word, it was ‘strong’. Back then, he was strong, but now, he

came across as even stronger. However….

‘Can something like that even happen….?’

No, it couldn’t – at least not according to his common sense.

Thomas Andre’s ultra-sharp senses allowed him to detect Jin-Woo’s

change that came about from levelling up, but he lacked the
knowledge to decipher just what he was sensing here.

As the American was swimming within his confusion, their

handshake came to an end and Jin-Woo asked him the question.

“What brings you to Korea?”

“Oh, that.”

Thomas Andre recovered his wits and formed another smile.

“Didn’t I promise you before? I told you that I’ll buy a meal once my
arm heals up.”

He raised his completely-healed left arm and waved it around.

“And, also….”

71
Jin-Woo sneaked a glance at the clock on the wall. It was almost half
past four in the afternoon. The time was obviously too late for lunch,
but it was also a bit too early for supper.

“There’s still a lot of time left before dinner time, so…. Hang on.”

Jin-Woo asked for Thomas Andre’s understanding and hurriedly

walked over to Yu Jin-Ho. Now that he knew the American’s business
with him wasn’t as urgent, he decided to prioritise on the matter
that required his greater attention first.

“Can you find out for me the biggest Gate currently opening up in
Seoul?”

Yu Jin-Ho’s eyes went extra round after hearing Jin-Woo’s request.

“Hyung-nim, will it be fine as long as it’s a big one?”

“It’s fine if someone has booked it already, so find one that’s a high-
enough rank.”

“Got it, hyung-nim.”

Yu Jin-Ho typed away on the keyboard at the speed of light and

searched for the relevant information before a bright expression
formed on his face.

“Hyung-nim, I found a particularly dangerous rank A Gate.”

“Oh, really?”

“However, the Hunters Guild has called dibs on it already.”

Contrary to Yu Jin-Ho’s expectation, though, Jin-Woo didn’t look

disappointed at all.

“It’s fine.”

He didn’t care who had the raid permit or not.

72
As a matter of fact, Jin-Woo thought that explaining himself would
be easier now since he knew someone from the Hunters Guild, and
that brought about a smile to his face.

Jin-Woo prepared to leave the office with cheery, airy steps, before
turning around to address Thomas Andre.

“Ah, I’ve got an errand to run so I’ll be going out for a little while. As
for the promised meal, let’s talk about it after I return.”

“…..”

Jin-Woo left the flustered American behind and disappeared from

the office like a passing breeze. Thomas Andre dazedly stared at the
doorway the Korean Hunter had disappeared through, before loudly
bursting out with laughter.

“Ahahaha. Isn’t this….”

What else could he do?

What Jin-Woo was doing might come across as inconsiderate, but

then again, it was Thomas Andre who showed up totally
unannounced, to begin with. In fact, he should have expected that a
Hunter on the level of Seong Jin-Woo would be even busier than
himself.

“In that case…. I’ll be staying here.”

Thomas Andre left behind the contact details of the hotel he was
staying at with Yu Jin-Ho before vacating from the office himself.

“Whew…..”

Yu Jin-Ho spat out a sigh of relief as he stared at the empty space

once occupied by the American’s hulking figure, but then, nearly
jumped in fright after sensing another presence right next to him.

73
“Heok?! You were still here, too??”

It was rather lamentable that Lennart Niermann, who had arrived in

the Guild office long before Thomas Andre did, had no grasp on the
Korean language. Even then, he was pretty sure of Ah-Jin Guild’s
Vice-Chair completely forgetting about his presence until now.

“I even made a prior appointment, too…..”

Realising that even someone like himself, used to being treated like a
VVIP back in Germany, could end up being forgotten to this extent,
his head slowly drooped towards the floor.

Unfortunately, what else can he do now when even the one and only
Thomas Andre left the office without any complaints?

Whether it be a monster or a Hunter, you only had one life, after all.

“…”

Lennart Niermann stood up with no energy whatsoever in his body

and jotted down his own contact details on the small corner of the
memo Thomas Andre left behind.

***

The elite assault team members of the Hunters Guild were in the
middle of getting ready for the raid, but Jin-Woo’s sudden entrance
stole away their focus and they could only concentrate on him now.

Noisy, noisy….

Cha Hae-In was the only one to get a heads-up from him, so she was
able to remain collected, at least compared to her colleagues.

“You want to borrow our dungeon? Did something happen?”

74
“It’s as I said before. I’d like to borrow the dungeon if it’s at all
possible.”

Having seen another familiar face after what felt like forever, Jin-
Woo formed a bright smile of genuine happiness.

On the other hand – he hadn’t contacted her for a long time and yet
the first thing he said after abruptly appearing before her, was about
borrowing a dungeon that her team was about to raid.

Cha Hae-In was about to get angry, but seeing how happy Jin-Woo
was, she ended up averting her gaze elsewhere, instead.

While she stood there in hesitation, unable to think of something to

say, Choi Jong-In quickly ran in and addressed Jin-Woo. The Master
of the Hunters Guild was waiting for the latter’s arrival, actually.

“Seong Hunter-nim!”

The explanation had been concluded quickly enough.

Jin-Woo was proposing to kill every single monster inside the

dungeon, barring the boss itself, and he even promised not to touch
anything else. There would be no Guild Master worth his salt who’d
reject this deal.

The thing was, Choi Jong-In had been greatly worried about his
people getting injured inside this high-ranking Gate, so he welcomed
this offer with both of his arms raised up high.

Of course, the members of the raid team themselves were also

welcoming this development, although they were careful not to
show it outwardly.

Jin-Woo immediately headed towards the Gate.

75
Before he could go far, though, someone tugged at his sleeve so he
turned around to see who it was. He found Cha Hae-In and her
blushing cheeks there, asking him in a hushed voice.

“What will you do inside the dungeon?”

“There’s something I need to test inside. One of my summons has

gone through a change, you see.”

One of his summons, he said.

Cha Hae-In recalled the two summons she fought against in the
Association’s gymnasium – Igrit and Beru. They were far too strong
to be labelled as mere summons. She was supposed to be a rank S
Hunter, yet those two could easily threaten her life.

Did something change regarding those two and he wanted to test

them out now? Cha Hae-In became really curious and whispered in
an even more hushed voice.

“In that case…. Can I go inside with you and take a look, too?”

Jin-Woo heard that question containing just a tiny bit of ulterior

motive and resolutely shook his head.

“It’ll get far too dangerous. I’m planning to let him run amok, you
see.”

Jin-Woo cut her off, his expression one of seriousness. Cha Hae-In
nodded her head and didn’t press any further.

Jin-Woo left behind her longing gaze and jumped into the Gate.

[You have entered a dungeon.]

The same message he saw so many times popped up again. Jin-Woo

hurriedly summoned Beru, on standby within his shadow.

76
‘Come out.’

77
Chapter 206

After Jin-Woo left, the elite members of the Hunters Guild fought
against each other to become the first one to enter the dungeon.

“H-hey! Stop pushing me!”

“This dungeon ain’t gonna run away, so there’s no need for all this
craziness!”

Rumble, tumble-!

Just what did the one and only Hunter Seong Jin-Woo want to test
out that he even resorted to borrowing a rank A Gate someone else
had already booked? Not only that, a Gate with a difficulty that had
clearly gone up drastically?

Hunters quickly stepped on the dungeon’s floor and scanned every

corner with their curious eyes. But soon, their expressions turned
into ones of pure shock and astonishment.

Literally, they were facing a river of blood!

The corpses of monsters, ripped to almost unrecognisable shreds,

formed a road of blood. And this ‘road’ seemed to continue on
forever into the darkness on the far side.

The Hunters were all rendered speechless and couldn’t even dare to
go in any deeper.

“Look…. Look over there.”

One of the Hunters ribbed the person next to him with his elbow.

78
The victim of the elbowing attempt shifted his dazed gaze towards
the location being pointed out and gradually, his jaw almost hit the
floor at the unbelievable sight waiting for him there.

Just what kind of force could make a monster get embedded in the
ceiling of the dungeon in such a grotesque fashion?

Considering that the walls of these dungeons were made up of

materials incomparably harder than any regular caves, that was one
seriously shocking sight to behold, indeed.

“That’s all for my dinner plan tonight, I guess….”

Hunters with weaker stomachs saw this scene of utter slaughter and
their complexions turned paler than a sheet of paper. What
surprised them even more, was the fact that monsters of the
dungeon measured to be at the top end of rank A had been killed off
in such a state in less than ten minutes.

A female Hunter muttered to herself, her expression still one of pure

shock.

“Hunter Seong Jin-Woo…. He didn’t even look like the type, but this
is just….”

The deeper the group entered, the clearer and clearer for them to
spot the signs of the overwhelming violence; she had been a Hunter
for almost five years now, but never once did she witness the walls
of a dungeon destroyed to such an extent before.

Another male Hunter scanning the interior of the dungeon

responded to her muttering.

“What do other people call this? Unleashing the inner beast? Or

something like that?”

79
Cha Hae-In slowly shook her head after hearing that. None of this
was the handiwork of Hunter Seong. She had witnessed his fights
from up close several times already, so she was pretty certain of this.

The Jin-Woo she knew was a Hunter who preferred to end his
enemies as cleanly as possible. It was artistic, even.

She was enthralled by the beauty in the way he controlled his skills
the first time she saw him fight.

If that was the case….

‘….The one capable of doing this among Hunter Seong’s summons

is…’

It was right then – she recalled the head of the ant monster
screeching at her with its mandibles wide open, causing a chill to run
down her spine.

That creature was the peak existence of vicious cruelty!

Didn’t Jin-Woo say it? That one of his summons had gone through a
change. Just what kind of a change did that ant monster go through,
then?

Cha Hae-In left behind her colleagues still being shocked by the
remaining traces of Beru’s activity found throughout the dungeon,
and quickly exited from the Gate. However, Jin-Woo was nowhere to
be seen by then, even though he left only a few minutes ago.

“Why does he have to be so fast….”

Cha Hae-In scanned her surroundings and murmured with a cheeky

pout. And she had so many things to ask him, too….

‘I’m sure there will be another chance.’

80
She sighed so softly that it wouldn’t even frighten a butterfly settling
down in front of her. A subtle smile formed on her face as she slowly
turned around to re-enter the Gate.

***

Jin-Ah killed her footsteps and sneaked like a crafty little cat to close
in her mom busying washing dishes.

Clink, clink….

Either mom didn’t hear her daughter’s footsteps, or maybe she did
hear them but decided to pretend that she didn’t, she didn’t react to
Jin-Ah closing the distance. And then, in the end…

Jin-Ah got close enough to hear her mom’s breathing before hugging
her tightly.

“Mom!”

Too bad for all of her efforts, though, her mother didn’t seem to be
surprised at all. She simply responded with a gentle voice.

“Are you feeling bored?”

“Ng, I am. Oppa doesn’t want to come home, and Mom doesn’t want
to play with me~.”

While mom was sleeping in the hospital, Jin-Woo performed the role
of the substitute mother to his sister. To help Jin-Ah focus on her
studies, he did his best to act as the sole breadwinner and took care
of all the chores around the family home.

To her, he was her sibling, her parent, and at the same time, her
friend.

That was why Jin-Ah often missed her oppa’s presence around the
family home as he grew busier and busier every day.

81
Every single one of her fellow countrymen knew her oppa’s face and
his name by now, but what was the point if she couldn’t really get to
see him anymore?

And so, here she was, trying to fill the hole Jin-Woo had left behind
with her mom and her warm words of encouragements.

“Still, it’s great to have you around, Mom.”

Jin-Ah buried her face in her mom’s back and formed a happy smile.
Although she couldn’t see her back, the mother carried a similar
expression as the daughter and continued cleaning the dishes.

Jin-Ah clung to her mom’s back like a cicada holding onto a tree for a
while before opening her mouth.

“Mom? Let’s move house.”

Flinch.

Mom’s hands momentarily stopped moving before resuming their

actions. A smile formed on her lips again.

“Do you want to move to somewhere else?”

“Yeah.”

“But, what will we do? Mom really likes this place, you know.”

“Why do you like such an old apartment?”

Jin-Ah lightly rebuked her, but mom simply smiled back and her
hands continued to move briskly.

Actually, Jin-Ah knew why her mom didn’t want to leave this old
apartment. She knew the reason why her mom still persisted in
staying here while paying the monthly rent, when her oppa was

82
making the kind of money that regular people would never get to
touch in their lifetime.

She was still waiting for her missing husband, her children’s father.
She was hoping that, maybe one day, he’d stumble back here.

Jin-Ah couldn’t remember much about her father now and felt that
waiting for him was a waste of time. But, her brother hadn’t
mentioned moving house again after he heard mom’s reasoning.

“Still, I like this apartment.”

Mom gently persuaded her daughter again, prompting Jin-Ah to spin

on her heels to leave, her cheeks puffing up unhappily.

“Che.”

“Don’t be like…. Ah!”

Mom quickly turned around and looked at Jin-Ah with a face that
said, ‘I forgot!’; she had just remembered that the weather forecast
warned of rainfall later in the evenings.

“Sweetie, can you take the washing from the veranda and bring
them in?”

“Mom, you only call me sweetie when you need me to do stuff.”

Still, she didn’t mind being called that, as evidenced by her happy
humming as she made her way to the veranda.

As befitting of Jin-Ah, who was more or less an expert at performing

chores like this, she quickly took down the washings and placed them
in the basket.

But then….

83
Her rapid hands suddenly stuttered to a halt. She realised that the
sky above had darkened even before she noticed it.

“…Uh?”

Did the rain clouds arrive already?

Naturally, she raised her head up to look above. And her eyes
opened incredibly wide next.

The basket filled with washed clothes fell out of her hands.

“M-Moooom!!”

***

His hands were soaked with sweat.

The Association President Woo Jin-Cheol looked down on his wet

palms before hurriedly rubbing them against his blameless pants.

How long had it been since he felt this nervous? He’d actually prefer
to enter a Gate on the brink of a dungeon break. That would be
easier on his stress level.

“You don’t have to be that tense, Association President Woo Jin-

Cheol.”

A certain high-ranking official who had invited Woo Jin-Cheol to the

Korean Presidential residence – the Blue House – formed a rather
slimy grin.

How could a proper conversation be held when the guy supposed to

meet the holder of the highest office in the country was this
nervous?

The official understood full well that climbing up to such a high office
at a young age must’ve been quite burdensome, but even then, he

84
prayed that there wouldn’t be any ‘mistakes’ committed during the
meeting itself.

“My apologies.”

Woo Jin-Cheol’s smile was just a tad stiff but he still nodded his head.
As a gesture of encouragement, the official patted his back a couple
of times.

Soon, the door to the special guest room opened and the president
of the country these two men were waiting for strode in while
flanked by several of his retinues.

“Mister President!”

“Sir!”

Woo Jin-Cheol and the government official both stood up from their
seats.

“Ah, ah. It’s fine. Please, take a seat. I’m okay either way. It’s not like
I’m someone that impressive, anyway.”

The President of Korea, Kim Myung-Cheol, cracked a light joke to

disperse the nervous atmosphere and settled down on his seat.

Once the president of the nation found his seat, the government
official and Woo Jin-Cheol settled down as well, in that order.

The president’s gaze shifted immediately in Woo Jin-Cheol’s

direction.

“I’m sure you’re really busy with the matters of the Association right
about now, Mister Association President.”

“Well, uh… not as much, sir.”

85
His lips might have denied it, but the dark circles beneath Woo Jin-
Cheol’s eyes were expanding their territories every single day.

He began wondering how did the late Association President Goh

Gun-Hui manage to survive all this workload with his unhealthy body.
Woo Jin-Cheol’s level of respect for him had deepened even further
after his passing.

But that was probably why he really wanted this uncomfortable get-
together to end as quickly as possible.

“Excuse me, sir…. Why did you ask me to come by today, sir?”

“Uh-huh, this guy!”

The high-ranking government official tried to warn Woo Jin-Cheol as

the latter tried to jump straight into the meat of the story, but then,
the President stopped him.

“Indeed, it’s not right to keep the Association President here for too
long when he took time out of his busy schedule to come and see
me.”

Not beating around the bush, and keeping it simple when it comes to
the main topic; President Kim Myung-Cheol didn’t mind the speedy
progress of discussions at all.

“In that case, allow me to get to the topic right away. The reason
why I asked you, the Association President, to come here is
because….”

For the briefest time then, Woo Jin-Cheol’s senses of a high-ranked

Hunter caught on to the fact that the country’s president was trying
to read his current mood.

This led to him having a certain premonition. No doubt, the other

man was getting ready to ask him for a rather troublesome favour.

86
Sure enough – as if he also felt a bit sheepish about this, President
Kim smiled awkwardly and began explaining himself.

“I heard that you and Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim enjoy a particularly

close relationship.”

Woo Jin-Cheol immediately corrected that faulty rumour.

“I am indeed an acquaintance with Seong Hunter-nim, but our

relationship is not as close as you think, sir.”

“Huhuh, is that so.”

“Yes. It was actually the late Association President Goh Gun-Hui who
enjoyed a close-knit relationship with Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim.”

Woo Jin-Cheol nodded by himself, recalling the moment when Goh

Gun-Hui expressed his desire to knock back a few cold ones with
Hunter Seong.

President Kim pondered something in silence for a bit, before

carrying on.

“Even still, you are in a position to communicate readily with Seong

Hunter-nim, yes?”

“Oh…. Yes, I am.”

“In that case, may we ask you for a favour, Association President
Woo?”

As expected…

Woo Jin-Cheol inwardly thought, “Here it comes,” and replied with a

begrudging tone of voice.

“What kind of a favour are we talking about, sir?”

87
“Because of Seong Hunter-nim’s sky-high acclaim, we were
wondering if we could use him as a public relations ambassador for
the country. With a slogan similar to, ‘Hunter Seong Jin-Woo makes
the Republic of Korea safe’.”

President Kim ended his words there and grinned brightly.

Here was a proudly Korean Hunter strong enough to teach the

American Special Authority-rank Hunter a lesson, not to mention
important enough to make the Hunter Bureau be at his beck and call,
too.

There was no way that the financial and the political world wouldn’t
take notice of such a person’s actions.

Kim Myung-Cheol was planning to use his position as the country’s

president to reel Jin-Woo in to his side before anyone else could.

In the beginning, as the public relations ambassador of the nation,

and then, gradually build up a friendship with him over time.

As his fame as the world’s strongest Hunter soared higher, being his
‘friend’ would prove to be one of the most powerful cards anyone
could possess.

As for the Association President Woo Jin-Cheol, his role was to

become the bridgehead to facilitate that purpose.

Of course, Woo Jin-Cheol wasn’t naïve enough to not realise what

the ulterior motive of President Kim was.

‘You called me here to talk about something like that?’

Woo Jin-Cheol felt all his nervous tension dissipate. And then, he
began to get angry, wondering about why he had to get involved in
this kind of crap as soon as he occupied the position of the
Association President.

88
‘….So, he thinks I’m easier to push around.’

Indeed, he wasn’t Goh Gun-Hui. The late Association President

performed the role of a breakwater of the Association, but with him
gone, the figures of the financial and political world were now
focusing their attention on him, instead.

They were telling him to serve their interests.

The funny thing was, though – Woo Jin-Cheol was getting angry,
sure, but at the same time, he also felt rather relieved, as well.

In the past, the late Association President Goh Gun-Hui often

mentioned this – the Hunter’s Association needed to create the right
kind of atmosphere for the Hunters to do their jobs.

And this incredibly important role wasn’t just for the sake of the
Hunters, but for the sake of everyone else, as well.

When his thoughts reached up to that point, Woo Jin-Cheol became

much more relaxed than before. A natural smile even crept up on his
face, too.

Unfortunately for President Kim, though, he misinterpreted that

smile and began laughing alongside as well.

“Huhuhuh. It seems that Association President Woo is quite a

sensible man, unlike a certain someone. Very good. I’d be very
appreciative if you do us this small favour. This isn’t just for my
benefit, wouldn’t you say?”

He said ‘unlike a certain someone’. It didn’t take a genius to figure

out just who the president was talking about. Woo Jin-Cheol
soundlessly gritted his teeth and spoke up.

“Indeed, the late Association President was an amazing gentleman.”

89
“That’s right. Very true. He was a great gentleman, but also just as
stubborn and inflexible, too.”

“I’m very different from the late Association President.”

“Huhuhuh! Indeed, you are. The Hunter’s Association should change

accordingly with the times. It’s no good to be tied to the ideals of the
past forever.”

A cold grin floated up on Woo Jin-Cheol’s lips as he began glaring at

President Kim.

“How long do you think it’ll take me to kill every single person in this
building, including all of your bodyguards?”

“W-what was that?!”

The high-ranking official jumped up from his seat, but he was frozen
stiff immediately from the dense killing intent emitted by Woo Jin-
Cheol.

Never mind low ranked Hunters, a rank A Awakened would prove to

be an existence even more lethal than any known savage beasts to a
normal civilian.

Regular people would be utterly powerless when facing against a

tiger or a bear out in the wilderness, so how could the same people
be able to deal with a rank A Hunter?

“A few hours? No. I think it won’t even take a few minutes.”

Woo Jin-Cheol watched the complexions of the two men listening

turn paler and paler with every passing second and calmly addressed
them.

“In that case, how many men do you think you’ll need to stop me
when I start rampaging around? I wonder. If you were to mobilise

90
every single police officer and soldier stationed within Seoul and
defend until my magical energy reserve bottoms out, then, well, I
think you can somehow save yourselves.”

Woo Jin-Cheol drawing this incredibly horrifying picture with a calm

expression only served to heighten President Kim’s terror even
further.

“Y-you…. But, but, why….”

The politician wanted to say something, but this dense killing intent
constantly weighed down on his lips and he couldn’t utter anything
that resembled words.

“However, what if it was Hunter Seong going on a rampage, instead

of me? How many men do you have to mobilise to defend against
him?”

Was it because of all this murderous intent emitted by Woo Jin-

Cheol?

President Kim was instantly overcome with a nasty case of

goosebumps spreading all over his body after imagining Hunter
Seong Jin-Woo, capable of hunting down those Giant monsters
alone, suddenly starting to hunt down people, instead.

Woo Jin-Cheol figured that this was enough of terrorising the two
men and withdrew his killing intent.

“Such a thing doesn’t happen, because every Hunter out there

focuses solely on what a Hunter must do.”

Hunters needed to operate in the sphere of Hunters. Meanwhile,

politicians needed to stay within their bubbles.

91
Making the world go around the correct way – that was the creed of
the Hunter’s Association, nay, of the late Association President Goh
Gun-Hui.

Woo Jin-Cheol stared straight into the frightened eyes of President

Kim and firmly warned him.

“I have no thoughts of sullying the ideals of the Hunter’s Association

as established by the late President Goh Gun-Hui, sir. And of course, I
expect you to cooperate with us fully.”

92
Chapter 207

Was there any reason to doubt him?

President Kim confirmed that Woo Jin-Cheol was being dead serious
and hurriedly muttered out an answer, not even giving himself
enough time to spin this situation to his advantage.

“O-of course. A Hunter needs to do a Hunter’s job. My thoughts

were too rash. It was a slip of the tongue on my part.”

Woo Jin-Cheol watched the pale-faced president nodding his head

non-stop, and stood up from his seat to leave. Even after he was long
gone, though, both the president and the high-ranking government
official couldn’t get up from their seats, their legs having turned to
jelly a long time ago.

“…”

“…”

Only now did they awake to the reality of how scary the existences
called Hunters could be.

***

“Did something good happen in there, sir?”

As the car was about to drive away, the escort driving the vehicle
asked Woo Jin-Cheol sitting in the backseat.

“Does it look that way to you?”

“Yes, sir. It does.”

His escort was also an agent of the Monitoring Division.

93
Woo Jin-Cheol glanced at the baby-faced newbie, effectively his
junior from the same department, and ended up recalling his own
newbie days and he let a content smile sneak up on his lips.

“Well, it feels like I’ve performed the duty of the Association

President for the first time since I got the job, that’s all.”

Woo Jin-Cheol reclined against the back of the seat that Goh Gun-Hui
used to occupy. He then looked back fondly at the late Association
President, who would’ve been sitting in places like this, out of
everyone’s gazes and earning the ire and hatred of many powerful
men in high places, all for the sake of other Hunters.

‘….What a relief.’

Thanks to Woo Jin-Cheol’s angry-looking eyes and his large frame, he

was used to being hated and feared already. If that was part of being
the Association’s President, then he’d gladly accept it.

The moment he decided to take over from Goh Gun-Hui, he had

prepared himself to a certain extent for this kind of rubbish, anyway.

“Where should we go next, sir?”

“….To the Association.”

He dearly wanted to go home and take a break, but he actually came

running here after abandoning his job back in the office. He still had
a mountain of work to go through.

“Then, we’ll get going, sir.”

The escort seemed to understand Woo Jin-Cheol’s mind as he

stepped on the accelerator. The vehicle carrying the two men easily
slipped out of the Blue House’s grounds.

How long had passed by like that?

94
Woo Jin-Cheol drifted off to sleep while staring at the passing
scenery, only to abruptly wake up again. He could see an endless
ocean of cars filling up the road, not going anywhere fast.

Even though Seoul was infamous for its clogged roadways, such a
traffic jam seemed improbable in the middle of a weekday.

‘Did another Gate pop up in the middle of the road again?’

Feeling a bit worried now, Woo Jin-Cheol scanned his surroundings.

Unfortunately, the overall atmosphere of the road seemed far too
suspicious for something as simple as that. In fact, all the drivers had
stopped their cars and stepped outside to look up into the sky.

It wasn’t just the drivers, either.

Even the pedestrians on the sidewalks, people on the zebra

crossings, every single one had come to a dead stop and was looking
up at the sky above their heads. That included the escort in the
driver’s seat, who was also craning his neck forward to look at the
sky.

‘What on earth is going on here….?’

Now feeling genuinely alarmed, Woo Jin-Cheol quickly grabbed the

escort’s shoulder and shook him around.

“Hey. What’s going on?”

“A-Association President…”

The escort spoke with a trembling voice, leaned out of the way and
pointed up at the top of the windscreen.

“T-there, sir….”

In an instant, Woo Jin-Cheol’s expression stiffened.

95
Were his eyes playing tricks on him?

No, if that was the case, then everyone shouldn’t be looking at the
sky with the exact same expression etched on their faces. He didn’t
want to believe what he just saw, but just like with everyone else on
the road, he leapt out of the car.

His eyes weren’t lying to him.

Woo Jin-Cheol dazedly stared at the sky before a look of pure,

unadulterated shock took over his face.

“How… how can something like that be….?!”

***

The result of the test proved to be very satisfying. Jin-Woo’s steps

taking him back home were cheerier than ever before.

Beru had become really strong. A lot stronger than his initial
expectation, even.

It was unfortunate that Igrit couldn’t advance, but Beru’s

advancement alone was already an excellent result. Without a
doubt, the elites of the Hunters Guild should be unable to shut their
slack jaws from the spectacle laid out within that dungeon by now.

Jin-Woo imagined Cha Hae-In and her wide-open eyes, and a smirk
formed on his lips.

It had been a while since they saw each other and he wanted to talk
to her for a bit longer, but regrettably, he still had guests waiting for
him. Jin-Woo pondered his options between Thomas Andre and
Lennart Niermann before giving the American the call first.

96
He could pretty much guess what the German was here for, but he
simply couldn’t figure out what the Hunter ranked No.2 in the world
was thinking of by showing up unannounced like this.

The call got through in no time at all.

– “Mister Seong!”

Worried that Jin-Woo would cut him off again, Thomas Andre was
quick to pour out what he wanted to say.

– “I came bearing a fantastic gift for you, Mister Seong.”

A gift?

“What the heck. If you had something like that, you should’ve told
me earlier.”

Jin-Woo spoke to the American half-jokingly and half-seriously, but

then, he was suddenly faced with silence from the other side of the
line.

A short while later, Thomas Andre spoke with a kind of voice

belonging to someone suppressing his swelling emotions.

– “….I’m really happy to hear that you’re looking forward to my gift.

Okay, then. Where will we meet? I want to hand over the gift as soon
as possible.”

“Wherever it’s convenient for you.”

– “Can you come to where I am? These guys are a bit too dangerous
to walk around in the open, you see.”

Too dangerous?

Jin-Woo was left puzzled for a moment then, but still, told Thomas
Andre that he’d be there soon and ended the call.

97
‘Hang on… It really can’t be a bomb, right?’

Of course, it couldn’t be. It’d be far more effective than an explosive

to attack personally if you were a Special Authority-rank Hunter.

Jin-Woo began regretting a bit at the fact that he forgot to ask what
kind of a gift it was. It was then, Beru suddenly began addressing
him.

[Oh, my king.]

‘Mm?’

[May I be permitted to fight against that foreigner?]

‘…….’

Jin-Woo pondered that for a little while, before shaking his head as if
to get rid of the distracting thoughts.

What was he even wondering about here?

Sure, he was really curious as to find out just how far Beru’s powers
had been enhanced, but there was no way he’d let his Shadow
Soldier fight against Thomas Andre.

He didn’t want to see either the American get hurt or see Beru get
destroyed. Their personalities meant that the fight would definitely
not end with someone getting a bit bruised.

‘Even then….’

Still, being able to ponder such a possibility attested to how much

Beru had grown compared to before. In fact, the former ant king’s
desire to test his own enhanced body could be heard so clearly in his
voice.

‘Beru?’

98
[Please bestow unto this lowly servant your wisdom, oh, my king.]

‘There should come a time when you’ll be free to test your limits as
much as you want. So, there’s no need to be rash.’

[This servant shall take it to heart, my king.]

‘And also, you gotta stop watching those historical dramas on TV.
Your speech has become really weird lately, you know?’

[This servant shall heed my liege’s….]

‘Just say ‘Yes, I will’, okay? Say, ‘Yes’. Just ‘Yes’, nothing more.’

[Yes.]

Very good.

Now that he finally told Beru what was on his mind, Jin-Woo happily
headed off to the meeting location with Thomas Andre.

***

“Oh, Mister Seong! You probably have no idea how long I waited for
this moment.”

Thomas Andre welcomed Jin-Woo into his hotel suite with open
arms.

It was true that you’d feel great about receiving gifts, but the joy of
giving itself shouldn’t be underestimated, as well.

From the time Jin-Woo mentioned that he needed new shortswords

to up until now – Thomas Andre had been counting the days he’d get
to hand over the greatest weapons ever made, sleeping within his
Guild’s storage, to his new friend.

He didn’t simply fly all the way to this distant foreign land for no
reason at all.

99
How would the guy Thomas Andre personally acknowledged as the
world’s best Hunter react when he sees these two bad boys?

Along with a big bout of anticipation bubbling in his heart…

Snap!

…Thomas Andre snapped his fingers, prompting his ‘bodyguards’ to

bring out a large box covered in a sheet of fabric.

Even if it was ostensibly a gift, Jin-Woo didn’t really want anything, to

begin with, so he stared at the box with disinterest, but then, as the
bodyguards got closer and closer, his eyes became equally sharper
and sharper as well.

‘What’s this….?’

Wuoong…. Wuuuuong…

Something inside that box was resonating with his magical energy.

Thomas Andre easily caught the changes in Jin-Woo’s expression and

inwardly punched the air.

‘That’s what I’m talking about!’

Hunter Seong Jin-Woo would recognise the weapons, while said

weapons would recognise their new owner; Thomas Andre predicted
that they would naturally recognise each other, and as expected, he
was proven right, at this moment.

It was possible that these weapons had been hiding inside the
Scavenger Guild’s storage unit where not even a strand of outside
light entered, biding their time just for this very moment.

Tack!

100
The box was placed on the coffee table between Thomas Andre and
Jin-Woo.

“This here is my repayment for the favour you’ve shown to my Guild

members and to myself.”

Thomas Andre grasped the corner of the fabric and carefully pulled it
away.

Shururuk….

The sheet slid off smoothly and revealed what it had been hiding all
this time. It was a see-through case underneath. And within it were a
pair of shortswords stabbed into a large reptilian scale.

No, hang on – could they even be called shortswords?

Jin-Woo grew doubtful almost immediately.

The blades of these weapons were definitely shorter than a

longsword’s, yes, but then again, they were so much longer than a
regular shortsword’s, too.

However, what caught his attention wasn’t the puzzling length of the
shortswords themselves. No, it was actually their ice-white blades.

Jin-Woo was familiar with the concept of crafting blades out of non-
metallic materials. As a matter of fact, the very first weapon he
acquired inside the first instant dungeon was the ‘Poison Fang of
Kasaka’.

Thanks to the memories of that time, Jin-Woo could guess just which
monster’s fang was used as raw material to craft this pair of
shortswords. Besides, there was only one creature capable of
emitting this kind of aura from a part of its remains.

“Kamish….”

101
Jin-Woo involuntarily whispered that name out, prompting Thomas
Andre to shake his head while clapping his hands, feeling impressed.

“To think, you’d correctly guess the base material used for these
guys just from one look.”

Jin-Woo’s guess was correct. But then, because he was right, he

became puzzled about something else.

“Hang on, I thought Kamish’s remains were in safekeeping with the

Hunter Bureau….?”

“Because the American government wanted the intact corpse, we

gave up on that monster completely. We got something else even
more valuable than money from that deal, anyway.”

Thomas Andre recalled the raid back then and grinned meaningfully.

“However, Kamish’s biggest and sharpest fang…. When that thing

tried to bite me, I yanked out one such fang, and it was given to me
as a souvenir.”

The problem was, there were no Awakened capable of crafting

weapons out of stripped materials from a d*mn Dragon.

….Besides one single man, that was.

Thomas Andre added that, with the master craftsman responsible for
the creation of these two genuine masterpieces having passed away
due to old age, there would never be another weapon crafted out of
the Dragon corpse in this world again.

“The fang’s length wasn’t nearly long enough to make a proper

longsword, so they were made into shortswords back then. Who
knew that decision would pay off now?”

102
Thomas Andre recounted the situation of all those years ago, his
expression remaining bright and cheerful. He then leisurely took
away the clear case and pushed the scale with the shortswords
stabbed into it in Jin-Woo’s direction.

“And now, these are yours.”

Finally, the best weapons in the world had met the best owner in the
world. Thomas Andre did his darnedest to calm his fluttering heart
and studied Jin-Woo’s response.

The latter pulled one of the shortswords out.

Shuwuk.

As if the weapon was waiting for it, it came off without any
resistance whatsoever.

Tti-ring.

The mechanical beep went off in Jin-Woo’s head as soon as he

grasped the shortsword and he quickly swallowed his saliva. Shortly
afterwards, the detailed explanations on the weapon popped up in
his view.

‘WHAT?!’

Jin-Woo doubted his own eyes right away.

This couldn’t be real.

He was completely taken aback by the nonsensical attack value of

this weapon and hurriedly summoned out his current main weapon,
the ‘Demon King’s Shortsword’.

[Item: Demon King’s Shortsword]

Rarity: S

103
Type: Shortsword

Attack: +220

A shortsword taken from the Demon King, Baran. Using two ‘Demon
King’s Shortswords’ will activate a set effect.

Set effect ‘Two Becomes One’: Extra attack power equal to the
current Strength Stat will be added to each shortsword.

This blade’s attack power would shoot way past the 500 mark when
his current Strength Stat of over 300 was added on top. He had
always thought that such a set effect would make this shortsword
plenty useful for his cause.

But then, the attack value of the new shortsword in his hand
was…..?!

Jin-Woo compared the stats for both shortswords and began

freaking out inwardly.

‘….How can this even be possible?!’

104
Chapter 208

Jin-Woo’s gaze was fixed to the shortsword crafted out of Kamish’s

fang. Its utterly unbelievable attack power could be seen floating
above the weapon.

[Item: Kamish’s Wrath]

Rarity: ??

Type: Shortsword

Attack: +1,500

Top quality shortsword fashioned from the sharpest fang among the
Dragon’s teeth by the expert’s hands.

The blade’s sharpness has no equal in this world; it also boasts

excellent sensitivity towards Mana, and can become greatly
strengthened depending on the wielder’s capability.

The explanation seemed to go on forever. However, nothing besides

the attack damage entered his eyes.

‘1,500?! Just the pure attack damage??’

Never mind any added options, just the base damage dealt was
1,500.

As much as 1,500!

After recalling that the higher attack damage would make it easier to
slice up the enemy, Jin-Woo couldn’t even begin to imagine just how
scarily effective this shortsword was going to be.

105
‘N-no, hang on. Was there any weapon with 1,500 attack damage in
the Store, to begin with?!’

Jin-Woo was so excited by the shortsword’s attack damage, he

hurriedly summoned the Store’s interface without paying any mind
to all those eyes studying his every move.

Obviously, it was quite a bit embarrassing to compare this bad boy to

the shortswords being sold there, so he went straight to the section
with broadswords, which boasted the highest attacking power
among the blade-type weapons.

‘Huh….’

The most expensive broadsword’s attack damage barely cracked past

the 1,000 mark. Even if this weapon was sold in the Store, it was still
a broadsword boasting 1,000 damage, but a measly little shortsword
was 1,500.

‘Hang on. Just purely from the perspective of the attack damage,
won’t it be the same thing as me wielding two broadswords in each
of my hands?’

The weightiness of the shortsword could still be felt through his

palm.

He raised his head, his desire to cut something up with this thing
powerfully stimulating him. That’s when he spotted Thomas Andre
forming an awkward smile after having read Jin-Woo’s mind. The
American shook his head.

“Whoa there, Mister Seong. Even if I activate my reinforcement skill

to increase my defence, that blade will still cut me down. I hope you
ain’t thinking of killing me with my own gift, right?”

106
Of course, Jin-Woo wasn’t thinking of doing that. He replied to
Thomas Andre’s OTT exaggeration with a chuckle and focused back
on the shortsword.

‘It’s got excellent sensitivity towards Mana, is it?’

Mana was another name for magical energy. To find out what the
‘excellent sensitivity towards Mana’ could even mean, Jin-Woo
poured a tiny little amount of his magic energy into the blade.

And when he did….

“Heok….”

The bodyguards were supposed to refrain from making needless

noises, but one of them couldn’t hold back and gasped out in pure
astonishment. He quickly covered his mouth, but no matter – no one
scolded him, anyway.

Because, everyone else’s attention had been stolen away by Jin-

Woo’s shortsword to such an extent that they failed to notice his
faux pas just now.

“Oh, my god…..”

Thomas Andre had experienced all sorts of craziness in his life, but
even he couldn’t hold back his shocked gasp from leaking out of his
mouth. From Jin-Woo’s hand, from the entirety of the shortsword
itself, a blackish aura was slowly rising up, that was why.

‘This shortsword is…. It’s responding to my magic energy.’

It wasn’t just the aura rising up from the weapon; that weightiness of
the shortsword seemingly filling up his palm had also vanished in an
instant. As if it was all a lie from the very start.

The weapon had become lighter than a feather.

107
‘Holy cow….’

This weapon even allowed its wielder to control its weight as he

willed it.

Wuuong, wuuong…

The shortsword ‘Kamish’s Wrath’ began vibrating as if to greet its

new owner. Jin-Woo’s heart began pounding even harder as he
grasped its hilt.

Ba-thump, ba-thump!!

He really wanted to fight with this weapon. He really, really wanted

to use it right now. Although, he couldn’t really figure out whether
this was the shortsword’s will, or his own desire speaking.

Jin-Woo calmed his palpitating heart down and stabbed the

shortsword back to where it used to be.

Stab.

That brought about the end to the blade’s vibration.

The black aura had been oppressing Laura and the bodyguards to the
extent that they couldn’t even breathe properly, but now that the
overwhelming aura was gone, they were able to finally gasp for fresh
air.

Thomas Andre stopped looking at Jin-Woo and shifted his gaze over
to her.

‘You still think I made a mistake?’

Thomas Andre’s meaningful gaze prompted Laura to shake her head

quickly. As long as these shortswords were to be pointed in the
direction of the monsters and not other humans, Thomas Andre’s
decision should be seen as irrefutable.

108
The weapon would find its rightful owner. Even as a regular person
who couldn’t sense any magical energy, Laura understood what was
going on here in an instant.

Now that his judgement was proven correct, Thomas Andre began
grinning quite refreshingly.

“So, how do you like my present, Mister Seong?”

The most extreme of all emotions would always be expressed not in

words, but through one’s actions. Jin-Woo quietly lifted his thumb up
real high.

“Hahaha-!!”

Thomas Andre felt pleased as punch and leisurely clapped his hands
to express his joy.

These shortswords were the proof of their friendship. He didn’t feel

a shred of regret for using them if he was able to get on Jin-Woo’s
good books.

Rather, it was Jin-Woo who was feeling burdened by this gift.

“Is it really okay for me to receive something like this for free?”

“What do you mean, for free?”

Thomas Andre erased that semi-permanent smile off his face and
formed a serious expression next.

“Actually, I think it’s a cheap price to pay for the lives of my Guild
members as well as myself.”

This was how Thomas Andre expressed his plea of “Don’t refuse my
gift and just say yes.”

109
Since Jin-Woo had already heard the particular way Thomas Andre
expressed himself from Laura, he simply chuckled and replied to the
American.

“In that case, thank you. I’ll gladly accept them.”

“If you’re willing to do that, well, I’m happy, too.”

As the atmosphere between the two Hunters standing at the very

apex of the world grew warmer and more cordial…

….Jin-Woo and Thomas Andre both stopped moving at the same

time.

Laura and the bodyguards didn’t even have the chance to panic at
the sudden stiffness in the two men’s expression, because Thomas
Andre opened his mouth before they could.

“Mister Seong, just now, that…”

Jin-Woo briefly nodded his head. That ominous sensation that

brushed past his backside – Thomas Andre must’ve felt something
quite similar to that.

It came from the sky. As if they had a prior agreement, both men
shot up from their seats and quickly stood next to the window.

“….”

Jin-Woo spat out a gasp. Thomas Andre discovered the same thing
and his eyes visibly quaked. Just how could a thing like that appear in
the middle of the sky?!

The American Hunter stared at the massive Gate floating up high in

the sky and muttered loudly.

“I can hardly believe this. I’ve never seen a Gate that huge before.”

110
Even the Gate that spat out Kamish wasn’t as big as that b*stard up
there. The thing was, though, Jin-Woo had seen a Gate with similar
dimensions before – within the ‘data’ the stone angel statue played
for him back then.

He saw winged soldiers pour out in their droves from a Gate high up
in the sky.

The massive size of the Gate covering the heavens above the city of
Seoul was almost an exact match to the Gate he saw within the data.
Just from recalling the sight of all those soldiers painting the sky
silver, Jin-Woo felt this shudder, a jolt, buzzing from the back of his
neck.

‘Hang on. Could it be that the identity of the massive amount of

magisphere pooling in Seoul’s sky is that thing?’

Jin-Woo became utterly speechless. Even Thomas Andre, even Laura,

and even their bodyguards, all of them failed to close their slack
jaws.

And as a heavy, powerful silence descended on everyone in the

room, the gigantic Gate that suddenly manifested itself in the sky
continued to gently ripple about, as if to swallow everything that was
down below.

***

Right below the airborne Gate.

The residents of the city formed a literal sea of people below it,
knowing that there was no danger of a dungeon break as the Gate
had been generated not too long ago. They raised their smartphones
and busily snapped shots of the portal dyeing the heavens black.

It was the first-ever Gate to form in the middle of the sky. And its
gigantic size was unprecedented, too.

111
Although no one knew what would come out from there and should
all be terrified as a result, people still couldn’t rein in their curiosity.

There were quite a few members of foreign press mixed among the
crowd. Their cameras were working at full capacity to capture the
scenes of this packed gathering of people

[Yes, I’m currently standing right below the giant Gate that has
covered the entirety of Seoul’s skies, and….]

[The Gate you see before you is the biggest one ever recorded since
monsters began appearing….]

[As you can see behind me, the crowd spectating on the Gate itself
are carrying bright expressions, but….]

[….This is Nick Powell from BBN News.]

Reporters from various nations carried serious, even grave,

expressions and spoke their mother tongue towards the camera
lenses.

Japanese people had been interested in the ongoings of South Korea

for a while now, so a certain TV station even scheduled a special
program to report extensively on the ‘Gate above Seoul’s skies’.

As for the expert invited to share his insight on the program, it was
none other than Doctor Norman Belzer who had been studying the
irregular phenomenon in the sky for a long time.

After the brief introduction by the emcee, Doctor Belzer grasped his
microphone.

“I have been warning the relevant authorities about the unknown

mass of energy gathering in the various spots in the atmosphere for
a while now. The giant Gate appearing in the skies of Seoul is merely

112
the beginning, I fear. We will be seeing Gates just as horrifying as
that one over the skies of many other countries in the future.”

The emcee’s shoulders flinched greatly.

“Ehhh?! What you’re implying there is, Doctor, there are more than
one or two places with such ominous phenomena in the world?”

“That’s what I’d like to emphasize today.”

The scientist then went on to explain again what he told the Hunters
participating in the International Guild Conference. He had a duty to
inform the public of the dangers, now that his subject of research
had bared its fangs for real.

Indeed, Seoul was just the beginning.

The magisphere was still being amassed above the skies of the
remaining eight spots even now.

The scientist proceeded to reveal the nine locations with the help of
the satellite images, leading to many gasps of shock and pained
moans to leak out from the audience seats.

Some felt relieved by the fact that Japan was not among the list,
while some were left deeply shocked by the imminent threat the
neighbouring nations had to face.

The emcee listened to Doctor Belzer’s explanations with a gloomy,

heavy expression, before asking the scientist.

“Doctor, you have been researching the Gates and monsters for a
very long time, am I correct?”

“You’re correct.”

“In that case, can you tell us your opinion on what would be the
smartest response we can come up with in this situation?”

113
Not just the audience members present, but even all the viewers at
home watching their TV sets, leaned forward to pay closer attention
to the good scientist’s next words.

Unfortunately for them, what he said was something everyone could

say, too.

“We can only pray.”

He shifted his gaze over to the audience members and continued on.

“We can only pray that this unprecedented event doesn’t end in
tragedy.”

Even as the expressions of the audience members became graver,

the scientist carried on with his explanation.

“However, there is this one thing. One piece of news that can’t be
considered bad.”

Doctor Belzer’s words, coming in just before the broadcast was

about to end, managed to change the emcee’s expression. Hoping to
brighten the sorrowful, gloomy mood of the studio even by a little
bit, the emcee quickly asked the scientist with an expectant face.

“What could that news be, doctor?”

“It’s rather fortunate that the location of the Gate just so happens to
be South Korea.”

Did this doctor hold some sort of personal grudge against Korea or
something?

Noisy, noisy…

Doctor Belzer’s shocking declaration left the audience members in

noisy confusion.

114
The expression of the Chief Producer of this program hardened in an
instant, fearful that one wrong move now and he might end up with
a broadcasting accident big enough to cause a serious diplomatic
incident.

Fortunately enough, the feared event didn’t materialise. The scientist

quickly added more explanation before the misunderstanding could
get any deeper.

“South Korea is the home of one of the greatest Hunters, someone

who has already stopped a couple of world-ending calamities all by
himself.”

Everyone present here definitely knew who that Hunter was.

“Yes, I’m talking about Hunter Seong Jin-Woo, who has removed
every single ant monster from Jeju Island, and then killed all the
Giants in Japan.”

The spot where the most amount of magisphere concentration could

be found also happened to be where the world’s best Hunter lived.
Doctor Belzer felt that this was no simple coincidence.

“If he can’t stop that Gate, then no Hunter alive will be able to do so,
either. And that is why, when viewed from the world’s perspective,
we should be thankful that the first Gate to open up is in South
Korea.”

Should they feel glad, or console their neighbours, instead?

As the Japanese audience members couldn’t decide what to feel, the

scientist emphasized his point once more.

“What I’m saying might come across as cold-hearted ans callous,

especially when Korea is facing a grave crisis, but the truth is, the
world doesn’t need to feel pity for the Korean people.”

115
Ah, so the broadcasting accident had finally happened!

The Chief Producer began tearing his hair out, but then, as if to mock
the poor man, Doctor Norman Belzer formed a deeply meaningful
expression and ended his explanations.

“If we ever come to the situation where we must pity the Koreans,
then that means there will be no humans left on this planet to
console each other anymore.”

116
Chapter 209

The biggest Gate ever to open up on Earth so far had been the one in
the United States of America, where Kamish came out of. However,
the one in front of everyone’s eyes was easily over ten times that.

Was there a need to even measure its rank in such a case?

Unfortunately, someone had to do the job and so, the Hunter’s

Association had to dispatch a helicopter up there.

The aircraft was being populated by employees who were also

Hunters. This was done out of fear that the bodies of the regular
employees would not be able to endure against the magical energy
emitted by the ‘Super-massive Gate’ and break down if they got too
close.

Tatatatatata….

Pilot and co-pilot, as well as two Association employees, were riding

on the helicopter as it flew ever closer to the Gate.

Would being sucked into a black hole feel like this?

Within this shaking hunk of metal flying in the sky, one of the
employees stared intently at the gigantic black circle drawing ever
closer and asked.

“Senior, have you ever seen anything like that before?”

The sun had set already, and they had to rely on the spotlights
attached to the helicopter, but the sheer massive scale of this
terrifying Gate still entered their sights with no problem.

The senior employee shook his head.

117
“No, never. I’m sure no one in this world has seen a Gate this big
before.”

The entire world was in a great upheaval over this single Gate. Such a
thing wouldn’t happen just because this particular one appeared in
mid-air.

Actually, the world was freaking out by the unbelievable scale of the
Gate along with its unique location of being in the air.

If only these employees knew that even Thomas Andre had to doubt
his own eyes – they wouldn’t even have shared the dumb
conversation about anyone seeing a Gate like that before.

Gulp.

While the two men’s gazes were stolen away by the Gate and dry
saliva continued to slide down their throats, the helicopter arrived
near the destination and gradually slowed its rate of ascent.

The co-pilot informed his passengers.

“Getting any nearer than this will endanger the helicopter.”

The employees mouthed their understandings and finished getting

ready to measure the Gate. Now originally, one would have to stand
right next to a Gate in order to measure its rank. However, doing
that wasn’t necessary this time around.

As soon as the switch was turned on, the measuring device went
‘Pop!’ and stopped functioning immediately. It was proof that the
device couldn’t handle the level of magic energy leaking out from the
Gate.

It was also an expected result, too.

“Senior?”

118
The employee trying to manipulate the device looked up at the
senior employee. The latter nodded his head to express his
agreement. The junior employee opened the communication line in
order to report the findings to the Association.

It was at that moment that the senior employee staring outside

suddenly cried out.

“Be careful!”

The junior employee jumped up in fright and quickly scanned his

surroundings.

“W-what was that?!”

“I, I thought I saw something resembling a monster outside….”

“Eh? A monster came out already??”

A monster emerged from a Gate that had appeared less than a day
ago?

Such a thing couldn’t happen, but the senior employee witnessing

this phenomenon was one of the high-ranked Hunters in the country.
Neither the pilots nor the junior employee were in a position to
criticise him and ask him if he was sure of what he saw.

But then, sure enough….

“Over there!”

The senior employee accurately pointed out again what he saw

earlier.

It was also around this time that the urgent voice of the Association
President Woo Jin-Cheol came out from the headset the junior
employee was wearing.

119
– “What’s going on? What are you saying? Agent Sahng-Won! Hey,
Yu Sahng-Won!! Tell me what’s going on up there!”

“S-sir, it’s a monster! We spotted a large monster near the

helicopter!”

– “What?!”

“But, uh… I don’t think it’s an ordinary monster, sir.”

– “Don’t you know that you’re utterly helpless when encountering a

monster in the air? I didn’t send you guys up there to find that out,
so get back down here right now!”

“N-no, sir. The thing is, Association President, uh… There’s a person
riding on top of the monster.”

– “What are you even talking about?? Hey, how can a person be
riding on a mon…..”

It was then, an image of a certain man that really rode around on the
back of a monster entered Woo Jin-Cheol’s head and his voice got
cut off for a moment there.

– “Hey, Sahng-Won….? Can you see the face of the man riding on the
monster?”

“Hold on, sir. Yes, I can just about make it out.”

– “Could he be Hunter Seong Jin-Woo?”

“Excuse me?”

The junior employee opened his eyes wider and pressed his face
tightly against the window to take a closer look at the monster,
before crying out in surprise and asking back.

“H-how did you know that, sir?”

120
***

Kkkiiiieehk-!

Jin-Woo riding on the back of the Sky Dragon Kaisel drew closer to
the Gate. Once he got near its bottom, the d*mn thing looked more
like an endlessly-stretching lake rather than an actual Gate.

What a near-overwhelming size it was.

A regular Hunter wouldn’t have been able to endure this

extraordinary amount of magical energy leaking out from the Gate
itself, but Jin-Woo remained unaffected and aloof, starting from the
moment he decided to check this thing out personally, all the way up
to this point in time.

He could see that the Association’s helicopter far below had begun
descending to the ground, perhaps assessing that it was too
dangerous for them now.

Jin-Woo watched the aircraft for a little while before he got even
closer to the Gate itself.

Above his head, in the distance where his hand could reach, the
Gate, with its maws wide open towards the ground below, floated in
eerie silence.

Of course, the portal’s surface was still blocked off by the black
screen so he couldn’t see what its inside looked like.

‘…..’

If he reached out to touch it, would he be able to enter it, or would

he get sucked in like a Red Gate, or…?

Jin-Woo cautiously extended his hand out.

121
‘I most likely need to enter it and solve the problem before this Gate
breaks open and monsters start pouring out.’

With a little bit of expectation bubbling noisily in his heart, he

pressed the tip of his hand against the Gate’s screen.

‘What the…?’

For the first time ever since becoming an Awakened, he encountered

a rather strange situation. He couldn’t enter the Gate.

His hand couldn’t enter the Gate as it got blocked off by the black
screen. It was as hard as a solid wall.

‘If it was a regular wall, I could’ve broken it down, but….’

He pushed with everything he had, but this ‘wall’ didn’t even budge.

Knock, knock….

Jin-Woo knocked on the screen next, and his lips closed shut in a
straight line.

‘It’s different.’

A Gate where Awakened couldn’t pass through. Indeed, this one was
different from all the other Gates that preceded it. If so, would the
things waiting inside be different from everything else that had
emerged before?

‘Whatever the case may be….’

Whatever came out – his family and friends were below this Gate. He
had no plan of letting them easily get past him.

‘I now possess the Stats I’ve raised up until now and the brave
soldiers that will fight alongside me.’

When his thoughts reached there…

122
Waaaaaah-!!

He thought he could hear the uproarious cheers of the soldiers

hidden in his shadows echo in his ears.

Ba-thump-!

Anxiety and anticipation alternated in his heart. Ever since he

became the ‘Player’ and received the powers of the System, Jin-Woo
believed that there was a reason, a purpose, for his existence.

If that was the case, then could it be that he was meant to stop this
calamity?

‘What rubbish am I even thinking about now….?’

Jin-Woo chuckled and brushed aside his needlessly grim

determination before pulling his hand back from the Gate.

It was then. The Hunter-issue smartphone, which he left on in the

vibrate-only mode, suddenly began writhing around inside his
pocket. The caller was from the Japanese Hunter’s Association.

Jin-Woo had asked them for a favour earlier, so he quickly answered

the call.

– “Hello? Seong Hunter-nim?”

“Please speak.”

– “Ah, my apologies. I can hardly hear your voice. Should I call you
some other time?”

Jin-Woo glanced down at Seoul’s skyscrapers, now small enough to

resemble toy building blocks, and grinned to himself.

“There’s no need for that. Actually, I’m somewhere pretty high up at

the moment. Anyway, have you found out what I asked you about?”

123
– “Ah, yes. We scanned the entire territory of Japan with our satellite
just now, but….”

Unlike how he usually was, the employee from the Japanese

Hunter’s Association blurred the ends of his sentence. Could
something have happened in Japan on a day like this?

The answer from the employee was completely out of Jin-Woo’s

expectation, however.

– “We couldn’t locate a single Gate, Hunter-nim. There isn’t a single

new Gate being generated in the entirity of Japan.”

‘….!!’

After he killed off the Giants, he had been spending most of his time
raiding dungeons in Japan, so this news came across as a bolt from
the blue.

“Not one new Gate has appeared?”

– “Yes, that’s correct. We couldn’t be sure if this was a phenomenon

unique to us or not, so we contacted Hunter agencies in other
countries, but….”

The employee hesitated before continuing on with a voice thickly

laden with his own vexation.

– “All the new Gates suddenly vanished from the world when the
super-massive Gate appeared above the skies of Seoul.”

It had been about three hours since this super-massive Gate had
appeared in the air. What were the odds of every Gate in the entire
world all ‘coincidentally’ vanishing at the same time?

‘….It’s not a coincidence, obviously.’

124
Jin-Woo’s expression hardened. His stiffened face looked up at the
Gate again, and in the meantime, the Japanese Association employee
asked him again.

– “Excuse me…. May I ask why you wished for us to find the locations
of the highest-ranking Gates?”

“….”

It was a bit troubling to honestly answer that.

Well, he couldn’t really come out and say that he just wanted to test
the shortswords boasting 1,500 attack damage he got from Thomas
Andre as gifts before this uselessly huge Gate opened up, now could
he?

In that case…

“We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow so someone

needs to plant an apple tree, don’t you agree?”

– “Oh…. an apple tree. I see. It’s a wonderful saying.”

Jin-Woo gave out an evasive answer and left the guy on the other
side of the line to interpret it in any way he liked, before trying to
end the call there.

– “Uhm, excuse me, Seong Hunter-nim?”

“Yes?”

As if he was feeling embarrassed, the employee hesitated greatly

before continuing on.

– “Honestly speaking, I’ve never looked at Korea in a favourable light

in the past. As you may well know, the Japanese Hunter’s Association
had been suffering a major headache from the ant monsters on Jeju

125
Island for the last four years. As an employee of the Association, and
as a Japanese, I disliked Koreans as a result.”

Jin-Woo quietly listened on to his confession.

– “However, I had to change my mindset all because of you, Hunter-

nim. Korea has become the country of our saviour. I’m truly grateful
for your help and I wish to thank Korea, your home country.”

As his story got longer and longer, his voice became more and more
tearful as well.

– “That is why I pray that Korea won’t ever experience the horrors
that my country had to endure.”

People who got trampled by the Giants. Cities were burned down.
Screams echoed around in the air. The despair that couldn’t be
forgotten.

Those nightmares happened only a few weeks ago.

The employee had witnessed the calamity from up close and that
was why he knew; he knew that such things should happen to no
one.

Jin-Woo heard his pleas and confidently replied back.

“That will not happen.”

He wasn’t making a promise. No, it was much closer to him making a

resolution. The reason for him diligently maintaining his growth up
until this moment was the same.

It was now time to show the results of his hard work.

The employee heard Jin-Woo’s reply and quietly laughed.

126
– “Haha. I never guessed that I’d stop hating Korea and feel envious
of them instead. I’m really envious of Korea that has you, Seong
Hunter-nim.”

“You don’t have to praise me that much. I don’t have any other
hobbies besides hunting down monsters, so I was planning to
continue to visit Japan as long as there are monsters still running
loose in this world.”

– “Ahh, you saw straight through me. As expected, it’s impossible to

fool you when you’re a top-ranked Hunter. I really wanted to earn
some brownie points with you, too.”

The employee thanked Jin-Woo for ably improving the atmosphere

that threatened to get untenably heavy, before saying his ‘heartfelt’
goodbye.

– “In that case, please, don’t hesitate to call us ‘again’.”

“Of course.”

Jin-Woo pocketed the Hunter-issue smartphone. He then quietly

stared at the Gate that was preternaturally quiet as if this was the
calm before the storm.

‘If this thing’s duration is the same as dungeon breaks from other
Gates, then…’

There were around six days left. Jin-Woo’s two eyes glowed softly
within this darkness.

“….Let’s go down.”

Kiiiahk-!!

The Sky Dragon carrying Jin-Woo energetically flapped its wings and
made its descent.

127
***

About a day later, other people also detected the changes; Gates had
disappeared.

New Gates stopped being generated right after the super-massive

portal appeared in the skies above Seoul! There was no way to tell
whether this was a good or a bad thing, but still, those welcoming
this change did exist.

And that would be the Hunter’s Association, currently being led by

Woo Jin-Cheol.

With a deeply tense expression, he read the report being handed in

and made a decision.

“Call every Hunter in our country to Seoul.”

“Sir? But, that will be too dangerous.”

“If we do that and a Gate we failed to discover goes to become a full-

on dungeon break, then…”

“How about we summon only around half of the Hunters and leave
the rest to…..”

Woo Jin-Cheol heard the incoming rush of objections and angrily

slammed down on the conference table.

SLAM!

The shoulders of the people attending the emergency meeting

flinched from this display of a high-ranked Hunter’s anger.

Woo Jin-Cheol shouted out loudly.

“Do you all believe we have the necessary leeway to worry about
unseen dangers right now?”

128
With that, everyone inside the conference room stopped talking at
once. Woo Jin-Cheol pointed to somewhere beyond the walls of the
room.

“We’re facing an unprecedented calamity right now. We don’t know

whether we can stop that d*mn thing or not even after we pour out
everything we have at our disposal!”

Woo Jin-Cheol roared out and scanned the faces of the attendees.

“I shall take full responsibilities if incidents take place in other

districts. Even if you tell me to give up my entire wealth, I will. If you
tell me to put my life on the line and fight, I’ll gladly do so.”

No one could argue against Woo Jin-Cheol’s grim determination.

In a case where the opinions differed during the life-threatening

situations inside dungeons, the leader of the raid team would even
resort to killing the insubordinate team member.

It was because the incorrect decision made by a few could drag

everyone else to their doom. In the outside world, such an action
would be seen as a crime, but it was a different story altogether
when inside a dungeon.

Raids weren’t a kids’ garden tea party, but true warfare where
everyone involved had to put their lives on the line to win, And right
now, that war was about to spill outside the dungeon and onto the
world.

Woo Jin-Cheol wasn’t a slack Hunter who would entertain opposing

arguments when every second counted.

“Summon every Hunter in the country to Seoul immediately, please.

As long as they can fight, do not leave anyone behind.”

129
And so, under the direct order of the Association President Woo Jin-
Cheol, the Hunters of the Republic of Korea began heading to the city
of Seoul.

130
Chapter 210

An unusual scene was playing out; the roads had become a confused
mess as the citizens tried to evacuate from Seoul, while the Hunters
were trying to enter the city in order to protect it.

People living in the districts directly below the super-massive Gate,

the ones predicted to bear the brunt of the damage, heeded the
warnings issued by the Hunter’s Association and the government, or
even their own logical reasoning, and escaped from the city in
droves.

Jin-Woo watched the TV news, busy covering the evacuation efforts

and spoke to his mom.

“Mom, don’t you think it’ll be for the best if you and Jin-Ah go
somewhere else?”

“Our area isn’t even one of the evacuation zones, you know.”

Mom had no thoughts of leaving Seoul at all, it seemed.

Jin-Woo’s home, the old apartment, was located far, far away from
the centre of Seoul. If monsters invaded this place, then that meant
the defensive line of the Hunters had crumbled, and that would also
signify Jin-Woo’s failure to defend the frontline, too.

Mom believed that the flames of danger would never reach here.

Jin-Woo also grinned but didn’t say anything else.

Unlike him and his mom sitting around a low coffee table located in
front of the couch, Jin-Ah was sitting on the couch itself with her
knees drawn up. She glanced at her older brother and asked him.

131
“Don’t you have to go, too?”

She was talking about the nationwide Hunter summons. However,

Jin-Woo was a Seoul resident, to begin with. He wasn’t really
included in that summons.

“The Hunters on TV are from other regions and they are trying to
report to the Association that they have arrived in Seoul.”

“Ohh.”

Jin-Ah nodded her head while receiving a plate of sliced apples from
her mom.

In reality, Jin-Woo had been feeling frustrated by the fact that he had
no choice but to dazedly spend his time at home under the current
circumstances.

He wanted to raise his level, but there were no monsters to fight. He

wanted to enter the instant dungeon, but he hadn’t seen a single
special key as his reward ever since the architect of the System died.

His family certainly enjoyed him spending more time at home, but
Jin-Woo really wanted to strengthen himself even further in order to
prepare for any and all eventualities.

‘Should I not do the daily quests and enter the penalty zone or
something?’

It sounded like a good idea, but at the same time, not really.

First of all, he had no clue what might come out from that Gate in
front of his eyes, yet he was thinking of entering the penalty zone
where unknown monsters were lying in wait?

‘Even if the odds are low….’

132
If there was one in ten thousand, no, one in ten million chance that
something could happen to him during the penalty quest, then he
wouldn’t be able to deal with what might happen on this side.

He had no reason to take on two different types of risks right now.

And so, that idea was dismissed.

In the end, he’d have to look for another way to test out the
‘Kamish’s Wrath’ shortswords somehow.

What should he do?

As Jin-Woo pondered his options, a certain scene fleeted in and out

of the TV screen. It was of the Hunter’s Association HQ building, as
shot from a flying helicopter.

That’s right.

‘Should I use ‘that’?’

The corners of Jin-Woo’s lips arched up, his eyes gleaming rather
suspiciously. He pulled his smartphone out and tapped one of the
saved numbers.

Ringgg…. Ringggg….

As usual, the call was promptly answered only after a couple of

ringtones.

– “Hello, Seong Hunter-nim. It’s Woo Jin-Cheol speaking.”

“Looks like I should start referring to you as the Association President

from now on, don’t I?”

Woo Jin-Cheol chuckled sheepishly on the other side of the line

before brushing past the issue.

133
– “You can call me with whatever is convenient for you. Even I’m still
feeling weirded out by stumbling into a job that I wasn’t ready for.”

After sharing simple greetings, Woo Jin-Cheol figured that now

would be a good time and his voice instantly became serious.

– “Did something happen on your end? I can’t help but get worried
with you giving me a call quite unexpectedly like this.”

With the current situation being what it was, all of Woo Jin-Cheol’s
nerves had been sharpened to a noticeable degree. How could he be
not tense when the country’s most influential Hunter suddenly gave
him a call?

“Well, it’s nothing serious, actually….”

Woo Jin-Cheol, still very tense, audibly swallowed his saliva.

‘Even if it’s not a serious matter to Hunter Seong, it might be a grave

one for us. No, because he doesn’t sound that concerned, it could
very well be incredibly bad news for us.’

As this short bout of silence drifted in between the two men, Woo
Jin-Cheol did his best to calm his frayed nerves and paid closer
attention.

Jin-Woo nonchalantly asked for a favour, since it really was nothing

serious.

“Can I borrow the Association’s gymnasium for a little while?”

***

Even though he was really busy, Woo Jin-Cheol personally came out
to greet Jin-Woo.

“As you can see…. This is the situation of our gymnasium.”

134
Jin-Woo scratched the side of his head.

In his quest to find a quiet place that was also out of people’s prying
eyes, he thought that using the Association’s gymnasium would be a
good idea, but it was currently housing the Hunters that had
gathered in the city.

He saw the stuff being carried by their hands and belatedly

remembered what was hidden within the storage of the gymnasium.

“Are you giving weapons to the Hunters that lack proper

equipment?”

“Yes. The late Association President Goh Gun-Hui had prepared them
for a rainy day like this.”

Jin-Woo’s head nodded by itself.

This was a sight he wanted to show to those detractors who pointed

fingers and criticised the Association for storing all this expensive
equipment in a dark corner and letting them rot away.

These Hunters came across as grimly determined as they equipped

their handed-out weapons and armours.

It was then.

A physically-imposing Hunter struggling to push his arms and legs

into a set of armour coated in magic energy raised his head and by
chance, met Jin-Woo’s gaze.

“Uh?”

He was taken by surprise after witnessing the presence of the

greatest Hunter, a man he only got to see on TV screens until then.

“Hunter Seong Jin-Woo??”

135
“What was that?”

“Hunter Seong is here?”

Hunters filling up the gymnasium all simultaneously looked behind

them. And sure enough – just like what that big Hunter had said,
there he was, Hunter Seong Jin-Woo in his full glory, standing
alongside the Association President and studying them without
saying anything.

The noisy interior was suddenly enveloped in silence. The

atmosphere became deeply heavy in no time at all. The
overwhelming presence that couldn’t be transmitted through TV
screens flooded out from this Hunter at the top of his game.

It was only natural that one’s heart would start palpitating when
doing nothing but staring at a person who was standing at a realm
that one couldn’t even hope to reach.

Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump!

The expressions of the Hunters facing Jin-Woo all began to glow.

Gazes filled with envy and respect flew in from everywhere. Only
now did he realise the reason why Woo Jin-Cheol wanted to show
him this sight when explaining it over the phone would’ve been
sufficient.

Everyone gathered here were lower-ranked Hunters who found it

hard to prepare their own expensive magic energy-infused
equipment.

The new Association President was hoping to rally the lower-ranked

Hunters, who should have been mentally strained by the sudden
summons, by showing them the single greatest ally they had on their
side right now.

136
His calculation was proven true since renewed vigour seemed to
have seeped into the eyes of these Hunters.

Jin-Woo couldn’t help but chuckle softly at Woo Jin-Cheol’s smart

thinking. Well, the latter had been leading the Monitoring Division
for quite a while, after all.

Meanwhile, Woo Jin-Cheol had been scratching the back of his neck
as if he was embarrassed about his intentions being seen through.
He suddenly asked a probing little question.

“By the way, Hunter-nim. Why did you want to borrow the
gymnasium?”

Jin-Woo pretended to pull something out from his pocket, when he

was actually taking it out from his Inventory.

“I want to use this.”

Woo Jin-Cheol tilted his head in confusion as he looked at the plum-

sized seed resting on Jin-Woo’s palm.

“This… What is it, exactly?”

“When you plant this on the ground, a monster resembling a tree

will pop up. I wanted to test something with it.”

“A monster will pop up?!”

Jin-Woo looked at Woo Jin-Cheol’s wide-open eyes and nodded his

head.

The tree-type monster would spit out a seed in its death throes.
Failing to destroy this little seed meant that a new monster would
sprout in the same spot again.

He figured that it was inefficient to repeatedly hunt these monsters

since their defences and vitality was so tenaciously high, so he

137
proceeded to destroy all the seeds. However, he stored this
particular seed from the boss tree monster in his Inventory, thinking
that maybe, he’d find a use for it later.

Jin-Woo took to calling these monsters ‘Armoured Tree’, trying to

imply that they were as sturdy as if they were wearing metal armour.

‘If it’s that guy, wouldn’t it be the best target to test out these new
blades of mine?’

The problem was…

“Under the current atmosphere of unease, many people will freak

out from the sight of a moving monster out in the open.”

Woo Jin-Cheol spoke up in a worried voice. Jin-Woo agreed with him.

“That’s why I was looking for a quiet, reinforced location out of

people’s eyes, but this….”

Civilians had no access to the Association’s gymnasium, and its

hardiness was second to none, but it was impossible to use it now in
this situation.

Jin-Woo shifted his gaze back over to the Hunters.

Even now, many Hunters holding tightly the weapons given to them
by the Association and were glancing in his direction while trying to
psych themselves up.

“Well, what with the situation like this….”

He could go to one of the uninhabited areas in Japan and use the

seed there, but then again, the distance he had to fly was quite far,
and as for using the skill, ‘Shadow Exchange’, he thought it’d be a
waste.

138
Who could say what might happen in Korea during the two hours of
cooldown time? That was why Jin-Woo was about to turn around to
leave, but Woo Jin-Cheol had come to a decision by then, so he
spoke up with a resolute voice.

“Very well.”

“Excuse me?”

“The afternoon schedule for the gymnasium today will be cleared

out for you, Hunter-nim. Compared to everything you’ve done,
something like this doesn’t even qualify as a special privilege.”

The late Association President Goh Gun-Hui even went as far as to

change the related laws for Hunter Seong Jin-Woo. He argued that
no one would be able to ask an excellent Hunter to put his life on the
line to fight for them when they were unwilling to even do such small
favours.

And now, as he was the new Association President, how could it

make any sort of sense if he couldn’t even lend out a measly
gymnasium for a few hours?

“Will that really be fine?”

Jin-Woo worriedly asked, but Woo Jin-Cheol simply grinned.

“I may not look it, but I am still the man in charge of this place. I get
to decide when to open or close this building, you see.”

Woo Jin-Cheol clapped his hands and gathered the attention of the
Hunters, before speaking out loudly.

“Who’s in charge here?”

“I-it’s me, sir!”

139
Jin-Woo watched an Association employee hurriedly run over here
from the far end of the gymnasium and thought to himself that,
didn’t matter whether a job title sounded awkward or if it suited a
person, the job itself needed to be a high enough position at the end
of the day first.

***

In a certain top luxury hotel in Seol.

There was a man wordlessly looking down at the cars trying to

escape the city clogging the streets below from his suite’s window.
He was Thomas Andre. Laura quietly approached him from behind.

Her hands were grabbing onto the travel case filled with her luggage.

“Master, will you still not leave with us?”

“That’s right.”

Thomas Andre lightly tapped the window with his finger. He was
pointing at the Gate.

“How can I leave behind something that big and beautiful and run
away?”

“It is big, but…. beautiful, sir?”

Thomas Andre’s eccentricity was well-documented by now, but for

him to say that horrifyingly huge and ominous Gate was beautiful….

Just as Laura, his manager, was feeling puzzled by his declaration, he

turned around to look at her.

“Anything that makes your heart palpitate is beautiful.”

140
He placed his hand on his own chest to confirm his heart pulsating
there. Ever since he saw the Gate, his heart had been racing non-
stop with nary a sign of fatigue.

“From the Dragon spitting out flames, that massive Gate, and even
the power of Hunter Seong Jin-Woo, all of them are beautiful things
to me.”

He couldn’t be understood by normal logic. Laura shook her head

helplessly, but still, couldn’t hide her smile, either. Thomas Andre
lowered his hand away from his chest and grinned brightly.

“Besides, all Gates have disappeared, so what’s the point of going

back now?”

“However…. the Hunter Bureau is getting worried, sir.”

Worried, she said.

Thomas Andre began chuckling at the notion of someone being

worried about his well-being.

“What a funny notion that is, worrying about me. Is there any place
safer than right next to Hunter Seong Jin-Woo?”

Even Laura forgot what she wanted to say after hearing Thomas
Andre’s words. It was no secret that the Hunter Bureau had asked
Seong Jin-Woo to protect the world’s top-ranked Hunters.

Thomas Andre smiled back at the clearly-speechless Laura and

turned away from her. He stared at the Gate that had exceeded the
classification of ‘huge’ and entered the realm of ‘super-massive’. It
floated high up in the skies above Seoul, its surface quietly rippling.

“If that thing’s not stopped here, then there will be no future for us,
anyway.”

141
A calamity that even Seong Jin-Woo may not be able to stop would
occur eight more times around the world.

Who would be able to stop them? Thomas Andre himself? Or,

China’s Liu Zhigeng? Maybe other Special Authority-rank Hunters?

What an absurd notion that was.

“That’s why I wish to witness everything.”

Thomas Andre’s gaze drifted off towards Laura’s reflection on the

glass and a smile floated onto his lips again as he spoke.

“I wish to witness whether this will be the curtain call of human

history, or the beginning of a new chapter.”

***

Inside the empty gymnasium.

Jin-Woo walked to the middle of this large structure.

‘Okay, this should be good enough.’

Jin-Woo put the seed down on the floor and poured some water on
it.

A seed and water – these two were the only things needed for a
monster to sprout even without soil or sunlight. He had confirmed
this many times already.

Wududuk, Wudududuk…

Accompanied by the sounds akin to bones twisting around, the seed

rapidly expanded and became a tree.

“Huh.”

142
No matter how many times he saw it, this process remained a
spectacle, that’s for sure.

What an outrageous vitality this was, one so strong that the number
of these tree monsters would never decrease even if the surrounding
environments were barren and infertile.

Jin-Woo leisurely stepped back to the distance he thought was safe.

“Kiiieehk! Kiiehk!”

The ‘baby’ tree continued to grow larger until it regained its original
appearance. Eventually, the seed had transformed into a monster so
big that its head nearly touched the gymnasium’s ceiling in less than
five minutes.

“Kiiieehkk!”

Jin-Woo didn’t pay any mind to the screech of the monster tree
reverberating around within the interior and calmly summoned the
newly-upgraded Beru.

‘Come out.’

Beru’s figure smoothly emerged from the ground.

[Oh, my king!]

Beru’s new and improved appearance was indeed eye-catching;

rather than the usual insect-like exoskeleton, his entire body was
now outfitted with the snug-fitting black armour, which made him
look even more ‘substantial’ than before.

Was that all?

The black smoke rising up from his body became even more
noticeable as well, and now, rather than looking like a haze, it looked
like black flames burning up, instead.

143
That overflowing power!

Jin-Woo confirmed Beru’s information window one more time.

[Beru Lv. MAX]

Marshal Grade

This grade is equivalent to the head of the army and only one such
being can exist. If another Shadow Soldier also reaches this grade,
the hierarchy must be decided.

‘So, the only ones that can potentially challenge the Marshal Grade
right now is Greed, who is currently a Commander Grade, and Igrit,
who’s only a step away from entering the Commander Grade
himself….’

Jin-Woo inwardly thought that the competition between the three of

them for the grade of ‘Marshal’ should be quite entertaining, before
gesturing at Beru with his chin.

“Beru, attack that creature with everything you have.”

Everything he had – Beru increased his physical size as per the

command given to him by his liege.

Kiiiiiiieeehk!

Screech of the genuine beast!

The armours also naturally transformed to match the enlarged body.

Beru soon became twice his original size and began striding forward
with loud, thudding footsteps.

His steps gradually picked up speed until he broke into a full-on

sprint and he pounced on the Armoured Tree.

Ka-boom!!

144
Beru’s eyes widened in surprise.

The attack he poured in his entire being couldn’t sever the tree
monster in half, only managing to dig in as deep as his wrist, instead.
For Beru, capable of ripping rank S monsters into pieces as if they
were jokes, this was one hell of a fluster-inducing event.

But then again, such a sight was befitting of the ‘Armoured Tree’
specialising in defence against pretty much all physical damage,
barring the magic attacks.

That was enough of a warm-up. Jin-Woo recalled Beru after

achieving a satisfactory result.

“Step aside.”

Beru quickly moved aside.

Meanwhile, Jin-Woo summoned the pair of ‘Kamish’s Wrath’ from

the Inventory.

Shuwuk…

Two shortswords as long as regular swords appeared in the grips of

his hands.

‘Nice.’

Kuueehhk!

The Armoured Tree was searching for the culprit responsible for the
hole in its tummy, before inadvertently discovering Jin-Woo’s
presence and began to slowly run towards him.

So, so slow….

Seriously speaking, this thing had no other redeeming qualities other

than its high defence.

145
Indeed, there was no doubt about its defensive capability. But, how
well would these two shortswords work against that stupefying
defence?

The blackish aura starting to spread out from the ends of his hands
instantly enveloped the blades.

‘What I need is the destructive power, right?’

When his thoughts arrived there, the two weapons suddenly became
rather heavy as if there were thousands of weights attached to them.
They were so heavy, in fact, veins began bulging on Jin-Woo’s
shoulder muscles as he tried to endure against this increase in
weight.

‘The attack damage of 1,500…. Let’s see what it feels like.’

Jin-Woo made up his mind to fight, and the blades of the two Wraths
began to shiver in unison.

146
Chapter 211
The Armoured Tree’s ‘roots’ zealously shook around as it approached
Jin-Woo. He watched the monster as he reverse-gripped the pair of
‘Kamish’s Wraths’.

‘For the time being, just a light little nudge.’

The shortsword in his right hand drew a diagonal line upwards.

Swish-!

Along with a sharp air-splitting noise, something fell to the ground

with a thud.

“…..M-mm?”

The Armoured Tree looked down. One of the thick branches it used
as its arm had been severed cleanly and was rolling around on the
floor.

Then, the monster discovered the cut wounds with tree sap oozing
out like blood next. Its ‘facial expression’ became tearful and it
shrieked out a screech that kind of sounded like a scream.

“Kuueeehk!!”

The thing was, though, someone’s pain could also be someone else’s
enjoyment, too. After slicing off the concrete pillar-like branch/arm
of the Armoured Tree in one hit, Jin-Woo’s surprised eyes were now
locked onto his shortsword.

‘Wowsers.’

He only swung it lightly once, yet the end result was already this
amazing. No matter how many times he stabbed with the Demon
King’s Shortsword, he couldn’t properly damage the Armoured Trees.

147
But now, he sliced off the ‘arm’ of the boss Armoured Tree as if it
was made out of tofu?

Should he say it felt terrific in his hand just now?

Buzzzz….

His heart began racing again after sensing the vibration of the ultra-
sharp blades, something he hadn’t felt for a long time.

[Oh, my king!]

Beru, standing and watching quietly from the far back, urgently
called out.

‘Don’t worry, I know.’

Jin-Woo relaxedly answered before his head shot up.

The Armoured Tree’s expression had changed from tearful to hatred

in the meantime, its eyes wide open and glaring as it raised its left
arm, no, its left branch up high.

It was as if the monster wanted to slam down as hard as it could and

squash him to death, but unfortunately, its opponent today was a
really bad match-up.

Jin-Woo quickly swung the ‘Kamish’s Wrath’ one more time before
the branch moved.

Slice!

“Ku-uuuhuhk!”

Suddenly losing both of its arms, the Armoured Tree looked up into
the sky and screeched out.

‘Very good.’

148
Jin-Woo lightly nodded his head.

He was now done with confirming the destructive power of the two
shortswords when swung lightly. And now, time to confirm what
would happen when they were swung with all his power.

‘These things supposedly have excellent compatibility to magical

energy because they are made out of a Dragon’s bone, right?’

Jin-Woo’s right hand began gripping the hilt of the shortsword even
harder.

Just a little bit more.

A bit more, a bit harder.

Jin-Woo’s eyes narrowed down to a slit. When he focused the

magical energy in his entire body to his right hand, the blackish aura
subtly billowing around the blade became even more violent until it
began to almost go out of control.

To Beru’s eyes, it looked as if the aura was utterly distorting the

surrounding space.

‘How could this be!’

The former ant king unconsciously took a step back before catching
himself doing that. Even though he knew that the intent to battle
wasn’t directed at him, this magical energy was so chill-inducing that
it forced him into a retreat.

Beru looked down at both of his trembling hands.

‘Oh, my liege….’

Beru had never felt any other emotion beside absolute loyalty for his
Sovereign until now, but for the first time ever, he felt sorry for the
tree-shaped monster.

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Meanwhile, the Armoured Tree had no idea what was in store for
itself and simply screeched out in pure rage.

“Kuuuuueeeeeh-!!”

The bloodshot eyes of the tree monster were, of course, locked in

the direction of Jin-Woo’s face. The Armoured Tree’s maw suddenly
widened like an entrance to a building.

Just as the b*stard tottered unsteadily and leapt towards Jin-Woo’s

location in order to swallow him up, he released his magical energy
gathered at the tip of the shortsword held in his right hand.

‘Go!’

Just like his command given to Beru, with everything it had!

From the tip of his toes, his legs, his waist, his shoulder, and even his
wrist – his entire body was used to slash out with all his might.

And the end result was….

‘….Uh?!’

The man who swung the shortsword himself realised that something
had gone very wrong just then.

‘Ehhh?!’

Kagagagagagahk!!

The black aura shooting out from the tip of the blade split into
several thick strands, and as if a gigantic, terrifying beast took a
swipe with its claws, everything in front of him was swept away in
one go.

Jin-Woo’s dynamic vision that could split a second into dozens,

hundreds of smaller units and detect the change within, clearly

150
caught the moments of the aura utterly ripping the Armoured Tree
to shreds.

‘Oh, my god!’

The destructive power didn’t stop there and continued on forward to

leave behind horrifying scars on the wall and the floor of the
gymnasium.

“Huh-uh…..”

Jin-Woo was rendered completely speechless.

Tumble, drop….

Thud.

Bits and pieces of rubble began falling from the gymnasium’s wall,
now scarred by what looked like claw marks, and eventually, it
couldn’t endure the weight and began crumbling at the same time.

Creak, crumble…

Boom!

The gymnasium’s wall, reinforced with magic energy in order to

facilitate unhindered activities of Hunters, couldn’t endure against
one single attack and ended up crumbling apart.

Jin-Woo looked at the piled-up debris of the wall as sheer

astonishment filled his heart.

“It’s supposed to get stronger depending on the wielder, so this is

what it can do?!”

The weapon to wield magical energy, crafted from the Dragon’s

remains. This claim was for real.

“Oh, my king!!”

151
Beru was so moved by the display of his king’s power that he
urgently dashed out to kneel in front of Jin-Woo.

“This humble and weak servant can’t hide his deep, heartfelt
emotions from his liege’s bottomless, limitless power!”

“…..”

It seemed that Jin-Woo really needed to block the historical drama

channel on TV for the time being. It’d be sad news for his mother,
who enjoyed watching those dramas, but still.

Of course, it wasn’t as if he couldn’t understand the reason for

Beru’s overexcitement. Jin-Woo’s own heart was pounding away
from this power that exceeded his wildest imagination, after all.

The scale of destruction the ‘Kamish’s Wrath’ left behind – would a

Dragon large enough to cover the sky attacking at full power cause
such annihilation?

Jin-Woo clicked his tongue while studying the ripped-to-shreds

remains of the Armoured Tree, the ghastly pile of debris that was
once a wall, as well as the floor with deep gouges in it.

‘Do I need to change the name of the shortswords from Kamish’s

Wrath to Dragon’s Claws or something?’

Of course, this level of destruction was only possible because it was

him wielding the weapon, but still.

It was then. Along with the rather pleasant mechanical beep of ‘Tti-
ring!’ a new System message suddenly popped up.

[Will you change the name of ‘Item: Kamish’s Wrath’ to ‘Item:

Dragon’s Claws’?]

152
Jin-Woo was taken greatly by surprise by this unexpected response
from the System.

‘I can also change the name?’

He hurriedly retracted his command, and only got to breathe a sigh

of relief after confirming that the name of the shortswords wasn’t
changed.

“Whew….”

That might have been a big problem!

If the original crafter learned that his artefact’s name was swapped
from ‘Kamish’s Wrath’ to ‘Dragon’s Claws’, he’d be spinning his grave
non-stop.

Just from hearing it, both his hands and feet were curling up from all
that cringeyness.

Jin-Woo couldn’t help but chuckle at the ever-unchanging

unfriendliness of the System.

In any case, he was satisfied by the power of the new weapon. Both
in terms of sharpness or destructiveness, these shortswords easily
exceeded his previous weapons by a great deal.

A pleased smile formed on his lips as he alternated his gaze between

the two ‘Kamish’s Wrath’ shortswords before storing them in his
Inventory.

‘Well, now that the testing is over….’

….It was time to take care of the aftermaths.

Jin-Woo had been drunk on the power of his new weapons, but he
eventually came back down to earth. And after he saw the crumbled

153
wall of the gymnasium, he felt his own heart crumble to pieces as
well.

He borrowed this place for a little while, yet he messed it up to such

a degree.

….What was he supposed to do now?

Jin-Woo deeply deliberated on his options before contacting the

Association President Woo Jin-Cheol on the phone.

“Uhm, Association President? Please, I want you to stay calm and

listen to what I have to say. You see, I have around three hundred
ants that do really fantastic work, and…..”

***

Three days since the Gates had disappeared.

Jin-Woo, who used to allocate a lot of his time to raiding dungeons,

was spending his recent days at home with nothing much to do.

While he lay on top of his bed, he continued to spin around ‘Kamish’s

Wrath’ just above him.

Exactly like how a fidgety student would spin around a pen, Jin-Woo
had been using ‘Ruler’s Authority’ to deal with his boredom.

Of course, there would always be a disruptor to any given situation.

His little sister was heading to the bathroom, but then, she suddenly
swerved in her direction and yanked open the door to his room. Jin-
Woo instantly stored his shortsword in the Inventory and pretended
that nothing was amiss.

“Oppa, you were playing with your knife again, weren’t you?”

Technically speaking, he was refining his control over the skill,

‘Ruler’s Authority’, but well….

154
But, to the worried eyes of his sister, it looked like nothing more than
a dangerous fooling around of a bored guy.

“Nope.”

Jin-Woo denied everything as he had already hidden all the evidence

away. Jin-Ah’s eyes narrowed down to a slit. She was unconvinced,
but there was nothing she could do.

If her oppa, the best rank S Hunter there was, decided to really,
really hide the evidence, how could she, a powerless regular person,
ever find out the truth?

She glared at Jin-Woo with suspicious eyes for a very long time,
before letting a groan escape from her mouth.

“Oppa?”

“Yeah?”

“If you’re that bored, how about going out for a while? I mean, it’s
been such a long time since you’ve been resting at home like this,
right?”

His little sister suddenly began saying stuff that their mother should
be saying, instead. Jin-Woo smirked and closed his eyes as if he
wanted to go to sleep.

“I don’t have anywhere to go, you know.”

“Don’t you have someone to meet? Like, your friends?”

Friends, she said. His eyes opened again after hearing those words
that vaguely resonated with him. Many faces fleeted in and out of his
mind, but only one remained particularly vivid among them.

Since all Hunters were forced to take a break, for the time being, her
situation wouldn’t be so different from his own, right about now.

155
Besides, didn’t he tell himself to treat her to a hearty meal to atone
for his sin? That thing, when he inadvertently took a peek at her
naked form after unwisely using ‘Sensory Sharing’ through the
Shadow Soldier inserted into her shadow?

In normal times, not only him, but even she too would’ve been far
too busy to meet up, but the story was different now. She might
even be twirling around a sword or something out of this sheer
boredom seemingly no one could overcome, just like how it was like
for him.

This would be a good opportunity to get rid of that debt in his mind.

“Good thinking, sis.”

Jin-Woo suddenly leapt up from the bed and stood before her,
prompting Jin-Ah to flinch and take a hasty step back.

“W-what the heck?”

“Excuse me.”

Jin-Woo expertly slid past her and headed straight into the
bathroom.

Jin-Ah quickly detected that her oppa’s expression was now rather
suspicious and quickly asked him as he was about to enter the
bathroom to wash himself.

“What now? Where are you planning to go?”

He grinned brightly and replied back to her.

“On a date.”

***

“That’s enough for today.”

156
Cha Hae-In’s hands stopped swinging the wooden sword.

She had been training so hard that her white ‘dobok’ had been
soaked through with her sweat and clung onto her figure. She turned
around to face her instructor.

He was an elderly man wearing an aged dobok. This man, who was
missing an arm, gestured to her that she should take a seat.

Cha Hae-In wordlessly nodded before politely kneeling down on both

knees and placed the wooden sword beside her.

This old man was her teacher.

As she was a rank S Hunter, there were very few people who could
catch up to her physical abilities, but she still needed corresponding
techniques that could maximise her physical status.

That’s why she chose this out-of-the-way kendo dojo, and whenever
she found herself with some free time, she came here to polish her
ways with the sword.

Her teacher, Song Chi-Yeol, found her drive to never waste a single
day quite praiseworthy. He settled down in front of her and spoke.

“I can’t help but sense that, lately, Lady Hae-In’s blade contains a
trace of hesitation.”

Cha Hae-In heard her teacher’s voice and raised her head. Her
expression was stiff. As their gazes remain locked in this position,
Song Chi-Yeol quietly carried on.

“I’m worried that, by chance, you have developed a sense of fear in

your heart.”

Cha Hae-In couldn’t answer.

157
Song Chi-Yeol was a Hunter like her and, even though he operated a
dojo, he still went out to hunt down monsters whenever the
Association requested his participation. And so, he could very well
understand where her fear was coming from.

The Gate that none had seen before. And no one also could tell just
what kind of unimaginably terrifying monstrosities would emerge
from there.

Just because one was strong, that didn’t mean they couldn’t get
scared.

No, on the contrary. They felt to their bones the kind of fear that
normal, powerless people couldn’t feel precisely because they were
strong.

Song Chi-Yeol closed his eyes as if he was reflecting back on his past
and slowly nodded his head.

“I’m sure you’re scared. Indeed, why shouldn’t you be? I also felt the
same way. Of course, the monsters that I fought can’t be compared
to those you have fought, but when I lost my arm…..”

It was then.

Cha Hae-In’s Hunter-issue smartphone, the one tucked away in the

corner of the dojo so it wouldn’t get in the way, began ringing loudly.

“A Hunter should answer her phone, yes?”

“Forgive me, instructor.”

Cha Hae-In briefly bowed her head before running over there to pick
up the phone. And then….

158
Song Chi-Yeol had been waiting for her to end the call so he could
continue on with his story, only to see that Cha Hae-In’s expression
was getting brighter and brighter with every passing second.

‘Mm….?’

She was definitely trying to hide it, but since she was usually so
expressionless in her everyday life, even Song Chi-Yeol could easily
spot the changes in her expression.

She ended the call and cautiously walked over to his location.

“Uhm, instructor-nim, I…. There’s an appointment I need to get to,

so I should go.”

Her cheeks were flushed warm. Seeing her eyes now filled with
vitality, Song Chi-Yeol realised that his thoughts were off the mark.
The hesitation evident in her sword wasn’t born from fear.

“Indeed, you should. Of course, you need to.”

Song Chi-Yeol dazedly nodded his head and gave her his permission.

“Well, then….”

Cha Hae-In’s goodbye was kept brief and she left the dojo in light,
cheery steps. He stared at her departing back and belatedly, a gentle
smile floated up on his lips.

“Ah, so that’s what it was…. Indeed, that was the reason.”

Huhuh….

While wondering who the lucky fella receiving the love of such a
wonderful and fine young woman could be, an expression of
contentment floated up on Song Chi-Yeol’s face, one that was just as
happy as his valued disciple had shown.

159
Chapter 212

“Hey, isn’t that Hunter Seong Jin-Woo?”

“Where? Where??”

“Hul…. It really is Seong Jin-Woo.”

It was the weekend and many people came to visit a certain theme
park. They all recognised Jin-Woo’s face among the visitors and
stared at him with eyes filled with amazement.

“Who’s the lady next to him? Is she his girlfriend?”

“Hold up…. Isn’t she Hunter Cha Hae-In from the Hunters Guild??”

“Hul! This is huge!”

“What the heck? Are the two of them dating now?”

There was a woman next to Jin-Woo. She was famed for always
maintaining a clean short hairstyle to ensure that nothing would
hinder her movements.

She was Cha Hae-In, of course. She slightly lowered her head as if she
couldn’t really get used to all the attention from the people
surrounding them, and whispered in a small voice.

“Do you enjoy going to places like this theme park?”

Jin-Woo replied with a grin.

“It’s not that I enjoy it, but I wanted to come here at least once in my
life, you see.”

Cha Hae-In stared at Jin-Woo’s current child-like expression with his

previous ice-cold demeanour when slicing up monsters nowhere to

160
be seen. Only then did she realise how fast her heart was racing right
now.

Too bad for her, the man walking alongside her just so happened to
be truly exceptional among the rank S Hunters. Cha Hae-In’s cheeks
flushed red by a lot after realising that he must’ve heard her
pounding heart as well.

She tried to divert Jin-Woo’s attention, even if only by a little, by

changing the topic of the conversation.

“If you wanted to come here, then why me….”

“Miss Hae-In is the only friend I have.”

“Pardon?”

Since when did she become friends with Hunter Seong Jin-Woo?

She racked her brain trying to recall the memory she clearly didn’t
possess before she unconsciously looked up. That’s when her eyes
locked onto Jin-Woo’s rather mischievous grin.

“You know, in front of that strange stone statue….”

‘Ah, that day.’

Back on that day when she and her colleagues entered the dual
dungeon to rescue Jin-Woo, that angel statue asked her the
question, didn’t it?

– “What is your relationship with Seong Jin-Woo?”

– “….A friend.”

It seemed that Jin-Woo remembered that brief exchange.

“You were listening back then?”

161
“Well, yeah. Somehow, I could hear you. I have better-than-average
hearing, you see.”

She felt a tiny bit wronged here somehow, but she knew that even
back then, she ended up being saved by him rather than saving him,
instead.

It was then she became conscious once more of just how many times
Jin-Woo had saved her life.

“By the way…. What was the identity of that strange dungeon?”

She had been waiting to hear his explanation on this one ever since
that day. Unfortunately, he figured that now wasn’t the right time to
tell her.

“Can I tell you later when I’ve managed to properly sort out my own
thoughts first? Even I can’t tell what’s what at the moment.”

Cha Hae-In nodded her head to say that she understood.

When their conversation entered a bit of a lull, Jin-Woo began taking

a look around their surroundings.

“Excuse me! Please look over here!”

“I’m your biggest fan!”

Just like when a celebrity was walking on a busy street, people

crowded around the two like a swarm of bees and were busily
snapping away with their smartphones.

Jin-Woo’s face was far more well-known to regular people than some
superstars nowadays. That was because, regardless of which TV
channel they tuned into, they would always play clips containing Jin-
Woo’s face ever since that super-massive Gate appeared in the air.

162
If this was any other day, he’d simply smile and let it slide. However,
he didn’t feel like having his day off being disrupted like this,
especially when he had a company.

‘Come out.’

The moment Jin-Woo issued his command, his own retinue of

bodyguards willing to work their butts off for absolutely nothing
revealed themselves.

They were none other than Igrit and the elite knights.

Around thirty or so knights emerged from his shadow and

surrounded both him and Cha Hae-In in a protective cordon. They
walked in perfect synch with their boss’s pace, too.

Igrit was especially proactive as he personally went around wherever

cameras flashed and wagged his finger to warn the would-be
paparazzo.

Meanwhile, Cha Hae-In became even more flustered by the fact that
they were now being escorted by a cordon of well-armed knights.

“Wouldn’t doing this be even more eye-catching?”

“Well, as long as we aren’t bothered, isn’t it fine?”

His words carried this inexplicable persuasive power and Cha Hae-In
found her head nodding all by itself. Truth be told, she really did feel
somewhat better now that all those gazes pouring down on her had
disappeared.

When she thought about it, she couldn’t remember the last time she
went out for fun with a relaxed mindset.

It had already been almost two years since she became a Hunter.
During this period, not even once did she take a day off to relax.

163
She always remained tense and wasted each hour feeling nervous –
on days she wasn’t participating in raids, she’d be worried about her
colleagues, and when she was in the raid, then she’d be worried
about making mistakes.

But for today….

‘….It’s a different story when I’m with him.’

A man she can depend on.

When she was with Jin-Woo, it felt as if she no longer had to meet
the expectations of her comrades that depended on her and could
go back to being just a regular woman living her life.

She took one step closer. Her cheeks blushed a little more as her
body grew closer to Jin-Woo even before she had noticed it.

‘His scent…. I can smell it.’

Jin-Woo watched her complexion get so much brighter and belatedly

reflected on his shortcomings.

‘I should’ve done this earlier.’

He scanned the theme park’s various rides, before pointing at the

roller coaster falling at a scary speed from a dizzying height and
asked her.

“Should we get on that one?”

“Okay.”

Since she answered too easily, Jin-Woo felt unconvinced and pointed
at another ride.

“How about that one?”

“It’s okay, too.”

164
“In that case, how about the one next to it?”

“That’s also okay.”

“Everything’s okay??”

“Yes. They are all okay.”

Jin-Woo stared at the excited face she made during her answers and
simply chuckled to himself.

‘What the heck. I guess I wasn’t the only one who wanted to come
here.’

Since she didn’t seem to hate this place, Jin-Woo’s mind could relax
even further now. He lightly grasped her wrist and led her to the
nearest ride.

“Well, then. Why don’t we ride all of them?”

***

Unfortunately….

It wasn’t as fun as he imagined.

“Kyaaahk! Kyahk!”

“Whoa-!!”

As luck would have it, Jin-Woo got to sit on the very front of the
roller coaster. While the people behind were screaming their heads
off, he spectated on the passing scenery without feeling much of an
excitement.

‘Huh? That kid’s gonna drop his ice cream pretty soon. Oopsie, I
knew it. Hold on, the food court was over that side? But, it’s still too
early to buy dinner, so….’

165
Hmm….

Even though the roller coaster was rushing forward at full tilt,
everything seemed to have come to a crawl, like extreme slow
motion, to Jin-Woo and he was feeling really bored right now.

If he was allowed to, then he thought that he could stand up straight

until the ride was over and he’d be unaffected in the slightest.

‘…..’

He did his very best to suppress a yawn trying to break out and
sneaked a glance behind him. Beyond Igrit and a couple of knights
sitting immediately behind him – they wanted to ride on the roller
coaster for some reason – he could see the regular people screaming
and enjoying themselves.

From every single muscle on their faces, he could feel the sensation
of thrill and joy they were experiencing right now. He also heard
their racing hearts, pounding away hard enough to seemingly
explode at any second.

On the other hand…

Jin-Woo placed his hand on the chest to feel his heart beating as
normal and broke into a slight grin.

Honestly, it was a lot more exciting to jump up high in the sky with
everything he had so he could punch that titanic god statue in the
face.

‘What about back then when I was being chased around by those
centipedes in the penalty zone?’

It was hundreds, no, ten thousand times scarier than right now.

‘Oops.’

166
Jin-Woo quickly shook his head in order to get rid of the useless
thoughts.

‘I came here to relax, yet here I am, thinking about monsters.’

He began wondering if this was an illness or something. Around at

the same time, he discovered his companion with a similar sort of
expression on her face sitting next to him.

Smirk.

He couldn’t help but chuckle here. Jin-Woo asked Cha Hae-In as she
continued to swim in her dazed thoughts.

“Is it not fun playing around here?”

“Ah…. No, it’s fun.”

Since her conversation partner possessed sharp hearing, she found it

convenient that she didn’t have to shout at him.

“Then, why haven’t you screamed at least once so far?”

They had already ridden on five different attractions so far. All of

them could be described as top thrill rides to normal people, but she
hadn’t even muttered out the common “Ah!” once yet.

She too was a rank S Hunter. Maybe not as extreme as Jin-Woo, but
she had also surpassed the realms of normal people by a wide
margin as well. Suddenly, he felt rather relieved by the fact that he
wasn’t the only one so far removed from the other people here.

It was then.

He was tempted to show her the world that he saw.

Beru sensed Jin-Woo’s desire and hurriedly began dissuading him.

[Oh, my king… It might be too dangerous for this woman.]

167
‘It’ll be fine. Besides, I’ll put you in charge of catching her if she falls
off. If you fail to do so…. You know already, right?’

[….Your wish is my command, my liege.]

Now that the voice of dissent had been suppressed, Jin-Woo spoke
to Cha Hae-In next.

“Instead of this, do you want to ride on something really exciting?”

“Something…. really exciting?”

After the roller coaster came to an end, Jin-Woo led the still-puzzled
Cha Hae-In out to a large plaza.

Whoa-!!

The theme park goers saw the cordon of black knights guarding the
two of them and gasped out in sheer amazement. But then, their
gasps soon turned into shocked screams.

“Heok!!”

“What is that thing?!”

The crowd was pushed back by the Shadow Soldiers. And on the
now-created open space, a large, black monster suddenly rose up
from the ground. It flapped its massive wings and screeched loudly
towards the sky.

Kiiiaaaahhkk-!

It was also Cha Hae-In’s first time seeing the Sky Dragon up close, so
her response wasn’t all that much different from the regular
spectators.

“O-oh my god….”

168
Jin-Woo gestured towards Cha Hae-In, her eyes still resembling
round dots from sheer amazement.

“Hurry, come on up.”

She realised that Jin-Woo had already climbed up on the back of the
Sky Dragon and became utterly flabbergasted.

“You… you want me to ride that creature??”

“I told you, didn’t I?”

Unable to watch on any longer, Jin-Woo activated the skill ‘Ruler’s

Authority’ to pull her in.

“Ah?!”

She gasped out in shock again as this unseen force dragged her in.
However, that reaction wasn’t what Jin-Woo was hoping to see from
her. Indeed, this was merely the beginning.

Even though her lips hadn’t closed from the shock yet, he made her
settle down right behind him and issued a command to Kaisel.

“Go up.”

Kiiaahk-!

As if it was waiting for that, the Sky Dragon flapped its huge wings
and began rising up in the air.

Cha Hae-In looked down as the crowd below gradually grew distant
and swallowed her saliva. For sure, the sense of tension she felt right
now was on another dimension when compared to being on those
theme park rides.

169
Almost instinctively, her arms went around Jin-Woo’s waist. Once
they got high enough that the spectators below couldn’t be seen
anymore, her voice grew louder as well.

“E-excuse me?”

“Yes?”

“Why is that ant following us?”

Jin-Woo craned his neck to the side and looked down to spot Beru
rising up just below Kaisel’s belly. Seeing how determined the former
ant king’s expression was right now, he couldn’t help but break out
in a soft chuckle.

“He’s the lifeguard!”

“Eh??”

“Hold on to me tight. We’re going to fly now.”

“Ehhhh??”

Was there a reason for more explanation now? Because he definitely

could feel an incredible amount of pressure being exerted by Cha
Hae-In’s arms wrapped around his waist.

‘What the heck. A regular guy would’ve been folded in half!’

But, this showed how scared she must’ve been feeling right now. Jin-
Woo had half succeeded in his mission and spoke loudly with an
excited voice.

“Kaisel, go faster! Faster!”

Kiiahk!

As Kaisel began flying at its fastest speed, Cha Hae-In’s screams,

heard for the very first time today, resounded out right behind him.

170
***

A smaller-scale Dragon was splitting the air as it speedily flew

forward.

Swish-!

Riding on top of Kaisel, Jin-Woo and Cha Hae-In were able to fly into
places where one wouldn’t normally survive unless one was a rank S
Hunter.

They entered the storm clouds where rain and wind wildly lashed
out; they flew so close to a mountain range that they could almost
touch it; they even flew past the seemingly-endless field of snow.

But the most beautiful sight still had to be watching the setting sun
on top of the ocean.

Kaisel gradually slowed down.

Accompanied by the chilly wind brushing past their cheeks, the two
of them watched the sun slowly disappear below the distant horizon,
the skies being dyed in the amber-orange hue.

Just like the coloured sky, Cha Hae-In’s eyes as she took in the
spectacular sight also gently glowed in that orange hue. Abruptly,
she felt curious and just had to ask him.

“Mister Jin-Woo.”

“Yes?”

“Even though you can experience stuff like this, why did we go to
that theme park first?”

“That theme park, well….”

Jin-Woo fell into reminiscence and slowly told her the reason.

171
“That’s where the Gate my dad went missing opened up.”

“Oh…”

If his father failed and the dungeon break really happened back then,
the theme park would have ceased to exist. Yet, it was full of people
today.

At first, he resented his old man for leaving behind his family in that
manner, but now, he felt as if something warm had filled up the void
in his heart after he witnessed all those smiling families having a fun
day out in the theme park.

That was enough for him.

“That’s why I always wanted to go there at least once.”

Jin-Woo’s voice sounded lonely for some reason and Cha Hae-In
wordlessly hugged him from behind. Her warmth was transmitted
through his back.

She spoke to him again.

“Thank you.”

Her sudden thanks prompted him to look behind him, but since she
was pressing up close to his back, there was no way he could see the
expression on her face.

“Pardon me?”

“I wanted to…. say thank you for everything. You’ve been helping me
out all this time, so….”

Through their bodies pressing against each other, through her warm
breaths tickling his neck, and from her powerfully beating heart, he
sensed from her what she wanted to say.

172
Indeed.

This was enough for him.

Jin-Woo smiled softly and commanded Kaisel to head in the opposite

direction.

“Where are we going now?”

Cha Hae-In sounded somewhat rueful as she asked him. Jin-Woo

replied with a smile.

“There’s something I want to show you.”

***

The destination they got to after a lengthy flight wasn’t Korea, but
Japan.

More specifically, an area designated as a restricted zone. Which

meant that there was not one soul to be found here. Even the wild
animals were driven away by the horrible auras oozing off from the
monsters and thus no one lived in this area.

In this expansive forest where not even the breathing of a small

animal could be heard, Kaisel slowly made its descent.

Kiiahk-!

The Sky Dragon lay flat on the ground and Jin-Woo climbed off first.
He turned around to assist Cha Hae-In next.

“Be careful….”

Even before he could reach out, though, she jumped lightly and
easily landed on the ground, before shrugging her shoulders. Jin-
Woo had momentarily forgotten what her job was and could only
chuckle again.

173
“Where are we….?”

She had been experiencing some extraordinary sights for almost the
whole day today, and so, she expectantly began scanning her new
surroundings with curious eyes.

However, besides the near-endless sea of trees, she couldn’t see

anything particularly interesting out here.

Jin-Woo sneakily bought a blanket from the System’s Store and laid it
down on the ground before opening his mouth.

“There’s no fun if I let you in on the secret already, so why don’t we

lie down first?”

“Ehh?”

Did she hear him wrong??

Unfortunately, there was no way that a rank S Hunter’s hearing

would hear such a clear enunciation of words incorrectly. Besides,
Jin-Woo was already getting ready to lay down on the blanket,
anyway.

“Please, hurry.”

Seeing how nonchalant he was in his invitation, Cha Hae-In’s heart

began pounding as if it was about to explode.

“Are, are you…. being serious?”

She simply had to confirm his intentions one more time.

Too bad for her, perhaps, he didn’t show not one bit of hesitation as
he nodded his head in a determined way.

It was her turn to hesitate, but in the end, she approached the
blanket. Jin-Woo confirmed this and slowly laid down first. Soon, she

174
too lied down next to him, and as if she had made a big decision
about something, she straightened her legs.

“I’m… ready.”

Jin-Woo looked at Cha Hae-In murmuring with tightly closed eyes

and replied to her.

“In that case, please open your eyes.”

When her eyes creaked open just a bit, he wordlessly pointed at the
night sky above.

….Towards the cascading light of the stars.

“Ah…..”

Cha Hae-In gasped out inadvertently after looking at the stunning

parade of the starlight filling up the heavens.

Beautiful.

Could she be able to describe this spectacle with any other words
besides ‘beautiful’?

Jin-Woo was pleased by her response and smiled in satisfaction.

“I arrived here to deal with a dungeon break and ended up looking at

the night sky.”

Back then, he felt just too fatigued and wanted to lay his weary body
down and close his eyes to rest. But, because the surroundings were
so bright, he couldn’t go to sleep.

He got irritated and opened his eyes and that’s when he got to see
this brilliant echo of stars enveloping the sky.

Just seeing them made his heart melt down that night.

175
“I thought that it’d be wonderful to share this night sky with
someone else, you see.”

The only thing filling up this still forest with nary a squeak of sound
was the endless river of starlight.

Jin-Woo wanted to share this feeling, this moment, with someone

else.

Fortunately, the result of his desire was this strong sense of relief. He
felt relieved by the fact that there was someone close by who could
also feel what he had felt then.

And his heart, once hardened and lumpy, seemed to soften and
become untangled now.

But then, this happened.

‘Uh….?’

He felt the warmth of Cha Hae-In’s hand climbing up on top of his

own.

“Can I… hold your hand?”

But, she was already holding it, though?

Jin-Woo smiled before shifting his hand to interlock his fingers with
hers. The cold yet smooth hand of a woman filled his palm up.

So still, so quiet….

Countless starlight sparkled and rained down, as the heads of two

young people slowly became one.

176
Chapter 213

Next day.

The news of various Hunters had taken over the sports newspapers
from the likes of actual athletes or celebrities a long time ago. And
on this particular day, a rather sensational headline found itself on
one such publication’s front page.

[Seong Jin-Woo and Cha Hae-In go to a theme park; birth of the

strongest couple?]

The articles contained many large photos of the two people in

question visiting a theme park, taken by various smartphones. The
last image was of them riding on a large monster to fly off to
elsewhere.

The personal affairs of these two Hunters were supposed to be

protected and couldn’t be reported to the public, but the boss of this
particular newspaper went mad from this massive breaking news
and, even under the threat of sanctions, decided to release the
article nonetheless.

Of course, the response had been tremendous.

The ‘scandal’ concerning two rank S Hunters whose names everyone

could recognise brought about renewed vitality to the psyches of
everyone who was fatigued by the constant stream of articles related
to the super-massive Gate in the sky.

The world’s greatest Hunter and Korea’s best female Hunter were
dating. Obviously, people would display an incredible amount of
interest in this matter.

177
Especially online, where the story of the two Hunters was spreading
out with an even more rabid intensity.

– Hang on, if Seong Jin-Woo and Cha Hae-In marry and have a kid
together, wouldn’t Seong Jin-Woo Junior go around killing every
single monster in the entire world?

└ Seong Jin-Woo Junior LOL

└ It’s not official that they are dating, yet look at all these idiots
jumping to conclusions. Tsk, tsk.

└ Going by that example, you think we got Seong Jin-Woo because

his parents were both super duper top Hunters? You sound like a
little kid who don’t know how Hunters awaken their powers.

└ Even then, doesn’t those two dating make you feel excited?

└ I wish it was true. Them having a marriage argument will be an epic

encounter that flattens their surroundings. LOL

– I live in the outskirts of Seoul, and when I saw that Gate floating in
the sky while travelling near Gangnam, I thought the world was
coming to an end. But now that I see the Hunters going on a date like
this and enjoying their lives, I feel like there’s hope left for us still and
I’m relieved by that.

└ This. ㅇㅈ

└ I hope TV stations will stop playing special reports on the Gate

now.

└ Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim, Cha Hae-In Hunter-nim, whether it’s a

super-massive Gate or a super-duper-massive Gate, please stop it for
us!

“Tsk, tsk.”

178
The Chairman of the White Tiger Guild, Baek Yun-Ho, clicked his
tongue and folded close the newspaper in his hand.

He wondered why Hunter Cha Hae-In’s eyes were gleaming

suspiciously whenever she looked at Hunter Seong Jin-Woo, and so,
this here was the reason.

However, he wasn’t clicking his tongue because the two of them

were going on a date.

“Look at this headline. It’s complete rubbish. What do they even

mean, strongest couple?”

Section Chief Ahn Sahng-Min, sitting near his boss and his rather
displeased expression, asked him while sounding puzzled.

“What’s the matter, sir? The way I see it, Hunters Seong Jin-Woo and
Cha Hae-In would definitely be worthy of the title of ‘strongest
couple’.”

“Doesn’t matter who Hunter Seong Jin-Woo dates, we’ll still get the
‘birth of the strongest couple’ anyways, so what’s the point of
attaching this sort of a headline?”

‘Eh?’

Now that it was said out loud, that certainly sounded logical.

Ahn Sahng-Min began placing all the female Hunters he knew next to
Jin-Woo in his mind, and began nodding his head at Baek Yun-Ho’s
opinion.

Even if Hunter Seong was dating that high school girl Hunter, he just
couldn’t think of anyone capable of winning against them. None at
all.

179
The female high school Hunter might be not much to write home
about, but well, her partner would be too much of a cheat, after all.

“You’re completely correct, Chairman.”

“Yes, I’m telling you.”

Ahn Sahng-Min nodded his head again and began sipping the coffee
he bought from the vending machine not too long ago. He slowly
shifted his gaze outside the window.

“By the way, this issue with fine dust is really getting serious, sir. I’m
actually scared of opening the windows nowadays.”

Ahn Sahng-Min frowned and got up to close the half-open window.

However, Baek Yun-Ho stopped him from doing so.

“Hang on.”

“Sir?”

Baek Yun-Ho stood up from his seat and walked over to Ahn Sahng-
Min, before opening the window wide to reach outside.

“This…. This isn’t fine dust at all.”

The feeling he got at the tips of his fingers was icy cold.

This was actually a fog. Not only that, a fog that carried this extreme
coldness, bitter enough to make one’s bones shiver.

“This is weird.”

It was only around the middle of Autumn, but to think, there would
be a wintery fog enveloping the entirety of Seoul. At that moment,
he felt this creepy chilling sensation brushing past the back of his
neck.

180
Baek Yun-Ho’s eyes changed to that of the ‘Eyes of the Beast’ and he
glared outside the window. He muttered to himself, his expression
hardening gradually.

“Something… something feels really off.”

***

Jin-Woo was the first one to open his eyes.

Hae-In must’ve been exhausted from yesterday as she hadn’t woken

up from her sweet slumber yet.

Just how long had it been since he greeted the morning together
with someone else?

Jin-Woo cautiously got up to make sure not to rouse Hae-In and

walked over to the nearby forest.

‘It was definitely around here….’

He found the stream he used the last time he was here and washed
up. After he was done, he walked back to where Hae-In was still
asleep but then….

He discovered something strange and his steps came to an abrupt

halt.

‘What is this….?’

There was this small tree with new buds sprouting up. One might be
tempted to say that it was a plant commonly seen anywhere, but the
thing was, its leaves were gently shimmering in a silvery colour.

It was a tree never before seen on Earth, in other words.

181
And sure enough, this strange tree was emitting a very faint amount
of magical energy, something only Jin-Woo’s level of sensory
perception could have picked up on.

‘It’s not from our world.’

The plant’s magical energy emission was different from that of a

monster’s, so it clearly wasn’t one. Jin-Woo observed the tree for a
little while longer, before raising his head to discover more of the
same silvery leaves here and there.

It was such a contrast to the sight of regular surrounding trees all

drying up gradually.

‘Even the ground… is changing.’

Was this also the part of the Rulers’ plan? Or, was it more like the
after-effects of monsters pillaging the land?

Jin-Woo scooped a little bit of soil and smelt it, before rubbing his
hands together to scatter it away little by little. Even the falling soil
contained a minute trace, a scent, of magic energy.

Maybe it was only the humans that hadn’t noticed the truth yet. It
might be that this world had become deeply mired in the magical
energy already.

It was at this moment, he sensed Cha Hae-In’s movement from afar

as she slowly woke up from her slumber. Jin-Woo dusted his hands
and stood back up.

It was indeed important to worry about the consequences of the

transforming world, but there was something even more important
than that right now.

And that would be to calm Hae-In down, when she’d no doubt start
panicking after realising that he wasn’t there. Jin-Woo deliberately

182
made some noises as he approached her. She quickly discovered him
and let out a soft sigh of relief.

He smiled and greeted her.

“Good morning. Did you rest well?”

Her complexion reddened for some reason. She replied while

averting her gaze away from him.

“…..Yes.”

Jin-Woo sent her a puzzled look, prompting her to sneakily raise her
head.

“Where were you coming from?”

Hae-In’s question sounded cautious. He used the towel around his

neck to rub his still-moist hair and replied.

“I was washing myself, actually.”

Now that he thought about it, she must’ve wanted to clean herself
just as badly, too. Especially with all that ocean breeze – even a little
bit of exposure would leave behind plenty of salt on one’s skin.

‘Still, I can’t let a young lady wash herself in a place like this….’

Jin-Woo pondered his options for a bit, before a smile floated up on

his lips. Going to ‘that place’ would solve the issues of both taking a
bath and breakfast in one go.

“I know a hotel with a killer breakfast nearby, so how about going

there for our meal?”

Although she didn’t verbalise her answer, Hae-In must’ve felt really
hungry, because she immediately nodded her head, her lips firmly
closed shut.

183
Jin-Woo reached out to her and helped her to stand back up, before
summoning Kaisel out again.

Kiiiaaahk!

Hae-In tilted her head while looking at the Sky Dragon unfurl its
wings.

“But, didn’t you say it was nearby?”

“Well, it’s about a five-minute distance if I run with everything I have,

so…. Would you like to run alongside me, then?”

Five minutes at Jin-Woo’s top speed; Hae-In quickly calculated just

how far that would be in her head, and without saying anything, she
climbed on the back of Kaisel.

‘Yup, it’s great that she understands me so quickly.’

Jin-Woo grinned and took his place in front of her. Kaisel flapped its
wings and flew up.

The Koreans had seen Kaisel fairly often on TV so their reactions

were not as severe, but he wondered how the Japanese staff of the
hotel would react after seeing his ride.

He prayed that the chef working this morning wouldn’t be too

frightened. Meanwhile, Kaisel slowly began heading in the direction
of the hotel.

***

‘It’ suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

The first person to discover ‘it’ was a middle-aged man who got
evaluated as a rank B Awakened in the Hunter’s Association only a
few moments ago.

184
Thud.

The man ended up bumping shoulders with ‘it’ appearing suddenly

before him in the middle of the busy street and stopped walking
right then.

“What the….?”

The man raised his head while chasing after the silhouette of the
shadow. There was a big, hulking man of over two metres tall
standing right before him.

This dangerous sense of wild beast oozed out from the man wearing
some sort of leather clothing. No, rather than just some ‘sense’, this
man was a wild beast personified.

Since the man’s huge physique was so eye-catching, the gazes of the
passersby quickly focused on this person, and the middle-aged man
that had run into him.

“What’s this? Are they going to fight?”

“Wow! Look at that man’s size. He’s no joke. Even Mah Dong-Wook
would take a bow, man.”

“By the way, that uncle must’ve lost his mind. He might end up in the
hospital at this rate.”

Even though the street was filled with people, there was this heavy
silence descending on it. That’s what the middle-aged man thought
after becoming the centre of attention of the passersby.

Now normally, he’d have apologised and stepped aside, but he was a
different person compared to the past.

He’d no longer suffer the ignominy of kowtowing before his superior

or be ignored by his junior workers.

185
‘I’m a rank B Awakened now.’

Not only that, among the upper tier of the rank B, too. There was no
need to act subservient towards a ‘regular’ person like this who only
relied on his massive frame.

The middle-aged man carefully put down the bag of documents on

the ground and roared out at the top of his lungs.

“Oii! You’re supposed to apologise when running into someone!”

Once his agitated heart began racing away, he felt his magical energy
moving vigorously from within every inch of his body.

Cells in his flesh were telling him.

That he was alive.

That he was ready to start a new life as a Hunter.

Perhaps suppressed by his spirit, the beast-like man didn’t say

anything while standing rooted in the same spot. The middle-aged
man saw this reaction and became even more excited.

“You think everything will be over just because you’re standing still
looking at me like that? If you made a mistake, you’re supposed to
admit to it and start begging for forgiveness to the person you’ve
wronged…. Ah?! Ah, aaah!!”

When the huge man grabbed the middle-aged man by his head and
lifted the poor man up, the passersby watching began screaming at
the top of their lungs.

“Ah!! Ah, aaaaah!!”

Thick, reddish veins bulged on the head of the middle-aged man as

he was being squeezed.

186
A bear. No, a tiger; a lion, a shark, a crocodile, a poisonous snake –
which predator existing on this world was capable of frightening a
human being to this degree?

The fear of the predator ingrained into humanity’s DNA caused the
middle-aged man to wet his pants.

“Ah….. Ah…..”

And eventually…

CRACK!

Accompanied by the sounds of something shattering, blood and

brain mass splattered to everywhere.

“Kyyyaaaaahhk!!”

The huge man didn’t stop there; he began to voraciously devour the
sagging, lifeless body of the middle-aged man on the ground.

“He, he’s eating that man!”

“U-uwaaaah?!”

“Wha-what the hell is this?! What’s going on?!”

The noisy meal time came to an end in an instant. The huge ‘man’
wiped the corners of his mouth, still dirty with bits of flesh, with his
hand while slowly standing back up.

A wild beast.

Not even a hint of intelligence could be seen behind the eyes of the
huge man. They definitely resembled a wild beast’s eyes now.

While many people screamed and ran away, there were just as many
who had failed to recognise the severity of the situation and
continued to spectate on the next actions of this huge man.

187
This ‘wild beast’ roared out towards the humans around it.

[Listen well, you lowly humans! Starting from now, I will hunt all of
you down!!]

The thunderclap-like roar paralysed all who listened. They stood

there on the spot shivering, tears rolling down their cheeks.

Before anyone had noticed it, sharp fangs were jutting out gloriously
from the huge man’s mouth.

[My fangs and claws will mercilessly rip apart the flesh and skin of
you weaklings!]

It was the King of Beasts. The roar from the Sovereign of Beastly
Fangs baring its sharp canines reverberated loudly against the
entirety of the streets.

[I dare you to come and stop me!]

***

The Association President Woo Jin-Cheol finally received the report

on the ‘horrifying being’ that appeared in the middle of the city
without any prior warning.

“How many victims so far?”

“At the moment, it’s impossible to tally the number of the dead, sir.”

The ‘thing’ was first spotted in the district of Myeong-dong and while
moving in a straight line, the creature proceeded to kill every human
it laid its eyes on.

“When taken into account the direction this creature has taken, its
destination could be…”

“…..It’s the Hunter’s Association, isn’t it?”

188
Woo Jin-Cheol bit his lower lip and clenched his fists.

“We’ve got our hands full worrying about the d*mn Gate right now,
but just where did such a monster even…..”

Unfortunately, there was no time to stew in his anger right now. No,
he had to come up with a solution to stop that thing somehow.

“What about Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim?”

“We still can’t contact him.”

“God d*mn it…”

He cursed out involuntarily.

Only a few minutes ago, he heard the news that a Guild stepped
forward to stop this monster only to be annihilated without being
able to do anything.

The only consolation right now was that the creature moved at a
slow pace as if it was waiting for someone to show up. But still, it
didn’t take a genius to figure out that, as long as it was not stopped
soon, the total number of victims would end up being astronomical.

In such a situation, the fact that the country’s most powerful combat
force couldn’t be reached was probably the worst news imaginable.

‘If things go wrong, even the country can….’

Woo Jin-Cheol gritted his teeth as he kept his mouth shut, his
determination firming up. It was then, a welcome piece of news
came at his way.

“Association President!”

Woo Jin-Cheol shot up from his seat as an Association employee

burst into his office without permission.

189
“Did you get in touch with Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim??”

“No, sir. That’s not it. However, I just learned that a world-class
Hunter staying nearby is getting ready to stop the monster!”

“What? Really? Who is it?”

“That is….”

***

Ranked as the number one in the German Hunter community,

Lennart Niermann, could sense the aura of the monster approaching
closer as it dyed the streets red with blood.

‘Will I… be able to win?’

Even though he was doubtful, as a Hunter, there was no way he’d

ignore the screams of terror coming from the innocent citizens.

And when he took a look at the brightening expressions of the

escaping citizens as they recognised him, the Hunter ranked twelfth
in the American Hunter Bureau’s ‘Hunter Point’ list, Lennart
Niermann was overcome with this great weight of responsibility
bearing down on his shoulders.

Yes, it was not a matter of whether he could do it or not. No, he

simply had to do it. That was the purpose, the duty, of a Hunter.

‘Maybe….’

The reason why he ended up staying in Seoul was probably the

trickery of fate so that he could stop that monstrosity with his own
two hands.

Lennart Niermann formed a grave but determined expression and

undid a couple of buttons on his shirt. Just as he was about to take

190
his step towards the monster that finally revealed itself at the far
end of the street….

A heavy voice came from behind him.

“Get out of the way.”

191
Chapter 214

Jin-Woo’s smartphone began ringing off the hook as soon as he

entered the reception range.

‘From the Hunter’s Association?’

His expression hardened when he confirmed who the caller was.

Could something bad have happened while he was away for a bit?

He quickly answered the call.

– “H-Hunter-nim?!”

“Yes, it’s me, Seong Jin-Woo.”

He sensed that something was definitely wrong after hearing the

urgency in the Association employee’s voice. Feeling suspicious, he
quickly asked.

“What happened?”

– “That, that, the thing is, no, hang on, the Association President will
explain it to you. Let me patch you through to him right away.”

A problem serious enough to make the leader of the Association

personally step up?

Jin-Woo realised that the matter at hand couldn’t be a simple one

and wordlessly waited for the reply. The distinct connecting signal
tone soon ended, and as if he had been desperately waiting for the
call, Woo Jin-Cheol hurriedly answered the phone, his anxious voice
leaking out from the speaker.

– “Seong Hunter-nim!! Why couldn’t we get a hold of you?”

192
“I was outside the reception range until a moment ago.”

Perhaps because of being contaminated by the frequent dungeon

breaks, it was almost impossible to contact outside when within that
vast ocean of trees.

However, he thought it was more than sufficient enough to leave

behind his Shadow Soldiers with those whom he wanted to protect.
That’s what he believed.

‘Could the super-massive Gate have opened up while I was in the

forest?’

But, there should have been at least two more days left still?

All manners of hypotheses bubbled up in Jin-Woo’s mind and just

before he could urge Woo Jin-Cheol to spit out the truth, the latter
told him the greatly simplified version of the current crisis.

– “A monster has appeared in the middle of Seoul and is going on a

rampage!”

Tumble.

Jin-Woo had been feeling energised after enjoying a rare break from
the action. But now, he felt as if his heart had fallen to the pit of his
stomach.

“How big is the size of the monster horde??”

– “No, there’s no horde. It’s just one creature.”

‘Just one?’

Currently, all Korean Hunters had gathered in Seoul.

193
They were summoned to the city in order to fight against the
potential dungeon break from the super-massive Gate, so they
should be on their toes, getting ready to move at a moment’s notice.

On top of that, the Association was even supplying weapons to those

Hunters lacking in proper equipment, too.

‘But then, they are getting destroyed by a monster that suddenly

appeared out of nowhere?’

As Jin-Woo fell ever deeper into confusion, Woo Jin-Cheol hurriedly

continued on with his explanation.

– “A Guild that tried to fight the creature was annihilated in an

instant. It looks like the monster is no ordinary creature at all.”

“What about its current location?”

– “We believe it’s currently near Seoul Grand Hotel.”

Could this be chalked up to being mere coincidence?

The moment Woo Jin-Cheol mentioned the name of the ultra-

luxurious hotel where Thomas Andre was staying, Jin-Woo felt this
sense of creeping unease tickle him in his throat.

Sure enough….

The Association President’s voice speaking the American’s name was

filled to the brim with anxiety.

– “I received a call not too long ago that Thomas Andre Hunter-nim
was getting ready to fight the monster.”

But, that couldn’t be.

194
Just in case, Jin-Woo had left a Shadow Soldier behind with Thomas
Andre. The order issued to the soldier was to ‘send a signal right
away if something strange is sensed in the immediate vicinity’.

But then, the target for protection started fighting alone against a
monster capable of wiping out a Guild and yet, there was no signal?

‘….Hang on.’

Only now did Jin-Woo realise something was off.

The signals coming from the Shadow Soldiers spread throughout

Seoul were extremely weak. As if something was interfering with the
transmission.

‘What is going on?’

An enemy possessing incredible power, a Special Authority-rank

Hunter fighting it, and finally, signals being blocked off.

Could it be?

One distinct possibility popped up in Jin-Woo’s head. He asked in a

hurry to confirm.

“Association President! Did that monster possess a shadow?”

– “Excuse me?”

“Please, confirm if that monster has a shadow!”

Woo Jin-Cheol’s voice seemingly got cut out for a moment, then –
before continuing on with greater urgency.

– “How can this be…. You’re right, Seong Hunter-nim! I just

confirmed with the photos, and the monster does not have a
shadow!”

‘Oh, my god.’

195
Jin-Woo recalled that the Ice Elf attacking Goh Gun-Hui also didn’t
possess a shadow and loudly cried out.

“You must never let Thomas Andre fight that monster!”

There was a good chance that the monster had been aiming for
Thomas Andre all along.

– “Excuse me? But, they have already….”

Time was of the essence right now.

Jin-Woo realised that he had no need to listen to any further

explanation and tried to activate ‘Shadow Exchange’ with the
Shadow Soldier attached to Thomas Andre.

Tti-ring.

Accompanied by a rather ominous-sounding alert noise, a clear

holographic message suddenly popped up in his view.

[The designated Shadow Soldier cannot be located.]

Jin-Woo tried several times more, but it was the same story.

Tti-ring, tti-ring….

[The designated Shadow Soldier cannot be located.]

[The designated Shadow Soldier cannot be located.]

‘How could this be!’

Jin-Woo began freaking out, his expression gradually hardening like

stone.

‘My soldier… has disappeared?’

The Shadow Soldier he needed to use as his coordinates for the skill
‘Shadow Exchange’ had disappeared without a trace, somehow.

196
He couldn’t detect any trace of that particular solder at all.

And he could now definitely sense that the connection he shared

with the soldier attached to Thomas Andre had been severed, just
like when he sent some of the soldiers back to the void.

The cancellation of the Shadow Soldier independent of his will??

A confused-sounding voice leaked out of Jin-Woo’s mouth next.

“What the hell has happened here?”

***

Lennart Niermann heard the weighty voice coming from behind him.

“Get out of the way.”

The German had experienced a similar sort of situation before, but

the emotion he felt right now was quite different compared to back
then.

“Thomas Andre!”

The giant of a man large enough to block out the sun, that’s Thomas
Andre. Lennart Niermann’s expression brightened the moment he
discovered the American standing behind him.

Thomas Andre wordlessly walked past Lennart and slowly went up

ahead.

Even those screaming people running away from the scene

recognised the Special Authority-rank Hunter and his hulking
physique, and their steps all gradually came to a stop.

“He, he’s that American Hunter…..”

“T-Thomas Andre??”

197
“It’s the Goliath! THE Goliath!!”

Even the first rate Hunter Lennart Niermann felt his heart pound
excitedly when seeing Thomas Andre’s broad back as he walked
forward. So, how would the regular people feel, when they were
desperately fleeing in terror from the monster’s dense killing intent?

“Ah, ah!”

“Oh, dear lord! Thank you!”

Some people even began plopping down on the ground from the
sense of relief robbing their built-up tension, knowing that one of the
world’s best Hunters had come to save them.

Meanwhile, Thomas Andre angrily shouted at the other Hunters

nearby who were all frozen stiff from the powerful pressure emitted
by the unknown monster.

“Stop standing around like idiots, and start evacuating these citizens,
you b*stards!”

The roar from the Special Authority-rank Hunter was more than
enough to blow away the stifling pressure dulling the thought
process of the other Hunters.

They understood his intention through that thunderous roar and

began grabbing those citizens that had fallen behind to drag them far
away from Thomas Andre. Lennart Niermann also cooperated with
the evacuation of the powerless citizens along with his Korean
counterparts.

The American stood tall in the middle of the street as if to protect

them. And that ‘monster’ slowly made its way over in his direction.

The Special Authority-rank Hunter took off his sunglasses, his eyes
narrowing to a slit.

198
“….”

What he saw was a beast covered in blood. Although it vaguely

looked like one, there was simply no way that thing was a human
being.

Veins bulged on Thomas Andre’s face as he spotted the bits and

pieces of the victims strewn messily about behind this ‘beast’.

“A stinking beast who doesn’t know its place has rampaged around
for far too long.”

As if to mock Thomas Andre’s rage, the ‘beast’ bared its fangs

covered in bits of flesh in a toothy grin.

Putting down a crazed animal was a universal truth, no matter where

one was from. Thomas Andre’s eyes became incomparably
murderous right away.

“Reinforcement.”

His muscles transformed like armour and his already-hulking

physique grew larger and larger than before. As far as one’s physical
size was concerned, he was a step larger than this monster.

To find out the gap in the strength, Thomas Andre rushed towards
his target.

A tank!

People watching and sensing the ground tremble every time he took
a step forward instinctively pictured a powerful tank.

The beast smacked its lips at the appearance of a new prey and
made its move as well.

Two giants closed their distance in an instant and stood before each
other. At first, they exchanged glances studying their new opponent,

199
and soon, they squeezed their muscles laden with massive magical
energy while roaring out at the same time.

Two monstrous beings and their fists powerful enough to crush

concrete like tofu began exploding out like bullets towards one
another.

Boomboomboomboomboomboom!!

This exchange of fists relied solely on brute force with no

consideration towards any type of techniques. Hunters watching on
were left absolutely awestruck by this spectacle.

Just being kissed by one of those fists would result in instant death
for these Hunters. But these two were trading such lethal blows
without even taking a breather, without even bothering to block
them, as if these punches were just light probing jabs.

‘It’s working.’

Thomas Andre grew sure of it now.

Pow!

His punch caused the beast’s head to spin to the side. This heavy
sensation of impact got transmitted to his left hand. This attack
definitely worked.

After losing to Jin-Woo, the Goliath felt his confidence had

plummeted somewhat, but through this dogfight, he felt it growing
back again.

Boomboomboomboomboomboom!!

The continuous stream of powerful punches pushed the beast

gradually backwards. Grabbing hold of this opening, Thomas Andre’s

200
fearsome full swing of his fist floored the b*stard right into the
ground.

Kwa-boooom!!

Kwa-jeeeeeeeck!

The beast was shoved away as the concrete below split apart from
the sheer force. The creature smashed into the side of a building and
demolished its wall; only then did it finally stop moving.

Other Hunters watching on punched the air and celebrated, but the
person responsible, Thomas Andre himself, didn’t display any hints
of joy.

‘No, that was wrong. It wasn’t…. as deep as I wanted.’

The thick dust cloud spread out, obscuring the vision. However, he
could still sense the presence of the beast emitting the dense
murderous intent from beyond the collapsed debris of the building.

Swish-!

Swiiish-!!

Suddenly, heavy hunks of metal flew out from the dust and at
Thomas Andre’s location. He smacked these flying cars away from
him and quickly activated the skill, ‘Capture’, to yank the beast
hidden from his sight closer to his position.

Wuuwoong!

The resisting beast was brought right up to the American’s nose; he

immediately activated his strongest skill.

“Demolition!!”

201
Muscles on both of Thomas Andre’s arms ballooned up until they
nearly popped. He slammed down on the ground with everything he
had.

KWA-BOOM!!

The horrifying shockwave arising from the ground pummelled the

beast.

[Kuuwahhh!!]

The beast cried out in agony as it was flung into the air before it
came crashing back down.

Thomas Andre seized upon this chance and jumped on top of the
monster, before proceeding to rain down his fists laden with an
unbelievable amount of magic energy.

Skill ‘Power Smash’!!

Boomboomboomboomboomboom!!

Waaaah!!

The citizens watching the battle between the Goliath and the beast
from afar with anxious minds all began raising excited cheers. Even
the Hunters began breaking out in relieved smiles as well.

No matter who saw it, this fight now had a clear victor. It was an
overwhelming victory befitting the Special Authority-rank Hunter,
often referred to as the world’s best.

However….

Thicker and thicker drops of cold sweat began forming on Thomas

Andre’s forehead even as he mercilessly pummelled the beast down
below.

202
‘What is this?’

What was this anxiety, born from this sensation of a noose gradually
tightening around his neck the closer he got to his victory?

Each and every one of his attacks was landing splendidly, and the
beast being floored down below wasn’t showing any signs of
resistance.

So, why….?

‘Why do I feel this anxious, even though I’m clearly in an

advantageous position?’

Fairly quickly, though, Thomas Andre got to discover the source of

his anxiety.

It was the eyes.

From the very beginning of the fight right up until now, the beast had
been looking at him with the exact same apathetic eyes, even going
so far to completely disregard the indiscriminate outpouring of his
attacks.

It was as if the thing was mocking him, telling him to try and give his
best shot.

Grit.

The Goliath was thoroughly enraged and raised his interlocked fists
up high.

His shoulder muscles expanded in an instant, and thick veins bulged

on his skin. Horrifying amounts of magic energy flowed into his
shoulders, arms, wrists and fists, emitting a bone-chilling aura at the
same time.

With this, it’d be the end.

203
Could this beast reopen those eyes again after being struck by
‘Demolition’ right in the epicentre of the skill?

With everything he had, Thomas Andre slammed down both of his

fists.

“Demolition!!!!”

It was then.

He clearly saw it.

He saw the beast close its eyes for the briefest of brief moments
before opening them to reveal that those eyes, previously
resembling that of a human’s, now fully resembling a wild predator’s.

Grab.

The beast leisurely raised one hand up to easily stop Thomas Andre’s
two fists swung down with all his might.

“…..??”

The American looked at his hands, now held tight and couldn’t be
pulled back at all, and felt a chill run down his back.

[Even though you’re a mere puppet of a Fragment, you managed to

drag out this much power.]

The sounds similar to a predator growling caused Thomas Andre’s

expression to crumble.

“What was that?”

Right at that moment.

The black hair of the beast began to grow longer and longer as its
colour changed to white.

204
That wasn’t all; the nails resembling awls grew lengthier as well,
while its fangs grew sharper, too. Soon, whitish fur covered its entire
body.

‘A Werewolf?!’

Unfortunately, there never had been a single instance of a white

Werewolf making its appearance in ten years of humans going on
raids.

“You…. Just what is your true identity?”

Thomas Andre threw that question out as he felt this ominous chill
from the disgusting, vile magical energy oozing out from the beast’s
eyes.

Too bad, the creature didn’t bother to answer him and proceeded to
shatter the bones in the human’s hands with nothing but sheer
physical strength.

Wuduk!!

“Wuuuuaaahk!!”

205
Chapter 215

Unbridled astonishment!

The strongest Hunter screamed out and everyone else in the vicinity
couldn’t hide their shock and astonishment.

The helicopter dispatched from the TV station flying in the air filmed
in its entirety Thomas Andre suffering in great pain.

Right in the middle of Korea’s capital city, Seoul, where the focus of
the world had gathered due to the appearance of the super-massive
Gate – to think, a Special Authority-rank Hunter trying to stop a
monster was screaming out in pain like that?

“How can this be….??”

All those watching the two being’s fight, whether in the location
itself or through various screens, prayed fervently in their hearts that
this wasn’t the end of this battle.

Too bad, the ‘beast’ snatched and then, slammed Thomas Andre’s
wrists into the ground as if to mock their prayers.

BOOM!!

It then climbed on top of Thomas Andre, reversing the previous

position.

“Keo-heok!”

Blood spewed out from the Goliath’s mouth as he bitterly resisted

even with his broken hands, but now that the beast had fully
revealed its true powers, he was unable to endure against his
opponent’s physical prowess.

206
The beast stomped on Thomas Andre’s face and roared loudly into
the sky.

Kuuwaaaaahhh-!!

The horrifying howl loud enough to tear out the eardrums of

everyone listening reverberated like a thunderclap in the city’s
streets.

A predator didn’t fight. It simply hunted its prey.

The Hunters nearby were overwhelmed by the howl containing an

inconceivable amount of magical energy and began kneeling down
one by one from the closest position to the furthest back.

As for Thomas Andre, the closest one to hear the howling, his
eardrums had ruptured and blood leaked out from his ears.

The beast smirked derisively.

[Are you scared now?]

One of the joys a hunter could derive from the process of hunting
was seeing the prey shiver in fear.

However, Thomas Andre didn’t give up. He clenched his messed-up

fist with great difficulty and threw a counterattack.

Pow!

Quite unlike before, when they exchanged many crippling blows

earlier, the beast’s head didn’t even rock once.

The wall.

He looked into the disinterested eyes of the beast glaring down at

him and began picturing an imposing wall stretching endlessly into
the sky standing tall to block his path.

207
He had felt something similar to this once before.

What a strange thing this was; for a moment there, Thomas Andre
thought he saw Jin-Woo within the beast’s glare.

‘But, how come….?’

He didn’t have any chance to sort out his confusion, though, as an

attack from the beast rocked his head violently side to side, the
ground underneath caving into a crater.

BOOM!!

“Keok!”

That was just the start of the onslaught, though.

Boomboomboomboomboom!!

Just like how he had done, the beast began raining down powerful
attacks from above. As if to teach the human what true attacks
looked like, the vicious punches continuously slammed down without
mercy.

Boomboomboomboomboom!!

Thomas Andre’s lips continued to issue pained grunts over and over
again, unlike back then when the beast simply withstood his
punches.

“Keo-heok!”

It was then; the beast, in the midst of enjoying the pain of its prey,
discovered something odd just beyond the human.

[….??]

The beast stopped its attacks. What it was glaring at, as if to bore a
hole into it, was Thomas Andre’s shadow.

208
[I see that there’s a rat hiding in there.]

Stab!

The beast stabbed its hand deep into the shadow and grabbed
‘something’ within the subspace.

Paht!

When the creature pulled its hand out, an ant soldier hiding inside
the human’s shadow was dragged out along as well.

The beast stood upright again. The ant soldier, its neck tightly
grabbed by the powerful grip, desperately struggled but the monster
didn’t even budge from the spot.

“Kiiieehk!”

This one was a soldier belonging to the Shadow Sovereign.

It was impossible to destroy an immortal soldier like this one through

regular means. However, the creature holding onto the ant’s neck
was no ordinary being, either.

The Sovereign of Beastly Fangs was a higher existence. It simply

focused the energy inherent within the spiritual body to erase this
ant soldier from the very fabric of existence altogether.

“Kiiahk!”

The ant soldier spat out a short death throe and turned into dust,
returning to the void beyond. The beast grinned as it watched the
grey ash scatter in the air.

It was then.

209
Thomas Andre got up and positioned himself behind the beast
before anyone had noticed it. He then wrapped his arm around the
creature’s neck and secured his grip with the other arm.

If he lacked teeth, then he’d bite with his gums, instead!

His hands may be broken, but his arms and shoulders were still fine.
Thick veins bulged on his arms as he poured in all his might to exert
enough pressure to crush a steel beam in one breath.

“Pant, pant….”

Thomas Andre continued to gasp out breathlessly and concentrated

on this final attack.

There would be nothing left after this. His eyes shot wide open in
concentration as he clenched his teeth, fully knowing that he’d get
killed if he missed this chance.

Wududuk, wuduk….

He heard the displeasing noises similar to bones being crushed into

powder. If that was the sound of the enemy’s neck breaking, then
there was still a chance of victory here.

‘….I’ve done it!’

Unfortunately, the incoming rush of pain had been slightly delayed

by the adrenaline coursing through his body. Thomas Andre bore the
full brunt and screamed out in agony.

“Wuaaaaahhhk!!”

The beast shattered the American’s arms locked onto its neck with
nothing but sheer physical hand grip. It then grabbed his head with
both hands before proceeding to slam him down on the ground.

THUD!

210
Viewers watching this scene through their screens saw the Goliath’s
arms dangling around and quickly averted their gazes. It was a scene
they simply couldn’t bear to watch with their eyes open.

Too bad, the horrifying scene didn’t stop there and continued on.
The beast pounced on the sprawled Goliath and began biting him.

The predator’s mealtime had begun.

Dozens of sharp, knife-like fangs began tearing into Thomas Andre’s

skin and made a mess out of his flesh.

“Euh-euhk! Wuaahk!!”

He didn’t give up until the end and continued to desperately

struggle, but it was obvious that he had no chance in hell right now.
His blood poured out and the bits of his flesh flung into the air.

“Wuuuaahk!”

Seeing this horrendous, sickening sight, the other Hunters

supposedly guarding the location began backtracking inadvertently
in terror.

As for the regular people that had bet their hopes on the Goliath,
they had scattered away in fear a long time ago after seeing the
incoming end result.

However, something unexpected happened then; among the ranks

of the hesitating Hunters, one man dashed forward like a bolt of
lightning and ran straight towards the beast.

Boom-!!

The monster had been drunk on the victory and the taste of its loot,
so it got caught unaware and was struck cleanly by this unexpected
attack, which resulted in it getting flung away.

211
It was none other than Lennart Niermann. Germany’s best Hunter
quickly stood next to the grievously wounded Goliath.

Thomas Andre recognised Lennart and somehow managed to

squeeze out his voice.

“Run… away….”

However, Lennart shook his hardened face.

“I’m also a Hunter, you know.”

‘….Although I’m far weaker than you.’

Back when he Awakened his powers and made up his mind to

become a Hunter, Lennart had promised himself this one thing – that
he’d never turn his back on a comrade.

Sure, they might not even be in the same team, but from Lennart’s
perspective, Thomas Andre was an exemplary comrade who was
fighting against a common enemy.

Didn’t matter what the American thought of him, because as a

Hunter, the German simply couldn’t back away from this situation.

‘However…. Just staring at that thing face to face is making me break

out in cold sweat here.’

Lennart watched the beast’s expression crumple unsightly after its

mealtime had been unceremoniously interrupted, and his own legs
began turning to jelly right then.

Seeing him shiver like that, Thomas Andre opened his mouth again.

“You… will… die….”

He knew that already. Of course, Lennart knew that.

212
He didn’t even have his equipment with him. And his strongest one-
hit-kill trump card, the skill ‘Charge’, only managed to shove the
beast away.

Germany’s best Hunter?

12th in the world rankings?

He knew better than anyone that such things had no meaning in the
current situation.

Even then…

‘….I don’t regret anything.’

Even if this moment turned out to be his last, he’d still choose
exactly the same over and over again. Rather than the life of a
coward, he would choose to go out in a blaze of glory!

‘I’m not wrong. I am not wrong!’

Lennart continued to psyche himself up as he glared at the massive

power gradually running faster and faster towards him.

‘I’m definitely not wrong!’

He locked his eyes on the chill-inducing maw of the beast opening up

wide as the monster closed the distance in an instant. Lennart
summoned up every ounce of energy and swung his fist.

For a very moment there, the life he led up until this moment flashed
past him like a revolving lantern. He didn’t even work that hard yet
this incredible power was handed to him, allowing him to live an
overabundant and perhaps undeserved lifestyle.

But, he did live a happy life, didn’t he?

That’s right, he did.

213
A grin floated up on Lennart’s lips as he saw the beast’s throat
approaching ever closer.

Indeed, he was not wrong. Right up until the end, he didn’t live an
embarrassing life.

Just before the beast’s maw swallowed his head, Lennart quietly
closed his eyes, thinking that there would be no more need to open
them again.

But then!

Kwa-boom!!

A sudden noise of explosion coming from his front shocked Lennart

and he quickly opened his eyes.

‘What was that?!’

The beast struck by his fist was flying away in a straight line for
dozens of metres before rolling ungainly on the ground. The asphalt
cracked up into pieces, cars were blown away, and street lights were
bent in the middle.

“Uh?”

‘Was I this strong?’

Lennart dazedly stared at his fist, only to realise that someone was
standing right next to him.

“Uh, uh??”

Confirming that man’s face, Lennart joyfully cried out in a half-tearful

voice.

“Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim!”

***

214
He was cutting it really close.

If he hadn’t attached a Shadow Soldier to Lennart Niermann when

the German came to the Guild office, would he be able to make it in
time, even?

After confirming that the Shadow Soldier attached to Thomas Andre

had disappeared, Jin-Woo searched for another one near the
location and activated ‘Shadow Exchange’. But to think, that Shadow
Soldier just so happened to be the one in Lennart Niermann’s
shadow.

Thanks to that, he got to save the lives of these two men.

Jin-Woo hurriedly checked Thomas Andre’s wounds and breathed a

sigh of relief. The American’s wounds looked pretty serious, but
thankfully, he’d be able to survive.

He must’ve had no more energy left to even speak, as Thomas Andre

could only quietly look up at Jin-Woo. The latter also remained silent
but nodded his head as his reply.

He silently thanked the Goliath for his courageous effort in stalling

for more time.

When he turned around, his ears were filled up with Lennart’s

emotional voice.

“Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim!!”

“Thank you for stopping that b*stard. My apologies, but can you
evacuate Thomas to somewhere safe?”

Jin-Woo politely asked in English, and Lennart nodded his head

energetically. Compared to fighting that monstrosity, this job
sounded so much easier.

215
“Ah, yes! You don’t have to worry about that one.”

The German cautiously lifted Thomas up and hurriedly distanced

himself. Meanwhile, Jin-Woo shifted his gaze over to the beast
raising its body up.

Tangible, horrifying, murderous intent oozed from the creature. He

sensed power on another realm compared to other monsters from
the b*stard.

‘I knew it….’

His guess was on the money.

This thing possessed a similar sort of aura to the Ice Elf he met
earlier. It was, indeed, one of the Sovereigns that were hunting down
the Hunters.

However, what was going on here? Unlike with the Ice Elf, this thing
showed no signs of panic. No, more than that – even though its fight
had been interfered with, it looked composed, nay, relaxed, even.

‘But, why….?’

Did it possess a calm personality, to begin with? Even though it

looked half man, half beast?

While Jin-Woo was stewing in his confusion, the beast emerged fully
from the building’s debris and walked leisurely over in his direction.

It was sloshing something in its mouth before spitting whatever it

was to the floor. They turned out to be its broken fangs.

The beast glared at Jin-Woo who managed to break off several of its
fangs with just a single punch and didn’t even bother to disguise its
surprise.

216
[So, it was for real. The smell of the Shadow b*stard is mixed in
among that human’s scent.]

The beast sniffed the air noisily and asked as if it had discovered
something rather amazing.

[But then…. how can a human manage to bring out the power of a
higher existence to this degree?]

‘I raised up my levels, that’s how. You dumba*s.’

Rather than choosing to solve the b*stard’s curiosity, he summoned

the pair of ‘Kamish’s Wrath’, instead.

He had a lot of things to ask this Sovereign. But, the Q&A session
could only take place after the battle was over and he had grasped
the right to decide the creature’s fate.

Glance.

Jin-Woo glanced at the traces of the victims still visible here and
there in the street and an ice-cold murderous rage began
overflowing out of his eyes.

But, then….

….The voice he hadn’t forgotten yet suddenly resounded out right

from next to the beast.

[It’s possible that the architect has found a way. Well, the business
dealings between the Shadow Sovereign and the architect started a
long time ago, after all.]

The thin, fog-like smoke suddenly coagulated into a singular mass

before morphing into a humanoid shape.

‘Isn’t that….?’

217
It was the ancient Ice Elf. The Sovereign of Frost, hiding its presence
as a fog until now, had finally revealed itself.

Jin-Woo realised that the fog wrapped around the city was not a
natural phenomenon the moment he came in contact with it.

And this time, it was from his behind.

[In that case, I can eat the corpse of this human, right?]

A weird female voice harsh enough to grate his ears came from
behind him, and Jin-Woo quickly looked back.

And that’s where he discovered a spectacle that made him doubt his
own eyes.

Bashushushushu….

A horde of insects poured out from the sewerage and began merging
into one to assume the shape of a humanoid female.

[I really want to find out what a fellow Sovereign tastes like, you
see.]

Jin-Woo’s expression hardened, now that he found himself suddenly

surrounded by his enemies. And then, he realised it.

They gagged his Shadow Soldiers by confusing the signals not

because they were worried about their hunt being disrupted by him.
No, they did that in order to hide the fact that there were more than
one of them here.

In other words, this was a trap. A trap laid out in the entirety of Seoul
in order to box Jin-Woo in.

Sure enough, the System finally recognised the severity of the

situation and urgently sent out warning messages.

218
[The King of Snow Folk, the Sovereign of Frost has designated you as
an enemy.]

[The King of Beasts, the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs has designated

you as an enemy.]

[The Queen of Insects, the Sovereign of Plagues has designated you

as an enemy.]

Enemies possessing power on another scale altogether, and three of

them to boot, too! His Black Heart, sleeping quietly until now, began
to pound away madly at the entrance of these three incredibly
powerful foes.

Ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump!

‘Isn’t this….’

….Good?

The corners of Jin-Woo’s lips arched up.

These things were thinking that they had managed to surround him,
but the thing was, he wasn’t alone. In reality, they were the ones
surrounded now.

Jin-Woo kept his senses ultra-sharp in order to not miss their

movements and summoned out his army that’d surround his
enemies.

‘Come out!’

219
Chapter 216

New York, London, Shanghai, Paris.

Besides these cities, others around the world were all experiencing
the phenomenon of their streets being draped in eerie silence right
now. People had stopped walking and found themselves unable to
tear their eyes away from the many electronic screens installed here
and there.

Those large screens were continuously showing the breaking news

regarding the horrifying tragedy unfolding in the capital city of South
Korea, Seoul.

Because of the super-massive Gate’s presence, the world’s attention

had been focused there already, so it was only normal that the news
spread around like a wildfire.

TV stations in many countries interrupted their regular programming

to broadcast live the current situation unfolding in Seoul.

Once the sight of a cityscape dripping with blood as filmed by the

camera lens from the sky, the viewers around the world recoiled in
sheer horror.

Seoul was one of the biggest metropolises in the entire world. But
with such a city lying in ruins like that, it implied that their safety
couldn’t be guaranteed even within their own cities.

The tragedy of Seoul didn’t feel like an incident happening in some

distant country, but something that was happening to them
personally.

Was that the reason why they felt relieved when Thomas Andre
stepped up to put an end to the monster’s rampage? The obviously-

220
excited foreign correspondents, after their cameras caught the sight
of America’s best Hunter, began crying out his name repeatedly as if
they wanted to damage their own vocal cords.

The viewers gathered their hands in prayer and with one heart,
cheered Goliath on. And that was why the streets were filled with
elated cries every time Goliath roughed up that beast-like monster.

“Yes! More! More!!”

“Destroy that thing! Goliath, kill that thing dead!!”

“Send it to hell!!”

Unfortunately….

The cheering and elated cries filling up the streets soon morphed
into shocked silence as Goliath’s fists were shattered, his arms were
broken, and his blood and flesh were spilt onto the ground.

The viewers’ arms raised up high in the air slowly lowered back to
their sides. Some even began wordlessly shedding tears as they
watched humanity’s best warrior being horribly destroyed like that.

It was as if the time itself had frozen.

People rendered utterly speechless by the overwhelming shock

couldn’t even hear their own breathing. If this was a dream, then
they wanted to wake up right about now.

Too bad, though, that the screen kept transmitting the images of
Goliath and his pained screaming over and over again. The
expression on the viewers’ faces changed to that of even greater
despair.

It was then.

221
A lone Hunter jumped out from somewhere and blew away the
beast.

No, there were two of them. A black-haired man appeared without

warning right next to the Caucasian Hunter.

Not just the viewers, but even the news anchors couldn’t figure out
what was going on and failed to hide their confusion.

Just what had happened?

Who were those two people?

It happened far too quickly, and also, the camera was filming from
too far and couldn’t capture their faces properly.

However….

The anchors saw the black soldiers filling up the streets in the blink of
an eye and cried out until their voices turned hoarse.

[It’s Hunter Seong Jin-Woo! Hunter Seong Jin-Woo has finally made
his entrance!]

[We don’t have to see his face! You can block out his name! Even
then, we know who it is! Those black soldiers, that’s 100% Hunter
Seong Jin-Woo!!]

[The Goliath might have fallen, but the baton has been handed over
to Hunter Seong Jin-Woo! His summoned creatures have surrounded
the monsters!]

Waaaaah-!!

The viewers all around the world punched the air and cried out in
elation once more as they watched the black soldiers completely
cover up the streets of Seoul.

222
Especially the Americans, their unified roars were so loud that their
cities seemed to rock from the noise itself. It was understandable,
since they had lost one of their Special Authority-rank Hunters
through tragic circumstances recently, and when even Thomas Andre
found himself in danger, they had all fallen into a deep pit of mental
shock.

Besides, the total number of views online for the Jeju Island raid
featuring Jin-Woo had already surpassed 2 billion. Meaning, pretty
much everyone knew his name by now.

And so, the whole world had begun chanting his name.

“Hey, hang on a minute! I know who that other Hunter is! Yeah, I
know that guy! He’s Germany’s Lennart Niermann!”

This guy, who wished to boast about his discerning eyes, couldn’t
help but get swept away by the atmosphere and started chanting
‘Seong Jin-Woo’, his hands raised up high in the air.

The focus of the whole world was now on Jin-Woo’s back.

***

The Shadow Army surrounded the three Sovereigns in a circle.

On top of the streets now darkened by the shadow with the help of
the skill, ‘Sovereign’s Territory’, the army’s morale had hit its highest
peak.

‘So, how about it now?’

Jin-Woo scanned the faces of the three Sovereigns. They carried

rather amused expressions.

The female giant, created out of insects, took a sweeping look at the
streets filled with Shadow Soldiers and chuckled derisively.

223
[So, this is the new Shadow Army, is it?]

[The overall number isn’t bad, but even then, they are nothing but a
bunch of riffraff.]

Looking unconcerned in the slightest, the Sovereign of Frost took a

step forward.

Fuu-whoop…

It sucked its breath in lightly before spitting out horrifyingly cold air
that spread out everywhere in an instant.

Kwajeeck!

And in just one moment, everything standing on the ground became

frozen ice sculptures. Even the Shadow Army was no exception.

‘How can this be?!’

Jin-Woo confirmed that his soldiers had all frozen up and his
expression hardened gradually.

The power of the Sovereigns that rendered the soldiers useless in

one stroke – he had experienced something like this before, when he
was facing off against the Sovereign of White Flames, Baran, back in
the Demon’s Castle instant dungeon.

If there was one glaring difference between then and now, that
would be him having to face three enemies instead of one.

The soldiers trapped within the ice couldn’t be freed even with his
ability to store them back in his shadow.

[Your pitiful soldiers won’t be able to take a single step outside the
prison I have manifested.]

224
The Sovereign of Frost sounded confident of its victory after
imprisoning the Shadow Army.

However, Jin-Woo’s killing intent didn’t waver for a second even

under the current situation.

“You.”

The tip of the Kamish’s Wrath held in his right hand was pointed at
the Sovereign of Frost.

“You will definitely die today.”

The war potential of the Shadow Army always had been

supplementary to his own. It was too bad that he couldn’t rely on his
soldiers now, but even then, he wasn’t thinking of letting that
Sovereign of Frost leave here alive.

After all, he had a score to settle with that b*stard,

[….]

Perhaps the Ice Elf felt the aching from the wound on its shoulder
inflicted by Jin-Woo the last time, since its expression crumpled
unsightly rather quickly.

[You insolent b*stard!]

The creature then raised its arms as if to lift something up, and
suddenly, Golems made out of ice rose up from the ground.

At the same time, the queen of the insects whistled loudly. The
corpses of humans lying strewn about all began standing up as well.

Kwa-duduk, kwa-dududuk, kwa-duk!!

225
The bones and joints of the corpses repeatedly twisted and shifted
around until finally, they resembled monstrous spiders crawling on
all four legs.

‘Undead?’

….No, those weren’t undead at all.

What moved the corpses were strange little parasites that had bored
into the brains of the dead humans. Jin-Woo sensed the minute level
of magic energy emitted from the parasites wiggling around inside
the heads and he shifted his gaze over to the Queen of Insects.

[You think we killed all these humans indiscriminately for no

reason?]

The Queen had inseminated the eggs of a very special parasite within
the corpses of all the humans the beast had murdered.

Golems and parasites.

Jin-Woo stared at the enemy’s army that couldn’t be turned into

Shadow Soldiers upon their deaths and realised how much his
opponents had been planning for this day.

“Fuu-woo….”

He controlled his breathing.

The Golems and the animated corpses waltzed right past the frozen
Shadow Soldiers and slowly encircled him. Meanwhile, he focused on
the sounds of his heart quietly pounding away.

Ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump….

On his path to get here, he had encountered countless dangerous

situations.

226
At this moment, as he closed his eyes, his extremely-honed senses
accurately read and picked up on even the most minute movements
his enemies made.

He could do this.

Just like how it had always been.

‘….They’re coming.’

He opened his eyes only to be greeted by the sight of the spider-

humans pouncing on him. As the time slowed down, the pair of
‘Kamish’s Wraths’ roared out in sheer anguish.

Sliiiiiice-!!

In an instant, every spider-human leaping in the air was bisected.

Boom!

Jin-Woo lightly kicked and leapt away from the punch of a Golem
pounding down on his original position and searched for his primary
elimination target. That would be the Sovereign of Frost, of course.

That b*stard was currently shouting at its Golems with an enraged

face. However, it was impossible for these slow and lumbering things
to catch up to Jin-Woo’s speed.

He used ‘Ruler’s Authority’ to fling himself at the Sovereign of Frost.

Like a bullet, he flew forward in a scarcely-believable velocity.

He closed the distance in an instant. The Sovereign of Frost was

panicking. Jin-Woo swung his shortsword with great power.

His aim was the skin on the b*stard’s face that resembled the bark of
an aged tree.

Unfortunately….

227
CLANG!

Just before the Kamish’s Wrath could split the creature’s face in half,
something really hard blocked the trajectory of the blade. The beast,
the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs, responded to Jin-Woo’s attack with
lightning-quick reflexes and blocked the shortsword in time.

[You think such a puny metallic toy can wound me in the slightest?]

The beast toothily grinned, its disgusting teeth full of blood and flesh
now on full display. However, Jin-Woo also replied with a smirk.

‘The human’s laughing?’

Even before the beast had the time to sense the ominous
foreboding, ‘Kamish’s Wrath’ was suddenly enveloped in the black
aura.

Slice!

The beast’s wrist that rightfully boasted incredible hardness was

cleanly severed from its arm. The creature’s eyes opened wide.

It barely dodged the tip of the blade by leaning its torso backwards,
but still, a lengthy and bloody line was drawn upon its chest.

It was then, Jin-Woo picked up on some powerful energy above him

and he quickly looked up.

‘….!!’

The Queen of Insects had formed a giant fist out of magical energy
and was in the midst of slamming it down.

Swoooosh-!!

As he landed on the ground, Jin-Woo activated the skill ‘Ruler’s

Authority’ to shove away the Queen’s fist. However, the force behind

228
that attack was much greater than he anticipated and he could only
barely stop it.

Boom!!

The invisible shield made out of ‘Ruler’s Authority’ clashed against

the Queen’s fist and created a powerful shockwave that swept away
the surrounding spider-humans.

Unfortunately, the number of animated corpses that still managed to

rush at and pounce on his position far exceeded those who were
swept away.

Jin-Woo stepped on the head of one spider-human and leapt up in

the air. Then, he focused his magic energy in the ‘Kamish’s Wrath’.

BUZZ-!!

The black aura condensed on the vibrating blade began distorting the
surrounding space.

In that moment….

“Uwaaah-!!”

Jin-Woo roared out powerfully as he swung the shortsword with all

his might.

Kagagagagagagack!!

The magical energy concentrating on the end of the shortsword split

into dozens upon dozens of slashes and swept away all the enemies
right below him.

The Dragon’s Claw!

The ranks of Ice Golems and spider-humans were halved in an

instant from that single attack.

229
Unfortunately….

Swish-!

Jin-Woo quickly shifted his head to the side to find a large palm
already arriving right in front of his nose. It cast a giant, dark shadow
on his face.

‘D*mn it.’

Realising that the attack was coming in at an unavoidable angle, he

decided to raise his guard up, instead.

The Queen of Insects swatted Jin-Woo as if it was a human swatting

a fly out of the air and slammed him into a building nearby.

BOOM!!

The impact force from that was so severe that another building
across the road shook hard from the vibration.

Jin-Woo emerged out from the debris of the fallen building and
keeled over to the floor to spit out a heavy gasp.

“Keo-heok.”

He felt dizzy.

Vzzzz…..

Loud buzzing tinnitus assaulted his ears. His breathing quickened and
his vision grew just a bit fuzzy. However, he had no time to stay here
and catch his breath.

As soon as he raised his head, he spotted thousands of ice arrows

floating up dozens of metres in the air above his head, all of them
being the handiwork of the Sovereign of Frost.

230
Jin-Woo stood back up and stopped breathing for a moment there.
And almost right away, the ice arrows filling up the sky shot down
accurately to his current position.

Faster, faster!

Jin-Woo swung his shortswords and deflected away the magic

arrows raining down without any break or gap in-between.

He was so fast that several afterimages began overlapping on top of

one another.

‘However, just how long will you be able to withstand our combined
attacks?’

The Sovereign of Frost continued to fire the arrows endlessly as a sly

grin floated up on its lips. When this human b*stard’s movement
slows down even for a second….

It was then.

Stab!

[…..??]

The Ice Elf’s quaking eyes looked down to confirm the shortsword
stabbing deeply into its chest. The liquid staining its hands was its
own blood.

When it raised its head to look, the insolent human was glaring right
back at the Sovereign, having had enough leeway to throw one of his
shortswords even in the midst of deflecting all the ice arrows.

The burning rage, hot enough to boil all the blood in its body, rushed
up to the Ice Elf’s head.

[You d*mn human! How dare a measly little human wound a

Sovereign like me!!]

231
Pah-ahhck!

Jin-Woo rapidly recalled the shortsword out of the creature’s chest.

He struck the b*stard in the heart. Such a wound was more than
enough to kill any regular humanoid creature, but unfortunately,
that didn’t seem to be a mortal wound to the Sovereign.

Still, that brought about an end to the rain of ice arrows. He firmly
grasped the returning ‘Kamish’s Wrath’ and grinned toothily at the
Sovereign of Frost.

“I told you, didn’t I? You won’t be getting out of here alive.”

[Kuwaaaahhh!!]

The Sovereign of Frost, thoroughly enraged while controlling its Ice

Golems; the spider-humans controlled by the Sovereign of Plagues;
and finally, the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs that had regenerated its
severed wrist.

The latter moved its new wrist this way and that to test it out, before
summoning out its own sword from the subspace, just like Jin-Woo
had done.

All of their movements were caught in one go within Jin-Woo’s

vision. He grasped both Kamish’s Wraths tightly and calmly collected
his breaths as his enemies rushed at him again.

It was then.

Kwajijijick!

Accompanied by the noise of something solid splitting up, he was

greeted from behind by a voice that sounded so much more brilliant
to his ears today.

[My kingggggg!!]

232
Chapter 217

Only a few minutes ago.

Beru always prided himself as the most loyal subject to his king. But
now, after getting trapped within the ice prison of the Sovereign of
Frost, he realised what the taste of sheer powerlessness was like.

Was I really this weak?

Why did I continue to grow stronger? For what purpose was it?

Beru felt so pathetic by the fact that he couldn’t do anything while

his liege was being besieged by his enemies. However, there was
nothing the former ant king could do.

The Sovereign of Frost was an existence on another level compared

to Beru. And he didn’t possess the requisite power to escape from
this magic. All he could do now while trapped in ice was to pray that
his liege would be safe.

Fortunately, his liege wasn’t pushed back at all, even when facing off
against transcendental enemies.

‘As expected of my liege…. This lowly slave can only be moved by

your greatness.’

Beru was so emotionally moved by his master’s display of power that

tears overflowed from his eyes as he continued to watch Jin-Woo’s
battle.

But then, the disadvantage of numbers gradually tightened around

the neck of his liege. The progressively-worsening cycle of attacks
and defences of the enemies began pushing Jin-Woo back and Beru
desperately struggled against his restraints.

233
‘My king!! My king!!!’

And finally, Beru watched as Jin-Woo was sent flying by the

Sovereign of Plagues’ large palm and slam into a wall.

The king was in danger. The king was in danger. The king was in
danger!

‘I must protect my king.’

Snap.

Something inside Beru’s head snapped loose. The empty void where
his reasoning used to be was replaced by the ’emergency mode’
designed to protect his king.

“Kiiiiieeeehhk!”

Beru’s expression crumpled to resemble a frightening devil as he

screeched out loudly.

Arms, shoulders, neck, chest, thighs, calves, ankles! Every part of his
body ballooned up at the same time and began pushing away the
block of ice imprisoning him.

Crack, craaack!

The seemingly-inescapable ice prison began to develop several large

cracks. Beru shook his entire body.

Kwa-jeeck!

The ice prison could no longer contain the power of the ant soldier
going crazy inside and its surface cracked even more so. Even in the
midst of this, there was only one thing in Beru’s head – the thought
of rescuing his king.

Kiiieeehk!

234
He poured out all his strength and twisted his body, causing a big
crack to run down the ice block.

Kwa-jijijik!!

He used his sheer physical strength to prise out the gap even further
and extricated himself from the ice prison. Beru then disregarded
everything else while flying straight towards Jin-Woo’s side.

“My kingggggg!!”

“Beru!”

Even before he felt happy at his master looking back at him, all those
little nicks and scrapes on Jin-Woo’s body entered Beru’s vision first.
They were caused by the insect woman when she smacked his liege
into the building just now.

A mere insect woman dared to lay her hands on his king!

She dared to touch his king!!!

“Kiiiieeeehhk!!”

Beru’s anger reached a new height and he flew directly at the Queen
of the Insects. The thunderous screech of Beru reverberating
throughout the battlefield that used to be city streets rendered the
Sovereign of Frost quite surprised.

[A measly Shadow Soldier managed to break free of my binding

magic?!]

Such a thing shouldn’t even happen. It took a closer look at Beru’s

power in the ’emergency mode’ for a second there and spat out a
gasp of shock next.

This power didn’t belong to some ‘measly’ Shadow Soldier at all.

235
[How did a mere human manage to rear up a Marshal grade being?]

Each and every single one of the soldiers with ‘Marshal’ grade acting
as the Shadow Sovereign’s hands and feet could be considered as
destruction personified.

The Sovereign of Frost couldn’t have imagined that it would see a

Marshal grade creature today and failed to hide its astonishment. In
the meantime, Beru had arrived right before the Queen of Insects,
the target for his unquenchable rage.

[I must punish an unruly child that can’t even recognise his own
mother!]

“Kiiiieehhk, shut up, you crazy wench!”

[What did you say?!]

The resident of the Chaos World and the master of all insects living
there, the Sovereign of Plagues got triggered by the former ant king’s
statement.

Vuuwoong!

Beru ably dodged an attack from the Insect Queen and took aim at
the centre of the insects swarming together to form a single body
before screeching out with his magical energy.

“Kyaaahk-!!”

The former ant king’s thunderous roar forced the insects to fall off
from the Queen’s body in an instant, causing the real body of the
Sovereign of Plagues hiding within to briefly reveal itself.

It was a humanoid female with rotting, distorted skin, and a pair of

empty eye sockets filled with wriggling maggots.

236
The Sovereign of Plagues displayed violent rage against the
detestable former ant king that dared to bare its fangs at its original
owner.

“Kiiiaaahhk!!”

The screech from the Insect Queen resounded out loudly enough to
tear asunder the heavens, and Beru was forced back with no way to
block the attack.

He was pushed far, far back before he managed to regain his balance
and floated back down to the ground.

“Kiiechk, kyahk, kyaahk.”

While Beru was shaking his head left and right, a heavy groan leaking
out of his mouth….

The Queen of Insects had managed to recall the bugs back to rebuild
its giant body once more.

‘Okay, that’s good.’

Jin-Woo nodded his head after watching the exchange between

those two.

Of course, he knew that Beru wouldn’t last long. The enemy was far
too strong for that. However, if he could just steal away the attention
of one of these three….

While Beru was fighting against the Queen, Jin-Woo shifted his eyes
back to the other two Sovereigns. The tension hidden within their
eyes was transmitted in the air, and he could clearly sense it.

The amount of time Beru could buy him wasn’t much.

So, move faster than anticipated!

237
Jin-Woo dashed towards the Sovereign of Frost with all his power.

Kwagagagagagak!

The impact force from each and every one of his steps destroyed the
ground below. The Sovereign of Frost glared at Jin-Woo making a
beeline towards him and created a sharp ice spear between its two
hands.

But, just before he collided with his target, Jin-Woo abruptly changed
his direction and leapt towards the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs,
instead.

[……!!]

The Sovereign of Beastly Fangs was getting ready to counter the

moment Jin-Woo attacked its fellow Sovereign, but it flinched in
nasty surprise at this stunning movement.

By a mere whisker, the beast managed to block Jin-Woo’s

shortsword by nothing but sheer primal instinct. Its eyes shook hard.

Jin-Woo could only click his tongue as their blades remained locked
like this.

‘Che.’

He was planning to fatally wound this beast-like thing after making it

assume that he was aiming for the ancient Ice Elf, instead. The
reflexes of the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs were faster than Jin-Woo’s
expectation.

However, it wasn’t as if it was a total waste of time. He sensed the

creature getting flustered just then.

‘I must push this b*stard back like this.’

238
In the blink of an eye, he gripped the Kamish’s Wrath in reverse grip
and rained down a barrage of powerful attacks.

The horrifying sounds of air tearing up resounded throughout the

area as the ultra-sharp blades left behind countless cut marks in the
surroundings.

Clang!! Khang! Claaang!! Cah-hang!! Clang!!

The beast became fully occupied with defending against Jin-Woo’s

shortswords. Step by step, the creature was pushed back as it
gradually lost out to his speed. The look of panic began clouding its
face.

But then…

Jin-Woo sensed this sharp killing intent right behind him and urgently
tilted his torso out of the way. The Sovereign of Frost thrust its ice
spear and it slid past the location where his waist had been, barely
missing him.

The ancient Ice Elf had entered the fray between Jin-Woo and the
beast.

For the brief moment their eyes met, Jin-Woo discovered this
incredibly heavy enmity from the eyes of the Elf b*stard.

Grit.

The grating noises of grinding teeth leaked out from Jin-Woo’s

mouth.

He slapped away the ice spear with his shortsword and quickly
closed the distance as the Sovereign of Frost’s posture crumbled
from the after-effects of the weapon shaking loose in its grip.

Swish-!

239
He swung his blade, hoping to slice up the arrogant eyes of the
creature, but regrettably, he missed by a hair’s breadth. Instinctively
pulling its head back to escape the danger, the expression on the
ancient Ice Elf crumpled into something unsightly.

‘Too bad, but….’

What followed after the attack was to defend. Jin-Woo ably blocked
the beast’s blade as if he knew it was coming.

CLANG!

Blocked again by a whisker; however, there was no time to sigh in

relief after blocking the attack. The Sovereign of Frost grasped its
spear again and commenced with its counterattack. The beast, too,
came at him with its own barrage of attacks.

At the back, the Sovereign of Frost.

From the front, the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs.

Scary attacks from the two monsters possessing powers on another

level rained down on him.

However…

Clang! Claaang!! Clang, clang, clang!! Claaang!! Claaang! Clang, clang,

clank, clang, clank, clang!!

Two lengthy shortswords flashed about like bolts of lightning to

either block or deflect all attacks coming from the two monsters.

Jin-Woo’s movements had now firmly surpassed the limits of one’s

vision and they resembled just one long afterimage. It even looked as
if he was blending into the already-blurry shapes of the two
Sovereigns.

240
It went without saying that he couldn’t possibly have seen every
single attack coming in from his front and back, and respond to them
in time with nothing but his eyes.

However, he could see something else, and that was the flow of each
incoming attack. Things like pre-movement, the eyes, breathing,
muscles twitching, the direction of magic energy, etc.

His sensory perception pushed to the absolute limit didn’t miss out
on a single little thing and accurately read each and every one of the
enemies’ attacks.

‘….I can see it.’

That was why, just a little bit more! If he could go a little bit faster
and surpass these b*stards…

‘Faster, faster, faster, faster, faster!’

As the countless hits were exchanged, he got faster and faster. The
complexions of the two Sovereigns fighting Jin-Woo hardened more
and more.

‘But, how…. how could this….?!’

‘It’s impossible! This human can’t be fully utilising the power of the
Shadow Sovereign!!’

But that wasn’t it. Their enemy had exceeded the limits of humanity
and was evolving further and further right before their eyes. That’s
when the two Sovereigns remembered it – the fear they held
towards the strongest king that ruled the Chaos World.

And this happened around the same time.

Pah-ahck!!

241
Jin-Woo crossed blades with the weapons of both Sovereigns and
then, with nothing but his physical strength, shoved them both far
away.

[….!!]

[….!!]

Shock and astonishment quickly dyed the expressions of the two

Sovereigns.

***

Lennart Niermann was sure of it now.

He was sure that there was no one else around here that could chase
after the battle of those three with their bare eyes except himself, as
long as the grievously-wounded Thomas Andre remained lying on the
ground while being treated by the Healers surrounding him.

Even then, he couldn’t clearly chase after Jin-Woo’s movements with

his eyes.

“….”

Only sighs of admiration kept leaking out of his mouth.

Hunter Seong Jin-Woo was not being pushed back by an inch even
though he was fighting against the ‘beast’ that subdued the Special
Authority-rank Tanker with brute strength, as well as a monster that
froze up the vast ground with a single breath.

And soon, Hunter Seong’s shape simply melted into thin air and only
the series of unending metallic clangs reverberated around the
battlefield.

It was as if there was a violent storm whipping about only around

where he was.

242
“What….”

Thomas Andre couldn’t win against his curiosity, roused up from all
those suspicious explosive noises, and had to ask.

“….What is going on?”

Lennart murmured with disbelieving voice, unable to tear his gaze

away from Jin-Woo.

“It’s as if….”

If the monsters capable of destroying the world were engaged in an

almighty dogfight, would it create a situation similar to this one?

“….I’m looking at the end of the world.”

Lennart spat out his genuine thought stewing in his head, not even
bothering to dress it up in fancy words, and shook his head. The sole
silver lining in this dark cloud was the fact that one of the three
happened to be on the side of humanity.

***

It was then.

“Kiiiieeeeeehhhk!!”

Jin-Woo heard Beru’s scream and his head snapped in that direction.

The former ant king was being trampled under the Queen of Insect’s
foot and was putting up a desperate struggle to escape, but it was
proving to be inadequate.

At that moment, Jin-Woo’s eyes widened. Magical energy was

leaving Beru’s body and his existence was gradually thinning out.

‘Could that be how the soldier attached to Thomas’s shadow was

erased, too?’

243
Jin-Woo quickly slapped back the attacks of the two Sovereigns and
tried to summon Beru back to his shadow.

Unfortunately….

[The designated target cannot be called back.]

[The designated target cannot be called back.]

The System repeated the same message over and over again like a
dumb little parrot. Jin-Woo’s expression hardened.

He couldn’t afford to lose Beru like this. That guy was one of his most
precious soldiers and at the same time, the greatest fighting power
within the Shadow Army.

‘If Beru disappears and stops distracting the Queen of Insects, then
this precarious balance will break down.’

This problem was also linked to his current battle as well. Jin-Woo
once more shook off the ice spear and the blade heading his way and
dashed towards the Queen of Insects.

Since the Queen was far too focused on destroying the most
powerful Shadow Soldier, it discovered Jin-Woo’s approach a little
too late.

[Human!!!]

Just like what Beru showed him, he concentrated his magical energy
in his throat.

“Uwaaaah-!!”

His loud yell, carrying a horrendous amount of magic energy,

slammed into the insects wrapped around the Queen and blew them
away. After its true visage was revealed once more, the Queen failed
to disguise its fluster.

244
[Kyahk!!]

It hurriedly spat out a green-coloured liquid onto Jin-Woo’s face, but

he simply activated ‘Ruler’s Authority’ to deflect it away. As for the
obvious poison remaining in the air, his passive buff easily
neutralised it.

[Effects from ‘Skill: Strong Poison’ have been detected in the

surrounding air.]

[Effects of ‘Buff: Detox’ will now commence.]

[3, 2, 1…. Detoxification has been completed.]

The powers of the Sovereign of Plagues couldn’t threaten Jin-Woo in

the slightest, and she was already within his attack radius. In that
brief moment, a cold gleam flickered within his eyes.

‘Just now, the Sovereign of Frost didn’t die when its heart was
pierced.’

There was a good chance it’d be the same story for this Sovereign of
Plagues, too.

In that case – since he had no idea where this creature’s weakness

was, he might as well continue to attack until he found it. Jin-Woo
got even closer until he was within touching distance to the Queen of
Insects and gripped his shortswords real tight.

‘Violent Slash!’

Dududududududududu!!

The blades rained down like buckshots on the Queen of Insects and
turned the creature’s entire body into a torn rag in an instant.

[Aaaaaahahk?!!!]

245
However, the maggots wiggled and tangled with each other inside
the monster’s body to quickly restore its body.

‘Regeneration?’

It wasn’t a problem, though. If it possessed an ability to regenerate

its body, then all he had to do was continuously pour out attacks that
surpassed the rate of regeneration. That was all.

Jin-Woo chased after the Queen of Insects being knocked back and
activated the skill, ‘Violent Slash’, over and over again.

Dududududu!! Dududududu!!

[Aaahahahaaahk!!]

The ‘Kamish’s Wraths’, carrying the jet-black aura, fired out without
a single break like a gun with infinite ammo.

“Uwaaaaah-!!”

He activated ‘Violent Slash’ with all his might, repeatedly, until he

completely disintegrated every little bit of flesh that the Queen of
Insects could potentially regenerate.

And eventually….

[You have killed one of the Nine Sovereigns, the Sovereign of

Plagues, ‘Querehsha’.]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

…..

246
The ecstasy of level-up messages filling up his vision still felt great.

‘Nice!’

However, when recalling the fact that he still had two more enemies
aiming for his neck, he couldn’t lounge around feeling happy for
himself.

Jin-Woo urgently tried to turn around towards the direction of the

intense murderous intent in order to defend himself, but….

….His enemy was just a little bit quicker.

While he was preoccupied with killing the Sovereign of Plagues,

someone rushed towards him and extended its long hand. Five
separate strands of sharp wind blew in from behind his back.

Stab!

Jin-Woo discovered five claws plunging past his chest.

‘….’

The beastly Sovereign had completely transformed itself into a

Werewolf and accurately stabbed Jin-Woo’s back with five blade-like
claws on its right hand. All five had penetrated through his vital
point. Jin-Woo’s body froze up at that moment.

Drop.

Clang…

The pair of ‘Kamish’s Wraths’ fell from Jin-Woo’s hands.

The Sovereign of Frost stood before him. Icy cold air spun and
coagulated in the Ice Elf’s hand and created an ice dagger.

[This is the end.]

247
The ice dagger stabbed Jin-Woo in his belly.

Stab!

Beru had barely regained his consciousness by then and cried out in
anguish.

“M-my king!!!”

The ant soldier forced himself to stand back up on his unsteady legs
but Jin-Woo simply shook his head at him. Even then, Beru extended
his claws and tottered ungainly towards the Sovereign of Frost.

“Kiiieeehk!”

The despair and sorrow Beru felt was being transmitted in full to Jin-
Woo as well. And that was why he didn’t want to see his ant soldier
get erased at the hands of these Sovereigns.

Just before Jin-Woo could issue an order to return, it was now the
turn of Beru to shake his head as tears fell from his eyes.

However, Jin-Woo still had Beru return to his shadow. Against his
will, the former ant king reverted back to the shadow form and
quietly merged with his master’s shadow.

Completely assured of its victory now, the ancient Ice Elf began
moving that tree-bark-like skin to form a contorted grin.

[Is this as far as you can go, human?]

The b*stard leaned in closer to whisper in Jin-Woo’s ear.

[In that case, I guess you won’t be able to see it, then. You will not
get to see the moment our armies set foot in this world. When that
happens, the corpses of humans will form mountains, and their
blood will form endless rivers.]

248
The Sovereign of Frost distanced itself from Jin-Woo’s ear and stared
at his hardened expression before forming an insidious grin.

[However, this country you grew up in will be different. I shall

personally freeze every single human on this land and make sure
they suffer eternal hell, all because you walked among them. I shall
ensure that they enjoy an existence neither living nor dead for all
eternity.]

The icy coldness spread out from the dagger stabbing into his belly
and froze up Jin-Woo’s body. As the icicle reached up to his face, his
eyes continued to emit flames of sheer anger.

Even then, the Sovereign of Frost was smirking derisively.

[Yes, resent me endlessly in your death. That, too, will serve to

please me even more.]

The Ice Elf yanked the dagger out and immediately, stabbed it into
Jin-Woo’s heart. The icy blade oozing whitish light easily shattered
his rib bones and accurately penetrated his heart.

Stab!

The Sovereign of Frost confirmed that the human’s heart had been
destroyed and pulled the dagger out. Jin-Woo powerlessly collapsed
to the ground.

His head clattered on the hard surface and he felt this crippling
vertigo. At the same time, he sensed his two enemies getting further
away from him.

‘Not yet….I can still….’

He tried to move again, but he didn’t possess a single bit of energy

left to even lift a finger. Along with the abrupt loss of all senses, his
consciousness rapidly dimmed.

249
And everything he could see and hear became submerged within
inky darkness.

The human’s heart finally stopped operating.

When that happened…

On top of the unmoving Jin-Woo, several System messages began

floating up.

[HP of ‘Player’ has reached ‘0’.]

[‘Player’ has died.]

[‘Player’ is in possession of the ‘Black Heart’.]

[You have met all the requirements for ‘Passive Skill: (Unknown)’.]

[‘Passive Skill: (Unknown)’ has been activated.]

The Skills information window opened up by itself and a small

change occurred to one of the Skills within the blinking ‘Passive’
column.

[Skills]

Passive Skills

– (Unknown) Lv. MAX

– Tenacity Lv.1

– Master of Shortsword Lv. MAX

Shururuk….

[Skills]

Passive Skills

250
– Evolution Lv. MAX

– Tenacity Lv.1

– Master of Shortsword Lv. MAX

251
Chapter 218

“Are you awake now?”

After hearing that familiar voice, Jin-Woo quickly opened his eyes. He
saw a white ceiling, and the smell of disinfectant stung his nose.
Although the sensation of the hard bed kissing his back was
different, he could easily tell just where he was.

This was a hospital.

But, didn’t he definitely feel the sensation of his heart shattering

when the ice-cold dagger stabbed into his chest?

‘Even then…. I’m still alive?’

Jin-Woo raised his upper torso up.

He immediately spotted two men standing near his bed, making

anxious faces as if they had been waiting for him to regain his
consciousness for a long time. One of them was someone Jin-Woo
knew very well.

“Association President Woo Jin-Cheol! The Sovereigns….. No, what

happened to those monsters? How am I still alive?”

Woo Jin-Cheol shared confused looks with the fellow agent of the
Monitoring Division next to him, took his sunglasses off before
addressing Jin-Woo.

“There are three things I must tell you.”

He pulled a chair close to the bed and settled down. The junior agent
quickly stepped behind him.

252
“Firstly, I’m not the Association President, but the Chief of the
Monitoring Division. Secondly, we are here to ask you about the
animated stone statues. And finally….”

A powerful glare oozed out from Woo Jin-Cheol’s scrutinising eyes.

“….How do you know about me? Have we met before, somewhere?”

“H-hold on, wait! You said something about animated stone

statues?!”

“After we received the report from the survivors and arrived on site
with the White Tiger Guild, it was already….”

“No, no. Hang on. That’s not it….”

Jin-Woo quickly cut Woo Jin-Cheol off and shook his head in
dumbfoundedness. Several emotions, impossible to describe in
words, rushed in.

Could it be….?

Jin-Woo raised his head and stared at the ceiling.

He was thinking that it was an oddly familiar sight ever since he

opened his eyes, but he really was back here.

‘Makes sense why it’s so familiar….’

He spent almost two weeks in this place, after all. This was the VIP
patient room provided by the Hunter’s Association.

He was back in the hospital room where he opened his eyes for the
first time after barely managing to survive the dual dungeon
incident. Thinking back to what Woo Jin-Cheol said just now, it didn’t
seem like the location wasn’t the only thing here that was the same.

‘But… how can such a thing even be possible?’

253
Jin-Woo remained utterly confused and dazed, leading Woo Jin-
Cheol to cautiously ask him.

“….Are you feeling alright?”

Jin-Woo’s head dropped lower and he massaged his temples as a

migraine gradually crept in. He didn’t forget to wave around his hand
as a gesture to tell the others to not to worry about him.

“I…. Can I be left alone to organise my thoughts? Please hurry up

with measuring my magical energy so we can end this quickly.”

Woo Jin-Cheol stared dazedly at Jin-Woo with an expression that

roughly said, “How did you know that we have been suspecting you
going through a Re-Awakening?” before he quickly shook his head as
if to get rid of all the distracting thoughts.

“We’d like to hear what happened inside there before we proceed. If

you have seen something strange before losing your
consciousness….”

“Like I told you before, I don’t remember anything.”

Did they ever meet and converse with Hunter Seong Jin-Woo before?

No, never.

Definitely not.

As a man of the Monitoring Division, Woo Jin-Cheol never forgot the

face of a Hunter he met, even if it was only one time. And his
memory definitely didn’t hold information on anyone with the name
of ‘Seong Jin-Woo’.

‘Looks like his memories are all jumbled up from going through a
serious mental shock.’

254
Woo Jin-Cheol decided as thus while looking at Jin-Woo’s current
condition. In that case, he figured that he might as well finish what
he came here to do and return as soon as possible. He addressed his
underling next.

“Bring it here.”

The junior agent heard the order and brought along the miniature
magic energy measuring device.

‘Hah….’

A helpless chuckle leaked out of Jin-Woo’s lips as things played out

exactly like his memories.

“All you have to do is to place your hand on this magic crystal for a
little while.”

“Okay.”

The measuring process ended quickly thanks to Jin-Woo’s

cooperation.

However, Woo Jin-Cheol began frowning greatly as he tried to

confirm the results. He prodded the device several times before
shifting his gaze over to the junior agent.

“Why isn’t the device working? Didn’t I tell you to check it before
leaving the HQ?”

“Pardon me?”

The junior agent couldn’t hide his fluster and hurriedly inspected the
device from this angle and that, but obviously, nothing changed by
doing that.

255
The device that was operating perfectly up until just now suddenly
switched itself off as soon as it touched the hand of the subject. And
it didn’t want to work again.

‘Tsk.’

Woo Jin-Cheol quietly tutted at the mistake of his junior agent and
apologised to Jin-Woo before asking for his understanding.

“Looks like there has been some sort of mistake on our part here. Do
you mind waiting for a little bit? We should be able to go and fetch a
new device very soon. This process must be performed during the
investigation of this incident, and we ask for your coopera…..”

Even before his words came to an end, Jin-Woo nodded his head.
Woo Jin-Cheol led his junior agent and left the hospital room.
However, he only took a few more steps before coming to a stop. He
turned around again.

‘What’s going on?’

Jin-Woo raised his head slightly when Woo Jin-Cheol acted a little
differently to how he remembered it.

The Chief of the Monitoring Division stood before the bed and asked.

“By any chance…. Are you aware of the punishment in store for
being a fake registrant?”

“…”

“I’ve met my fair share of high-ranking Hunters in my life. However,

I’ve never met any Hunter with eyes like yours. If you’re hiding
something, now’s the time to….”

“I’ve nothing to hide.”

256
Jin-Woo cut him off again. Woo Jin-Cheol wordlessly studied the man
sitting up on the bed before politely bowing his head.

“We’ve inconvenienced you.”

Jin-Woo watched Woo Jin-Cheol leaving the hospital room’s door

and inwardly thought that he definitely better suited the role of the
boss of the Monitoring Division rather than that of the Association
President.

Besides all that, though….

“….Status Window.”

He wasn’t surprised in the least by the message floating in the air

and took a look at the Status Window displaying his current level.

Name: Seong Jin-Woo

Level: 146

Class: Shadow Sovereign

Title: Demon Hunter (extra 2)

HP: 93,300

MP: 155,720

Tiredness: 0

[Stats]

Strength: 324

Endurance: 320

Agility: 340

Intelligence: 340

257
Perception: 321

(Available points to distribute: 0)

Reduction in physical damage: 65%

Reduction in magical damage: 44%

[Skills]

Passive Skills

– Tenacity Lv.1

– Master of Shortsword Lv. MAX

Active Skills

– Quicksilver Lv. MAX

– Intimidation Lv. 2

– Violent Slash Lv. MAX

– Dagger Rush Lv. MAX

– Stealth Lv. MAX

– Ruler’s Authority Lv. MAX

[Class-specific Skills]

Active Skills

– Shadow Extraction Lv. 2

– Shadow Storage Lv. 2

– Sovereign’s Territory Lv. 2

– Shadow Exchange Lv. 2

258
‘My level’s gone up a lot since the last time I took a look at it. Is it
because of the experience points I earned after killing the Sovereign
of Plagues?’

That wasn’t all, either.

Everything he had stored in his Inventory until now was also waiting
for him as they always had been. He even spotted the pair of
‘Kamish’s Wraths’ resting quietly on the very first column of the
Inventory and formed a hollow smile.

He had somehow returned to the beginning with everything he had

achieved so far.

‘Well, the Shadow Soldiers aren’t here anymore, but….’

But, his army could be rebuilt in no time at all. Since he had retained
all of his prior abilities and memories, he was confident of doing a
better job this time around.

However….

….Just how did this happen?

Why was this thing happening?

Although he was given the second go at life here, all sorts of

possibilities fleeted in and out of his head and he couldn’t be happy
about his current situation at all.

Jin-Woo carefully combed over his memories, wondering if he had

overlooked something, before his head rose up.

‘Should be here soon….’

As he expected; just like how he remembered it, his little sister

pounced into the hospital room with excellent timing.

259
“Oppa!!”

After she lost almost all of her school friends at the hands of the
Orcs, there always had been a shadow cast on her expression even
when she was smiling. But, right now, there was no hint of such
darkness on her face.

Jin-Woo’s heart softened from seeing her expression and he tightly

hugged her.

“O-Oppa??”

Jin-Ah was planning to urge her oppa to give up being a Hunter when
he regained his consciousness, but now that she lost her initiative to
him, she became rather flustered, instead.

“What’s going on? What’s gotten into you? Did you hit your head?”

Eventually, her oppa ended the hug and grinned refreshingly. Seeing
him behaving like this, all thoughts of anger dissipated from her mind
and she could only tilt her head this way and that with a puzzled look
on her face.

She couldn’t put her finger on it, but her oppa seemed somewhat
different from the normal. Now that she took a closer look, she kind
of got the impression that her oppa had grown a lot taller since the
last time she saw him a few days ago.

While Jin-Ah was falling deeper into confusion, Jin-Woo was able to
use this lull to organise his thoughts better. He then began thinking
about things he needed to do, step by step.

A short while later, he lightly chased his little sister out and changed
his clothes before stepping outside the hospital room himself.

260
Since these clothes were his old ones, they didn’t fit his size now, and
because he had survived a life or death situation, their condition was
at their absolute worst, as well. But what choice did he have?

He certainly couldn’t walk around the city in a patient gown now,

could he?

Jin-Ah watched her brother walk right past her in hurried steps and
called out to him.

“Oppa?! Where are you going now?”

“To the Hunter’s Association.”

“Why there??”

“To tell them I’m giving up being a Hunter.”

“Really???”

Jin-Woo looked back at his little sister and her wide open eyes.

“I know that you asked permission to leave from your school to come
here, so you should go back now.”

“Whaaat-?!”

Jin-Ah watched on with an expression gradually becoming even more

confused as her oppa’s back disappeared from view.

***

The Association employee confirmed the re-evaluation test results

once more and continued to rub his eyes over and over again.

It had been two years since Cha Hae-In’s appearance, hadn’t it?

The employee looked up at the tenth Hunter to reach the ‘unable-to-

measure’ category in Korea and his complexion paled greatly. Since

261
Jin-Woo’s outward appearance looked so wretched like a pauper, the
employee was dismissive about this young man, but to think, he
turned out to be a genuine rank S Hunter.

“T-the device we have right now can’t measure your magic energy
level, Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim.”

“I know. But before we do the re-test, I’d like to speak to the

Association President first. Will that be alright with you?”

“Y-you mean, the Association President??”

“Yes.”

Jin-Woo was already familiar with the re-evaluation procedures. The

Association employee became dazed by this request for a meeting
with the Association President and picked up the phone to make the
call.

“Y-yes, yes. That’s correct. He’s definitely ‘unable-to-measure’.

Understood. Yes. I shall give him the message.”

Indeed, the Association President agreed to meet this young man.

“I, I shall escort you to the office of the Association President….”

“I know where it is already. Thanks for the offer, but it’s okay.”

Jin-Woo bade a short goodbye and walked straight to the elevator.

The employee looked at his departing back with an expression of
utter loss.

‘How can an outsider know where the President’s office is?’

Too bad for the employee, the elevator stopped on the correct floor
where the Association President’s office was.

“Heot….”

262
The employee watched the floor display of the elevator with a
worried expression before gasping out softly in surprise.

Ting….

Jin-Woo stepped out of the elevator and immediately discovered a

familiar face walking past him in order to enter the lift. He turned
around to address this man.

“Excuse me.”

The man pressed the ‘door open’ button to stop the elevator when
Jin-Woo turned to look at him.

“Are you talking to me?”

“You haven’t disclosed the fact that you possess the ‘Stealth’ skill.
You’re an upper-rank Hunter, but your name wasn’t on the list of
those under the Association’s strict management.”

The Hunter affiliated with the Monitoring Division, Kahng Tae-Sik’s

expression hardened instantly.

“But how….?”

“Someone will ask you to avenge his daughter soon. I don’t care
what happens to the criminals. However, if the innocent Hunters get
hurt in that incident, you will die by my hands. Understand?”

Jin-Woo emitted just a little bit of his killing intent, causing Kahng
Tae-Sik to flinch and reach into his waist. However, it wasn’t there.

Kahng Tae-Sik continued to rummage around his waist for a while

before finally realising that his knife had disappeared.

“You looking for this?”

263
Jin-Woo casually tossed a knife up and down before handing it back
to him.

Kahng Tae-Sik quickly recognised that Jin-Woo was on a completely

different level compared to all the other Hunters he had been
dealing with so far and wordlessly took the knife back.

“You get only one warning.”

Knowing that this young man could easily dissect him into tiny little
pieces if he wanted to, Kahng Tae-Sik slowly nodded his head while
pocketing the knife. And then, he asked a question as Jin-Woo
turned around to leave.

“Look here, man…. Just who are you? Have we ever met before?”

Jin-Woo didn’t bother to reply and quietly continued to make his way
to the Association President’s office. After this mysterious man went
away, Kahng Tae-Sik looked down at his cold sweat-soaked palms
and lifted his finger away from the ‘door open’ button.

“….Feels like I’ve been entranced by a phantom, doesn’t it?”

***

‘Association President….’

Jin-Woo’s steps came to a halt.

Goh Gun-Hui, still alive, was sitting behind his desk going through his
documents right now. Jin-Woo stood by the doorway and stared at
the Association President with eyes filled with nostalgia.

Meanwhile, Goh Gun-Hui chuckled good-naturedly.

“Although you opened my door with so much confidence, it seems

that you’re a bit lacking in spirit there. It’s fine for you to come
inside, Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim.”

264
Goh Gun-Hui stood up from his chair and walked out in front while
suggesting that they take a seat on the couch. He settled down on
the couch opposite of Jin-Woo and asked the younger man.

“Would you like to sit down?”

Abruptly, the current Goh Gun-Hui overlapped with that of the Goh
Gun-Hui he met for the first time and Jin-Woo’s expression stiffened
for a brief moment. He stood there with an expressionless face for a
second or two, before settling down as well.

“Thank you. I will.”

Goh Gun-Hui studied the young man before him and spoke up first.

“Seeing that you came to see me right away after your re-evaluation
test, may I assume that you know about the ‘normal’ procedures?”

“Yes, basically.”

“In that case, let me not beat around the bush and be direct with
you.”

“Before that, I’d like to make a deal with you first, Association
President.”

“A deal?”

Initially, Goh Gun-Hui felt rather flustered by this young man, who
was acting as if he knew he’d be a rank S Hunter from the beginning.
However, being spunky was an excellent weapon wielded by the
young, was it not?

For some reason, Goh Gun-Hui didn’t find this young man in front of
his eyes dislikeable at all. Maybe that was why he didn’t bother to
hide the smile naturally floating up on his lips and paid attention to
Jin-Woo’s words.

265
“What is it that you want from us, Hunter-nim?”

“Please, change the regulations so that even the summoned

creatures called out by the Hunters are counted as raid team
members.”

“You want me to change the regulation…. That’s a rather difficult

request, isn’t it? I expect an attractive offer from you, powerful
enough to sway my mind.”

Jin-Woo took his time before making his reply.

“I will kill all the ants on Jeju Island.”

Right now, replenishing his army took precedence over everything.

And Jeju Island was practically crawling with the finest quality
monsters ready to be turned into Shadow Soldiers.

As long as this offer was accepted, not only would he get to solve the
issue of filling up the ranks of the Shadow Army, he would also be
spared from the headache of not having usable members in the
future as well.

Before he woke his mother up with the ‘Divine Water of Life’, he

wanted to finish this part of the job first.

However, what Jin-Woo said came across as a desire to kill himself to

Goh Gun-Hui’s ears.

“Don’t say something that nonsensical, young man!”

Such a reaction was fully expected. Jin-Woo didn’t lose his cool and
calmly released all of the magical energy resting within himself for a
very brief moment.

A bottomless and vast power defying all attempts to estimate its true
scope spread out from Jin-Woo’s body.

266
The truly strong could recognise a fellow strong being; the
Association President, often called the ‘sky above the sky’ shook his
head in utter disbelief.

“How…. Just how…. What on earth… is this?”

He powerfully shuddered. Never before in his entire life had he felt

this amount of magic energy emitted from another human being.

A Special Authority-rank Hunter? No, this power had far surpassed

their levels. The Association President simply couldn’t bring his slack
jaw to a close.

“I can take care of all the ants on Jeju Island.”

Didn’t Goh Gun-Hui once say that doing so was his life’s wish?

The older man was about to chide Jin-Woo for being immature and
reckless, but after seeing the resolute expression on Jin-Woo’s face,
his own expression quickly changed as well.

“Are you… being serious?”

Jin-Woo nodded his head.

“This is something only I can do. Please, leave it to me.”

***

Jin-Woo took a long sweeping look at the corpses of ants strewn

about from one end of the land all the way to the other side. And he
looked below his feet where Beru, no, the ant king’s corpse was
resting quietly.

It hadn’t been that long since he had seen his loyal soldier, but Jin-
Woo yearned to hear Beru’s voice busily calling out to his king again.
So, he quickly shouted out towards the ants.

267
“Rise up.”

When he did, Shadow Soldiers rose up from the shadows of every

single ant he could see. Beru was among them, too.

“Oh, my king….”

Jin-Woo took in the sight of several thousand ants kneeling all

around him and slowly nodded his head. A brand new army was
here.

The new Shadow Army, starting from the most perfect state
imaginable, swore their loyalty to their new master.

However…

After talking to his new soldiers, he became sure of it.

“….Let’s stop this.”

Even though a new Shadow Army had been created, there was this
gaping hole in his heart that didn’t want to fill back up.

Beru looked up with worry, but Jin-Woo knew that even that
expression and emotion were all a lie. And that was why his heart
ached even more so as he looked at his soldiers.

Thick veins popped up in his throat as he loudly yelled out.

“I know all of this is just an illusion! Why don’t you stop this charade
and reveal yourself?!”

This illusion was incredibly life-like. Because of that, there had been
some moments that he dearly wished for this thing to be his true
reality. However, there was no hiding the emptiness in his heart that
seemed to grow larger and larger the longer he spent inside this
illusion.

268
That was why….

“Hurry up!!”

Jin-Woo loudly roared into the empty sky above, before finally
realising that a change had taken place – that time had frozen still.

The gazes of every single ant soldier and their raised heads were
directed towards him. For a moment there, he felt goosebumps
break out on his skin from receiving all those mechanical stares.

It was then.

Below his feet, the Sovereign’s Territory, a jet-black shadow rapidly

spread out. Everything touched by that shadow all vanished without
exception. Beru, the soldiers, corpses, the ground, the sea, and
finally, even the sky itself.

Soon, the entire ‘world’ became submerged in shadow. No,

everything simply transformed into darkness, instead.

Only then did a weighty, heavy voice come at him from a place
within this darkness.

[As long as you want, you can live in this world for all eternity. It will
be the same as you never waking from the most wonderful dream.]

Jin-Woo searched for the voice coming from an unknown direction

and made his reply.

“Are you telling me to stay trapped within this illusion you have
created?”

[No. I did not create this world. You are responsible for its creation.]

“I created this world?”

269
Jin-Woo was about to reply with “Nonsense!” but sensed something
approach him. It was his rear.

He quickly spun around. Sure enough, someone was walking closer

from within the impenetrable darkness.

This figure was kitted out in this exquisite black armour that no other
Shadow Soldier could even hope to match. And he also emitted an
utterly shocking amount of pressure that no other living being Jin-
Woo ever met possessed.

He found it hard to open his mouth when he came face to face with
this figure. This being spoke to him.

[This world was created when your desire to fix all the mistakes
you’ve made so far was added to my own power. This place is the
world of death. Meaning, this is my true territory.]

Jin-Woo finally realised then.

He finally realised that this dark world he was standing in had been
gently and invitingly embracing him all this time.

‘So, this is the eternal rest, is it….’

Death.

If so, the man who claimed this world on the other side of
consciousness as his territory had to be….

Jin-Woo wanted to hear the answer straight from the man’s mouth
and asked the question.

“And you must be….?”

The man in the black armour slowly walked closer to Jin-Woo.

270
[I have been watching you for far longer than you can imagine. You,
who had always been striding close to death, yet always had been
resisting bitterly against it.]

‘You’ve been…. watching me?’

Eventually, the man stood right before Jin-Woo and stared with
those black eyes that seemed to suck everything in.

[I am the record of your bitter struggle. I am the evidence of your

resistance. I am the reward of your pain. I am death, I am eternal
rest, and I am also ‘terror’.]

Every word he spoke reverberated weightily within Jin-Woo’s soul.

All those memories of him struggling hard to survive despite his

weakness fleeted in and out of his mind like a revolving lantern, and
made his heart palpitate faster.

The figure reached down and grabbed Jin-Woo’s hand and placed it
on his own armoured chest.

That’s when Jin-Woo’s eyes widened in shock. He could definitely

feel ‘it’ beyond the thick metal armour plate.

How could he not recognise it?

How could he not recognise the vigorous pounding of the heart that
he always got to hear by concentrating just a little bit harder?

How could he not recognise the sounds of his second heart, the one
where he had no clue where it was beating from?

It was the Black Heart.

The Black Heart was powerfully beating within this armoured figure’s
chest.

271
[I am….]

The figure quietly finished his words.

[….You.]

272
Chapter 219

The words of ‘I am you’.

Since he had been exposed to the Black Heart, Jin-Woo could

understand the meaning behind those words.

He looked to his right.

Suddenly, a massive tree the size of several dozen skyscrapers bound

together rose up to pierce the heavens above.

He looked to the other side next.

When his head turned to the left, a maglev train suddenly emerged
from the distant darkness and shot past his position in the blink of an
eye. These two appeared out of nowhere simply because Jin-Woo
wished to see them.

In other words, something was created from nothing.

[That’s right.]

The Shadow Sovereign addressed him.

[Within my territory, you can do anything you want.]

“Because you and I possess the same power?”

The Shadow Sovereign nodded his head. His gaze shifted over to the
giant tree Jin-Woo created. In an instant, the tree’s size decreased
and changed to a single little flower commonly seen everywhere.

Although this power to create and change worlds was limited to the
Shadow Sovereign’s territory, Jin-Woo still ended up letting out a
sigh of admiration.

273
This omnipotent power had become his now. Jin-Woo briefly closed
his eyes before opening them up, and that prompted a field of
flowers to bloom before his feet and spread out in all directions.

It was the same type of flower as the one the Shadow Sovereign
created by changing the tree.

Was this the result of the excellent Perception, or because he was

connected to the Shadow Sovereign? Jin-Woo could sense the
Sovereign feeling satisfied while looking at the field of flowers.

The Sovereign shifted his gaze over to his human counterpart.

[I have been looking forward to this moment, this meeting with you,
for a very long time.]

The Shadow Sovereign officially introduced himself.

[I am the Shadow Sovereign. I am the King of the Dead, ruler of

death’s power, and an administrator of the deepest part of the
darkness.]

Awesome, dignified presence oozed out from the Sovereign.

However, Jin-Woo didn’t feel scared even though true death capable
of reducing any living being into a shuddering mess was right before
him.

This being was him. He felt his emotions soar higher after meeting
another version of himself.

Finally.

Finally, he could ask that one question stuck in his head, not wanting
to let him go ever since the System became a part of his life.

“Why…. was I chosen?”

274
Why did the System choose him as the ‘Player’? Was it because he
managed to survive the dual dungeon that day?

No, it couldn’t have been. He believed that there had to be another

reason. And this was the moment that his question might get an
answer.

[I shall show you.]

The Shadow Sovereign slowly extended his hand towards Jin-Woo’s

forehead. The moment that forefinger touched him, the entire world
changed.

[This is our beginning and the end. And also, your beginning.]

***

Would there ever have been a moment in history that so many

people in so many countries screamed out at the same time?

In that cruel moment when the monster’s dagger penetrated Hunter

Seong Jin-Woo’s chest, people held their heads or screamed their
lungs out. What came to visit them after the screaming was silence
as heavy as blocks of steel.

Grief-stricken gasps escaped from the lips of everyone watching

Hunter Seong Jin-Woo powerlessly crumble to the ground.

“Ah…”

First, it was the Special Authority-rank Hunter, Thomas Andre. And

now, even Seong Jin-Woo had fallen.

If so, who else was left?

There was no one.

275
Knowing full well that there was no one else left to stop these
monsters, the expressions of people began hardening like stone.

And then, a short while later.

– Uh? Wha-what’s going on here? Uh? Uhhh??

Shortly after the cameraman cried out in panic, even the

transmission got cut off.

The super-massive Gate floating above the skies of Seoul, and then,
the monsters that appeared out of nowhere to continuously murder
the top-ranked Hunters in the world. The viewers around the world
couldn’t erase the thoughts of ‘Are we seeing the advent of the
world’s end?’ out of their minds.

In the midst of all the shock and panic, people couldn’t move away
from the front of their screens even though the transmission had
been cut off for a long time now.

***

The filming helicopter, now frozen solid and smoke pouring out from
the side, crashed back to earth. The Sovereign of Frost withdrew its
hand, having successfully destroyed the annoying flying contraption.

Its gaze shifted over to Jin-Woo next. The creature’s ice-covered lips
bobbed up and down to announce Jin-Woo’s status.

[His life has come to an end.]

The eyes and the ears of the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs confirmed
the death of his prey. It could not sense any hint of life from the
subject at all.

276
They managed to succeed in stopping one of the most powerful kings
from turning into an unwelcome variable in their plan. Their eyes
were now swimming in the ecstasy of victory.

However, this wasn’t the end of their work. Not yet.

The two Sovereigns raised their heads and their glares

simultaneously locked onto Thomas Andre, currently evacuated a
good distance away.

Lennart Niermann flinched nastily after sensing their gaze.

“D*mn it….”

He had to prepare himself to lose his life just from trying to fend off
one beast-like humanoid creature, but now, there was an Ice Elf on a
similar level as the beast to contend with, too….

‘How did Hunter Seong Jin-Woo manage to fight against them….?’

His heart rate got faster and faster. The thing was, he was the only
Hunter capable of buying even a second of time against those two
monsters.

Lennart took a deep breath.

“Hey, man…. Hunter Seong’s presence vanished just now. Can’t you
tell me what’s going on?”

Thomas Andre, his wounds not even half-healed yet, threw out a
question.

Lennart forced his unwilling lips to part.

“He’s….”

It was then.

277
The two Sovereigns walking leisurely over in Lennart’s direction
simultaneously looked behind them.

[…..!!]

[…..!!]

Something impossible happened, just then. From the body of the

human whose heart was confirmed to be destroyed, they could hear
vigorous, pounding heartbeats.

But, how?

How could such a thing be possible?

The two Sovereigns exchanged disbelieving gazes with each other.

And then, the absolute worst possibility entered their heads next.
They had been overlooking this crucial fact until now.

[Can it be….?]

These two thought that, by killing the human host, they would also
get to extinguish the Shadow Sovereign within, too. Just like how
they themselves would die after taking over their hosts.

However, their opponent this time was the King of the Dead. There
was no guarantee that death, supposed to treat everyone equally
regardless of who, would be applied to him in the same manner.

The end of one could also become the beginning for someone else.

[No…! We can’t let this happen!!]

They had to stop this at all costs.

They had to stop the descent of the true king via this fake death.

278
Their expression turned utterly pale before they reacted almost
instinctively. Two Sovereigns instantly closed the distance to Jin-Woo
and reached out with their long claws and ice spear.

In order to completely destroy the body that’d act as the tool of the
King’s descent, they poured in their entire magical energy into their
weapons.

Unfortunately….

A figure hidden in ‘Stealth’ lightly landed on the ground before them

and his shortswords blocked the claws and the ice spear quite ably.

The Shadow Sovereign hadn’t regained his consciousness yet. In that

case, who could this being be?

[…..??]

The two Sovereigns couldn’t hide their shock and fluster after their
desperate attacks were defended against.

The owner of the shortswords undid his Stealth and finally revealed
himself. It was a figure cloaked in a hood. A pair of eyes gleaming in
pure golden light were glaring at the Sovereigns from below the
hood.

“From here on, none shall touch this child.”

***

In another world.

Light and darkness existed in an age where nothing else yet existed.

The Absolute Being split the light and created the Emissaries of God.
As for the darkness, it was split to create eight Sovereigns.

279
Heeding the command issued during their birth, the Sovereigns born
to destroy worlds and the Emissaries born to maintain the worlds
began killing each other’s soldiers over and over again.

At the end of the lengthy war.

Fatigued by the constant and unending war, the most bright

Fragment of the Brilliant Light asked the Absolute Being.

‘Oh, our Absolute Ruler.

Why does thee not aid thy most faithful subjects fighting in thy
honour?

Why does thee ignore thy subjects’ pain?

Doth thee really not hear the screams of countless soldiers dying for
thy honour?

Aid us.

Lend us the strength to extinguish our opponents. We shall cut off

their heads and offer them as the tribute to thy glory.’

However, the Absolute Being didn’t reply back to the Fragment.

It was at that moment the Fragments came to a realisation. And that

would be the truth of the battle between themselves and the
Sovereigns being nothing more than a form of entertainment to the
Absolute Being. And that their Ruler didn’t wish for the battles to
end.

Now knowing that the war would never end as long as the Absolute
Being continued to exist, the Fragments fell into despair. The despair
they felt transformed into rage, and rage soon morphed into hatred.

To end this meaningless war, they unsheathed their blades.

280
It was the start of the rebellion.

Jin-Woo witnessed the endless march of the soldiers spanning the

cosmos itself.

“Oh, my god….”

However, a group of soldiers suddenly appeared from the distance

and blocked the march. The Shadow Sovereign next to Jin-Woo
pointed at the Fragment of the Brilliant Light with six wings, standing
in front of the blocking group.

[That was the me of the distant past.]

He was the sole Emissary of God who stood up against the rebellion
of the other Emissaries. In the end, though, the pitiful number of
soldiers he led powerlessly fell before the united armies of the
Emissaries.

The Fragment of the Brilliant Light never lost his absolute loyalty
until the end. He died watching his brave subordinates get swept
away by their enemies.

He thought that this was the end.

But when he reopened his eyes within the embrace of the darkness,
he came to realise that the Absolute Being had hidden a certain
power inside of him.

For that eventuality when everything went wrong, the Absolute

Being had hidden a truly fiendish power capable of ending
everything, inside its most loyal slave.

And so, floating within this endless abyss of darkness, the Sovereign
of Death had finally opened his eyes towards his power. He tore off
the remaining traces of his wings, all burnt away from the battle, and
crafted brand new armour out of the surrounding darkness.

281
[ARISE-!!]

Souls sleeping within this abyss heard the call and swore eternal
allegiance to their new king.

He led his brand new army and made his return. But when he finally
came back, everything was already over.

The remaining Fragments of Brilliant Light had killed the Absolute

Being and called themselves the new gods, thus assuming the
position of the ‘Rulers’. And using various tools containing the might
of the Absolute Being, they hunted down the Sovereigns.

When the King of Giants, the Sovereign of the Beginning, Reghia, was
captured, the balance between the two sides collapsed and the
remaining Sovereigns realised the severity of the situation.

It was at that moment that the Shadow Sovereign extended his

hands to them. To combat their common enemy, every existing
Sovereign combined their forces.

And in this manner, the war between seven ‘Rulers’ and nine
‘Sovereigns’ continued on, forever.

The longer this war continued on, however, the greater the army of
the Shadow Sovereign grew. Time was on his side.

Thanks to his brilliant achievements, it seemed as if the victors of this

long, long war would be the Sovereigns.

However, it wasn’t only the Rulers fearing the might of the Shadow
Army that had grown, unbeknownst to all, to equal the Army of
Destruction led by the King of Berserk Dragons.

Two Sovereigns feared the Shadow Sovereign. The Two of them were
the Sovereign of White Flames and the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs.

282
They aimed for the back of the former Emissary just as the war was
drawing to a close.

It was at this point that Jin-Woo got to witness again the scenes he
saw within the ‘saved data’ back in the dual dungeon. The armies of
demons and beasts joined hands with the armies of the Rulers and
pounced on the Shadow Sovereign and his army.

And that resulted in him being driven to near-annihilation.

But then, the King of Beasts, the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs ran away
to save its own life, while forsaking its own soldiers. Meanwhile, the
King of Demons, the Sovereign of White Flames, Baran, had to pay
the ultimate price.

The words Jin-Woo couldn’t understand; when he heard the words

of the dying Baran, his eyes shook around really hard back then.

And then, above his head – four angels with six wings slowly
descended from the sky. That was where the video playback of the
‘data’ Jin-Woo watched came to an end.

The four Rulers soon surrounded the Shadow Sovereign, who no

longer possessed enough strength to command his own Shadow
Army. The Sovereign must’ve figured out what the inevitable result
of this fight would be and discarded his sword to the ground.

But, if those Rulers had killed the Shadow Sovereign back then, how
could the existence of this Shadow Sovereign even be explained?

Jin-Woo swallowed his dry saliva and paid even closer attention, to
what could possibly be the end of the Shadow Sovereign.

But then….

283
The Rulers began kneeling before the Shadow Sovereign one by one.
And a short while later, the six-winged angel kneeling in front raised
his voice.

[Please, it’s time that you forgive us, oh, greatest Fragment of
Brilliant Light.]

284
Chapter 220

The Rulers were asking for forgiveness from the Shadow Sovereign.

They occupied an overwhelmingly advantageous position. As long as

they willed it, they could have sent the Shadow Sovereign back to
the empty void, yet they wished to make up with him, instead.

This was their own way of showing their respect towards a comrade,
born together at the same time, as well as the greatest warrior who
once stood at the forefront with his Army of Brilliant Light, in the war
against the powers of the Sovereigns.

Although the Shadow Sovereign was never their leader, his comrades
nevertheless respected him greatly.

And that was why they ignored the command from their leader, the
‘brightest Fragment of Brilliant Light’, to get rid of the Sovereign and
instead chose to kneel before him.

[We no longer have any reason to fight each other.]

The enraged voice of the Shadow Sovereign resounded throughout

the land next.

[What do you mean, there’s no reason??!]

The Sovereign reached down and grabbed the collar of the Ruler
asking for forgiveness and yanked him up by force.

[Have you not harmed my liege with your swords and spears?!]

[He was our master as well.]

[That is precisely why your crimes are even more heinous!]

285
The Rulers maintained a courteous attitude, even towards the
enraged Shadow Sovereign.

[You know better than anyone what we felt in our hearts when we
raised our banners of rebellion against our master.]

The Shadow Sovereign raised his head and discovered that the silver-
clad winged soldiers had gathered around them before he had
noticed it, and they were looking in his direction with worried
expressions etched on their faces.

These were truly loyal soldiers.

How could he not know what they felt, watching their comrades die
at the hands of their enemies? It was him who led these soldiers in
countless battlefields and shed blood in honour of their master, after
all.

[We only wished to end this war. That was all.]

The Sovereign’s grip holding onto the Ruler’s collars loosened just a
tad.

[And finally, we have the opportunity to do so.]

[That’s right. You can finally end this war.]

The Shadow Sovereign let go of the Ruler, picked up his discarded

sword, and made the angel grip the weapon’s hilt.

[Strike me down with this sword.]

And then, he looked at the other Rulers and shouted out.

[Pierce my heart with your spears! That is the end that you so
desperately seek! With this act, you shall finally become the victor of
this war!]

286
But, the sword powerlessly fell from the Ruler’s grasp and clattered
noisily onto the ground. No one else tried to push forward their
spears against the Shadow Sovereign. Only the pleading voice came
back his way.

[Please, find it in your heart to forgive us.]

Unfortunately, their earnest plea struck the Shadow Sovereign more

painfully than any weapon known to man.

After he lost his subordinates, after he lost his master, and after he
himself was trapped within the darkness, the only thing that
motivated him to carry on were the thoughts of revenge.

The desire for vengeance helped him to endure until now.

He had led the army of the dead with the singular thought of making
these Rulers pay for their transgressions.

But now, how could he continue to hate those asking for his
forgiveness in order to save their own soldiers from this endless cycle
of warfare?

After all, both he, fighting to protect his master, and these Rulers,
who fought to keep their subordinates alive, were victims of fate’s
cruelty, were they not?

The truth, that these kneeling angels weren’t his detestable enemies,
but comrades who went through hell together, began tearing at his
heart mercilessly now.

With that, the sole reason for his existence gone, the Shadow
Sovereign cried out towards the others as if he was vomiting blood.

[Come! Kill me!]

Everything shall end here.

287
He’d rather return to the embrace of the void and rest for eternity
while forgetting everything that had happened.

[Hurry!]

None of the Rulers moved an inch.

No, they remained kneeling on the ground, their heads pressed to

the floor, just like how it was from the beginning.

The Shadow Sovereign raised his head up next.

That prompted all the silver-clad soldiers in the air, still remembering
the greatest warrior ever to grace the heavens, to place their fists
where their hearts were and lower their heads.

[…….]

Although they had to fight against him because of the differing

ideals, they still hadn’t forgotten about their admiration towards him
in their hearts and consequently, they paid their utmost respect.

The number of such soldiers utterly dominated the entire sky. And
when all of them lowered their heads, the Shadow Sovereign
stopped silently watching them and turned around to leave.

The Sovereign of Death left the scene just like that, and afterwards,
he completely vanished without a trace. Meanwhile, the combined
forces of the Sovereigns, now that their own armies had been greatly
depleted by the internal conflict of the three Sovereigns, met with a
resounding defeat at the hands of the Rulers.

The defeated remnants escaped to the crack between dimensions

with their remaining forces. Jin-Woo watched the Sovereigns and
their defeated army escaping through the enormous Gate and
became utterly dumbstruck.

288
‘The scale of the defeated remnants were that big….?!’

He couldn’t even begin to imagine just how many soldiers from both
sides had to be sacrificed for the sake of the Absolute Being’s
entertainment.

He kind of understood where these Rulers were coming from when

they rebelled against their master’s rule.

But, it was then.

The Shadow Sovereign that secluded himself from the worldly affairs,
appeared before the other Sovereigns again.

When the Shadow Sovereign and the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs ran
into each other, others became extremely tense that another violent
clash might take place, but due to the intervention from the Dragon
Emperor, the feared event didn’t come to pass.

[Now is the time to replenish our depleted forces. I understand the

history between you two, but I shan’t allow a fight to take place.]

The Dragon Emperor then accepted the Shadow Sovereign back to

their fold once more with open arms.

Jin-Woo swallowed his nervous saliva as he watched the Dragon

Emperor in humanoid form. He was aware of the fact that the figure
before his eyes was nothing more than a fragment of the Shadow
Sovereign’s memories, but still….

‘So, this guy is the King of Berserk Dragons, the Sovereign of

Destruction….’

The insane level of power oozing out from nothing more than just a
glare even made Jin-Woo’s teeth clatter.

289
Having evacuated to the crack between dimensions, the Sovereigns
avoided the Rulers’ detection and searched for a new world where
they would nurture their army again.

Countless galaxies and planets flew past Jin-Woo’s eyes. And

eventually, the footage came to a stop right before a certain planet.

He unconsciously let out a gasp.

“Ah…..”

It was a beautiful blue planet shining all alone within the darkness of
space. It was Earth.

Through their concerted efforts over a long period of time, the

Sovereigns succeeded in tunnelling a portal from the crack between
dimensions, to Earth that existed in another dimension.

And thanks to the entrance of unprecedented enemies, mankind

couldn’t avoid the fate of being annihilated.

Jin-Woo’s expression hardened as he watched the cities get reduced

to smouldering rubble, as first seen inside the ‘Demon’s Castle’
instant dungeon.

“Is this what will happen in the future?”

[No. This is a record of the past.]

Jin-Woo’s eyes quaked powerfully from that unexpected answer.

But, his shock could linger around only for a short while. Because the
Shadow Sovereign continued on with his explanation.

[The Rulers belatedly detected the movements of the Sovereigns and

sent their armies, but by then, everything had already come to an
end.]

290
If the purpose of the Sovereigns was to destroy, then the role of the
Rulers was to maintain the worlds.

Naturally, the Rulers grew angry at the fact that the thugs of the
Chaos World they failed to eradicate the last time managed to bring
down yet another world.

In order to right the wrong, they resorted to activating a certain tool

of God that they themselves had prohibited from use.

The tool of God was called ‘Chalice of Rebirth’ – an item they made
sure to steal first as their top priority from God’s storage, just before
they started their rebellion. It was an incredible item that could
reverse time by around ten Earth years.

‘Ten years?!’

Jin-Woo’s eyes shot wide open.

Could this be pure coincidence that the number of years matched

the time when Gates began generating out of thin air, and Hunters
appeared to stop them?

[It is as you suspect.]

The Rulers did their best to rescue other worlds, but Earth was
simply too fragile to host the battles between themselves and the
Sovereigns. This planet with no magical energy couldn’t endure
against the mass-scale battles.

Didn’t matter who won in the end between the Rulers or the
Sovereigns, the result waiting for this planet remained the same.
After going through several cycles of war and the destruction of the
planet, the Rulers came to a drastic decision.

If saving everyone was impossible, then make sure that some would
still survive and continue the life on this planet.

291
“If so, does that mean….?!”

[Gates are the process to create humans that would survive the
collision of two forces. That’s how much the Rulers wanted to guard
humanity.]

Only then did Jin-Woo finally realise it.

He realised the reason why these Rulers stayed behind the scenes
and quietly let the process take place without getting in touch with
humanity, even if they knew that there was a calamity coming.

‘Humans capable of surviving in the changed world are…..’

If humanity learned that everyone in the world would die soon with
the sole exception of the small number of people referred to as
Hunters, would the human societies be able to function properly
ever again?

No, hang on. Jin-Woo inwardly shook his head.

He finally heard the reasons for the Gates and the Hunters after this
lengthy tale. However, the one thing he really wanted to hear about,
he still hadn’t heard the answer yet.

As if he had read Jin-Woo’s mind, the Shadow Sovereign gestured

with his hands and the surroundings changed completely again.

[The higher existences, such as Rulers and Sovereigns, are able to

perceive the change in the flow of time created by the tool of God.]

Even if they couldn’t do anything about it, said the Sovereign

afterwards.

While the Rulers busily tried to fix their mistakes several times, the
Sovereigns also began modifying their plan continuously, as well.

….Until the tool of God couldn’t be used anymore.

292
“Hold up…. Are you telling me that there’s a limit to this ‘Chalice of
Rebirth’?”

[There are no such things as infinite power. Just as the Absolute

Being capable of creating the universe was eliminated by his own
creations, no power lasts forever.]

There was a hint of this tangible bitterness in his voice and that
prompted Jin-Woo to turn his head towards the Shadow Sovereign
before he had time to even notice it.

“I’m asking you because it was brought up first, but, how can
creations kill the creator?”

[It is not too different from you dying at the wiles of the machines
you have created.]

That sounded logical. Even if machines were created for the sake of
humanity’s convenience, they could still harm humans depending on
how they were utilised. It was a similar sort of reason as to why
humans feared artificial intelligence they themselves had created.

[We were created to fight, and our powers were more than enough
to bring down our own master.]

Jin-Woo nodded his head.

Soon, the figures of several familiar Sovereigns appeared around Jin-

Woo and the Shadow Sovereign.

[The Sovereigns had a ‘light-bulb’ moment from the methods

employed by the Rulers.]

And that would be to copy the method of the Rulers, that lent the
portions of their powers to various humans and had them kill
monsters, in order to spread magic energy throughout the planet.
Sovereigns would also ‘borrow’ the bodies of human hosts to

293
descend on the world and bring their armies far earlier than what
the Rulers had been expecting.

[They plan to use the magical energy spread around the planet by
the Rulers and turn the entirety of Earth into one large trap.]

“To devour the Rulers’ armies coming to aid humanity in one go….”

[That’s right.]

For a Sovereign possessing incredible power to cross over into this

world, it needed a host body.

Sovereigns searched for and found suitable hosts for themselves one
by one.

However, only the two, the Sovereign of Destruction and the Shadow
Sovereign, the possessors of two indescribably enormous powers,
couldn’t find human hosts with a physique that could handle their
powers.

[It was around that time when the greatest wizard, working under
one of the Kings, came to me with an offer. He said that he’d find me
a suitable human host.]

The ‘Architect’. This wizard, referred to as the Architect by the

Sovereigns, promised to aid the Shadow Sovereign’s descent to this
world for the price of turning him into a true immortal.

Since he was already somewhat interested in the ongoings of the

human world, the Shadow Sovereign agreed to this offer.
Unfortunately, no human alive could handle the power of ‘death’.

[The human with high sensitivity towards magic energy. The human
with an overwhelmingly superior physical condition. The human with
amazing mental faculty. All of them couldn’t handle my power and
either became mentally crippled or died.]

294
No living lifeform could become a vessel for death itself.

The contract with a Sovereign – this act possessed a meaning on a

whole different realm compared to other types of promises.
Obviously, the Architect became rather anxious as time ticked by.

While the Architect was sweating buckets trying to locate suitable

candidates, the Shadow Sovereign actually went ahead and found
himself a potential host first.

“…”

Jin-Woo raised his head.

As if there were hundreds of monitors displaying all sorts of varied

and colourful images of him, his past self doing various things
appeared in all directions.

[I saw you. You, who always accompanies death so closely yet still
desperately escapes from its grasp every time.]

He had been working as a Hunter for four years.

Jin-Woo was ranked E. Not only that, at the bottom of the lowest
rank, too. Yet, despite experiencing the life-threatening dangers of
dungeons every day, he didn’t stop entering them. It was all for the
sake of his mother and his little sister.

He sacrificed himself for his family and desperately struggled on. The
records of the past four years were all preserved in their entirety
within the Shadow Sovereign’s memories.

[The Architect opposed it, but I still chose you.]

The Shadow Sovereign was now pointing at Jin-Woo, and seeing that
unwavering finger, he felt his heart race faster and faster.

The Sovereign did say it before, didn’t he?

295
– I am the record of your bitter struggle. I am the evidence of your
resistance. I am the reward of your pain.

Those words weren’t describing Jin-Woo’s life after he had become a

‘Player’. No, it was about his life before he got to enjoy the benefit of
the System. Every one of those words rang weightily within his chest
once more.

[The anxious Architect agreed to carry out my wish, and in the end,
he lured you into his grand plan.]

The dual dungeon, the test of his survival, and then, the ‘Player’.

All of these were part of the plan of the Architect to create a suitable
vessel for the Shadow Sovereign.

[As your world continued to repeat itself, the Architect got to

observe humans closely. And he created a system based on what
humans enjoyed playing and were also good at, in order for you to
adapt to my great powers.]

What humans enjoyed playing and were also good at, he said.

Jin-Woo knew right away what that thing was as soon as he heard
the Sovereign. It was none other than video games.

Here was the reason why the System designed to manage the
‘Player’ possessed such a similar layout to a video game.

And Jin-Woo was the lone successful case among all the test
subjects.

[The System the Architect created by borrowing my power slowly

changed your physique step-by-step to better suit me.]

“But then, you betrayed the Architect, didn’t you?”

296
Jin-Woo recalled the sight of the angel statue jumping up and down
in fury while busily crying out that the other Sovereigns had been
deceived back inside the second dual dungeon.

The puzzling thing was, why did the Shadow Sovereign deceive the
one he was in contract with, and choose Jin-Woo, instead?

He simply had to ask for clarification here.

“But, why?”

[……]

For the first time ever, the Shadow Sovereign hesitated. He looked to
be agonising over something, and Jin-Woo didn’t press him for an
immediate answer.

Eventually, the Sovereign opened his mouth again.

[Because… I wanted to.]

Compared to how lengthy his deliberation was, that answer was way
too simple. Strangely enough, Jin-Woo couldn’t hold back his
chuckle, though.

[Perhaps, I enjoyed the time I spent with you far too much and didn’t
want to lose ‘you’.]

Rather than erasing Jin-Woo’s ego and taking over his body, the
Shadow Sovereign had chosen to assimilate with him, instead.
Meaning, he chose to become a part of him.

And the end result was….

The Sovereign slowly raised his hands and grasped the sides of the
helm covering his head, lifting it up slowly. And, as the face hidden
beneath it was finally revealed, Jin-Woo’s eyes gradually widened.

297
‘….!!’

It was his own face.

The Shadow Sovereign possessed the exact same face as him.

But, was that all?

Jin-Woo’s gaze dropped back down to himself only to discover that

the surrounding darkness had wrapped around him to form new
armour.

The appearance of the armour was exactly the same as that of the
Shadow Sovereign. It was as if they were looking at their mirror
reflections and they continued to gaze at each other.

[I have become you, and you have become me.]

‘I am you.’

That was the undeniable truth, with not an ounce of falsehood

within.

[It won’t matter who gets to control our body, whether it’s me or
you.]

Because… they were the same person now.

[And that is why… I shall give you the opportunity. Now, choose.]

The Shadow Sovereign raised his left hand and all those faces Jin-
Woo missed seeing appeared one after another.

[You can enjoy eternal rest inside this beautiful dream you have
created within the territory of death.]

First, it was the face of the gently-laughing Association President Goh

Gun-Hui, followed by his young-looking mother well before she
collapsed from the illness. And finally, even the scene of his much

298
younger self that existed within the time now long forgotten, drew
up in the darkened surroundings.

[However, if you don’t want that….]

The Shadow Sovereign lowered his left hand raised the right one,
instead. In an instant, all those faces disappeared, only to be
replaced by a humongous Dragon flying in from the darkened sky
high above. And then, an army entirely consisting of countless
Dragons following after it to incinerate every city they could find.

[….You shall return to reality and fight them.]

Jin-Woo stared at the Army of Destruction led by the Dragon

Emperor with a hardened face before making his reply.

No, he asked a question, instead.

“Why did you run away to another world with the other Sovereigns
when you had no desire to fight against the Rulers?”

[Because… there was no place for me to remain anymore.]

The Shadow Sovereign was a Ruler and at the same time, a

Sovereign. And he couldn’t find the place he could call home with
either group. That was why he chose to wander in other worlds he
was not originally a part of, hoping to find his place.

Hearing the Sovereign’s answer, Jin-Woo finally made his decision.

“My answer is the same.”

An imperceptible smile had already floated up on the Sovereign’s

face even before Jin-Woo made his reply.

“This is not where I belong.”

[….Very good.]

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The Shadow Sovereign nodded, saying, [That’s why I chose you.]

“Does this mean I won’t ever get to see you again?”

[I shall be taking my eternal rest. And as the new Shadow Sovereign,

you shall live an eternal life. Surely, there won’t be a reason why we
have to meet again.]

Despite saying those words, there was the look of a relieved man on
the Sovereign’s face. Finally, the time of rest had come after an
eternity of waiting.

Jin-Woo watched the Sovereign genuinely feeling happy for himself

and bade his last goodbye.

“I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity.”

[…….]

For a brief moment there, a look of wistful longing brushed past the
Sovereign’s expression before disappearing altogether.

[With your death, your powers have become complete. As for how to
return, its….]

Jin-Woo stopped him there.

“I know.”

Because… I am you.

A smile floated up on the Shadow Sovereign’s face as the time of

departure drew near. After a long, long journey, he had reached a
place he could rest now.

The Sovereign addressed Jin-Woo.

[This is our farewell.]

300
He took a step back and wordlessly stared at Jin-Woo nodding his
head.

Two words that would allow him to be reborn as the perfect Shadow
Sovereign left his lips in a low, hushed voice.

“Rise up.”

301
Chapter 221

The System’s familiar female voice rang in his head the moment Jin-
Woo uttered ‘Rise up.’

[‘Rise up.’]

[‘Player’ Nurturing System delete code has been entered.]

[The System will now be deleted.]

Jin-Woo was now bestowed with the true power of the Shadow
Sovereign, which meant that the System was now rendered
irrelevant to him. So, it began deleting itself.

He felt as if he was saying goodbye to a nanny that looked after him

since his childhood. He then suddenly thought of a question and
asked the Shadow Sovereign.

“How did you include the female voice in the System?”

[….That’s actually the architect’s voice.]

The Sovereign was a bit dumbstruck by Jin-Woo’s sudden question,

but eventually, added more explanation.

[That creature was from a hermaphrodite race. It’s possible for them
to produce both male and female voices.]

“…..”

He often wondered who the owner of that clear and cool voice was
every time it accompanied the System messages, but to think, it was
the same dude all along.

302
Feeling a bit sheepish, Jin-Woo averted his gaze, prompting the
Shadow Sovereign to chuckle under his breath.

“Kuk, kuk.”

‘I also enjoyed watching that part of you, too.’

This man was indeed worth betraying the architect’s promise, even
though trust was one of the most important things for the Sovereign.
A small hint of sorrow briefly flashed past his eyes.

In the meantime, the System continued on with deleting itself step

by step.

[All limitations imposed on the power ‘Player’ possesses has been

lifted.]

[With the removal of the limitations, every Shadow Soldier of

‘Marshal’ grade enjoying the authority of the Sovereign will regain all
of their original powers.]

[Marshal grade soldier Igrit’s powers have been restored in full.]

[Marshal grade soldier Beru’s Stats have been enhanced greatly.]

[The former Shadow Sovereign, ‘Osborne’, is returning to the world

of eternal void.]

Jin-Woo silently listened to the messages before raising his head. He

found the Shadow Sovereign, despite facing his own end, staring
back at him with serene eyes.

Jin-Woo was able to understand all the pain and suffering the
Sovereign had gone through because of the memories of the distant
past shown to him within death’s territory. His goodbyes were,
therefore, genuine and heartfelt.

‘Goodbye, my king.

303
I pray that you find the peaceful rest you dearly wished for so long in
the land of eternal sleep.’

Finally, even the System message signifying farewell popped up.

[Will you really delete all System and System-related functions?]

Two icons of ‘YES’ and ‘NO’ blinked in the empty air.

Jin-Woo shifted his gaze, one last time, to the Shadow Sovereign.
Even until the end, the former angel hadn’t lost that content smile of
his.

Because, that would be the lasting image engraved in his heart, after
all.

That was why Jin-Woo also smiled back.

With a smile, he issued his final input to the System.

“Yes.”

***

RUMBLE!!

A powerful wind pressure being generated at the same time with an

explosion of light forced back the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs and the
Sovereign of Frost. The former regained its posture first, its brows
quivering.

[A Fragment of the Brilliant Light….?]

The body of the robe-wearing enemy was now burning in golden

flames. That light was the symbol of the Rulers.

This b*stard was, without a doubt, a human that borrowed their

powers. However, why were the Rulers aiding one of the most
powerful Sovereigns out there, the Shadow Sovereign?

304
The Sovereign of Frost cried out.

[The worst calamity imaginable is approaching us through the body

of the human you’re trying to protect! Are you planning to bring the
apocalypse to this world by your own hands??]

“…..”

The man wearing the robe didn’t even bother to reply. No, instead of
an answer, he simply brought up both of his shortswords near his
chin, clearly getting into a stance to fight. That was as good a sign as
any of his intent.

The Sovereign of Frost’s expression hardened after confirming this

man’s decision once more.

Its current opponent had borrowed the powers of the Rulers and
activated Spiritual Body Manifestation. But, a human’s body couldn’t
withstand a god’s power.

Unlike with the Sovereigns who had completely taken over the host’s
body and ego, the one borrowing the Ruler’s power would soon
crumble into dust and disappear.

‘Even then…. He’ll risk dying just to aid in the Shadow Sovereign’s
revival?? Just what are the Ruler b*stards scheming now…?!’

The Sovereign of Frost looked at the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs. They

exchanged suspicious gazes. There was no time. The beast-like man,
the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs, nodded its head.

Instantly, the two Sovereigns split left and right to approach the
robe-wearing man from both sides, before raining down a ceaseless
barrage of attacks.

The claws of a beast and the spear made of ice tried to tear into the
robe-wearing man countless times, but as if he was well versed in

305
combat, he easily countered and repelled all incoming attacks with
expert movements.

He would let the ice spear slip past him or block against the claws,
but never forgot to throw out his counterattacks every now and
then, as well.

This was the action of a warrior that survived a nonsensical number

of battlefields throughout his life. A truly troublesome opponent, in
other words. An enemy possessing great strength and technique
disregarded his own life to block the advance of the two Sovereigns.

BOOM-!!

The robe-wearing man blocked the weapons that carried incredible

amounts of magical energy belonging to two Sovereigns, and then,
shoved them away once more.

The Sovereigns landed some distance away, correctly judging that it

would be quite difficult to get a desirable result in time, at this rate.

Tap, tap.

As if the robe-wearing man had no purpose other than protecting

the vessel of the Shadow Sovereign, he only stood his ground and
didn’t chase after the Sovereigns.

[….Just what is your true identity?!]

The Sovereign of Frost was left dismayed and puzzled, but the robe-
wearing man remained silent as usual.

It was then.

The Sovereign of Beastly Fangs suddenly reverted from its Werewolf

appearance back to its human form and spoke up.

[I’m done with this.]

306
The sharp fangs peeking out of its lips went back inside, and its long
claws also changed back to those of regular person’s nails. As it
turned around to leave, the Sovereign of Frost hurriedly cried out to
stop its comrade.

[We’ve come this far, yet you wish to leave now?! Are you insane!!]

[Can’t you sense it?]

The Sovereign of Beastly Fangs shook its head.

It possessed sensory perception far exceeding the norm and after

picking up on the subtly-changing atmosphere, its body shuddered
ever so slightly.

[The surrounding Mana has begun crying out. Soon, the Shadow
Sovereign will arrive.]

The gaze of the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs went up to the sky before
shifting back to the Sovereign of Frost.

[I’m taking my leave.]

[But, you promised to attack the Shadow Sovereign with me, did you
not?!]

Veins bulged on the neck of the clearly-agitated ancient Ice Elf. Too
bad, the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs remained rather collected in its
reply.

[My promise was only applicable when the vessel remained a

human. However, the real thing is about to come, so there’s no more
reason for me to stick to our promise.]

[Even then, how can a King of all beasts run away with his tail
between his legs?!]

307
The Sovereign of Beastly Fangs was triggered by those words and it
angrily grabbed the collars of the ancient Ice Elf.

[You can’t understand me because you’ve never tasted the true

power of the Shadow Sovereign, oh, Sovereign of Frost!!]

Back then, the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs got to witness the depths
of the Shadow Sovereign’s powers when he faced off and survived
against six huge armies consisting of the beast army, demonic army
belonging to the White Flames, and lastly, the armies of the four
Rulers.

Such a monster was about to show up here, so who cared about

one’s dignity in such a situation? It was fine if others ridiculed the
Sovereign for hiding behind the Dragon Emperor. It’d do anything if it
meant surviving until the end.

It made the correct call to abandon its former comrade, the King of
Demons, the Sovereign of White Flames, and to escape from the
battlefield back then.

And now, it was not daring to risk encountering the real deal while
trying to kill the Shadow Sovereign’s vessel.

The Sovereign of Beastly Fangs was the King of Beasts, whose power
was founded upon the abundant life force of the surrounding
creatures. And the power of death, capable of eating into that life
force, was the most fearful and frightening thing in the universe.

Indeed, there was no time to waste its breath here. It sensed the
terror of death approaching ever closer with every passing second,
and quickly released the collars of the ancient Ice Elf to generate its
personal Gate.

[I shall pray for your fortune.]

With that departing words, the beast quickly stepped into the Gate.

308
The Sovereign of Frost clicked its tongue unhappily as it watched the
Gate gradually shrink before completely disappearing from the view.

[What a foolish b*stard.]

How could a fool that runs away in fear, even when there was a
nearly dead prey right before its eyes, be deserving of the title of the
Chaos World’s best hunter?

The Sovereign of Frost’s thoughts remained the same as before – the

Shadow Sovereign had to die, no matter what. And the prey was as
good as tip-toeing on the precipice’s edge. Nothing would change
just because a hindrance suddenly showed up.

Indeed, there was no reason to borrow the hand of a coward.

Deciding such, the Sovereign of Frost activated its own Spiritual Body
Manifestation.

Although its stamina would greatly be consumed by maintaining this

form, as this wasn’t the world it originally belonged to, there was a
need to get the result as soon as possible before the Shadow
Sovereign really made his appearance.

[Taste the terror of the bitter frost, you weakling!]

The Sovereign of Frost transformed into a gigantic ice storm that

instantly covered up the land. The violently thrashing blizzard
slammed into everywhere!

After morphing into an actual storm, the Sovereign of Frost coldly

glared at the robe-wearing man below and roared out like a
thunderclap.

[This is my true power!!]

Tens of thousands of ice spears created out of crystallised Mana in

the air began raining down like falling snow. Each spear carried

309
enough power to kill a person in one shot. That was how extremely
terrifying this attack was.

Cars still remaining in the roads were swept away like worthless toys
and buildings were torn apart by the blade-like winds. However, the
robe-wearing man didn’t even budge from his spot and protected
Jin-Woo behind him with all his being.

Countless wounds began appearing on the man facing off against the
endless barrage of ice spear blizzard. The Sovereign of Frost didn’t let
up with its attacks, not even for a second.

[My soldiers!]

From the snow that had piled up to one’s knees, ice humanoids
created from the magical energy rose up one by one. And soon, they
numbered nearly several thousand!

[Attack.]

The ice humanoids heard the command of their Sovereign and

pounced simultaneously at the robe-wearing man. He desperately
resisted against these humanoids by slicing them and shoving them
away.

Unfortunately….

Stab!

He was struck on the shoulder by an ice spear and wobbled

unsteadily on his feet.

“…..”

Even in the midst of this, the ice humanoids were still rushing at him
relentlessly. The man forcefully strengthened his legs and gritted his
teeth.

310
The mysterious man tenaciously hung on, and the Sovereign of Frost
decided to once more enter the fray itself. It transformed into a
crystallised form of sheer coldness and, while emitting white smoke
from its entire body, it gallantly strode over to the man.

[Get out of the way!!]

Its loud roar prompted the ice humanoids to quickly scatter. The
Sovereign of Frost stood before the man and opened its maw real
wide.

Incredibly cold energy began gathering within its mouth next.

The air began freezing up. Ice even formed on the chin of the man
visible underneath the hood.

At this rate, things would get very dangerous. The robe-wearing man
understood this. However, if he tried to evade this attack, it’d hit Jin-
Woo still lying on the ground head-on.

The man displayed no hints of evading even when facing off against
the horrifying murderous intent oozing out from the Sovereign of
Frost.

The facial expression of the Ice Elf crumpled unsightly.

‘A measly human simply borrowing the powers of a higher being

through sheer luck dares to form such an insolent face at me!’

Finally, the horrifying aura of coldness was fired out from the mouth
of one very enraged Sovereign.

KUWAAAHH-!!

The man crossed his arms in an ‘X’ to defend against the blast of cold
air. Rather obviously, his arms had to bear the brunt of blocking the

311
entire attack and they became frozen in an instant, unable to move
again.

And then, truly vicious attacks continued on the man now unable to
offer any resistance.

Pow! Pow!! Pow!!! Pow!!!!

Every time the Sovereign of Frost smacked the man, his upper torso
visibly staggered. However, he never took a step back, not even
once. Blood trickled down his legs and formed a pool beneath his
feet, but he continued to endure.

[How dare a measly little human….?!]

The Sovereign of Frost tilted its shoulder and raised up its right arm
up very high. In an instant, cold air gathered around the arm and
transformed into a gigantic ice block.

‘Now, let’s see if you can withstand this!’

The Sovereign of Frost was planning to not only crush the man, but
the vessel of the Shadow Sovereign lying behind him, too. It roused
up its entire magical energy to slam down the block of ice.

Vuuu-woong!!

The man watched the shadow of the falling ice block grow ever
larger and raised both of his frozen arms above. Even if his arms
shattered, even if his body was crushed, he must protect Jin-Woo.

He dragged out every ounce of power granted to him by the Ruler

and his body glowed in the most brilliant golden radiance.

And finally…

BOOOOM-!!

312
…There was a collision.

Strangely enough, although there was a collision, he didn’t feel any

impact force from it at all.

‘What is….?’

The man opened his closed eyes and discovered someone else
standing before him.

‘….!!’

This figure was kitted out in jet-black armour. And then, there was
the blood-red mane extending from the top of its helm all the way
down to its back.

It was none other than the faithful servant of the Shadow Sovereign,
Igrit. He defended against the massive block of ice before roughly
shoving it away.

The Sovereign of Frost had to doubt its own eyes after that attack
was perfectly defended against.

[Igrit?!]

If the Marshal-grade Shadow Soldier made his appearance, then that

could only mean….!

The ancient ice Elf flinched nastily in surprise and hurriedly shifted its
gaze to the spot behind the robe-wearing man. Sure enough, the
unconscious man who should’ve been lying there could no longer be
found anymore.

Finally…

Finally, the Sovereign of Frost understood what the Sovereign of

Beastly Fangs had said before running away.

313
The atmosphere itself was trembling. Mana, the magical energy
densely packed in the air, was resonating with the entrance of a
transcendent existence.

Igrit turned around and politely knelt down and lowered his head.

Kiiieeehhk!!

Beru, having appeared alongside Igrit, screeched out loudly as if to

announce the return of his master, and quickly knelt down while
facing the same direction.

And between the two, Jin-Woo calmly walked out.

He took a sweeping look around the messily destroyed surroundings

and threw a question at the Sovereign of Frost.

“Did the beast run away?”

[……]

Only after facing off against the true Shadow Sovereign did the
ancient Ice Elf realise the reason why the King of Beasts made its
hasty, scared escape earlier.

Even though it was the Sovereign of all things existing within the
cold, it was still trembling pitifully before the lord of death standing
before it.

Jin-Woo continued on.

“….I didn’t permit it.”

The Sovereign of Frost couldn’t understand what he meant and

reflexively asked back.

[What was that??]

“I didn’t give my permission for it to run away.”

314
[What are you even on about…?]

Jin-Woo didn’t even give the ancient Ice Elf enough time to get
flustered and simply closed his eyes. He rapidly expanded his sensory
perception to his surroundings in search of the unique magic energy
signature belonging to the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs.

The range of his perception exceeded past the border of South Korea
in an instant and enveloped the whole planet.

He was deeply confident that, as long as the Sovereign of Beastly

Fangs didn’t escape to the gap between dimensions and remained
hidden somewhere on Earth, he’d located that b*stard no problem.

And his confidence was not proven to be baseless.

Jin-Woo smiled refreshingly and opened his eyes after discovering

the presence of the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs.

“Found you.”

315
Chapter 222

While Jin-Woo had his eyes closed to focus all of his attention on
searching for the escaped beast, the Sovereign of Frost had
intuitively sensed it. It was an opening left by the Shadow Sovereign.

Such an opportunity would not come around a second time. Even if

there was a huge gap in individual strength, how dare he take his
eyes off his enemy?

Avoiding death would be impossible if this chance was left

ungrasped.

It was facing unavoidable death right now. In order to struggle free

from the shadow of death taking large strides towards itself, the
Sovereign of Frost decided to bet everything on one final move.

‘I must end everything with this one hit.’

Its right arm slipped behind its back and Mana began gathering there
in a large lump. It then proceeded to create the most powerful spear
of ice it had ever created.

Every ounce of energy dragged up by the desperation it felt would be

contained within this attack!

A terrifying amount of magical energy was being forcibly

concentrated on the ice spear. The power gathered was so great that
the ground beneath the Sovereign wielding the spear froze up in
pure white while issuing cracking noises.

Just before one would be tempted to wonder whether the

Sovereign’s right arm grasping the spear had expanded far too much
or not…

316
The spear was fired out with the velocity of a bullet and tore straight
through the air.

Whoooosh-!!

At the same time, the ice humanoids received orders from their
master and pounced on Jin-Woo like a nest of enraged fire ants.

Whoooosh-!

Moments before the spear aiming at his forehead could penetrate

into his face…

….Jin-Woo opened his eyes.

“Found you.”

Simultaneously, the time flow of the surroundings came to a

standstill as if the ‘pause’ button had been pressed on the playback.
No, actually, the time had slowed down to such an extent that it
almost looked as if it had come to a standstill.

The ice spear’s shaft spinning at a scarcely-believable speed was

definitely getting closer, albeit only an inch at a time. And behind
that, he could see the Sovereign of Frost’s rather deeply distorted
face glaring in his direction.

Was that all, though?

He even could see the faces of every single ice humanoid

surrounding him from all sides pouncing on him.

This was the scope of the Shadow Sovereign’s vision once he got
ready for battle. His ability to perceive that had reached the realm
that no other human being could ever hope to touch upon, and
made it as if everything around him had come to a dead stop.

317
Jin-Woo was like an alien invading the world of a paused video and
relaxedly scanned his surroundings.

This feeling…

‘Haven’t I felt something similar to this before….?’

When could that have been?

He slowly combed through his memories and eventually recalled that

moment when he was about to die from the assaults of the stone
statues.

Indeed.

Back then, time had come to a standstill as if everything had been

paused, too.

‘Ah, so I had already possessed the power of the Shadow Sovereign

in me, even then.’

Only now that he got to unlock the full powers did he realise once
more just how long the Sovereign had been watching him. Jin-Woo
continued to check out his vicinity and soon, discovered the backs of
his two Marshal grade soldiers.

‘Ohhh….’

Even though the time had seemingly frozen, both Beru and Igrit were
moving in to intercept the enemies, albeit very slowly. This was as
good evidence as any that their agility had reached an incredible
height now.

Jin-Woo studied them in happiness before remembering that there

was a spear coming his way.

‘Oopsie.’

318
Like an insect studiously crawling forward, the spear was
continuously closing the distance bit by bit. To stop the weapon’s
advance, Jin-Woo used one of his powers.

‘Ruler’s Authority.’

This was one of the Shadow Sovereign’s powers, although he trained

on using it proficiently while thinking that it was merely a skill.

The moment he activated ‘Ruler’s Authority’, he got to see the Mana

dispersed throughout the surroundings suddenly rush in and wrap
about the ice spear.

Once caught in the magical energy, the weapon lost all forward
momentum and stopped in its treks.

He got to see for the first time how the skill ‘Ruler’s Authority’
worked and he couldn’t help but softly sigh in admiration.

‘Ah, so it was not an invisible hand or some such.’

No, it was more like ‘invisible Mana’. Simply put, Mana moved
according to the will of the skill’s activator. Jin-Woo’s eyes could
capture the movement of Mana so clearly now, when it was
impossible to do so in the past.

‘Nice.’

Now that his sensory perception had reached the peak, he could
definitely pick up on the flow of Mana surrounding his vicinity. As he
observed its flow, his eyes sparkled brightly.

This was the end result of the Rulers trying so hard to fortify this
world. A world once devoid of Mana was now overflowing with it.
And as the inheritor of the Shadow Sovereign’s powers, he was given
the right to freely wield this energy with nothing but his will.

319
Ba-thump, ba-thump.

His heart raced faster as he sensed the surrounding Mana breathe.

‘….Let’s do this.’

Jin-Woo broke past the slowly-moving time and approached his two
Marshals before resting his hands on their shoulders.

“There’s no need for you guys to step up here.”

Beru and Igrit heeded their master’s order and immediately stopped
moving. Jin-Woo stood before them.

He’d now maximise his control of Mana that he trained whenever he

had the time through ‘Ruler’s Authority’. He took a sweeping look at
the ice humanoids and deeply breathed in and out once.

The emotion still filling his chest was the gratitude towards the
Shadow Sovereign welling up from deep inside his heart. Also,
gratitude for teaching him how to control his powers through the
System’s guidance.

Jin-Woo was done focusing on himself and controlled the Mana in

the air at once. In that blink-of-an-eye moment, the space around
him tumbled.

Wooo-woung-!

It truly was for just a moment.

In an instant, a powerful wave of Mana, starting from Jin-Woo as its

centre, crashed out and swept away the huge masses of ice
humanoids trying to pounce on him.

The Sovereign of Frost also detected the violent storm of Mana

rushing at it.

320
[….!!]

It hurriedly spread out an ice barrier to protect itself.

Once the violent winds of Mana went past, the Sovereign quickly
undid the barrier and it was greeted by the sight of debris, belonging
to the ice humanoids, scattered everywhere. The powerful pulse of
Mana had destroyed them all. Even the blizzard storm clouds it had
summoned were gone, too.

This was the power of Shadow Sovereign.

[But… but how!!]

The Sovereign of Frost shivered from shock after witnessing the true
power of the Shadow Sovereign, formerly the greatest Fragment of
the Brilliant Light, as well as one of the most powerful Kings in
existence.

The wall.

The completely insurmountable wall.

Didn’t the gap between it and him seem far too great?!

Jin-Woo took a look around himself and nodded his head at the
rather satisfying result before locking his gaze with the frightened
eyes of the ancient Ice Elf.

Flinch!

He could sense that creature shivering even at a distance away.

He still had a score to settle with that thing. Jin-Woo recalled the
face of the late Association President Goh Gun-Hui and his
expression became colder in an instant. However, he wasn’t the type
to expose his emotions that easily.

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The enemy he wanted to kill the most would be disposed of at the
very end. He’d make sure that the opponent would get to enjoy
enough time to shiver in terror from the unavoidable death.

Jin-Woo raised his voice.

“You shall be the last.”

Suddenly, Jin-Woo’s figure slowly submerged into the shadow

beneath his feet.

“Until I go and catch that beast, you stay and quietly wait, okay?”

***

As soon as the TV’s broadcast got cut off, the Association President
Woo Jin-Cheol slammed his fist down on the desk.

Bang!

The final scene before the live footage got cut off was the one of
Hunter Seong Jin-Woo powerlessly crumbling to the ground after
getting struck by those two monsters.

Watching that scene play out, Woo Jin-Cheol felt as if his whole
world had come crashing down. If only this desk wasn’t an item that
Goh Gun-Hui had used, he’d completely smash it into pieces with
one punch.

Woo Jin-Cheol’s clenched fist trembled greatly.

All the other subordinate employees present within the President’s

office and watching the broadcast with him shut their mouths up as
well. Heavy silence permeated in the office now.

However….

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The Association President Woo Jin-Cheol knew better than anyone
that he shouldn’t be wasting time here like this. He quickly threw out
a question.

“How many Guilds are on site now??”

“All five major Guilds have arrived on site, sir.”

Woo Jin-Cheol stood up from his seat and urgently issued his new
order.

“Our Monitoring Division will go, as well. And I’ll accompany them,
too.”

“But, it’ll be far too dangerous, sir!”

“You think being dangerous or safe is important in our current

situation?!”

Woo Jin-Cheol shot a scary glare, immediately rendering those

employees trying to persuade him not to go utterly speechless.

The Republic of Korea had just lost its final line of defence, Seong Jin-
Woo. Meaning, there was no more room to retreat. Every Hunter
had to cooperate to kill those monsters, otherwise, there would be
no future left for anyone anymore.

Woo Jin-Cheol hurriedly put on his jacket before raising his head to
spot the real-time footage being transmitted from the CCTV camera,
currently shown live, right next to the giant TV screen.

This camera was pointing to the sky 24 hours a day. It continuously

streamed the sight of the super-massive Gate floating above the
skies of Seoul. Woo Jin-Cheol’s eyes staring at the screen trembled
for a moment then.

‘Perhaps….’

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Perhaps, the nation of Korea was already doomed.

His heart tumbled to the pit of his stomach. Even if they got lucky
and were able to kill those monsters, they would suffer grave
casualties. Could they be able to deal with that nonsensically
humongous Gate with the remaining Hunters, no, more accurately,
without the presence of Hunter Seong Jin-Woo?

Just from thinking about the monsters in the city centre and then the
super-massive Gate in a row, the despair he so desperately tried to
deny rushed in like a tidal wave.

However, Woo Jin-Cheol forcibly shook his head.

Even if tens, hundreds of thousands, no, the entire population of

Korea thought the same as he did, someone still had to step up and
fight. The powers Hunters possessed were precisely for that purpose.

Woo Jin-Cheol gritted his teeth to shake off all unnecessary thoughts
from his head. He was about to step outside his office when one of
the employees hurriedly called out to him.

“Sir!!”

Woo Jin-Cheol looked behind him. Not at the employee calling out to
him, no, but at the large TV screen with the news anchor urgently
speaking to the viewers.

[Everyone, one of our cameras have finally reached the site!]

Maybe the camera was positioned on a rooftop of a high-rise

building, because the scene now on screen was being filmed from a
great distance away. But, that alone was enough.

The blizzard covering up the city was being dispersed by some kind of
an unseen force.

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Feeling rather agitated now, the Association President Woo Jin-Cheol
brushed past all the employees that had stood up from their seats
and rushed to the front of the giant screen.

Once the icy fog was blown away, it became possible to see clearly
the figures standing on the street.

There were five people. No, make that four people, plus one
creature.

Among them, the man standing before a certain ant soldier was
someone Woo Jin-Cheol was quite familiar with.

“It’s Hunter Seong Jin-Woo!!”

Woo Jin-Cheol shouted out unbeknownst to even himself. Other

employees saw the shattered remains of the ice humanoids strewn
about around Jin-Woo and roared out in elation.

Waaaah-ah!!

Not only was Jin-Woo, who looked to be dead for sure, standing
upright completely fine, he even seemed to have pushed his enemy
into a corner as well, so how could they hold back their cries now?

Indeed, tears even threatened to break out of Woo Jin-Cheol’s eyes.

There was only one enemy now; the sole creature of ice seemed to
be terrified out of its skull, because it was completely rooted to its
spot, unable to even move an inch.

No one could tell just what transpired within that blizzard, but the
situation had done a complete 180 now.

He didn’t need to hear it, but Woo Jin-Cheol knew that the attention
of the entire world was focused on this very same footage being
broadcast.

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Just with what method would Hunter Seong demolish that monster
now? The Association President Woo Jin-Cheol’s face was quickly
filled up with anticipation as he watched Jin-Woo.

But then….

Jin-Woo seemed to be saying something to the monster, before he

began submerging below his feet and disappearing from the site.

‘….???’

The expressions on the employees hugging each other to celebrate

gradually hardened.

Eventually…

….Jin-Woo completely vanished from the battlefield.

The cameraman must be panicking as well, as the camera kept

moving this way and that in order to locate Jin-Woo. Unfortunately,
not even his hair could be seen now.

“Huh…..”

Woo Jin-Cheol couldn’t hide his fluster and rubbed his mouth. Yet
another bout of heavy silence descended on the office of the
Association President.

***

After returning to the hideout located in a jungle somewhere, the

Sovereign of Beastly Fangs’ teeth began clattering.

That aura of death gradually tightening around its neck. What a

regretful thing it was, wasting time arguing with the Sovereign of
Frost and delaying its escape from that place.

326
Back when it was out hunting Brazil’s greatest Hunter, Earth was
nothing more than a hunting ground filled with weak prey. The beast
had been drunk on the feelings of freedom after leaving behind the
dreary, boring gap between dimensions where there was practically
nothing fun to do.

But now…

Who’d have thought that the Shadow Sovereign had descended to

this world with a malicious plan up his sleeve? Unless they were
talking about the human masquerading as the King of the Dead, fine,
but the beast definitely didn’t want to fight against the real Shadow
Sovereign.

If one wanted to stop that guy, then one needed power far
exceeding him. One needed the Sovereign of Destruction.

‘Now that things have turned out this way, I have no choice but to
hide here and quietly wait until the Dragon Emperor shows up….’

The beast lied down on the bed made out of leaves and branches.

When it did, several wild beasts of the Chaos World, referred to as

monsters by humans, gathered around and laid down around the
Sovereign’s feet.

These wild beasts possessing powerful magical energy were none

other than the Sovereign’s royal guard. They purred and rubbed their
faces when their King began stroking them.

But then, the Sovereign sensed something was off and stopped
stroking the heads of its pets in his comfy reclined position.

‘Mm….??’

The furs on the pets had all stood upright.

327
The sixth sense possessed by all animals; the inexplicable sensation
travelling down the back of its neck caused all sorts of goosebumps
to break out on the Sovereign’s body.

It wordlessly shifted its gaze over to the same spot where the
nervous beasts were glaring at, before its own eyes narrowed down
to a slit. The shade of a tree several steps away was wavering
noticeably, that was why.

The voice thickly laden with despair leaked out from the mouth of
the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs after picking up the scent of death
quickly permeating into its hideout.

“Could it be….?”

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Chapter 223

The beast’s eyes opened wider. ‘Something’ was slowly rising up

from that wavering shade of a tree.

‘Is that the human…?’

Or, was it the real Shadow Sovereign?

It couldn’t quite figure out the true identity of its opponent yet.
However, the presence of the enemy all five senses of the beast had
picked up were identical to that of the man who drove it to the edge
of the cliff all those years ago.

Didn’t matter what his identity was, this man now possessed the
perfect, complete power of the Shadow Sovereign.

‘He chased after me all the way to here?!’

The terror of death seemingly had invaded deep into the beast’s
bone marrows, and as a result, the creature trembled greatly in pure
fear.

And when Jin-Woo’s entire frame completely emerged back into the
world…

Growl….

One of the savage beasts bared its fangs to threaten Jin-Woo in

order to protect its master before quickly dashing forward. This
monster, although outwardly feline in appearance, possessed three
red eyes. It was also known to be one of the most vicious creatures
even in the Chaos World.

Roar!!

329
The monster opened its jaw wide to reveal dozens of knife-like fangs
that coldly reflected the light.

Jin-Woo disinterestedly stared at the predator dashing towards him.

It seemed to possess as much magic energy as a boss from a rank S
dungeon. If it was in the past, even he’d have to pay attention, but
now, it didn’t pose any threat whatsoever.

But before that…

Boom!

Even before he could decide on what to do next, the savage beast

suddenly lost its head and its four limbs sagged down to the ground.

The culprit was none other than the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs. It
leapt in an instant and destroyed the savage beast’s head. Then, it
quickly extracted its fist stuck deeply to the ground.

‘Why did he kill his own soldier…?’

When Jin-Woo stared at it with puzzled eyes, the Sovereign of

Beastly Fangs got low to the floor and bowed its head. And then,
words spoken with a trembling voice leaked out from its mouth now
facing the ground.

[Oh, Shadow Sovereign, this King of Beasts does not wish to enter
into a conflict with you. I pray that you forgive this one’s
transgressions and accept me as your ally.]

This was the instinct of an animal in full display. When facing against
an opponent that couldn’t be beaten and also, escaping from it was
impossible, then one should bow one’s head.

The beast’s instincts were quite strongly recommending this course

of action. Since the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs possessed the

330
characteristics of a wild animal, it readily discarded its dignity and
pride to stay loyal to the demands made by its instincts.

[Not too long from now, the Dragon Emperor will lead his army to
descend on this land. During that time, my beast army and I shall aid
you in your quest.]

The beast had assumed the most subservient posture it could.

Whimper… Whimper…..

The savage beasts behind the Sovereign were all frozen stiff in their
terror and had sprung a leak, wetting the ground with their p*ss.

To these wild, untamed creatures that lived for their own continued
survival, the aura of death walking ever closer was the most
terrifying thing imaginable.

Jin-Woo briefly observed the King of the Beasts and its lowered tail
before coming up with a reply.

“Fine.”

The Sovereign of Beastly Fangs was feeling really nervous, but upon
hearing that easy answer, it began smiling inwardly. And that smile
soon crept up on its face directed to the floor, as well.

What a foolish man!

‘That b*stard is not the real thing.’

The real Shadow Sovereign would never forgive the one who had
betrayed him once before, and not to forget, someone who tried to
eliminate the vessel prepared for his descent to this world.

Thanks to this human’s kindness and stupidity, the beast was able to
buy some time.

331
How could it obey this man’s words when this human, no, this prey
was busy emitting a delectable scent mixed in among that of the real
Shadow Sovereign’s?

Indeed, all it had to do was to pretend as if it was on the Shadow

Sovereign’s side and wait until the Sovereign of Destruction’s arrival.

‘When the time comes, I shall personally rip your corpse apart and
gnaw on your bones.’

So, how could the beast not break out in smiles right now? With a
bright face, the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs raised its head again.

[I swear my loyalty to…..]

As it did, it ran straight into the chilling glare, as cold as ice, and leapt
back greatly from sheer fright. As a matter of fact, the level of fright
it felt was so great that it had leapt back dozens of metres in one go.

Jin-Woo coldly addressed the beast and its pale complexion.

“Before we do that, though, we should settle our debt first.”

The beast squeezed out some words with a hardened expression.

[Debt? Could you be talking about the past….??]

In the past, the Sovereigns of White Flames and Beastly Fangs tried
to stab the Shadow Sovereign in the back. Jin-Woo had seen that
treachery through the recollection of the former Shadow Sovereign.
However, that had no relevance to what Jin-Woo was about to do
right now.

From the subspace that the System designated as ‘Inventory’, he

extracted one Kamish’s Wrath.

Shururuk….

332
While grasping the blade tightly with one hand, Jin-Woo pointed to
five spots in his chest with his thumb on the free hand.

“Five wounds where claws have pierced past.”

The horrifying pain from that moment was still vivid in Jin-Woo’s
mind.

“Withstand five attacks from me, and I shall forgive you.”

That was the same thing as telling the beast to survive five fatal
attacks.

It was at this point that the beast finally realised that Jin-Woo never
planned to let it go from the beginning. The Sovereign of Beastly
Fangs roared out in a final show of its pride.

[You dare…!! How dare you toy with me, the King of Beasts!!]

The Sovereign of Beastly Fangs activated Spiritual Body

Manifestation and rapidly transformed into a gigantic wolf. Although,
it was incomparably smaller than the one from the Shadow
Sovereign’s memories, perhaps owing to the fact that this wasn’t the
creature’s original world. Still, the King of Beasts wielded enough
power to destroy this world and then some.

Now thoroughly enraged, the giant wolf loudly howled at the

Shadow Sovereign.

[My life will end here today, but you too will not live for long!]

Whoosh-!

It was right then, a strand of chilling wind brushed past the face of
the huge wolf. Searching for the presence of Jin-Woo that had simply
vanished from its view, the creature quickly took a look behind.

333
And that’s where he was, having moved there before the wolf had
noticed it. He slowly turned around to face the monster.

“The first hit.”

The wolf then saw it.

It saw the horrifying black aura rising up from Jin-Woo’s entire body.
This guy, he wasn’t the fake. His movements completely matched
that of the Shadow Sovereign.

Gulp.

Unbeknownst to itself, the wolf swallowed back its dry saliva.

But, then….

With an audible ‘plop’, something fell to the ground.

For a moment there, the wolf forgot what kind of a monster was
standing before its eyes and lowered its gaze. What fell to the
ground was a huge ear.

The wolf’s ear, cut off from its head, now lay on the ground next to
its own feet like a hideous item of gore. And then, blood exploded
out like a fountain. What visited after all of that was intolerably cruel
pain.

The wolf gritted its teeth and raised its head back up and discovered
that Jin-Woo was holding yet another shortsword.

One weapon in each of his hands.

Jin-Woo held the pair of ‘Kamish’s Wraths’ oozing out black aura and
delivered his final judgement on the giant wolf.

“Four more left.”

***

334
Literally, enemies on all sides.

After Jin-Woo disappeared from the scene, the Sovereign of Frost

was left stuck in a rock and a hard place. It’d be logical to escape if
there was no chance of victory. But then, the gaze of the ancient Ice
Elf landed on the two Marshal-grade soldiers belonging to the
Shadow Sovereign.

‘Forgetting about the ant b*stard busy treating that human puppet
of the Rulers, this….’

The remaining one was a huge problem.

It was none other than Igrit, also referred to as one of the two wings
of the Shadow Army, who was keeping a close eye on the Sovereign
right now.

This black knight’s nickname was the ‘Knight of Death’. He was the
greatest knight there ever was, accompanying the Shadow Sovereign
to participate in many battlefields and killing countless enemies in
the process.

One of the opponents that needed to be kept an eye out for was
standing right in front of the Ice Elf.

‘But then again….’

The ancient creature was not some measly little soldier, but a
Sovereign. If it fought with everything it had, then bringing down two
Marshal-grade soldiers wouldn’t be difficult at all.

No, the real problem was with these two possessing immortality-like
abilities. They would continue to regenerate infinitely until the
Shadow Sovereign ran out of his power.

335
This was really bad news, considering that the Sovereign of Frost had
to waste a lot of its stamina by activating its Spiritual Body
Manifestation.

On top of that, if it decided to attack these two soldiers, then their

master would be alerted to its actions. All Shadow Soldiers were
connected to the Shadow Sovereign. Even if one succeeded in
defeating the Marshal-grade soldiers, that would only serve to
summon their master over here.

That had to be prevented at all cost.

‘That’s why….’

The Sovereign of Frost spun around in order to quickly generate a

Gate to facilitate its escape.

Swish-!

But then, Igrit appeared out of nowhere to block the escape attempt.
He slowly shook his head and lightly tapped the hilt of the sword
sheathed on his waist.

‘Don’t do anything foolish.’

Even without saying anything, his words came across loud and clear.

Swish-!

The Sovereign of Frost quickly swivelled its head around and

discovered the ant standing on the other side, his maw wide open to
screech out loudly.

“Kiiiieeeehhk-!!”

The meaning of this particular ant standing here, when he should

have been healing the arms of that human….

336
….The gaze of the Sovereign of Frost shifted over to its front and
caught the sight of the saboteur, now completely healed, walking in
closer.

[These b*stards….!]

The Ice Elf shuddered in rage as the enemies surrounded it once

more.

[Mere b*stards like you dare to….!!]

The angry voice of the furious King rocked the ground. The world
began freezing again, and the storm clouds gathered up in the sky.

[How long do you think you lot will last against me?!]

Igrit unsheathed his sword, Beru’s claws extended in full, while the
robe-wearing man held his shortswords tightly.

However, the event of these four colliding didn’t happen.

The first one to sense the change was, once more, the Sovereign of
Frost.

[….!!]

When its gaze hurriedly shifted over to a certain direction, others

followed suit as if they had a prior agreement. The shadow there was
rippling noticeably.

The Sovereign of Frost needed just a little bit more time, that was all.
It bit its lower lip in vexation.

[Shadow Sovereign!!!]

In a spot of ground a bit of distance away, Jin-Woo emerged from

the shadow.

337
‘This is so convenient, not being restricted by the cooldown now that
the System is gone.’

All restrictions on his abilities had been unshackled. That allowed

him to return to this spot in an instant. Jin-Woo shifted his gaze over
to the Sovereign of Frost over yonder.

He then lightly threw something in his hand in the direction of the

Ice Elf. The Sovereign caught that object drawing an arc in the air,
before its eyes trembled greatly from shock.

[Isn’t this….?!]

It was an ear belonging to a giant wolf.

The Sovereign only knew of one wolf large enough have an ear this
big.

[It’s only been a few minutes since you left, yet you already killed the
Sovereign of Beastly Fangs?!]

The Sovereign of Frost cried out in sheer panic, but Jin-Woo didn’t
even bother to make his reply. He simply summoned his two
shortswords like how he had done with the beast earlier, instead.

On the blades crafted out of the Dragon’s teeth was the still-fresh
blood from the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs.

The ancient Ice Elf flinched greatly as the hostile intention from a
truly powerful individual locked down on it. The two Marshal-grade
soldiers and the robe-wearing man confirmed the black aura rising
up from Jin-Woo’s shoulders and quickly retreated to the rear.

Jin-Woo gripped the hilts of the two weapons tightly. He had already
given this creature enough time. And now, he was going to collect
the debt.

338
The Sovereign of Plague, the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs, and now,
the Sovereign of Frost. The deaths of these three would serve as Jin-
Woo’s warning to other Sovereigns.

The Ice Elf watched as Jin-Woo dashed forward as if he was gliding

on a smooth surface and urgently fired out multiple arrows of ice in a
last-ditch attempt.

[You b*stard!!]

Of course, these arrows of magic were still fatal if struck, even

though they were created in a hurry. Countless arrows, each one too
powerful even for a rank S Hunter to survive, shot towards Jin-Woo
in droves.

Dudududududududu!!!!

The Sovereign of Frost did everything in its power to prevent Jin-

Woo from getting any closer.

[Uwaaaah-!!]

Too bad, Jin-Woo’s hands were quicker than those arrows raining
down. He swatted away all the ice arrows aiming at him and yet, his
dashing speed hadn’t decreased at all.

[Uwaaaaaaaah-!!!!]

Dududududududududu!!!!

Ice arrows were generated and fired out from the front of the
personification of the frost, their numbers too innumerable to count,
yet…

….Yet, Jin-Woo was able to break through their barrage and stand
before his target.

Stab!

339
Jin-Woo accurately drove the Kamish’s Wrath into the shoulder of
the Sovereign of Frost – on the exact same spot where the dagger
had struck in the past. He did that to remind the creature about the
late Association President Goh Gun-Hui.

[Kuwaaahhk-!!]

Suffering from the pain on an incomparable scale than the last time,
the Sovereign of Frost’s head rose up high as it screamed at the top
of its lungs.

Before the second shortsword could strike it, though, the Ice Elf
hurriedly gathered the cold air in its mouth and fired it out. Jin-Woo
reached up and simply covered its mouth.

Kuwaaaahh!!

Just as the cold blast of air unable to break free of his hand went on
a rampage inside the Elf, Jin-Woo reverse gripped his other
shortsword and stabbed it deep into his opponent’s chest.

CRACK!!

He heard the sounds of its ribs breaking and its heart being
penetrated cleanly. It was the exact same attack that he suffered not
too long ago.

[Kuwaaaahahhhk-!!]

However, Jin-Woo knew that such an attack wouldn’t be able to kill

the Sovereign of Frost, since he had prior experience of killing two
other Sovereigns.

“The beast died on the fourth attack.”

The chilling light shone coldly in Jin-Woo’s eyes.

“How long will you be able to endure?”

340
Terror filled up the eyes of the Sovereign of Frost as it looked down
at Jin-Woo.

This man was the Sovereign of Death.

Weren’t those eyes the exact same as the merciless warrior that slew
all the enemies he came across in an endless battlefield?

Only now did the Ice Elf realise just who it offended, and began
shuddering from the crippling fear.

Shortly afterwards, the shortsword stabbing into the creature’s heart

sliced down lower and tore the Sovereign’s body into a rag.

[Kuwaahk!!!]

341
Chapter 224

Was there any other time in history that the whole world cheered on
with one voice?

Jin-Woo vanished and then reappeared again shortly afterwards only

to stab his shortsword into the chest of that Sovereign of Frost. It
was precisely at that moment that everyone watching punched the
air with both of their fists and roared out in elation, as if they all had
been waiting for this chance.

Waaaaaaah-!!

They all despaired in the false knowledge that humanity’s greatest

Hunter had died at the hands of monsters, so that spectacle proved
to be the best gift imaginable to them.

Some passionately chanted Jin-Woo’s name out loudly.

Some began shedding tears.

Some tried to console those shedding tears.

And they watched together as a lone Hunter from Asia took care of
the monster that threatened all of mankind.

Indeed, all of mankind.

The moment the Special Authority-rank Hunter Thomas Andre fell,

and one of the top-ranked Hunters in the world, Lennart Niermann,
tried to step up in his stead, these monsters had become far greater
than the calamity of South Korea.

No, the situation had transformed into a grave crisis that directly
impacted everyone else’s lives.

342
After all these years, people still hadn’t forgotten about the terror of
watching the Dragon ‘Kamish’ swallowing up American cities, one
after another.

No one alive wanted a repeat of that horrifying event. And that’s

why every viewer, from all corners of the globe, went so wild at Jin-
Woo’s victory.

It was as if they were trying to wash away the frustration and fear
they felt while watching the best Hunters in the world continue to
fall.

Waaaaaaah-!!!

Every time Jin-Woo attacked the Sovereign of Frost, the viewers

roared out again and again.

And finally.

When that monster with seriously tenacious vitality finally toppled

over and turned into grey-coloured ash before scattering away, the
roaring cheers of the viewers reached their absolute peak.

Waaaaaaaahhhh-!!!!

Their combined roars rocked their respective cities.

Anchors tasked with relaying the breaking news were also shouting
out at the top of their lungs, no longer caring whether the cameras
were filming or not.

– Breaking news, just in!! We have learnt that Hunter Thomas Andre,
previously thought to be fatally wounded, is still alive and he’s…..

– Ambulances have arrived on location just in time to take the

victims to the nearest hospitals!!

343
– Those monsters that massacred the citizens are no longer moving!
They all turned into ash and nothing remains of them now!

Breaking news pieces announcing the end of the battle continued to

stream out of their TVs, but….

Seong Jin-Woo! Seong Jin-Woo! Seong Jin-Woo!!!

….But, the excitement and elation of the people showed no signs of

dying down at all.

And then, there was this one man. There was this one particular man
who was perhaps far more elated than anyone else on this planet.
And that was none other than the current Association President,
Woo Jin-Cheol.

His gaze was firmly fixed to the TV screen, even though he was
surrounded by his fellow employees of the Association busily bear-
hugging each other and cheering out in pure happiness.

He had discovered something from the live feed and his eyes
trembled greatly.

‘Could it have been….?’

He hurriedly yanked his smartphone out and, with trembling hands,

he searched for and played a certain video clip saved on his device.

He had watched this footage so, so many times. It was the footage of
the late Association President Goh Gun-Hui being murdered, taken
by the CCTV cameras inside the President’s office.

There was an unknown man captured in the footage.

That man appeared and disappeared too quickly within this grainy
footage, so Woo Jin-Cheol couldn’t be sure, but now that he took a

344
second look, didn’t this mysterious creature look almost like the
monster that Hunter Seong Jin-Woo had killed just now?

Even the scenes of the frozen floor rapidly melting away were an
exact match.

‘In that case….!!’

Only then did he realise just what kind of enemies Jin-Woo had been
fighting until now. It was the murderer of the late Association
President.

And then, Woo Jin-Cheol recalled the conversation he shared with

Jin-Woo back when the latter came to pay his respects to the late
Goh Gun-Hui. A powerful jolt travelled down his entire body.

[“Thank you. Thank you for being there for the final moments of the
Association President.”]

[“….I’ll kill that b*stard.”]

[“Excuse me?”]

[“The monster that murdered the Association President. I’ll definitely

hunt it down. You can save your thanks until then.”]

Hunter Seong Jin-Woo hadn’t forgotten about that day’s promise.

And now, the monster responsible was dead. By his hands.

Woo Jin-Cheol’s nose became reddened and he raised his eyes, now
wet with thick tears, to look at the TV screen. The camera was
zooming into Hunter Seong Jin-Woo’s face, looking somewhat tired
now.

Woo Jin-Cheol could more or less understand what that expression

signified. From somewhere deep within, a powerful emotion welled

345
up uncontrollably. From here onwards, the late Association President
should be able to rest in peace.

Woo Jin-Cheol recalled the memories of Goh Gun-Hui, a man he

greatly respected, and inwardly muttered his gratitude towards Jin-
Woo.

‘…..Thank you very much, Hunter-nim.’

***

The Sovereign of Frost reverted back to humanoid figure after its

Spiritual Body Manifestation had been undone. It slowly turned into
the grey-coloured ash.

The debt of the late Association President Goh Gun-Hui, as well his
own, both of them had been settled in full now. Jin-Woo coldly
looked at the Sovereign of Frost scattering away before turning
around.

The two Marshal-grade soldiers waiting in the distance until the end
of that foolish Sovereign’s punishment approached Jin-Woo.

“…..”

Even though he had now completely regained his original power,

Igrit still maintained his reserved personality and he politely paid his
courtesy to his master. However, quite unlike him….

“Ohhh, my kiiiinggg!!”

….Beru expressed his unreserved joy of being able to see his master
again with his entire being.

Jin-Woo lightly tapped the big ant soldier and his two tearful eyes on
the shoulder before taking a sweeping a look around his vicinity.

346
There should have been one more person here. That man wearing
the tattered robe was nowhere to be seen, though.

“Just who was that man, anyway?”

Beru was far too moved by his own emotions to reply properly, so
Igrit answered Jin-Woo’s puzzled inquiry.

“While you lost your consciousness, he protected you with all of his
being, my liege.”

Jin-Woo was taken by great surprise after hearing Igrit’s thick, manly
voice for the first time, ever. But that lasted for only a short while.
He formed a puzzled expression again.

“He protected me?”

“Yes, that is correct.”

Unlike Beru, Igrit was probably not that familiar with human
languages, so they were currently conversing in what was referred to
as ‘monster language’, which was actually the common tongue of the
Chaos World.

However, there was no problem understanding each other at all.

In any case – did that mean a man he had never seen before was
protecting him?

Jin-Woo had been having a Q&A session with Igrit in the common
tongue of the Chaos World, as if he was a native there, before
abruptly discovering something and walking over to it.

It was a certain item that had fallen to the ground.

‘Isn’t this….?!’

As he picked this item up, his eyes trembled rather imperceptibly.

347
***

The robe-wearing man sought shelter behind the exterior wall of a

half-destroyed building and plopped down to the ground while
pulling his hood back.

His hair and beard covering his face were unkempt and messy as if
he had never bothered to trim them at all.

He was Seong Il-Hwan. And he was leaning against the wall while
spitting out heavy, laboured breathing.

“Hah-ah, hah-ah.”

He then raised his left hand that had lost all feeling now.

Sure enough, his hand changed its colour to grey and was slowly
disintegrating into dust from the tip of his fingers. This was the
inevitable result of accepting the powers of a god with the body of a
mere human.

However, even though he was experiencing unimaginable pain, he

still formed a satisfied expression.

“It’s done….”

With this power, he managed to protect Jin-Woo. Now that his son
had completely inherited the powers of the Shadow Sovereign, Jin-
Woo would prove to be a great asset to humanity.

That’s why it was done now.

Seol Il-Hwan stopped looking at his gradually-disappearing hand and

powerlessly leaned his head against the wall to close his eyes.

The Rulers had entrusted their powers to him and asked him to stop
the Shadow Sovereign. He had been helplessly trapped within the

348
gap between dimensions after the Gate closed up and thus was left
with not much of a choice.

As a proxy of the Rulers, and as their emissary, he returned to Earth

with an important mission to accomplish.

Unfortunately, Seong Il-Hwan couldn’t carry his mission out.

Even though he knew that the worst calamity in human history was
hiding within that boy’s flesh, how could a parent kill his own child?

All he could do was to observe Jin-Woo from a place just out of his
detection.

And as he continued to delay his mission, the opinions of the Rulers

that had been focused on stopping the advent of the Shadow
Sovereign gradually began changing.

And eventually….

‘The Brightest Fragment of Brilliant Light’ sent him a brand new

mission.

[Protect the Shadow Sovereign.]

The Rulers had finally realised that they needed the Shadow
Sovereign possessing his full powers if they were to stop other
Sovereigns and their nefarious scheme.

There was no one else besides the Shadow Sovereign on Earth that
could defend against the Dragon Emperor and its Army of
Destruction before the soldiers of heaven could arrive later.

It was a huge gamble, considering that no one knew whether the

Shadow Sovereign would side with mankind, or with the other
Sovereigns.

And the result came out pretty quickly.

349
Jin-Woo remained on the side of humanity, and the Shadow
Sovereign approved that choice.

The newly-reborn Shadow Sovereign was, simply put, Jin-Woo

himself.

It was worth risking Seong Il-Hwan’s life in order to protect his son, in
other words.

“…..”

Although it was unfortunate that he couldn’t even say a simple hello

to his son he hadn’t seen in ten years, no one alive was qualified to
take a child’s parent away twice. Even if that person just so
happened to be said parent.

So, quietly disappearing like this was in Jin-Woo’s best interest.

Seong Il-Hwan looked down at his body slowly disintegrating into ash
and consoled himself as such.

It was then. He heard the familiar footsteps from nearby.

Seol Il-Hwan hurriedly got up and used his still-mobile right hand to
pull the hood back and hid his face.

A certain someone stood before him, then.

He didn’t even have to take a look to know just who it was standing
before him like this. It was Jin-Woo.

Even though here was the son whose name he so wanted to call out
to, he still resolutely brushed past Jin-Woo’s side while hiding his
face with the hood.

However, Jin-Woo turned towards the departing man and asked.

“Did you honestly think I wouldn’t have noticed it if you went away
like this?”

350
Halt.

Seong Il-Hwan’s steps came to a halt.

But, how….?

He turned around towards his son, only to spot a certain item

thrown by Jin-Woo slowly flying at in an arc towards him.

Grab.

What Jin-Woo returned was a shortsword. It was Seong Il-Hwan’s

own shortsword that he ended up dropping after his left hand
became useless.

He stared at the weapon for a moment or two, before raising his

head. Jin-Woo was staring back at him with reproachful eyes.

Jin-Woo could still remember quite clearly that particular

shortsword.

When he was a young boy, he got found out while playing around
with his father’s shortsword and received a scolding worth
remembering.

Only now did Jin-Woo consciously realise why his own weapons had
been set as shortswords when the previous Shadow Sovereign swept
through the battlefields with a longsword, instead.

It was all because of the memories he had of his father.

Influenced in part by his memories, the dungeons generated by the

System ended up presenting Jin-Woo with daggers and shortswords
as his main weapons all this time.

His hushed voice continued on.

“Are you going to leave again without saying anything, Dad?”

351
‘Dad’.

That one word dug deeply into Seong Il-Hwan’s heart and he had to
remove his hood.

His right hand was slowly turning into ash as well.

His son flinched greatly after realising the state of his hands, but
Seong Il-Hwan formed a thin smile as his reply and spoke.

“I didn’t want to show you this sight.”

Jin-Woo understood that a body turning into ash after exhausting all
lifeforce couldn’t be saved no matter what. He hurriedly tried to get
closer, but Seong Il-Hwan raised his right hand to stop his son.

His left arm had scattered away in dust and only his shoulder
remained by then.

Jin-Woo hesitated, before remaining in his spot, and asked his father.

“Then, what about you, Dad?”

“…..?”

“Didn’t you want to see me again? Dad?”

Surely, he could still use his right hand for the time being, so how
come…

Jin-Woo’s question caused Seong Il-Hwan’s raised arm to slowly go

back down.

“I wanted to see you. Always.”

….To the extent that, even if you couldn’t see me, I still felt happy
from the fact that I could see you from far away.

352
Jin-Woo finally came closer to his father until he stood right before
his face. Seong Il-Hwan reached up with his remaining hand to gently
touch his son’s face.

Thick tears falling from the boy’s eyes wetted the back of his hand.

‘This foolish father wasn’t able to do anything for you, yet despite
that, you have….’

“….Grown up so well.”

Jin-Woo opened his mouth.

“Is this the Rulers’ doing? Are they throwing you away after using
you?”

A scary amount of rage could be felt in Jin-Woo’s voice now.

Seong Il-Hwan shook his head, though.

“They only gave me an opportunity to make a choice. I chose to

protect you, that is all. And that choice was not wrong.”

And now, even his remaining right hand was turning into ash and
scattering away.

“I wouldn’t have minded talking to you for a little bit longer, but….”

And he wanted to stay here for a little bit longer, too….

He had done something reprehensible.

He ended up making a boy say goodbye to his father not once, but
twice now. He tried so hard to hold back, but in the end, tears began
flooding out from Seong Il-Hwan’s eyes.

“I’m sorry for not being a good father to you.”

Those were his last words.

353
Shururuk….

Seong Il-Hwan’s body, all his lifeforce exhausted from fighting

against the Sovereigns, turned to ash. Jin-Woo hurriedly tried to
embrace his father’s body slowly crumbling away, but….

What remained in his palms wasn’t a person, but grey-coloured

powder.

Eventually.

In the spot where Seong Il-Hwan once stood, nothing remained.

Something from deep inside angrily welled up in an uncontrollable

burst. Jin-Woo couldn’t hold it back anymore and in the end, raised
his head towards the sky and roared out loudly.

“Uwaaaaaah-!!!”

When he did, the Mana in the atmosphere reverberated.

The sky, the air, the ground – they all cried.

And soon, Jin-Woo’s mouth began emitting the heavy, grave voice
similar to other Sovereigns.

[Hear me, remaining Sovereigns!!!]

If all these events were set in motion simply because the Sovereigns
decided to settle on Earth, then….

Then, I shall make them pay an unforgettable price for that.

I shall definitely make it so.

His voice infused with Mana was carried in the airflow and spread
out to the rest of the world.

[You shall all pay for today’s events, without exception!]

354
The roar of the enraged Shadow Sovereign shook around both the
heaven and earth.

[Are you listening, Sovereigns?!]

On this day, one human who inherited an unparalleled power

decided where his abilities should be used on his own accord.

This was the moment that the true opening curtains of the war had
gone up.

355
Chapter 225

Should this be called good fortune?

Jin-Woo’s voice could be heard all around the world, but he wasn’t
speaking in the language of humans. The majority of people thought
it was some kind of thunder rumbling in the sky. Theories on why
everyone heard the exact same noise were quite varied, though.

However, such a matter didn’t pose a single problem, since the world
was still celebrating – and felt relieved by – Jin-Woo’s victory.

It was the same story in the actual battle location.

Hunters had been nervously on standby in a location just a bit away

from where the battle took place. When they heard that the monster
had been taken care of, they couldn’t hold back and roared out in
elation.

The two men in charge of the two best local Guilds, Choi Jong-In and
Baek Yun-Ho, also spat out sighs of relief and looked at each other
with wide grins.

“Hey, Chairman Baek. I thought your complexion wasn’t so good a

few minutes ago. I wonder if you have settled down now?”

“Representative Choi, I think you need to wipe your cold sweat first
before worrying about someone else.”

“I have a spare ‘cheongsimhwan’ on me, so if your heart is still

fluttering badly, you can always ask me for one.” (TL note at the end)

“Aigoo~. You sweated so much. Why don’t you use this handkerchief
to wipe your face first?”

356
The Masters of two Guilds that competed for the top spot in the local
ranking started a rather pointy war of nerves. However, they could
joke around in this manner only because the situation had been
resolved now. Actually, these two couldn’t even swallow their saliva
out of sheer nervousness until only a few minutes ago.

But, that was understandable.

Weren’t they being thrust into a battle against monsters powerful

enough to treat Special Authority-rank Hunter, Thomas Andre, like a
toy?

Not only their lives, but even those of every single Guild member
were at risk. And the two Guild Masters, as well as every Hunter,
summoned here under the emergency call-up were all thinking of
the exact same thing.

That would be: if Hunter Seong Jin-Woo lost here, then it’d be no
different than them all dying today.

Now freed from the intense pressure, these two men could express
their happiness under the banner of waging a war of nerves.

The smiling Baek Yun-Ho sharing banter with Choi Jong-In looked
beyond the latter’s shoulder and his gaze stopped moving then.

“Uh…..”

Choi Jong-In also followed after that line of sight and looked behind
him. There was a lone man walking out from the centre of the ruined
city.

Jin-Woo, having concluded his battle with the Sovereigns, quietly

walked towards where everyone was.

357
Other Hunters discovered him one by one. His entrance immediately
brought a bout of silence upon this place, once populated by loud
cheers and happy yells.

The only noise coming from the surroundings were the wails of
sirens, from the ambulances hurriedly arriving on the scene.

‘It’s Hunter Seong Jin-Woo.’

‘That man, he….’

The mood in this place had become oppressed by the sharp aura
oozing out of Jin-Woo’s eyes, even though it was clear that the battle
had ended in his favour. Not one person dared to open their mouths
after seeing him like that.

The battle he fought had to have been incredibly intense because

there was a hint of shimmering heat rising up from his shoulders
even now.

But, why did the following events unfold as they did?

When Baek Yun-Ho met Jin-Woo’s gaze, the former sent his greeting
with a bow. That was the beginning; as if they were saluting a soldier
coming home after a very dangerous mission, Hunters all bowed
their heads in Jin-Woo’s direction one by one.

Pure respect.

How could they not feel a sense of respect for a fellow Hunter
capable of fighting on that level?

They all expressed their genuine gratitude and paid their respects,
not because someone told them to, or because they were mindful of
the surroundings.

Jin-Woo observed their show of respect, and….

358
‘……’

….He walked wordlessly past them towards the spot where the
familiar-looking van had been parked.

Thomas Andre was about to be loaded into an ambulance and

Lennart Niermann was guarding his side. Both men watched Jin-
Woo’s departing back.

Lennart spoke with a worried face.

“Hunter Seong Jin-Woo didn’t look so happy.”

Thomas had received emergency treatment by the Healers and his

condition had improved by a lot, so he could at least nod his head to
express agreement.

“Yeah, he does look that way.”

“But, how come? He managed to beat those powerful monsters and

survive.”

Only other Hunters would know what a Hunter was going through.
That feeling of sucking in the outside air after clearing a high-
difficulty dungeon couldn’t adequately be described in mere words.

So, why was Hunter Seong’s expression so gloomy like that?

Lennart’s question was answered by Thomas, actually.

“He probably isn’t happy with how the fight against those b*stards
went down.”

“…..!!”

Lennart was deeply shocked by that reply.

359
Jin-Woo had displayed movements that had far surpassed the limits
of a human being, yet he looked gloomy because he wasn’t happy
with his performance?

How could such a thing even make sense?

As if he knew what his German counterpart was thinking of, Thomas

Andre nodded his head and continued on.

“I also can’t believe it, but…. Most likely, during the fight itself, he
must’ve felt disappointed by how many close shaves he had to
experience.”

‘Aah, back then.’

Lennart recalled the moments when Jin-Woo’s chest was stabbed by

the claws of the beast and let a low gasp escape from his mouth.
Also, he remembered his own vision darkening in despair the
moment when that ancient Ice Elf stabbed Jin-Woo with a dagger,
too.

However, didn’t that happen because the enemies were simply too
powerful? Never mind taking on both of them at the same time, how
many people in this world could last as long as he did when fighting
just one of them?

Lennart’s thoughts reached up to there and he shook his head.

‘No, that’s not it….’

For sure, the thoughts of being defeated because the enemies were
tough belonged to regular Hunters, such as himself.

Maybe, ‘winning’ was a matter of course for a bigshot possessing

strength like Hunter Seong Jin-Woo, and they probably focused more
on how they won their battles, instead.

360
Now that his train of thoughts arrived here, Lennart felt a chill crept
down his spine next. As he stood there in shock, Thomas added one
last thing.

“He’s one really scary dude, that Seong Jin-Woo.”

“…..I completely agree with you on that one.”

After Thomas finished his deduction, he got taken to the hospital.

During the ride, though…

‘I made the right decision not to throw a tantrum inside his office
back then.’

….Lennart was busy telling himself never to become Hunter Seong

Jin-Woo’s enemy.

Screeeech-!!

Ah-Jin Guild’s ‘Bonggo’ came to a screeching halt, and a young man

in the driver’s seat climbed out from the vehicle.

Yu Jin-Ho saw Jin-Woo getting beaten up by the monsters on TV and

jumped into the van to rush to the battle location without any
concrete plan.

And even though his sensory perception hadn’t been as enhanced as

those of the higher-ranked Awakened, he immediately spotted Jin-
Woo among the sea of Hunters populating the location and tearfully
ran to his destination.

“Hyung-niiiiiiim-!!”

Jin-Woo watched Yu Jin-Ho running towards him with a flood of tears

gushing out of the boy’s eyes, and the murderous anger oozing out
of his own eyes softened just a tad.

361
Meanwhile, Yu Jin-Ho used the momentum of the running to tightly
hug Jin-Woo. Now, normally, the latter would find dealing with this a
bit annoying so he’d step aside like flowing water, but today was
different.

Jin-Woo simply chose to gently pat Yu Jin-Ho’s back as the boy clung
onto him and cried his eyes out. It was as if the warmth he felt from
someone genuinely worrying about him managed to slowly melt his
frosty heart.

Maybe, it wasn’t Yu Jin-Ho who needed consoling, but he himself? A

thin smile formed on Jin-Woo’s lips.

Yu Jin-Ho finally managed to calm down and lifted his messy tear-
and-snot smeared face away to ask a question.

“Hyung-nim, are you alright??”

“No, I’m not alright.”

“EHH??”

Yu Jin-Ho jumped up in sheer shock, his eyes opening wider. Jin-Woo

then wordlessly pointed to his shirt, now deeply stained by tears and
snot.

“Heok!!”

Yu Jin-Ho hurriedly used his sleeves to wipe his eyes and nose before
lowering his head.

“I’m really sorry, hyung-nim. I was so happy to see you unhurt, so,
like….”

Jin-Woo chuckled softly.

362
This kid, back then or now, he was one hell of a character, that’s for
sure. But then, he was now a true ‘dongsaeng’ with a quicker wit
than anyone when it came to Jin-Woo’s matters.

Yu Jin-Ho did his best to suck in his tears and spoke with a bright
face.

“Hyung-nim, I knew this might happen, so I prepared a new set of

clothes you can change into.”

“New clothes??”

Jin-Woo took a look at himself. And he clearly saw the messed-up

state of his clothing from top to bottom after going through the
intense battle against the Sovereigns.

“Well, if you return home looking like that… I’m sure your mother
would be very worried, right? That’s why I got you some new clothes
to change into.”

‘Huh.’

When Jin-Woo looked at him with praising eyes, Yu Jin-Ho wiped the
bottom of his nose and tried to hide how happy he was.

“Let’s go, hyung-nim. Allow me to drive you back home.”

Jin-Woo thought about that for a minute, before nodding his head.

‘Mom and Jin-Ah must’ve been watching the TV as well, so I should

prioritise putting their minds at ease before doing anything else.’

While Yu Jin-Ho was climbing up into the driver’s side, Jin-Woo

turned around and took one last look at the centre of the city, the
place where a life-or-death battle had taken place not too long ago.

Many people had rushed in there to take control of the situation,

and he could see them doing their best to do their jobs.

363
Jin-Woo had gained quite handsomely out of that rubble.

‘First of all… I guess I should also prioritise finding a device that

allows me to communicate even in the middle of that forest.’

He couldn’t repeat a mistake like this one ever again.

The biggest gain for today had to be ‘these’, though. Jin-Woo looked
at the pair of shortswords his father had left behind. It was as if there
was a hint of a person’s warmth remaining in their hilts.

‘Dad….’

As Jin-Woo remained still in his spot, he could Yu Jin-Ho’s cautious

voice floating towards him.

“Hyung-nim?”

Jin-Woo lightly kissed the hilts of the daggers and stored them in the
sub-space before belatedly climbing into the passenger’s seat.

“Okay, let’s go.”

“Yes, hyung-nim!!”

The long, long day was drawing to a close.

***

In the end, the Hunter’s Association had to announce the identities

of the monsters that appeared in Seoul as ‘Unknown’.

However, there was no doubt about the scale of devastation those

creatures left behind being truly enormous. Countless people either
died or were gravely injured; the number of collapsed buildings or
destroyed cars were too numerous to count.

However, not everything could be seen as a loss.

364
Should one call this case a blessing in disguise?

What happened was, they found a way to deal with an unexpected

danger.

Especially so for Hunter Seong Jin-Woo’s incredible power that he

displayed to the world during his fight – it managed to change the
mindset of the world’s denizens in one breath.

And that changed mindset was immediately put to action. The

symptom of this change, however, started off from a country that no
one quite expected it to happen from.

That evening.

To discuss the handling of the aftermaths of the monsters appearing

in Seoul, as well as the potential responses against the super-massive
Gate, the current Association President Woo Jin-Cheol paid a visit to
the Blue House.

With topic at hand being what it was, President Kim welcomed him
rather courteously. After sharing a brief greeting, Woo Jin-Cheol
asked his question first.

“Shouldn’t it be better for you to evacuate to the outskirts of Seoul,

sir?”

The president of the nation hesitated with his answer, his expression
looking complicated before he spat out a long sigh.

“I admit that I treated you rather badly the last time. I’d like to
apologise to you about that. However, I implore you not to look at
me as a man who had forgotten what responsibilities he has to
shoulder. May I remind you, I am still the president of this nation.”

He continued on, although he carried the face of a man experiencing

fear, yet at the same time, trying to overcome it.

365
“If I run away without saying anything, how badly will the citizens be
shaken up? I do not wish to see my name being recorded as a
blemish on our nation’s history.”

Woo Jin-Cheol thought of President Kim as yet another career

politician who was only interested in raking in more votes, but having
heard this rather unexpected reply, could only let a wry chuckle out
of his mouth.

One could accuse that as being a disrespectful gesture but, as he had

already committed a transgression against Woo Jin-Cheol, the
country’s president didn’t raise any objections.

“Alright.”

Woo Jin-Cheol pulled out the prepared data and got ready to get
going with his presentation. But then, an employee working in the
Blue House hurriedly entered the office and whispered something
into the president’s ear.

“What?? Are you being serious?!”

The president responded by shooting up from his seat with a

disbelieving face. The employee replied with a very serious
expression.

“Yes, sir. Mister President, how should we proceed next?”

“For now, let the call through. I shall personally speak to him.”

The employee promptly presented a smartphone to the president

that was already connected to the mystery person on the other end
of the line. The leader of South Korea took over the phone, and a
voice that pretty much all Koreans were familiar with came out from
the device’s speaker.

366
– “I pondered deeply on this matter for a very long time, comrade.
And…. And, I’ve come to a decision that it might be for our best
interest to aid our cadres in the South.”

That voice belonged to the leader of North Korea. The South Korean
President couldn’t immediately understand what the other party was
talking about and tilted his head this way and that.

“What… do you want to aid us with?”

– “Didn’t a Gate appear in the skies of Seoul? We shall dispatch our

Hunters there, too. Let us combine the strengths of both the South
and North to deal with this matter.”

“…..!”

North Korea was the signal flare.

The neighbouring nations had only displayed a tepid reaction

towards the request for cooperation even with the appearance of
Gate boasting an unprecedented size. But now, their attitudes did a
complete 180 in an instant.

– South Korea, no, Hunter Seong Jin-Woo, must not be allowed to

fall.

This was the conclusion various nations came to after watching the
battle between Jin-Woo and the ‘Unknown’ monsters.

The ill fortune of Korea wouldn’t simply end in Korea alone. Which
Hunter belonging to a country would be capable of stopping a
calamity that Hunter Seong Jin-Woo couldn’t stop?

From the closest nations – North Korea, Japan, China, Russia – and to
the far-flung nations such as America, Germany, Britain, and France,
their Hunters hurriedly set off for Seoul in order to make it in time.

367
There was only one thought within their minds.

‘We need to aid Hunter Seong Jin-Woo and block the super-massive
Gate, no matter the cost.’

The notion of Jin-Woo being their final defence line had been
instilled within them after witnessing his feats.

And now, not just South Korea’s own Hunters, but the entire world’s
were gathering in the capital city of this small nation in East Asia.

368
Chapter 226
Dawn, when everyone was in a deep sleep.

Jin-Woo travelled back to the sea of trees located in Japan, still

remaining as a no-entry, prohibited area, after experiencing the
dungeon break of the Giant-type monsters.

He didn’t come here to raise his level or to look at the stars in the
sky, though. But then again, it must’ve been the memories of the
night before, because when he took a look at the night sky, he
naturally remembered Hae-In’s face.

Jin-Woo stopped by his family and assured them he was fine and
quickly returned to the hotel in Japan. Cha Hae-In had already
understood the reason why Jin-Woo had to disappear on her like
that, just before they were about to share a meal together.

She knew better than anyone what would’ve happened if Jin-Woo

didn’t rush back to Seoul. Her expression as she tried to hide her
anxiety remained etched in his memory for some reason, though.

‘….Let’s get started.’

Jin-Woo took a look around him. Just like before, the stillness of the
forest, with not a single living soul in it, greeted him. There was
something he had to do in this place.

Jin-Woo sought out a suitable open ground and soon located one. He
summoned out a portion of his Shadow Soldiers next.

‘Come out.’

Jin-Woo’s shadow expanded out greatly and his soldiers appeared on

the ground. They were none other than the new additions to his
army.

369
Jin-Woo tasted a mixed bag of emotions as he studied them. For the
first time ever, he ended up breaking his own rule yesterday, one
that he religiously adhered to since the very beginning.

These new soldiers were, before yesterday, all regular people. No,
they were victims who were murdered by the Sovereigns.

Hundreds of soldiers, created from the regular people dying unjustly,

as well as Hunters who tried to save them, now stood before their
new master. He broke his own rule of never using innocent souls as
his Shadow Soldiers.

And that was why Jin-Woo wanted to ask for their cooperation in this
place.

‘Until this war is over, lend me your strengths, everyone.’

To protect their families, their lovers, their friends and their homes
from those b*stards.

‘I promise to return you to the eternal rest once the battle is over.’

Although they were the dead beings forced into expressing their
absolute loyalty through the Shadow Sovereign’s ability, they still
retained their individual egos.

Jin-Woo’s sincere heart and desire were transmitted to every single

one of them. Their eyes under the helms, covered by the darkness of
the dawn, contained flames of hatred and rage towards the
monsters that made them this way.

They realised this crucial fact – that they were now given a chance to
exact revenge on those creatures with their own hands. And the one
that gifted them this opportunity was the Shadow Sovereign
standing right before them.

‘We shall fight alongside our liege!

370
We shall never let those monsters rape and pillage our land and our
families!’

Such desires were being engraved in them now.

The stronger the Shadow Sovereign became, the greater the

enhancement to the abilities of the Shadow Soldiers. Unlike in the
past when he was borrowing the powers of the Shadow Sovereign
through the System, Jin-Woo now inherited it completely and thus,
the Shadow Soldiers created by him could not be underestimated at
all.

Jin-Woo made one more request to them.

‘Lend me your strength.’

Their Sovereign made a request, and the Shadow Soldiers

immediately replied back. They raised their fists up high and from
their open mouths, the death throe-like horrifying roars exploded
out.

Wuuuaaaaahhhh-!!!

The roaring started from the front row, but gradually shifted to the
rear like the receding tides, and eventually, the entirety of the
summoned Shadow Soldiers were crying out towards the sky.

Aaaaah-!!!

Their resentment-laden screams seemed to shake the earth itself.

With this, the Army of Death had finished getting ready.

Jin-Woo’s eyes as he scanned them, flickered in a cold, murderous

glare.

Definitely.

He’d definitely make the Sovereigns pay.

371
The roars of the soldiers filled with hatred continued to echo out for
a long, long time afterwards.

***

The day before the dungeon break from the super-massive Gate was
to take place.

It had been two days since the System disappeared. Jin-Woo was
getting acclimatised by the absence of Daily Quests now. Many
things had become convenient for him ever since restrictions put in
place by the System had gone away, but there was also a few things
that made life rather difficult, as well.

One such difficulty was the ‘Store’.

Jin-Woo summoned out a bottle of healing potion originally stored in

his ‘Inventory’ and stared at it as if to bore a hole through the darn
thing.

‘……’

As it turned out, every item found in the Store had been created out
of the Shadow Sovereign’s powers. It was basically magic, where one
would create something with Mana.

So, the theory went that, since he had inherited the Shadow
Sovereign’s powers, Jin-Woo should be able to create the same types
of items as long as he willed it, but….

He quietly closed his eyes and began picturing the healing potion
inside his head. When he did, he could pick up the movement of
Mana.

‘Concentrate, concentrate….’

372
Unfortunately, Mana busily moving around failed to gather and
coagulate before scattering away in the air. It was a failure.

Jin-Woo spat out a sigh and opened his eyes again. It seemed that
the threshold of creating something out of magic was still out of
reach for him, for now.

‘I guess I need to practice for a bit longer.’

It was then.

The smartphone resting on top of his desk began vibrating and

issued the ‘du-du-du’ noise.

– “Seong Hunter-nim, it’s Woo Jin-Cheol speaking.”

“Hello. What can I do for you?”

Jin-Woo settled down on his bed and answered the call.

Woo Jin-Cheol must’ve been working day and night, thanks to the
mass-scale incidents that kept happening one after another, because
his voice came across as a bit hoarse on the phone.

– “Excuse me, Hunter-nim… If it’s not too much trouble, may I ask
you to come to the Association today?”

The estimated time for the dungeon break was literally right around
the corner. From the perspective of the Association, they would’ve
liked to get some advice from Jin-Woo, arguably the core combat
force of the upcoming raid.

Since Jin-Woo didn’t have anything on his schedule anyway, he

agreed to it without hesitation.

“I shall see you there.”

Click.

373
He ended the call and got ready to leave, but then, Igrit abruptly
addressed him.

[My liege.]

‘Mm?’

Jin-Woo was yet to get used to Igrit’s voice. Still, he paid attention to
the black knight’s trademark heavy and courteous tone.

[There is something I’d like to speak to you about.]

***

Next day.

Every TV station around the world stopped with their regular

programming to broadcast live the unfolding situation in Seoul.

Some stations chose to broadcast the situation as it unfolded in the

regular news format, while some others invited experts in the field
and asked for their opinions.

One of the largest broadcasters in the States, ‘Hunter Channel’ went

with the latter route and had invited experts in.

The broadcast soon got underway; one of the experts spoke in clear
reminiscence as they looked at the live footage of the Hunters
completely filling up the Gate’s location.

“Do you know how long it has been since that many Hunters from
various countries have gathered in one spot?”

The emcee smiled and replied.

“I’m not sure…. Since Guilds with different nationalities join forces
together to go on raids often, I’m guessing that it must’ve been
pretty recent.”

374
The expert shook his head.

“It’s been over eight years. Eight. And it’s now approaching the ninth
year mark now.”

Eight years.

Everyone watching the broadcast heard those words and

immediately recalled the gigantic monster that terrorised humanity
back then. The emcee wasn’t an exception, either.

“You say eight years…. Are you saying that this spectacle would be
the very first time since the ‘Kamish’ raid?”

“Yes, that’s correct. This would be the first time that Hunters from
five different nations or more got together, post-Kamish raid.”

Back then, the greatest Hunters alive from every corner of the globe
stepped up to aid the United States of America, only to be
annihilated and out of hundreds of them participating, only five
managed to survive. They then became the ‘Special Authority-rank’
Hunters.

To all those countries that had lost their top Hunters, that day’s
losses were indeed incredibly difficult to bear.

“Ever since that day, every nation refrained from interfering in the
problems of other nations.”

That would be an obvious result. No one alive would’ve wanted to

see the Hunters from their own countries lose their lives for another
country.

Sure, there had been infrequent occurrences of Guilds from different

nations joining hands for their mutual benefits, but this many
Hunters gathering together in such a huge scale to aid another
country would be a very rare thing to see.

375
“In that case, Doctor, could you possibly be saying that Hunter Seong
Jin-Woo from South Korea will bring together the world’s Hunters,
torn apart by the entrance of the Dragon Kamish?”

“That is correct.”

Perhaps finding the long-winded explanation rather laborious, the

expert took a deep breath first before continuing on afterwards.

“It all started with Hunter Seong Jin-Woo solving the calamity of
Japan’s dungeon break.”

Before that happened, though, Japan stepped up to help out with

the problem on Jeju Island, but as everyone knew, the result of that
venture was a complete disaster.

If the story ended there, then that would only add weight to the
opinion that one shouldn’t be interfering with the problems of other
countries. However, everything was turned on its head after Jin-Woo
stepped up to eliminate the Giants that had made their appearance
in Japan.

Even though there was the historical baggage between the two
countries, as well as the dastardly scheme Japan’s Association had
cooked up, a Korean Hunter still willingly rolled up his sleeves to aid
his neighbours, didn’t he?

“Most likely, all the gratitude and admiration the Japanese citizens
feel towards him can’t be put into mere words.”

Japan was able to survive the crisis all thanks to Jin-Woo’s aid. With
that, the unwritten rule of not interfering with another country’s
matter, in order to protect their own Hunters, had been broken for
the first time.

What he did was to instil the sense of confidence of ‘I can do this’

into the Hunters. And a few days ago….

376
“Everyone watching the scenes of Hunter Thomas Andre falling
must’ve sensed it then.”

Which living Hunter would be able to stop those monsters?

“And Hunter Seong Jin-Woo showed them what the answer was.”

However, the next problem facing them seemingly featured an even

higher difficulty. If Hunter Seong Jin-Woo fell, then who out there
would be capable of stopping the calamity?

Although there was a thin smile on his face, the emcee couldn’t form
an answer to that query. The expert answered for him, instead.

“There’s no one. Indeed, there is no one capable. In other words,

Hunter Seong Jin-Woo is the final line. If he falls, then everything will
end.”

At that moment, many countries thinking that the super-massive

Gate floating in the skies above Seoul was South Korea’s problem
only, quickly came to a realisation.

If the Koreans couldn’t stop that Gate, then next would be North
Korea, then either China or Russia, and eventually, the rest of the
world. Now, the super-massive Gate had become the common
enemy of the entire world.

This was the result achieved by a lone Hunter from Asia.

The expert was about to explain that they needed to overcome this
upcoming calamity first if that result was to proudly bear its fruit.
However, at that moment…

“Ahh! Look, just now!”

377
The emcee had been listening attentively to what the expert was
saying but he saw the urgent prompts from the director and jumped
up from his seat.

The gazes of the experts quickly shifted over to the live feed, as well.

The live footage now displayed the super-massive Gate opening its
maws wide.

“Oh, my god….”

Everyone present within the studio became utterly speechless from

the imagery that easily surpassed their imaginations.

***

The air began trembling.

Tens of thousands of Hunters surrounding the spot just below the

Gate held their breaths and waited. This was a memorable spectacle,
this sight of countless Hunters waiting for one single moment to
happen.

The close-quarter type Hunters quietly waited for their turns, while
those capable of attacking at long distances got ready to fling out
pre-emptive strikes at a moment’s notice.

Arrows laden with magical energy and various spells ready to be cast
were aimed at the sky.

Taut tension filled up the atmosphere.

And then… Whenever the gazes of these Hunters stopped glaring at

the Gate above and lowered to the ground, they would all look at
one place without fail. That would be Jin-Woo’s back.

Standing at the furthest front, Jin-Woo was glaring up at the sky with
a sombre expression.

378
With every passing second, the dungeon break was approaching
closer and closer. He could sense their aura now.

Ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump.

The Black Heart, replacing his destroyed human heart, powerfully

pulsed within his chest to let him know of the current situation.

Of course, the hearts of other Hunters were pounding away

restlessly, as well. It was all because of the nervousness seemingly
oppressing everything.

However, the emotion Jin-Woo was feeling at the moment was quite
different from theirs. He was doing his best not to lose his
composure and waited for the approaching final hour.

Hae-In, standing next to him, saw his expression and whispered to

him.

“I think it’s my first time seeing you so tense like this, Mister Jin-
Woo.”

“Really?”

Jin-Woo smirked to let her know that it was nothing. Hae-In also
formed a light smile as a reply and looked back at the Gate while
unsheathing her blade. She too had sensed that the beginning of the
life-or-death battle was here.

‘Soon….’

However, she was mistaken about something.

Jin-Woo placed his hand on his chest and silently closed his eyes. He
felt the pounding of his heart. The emotion welling up in his chest
was neither nervousness nor terror. No, it was excitement.

“T-they are coming!”

379
“The Gate’s been opened!!”

Finally, the Gate began opening up.

The wall separating this world and the Gate disappeared and certain
‘things’ staying within finally began pouring out in endless droves.
These creatures completely blotted out the sky in no time at all.

The Hunters below became completely dumbfounded by the number

of descending creatures that seemed to be at least over one hundred
thousand.

“But, how… how can that many monsters… at the same time?!”

“There, there are just too many!!!”

Gasps and screams thick with despair exploded out from here and
there.

All those ‘certain things’ must’ve been under the influence of gravity-
reduction magic, because they all landed on the ground very slowly.

“Attack! Hurry, attack!”

“Everyone, attack!”

Before those things land on the ground, they should try to reduce
their numbers, at least by a little bit. Hunters sensed that their
opportunity was here and began making their moves.

Magic spells ready to cast gleamed brightly from their hands and
bowstrings aimed at the sky were all pulled taut. Tankers raised their
shields up right near their chins to get ready for close-quarters
combat with those descending things.

But then, before the concentrated firepower from the Hunters could
pour out, Jin-Woo loudly yelled out.

380
[Nobody move!]

Jin-Woo’s will, carried by Mana, was clearly transmitted to even

those Hunters who didn’t know any Korean. And it made everyone
stop what they were doing.

‘But, why?’

‘Why did he stop us from attacking?’

Even though tens of thousands of Hunters were staring at him with

eyes that screamed, ‘I don’t understand’, Jin-Woo simply repeated
what he said.

[Everyone, don’t move.]

Woo Jin-Cheol watching from the distance hurriedly wiped the sweat
off his forehead.

If they don’t attack now, then those creatures would land safely on
the ground. When the battle breaks out in that situation, the Hunters
out in front could get sucked into the attacks fired from the back.

Meaning, incidents of them worrying about the friendly fire would

happen when they were already in a numerical disadvantage.

One of the subordinate Hunters working for the Association quickly

approached Woo Jin-Cheol and looked at his boss with a worried
expression.

“Association President….”

It was now time to make his decision. His head screamed at him to
send out the word to start attacking, but in the end, Woo Jin-Cheol
decided to trust Jin-Woo.

“Everyone, do not fire!”

381
“Do not fire!!”

Woo Jin-Cheol was put in charge of commanding the Hunters. So,

rather understandably, they became quite dazed and lowered their
hands when he began telling them not to attack.

‘Just what are they thinking now?’

‘They want to engage those things on the ground instead of hitting

them first with ranged attacks? Against that many monsters???’

As confusion and terror began whipping up around the battlefield….

Eventually, those creatures landed on the ground.

The number of black monsters completely filling up the sights of the

Hunters were so great that one’s mind would grow faint just from
the sheer scale.

From the gathered swarm of monsters, one particular being began

walking out towards them. Jin-Woo, too, stepped forward.

Just what was going to happen from here onwards?

Hunters couldn’t even breathe properly and closely watched Jin-

Woo.

‘……’

‘……’

Jin-Woo stopped walking, and the ‘monster’ also stopped walking as

well.

And then….

The ‘monster’ looking at Jin-Woo suddenly knelt down on the

ground. And at that moment, the soldiers behind it also knelt down
at the same time.

382
Chut.

The spectacle of a hundred thousand-plus soldiers bowing their

heads at the same time carried an incredible, overwhelming shock
value.

After a short bout of silence passed, the ‘monster’ kneeling right out
in front raised its head and spoke.

[Grand-Marshal Bellion, here to humbly greet the Sovereign with his

Shadow Army.]

383
Chapter 227

Fifty thousand or so Hunters from all corners of the globe, here to

defend against the super-massive Gate, watched dazedly as the black
monsters began kneeling before Jin-Woo.

“Jesus…..”

This sea of soldiers wrapped in black armour or black smoke seemed

to go on forever. Every single one of these creatures possessed an
incredible amount of magical energy, but there was something else
that made the gathered Hunters doubt their own eyes even more.

“T-that, that, that! Could that be?!”

“Right at the end there, you see what’s right at the end there, right?”

“…..Yeah, I can see it.”

Hunters pointed to the back of this army of black soldiers, their

complexions paling greatly. More specifically, they were pointing to
the three black Dragons at the back of the army who were
obediently lowering their heads before their owner, as if they were
house-trained pets or some such.

The gathered Hunters were now rendered completely speechless

after discovering those Dragons being the part of the line-up of these
black soldiers.

The Dragon that appeared for the first, and last, time in human
history had been ‘Kamish’. That one creature alone managed to wipe
out almost every single elite Hunter alive back then, and the whole
world was in danger of being thrust into a horrifying conflagration of
destruction.

384
Seriously now, would people begin calling that Dragon with a name
carrying the meaning of ‘undying flames’ for no good reason?

And so – only one such creature was enough to threaten the very
existence of the human race, yet there were three of them now. It
couldn’t be helped that the Hunters gathered here to fight these
things felt as if all of their energy was quickly abandoning them.

Just what would have happened if they decided to clash against this
army? Hunters imagined the potential combat situation against
these black monsters currently in bowing positions and felt
goosebumps rapidly spread throughout their bodies next.

And at the same time, they grew really curious about the real
identity of Hunter Seong Jin-Woo, standing before them as if it was
the most obvious thing in the world.

Jin-Woo swept his gaze over the Grand-Marshal Bellion and the
seemingly endless number of Shadow Soldiers kneeling behind their
leader.

‘So, this is the real Shadow Army….’

What Igrit said was right.

His black knight asked for an audience and spoke to Jin-Woo in his
usual dignified manner yesterday.

[My liege, the Shadow Army has concluded all of their preparations.]

Jin-Woo needed a bit of time to completely digest those words.

That’s how surprising it was to him.

That was why he was in a dilemma.

He knew better than anyone here regarding the matters with the
Sovereigns and the Rulers, as well as the truth behind the Gates. But

385
the thing was, he himself wasn’t certain about the overall narrative,
so there was no way he’d be able to convincingly explain what was
happening here to everyone else.

No, it was an impossibly tall order to convince every one of these

Hunters coming from all over the world to stop the Gate before it
turned into the worst calamity in human history.

And also….

In the one-in-ten-thousand case, no, make that one in ten million

chance that Igrit’s information was faulty, could he be able to handle
the fallout from that?

That was why Jin-Woo decided to wait.

He decided not to make up his mind until he could confirm the truth
with his own eyes first, and waited until the Gate opened up. And the
result of that was now kneeling before his eyes.

Jin-Woo inwardly swallowed his saliva and scanned his soldiers.

Although he was not responsible for raising these soldiers, he could
still sense that every single one of them was connected to him.

It was a complicated network, connected like a spiderweb. And

through this network, the level of sheer joy they felt at reuniting with
their master was fully transmitted to him.

‘This is the inheritance the former Shadow Sovereign had given to

me….’

These creatures were all swearing their loyalty to their new master.
Just like how quickly their hearts were racing, Jin-Woo’s own chest
was as well, now filled up with powerful emotions.

That’s right.

386
He took a brief look at the Dragons at the back before returning his
gaze to the front of the army.

The Grand-Marshal Bellion.

This guy certainly possessed a suitable amount of dignity and

strength, fitting for the title he carried. There was a trace of torn-off
wings on the back of his armour, though.

‘Two pairs of wings….’

Jin-Woo recalled that regular silver-clad soldiers possessed a pair of

wings, while the Rulers had six wings, and from that fact, he could
roughly estimate the level of Bellion’s capability.

Jin-Woo focused his sensory perception and the light within his eyes
gleamed brightly.

With that, he could take a gander at the truly humongous reserve of

magical energy the Grand-Marshal chose to hide because of the
presence of his liege.

‘As expected….’

Because he possessed this much power, he was indeed qualified to

lead a Shadow Army that contained even Dragons.

Jin-Woo raised his head.

The Shadow Army. The king wishing to go to war had finally regained
his soldiers.

Ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump.

Jin-Woo took a long, hard look at his soldiers as his heart raced faster
and faster. The thing was, those kneeling before him weren’t the
only Shadow Army, now were they?

387
If these guys were the soldiers that belonged to the former Shadow
Sovereign ‘Osborne’, then Jin-Woo too possessed his own loyal
soldiers, as well.

‘Come out.’

Even more Shadow Soldiers materialised from behind Jin-Woo at his

beckoning. Their numbers had already ballooned to near two
thousand by now.

Beru, Igrit, Greed, No. 6, Fangs, Iron, Jima, Tank, etc., all filled up the
space behind Jin-Woo. And then….

Chut.

….They too knelt down and lowered their heads, just like the Shadow
Soldiers that came out from the massive Gate. Every single Shadow
Soldier, surrounding him from both sides, swore their allegiances in
silence.

Jin-Woo nodded his head.

Finally, the separated Shadow Army had become whole.

A powerful force capable of standing up against the enemies and

their armies had been completed. Things seemed to be unfolding
quite smoothly right now.

However, Jin-Woo could feel quite a few gazes flying in his direction,
stabbing him rather painfully on his neck, and he just had to take a
look behind him.

‘……..’

‘……..’

That’s where he discovered tens of thousands of Hunters standing

there staring at him, along with hundreds of reporters risking their

388
lives to record the historic battle that was supposed to take place
here.

Understandably, all of them were sporting the same sort of

expression that screamed, “Just what the hell is going on here??”

‘Okay, so now….’

As a sort of reply to their frozen-stiff expressions, Jin-Woo formed an

awkward smile.

‘….How am I supposed to explain this?’

***

Quite obviously, the whole world was in an uproar.

Well, every single monster emerging from the super-massive Gate

started kneeling before Hunter Seong Jin-Woo, and this shocking
scene was broadcast live to the entire world, so the pandemonium
breaking out was rather understandable.

Viewers were watching on with anxiety and dread as the Gate

opened up, so it was quite hard for them to drag themselves out
from the pit of heady mental shock, akin to someone smacking them
unexpectedly in the back of their noggins.

Pretty much every single online community went into a heated

frenzy over this matter.

– What the freak? Those black monsters just now, just what the f*ck
happened? Is anyone capable of explaining this sh*t?

– Don’t tell me, all those monsters are Seong Jin-Woo’s

summons????

└ Horsesh*t…. I heard from somewhere that well over a hundred

thousand monsters came out from that Gate.

389
└ What the hell. How can summons pop out from a Gate? You should
start spewing things that make sense.

└ Oh? Why don’t you, good sir, enlighten us, the ignorant masses,
then?

└ First of all, they all look exactly like Hunter Seong Jin-Woo’s
summons, don’t they? But still, how can summons come out of a
Gate?

Many displayed the reactions of disbelief, but there were also a few
who viewed the incident in a different light.

– Still, isn’t it a relief that those monsters weren’t our enemies?

└ For real. ㅇㅈ.

└ If they were, we’d all be dead by now. I saw an interview and they
say there were three Dragons in the horde, too.

└ Three Dragons LOLOLOL So f*cking crazy. LOLOL

└ Kamish comes out, sees them, he be like, “Nope”, goes away ROFL

└ What are you even talking about? Kamish died almost nine years
ago, so how can that thing come out and goes away again?

└ The commenter above mine, whoooosh. You must be a delight in

dinner parties.

– Argh, this sh*t is driving me nuts. Seriously, man…. I wish Hunter

Seong Jin-Woo just comes out clean and tells us what happened….

Meanwhile, TV stations continued to repeatedly broadcast the same

shocking scenes from back then, and did their best to analyse and
come to a suitable conjecture.

390
Unfortunately, there were no experts on this planet capable of
convincingly explaining away the event of summoned creatures, not
monsters, that belonged to a single person and even contained
Dragons, coming out from a Gate boasting an unprecedented size.

“Huh-uh….”

“As to figure out how something like that can happen, even I….”

“Mhmm…”

Every single one of them was at a loss and could only shake their
heads. They even spat out astonished gasps at the recorded footage
of a hundred thousand-plus summoned creatures kneeling before
Jin-Woo played over and over again.

Anyone could tell that was the sight of those creatures

acknowledging who their master was. Some quarters in the world
even raised the idea of calling Jin-Woo with a nickname of ‘Demon
King’ because of that memorable scene alone.

Indeed, Jin-Woo was emitting the kind of manly aura befitting the
title of ‘Demon King’ as he was being surrounded by all those black
soldiers.

Soon, experts collectively defined this incident as….

….A miracle.

“Although this event unfolded in a shocking and unexpected manner,

there is little doubt the end result is a fortunate one for all of us.”

“It’s fortunate, you say?”

“Can you see how many monsters, no, summons there are on screen
right now?”

391
The expert pointed towards the Shadow Army displayed on the
screen. Beyond Jin-Woo standing before them, one could see a
nearly-infinite number of soldiers busy bowing their heads.

The emcee didn’t think too deeply about it as he began counting

with his eyes before dry saliva automatically slid down his throat
from that outrageous number on display.

One didn’t even need to bring up the fact that there were three
Dragons included in this army. That was how horrifying the overall
number was.

“If our Hunters were to fight those things, then it would no longer
have been the issue of whether we’d win or lose. No, the remainder
of humanity would have been counting the hours until those
creatures get to the other side of the planet and completely
exterminate us, instead.”

The emcee’s head nodded all by itself.

“Fortunately, they are summoned creatures of Hunter Seong Jin-

Woo. And it seems that he can control them just fine.”

Regrettably, though – that remained a conjecture at this stage.

“Only Hunter Seong Jin-Woo knows the truth.”

That was where the expert ended his explanation. With rather
excellent timing, the screen now displayed the very last scene from
that event, the one responsible for causing everyone to be so
astonished like this.

“Right here, this moment.”

Jin-Woo was taking a sweeping look at the other Hunters before he

literally slid into his own shadow and disappeared without a trace.

392
That’s how he vanished from everyone’s sight.

The emcee helplessly shook his head before adjusting his glasses and
continued on.

“The protagonist of this chaos, Hunter Seong Jin-Woo – just where

could he be right now?”

The Korean Hunter’s Association was inundated with telephone

inquiries, lodged seemingly by the entire world. Their only reply so
far had been, “We don’t know, either.”

That, though, was like adding fuel to the already burning flames of
interest for the event the world had laser-focused onto. The emcee
stared straight into the camera with a still-excited face and
addressed the viewers at home.

“We can only pray that he returns as soon as possible to clarify all
the questions that continue to burn a hole in our heads.”

***

Jin-Woo put aside the curiosity of many, many people for the time
being and made his way to the sea of trees in Japan. This vast
expense of abandoned land was just about the perfect place to
observe the movements of the entire Shadow Army.

Jin-Woo stood at a far distance, while the 130,000 plus army was
split in two and stood on either side of a vast field.

‘Start.’

He issued his order inwardly, prompting the two columns of armies

to powerfully rush towards each other.

Dududududududu-!!

393
The sounds of their feet pounding on the ground seemed to rock the
earth. The distance between the two columns of rushing soldiers
closed up in an instant, and just before they were about to clash
head-on….

….Jin-Woo shifted the platoons that fell behind in the rush right
behind the other column and had them surround the opponents in
this mock battle.

Was that all?

In a location where there was a shortage of soldiers, he sent

reinforcements. When some soldiers were left isolated, he simply
unsummoned them and brought them back out in an adequate-
enough location. The smoothness of his actions was like a river
flowing to the ocean.

Deployment and manipulation of soldiers based on the experiences

of battles he fought so far also applied to this hundred thousand-
strong great army, as well.

“That’s enough.”

Jin-Woo spoke in a soft voice but that was still enough for the
Shadow Soldiers to hear his will. They all came to a standstill in an
instant.

Chack!

Their movements were in perfect synchronisation. After stopping

this mock battle, Jin-Woo took a look to his side.

“So, what do you think?”

The Grand-Marshal Bellion spoke in an amazed, admiring tone of

voice.

394
“I’ve never thought about mobilising the forces in this manner. I can
only express the emotions of awe and shock, my liege.”

It seemed that, to Bellion, controlling the combatants in this manner

was a fresh concept to mull over, even though he had roamed
countless battlefields with the former Shadow Sovereign.

Especially the part about utilising the aspect of freely summoning

and un-summoning Shadow Soldiers – that part left him with quite a
pleasant surprise.

Igrit had been with Jin-Woo since the beginning and was perhaps the
most familiar with how their master fought, so he proudly opened up
his chest just a little bit wider.

Jin-Woo smirked softly while watching the black knight and his
growing nose for a bit. He had to stop and pick up his phone, though,
when the device suddenly went off noisily inside his pocket.

Vuwooo… Vuwoooo….

– “Hyung-nim, it’s me, Jin-Ho.”

“Hey. What’s up.”

According to Yu Jin-Ho, calls inundated not just the Association but

the Ah-Jin Guild as well after Jin-Woo went and disappeared on
everyone without saying a word, leading to the phone lines
temporarily breaking down.

“….My bad. Can you hold on for a bit longer until I properly organise
my thoughts first?”

– “Don’t worry about it, hyung-nim. Didn’t we establish this Guild so

that you can focus on doing raids without being harassed by stuff like
these?”

395
After hearing Yu Jin-Ho’s smiling voice coming out of the phone, Jin-
Woo also formed a smile.

– “Ah, by the way. Have you called your family yet, hyung-nim?”

“Yeah. I told them I’ll be home after cooling my head a little bit.”

– “Well, in that case, they should be less worried about you. That’s a
relief, hyung-nim.”

Jin-Woo pocketed the phone after ending the call, but a heavy,
lengthy sigh slowly escaped from his mouth as he did so.

He knew that he shouldn’t be avoiding ‘it’ like this. However, in order

to explain the Gates and his Shadow Soldiers, then naturally, he had
to speak about the matters of the Sovereigns and Rulers, as well.

Soon, soldiers of the Sovereigns would pour out from the eight
remaining Gates. How was he to go about telling others that the
entire world would be turned into a fierce, bloody battlefield?

In order to give himself some time to think, he simply had to get

away from there.

He thought that this was for the best.

Just a little bit longer.

He wanted humanity to enjoy peace even for a little bit longer.

‘I’m sure I can delay this for a few more days.’

Jin-Woo kept telling himself this; meanwhile, Beru sneaked closer to

him and spoke in a serious voice. He had been rather quiet for some
reason lately, though?

“Oh, my king….”

“Mm?”

396
Jin-Woo turned around to look at Beru kneeling on the ground, his
head lowered deeply towards the ground as he opened his mouth.

“I beg of thee to bestow unto me an opportunity to compete for the

position of the Grand-Marshal.”

“The position of the Grand-Marshal, you say?”

But, didn’t they already have a Grand-Marshal?

Jin-Woo felt puzzled by this, before abruptly recalling the System’s

information on the highest grade of Shadow Soldiers available.

‘In that case, could he be….?’

Sure enough – Beru raised his head.

“As a Marshal of the army, I’d like to challenge the Grand-Marshal

Bellion.”

397
Chapter 228

When the System was still around, it did mention something about
what Beru was talking about. There could be only one occupying the
position of the general of the army.

So, Soldiers that recently reached the Marshal grade must establish a
hierarchy with the one before it – didn’t the System say something
like that?

If he were to assume the general of the army was the Grand-

Marshal, then indeed, Beru, as the recently-promoted Marshal,
possessed the qualification to challenge Bellion.

Perhaps befitting an ant-type monster familiar with living in a large

community, Beru wanted to establish the proper pecking order
between the Marshals, it seemed.

‘Marshals going at it, huh…?’

Just to make sure, Jin-Woo shifted his gaze over to his other Marshal,
Igrit, but the black knight politely declined the proposition. It seemed
that he wasn’t interested in establishing the hierarchy between the
Marshals at all.

Unsurprisingly, once the black knight quietly took a step back, the
other guy to catch Jin-Woo’s attention was Bellion standing next to
him.

The current leader in charge of the army 130,000-strong was Bellion

right now. Only Jin-Woo was above him in terms of hierarchy, as the
master of the army itself.

After meeting his liege’s gaze, Bellion bowed his head slightly.

398
Since he was in the presence of his master, he had lowered his
posture as much as possible, but still, he was a good head taller than
Thomas Andre. This giant calmly answered his boss’s querying eyes.

“I shall follow your will.”

Follow his will, he said.

Jin-Woo formed a slight smirk at Bellion’s answer.

His voice was, of course, very humble. However, it wasn’t all that
difficult to read the underlying message that he’d face the challenger
head on, as long his master gives the permission.

Jin-Woo sneaked a glance behind him, and Beru standing there had
already extended his claws while visibly burning with fighting spirit
himself. He must’ve also read the message, too.

“Kiieeehk!”

While Bellion was doing his best to mask his magic energy as much as
possible, Beru was the opposite and didn’t hold back any of his
horrible magic energy emission.

‘Hmm….’

Jin-Woo pondered for a moment or two before making up his mind.

“Alright.”

He knew pretty much everything there was to know about Beru, but
Bellion was a different story. Knowing the extent of his combat
prowess would prove to be an invaluable data in deploying the army
correctly in the future.

It was also obvious that Jin-Woo’s heart would sway towards

allowing the challenge to go through.

399
“However, I shall be the one judging when to end the bout.”

After receiving his master’s permission, Beru’s expression was now

overflowing with ecstasy. Moved almost to tears, his eyes began
sparkling brightly as he cried out.

“I am humbled and deeply honoured by your inscrutable…..”

“Stop it.”

“….I thank thee, my king.”

On one side, Beru celebrating his opportunity. On the other side,

Bellion calmly getting ready for the upcoming challenge.

It was as if these two were the plucky challenger going up against the
incumbent champion in a sports movie. But before these two could
start duking it out for real, there was something Jin-Woo had to
confirm first.

He summoned out a single ‘Kamish’s Wrath’ and loaded a bit of black

aura on its tip. Then, he lightly swung it towards the forest.

Kwa-jajajajajajajak!!

The black ‘howl’ shooting out from the shortsword swept up a

portion of the forest. However, the damage wasn’t as severe as he
thought. Jin-Woo nodded and stored the weapon away.

‘With this much….’

It seemed that he didn’t need to worry about the surroundings

getting destroyed unduly during the battle of the two Marshals. The
ground had been hardened sufficiently enough by the condensed
Mana and it would survive the upcoming warfare without a doubt.

‘…….’

400
Jin-Woo gazed at the earth with a somewhat lonely expression
before raising his head. His eyes were already filled back up with
anticipation as he looked at his two Marshals.

“Well, then….”

Both the Grand-Marshal and the newbie Marshal waiting for their
master’s order nodded their heads simultaneously.

“We are ready, my liege.”

“Give us your order, oh my king!”

Jin-Woo chuckled and addressed the two.

“Get to your positions.”

***

Meanwhile, back in the Korean Hunter’s Association.

The activities taking place inside the Association’s emergency

response conference hall were a lot more bustling than before, even
though the so-called emergency situation had come to an end
yesterday.

“The international media is still hounding us, demanding us to

release an official statement already, sir!”

“The American Hunter Bureau is requesting us to release the

information on Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim’s current whereabouts!”

“The Seoul Metropolitan Fire & Disasters are asking us if it’s okay to
bring back the evacuated citizens.”

“The Hunter Channel’s famous ‘The Jimmy Show’ wants to interview

Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim….”

401
“Jimmy or whatever can kiss my a*s!! If he’s able to, tell him to find
the guy and try his luck there!”

The number of calls flooding the Association was inconceivably high.

It was a small miracle already that their phone lines hadn’t broken
down yet.

As for the Association President Woo Jin-Cheol, even though he

breathlessly issued one order after another, he also didn’t forget to
spit out groans repeatedly as he stared at the stacks of official
inquiry documents on his desk.

“Fuu-woo….”

The things he had to do was as tall as Mount Tai at this moment. No,
hang on – if it was only as tall as that legendary mountain, that
would have actually been preferable.

The thing was, Mount Tai had actually formed a long-a*s mountain
range, and after overcoming one mountain, he’d be facing another
one, and another one after that, and yet another one was waiting for
him….

His work had piled up to the extent he couldn’t see the end now.

It was so serious that even he was feeling dizzy from the craziness of
it all when he was supposed to be a rank A Hunter!

But then – Woo Jin-Cheol was busy shaking his head to get rid of this
drowsiness, until he ended up hearing something spoken by a
subordinate that simply could not be overlooked, no matter the
circumstances.

“Just why did Hunter Seong Jin-Woo’s summons have to come out
from there….”

402
This employee’s words were tinged with a certain amount of
dissatisfaction. Woo Jin-Cheol’s drowsiness was driven away in an
instant. He immediately made this employee stand at attention
before him.

“In that case, do you, Mister Seong-Won, think it would have been
better if monsters came out from that super-massive Gate
yesterday? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Pardon me, sir? Ah, no, that’s not….”

The subordinate couldn’t hide his fluster. Woo Jin-Cheol let his sharp
scolding fly, regardless.

“If the phone calls you’ve been receiving until now weren’t about TV
stations asking for interviews but relatives of the deceased Hunters
asking for the news of their loved ones, do you really think you can
continue working with just the thoughts of things being too hectic for
you?”

The subordinate employee couldn’t even meet Woo Jin-Cheol’s

glare.

Even if you were nominally an employee of the Hunter’s Association,

as long as you hadn’t worked out in the field, you’d never really
understand it.

They would never understand just what Hunters had to go through

during emergency situations.

They would never understand just what kind of things unfolded and
got buried inside dungeons, enshrouded in the darkness where no
one could see you.

Going through all the potential scenarios that could’ve gone down
during the raid of the super-massive Gate, what happened yesterday
was easily the best result one could ever hope for.

403
Over one hundred thousand monsters popped out, but no one got
injured. Nothing was destroyed. Not only that, all those monsters
were absorbed into Hunter Seong Jin-Woo’s fighting force.

Just who could’ve imagined it?

Indeed, no one could’ve dreamed such a result that far exceeded

one’s expectations.

That was how Woo Jin-Cheol got to endure, with a smile on his face,
all these mountains of work that probably required him to go
through a few sleepless nights to finish.

But to think, there was an employee of the Hunter’s Association busy

complaining about yesterday’s events just because his body became
a bit fatigued.

How could he even dare to say something so nonsensical?

If Hunter Seong Jin-Woo was present nearby, Woo Jin-Cheol

would’ve stepped up to slap some sense into this employee well
before the young Hunter had a chance to get angry.

That was how deeply Woo Jin-Cheol understood what Jin-Woo was
going through.

The Association President temporarily stopped his employees, and

while taking a sweeping look at them, he began speaking with a loud
voice.

“I know full well how flustered you all are after Seong Jin-Woo
Hunter-nim suddenly vanished on us.”

However, there must’ve been a good reason why Hunter Seong Jin-
Woo had to disappear on them like that, when he was a man
possessing a strong sense of responsibility.

404
“In a way, the person most confused by yesterday’s event could very
well be Seong Huner-nim.”

Didn’t someone say once that, with great power comes great
responsibility?

Some line from a movie Woo Jin-Cheol watched a long time ago kept
repeating itself in his head. However, that line helped him to imagine
the weighty burden now pressing down on Hunter Seong Jin-Woo’s
shoulders.

‘I’ve been around Hunter-nim for a while now, but yesterday was the
first time seeing him that tense.’

Indeed, Jin-Woo didn’t seem to know what was about to take place
next.

It didn’t matter who, anyone in his shoes would’ve thought of quickly

getting the heck out of there when the Gate one was ready to die
defending against instead suddenly began spewing out his own
summons. What’s more, they then began swearing their allegiance
out of nowhere.

Who could be foolish enough to point the fingers of blame on him?

Right now, the Association’s job was to share the load until Hunter
Seong Jin-Woo finished sorting out his confusion and returned to
explain the current situation.

The Association had to perform the role of a sturdy, dependable

shield for Hunters, regardless of the time or the circumstances.

“If we at the Hunter’s Association can’t even understand what Seong

Jin-Woo Hunter-nim is going through, just who else will??”

405
The employees listening to the passionate speech from their
President forgot all about their fatigue, the corners of their eyes
moistening quickly.

As for the employee complaining like a little kid because summoned

creatures came out from the Gate, he lowered his head to Woo Jin-
Cheol and apologised as his own nose reddened considerably.

“I’m sorry, sir. I was being thoughtless. I am truly sorry.”

Woo Jin-Cheol wordlessly patted this guy on the shoulder and had
him return to his post before sitting back down.

“Fuu-woo….”

He only shouted for a little while, yet there were at least twice as
many documents as before piled up on his desk now.

‘……’

He shifted his gaze away from the stacks of paper, his mind still
worried about Jin-Woo who’d no doubt be stuck in all sorts of
dilemmas even now.

‘I wonder, what is Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim doing now?’

***

With a bright face, Jin-Woo got to a distance quite far from the two
Marshals.

Igrit came to stand next to him.

Other Shadow Soldiers also spread out into a giant circle and created
enough room for the two Marshals to move about unrestricted.
Standing on the opposite end of that circle to his opponent, Beru
extended his claws until they couldn’t be extended anymore and
screeched out loudly.

406
“Kiiiiiieeeeehk-!!”

Meanwhile, Bellion wordlessly unsheathed the sword mounted on

his hips. So far, he seemed to be a type of swordsman similar to Igrit,
but then…

‘Mm…?’

Jin-Woo’s gaze was fixed to Bellion’s sword now. The blade looked
rather uniquely-shaped.

‘Hang on, can I even call that a blade?’

As a matter of fact, the blade resembled the body of a centipede in

that it was made up of dozens of connected sections.

As if they were done with their preparations, both of them looked at

Jin-Woo simultaneously.

“Begin!”

The moment the signal was given, Beru dashed forward immediately.

“Kiiiieeehk-!!”

He closed the distance with a stupendous turn of speed and

powerfully swung his claws; Bellion proceeded to block and let the
attack slide past him, and then, as Beru’s momentum took him
further away, the current Grand-Marshal spun around to face the
distancing ant soldier.

It was then.

‘……!!’

Jin-Woo’s eyes widened.

Bellion pointed with his sword and it suddenly stretched out like a
long snake to fly towards Beru.

407
Shushushushushu-!!

Beru urgently spun around and reflexively slapped the blade away.

CLANG!!

That was just the beginning.

Bellion used his sword like a whip and rained down a barrage of
incredulous attacks at his target. The flexible body of the blade,
carrying an enormous amount of Mana, danced and writhed
according to its wielder’s desire to pummel the ground and air
surrounding Beru.

BOOM!! BANG!! BOOM! BANG!!

On the other hand, all Beru could do right now was to concentrate all
his being to barely defend against the attacks.

“Kiiiieeehk!”

While watching Bellion’s attacks that had clearly surpassed the

limitation imposed by the sword-type weapon, Jin-Woo imagined
what would happen if it was him facing that barrage.

When he did, everything seemed to slow down to a crawl. Even then,

even within this slowed-down time, Bellion’s sword remained
dangerously fast.

Jin-Woo’s expression became even more serious.

His eyes, now emitting cold glare, followed and caught each and
every slap and swish of the unpredictable sword dance. Upper left,
right side, upper left again, then lower left, and to upper right….

….The him of his imagination evaded all the attacks and was standing
before Bellion.

408
And then, he cut the soldier down. In Jin-Woo’s imagination,
Bellion’s neck rolled to the ground. It only took a blink to get to that
point.

Bellion momentarily sensed this chill-inducing feeling of his neck

being cut off and flinched grandly as he took a look in Jin-Woo’s
direction.

‘Oops…’

He ended up being a bit carried away after discovering a rather

interesting weapon; meeting Bellion’s rather panicky gaze, Jin-Woo
replied with an apologetic expression. But that only lasted for a
moment.

Beru didn’t miss this opening and viciously slapped the irritatingly-
tenacious blade away, before dashing towards Bellion like a bolt of
lightning.

“Kiiieeeehcck!!”

STAB-!

Unfortunately – against Jin-Woo’s own expectation, the one to stab

his weapon in the midriff of his opponent was Bellion.

What an unexpectedly fast motor reflex!

On top of that, a scary power capable of destroying everything with

each attack. This was Bellion, the soldier who wasn’t left wanting for
anything as the Grand-Marshal of the Shadow Army.

‘….Still, one should never let one’s guard down.’

It was a wee bit uncool to talk about one of his soldiers in this
manner, but well, the truth was, the biggest plus point of an insect
was its tenacious vitality.

409
Sure enough, Beru suddenly expanded its body size even with a
sword stuck to his belly. He swung his humongous fist down on the
head of his opponent.

KWA-BOOM!!

The power behind that punch was so great that a part of Bellion’s
helm broke off and scattered black smoke in the air.

“Kiiieeehk!”

Almost right away, Beru followed up with his second attack. No, he
tried to.

Beru’s wrist was caught by Bellion’s powerful grip just in time. The
ant soldier tried to use his physical strength to yank his arm out, but
too bad, the Grand-Marshal didn’t even budge an inch.

In the meantime, Bellion cocked his free arm backwards. An

enormous amount of Mana quickly gathered in that cocked arm.

A moment later.

BOOM-!!!

Beru’s chest was punched powerfully and he flew backwards in a

straight line. The shockwave generated at the same time from his
flying figure swept up the forest surrounding him, and the trees were
yanked out of the ground from their roots and all, before being flung
away to the sides.

A long and straight path suddenly got carved out within the sea of
trees.

“Kiiiieeehck!”

410
Beru hurriedly unfurled his wings to stop his body from being flung
away endlessly. Unfortunately, just as he somehow managed to
steady himself, Bellion had already arrived right before his face.

That was followed by a powerful slam towards the ground!

KWA-BOOM!!

Like a meteor crashing into earth, a huge crater caved in on the

ground and Bellion lightly landed inside.

In the middle of this crater, Beru was hurriedly getting up to respond

to his opponent. Now normally, any ol’ regular enemy would have
been torn to bits and shreds by now, but he had managed to
withstand several of these attacks already.

Swiiiiish-!

Bellion used the back of his hand to slap away Beru’s claws and just
like that, smacked the ant soldier right on top of his head.

BOOM!!

That was the beginning of a dogfight.

Boom! Bang! Boom! Boooom!!

Beru’s attacks were only on the level of briefly disrupting Bellion’s

balance, but…

BOOM-!!

….Bellion’s attacks each carried fatal power behind them.

Craaaack, crack!!

Cracks formed on Beru’s exoskeleton as if they were about to shatter

at any given moment.

411
“Kiiieehk!”

Even then, Beru desperately resisted until the end, not showing any
hints of giving up on this fight. He tried to chomp down on Bellion’s
shoulder, but the latter simply pushed away the former before
grasping Beru’s neck.

Kwa-jeeck!!

Now rendered immobile, Beru writhed his entire body to free

himself, but Bellion remained unmoved. The latter simply
concentrated Mana once more on his free arm so he could attack for
the last time and end this fight.

A horrifying amount of Mana, more than enough to easily shatter the

head of a Dragon in one hit, gathered around and distorted the space
around his arm.

With this, it’d be the end.

Bellion’s cocked fist soon flew out towards Beru’s face.

But, Jin-Woo reached out and grasped the deadly fist before it did,
since he didn’t want to see Beru’s head explode today.

Grab!

“That’s enough.”

Bellion realised that it was his liege stopping his fist and quickly
withdrew his attack.

“My liege.”

The Grand-Marshal hurriedly knelt down and bowed his head.

‘….You did well.’

412
Jin-Woo praised Bellion with his eyes for not holding back anything
and displaying his prowess like that. He then walked over to Beru
collapsed on the ground.

“Kiieehhk, my king, I, I… kiieehk! I can still….”

“…..”

Jin-Woo studied the faltering, unsteady Beru with pitying eyes before
asking him out of genuine curiosity.

“Hey, Beru. Why are you so dead-set on the position of the Grand-
Marshal?”

“Kiiehk, I, only, I wish to, become the Grand-Marshal and always

stand next to my liege…”

Beru couldn’t continue on due to his grief-stricken mind. Jin-Woo

scratched the side of his head and offered up his reply.

“The Grand-Marshal can stand to my right, while you can stand to

my left, right?”

“…!!!”

Only then did Beru realise that he could still stand next to his liege
without being the Grand-Marshal, and his eyes opened up extra-
round.

“….I am honoured by….”

“Stop it.”

Leaving behind Beru and his emotion-induced tears filling up his

eyes, Jin-Woo stood back up and spat out a helpless sigh. But then…

413
Another Shadow Soldier silently approached him. It was none other
than Igrit, who had been listening to the conversation between Jin-
Woo and Beru without saying anything.

“My liege, may I be granted an opportunity to challenge….”

As Igrit cautiously asked, Jin-Woo quickly replied as if he was

expecting this already.

“You can stand behind me.”

“….!”

Igrit couldn’t finish the rest of his sentence due to his liege’s keen
insight.

***

“Is that so… In the end, the Shadow Sovereign has become our
enemy.”

The Dragon Emperor, currently in a humanoid form, was receiving

the reports from the Sovereigns that had already descended to
Earth. Only their voices softly echoed within this eternal darkness.

“I see. Fine. I shall deal with him personally. None of you make a
move. We must prevent any further losses.”

The Dragon Emperor had fully analysed the situation and ended the
connection to the Sovereigns.

Soon, there was no more sound.

This world, the gap between dimensions where nothing existed, was
quickly filled up by empty silence. To the Sovereigns, this place was
no different from hell itself, as there was nothing here to destroy.

That was why…

414
That was why, the Sovereign of Destruction, born from the darkness
with a singular purpose of destroying every single existence, did its
hardest to escape from this place.

And finally, the day it’d taste the fruit of its labour was literally
around the corner.

The Dragon Emperor turned around and issued its command towards
the darkness behind it.

“My troops. Ready yourselves for war.”

When it did, dozens of Ancient-grade Dragons, hundreds of Dragons,

and tens of thousands of Dragonewts hidden within the darkness
shot out heated glares from their eyes and roared out in unison.

Waaaaaaahhhh-!!

415
Chapter 229

Late at night.

Jin-Woo climbed up a nameless hill and settled down on its summit.

The bright moonlight illuminated the sea of trees below.

Under this pale light, he could see the Shadow Soldiers going about
their business after he granted them free time to do whatever they
wanted.

The first thing that caught his attention was Fangs who had already
gigantified himself, and the three Dragons.

Dragons, carrying serious expressions, conversed in hushed tones

with Fangs for a bit, before whispering something else amongst
them. And then, the biggest Dragon stepped out of the group.

‘What are they trying to do now?’

He could see that every other Shadow Soldier in the vicinity of the
four giants scatter away in panic and thought that the mood was
getting a bit suspicious over there.

Soon, though, that big Dragon spat out a long pillar of flames into the
sky.

Kuwaaaaaaaah-!!

Fangs smirked after checking out the thickness of the flames and
took a step forward as well.

Kuuuuooooooh-!!!

An enormous pillar of flames exploded out from his mouth and rose
up high to brightly illuminate the dark night sky. While the High Orcs

416
were whistling and cheering on from the distance, the Dragon’s
shoulders sagged visibly as he turned around to slink away.

It seemed that they decided to bet on who possessed the stronger

flame attack.

However….

‘Isn’t it cheating to use the Bead of Avarice during such a bet?’

Perhaps knowing that he was in the wrong, Fangs was trying to sneak
his Bead of Avarice back into his pocket. His gaze met Jin-Woo’s at
the last second, though, and he began scratching the back of his
head as a sheepish grin formed on his face.

Jin-Woo chuckled good-heartedly at Fangs’s thick skin and waved his

hand about to signal that there was nothing to worry about.

Fangs grinned and bowed his head towards his liege several times.

What a peaceful sight this was.

Too bad, Jin-Woo wasn’t feeling as content as his outward facial

expression implied.

‘…….’

He raised his head towards the sky. He could faintly sense the beings
from another world getting ever closer to this planet.

He felt their ominous intentions.

He also sensed their strengths.

Jin-Woo’s perception, now pushed to unfathomable heights, buzzed

and stung from the stimulation received – even if it was only on the
level of perceiving blurry, indistinct things beyond the thick veil of
fog right now.

417
‘It’s unknown just when their approach will become distinct enough
for me to see.’

The fact that the battle against them couldn’t be avoided weighed
heavily on his mind. Jin-Woo fell into deep thought before raising his
head again.

Something kept tugging at his mind so he took a closer look, only to

find his ant soldiers busy carrying stuff like lumber or stones around.

‘….And what are they trying to do now?’

Before he could summon Beru here to ask for clarity, a voice came
from behind first.

“It seems that they wish to construct a small-scale lodging that my

liege can use to rest more comfortably.”

This voice, too smooth for a dude with such a huge physique,
belonged to the Grand-Marshal Bellion. Jin-Woo didn’t look back and
simply nodded his head.

“I guess it was Beru’s idea.”

The only Marshal in the Shadow Army capable of passionately doing

something that no one asked him to was Beru. On the other hand,
Igrit did everything asked of him perfectly. As for Bellion….

‘….I wonder.’

Jin-Woo knew practically next to nothing about Bellion. The sole

bond tying him to Jin-Woo was the former Shadow Sovereign.

Naturally, he was inclined to learn more about his new Grand-

Marshal in depth. Perhaps his thoughts had been transmitted,
because Bellion wordlessly approached his master and stood behind
him.

418
“My liege. May I inquire as to why you haven’t recalled the soldiers
back into your shadow?”

Jin-Woo replied, his eyes still surveying the soldiers.

“I figured that they might be feeling too caged up. I mean, you guys
had been stuck inside the place called the gap between dimensions
for a long time before arriving here, right?”

“…..”

Bellion didn’t say anything for a while as if that answer was a bit
beyond his expectations. So, Jin-Woo spoke to him first, instead.

“Aren’t you saddened by the fact that you won’t be able to meet the
former Shadow Sovereign…. Osborne, again?”

Jin-Woo was painfully reminded of what it felt like to lose someone

precious to you only a few days ago while watching his father
disappear.

Bellion’s emotions should be similar to that. It wasn’t difficult for Jin-

Woo to understand the sense of loss the loyal Grand-Marshal
must’ve been feeling.

“I’ve been protecting the former liege’s side from the moment he
decided to stop the Rulers rebelling against the Absolute Being. And
after he acquired the power to rule over death, I was the very first
one to volunteer to become his loyal soldier.”

Bellion explained himself in a calm manner, his voice unwavering.

“I have spent almost an eternity acting as his support, but not even
once have I ever questioned his decisions.”

“That’s not what I was asking you about.”

419
Jin-Woo pointed out accurately to his soldier that he was asking
about something else. Bellion took a bit of time to ponder his answer
before revealing how he felt with a bit of hesitation.

“I haven’t yet given any thoughts on how I feel, my liege.”

“That’s why I’m giving you this chance. Come on. Take your time and
think about it.”

“…”

What ensued was a lengthy, weighty silence.

From this silent answer, Jin-Woo could sense Bellion’s true feelings.
Although no words had been spoken, he heard enough to know
already. Only then did he look behind at Bellion.

“I wish to know more about Osborne from your perspective. Would

you like to tell me?”

“But, my liege. It might be a very long story.”

“That’s perfect. I was actually in need of a long story to kill some

time until I felt sleepy, you see.”

Jin-Woo returned his gaze to his front, and Bellion quietly settled
down next to his Sovereign.

“This event happened back when I was still a fruit of the World
Tree.”

“A fruit?? You were… a fruit?!”

“Every single soldier of the heavens is born as a fruit on the branches

of the World Tree. It is a truly gigantic tree large enough to blanket
the entire sky with its branches alone.”

“Huh-uh…..”

420
As Jin-Woo focused on the story with an incomparably grand
opening, the night continued to wear on.

***

Just before sunrise.

Before the darkness had the chance to completely lift up, Jin-Woo
was leisurely jogging within the forest. He had developed the habit of
running for ten kilometres every morning since from a long time ago.

He knew very well that there was no more Daily Quest available to
him, yet his body moved on its own volition regardless.

While drinking in the crisp, cool air of the forest draped in the dawn’s
light, Jin-Woo finally finished sorting out his thoughts.

‘….I should go back.’

He should inform the world on the existences of the eight massive

armies that might arrive on this planet at any time now. He needed
to tell them that the real war was just around the corner.

Unfortunately, he wouldn’t be able to guarantee the safety of

everyone. He also couldn’t promise whether the world would be able
to retain its former appearance or not, either.

That was how stupendously powerful the Dragon Emperor was, as

seen from the memories of the former Shadow Sovereign.

The Dragon Emperor and the Army of Destruction led by that guy
reduced just about everything before them to piles of ashes. And
such creatures set their sights on Earth as their next target to
destroy.

That was why, not only him, but the entire world needed to prepare
themselves.

421
The System didn’t need to inform him but he still stopped his running
precisely on the tenth-kilometre mark. This was yet another habit
ingrained in his flesh after doing the Daily Quest almost every single
day.

The truth was, though, habits weren’t the only things ingrained in his
body now. He learned so much about fighting, and also, inherited
incredible power to boot.

The final gift left behind by the Shadow Sovereign, who yearned to
return to the eternal rest, had now transformed into ‘opportunity’.

Jin-Woo turned towards the direction where the rising sun’s rays
were pointing at. From the ridge of a distant mountain, the morning
sun was greeting yet another day.

***

Jin-Woo was now able to use Shadow Exchange freely. The first place
he headed to was inside the building where the Ah-Jin Guild was
located.

He chose not to enter the offices straight away, in consideration of

his employees’ hearts tumbling down to their pits in shock, but
thanks to his actions, he ended up running into an unfamiliar woman
stepping outside the office’s entrance, instead.

Although she was unfamiliar to him, it was as if he had seen her

somewhere before, too. She must’ve felt the same, because, just as
they were about to brush past each other, she abruptly turned
around and engaged Jin-Woo in a chat.

“Uhm, excuse me. By any chance….”

“…?”

422
He wordlessly stared at her. She flinched for some reason and while
saying “Never mind” she hurriedly escaped out of his view.

‘Well, she was a bit anti-climatic, wasn’t she?’

Jin-Woo entered the Ah-Jin Guild offices next.

“Uh?”

“Eh???”

Every single employee froze stiff with their eyes wide open as if they
had just seen something they shouldn’t have.

‘Should I have said good morning while walking in or something?’

With things being like this, there was no point in him entering from
the outside of the offices, now was there?

Even before someone had the chance to scold these wayward

employees for making such faces when their boss had stepped into
the office….

….Yu Jin-Ho finally discovered Jin-Woo and rushed towards him with
a bright expression.

“Hyung-niiiim!!”

Before sharing that welcoming greeting, though, Jin-Woo decided to

solve his curiosity first.

“Who was that lady walking out of the office just now?”

He was about to add “She seemed way too familiar”, but then, Yu
Jin-Ho’s reply easily solved the mystery and there was no need to say
anything else.

423
“Ah, her? She’s my older sister, hyung-nim. I’ve been avoiding
answering my family’s phone calls, and she barged in here as a
result. By the way, did she inconvenience you or some such….??”

“No, nothing like that.”

That was why she came across so familiar – she was Yu Jin-Ho’s
sibling. Jin-Woo glanced back at the office’s exit and nodded his head
before asking again.

“What brought her here, though?”

“Oh, that….”

Yu Jin-Ho hesitated for a bit before speaking up while cautiously

studying Jin-Woo’s reactions.

“Remember, hyung-nim? I was standing next to you just before the

super-massive Gate opened up.”

“Yeah, you were.”

“Looks like that scene was caught on camera, hyung-nim.”

Jin-Woo roughly figured out what happened next in his head.

“My family wants me to hand in my Hunter licence and quit doing

dangerous stuff since I’ve become the Vice-Chair of the Ah-Jin Guild.”

As he thought. Since the Guild’s Master, Seong Jin-Woo, was already

a Hunter, there was no strict need for its Vice-Master Yu Jin-Ho to
stay as a Hunter, as well.

There was a point to what the boy’s family said out of a genuine
concern for his welfare. However, Jin-Woo already knew what was
on Yu Jin-Ho’s mind, so he didn’t even try to convince the kid.

424
‘I’m sure he’d say something similar to him wanting to remain as a
Hunter and stand next to me.’

Sure, Jin-Woo was responsible for sorting out most of their troubles,
but still, they had gone through many life-or-death struggles
together and that made Yu Jin-Ho come across as quite praiseworthy
in Jin-Woo’s eyes. He reached out and quickly ruffled up the boy’s
hair.

“H-hyung-nim?”

Jin-Woo left behind the flustered Yu Jin-Ho and headed into his office
so he could change out of the clothes he’d been wearing for the past
few days.

“Hey, I’m gonna use the company car for a bit.”

“Oh? Should I drive for you, hyung-nim?”

“Nah, it’s fine. I’ll be quick.”

“Where are you headed off to, hyung-nim?”

“The Hunter’s Association.”

Yu Jin-Ho urgently tried to stop Jin-Woo as the latter took the keys,
but…

“Huh? Hyung-nim, there are reporters camping outside….”

‘….So it might get really annoying’ – that’s what he wanted to say,

but Jin-Woo had already escaped out of the office by then.

And sure enough, reporters sacrificing their sleep and food for that
one chance at a scoop were camping outside the building and
waiting for Jin-Woo to show up, their faces looking wane and gaunt
like a crowd of zombies.

425
Just as their wait had been long, their reaction after discovering him
was unbelievably explosive as well.

“Hunter Seong!! It’s Hunter Seong!!”

“Hunter Seong Jin-Woo has shown up!”

“Is the camera on??”

However, they couldn’t continue yapping for long.

“Uh, uh??”

“Eh, ehhh??”

They all looked down at themselves with expressions of someone not

understanding what was happening to them, before shifting their
gazes this way and that.

Only then did they realise what was going on. They realised that, not
just themselves, but everyone nearby was floating up in the air about
ten centimetres off the ground.

“B-but, what the….?!”

Fortunately, this sudden bout of suspicious flight didn’t last long.

“Heot!!”

The reporters were all settled back down on the ground at the same
time. Too bad for them, Jin-Woo was long gone by then. They quickly
exchanged flustered gazes with each other, before waves of helpless
laughter broke out.

“Ha, hahah….”

“Well, I’ll be.”

426
A phenomenon that rendered them speechless; they now had one
more thing to add to the article about Hunter Seong Jin-Woo.

***

Jin-Woo drove ‘Bonggo’ straight to the Hunter’s Association.

He had called Woo Jin-Cheol ahead of setting off, so he wasn’t

surprised to see the Association President and the employees
waiting for his arrival outside the building.

But, then…

‘….What’s going on here?’

The look on Woo Jin-Cheol’s face was rather suspicious. It was the
same story for the employees next to him.

While Jin-Woo was climbing out of the van, Woo Jin-Cheol urgently
walked over to him and asked with a trembling voice.

“Seong Hunter-nim…. By any chance, have you heard of the breaking

news yet?”

427
Chapter 230

‘….This is so strange.’

Yu Jin-Ho’s older sister, Yu Jin-Hui, was returning home empty-

handed due to her little brother’s stubbornness. As she was driving
home, though, she suddenly pulled up to the side of the road and
cautiously parked her car there.

Screech.

That man she ran into while exiting the Ah-Jin Guild offices…

‘….Hunter Seong Jin-Woo.’

There should be no one in South Korea who didn’t know what he

looked like. So, even though she had never met him in person until
now, it was easy to explain why it felt as if she did.

Someone who didn’t sweat over such things would have accepted
that explanation and move on. However, she was the eldest
daughter of Chairman Yu Myung-Hwan, a man famed for never
forgetting a face after meeting a person only once. Although not as
sharp as her father, she too didn’t forget a person’s face that easily.

The contour of Hunter Seong Jin-Woo’s face, the one she briefly
glimpsed while raising her head as they brushed past each other,
came across as distinctly familiar.

‘Just when would that be….?’

She combed through her memories until her eyes inexplicably grew
extra large.

‘Could it have been then?’

428
Back then, in front of the hospital.

There was that time near the entrance of a certain hospital where
her father had been admitted to, when a man possessing the same
facial contours brushed past her.

Why didn’t she recognise him back then?

Could it have been because her mind was in a mess after her father
had collapsed earlier in the day?

‘Right, definitely.’

The man leaving the hospital that day simply had to be Hunter Seong
Jin-Woo.

And a short while later, she received a phone call telling her that her
father, diagnosed to never open his eyes again, had precisely done
just that.

Was she even allowed to treat this as a mere coincidence?

Yu Jin-Hui’s entire body was suddenly overcome with a case of

powerful goosebumps. She quickly pulled out her smartphone and
began dialling her father’s number.

Beep, beep, beep…

But, before she could finish dialling his number, her fingers came to a
stuttering halt.

‘What am I even trying to do here….?’

Just because she ran into Hunter Seong Jin-Woo in front of the
hospital that day, she somehow ended up linking him to her father’s
miraculous recovery.

What a grand delusion this was.

429
Yu Jin-Hui could only scold her logical reasoning that seemed to have
taken a leave of absence for a moment there with a long, long sigh.
She was about to start the car again, but then…

….With excellent timing, her phone went off.

[Secretary ahjussi.]

After confirming who it was, a smile floated up on Yu Jin-Hui’s lips.

Without a doubt, her dad became curious about the result of her
visit to the Ah-Jin Guild and asked the ahjussi to find out from her.

‘Back then or even now, Father just can’t be honest with the matters
of his kids, can he?’

Yu Jin-Hui swallowed back her laughter and answered her phone.

“Hello?”

– “Hello, miss. It’s Secretary Kim.”

And so, the conversation proceeded exactly as she imagined it

would. But then, just before it was about to end, Yu Jin-Hui thought
it’d be a good idea and quickly asked Secretary Kim.

“Ah, ahjussi? By any chance, is dad a close acquaintance with Seong

Jin-Woo Hunter-nim?”

– “I beg your pardon?”

Secretary Kim’s surprised voice came out from the phone’s speaker
next.

– “May I inquire as to why you’re suddenly asking me that question,

miss?”

At this unexpectedly intense response, Yu Jin-Hui panicked slightly

and ended up replying while feeling a bit lost.

430
“It’s nothing in particular, but, I remember seeing Seong Jin-Woo
Hunter-nim exiting from the hospital on that day, you see. I was
wondering if he was also there to visit dad while he was admitted
there.”

– “Are you saying that Seong Hunter-nim was in the hospital the day
the Chairman collapsed, miss??”

“Y-yes. Just before I got the call to inform me that dad had woken up,
we brushed past each other in front of the hospital.”

– “Are you sure about this, miss? Could it have been someone else,
or maybe it was on a different day?”

“No, I’m pretty sure. I couldn’t remember who it was because I

wasn’t thinking straight back then but now…. But, why do you sound
so agitated like that, ahjussi?”

– “N-no, miss. It’s nothing to worry about. I shall give you a call again
later on.”

He didn’t say the usual ‘goodbye, speak to you soon’, but ‘will call
again later’?

‘Did I say something wrong?’

Yu Jin-Hui tilted her head in confusion. Before she could put her
phone down, though, it rang noisily again. She confirmed who the
caller was and her brows rose up just a little.

‘….Dad is personally calling me?’

Only after seeing the number for Chairman Yu Myung-Hwan on her

phone’s screen did she realise that this matter couldn’t be simple at
all.

431
Could it be that her father’s recovery and Hunter Seong Jin-Woo
were related in some way, just as she imagined earlier?

She cautiously answered the call.

“Dad?”

***

Beijing International Airport.

The biggest and busiest airport in the whole of China was now
bustling even more than ever before, all thanks to a huge throng of
people present today.

There was only one reason for this. The best of the best Chinese
Hunters that went to lend aid to the Koreans were coming back
home today, that was why.

It would be the same story in other countries as well, but at least in

China, the highly-ranked Hunters were treated as superstars famous
enough to summon up a sea of adoring fans wherever they showed
up.

And it went without saying that the leader of the support team, the
Hunter ranked as Seven-Star, Liu Zhigeng’s popularity couldn’t be
described with mere words alone.

One of the reporters doing her job surveying the atmosphere of the
airport spotted Liu Zhigeng and raised her voice.

“Ah! There he is! Liu Zhigeng Hunter-nim has entered the airport’s
interior!”

Waaaaah-!!

432
His fans filling up the airport cheered on loudly. While holding his
now-trademark pair of longswords in one hand, he waved his other
hand lightly towards his adoring fans.

Kyaaaah~!!

Liu Zhigeng’s dignified atmosphere that simply oozed the charm of

an older man caused the much-younger female fans to bounce up
and down and even scream in uncontrollable excitement.

The special team of Hunters followed after their leader and quickly
entered the airport next.

Waaaah-!!

The gasps and cries of awe emitted by many onlookers, moved by

their emotions after witnessing the Hunters they only got to see
through TV screens until then, quickly filled up the airport’s vast
interior.

Meanwhile, the reporter looked into the camera with the green light
switched on.

“Our proud Hunters are now entering the airport, having returned
from their trip to support South Korea.”

As her bright expression alluded to, the overall result of this trip was
being seen as satisfactory from the Chinese government’s point of
view.

They got to claim that they didn’t forsake their neighbouring nation’s
troubles and also got to save their face when their elite Hunters
volunteered to fight against the super-massive Gate in Seoul’s skies.

Was that all?

433
With this particular matter resolving in the way it did, not one
Hunter from the special team travelling to lend their support got
hurt. They saved face, and also earned some practical benefits, too.
Two things rolled onto their lap, so to speak.

Many Chinese clapped their hands in admiration at Liu Zhigeng who

personally persuaded China’s top Hunters and formed this special
team.

However, there would always be those with dissatisfaction

regardless of where it was. There were quite a few who tried to
slander Liu Zhigeng or South Korea through the anonymity of the
internet.

– That Liu Zhigeng b*stard, the Chinese government supported him

financially so he can protect China, yet look at him, busy rushing off
to Korea instead.

– Does anybody know where Liu Zhigeng’s ancestors come from?

– Will someone please go through Liu Zhigeng’s bank account?

Better make sure that no Koreans paid him off.

– Why would a great nation like ours help out a small country that
won’t even remember this debt in the future, anyway? We must
make sure that an event like this one doesn’t happen ever again.

– Good sir, you’re so right!

– There’s no need for them to go, but since they did, we gotta get
compensated properly. I mean, just what is the value of these
Hunters making up the special team? How can them going on a
volunteer mission even make sense?? Calculate each Hunter’s daily
wages properly and make the Koreans pay!

– I hear Seong Jin-Woo made a sh*t ton of money after killing Giants
in Japan, so he can pay out of his own pocket, then!

434
Comments that contained rather toxic contents even at a casual
glance filled up the live broadcast’s ticker tape being updated in real
time at the bottom of the screen.

The reporter, subbing for many people and their curiosity, stood
before Liu Zhigeng to do her job.

“Many people are cheering you on for your brave decision, Liu
Hunter-nim. On the other hand, those questioning why we had to aid
the Koreans are also quite a few in number as well. By any chance,
do you have anything you’d like to say to them, Liu Hunter-nim?”

Liu Zhigeng took his sunglasses off and glared at the reporter.

“Who is walking around spewing something that stupid?”

“Pardon?”

Not paying any heed to the reporter and her wide-open eyes, Liu
Zhigeng continued on with what he wanted to say.

“Are their heads nothing more than decorations? Can’t they read a
map? Don’t they know which country is next if you move your
eyeballs up from Korea?”

“Ah….”

“One Giant monster that wasn’t stopped in Japan crossed the sea
and almost made it onto the Chinese mainland. I heard that the
audience rating back then rewrote the history books, so surely, they
must’ve seen it, too.”

Liu Zhigeng glared straight at the camera next.

“What I am saying here is that something similar could’ve happened,

but on a far, far greater scale. I and my comrades agreed with that
notion and we went there to prevent that from happening.”

435
Liu Zhigeng’s torrent of harsh language put an immediate end to the
stream of toxic comments.

He continued to speak, his voice rising up higher and his glare getting
sharper as if he was addressing the toxic commenters directly.

“If there are people still spewing crap like that, then tell them this. I,
Liu Zhigeng, am not confident of stopping an event that Hunter
Seong Jin-Woo also failed to stop. That’s why we went there to help
him out, so if you’re unhappy about that, why don’t you try and
catch monsters with your own….”

Liu Zhigeng continued with his tirade which made his supporters
really happy, but then, he abruptly stopped talking for some reason.
Could it be that he finally realised the camera was rolling?

Of course not.

Liu Zhigeng was probably the only person in the whole of China
capable of pouring out insults and swearing on live TV without
worrying about repercussions. But then, someone like him had been
rendered utterly speechless as he took a look outside the airport.

Just what could have happened?

The first person to look was the reporter. Next up were the Hunters
and their supporting staff behind Liu Zhigeng. And eventually,
everyone gathered here in the airport – their gazes all shifted to the
outside.

And after witnessing the change, their eyeballs began quaking

greatly.

Liu Zhigeng would never get shocked by any ordinary little thing, but
he couldn’t stop a soft gasp of surprise leak out of his mouth.

“Oh, my god…..”

436
Above Beijing’s skies, a massive darkness was slowly descending.

***

“Seong Hunter-nim…. By any chance, have you heard of the breaking

news yet?”

Jin-Woo shook his head.

After the ‘raid’ of the super-massive Gate, he headed straight to

Japan and made it back to Korea only a little while ago before coming
to the Hunter’s Association straight away. He didn’t have any
opportunity to check out the news or any mass media coverage,
really.

Besides that, if something serious happened while he was away, Yu

Jin-Ho would’ve informed him the first thing after he entered the
office.

Seeing how grave the expressions on the faces of the Association

employees, even Jin-Woo’s own expression hardened.

“Did something happen?”

Woo Jin-Cheol pulled his phone out and showed him the real-time
footage being recorded right at that moment.

– “Jesus Christ!! Can you see that??”

– “Holy cow!!”

– “Doesn’t that Gate look even bigger than the one generated in
Korea?”

Eight super-massive Gates all revealed themselves in various parts of

the world. Half in fear and half feeling mystified by this development,
people were filming these Gates and uploading the footage on social
media. Breaking news poured in from all parts of the world.

437
Gulp.

The sound of Woo Jin-Cheol swallowing his saliva rang out loudly
from Jin-Woo’s side. He didn’t mind that and continued to watch
each and every one of the video clips.

“Hunter-nim… Could these be also….?”

“No, definitely not.”

Jin-Woo quickly cut him off. He made sure to drill home the point
that these new Gates had no relations to him whatsoever.

Woo Jin-Cheol had been secretly hoping that these Gates would also
end up as nothing too serious, so his complexion darkened fast
enough to be noticed in real time from that grim reply.

What if hundreds of thousands of monsters poured out from all

those Gates, just like how it had been with Seoul?

Isn’t that the same thing as announcing the end of humanity?

While Woo Jin-Cheol shuddered from the enormity of it all, Jin-Woo

finished watching the footage and spoke to him.

“Let’s change our location first.”

“Ah, yes.”

They quickly got to the Association President’s office and settled

down on the couches facing each other.

“You said you had something to tell me….?”

Woo Jin-Cheol cautiously spoke, and Jin-Woo replied to him

immediately.

“Association President. Do you trust me?”

438
Woo Jin-Cheol nodded his head.

“Yes, of course, I trust you.”

“In that case, I hope you will believe everything I’m about to show
you.”

“Excuse me?”

Just like how the former Shadow Sovereign had done, Jin-Woo
reached out with his index finger and placed it against Woo Jin-
Cheol’s forehead. The moment his finger touched, darkness filled up
the older man’s eyes, and countless images brushed past within his
vision.

“Heok!!”

Jin-Woo showed the necessary amount of information to the

Association President and nothing more. That would be – the Rulers
and their plans, as well as the Sovereigns. And then, the armies those
Sovereigns were summoning to this world, as well.

“Pant, pant, pant….”

Woo Jin-Cheol had witnessed the powers of these Sovereigns with

his own eyes now. Once the images stopped flashing by, he began
gasping out breathlessly.

“This, this can’t be…. Just how can such a thing….”

Woo Jin-Cheol had believed ‘it’.

He believed that God had gifted special powers to a small number of

selected individuals in order to safeguard humanity. He believed that
this was precisely the reason why Hunters had to fight against the
monsters and protect other people.

439
But, if everything Hunter Seong Jin-Woo had shown him was true,
then….

He had been too arrogant. He had made a grave mistake.

Hunters, no, the ‘Awakened’ were simply the process of cultivating a

small number of humans that might survive the aftermath of the true
war about to take place.

This was not a war between humanity and Sovereigns. It was a war
between Sovereigns and Rulers, two organisations boasting
unimaginable might. Indeed, it was they who were going to fight.

However, a huge variable entered into this fray in the form of a

certain man.

And now, with the armies of the Sovereigns arriving much faster
than expected to this planet, mankind had only one being they could
place their hopes on – the unexpected variable.

“How can this be….”

Woo Jin-Cheol’s fingertips trembled as he raised his tear-filled gaze.

“Seong Hunter-nim…. Are you planning to fight these things? All by

yourself?”

Even if the enemy possessed a powerful force, he couldn’t just give

up without trying something first now, could he? At least, Jin-Woo
had never lived his life in that manner.

That was why he quietly nodded his head.

“Yes.”

Woo Jin-Cheol wanted to help him in any shape or form, so he

quickly asked.

440
“In that case, what should we… No, what should I do to help you,
Hunter-nim?”

Now that the expected question came out, Jin-Woo calmly replied
with the answer he had thought of before arriving here.

“Can you gather the representatives of the world in one location,

please?”

441
Chapter 231

The Director of America’s Hunter Bureau, David Brennan, was about

to go insane with frustration at the moment.

“What did the Korean Hunter’s Association say??”

“They haven’t made any official announcements yet, sir.”

“Then, what the hell are you here for?!”

“….S-sir?”

But, didn’t the director summon him into the office? The subordinate
could only stand there and blink his eyes. The director’s irritation
shot up to the top of his head and he loudly yelled out.

“Aren’t you supposed to get a reply from the Korean Association

President, even if you resort to wringing his neck?! Isn’t that your
godd*mn job?!”

“I, I’m sorry, sir!”

“Get the hell out of here and find out what the f*ck is going on! Right
now!!”

The director chased the Chief of the Intelligence Department out of

his office, but, as if his anger hadn’t cooled down at all, he continued
to seethe for a long time.

The super-massive Gate, judged to be much bigger than the one that
appeared in Seoul’s skies, had shown up in Canada, an allied nation
that shared a border with the United States of America.

It’d not take much time for the flames of destruction spreading from
Canada to reach American soil.

442
In the best possible scenario that he could think of, this Gate crisis
would also end in a similar fashion to the one in Seoul’s sky. And if
the monsters Hunter Seong Jin-Woo commanded fell out from there,
then that would be even better.

‘However, the real problem is….’

The one holding all the answers, Hunter Seong himself, as well as the
Korean Hunter’s Association, had been keeping mum until now.

Three hours passed by since the super-massive Gates appeared in

various parts of the world. Meanwhile, the American government
was demanding an answer from the Hunter Bureau.

‘To think, one of the greatest intelligence agencies in America, the

Hunter Bureau, has no choice but wait for a reply from the Korean
Hunter’s Association….’

Just who’d have imagined that such a thing could happen? No

wonder the director was anxiously jumping up and down on his spot.

Beep.

The director continued to spew out one sigh after another before
noticing that there was a bleeping light on the phone. He snatched
the receiver up and barked at it.

“What is it?!”

– “Sir, Mister President is looking for you.”

“Tell him I’m not here.”

– “B-but, sir??”

SLAM!

443
The director slammed the receiver down as if he was throwing it
away and dazedly stared at the ceiling. But then, the Chief of the
Intelligence Department, the guy he just chased out, breathlessly
rushed back inside the office.

“Director!”

“How dare you crawl back into my office already!!”

The director yanked the receiver up in order to throw it, prompting

the chief to quickly raise his arms up.

“T-the Korean Hunter’s Association has sent us a communique!”

Almost instantly, the director’s expression did a 180, with a bright

smile now etched on his face.

“You see!! All you had to do was just do it!”

The director put the receiver down and approached the chief.

“Okay, so. What did they say?”

“Ah, well, the thing is…. They said that, if we want to learn more
about the super-massive Gates, we should go to Korea right away.”

“…”

Both the director and the Chief of the Intelligence Department

wordlessly stared at each other. They remained standing face to face
like that for a bit.

Finally managing to grasp hold of the thin thread of his reasoning,

the director muttered out a question.

“Who? Who should go there?”

“They say it doesn’t matter, as long as it’s a representative

designated by the government.”

444
“…..”

At that moment…

Beeeep.

The director noticed yet another light blinking on his phone and
picked the receiver up.

– “Director, if you keep avoiding Mister President’s call….”

Click.

He quickly put the receiver down and addressed the Chief of the
Intelligence Department with a determined expression.

“Tell them I’ll be there.”

“Sir?”

Since the chief seemed to be confused by something, the director

began enunciating every single word so his subordinate could
understand him just a bit better.

“I. Will. Go. To. Korea. As. America’s. Representative!”

***

Representatives from every country that received the summons

issued by the Korean Hunter’s Association quickly climbed aboard
the waiting planes.

What an astonishing change this was.

Less than two years ago, Korea’s overall Hunter strength was so
pathetic that they even lost a newbie rank S Hunter to America. But
now, they were summoning the leaders of the world to their
doorsteps.

445
No, only a year ago, they couldn’t even take care of the dungeon
break on their own territory, Jeju Island, and became a laughing
stock in Japan.

But then, with the entrance of a Hunter who had far surpassed the
classifications of upper, top, elite, or whatever, and stepped into the
ranks of transcendence, everything changed.

The man who made every monster pouring out from one of the
super-massive Gates obey him; if it was that man, then he might be
able to explain the identity of these super-massive Gates covering up
the skies all over the globe.

With that, understanding what happened a few days ago would also
come about naturally as well.

The keys to everything were held by just one person. The problem
here was, they couldn’t use force or concessions to coax the keys out
from their opponent this time.

Just who would be able to use force to make him talk, for instance?

Even if you could do something about his individual combat power

that defeated a Special Authority-rank Hunter, there was the small
matter of a hundred thousand-plus summons right behind him
waiting for their turn.

It was an impossible task, in other words.

That was why bigshots perfectly suited for representing their

countries such as presidents, prime ministers, premiers, ministers,
directors of Hunter-related government bodies, as well as leaders of
various Hunter’s Associations, were making a move after the Korean
Association requested them to come.

“Has there been anyone else informing us of their intentions to

come?”

446
“No, sir. It’s still 152 countries, as reported in the morning’s briefing,
sir.”

“Okay.”

The Association President Woo Jin-Cheol was personally going

through every single report detailing the progress of the situation.
The emergency response conference hall outfitted for the raid of the
super-massive Gate was coming in handy even now.

“Sir, the representative from Hungary has just touched down in the
airport.”

“Who’s coming from Hungary?”

“Their President, Yadessi Arnor, has personally come, sir.”

“D*mn….”

When an important dignitary from overseas came for a visit, a

person holding a similar office was supposed to go out to welcome
him. That was the established etiquette.

Unfortunately, the Hunter’s Association simply lacked the leeway to

mind such etiquette every single time at this moment. Association
President Woo Jin-Cheol formed a rueful expression for a little while
before issuing new orders.

“Guide him to a suitable hotel.”

“Yes, sir.”

The Association employee replied crisply and was about to turn

around to leave, but then, it felt as if he was hesitating about
something else. So, Woo Jin-Cheol stopped poring over the
documents to raise his head again.

“Mm? Is there something else?”

447
“Uhm….”

The employee deliberated for a bit more before he summoned up

enough courage.

“Sir, what did you hear from Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim yesterday
inside the President’s office? I’ve never seen you so pale before, you
see.”

The thing was, this employee got to realise for the first time that a
person’s complexion could pale to that extent after looking at Woo
Jin-Cheol’s face yesterday.

Just what sort of a conversation did they share? The employee

simply couldn’t forget that look on his boss’s face for the whole
night, so, although he knew he was being impolite, he still had to ask
and satisfy his curiosity now.

Sure enough, Woo Jin-Cheol’s expression hardened like a rock.

“S-sir, forgive me. I asked you something unnecessary…..”

“No, it’s not that. I am not feeling unhappy about you asking me.”

It was just that, he ended up recalling the scenes that unfolded from
Hunter Seong Jin-Woo’s fingertip, that was all.

The army of frenzied Dragons rushing out from the other side of
darkness. And then, a truly humongous Dragon following after them.

It was so huge, in fact, it seemed to move so slowly as if time had

come to a standstill, even though it was flying at a similar sort of
speed compared to the rest of the Dragon army.

It possessed an incredible aura that not even the combined might of

every single Hunter in the world attacking together at the same time
could even scratch. And then, that overwhelming pressure it

448
emitted, something that might easily burn away everything in the
world with merely a single breath. That creature possessed both of
those.

Simply looking at it made him dizzy.

He didn’t want to ever face that thing, regardless of the level of

power he could gain, regardless of the promised reward at the end
waiting for him.

‘I can’t do it….’

Because of that, he respected Hunter Seong Jin-Woo even more as

the latter wasn’t planning to run away but rather, stay and fight,
even though he knew that such creatures existed.

‘Wait, now that I think about it, what is Hunter Seong Jin-Woo doing
right now?’

There was still some time left before the representatives of the
various nations would arrive.

Woo Jin-Cheol suddenly became curious as to how Jin-Woo would

spend his downtime, so he called out to the employee turning
around to leave his office.

“Oh, by the way. Do you know where Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim is

at the moment?”

“Currently, we believe that he’s resting within his family home, sir.”

***

“Ta-da!”

Jin-Woo placed the pot of piping-hot kimchi stew he cooked himself

on top of the dining table. Jin-Ah’s expression brightened in an
instant.

449
“Wow, smells so good!”

On the other hand, mom looked rather apologetic for letting her
busy son cook her food like this.

“I should’ve done this, you know….”

Jin-Woo grinned and replied in an unhurried manner.

“I just wanted to show you the cooking skills I got to polish in the last
couple of years, Mom.”

Jin-Woo pleaded and persuaded her, and finally managed to wrestle

the control of the kitchen away from his mom. This was his ambitious
end result.

Swept up by her son’s continuous encouragement that she should

have a taste, his mother smiled and picked up her spoon.

“Fuu-.”

She carefully blew on the hot stew and placed a spoonful inside her
mouth. Her eyes opened into a round shape almost right away. Jin-
Ah began boisterously yapping on from her side.

“Mom, how was it? It’s really good, right?”

“Oh my goodness.”

Seeing how his mom looked surprised, Jin-Woo couldn’t help but
strut around a bit.

“I also didn’t know that oppa had a talent in cooking, you know?
Mom, try this one, too. Oppa is really good at making side dishes.”

While his sister was relentlessly praising his cooking skills while even
forgetting to wipe the bits of rice off her lips, Jin-Woo noticed that

450
his mother’s expression was slowly changing for some reason and
carefully asked her.

“Mother?”

She gently set her spoon aside and asked back.

“Jin-Woo…. Isn’t there something I should be worried about?”

Jin-Woo did his very best to maintain a bright expression and played
dumb.

“What do you mean by that, Mom?”

“Your dad, he used to prepare meals for me whenever he was

planning to participate in dangerous missions, you see.”

“….”

Her son had never done something like this, even when he was
about to head to Japan in order to deal with those Giant monsters,
or even when that gigantic Gate opened up in Seoul. But now that he
did, his mom began to get worried all of a sudden.

A woman’s intuition – no, it was more to do with a mother’s

intuition, instead.

‘Like father, like son, is it. I even resemble him in things like this,
too….’

Jin-Woo very briefly spat out his complaint that wasn’t really a
complaint in his head and shook his head towards his mother.

“There’s no such thing, Mom.”

Whether she wanted to remain as a source of strength for her son as

he tried to force a smile on his face, or maybe she really bought his

451
excuse, it was hard to tell. But still, she smiled in reply and picked up
her spoon again.

Jin-Ah had been observing the conversation between her oppa and
her mom while lightly biting the end of her spoon, before breaking
out into a grin herself and resuming her meal.

Around the time the meal was coming to an end…

[My liege.]

….He heard Bellion’s voice.

[As you have commanded, soldiers are now in position.]

‘Got it.’

As if he was waiting for this chance, Beru also raised his voice.

[Oh, my king. The lodging specifically prepared for you has been
completed as well.]

‘…..Sure thing. Thanks.’

He didn’t ask it to be built, in the first place, though.

Jin-Woo finished receiving the reports from his Marshals and slowly
got up from his seat.

“Thanks for the meal.”

But then, his hands reaching down to pick up the empty plates came
to an abrupt halt after sensing the noises coming from the outside.

‘Footsteps of four people….’

He could also hear their hearts racing wildly from excitement, too.
Although such categorisation didn’t mean anything to him, all four of
them were not Hunters but regular people.

452
‘What could this be?’

Surely, there wouldn’t be any insane robber wanting to attack the

house of a rank S Hunter, now would there?

Also, the entrance of the apartment building was being guarded by

the agents from the Monitoring Division due to the consideration
from the Association President Woo Jin-Cheol, so no reporters could
come up here, either.

Jin-Woo couldn’t figure it out, and soon, his ears were greeted by the
sounds of the doorbell.

Ding-dong.

“Let me answer that.”

He quickly dissuaded his mother from getting up and headed over to

the front door.

Clunk.

The first thing he saw after opening the door was three well-built
young men kitted out in black suits as if they were from some
intelligence agency or some such.

‘Doesn’t look like they are from the Hunter Bureau, though….’

Jin-Woo scanned their attire briefly before calmly asking them.

“Can I help you with something?”

When he did, the trio of well-built young men stepped aside and
another man standing behind them slowly moved to the front.

“Seong Hunter-nim… I apologise for coming to see you unannounced

like this. But, can I speak to you in private for a little while?”

Jin-Woo recognised who it was and his voice rose up a little.

453
“…..Chairman Yu Myung-Hwan?”

454
Chapter 232

His heightened emotion was all-too-clear to see on Chairman Yu’s

face.

Regardless of what he wanted to say, it shouldn’t be discussed here.

Jin-Woo remembered his mom and little sister, and took a quick look
towards the dining table, before shifting his gaze back to Chairman
Yu.

“…”

The older man was anxiously waiting for Jin-Woo’s reply. After a
short deliberation, the latter’s lips finally parted open.

“If it’s somewhere private to quietly talk, then, well….”

Chairman Yu’s expression brightened and a genuine smile quickly

formed on his face.

“Allow me to guide you to such a place. Shall we get going, then?”

Jin-Woo went back inside the apartment and told his mom that he’d
be out for a bit, put on his coat, and made his way down to the lobby
of the building while being accompanied by Chairman Yu and his
entourage.

And as expected, the front entrance of the building was occupied by

the reporters that had set up a camp there. Most likely, the three
well-built young men were Chairman Yu’s bodyguards here to
overcome the wall of the reporters.

As for those said reporters, they were far too busy shouting out
angrily while pushing and shoving against the Monitoring Division’s
Hunters protecting the entrance.

455
“What the hell?? How can this make sense? It’s fine for the Chairman
of Yujin Construction, but we aren’t allowed to go inside?!”

“He’s a guest coming to visit Hunter Seong Jin-Woo? Why can’t

reporters be guests, too?! We’re also guests from now on!! We’re
guests!!”

“Aaah, is that so? The biggest financial supporter of the Hunter’s

Association is okay, but reporters are not, is that it?!”

The reporters crazily pushed and shoved forwards as if they were

planning to stampede past the wall of humans were it not for them
being Hunters and not regular people.

“Step aside!!”

Things were so bad that the Hunters of the Monitoring Division

looked rather pitiable right now.

“Didn’t Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim announce that he won’t do any

interviews?!”

“Hey, over there! Step back!!”

“If you wish to visit Hunter-nim’s residence, you must go and obtain
a permit from the Association first!!”

Since they were up against regular people, they couldn’t resort to

using their real strengths, so the agents from the Monitoring Division
could only sweat profusely under the current circumstances. Jin-Woo
studied them with sympathetic eyes and eventually, extended his
hands out.

“Uh, uh-uh??”

The reporters began floating up into the air.

“S-save me!”

456
This time, forget about ten centimetres, Jin-Woo lifted the reporters
ten metres up in the air. When he stepped outside the entrance,
Hunters quickly bowed their heads to welcome him.

“Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim!”

“Hunter-nim!”

Compared to these Hunters who didn’t get too surprised by what

was happening – as if they were familiar with this whole thing
already – the eyes of Chairman Yu and his three bodyguards went
extra round from the sheer unbridled shock.

“O-oh, my god….”

The businessman’s gaze was fixed to the reporter helplessly flailing in

the air. He could see their complexion paling greatly, too. For the
first time ever, Chairman Yu felt sorry for these people, even though
he often times felt sick and tired of dealing with them in the past.

The person in charge of this batch of the Monitoring Division’s

agents walked over to Jin-Woo and although there was a troubled
expression on his face, his lips began forming a smile, as well.

“Hunter-nim… If you keep doing this, it’s going to come and bite us in
the rear later.”

“Well, they were getting a bit too noisy to be left alone, you see.”

“Haha.”

The reporters were continuously shouting something out, but even

before anyone had noticed it, a barrier made out of magical energy
was surrounding them to cut off all sounds made by their mouths.

The person in charge looked up at them for a little while, before

asking Jin-Woo.

457
“How long will you keep them up there this time?”

“I’m thinking about something like five minutes, so that they can cool
their heads up there.”

The Hunters from the Monitoring Division burst out in laughter after
hearing his declaration to rewrite the existing record.

Wahahahah-!

“Hey! Hush!”

The person in charge did his best to suppress his own laughter and
chided his subordinates before replying politely back to Jin-Woo.

“I pray that you make sure no reporters are harmed today.”

“You don’t have to worry about that.”

It’s been a while since he had become a master in ‘Ruler’s Authority’,

or the technique to move Mana to influence an object. Even if he
wasn’t here, the Mana would safely lower the reporters at a later
time.

‘Nothing I can do about them feeling a bit sick, though…’

However, not only did they try to barge into his home even though
his private details were being protected, they even tried to raise a
huge ruckus as well, so this level of a warning shouldn’t pose a
problem at all.

Screech.

Soon, the waiting limousine Chairman Yu brought along came to a

stop before them, and both him and Jin-Woo climbed into the back
seat.

458
The vehicle smoothly glided forward and headed off to Chairman
Yu’s private residence.

***

Chairman Yu guided Jin-Woo to the drawing room of his mansion,

which should probably be the quietest place they could talk in. They
settled down on the couches while facing each other.

“I’d like not to be interrupted during my chat with Seong Hunter-

nim.”

“Understood, Chairman.”

After he sent away everyone near their vicinity, Jin-Woo broke the
ice first.

“How did you find out?”

There shouldn’t have been any evidence of him helping Chairman Yu

out. So, where could he have made a mistake? As Jin-Woo stared
with a curious gaze, Chairman Yu began telling him the truth of what
happened.

“My daughter saw you leaving the hospital on that day.”

If it was Chairman Yu’s daughter, then….

‘Ah.’

Jin-Woo recalled Yu Jin-Ho’s older sister, the one he ran into in front
of his Guild office. He thought that she looked kinda familiar back
then. But to think, she was the same person as the one he walked
past in front of the hospital that Chairman Yu Myung-Hwan had been
admitted to.

459
Realising that the actions he thought were watertight had been
undone by a simple coincidence, Jin-Woo could only form a helpless
smile.

At the same time, Chairman Yu was carefully studying Jin-Woo’s

expression, and after seeing that smile, he felt greatly relieved.

‘What a relief.’

Even if the deed was done out of goodwill, Jin-Woo tried to hide it so
Yu Myung-Hwan was inwardly worried that the young Hunter would
get angry at him for exposing the secret like this. He wouldn’t even
be able to look the other party in the eye if he somehow ended up
displeasing his life’s saviour.

Thankfully, contrary to his worries, Jin-Woo didn’t look unhappy at

all. Indeed, what a wonderful turn of events this was for Chairman
Yu.

“As I expected, it was you, Seong Hunter-nim.”

“Yes, it was.”

Jin-Woo didn’t try to deny it.

The moment he heard the answer straight from the person,

Chairman Yu’s eyes, locked onto Jin-Woo, shook about greatly.

Up until now, he lost count of just how many people had tried to get
in his good books because they wanted something from him. Some
of them didn’t even bother to put in any effort whatsoever and
simply reached out, hoping to get a hand-out somehow.

But then, what about this young man before his eyes?

460
He saved a person’s life. No, he saved the life of the top executive of
the biggest corporation in the country, yet he wasn’t asking for
anything in return.

If Chairman Yu’s daughter didn’t see him and simply walked on by,
he would never have found out how he recovered from that illness
for the rest of his life.

Yu Myung-Hwan was famous for being a poker face, but just this
once, his expression betrayed how emotionally moved he was.

“But, why….?”

He had to say something in order to suppress his overwhelming

emotions.

“Why did you help me?”

Back then, even though the demand for a helping hand was made,
accompanied by a huge financial incentive, Jin-Woo simply rejected
it while saying that he didn’t possess such powers.

So, what made him change his mind, then?

Yu Myung-Hwan brought Jin-Woo here pretty much to ask that one

question, even at the risk of offending him.

Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump….

His heart was beating faster and faster as time went by; every
passing second felt as long as ten minutes before Jin-Woo chose to
make his reply.

And that he finally did.

“I judged you to be a trustworthy person, that was why.”

“….!!”

461
At that rather unexpected answer, Chairman Yu’s brows rose up
higher.

“But…. What does that mean?”

“If you were the type of person who did whatever it takes to
accomplish your goal, then I wouldn’t even have considered risking it
for your sake.”

“By that, you mean…. Is it because I never tried to use my son, Jin-
Ho?”

“That’s correct.”

Jin-Woo nodded his head.

As expected of the leader of a global corporation, Chairman Yu

instantly figured out what Jin-Woo was trying to say here.

It was true that Yu Myung-Hwan did possess the one trump card that
could have made Jin-Woo act. And that would be his son, the Vice-
Chair of the Ah-Jin Guild – Yu Jin-Ho.

However, after his proposal was rejected, he didn’t obsessively cling

on and cleanly backed away. Meaning, he believed in Jin-Woo’s
words of not possessing the cure.

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth – Jin-Woo religiously adhered

to this principle so, to Yu Myung-Hwan who believed in him, he
replied in kind as well.

Although, it did take a bit of time to figure out whether the

businessman was worthy of his trust or not.

‘Still, I didn’t make a wrong decision.’

Jin-Woo formed a grin.

462
At the same time…

Drip….

A single teardrop trickled down Yu Myung-Hwan’s eye.

“I’m not sure how to express my gratitude to you.”

He quickly wiped the tear away with the back of his hand and stared
at the young Hunter with a determined expression on his face.

“Please, allow me to repay this debt, even if it’s only half, no, half of
that half. I beg of you.”

Only by doing this, the debt of gratitude he felt in his heart would
lessen just a tad. Yu Myung-Hwan quickly carried on.

“Is there anything you’d like, Hunter-nim?”

“It’s not that I want something, but….”

Yu Myung-Hwan’s ears perked up right away. If Hunter Seong Jin-

Woo wanted money or something else, he was planning to do
everything in his power to make it happen.

However, Jin-Woo’s answer was a bit different to what Yu Myung-

Hwan had been thinking of.

“If something ever happens to me…. Can you look after my mother
and my sister?”

That was his reply after a short bout of hesitation.

To prepare for the worst-possible-case scenario that may or may not

happen, Jin-Woo asked for the favour of his family being taken good
care of. He may have already amassed enough money, but
unfortunately, money wouldn’t be able to protect them from certain
things.

463
Surely, Chairman Yu Myung-Hwan would prove to be a dependable
buffer during those times.

“….Are you really okay with only that, Hunter-nim?”

“Yes, I am.”

It was difficult to imagine something untoward happening to Hunter

Seong Jin-Woo, but since he decided to say yes to whatever demand
the young man would make, Chairman Yu Myung-Hwan didn’t even
hesitate and nodded his head right away.

“I give you my word.”

The lengthy conversation had come to an end here.

“Well, then….”

Jin-Woo tried to get up to leave.

Yu Myung-Hwan watched him and felt rueful about the fact that
their conversation had come to an end. He then belatedly realised
how much he liked this young man named Jin-Woo.

If Hunter Seong Jin-Woo could become a part of his family…..?

Never once did Yu Myung-Hwan entertain the idea of using his

beloved daughter as a tool in an arranged marriage, but he still
found himself asking the question anyway.

“By any chance, are you dating someone at the moment?”

If it was this young man, then he’d not feel short-changed by giving
away Yu Jin-Hui – for the first time ever, Yu Myung-Hwan had met a
young man who made him feel this way.

Too bad, though, Jin-Woo grinned brightly as his reply.

“Actually, there is someone I like.”

464
“Oh….”

It was then, Yu Myung-Hwan realised that he just asked a really

embarrassing question and his face reddened visibly.

That was how impressive this young man was.

However, Chairman Yu wasn’t someone who’d obsess over things he

couldn’t obtain. He soon raised his head back up and with a smile on
his face, bade him goodbye.

“I shall pray that the promise I made today won’t ever come true in
the future.”

Jin-Woo smiled in reply and stood up fully from his seat.

“I’ll do my best to make sure of that, too.”

***

Now that all of his Stat values had reached their maximum attainable
limit, the only area left to improve was his ability to command his
Shadow Army.

Jin-Woo returned to the entry prohibited area in Japan in order to

get his final preparation ready.

The uninhabited sea of forest stretched on forever in his view.

Grand-Marshal Bellion had split the Shadow Army to three separate

groups as per Jin-Woo’s instruction and assigned the commands of
each to himself, Igrit, and Beru.

Jin-Woo nodded his head while looking at the three separate groups
of his soldiers below the hill. He guessed from the aura emitted by
the soldiers below that a great deal of thought had been given to
creating the balance of strengths between the three groups.

465
The Grand-Marshal bowed his head after meeting Jin-Woo’s gaze. It
seemed that this guy was also the perfectionist-type like Igrit.

On the other hand….

‘This guy….’

Jin-Woo turned around to take a gander at the so-called ‘lodging’

built on the summit of the hill.

“Beru, get over here. Now.”

Whoooosh-!!

Beru dashed forward from the bottom of the hill right up to the
summit in the blink of an eye and knelt down before Jin-Woo.

“Oh, my king!”

“Head, floor.”

Even before those words finished coming out of his king’s mouth,
Beru quickly rammed his head on the ground. Right away, Jin-Woo
yelled out.

“How can you call this a small ‘shelter’? Am I supposed to take a

break inside that?! Setting aside its size, is this even a shelter, to
begin with?!”

“Kiiehhk….”

Beru cowered from Jin-Woo’s loud shouting and replied with the
voice of a guy being wrongfully accused.

“For a lodging befitting my king, at the bare minimum, it must be….”

“…..”

466
Jin-Woo slowly massaged his forehead. He had completely
overlooked the small fact that ants specialised in building ‘houses’.

Indeed, he should’ve seen just what the human-sized ants possessing

greater physical strength than superhumans might end up creating in
the name of a mere ‘house’.

He slowly raised his lowered face and ended up being overwhelmed

by the dignified air of the so-called ‘small shelter’ once more.

A massively-tall fortress built out of white stone – so it could be

spotted pretty easily from afar – stretched from this part of the land
all the way to over there. It was also dizzyingly tall that, while trying
to see where its roof was, his neck actually began aching instead
from looking up for too long.

Jin-Woo’s head pulsed painfully again after witnessing the fruit of the
ants’ unnecessary devotion. He didn’t even order them to do this,
yet here they were.

He roughly massaged his temples before groaning out and asked

another question.

“What about that black flag flapping around at the end of this
castle…. That, just what were you thinking when putting that up
there??”

It was then, Bellion hurriedly ran to where his master was and
suddenly planted his head on the ground alongside Beru.

Boom!

Jin-Woo was rendered speechless for a while and alternated his

dazed gaze between Bellion and Beru. He slowly turned around and
shouted out.

“My soldiers! Now, commence with the combat drill!”

467
With that, the thunderous roars of the Shadow Soldiers powerfully
reverberated throughout the land.

Waaaaaaaaaaahhhh-!!!

468
Chapter 233

One day. Two days. And then, three days.

It had been three days since the super-massive Gates revealed

themselves to the world. Civil unrest quickly broke out in the
countries with the Gates and their neighbouring nations, and they
grew more violent with each passing day.

That was because none of these countries had come up with a viable
response yet.

The enraged mob of citizens filed out onto the streets and went on
violent demonstrations to force their governments to come up with
a countermeasure.

Meanwhile, news stations emphasized the severity of the situation

by continuously showing the alternating images of the
demonstrators, growing in number every day, and the giant Gate
floating silently high up in the sky.

– It has been over 75 hours since the phenomenon now referred to

as the super-massive Gates have appeared in the sky. However, the
government hasn’t….

– Over there! As you can see, the demonstrators carrying around the
pickets that read ‘Answer us, Governments’ have…..

– The number of demonstrators is increasing with every passing day,

and the worries are that this volatile atmosphere is at the breaking
point….

This was a completely different spectacle compared to when the

super-massive Gate first appeared in South Korea. The experts were

469
quick to figure out why things unfolded differently there. The reason
was pretty simple.

On one hand, the quick-witted response from the Korean Hunter’s

Association had played a part. As soon as the Gate appeared, they
summoned every single Hunter in the country to the capital city.

The other part had to do with the psychological sense of security felt
by the Koreans from the fact that their country possessed the
greatest Hunter alive that surpassed all Special Authority-rank
Hunters.

One of the experts invited to speak in a specially-organised TV show

said this in front of the camera.

“Hunter Seong Jin-Woo almost single-handedly took care of two rank

S dungeon breaks. Ants and Giants – in a span of a single year, he
pretty much resolved two of the most infamous incidents in history
with his own hands.”

There was no need to even bring up the Giant-type monsters of

Japan; the world’s attention was already boiling red-hot during the
Jeju Island ant raid.

What more could be said on that subject when the TV station

awarded with the exclusive broadcasting rights had reputedly earned
revenue equalling the last three years’ profit in one go?

Nod, nod.

The emcee’s head nodded all by itself while the expert lightly tapped
his temple with his index finger.

“And that’s why the Korean citizens naturally believe this in their
minds. They believe that, regardless of the danger threatening them,
Hunter Seong Jin-Woo will show up and deal with it.”

470
That was precisely the reason why, even after a super-massive Gate
appeared on the skies of a capital city with over ten million souls
living in it, people were able to remain relatively calm about it.

The expert emphasized until his throat was hoarse that the existence
of Hunter Seong Jin-Woo was an immeasurable blessing to the
Republic of Korea and its people.

Unfortunately, it was obvious that not every nation on Earth would

be blessed with such luck. The number of truly excellent Hunters was
very low, and they were not spread out evenly, either.

Many nations within the territory of influence of those super-

massive Gates possessed pretty lacklustre Hunter systems, so it was
only obvious that the unrest would continue to grow larger.

It reached the point where people were demanding vociferously that

more high-ranked Hunters should be hired at the cost of forking out
higher taxes, even if it was just one more combatant being added to
their defences.

Meanwhile, many governments could barely hide their shock when

many wealthy folks, the very same ones that gnashed their teeth
come tax collection season, pledged to support them financially.

And so, as the sense of impending crisis continued to heighten, the

bigshots representing their respective nations gathered in the capital
city of Korea, Seoul, to answer the request of the Korean Hunter’s
Association.

What they wanted from this trip was just one thing. And that would
be to find out the information regarding the eight super-massive
Gates that appeared simultaneously all around the world.

Since the information was to be provided by Hunter Seong Jin-Woo,

the man who managed to achieve a rather unbelievable result from

471
the first super-massive Gate, their expectations were understandably
huge.

“Whew-woo….”

A certain man spat out a hushed sigh. It was none other than the
director of the Hunter’s Bureau, David Brennan, who had opted to
travel to Korea after being harassed by his own president. He dabbed
away the cold sweat soaking his forehead with a handkerchief and
took a look at the faces of everyone sitting around him.

‘….So many of them came.’

Presidents, government ministers, Guild Masters, Chairpersons from

various Hunter’s Associations…..

The director of the Hunter Bureau knew the faces of most of these
people. They indeed were all bigshots that just their names alone
would be enough to get them recognised by everyone in their
respective nations.

While seeing the flashes of nervousness in their faces, the director

wiped the sweat pooling at the edge of his chin.

‘Regardless of who it is, everyone’s feeling the heat, huh.’

They may all look calm and collected on the surface, but they also
knew that inwardly, every single one of them here was anxiously
stomping their feet. Well, even the director himself was feeling the
same way, after all.

How wonderful would it be if Hunter Seong Jin-Woo stepped forward

to say that “This Gate crisis should end painlessly and there’s nothing
to worry about”?

472
If only he could deliver that message to the higher-ups; the POTUS
busy pressuring him would instantly back off, then. It would be a
wonderful opportunity to restore his damaged pride, in other words.

However, if the truth was completely the opposite, then….

The director felt his heart tumble to the pit of his stomach. He
swallowed back his dry saliva and confirmed the time. His wristwatch
was precisely pointing at 02:55.

Five minutes remained until the announcement time.

Tick, tock….

While listening to the ticking of the second hand that sounded

unusually loud for some reason today, the director raised his stiff
face.

***

Around the same time.

Having finished inspecting the Shadow Army just now, Jin-Woo asked
Bellion next to him.

“What happens to the armies with no Sovereigns leading them?”

“Marshals of those armies will take over the command of the

soldiers in place of the dead Sovereigns.”

He proceeded to add more explanation that the army of Giants was

being led by its Marshal instead, after their king had been captured
by the Rulers.

Jin-Woo nodded his head in understanding. A total of eight Gates

appeared around the world. The phenomenon of Gates for
Sovereign-less armies being generated could be explained now if the
Marshals were commanding them.

473
It was then, another question abruptly popped up in Jin-Woo’s head.

“If I die, do you get to command the Shadow Army as its Grand-
Marshal?”

Bellion shook his head.

[Our lives are tied to yours, my liege. If you pass on, we will also
return to the void.]

As long as their master’s head was attached to the right place, not
one soldier’s life would be extinguished – the strong point of the
Shadow Army was the loyalty of its soldiers that moved only for the
sake of their master while not even caring about their own lives.

But, if one were to flip that around, the moment their master was
met with a serious problem, then the Shadow Army would be
finished right then and there.

‘…….’

The pros and cons basically worked in the same manner as two sides
of a coin. Depending on the situation, the good could become bad,
while the weakness could become a strength, instead.

Surely, his enemies wouldn’t overlook that point, now would they?
Didn’t that mean he could exploit that, too?

‘……’

Jin-Woo fell deeper into his thoughts, and a glint briefly flickered in
his eyes. A different voice then addressed him from the other side.

“My liege.”

It was Igrit.

“We do not stand a chance in a full-scale war, my liege.”

474
A baritone voice filled with power and conviction, spoken in a low,
deep tone. It’d been a while since he started conversing with Igrit,
but Jin-Woo still hadn’t really gotten over that voice.

Seriously now, he was kitted out in that lightweight, agile-looking

armour, so why did he have to possess such a manly voice??

According to Igrit, he was supposed to be the greatest knight ever in

the history of humanoid creatures, before he got reborn through the
powers of the previous Shadow Sovereign, so it wasn’t all that hard
to understand where that ultra-high level of manliness in his voice
came from, but still…

‘What am I supposed to do about this sense of disharmony….?’

Whether he knew about Jin-Woo’s predicament or not, Igrit

continued to calmly speak of his concern.

“Unlike the former Shadow Sovereign, who grew doubtful about the
battles against the Rulers and stopped shoring up his army, other
Sovereigns didn’t hold back and continuously enhanced and
increased the scale of their armies.”

“How big do you think is the difference in the combat force?”

This time, Bellion replied.

“We can not be certain, but it could be well over one hundred times
larger.”

Only Beru had no way of knowing the scale of other armies, so he

quietly listened to the conversation of his master and the other
Marshals.

Jin-Woo’s expression stiffened.

475
Didn’t that mean, in the best-case scenario, his enemies possess over
ten million soldiers?!

“Hundred times, huh….”

Jin-Woo mulled over the numbers before replying in a low voice.

“I never was planning for all-out, full-scale warfare, anyway.”

What he meant here was that he never entertained the idea of full-
scale warfare while discarding the advantage of his army, where one
could become ‘all’, or that ‘all’ could revert back to being one.

Even now, Jin-Woo’s mind was continuously picturing the battles

taking place in the future. After a short bout of silence….

Brrr… Brrr….

Jin-Woo pulled out his smartphone vibrating noisily inside his pocket.

He answered the call, but even before he could say something, the
familiar voice came out from the device’s speaker.

– “Hunter-nim? It’s me, Woo Jin-Cheol.”

“Ah, yes. Hello.”

– “As you have requested, representatives from various nations have

gathered in the auditorium. Where are you now, Hunter-nim?”

Before answering that, Jin-Woo quietly looked behind him.

The hints of heavy fighting were everywhere; the ground that was
horrifyingly torn up, gouged out, and blown to bits extended as far as
his eyes could see. All those trees forming the green forest, the sea
of trees, had evaporated without a trace.

476
This was the end product of the Shadow Army fighting a mock battle
after splitting up into three groups. The earth fortified by Mana had
been completely overturned from horrifying impact forces.

The Japanese Hunter’s Association was warned beforehand by Jin-

Woo and so, they got to watch the destruction of the entry
prohibited area through their spy satellite. All those watching,
though, simply couldn’t hide their shock at the collision of enormous
amounts of magical energy captured by their satellite.

The power they witnessed, that was the true strength of the Shadow
Army. And Jin-Woo also got to witness that strength.

Through this experience, he got to accurately assess the depths of his

army’s combat prowess. The end result was completely satisfactory.

Jin-Woo stopped looking behind and shifted his gaze back to his
front. Over one hundred thousand soldiers were kneeling on the
ground in front of Jin-Woo, waiting for their liege’s next command
and not even moving a muscle.

When Jin-Woo’s reply didn’t arrive even after a long pause, the
Association President Woo Jin-Cheol cautiously inquired over the
phone.

– “….Hunter-nim?”

The corners of Jin-Woo’s lips arched up and he replied as matter-of-

factly as he could.

“Ah, yes. I’ve just arrived there now.”

***

“You’ve arrived? But when….?”

477
Woo Jin-Cheol had ordered his subordinates to inform him the
moment Jin-Woo arrived in the venue, so he had asked back in a
puzzled voice while turning around. But at that very moment….

He got to discover Jin-Woo standing right behind him.

“Keok!”

Woo Jin-Cheol unwittingly spat out a surprised gasp and blinked his
eyes for a moment there, before a helpless grin formed on his lips.
He quietly pocketed his phone away.

“….I guess that question has lost much of its meaning now. You
know, asking you where you are.”

Jin-Woo reciprocated that smile and shrugged his shoulders once as

his reply.

Currently, they were standing inside the waiting room of the

auditorium. Beyond that door, representatives from various
countries filling up every available seat were waiting for Jin-Woo’s
entrance with bated breaths.

Woo Jin-Cheol confirmed the current time. The clock on his phone’s
screen informed him that there were still two minutes left until the
announcement time. Meaning, there was a little bit of time left.

He felt this unexplainable sense of ease and raised his head.

“Hunter-nim, are you really planning to tell the truth to these

people?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Once they learn of the truth, there could be huge unrest breaking
out everywhere. And more than a few nations won’t be able to deal
with such unrest.”

478
“I know that.”

That would be an obvious development. Even the Rulers knew that

things would unfold this way and hid their intentions right until the
end.

However, even if everything were to come to an end through the

upcoming event, shouldn’t one know what’s happening to them, at
least?

‘I mean, it’s one hell of an unfair thing not knowing what killed you,
isn’t it?’

That’s why Jin-Woo decided to tell the truth to everyone. It wouldn’t

only be him that might need time to prepare themselves in the
heart, after all.

Seeing Jin-Woo’s determined expression, the Association President

Woo Jin-Cheol could only nod his head.

“I see. If that’s what you’ve decided, then….”

Jin-Woo walked past Woo Jin-Cheol and approached the door

leading to the auditorium, but then, the latter discovered something
and hurriedly called out.

“Excuse me, Hunter-nim!”

‘….??’

Jin-Woo turned around with a confused expression, and Woo Jin-

Cheol formed a sheepish expression as his reply and opened his
mouth.

“There are quite a lot of reporters waiting for you outside.”

“….Oh.”

479
Jin-Woo looked at his current duds.

He had been staying in the entry prohibited area for the past few
days to control his soldiers, so the state of his clothing was rather
wretched at the moment.

‘What am I to do now….?’

The thing was, though, he didn’t want to make a big deal out of a
simple matter like changing clothes by moving to another location,
etc, etc.

But then, he couldn’t buy whatever outfit available in the Store

anymore and change into that, as he had done in the past.

‘….Hang on a bit.’

Buy clothes from the Store?

With the System gone, he could no longer utilise the services of the
Store, but the power that the System used to sustain itself belonged
to the Shadow Sovereign, to begin with.

In that case, creating clothing and putting it on was, theoretically

speaking at least, eminently possible for him. At that moment, Jin-
Woo recalled the sole clothing type he should be able to create right
now.

Shu-ahahk!

In the blink of an eye, the waiting room was suddenly filled up by the
black smoke, and as if it was alive, it quickly enveloped Jin-Woo’s
body.

“Heok?!”

Woo Jin-Cheol jumped up in fright and took several steps back in a

hurry. As his brows shot up real high….

480
The black smoke had transformed into a set of jet-black armour on
Jin-Woo.

“How about this?”

Now normally, Hunters always made sure to wear armour in order to

protect themselves from the monsters and their preternatural
powers.

When these extraordinary-looking equipment were added on top of

a powerful Hunter like Jin-Woo, an overwhelming pressure seemed
to automatically ooze out from him.

Woo Jin-Cheol was completely suppressed by this amazing aura and

could barely move his lips to make his reply.

“It’s… it’s really something else.”

Jin-Woo formed a thin smile.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Jin-Woo turned back towards the door and slowly entered the
auditorium. Almost in an instant, all unimportant noise disappeared
within the venue.

‘Hunter Seong Jin-Woo….!!’

‘He’s finally here.’

The attention of every single one gathered here focused on one man
standing on the rostrum, Jin-Woo. He took a sweeping look at their
faces and calmly organised several thoughts currently crisscrossing
inside his brain.

He was here to inform these folks on what was to come – about the
arrival of eight great armies desiring the destruction of this world.
Also, the fact that each and every one of these armies being made up

481
of soldiers from the Chaos World, ones that humanity would find
very difficult to fight against.

‘……’

They were waiting for the official announcement with those anxious
expressions etched on their faces. After learning of the truth, though,
what would their expressions change to next?

The tension tightening around their hearts was transmitted in full to

Jin-Woo and his own expression darkened as a result.

“…”

Everyone held their breath and listened to his voice. The auditorium
might have been quiet before, but now, it was even quieter than
ever.

A short while later – Jin-Woo didn’t need the aid of a microphone

and simply loaded Mana to his vocal cords to speak.

“I know that things will become incredibly difficult for everyone.”

His voice seemed to softly ripple within the eerily-silent auditorium.

Jin-Woo’s ears could pick up on the noises of representatives

swallowing their dry saliva along with their violently pounding hearts.

Funnily enough, the louder their heartbeats became, the calmer Jin-
Woo’s own heart got. The light shining in his eyes became more
determined than before.

‘….Am I actually feeling calmer than before?’

From a certain moment on, Jin-Woo had completely regained his

composure. He calmly addressed his audience with these closing
words.

482
“However, no one alive will be able to avoid fighting the upcoming
battle. Those creatures will appear before you, and they will try to
destroy everything you hold dear.”

483
Chapter 234

How were they supposed to take this?

Once Jin-Woo’s lengthy explanation came to an end, an

uncontrollable fluster floated up on the faces of representatives.
Even the carefully-chosen contingent of reporters forgot their jobs
and were too busy looking at each other’s reactions.

Noisy, noisy….

The auditorium that used to be draped in eerie silence was now filled
up with loud chatter in an instant.

Eventually, someone unable to beat back his fear-filled curiosity and

shouted at Jin-Woo.

“Y-you, you expect us to believe that story?!”

How could anyone believe the story of horrifying creatures capable

of destroying everything on this land creeping every closer to this
planet?

That voice of an elderly man was now filled with a palpable sense of
desperation.

“Evidence…. Show me the evidence! Without that, I won’t ever

believe you!!”

“T-that’s right!”

“Aren’t your claims far too absurd to be believable?!”

“Out of the blue, you tell us that hundreds of creatures similar to

Kamish will show up, but how can that even make sense?!”

484
Humans, when facing a reality that they couldn’t deal with, would
automatically resort to denying it or get angry as their defence
mechanism. These representatives from various nations wilfully
forgot about the many miracles Jin-Woo had shown them so far, and
directed their furious words of denial towards him standing on the
rostrum.

Too bad for them, just one swish of his hands was enough to silence
them immediately.

“Heok!!”

“…..!!”

Dozens of Gates suddenly appeared right behind Jin-Woo.

Using the powers of the Sovereign, he generated several tens of

Gates, which were basically a doorway connecting different
dimensions.

‘I don’t need to create Gates since travelling through shadows is

faster for me, but still….’

There should be nothing more efficient for making these people

understand than this method. He could generate Gates the size of a
person without breaking a sweat.

Jin-Woo stopped looking at the Gates and shifted his gaze to his
audience.

Sure enough, not a single person out of the gathered

representatives, reporters, and even the staff members of the
Korean Hunter’s Association, who trusted in Jin-Woo’s words
implicitly, could close their slack jaws shut, never mind averting their
gazes elsewhere.

“Those…. Aren’t those all Gates?”

485
“B-b-but, how can such a thing even be….??”

‘Hunter Seong Jin-Woo can create Gates, and not only that, several
of them at the same time in front of all these people?’

The eyes of everyone present began trembling powerfully, as if there

was an earthquake happening right now.

The director of the Hunter Bureau, David Brennan, continued to rub

his eyes in utter disbelief. He was someone who personally
witnessed the Dragon ‘Kamish’ take its first step in this world as the
dungeon break unfolded, but even then, he just couldn’t believe this.

‘As I thought, it’s working.’

Jin-Woo was satisfied by their reactions after witnessing the powers

of the Sovereign and closed the Gates behind him.

As if what happened only a second ago had been a hallucination,

every single Gate simply vanished without a trace, faster than the
witnesses could blink.

‘Ah, no!!’

At the same time, a reporter was hit with a sensation of his heart
tumbling to the pit of his stomach. He quickly asked the other
reporters next to him.

“H-has anyone taken pictures of those Gates?? Doesn’t matter if it’s

a camera or a phone, did anyone record that phenomenon??”

“….Ah!!!”

Reporters began despairing right there and then, some hugging their
heads while some spat out painful groans. It happened too fast, and
they were all too stunned out of their minds, so they had

486
momentarily forgotten to take the visual proof of what happened
here.

As if the unrest unfolding within the ranks of the reporters was the
signal flare, voices of shock and fluster exploded out from all corners
of the auditorium next.

Noisy, noisy….

Loud noises shaking one’s eardrums filled up this huge open interior.
But, then…

“Hunter Seong Jin-Woo!!!!”

The British representative suddenly shot up from his seat and

managed to attract everyone’s attention via his shrill cry.

“Could it be that you’re one of them?! The creatures that appeared

from the first super-massive Gate, weren’t they summoned here to
kill us all, to begin with?!”

His utterances caused pretty much everyone here to freeze up

instantly. They unwittingly ended up imagining the worst possible
situation, that was why.

A vague, formless fear of Hunter Seong Jin-Woo being on the

enemy’s side began spreading among the hearts of these people like
an infection. Well, didn’t he just display the power to create Gates
that drove so many humans to their deaths and grips of terror right
before their eyes?

“…..”

Jin-Woo wordlessly stared at the British representative for a while.

Only then did the Briton finally realise the mistake he just made.

487
If Hunter Seong indeed was on humanity’s side, then this man sure
made an a*s of himself due to his fear, but if the opposite turned out
to be true, then didn’t that mean it’d be really difficult for him to
keep his life now?

“Ah, uh, well…. Of course, I, uh, unreservedly believe in you, Seong

Jin-Woo Hunter-nim….”

The complexion of the British representative paled in an instant and

the ends of his sentence progressively got smaller and smaller. Jin-
Woo spat out a sigh as if he found this whole thing idiotic.

“Fuu.”

He did what he came here to do. Jin-Woo didn’t particularly feel the
need to plead with these people, asking them to believe him.

“Whether you believe my words or not, whether you accept my

words or not…. That’s your choice. I’ve finished saying my piece, so
everyone, make up your own minds now.”

Reporters sensed that the announcement had come to an end, and

that allowed them to finally free themselves from the stupefaction
they were trapped in due to the continuous assault of one shock
after another. Soon, camera flashes urgently exploded forth.

Click, click, click, click, click!!

Jin-Woo took one last sweeping look at the audience members and
just as he was about to turn around….

….David Brennan, the director of the American Hunter Bureau, finally

decided to break the silence he had been maintaining until then and
raised his hand up high.

Jin-Woo recognised him, of course, since they met each other

before. He pointed the American out.

488
“Director Brennan?”

With a hardened expression on his face, the director slowly stood up

from his seat. There was no one present here who didn’t know the
name of the leader of the Hunter Bureau, so almost immediately,
another bout of silence descended on the auditorium.

“It’s been a while, Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim.”

He politely bowed his head, and Jin-Woo reciprocated that gesture

with a bow of his own. The director continued on from there.

“I understand now what will come out those Gates.”

The hundred thousand-plus black monsters that poured out from the
first super-massive Gate. Thankfully, they turned out to be the
subordinates of Hunter Seong Jin-Woo who had ‘coincidentally’
inherited the powers of a Sovereign. And he immediately had them
submit to him.

And now, today in this place, the truth about other creatures
scheduled to make their entrance not being friends of humanity had
been revealed in full. In that case, how was mankind supposed to
respond to this?

The director tried to calm his shuddering heart and cautiously asked
his question.

“What should we do next?”

Jin-Woo quietly studied the director for a little while, before slowly
shifting his gaze to take in the faces of every single person present
within the auditorium.

Through his eyes, he could feel their worries, anxiety, nervousness,

fear, shock, confusion, etc. Indeed, his sensory perception that had

489
far surpassed the limits of a human didn’t always prove to be helpful,
especially in a situation like this one.

A short while later.

‘…….’

Jin-Woo made up his mind and gave them the best advice he could
think of.

“I pray that you get as far away from those Gates as humanly
possible. As far as you can. I hope that you evacuate to the furthest
location you can find, even if it’s only by a little.”

***

The ripples caused by the information Jin-Woo provided were

enormous.

It was none other than Jin-Woo who provided the info. A man who
created an unbelievable spectacle with the first super-massive Gate
and shocked the entire world, had provided them with this
knowledge.

People heard the warning about the invasion of huge monster

armies that humanity would never be able to fight against, and
struck by fear, they began doing whatever they could to distance
themselves as far away from the Gates as possible.

Every road was clogged up by evacuating vehicles. Every avenue was

filled with ear-bleeding honkings of car horns.

Didn’t matter which newspaper one clapped their eyes on, Jin-Woo’s
visage and the three accompanying words below dominated every
single front page.

– Evacuate far away!

490
Those words were enough to mobilise the entire world.

The thing was, though, when the movement of people become huge
in scale, it was only natural that the opposition to that movement
would also gain following, as well.

It wasn’t as if everyone believed in Jin-Woo’s words. Especially so for

someone like this Canadian Hunter named Jay Mills, who confidently
declared his objections. Incidentally, Canada’s Gate was observed to
be the largest of the eight super-massive Gates.

“Tell him that he can take his horsesh*t story and shove it.”

Invited to say his piece on a program on ‘Hunter Channel’, the

Canadian Hunter began bad-mouthing Jin-Woo in front of the
esteemed panel of experts sitting in the studio.

“If I knew Hunter Seong Jin-Woo’s personal contact number, I’d have
said the exact same thing, eh. If, by any chance, someone who knows
him personally is watching this show, I want you to repeat what I just
said here. Okay?”

The emcee quickly assumed the standard broadcaster’s smile in

order to cool down the heated atmosphere.

“Whoa, there. Let’s all take a breather, first. Even still, Seong Hunter-
nim is one of the very best Hunters in the world, isn’t he? Should we
really ignore the warning issued by a Hunter of his calibre?”

Jay Mills’ Hunter ranking was only about 17th on the list. Even when
considering the fact that he was a relative newbie who only started
his Hunter career three years ago, there was no way he could be
compared to Jin-Woo.

He himself already had acknowledged that difference of class

between them. Regardless….

491
“Yes, of course, Seong Jin-Woo is an incredible Hunter. He possesses
enough power to destroy Thomas Andre, and then, all those
summoned creatures, too…. However, just because he’s an
incredible man, that doesn’t mean everything he says is credible, am
I right?”

“In that case, do you have any evidence that contradicts what Seong
Jin-Woo Hunter-nim has said?”

Jay Mills smirked derisively.

“Oh? What about Seong Jin-Woo, then? What evidence does he

have?”

While the emcee was left searching for a suitable response, Jay Mills
stared straight into the camera and spoke up.

“This is what I think. Seong Jin-Woo was standing right in the front of
the Seoul Gate, wasn’t he? And that’s why all those scary black
things knelt down after seeing him standing there. If it was a
different Hunter and not him, who knows if those monsters would
have submitted to that person, instead?”

Veins began bulging on the Canadian Hunter’s neck as he raised his

voice – as if he was addressing Jin-Woo who should be at home
watching the program.

“Hunter Seong Jin-Woo, you may have scared other people away
with your bullsh*t, but let me tell you this. You won’t get to
monopolise all these Gates. Why? Because, I am not scared by you.
Not even by a little bit.”

Beep.

The Association President Woo Jin-Cheol switched the TV off.

492
He quietly put the remote down and shifted his gaze over to where
Jin-Woo currently sat.

“Hunters are gathering around Jay Mills in Canada as we speak. It

seems that the nations possessing strong Hunter systems, such as
India, are preparing for their own raids.”

Jin-Woo didn’t say anything and simply nodded his head.

The choice was theirs to make, to begin with. As for him, he now
needed to focus on the upcoming battle against the rest of the
Sovereigns.

“The United States government is keeping a close eye on your next

move, Hunter-nim. No, hang on. I’m sure it’s not an exaggeration to
say under the current circumstances that the entire world is
watching your every move.”

Woo Jin-Cheol got their conversation going like that and cautiously
steered the topic to what he wished to talk about.

“What will you do now, Hunter-nim?”

He worked really hard to control his pounding heart while observing

for any change in Jin-Woo’s reaction.

‘I must not become a hindrance in Seong Hunter-nim’s decision-

making process.’

Actually, he had hidden something from Jin-Woo just now.

And that would be the fact that SOS requests towards Jin-Woo had
been flooding in from all corners of the globe. The truth was, the
Association was finding it hard to function properly because of all the
incoming calls right now.

493
Amidst of those, the Americans – who shared a border with Canada,
which was an unfortunate event in this case – were desperately
requesting for Jin-Woo’s aide, so much so that it even made outside
observers feel pity for them.

The role of the Hunter’s Association was to help with Hunters so they
could focus their whole beings in hunting down monsters.

Woo Jin-Cheol didn’t say anything so as to not go against the

principle the late Association President Goh Gun-Hui always
emphasized. He chose to wait for Jin-Woo’s decision, instead.

Too bad, Woo Jin-Cheol’s consideration as he anxiously waited for an

answer had been betrayed somewhat, as Jin-Woo already made up
his mind on what to do next a while ago.

‘It’s simply impossible to fight against all eight armies at once.’

In that case, he needed to get rid of the one that threatened South
Korea first, where his family was staying. As for the remaining
Sovereigns, he would deal with them later.

Because, the longer the fight dragged on, the better the odds of his
victory would get, that was why.

‘First of all….’

Jin-Woo raised his head and spoke to Woo Jin-Cheol.

“I’ll be heading off to China.”

494
Chapter 235

[Hero of the Republic of Korea, we welcome you to China!]

[1.5 billion people send their gratitude! Thank you very much, Seong
Jin-Woo Hunter-nim!]

[For the continued and everlasting friendship between Korea and

China!]

Large placards written in Korean – so Jin-Woo would be able to

understand them – were hung up on various places of the airport.

Liu Zhigeng, here to welcome Jin-Woo personally, frowned

somewhat while glaring at the placards plastered all over the place.
There were so many of them here, he could hardly see an empty
spot on the building itself.

It wasn’t as if he didn’t like the contents of those placards. Oh, no.

Hunter Seong Jin-Woo choosing China over other nations with super-
massive Gates in their territories was, without a doubt, something to
celebrate as far as the Chinese Hunter was concerned.

He was tasked with taking the lead in the fight against the monsters
that would pour out from that massive Gate in the sky, so he felt a
massive amount of gratitude to Hunter Seong Jin-Woo for being
here.

His problem, though, was with the totally different attitudes his own
countrymen showed him back then when he stepped up to aide
South Korea. That was what pushed his annoyance level to a
dangerous height.

495
Even now, the memories of those times still remained vividly in his
head.

‘Don’t these people understand the concept of shame??’

All those fellow Chinese citizens who pointed at him and berated him
for being a traitor, were currently busy praising and cheering Jin-
Woo in one voice and one heart.

So, it was only obvious that Liu Zhigeng wouldn’t look at those
placards plastered all over the airport in a favourable light.

‘If I hadn’t dragged our Hunters and made the trip down to Korea,
would we even have the face to greet Hunter Seong Jin-Woo
today….?’

Liu Zhigeng inwardly clicked his tongue and turned around towards
the aeroplane touching down in the airport just beyond the window.

He could already tell. Hunter Seong Jin-Woo was riding in that plane.

The sole Seven Star-rank Hunter of China, Liu Zhigeng, felt a

sensation chilly enough to make all the hair on his body stand up
emanating from that plane. There could only be one person in the
entire world who could pressure him to this degree.

Sure enough – the message of Jin-Woo finally arriving reached the

ears of high-ranking government officials as well as executives of the
Chinese Hunter’s Association waiting around. They hurriedly rose up
from their chairs and began raising an almighty fuss.

‘This isn’t right…. Doing things this way is wrong.’

His already-displeased mood due to the placards had become even

sourer after watching these people making noise like this. Weren’t
they the same idiots who raised their voices and loudly opposed him
when he said they needed to help the Koreans?

496
Indeed, these people would’ve done anything to stop him from going
to Korea if he wasn’t the Seven Star-rank Hunter – if he wasn’t the
one and only Liu Zhigeng.

It simply wouldn’t do for these pigs to welcome a warrior risking his

life to fight for this land. Liu Zhigeng’s expression hardened, and he
spoke to his personal gopher.

“Deliver this message to the premier. I’m cancelling this charade of a

planned welcoming party, and I shall take full responsibility for
greeting and guiding Hunter Seong.”

“Sir? B-but, these people are….”

The gopher took a look behind at all the important politicians and
executives, his hesitation easy to see. Meanwhile, the folks in
question overheard the conversation and began coughing
uncomfortably to clear their throats.

Smirk.

Liu Zhigeng broke out in a smirk and stood before these people.

“I’d like you folks to disappear from my sight right this moment. Is
there anyone here with a good reason why you can’t do that?”

These high-ranking politicians and executives from Hunter’s

Association knew how crappy Liu Zhigeng’s personality was, so as
soon as his words came to an end, not one person chose to remain
and hurriedly escaped from the waiting area.

Liu Zhigeng scanned the now-empty waiting area in satisfaction and

reverted his gaze back to the gopher.

“How about now?”

“Yes… Yes! I shall immediately send the word to the premier!”

497
While the gopher was hurriedly operating his phone, Liu Zhigeng
walked over to the ‘Arrival’ gates where the travellers were now
pouring into the airport.

“Over there! Hunter-nim has arrived!”

“Take his pictures!”

Click, click, click, click, click, click!!

Reporters, waiting the whole day in order to occupy the best position
possible to snap their shots, spotted Jin-Woo in the distance and
almost immediately, countless camera flashes went off
simultaneously.

He was looking around his vicinity after feeling puzzled by the

atmosphere of the airport which seemed slightly different from what
he’d been told before arriving here.

‘Weird. Didn’t they tell me that close to a hundred government

officials were here to greet me….?’

Not just him, but the accompanying Korean Hunter’s Association

employee was also scratching his head in confusion. They were also
getting rather greatly flustered too, since the Chinese Association’s
employee that was supposed to guide them around was nowhere to
be found, either.

But, with great timing, a familiar face walked over from the distance
and a happy smile floated up on Jin-Woo’s lips.

“Liu Hunter-nim.”

“Seong Hunter-nim.”

498
As befitting the warriors getting ready for battle, these two shared
short but manly handshake. The first person to ask his question was
Jin-Woo.

“By the way…. What about the other people?”

Liu Zhigeng listened as the Association employee tasked with

translation passionately did his job, and grinned brightly while
replying to Jin-Woo’s inquiry.

“Ah, that. You see, Chinese people can be quite impatient at times.
They couldn’t wait for that long and decided to go home, so I’m now
tasked with guiding you around.”

For some reason, Jin-Woo began thinking that quite a hefty chunk of
how that situation came about had been omitted here, but as he
didn’t dislike Liu Zhigeng as a person, he decided not to pursue this
issue anymore.

The Chinese Hunter felt relieved that Jin-Woo didn’t display any signs
of displeasure, as well. He quickly assumed the role of guiding the
group to the airport’s exit.

“It’s this way.”

They couldn’t take many steps, though, as Jin-Woo came to an

abrupt halt first. That meant Liu Zhigeng had to stop, too.

A portion of that massive Gate covering the sky could be seen

through the clear glass wall of the airport.

“So, that thing is….”

….The super-massive Gate appeared in China.

Jin-Woo stared at the Gate with a hardened expression, and Liu

Zhigeng stood next to him with a solemn expression.

499
“I can’t deal with something like that alone.”

If it was something impossible for him, then there was no need to

even mention other Chinese Hunters. That was why he felt so elated
after hearing of the news of Jin-Woo’s decision to come here.

He wanted to express his gratitude to his Korean counterpart, even if

only by a little bit. He pondered carefully about this issue, before
speaking with a voice filled with his heartfelt sincerity.

“I can’t speak for the rest of China, but I, Liu Zhigeng, swear to never
forget your help in this matter.”

***

As the hour of the Gate’s opening approached closer and closer,

breaking news from the affected nations around the world continued
to fly in.

[Hunter Seong Jin-Woo chooses China!]

[Both Japan and Russia decide to support Hunter Seong Jin-Woo….]

[Planes carrying Hunters scheduled to depart in the afternoon

today….]

[On the other hand, the white-coloured fortress discovered near

Japan’s sea of forest revealed to be unrelated to these Gates….]

[Finally, five hours before the dungeon break. Will Hunter Seong Jin-
Woo’s warning come true? Or….]

Jay Mills began swearing almost right away.

“Both Japan and Russia are way too busy flattering Seong Jin-Woo,
eh.”

500
Why would those two countries try to help China? It was bleedingly
obvious.

Weren’t they trying to get some brownie points with Seong Jin-Woo
and ask for his help when they find themselves in grave danger later
on?

How weak.

China, Japan, Russia – they were all too weak.

How could anyone call those people Hunters when they couldn’t
even protect their mother nations with their own powers?

‘Compared to them, how great are we?’

Canadian Hunters had willingly gathered here in order to protect

their land.

‘We did not waver in our convictions.’

The crap about getting as far away from the Gates couldn’t make
these great Hunters of Canada waver and falter. Jay Mills proudly
looked at tens of thousands of Hunters who had voluntarily gathered
here to participate in the raid.

Waaaah-!

Their fighting spirit seemed to pierce into the heavens. Regular

people standing quite a bit of distance away were also sharing these
Hunter’s sentiments as well.

[We shall never give up on Canada!]

[Wanna run away? Not us!]

[Our Hunters will protect our land and our lives!]

501
Citizens carrying around pickets of all sizes and various colours were
cheering on the Hunters.

Jay Mills stared up at the super-massive Gate floating high up above

his head and became convinced of his victory.

‘Regardless of which monster shows up from there, we can win this!’

He felt really pumped up and, while turning around towards the

other Hunters, he raised both of his fists up high. He was then
greeted by a loud, energetic roar.

Waaaaaah-!!

***

The preparation on the Chinese side had been completed as well.

Just like how it had been like back in Seoul, a raid team consisting of
several nationalities was surrounding the ground right below the
Gate. The biggest portion of that force was made up of, as one would
expect, the elite Chinese Hunters which numbered well over one
hundred thousand.

As befitting a nation boasting the highest number of Hunters in the

populace, the upper-ranked Hunters carefully selected for this raid
alone numbered over a hundred thousand.

Jin-Woo had warned them before that monsters far too difficult for
humans to fight against would fall out of the Gate in droves.
However, looking at the headcount of over a hundred thousand
Hunters gathered here, a certain thought of “Maybe, we might stand
a chance here” began germinating within their heads.

As if to remind them that they were being far too optimistic, Jin-Woo
summoned out his Shadow Soldiers.

502
‘Come out.’

The wide-open space behind Jin-Woo deliberately left unoccupied

was instantly filled up by the 130,000-strong Shadow Army.

Guoooooh….

The nearby Hunters couldn’t even breathe properly from all the
spooky aura oozing out from these summons. Cold sweat drops
rapidly formed on the foreheads of the humans.

‘The gap between our strengths… It’s too much.’

‘Things like them are going to fall out from the sky? Right here?!’

‘No freaking way….’

This was an overwhelming fear.

The highly-enhanced sensory perceptions of these upper-ranked

Hunters were warning them of the dangers posed by the beings that
had appeared before them. Even Liu Zhigeng, who’d hardly get
surprised by what life would throw at him by this point, gasped out
in shock as well.

“All these things…. Are they all your summoned creatures, Seong
Hunter-nim?”

Jin-Woo nodded his head. As their master, he could clearly sense the
burning fighting spirit of his Shadow Soldiers finely honed like a
sharp blade.

‘Nice.’

Jin-Woo looked up at the sky. There were only a few minutes

remaining until that Gate opened up. He needed to achieve victory
here and convert as many creatures of the Chaos World into his
Shadow Soldiers and absorb them into his army.

503
That would be his first step in this war.

The noisy, bustling vicinity instantly became dead quiet with the
entrance of the Shadow Army. They all could sense it – that the
moment of bitter battle was just around the corner. The weighty
nervousness began pressing down on the shoulders of the waiting
Hunters.

Gulp.

Jin-Woo swallowed his dry saliva.

Out of the eight armies, which one would come out this Gate?

It was then.

“My liege.”

Bellion informed his master that the time had come and Jin-Woo
replied in a low voice.

“I know.”

Liu Zhigeng witnessed Jin-Woo sharing a conversation with his

summon as if it was the most natural thing in the world, and opened
his eyes real wide in surprise.

“Hunter-nim, is it possible to converse with your summons….??”

It was at that point that Beru determined Liu Zhigeng had come,
unnecessarily, too close to his liege and in the blink of an eye,
blocked the Chinese Hunter’s path.

Growl.

An overwhelming killing intent leaked out from this ant-shaped

soldier.

“Heok!!”

504
Liu Zhigeng flinched in nasty surprise and hurriedly distanced
himself. Jin-Woo watched this scene unfold and unhappily smacked
the back of the rather-agitated Beru’s head.

“Hey, he’s an ally.”

Beru bowed his head non-stop to his master and stepped aside. Jin-
Woo apologised for his soldier instead.

“Sorry about that. He’s a bit on edge because of the upcoming battle,
you see.”

“It’s… It’s fine.”

Right there and then, Liu Zhigeng decided to give up on trying to

understand Jin-Woo using logic.

That was because he got a fairly strong premonition just now that
he’d never be able to understand the Korean Hunter with his
common sense.

It was then.

“It, it’s opening up!!”

Someone shouted out loudly. Everyone’s head snapped up towards

the sky.

The light shining in Jin-Woo’s eyes transformed. Just as that

unknown person had shouted out, the Gate’s gigantic mouth was
slowly opening up. The choking tension began tightening the chests
of everyone below the Gate.

However, even though the Gate was now fully open, nothing
happened.

505
The one most surprised among the crowd was Jin-Woo. He focused
his perception but discovered that there was not a single presence
beyond the Gate itself.

Meaning, this particular Gate was empty.

‘What the hell?!’

A chill suddenly brushed past the back of Jin-Woo’s neck.

Could he have….?

Something he had overlooked until now; one certain possibility he

hadn’t yet thought of abruptly entered his head. And the ominous
foreboding gradually morphed into a certainty as time continued to
tick by.

“Huh?”

Hunters also began realising that something was wrong here.

Liu Zhigeng turned to look at a Hunter charged with communication

next to him and urgently asked his question.

“What about other locations?”

“It seems to be the same story with other locations. They say nothing
has happened so far.”

“In that case, are all these Gates empty, to begin with?”

“That… uhm… I don’t….”

Liu Zhigeng’s head swivelled to the side again. His gaze stopped by at
Jin-Woo. Unfortunately, the Korean Hunter’s expression had
hardened to such a scary degree that he couldn’t even dare to ask
for a clarification anymore.

506
Was he making that face because his prediction turned out to be
incorrect?

No.

That emotion on display wasn’t as simple as that.

The one and only Liu Zhigeng couldn’t even dare to get close to Jin-
Woo, simply because he felt greatly shaken up by the unrest
bubbling within the latter’s emotions.

‘I… I made a mistake.’

Realising the error in his judgement, Jin-Woo bit his lower lip.

Why….

Just why did he treat the Sovereigns as simple creatures?

‘They should have anticipated that I’d try to utilise the advantages of
my Shadow Army.’

If his thoughts were correct, then….

Jin-Woo raised his head, quickly walked past Liu Zhigeng, and asked
the communication Hunter.

“What about Canada??”

“Pardon?”

Unable to hold back his agitation, Jin-Woo’s voice got louder.

“Tell me what’s going on in Canada!!”

***

Around the same time, the Gate also opened up in Canada as well.

507
Strangely enough, nothing happened here as well, just like with
other locations. Hunters rousing up their fighting spirit for the
upcoming raid tilted their heads and busy glanced at each other in
confusion.

“What’s this?”

“But, weren’t the monsters supposed to rain down from there?”

“Did Seong Jin-Woo really bullsh*t us all?”

It was then.

Jay Mills discovered something strange in the distance and quickly

shouted out towards other Hunters.

“Silence!”

Rather fitting for the strongest Hunter present today, his warning
that carried a great deal of magical energy managed to shut the
mouths of every Hunter here.

Now that the surroundings had become silent once more, Jay Mills
began glaring at the Gate again.

As he suspected, he hadn’t seen it wrong. A certain humanoid figure

was leisurely making its descent. That was the only thing that came
out of the Gate so far.

‘No, hang on. It’s not a humanoid figure. It’s just a…. person?’

Jay reconfirmed the appearance of ‘something’ that lightly made its

landing. He stopped other Hunters from rushing past him and he
alone walked towards the landing spot.

Gulp.

508
He unknowingly swallowed his saliva after sensing this heavy tension
in the air.

The closer he got, the better he was able to see his opponent. It was
a middle-aged man with reddish-black hair and beard.

As for his attire, this man was kitted out in the most gorgeous
metallic armour that boasted an arresting blend of silvery and
reddish colours, extending from just below his neck right down to his
toes.

Jay finally arrived there and stared at this unknown man.

[Are you the king of this place, then?]

Even though this mystery man didn’t open his mouth, his voice
resounded out within Jay’s head. Naturally, he could understand the
meaning of these words as if it was his mother tongue being spoken.

Jay’s heart began racing really fast now.

“I knew it! Yes! I knew sh*t would go down like this!!”

Here was the reason why Seong Jin-Woo could turn all those soldiers
coming out of the first Gate into his pets. They had been in secret
communication like this, that’s how!

“That d*mn lying con man, I knew it’d be like this! I bloody knew it!!”

Now that his prediction had come true, the inside of his head began
filling up rapidly with sheer joy.

He failed to cool down his excitement and raised his fist up high
towards other Hunters. They also raised their fists up and cheered on
energetically.

Waaaah-!!

509
Jay turned around towards the mystery man again.

The latter was quietly waiting for an answer even then.

‘So, the process is, it asks the first person it sees if he’s a king, and if
the answer is yes, it submits to him, is that it?’

It was unknown whether this mysterious man was a human or a

monster. Jay Mills studied ‘him’ as the corners of his lips arched up.

“What if I am?”

Since he was the leader of all the Hunters gathered here, it’d not be
an exaggeration to call him a ‘king’ now, would it?

His voice was filled with his strong self-confidence.

But then…

[It seems that b*stard isn’t here.]

When the mysterious man opened his closed his eyes, the irises of a
lizard hungry for blood blinked ominously from within.

510
Chapter 236

“T-the situation in Canada is still….”

The Hunter in charge of communication stuttered like a broken clock.

Jin-Woo, feeling genuinely frustrated now, pulled out his
smartphone, instead.

There was only one person who could give him the most accurate
information as quickly as possible. Jin-Woo searched through his
contact list before tapping on the contact number of the Special
Agent in charge of the Hunter Bureau’s Asia Branch, ‘Adam White’.

With the current timing being what it was, he was briefly worried
whether his call would get through or not, but then…

– “Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim!”

A really tense voice came out from the phone’s speaker. There was
no time to mouth a proper greeting, so he jumped straight to the
main topic.

“Adam? Can you tell me what’s happening with the super-massive

Gate in Canada….”

It was then – he heard a loud cheering of “Waaaah-!!” coming out

from the phone’s speaker, as well.

Although it was a soft, almost inaudible background noise even his

highly-developed hearing could barely catch, that was more than
enough for him. Jin-Woo urgently asked over the phone, his
expression harder than a stone now.

“Where are you right now??”

511
– “I’m at the location of Canada’s super-massive Gate to provide
support, alongside other agents.”

“And why are you even there in the first place?!”

Jin-Woo’s voice cracked up from agitation, and that caused Adam to

reply in a surprised voice, quite obviously failing to hide his fluster.

– “We simply couldn’t watch the events in Canada unfold as if it’s

unrelated to us…. Not just myself, but many other agents are
currently assigned to deal with this matter, and…”

Adam White then added that his current location was quite a
distance away from where the Canadian Hunters were, so if
something bad were to happen, he should be able to escape
relatively easily.

Hearing that explanation, Jin-Woo was suddenly overcome with

sheer frustration that couldn’t be described in words.

‘The things I’ve warned everyone of….’

None of these people seemed to have understood the scale of the

enemy just yet.

However, Adam still being unscathed could mean that his prediction
was wrong. Jin-Woo collected himself and calmly asked his next
question.

“What about the Gate…? Has there been any changes yet?”

– “No. It seems that the inside was empty, just like every other
Gates. It’s really quiet here in the location, actually.”

What a relief that was.

512
Even after taking into consideration the world pointing their fingers
of ridicule and blame at him for his warning being false, he could still
breathe a sigh of relief.

“Fuu…”

His prediction seemed to be wrong.

But, then this happened.

– “Uh? Please hold.”

After hearing Adam’s voice that sounded uneasy for some reason, a
creeping dread travelled down Jin-Woo’s spine. Why did his ominous
forebodings always have to come true?

Adam quickly explained the current situation.

– “Right now! Something is making its descent. Uh? Uh, uh? A

person… A person is descending from the Gate!”

Jin-Woo’s heart that regained its calm a few seconds ago began
racing faster and faster again.

‘Just one… person?’

All the hair on the back of his head stood up. Jin-Woo’s voice rose up
really high.

“The hair colour!”

Adam said that his current location was quite far away from the
Hunters. In that case, it’d be impossible for him to see the creepy
eyes of that non-human creature.

“What is the hair colour of that person??”

– “H-hang on….”

513
Adam’s voice of borrowing special equipment from an agent nearby
could be heard for a brief moment then.

– “Black and red colours are mixed together… It’s reddish black.”

Oh my god.

Jin-Woo’s eyes widened.

“Adam! Run away from there, now!! Doesn’t matter if it’s a car,
whatever, get on it, and escape from there right now!!”

– “Pardon me??”

Before Adam could ask what was going on here…

KWA-BOOOOOM-!!!!

A loud explosion so horrifying that its brutality could be heard even

through the phone’s speaker resounded out next.

– “Oh, dear lord!!”

Adam’s voice had transformed into a scream now.

“ADAM!!”

As if he had regained his wits for a brief moment there from Jin-
Woo’s shout, Adam began muttering in a tearful voice.

– “H-Hunters….!! The top-ranked Hunters in the front row all got

turned into charcoal in less than a second!! T-the flames burning on
their bodies are still raging on!! Oh, my god!!”

“Adam! Adam, listen to me! It’s going to be alright, so start running

now! You gotta escape from there as soon as possible!”

Jin-Woo tried to calm Adam down, but unfortunately, the American

agent seemed half-crazed by then.

514
– “Oh, Jesus….”

Even though he began sobbing softly, he still explained everything he

could see and hear to Jin-Woo as if doing that was his final duty.

– “Dragons, Dragons from the sky…. Dragons and other monsters are
pouring down endlessly from the Gate!! All sorts of monsters mixed
in the horde!! Ah, ah, how could something like this even be…..”

The emotions of sorrowful determination could be heard from his

voice.

Jin-Woo couldn’t just sit back and listen anymore; despite the risk, he
connected his senses with the Shadow Soldier inserted into Adam’s
shadow.

When he did, he got to see the spectacle the American agent got to
see, as well.

It was as if he was seeing the scenes of the apocalypse.

From the wide-open Gate, messengers of death and destruction

were pouring out in droves, dyeing the heavens black. The skies and
the ground were being rapidly filled up by horrifying monsters. The
roars of beasts rocked the world, and the flying creatures and their
powerfully-beating wings dominated the sky.

Hunters gathered here to fight against them had all been turned into
ash even before the creatures landed on Earth from a single flick of
the Sovereign of Destruction’s hand, who had arrived before
everyone else.

The remaining people were trying to run away in pure

pandemonium, but unfortunately, their odds of escaping from there
seemed pretty dismal at this point.

‘Even still…’

515
He should be able to save one person… Adam White.

The High Orc Shadow Soldier currently being controlled by Jin-Woo

reached out and grasped the wrist of the deeply-terrified Adam.

“U-uwaahk!”

He screamed out in fear after seeing that High Orc kitted out in black
armour, but he soon saw the shadow of a familiar man within the
eyes of this monster.

“S-Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim??”

There was no time to explain the situation. That could be done after
he had been safely transported out of there. Still possessing the High
Orc, Jin-Woo got ready to drag Adam White into the shadow below
his feet, but then…

….Something approached them before anyone had noticed it and

grabbed the shoulder of the High Orc real tightly.

Swiiish.

The High Orc looked back in a hurry and spotted a middle-aged man
with a pair of bizarre reptilian eyes glaring in his direction.

[Where do you think you are going, oh, child of Shadow?]

The middle-aged man opened his mouth wide. A truly gob-smacking

level of power suddenly began gathering inside his mouth, then.

Wordlessly, Jin-Woo shifted his gaze back to Adam.

At that moment, as if he had realised something just then, Adam

White stared deeply at Jin-Woo – no, more correctly, the High Orc
Jin-Woo was controlling.

“Hunter-nim, I….”

516
KWWUAAAAHHH-!!!

The Breath attack pouring out from the middle-aged man’s mouth
erased the Shadow Soldier completely out of existence.

“Keu-heuk!!”

Jin-Woo was beset with the sensation of his entire being set on fire
and his body powerfully shuddered from the cruel pain.

He was connected to the High Orc with his mind only, so he could
escape from there no problem, but it was a different story for Agent
Adam White.

The American man’s final moments Jin-Woo saw…..

Recalling Adam’s eyes as he turned into scorched ash in the flames,

Jin-Woo began gnashing his teeth in pure rage.

BOOM!!

He slammed his fist on the ground, causing the world to shake like
the advent of an earthquake.

‘God d*mn it….’

He should’ve expected it.

He should’ve guessed that, once the enemy knew they were going to
face off against the Shadow Army – which got stronger the longer
the battle wore on – they would then try to decrease the number of
the potential battle locations down to an absolute minimum and
gather their combat force into one chosen location, instead.

The Sovereigns even went so far to generate all eight portals as if

they were sticking to their original plan.

517
‘They gathered their forces in the Gate that’s the furthest away from
me.’

What a painful oversight on his part this was.

His plan of increasing his Shadow Soldiers while other locations were
being attacked and then make his counterattack went down the
crapper in a spectacular fashion now.

Liu Zhigeng realised from Jin-Woo’s expression that something

terrible had happened and cautiously approached the latter’s side.

“Seong Jin-Woo Hunte….”

It was then.

The Hunter in charge of the communication belatedly received the

news and, with a completely pale face, hurriedly ran towards the
duo.

“H-hunters…. Canada, Canada is….”

The rest of his sentence didn’t need to be heard at this point.

When Jin-Woo glared upwards, the Gate covering up the sky was
already disappearing from the view as if it had served its purpose
now.

***

A lone Shadow Soldier and a human standing next to it both

evaporated into ash. This was the power of the Breath of Destruction
capable of erasing even the soldier of immortality.

‘……’

518
The Dragon Emperor looked at the results of its actions, the piles
upon piles of ash beneath its feet, with a great deal of satisfaction
and soon spun on its heels.

It now saw the soldiers of the Chaos World, trapped within the gap
between dimensions and unable to wield their powers properly for
far too long, enjoy their freedom with reckless abandon like fish
meeting water.

The Dragon Emperor slowly closed its eyes and opened its arms wide
to enjoy its own freedom.

The pounding heartbeats of all living things….

And their dying screams….

The noises of all creations being destroyed continued to ring out like
a wonderful symphony.

It was then.

RUMBLE-!!

Accompanied by Ancient-grade Dragons powerfully landing on the

ground, two other Sovereigns gently landed in front of them. Right
behind them, there were several Marshals of the invading armies.

Every single one of them politely knelt before the strongest

Sovereign in existence, the Dragon Emperor.

The creature in the appearance of a middle-aged man formed a

meaningful smile. The Mana trembling within the atmosphere was
finally theirs. Mana let loose in this world in order to fortify it served
to also enhance the strengths of those who could wield it.

Indeed, their ‘preparation’ had been completed now, as well.

“KUWAHAHAHAHA!!!”

519
The Dragon Emperor let out a roar of laughter powerful enough to
shake the land and shouted out towards the monsters still pouring
out from the Gate.

[Destroy everything! That is the one and only glorious mission

bestowed upon us!]

Hundreds of Dragons flew above its head next, and vicious flames
rained down from their maws to burn away every single thing on the
ground.

Kuwaaaaahhh-!!

***

The director of the Hunter Bureau, David Brennan, found himself

sitting alone in his office with all lights switched off.

While ignoring the endless streams of reports flooding in to his desk

as well as the incoming calls from the higher-ups, he slowly sipped a
glass of expensive alcohol he’d been saving for his oldest daughter’s
wedding day.

Inside his darkened office, images inside the muted TV screen

flickered and danced. Monsters could be seen briefly in those
images.

He knew why the TV station covering the breaking news was playing
the exact same footage over and over again.

‘Because they are all dead by now.’

….Just like every single Hunter Bureau agent sent there to support
the Canadian Hunters.

Not one person would have survived that.

Hunters, agents, reporters and cameramen filming the scene.

520
Every one of them, dead.

Thankfully, though, a cameraman risked his life and did his job,
resulting in short footage that at least helped everyone with
understanding the scale of the enemy’s invading force.

“It’s all over!!”

The director suddenly yelled out like a mad man.

Hunter Seong Jin-Woo wasn’t exaggerating back then.

Dragons alone numbered in the hundreds. Behind those, Giants,

beasts, and insect-like things rushed out like tidal waves. They were
creatures of calamity that mankind simply could never fight against.

He now understood the reason why Hunter Seong Jin-Woo

repeatedly told everyone in no uncertain terms to distance
themselves as far away from the Gates.

This world was now over.

But, still….

“What a crazy b*stard!”

Didn’t Seong Jin-Woo go to China with his summons in order to fight

against creatures like that? How could he even think about fighting
against them when he knew that such monsters existed?

If it was at all possible, David Brennan wouldn’t have minded

cracking open the Korean Hunter’s head and take a look at his brain.

‘Before that, though, I should crack my head open into several pieces
first.’

Huhuh….

521
Evidently finding something really funny now, the director formed a
grin and pulled out a single photograph from his inner jacket.

It was a photo of himself, forming a clearly-annoyed expression, as

well as his daughter wearing a party hat.

‘This was when she was around sixteen, wasn’t it?’

If only he knew that she’d become a victim of a dungeon break a

year later, then he’d have taken lots more photos like this one, even
if that meant giving up on his job.

Thinking about there being only one photo containing both him and
his daughter, made this father’s chest numb from his belated shock
and sorrow.

Sip.

Yet another glass became empty.

After burying his daughter, he never expected to crack open the lid
of this booze, but here he was. He smacked his lips in bitterness and
shook the bottle around a little.

Before he had noticed it, it was almost half-empty now.

“Right…. It’s all over.”

Almost half of Canada had been wiped off the map the last time he
bothered to listen to the reports. That was only a rough estimation,
though.

No one could know for sure how fast those creatures were marching
towards the United States.

The director angrily loosened his tie.

“I won’t die by your hands.”

522
Back then, he swore on his daughter’s grave that he’d get his
revenge against the monsters, that he’d not die at the hands of these
d*mnable things. At the bare minimum, he’d go out from this world
in his own terms.

Such a determination filled his head and he was soon standing next
to the window sill where the distant ground below could be seen.

The chilly wind was brushing past his sweat-soaked forehead.

‘….I hope that my daughter is waiting for me where I’m about to go.’

He squeezed his tearful eyes shut and was about to leap to the
ground, but then….

….Someone suddenly grabbed his shoulder.

“Heok?!”

He nearly jumped out of his shoes from sheer fright and quickly
looked back with his eyes wide open, only to discover a man with a
very familiar face standing there.

“H-Hunter S-Seong Jin-Woo???”

As the director’s face paled like a man seeing a scary ghost, Jin-Woo
quietly spoke to him.

“I’m looking for something.”

523
Chapter 237

What could he possibly be looking for when the world was facing
certain annihilation? No, besides all that, was the man in front of the
director’s eyes the real Hunter Seong Jin-Woo, to begin with?

Wondering if he got too drunk and was seeing things, the director
roughly shook his head from side to side.

But, Jin-Woo’s figure became even clearer and in focus from that
action, leading the director to realise that the man in front of him
was not a figment of his imagination.

His intoxication flew away in an instant and his voice rose up an

octave.

“W-what are you looking for?”

“The Rune Stone.”

Jin-Woo told the director precisely what he was here for.

“The Rune Stone from Kamish, give it to me.”

“…..!!”

His surprised lasted only for a short while; the director reflexively
shook his head.

“As you may well know, Hunter-nim, the Kamish’s Rune Stone is the
Hunter Bureau’s…..”

That was when his words came to a choking halt.

This d*mn work-related habit of his. What about the Hunter Bureau?
So what? Never mind the Bureau, the whole of the United States of

524
America was about to go up in flames, so who cared about a measly
little Run Stone now?

‘Looks like I haven’t fully woken up from the booze yet.’

The director loudly slapped his cheeks with his palms. After his skin
reddened up from the stinging impact, he finally felt as if his brain
was getting in gear.

His once-blurry eyes regained their focus as well.

He then arrived at a certain conclusion that to the Hunter Bureau,

no, to the entire United States of America, the reason why Jin-Woo
wanted the Rune Stone in the first place was far more important
than its financial value.

A short bout of deliberation later. The director asked cautiously as to

not sour Jin-Woo’s moods.

“I can definitely give you the Rune Stone, but why do you need it?”

Without a single shred of hesitation, Jin-Woo replied back.

“I’ll use it as a tool for my counter-attack.”

***

Through the eyes of the System, Jin-Woo got to confirm the ‘Skill’
sleeping within the Rune Stone in question pretty early on. It
definitely contained a certain power of a Dragon.

There was a reason why he showed no interest whatsoever to this

Rune Stone until now, though – this Skill had a rather serious
drawback.

Meaning, it was a power he didn’t need.

‘However…. The story has changed now.’

525
After descending to the ninth underground floor of the Hunter
Bureau’s HQ, the director and Jin-Woo now stood before the
reinforced glass case that housed the Rune Stone in question.

Rather than through the System, Jin-Woo only needed his eyes and
senses this time to accurately decipher the Skill contained with that
little ‘stone’. It was as exactly as he remembered it.

A ‘Skill’ that boasted a truly horrifying power. The seriousness of the

current situation should be more than enough to offset the
drawback of such a horrifying power.

Ba-thump. His heart pulsed softly in approval.

The director wordlessly stared at the Rune Stone before asking his
question.

“Hunter-nim, you once told me that the monsters of the dungeons

were sent here by the beings called the Rulers, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did.”

“In that case, what are these Rune Stones found inside the bodies of
the monsters?”

“They are gifts from the Rulers to enable humanity to hunt monsters
down more efficiently.”

What the Rulers wanted was to spread Mana around this world
through violent clashes between monsters and mankind. The
sacrifices made by humans were simply a side-effect, not their true
end goal.

Indeed, these Rune Stones – stones inserted into the monsters so,
upon their deaths, their powers could be sealed within – were the
sign of the Rulers’ consideration towards mankind’s monster
hunting.

526
And so, Kamish’s power was stored within this stone.

Jin-Woo took hold of the Dragon’s power that would play the crucial
role in his fightback.

The director tensely observed Jin-Woo grasping the Rune Stone

tightly and swallowed his dry saliva.

“Truly…. Can you truly stop the monsters with that thing?”

“Well, I should at least give it a shot.”

Even at this very moment, the armies led by the Dragon Emperor
were repeating the actions of destroying everything in their paths
and advancing forward before stopping to destroy some more.

Thanks to the Mana from the Rulers fortifying the planet, the
marching speed of the Army of Destruction had been pegged back
somewhat, but that would only last for a short while.

Soon, every inch of this land would be engulfed in the conflagration

of war. He simply couldn’t sit back and watch as the world crumbled,
now could he?

The powers of the Shadow Sovereign that they feared so much –

they tried to cowardly hit him from behind and prevent that power
from blossoming, but now, it was time to show them what this
power in the hands of a measly little lifeform was capable of
achieving.

“I’m planning to do everything within my power.”

The unwavering will within Jin-Woo’s two eyes left a powerful impact
on the director’s heart.

Seeing that this young Korean Hunter wasn’t trying to avoid fighting
the enemy, even though he knew full well their frightening scale, the

527
older American man realised how pathetic he was behaving not too
long ago when his mind was still filled with thoughts of running away
and nothing else besides.

‘I wanted to go to where my daughter was? You stupid son of a

b*tch….’

He felt so, so ashamed of himself. And also, he wanted to witness

this young man’s battle right up until its conclusion, regardless of
how everything would play out.

“I know I have no right to ask you of this, but…. Please, I beg of you.
Please, stop those b*stards, those monsters.”

The director bowed his head deeply as tears trickled down his face
again. Maybe, what he really wanted to avoid was not his impending
doom, which would most likely be at the hands of the monsters.

No, the truth was, he simply lacked the courage to witness his
countrymen getting killed and pillaged by these abominable
monsters when he was supposed to be the leader of the Hunter
Bureau, a man whose job was to be at the forefront, leading the
Hunters in the battle against humanity’s enemies.

Even if it was nothing but a straw, it didn’t matter.

Just a single strand was enough at this point.

If there was one glimmer of hope, then he’d do anything to grasp it.

His emotions had morphed into hot tears as they flooded out of his
eyes. Jin-Woo wordlessly grabbed the director’s shoulder.

“…”

That single gesture felt a hundred times more reassuring than any
words for the director. He belatedly wiped his tears away.

528
“I ended up showing you something pretty disgraceful. My apologies,
Hunter-nim.”

Jin-Woo waited for a little while until the director regained his calm
before opening his mouth.

“There is something else as well. I’m looking for a person now.”

***

Jin-Woo followed after the director and entered a certain apartment

building near the Hunter Bureau’s HQ.

“You had her stay so close by?”

“We at the Hunter Bureau believe that the things we’re supposed to
protect should always be within reach, you see.”

Perhaps their destination wasn’t high up, the director chose the
stairs, instead. Just as his back was getting soaked by the sweat, they
stopped at a certain door on the fourth floor. The director turned
about to look at Jin-Woo.

“We’re here.”

Jin-Woo nodded his head.

Knock, knock.

There must’ve been some sort of a security arrangement, because

rather than pressing the doorbell, the director lightly knocked on the
door twice, instead.

A short bout of silence later.

An agent confirmed the face of the director through the peephole

and opened the door.

“…..Director??”

529
The agent frowned slightly at the strong stench of booze stinging his
nose, before belatedly discovering Jin-Woo standing behind his boss
and jumped up in surprise.

“…!!”

Should one call this a piece of good fortune when the agent didn’t
immediately yank out his firearm, just like back when they met him
for the first time?

The agent instinctively reached down to his waist after spotting the
unfamiliar visitor, but perhaps he recalled the events of the past, a
flustered expression quickly bloomed on his face, instead.

“S-Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim?”

The agent wasn’t even given a chance to think about why the world’s
most powerful Hunter showed up here, because the director simply
led the visitor straight into the apartment.

The other agent waiting on standby greeted the director.

“Where is Madam?”

“She’s waiting for you inside. Heok!”

Like his partner that opened the door, this agent also jumped up in
surprise after seeing Jin-Woo here.

“S-sir, this gentleman….?”

“Hunter-nim wishes to speak to the Madam, so I guided him here.

Can you inform her that Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim is here to speak
to her?”

“….Understood, sir.”

It was then.

530
“….I didn’t expect you to pay me a visit during such times.”

As if she was waiting for Jin-Woo’s arrival, the door to her room
opened up and the Madam slowly walked out.

It was none other than Madam Norma Selner.

Currently, she was acting as the ‘Upgrader’, capable of enhancing the

strengths of Hunters to their maximum potential, but before she
awakened her powers, she used to work as a psychic.

Jin-Woo took a step forward and politely bowed his head towards
the middle-aged woman.

“Please, this way.”

She guided him into the room. The director standing behind Jin-Woo
also tried to come in, but Madam Selner stopped him with a gentle
voice.

“I believe that Seong Hunter-nim would want to speak to me in

private. Am I wrong?”

She looked behind her and asked, prompting Jin-Woo to nod his
head. It was as she said. The director spat out a couple of fake
coughs and began fixing his attire a little as the room’s door closed
shut.

She closed shut the door completely and slowly turned around to
face Jin-Woo, patiently waiting for her at the corner of the room.

The moment she took a look at his entire being, she failed to stop
the shocked gasp from bursting out of her mouth.

“Oh, my gosh!”

He looked completely different from the last time she saw him.

531
“You are…. You’re not the same person as the one I know.”

Her eyes began trembling fearfully.

Back then, the darkness had been hiding deep, deep within him
somewhere, but now, he had become the perfect darkness itself. She
could clearly see the power of ‘death’ enveloping Jin-Woo. However,
he quickly shook his head and corrected her misunderstanding.

“I’m still the same person you know, Madam. Except that I’ve
become one with the darkness you saw inside me.”

“Ah, ah….”

Which words in the known vocabulary would be adequate enough to

describe this truly wondrous development? The power of a god, now
dwelling inside a human being!

She studied just the tail-end of that incredulous power leaking out of
Jin-Woo and continued to gasp out in pure admiration. Her slack jaw
didn’t want to shut close for a long while, but eventually, she did
recover her wits somehow.

“Looks like…. I don’t possess the necessary power to help you,

Hunter-nim.”

No, could there be someone possessing an ability capable of helping

this man out in this entire world? Because… he had already
transcended the limitation of humanity.

The thing was, though, Jin-Woo was thinking of something else. He

cautiously approached the still-terrified woman and asked her.

“Madam, you said that you can glimpse into the future, yes?”

“To a certain extent, yes….”

“In that case, can you tell me about my future?”

532
Before he was about to enter the battle properly, he wanted to see
the end through her eyes first. He thought that, regardless of what
she saw, he’d be more relaxed going in.

Madam Selner hesitated somewhat before she nodded her head

slowly. She reached out and grasped both of Jin-Woo’s hands and
closed her eyes.

To look deeper into the inner workings of the darkness – she needed
a big dollop of courage for that.

However, she couldn’t dare to refuse the request of a warrior about

to go to war against the foes that required a far greater level of
courage than hers. No, the level of courage required would be so
great that it defied all attempts to compare it.

The time flew past as if it was merely a moment and, when she
finally opened her eyes, uncontrollable tears began trickling down
her cheeks.

“You… Are you really going to carry all that burden by yourself?”

“….”

Jin-Woo didn’t answer her.

“But, how can it be…. How can just one person carry all those terrible
burdens…. Are you going to sacrifice one to save everyone?”

Jin-Woo’s expression brightened.

“Sounds like I can at least get that far. That’s a relief.”

“What do you mean, you’re relieved?! No one will be able to

remember you. You’ll end up fighting a lonesome battle all by
yourself!”

533
Jin-Woo let go of her hands as she tried to dissuade him. Back when
he made up his mind to fight, he was already prepared to go that far.
He took a step back from Madam and bade farewell in a dignified
manner.

“I’m sorry for coming by unannounced and asking you for something
like this.”

“Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim!!”

Even before her earnestly pleading voice came to an end, Jin-Woo

slid into the shadow beneath his feet and disappeared from there.

The agents outside were taken surprise by her cries and hurriedly
rushed into the room, but he was long gone by then.

***

‘……’

Just like back when he was searching for Yu Jin-Ho, Jin-Woo climbed
back up on top of the tallest building in the city and expanded his
sensory perception as much as he could.

At the far, far off distance, towards the far end of the land up
north….

….He felt the presence of so, so many monster soldiers that couldn’t
even be counted anymore, making their march south. There seemed
to be almost no presence of life beyond the advancing army.

Meaning, they had become prey of the denizens of the Chaos World.

Min Byung-Gu, Goh Gun-Hui, Adam White, and even his own dad.

Faces of many people who became sacrifices in this war against

those creatures fleeted in and out of Jin-Woo’s mind.

534
Pure anger.

Anger gradually welling up from the depths of his chest began dyeing
the Black Heart. Jin-Woo closed his eyes and began searching for the
Dragon Emperor’s aura within that massive army.

As it turned out, it wasn’t all that difficult to spot the centre of the
mass of ‘power’ that raged on like a violent storm and swallowing up
everything in its wake.

‘….Found you.’

Jin-Woo saw the Dragon Emperor.

At that moment, the Sovereign of Destruction also saw Jin-Woo.

That sharp sensory perception that swept past it – there could only
be one possessing senses like that. The Dragon Emperor abruptly
came to a halt and glared in Jin-Woo’s direction.

Its demonic snake-like eyes didn’t shy away from the darkness in the
distance for a long while. It had finally sensed the presence of the
true enemy that could threaten its existence over yonder, that was
why.

‘…..’

‘…..’

The Shadow Sovereign and the Sovereign of Destruction glared at

each other while transcending past the distance itself. The latter
bared its fangs first.

[I am right here!]

Its terrifying roar as loud as hundreds, no, thousands of lightning

bolts exploding at the same time resounded throughout the entire
planet.

535
[Tens of millions of your kin have died already! So, how long are you
planning to hide like this?]

Murderous glare flickered for a moment within Jin-Woo’s eyes.

‘Don’t you worry. I’ll see you soon.’

And when I do….

Jin-Woo swallowed back the words he wanted to say and submerged

quietly into the shadow.

536
Chapter 238

If one were to transplant ‘Hell’ to Earth, would it resemble

something like this?

The skies were filled with thick black clouds that showed no signs of
abating. The ground below was, in turn, filled with blood, screams,
ashes, and acrid stink.

Sovereigns were born from the darkness with the sole purpose of
destroying everything, and so, they proceeded to systematically
erase any semblance of light and life from this world.

The Dragon Emperor stood in front of them. It stepped proudly on

top of the city now reduced to ash and swept its gaze all over its
surroundings.

‘What is going on with that b*stard, I wonder?’

After that brief stare-down, the Shadow Sovereign went into hiding
and didn’t appear again, even until now.

When he used his sensory perception to reveal his existence, the

Dragon Emperor took that as the sign of the Shadow Sovereign
finally declaring war.

And that was why, for the first time in an extremely long while, the
Dragon Emperor’s heart that went dormant while wandering within
the gap between dimensions had begun beating powerfully once
again.

Finally, one of only a few enemies that could truly threaten its life
had bared his fangs at it. The true war was at hand.

537
To the ‘Sovereign of Destruction’, the sight of the battlefield filled
with sheer, uncontrolled madness from all parties involved was
pretty much the same thing as a marvellous gift from the heavens.

Could anything be compared to the pure joy derived from the

battles?

Too bad, the event it had been waiting for didn’t materialise.

The Shadow Sovereign vanished without a trace and showed no signs

of appearing again even after a nation of his kin had been annihilated
completely.

Of course, it’d be no different than killing himself to fight against the

combined army of the Chaos World that easily numbered in the ten-
plus millions with just over one hundred thousand of his servants.

However, if he was planning to run away from the get-go, he

wouldn’t have tried to threaten the Dragon Emperor even at the risk
of exposing his current whereabouts.

‘….Could he be aiming for something else?’

The Dragon Emperor grew more anxious as time continued to pass

by.

Now that they had no clue when and where the Shadow Sovereign
would begin his assault, the soldiers under the Dragon had no choice
but to move at a much more cautious pace. Obviously, their
marching speed had slowed down to a crawl as a result.

The Dragon Emperor wanted to get rid of all the nuisances bothering
them as soon as possible and get ready for the battle against the
Rulers, so without a doubt, the current situation was proving to be
rather annoying.

Could it be….?

538
‘….He’s waiting for the annihilation of his kin so he can convert them
all into his Shadow Soldiers?’

However, turning humans who didn’t know how to wield Mana into
his soldiers wouldn’t be much help against the Army of Destruction.
Surely, that b*stard would know of this fact, too.

It was then.

A voice interrupted the deep deliberation of the Dragon Emperor.

“Humans are coming, my liege.”

One of the Ancient-class Dragons acting as its bodyguard informed it

of the incoming attacks of the humans. But, didn’t all the humans of
this nation capable of wielding Mana, ‘Hunters’, die? If so, what
could this be?

The Dragon Emperor formed a puzzled expression and raised its

head, and with excellent timing, countless missiles rained down from
the sky.

BOOOOOM-!!!

This was the final struggle of the weak creatures, so pathetically

meaningless that even the Sovereign of Destruction felt sorry for
them. Humans knew that their weapons not imbued with Mana
couldn’t even touch a single hair on the Army of Destruction, yet
they stubbornly refused to give up.

‘….This is getting boring.’

The brows of the Dragon Emperor quivered slightly. Anxiety

morphed into annoyance, and soon, annoyance transformed into
anger.

[None of you step forward.]

539
The Dragon Emperor warned its underlings not to make a move and
for the first time ever since setting foot in this world, revealed its
true appearance.

These fighter pilots had flown here while risking their lives in order
to buy time, however little it’d be, for the civilians to evacuate. But
then, after seeing the truly nonsensical size of the personified
calamity approaching them, every single one of these brave men and
women became completely speechless.

“Mommy….”

The terror and shock of these pilots only lasted for a brief moment.
Soon, the breath of pure destruction fired out in a straight line from
the jaw of the calamity, swallowing up all of the fighter jets in the air.

Kuwaaaaah-!

In less than one minute. The lives of these pilots couldn’t even buy
one minute and their sacrifice was ultimately in vain.

Unfortunately, the Dragon Emperor wasn’t satisfied by these

humans’ sacrifices and raised its head to spew out a terrifying roar at
the heavens.

KUWAAAAAAHHH-!!!

That was the Sovereign of Destruction declaring war against the

Shadow Sovereign.

***

Jin-Woo also heard that roar.

His eyes, closed in stillness so that he could organise his thoughts,

quietly opened up.

‘….It’s time.’

540
The moment his eyelids lifted up, the sight of the ‘lodging’ Beru had
constructed immediately entered his view. Darkness and silence
seemed to have taken over the dominion of this needlessly
humongous room.

Was it because the current atmosphere resembled the moments of

eternal rest? Jin-Woo didn’t dislike the combination of darkness and
silence as experienced within this empty, wide-open space.

He felt guilty about scolding Beru initially after clapping his eyes on
this white fortress for the first time back then, so he quietly
summoned the former ant king to his side.

“Hey, Beru. Thanks.”

Beru had been silently waiting in Jin-Woo’s shadow until then. He

sneaked his head out of the darkness below to speak.

“Oh, my king….”

“Yeah, I know.”

Jin-Woo cut off Beru’s sentence even before another word could be
uttered. This time, Bellion rose up to the surface from the side of the
ant king.

“It’s far too dangerous, my liege.”

Even Igrit emerged from below too, as if he was waiting for this
chance. He knelt down and lowered his head, his voice sounding
earnest.

“I share their opinions, my liege.”

All three Marshals were trying to dissuade Jin-Woo from enacting his
plan. Wordlessly, their master studied the trio.

541
Shadow Soldiers would never die unless their Sovereign was killed
off. Which meant that they would always worry about the safety of
their Sovereign first and foremost.

However, sometimes one had no choice but to make a move even

though he knew of the dangers waiting for him on the other side.

For Jin-Woo, this was one such occasion.

“Osborne…. The former Shadow Sovereign said that he liked this

aspect of me.”

That would be the aspect of him willing to tackle the seemingly-

dangerous problem head-on first to see what’s what, even though he
looked cold and calculating on the outside.

Jin-Woo continued on.

“If he was in the same situation as I am now, what would he have

done?”

“…”

Bellion recalled the past actions of the former Shadow Sovereign and
realised that he couldn’t readily provide an answer.

Osborne, the former Shadow Sovereign, was someone who stepped

up all by himself to try and stop the rebellion of every other
Fragment of the Brilliant Light marching forward to kill their creator,
the Absolute Being.

If it was him, he’d never give up on his duty regardless of the

situation facing him. Once Bellion’s thoughts arrived there, he raised
his faltering head up high.

Jin-Woo was smiling back at him.

‘They… resemble each other.’

542
Jin-Woo’s face overlapped with that of Osborne’s in Bellion’s eyes,
just then.

‘As expected.’

Bellion lowered his head again and made an earnest pledge towards
Jin-Woo.

“I shall accompany you till the end, my liege.”

It seemed that other Marshals shared his sentiment because they no

longer bothered to dissuade Jin-Woo.

Perfect.

“You should’ve come out like that from the beginning, you know.”

Jin-Woo grinned refreshingly at them.

He felt that there really wasn’t much time remaining, and pulled out
his phone from the pocket. This might prove to be his last chance to
speak to his family.

‘……’

In the end, though, he couldn’t bring himself to tap the ‘Call’ icon. He
thought that, if he heard the voices of his loved ones now, he’d not
be able to take another step forward.

That’s the feeling he got.

Crack!

The crushed phone slowly fell from Jin-Woo’s hand.

It’d be perfectly fine to delay listening to their voices until the end of
the upcoming battle. Jin-Woo reaffirmed his resolve and summoned
the pair of Kamish’s Wrath from the storage within the subspace.

543
And then, he tore the T-shirt he was wearing to create long ropes
and wrapped them around his hands holding the shortswords. His
weapons shouldn’t slip out of his grasp during the battle, but in
reality, he was doing this to rouse his fighting spirit up.

The rope made out of his torn T-shirt tightly secured the shortswords
in his both of hands.

His firm, well-developed torso muscles, fully on display now that his
top was gone, quivered and writhed every time he breathed deeply
in and out as if they were alive.

‘Alright, good.’

The heightened sensation before the battle quietly made its descent
on his shoulders. His heart was steadily pounding away, too.

Jin-Woo always liked this heightened sensation spreading

throughout his entire body just before he was about to step into a
dungeon.

Both his mind and body were prepared now.

Fuu….

He let a soft sigh leave his lips, and chilling light began shining from
deep within his eyes.

The plan he ran countless simulations of in his head raced past his
mind one more time. He could not afford to make any mistake from
here on.

His expression now reflected the weight of his determination. His

Marshals, having read their liege’s will to fight, nodded their heads in
unison.

Jin-Woo spoke with a determined voice.

544
“Let’s get going.”

***

Inside the office of the Korean Hunter’s Association President.

Woo Jin-Cheol was busy recalling the sage advice his grandfather had
left behind some time ago.

If he wanted to figure out the severity of an incident, then he’d have

to take a closer look at the expressions of the news anchor.

His grandfather had personally experienced and survived the war

and various calamities that came to visit Korea in the past, so he
knew what he was talking about. After placing a very young Woo Jin-
Cheol on his lap, he said these words.

– If the expression of the news anchor is on the bright side, then it’s
nothing to worry about. If the anchor’s expression is a little gloomy,
then you should be a little bit cautious. However…. The moments
you should really feel scared would be….

Woo Jin-Cheol was studying the expression of the female news

anchor and muttered softly without even consciously realising it.

“….When the anchor is trying to maintain a calm expression.”

In cases of truly calamitous events, news readers would try to

prevent the unrest and agitation blooming in the hearts of the
viewers at home by doing their best to project how calm they were.

His grandfather always told him not to miss the moment when such
grim determination would be shown on live TV.

And sure enough, the lady anchor of the TV news was ably
maintaining a calm expression as well as a level voice to report on

545
the events unfolding in North America – exactly as his grandfather
had warned.

[….When all contact with the Hunters stepping forward to stop the
advance had been cut off, the American government has urgently
mobilised all of their military forces to buy enough time for civilians
to evacuate…..]

Woo Jin-Cheol squeezed his eyes shut.

He just didn’t feel confident of continuously watching the unfolding

tragedy happening on the other side of the planet.

Through Jin-Woo’s memory, he had witnessed the grand scale of the

enemy’s invading forces. He was being serious here – that was a
calamity nothing in this world could defend against.

The nation boasting the greatest combat strength, the United States
of America, was crumbling helplessly at the hands of those d*mn
monsters. And right now, the only thing humanity could do was to
pray for a miracle.

Unfortunately, just what kind of a miracle would it have to be to stop

those creatures?

Imagination filled with ominous foreboding and terrible imagery

continued to bubble one after the other in his head as if they had
formed a long, unbroken chain. Woo Jin-Cheol slowly shook his head,
hoping to get rid of those distracting thoughts.

A miracle, was it?

‘Now that I think about it…’

It had been already over three days since all contact with Hunter
Seong Jin-Woo had been cut off.

546
Woo Jin-Cheol got to clearly see Jin-Woo’s ability to create dozens of
Gates, back when the representatives of the world’s nations had
gathered in one place. As long as he wanted to, Hunter Seong Jin-
Woo would be able to escape to another world.

It could very well be that he had already evacuated to somewhere

safe by now. But, even if he did that, who here could criticise his
decision?

It was either fight against ten million soldiers born for the sake of
destruction with no one else but himself, or escape to somewhere
far away, where their hands didn’t reach.

Even if it was Woo Jin-Cheol making this decision, he wasn’t

confident of choosing the former over the latter.

So, all that remained was to truly pray fervently for a miracle.

“Please, I beg of you. Don’t….”

Although there would never be a reply, Woo Jin-Cheol still looked up

at the ceiling of his office and whispered softly.

“…..Don’t forsake us.”

But, it happened right then.

“…???”

Woo Jin-Cheol jumped up in shock and his gaze was locked onto the
TV immediately.

There was an earthquake erupting within his eyes now.

***

“Uwaaaahk!!”

547
The best air force in the world, the United States Air Force that
proudly boasted the history of zero defeats, didn’t fare any better
compared to their Canadian counterparts when subjected to the
power of the Army of Destruction.

BOOM!!

A fighter jet’s engine was destroyed in an instant and its pilot

hurriedly attempted to eject from the plane.

As this pilot made his rapid descent towards the ground, he began
screaming out in despair as he watched his friends and colleagues
getting massacred in the blink of an eye.

“No!! Nooo!!”

Boom!! Bang! Ka-boom!

Booming exploding noises and flashes of fireballs filled up the sky.

The pilot continued to cry out the names of his dying friends even as
the disorientating chaos pushed his head into a dizzy spin.

The ground approached at the rate of knots. Just before he was

about to become a flat pancake, his parachute unfurled itself in time.

He messily tumbled and rolled around on the ground several times

before coming to a stop. He then emptied the contents of his
stomach from the extreme case of dizziness.

“Blergh, blergh….”

Were the tears pooling on the edges of his eyes the result of the pain
wracking his body, or because of the resentment he felt at his own
powerlessness?

Unfortunately, he wasn’t given a lot of time to consider that

dilemma.

548
Even though the surroundings were filled with the acrid stink of
blood and stinging fumes of chemicals, monsters still managed to
sense the breathing of a lifeform from far away and began rushing
towards his location.

The pilot hurriedly cut himself loose from the parachute’s straps and
yanked out a pistol mounted on his hips.

“Die!! Die, you sons of b*tches!!”

Blam! Blam!! Blam!!! Blam!!!!

Several ear-piercing gunshots echoed in the air, but as expected,

they were simply inadequate to slow down the monsters by one bit.

Click, click, click….

Now that he ran out of bullets, the pilot instantly began regretting
his actions. He should have reserved the last shot for his own final
moment.

His hands powerlessly sagged to the ground.

The very first monster to arrive his location as he stood there dazed
and numb was a denizen of the Chaos World that resembled a giant
cockroach.

Shashashashak!

After seeing the insect-type monster utterly filling up his view, all
strength in the pilot’s legs abandoned him and he sunk down to the
floor.

A despairing moan leaked out of his mouth.

“D*mn it….”

Right at that moment….

549
kwagagagagahk!!

All those insects rushing at him were suddenly torn apart at once as
if a claw from a gigantic creature took a swipe at them.

“Jesus Christ?!”

His tearful eyes anxiously sought out the origin of that miracle. And
soon, he found a single Asian man gently landing in front of his eyes.

Although it was only his back, the pilot found it not too difficult to
guess this man’s name by looking at the pair of uniquely-shaped
shortswords in his hands.

“Seong Jin-Woo…. Hunter Jin-Woo Seong??”

Jin-Woo took a look at the pilot behind him.

There was an incredibly intense scowl on his face that made it hard
to tell whether he was an ally or an enemy. But, his eyes definitely
said, “Run away, now!”

Sure enough, a horde of monsters far outnumbering the ones that

got killed was rushing towards them from the distance. The pilot’s
voice rose up an octave just then.

“Even if it’s you, Hunter Seong, you can’t do this alone….”

That was as far as his words could go.

KWA-GAGAGAGAHK!!

Jin-Woo furiously swung Kamish’s Wraths, resulting in the monsters

to get torn apart into bits and pieces like dolls made out of paper.
Having successfully bought more time, Jin-Woo looked back at the
pilot again.

“Go, now!”

550
“Ah, y-yes!”

The pilot finally managed to ungainly push himself off from the
ground and he began running away using everything in his power.
Jin-Woo briefly watched the back of the departing man, before
shifting his gaze back to his front again.

He had cut down dozens upon dozens of enemies with those two
attacks, but that was like shaving a tiny piece off a massive iceberg.

Enemies hundreds of times greater in number seemed to have

latched onto the smell of combat that had taken place here.

This would be the first steps of the war. His first victims would be
with these insect-type monsters.

Fuu….

Jin-Woo sucked in a quick but deep breath, and in the direction of

the Chaos World’s soldiers rushing towards his location, he spat out
the two words that would become the turning point in this war.

“Rise up.”

551
Chapter 239

“Rise up.”

As soon as Jin-Woo issued his command….

Kiiieeehk-!!

All those insect monsters that got torn to shreds just now stood back
up as new Shadow Soldiers.

In the past, he also revived monsters that got killed during the
battles and added them to his stock of soldiers, but these new
additions were on a different scale altogether compared to those
guys.

Quite far removed from the recent past when the System suppressed
the powers of the Shadow Sovereign and resulted in the creation of
Shadow Soldiers that were weaker than their living counterparts, Jin-
Woo was now the bonafide King of the Dead, and the restrictions of
the System no longer affected him. He could create the perfect
Shadow Soldiers at will now.

Kiiehk!

These soldiers were so much stronger than when they were still
alive. Black smoke rose up vigorously like flames from their bodies. It
was pretty obvious that the stronger the soldiers of the Chaos World,
the stronger his Soldiers extracted from their shadows would be.

And so, this would be how the unparalleled power that tried to
destroy this world ended up becoming the noose that tightened
around his enemies’ necks.

552
Jin-Woo issued his first command to these new soldiers, overflowing
with fighting spirit.

‘Go rampage to your heart’s content.’

Kiiiiieeeeehkkk-!!

The insect-type Shadow Soldiers madly rushed towards the incoming

waves of Chaos World’s forces. Jin-Woo also dashed forward, as well.

He instantly overtook the insect-type Shadow Soldier at the very

front of the pack and leapt into the midst of the Orcs unfortunate
enough to be marching at the forefront.

Keu-hahk!!

The panicking hordes of Orcs, as well as Ogres standing here and

there among them, blindly swung their weapons in a hurry, but the
odds of those hits landing on him were zero.

Jin-Woo evaded every attack pouring in from all sides with

consummate ease before swinging his shortswords. Like being
sucked into the centre of a whirlpool, the hapless Orcs were swept
away in one go without any mercy.

Every time he sliced down, the black aura shooting out from his
blades utterly tore through not just the Orcs, but the ground they
were standing on, too.

Simply put, it was a hellish storm.

The headcount of Orcs decreased a lot faster than the screams

exploding out from their mouths could be heard.

It was then. A tall shade was suddenly cast above Jin-Woo’s head. He
raised his head to look.

Guooo….

553
A Giant-type monster, so humongous that tilting one’s head to look
might actually injure one’s neck, was busy glaring down at him. And
it was also in the middle of raising up high a pillar of stone that
matched the length of its arms.

It must’ve devoured innumerable humans while getting here

because the blood of its victims had dyed the vicinity of its mouth
dark red.

Jin-Woo’s brows creased up. Even before the creature could smash
down its stone pillar, he made his move first. In the blink of an eye,
he arrived right below the Giant’s groin area and swung his reverse-
gripped Kamish’s Wrath with a crap-ton of power.

SLICE!

The black aura dancing around on the edge of the blade cleanly
severed the Giant’s thick ankle.

Wuh-uh-uh-uh-uh!!

Suddenly losing one of its ankles, the Giant’s body tilted to one side
and it cried out in alarm before its balance eventually broke. That
humongous body tipped over to its back and soon, gained
momentum as it crashed down to the ground.

Ka-boom-!!!

Countless monsters located behind the Giant couldn’t evade in time

and were crushed to death quite unexpectedly by that huge falling
body.

Next up was the turn of the Shadow Soldiers.

As the Giant lay on its back breathing heavily in pain, the insect-type
Shadow Soldiers quickly began climbing up on the creature.

554
Shashashashashak-!!

The Giant struggled mightily to shake off the insects, but too bad,
they reached the panicking creature’s face in no time at all. And
soon, their ravenous feeding time began.

Uwuuuuhhh-!!

The screaming Giant’s convulsion ended pretty quickly. However,

that wasn’t the end for this Giant, not by a long shot. Once more, the
Shadow Sovereign issued his command.

“Rise up.”

When he did….

Wu-uh-uhhh….

Next to the corpse of the Giant with its face mostly gone from the
insects and their vicious bites, a Shadow with the exact same height
slowly rose back up. Not just this guy, but other Shadow Soldiers
began crawling out one by one from beneath this gigantic shadow,
too.

These new Shadow Soldiers created out of the Orc remains were
already outfitted with their own weapons. Their hostile eyes were
now glaring at their former, still-alive comrades.

In no time at all, over one hundred of Chaos World’s forces had been
absorbed into the Shadow Army.

Wuuuong….

When the Giant soldier made its move, the enemies flinched greatly.
Ignoring them for now, it bent all the way down to the ground where
the original’s body lay, unfurled the dead monster’s fingers, before
yanking back the stone pillar for itself.

555
That was how the massive object had become the new weapon for
the Giant soldier.

Tumble, duduk….

Clumps of soil clinging onto the stone pillar tumbled and fell to the
ground.

As if not being able to swing its pillar while still alive was its greatest
regret ever, the Giant soldier cocked that enormous weapon behind
it and got ready to take an almighty swing.

Only then did the soldiers of the Chaos World realise just what kind
of authority their enemy possessed.

Stagger, stagger….

These monsters used to enjoy fighting in this so-called war, but now,
they all began taking retreating steps in fear. Their unchecked terror
travelled through the air of the battlefield and got transmitted in full
to Jin-Woo.

He roared out in the languages of the Sovereigns towards these

creatures.

[What are you all scared of?]

After all, his counterattack had only just begun. It was indeed far, far
too early to feel fear from only this much. A murderous, chilly glare
flickered within Jin-Woo’s eyes.

In that moment…

WHOOSH-!!

The stone pillar powerfully swung by the Giant soldier brushed past
and swept away every single enemy in its path as if they were mere
small toys.

556
Kwa-ga-ga-ga-gahk!!

***

Immediately after Jin-Woo made his entrance to the battlefield.

The Dragon Emperor, having never let its guard down once, finally
detected the presence of the Shadow Sovereign.

‘Towards the eastern front.’

Right at the eastern end of the gigantic army spreading out with
itself as the centre – that was where the Shadow Sovereign decided
to make his appearance.

Although a bit later than their leader, the Ancient-class Dragons as

well as other Sovereigns also eventually detected the Shadow
Sovereign’s movements.

The King of Demonic Spectres, the Sovereign of Transfiguration,

addressed the Dragon Emperor respectfully.

[We should lead all of our forces and….]

However, the latter raised its hand up and abruptly cut off the words
of the former.

The Emperor’s underlings formed various puzzled expressions.

The one who waited for the entrance of the Shadow Sovereign with
the greatest anticipation was the Sovereign of Destruction right
before their eyes. So, why did it choose not to make a move even
after the much-awaited enemy had finally signalled the earnest
beginning of this war?

Even at this moment, the forces of the Chaos World were rapidly
morphing into the Shadow Army’s soldiers.

557
The anxiety felt by the Sovereign of Transfiguration, currently
occupying the body of a short-statured middle-aged man, forced it to
open its mouth, but before any words could be spoken, the Dragon
Emperor voiced his opinion first.

[The Shadow Army…. Can you see where the Army of the Dead is?]

Even though they were separated by an incredible distance, the

Emperor of Dragons didn’t miss the crucial fact that the Shadow
Sovereign’s loyal soldiers were not present within his shadow.

‘But, that can’t be….?’

The Sovereign of Transfiguration hurriedly closed its eyes shut.

At the Eastern battlefront – a large illusory eyeball created using

magic appeared in the air just above the location where the Shadow
Sovereign had begun his warfare.

This magical eye took a sweeping look at the battlefield.

‘….!!’

It was as the Dragon Emperor had said.

The Shadow Sovereign was freely roaming through the middle of the
battlefield as the storm of blood raged on, but not one single hint of
the army that should have been hidden within his shadow could be
detected.

The Sovereign of Transfiguration opened its eyes and looked at the

Dragon Emperor and discovered that the latter’s glare was now half-
made up of rage and unanswered questions.

‘Just what….?’

What was the Shadow Sovereign thinking of by stepping into the

battlefield without the army to protect him?

558
At a casual glance, this seemed to be the most perfect opportunity to
eliminate him for good. However, they simply couldn’t mobilise the
entire army when it was unknown what their enemy was scheming
right now. In a way, doing precisely that might be the true aim of the
enemy, to begin with.

Anxiety akin to a veil of fog clogging up one’s vision grabbed hold of

the Dragon Emperor and it couldn’t readily make its next move. One
of the Ancient-class Dragon worriedly called out to its master.

[Oh, my Sovereign….]

The Dragon Emperor shot a glare at its servant, and all of the
Ancient-class Dragons lowered their heads.

Having silenced them all with nothing but sheer intense pressure, the
Sovereign of Destruction shifted its glare back towards the eastern
battlefield, where Jin-Woo was going on a rampage at the moment.

The number of the Chaos World’s soldiers were decreasing at a

noticeable rate. And at the same time, that b*stard’s own forces
were increasing rapidly.

The decision needed to be made right now. The quicker the better.

Too bad, the Dragon Emperor couldn’t readily make a choice when
the battlefield’s direction was unfolding in an unexpected direction
through one man’s actions that seemed to defy all attempts to
predict what his next moves would be.

The Dragon Emperor’s brows creased up.

‘Shadow Sovereign…. Just what is it that you’re aiming for?’

***

559
From a certain point onwards, Jin-Woo gave up on consciously
cutting down on the vast sea of enemies. There were simply far too
many of them for that.

The number of his own allies was increasing at a rapid pace, but still,
the scale of the enemy forces was just so ridiculous that it almost
rendered all of his actions so far inconsequential.

‘Fuu.’

After he sucked in a deep breath, Jin-Woo entrusted himself not to

his logical reasoning, but to his senses. When he did, reflexive
movements that seemed to have transcended the limits of human
anatomy began repeating as if he was a machine created solely to
murder and destroy.

Just one strike from him tore through hundreds of monsters. And
then,

“Rise up!!”

Then, hundreds of new Shadow Soldiers joined his army. Like a

gigantic tsunami wave crashing and swallowing everything up, the
Shadows gradually dyed the battlefield black.

Every time Jin-Woo moved, black waves rumbled and rose up from
the ground.

“Uwahhh-!!”

A thunderous cry filled with Mana exploded from Jin-Woo and it

proceeded to knock down all the monsters standing in the frontline
of the battlefield.

Their eardrums must’ve blown up because blood was trickling down

from their ears; as the creatures gruntled out in pain and failed to
orient themselves properly….

560
….Shadow Soldiers pounced on them without mercy.

Screams of monsters reverberating from all corners completely filled

up the battlefield.

And so, just how much time went by in this manner?

Jin-Woo finally detected the approach of existences quite different

from the forces of the Chaos World that he’d been fighting so far.

He raised his head to spot hundreds of Sky Dragons, as well as

Dragonewts possessing humanoid appearances riding on top of
them, completely blanket the sky above.

‘Is the Army of Destruction finally making its move?’

However, he still couldn’t sense the presence of the Dragon Emperor

yet.

Not yet, huh?

There was no need to be disappointed, though – because, he had

plenty of time on his hands, after all. Besides, if that b*stard was
reluctant to make a move, then all he had to do was to give it a good
enough reason.

Kiiihak!

The Dragonewt flying at the front of the pack let out a loud shriek
which in turn made every single Sky Dragon change their heading
and rush towards Jin-Woo’s location.

At that moment, determination filled up his eyes.

The reason for the Dragon Emperor to make a move? He’d create
that through his overwhelming power that these measly underlings
were incapable of dealing with.

561
Jin-Woo reached out with both of his hands towards the Sky Dragons
descending towards him.

‘Ruler’s Authority!!’

As if to squeeze dry the heavens itself, he strengthened his grip and

dragged ‘something’ that eyes could not see. Mana in the
atmosphere answered the will of the Shadow Sovereign next.

Without a single exception, hundreds of Sky Dragons buzzing

towards him like a swarm of bees were caught by the invisible hands
and were slammed down to the ground.

KWA-GAH-GAH-GAH-GAH-GAHNG!!!

It was a spectacular sight to behold.

The earth rocked violently from the Sky Dragons seemingly endlessly
crash landing to their deaths.

What a truly absurd level of power this was. Even Jin-Woo himself
got stunned by this display of the Shadow Sovereign’s power that
was no longer restricted by anything.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to stew in his surprise for long.

A Dragon that was previously hidden from his view by the swarm of
Sky Dragons revealed itself. And he witnessed a cluster of energy
gathering in the flying creature’s jaw.

‘….!!’

Sure enough, the horrifying Breath of a Dragon made up purely of

flames fell from the sky.

Kuwaaaaaaaah-!!

562
Having accurately fired the Breath attack on the target, this Dragon
then increased its altitude.

The enemy’s presence couldn’t be detected. Could the human have

been melted away by its Breath, then? Thinking that it had reached a
safe-enough altitude, the Dragon stopped flying up and looked down
at the ground to confirm the fate of the Shadow Sovereign.

The raging flames died down, and the black smoke dissipated, but…

….But, not a trace of the Shadow Sovereign could be seen anywhere.

‘Where is he…??’

It was then.

A presence could be felt on top of the Dragon’s head. A chill-inducing

sensation brushed past the back of this creature’s neck, but by then,
it was already too late.

– You b*stard!!

Even before the Dragon could look up, Jin-Woo standing on its head
stabbed down with ‘Kamish’s Wrath’.

Kwa-jeehck!!

Sharp black aura shooting out from the tip of the shortsword
penetrated clean through the Dragon’s head and exited from
underneath its chin.

Rather obviously, the dead flying lizard lost its ability to stay airborne
and helplessly fell towards the earth.

The ground rapidly closed in, and eventually, collided with the
Dragon.

BOOM-!!

563
Jin-Woo lightly jumped off from the head of the unmoving, sagging
Dragon and while walking towards the approaching enemies, spoke
without even bothering to look behind him.

“Rise up.”

Just like that, the Dragon and hundreds of Dragonewts began rising
up again right behind him.

***

The Dragon Emperor also felt it.

Its own army shouldn’t even be compared to the ragtag bunch calling
themselves soldiers that belonged to other Sovereigns. But now, a
portion of its proud army had been lost to the Shadow Sovereign.

With that, the situation was now beyond the point of wait-and-see in
regards to whatever schemes the b*stard had cooked up. The event
of the Army of Destruction being swallowed up by the Shadow
Sovereign must be prevented at any cost.

[We shall strike him down.]

The Dragon Emperor issued a new order to the Ancient-class

Dragons waiting for their chance to participate in the war.

[All of you shall accompany me.]

And just in case, it issued a different command to the Sovereign of

Transfiguration.

[You shall remain here and prepare for the possible surprise attack
by the Shadow Sovereign.]

[It shall be done.]

564
Hundreds of Gates connected to the battlefield in the east suddenly
materialised in front of the Dragon Emperor and the Ancient-class
Dragons.

‘I shall not let you escape.’

With that thought in its head, the Dragon Emperor and its eyes
burning in the flames of rage disappeared into the Gate. Right
behind it, the Ancient-class Dragons also entered their respective
Gates.

Finally, the Army of Destruction, shrinking back and not doing

anything until now, was forced to make their move after the Shadow
Sovereign successfully managed to provoke them.

***

Quite unlike in the east where the violent storms of power were on a
collision course, a comparatively quieter battle was coming to an end
on the opposite side, on the western front.

The American military that had set up their final defensive line here
was tragically being torn apart by the fangs and claws of the
monsters.

What these soldiers had bet their last hopes on were the weapons
used by the Hunters. Unfortunately, there was simply no way that
these regular people could effectively use the Hunter-issue weapons
that were originally designed for raid situations.

And so, the American military rapidly crumbled away in defeat.

“Uwaaahk! Uwaahk?!”

The role of the marauding army’s spearhead for the western front
was also given to the insect-type monsters that possessed great
agility and sharp senses.

565
Shashashashak…

The insect monsters quickly closed in on the human soldiers.

Blam, blam, blam, blam, blam!!

These creatures completely ignored the barrage of bullets and

pounced on the humans to tear them apart.

“Uwaahk!!”

The survivors retreated and continued to fire away with their guns,
but as expected, their actions were completely ineffective. However,
it was even more unimaginable that they would suddenly start
swinging swords around to fight these insect monsters now.

While they found themselves stuck between a rock and a hard

place…

Kiieek.

The insects, having finished their feast on the human soldiers,

swivelled their heads towards the next wave of prey. It was now the
turn of the survivors.

The platoon commander’s expression hardened as he took a look at

his soldiers to the side. They were nodding their heads back to him.

From the moment they learned that this mission was simply a ploy to
buy enough time for the civilians to evacuate, they all had prepared
themselves for this moment.

The platoon commander pulled out a hand grenade. This little

modern-day explosive might not be able to kill these enemies, but on
the flip side, they couldn’t avoid becoming food for their enemies,
either.

The platoon commander yanked out the safety pin.

566
The insect-type monsters sensed that the atmosphere had turned
weird from the human’s action and while screeching out loudly, they
madly pounced on the platoon commander.

Kiiiiaaaahhkk-!!

His eyes grew wider as he watched the insects swarm towards him. It
truly happened in the blink of an eye.

These insects arrived right before his nose in less than a breath. Just
before their sharp mandibles split open wide to swallow him up…

….A certain figure stepped before the platoon commander faster

than any of the insects could and took the hand grenade away, while
blocking the attacks of the monsters with his bare back.

The commander could only look up in a total daze at the man

blocking his view, who was also at least a good two heads taller than
he was.

“T-Thomas Andre???”

Thomas winked and spun around towards the insects before shoving
the grenade into the open mouth of one of them.

Although there wouldn’t be any tangible damage suffered by the

d*mn thing from the grenade, but, it still should get really surprised
by a strange object suddenly entering its gut like that.

The corners of his lips arched up as a rather humorous situation

played out in his head. Meanwhile, he swung his massive fist and
easily blew away the head of that insect.

Kwa-boooom!!

The dead headless insect flew away and landed far away.

“Oops…. That thing’s not gonna get surprised now, is it?”

567
As Thomas stood there scratching the back of his head, top-ranked
Hunters urgently rushing forward from somewhere behind him
began their desperate struggle against the insect-type monsters.

Kiiieeehk!

Kiiaaahk!

Painful screeches of dying insects noisily rang around. The surviving

soldiers quickly recognised who these people coming to their aid
were and bright expressions filled up their faces.

“I-it’s the Scavenger!!”

“They’re Hunters from the Scavenger Guild!”

“Ah, ahh!! Thank you, Lord!”

As befitting a Guild consisting of truly exceptional Hunters, the

current situation was resolved in no time at all. However, they didn’t
have any breathing room whatsoever as yet another wave of
monsters was madly rushing towards them.

Thomas Andre’s ultra-sharp glare swept across the incoming

enemies.

Orcs, Ogres, Trolls, Minotaurs, Cyclops, etc….

All of them were monsters commonly seen inside dungeons. No

matter how many of them were here, they didn’t pose any challenge
to him.

‘Except….’

In the middle of this sea of weaklings, there hid a nonsensically

powerful being. Just like how other monsters were scared by
Thomas’s presence, he too couldn’t make a move because of that
one presence.

568
Eventually, this creature slowly walked to the front of the horde, as if
it was done observing the situation.

[You’re the human from that time, aren’t you? The weakling vessel
of the Rulers, almost driven to death by the Sovereign of Beastly
Fangs.]

The King of Monstrous Humanoids formed a sinister grin.

The Sovereign of Beastly Fangs did indeed possess powers of a

predator, but basically, it was more specialised towards hunting
down its prey, instead. However, this particular King was different
from its now-dead comrade in that it ruled over Monstrous
Humanoids such as Orcs and Ogres, and its speciality was in up-close-
and-personal physical confrontations.

So, it was quite obvious that it’d find this human acting so flippant
when he had only a pathetic little bit of strength to fall back on
rather humorous to behold.

The King of Monstrous Humanoids, the Sovereign of Iron Body,

began unleashing its enormous Mana reserve.

Pressuring the opponent’s fighting spirit through aura alone. This

was a display of confidence from the Sovereign, implying that it
could easily kill off a measly human like Thomas Andre in a
heartbeat.

But then….

[….?]

In stark contrast to the Hunters behind him with their rapidly-paling

complexions, the vessel of the Rulers didn’t seem to lose his relaxed
demeanour at all.

569
The Sovereign began to wonder if this human had some sort of a
scheme, a trick up his sleeve, but then…

“…..So, this much should be enough, right?”

….Thomas Andre muttered to himself.

When he did, the darkness suddenly spread out from beneath his
feet and in the blink of an eye, completely covered up the land.

The Sovereign’s brow quivered greatly.

‘Shadow….?’

This was, without a doubt, the skill belonging to the Shadow

Sovereign.

The odd thing was, though, if he was here, then there was no way
that the King of Monstrous Humanoids would have missed the
source of that enormous power.

At that moment, a familiar voice suddenly rose up from right behind

Thomas Andre.

[It’s been a long time, oh, King of Monstrous Humanoids.]

The Grand-Marshal Bellion sent his greeting in a polite yet still

threatening tone of voice. And right behind him, over 130 thousand
Shadow Soldiers, hiding within Thomas Andre’s shadow while
patiently biding their time, were rising up above the ground at the
same time.

570
Chapter 240

The elite Shadow Soldiers numbering over 130 thousand that

managed to survive the last war under the guidance of their
Sovereign erased their presence as much as possible and hid within
the human’s shadow.

It was a trap.

Now suddenly finding itself coming face-to-face with the Shadow

Army, the Sovereign of Iron Body felt this dizzying sensation of being
sucked into a quagmire.

‘They got me.’

Currently, the army manning the western battlefront didn’t possess

enough power to face off against the Shadow Army. Not only that,
the ones leading this Army of the Dead were Bellion and Igrit, so the
Sovereign in charge now had to worry about its own neck, instead.

Most likely, the Shadow Army – no, the Shadow Sovereign, was
aiming for this result.

‘….I need to let them know.’

The Sovereign of Iron Body urgently tried to communicate with the

Dragon Emperor. However, some kind of ‘power’ was blocking its
attempts to send the word out.

‘Could it be….??’

Did the Shadow Sovereign plan this far ahead?

The Sovereign of Iron Body hurriedly activated its sensory perception

to locate the source of the ‘power’ interrupting the contact with the

571
other side. When it did, it discovered a certain High Orc Shaman
standing next to Igrit, diligently murmuring out some kind of an
incantation while holding onto something small in his hand.

‘….!!’

That d*mn creature’s spell was disrupting all forms of

communication with the other Sovereigns.

The spell from the Commander-grade Fangs, now that he had

experienced a rebirth as a true Shadow Soldier, as well as borrowing
the power of the Bead of Avarice, was more than strong enough to
perform that role.

Grin.

Fangs blushed slightly when his gaze met that of the king he used to
serve. Even then, he didn’t try to stop casting his spell.

The King of Monstrous Humanoids, the Sovereign of Iron Body felt as

if it was being made fun of after looking at Fangs’ smile. An
uncontrollable rage welled up from deep within.

[You pathetic insects dare to…!!]

No, hang on – this tactic was not something the Shadow Sovereign
would have cooked up, never mind his Shadow Soldiers. Indeed, this
was not how the Shadow Army conducted its business; this army
used to proudly announce the approach of unavoidable death right
in front of their enemies every single time.

This was….

‘….A human’s way of thinking.’

572
The current Shadow Sovereign, the human, had perverted how the
war was supposed to be fought. Didn’t he possess any pride as a
Sovereign?!

Now thoroughly enraged, the Sovereign of Iron Body expanded its

muscles. As his body ballooned up to a near-bursting size, thick veins
bulged up on its various muscles.

The Sovereign of Iron Body roared out.

[That b*stard is not qualified to be called a Sovereign!]

It then arrived right in front of Fangs in less than a blink of an eye,

but its path was suddenly blocked off by Beru.

Boom-!!

The former ant king grabbed both hands of the Sovereign and began
a contest of pure physical strength. He glared at the enemy and
growled in the language of the monsters.

[What you said just now…. Retract it. Or else, you shall pay a heavy
price for the sin of insulting my liege.]

As a reply, the Sovereign of Iron Body exerted enough power to twist

and yank off Beru’s arms while shouting out even louder than before.

[How dare a measly little soldier try to stop a Sovereign!!]

And when that happened….

Kiiieeeehhhk-!!!

An ear-splitting screech exploded out from Beru’s mouth as his

entire body quickly expanded to double his previous size.

***

The Dragon Emperor saw it.

573
It saw the corpses of countless soldiers of the Chaos World that died
during its brief period of hesitation, as well as the number of Shadow
Soldiers that matched those that had fallen.

Figurative flames erupted out from the Dragon Emperor’s eyes as it

strode outside the Gate. The end of its glare was locked onto Jin-
Woo, currently swallowing whole a portion of the Chaos World’s
army after becoming a literal giant storm in their midst.

The man…

‘That b*stard must die!!’

The Dragon Emperor didn’t even have the necessary time to

transform back to its original appearance, so it hurriedly fired the
Breath of Destruction, instead.

Kuwaaah-!!

A flash of light flared brightly in the distance and Jin-Woo, even

though he was in a trance-like state while butchering the forces of
the Chaos World, didn’t miss that blink-and-miss-it moment.

‘It’s him!’

Jin-Woo’s figure vanished from the spot. Right afterwards, all the
soldiers of the Chaos World as well as the new Shadow Soldiers were
exposed to the Breath and got incinerated without a trace.

Kuwaaaaaahhhh-!!!

Jin-Woo made his timely escape and settled down on a location not
too far away.

Ending its Breath attack, the Dragon Emperor glared right at him.
Countless Gates opened up behind it and through them, Ancient-
class Dragons and Dragonewts revealed themselves.

574
And so, the King of Berserk Dragons, the Sovereign of Destruction,
had entered the fray. What appeared now alongside it was the main
portion of the Army of Destruction.

Forces capable of destroying this planet in one day had been

mobilised in their entirety just to deal with the lone Shadow
Sovereign. And in front of them stood the King of Kings, the
Sovereign that lorded over other Sovereigns – the Dragon Emperor.

‘….’

Jin-Woo had to quickly swallow back his saliva after sensing the truly
vast, seemingly-limitless sea of power from the Dragon Emperor.

At once, every single Shadow Soldier still fighting against the forces
of the Chaos World stopped and retreated according to his new
command. Just like the army of Dragons choosing to stand behind
the Dragon Emperor, the Shadow Soldiers also stood right behind
Jin-Woo.

The leader of the Army of Destruction formed a mocking grin.

[Are those pathetic soldiers everything you possess?]

There were several thousand Shadow Soldiers hurriedly ‘recruited’ to

his cause after killing the enemy forces. However, he was facing off
against nearly ten million soldiers, hundreds of Dragons, and most
importantly, the truly dangerous existence called the Dragon
Emperor.

Of course, Jin-Woo knew full well the differences in the size of their
armies. That was why he chose to enact this plan from the get-go.

“Advance!”

575
Jin-Woo had his Shadow Soldiers, initially brought to one location,
march forward again. An expression of confusion floated up on the
Dragon Emperor’s face.

‘He saw my soldiers, yet he wishes to confront me head-on?’

Those were the actions of an insane fool!

As if to mock the Dragon Emperor’s suspicion, the Shadow Soldiers

simply rushed forward towards their enemies. Dragons immediately
fired powerful, vicious flames at them.

Huwaaaa-aahk!!

With that, Shadow Soldiers were enveloped in flames before

disappearing away like expendables, with nary a hint of regeneration
happening among them.

Almost instantly, the Dragon Emperor realised that these were

simply decoys to buy time.

‘Where is he….?!’

It quickly expanded its sensory perception. The Shadow Sovereign

was using his shadow to escape to somewhere.

Seeing this shameful sight, the Dragon Emperor formed a mocking

grin. It seemed that the human b*stard was planning to slowly shave
down the forces of the Chaos World by repeating the tactics of hit-
and-run, but he had made one crucial oversight, something he had
failed to consider.

And that would be the fact the leader of the enemy’s forces could
chase after him no problem. The Dragon Emperor easily traced Jin-
Woo’s shadow now being connected to the western front.

‘There you are!’

576
It’d never let him get away.

The Dragon Emperor quickly generated a Gate connected to the

exact spot where Jin-Woo had fled to and jumped in without
hesitation.

Just as it took the first step out of the Gate….

‘……’

….It was greeted by the sight of the 130,000-strong great army

surrounding it.

That wasn’t all.

Jin-Woo had been waiting for the Dragon Emperor’s arrival and
spoke in a calm voice when it did show up.

“….Rise up.”

Just one command and every single creature belonging to the

Western portion of the Chaos army that were killed at the hands of
the true Shadow Army rose up as new Shadow Soldiers.

The Dragon Emperor took a sweeping look at the Shadow Soldiers

that now numbered well past two hundred thousand and spoke.

[Is this what you were aiming for?]

Draw your enemy to the battlefield of your choosing and establish

the upper hand – since the Shadow Army was facing an
overwhelmingly disadvantageous number of enemies, the current
tactic could be seen as a must, but still, a mocking grin didn’t want to
leave the face of the Dragon Emperor.

[How laughable.]

577
It finally understood what the scheme of the Shadow Sovereign was.
Although the process of uncovering the plot resulted in the loss of
the western portion of the Chaos World’s army, that was not a large
cost to bare as long as the Shadow Sovereign could be killed here
today.

‘Even losing half of all the soldiers would not be a loss.’

‘Fear’ would bloom in one’s heart when one couldn’t predict the
events of the future. But its opponent had been laid bare here.

[Oh, Shadow Sovereign.]

The Dragon Emperor chuckled and looked back at Jin-Woo.

[You must’ve thought that only I was capable of chasing you down,
but….]

‘You are wrong.’

In reality, there stood a certain Sovereign that could be seen as the

greatest sorcerer in the Chaos World waiting right behind the Dragon
Emperor.

Not too long afterwards, the Sovereign of Transfiguration waiting for

the surprise attack from the Shadow Army created countless Gates
that connected two battlefields.

Before long, a seemingly-endless number of soldiers from the Chaos

World poured out before the measly two hundred thousand or so
Shadow Army.

‘So, how do you feel now?’

With this, your plan has been smashed to bits.

Your miscalculation will result in your death today.

578
The Dragon Emperor stared at Jin-Woo with a triumphant expression
on its face.

[This is your defeat.]

However, Jin-Woo grinned as his reply.

He actually smiled right back at the Dragon Emperor and his satisfied
expression.

‘He got suckered in.’

Indeed, the Dragon Emperor had acted exactly according to his will.

The King of Berserk Dragons, of course, didn’t miss that brief flash of
a smile on the human’s face.

‘….He smiled?’

Sure enough – the summoning of the Shadow Soldiers was cancelled

in an instant, and they all got sucked into the dark shade below the
Shadow Sovereign’s feet.

Just what was this human thinking?

Withdrawing his soldiers now was no different from trying to kill

himself. If he had no soldiers to buy him time, then he’d not even be
able to escape to somewhere else, either.

Even if he didn’t want to lose his precious Shadow Soldiers, no one

would’ve taken him for a fool who would expose his back to his
mortal enemies while hurriedly scurrying away!

Before Jin-Woo could do something else, the Dragon Emperor closed

the distance first. At the same time, the entirety of the forces of the
Chaos World also pounced towards Jin-Woo’s direction.

579
The gazes of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of soldiers
still breathlessly emerging from the Gates were locked on Jin-Woo
and Jin-Woo alone.

It was then – just as the Dragon Emperor arrived right before Jin-
Woo’s nose and reached out towards him…

….At that moment, Jin-Woo’s eyes changed to resemble a Dragon’s.

Only then did the Dragon Emperor realise that something had gone
terribly awry.

[You….!!]

A moment of stillness came and went.

‘…..’

From Jin-Woo’s mouth, a loud and vicious roar exploded out. It was
the cry from the soul that pushed every single being near him, every
single being weaker than him, into a state of pure despair!

[Kuwaaaaaaahhh-]

It was the Dragon’s Fear. The vilest and cruellest Skill of Dragons he
learned from Kamish’s Rune Stone. He hadn’t been interested in it
since its powers didn’t differentiate allies from enemies, but now…

‘But now, it’s different!’

The skill that drove hundreds of elite Hunters gathered to hunt down
a Dragon to the pits of hell had now been used against the Dragons,
instead.

[-Aaaaaaaahhh-!!!]

580
Just like how Kamish had done to the human Hunters all those years
ago, the Shadow Sovereign froze up all the soldiers of the Dragon
Emperor, too.

There was no being alive that could break from the effects of Fear
produced by the near-bottomless supply of Mana belonging to the
Shadow Sovereign, save for one lone individual, and that would be
the Dragon Emperor.

After making every single one of the enemy forces freeze up in an

instant, Jin-Woo reached out and grabbed the Dragon Emperor’s arm
next.

[You b*stard…!!]

The brows of the King of Berserk Dragons crumpled.

Jin-Woo gripped the arm tighter as a grin suffused on his lips.

“You, come with me for a sec.”

581
Chapter 241

The circular shadow spreading out from beneath Jin-Woo’s feet

rapidly grew large enough to swallow up the Dragon Emperor. The
creature’s expression hardened.

‘From the beginning, had he been aiming for this….?’

From the moment he appeared in the battlefield all alone, directing

the Shadow Army behind everyone’s back and mopping up the
western front, and finally, even drawing the Dragon Emperor to here
– were all of those just for the sake of this moment?

Although this human was its enemy, the King of all Dragons couldn’t
help but admire the meticulousness of the Shadow Sovereign.

At first, he created a situation where it simply had to make a move,

and through what looked to be a pretty obvious tactic to lower its
guard, then finally, by relying on an unexpected hidden card, he
eventually got what he was aiming for.

‘….To think, he’d actually use Dragon Fear here.’

The Dragon Emperor formed an expression of someone suffering

from a sucker punch. Jin-Woo’s grip on the creature’s arm tightened
after witnessing that unmistakable expression.

‘I did it.’

There had been no mistakes so far. A couple more steps, and then…

Soon, the shadow swallowed up both Jin-Woo and the Dragon

Emperor.

582
The darkness blinding them quickly rescinded and they re-emerged
at the pre-selected destination.

Having succeeded in his endeavour of inviting the Dragon Emperor to

the true battlefield of his own choosing, Jin-Woo quickly distanced
himself away from his opponent.

And now, finding itself in a location very far away from its underlings,
the creature began scanning the surrounding scenery with mystified
eyes.

[And this is….?]

“A place on the opposite side of the world from where your army is.”

Truthfully, it was a bit incorrect to call it the exact opposite side, but
regardless, that’s how far they were now.

They were in Japan, a land where an enormous amount of Mana had

densely permeated into its every pore after the King of Giants died.

The land and atmosphere fortified by Mana should be able to

withstand much of the potential impact forces resulting from his
battle against the Sovereign of Destruction.

Once a massive sea of forest, this location now resembled a barren

wasteland stretching endlessly beyond the horizon, all thanks to the
concerted efforts of his Shadow Soldiers cutting down the trees
present here.

What particularly drew one’s attention was this huge white-coloured

fortress built up on the top of a hill. The Dragon Emperor pointed at
it with a black flag flapping in the wind on top.

[Is that your castle?]

“….Something like that.”

583
[For a castle of the Shadow Sovereign, its size is fairly lousy, isn’t it.]

Why did Jin-Woo briefly feel apologetic to Beru all of a sudden? Of

course, there was no reason to get suckered into his enemy’s pace
now, was there?

Jin-Woo threw out a genuine warning at the Dragon Emperor,

currently looking rather relaxed despite the situation – it was
unknown whether that was because of its sky-high confidence, or it
was simply trying to bluff him.

“Well, I think that building’s just about the perfect size to

commemorate your death today.”

Only then did the gaze of the Dragon Emperor fix on Jin-Woo. He
didn’t try to avoid meeting that glare.

[….]

The King of Berserk Dragons stopped looking at the human and

closed its eyes for a moment while trying to communicate with its
underlings.

Sure enough, not a hint of their signal could be captured. Some

creature borrowing the power of the Shadow Sovereign was using a
spell to interfere with all forms of communication.

The Dragon Emperor grew conscious of the fact that his human
enemy had prepared everything from the beginning in order to
perfectly isolate it.

It slowly opened its eyes again and found the entirety of the Shadow
Army surrounding it from all sides.

A battle that should have been ten million against one was suddenly
turned on its head to become two hundred thousand against one,
with the ‘one’ being a completely different person.

584
The Dragon Emperor had been surrounded.

[So, this is it…. A battle where either I survive or fall, until my soldiers
pinpoint my current location.]

However, its expression was not as gloomy as one would hope for in
the current situation.

The thing was, although it didn’t mind the types of battles where it’d
use the overwhelming numbers to completely massacre its enemies,
it also found the exact opposite of that situation quite enjoyable too,
where it’d get to overwhelm the enemies alone.

In short, it was an existence born solely for warfare.

It was the incarnation of destruction, one who would not mind its
own demise if it was all for the sake of blood, screams, madness, and
destruction swirling in a dizzying storm of warfare.

That was why the Dragon Emperor could smile brightly.

[Allow me to show you the real thing.]

At the end of those words, that smile vanished from the creature’s
face.

Jin-Woo also sensed something at the same time. His senses that had
far surpassed the limits of a normal human continuously rang loud
warning bells.

Shiver.

Along with a chill running down his spine, goosebumps broke all over
his skin.

It was then. Like a scene from an unrealistic movie, a truly

frightening roar scary enough to stop one’s heart just from hearing it
exploded out of the Dragon Emperor’s mouth.

585
Khayaaaaaaaah-!!

This was the Dragon Emperor’s Fear, the ruler of all Dragons. The
level of terror previously never experienced before slammed into the
Shadow Army like a massive shockwave.

AAAAAH-!!

A seemingly endless chain of ripples began shaking the atmosphere.

Even the ground quaked violently.

As the shaking akin to an earthquake rocked the world, Jin-Woo

detected an extreme amount of terror, pain, and confusion from his
soldiers and he urgently brought them back inside his shadow.

AAAAAH-!!!

During that process, vicious dizziness assaulted him and he wobbled

unsteadily for a moment there.

The Dragon Emperor finally ended its roar. The corner of its lips
curled up after seeing how pale Jin-Woo’s complexion was.

[That was the real thing.]

The true Dragon’s Fear.

Jin-Woo roughly shook his head in order to get rid of that attack’s
horrifying impact. Meanwhile, the Dragon Emperor addressed him in
a calm manner.

[When you grabbed my arm, I could’ve easily shaken you loose.]

However, there was a reason why it didn’t. It continued on.

[It’s only because you impressed me with your efforts to trap me.]

586
Jin-Woo stared at the Dragon Emperor praising him with a suspicious
glare. However, there was not a single hint of ridicule within that
serious light shining from its eyes.

[That made me want to speak to you in a quiet place as two

Sovereigns on equal ground.]

Jin-Woo’s breathing, disrupted by the Dragon Fear just now, finally

reverted back to being normal. He quickly righted his posture, his
vigilance remaining high.

The Dragon Emperor continued to address Jin-Woo and his tightly-

shut mouth.

[If you have inherited the previous Shadow Sovereign’s memories,

then you should know this by now…. Our real enemy is not this land,
but well beyond the sky up there.]

It was referring to the armies of the Rulers. The first and the last
ultimate command given to them was to annihilate all Sovereigns
born from the darkness.

Quite obviously, the Shadow Sovereign wouldn’t be an exception.

[I originally thought of disposing of you first and then get ready to

fight them. However, I changed my mind after seeing how you
conduct your battles. You possess a different set of skills compared
to Osborne. And from your skill set, I foresaw our glorious victory.]

The Dragon Emperor extended its hand out towards Jin-Woo.

[If you take this hand, then I shall do as you want.]

His gaze slowly lowered towards the extended hand.

587
[If you wish to save your family, so it shall be. If you wish to save your
nation, then that shall be done. If you wish for me to leave this land,
fine. My soldiers and I shall quietly withdraw from this world.]

Jin-Woo gaze briefly lingering on the hand gradually rose up again

until it stopped at the Dragon Emperor’s face. The creature was
carrying an expression full of compassion.

[You shall become the master of this world. Become a master of this
whole planet, not just that small castle on the hill. You amply possess
the qualification to do so. All you have to do….]

A gentle smile formed on the Dragon Emperor’s lips now.

[….Is to take my hand.]

Once we cooperate and defeat the forces of the Rulers, not only you
and your family, even your country – no, even more than that,
everyone living on this land will gain peace and freedom.

That was the promise the Dragon Emperor was making here.

[So, how about it? Shadow Sovereign?]

Did he get enticed by the offer? A thin smile slowly spread on the
face of the Shadow Sovereign as he quietly listened to the tempting
words.

The King of Dragons also formed a smile of its own.

[Will you join me?]

Too bad, Jin-Woo’s reply was rather curt in nature.

“Don’t make me laugh.”

The Dragon Emperor’s expression hardened after hearing that

pointed retort.

588
“You want me to trust a b*stard with the eyes of someone that can
barely hide its desire to kill me?”

[Haha…. Euh-hahahahaha!!]

The King of all Dragons grasped its forehead and guffawed for a long
time. Its laughter must’ve contained Mana, because every single
wave of sound emitted by the creature caused a powerful
reverberation within Jin-Woo’s heart.

When it finally took its hand away from its forehead, both of its
wide-open eyes had changed to that of a reptile’s.

[I just can’t seem to hide these eyes of mine.]

Appeasement attempt had ended in failure. If conning the other

party didn’t work, then the remaining way was to destroy him with
everything it possessed.

The Dragon Emperor finally revealed its true self. A hostile aura that
couldn’t be concealed anymore flooded out from its body.

[Bet everything you have and attack me, oh, Child of Shadow!!]

Jin-Woo’s eyes widened in shock.

In an instant, choking heat rushed into his face. He quickly retreated

to a far-off distance, his gaze still locked onto the unbelievable event
unfolding right him.

A mountain of raging inferno suddenly materialised in front of his

eyes.

If a sea of boiling lava gained sentience and willingly morphed into

the shape of a Dragon, would it look like that?

Jin-Woo watched this appearance of a Dragon made up of endlessly-

burning flames and immediately recalled the outer shell of the

589
Demon’s Castle instant dungeon that was also burning in perpetual
flames.

A battle between a living ‘castle’ and a man.

It wouldn’t be too surprising for anyone to get scared by this

incomparable pressure, but Jin-Woo calmly grasped the pair of
Kamish’s Wraths.

BOOM-!!

When the Dragon Emperor took one step, the world rocked viciously.

‘It’s coming!’

The massive Dragon was trying to stomp him to death, so Jin-Woo

quickly evaded that and ran to create some distance before
summoning up the Sky Dragon ‘Kaisel’.

Kiiaaahk!

His mount was already getting ready to take off, so as soon as it

emerged from the shadow, it flew up into the air. Jin-Woo quickly
climbed up on its back.

Kaisel rose up as fast as it could; Jin-Woo then had his ride change
directions and descend towards the Dragon Emperor’s location. As if
it was waiting precisely for that, the Dragon made up of flames fired
a Breath of Destruction.

“Go down!!”

Almost at the same time as the blinding flash of light exploded forth
from the Dragon Emperor’s jaw, Kaisel descended at the rate of
knots. The flames capable of erasing everything – the chill-inducing
white beam of light brushed past right above Jin-Woo’s head.

Kuwaaaaah-!!

590
Kaisel followed after its master’s instruction to descend closer to the
Dragon Emperor while barely managing to side-step the Breath
continuously pouring out towards it.

Fuuuwoo….

Once the Breath attack came to an end, Kaisel was already near the
head of the gigantic flame Dragon. Jin-Woo gathered every drop of
his Mana while riding on the back of his mount.

‘You did well, Kaisel!’

The gathered Mana flowed into the Kamish’s Wrath held in his right
hand. The black aura danced and tumbled about as if to signal that it
was ready for that final strike.

With everything in his power – Jin-Woo swung his sword containing

all of his might towards the Dragon Emperor.

SWIIIISH-!!

The black aura that looked capable enough to tear through anything
in a single breath split up like the claws of a predator and took a
powerful swipe at the head of the flaming Dragon.

Kwa-gah-gah-gah-gah-gah-gahk!!

However…

‘….How can this be?!’

Jin-Woo’s brows shot up high.

There wasn’t even a scratch on the creature’s flaming scales; instead,

the unscathed Dragon Emperor began raising its head towards him.

Jin-Woo’s expression crumpled.

‘Is it Breath again?’

591
He got ready to quickly descend again in case another round of
Breath of Destruction came at his way, but he was greeted by an ear-
splitting roar, instead.

Kuwaaaaaah-!!

Dragon Fear!!

Jin-Woo had developed some amount of immunity after

experiencing it the last time, but it was a different story for his Sky
Dragon. It couldn’t withstand the roar from the Dragon Emperor and
froze up in mid-air.

Not even giving him any time to un-summon Kaisel, in came the
ruthless beam of light signalling true destruction spat out by the King
of all Dragons.

RUMBLE-!!

Even though they were in a free fall, Kaisel still twisted its body to
push Jin-Woo away to a safer location, and collided head-on against
the Breath of Destruction with its body.

“NOOO!!”

Jin-Woo cried out as he watched Kaisel disintegrate in an instant, not

even leaving behind ash in the process. Utterly disregarding his
wishes, the Sky Dragon was erased from existence without a single
trace.

Grit.

Jin-Woo bit his lower lip and fired Mana out from behind to fly into
the chest area of the Dragon Emperor in an instant. And to make
sure he wouldn’t fall off, he grasped tight the scale of this
nonsensically humongous creature.

592
Chiieeiik!

His palm was instantly scorched by the ultra-high temperature.

“Euh-euhk!!”

Jin-Woo gritted his teeth and raised up the Kamish’s Wrath held in
his other hand up high above his head. The shortsword held in
reverse grip was enveloped in the dancing black aura.

Crack!!

The blade stabbing down with all his might managed to break past
the scale. But that was all it could do.

Crack! Crack! Crack!!

No matter how many times he lashed out, all he could do was to

leave behind small, inconsequential nicks on the Dragon’s flesh just
below its scales.

It was then. Sensing this ominous chill creep up behind his neck, Jin-
Woo hurriedly took a look behind him.

‘…..!!’

The giant arm of the Dragon Emperor was swinging closer to his
location. To dodge that, he unhesitatingly jumped down.

He didn’t suffer any impact damage when landing on the ground due
to his Mana, but then, without giving him a break, yet another round
of the Breath of Destruction poured out from above.

Kuwaaaaahhh-!!!

Somehow managing to evade that merciless attack once more, Jin-

Woo breathlessly panted hard.

“Hah-ah, hah-ah, hah-ah….”

593
He rained down so many attacks, yet the Dragon Emperor remained
standing, imperious like the legendary Mt. Tai. It possessed the level
of defence and attack power that not even Giants could match up to.

He realised that he couldn’t subjugate this Dragon by relying on the

same tactics.

‘I need stronger power….’

Indeed, he needed an even stronger power – the power that might

bring down a giant covered in thick armour with nothing but bare
hands.

Just like how an insect small enough not to be noticed by one’s eyes
couldn’t do much about a human being, one needed to become a
mountain if a mountain was blocking his path.

It was then.

‘Hang on…. Armour, is it?’

A certain possibility flashed by like a bolt of lightning in Jin-Woo’s

head.

If he could manipulate the power of darkness to create regular-sized

armours, then couldn’t he also be able to create something much
larger and thicker than that, too?

When his thoughts reached that far…

….The shadow beneath Jin-Woo’s feet suddenly began growing much

larger.

[….??]

Even the Dragon Emperor noticed this change.

594
The blackish liquid bubbled and rose up from that shadow to wrap
around the Shadow Sovereign, layer upon layer, his size abruptly
increasing at an alarming rate.

‘What is this human b*stard trying to do now?!’

The thing was, answering its instincts took priority before satisfying
its curiosity.

Just before the Dragon Emperor got ready to fire yet another round
of Breath of Destruction towards that unidentifiable black mass, it
felt the sensation of something poking softly at its back.

‘….??’

It quickly took a look behind.

Fangs had been hiding in a distant corner to perform the

communication-disrupting spell but to aid his Sovereign, he had
grown into a giant to fire his own pillar of flames at the back of the
Dragon Emperor.

Once their gazes met, the Bead of Avarice powerlessly fell from
Fangs’ grip.

Tumble, roll….

The massive Dragon’s murderous rage was now redirected to the

scared and trembling Fangs.

[How dare a measly b*stard like you….!]

The Dragon Emperor shifted the direction of its head.

And naturally, the aim of the Breath was shifted towards Fangs, as
well.

595
Just before the attack capable of erasing everything could be fired
from the Dragon’s maw….

A humongous black shadow that had risen up high into the sky,
before anyone had noticed it, viciously punched the head of the
Dragon Emperor.

KA-BOOOM!!!!

596
Chapter 242

As it was being shoved away by the enormous impact force coming

from the side, the Dragon Emperor saw it.

It clearly saw a gigantic shadow tall enough to touch the skies

standing there proudly. And perhaps trying to reject an existence
that shouldn’t even exist in the first place, thousands, no, tens of
thousands of black lightning bolts could also be seen violently roiling
and crackling beyond the shoulders of this black shadow.

‘….Spiritual Body Manifestation?’

No, that couldn’t be right.

The Shadow Sovereign used to be one of the Fragments of Brilliant

Light. He didn’t have any other ‘hidden’ form to activate, and how he
appeared was how he looked.

However, how could the current Shadow Sovereign assume such a

massive form right this moment?

Kwa-gah-gahk!!

The Dragon Emperor pushed down hard with its legs, causing a thin
layer from the ground to peel off like the skin of an apple, as its
gigantic body came to a stop.

‘Could it be….?’

When a certain theory brushed through its head, the eyes of the
Dragon quaked in sheer surprise.

‘The b*stard…. Could he be summoning the power of death to the

surface world?’

597
But, how could that be?

How could a man who used to be a normal human not too long ago
control the power of death to such an astonishing degree?

[So, that’s how it was.]

Another sigh of admiration left the mouth of the Dragon Emperor.

[You have spent a lot of time on the border between life and death,
haven’t you?]

There was a reason why the previous Shadow Sovereign, Osborne,

chose to hand all of his power over to a measly little human being.
This particular human had been continuously fighting a bitter battle
against himself right up until he inherited this power.

All for the sake of his life.

The Dragon Emperor had been looking down on the current Shadow
Sovereign just a tad in comparison to his predecessor but now, he
felt renewed respect for its human opponent.

[….]

And then, it reflected on itself for even thinking of manipulating the

weakness of humans to pit him against the Rulers earlier.

‘Without a doubt…. This human must die. As expected, he’s far too
dangerous.’

While the Dragon silently glared at its opponent, the giant Shadow
Sovereign was also doing the same thing in silence.

Having become this gigantic Shadow Sovereign, Jin-Woo shifted his

surprised gaze lower to his hands that had also grown into a size
easily exceeding his own imagination.

598
‘This…. Is this really me?’

He tried to move his fingers. The ginormous body that had become
the darkness itself began moving according to his will. It wasn’t just
his body that had grown huge, though.

From deep within his gigantic frame, the kind of dizzying power that
defied all attempts to estimate how big it was gushed out infinitely.
He had truly become a mountain in order to bring down another
mountain.

Jin-Woo raised his head back up again. And there it was – the
personification of Destruction rushing towards him.

BOOM-!!

Violent flames and black lightning bolts scattered in all directions.

Jin-Woo propped his body with his legs extended to his rear and
stopped the charge of the Dragon Emperor.

Their physical strength was about evenly matched!

An even contest of strength briefly played out before the Dragon

suddenly bit Jin-Woo on his shoulder. Crimson-red flames danced
around the bitten part. Jin-Woo didn’t panic, though, and proceeded
to grab and yank at the Dragon’s horn to pull the creature’s head
away.

And then, one more punch to its face-!

Ka-boom!!

This time, though, the Dragon Emperor wasn’t pushed back.

Kuwaaah-!!

599
Almost as soon as it was shoved back, the Dragon pounced towards
him again, before opening its huge maw wide to take a big bite of
Jin-Woo’s side.

“Keuh-eeeeuhk!”

For the first time since he began fighting against the Dragon
Emperor, Jin-Woo couldn’t hold back and spat out a pained cry.

Boom! Boom!! Boom!!!

He used his elbow to smack down on the Dragon’s head several

times, but the creature still lifted him up in the air and began shaking
him around without mercy.

An incredible pain akin to his waist being snapped in half rushed up

from below.

“Kuwaahk!! Keuh-eeeeuhk!!”

Deciding that enough damage had been inflicted on its enemy, the
Dragon Emperor threw Jin-Woo to the ground.

THUD!!

That was followed by another round of Breath of Destruction

pouncing on him. When the conflagration-like Breath swept by, one
of Jin-Woo’s arms had vanished.

However, he didn’t scream in pain. He just gritted his teeth. He

instantly closed the distance and shoved his remaining hand deep
into the Dragon Emperor’s jaw.

Rip, riiiip!!

Along with the thick leather being torn apart, the Dragon Emperor’s
huge tongue was ripped out of his throat.

600
[Kuwaaaaahk!!]

Rather than blood, crimson lava exploded out from the torn wound
of the creature’s tongue.

The Dragon writhed in pure agony. Jin-Woo took this opportunity to

punch the head of the creature. The lengthy maw was spun to the
side as lava spilt in all directions.

The Dragon Emperor glared at Jin-Woo with its vertical-slit eyes and
rammed into him with its horns.

The battle’s flow see-sawed between the two over and over again.

BOOM-!!

Whenever the two collided, the ground quaked and the heavens
screamed. Every plot of land being showered by the falling flames
was scorched black; every square inch being struck by the black
lightning bolts was ripped apart without mercy.

A desperate battle ensued.

From the sideline, Fangs witnessed the battle between two

Sovereigns with dazed eyes.

At this grandiose yet frightening spectacle unfolding right before his

eyes, the High Orc Shaman was left completely flabbergasted, unable
to turn his head away nor close shut his slack jaw.

What if…

….The Absolute Being created these beings in order to witness a fight

of this magnitude? If that was the case, the High Orc Shadow Soldier
thought that he might sort of understand the reasoning behind that
decision.

601
Indeed, the battle between these two was no doubt a world-ending
calamity but, at the same time, it was a spectacular once-in-a-
lifetime event as well.

Tears slowly fell from the eyes of Fangs as he continued to take in

the sight of two god-like beings colliding with everything they had.

The power of Destruction and the power of Death smashed into each
other, writhed around, and shook the world to its very core.

Jin-Woo clenched his fist even harder.

Boom-!!

It was working.

It’s working, it’s working, it’s definitely working!!

Each of his punches, issuing shock waves that tore apart the air every
time he threw one, landed on their targets with scary accuracy.

Boom!! Bang!! Thud!! Kwahng!!

The Dragon Emperor struck out with its sharp claws, brushing past
him and hitting the empty air.

WHOOOOSH-!!

Jin-Woo took a step back to evade the attack before pushing forward
on his tiptoes to slam his shoulder against the Dragon and shoved it
to the ground.

KA-BOOOOM!!!!

He then quickly mounted the toppled Dragon Emperor. What

followed next was the continuous stream of vicious punches.

BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!!

602
Brutal attacks rained down from above, without a single break in-
between.

BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!!!

Lightning bolts, sparks of flames, and the screams of air being torn
endlessly reverberated throughout the land.

Unfortunately, it was clear to see that just one hand was not enough
to land that one fatal blow.

He concentrated all of his Mana to the remaining hand, but as if he

was stuck inside a dream, his strength continued to seep out of him
the longer he continued on.

‘What’s going on?’

Jin-Woo’s expression hardened gradually.

Not too long afterwards, the Dragon Emperor also noticed the
change taking place in Jin-Woo. Its clawed hand shot up to grab his
fist.

Grab!

It happened too suddenly. Jin-Woo got flustered as he couldn’t pull

his fist back. Meanwhile, the Dragon Emperor addressed him.

[This is the difference between our experience level!]

Jin-Woo’s eyes widened considerably.

“Uwaaaahk!!”

The Dragon pierced into Jin-Woo’s side with the claws on its
remaining free hand and spat out its mocking words filled with
laughter.

603
[Didn’t you know that maintaining a large body wastes an
unimaginable amount of stamina?]

After completely immobilising Jin-Woo, another round of horrifying

energy began gathering and swirling inside the Dragon’s maw. The
Breath of Destruction was being readied to put an end to this battle.

‘This is the end….!’

The Dragon Emperor was sure of its victory now.

However….

Just before the Breath was ready to fire, a new arm suddenly
sprouted out from Jin-Woo’s shoulder missing a limb.

‘He still had that much energy left?!’

The Dragon was stunned but knew that it was still impossible for a
different victor to emerge from this situation.

Soon, a blinding light formed inside the maw of the Dragon Emperor.
It was then – Jin-Woo shoved his newly-generated arm inside that
maw.

“Uwaaaaah-!!”

And then, he scrounged up every ounce of energy and concentrated

it to his hand.

Wuuong-!!

Accompanying an incredible impact force, powerful blinding light

blanketed the surroundings.

Eventually, the light receded and silence descended on the land.

604
Jin-Woo reverted back to his human form from the giant shadow. He
lay sprawled on the ground and panted heavily.

“Pant, pant, pant….”

His entire body was burning up as if flames had scorched him. He

was covered in wounds from head to toe. His current status was an
utter mess.

He did his absolute best to control his heavy breathing while sucking
in a lot of air. A short while later, he forced his fatigued body to
slowly stand back up.

Just beyond the veil of thick fog kicked up from the explosion,
someone was making its approach towards him. Jin-Woo could only
marvel wryly as the Dragon Emperor, in its human form, revealed
itself.

‘What a monster….’

The Dragon b*stard was not okay either, but compared to Jin-Woo’s
own condition, it was noticeably better off.

[You are a very tenacious b*stard, aren’t you?]

‘That’s my line.’

Too bad, Jin-Woo wanted to save the energy required to make that
retort so he had to swallow back his opinion. Instead, he wordlessly
summoned the pair of ‘Kamish’s Wraths’ and held them tightly.

The Dragon Emperor also unsheathed its sword as well.

Shurung-!

Even though it no longer possessed enough strength to maintain its

Spiritual Body Manifestation, the King of all Dragons still scrounged

605
up every little bit of remaining energy in order to kill the human for
good.

Jin-Woo, too, held his rough breathing back and gritted his teeth.

The Dragon Emperor arrived before him in just one step and swung
its longsword at him. The pair of shortswords and one longsword
clashed and clanged chaotically.

Every time sparks flew off from their clashing blades, sweat and
blood sliding off their wielders’ bodies rained down on the
surroundings.

It was then.

Crack!

One of the Kamish’s Wrath shattered after its edges had been badly
damaged from attacking the Dragon Emperor’s toughened steel-like
scales earlier.

‘…..!!’

He managed to tilt his body in time to let the longsword cutting

down diagonally brush past him, but that resulted in him losing
balance for a brief moment.

The Dragon Emperor didn’t miss that opening. It thrust forward its
weapon in the blink of an eye and penetrated Jin-Woo’s midriff.

Stab!!

Even in the midst of the torrent of terrible pain, he gritted his teeth
and swung the shortsword held in his other hand towards the neck
of the Dragon.

Too bad, just before his blade could reach the Adam’s apple
belonging to the Dragon Emperor, the creature grabbed the weapon

606
with its bare hand. The black aura wavering around the blade was
blocked by the reddish-black aura of the Dragon.

A mocking grin floated up on the creature’s face.

[Did you truly believe that the shortsword fashioned out of a

Dragon’s tooth can actually hurt this body of mine, the Dragon
Emperor’s?]

After declaring confidently as so, it pushed the hilt of the longsword

with even more power. The weapon sunk deeper into Jin-Woo’s
midriff and he vomited out a mouthful of blood.

“Keo-heok-!!”

The Dragon Emperor pushed Jin-Woo off with its foot and pulled the
longsword back.

Jin-Woo ungainly rolled along the ground and barely managed to

stop himself. Just before he could force his body up, the Dragon
Emperor arrived right in front of him and pointed the tip of its blade
at his throat.

‘…..’

His actions came to an abrupt halt at the weapon that was

uncomfortably close to his vital point. The Dragon Emperor chuckled
as it addressed him.

[Don’t you find it funny?]

Not even once doubting that it’d end up as the victory, the Dragon in
human form looked down at the face of its helplessly cornered
enemy.

607
[A battle between the flame born from the darkness and the
darkness born from the light. However, this battle is finally drawing
to its conclusion.]

Jin-Woo readily agreed with the Dragon Emperor’s assessment.

“You’re right. Its conclusion is around the corner.”

[Oh-hoh.]

The Dragon formed a half-puzzled and half-satisfied expression and

scanned Jin-Woo’s grievously-wounded body, before asking him a
question.

[Have you decided to give up on the meaningless resistance now?]

It was then.

He seemed energyless and defeated, pretty much ready to give up,

but in an instant, the light gleaming within Jin-Woo’s eyes changed.

[….!!]

The Dragon Emperor urgently thrust the blade forward. To its great
surprise, however, Jin-Woo unexpectedly pushed himself forward
instead of dodging backwards.

The longsword brushed past his artery with barely a hair’s width. The
skin on his neck sliced off and blood spluttered out like a fountain,
but it wasn’t a fatal wound.

‘I can do this.’

By paying the price of a grievous wound, Jin-Woo got near the

Dragon Emperor’s vicinity. He then summoned his father’s
shortsword stored in his ‘Inventory’.

The Dragon’s eyes widened.

608
Even before the creature could decipher this new turn of events, Jin-
Woo’s shortsword stabbed deeply into his enemy’s chest.

KWA-JEECK!!

The blade penetrated past the chest armour and stabbed the
Dragon’s heart.

[Kuwaaaaaah-!!!]

Not yet.

Not over yet!

Jin-Woo knew all too well that this much of an attack wasn’t enough
to kill a Sovereign. Even he himself was continuously fighting on with
the types of injuries that would have killed any normal human being,
after all.

Jin-Woo yanked the shortsword out and activated the skill ‘Violent
Slash’.

Dududududududududu-!!!

Countless attacks stabbed deeply into the Dragon Emperor’s body.

One more time!!

Dudududududududu!!!

[You… you b*stard….!!]

Shockingly enough, even though it was being subjected under the

barrage of countless attacks, the Dragon Emperor still raised its
sword up.

An earthquake erupted within Jin-Woo’s eyes after seeing that.

609
The Dragon, inflicted with heavy injuries on its chest where various
holes could be seen, began deflecting Jin-Woo’s shortsword. The
longer his skill was deployed, the faster the Dragon Emperor’s speed
became, as well.

This was the display of the might possessed by the strongest creature
borne out of darkness for the sole purpose of destruction. Cold
sweat drops formed on Jin-Woo’s forehead as he was gradually
pushed back in the one area he felt most confident in – his speed.

[Khayahk!!]

The Dragon Emperor spat out a beastly howl and shoved Jin-Woo
away. The force was so strong that he thought his wrist broke just
now.

‘Keu-heuk!’

By the time Jin-Woo regained his balance, the Dragon was already
right before his eyes. Unlike before, though, the creature didn’t
repeat the same mistake of staying its sword.

The weapon penetrated past his Black Heart.

“Keok!!”

Jin-Woo felt the burning pain shooting up from his chest. His
breathing tightened and he couldn’t even voice his pain anymore. All
strength abandoned his legs and automatically, he knelt down on the
ground.

Plop.

As if its anger hadn’t been cooled down, the Dragon Emperor

viciously roared out towards the sky.

Kuwaaaaaaaahhh-!!!

610
It transformed into a Dragonewt-like form that was halfway between
a human and a Dragon’s appearance before anyone noticed it, and
extended its claws out in order to attack for one last time.

A growling-like voice leaked out of the Dragon’s mouth.

[You b*stard, I shall rip you apart piece by piece and feed you to my
Sky Dragons!]

If trying to show courtesy and give the Shadow Sovereign a death

fitting for a king was a mistake on its part, then the Dragon Emperor
would bestow a cruel and miserable death that would make up for
that mistake many times over.

‘I shall show you what happens to the one daring to obstruct me, the
King of all Dragons, at the end!’

The Dragon Emperor raged on with such thoughts filling up its head.
It bared its lengthy fangs and continued to roar on. But then…

….Out of the blue, a loud chorus of vigorous warcry exploded forth

from the heavens.

Waaaahhhh-!!

The Dragon Emperor raised his head. It was greeted by an

unbelievable spectacle just then.

The army of the Rulers, the soldiers of the heavens were endlessly
pouring out from a gigantic Gate that wasn’t there before. Their
flapping wings began filling up the gloomy, clouded sky with the
colours of whitish silver.

‘Impossible…!!’

The Dragon Emperor inwardly freaked out.

611
Without a doubt, there was no Gate when it arrived here. So, just
from where did that Gate come from, and how could the soldiers of
heaven enter this world so quickly?

One would need an incalculable amount of energy to open up a

portal connecting this world to the other side. So how….

When its thoughts reached that far, the Dragon Emperor looked
down with its trembling eyes at Jin-Woo on the ground, currently
panting heavily on his knees.

[You b*stard…. The reason why you attacked me with everything you
had from the beginning was to….?!]

It wasn’t the difference in experience levels, but he had been

working towards this end result from the very beginning? To call the
allies from the other side by tearing the space up with the collision of
two great sources of power?

Up until now, the Dragon Emperor had been guessing what Jin-
Woo’s scheme might be through its own world view. The reason for
attracting the attention of the army of the Chaos World, the reason
for bringing it to this desolate location…

The Dragon took that as the human not wanting their battle to be
interrupted by outside factors. But as it turned out, the Shadow
Sovereign had a different goal altogether.

Even then…

[Even then…. You couldn’t have any other way to communicate with
the Rulers….?]

The Dragon Emperor couldn’t finish its sentence.

There was a way – the vessels of the Rulers.

612
Weren’t there still a few vessels, connected to the Rulers through the
lending of their powers, left on this planet? And that was how the
Fragments of Brilliant Light were able to prepare a Gate in this
location.

[…..]

The Dragon Emperor glared at Jin-Woo.

Just for that one-in-ten-thousand chance, he had chosen the method

where even if he lost the fight, he’d still win the war before starting
this battle.

It was a complete defeat for the Dragon, who only focused on the
fight in front of its eyes and nothing else.

Jin-Woo, barely managing to hold back the dizzying pain from all of
his wounds, formed an energyless smile.

“It was you, wasn’t it?”

[…..?]

“It was you who told the Sovereigns of White Flames and Beastly
Fangs to ambush the Shadow Sovereign from behind.”

[….Did the Sovereign of White Flames run its mouth off?]

Rather than answering right away, Jin-Woo looked up at the sky filled
with innumerable winged soldiers. He lowered his gaze back down to
the Dragon Emperor a little later and formed a grin.

“Osborne wanted me to pass along this message.”

Jin-Woo slowly unfurled his middle finger. The Dragon Emperor

exploded in pure rage just then.

[You b*stard!!]

613
The deadly-sharp claws rushed towards defenceless Jin-Woo
kneeling down on the ground.

Too bad, those claws couldn’t reach him, instead getting blocked off
by six beautiful wings gently embracing Jin-Woo’s figure.

The Dragon Emperor stopped its actions and withdrew its claws. It
looked at the figure that blocked its attack and spat out a pained
grunt.

[The most Brilliant Light….]

The Dragon raised its head next.

From above, six angels, each with three pairs of wings, slowly
descended all around the creature.

Indeed, the conclusion of this battle had been around the corner.
The Dragon Emperor recalled that brief conversation he shared with
Jin-Woo, and began forming a self-mocking smile.

[….This is the end.]

Soon, the spears belonging to the Rulers penetrated the Dragon

Emperor from all directions.

614
Chapter 243

The desperate and gruelling battle between the two Sovereigns also
left its mark up in the sky, as well. Ash, scattered into the heavens
from the aftermath of the fight, quietly fell like snowflakes.

Jin-Woo watched the grey ash settling down on his shoulders one by
one and lifted his head up.

From the distance far away, somewhere above him – the soldiers of
the Rulers utterly blanketing the sky were moving to another
location via countless Gates.

The spectacle of tens of millions of soldiers all marching in unison

according to their Rulers’ bidding was truly an overwhelming
spectacle to behold.

Their aim was to completely eliminate the remaining forces of the

Sovereigns. Now that not just the Dragon Emperor, but several other
Sovereigns, had died, there was no chance in hell that the Army of
the Chaos World would be able to survive.

That was why the soldiers of the heavens were marching forward to
announce the end of this war that had been going on for far too long.

Jin-Woo felt his chest become numb for some reason while watching
their deployment. While he was stewing in his emotions, the ‘most
Brilliant Light’ finished giving commands to its soldiers and returned
to where he was.

A truly beautiful lifeform that no known expression in human

language could adequately describe folded its proudly-unfurled six
wings at once, after landing in front of Jin-Woo. Other Rulers also
landed behind the ‘most Brilliant Light’ one by one.

615
It studied Jin-Woo’s current condition. At a casual glance, he seemed
to be any other regular human being.

‘However, this lone human managed to bring an end to the war

between us and the Sovereigns.’

Who could have imagined such a thing?

Who could have thought that the curtains on the eternal war, with
seemingly no end in sight, as designed by the Absolute Being, would
be closed by a weak existence in a world so far away?

At the least, this angel had never imagined it.

And that was why its initial surprise had morphed into pure respect
for Jin-Woo’s accomplishments.

[You have ended our war. I do not know how to even properly
express my gratitude.]

“…”

Jin-Woo wordlessly looked at the ash falling from the sky before
shifting his gaze to look at the Brilliant Light.

“There’s a favour I want to ask you, although it might come across as

a bit too big for a gesture of saying thanks.”

[A favour…?]

The Brilliant Light formed a slightly puzzled expression.

The power of the Shadow Sovereign could very well be on the same
level, no, maybe even greater than its own. However, such a being
was asking for a favour?

As if to lessen the confusion within the head of the Brilliant Light, Jin-
Woo answered first before the obvious question could be asked.

616
“It’s something only you can do.”

The angel with six wings nodded its head.

[If it’s within my power to make it happen, I pledge to aid you to my

fullest.]

The Shadow Sovereign played an important role in killing the Dragon

Emperor and the Rulers now owed him a large debt of gratitude that
couldn’t easily be repaid. There certainly was no excuse not to do
fulfil his favour.

However, a rather difficult favour came out from Jin-Woo’s mouth.

“One more time…. Can you use the ‘Chalice of Rebirth’ one more
time?”

The Brilliant Light felt a shock akin to someone hitting it at the back
of its head. Even the other Rulers standing behind it couldn’t hide
their astonishment.

As their leader, the Brilliant Light simply had to confirm it again.

[Did you ask me for the usage of the ‘Chalice of Rebirth’, and to
reverse time once more?]

“That’s right.”

Jin-Woo nodded his head and explained himself.

“And after reversing the time flow, I’d like you to not send anything
to Earth. I shall kill the Sovereigns, and their armies, in the gap
between the dimensions.”

The Brilliant Light was left flabbergasted by what Jin-Woo wanted to

do after the time reversal and couldn’t immediately say the words
stuck in his mouth.

617
‘Alone… He wishes to fight this war all by himself?’

Jin-Woo had heard the explanation on the ‘Chalice of Rebirth’ from

the former Shadow Sovereign.

Even if the tool of God was used and time was reversed, the higher-
beings such as Rulers and Sovereigns would keep their memories. In
that case, since he had inherited the power of the Shadow Sovereign
through becoming one with Osborne’s ego, his current abilities
wouldn’t disappear.

Jin-Woo was planning to take this power, as well as his memories,

and willingly enter the gap between dimensions.

[You wish to fight them all by yourself?!]

The Brilliant Light spoke in a disbelieving voice.

[But, why do you want to do that? We have used the ‘Chalice of

Rebirth’ many times before, but never did we achieve a result better
than this.]

‘…..’

Jin-Woo looked down at his father’s shortsword and calmly made his
reply.

“Far too many lives were lost during this battle. I just wish to bring
them back, that’s all.”

If it meant he could bring them back by reversing time itself, then Jin-
Woo was fully prepared to fight the Sovereigns one more time.

The Brilliant Light closed its eyes to give itself some time to think,
and suddenly realised that it did empathise with Jin-Woo’s answer.
Regardless of what, though, reversing time remained a very
dangerous action to take.

618
[The ‘Chalice of Rebirth’ is nearing its limit. In case you fail in your
objective, it is likely that we won’t be able to reverse the time itself.]

Those words implied that a future far more cruel and horrible might
be in store for this world. Meaning, the current development might
be the best end result for everyone.

[If you wish for it, you could remain in the memories of everyone,
forever, as a hero who has single-handedly stopped the invasion of
the Sovereigns. But, instead….]

An all-too-easy to see sorrow suffused on the expression of the

Brilliant Light.

[The battle you wish to start will be remembered by none except

yourself. If you are defeated, annihilation awaits. And even when you
emerge victorious, no one will celebrate your accomplishments.]

The six-winged angel confirmed Jin-Woo decision for the last time.

[Even then, do you still wish to turn back the time?]

Before he answered, Jin-Woo quietly closed his eyes and thought of

the important people in his life. The eyes of the Shadow Soldiers
inserted into their shadows allowed him to see them in real time.

His mom and young sister were holding each other’s hands with
worried faces, anxiously watching the news coming from Japan on
their TV.

Cha Hae-In had her eyes deeply closed as if she was ardently praying
to someone. Meanwhile, the Association President Woo Jin-Cheol
was also watching the news broadcast with tearful eyes.

Jin-Woo felt their heartfelt emotions and a certain corner of his chest
warmed up gradually. And when he opened his eyes, his mind was
already made up.

619
“I’m going back.”

….To those people who still remained, and even to those who were
no longer here.

The faces of Association President Goh Gun-Hui, Adam White, and

his father all brushed past his mind. Lots more people besides them
were sacrificed in this war. Jin-Woo swore that no one else would be
lost ever again.

The Brilliant Light clearly saw his unwavering determination.

[…..]

The reason why the Rulers went as far as to use the ‘tool of God that
should never be used’ and save this world was because this planet
was originally unrelated to their ongoing war.

However, a denizen of this world and a hero who saved it came to a

decision. He said that he’d save not just a portion, but the entire
world with his own powers.

And that he’d bear that burden all by himself.

For a moment there, the angel thought the face of the former
Shadow Sovereign had overlapped with that of Jin-Woo’s just now.

It was the face of its stubborn comrade that refused to step aside
even though the soldiers of heavens completely blanketing the skies
threatened him so he could protect its master, the Absolute Being.

He might have been a scary enemy, but at the same time, the angel
greatly respected him.

‘….They resemble each other.’

A thin smile formed on the lips of the Brilliant Light after recalling
Osborne’s face.

620
[I understand. I shall pray for your success.]

“Hold on.”

Jin-Woo quickly asked a question.

“What will happen to my Shadow Soldiers that didn’t exist in the

past?”

For instance, soldiers like Beru.

Osborne’s original soldiers would still remain within his shadow,

sure, but what about others like Greed who was a human named
‘Hwang Dong-Su’ back ten years ago, or Beru, who didn’t even exist
back then?

The Brilliant Light explained according to what it knew.

[Those that ends up being overlapped with the time flow of the past
will be erased, while those that don’t will remain as they are.]

That meant that Beru would continue to exist, while Greed would
disappear. He could now hear the soldiers crying out in sorrow from
inside his shadow.

Jin-Woo bade his goodbyes in his mind to those soldiers about to

part ways with him and raised his head up with a smile.

“I’m ready.”

The Brilliant Light summoned out the ‘Chalice of Rebirth’ from

subspace and nodded its head.

[I pray that your courage will save your world one more time.]

The blinding light enveloped the entire world.

621
A small, easy-to-miss article about a middle school student who went
missing after leaving behind a letter with the words ‘I’ve something
to do’ appeared on the corner of a certain local newspaper.

And about two years later.

The world became noisy for a brief moment after the middle school
student who went missing suddenly came back home completely
fine, as if everything had been a dream. But everything soon
returned to its usual calmness, as it should.

And then, time marched on, quietly.

No incidents of Gates, monsters, or Hunters stepping forward to

hunt those monsters ever happened again.

***

Yu Jin-Ho found himself in the middle of a freshman welcoming party

but his expression remained quite stiff.

The enticing odour of pork belly strips sizzling on the grill coming
from here and there tickled his nose, but thanks to how tense he felt,
he just couldn’t work up his appetite at all.

But, how could this be?

Although he was hiding his family background, for the time being, he
still lived a life fitting for the last born son of a wealthy ‘Chaebol’. For
some reason, though, this diner specialising in the frozen pork belly
didn’t feel unfamiliar to him.

‘But, how come?’

Yu Jin-Ho tilted his head this way and that, leading one of his
university seniors to lightly tap him on the shoulder.

622
“Hey, Jin-Ho? C’mon, man. Loosen up, dude. Someone might think
you’re being led into a slaughterhouse or something.”

Yu Jin-Ho got flustered and his voice naturally rose higher.

“N-no, that’s not it, Senior!”

“What I’m saying here is, stop doing that for the time being, alright?”

The senior guffawed mischievously but then, sneakily withdrew his

laughter.

“Ahh, right. I think, you know, it’ll be prudent to behave yourself in

front of ‘that’ senior, just in case. We have this really scary senior in
our faculty, you see.”

“Heok.”

Yu Jin-Ho’s expression stiffened a lot worse now.

“You know, that kind of a guy? He doesn’t just punish or discipline

the juniors for no reason, but just by standing next to him, his
incredible charisma is so…..”

If one were to talk about such a person, Yu Jin-Ho also knew

someone like that pretty close by, too.

He briefly recalled his father’s face, often referred to as the CEO of

Iron Blood, before roughly shaking his head in order to get rid of the
distracting thoughts.

Perhaps he was getting properly drunk now, the senior began talking
enthusiastically about this mysterious and scary ‘senior’ all of a
sudden.

“Hey, you know that athlete named Cha Hae-In?”

623
“Uhm…. Are you talking about Cha Hae-In who became really famous
not too long ago as the idol of the athletics world?”

“Right, right. Her. That Cha Hae-In is the GF of our scary senior, you
see? Aigoo, here he comes.”

The senior jumped up from his seat after seeing a certain man enter
the diner and hurriedly bowed his waist.

“Senior-nim, thank you for coming!”

“Senior-nim!!”

“Senior-nim!”

After seeing the polite, disciplined greetings of his seniors, Yu Jin-Ho

realised that the drunk senior hadn’t been exaggerating a thing until
now. With the entrance of one single man, the atmosphere of the
noisy, boisterous freshman welcoming party changed instantly.

The useless nervousness he felt right now was good for nothing
other than to make his dry saliva slide down his throat quite
painfully.

Gulp.

The thing was, though – an unlucky man would supposedly break his
nose even when falling on his butt. Yu Jin-Ho couldn’t even raise his
head from all the fear he felt, but for some reason, that scary senior
in question settled down on the spot right next to him.

‘Ah….. Dear senior-nim, why did you have to choose the spot next to
mine when there are so many available elsewhere?!’

Yu Jin-Ho spat out a sigh deep inside his heart, his head still lowered
in dejection, but then, that scary senior suddenly presented him with
a glass filled with a clear liquid.

624
“Take a cup from me.”

To think, a glass of booze given to a freshman was not one of those

tiny little soju cups but an actual glass cup??

Yu Jin-Ho thought that this action was as expected of a hardcore

senior and cautiously took the offered cup, hoping to not make any
mistakes here.

‘I’m actually not that good with alcohol, though….’

He squeezed his eyes shut real tightly and forced the liquid down his
throat. But then, his eyes shot open wide in surprise and he ended
up asking a question at this unexpected development.

“S-senior? Isn’t this soda?”

“It is.”

That supposedly-scary senior was making an expression that was

definitely not scary at all as he shook around a soda bottle.

“Why don’t you and I drink this, instead?”

For an unknown reason, the senior was forming the face of a person
running into someone he really wanted to see after a long, long time
of separation.

“Oh, and Jin-Ho? I’m gonna feel really bad about myself if you keep
calling me senior this and senior that, okay?”

The senior filled the empty glass up with soda and spoke in a friendly
tone of voice.

“From now on, call me ‘hyung’.”

“Eh?”

“What, you don’t want to?”

625
The once-affectionate eyes of the scary senior suddenly changed to
something far more serious. Yu Jin-Ho instinctively straightened his
back and energetically shouted out his reply.

“N-no, I shall, hyung-nim!!”

‘…Huh?’

After involuntarily spitting out the words ‘hyung-nim’, Yu Jin-Ho

suddenly grew puzzled by how they felt so familiar to his tongue.

‘Besides… Hang on, have I ever told the senior what my name is
before?’

He continued to tilt his head this way and that, and in the meantime,
the senior lightly clinked their glasses.

“Cheers.”

For some reason, Yu Jin-Ho realised that grin on the senior’s face was
not unfamiliar at all; the corners of his eyes grew reddened with
moisture as he energetically clinked his own cup with the senior’s
once more.

“Yes, cheers!!”

***

Yu Jin-Ho’s somewhat dissatisfied voice came out from the phone’s

speaker.

– “Ah, hyung-nim? Why haven’t you come to the faculty classroom

yet?”

Jin-Woo replied with a grin.

“I’ve got a small errand to run today, you see. Ah, that’s right. Hey,
Jin-Ho?”

626
– “Yes, hyung-nim?”

“There’s this really important matter I gotta take care of first, so can
you sub for me during the afternoon class? Thanks.”

– “Eh? Hyung-nim? Hyung-nim!!”

Jin-Woo distanced his ear away from the voice desperately calling
out to him and ended the call.

Click.

Jin-Woo raised his head and caught the name of the hospital written
in large font right before his face.

‘Seoul Il-Sin General Hospital.’

There was someone he had to meet staying in this place.

He stopped walking for a bit to fix his attire. Then, just as he took a
step towards the hospital, a rather familiar face brushed past him.

He didn’t mean to get noticed, but perhaps because his gaze had
lingered on for a moment too long on her, she stopped and turned
around to face him.

“…?”

It was Ju-Hui.

The rank B Healer who got scared often but still entered the
Association and did her best so that the power given to her wouldn’t
be wasted.

She used to be like that, but now, she was staring at Jin-Woo with
the appearance of a regular university student. He ended up forming
a gentle smile after realising just how well not being a Hunter suited
her.

627
Ju-Hui intensely studied Jin-Woo for a long time before she opened
her mouth in a hesitant manner.

“Uhm, excuse me…? Have we met somewhere before?”

The words of happy greeting rushed up all the way to the tip of his
tongue. However, he chose to shake his head, instead.

“No, I don’t think so.”

And then, turned around to leave without looking back.

For a little while there, Ju-Hui tilted her head this way and that as she
looked at Jin-Woo’s departing back before she too continued on her
path. He heard her distancing footsteps and formed a satisfied
expression.

He had protected her.

He had protected the peaceful everyday lives.

Whenever he ran into the evidence of peace created from his

sacrifice, it felt as if he had reaped the benefits of all his hard work.

That was why….

‘That’s enough for me.’

….That was enough for him.

Jin-Woo stood before the entrance of the hospital and took a look at
his left palm with untreatable burned skin. He then slowly stepped
inside the building.

If someone asked him about this wound, he’d always reply like this:

That he got this injury while saving the world.

***

628
When the doctor in charge walked into a hospital room, a certain
patient lying on the bed gestured at him to come closer.

“Can you… help me sit up, please?”

The doctor hurriedly ran up to the bed and cautiously helped the
upper torso of the patient lying on his back to sit up.

“Thank you.”

It was then, the doctor spotted a wooden bottle he had never seen
before on top of a table next to the patient’s bed.

“What is this, Chairman?”

The gaunt patient, as thin as a desiccated tree, painfully coughed and

wheezed before making his reply.

“A young man gave it to me just now.”

The doctor formed a flustered expression.

This was a VIP patient’s room in the hospital, which meant that there
were two guards constantly manning the front entrance. No one
could enter without express permission from the doctor himself.

But just who managed to sneak in here to leave behind that bottle?

“It is a truly strange thing, indeed…. However, what that young man
told me was even more incredible.”

That young man told the tale of a time now long overwritten, when
the patient used to battle ‘monsters’ alongside him. The young man
continued on and said that he came to visit him with this gift as a
thank you for everything that happened back then.

“And then, he just simply vanished. As if he was a mirage, as if he

was never here, to begin with.”

629
If it weren’t for the physical evidence, even the doctor in charge
wouldn’t have believed it. But there it was, the gift supposedly left
behind by that young man.

While the doctor stood there wondering how should he respond in a

situation like this, the patient’s trembling finger was now pointing at
the wooden bottle.

“Give it… to me.”

The doctor picked the bottle up and placed it in the patient’s hand.
The old man sitting up in the bed studied the bottle and chuckled.

“He said that, as long as I drink what’s inside this thing, my disease
will be completely cured as if being washed away. Huh-huh.”

“C-Chairman. You can’t possibly be believing in the words of a…..”

“I’m tired.”

The Chairman cut the doctor off.

“Let me ask you this one thing. Even if I don’t drink this, how long do
I have left anyway?”

“….”

The doctor couldn’t make his reply.

Even now, the absolute best that modern medicine had to offer only
barely managed to keep the patient breathing, that was all.

At this point, one could even claim it a miracle that he was still alive.

The ‘Chairman’ lightly tutted as the doctor was unable to say

anything.

“If I drink this and things go wrong…. I want you to write this down
on my gravestone. Chairman Goh Gun-Hui, buried in this place,

630
having never given up, and fought against his illness right until the
end.”

“Mister Chairman….”

As a doctor, he knew it was his duty to stop this, but he couldn’t

bring himself to do so when Chairman Goh Gun-Hui formed a
determined expression on his face while opening the lid of the
bottle.

He then began drinking the liquid inside with some difficulty.

Gulp, gulp.

After making sure that every drop had entered his throat, Goh Gun-
Hui began recalling the face of that young man who left this bottle
behind. He recalled those eyes, specifically.

Goh Gun-Hui felt that it was definitely worth it to trust a man with
such a powerful pair of eyes.

And then…

Once he finished drinking every drop of this medicine…

Ba-dump.

Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump.

His dying heart began pounding healthily once more.

His heart… was beating again.

[Only I Level Up – Fin.]

<< Author’s afterword >>

Hello, everyone. It’s Chugong speaking.

631
Actually, after I wrote ‘hello everyone’, I’ve been stuck deliberating
on what to write next for almost ten minutes now. But, it’s as
expected.

If the afterword at the novel’s completion is a letter from the author,

then as I thought, there can only be one thing I should say.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I’d like to thank you from the depths of my heart for following these
lacking words of an untalented wordsmith, for liking and following
them, and for waiting patiently as much as you liked them.

We’re at the end now.

A few of you have expressed your worries that the end has come too
abruptly, but honestly speaking, this conclusion had been planned
from the very beginning.

Things like Jin-Woo reversing time, Ju-Hui that made her appearance
at the beginning of the novel appearing again at the end, or even him
healing Goh Gun-Hui’s illness, all of these.

Although, I did add the reunion with Yu Jin-Ho a bit later on after
writing the diner scene between Jin-Woo and him, thinking that it’d
be fun.

And so, at the end of the almost-250-episode-long march, [Only I

Level Up] has come to an end in this fashion.

When I asked other authors on what they felt after ending their
novels, they all said that it was a mixture of relief and sorrow, but
why do I not feel any relief, just sadness?

Even as I write this afterword, tears threaten to break out my eyes.

632
I can’t even act my age, it seems.

I might be feeling sad for some reason, but truth be told, I’m thinking
of taking about a week off before coming to visit you again with a
series of side stories.

I pray that you will all remain unscathed until then!

And since I’m writing this afterword, I might as well burn some page
real estate and take this opportunity to express my gratitude
towards those who helped me to make [Only I Level Up] a success:
my greatest partner, Goh Dong-Nahm Deputy Manager-nim, Lee
Seok-Won Associate Editor-nim, who helped me in various ways, as
well as Author Leltree, the rising star of our Unique Team.

In all honesty, I thought it’d be awkward to thank just two people so I

added Author Lel as well, but after I did that, I was reminded of me
whining to him over the phone whenever I got stuck in the writer’s
block and now I feel really apologetic about almost forgetting him.

I’m really sorry, Leltree!

And so, I’d like to announce once more the end of [Only I Level Up]
created out of 10% whining, 39% hard work, and 50% love from all of
you, dear readers.

One more time, I’d like to thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Although it was quite tough during the writing of this novel, I still
found the journey very enjoyable because of you, my readers, who
chose to accompany me on this ride.

I shall prepare even more thoroughly and come back to you better
than ever before next time.

Everyone, stay healthy, and farewell!

633
– Author Chugong, signing off.

634
Chapter 244: Side Story 1 - I am an
employee of the Hunter’s Association.
When you’re taking a stroll on a street, ask this question to any
student you run into. Ask them what kind of job they would like to
have in the future.

A hundred times out of a hundred, you’d get one of these three

answers.

One, a famous Hunter; two, a staff member of a major Guild; and

three, an employee of the Hunter’s Association.

If a kid you talked to was a bit slow in the head, he or she would end
up wasting each day wishing to become a famous Hunter.

A kid smarter than the above example would want to get a job in a
major Guild that paid you according to one’s abilities.

The smartest cookies of the lot would choose to become an

employee of the Hunter’s Association, where one would still get paid
as much as the large Guilds while being treated as a quasi-
government official which lessened the danger of getting
unceremoniously fired from the job.

Me? I was a smart cookie.

A very smart one, to boot.

And perhaps that was why when I announced my intentions to join

the Hunter’s Association, both Mom and Dad were saddened
somewhat, which was a bit different than how other parents would
have reacted.

Dad wanted me to become a prosecutor, and Mom preferred to see

me become a doctor. Of course, as the only son in the family, it

635
wasn’t as if I didn’t know my parents’ wishes of seeing me follow
after their career choices.

However, I too had my own dream. And that dream played a big part
in me choosing to become an employee of the Hunter’s Association.

– Why do you wish to become a member of the Hunter’s

Association?

Those words were thrown my way by none other than the Chairman
of the Association, Goh Gun-Hui, as I sat in the interview room with a
stiff-as-rock face.

I was busy scolding myself for messing up almost all of the questions
asked by the interviewers because of how nervous I had been. But,
when I heard that question piercing into my brain and waking me up
in an instant….

The light shining in my eyes changed.

At least, I remembered replying to that question with a determined

look flashing up on my face.

– Even now, Hunter-nims are risking their lives to protect innocent

civilians in many parts of our nation. In that case…. Where are those
people who risk their lives for the sake of Hunter-nims?

My voice rose up while saying that I wanted to become a member of

the Association and stand on the side of those people that protected
Hunters.

Was I mistaken back then when the still-nervous me heard the soft
gasps of “Wow” coming from my side and to my front?

But, one thing’s for sure – I distinctly remembered seeing a nearly-

imperceptible smile on the face of Association Chairman Goh Gun-
Hui as the corners of his lips arched up slightly.

636
That was how I became an employee of the Hunter’s Association, a
job that others would certainly die for. Putting my parents’ slightly
lonely farewells behind me, I set off from the hometown that I grew
to love and came to Seoul, where the HQ of South Korea’s
Association was located.

I felt totally over-the-moon because I’d successfully taken my first

step in fulfilling my dream of becoming a member of the Association
that protected Hunters.

I even had this vague expectation clouding my mind, wondering if

everything was going the way I wanted them to.

Unfortunately for me, though, my beautiful image regarding the

Association was shattered into a million little pieces on the first day
of work. My thoughts of something still remaining that only I could
do for the sake of Hunters was completely wrong.

It had already been over nine years since the Awakened, Gates, and
monsters began appearing in this world.

The society had already entered a period of stability after

experiencing many failures as well as countless trials and errors. And
as a newbie member of the Association who had taken his first baby-
steps in said society, there was not a snowball’s chance in hell that I
could have my say in it.

Since my initial goal was to help Hunters out, I was assigned to the
‘Support’ department accordingly, but what waited for me there
were all sorts of unrewarding miscellaneous tasks.

And that was me being kind here. In reality, it was no different than
taking care of the mess left behind by the Hunters affiliated with the
Association.

637
– What’s this? I heard that Hunters in the area next to ours get a cup
of coffee or snacks before going on raids, so how come we don’t get
any?

– There’s this thing I urgently need to take care of, so can you give
me an advance on this month’s wages?

– If I participate in today’s raid, there’s no one to bring my child

home, so can you do me this favour for me, please?

Indeed, it was always something like this.

Even if it was low-ranked Gates worth not much money, someone

still had to deal with it. But, the number of Hunters were limited, so
their needs and wants had to be met no matter what.

In an unlucky chance that someone lodged a claim against Hunters, a

pretty awful day would wait for me, but if the Hunter with a claim
against him suddenly decided to leave the Association, then….

As I ran around all over the place trying to put out all these fires, I
grew disillusioned at the reality that was just too different from my
imagination, and as I become more and more fatigued, I also became
used to my situation, as well.

And so… on a certain day.

As I was listlessly spending time, a phone call came at my way.

Ringggg…. Ringggg….

I spat out a long, long sigh while looking at the phone ringing off the
hook, and wondered just which dear Hunter-nim was calling me this
diligently to lay out his or her complaints. I reached out and picked
up the receiver.

638
As soon as the plastic touched my ear, a seriously agitated voice
exploded forth from the speaker.

– “I told you people never to send Mister Seong to my location, yet

why didn’t you listen to my requests?!”

I had no idea what this guy was talking about, but first things first –
which was to apologise.

“I’m terribly sorry, Hunter-nim. There must’ve been an error during

the formation of the raid team. Can you please tell me what
happened in detail?”

– “What the heck, my man. Forget about details or whatnot. I told

you my team don’t want to be responsible for a corpse, you know?
You keep pushing this weak guy who gets injured from falling over on
our team claiming that he’s still a Hunter. How do you expect us to
take care of the aftermath if something happens?! You guys do this
again, and I’m just gonna quit right there and then, got that?!”

The call was one-sidedly cut off there.

I put the receiver down while repeatedly recalling the spelling of the
word ‘patience’ in my head, and then, began collecting data on the
Hunter the person on the phone spoke about before any sort of
claims could be lodged.

Just like how varied the reasons were for demanding one’s raid party
member to be changed – such as disagreement over the leader’s
decision, they didn’t like each other, or didn’t fight as well as one
hoped, etc – such requests were made quite often so I never really
paid much attention to the specifics until now.

But then…

‘Mister Seong…. Mister Seong…. His name is Jin-Woo, right?’

639
I saw the record of Hunter Seong Jin-Woo and soon realised that
something had gone really wrong here.

‘Huh….??’

His rank was only ‘E’. As for the amount of magical energy he
possessed, it was right at the bottom of the rank E, too.

‘Hey, his magic energy emission is no different from a regular

person’s, isn’t it??’

As expected, his record was full of all the instances where he ended
up getting injured.

“Oh, my god.”

I closed his file in stunned amazement, my heart wildly pounding

away.

This… This was definitely wrong.

If I pretended that I didn’t see his story and move on here, he’d really
die not too long from now.

It was at this point when I recalled the declaration I made back in the
interview room.

Hunters risked their lives for the regular citizens, but who risked their
lives for the sake of these Hunters?

My head nodded all by itself.

For the first time ever since I started working for the Hunter’s
Association during this past year or so, I finally found what I needed
to do.

***

The first thing I did was to seek out a senior officer.

640
Unfortunately, neither my immediate superior officer, or the officer
above him, or even the person above that guy, wanted to get
involved in a matter that could potentially prove to be too much
trouble for what it’s worth.

Eventually, I had to seek out the Chief of the ‘Support’ Department.

“Sir, this is a matter concerning a person’s life. It’s not going to get
solved by itself when we continue avoiding reality like this.”

Chief was forming an expression of a deeply concerned man after

seeing the junior agent suddenly transform from a well-behaved kid
who worked hard without complaints to the current me.

However, I didn’t stop voicing the things that needed to be said out
loud.

“What if that Hunter dies during a raid, sir? What will we say to his
surviving family members then?”

“Uh-huh, you shouldn’t say anything so unlucky….”

“That’s how much Hunter Seong Jin-Woo’s life is in danger, sir.

Please, take a look. This is his hospital admittance record. It’s already
a miracle that he managed to survive until now.”

“….”

For a while there, Chief wordlessly scanned the data I brought along
before raising his head.

“So, what you’re saying is that we need to do something as the

Association and stop Mister Seong Jin-Woo acting as a Hunter, is that
it?”

“Yes sir, that’s correct.”

641
Because he’d definitely die in the end if he continued to act as a
Hunter.

“Fella, I hope you’re aware of this Hunter’s backstory while telling

me all this.”

I nodded my head.

His mother was currently admitted to the intensive care unit. I knew
that she’d not survive for another day without the aid of the life-
support machines.

And I also knew that he worked for the Association in order to

receive financial support for the hospital fees.

“But, sir. Patients struck with the Eternal Sleep Disorder will never
wake up. Surely, we can’t let a living person march to his grave for
the sake of a dead person, don’t you agree?”

Even now, countless people were dying because of the illness, the
Eternal Sleep Disorder.

It was indeed a regretful thing, but we just couldn’t continue to drive

him into death traps over and over again for his mother’s life. We
needed to save him, at the least.

Even though Chief did his best to dissuade me and change my mind, I
didn’t back down from my decision.

In the end, Chief had to nod his head.

“Alright, fine.”

My expression brightened quickly, only for the Chief to add a

stipulation first.

642
“Except that you will personally be responsible for changing Hunter
Seong Jin-Woo’s mind. If he willingly decides to stop, then we shall
do so.”

I had already made up my mind about that. Indeed, I’ve never even
entertained the idea of forcibly kicking him away without his
consent, to begin with.

Even though I was facing perhaps the most difficult hurdle…

“I understand.”

….I still nodded head at the Chief, my expression full of

determination.

***

Seriously now, have I ever been so committed to something to this

degree in my life before? I was preparing so much data that I ended
up asking myself that question.

This wasn’t to make a grand announcement in front of higher-ups

nor to pass a difficult examination. No, it was just to persuade one
single Hunter named Seong Jin-Woo.

‘He’s twenty-three years old… he’s younger than me by six years.’

Thanks to my meticulous preparation, I felt reasonably confident of

my chances today. Well, I had in possession plenty of evidence and
records of him driving himself towards the jaws of death, more than
enough to chide him for his reckless actions.

I was planning to go through each and every one of these records to

argue my case why he should stop being a Hunter. I was even
prepared to lecture him that one needed to value one’s life as much
as one valued the life of his mother.

643
Clink.

The door of this cafe opened and a face that I only saw through the
file photos stepped into the establishment. When I saw him in
person, though, I froze up solid on the spot.

He scanned the cafe’s interior before spotting me. He cautiously

settled down on the seat opposite mine.

“H-hello, there.”

He greeted me first. I couldn’t say a single thing I’ve been preparing

in my head, though.

***

“It’s not as if we haven’t tried to do the same thing.”

Chief pushed forward a shot glass filled with soju and I swallowed it
one go, my expression scrounging up afterwards.

Whether it was because of the bitter taste of the booze, or maybe

my heart felt heavy, I didn’t know why my expression refused to
loosen up.

“Even then…. Sir, still, this isn’t right, you know? That was just wrong,
sir. He’s a young kid, only 23 years old, so his eyes shouldn’t look like
that.”

I honestly thought that, at the very least, Hunter Seong Jin-Woo

would show up to the meeting place with an expression filled with
unfounded confidence, believing that he’d always survive no matter
what, or with a look of a scared person searching for someone,
anyone, to help stop him.

And I felt confident of persuading him regardless of where his mental

state was in.

644
However, Seong Jin-Woo was different. He seemed to have
completely acknowledged the predicament he was stuck in.

There was this thin smile on his face implying that, although he was
shivering away in fear, he somehow barely managed to overcome it.

So, how could I push someone’s back towards a corner, to the

precipice of a cliff, when that person had barely managed to
overcome his fear?

I just couldn’t do that.

And also, I came to realise that I shouldn’t bad-mouth my superior

officers just because they failed to do something that I, too, had
failed to do.

Chief didn’t say anything while filling up the shot glass, but then he
quietly asked me a question.

“Fella. Why did you join the Hunter’s Association?”

“I….”

That moment when I began thinking about helping Hunters out for
the first time – my head dropped a little and recalled the events of
that fateful day.

“When I was young, I saw a certain news broadcast, sir. It was about
a Hunter who ended up being trapped inside a Gate while trying to
save his comrades from getting stuck like him.”

I recalled seeing the grounds of a theme park, a place where people

were supposed to smile and have a good time, now filled with
Hunters soaked in blood from head to toe as they lay there helplessly
while moaning in pain.

Back then, I became really curious.

645
– Those folks saved other people while bleeding heavily like that, but
who is saving them now?

My parents couldn’t answer my question, and that was when I made

up mind. If no one could help them, then I shall be the one to do so.

I shall do everything in my power to make sure that Hunters don’t

get injured or die.

“But now, even I became the same as the rest, sir.”

I failed to become that source of support, strength, to Hunter Seong

Jin-Woo who was facing a deadly crisis in his life.

There was nothing I could do for him.

I scolded my uselessness with such thoughts. Meanwhile, Chief

studied me for a moment or two before putting down his shot glass.

“What if you still have something you can do?”

“Pardon me?”

I raised my head up.

Chief reached into his bag and pulled out a file containing
information on a high-ranking Awakened. He then placed it before
me.

“You see, there are people who Awakened as a high rank but due to
not being interested in monetary gains, they chose not to become
Hunters.”

“….??”

“How about helping the Hunters affiliated with the Association by

persuading these folks to join us?”

My mind snapped awake from that and I looked down at the file.

646
“Rank B Healer Hunter Yi Ju-Hui….”

An upper-rank Healer!

If someone like her joined the Association, then surely, she’d be able
to save people from dying or suffering from heavy injuries. Even a
weak Hunter should be able to fight to his heart’s content without
being worried about his safety.

For a moment there, Hunter Seong Jin-Woo’s face I saw earlier

brushed past my mind. My eyes were sparkling brightly, causing the
Chief to gently chuckle and speak up.

“So, how about it? Are you interested?”

I stopped staring at the file and nodded my head energetically.

“Yes, sir. I am!!”

647
Chapter 245: Side Story 2 - Reunion (1)
Ash continued to fall from the sky like snowflakes.

Jin-Woo bade farewell to his Shadow Soldiers as their time to part

drew near, and without a shred of hesitation, turned around to face
the leader of the Rulers.

“I’m ready.”

The ‘Brightest Fragment of Brilliant Light’ summoned out a

stunningly beautiful chalice, its expression slightly sorrowful. Jin-
Woo’s eyes shone with interest when he saw that artefact.

‘So, that’s the Tool of God that can turn back time, the Chalice of
Rebirth….’

Gulp.

Dry saliva slid down his throat all by itself right after he realised that
the moment when everything was over and would begin anew had
arrived. Jin-Woo’s face was filled with tension. Seeing him like this,
the Fragment of Brilliant Light asked him one more time.

[Truly… will you not regret this decision?]

It had spent aeons fighting against Sovereigns and knew better than
anyone how heavy the burden a war of this magnitude imposed on
one’s soul was. Meaning, it understood full well the weight of that
burden this Shadow Sovereign was about to bear all by himself.

The second Shadow Sovereign, Jin-Woo, nodded his head.

He won the first battle. The second battle should be that much
easier. He had to ensure that would be the case.

648
He formed an expression half-filled with grim determination and
confidence. The Brilliant Light also nodded its head.

This man’s drive to save all those lost in this war – how could this
angel not know his determination when it too raised a flag of
rebellion against its master, the Absolute Being, all for the sake of
countless subordinates that died during the course of this everlasting
war?

[I pray that your courage will save your world one more time.]

The Fragment of Brilliant Light made a heartfelt prayer and flipped

the Chalice of Rebirth around. When it did, light filling up the Chalice
poured down onto the ground, gently and gradually soaking it.

The most blinding veil of light slowly began enveloping the whole
world.

Everyone – injured soldiers waiting in the battlefields, their families

learning of their fate through TV, those praying for the safety of their
loved ones, those with pale complexions after hearing ominous news
broadcasts, those dropping their heads lower in despair….

In their houses, inside their cars, inside hospitals, inside schools,

inside their workplaces….

Everyone saw the blinding light gently permeating through their

windows.

Eventually, the whole planet became awash with pure light.

And then, the light silently blanketing the whole world, quietly
dissipated and disappeared without a trace, just like when it first
appeared.

***

649
Morning.

Past the closed eyelids, the rays of morning sun signalling the start of
yet another day could be felt. Jin-Woo kept his eyes closed for the
time being and while lying on his back, stroked the familiar material
of the bed sheet.

Although he wasn’t fully awake yet, his perception that had far
surpassed the boundaries of a human being could pick up on the
unfolding situation of his immediate vicinity with ease.

‘Jin-Ah is coming out of the bathroom after washing up, the smell of
the boiling stew, sounds coming from the cutting board, and then,
the air in my room with this familiar smell….’

This was his home.

He had returned back home.

Jin-Woo’s heartbeat began quickening bit by bit from the realisation.

He then heard his mom’s voice through the closed door.

“Jin-Ah? Can you go and wake your brother up?”

That’s right.

His little sister Jin-Ah really liked sleeping, as befitting a growing girl
of her age, but oddly enough, she always woke up early in the
morning. And almost always, Mom would ask her to go and wake her
oppa up every day like this.

“Okay!”

After realising that the memories of the childhood he dreamed of

reliving were now playing out so vividly in front of his eyes, a wide
grin quickly floated up on Jin-Woo’s face.

Clunk.

650
“Oppaaaa…”

Before his sister could fully open the door, he slowly pushed himself
up from the bed.

“Uhh? When did you wake up?”

She stared at his already-awake figure with wide-open eyes, and Jin-
Woo formed a deep smile as his reply. In front of his eyes stood Jin-
Ah, who hadn’t lost her friends to the monsters yet.

Jin-Woo stood up from the bed and walked past his sister to enter
the living room.

“Son? You’re up?”

Mom stopped preparing breakfast and looked behind her after

hearing his footsteps. From today onwards, he’d never get to see the
sight of her trying her hardest to escape from the clutches of the
Eternal Sleep that no one could wake up from.

But, the most welcoming scene that he really wanted to see again
was…

Jin-Woo heard the sounds of a newspaper page turning and quickly

shifted his gaze towards the dining table. His father, waiting for
breakfast to arrive by quietly reading the newspaper, felt his gaze
and raised his head.

The moment their gazes met, Jin-Woo felt this rush of breathless
emotion.

“Father….”

He muttered the word ‘father’ out unbeknownst even to himself.

651
Seong Il-Hwan formed a puzzled expression after hearing his son use
a rather grown-up word when the boy always used the term ‘Dad’ up
until now.

Did his boy wake up after experiencing a scary dream?

The young Jin-Woo now looked to be struggling to suppress his tears,

so the alarmed Seong Il-Hwan quickly got up from his chair and
approached his son.

“Son? What’s the matter?”

The voice of his dad, now coming from right in front of Jin-Woo’s
nose. He could still vividly remember that feeling of his father
scattering away like dust from his grasp, so this moment came across
like a dream come true.

However, this was not a dream. No, it’s THE reality that he needed to
protect, no matter what. Tears of happiness briefly welled up in his
eyes, but soon enough, they were replaced by the gritty
determination, instead.

Both his mom and dad were studying him with worried expressions
on their faces. Jin-Woo forcibly changed his own expression and
formed a grin.

“….I must’ve had a nightmare.”

Indeed.

His nightmare was over.

The nightmare was over, and his young sister, his healthy mother,
and his father, who hadn’t vanished, were all here.

652
He was given one last chance to make everything right. And he swore
never to let this chance slip through his fingers. He’d rewrite the
future with his own two hands.

His eyes gleamed brightly as his resolve firmed up even further.

***

It felt like only a couple of days ago when he told himself that, but…

….A week flew by already.

Jin-Woo failed to grasp the right timing to enter the gap between
dimensions until now. He rested his chin on his hand and dazedly
stared outside his classroom’s window. Beru began talking to him
from his shadow.

[Oh, my king….]

‘Yeah, I know.’

Indeed, he knew.

He knew that the Sovereigns desiring after this land were getting
ready to deploy a gigantic Gate just beyond the blue sky above his
head.

However, these last few days had been like a holiday for him,
someone who had ended a big fight not too long ago. For a little
while longer…. Wouldn’t it be fine for him to fully enjoy these
peaceful times for a little bit longer? Especially as a reward for his
hard work so far.

‘…..’

As he spent his time worrying about this and that, the much-
welcomed sound rang around the classroom.

653
Ding-dong…. Ding-dong….

The bells signalling the end of school noisily resounded out from the
speakers.

Kids all looked to be slowly wasting away until then, but renewed
vitality suddenly seeped into their expressions. Going with the flow,
Jin-Woo formed a bright expression as well.

Even if the inside was a young man aged twenty-four, no, twenty-
five, his outer appearance was that of a child only fourteen years old
or so.

The after-class goodbyes with the homeroom teacher came to a

quick end in a heightened, noisy, and boisterous atmosphere. Soon,
though, schoolboys sporting buzz cut hairstyles quickly crowded
around Jin-Woo.

“Hey, Jin-Woo!”

“You’re stopping by at the internet cafe today, right?”

Jin-Woo checked out the excited faces of the kids and grinned softly
before nodding his head.

“Oww yeah!”

“Hey, hey! Jin-Woo’s playing for our team today!”

“What? What’re you on about?! He played for your team yesterday

already.”

“But, we also took in Jong-Shik too, you know. And he’s the worst
player here.”

“Ah, ah, fine. We’ll take Jong-Shik and Min-Pyo too, so Jin-Woo is on
our team.”

654
“Let’s decide with rock-paper-scissors!”

“Deal!”

Around this time period in the classrooms of the nation’s middle

schools saw the boom in the RTS video game genre. Jin-Woo’s
stunning reflexes and perception were more than enough to show
these kids a whole new world out there.

For the middle school boys, top skills in a video game meant that you
were the most popular kid in school. Just about every kid out there
competed hard to be in the same team as Jin-Woo.

The matches of rock-paper-scissors were supposed to be decided on

the best out of three but soon morphed into best out of five.

Meanwhile, middle school girls, clearly not interested in the matters

of video games, stared at the boys intensely competing in the
warfare to steal Jin-Woo away with eyes reserved for looking at
helpless idiots and left the classroom.

Also, right by the rear door of the classroom, there was this kid who
kept stealing glances in the direction of the crowd while he belatedly
packed his school bag.

He liked playing the video game like everyone else, but was no good
in making friends. Such kids could only look on with envy at the rest
of their classmates going around in groups like that.

Smirk.

Jin-Woo quietly smirked to himself.

He began noticing things that he wasn’t conscious of before as a kid

one by one. Was it because he was an adult now? Or, because of his
perception that had exceeded the norms of humanity?

655
Even in this cramped space of the classroom, so, so many emotions
swirled around and collided against one another to form a small
world of its own.

In the meantime…

“Wow-!”

Kids who finally found themselves in Jin-Woo’s team exclaimed out

loudly without a shred of embarrassment.

Jin-Woo inwardly clicked his tongue.

‘This is why girls are looking at you like that….’

The victors of the rock-paper-scissors battlefield left behind the

dejected kids and hurriedly crowded around Jin-Woo once more.

“Alright, let’s go, Jin-Woo!”

Before he did that, though, he pointed to the back of the classroom.

“Hey, I want to form a team with him.”

“Uh?”

In the direction the boys turned their heads to, there was only that
lone kid packing up his bag in silence. He flinched from surprise after
realising that everyone was looking at him, his eyes growing larger in
panic.

“Uh….? Me?”

Jin-Woo replied back.

“Yup, you.”

At that moment, he found countless traces of agonising dilemma flit

in and out of the boy’s expression. He just smirked again and asked.

656
“What’s the matter? You don’t wanna?”

“N-no…..”

The boy was now forming a shy but happy smile. Seeing that he was
successful in his mission, Jin-Woo picked up his bag and spoke up.

“Okay, let’s go.”

The boy quickly picked up his bag and nodded his head.

“Y-yeah!”

Jin-Woo grinned brightly again.

For a little bit longer.

This feeling – just for a little bit longer.

‘If these moments that I’m living my life aren’t harming anyone, let
me enjoy them at least for another day.

Let me stay for a bit longer….’

Jin-Woo’s steps taking him outside the classroom alongside his

friends were cheery and light, but at the same time, also
incomparably heavy as well.

The sun leaning against the mountain behind the school was already
dyeing the sky amber. Jin-Woo came to a stop for a moment there
and looked up at the heavens above, prompting his friends to call out
to him.

“Hey, Jin-Woo? What are you doing?”

“Our spots in the internet cafe will get taken over at this rate!”

‘These guys, trying to hurry me and all….’

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming.”

657
Jin-Woo caught up to the rest of his friends walking a step ahead.
They were noisily chatting about their famous victories soon to be
written in history with voices full of anticipation.

Jin-Woo didn’t really need to enter the conversations to sense their

excitement and hear their throbbing heartbeats.

And so….

Under the skies dyeing in the colours of vivid copper, Jin-Woo walked
on these streets with friends he met again after what felt like an
eternity.

He walked with a wide smile still etched on his face.

658
Chapter 246: Side Story 3 - Reunion (2)
After entering the gap between dimensions, Jin-Woo developed a
habit he never had before. And that would be jotting down things he
saw and experienced on that day on a notebook.

He wasn’t doing it with some lofty purpose of leaving behind the

records of his bitter life-or-death struggle against the Sovereigns.

The gap between dimension was a perfectly ’empty’ space, pretty

similar to the land of eternal rest. Without battles against his
enemies, this world of nothingness where only the eternal darkness
existed would have been incredibly dreary and lonesome – he’d have
difficult time trying to keep his sanity as a result.

However, his reason wasn’t as simple as there being nothing to do in

here.

Jin-Woo now possessed the experience of living the same timeline

twice and because of that, realised something crucial – the
perspective on an event would shift depending on when you were
looking at it.

Meaning, after some time had passed, he might see some things he
previously failed to notice.

And that was why he became rather curious as to how he’d feel after
going through these records again when his memories started to
fade away and grew indistinct in the distant future.

Would he become embarrassed that he left behind written records?

Or would he feel regret, thinking that he could’ve done it better? Or,
maybe even miss this war, although he felt almost completely fed up
with it right now?

That was his reason for writing a diary whenever he had a chance.

659
Jot, jot…

Within this endlessly deep darkness, only the sounds of a pen softly
scratching on the surface of a paper quietly rang out. As he
continued to jot down the records of the day’s events, a smirk
suddenly formed on his lips.

‘….Even still, I’m pretty sure I’ll never miss the stuff that happened
here in the future.’

Jin-Woo raised his head and caught the sight of the monster corpses
too numerous to even count strewn about in the darkness.

Yet again, Jin-Woo tasted victory in the battle against the Sovereigns,
and through this particular engagement, killed the ‘Sovereign of
Transfiguration’ – the one that gave him the most headache so far.

It had already been 27 years since he entered the gap between

dimensions. Finally, the closing curtains of this long, dangerous, and
monotone warfare was in sight.

The only remaining enemies were the Dragon Emperor and its direct
subordinates, the ‘Army of Destruction’. His heart briefly beat faster
from knowing that he’d go home soon.

‘What a relief that the time flow in here and outside is different.’

Only around two years should have gone by on the outside.

Coming home after two years of absence, was it?

How much would Jin-Ah have changed? What about Dad? Mom?
Were they holding up well? Should he have explained a bit better
before coming here?

All sorts of worries briefly fleeted in and out of his head.

‘No, hang on.’

660
Jin-Woo shook his head as if to get rid of all distracting thoughts.
Now wasn’t the time to focus his attention on how to decorate the
last pages of his ‘diary’.

With excellent timing, Bellion walked closer and bowed his head.

[My liege, the surroundings have been tidied up. There are no living
enemies left.]

Jin-Woo took a look around him.

The Shadow Soldiers had finished sweeping up the battlefield and

massacred all the still-breathing enemies, and now, they stood in
near-infinite columns as far as his eyes could see, silently waiting for
his next command.

Guooooh….

He had already given up counting the number of his current soldiers

quite a while ago. With a chuckle, Jin-Woo closed the diary.

“Alright.”

He stored both the notebook and the pen within the subspace and
descended from the top of a hill made out of the monster corpses.

It was now the time – time to meet his greatest enemy. The one he
so badly wanted to meet.

It was time to go and greet the ‘one’ who handed him his first defeat
ever since becoming the Shadow Sovereign. The Rulers intervened
and the end result was flipped on its head, but without a doubt, Jin-
Woo did lose to the Dragon Emperor in that battle.

‘….I won’t lose again.’

A cold gleam dangerously flickered within Jin-Woo’s eyes.

661
His heart beat only softly when he thought about going home soon,
yet now his eardrums were hurting from its vigorous, thunderous
pounding.

Ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump!!

What if…

Jin-Woo focused on the sounds of his beating heart, only to begin

wondering if there would come a day in the distant future when he’d
really start missing this war.

He then wordlessly turned in the direction where the aura of the

Dragon Emperor could be felt. And, along with the soldiers that
would participate in the final battle….

“Rise up.”

From next to the countless dead monsters strewn about everywhere,

an equal number of shadows rose up after hearing the command of
the Shadow Sovereign.

Right behind Jin-Woo, his three Marshals, Bellion, Beru, and Igrit,
plus many commanders, stood in an orderly fashion.

And behind them, the enormous army, more than large enough to
cover an entire continent, quietly waited on standby for his next
command.

‘…….’

Although this world lacked the flow of air, it still felt like a wind
signalling the end of the war was faintly blowing around.

Jin-Woo quietly closed his eyes and took a deep breath. And when he
opened his eyes, he uttered out the words that ushered in the end of
this lengthy war.

662
“We march forward to attack the Dragon Emperor.”

***

The Dragon Emperor also felt it.

It felt that a truly gigantic horde with a scale that couldn’t even be
estimated heading in its direction.

Since when did it start?

When was it that the Shadow Sovereign, initially starting off with the
repeated tactic of hit-and-run to shave away the massive Army of the
Chaos World, began to openly hit his enemies with the full might of
his army, instead?

The position of the army chasing him down had suddenly reversed
and now, they were being chased down by him.

Out of all the armies that had been scattered around on their own,
only the Army of Destruction remained. So, it wasn’t all that difficult
to guess where the attention of the Shadow Sovereign would land
next.

The final, deciding battle.

Although the Dragon Emperor never imagined that the seemingly-

everlasting war would end not with a grand battle against the Rulers
but as a conflict between Sovereigns, it still believed that the
upcoming battle would be a perfect finale nevertheless.

Indeed, didn’t its blood boil from just remembering the battle
against the Shadow Sovereign that took place decades ago?

‘….’

663
The Dragon Emperor quietly stood still and glared in one particular
spot. In the meantime, one of its subordinates cautiously
approached it.

[Oh, my Emperor….]

The Dragon Emperor standing there with its arms crossed quickly
replied.

[Yugumunt has died.]

After hearing the news of the Sovereign of Transfiguration dying, the

subordinate formed a stunned expression before bowing its head
again.

[That is why… perhaps it is advisable to move to somewhere more

distant….]

[No.]

The Dragon Emperor bared its fangs as murderous aura rose up from
its body in a red mist.

[I’m already sick and tired of running away. We shall fight the
b*stard right here.]

That man had spent over twenty years to hunt and whittle down the
armies of the Sovereigns. So, he’d not even give his enemies
sufficient time to regroup and reform their army.

If it was impossible to escape from his siege, then the Dragon

Emperor would fight back head-on and decide everything. Now that
would be a choice befitting of the King of Berserk Dragons.

[Get ready for battle!]

One command from their Sovereign and the Army of Destruction got
ready to fight in an instant.

664
Kuwaaaah-!!

The Ancient-grade Dragons, Dragonewts, and the Sky Dragons they

were riding on, all raised their heads up high and roared out.

‘He’s coming!’

The Dragon Emperor’s head snapped in the direction where it just

detected the movement of a gigantic power.

There was a clear reason why the Army of the Chaos World was
defeated by the lone Shadow Sovereign.

‘….Outstanding mobility.’

No one could even come remotely close to the mobility of the

Shadow Army that could be summoned freely by their Sovereign
whenever he felt like it.

No matter how close one was, the distance would grow in an instant,
and no matter how far away they were, they could close the distance
in the blink of an eye, too.

And right this moment, the Dragon Emperor was looking at the
reason why the Sovereigns’ armies had been so thoroughly defeated.
The Shadow Sovereign slowly rose up from the darkness. And at the
same time, millions upon millions of black soldiers lined up behind
him.

The Shadow Sovereign!!

The fighting spirit emitted from the entirety of the Shadow Army
standing behind him was so great that it even made the Dragon
Emperor shudder from this slight sense of disgust for a moment
there.

665
Two decades of war later, he had finally got himself the greatest
army imaginable.

[Kuhahahaha!!]

The Dragon Emperor roared out with boisterous laughter after

coming face-to-face with this incredible army.

[Amazing. Truly amazing, oh, King of Shadows.]

Fight the smaller number with overwhelming numbers – the

situation back then when he first faced off against his enemies had
now completely turned on its head.

[I never imagined that you alone would be capable of completely

shaking up the entire army. Who would have thought that we’d
arrive here?]

The Shadow Sovereign, currently outfitted in jet-black armour,

wordlessly stared at the king of all Dragons.

The previous immaturity of the Shadow Sovereign had been replaced

by this still weightiness and he emitted a much stronger aura than
ever before.

Flinch, flinch….

The Dragon Emperor’s body shuddered from excitement, as a truly

powerful enemy stood before it.

It so desperately wanted to rip him into pieces.

It so badly wanted to rip him into several pieces and devour him.

The nature of a berserk Dragon began wiggling madly from within

the Dragon Emperor. However, it was still too early to confirm
whether this encounter was a celebration or a punishment. It

666
wanted to enjoy this moment as it trembled from the anticipation for
a little bit longer.

[I want to ask you one thing.]

Also, there was this thing it was quite curious about as well, which
was rather convenient.

[Why did the Rulers use the ‘Chalice of Rebirth’? Why did they revive
all the dead Sovereigns and their soldiers?]

There was no doubt that on that day, the Dragon Emperor’s life
came to an end at the hands of the Rulers. The pain from the spears
that pierced into its body was still vividly etched in its memory.

The grand army of the Chaos World would have crumbled pretty
quickly after their leadership was lost through the Dragon Emperor’s
death. And with that, the lengthy war between the Sovereigns and
Rulers would have come to its natural end. With the Rulers as the
final victors.

It’d have been a perfect defeat for the Sovereigns, with not even a
bit of room for any excuses whatsoever.

However, they went ahead and revived every Sovereign for some
unknown reason, by reversing the time through the ‘Chalice of
Rebirth’.

Ever since that day, it tried to decipher the intentions of the Rulers
over and over again, but failed to even come close to guessing the
reason. That was why it simply had to ask the Shadow Sovereign,
who was with them at the time.

And then…

[Because I wanted it.]

667
….That completely unexpected answer caused the brows of the
Dragon Emperor to shoot up.

[What did you say…?]

Jin-Woo slowly spoke again, enunciating every word clearly so his

opponent could understand him.

[I wanted to kill you lot with my own hands again so I asked them for
the favour of using the ‘Chalice of Rebirth’.]

Crazy son of a b*tch!

The Dragon Emperor somehow managed to suppress a torrent of

swearing that rushed up to the tip of its tongue. To attack an army of
over ten million-strong soldiers with just one hundred thousand
combatants, he resorted to using a Tool of God to reverse time?!

Although it was a truly nonsensical declaration, but at least, it did

resolve one of the questions burning up inside the Dragon Emperor’s
head.

The reason for the Rulers using the Chalice of Rebirth, and the
Shadow Sovereign suddenly going on a rampage – these two matters
were actually related, as it turned out.

[Haha…. Ahahahaha!!]

As if it found the whole thing too absurd, the Dragon Emperor shook
its head helplessly and roared out in a burst of loud laughter.

The Shadow Sovereign wanted to fight the massive army of the

Chaos World again on his own volition, and just as he wished,
managed to succeed in driving his enemies to a corner.

This feat demanded a level of respect that transcended all types of

respect. The Dragon Emperor had no other way to express its

668
opinion on the Shadow Sovereign who had managed to almost
succeed in a challenge that seemed utterly impossible to accomplish
in the face of it.

And he was now staring down on one final hurdle of that challenge.

Whether to devour, or be devoured.

For the first time ever, the Dragon Emperor became curious about
the name of its opponent, the one that would either devour it, or
end up getting devoured by it, instead.

[My name is Antares.]

The name bestowed unto it by the Absolute Being, but revealed to

no one until now – the Dragon Emperor readily revealed its name to
the Shadow Sovereign.

[That is my name. Remember it well.]

It did so, in order to learn the Shadow Sovereign’s name.

With a sombre, serious expression on its face, the King of Dragons

asked its question.

[What is your name?]

The Shadow Sovereign, Jin-Woo, decided to answer what could very

well be the last-ever question of the Dragon Emperor.

[It’s Seong Jin-Woo.]

And then, he spoke up in a tone of voice implying that there

wouldn’t be any further Q&A session after this.

[Is there anything else you want to say?]

The power of death in a pitch-black aura ominously quivered and

rose up above Jin-Woo’s shoulders.

669
The gap between dimensions was very similar to the world of eternal
rest and it was rather easy to summon out the power of death in this
place. The Shadow Soldiers that were resonating as one with their
Sovereign’s power also raised up their fighting spirit higher.

Uwaaaaahh-!!!

The entirety of the Shadow Army seethed and writhed. The corners
of the Dragon Emperor’s lips curled up as it witnessed this spectacle.

‘Anything else I’d like to say, is it?’

Would there be a need for any further discussion when there was
this grand feast laid out before its eyes?

[….I don’t have any.]

The Dragon Emperor transformed into a burning Dragon and stood

before Jin-Woo, who also transformed into a humongous black giant
as well.

A mountain against another mountain.

The two gigantic existences glared at each other just before the final
battle. But, that lull only lasted for a moment.

Kuwaaaaaah-!!!

The Dragon Emperor roared out loudly as if to shake the dimensions

themselves, and the entirety of the Army of Destruction charged
forward.

Jin-Woo was far quieter than his opponent as he simply pointed to

his forward. Right away, near-ten million soldiers made their move.

At the same time, he too dashed forward towards the Dragon

Emperor with everything he had.

670
The end of the lengthy war was here. He had been waiting with
bated breaths this reunion with the Dragon Emperor just so he could
witness the end.

A chilling ray of light began gathering within the Dragon Emperor’s

maw.

It was now Jin-Woo’s chance to display the amount of growth he had

gone through due to the experiences he earned before reversing
time, as well as things he learned during this long war.

The flow of time slowed down to a crawl and only him and the
Dragon Emperor remained within Jin-Woo’s vision.

Just as the light of destruction exploded out slowly from the maw of
a burning Dragon, Jin-Woo’s fist enveloped in jet-black aura was
thrust forward.

And so, light and darkness clashed once more inside the gap
between dimensions.

671
Chapter 247: Side Story 4 - Return
The entirety of the United States of America became rather noisy
when a certain fortune-teller made an announcement.

“Not too long from now, the God of Death will descend on this land!”

Now normally, a prophecy like this, one better suited for a spot on a
comic book cover, wouldn’t have garnered any attention from the
public. However, the big issue here was that this prophecy had been
made by none other than Madam ‘Norma Selner’.

Just who was this woman?

After abruptly opening her ‘Heavenly Eye’ around two years ago, she
accurately predicted the death of North Korea’s leader, terrorists
kidnapping an aeroplane full of passengers, the stock market crash
brought about by the sudden collapse of the housing markets, etc.,
and she had been the centre of many controversies for a while now.

And such a person made an announcement that implied the end of

the world was coming, so it’d only be obvious that everyone would
start freaking out.

Madam Norma Selner was also known as the ‘prophet who is never
wrong’. The mass media that saddled her with that label went into
full-on panic mode and tripped over themselves to get an interview
with her.

Too bad for them, though, she refused to speak to every reporter
save for one person, who just so happened to be a personal friend of
hers. It became known later that she had invited him privately and
gave him a message.

672
– The God of Death will descend on our land accompanied by
countless soldiers of death. Just as we can’t escape from the grip of
death, we cannot run away from the God of Death, either.

And the very next day.

A gigantic black hole suddenly opened up in the skies of Seoul, one

large enough to almost completely cover up the capital city. And
Madam’s prophecy dominated the headlines of every newspaper in
the world.

***

Meanwhile, inside said Gate….

Jin-Woo could only let out a gasp of surprise after spotting the
humongous sea of people, as if the humans of the entire world had
gathered in one spot, right below him.

“Huh-uh….”

How wonderfully moving would it have been if all those people were
here to welcome him back? Unfortunately, Jin-Woo knew better
than anyone that would not be the case and could only form a wry
smile.

Soon, this Gate would open up. To all those watching on from the
ground, this portal might be a source of sheer terror, but to him, it
was an important doorway back home.

Home.

Jin-Woo’s heart was rapidly filling up with warm emotions from the
knowledge that the pathway to his home that he missed so much
would soon open up.

673
‘Now that I think about it, isn’t this my first time looking at the
outside from the inside of a Gate?’

The outside world was in full display from inside the Gate. That was
how Jin-Woo got to spectate on the sea of people below his feet. He
placed his hand on the ‘wall’ of the Gate that separated the two
spaces.

In the past, he needed to give it his all in the battle against the
Dragon Emperor in order to break this wall down, but now…

‘Now, I….’

Jin-Woo lightly pressed down, causing minute cracks to form on the

wall with sharp noises. If he pushed a bit harder, then this wall would
surely break down without much resistance.

For a short moment there, Jin-Woo pondered whether he should do

that and make his descent now or not, but eventually, he shook his
head with a gentle smile on his face.

‘….No, I shouldn’t.’

People on the ground were scared already, so there was no need to

alarm them even further. Besides, he’d been waiting for this moment
for almost 30 years, so it was not a problem to wait for a few more
days.

Jin-Woo carefully withdrew his hand, only to discover something

else.

‘Hold up. Just who would think that this is the hand of a third-year
middle school student??’

Indeed, he just realised that his hand was simply too big now. Having
spent 27 years in the gap between dimensions, Jin-Woo had
naturally become a middle-aged man.

674
His physical age had already surpassed his own father’s now.
However, he’d been missing for only two years on the outside.

He needed to adjust his physical age to that of the outside one so

that he could avoid the situation of people who knew him freaking
out after seeing how much he had changed.

Although, he wasn’t that keen on looking young to other people….

Hang on, maybe he was?

…In any case.

“I guess there’s no helping it.”

Jin-Woo grinned and looked down at his body before activating his
powers. With him being able to perfectly control the powers of the
Shadow Sovereign, the biological clock of his physical body posed no
problem at all.

Soon enough, Jin-Woo’s figure shrunk back down to that of a middle

school student.

Shururuk….

The bearded face of a middle-aged man became that of a fresh-faced

teenage boy with a bright complexion in no time at all.

The black smoke enveloped him for a brief moment and when it
receded away, even the clothing had changed to the school uniform
he wore on the day he went ‘missing’.

‘This should be enough, right?’

Jin-Woo formed a satisfied smile after confirming his new look,

which was definitely that of a student no matter who took a gander
at him.

675
Both his mind and body were now ready to go home and meet his
family.

The only thing remaining was to wait.

‘Two more days left….’

Even the wait until the Gate opened up proved to be something to

enjoy to Jin-Woo, who was nearing the end of one hell of a long
journey.

***

“Uh… Uh?? H-hey, it’s opening up!!”

“The hole is opening up!!”

The crowd of people screamed and pointed at the Gate now

beginning to open up.

Aaaah-!!

Kyahhack!

However, only the interior of the Gate connected to some other

place was revealed to the waiting eyes outside. No feared events of
scary things jumping out from there happened.

“….??”

“What’s this?”

“It’s over, just like that?”

The folks from all corners of the globe, here to spectate on the giant
Gate, began murmuring in uncertainty as they watched the
mysterious portal slowly dissipate.

676
In the meantime, Jin-Woo blended in with the completely-unawares
crowd and upon arriving at a quiet, deserted street, undid his
Stealth.

Since pretty much everyone was focusing on the disappearing Gate,

none of them paid much attention to a middle school student that
popped up out of seemingly nowhere.

Jin-Woo briefly observed the crowd of onlookers for a bit, before

turning around to head towards his home.

It was precisely at that moment he discovered a young man holding

an expensive-looking bouquet of flowers standing before him.

This man smiled brightly and addressed Jin-Woo.

“Welcome back home safe and sound, Mister Seong Jin-Woo. Or,
should I address you as the Shadow Sovereign, instead?”

He had never met this guy before. However, he didn’t sense any
malice from this unknown dude, either. So, he decided to lower his
vigilance.

“It doesn’t matter what you address me as.”

Jin-Woo received the bouquet of flowers from the man and smirked
softly.

“Having at least one person welcome me back isn’t so bad, I guess.”

He leaned in and took a sniff at the flowers before raising his head up
again. The man spoke as if he was genuinely surprised.

“Honestly…. I’ve never imagined that you would successfully finish

your mission and return home like this. By the way, I see that your
steps carry the weight of ten million soldiers.”

677
The ‘Army’ was defeated, and without a single exception, the
denizens of the Chaos World that made up its fighting force came
under the influence of the Shadow Sovereign.

Jin-Woo now wielded the biggest fighting force when both the
Sovereigns and Rulers were taken into account. He lowered the
bouquet and asked the stranger.

“I’m sure you didn’t come here to hand me this bundle of flowers,
so… What does the emissary of the Rulers want with me?”

Quite different from the tone of his voice that could’ve come across
as overbearing, his expression was filled with a relaxed composure.

A lion would never fear a lamb, after all.

His overwhelming strength, honed even further through the lengthy

war, was more than enough to make this unknown man shudder
slightly in fear, even though the latter already knew who he was
dealing with today.

Indeed, it was the role of the lamb to fear the opponent, not the
other way around.

Now faced with the dignified air of the Sovereign that was not too
dissimilar to a king of all predators, the unknown man chose to
politely lower his head first.

“The Rulers have sent you a message, Shadow Sovereign. Our

conversation might take a while, so may I inquire if it’s fine with you
for us to go elsewhere?”

“Fine.”

Jin-Woo walked past the smiling man and took the lead.

“I just remembered a place I wanted to stop by, anyway.”

678
***

“….”

The unknown man wordlessly stared at the bowl of ice cream

presented before him for a bit and raised his head.

“The place you wanted to stop by was an ice cream parlour?”

Sure, just because he became younger-looking, that didn’t mean his

tastes had changed, as well.

It was just that…

“Well, staying in a distant ‘place’ for a long time does make you
hanker for something sweet, you see.”

Jin-Woo replied with a grin and began scooping the delicious ice
cream into his mouth.

This wonderful, refreshing coldness transmitted from his tongue.

And then, followed by this thrilling sweetness.

Only now did it strike home that he had returned for real.

The unknown man tried to get to the main topic several times but
Jin-Woo stopped him again and again. Only after he cleaned out the
ice cream bowl did he open his mouth to speak.

“So, what did the Rulers say?”

The unknown man had been dazedly watching the Shadow

Sovereign’s snack time until then. He hurriedly regained his wits and
spoke up.

“Oh. First of all, they wish to express their genuine gratitude….”

“Why don’t we skip the perfunctory greetings and move on?”

679
The Rulers should not have any further business with this world, yet
they still sent an envoy to speak to him like this. Jin-Woo deduced
that the matter at hand must be something extraordinary, so he
wanted to skip the opening remarks.

“Did a new problem pop up from somewhere?”

“No, not at all. It’s nothing like that. Rather, I’m here to speak to you
because all the problems had been resolved, instead.”

Came to speak to him because all problems had been solved, he said.

The light in Jin-Woo’s eyes became even more serious. The unknown
man greeted that sombre look and gulped down his dry saliva out of
sheer nervousness. Still, one shouldn’t forget to perform one’s duty
just because the other party happened to be quite a scary person.

The man opened his mouth with some difficulty.

“The Rulers, they…. They are worried about the potential side effects
your powers might have on this world, Sovereign-nim. As you may
well know, the powers you possess are not something this world can
cope with.”

“….Okay, so?”

“Without the presence of Mana, this world is just too fragile. If it’s
okay with you, we’d like to transfer you to a world that can take on
your powers, Sovereign-nim.”

“Or, they can just go ahead and seal me up instead of transferring

me around, saving us from potential headaches.”

“Of course, that is an option….”

Bang!

680
Jin-Woo lightly slapped the table, causing the unknown man to flinch
and stop his attempt to reply, his bright complexion frozen solid mid-
speech.

The heavy voice of the Shadow Sovereign slowly came out of Jin-
Woo’s mouth.

“So, they wish to get rid of me since I’m no longer useful, is that it?
Because they fear the power that I possess?”

Jin-Woo maintained a smile, but the glare in his eyes was

incomparable colder than before. The unknown man nearly jumped
up in fright and quickly waved his hands around.

“N-no, that’s not true! I swear, it’s not like that!”

He then presented Jin-Woo with a certain newspaper he had

prepared earlier. Jin-Woo took the paper and read the article
dominating the front page.

That’s when he spotted a rather familiar face there.

The article was about a prophecy made by one Madam Norma

Selner, who used to work as the ‘Upgrader’ in the previous timeline.

– Not too long from now, the God of Death will descend on this land!

Jin-Woo’s brows quivered a little at the words ‘God of Death’.

“She wasn’t originally an exceptional soothsayer even back in the

erased timeline. However, coming into contact with our world has
changed her life a great deal.”

Jin-Woo’s gaze stopped at a certain part of the article, the part about
when she had abruptly opened up the so-called ‘Heavenly Eye’. It
was around two years ago.

681
Her ‘awakening’ matching up with the exact point in time he found
himself after the timeline had been reset using the Tool of God
couldn’t be chalked down to simple coincidence.

“So, what you’re saying is, my existence can potentially cause other
changes like this one?”

“Yes, that’s correct, Sovereign-nim.”

Once Jin-Woo showed signs of calming down, the unknown man spat
out a sigh of relief.

“The Rulers’ thoughts are to present you with a suitable location

where you can stay, if that’s what you decide, with their intentions
being to prevent the potential adverse change taking place in this
world.”

“…”

Jin-Woo leaned against the chair.

He still couldn’t sense any malice from this unknown man. The Rulers
connected to this man were making this offer out of good-will and
other similar emotions.

However…

To think, he’d have to hear such news on the first day of his return.

Jin-Woo had been in a state of anticipation from the thoughts of

going home, so he found it hard to hide how disappointed he was.

He definitely didn’t want to discuss stuff like this right now. And he
didn’t bother to hide his thoughts on that matter.

“Can you come back some other time?”

“….I shall do so, oh, great Sovereign.”

682
The unknown man performed a smart, courteous bow towards the
greatest hero who brought to an end the war between Sovereigns
and Rulers. The only thing remaining after the man had left was a
black-on-both-sides business card.

Most likely, that signified the unknown man requesting him to call
the number on the card when Jin-Woo had made up his mind.

He studied the face and the back of this card before stuffing it in the
inner pocket of his school uniform, a bitter smile slowly spreading on
his face.

The bubbles of anticipation and excitement from coming home had

burst for good now. Many thoughts swirled in his head, almost
making him dizzy.

‘If all living creatures have a clear goal, a purpose in their lives….’

He was certain of one thing.

As the Shadow Sovereign, he had fulfilled his purpose after stopping

the invasion of the Sovereigns, as well as making sure that no weird
phenomena occurred on Earth.

Meaning, he had accomplished his goal.

So, the enormous power that served its purpose would only become
a headache that was hard to dispose of, just like the nuclear waste at
the end of its life cycle.

In that case – a question suddenly popped up in his head.

‘In the end, have I become an existence surplus to this world?’

When the chain of his thoughts reached there, he spotted a certain

familiar face jogging past the ice cream shop. As if he was entranced,
Jin-Woo got up, pushed open the front door, and stepped outside.

683
Without a doubt that moving forward, there would come many
occasions in the future where he’d have to ponder whether
remaining in this world was a good idea or not.

However….

‘As long as there is a reason for me to stay, even if it’s just one,
then….’

A teenage girl kitted out in an athletics uniform stopped jogging and

turned around to look behind her.

At the place where the scent she really liked was coming from, she
discovered an unfamiliar teenage boy standing in front of the wide-
open exit of an ice cream parlour.

‘What’s going on? Did ice cream smell this good before?’

The teenage girl tilted her head this way and that while glancing
behind her, but in the end, she failed to solve her confusion and
continued with her jogging.

Seeing her departing back, a brief smile formed on Jin-Woo’s face.

‘There are still people that I love in this world.

And also, those who love me, and those who used to love me exist in
this place, too.

That is more than enough reason for me to stay here.’

Jin-Woo smiled and inwardly told himself to find other reasons to

stay in this world.

684
Chapter 248: Side Story 5 - Igrit’s
memories
The first time I met ‘him’ was inside the irregular space created out
of my liege’s power. My mission was to test the human about to
enter this place.

Although my liege said that he wished to find out if this human was
fit to become his vessel, I knew the truth, somehow.

I knew that this order might be the last one my liege would ever give
me. My liege had lost all interest in warfare after forgiving the Rulers.
From that point alone, I knew that he had harboured a deeper
meaning in why he was so focused on this rather unremarkable
human being.

I began guessing that I’d soon bid farewell to my liege. However, the
command issued by my liege was still absolute. I had no thoughts of
questioning his motives or changing his mind. All I could do was to
comply with his command.

That was all I could do.

And so, after most of my powers were sealed away, I was made to
stand all alone in the space where the testing of that human would
take place.

‘Humans of this world call spaces such as this one dungeons, don’t
they?’

At the far end of this imaginary dungeon shaped to resemble an

audience chamber of a king’s castle, I saw a large throne. I combed
through my fading memories of the time when I was still human and
studied this place.

685
‘As expected…. You have certainly created quite a detailed stage with
my liege’s power, haven’t you?’

I continued to touch and feel each large pillar lined up from the
entrance to the plinth where the throne was and expressed my
admiration towards the abilities of the architect, who had created all
these.

As the fruit of this meticulous planning, that human’s body would

continuously be modified to accept my liege’s power.

It was then.

I sensed the presence of someone approaching this place.

‘He’s here already….?’

I panicked at this unexpectedly fast arrival of the test subject and

ended up sitting down on the throne.

However….

“…..”

After I settled down on the throne, I began wondering if me sitting

here would be seen as a bit ‘insolent’.

The consciousness of my liege had already taken root within the

human I was supposed to test, so I couldn’t help but wonder if me
sitting on a throne like this, in front of my master, would be seen as
me being disrespectful.

‘…..’

In the end, I judged that I should refrain from displaying any uncouth
sight and hurriedly climbed off the throne to hide behind the nearest
pillar.

686
Geuh-gugugugu-!!

With a truly gobsmacking timing, the massive entrance opened up,

but thanks to the surroundings being too dark, that human failed to
discover me panicking grandly like that.

What a relief that was.

It’d be no good to make this serious test my liege had planned out
into a farce with my mistakes, now would it?

I inwardly spat out a sigh of relief and when the human was about
ten steps away from me, I slowly walked out from behind the pillar
to block his path.

‘….!’

Through the still air, I sensed his nervousness.

He was a young man.

Obviously, my gaze lingering on him couldn’t be described as

favourable.

‘So, he’s the one my liege has chosen…’

Even if this mission wasn’t the final order bestowed unto me, I never
planned to go easy during this fight. If I believed that he wasn’t
qualified, I’d kill him with my own hands.

And so, as I stood there, igniting my fighting spirit…

….This young man suddenly clenched his fists tightly and put his
dukes up.

‘…..??’

Wait, could he be thinking of using his bare fists to defeat me?

687
I briefly thought about how praiseworthy his bravery was, for a
human being. To fight him in equal conditions, I took off my cape and
removed my weapons one by one.

‘….!!’

Why was he getting so surprised by every single thing I did, anyway?

Sure, his eyes filled with drive were rather likeable, but did he
possess the same level of abilities to match those eyes, I wonder?

So, time to check it out…

….And the results came out pretty quickly.

“Keo-heok!”

Plop.

Even though I was forbidden from bringing out my full power, he was
already kneeling before me. What a disappointment that was.

However, just as I felt disappointed, I also felt an equal amount of

relief. Because, if the one supposed to inherit the power of my liege
turned out to be not qualified, then that meant my liege would
remain as he was for a little while longer.

For the first time ever, and also for the last time, too, I felt relieved
by my liege’s failure.

And then, I decided to bestow a fitting end matching the level of

bravery this man had shown me even though he was a mere human
being. I used the ‘authority’ briefly granted to me by my liege and
dragged along the sword discarded to a distant location.

Cutting his head off in one go and sending him off on his way with
minimal pain was what I planned to do. I figured that such a gesture
would be the best form of mercy I could show this human.

688
Perhaps he had read my mind, he even presented his neck before
me.

‘You made the right decision. Wisdom matching your bravery….

Although your loss is lamentable, there is no way other than this to
change my liege’s mind.’

For the sake of the man choosing an honourable death, I performed

the beheading. But then – he seemed to have accepted his fate
without a struggle, but the light in his eyes changed abruptly at that
moment.

Clang!!

My sword was blocked off by his hand, and instead, his dagger
stabbed deeply into my face next.

Stab!!

Kuwaaaaah-!!

I was stunned.

Not by the fact that he managed to block my blade, no, but from the
fact that he never gave up on his life right up until the end, even
under the current circumstances.

Also, although it was for a brief moment, I saw the light coldly
gleaming in his eyes and belatedly realised that it was uncannily
similar to the light within my liege’s eyes.

‘Ah, ah… That was why my liege has…’

I completely lost all of my desire to fight, and was unable to respond

to any of the continuous streams of attacks landing on me.

I was slammed into the wall, and…

689
Ku-waahng!!

….And, I was stabbed repeatedly.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

Eventually, the metal protector surrounding my neck couldn’t endure

and broke off.

Crack!!

The strength he possessed, and then, the one I possessed – since this
was a test to confirm whether he possessed enough of a
qualification, I should possess higher stats than he did.

However, I still lost.

And quite obviously, too.

Was this the result of me underestimating him after seeing him as

just another human being, or a miracle brought on about by his
tenacious nature that didn’t know the meaning of giving up?

As my consciousness blurred, I caught the sight of him raising both

his hands up high to celebrate.

“Uwahh-!!”

Well, now. Since I began chuckling while watching him be like that, it
could only mean that I wasn’t right of mind, no?

My consciousness blurred even further as my gaze drifted up

towards the ceiling.

It was too dark up there, and I couldn’t tell what these endlessly-
stretching pillars were connected to. However, I was just a bit
saddened by the thought that the distant darkness above seemed to
signify my own growing distance away from my liege.

690
‘Am I supposed to feel happy that my liege’s choice turned out to be
correct, or feel sad that I couldn’t manage to change his decision….?’

I couldn’t decide, and that’s how I lost my consciousness.

That was… until that man came closer and shouted out ‘Rise up’ in
my direction.

***

He really cherished me.

Was it because I was his very first soldier – no, technically speaking,
not his first but someone very close to being one?

There were many occasions where I thanked him for the kindness I
felt from him. And there were many things that remained etched in
my memories, such as…. Indeed, that one time.

On a certain day, he said this to me.

“I’m sure you’ll be able to talk once your grade goes up, right?”

How was I supposed to describe the state of my mind that nearly

overloaded with emotions when I saw his bright smile? I wasn’t sure
of what he thought of me, but at least to me, he was my master, my
friend, and my ally.

He and I overcame many battles together.

At times, against denizens of the Chaos World, sometimes against

monsters of the instant dungeons, and sometimes, even against
other Hunters.

When he was happy, I too was happy, and when he was struggling, I
too struggled. And when he was sad, I also felt sad, as well.

691
I knew that the deeper my loyalty to him became, the longing
towards my former master would get fainter and fainter. Despite
that, though, I gradually grew to accept my new liege.

Of course, it was not always smooth sailing, either. There were

moments that I was actually sweating buckets.

“Use this.”

Such as, when I fought against a much stronger female Hunter while
still being under several restrictions, with only a sword that could
shoot out some lightning bolts.

“Was the black knight you brought out really your strongest
summon?”

‘…..’

I was even subjected to such insults, too.

And then, I even became a ‘roommate’ with a Shadow Soldier who

possessed an abnormal fighting strength rather unexpectedly, as
well.

Kiiiieeehhhk-!!

‘……’

Now I found myself saddled with a ‘roommate’ who, although very

loyal by nature, his nature also happened to be quite vicious. You
have no idea how badly I missed my dignified comrades from the
past.

That’s how I felt when I met Bellion again. And if I were being
honest…. when he taught Beru a lesson, I felt just a tiny bit
refreshed.

Just a bit.

692
Too bad, my joy at reuniting with my old comrade didn’t last long.

Because, not much time passed by before Bellion became influenced

by Beru’s antics, too!

[Look, Igrit. This black flag… if we plant it on top of this castle, don’t
you think our liege will become happy?]

[….Are you being serious?]

[I don’t possess any skills to craft things like ants do, but if it is to
make my liege happy, I’m prepared to do anything.]

[N-no, that’s not what I meant….]

[Kiieehk-hehehet, is that the flag for our liege?]

[…..I give up.]

Of course, there was no need to even mention the reaction of our

new master.

In any case, our boss’s powers became even greater after absorbing
the original Shadow Army that had been patiently waiting for his
summons from the gap between dimensions.

Contrary to my worries, he didn’t treat the ‘soldiers from the

previous liege’ any differently from his own, and after uniting under
one banner, we were now fully prepared to sacrifice our lives
regardless of what battle it was, all for his sake.

Our training time came and went way too quickly, and…

….And, our determination was fully put to the test in the war against
the Sovereigns.

We fought with everything we had for his sake and successfully

ended the war against the Sovereigns in our decisive victory.

693
When he was fighting against the Dragon Emperor, we watched with
bated breath, this incredible life-or-death battle, from inside the
shadow. The brilliant face-off of the two Sovereigns was so beautiful
that I was almost overcome with emotions.

[Kiiehhk? What’s this? Igrit, are you crying?]

[….Shut up.]

The entirety of the Shadow Army was up in arms inside our liege’s
shadow, thinking that a seriously dangerous moment was upon their
master, but then, the armies of the Rulers opened up the doorway in
the sky and decided to crash the party.

Waaaahhh-!!

We all cried out in elation after seeing the reinforcements blotting

out the sky.

[You lazy bums, couldn’t you have come a bit earlier?!]

[Wait, could they have deliberately waited until now to make us

anxious as heck before making their entrance??]

[If I was standing outside, I’d have kicked their a*ses already!!]

We were pouring out our complaints and dissatisfactions, but

inwardly, we were celebrating our master’s victory with great relish.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to sing our songs of celebration for long.

Because… our liege spoke.

“One more time…. Can you use the ‘Chalice of Rebirth’ one more
time?”

He said that he wanted to reverse the time and completely erase any
signs of Sovereigns and Rulers from this world he was living in.

694
Back when I was still a human being, I too had people that I wanted
to protect, so I could easily sympathise with his emotions. Maybe, I’d
have chosen the same path if I was allowed to make the same
decision.

I completely respected his choice.

Myself and my comrades were fully prepared to clash against any

opponents once more, whether they be the armies of the Sovereigns
or not, as long as it was for our master’s sake.

Regrettably, though, not everyone was invited to this battle.

When we learned that some of us would disappear when the time

was reversed, those soldiers that fell under that condition all
plopped down and began to sorrowfully cry out.

All I could do was to console Iron who had been with us for a long
time, Greed who got on the liege’s bad books from the get-go and
ended up going through a lot of hardships, as well as other wailing
soldiers.

And so, the moment of farewells came to an end like that. We

returned to the past and were gifted with a brand-new battlefield.

Our master became more and more adept at warfare, and following
after our master’s growth, we too, became stronger in turn, as well.

We faced several dangerous crises, both big and small. However, he

grew even stronger every time he overcame them, to a point that it
was getting harder to keep up with him.

That’s how almost 30 years flew by.

All of our enemies were defeated, bar the ‘Army of Destruction’.

The desperate clash of our liege against the Dragon Emperor.

695
While our master was fighting against the leader of the enemy
forces, we faced off against the Ancient-grade Dragons.

One of them named Granodeh decided to engage me in a chat as I

was mercilessly and crazily cutting down the army of Dragons.

[IGRIT!!! You were supposed to be one of the twin wings of the

Shadow Army, yet you follow the orders of a Sovereign who is a
measly human?! Are you not ashamed of yourself??]

Not even possessing enough energy to maintain its Dragonic form

anymore, the b*stard had reverted back to a humanoid appearance,
panting laboriously as it clutched the sword sticking out its chest. I
ended up staring at the dying creature with dazed eyes for a long
time after hearing its final words.

Indeed, I had forgotten it.

The moments spent with my new master had been so glorious that I
had completely forgotten about the previous liege.

Since when did this happen?

Since when did the previous liege completely disappear from my

mind?

Granodeh’s breathing came to a stop a long time ago, and fierce

skirmishes continued to break out all around me, but I just couldn’t
bring myself to leave this spot for a while.

I thought that my master was everything to me – but, in reality, he

meant so little to me?

Such feelings of doubt caused the inside of my mind to blank out.

But then, this happened.

696
I heard a loud yell coming from somewhere that woke me up real
fast.

“Igrit!!”

It was the voice of my liege.

I urgently raised my head to look. In the direction my gaze landed in

next, I was greeted by a ray of blinding light.

‘Breath of Destruction!!’

The Dragon Emperor had spent most of its energy after battling my
liege and reverted back to its humanoid figure as well. But, for some
reason, it was firing a Breath in my direction.

No, wait.

That b*stard wasn’t aiming at me. It just so happened that I was

standing in the path of the Breath, that was all.

Indeed, I was rather unlucky. The truth was, most of the accidents
happened because of some bad luck, and the victim at the end
would lose his life. And it was my turn to become that victim.

Khuwaaaahh-!!

I realised that it was too late to do anything after seeing the ray of
blinding light about to swallow me up. I couldn’t even do anything
and just stood there, frozen.

I resigned myself to my fate.

While facing the light enveloping my entire vision, I began thinking to

myself. Maybe this was… a punishment for completely forgetting
about my pledge of allegiance to the previous liege?

‘If so, then I shall gladly accept it.’

697
After all, I was a sinner, wasn’t I?

And so, as I quietly waited for my final moments approaching me at

the speed of light…

…In that blink of a moment, someone stood before me and extended

his hand out to block the ‘Breath of Destruction’.

Kuwaaaaahhhhh-!!!

His left hand was burning away from the horrifying attack of the
Dragon Emperor, but he showed no signs of pulling away.

I watched him defending against the flames capable of burning away

everything in the universe for my sake and even before I had realised
it, I was calling out in desperation.

[My liege!!]

Once the Breath of Destruction came to its end, my liege turned to

look at me with rebuking eyes.

‘….!!’

Just like back when he loudly yelled out my name, I woke up again
with a start just now. My liege scanned my condition for a moment
or two, before dashing towards the Dragon Emperor again.

I too, raised up my sword in order to cut down the Dragonewts trying

to surround me.

Clang!!

Blades clashed with blades once more to create flying sparks, and
the Dragonewts being cut down by my sword screamed out in
anguish.

‘That’s right.’

698
I had never forgotten about my previous liege. My loyalty to that
person simply had been extended to my current liege, that was all.

How could me staying loyal with all my being to the inheritor the
previous liege had personally chosen, be seen as a bad thing, a sin?

‘I am a knight.’

I was a sword of my liege.

I was one of the twin wings that led the Shadow Army.

If a one in ten thousand chance occurred… if I were to face the

moment where I had to part ways with the current liege, then I’d add
the words of farewell I didn’t get to say to the previous liege as well.

Every day I fought under my liege had been honour and privilege to
me.

[Uwaaaahhhh-!!!]

I roared out viciously and pounced on the Dragons dashing towards

my direction.

***

The lengthy war ended safely, and we all returned to the liege’s
homeworld.

Jot, jot….

My liege was focused on studying until late at night. Hidden inside

his shadow and sharing his vision, I decided to offer my advice.

[My liege, the answer to the 14th question was not the first one, but
the second option.]

“Ah, really? Thanks.”

699
Thanks to not being able to meet the minimum required number of
school attendance days, my liege was unfairly expelled from this
institution called ‘middle school’ and now found himself stepping
into a brand-new battlefield, called ‘GED’.

Although he maintained near-perfect score in every mock test he

participated in, there were still a few problems that did slip through
the cracks of inattention every now and then.

But, whenever something like that happened, just who was qualified
to lend the liege his aid?

Grand-Marshal Bellion, who only had his huge physique and nothing
else? Or Marshal Beru, who could legitimately claim to be pretty
smart but ultimately, still a lousy insect at heart?

In the end, it fell upon myself to counsel our liege, as I had graduated
the knight training school with top marks when I was still a human
being.

“Hey, by the way, here, it says that the answer to the 14th question
is… the first one? Igrit, can you really stake your life on the second
one?”

My liege opened up the answer sheet and pointed out my flaw with
razor-sharp accuracy. So, as befitting a knight, I owned up to it.

[It seems that my training is still quite lacking, my liege. I shall devote
myself even further to my liege’s cause.]

‘……..’

I am my liege’s knight.

My liege’s sword.

700
The battlefield of my liege is my battlefield; now that he had stepped
into a new war, it seemed that my glorious days would continue on
for a little while longer.

701
Chapter 249: Side Story 6 - Your daily
routine (1)
Every once in a while, Woo Jin-Cheol felt this inexplicable sense of
loss in his heart. One heck of a weird thing this was, as if he had
forgotten something really important to him.

However, no matter how hard he combed through his memories, he

knew that he had definitely not forgotten anything. Only, the
emptiness in his heart would grow larger and larger the more he
thought about it, that was all.

“Hey, senior. What are you thinking about so deeply like that?”

The youngest detective in the unit asked him while handing over a
cup of warm coffee taken from a vending machine. Woo Jin-Cheol
shrugged his shoulders to say that it was nothing important and
received the coffee.

“Thank you.”

Once this aromatic smell of coffee entered his nostrils, it felt as if the
emptiness in his heart was filling up just a little bit.

His name was Woo Jin-Cheol, a fourth-year detective in the National

Police Agency’s Violent Crimes Investigation Unit.

It wasn’t as if he lived a soft life where his mind would sway gently
from the warm breezes of the incoming spring, but still, this sense of
loss started chasing after him out of the blue, about three years ago.

When he mentioned this to his acquaintances, they all promptly

reminded him with the cruel fact that he had no family to call his
own, even though he was already at a ripe old age, and that must’ve
been the reason for his restlessness.

702
Just like the bitter aftertaste of the coffee, Woo Jin-Cheol formed a
bitter smile, too, and emptied out the paper cup in no time at all.

‘….That’s right.’

Didn’t someone say that a busy bee had no time to feel sad, or
something like that? The best medicine to heal this trivial depression
of his was, traditionally speaking, more work.

With excellent timing, Woo Jin-Cheol’s sharp gaze landed on the

backs of some men sitting in a line as soon as he stepped into the
offices of the Violent Crimes Unit.

He crushed the empty paper cup with his hand and pointed at these
three men with his chin.

“What’s their story?”

“Ah… those b*stards? Well, uh….”

Woo Jin-Cheol heard the youngest detective’s somewhat hesitant

voice and walked over quickly to stand before them.

Sure enough….

These men’s facial complexions were whiter than snow as if they had
seen something they shouldn’t have. They couldn’t even meet his
gaze and continued to shiver like a lone leaf in the wind.

Seeing their faces, Woo Jin-Cheol began muttering to himself.

“It’s the Shadow Monster again…?”

***

It wasn’t all that rare to see criminals turning themselves in and

confessing to their wrongdoings out of the sheer weight of guilt, or
out of fear of getting caught.

703
However, it was a completely different story to see a bunch of
hardened career criminals, scared sh*tless, begging the cops to
throw them into jail cells as quickly as possible.

And for the last several months, the so-called ‘not rare at all’
spectacle repeated itself over and over again.

“S-Shadows…. The… the, the shadow stood up from the ground… and
spoke to me. If, if I don’t turn myself in during the next 24 hours, I’ll
end up regretting that I’m even alive…. D-detective, I’m a bad guy, so
please, please! Throw me inside the slammer! I beg you!!”

They all generally retold the same story.

When similar situations kept repeating itself, the higher-ups got fed
up and had ordered their underlings to get to the bottom of this
matter right away.

Woo Jin-Cheol’s voice rose up higher.

“So, what you’re saying is, you all saw the Shadow Monster?”

“T-that’s right!! Right!”

Woo Jin-Cheol began writing up his report with the testimonies of

these criminals, and when he got to the part called ‘the reason for
turning oneself in’, he spat out a long, long sigh.

‘How am I supposed to write a report about this, again?!’

His head began developing a migraine just from thinking about

writing yet another report on the unbelievable story of the ‘Shadow
Monster’ cursing people.

It was then.

Tap, tap.

704
Someone tapped him on the shoulder so he took a glance back, and
that’s when he spotted a senior detective standing behind him.

“Hey, Jin-Cheol-ah? Let the junior here take over writing up the
report. Can you come to the conference room for a sec?”

‘The conference room?’

What with the blindingly wonderful antics of the Shadow Monster

reducing the number of violent crimes recently, there shouldn’t be a
need to use the conference room anymore, but he was being
summoned there without a prior heads-up, regardless? What was
going on?

The senior detective left behind the puzzled gaze of the younger
officer and headed straight to the conference room; Woo Jin-Cheol
tilted his head a bit before standing up from his seat as well.

“Senior, I’ll take care of this.”

“Good luck.”

Woo Jin-Cheol encouraged the junior, now charged with finishing up

the miscellaneous work, and headed towards the conference room
along with other detectives.

***

“Pardon? You want to release the suspects back on the street?!”

“Uh-huh! Lower your voice, Detective Woo! Someone might hear us

from the outside and get the wrong idea.”

Woo Jin-Cheol asked again in a disbelieving voice.

“What do you mean by releasing the suspects back on the street,

sir??”

705
“It’s not ‘releasing’, but we just let one of them outside for 24 hours
and observe what happens afterwards.”

After listening to the opinion of the senior detective, one of Woo Jin-
Cheol’s colleagues formed a deep frown before voicing his own.

“Senior, I’m telling you, these b*stards are talking bullsh*t after
getting themselves high on drugs. This crap about monsters and
whatnot, it’s definitely them having a new type of bad trip from the
sh*t they’ve been taking.”

“But, their drug test came back negative, didn’t it? I personally went
to Forensics to confirm it myself, didn’t I?”

“Well, that…”

“Besides, just because of some nasty side effect of a drug, these

b*stards without any connection between them saw the exact same
thing and decided to turn themselves in?”

“…”

In the end, the colleague shut his mouth as if he had nothing else to
say. The meeting of the detectives continued on.

“The brass told us to get to the bottom of this a while ago, but look
at us, we haven’t even gotten anywhere. What choice do we have?
We gotta do something this drastic so that, at least, we can find us
some clues.”

The detectives, initially unmoved and hesitant, began sneaking

glances at each other and nodded their heads.

Since every single one of them saw the exact same type of
hallucination, then there had to be some kind of a clue from the
rubbish they were all spewing at the same time.

706
“So, like…. What I’m saying here is, let’s create an opportunity for
them to continue spewing rubbish.”

Woo Jin-Cheol, quietly listening on until then, opened his mouth.

“But, what if something really does happen?”

“….??”

“….?”

The gazes of every detective seriously contemplating their next

actions all shifted in Woo Jin-Cheol’s direction at once.

Smirk, smirk….

The corners of their lips began curling up next.

“Detective Woo, you believed in ghosts and stuff?”

“I didn’t take you for someone like that, but I guess our Woo Jin-
Cheol has an unexpectedly sensitive side, doesn’t he?”

“Hahaha…”

Of course, Woo Jin-Cheol wasn’t foolishly believing them, taking

some nonsense story about monsters at face value. However – if
everyone was seeing the same hallucination, then there should be a
reasonable explanation for that, no?

For some reason, he felt this ominous foreboding that, through the
testimonies of the suspects, he was now meeting some kind of a
gaze that was staring straight at him from beyond the darkness.

He got this feeling that he shouldn’t poke his nose in this matter.

The squad captain must’ve interpreted Woo Jin-Cheol’s concerns in a

different manner, since he said the following words while lightly

707
tapping on the shoulder of his detective forming a worried
expression.

“There shouldn’t be any accidents, Detective Woo. We’ll just take

one suspect, place him inside a quiet storage facility somewhere and
see if anything pops out. I mean, several burly and healthy officers
will be watching him like hawks, so with what miracle will he escape
from us?”

The squad captain looked at him with eyes that said ‘You can’t
possibly be believing in this supernatural hocus pocus, can you?’ and
Woo Jin-Cheol could only nod his head in defeat.

That elicited a burst of manly laughter from the captain.

“Right. Let’s say that 24-hour time limit elapses, and a monster does
appear to do something to the b*stard. If that’s the case, isn’t that
something we can also feel thankful for, in a way?”

These criminals were serious, vicious offenders who specifically

targetted the homes of senior citizens to rob and even ended up
beating a couple of pensioners to death just because the victims
dared to resist.

The captain then spoke half-jokingly, but also half-seriously, that,

rather than such b*stards staying in the slammer getting fed three
times a day, it was only right that they got ripped to shreds by a
monster.

“So, now we need volunteers….”

The captain shifted his gaze over to Woo Jin-Cheol and formed a
rather sly grin.

“Detective Woo, you can sit this one out if you’re still hesitant about
it.”

708
“…..”

Anyone who had lived in society for a while should already know this
– those words definitely meant “Don’t sit this one out”.

Woo Jin-Cheol still felt unconvinced so he had to deliberate on this

for a little bit, before eventually making his reply.

“No, sir. I shall come along as well.”

***

“D-Detective-nims!! N-no! You can’t! You seriously can’t! I’ll die!”

“Just be still. I told you, we have stuff to confirm.”

“I will die!!”

“Hey, man. Just who’s going to die here? Can’t you see us protecting
you? Detective Kim? How long do we have until the 24-hour mark
comes to an end?”

“Let me see…. I think roughly 30 minutes?”

“Is it? Uh-whew, it’s pretty cold tonight.”

The air of spring remained frigid and white steam rose up from the
lips of the waiting detectives.

They were currently inside a quiet storage building, the time being in
the middle of dawn. To observe the ‘change’ that might take place
with their suspect, detectives were waiting around with nothing
much to keep them company.

Only one among them – Woo Jin-Cheol – kept a close watch on his
surroundings, his glare remaining sharp.

‘Something’s different….’

709
For some reason, the surrounding air felt different from the norm. It
even vaguely felt like something he should never be near was
approaching this location.

He prayed inwardly that this feeling would prove to be nothing but a

simple fuss….

Woo Jin-Cheol sucked in the cold air repeatedly in order to calm his
breathing that tried to get faster and faster.

And so – the hour warned by the existence called the ‘Shadow

Monster’ slowly encroached upon them.

“Uhm…. It’s time now, everyone.”

“Really?”

One of the detectives took a look at his watch and stood up from his
chair.

Tick, tock.

The 24-hour mark the suspect was strongly emphasizing earlier on

had come and gone now.

“….”

“….”

Should one say that this turn of events was entirely not unexpected?
Nothing had happened, and there was no sign of anything about to
happen, either.

“What the heck?”

The detective with a short fuse began glaring at the suspect,

prompting the criminal to stop shivering in fear and peek his head
out before forming a dumbfounded expression himself.

710
“Uh….?”

Since there was no one watching anyway, the detectives surrounding

the criminal began mercilessly shouting at him.

“Hey, you little sh*t! You as*holes probably got high as a d*mn
group, didn’t you?!”

“Stop wasting our time and just be clean with it, will ya? Why don’t
you make all of our lives easier, ah?”

The suspect shifted his head this way and that while blinking non-
stop, but when nothing happened even after a long time passed by,
he began sheepishly scratching the back of his head.

“No, hang on, the thing was…. We definitely saw it, you see?
Actually, there were four of…..”

When his words arrived there…

Woo Jin-Cheol, who always stayed a couple of steps away from the
group and watched the surroundings, quickly turned around towards
his fellow detectives and urgently cried out.

“Get away!! Get away from there!!”

What was he trying to say now?

The faces of the detectives seemed to be asking that question as

they looked at Woo Jin-Cheol, but then, they were all blown away on
their backsides without warning.

“Uwahk!!”

“Keok!!”

711
Detectives rolled along the ground and, as if they had lost their
consciousness just like that, remained dead-still in their sleep after
coming to a stop.

Woo Jin-Cheol tried to run towards his colleagues, but after

discovering something, his steps came to an abrupt halt. His irises
were engraved with the images of ‘monsters’ slowly rising up from
the shadow on the ground.

“Ah…..”

He couldn’t say anything.

His breathing suddenly felt stifled, choked up.

These…. No, hang on, these things were definitely not human.

They were ‘insects’ that just so happened to possess the arms and
legs of a human being; above their necks sat the head of an ant,
rather than that of a human.

Woo Jin-Cheol’s eyes quaked in fear.

‘There are three such monsters?!’

These suspects definitely didn’t see any hallucinations, nor were they
suffering from adverse side effects of some strange narcotics, either.
Their testimony had contained not one shred of falsehood, as it
turned out.

“U-uwaaaaaahhhk!!”

Now completely surrounded by these ant monsters, the suspect

began screaming at the top of his head.

It was the most desperate, frightened, and sorrowful scream a

human could emit. It was unmistakably the death throes of a dying
man.

712
The ant monsters ripped the suspect apart without hesitation and
began devouring him.

“Uwaaahk!!”

His scream didn’t last for long.

Only some splotches of blood and bits of flesh remained on the spot
where the feast of ants took place.

Woo Jin-Cheol dazedly stared at that spectacle. And then, two of the
ant monsters also discovered the dazed detective after ending their
meal.

Kiiehk.

And their gazes were now fixed on him.

Woo Jin-Cheol thought of turning around in a hurry to escape, but

his feet didn’t want to move. His legs had frozen up solid and he
couldn’t lift them up at all.

“P-please….”

It was then.

The biggest ant monster with wings, situated behind the two other
ants, stopped his comrades (?) from going any further.

The winged ant grabbed their shoulders and turned them away, and
for some reason, he formed the kind of expression that said, “Hey,
nice to see you again”. Heck, he even formed a grin, too.

“….??”

An ant… was smiling?

No, hang on a minute.

713
‘Never mind the fact that an ant is smiling – how the heck can I even
tell that it’s making a delighted expression?’

It was so, so strange.

Even though he now found himself in this deeply horrifying,

frightening situation, Woo Jin-Cheol was suddenly overcome with
this sense of longing.

As if, there once had been a time that he was quite familiar with
situations such as this one.

‘But…. How?’

Woo Jin-Cheol fell into a state of confusion and panic, only to realise
that the ants were disappearing into the shadow.

“H-hey!! Hold on!! Wait!”

Too bad, despite how desperately he called out, the ant monsters
were gone without a trace, in the blink of an eye.

By the time he ran over and stood above the shadow itself, there
was not a single trace of them left anywhere.

He felt this sense of loss assaulting him again and bent down to
slowly rub the shadow that the ants had disappeared into.

Just how long passed by like that?

“M-mm….”

Woo Jin-Cheol belatedly regained his wits after listening to his

colleagues toss and turn behind him.

“H-hey, are you alright?”

He checked out their current conditions and quickly called the

emergency services. Even after he did that, though – even when

714
ambulances arrived on the scene to take his colleagues away to the
hospital, his gaze remained fixed to the shadow.

***

“Brilliant!! Absolutely f*cking brilliant!!!”

The squad captain was, understandably, up in arms.

But, that was to be expected.

The suspect had completely vanished without a trace, while the

detectives supposed to watch over the man were struck unconscious
by something and couldn’t remember a thing.

The captain looked at the two detectives covered in bandages here

and there with their heads hanging low in embarrassment, and spat
out a long sigh. He then shifted his gaze over to Woo Jin-Cheol.

“Detective Woo? What about you?”

“…”

“You called the ambulance, didn’t you? Can’t you remember

anything?”

“My apologies, captain. When I came to, I saw my colleagues

unconscious, so I just….”

“God d*mn it!!”

Captain pounded on his chest as if the frustration was about to kill

him and sighed out again.

“Thankfully, this matter hasn’t been reported to the higher-ups yet,

so all of you, keep your mouths shut, okay? And you two, you got
hurt by mistake while trying to investigate the gangs in the Guro-gu
district. Got it?”

715
“Yes, sir.”

“Yes, captain.”

Along with the energyless replies from the two detectives, this
incident had come to its conclusion – for the time being.

The Violent Crimes Unit became rather quiet for a while afterwards.

“Senior? You know, you look a lot better nowadays. Did something
good happen to you lately?”

The youngest detective in the squad asked while handing over a cup
of steaming coffee taken from the vending machine to Woo Jin-
Cheol.

“Well, I wonder.”

Woo Jin-Cheol shrugged his shoulders as if to say there was nothing

to see here and received the cup.

The thing was, though – the youngest detective’s words of

something good happening weren’t entirely off the mark.

After that day, after meeting those ant monsters, it felt as if that
emptiness in his heart had been filled by a little, for some
unfathomable reason.

‘There’s definitely something here.’

Without a doubt!

The instincts of a veteran detective, no, the instincts of a human

being named Woo Jin-Cheol, were telling him that there was
definitely something there.

716
The youngest detective stole a glance over Woo In-Cheol’s shoulder
to see what was on the pages of a small memo pad the latter was
concentrating so hard on.

“Uh? Uhh? Senior? You’re still investigating that missing suspect

incident? But, didn’t the captain say…..”

“I know, I know. It’s something I’m looking into in my spare time.”

Woo Jin-Cheol made sure that his junior wouldn’t run his mouth off
and finished off his share of coffee. However, unlike in the past, the
junior didn’t shut his mouth up immediately.

“Wowsers…. There are quite a lot of suspects turning themselves in

because of the Shadow Monster beside our precinct, isn’t it?”

“….”

He couldn’t simply treat this young detective badly when the number
of hopeful officers applying to join the Violent Crimes Unit was in
decline lately.

Although he was slightly annoyed by this unnecessary attention,

Woo Jin-Cheol still did his best not to show it and replied calmly.

“That’s what I heard.”

“Mm….”

The junior stared hard at the contents of the memo pad, before
asking another question.

“Huh? Wait, why did the number of suspects turning themselves in

suddenly decrease by a lot between the end of February and the
beginning of March?”

After hearing that astute observation made by the junior, the

veteran’s eyes gleamed brightly.

717
“Hey, can you think of something?”

“Ah, well, it’s actually nothing much, but…. My aunt used to run a
small book rental shop, you see.”

“….Okay, so?”

“I just remembered that she used to whine about business going

downhill during the end of February and the beginning of March,
because the new school semester started around then, senior. Haha,
it really was nothing much, wasn’t it?”

Perhaps he felt a bit sheepish, the junior scratched the back of his
head with a smile. But then, he gasped out in sheer surprise when he
saw Woo Jin-Cheol carefully jot down what was said on the memo
pad.

“S-Senior??”

“Well, you never know.”

School opening, students, semester.

Those four simple words with no adjectives or modifiers attached

were quietly added into Woo Jin-Cheol’s memo pad.

***

Meanwhile, in XX High School.

A day before the entrance ceremony for the new students, the
headmaster of the school secretly summoned the teacher serving as
the director of the students’ affairs department to his office.

“We’ll be welcoming a problem child in our school tomorrow.”

“Pardon me, sir?”

718
The headmaster pushed forward a set of prepared documents. The
director of the students’ affairs scanned the profile of a certain
student written on the document and tilted his head.

“His father is a firefighter, his mom is a regular housewife. His

academic records aren’t too shabby, and I failed to see anything
major with this child, sir.”

“Uh-huh. This fella. Look at the bottom. Look at the details on his
expulsion.”

“…..!!”

The student had run away from home for two years when he was
only a first-year middle school student. Rather obviously, he was
expelled from his previous school.

But then, he ‘completed’ the middle school diploma through GED

and applied to enter their high school.

‘Not even as a high school freshman, but a child who just graduated
from the elementary school ran away from home for two years?’

The director sensed the entrance of a powerful adversary and his

eyes began quaking ever so imperceptibly. Meanwhile, the
headmaster spoke in a hushed voice.

“What do you think? This student, do you think you can handle
him?”

The director of the students’ affairs took a deep, deep breath and
closed the file of this problem child.

Tap.

“Sir, you know very well already why I’m called the ‘Venomous
Snake’. No matter what kind of a problem child he is, just leave him

719
to me. I shall make sure to discipline him correctly so he won’t go
around causing trouble.”

His eyes were now shining with a sense of duty and unbridled
confidence. The headmaster nodded his head in approval.

“Very good, then. I shall trust your judgement in this case, Teacher
Park.”

The expression on the headmaster softened after hearing the

assurance straight from the mouth of the director. A thin smile crept
up on the latter’s lips.

The fated encounter would take place the next day.

His heart was racing already from his determination to suppress the
troublemaker in one fell swoop during the welcoming ceremony
before the kid had a chance to start anything.

< Extra Spin-off > Beru’s Memories

Kiiiieeehhhk-!!

Kiiahk!

Kiiieeehk, kiiiieeehk, kiiehk, kkiiieehhk.

Khaahk, kiiieeehh, kiiek.

Kkiiieehk!

Kiehhehehehehehet~!

Kkieeehhk! Kiiaaahk!

Kaahrurururururuk-!

Kihak.

720
Chapter 250: Side Story 7 - Your daily
routine (2)
The high school freshmen were gathered in the school’s athletics
field for the entrance ceremony.

Noisy, noisy….

The new students used the gap created by the still-lax surveillance of
the teachers to form small groups comprising of the graduates from
the same middle schools and noisily chatted away.

It was then.

“Silence!!”

Like a lone shark scything its way into a school of sardines, the
‘Venomous Snake’, Teacher Park Gi-Sool, made his sudden entrance
and shot a scary glare, prompting the new students to hurriedly shut
their mouths up at once.

“Who dares to make a noise? Who??”

Rather unfitting for his name, Teacher Park Gi-Sool was in charge of
the physical training. But, fitting for a man who competed in amateur
wrestling in his youth, he was blessed with cauliflower ears, a thick
neck, broad shoulders, as well as muscular thighs.

Everywhere Teacher Park Gi-Sool’s glare landed, kids quickly

dropped their heads lower. The war of aura – nerves – at the
beginning of school life wasn’t exclusively fought between the
students, oh no.

If one took into consideration the potential atmosphere for the rest
of the academic year, or even the classroom itself, then the war of
nerves between the teacher and students would be far more

721
important than the one taking place between the headstrong
students.

And as far as his track record for this kind of war was concerned,
‘Venomous Snake’ Teacher Park Gi-Sool had never tasted defeat
before.

Starting from ten years ago, when he took his first step into the
teaching profession, last year, and the year before that too, never
had he failed his mission. He was planning to extend the streak to
this year, as well.

The school of sardines in front of the shark, no, the new students in
front of Teacher Park Gi-Sool couldn’t withstand his fierce glare and
quickly lowered their gazes.

All the noisy kids shut their mouths for good wherever he walked
past. Meanwhile, his colleagues watching on from the sidelines could
only look on with eyes of pure respect.

“As expected of Park Teacher-nim….”

“Looks like we can rely on the director of students’ affairs for

another trouble-free year, as well.”

Park Gi-Sool scanned the new students and their broken fighting
spirit while forming a content smile on his face.

‘Right, that’s how it should be.’

However, he couldn’t be satisfied with this much of ‘victory’ yet. Not

today. Didn’t he already have a real target in mind for today, the one
the headmaster personally entrusted him with?

As long as he didn’t break that problem child’s fighting spirit, then

it’d be rather difficult to claim that he had performed his duty of
guiding these students properly today.

722
Park Gi-Sool continued to scan the faces of the new students and
eventually located the problem kid in question.

‘There he is.’

The moment he located his target, that content smile was wiped off
from his face immediately.

Even at a casual glance from far away, one could tell that the boy
was no ordinary challenge, what with his height far taller than his
peers, the hints of firm muscles all over his figure, as well as
powerful vitality that could be gleaned from his eyes.

‘So, that kid is Seong Jin-Woo….’

The thing was, an expert would be able to recognise other experts.

No matter how wild they were as a student, they all would become a
well-behaved sheep in front of him before long. And in case the boy
decided to show off with inadvisable bravado, then Teacher Park
simply had to reveal just a wee bit of what was in store for unruly
children.

There hadn’t been a single problem kid that ‘Venomous Snake’ Park
Gi-Sool failed to discipline properly. His confidence oozed out from
every pore of his body like an actual aura.

‘Alright….’

….Time to get started.

Before that, though, Park Gi-Sool’s snake-like eyes quickly scanned

the problem kid from top to bottom. And then, his eyes gleamed
brightly.

‘That’s it!’

There was a black glove on one of the problem kid’s hands.

723
A teacher in the student affairs department couldn’t possibly ignore
the problem kid violating the dress code, such as wearing hats or
gloves, while standing in the middle of the athletics field, now could
he?

Of course, it wasn’t as if he had forgotten about the small fact that

the boy’s left hand had a serious scar and needed to wear a glove all
the time.

Such a thing was already written within the student’s records, after
all.

However, Park Gi-Sool needed a pretext, however small, to butt in

and start his operation of breaking that problem kid’s fighting spirit.

Indeed, what could be a better pretext to scold a student than the

violation of the school’s dress code?

Having discovered a suitable gap to dig in, Park Gi-Sool’s eyes

gleamed sharply like a real venomous snake, and he quickly made his
way over to the problem kid in question.

It seemed that the boy hadn’t sensed his approach yet, which was
good. A surprise attack was very effective in breaking the enemy’s
fighting spirit, after all.

Once he got close enough distance where a whispered name could

be heard by the other party, Teacher Park Gi-Sool’s brows shot up as
he got ready.

“Hey, you fool! Where do you think you are to wear a glo….”

The loud, energetic roar coming from Teacher Park Gi-Sool prompted
Jin-Woo to turn his head around. And then, his eyes met Park Gi-
Sool’s.

In that moment….

724
“Uh, uhhh….??”

….Teacher Park Gi-Sool saw ‘it’.

He saw the countless black monsters, standing seemingly endlessly

behind this ‘problem kid’.

The entirety of the athletics field, filled with students, disappeared in

darkness from Park Gi-Sool’s view, only to be replaced by the sight of
a massive army of ten million soldiers standing in columns that
stretched endlessly towards the distant horizon.

“Heok!!”

Teacher Park Gi-Sool was instantly shoved away by the absolutely

overwhelming pressure and tumbled on his backside while loudly
screaming out.

“Teacher-nim?!”

“Park Teacher-nim! Are you alright??”

Other teachers in the vicinity hurriedly rushed over there and

supported Park Gi-Sool. His complexion was as white as a sheet of
paper. He took another look at Jin-Woo, but by then, his view had
reverted back to normal.

“B-but, how….??”

He roughly shook his head and blinked his eyes several times while
the attention of the surrounding students began falling on him.

Noisy, noisy….

“Everyone, keep quiet!”

“Park Teacher-nim, maybe you’re feeling unwell somewhere?”

725
Now being on the receiving end of the worried gazes of his
colleagues, as well as unsettled looks from the students, Park Gi-
Sool’s face reddened up considerably from embarrassment.

“I, I’m fine.”

He shook off the support from his colleagues and quickly made his
escape from the area.

Bellion hiding in his master’s shadow quietly whispered to Jin-Woo

while watching the departing man’s back grow further away.

[My liege, that man must’ve…]

‘Yeah. It seems that he has seen you guys.’

Jin-Woo nodded his head.

There were some people who possessed far keener senses than
other regular folks, although there weren’t that many. Such people
would sometimes – not very often, mind you – discover that Jin-Woo
was a bit different from everybody else.

Just like now.

‘….Could this be one of the adverse influences I have on this world,

too?’

He couldn’t tell for sure. Jin-Woo recalled the pale, frightened face of
the urgently-escaping teacher and tutted softly to himself.

It was then.

The speakers located in the athletics field issued ear-piercing static

before commencing with the campus broadcast in earnest.

– The Headmaster-nim will now address the new students and

welcome them to the school.

726
Jin-Woo stopped looking in the direction where Park Gi-Sool had
disappeared to and shifted his gaze forward, just as the broadcast
ordered everyone to do so.

It was a brilliantly sunny spring day.

Under the warm rays of the sun gently beating down on Earth, the
headmaster’s smooth forehead blindingly reflected the excitement
these new students were feeling right now.

***

For a reason only known to him, Jin-Woo deliberately applied to a

high school that was some distance away from his house. And
naturally, he recognised no one in the new class.

‘Well…. Isn’t that obvious?’

He scanned the faces of other kids without feeling bummed out

about it, a smirk slowly creeping up on his face.

He was already well past the age where his heart would start beating
nervously from the burden of sharing a classroom with kids he didn’t
know.

If it was him in the past, he’d start greeting others even while under
the vicious assault of awkwardness, but now? It just felt too
annoying, so he didn’t even bother.

While other kids were busy scanning their classmates to see what
was what, Jin-Woo simply took out a book he brought from home
and opened it up.

Maybe spending such a long time in the gap between dimensions,

where there was not a sound to be heard, had changed him
somehow, because he gained a renewed appreciation for reading a
book in quiet stillness.

727
Besides, even though they were ostensibly his classmates, there was
the age difference of several decades to consider here, so what could
he possibly say to these kids, anyway?

Indeed, it’d be more preferable to share a wordless conversation

with a good book, instead.

But then, just as he got ready to spend some quiet time with himself,
someone actually approached him to engage in conversation.

“Uh-uhm…. Could you be…?”

The voice sounded a bit powerless. Jin-Woo raised his head towards
where that voice came from.

The owner of the voice flinched a bit when their gazes met, but when
he confirmed Jin-Woo’s face, he seemed to have gained a boost to
his courage.

“Y-you are Jin-Woo from XX Middle School… Seong Jin-Woo, right?”

Who could this kid be? Jin-Woo’s eyes narrowed slightly.

‘Huh. He does look kinda familiar….’

However, they must not have been all that close, because he
couldn’t immediately recall this boy’s name or things they did
together. He tried to dig deeper into his memories, but then….

“Uhm, I….”

As if this sort of situation was a common occurrence for him, the boy
with a rather faint sense of existence re-introduced himself without
minding it at all.

“I’m Oh Young-Gil…. We belonged to the same class during freshmen

year in middle school.”

728
“…Ah-!”

Hearing the name helped Jin-Woo to remember.

He was none other than the boy that kept glancing at the group of
kids getting ready to go to the internet cafe with envious eyes. The
boy with the buzz cut hairstyle had grown up to become a high
schooler now.

His facial expression now half made up of amazement and delight,

Jin-Woo extended his hand for a shake.

“Hey, good to see you, Young-Gil-ah.”

“Uhm…..”

It seemed that shaking hands was a gesture still too foreign for a boy
just entering high school life, because Oh Young-Gil was hesitating
somewhat on what to do next, but eventually, he cautiously grasped
the offered hand with a sheepish expression.

“Y-yeah, me too….”

As they shook hands, Jin-Woo felt this great sense of relief coming
from the boy. Indeed, one would certainly feel relieved after finding
a familiar face, a friend even, when entering a new school and a new
class.

Jin-Woo formed a warm smile so the friend he met after a long time
could feel relaxed now. It must’ve been pretty effective, because
Young-Gil grew just a bit chattier than before.

“You live around here? My family moved house to the area nearby.”

But, just as the boy’s words reached there, Jin-Woo had no choice
but to stop him for a bit, slightly peeved by the fact that he was
unable to enjoy this unlikely reunion with a friend to its fullest.

729
“Hang on.”

Jin-Woo turned his head to the side, and that was when four kids
who didn’t look to be a nice sort, even at a casual glance, surrounded
him and Young-Gil.

“Hee~ya, hey man. You must be somebody important, right? You

even have a glove?”

The hooligans pointed at Jin-Woo’s left hand and cackled among

themselves. Meanwhile, Young-Gil’s complexion grew gloomier at
the rather obvious approach of these fools.

‘He’s supposed to be a man, but he’s just too timid…’

Jin-Woo found it rather unfortunate that his friend’s expression was

hardening like that and he shifted his gaze over to these four
hooligans surrounding him.

The kind of faces and glare in eyes best described as worthless were
the only things he saw.

These four might not have graduated from the same middle school,
but they had been acting as local hoodlums for a bit and had become
acquaintances as a result. After finding themselves in the same class,
they took a look at the faces of their classmates and arrived at a
consensus that there was only one hindrance to their plan of taking
over this class.

And so, they were here to prod this potential hindrance a little and
see what would happen. Other kids in the class were scared and
couldn’t even meet these four’s glare, but in Jin-Woo’s view, who
had been fighting non-stop for almost thirty years, these four were….

….Quite adorable, actually.

730
The quartet, oblivious of how they were being judged, continued
their mission to provoke Jin-Woo who had grown silent now.

“Hey, hey. Why don’t you take off that glove? I wanna try it on, too.”

“By the way, why did you put a glove on only one hand? Maybe, you
have a Dark Flame Dragon on your arm, too?”

“Euh, euh, euh-! My hand! My right hand’s Dark Flame is roaring

out!”

Ahahaha!

They must’ve found something really funny, because all four of them
burst out into boisterous laughter. Seeing them react like that, Jin-
Woo formed a derisive smirk at them.

When he did, the glare in the four hooligans’ eyes changed.

“Oh, you think this is funny?”

“Seriously, did this b*stard plug his ears with crap or something? We
told him to take the d*mn glove off, yet he ignores us?”

“What? What gives? You have a tattoo there or something?”

It was then.

From his shadow, Jin-Woo heard the extremely agitated voice of

Beru crying out.

[Oh, my king!!! Grant me the permission so that I can tear the heads
and limbs off of these fools and make sure they can never ever
disparage you in this manner!!]

‘I ain’t giving you permission.’

[H-however!]

731
‘Stop it.’

Jin-Woo reprimanded Beru, and before the ant soldier’s rage could
be fuelled even further, he took his glove off and showed the
hooligans his hand. When he did that, a hideous burn scar starting
from his palm to his wrist was revealed for all to see.

“….”

“….”

The quartet of troublemakers became speechless from the scar that

implied a pretty serious tale even at a casual glance, before they
began mouthing some vague excuses.

“T-this guy, we were just fooling around, so why are you getting
serious?”

“H-hey, dude. Put your glove back on. I might have nightmares about
it now.”

“Whoa…”

Perhaps realising that this should be enough, the quartet withdrew

from there. Jin-Woo didn’t say anything and put his glove back on,
before powerfully stomping on a certain blotch of shadow on the
floor sneaking towards the departing quartet.

‘What were you planning to do after catching up to them?!’

[K-kkiieehk-!]

Beru was really incensed by those kids that dared to insult his liege,
but Jin-Woo was ultimately successful in holding back the irate ant
soldier. He raised his head again afterwards.

Wasn’t this good?

732
He had already killed all the enemies that bared their fangs at him
back in the gap between dimensions. Enemies that threatened him
inside dungeons also lost their lives, too.

However, this place was Seoul, the Republic of Korea, where there
were no Gates and no monsters to worry about. This was a place
filled with peaceful, everyday normal stuff.

Jin-Woo was enjoying to the fullest this peace he achieved with his
own two hands, so such a little provocation was nothing more than
minor stuff to simply chuckle over and forget about it.

And that was why…

‘I’m sure this much is fine.’

Jin-Woo’s gaze shifted over to the back of the quartet.

When he did – the hooligans making their way to the rear of the
classroom got tripped by the ‘invisible something’ and fell on their
faces as a group.

Tumble, crash!!

Beru, currently being pushed down by Jin-Woo’s foot, watched the

boys tumble ungainly like that and shifted his dumbfounded gaze
back to his liege.

[Uhm… Oh, my king….?]

‘I did that for a laugh. You know, so I can laugh.’

Since that was humorous, everything was fine now.

Jin-Woo smirked softly and settled down on his seat again after
seeing the flustered expression of the female teacher, who just so
happened to enter the classroom at that exact moment to discover
that four of her students had fallen face-first on the floor.

733
With that, his high school life began for the second time.

734
Chapter 251: Side Story 8 - Your daily
routine (3)
Ding, dong. Ding, dong….

From the elementary school kids who’d find the embrace of their
mothers more comfortable than their respective classrooms, right up
to those teachers with greying hair and only a little bit left on their
clock until retirement…

….The sound of the end-of-school bell, capable of re-energising

pretty much everyone who heard it, rang around noisily throughout
the school.

Most of the kids in the classroom formed expressions of ecstasy as if

they were about to fly away. Meanwhile, Jin-Woo, sitting among
them, carried a carefree face as he greeted the end to his school day
in this place.

“Everyone, don’t go home late because you want to hang out with
new friends you made today, okay! Understand?”

Yeees-!

After the token replies, half consisting of mischievous voices of the

male students and the other half high-pitched tones of the girls were
made, the classroom became empty in no time at all now that the
day’s schedule had come to its end.

Jin-Woo deliberately took his time packing up his bag, before he

spotted Young-Gil hesitantly and slowly approaching him like a full-
bellied tortoise.

‘….?’

735
Jin-Woo stopped packing his bag when Young-Gil cautiously asked
him a question.

“Uhm… I’m heading off in the direction of the ‘Gigamart’, but what
about you?”

‘Ah, I guess he wants to get close to me.’

An easy-to-read relaxed smile formed on Jin-Woo’s face.

‘A minor favour shown when young can also become the start of a
relationship later on like this, huh?’

Jin-Woo smiled for a little while, before shaking his head.

“Well, yeah, it’s in the same direction, but there’s something I gotta
do first.”

“Oh….”

As Young-Gil stood there in disappointment, Jin-Woo lightly tapped

the boy on the shoulder and grinned brightly.

“Let’s go.”

Not too long afterwards, both of them exited from the school
building.

“What? Track and field club??”

Young-Gil asked with a surprised voice, while Jin-Woo nodded calmly

as his reply.

“Yup.”

The reason why Jin-Woo chose this school, far from his home,
instead of those nearby was because it was only this particular one
that happened to have a track and field athletics department.

736
Young-Gil could only tilt his head when Jin-Woo replied that he’d join
the track and field team from today.

‘Was Jin-Woo good at track in the past?’

He remembered hanging around Jin-Woo for only about a month or

so. The memories of him playing that game really well were the only
thing that came to the boy’s head, but he just couldn’t recall Jin-Woo
doing anything particularly outstanding during physical training or
club activities.

No, Young-Gil simply remembered Jin-Woo doing pretty much

everything at his pace – which was leisurely.

‘A high school track and field club should be operated by only the
talented students, though….?’

The boy suddenly felt worried about Jin-Woo and found himself
unconsciously chasing after his friend. Meanwhile, Jin-Woo crossed
the athletics field and approached the group of athletes loosening
themselves up in the corner of the field.

“Mm…?”

Their attention soon shifted towards the incoming duo of freshmen.

They initially expected the two to walk past them or change their
heading, but their expectation turned out to be off the mark. The
senior with the biggest physique took a step forward and ‘greeted’
the duo.

“What do you two want now?”

Jin-Woo briefly scanned the atmosphere of the team members and

replied with a smile.

“I’d like to join the athletics club.”

737
The senior with big physique, the captain of the track and field team
Choi Tae-Woong, alternated his gaze between Jin-Woo and a shorter
kid with a rather unhealthy complexion.

“You wanna join the club?”

“Yes.”

“Both of you?”

Jin-Woo looked behind, and Young-Gil hurriedly shook his head.

“…No, just me.”

After seeing Jin-Woo’s continuously-smiling mug, the seniors grew

interested and gathered around the freshmen.

“Ohh, what’s this? We have an applicant wanting to join us?”

“This is my first time seeing a freshman barging in here and wanting

to join the team, though.”

“He’s not playing around, is he?”

Choi Tae-Woong scratched the top of his head and scanned Jin-Woo
from top to bottom before asking another question.

“You a student-athlete?”

“No, I’m not.”

“Okay, you have experience running track in middle school?”

Although Jin-Woo was rather experienced in running all over the gap
between dimensions to kill Sovereigns, that wasn’t something he
could refer to as his middle school days, or running track
competitively, so he could only shake his head with a wry smile.

“No, I don’t.”

738
The seniors in the athletics club were ready to welcome this
enthusiastic newcomer right up until that answer. But now, their
complexions were hardening drastically.

A freshman who hadn’t even run track competitively wanted to

enter the athletics club comprised only of student-athletes?

Wasn’t this kid taking high school track & field way too lightly?

One of the seniors blessed with a short fuse suddenly jumped into
the conversation from the side.

“You haven’t run track before, so why do you want to enter the
team?”

Jin-Woo’s reply was rather simple.

“There’s someone I’d like to meet during the athletic meet, you see.”

She was still in the middle school division, but without a doubt, she
possessed enough talent to participate in the regional competition.

Well, she used to be an excellent athlete before she had to give up

on that dream after becoming a high-ranked Hunter, didn’t she?

If it was an athletic meet featuring participants from both middle and

high schools, then wouldn’t he be able to naturally run into her
there?

Jin-Woo judged that, rather than forcibly get close to her and insert
himself into her life that way, this might be a far better approach for
both of them.

However, judging from the expressions of the seniors, it seemed that

they didn’t share his thought process.

“Athletic meet….??”

739
The expression of the senior with the short fuse, Jeong Gu-Shik,
hardened like stone. Even if one was to look down on running track,
there was a line one shouldn’t cross.

Jeong Gu-Shik’s anger shot up to the top of his head and he was
about to roar out some choice words to chase away the freshmen,
but then, captain Choi Tae-Woong formed a grin and gave his
permission.

“Fine.”

Jeong Gu-Shik looked back at his captain with an expression of a man

failing to comprehend the situation.

“What?!”

“However, there is a condition.”

Choi Tae-Woong used an expression that said ‘Be quiet’ to defeat

Jeong Gu-Shik, and pointed at a glasses-wearing student busy
stretching his muscles over yonder.

“You see that friend over there?”

Jin-Woo followed after the pointing finger and nodded his head.

“Yes.”

“That friend is the worst runner in our team, a reserve from the
second year. Meaning, you gotta at least beat that friend to earn the
right to enter our team.”

That was a bold-faced lie.

Even before he heard the explanation, Jin-Woo had already analysed

that particular second-year student’s abilities, and as a result, he
began chuckling inwardly.

740
‘At first glance, that student’s thighs and calves look lean and thin,
but they are actually hard and well trained. And confidence simply
oozes from the rest of his body….’

Spying from the student’s steady, relaxed breathing or his upright

posture, Jin-Woo knew immediately that he was looking at no
ordinary athlete here.

Meaning, the third year seniors were trying to make fun of him. How
could Jin-Woo not laugh when their intentions were so easy to read
like this?

Jeong Gu-Shik also belatedly realised what Choi Tae-Woong was

trying to do and quickly changed his expression.

“Ahh, right! You said that you’re aiming to enter the athletic meet,
right? Well, in that case, a simple little admittance test like this is no
problem for you, right?”

Jin-Woo didn’t like the way this guy was grinning slyly like that, but
still, asked back in a calm manner nonetheless.

“That senior…. Is he really a reserve?”

“I guarantee it.”

Choi Tae-Woong replied in a confident voice, and the rest of the

athletic team members had to try their best to hold back their
laughter.

‘He’s a reserve, alright. Well, the truth is, he did finish third place in
last year’s regional meet, but he sprained his ankle during winter
training so he’s been demoted to a reserve spot, for the time being.’

If he were to get technical here, then Choi Tae-Woong wasn’t really,

really lying by saying that the glasses-wearing guy was the worst

741
‘runner’ here due to the lengthy unscheduled lay-off, and that he
was in the reserve spot because of the injury.

Jin-Woo then replied in an easy-going manner to captain Choi Tae-

Woong and his insidious smile.

“Very well, I understand. Let me try.”

This b*stard, he fell for it!!

Not just Jeong Gu-Shik, but everyone in the athletics club shouted
out “Hooray!” in their heads.

‘A guy who can’t even recognise the third-place finisher from the
regionals last year wants to join the track and field team? Gimme a
break.’

Choi Tae-Woong, standing in front of the group to deal with Jin-Woo,

did his utmost best to hide his laughter threatening to break through
his lips.

“Very good. However, just running the track like that wouldn’t be
any fun, so…. How about this? If you win, you get to join the team,
but if you lose, you do the team’s laundry and cleaning for one
month, free of charge.”

“Sounds good.”

“J-Jin-Woo….”

Young-Gil tried to stop him, but Jin-Woo simply formed a smile that
said: “It’s fine.”

‘Let’s see how long you can keep that relaxed face of yours.’

Choi Tae-Woong looked towards the ‘reserve’ student and shouted

out loudly.

742
“Hey, Sahng-In-ah! Looks like you’ll have to take to the track for this
one.”

The ace of the team, Woo Sahng-In finished his stretching exercise
and raised his body up.

“It’s not a problem.”

He took off his glasses and entrusted it to another member of the

club, suspiciously ominous aura shooting out from his eyes. Jin-Woo
held the senior’s fierce gaze while handing over his school bag and
his jacket to Young-Gil next to him.

While the members of the track and field club were thinking that
here was a chance to let a freshman taste the bitterness of life, Jin-
Woo was deeply pondering inwardly just how seriously he should run
so that the sheer mental shock his seniors no doubt feel wouldn’t be
as high.

“Hey, freshman, are you ready?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Sahng-In, what about you?”

“I’m ready.”

Jin-Woo and Woo Sahng-Min stood side by side on the starting line.

The former assumed a posture that best optimised one’s ability to

rapidly change directions and enter a battle at any time, while the
latter assumed a posture solely designed for track competition.

This time, the team members didn’t bother to hide their ridiculing
laughter at Jin-Woo’s weird posture.

“What the hell is up with this idiot?”

743
“And he still wants to join the athletics club? But, isn’t he a d*mn
beginner who doesn’t even know anything about running track?”

Jin-Woo didn’t pay any attention to their mocking words and

controlled his breathing.

“Ready?”

Soon, Choi Tae-Woong’s baritone voice signalling the start could be

heard.

“Start!”

***

“Teacher-nim? How are you feeling now?”

“Ah…. yes, well….”

‘Venomous Snake’ Teacher Park Gi-Sool replied half-heartedly at his

colleague’s question after they ran into each other on the corridor,
and with hurried steps, he quickly walked past the confused-looking
fellow teacher.

Park Gi-Sool’s crumpled expression easily spoke of his current mood.

‘I ended up making a fool of myself in front of all the gathered

students today….’

He definitely must have made a mistake. Without a doubt, his

strange hallucination was the fault of not eating a proper breakfast
earlier today.

It felt as if every student was laughing at his expense. He quickly

evaded their gazes and slipped into the teacher’s lounge, before
spitting out a sigh rushing out from the deepest part of his chest.

“Fuu-woo….”

744
‘Should I smoke to take the edge off?’

Since almost every teacher was a smoker, smoking in the lounge was
permitted, which meant that this place was like a safe haven for the
current Park Gi-Sool.

He stuffed a cigarette between his lips and stood next to the

windows while lighting it up. Just as he mindlessly shifted his gaze
down to the athletics field…..

….His eyes grew extra large and he hurriedly lowered himself below
the windows while spinning around.

‘W-what the hell?! Why is that kid running around the track with the
rest of the athletics club members??’

It was then, the director of the track and field team entered the
lounge and discovered crouching Park Gi-Sool.

“Ah, Park Teacher-nim!”

Wondering if the dizzy spell from the morning had come back again,
the director hurriedly ran over to Park Gi-Sool and helped him up.

“Are you alright? You sure you don’t need to stop by at a hospital?”

“I, I’m fine, thank you. Just feeling a bit dizzy, that’s all….”

Park Gi-Sool made an evasive answer before asking back.

“B-by the way…. Why is the student named Seong Jin-Woo running
together with the kids from the athletics team?”

“Ahhh…. That? So, that student’s name is Seong Jin-Woo?”

The director took a look outside the window over Park Gi-Sool’s
shoulder and formed a wry chuckle as if he still couldn’t believe it.

745
“It seems that a freshman just showed up and said that he wanted to
join the team. Kids tested him out, and as it turned out, he has a
talent, so they just couldn’t chase him away. Apparently, what they
are doing now is to test his stamina.”

“H-his stamina, you say??”

“Yes. That’s his 20th lap already. Just watching him going around is
exhausting, so I quit first and came up here.”

Sports, and sports clubs.

There was no better alternative to get rid of one’s overflowing hot-

bloodedness of youth than sports.

Several thoughts crisscrossed within Teacher Park Gi-Sool’s mind,

then. Student Seong Jin-Woo, the one he pre-judged to be a
troublemaker, seemed to be trying his best to discipline himself by
joining a sports club.

‘It’s possible that…. That I have been holding the wrong idea about
him….’

Now that he thought about it closely, there was simply no way that a
boy walking around with monsters would exist in reality.

Student Seong Jin-Woo was just another exceedingly normal learner

still searching for a place to call home within the fields of academia
and sports, after a lengthy spell of aimlessly wandering around in his
life.

But here was a teacher busy going on about seeing monsters and
phantoms and whatnot from a regular student like that…. The
reputation of the ‘Venomous Snake’ had been thoroughly stained
with this matter, indeed.

Park Gi-Sool chuckled meekly, stopped hiding, and stood back up.

746
‘That’s right…. I should look at him without judging him first. I’m sure
that will help resolve all the misunderstanding.’

Seeing Park Gi-Sool form a serious expression before breaking into a

chuckle, the director looked at him with a concerned face.

“Park Teacher-nim….?”

“Ah, no. It’s fine now. I don’t feel dizzy anymore.”

“Oh… In that case, that’s a relief.”

Park Gi-Sool successfully made the director withdraw and slowly

turned around to look behind him. He could now see a boy, covered
in sweat and running diligently around the track while being
showered by the bright, warm spring sunlight.

How could anyone point fingers at such a boy?

He focused his gaze on Jin-Woo, currently running steadily and

unflustered even after lapping the panting and breathless members
of the track and field team several times already.

‘Indeed, this morning was….’

Too bad, even before he could celebrate himself…

….Without any warning whatsoever, Park Gi-Sool’s entire field of

vision was dyed in black and the spectacular sight of the Shadow
Army stretching on endlessly entered his eyes.

He nearly toppled over from fright, but he forced his legs to steady
himself and gritted his teeth.

‘This, this is a hallucination. This isn’t real!!’

It was then.

747
A certain ant monster standing in the front-most row of the soldiers
kitted out in black armour, gazed straight at him and opened its maw
wide.

[Khak!!]

“U-uwaahk?!”

In the end, Teacher Park Go-Sool did fall on his butt and lost
consciousness.

[….]

Within the subspace in Jin-Woo’s shadow, Igrit watched Beru’s

action and used his elbow to rib the former ant king in the side.

[I told you to stop that, didn’t I?]

[Kiieehh…. That human can really see us, can’t he?]

Beru lightly scratched the side of his head and before his liege could
order him to, planted his head firmly on the ground first.

***

Late at night.

Detective Woo Jin-Cheol and the youngest detective in the squad

stopped by a diner that served ‘gopchang’.

Once enough alcohol entered their bloodstreams, stories they found

hard to talk about during the day came out – mostly from the
youngest’s mouth, actually.

“Excuse me, Senior Woo….?”

“Mm?”

748
“You’ve been investigating that missing prisoner case until now,
yes?”

What was this guy trying to say here?

Woo Jin-Cheol tipped his glass filled with booze, his head beginning
to develop an ache already.

Unfortunately, completely oblivious of his senior’s wishes, the

youngest detective continued with his questioning time.

“That day… you really did see something, didn’t you?”

“What day?”

Woo Jin-Cheol played dumb deliberately, but the youngest simply

grinned and replied.

“Eii, senior, you… You already know, don’t you? I’m talking about
that day when the suspect went missing. Didn’t you really see
something that day?”

This kid, he had this habit of catching people off-guard when they
least expected it.

‘Well, that’s a good talent to have as a detective.’

Woo Jin-Cheol recalled his own newbie days and formed a slight
chuckle as he replied.

“What if I did?”

“Really?”

The youngest looked to be adequately drunk until then, but his eyes
suddenly began sparkling and his ears even physically perked up.
That wasn’t so surprising, considering that the youngest was closer in

749
age to being a student than a full-fledged member of society,
anyway.

That was probably why he applied to the Violent Crimes Investigation

Unit of the National Police Agency, reputed to be the worst paid but
with the highest amount of workload.

Maybe the power of the booze circulating in him was to blame, or

maybe, he just wanted to use this opportunity to get some stuff off
his chest – Woo Jin-Cheol began speaking of things that he’d never
even think about uttering in normal times.

“An ant…. Ant monsters.”

Gulp.

The noise of saliva sliding down the throat of the youngest detective
could be heard from where he was sitting.

“Even I can’t tell for sure what I saw back then. In any case, those
things looked like ants.”

“Ant monsters, is it? Are you saying that giant insects like ants came
out?”

“No, not that. Well, they were ants, but….”

It was right then.

Just as Woo Jin-Cheol spoke up to there, a certain man unsteadily

tottering about, as if he had one too many to drink, stopped walking
past the duo and addressed them.

“T-those ant monsters, are they monsters with the heads of ants, but
bodies that look like humans??”

The heads of the two detectives, Woo Jin-Cheol and his junior, raised
up towards the owner of the voice.

750
Chapter 252: Side Story 9 - Your daily
routine (4)
Didn’t someone say that the ground would harden after the rain had
fallen?

Now normally, people would grow much closer when they made up
after a big fight. But then, the bond between young boys created
through sweat and drive to succeed was far hotter and stickier then
any old saying could intimate.

“One, two! One, two!”

As the early dawn’s fog thickly covered the school’s athletics field,
every member of the track team was energetically roaring out their
rallying cries.

“Hey, Jin-Woo! How about it? Isn’t this doable?”

Before anyone had noticed it, Jin-Woo was now permitted to run
alongside the captain of the team, Choi Tae-Woong. The former
replied in a refreshing manner.

“Yes, it is doable!”

“Very goooood! One, two! One, two!”

Choi Tae-Woong raised his speed just a bit higher and shouted out.

“Our goal is to conquer the whole country!”

“Our goal is to…..??”

The members almost subconsciously chanted after their captain’s

words, but they quickly caught onto the fact that their warcry had
changed and began questioning their leader.

751
“Hey, captain! I thought our goal was the overall win in the
regionals?”

“Uh-huh!! You’re aiming far too low in front of our new ace! Again!
Our goal is to conquer the whole country!”

“Conquer the whole country!!”

“The whole country!!!”

Glance.

The captain glanced at Woo Sahng-In, currently running behind him.

“Hey, Sahng-In-ah, are you crying right now?”

“N-no, captain!”

“Don’t give up yet, ace of the second year! Although the ace of the
team has changed, how can we conquer the nation without your
aid?!”

“I… I shall do my best, captain!!”

“Very goooood-!! Conquer the whole country!!”

“The whole country!! The country!”

“Conquer the country! The whole country!!”

While the members of the team lapped around the athletics field,
positively buzzing with a heightened fighting spirit, only Oh Young-
Gil’s complexion was turning blue amongst all the runners present.
The poor kid ended up following after Jin-Woo and inadvertently
entered the team as well.

“Pant, paaant, paaant….”

752
Jin-Woo, running out in front, heard Young-Gil’s heavy, rough
breathing and tutted inwardly.

He wanted to improve the boy’s rather feeble constitution, so he

said yes to the idea of one-plus-one admittance to the athletics club,
but this….

….It was only a matter of time before someone keeled over at the
rate things were going.

But then again, it’d not be an easy task to let Young-Gil escape in this
atmosphere when the fighting spirit of the seniors had reached a
brand new height that they had never seen before.

Left with no choice, Jin-Woo loaded just a little bit of Mana and sent
it behind him. Like dandelion seeds being carried in the wind, the
lump of Mana gently floated in the air and entered Young-Gil’s nose
and mouth.

“…..??”

The effects of Jin-Woo’s Mana were an immediate stamina recovery,

as well as a temporary boost to one’s muscular endurance, reaction
times, flexibility, and to one’s rate of stamina recovery, etc….

Basically, it was a comprehensive buff gift set, filled with his desire to
help out a friend.

Since it was a gift set straight from the Shadow Sovereign who
reigned over in another world as basically a god, the effects of the
buffs were rather incredible.

“Eh? Uh? Uhhh????”

Young-Gil’s eyes opened wider and wider as soon as he inhaled the

comprehensive buff set.

753
‘Wha-what’s going on?! My body, it… It’s getting hotter?!’

Thick veins rose up on the boy’s legs as they powerfully kicked the
ground away.

Paht, paht, paht!!

One by one, seniors running ahead of Young-Gil were left behind,

and then….

“Ohh, ohh!!”

Then, Young-Gil’s solo sprint began in earnest.

‘N-no, hang on a minute…?’

Choi Tae-Woong was instantly impressed by Young-Gil who managed

to shoot past ahead of everyone. The captain loudly shouted out in
excitement.

“Look at our newbie’s fighting spirit burning up like that! How can us
folks calling ourselves his seniors remain lukewarm when things are
like this??”

“No, we can’t!!”

“Definitely not!”

“We chase after the newbie with everything we’ve got! Let’s go!”

“Let’s do it!”

“Let’s go!!”

Jin-Woo was inwardly worried whether he had given Young-Gil too

much energy or not, but that only lasted for a brief moment.

The bright flames of the athletics team swept across the track today,
as well.

754
***

While performing his duties of guiding incoming students from next

to the school’s gate, ‘Venomous Snake’ Teacher Park Gi-Sool was
keeping tabs on the track and field team diligently going through
their morning training regime at a distance.

Contrary to his initial worries, it seemed that Student Seong Jin-Woo

was getting used to the life in the track team without any problems
whatsoever.

Heck, the headmaster even thanked Park Gi-Sool out of nowhere,

too.

– I heard from the director of the track team that you, Park Teacher-
nim, is always watching over Student Seong Jin-Woo.

– Ah, that…. Yes, more or less….

– Isn’t the problem child behaving himself so well a fruit of your hard
labour? With you around, Park Teacher-nim, I can truly rest easy.

– Oh, uh…..

The only thing Park Gi-Sool had done so far was to watch Student
Seong Jin-Woo until he fell or lost consciousness. He became so
embarrassed that he’d rather become a potted plant that the
headmaster was watering at that moment.

That happened earlier in the morning.

Park Gi-Sool tasted this bitterness deep within his core whenever he
thought about the headmaster’s high expectation of him versus his
own pathetic situation where he couldn’t even look Student Seong
Jin-Woo straight in the eye.

755
And that was why… Because of his circumstances, he ended up
getting p*ss drunk and unloaded all the useless stuff off his chest to
a couple of people he’d never even seen before in his entire life.

‘Now why did I have to go and do something like that….?’

Just from recalling that night’s events, Park Gi-Sool felt like tearing
out all of his hair.

A few days ago, in a certain diner he stopped by out of sheer

frustration….

“T-those ant monsters, are they monsters with the heads of ants, but
bodies that look like humans??”

With their conversation being interrupted rather rudely like this, the
two men shifted their curious gazes at the same time towards Park
Gi-Sool, and that helped the school teacher to sober up real fast.

“Ah…. What on Earth am I saying… I’m very sorry. Looks like I must
be really drunk. Both of you, please don’t mind me and carry on.”

Park Gi-Sool politely bowed his head and turned around to head back
to his own spot, but then, Woo Jin-Cheol actually called out and
stopped him in his tracks.

“Excuse me.”

The school teacher turned his alcohol-reddened face behind him and
saw that Woo Jin-Cheol had gotten up from his seat to pull a chair
closer to his own table.

“That tale of the ant monster…. Can you tell me more about it?”

Just where would anyone be able to safely tell the story of a teacher
seeing strange things when looking at a student?

756
After being admitted to a mental hospital? Now, which parents
would entrust their kids to a teacher who frequented the mental
health institution’s hallways?

Park Gi-Sool had been silently suffering all by himself, unable to tell a
soul what he saw, but now that he was given a chance, he came
completely clean as teardrops formed at the corners of his eyes.

“You see, I am someone who teaches his students with his charisma.
Charisma, you know? So, where can I possibly go and speak of these
things?”

Still, he felt a bit more refreshed, a load off his shoulders, now that
he got to say the things he wanted to say. With that, he was given
enough leeway to take a gander at his surroundings.

Even though what he said sounded like a lame joke, the two
detectives next to him were listening to his tale with serious
expressions on their faces. It was at this point that Park Gi-Sool grew
quite curious as to what these people’s story might be.

“By the way…. Why were two police detectives like yourselves
discussing stuff like monsters in a place like this diner?”

Woo Jin-Cheol exchanged glances with the junior detective before

explaining their circumstances – minus the bit about him actually
witnessing the real monsters, of course.

“….And so, the brass ordered us to look into this matter, but well, it’s
really difficult to even find a single clue, you see. Right now, I
wouldn’t mind grasping at straws if that will help us.”

Woo Jin-Cheol pulled out his business card and handed it over to
Park Gi-Sool as he continued on.

“That’s why, I’d like to stop by at the school sometime later on, but
will that be fine with you?”

757
“Ahh, of course. Of course, we must help with the police’s
investigation. You can come and visit us at any time.”

And so, the booze-shared diner experience came to a rather friendly

end in that manner, but now…

Some time had passed since then, and after thinking about it for a
little while, Park Gi-Sool couldn’t help but wonder if he had
unnecessarily made the situation even worse than what it was.

‘How can a student have anything to do with the case of missing

suspects…?’

Especially a boy who was wholeheartedly focusing on the club

activities since early dawn?

Fearful that he might see another weird thing again, Park Gi-Sool
couldn’t stare for too long in Jin-Woo’s direction, so he could only
afford to sneak quick glances at the boy, instead. Eventually, he
shook his head in resignation.

Then, he spoke to another teacher manning the school gate

alongside him.

“Teacher Yun, my apologies, but I had a bit too much to drink last
night and my innards are….”

“Ahaha, come on now, Park Teacher-nim. No need to apologise for

that. Please, go back inside and take a break. I’ll cover for you and
keep an eye out here.”

“Mm, thank you.”

Before he went away, Park Gi-Sool took another quick glance at Jin-
Woo and slunk off into the school building.

758
Only then did Jin-Woo shift his gaze towards the departing teacher,
even though he hadn’t shown any signs of noticing the glances right
up until then.

‘…..’

Recently, a teacher was staring at him in a rather open manner. He

couldn’t just gloss over what was happening here. From inside the
darkness of his shadow, Grand-Marshal Bellion’s quiet voice entered
his ears.

[My liege…. Wouldn’t it be better to erase that human’s memories

and take away his abilities?]

Back when he returned home from the gap between dimensions,

after ending the war – as Jin-Woo stepped onto the ground of his
home, feeling rightly emotional about his return, a proxy of the
Rulers showed up and left behind some advice of sorts.

He said that, even if it was only a tiny bit of the Sovereign’s powers,
it’d end up causing a humongous change to this world. And that was
why Jin-Woo had been avoiding interfering directly unless it was
something utterly necessary.

‘For now…. Let’s just observe him for a little while longer.’

[I understand, my liege.]

Jin-Woo wordlessly stared at the entrance Teacher Park Gi-Sool had

disappeared to, before turning around to leave himself.

The members of the athletics club who were heading off to the club
room before him were waving their hands towards him.

***

759
Woo Jin-Cheol found himself hesitating several times in front of the
school gate.

It had been a week already since he was gifted an unthinkable piece

of a lead in a gopchang diner. Starting from then, right up until now,
all sorts of thoughts crisscrossed in his head.

He could have treated that testimony as a crazed teacher rambling

on about some incoherent nonsense. However, every now and then,
a link would suddenly be established between two seemingly
unrelated cases and that would lead to an untangling of a dark web
that seemed impossible to unravel initially.

‘The suspects that encountered monsters, and the monsters of a

student that only one teacher can see….’

Woo Jin-Cheol found a vague link between these two disparate

incidents. This was from the instincts of a detective, something that
couldn’t be explained by logic.

However, there was a problem – there was a massive hurdle to

overcome here. If there was indeed a link, then what should he say
exactly to the student in question?

He couldn’t just bet everything on that drunken teacher’s words and

start questioning this student named Seong Jin-Woo about monsters
and stuff, now could he?

As for asking a question in a roundabout way, the nature of the

question itself was too broad for that, too.

– By any chance, do you know anything about these Shadow

Monsters? What about ants that stand up and walk around like
people?

No matter how hard he practised it in his head, he just couldn’t

picture the interview going down well at all. Woo Jin-Cheol pored at

760
the memo pad containing detailed records of the investigation so far
and spat out a long, long sigh.

‘It’d be a miracle not to be labelled as a madman while asking around

these sorts of questions….’

At the end of a long, long dilemma, Woo Jin-Cheol turned around to

leave. He might come back later after thinking up another pretext,
but for now, it didn’t seem like the time was right.

And so, as Woo Jin-Cheol took steps to get out of there, he lowered
his gaze to the ground without thinking much about his actions.

Shuk.

If it wasn’t him, famed even among the fellow detectives for

possessing a pretty keen pair of eyes, but someone else not as sharp,
they would have missed a faint movement on the ground.

Without a shred of doubt, he noticed a blob of shadow move from

the shade of a tree towards the school’s wall.

He definitely saw it.

Goosebumps broke out all over his body and he hurriedly spun his
head back towards the school.

‘There is… there is definitely something here!!’

Woo Jin-Cheol’s determination firmed up, then. He no longer cared if

people pointed at him, calling him insane.

As long as he could find out the reason for this sense of loss that
continued to plague him every now and then; as long as he could
find out the exact cause why he felt his mind relax for a little while
after encountering those ant monsters, then he’d not hesitate to pay
any price.

761
With a hardened expression, Woo Jin-Cheol began walking towards
the grounds of this high school.

***

At the same time.

Jin-Woo was spinning a pen with his fingers as he listened to the

droning sounds of the geography lesson while the heads of many
kids were dozing off all around him.

‘Did he see the sentry I posted there?’

As expected of Woo Jin-Cheol, the former President of the Hunter’s

Association. He should no longer have any memory of his previous
life, yet his sharp eyes must’ve remained intact.

Jin-Woo closed his eyes and recalled the very last image he had of
Woo Jin-Cheol.

The image of him tearing up when Jin-Woo revealed his plans of

waging war against the Sovereigns all by himself remained vividly
etched in his brain.

Back when the late President Goh Gun-Hui died, the voice requesting
for revenge also remained, unforgotten, in Jin-Woo’s mind, as well.

Was that why?

Even though this ‘visit’ would prove to be rather troublesome in his

efforts to maintain his current lifestyle of pretending to be a normal
person, the smile etched on Jin-Woo’s lips didn’t want to leave him
all that easily.

Soon enough, the knocking on the classroom’s door resounded out,

followed by the surprised voice of the geography teacher.

“A d-detective?”

762
“It’s not a big issue, actually. It’s just that, I have some questions to
ask a student named Seong Jin-Woo.”

Ohhh-!!

At the announcement that a detective had shown up, kids let out
gasps of amazement and shifted their gazes to Jin-Woo.

The thing that was coming had come.

Jin-Woo’s eyes remained closed throughout, but then, with that grin
getting deeper, they opened calmly again.

At that moment, Woo Jin-Cheol was entering the classroom’s door

and his gaze met with a certain student’s. Even though the
geography teacher didn’t specifically point the boy out, the seasoned
detective knew that student was Seong Jin-Woo with just one look.

Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump….

Woo Jin-Cheol’s heart began pounding away, as if it wanted to

explode.

763
Chapter 253: Side Story 10 - Your daily
routine (5)
Woo Jin-Cheol led Jin-Woo to the end of the school corridor. He only
stopped walking once they got to a distance far away from the
classroom where their conversation wouldn’t be overheard by
someone else.

Jin-Woo, quietly following behind the detective, also came to a stop

as a result. He sneaked a glance towards the classroom.

For some reason, this sense of distance he felt by being a student

that was looking into the classroom from the outside seemed rather
large.

Perhaps Woo Jin-Cheol was conscious of that too, because the first
thing he did was to apologise to Jin-Woo who was still looking back
at the class.

“Sorry about dragging you out in the middle of class like this.”

“No, it’s fine.”

Jin-Woo held back the words of ‘I wanted to escape from there

anyway because it was so boring’, in consideration of the teacher
doing his best to teach the classroom full of kids.

Rather than say anything, Jin-Woo looked up at Woo Jin-Cheol,

instead.

The detective was young.

Since Jin-Woo had changed his physique to match that of a high

school freshman, Woo Jin-Cheol was now actually a good head taller
than he was, with much broader shoulders, as well.

764
‘A guy who looked like he’d give a gangster a run for his money was
actually working as a detective.’

A smile abruptly bloomed on his face after seeing a friend’s face in

what felt like aeons.

It had been years – no, decades actually, if he added the time spent
wandering around the gap between dimensions – since he last saw
the Association President Woo Jin-Cheol.

Even though Jin-Woo didn’t want to show anything outwardly, there

was not much he could do about his expression betraying him with a
hint of happiness.

‘……?’

However, Woo Jin-Cheol was immediately beset with confusion after

discovering the smile on the student’s face.

There would be only a handful of people alive who’d remain

unflustered after suddenly being visited by a cop, and not only that, a
detective with such a threatening face like his.

More than that, was there a reason to say anything else when the
person in question was just a high school student?

However, this kid in front of his eyes was actually smiling.

‘This boy…. Something’s different about him.’

Woo Jin-Cheol felt it the moment he stepped into that classroom –

this kid was different.

Thanks to his job being what it was, he had run into his fair share of
murderers who killed many people, or gangsters that lorded over the
backstreets with iron fists.

765
However, not even once had he meet anyone with a pair of eyes as
calm as this boy.

‘How can a student possess eyes like that?’

Gulp.

Unbeknownst to him, Woo Jin-Cheol swallowed back dry saliva from

all this tension in the air. Starting from the moment he saw the boy,
his heart was still violently pounding away for reasons unknown to
him.

To dissolve the many questions swirling and circling inside his head,
Woo Jin-Cheol pulled out his memo pad and began looking into it.

“By any chance, Shadow… no, wait. Ants….”

Woo Jin-Cheol was looking at the contents of his memo pad, but no
matter what he did, he just couldn’t form any coherent sentences.
So, he pulled out a pen from his inner pocket, instead.

Jot, jot….

While Jin-Woo watched on with an interested gaze, Woo Jin-Cheol

quickly drew something on the page of the pad and presented the
resulting artwork.

“…..”

Jin-Woo inwardly praised the detective’s effort.

‘This dude, he’s actually a lot more talented in art than I thought.’

What Woo Jin-Cheol sketched just now was the general appearance
of Beru.

766
Although it couldn’t be called exact description, still, he got right the
head of an ant, human-like hands and feet, the sharp claws, as well
as the ant’s wings on the back, etc, etc.

Anyone who knew what Beru looked like, they would recognise him
from this drawing in an instant. Woo Jin-Cheol asked his question
then.

“By any chance, can you think of something when you look at this
image?”

Jin-Woo looked at the drawing for a bit before raising his head and
spotted Woo Jin-Cheol and his slightly-blushing face. Even he should
be aware of how ridiculous this whole thing must’ve looked.

But regardless of all that, he seemed to be desperate to recover the

memories of things that happened to him, but were later taken
away, even if that meant he’d have to resort to doing something like
this.

Containing all of his desperation….

“….Do you know what this is?”

….Woo Jin-Cheol asked one more time.

Before the hints of embarrassment, as evident in the detective’s

voice, could grow larger, Jin-Woo quickly answered him.

“Yes.”

Ba-dump.

Woo Jin-Cheol’s heart powerfully rocked and pounded on his chest.

“Y-you know what this is??”

767
The detective’s voice grew louder. But, Jin-Woo’s expression was
utterly calm in his demeanour, a complete contrast to Woo Jin-
Cheol’s.

“Yes.”

Woo Jin-Cheol’s eyes trembled violently.

Finally.

He finally found it.

His breathing quickened considerably, and his voice picked up just as

the greatly urgent questions flew out of his mouth.

“What is this ant monster? And what is your real identity?”

Jin-Woo took a step back in order to avoid the agitated Woo Jin-
Cheol. The latter realised that he made a mistake and quickly calmed
himself down.

“Ah, I got too carried away there for a second. I’ve been chasing after
this case for a while, you see.”

One by one – he would dig into what this student knew, step by step.
Didn’t he have to go through so much hardship to find this clue
already? So, there was no need to be too hasty now.

Woo Jin-Cheol managed to tide over his pulsing heart with those
thoughts and spoke up with a much more calm voice.

“Alright. So, you know something about the creature in this image?”

“Yes.”

Jin-Woo replied briefly with a nod of his head, before an ‘innocent’

expression formed on his face.

768
“Isn’t that a monster that pops out from one of those special effects
dramas that kids like to watch? Like, Kamen Rider?”

“Ah…”

Woo Jin-Cheol was immediately overcome with this sense of

despondency, akin to watching a sand castle he built all day long get
washed away by a single incoming wave. A small but heartbroken
sigh leaked out of his mouth.

Since his expectation had been great, the ensuing disappointment

was just as great, too. His hand holding the memo pad naturally
dropped lower.

He looked so fatigued right now, so tired that he couldn’t even hold

that little pad up anymore.

For a brief moment there, he grew angry at this boy for needlessly
stringing him along with his vague answers. But, well, what crime did
this student commit exactly, when he spoke only of the things he
knew about?

Woo Jin-Cheol forced a smile on his face.

“Thank you for your cooperation.”

“Is that all?”

“Yes. I spoke to your teacher, so there shouldn’t be any issues when

you go back.”

Woo Jin-Cheol spoke up to here and was about to pocket the memo
pad, but then, Jin-Woo quickly addressed him.

“That image of a monster, can I have it as a souvenir?”

The detective looked at the student’s bright expression, and a

genuine smile floated up on his face. He opened his memo pad and

769
stared at the sketch for a little while, before tearing the page out
cleanly and handing it over to Jin-Woo.

“Here.”

“Thank you.”

As if he didn’t want to get arrested by any lingering emotions, Woo

Jin-Cheol spun on his heels and jogged down the steps as soon as the
student bade him goodbye.

‘……’

Jin-Woo remained in his spot and listened to the detective’s

footsteps echoing down the staircase. In the meantime, his shadow
sneakily expanded to the side like spilt water and Igrit quietly
emerged from there.

[My liege.]

“Mm?”

[Why… didn’t you tell that person the truth?]

Igrit retained his memories from back when he was still a human,
and thanks to that, he knew better than anyone just how sad and
difficult it was for a person to be forgotten from the minds of those
he cared about.

And that was why he thought of the Detective Woo Jin-Cheol’s

entrance as perhaps the most ideal opportunity that came knocking
so far. Even if it was just one individual, wouldn’t it be a good thing
for the Sovereign to let someone know how he had saved this world?

There was this distinct hint of rueful longing in Igrit’s voice.

Still, Jin-Woo shook his head.

770
“Being able to forget is supposed to be a god’s gift to humans, you
know.”

Even if that was an artificially created result after using a Tool of

God; Jin-Woo thought that he didn’t possess the qualifications to
choose which memories to erase and which ones to keep.

Only a god should do something like that. That was why he decided
to let the former Association President Woo Jin-Cheol go in this
manner.

[Are you sure about this, my liege?]

“Yeah.”

It was then, Jin-Woo abruptly looked down on his left hand.

There it was, the evidence of the Dragon Emperor’s powerful attack.

The burn scar on this left hand, earned from blocking the ‘Breath of
Destruction’ head-on, couldn’t be healed no matter what he tried.
An unpleasant memory that couldn’t be forgotten was rather similar
to this scar – a wound that couldn’t be healed.

Even if the person in question wanted it, was there really a need to
deliberately bring those painful memories back?

Right now, not a trace of pain and misery that was suffered at the
hands of the monsters and Sovereigns remained in the memories of
people living on this planet.

And that was why Jin-Woo didn’t want to let the memories of the
past remain in the mind of the former Association President Woo Jin-
Cheol.

[I understand, my liege.]

771
Igrit silently submerged back into the shadow, as if he accepted the
explanation.

Jin-Woo remained standing on the spot looking down at the bottom

of the stairs before turning around to enter the classroom.

***

Once the break came, the boiling interests of the kids finally focused
on Jin-Woo.

Seriously now, just when would these kids get to experience a TV

drama-like situation of a police detective suddenly barging into their
classroom? It was only obvious that their unbridled attention would
be focused on the protagonist of that tale.

Even the girls who were interested in Jin-Woo before but couldn’t
say it outright hurriedly rushed towards him and soon, a rather
sizeable horde of people formed around his desk.

“What happened just now?”

“Hey, Jin-Woo? Why did a detective-nim come to school??”

Jin-Woo grinned softly at the burning curiosity of his classmates and

spoke of the fresh excuse he just cooked up on the spot.

“Well, he’s someone that I know, and he just stopped by to ask me

about something, that’s all.”

“Wowsers, that’s awesome.”

“You’re an acquaintance with an actual detective?”

“Jin-Woo, I’m so envious, you know?”

Jin-Woo found it hard to keep his laughter in check as the kids’

interest began heading down a slightly unexpected direction.

772
‘Young-Gil-ah, why are your eyes sparkling like that now?’

Still, thanks to the detective-nim’s unannounced visit, it felt as if the

invisible wall these kids felt around Jin-Woo had crumbled just a
little. Girls took this opportunity to ask about those things they were
dying to know.

“I heard from other boys that you got a killer body?”

“Really? Are you an athlete or something?”

“Ahh! I saw Jin-Woo running on the track with the seniors from the
school’s track team the day before yesterday.”

“Wahh, look how broad his shoulders are.”

Kyahk, kyahk….

As the girls surrounded him from all sides, Jin-Woo began pondering
how he should go about making them quietly return to their seats,
but then…

The quartet of the hooligans found one person hogging all the
attention quite displeasing and decided to interrupt the fun.

“Hey, you. Aren’t you getting really popular now? Even a cop came
to see you and all.”

Once this quartet entered the scene, the boys quickly retreated to
their seats, while the girls began to quietly back away.

A boy named Nam Joon-Shik, the one with the highest position
within the quartet, began slapping Jin-Woo’s shoulder that played
host to the curious touches of high school girls not too long ago. The
corners of his eyes began curling up.

“Does me being mischievous like this count as school bullying? Are

you going to report me to the detective-nim now?”

773
‘….It’s your hand that’s gonna hurt if you keep hitting me like that,
though.’

Jin-Woo stared at the dumb kid with apathetic eyes, and sure
enough, Nam Joon-Shik’s complexion began reddening gradually
when he realised that his hand hurt like hell, but despite his efforts,
his target’s reaction seemed way too lukewarm.

“Argh, just why the hell are this punk’s eyes so sh*tty, man?”

Nam Joon-Shik then swiped everything away on Jin-Woo’s desk.

Textbooks, notebooks, and his pencil case, plus a couple of other
things tumbled to the floor.

Ten million-strong Shadow Army hiding in Jin-Woo’s shadow all

roared out in anger after they witness this show of force from the
teenaged fool.

The teen hooligan didn’t stop there and reached out to grab the
collars of Jin-Woo, whose complexion had hardened just then.

“What? You wanna have a go? You better loosen up while I’m still
being civil, got it?”

It was then.

A massive arm suddenly pounced from above and wrapped tightly

around Nam Joon-Shik’s throat.

“Keok!!”

The hooligan grabbed at the thick arm as he began choking

pathetically, and in the meantime, a familiar face revealed itself
above the pale-faced kid.

“You have business with our beloved ace of the track and field club,
boy?”

774
That face belonged to none other than the captain of the club, the
third year senior Choi Tae-Woong, and he was being accompanied by
another third year, the senior with a short fuse, Jeong Gu-Shik.

All four members of the quartet found themselves trapped in

armlocks and headlocks of their seniors, their complexions paling
gradually from the lack of oxygen.

Jin-Woo wordlessly got up from his seat and picked up the pencil
case. Jin-Ah bought this case as a gift to commemorate his successful
admittance to the high school, so these four hooligans wouldn’t have
gotten away scot-free if anything had happened to it.

He dusted the case and placed it back on the desk before asking his
question.

“Seniors, what brings you all here?”

“We showed up to dissuade our ace from beating the living crap out
of four idiots.”

“No, please. Be serious.”

“Ahahahat-!”

Choi Tae-Woong’s large framed quaked as he roared out in a peal of

loud laughter before he continued on.

“I forgot to tell you guys that we were planning to hold a welcoming

party for our new members later today, you see. You and Young-Gil
both have free time today, right?”

Jin-Woo glanced at Young-Gil and the latter nodded his head.

“Yes, we do.”

“In that case, see you both after school.”

775
Still smiling, the seniors began leaving one by one, but then, Jin-Woo
called out to them to stop their march out of the classroom.

“Seniors? Where are you taking those four still stuck under your
arms?”

“Ahaha, these idiots?”

Choi Tae-Woong exchanged some knowing glances with Jeong Gu-

Shik.

“Well, what should we do with them?”

“How about we do an easy lap around the track, captain?”

“Sounds gooood!”

Soon afterwards, the loud shouts of “Conquer the whole country!”

slowly got further away from the classroom’s interior.

***

Ding, dong. Ding, dong.

Several end-of-school bells rang around, and then, quite a few more
bells later.

Jin-Woo stepped out of the school’s gate along with the rest of the
track and field club members.

Young-Gil had now grown to appreciate the joys of sweating after

getting used to the training regime of the club, although he did
receive a few timely boosts from Jin-Woo every now and then.

While Young-Gil was listening to the advice of the seniors as he

walked among them, Jin-Woo remained a step behind and
eavesdropped on the unfolding conversations.

It was, without a doubt, a peaceful sight of a normal day.

776
Jeong Gu-Shik walking up ahead and turned his head towards Jin-
Woo and asked.

“Ah, right. Hey, Jin-Woo? What was up with those idiots earlier in the
day? Should we the seniors speak to them ‘nicely’ so they won’t start
anything stupid later on?”

Jin-Woo replied with an unconcerned expression.

“Nah, it’s fine.”

“I’m not doing this because I’m worried about you. No, I just don’t
want to see problems suddenly crop up and prevent you from
participating in the regional meet because of those idiots.”

Jin-Woo grinned refreshingly.

“Don’t worry. I won’t let that happen.”

It was then.

Someone suddenly popped out from behind the shadow of the

gate’s wall and called out to Jin-Woo.

“Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim.”

It was as if time itself had come to a standstill, just then. Jin-Woo

froze up on the spot, and slowly shifted his head in the direction of
that voice.

Detective Woo Jin-Cheol had been waiting for Jin-Woo until now.

The latter’s voice trembled slightly.

“But, how…?”

Having finally gotten his confirmation from Jin-Woo’s reply,

Detective Woo Jin-Cheol’s eyes began tearing up.

777
“As I thought… you are him.”

778
Chapter 254: Side Story 11 - Your daily
routine (6)
“That image of a monster, can I have it as a souvenir?”

A few hours ago.

As a souvenir for his reunion with Woo Jin-Cheol, Jin-Woo wanted

the sketch of Beru the detective had drawn up on the spot.

‘Well, it does kind of resemble Beru, so I want it because of that….’

Of course, a certain someone hiding in his shadow didn’t think the

same as his liege, though.

[Oh, my kinggggg!! I beg thee not to fall for that shoddy and crude
doodling of a plebeian!!]

Beru desperately pleaded with his liege that he was nowhere near
that ugly in the sketch, but Jin-Woo simply let that whining enter one
ear and go out the other.

In the meantime, Woo Jin-Cheol stared at his own drawing for a bit
as if to let go of all his lingering attachments.

Soon, though…

Riiip…

….He cleanly tore the page off the memo pad. Woo Jin-Cheol
extended his hand holding the drawing to Jin-Woo.

“Here.”

“Thank you.”

Jin-Woo gladly accepted the sketch.

779
And during that process, the detective’s hand briefly touched the tip
of Jin-Woo’s finger.

It was surely nothing important in the grand scheme of things.

However, massive events that left their mark in history books
sometimes began with seemingly insignificant little things.

Woo Jin-Cheol turned around and hurriedly descended the staircase.

‘I knew it, this whole thing was a dumb mistake.’

Regret was rapidly filling him up.

Because he got too hyped up from the prospect of finding a clue, he

ended up doing something that he’d be unable to explain even to the
youngest detective in the squad with a straight face.

The sense of embarrassment and regret rushed in like the incoming

tides, now that this was all he had to show for his efforts.

‘Stairs always feel so d*mn long only on days like today, don’t they?’

Detective Woo Jin-Cheol bitterly muttered to himself as he climbed

down the staircase, but then, his steps had to come to an abrupt
halt.

‘Mm….?’

He suddenly heard a voice from somewhere, that was why.

– Association President. Do you trust me?

‘…..??’

Woo Jin-Cheol froze up when a chill-inducing feeling crept up on his

spine and he quickly scanned up and down where he was. He saw
not one person coming down from the stairs or climbing up from
below.

780
Classes were still ongoing, so the steps of the school were quite
literally, quiet and still.

Woo Jin-Cheol tilted his head this way and that, before he tried to
climb down the remaining few steps to the ground floor only to hear
another voice again.

– Yes, of course, I trust you.

This time, it was his own voice.

‘W-what the heck is this?!’

A person with an easily-scared personality would squat down or start

screaming from fear by now. However, Woo Jin-Cheol wasn’t one. He
simply remained calm while he scanned his surroundings once more,
before pulling out a memo pad and a pen as a sombre expression
formed on his face.

‘I’m suddenly hearing auditory hallucinations. Could it be that the

sense of loss I feel or the ant monster I witnessed were evidence of
something wrong with my brain?’

The end of a brief observation was signed off with a question mark
scribbled on with his pen.

Woo Jin-Cheol felt rather weirded out now. He stuffed the memo
pad inside his inner pocket and hurriedly descended the rest of the
steps. And with a speed far quicker than that, he escaped from the
school building.

But then….

….Yet another auditory hallucination rocked the inside of his head.

– In that case, I hope you will believe everything I’m about to show
you.

781
“Euhk!!”

Woo Jin-Cheol gritted his teeth and covered both of his ears.

The voice he had never heard before and his own words that he
never uttered before as well, began making a mess out of his mind.
An intense bout of confusion crashed into him like an unstoppable
tide.

“W-what the hell is this?!”

And then, out of all those voices swirling in his head, there was this
one phrase that kept ringing so clearly in his head.

– Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim.

– Hunter-nim.

– In that case, what should we…. No, what should I do to help you,
Hunter-nim?

– Hunter-nim!

– Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim!!

A name that didn’t want to leave his head alone. The name of Hunter
Seong Jin-Woo.

‘If it’s Seong Jin-Woo, then…. Isn’t that the name of the student I just
met?’

He heard that patients suffering from mental disorders often came

up with crazy stories that featured people from their lives. Could
such a thing be happening inside his head now?

Woo Jin-Cheol walked forward as his body swayed unsteadily. He

kept frowning in pain as a migraine viciously pounded away at his
temples.

782
Even then, even if the inside of his head had become so complicated
and messy to the point that he didn’t know how to unravel all the
tangled thoughts in there – every time he recalled the name ‘Seong
Jin-Woo Hunter-nim’, it felt like the big hole in his heart was slowly
filling back up for some weird reason.

Woo Jin-Cheol crashed down on a park bench and began murmuring

repeatedly the name that continued to swim inside his mind.

‘Hunter Seong Jin-Woo, Hunter Seong Jin-Woo, Hunter Seong Jin-

Woo…

That name holds the clue.

I definitely know that name, Seong Jin-Woo.

I must remember it.

I must drag it out into the open.

I must find all the memories of him, and the reason why those
memories are erased from my mind.’

“Euh-euhk!!”

While still under an extreme case of a migraine, Woo Jin-Cheol

fought hard to recall his memories and eventually, a certain scene
popped up in his head.

“Association President. Do you trust me?”

“Yes, of course, I trust you.”

“In that case, I hope you will believe everything I’m about to show
you.”

“Excuse me?”

783
The tip of a finger belonging to someone approached his forehead.
The moment it touched his skin, darkness dyed his view for a short
while but during that time, a countless number of images flashed
past his eyes.

Those were the memories that connected the past, the present, and
the future. And they contained the stories of Gates, monsters,
Hunters, Rulers, and Sovereigns.

“This, this can’t be…. Just how can such a thing be….?”

Woo Jin-Cheol couldn’t finish what he wanted to say, and Jin-Woo,

now the Shadow Sovereign, replied with a lonesome expression.

“Well, a higher being’s memories aren’t affected by the flow of time,

you see.”

Indeed, a Sovereign’s memories easily transcended the boundaries

of time itself.

“Pant, pant….”

Woo Jin-Cheol panted heavily and with great difficulty after

emerging from the flashback of the ‘past’. For a short moment in
time that no longer existed, his consciousness was connected to Jin-
Woo, who was a higher existence.

And it happened then; memories sealed tightly away somewhere

within his soul had been unlocked through yet another contact with
Jin-Woo, and were brought back up to the territory of his
consciousness.

“Oh, my god….”

The sense of emptiness that felt as if there was a hole in the corner
of his heart slowly filled back up, and warm tears began trickling
down from Woo Jin-Cheol’s eyes.

784
He then remembered the question he asked Jin-Woo after learning
of what the latter was planning to do.

– Seong Hunter-nim…. Are you planning to fight these things? All by

yourself?

The answer to that question, it was right in front of his eyes now.

A young man whose name was unknown, walking past the park
bench while listening to music through a pair of earphones; a pair of
lovers brushing past him while whispering their undying love to each
other….

An old man out to walk his dog, and people loosening their muscles
near the exercise equipment in the park….

In this world, in this place, there were no Gates. No monsters. No

battles.

Woo Jin-Cheol now bore witness to the miracle that man had
created through his hands, this incredible peace, and thicker, hotter
tears began flooding out from his eyes.

“Seong Hunter-nim, you… did it.”

Woo Jin-Cheol recalled the screams of so many people meeting their

ends at the monsters and continued to weep for a long, long time.

‘….No, hang on. I, I shouldn’t be doing this.’

The veteran detective’s rough, calloused hands busily moved about

to wipe away the tears.

Even if the entire world had forgotten about the truth, Woo Jin-
Cheol had to go and tell Seong Jin-Woo that at least there was one
person who knew the latter had battled for the sake of the world
itself.

785
Such a sense of duty began welling up in his heart, but at the same
time, a sense of uncertainty also entered him, wondering if what he
was about to do was for the sake of that man.

‘He’s spending his time as a regular student now, having willfully

forgotten about his past as a Hunter.’

If he wanted to remind Woo Jin-Cheol of the past, then there were

ample chances to do so. Jin-Woo could’ve answered his questions, or
just like before, transmit a whole section of memories through
nothing but a fingertip.

However, the youth didn’t show any reactions when a detective

showed up in this place through a series of coincidences, before
quietly letting him be on his way.

Could it be that… he didn’t want his peaceful everyday life to be

interrupted?

If that was the case, then wouldn’t them going back to their regular
lives, while pretending to be none the wiser, be for the better for
Hunter Seong Jin-Woo in the end?

Woo Jin-Cheol fell into a dilemma.

His dilemma grew heavier and harder to resolve and he remained

stuck with it right up until students began leaving the school for the
day. However, watching them cross the park one by one did help
Woo Jin-Cheol with coming to a rather tough conclusion.

‘….Right.

Rather than me deciding this, let’s leave it to Hunter Seong Jin-Woo.

I’ll call out to him, and if he pretends to not understand me, then I
shall respect his choice.

786
However.

Even if there is a small reaction, then I….’

Woo Jin-Cheol hurriedly returned to Jin-Woo’s high school. And then,

he didn’t leave the side of the school gate even when no more
students walked past him.

He was currently acting on this groundless assumption that Hunter

Seong Jin-Woo hadn’t left the school yet.

And so, as he stood there for several dozen more minutes, while
anxiously sucking on one poor cigarette after another….

“….I just don’t want to see problems suddenly crop up and prevent
you from participating in the regional meet because of those idiots.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t let that happen.”

….He finally got to discover Jin-Woo walking out of the school gates.
Feeling genuinely happy now, he took a large stride forward and
called out the youth’s name.

“Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim.”

Ba-dump.

Just how much courage did he require to mutter out those simple
words? Woo Jin-Cheol felt his heart madly pound away and waited
for Jin-Woo’s reaction.

Sure enough, the youth turned around to look, his entire body now
completely frozen stiff. There was an expression of genuine surprise
etched on his face.

“But, how….?”

The light in Jin-Woo’s eyes told everything there was to know.

787
Having finally gotten his confirmation from Jin-Woo’s eyes, Detective
Woo Jin-Cheol began tearing up once more.

“As I thought…. you are him.”

***

The two of them moved to the park in the vicinity of the school, the
very location where Woo Jin-Cheol recovered his memories.

Sunlight reflected on the gently undulating surface of a small pond

located in the middle of the park, creating ripples of ripe gold.

Woo Jin-Cheol stopped walking around there and opened his mouth
first.

“I hope I didn’t cause a problem between you and your club seniors.”

Jin-Woo formed a thin smile and shook his head.

“They are good seniors. Sure, their competitive streak can be a bit
much at times, but…..”

Woo Jin-Cheol asked Jin-Woo if they could speak for a while, and the
latter had to ask his seniors for their understanding on this one. Since
there was a prior engagement, the older kids could’ve easily gotten
unhappy at this situation, but….

“Don’t be too late!”

“Until you show up to the welcoming party, we’re holding Young-Gil

as our hostage, okay?”

“S-senior?!”

The seniors from the track and field team didn’t sweat it and left for
the party venue ahead. Jin-Woo recalled Young-Gil’s tearful face as
he got dragged away by the seniors and smirked softly to himself.

788
“Still, the life of my friend is hanging in the balance here, so I can’t
stay for too long.”

Woo Jin-Cheol broke into a gentle chuckle after seeing the youth’s
expression that showed how much he was enjoying his current life.

“In that case, I understand. Let me get to the main topic, then.”

The smile was gone in an instant from the detective’s face after he
finished those words.

“How long… how long have you been fighting against those creatures
in the gap between dimensions?”

According to the records, Jin-Woo was missing for around two years.

However, Woo Jin-Cheol had seen the overall combat force of the
Sovereigns through the memories of the Shadow Sovereign, and he
knew that the two years were simply not enough to defeat them all.

Jin-Woo cautiously replied.

“27 years….”

The moment he heard that reply, Woo Jin-Cheol sucked in his breath.

To think, he had to fight against over ten million enemies for nearly
30 years in the gap between the walls of different dimensions, where
not a single thing could exist….

Woo Jin-Cheol couldn’t even begin to imagine how difficult and

arduous the battles must’ve been. For a long while there, he failed to
come up with something to say, but eventually, forced his lips to part
just a little.

“…..You don’t regret anything?”

Jin-Woo’s reply this time was instantaneous.

789
“No, I don’t.”

He could say this with absolute confidence.

“If I were to be given the same opportunity over and over again, I will
make the same decision every single time.”

Everything that happened – from when he and his father went to a

baseball game while holding hands during the latter’s off day; the
doenjang stew mom cooked with so much care and love; his little
sister’s smile, bright and unclouded by the fear of the monsters….

….All of these were precious things that couldn’t be measured with

any financial value.

If the price he had to pay for all of these things was to carry the
weighty burden by himself, then he’d not hesitate to carry it over
and over again.

“I don’t regret anything.”

Woo Jin-Cheol heard Jin-Woo’s composed voice and in that instant,

felt his nose sting once more.

‘Thank you, Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim.’

He barely managed to swallow back those words that almost came

out of his mouth. He knew that these simple words of gratitude
could never convey his true feelings to Hunter Seong Jin-Woo, that’s
why.

He took a quick look at his wristwatch while thinking about the ‘life’
of the hostage and raised his head.

“It looks like you’re living a wonderful life now.”

Jin-Woo smirked softly.

790
“It is satisfactory, yes. Well, other than my body not ageing anymore
so I need to constantly modify my body shape, that is.”

‘Eternal youth and immortality.’

Hunter Seong Jin-Woo had now possessed god-like powers after

becoming the Shadow Sovereign. However, even though he
possessed such powers, he chose to live the life of a simple, normal
person. If that was his decision, then….

“May I ask whether you thought about what you’d like to do in the
future?”

“I haven’t thought that far ahead yet, unfortunately.”

“In that case…. How about, you know, joining this side?”

Woo Jin-Cheol displayed the police identification card inside his

wallet.

“You mean… the National Police?”

“Recently, many hardened criminals visiting our offices are all

whining about the exact same thing. They say that it’s hard to make a
living with Shadow Monsters around.”

Jin-Woo studied the identification card for a while and returned the
wallet with a grin on his face.

“But, if I become a police officer, other cops won’t have anything to

do anymore, you know?”

“That’s precisely why we’re working very hard, you see – to create a
world like that.”

He hadn’t changed.

791
From when he was the Chief of the Association’s Monitoring
Division, and when he was the President of the Hunter’s Association
itself, the expressions Woo Jin-Cheol had shown back then remained
as he continued his life as a police detective now.

“I’ll think about it.”

Jin-Woo replied so and turned around to leave as he began to worry

slightly about his friend’s safety. Woo Jin-Cheol quickly bade him
goodbye.

“I shall wait for your favourable reply.”

“Please don’t. I heard that there’s a crap ton of work but the pay is
pretty bad.”

Jin-Woo waved his hand as he walked away, and Woo Jin-Cheol

smiled gently as his silent reply.

‘Lots of work, but rubbish pay, is it?’

A wry chuckle leaked out automatically from his mouth after hearing
that wonderfully succinct assessment that left no room for a
rebuttal. At the same time, he recalled the face of the youngest
detective who actually volunteered to join such a squad out of his
own free will.

‘Isn’t he off today, that kid?’

Well, so what if it was the junior’s off day?

While thinking that he’d just call out the youngest and treat the kid
to a hearty meal, Woo Jin-Cheol politely bowed his head towards Jin-
Woo’s departing back, now a faint silhouette in the distance.

792
As the only man who knew of that youth’s sacrifice, he stood for
everyone in this world and expressed his gratitude, perhaps for the
first and the last time.

793
Chapter 255: Side Story 12 - Decision
‘That’ suddenly appeared without any warning.

On a certain day in April, only a stone’s throw away from May’s

doorstep, an American emergency call centre was blessed with a
strange phone call.

– “Hello. I’m a tourist currently travelling through the desert.”

It was not uncommon to hear about tourists getting lost. Since that
was the case, the call centre operator figured that this call was from
yet another poor stranded soul searching for a way out from the
middle of the vast desert.

“Did you run into an accident, sir?”

– “No, it’s not actually that.”

“In that case, did something else happen to you, sir?”

– “No, no. I’m not calling you because I ran into a problem, but I’m
calling to report something that I’m seeing right now.”

The call centre agent got ready to connect the call to the emergency
dispatch service while replying in a calm voice to make sure that the
caller wouldn’t start panicking over the phone.

“Is it something urgent? Should I dispatch the emergency personnel

to your location?”

– “Urgent… is it? Honestly, I also don’t know how to explain the

current situation to you.”

The caller’s voice indicated that he was feeling really hesitant over
something here, so just in case, the agent decided to confirm the
caller’s identity first.

794
As it turned out, the caller was actually a college professor, and
judging from his family circumstances, or the past records of lodging
emergency calls, he didn’t seem to be the sort to make prank calls
for fun.

“Sir, you need to describe the situation so we can dispatch the right
kind of response personnel to the scene.”

– “…”

“Can you explain to me in detail what you see?”

It was at that point that the agent heard the caller take deep breaths
over the phone’s speaker.

– “Something is about to shatter. There are lots of cracks.”

There was a building in a desert about to topple over? The agent

tilted his head this way and that before asking again.

“Where are these cracks exactly, sir?”

– “Well, that’s the darnedest thing….”

The voice of the caller hesitated for a long time again as if he still
couldn’t believe what he saw, but eventually it did come out of the
phone.

– “The sky… the sky is breaking up!”

***

April.

This was the time when pretty much all students would find
themselves with barely any free time, but for Jin-Woo facing mid-
term exams and the track competition literally around the corner, it
proved to be a great deal more hectic than usual.

795
As he was studying deep into the night, his little sister, Jin-Ah,
entered his room while carrying a tray of sliced Korean melon.

“Oppa, Mom says you should eat these while studying.”

Jin-Woo was concentrating on the textbooks below the desk lamp’s

light, and raised his head to greet her.

“What about Dad?”

“Dad is on night shift duty from this week again.”

Jin-Woo received the plate with melon slices neatly arranged on top
and nodded his head. But then, he reached out to snatch his sister’s
ponytail just as she was about to sneak out of his room.

“Stop right there.”

“Heok!”

Jin-Ah turned around to face him with wide-open eyes and he sternly
asked her.

“Why are all these slices missing the soft middle sections?”

“I, uh, I don’t know….”

“You should say that while getting rid of those pips stuck near your
lips.”

“Ahh-iinng…”

Jin-Ah formed an unhappy expression at the fact that she got busted,
but he found her way too adorable when she acted like this and
couldn’t hold back his own laughter.

He used his thumb to remove the pips from the ends of his sister’s
lips and out of pure mischievousness, formed another stern
expression.

796
“If you eat only the softer part of the melon again, I’m gonna make
you eat nothing but the hard part for a whole day as punishment,
okay?”

“Hiii-eeeng….. Okay.”

Jin-Ah turned around to leave with a tearful expression and he lightly

patted her on the head.

Currently, she was in her sixth year in elementary school. Jin-Woo

had seen her grow up once before already, and pretty much anything
she did came across as adorable to him.

Crunch.

He began chewing on the sliced melon piece and focused his

concentration back on the questionnaire on the desk. When he did,
though, Igrit began to offer his counsel once more, as he was still
worried about his liege’s academic success.

[My liege, the 24th question should not be tackled in this manner,
but…]

‘I’m going to check the answer sheet, then?’

[….Allow me to ponder this query for a little while longer, my liege.]

‘…….’

It was rather commendable that he was so concerned about his

master, but this….

‘Oh, well. At least, I’m not bored during studying, so there’s that….’

Crunch.

As the number of questions remaining on the questionnaire

decreased, so did the number of sliced melon pieces on the plate.

797
Tick, tock….

And so, just how long had it been?

Abruptly, Jin-Woo sensed this chill and raised his head.

‘What was that? Where?’

He shot up from his chair and shifted his head in the direction of
where he detected that strange phenomenon. He closed his eyes and
focused his perception.

….He definitely hadn’t made a mistake just then. Right away, he

imagined the worst possible scenario and his expression hardened as
a result.

‘Where is that business card….?’

He quickly dug through the pockets of his school uniform and pulled
out a certain business card. It was none other than the one left
behind by the envoy of the Rulers.

Jin-Woo quickly dialled the number and tapped on the ‘Call’ icon on
his smartphone. The call itself got through really quickly.

– “It has been a while, Shadow Sovereign-nim.”

The envoy tried to greet him with a warm, welcoming voice, but Jin-
Woo simply spoke up certain coordinates without any hints of
emotion. And then, he added one more thing at the end.

“Is this your people’s doing?”

The envoy was stunned by his serious attitude and replied quickly.

– “I don’t understand what…. Hold on. Allow me to confirm.”

“…”

798
The brief silence was soon shattered by the panicky voice from the
other side of the line.

– “This, this is definitely not us. We are also finding out about this
matter through your call, Sovereign-nim. I’m sure you already know,
but this method of crossing dimensions is different from ours.”

As expected – it wasn’t the absolute worst possibility, much to his

relief. Still, it didn’t mean that the situation itself had become any
better, though.

‘To Earth…. Someone, or something, is coming.’

Whether they held good or bad intentions, there was no way to tell
for the time being. So, he should start preparing for either case right
away.

Jin-Woo fell into deep thought as he stood there, still holding the
phone, before he spoke to the envoy.

“Can you come and see me?”

He added that there was also something else he’d like to talk about
and that prompted the envoy to reply as if it had been waiting for
that all this time.

– “I shall come and speak to you tomorrow.”

***

The meeting place was the cafe where Jin-Woo met Yu Jin-Ho for the
first time outside the dungeon. He got there just in time and found
the envoy already waiting for him by the corner of the cafe, having
arrived a while ago.

After entering, Jin-Woo wordlessly settled down on the opposite side

of the Ruler’s proxy. The latter only discovered the former’s presence

799
after he appeared right in front of its eyes. The envoy performed a
polite bow of the head.

With the situation being what it was, Jin-Woo went straight to the
meat of the discussion.

“The things trying to get here…. Do you have any clues on who they
are?”

“They are the ‘Outsiders’ that tried to step into my world not too
long ago. They were beaten back by the Army of the Heavens and it
seems that they have now set their sights on this world, instead.”

“Why are they trying to come here?”

“They are a race of giants that consumes the rocks found on a planet
that can support lifeforms. They are referred to as a race of ‘Titans’
and are known for their evil nature even back in their own world.
Their reason for coming to Earth should be rather obvious at this
point.”

Jin-Woo leaned against the chair’s back and nodded his head.

“….So, they are not friends.”

“Yes, they are most certainly not.”

Now that he knew what their purpose was, the nature of his
response had been decided, as well. However, there was something
he still felt curious about.

“This didn’t happen before the Chalice of Rebirth was used, so what
gives?”

Jin-Woo could only remember the Gates and monsters, but nothing
about the attack of an alien race capable of ‘eating’ a planet. The

800
envoy hesitated slightly with his answer before willingly admitting to
it.

“Yes, you’re indeed correct. Actually, when I told you about them
invading our world not too long ago, I was referring to the timeline
that has been overwritten.”

“Meaning, the creatures that should have been aiming for your
world changed their heading towards Earth, instead?”

“Yes.”

The envoy replied as thus, carefully observing any changes in Jin-

Woo’s mood. Of course, he immediately figured out the reason for
this change.

“I’m the cause.”

“Those creatures chased after the traces of Sovereign-nim, who

possesses incredible power…. At least, that’s what the exalted Rulers
believe happened in this event.”

Just like how one would rely on the light from the lighthouse
illuminating the lone pathway to navigate the treacherous nighttime
waters when you couldn’t see an inch in front of your nose, the race
of ‘Titans’ had been led towards this small planet by the enormous
power being emitted by the Shadow Sovereign.

The potential influence Jin-Woo’s powers would have on this world,

the one that shouldn’t exist and shouldn’t remain – the part the
Rulers were worried about had finally become reality.

Still, the Rulers felt that they owed Jin-Woo big time and thus, they
weren’t planning to sit back and watch another crisis unfold on
Earth. The agent made sure to drive this point home.

801
“The exalted Rulers have already deployed the Army of the
Heavens.”

Jin-Woo slowly shook his head.

“No, it’ll be too late.”

Even if they started creating a tunnel connecting from that side to

here right now, at a bare minimum they would still need a good few
years to get here. By then, everything would be over.

In that case….

“I shall take care of it.”

‘….My soldiers and I will stop those b*stards.’

Jin-Woo was fully confident of defeating these new enemies if they

were on the level of being driven back by the Army of the Heavens.

The voice of the Shadow Sovereign seemed to heavily press down on

the envoy’s shoulders and he nervously swallowed his dry saliva.
Regardless which forces they were, none of them would prefer to
have this man as their enemy. The Ruler’s agent suddenly felt pity for
this race of ‘Titans’ now.

By the way, if this meeting wasn’t to ask for reinforcements, then

why were they even here?

Jin-Woo replied as if he had seen through the agent’s thoughts.

“What you asked me back then…. I thought it’s about time that I tell
you my answer.”

“Ah, ah. I see. You were talking about that matter.”

The Rulers made an offer to make available a location that the

enormous power of the Shadow Sovereign wouldn’t cause an issue.

802
It seemed that he was able to come to a decision due to this crisis.
The envoy nodded his head after seeing Jin-Woo’s determination-
filled expression.

“I understand what you’re trying to say. As soon as this crisis is

resolved, we….”

“I’m remaining on Earth.”

“….Pardon?”

The envoy’s brows rose up after hearing that unexpected reply.

However, Jin-Woo’s voice remained composed, with just a hint of a
grin etched on his lips.

“You know, I still want to live here.”

He wanted to spend his time in this world populated by his family,

friends, as well as others that he’d like to meet and talk to. After he
ran into Association President Woo Jin-Cheol, no, Detective Woo
now, he had finally realised what he wanted to do.

‘Well, it’s a bit cumbersome that he keeps calling me up so he can

buy me food, but still.’

In any case, Woo Jin-Cheol was a good man. And that was precisely
why that young detective being dragged around by him could carry a
happy expression like that.

‘I’d like to be with those people.’

Jin-Woo thought that he’d like to be by their sides and be able to

laugh along with them. The envoy spied on Jin-Woo’s smile and
replied with a sheepish smile of his own.

803
“Actually, I…. I was getting really bored with staying in this world,
you see. What a relief this is. Now I can finally return to my world as
well.”

One year since that day. If one said it was short, then it was, but if
one said it was too long, then it could be, as well.

The envoy’s mission of remaining in this world to wait for the

Shadow Sovereign’s decision had finally come to an end. And seeing
his expression, it was rather clear that the odds of him changing his
mind were absolutely none.

“Well, then….”

While looking as if a load had been taken off his shoulders, the envoy
stood up from his seat. He then bowed his waist towards Jin-Woo,
no, the greatest hero who brought the war of two worlds to an end.

“I entrust this world to your capable hands.”

***

Jin-Woo stopped digging through his closet and scratched his head.

‘This isn’t good….’

He couldn’t see a single piece of garment that could hide his face.
But then again, he bought a hoodie and a baseball cap to hide his
face riddled with scars he earned while working as a low ranked
Hunter, so it was only obvious that they wouldn’t remain anymore in
the new timeline.

Left with no choice, Jin-Woo decided to create the clothing he

wanted.

The black smoke quickly enveloped him and became thick like actual
liquid, before transforming into a hoodie that he used to wear so

804
much in the past. He pulled the hood up and stood before the mirror
in his room.

‘How long has it been, me in this look…..?’

He experienced renewed reminiscence of the time erased, as the

reflection was like looking at his past self. His lips exposed below the
hoodie curled up into a grin.

“Nice.”

With this, his preparation was over. And his figure slowly submerged
into the shadow beneath his feet.

***

Somewhere in the desert, west of the United States of America.

The American government sealed tight the surrounding area and

invited every expert they could get their hands on to this place, but
in the end, every single one of them failed to come up with a
meaningful hypothesis.

“I wonder. Well, this could be….”

“I’ve researched many strange weather phenomena across the globe

for over 30 years, but this is my first time seeing something like
that.”

From the get-go, how could any expert, regardless of the numbers
gathered, be able to explain the phenomenon of cracks developing in
the atmosphere?

Crack, split…

Even as they dithered about, the empty sky was slowly but surely
breaking apart bit by bit. Understandably, the American defence
forces surrounding this area just in case something bad happened

805
were very tense right now. If one were to exaggerate the scale a bit,
more than enough combat forces had been gathered here to literally
blow away a foreign nation.

The commander confidently spoke to the President of the U.S.A.

“Even if something pops out of there, Mister President, we shall take

care of them. Yes, yes, sir. The scale of the crack has grown much
larger since its initial discovery….”

While chatting on the comm device, the commander shifted his gaze
over to the ranks of the soldiers without thinking too much and
discovered a certain man walking closer to his position.

A man whose face was obscured by the pulled-up hoodie was

walking straight towards the commander’s location.

“Who the hell is that guy? How the f*ck did he even enter here?”

– “Is there a problem, commander?”

“No, sir. Let me call you back a bit later, sir.”

The commander hurriedly ended the call and, along with his
adjutants, quickly ran towards this unknown man.

“Excuse me! Who are you?”

This was a restricted zone secured by a water-tight cordon of

soldiers, yet how could a normal-looking civilian waltz right in
completely unhindered? Signs of irritation floated up on the
commander’s face as an annoying situation suddenly came to visit
him.

However, the man didn’t show any signs of fear, even though he was
surrounded by heavily-armed soldiers. The uninvited guest coming to

806
speak to the commander was, of course, Jin-Woo. And he certainly
had something to say.

“Please, withdraw your troops from here. This place is dangerous.”

His English didn’t sound natural.

‘Is he a foreigner?’

The commander formed a deep frown and in order to put the fear of
God in this uninvited guest, he shouted out at the top of his lungs.

“Do you have a death wish?! Do you seriously not know who is in
real danger here?”

‘What do you mean by that, mister? It’s you, obviously.’

Jin-Woo knew that convincing these people with words would be

impossible, so he released just a tiny bit of his power. When he did,
the commander, his adjutants, as well as all the soldiers watching Jin-
Woo floated up in the air at once.

“Uh, uhhh?!”

The commander became flustered and he quickly took a look around

him. There was only one person with both of his feet firmly planted
on the ground. Not only that, the vehicles, various machinery and
equipment, and even heavy tanks were floating over a metre in the
air.

Having witnessed something that couldn’t scientifically happen, the

eyes of the commander began trembling hard.

“B-but, how?!”

Deciding that this much was enough, Jin-Woo brought them back
down to the ground.

807
However, the first thing the commander did upon landing was to
yank out his sidearm. His highly-agitated voice rang around loudly in
the desert sky.

“What the hell are you?!”

Jin-Woo raised both of his hands up to his shoulders to clearly

indicate that he didn’t want to fight and calmly continued on with his
explanation.

“Soon, enemies possessing similar powers as what you saw will

emerge from that spot in the sky. And….”

He used Mana to take away the commander’s sidearm and had it

float over to near his head.

When the pistol suddenly began moving towards Jin-Woo seemingly

on its own, the nervous soldiers quickly cocked their rifles and got
ready to fire, but the commander was equally as quick to raise his
hand to stop them from doing anything.

“Hold your fire!”

While he was busy calming his subordinates down, Jin-Woo used the
‘invisible hand’ to pull the trigger of the pistol now aimed at his face.

Blam! Blam! Blam!!

Bullets that failed to even touch Jin-Woo’s body fell powerlessly to

the ground. The gazes of the soldiers relying on their firearms until
then were rapidly filling up with sheer astonishments and panic.

Jin-Woo could sense their hearts freezing up, too. He swept his gaze
around and took in their eyes of shock and panic, before calmly
continuing on with his explanation.

“Your weapons will not work against the incoming enemies.”

808
Soon after that, his gaze landed on the commander, still rooted
firmly in his spot.

“Are you willing to watch the meaningless deaths of your

subordinates?”

“What should…. What am I supposed to do, then?”

“Withdraw your troops from here as far as possible. I shall be the

only one to remain here.”

“You alone…? Are you planning to fight against the enemies by

yourself?”

Him alone, was it….

Jin-Woo didn’t particularly feel the need to explain himself any

further, so he just nodded his head.

“…”

The commander shut his mouth and began weighing his options, but
then suddenly, he yanked out his spare sidearm tucked neatly in the
back of his pants and fired several shots at Jin-Woo.

Blam! Blam!! Blam!!! Blam!!!!

Every single bullet fired from the commander all tumbled to the
ground powerlessly as soon as they reached Jin-Woo’s vicinity.

This man was a ‘monster’. No, at this point, wasn’t he more like a
character from some mythical legend, rather than a simple monster?

The commander bore witness to the miracle that kept repeating

itself and eventually lowered his weapon. He then spun towards his
soldiers and shouted out loudly so that they could hear him.

809
“All personnel, pull-out!! We withdraw from here, as quickly and
efficiently as possible!!”

The adjutants quickly relayed the commander’s new order to the rest
of the defence force.

“Pull out, now!!”

“Pulling out!”

This well-trained army quickly distanced themselves away from the

potential combat zone. Jin-Woo observed their withdrawal process
before shifting his gaze over to the large fissure rapidly developing in
the sky.

He could sense it now.

He could sense the intense greed of the enemies wanting to devour

this land.

He could even sense their heavy breathing as if they were close by.

For the first time in a while, his Black Heart began pounding hard
again to notify him of the entrance of new enemies. A grin formed
on Jin-Woo’s face as he summoned his shortswords from subspace.

Soon, they would….

Craaak

Split, crack!!

The atmosphere rocked from an intense impact force and the

dimension finally split open. With that, giants seemingly made out of
rocks stepped onto this land.

810
They belatedly discovered a small lifeform below their feet while
emitting a thick amount of hostility towards them and began
snorting in derision.

[What’s this? Just you alone wish to stop us?]

This feeling – Jin-Woo closed his eyes to enjoy this stillness before
the battle and slowly opened them back again.

Ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump!

His heart was beating loudly.

He finally unleashed all of his powers and spoke up.

“Does it look like I’m alone to you?”

With that, his shadow extended in the blink of an eye to encompass

the vast land behind him, and the Shadow Army of ten million rose
up at once.

811
Chapter 256: Side Story 13 - A day in
Fangs’ life
Gooood morning!!

….Was what I’d like to say, but there was no distinction between day
and night in the world of shadows. So, I simply stretched my limbs
without saying anything after waking up from my nap.

Yawn-!!

The sleep one could get inside this place, the ‘territory of eternal
rest’, was absolutely the best, no two ways about it. Honestly
speaking, the majority of the Shadow Army’s soldiers would spend
most of their downtime sleeping until our liege summons us.

I should be seen on the side of those who enjoyed napping, but

today was a very important day and I just had to rouse myself up.
Soldiers stretching their muscles to get ready for the day discovered
me and began bowing their heads to greet me.

“Oh, hello, Fangs-nim.”

“Sure, sure.”

“Good day to you, Commander Fangs.”

“Right, right.”

I didn’t want to show it, but heck, I couldn’t help but feel good when
this happened.

I came under my liege’s wings relatively early compared to some

other soldiers and after my various accomplishments were
recognised, I now found myself in the position to command all the
magic-wielding soldiers in the army.

812
The hierarchy within the Shadow Army was determined by how
trusted one was by our liege, and that was why Ancient-grade
Dragons were paying their respects to a mere High Orc Shaman like
myself!

My Sovereign-nim, hooray!!

My exalted and great Shadow Sovereign-nim, hooray!!

‘Tsk, tsk….’

I ended up shouting out three cheers towards my liege again today

due to the overwhelming gratitude I felt. While feeling happy and
content, I headed towards the portion of the army comprising of ant
soldiers.

Quite unlike other Shadow Soldiers, these ants didn’t seem to enjoy
napping and were always doing something or rather to keep
themselves busy. After finding me visiting their territory, they began
bowing their heads in greetings.

“Huh-huhuh….”

I half-heartedly accepted their greetings and quickened my walking

pace. If I were to be honest, I felt a wee bit scared by these ant
soldiers, even though we were on the same side.

Because, well, not only were they the most vicious and cruel of all
the Shadow Soldiers, but they were also scarily diligent with their
given tasks, too.

Kkiieek!

Kkiiiahk!

813
Whenever these ants screeched out those sounds containing
meanings that were lost on me, I couldn’t help but flinch my
shoulders just a little.

‘If it isn’t Beru Marshal-nim, just who would be capable of

commanding this lot….?’

Thankfully, Beru Marshal-nim in question must’ve read my mind,

because I didn’t have to walk far to meet him, who had graciously
come out to greet me as well.

When our gazes met, though, his shoulders began quivering

ominously.

“Kiieehehehehehet.”

“Ehehehehe.”

“Kii-hahahahahat!”

“Ehehehehehet!!”

We stood face to face while laughing to our hearts’ content.

Judging from the expression on Beru-nim’s face, a very satisfactory

item must’ve been created. So, it was only obvious that a big smile
would form on my own face too, as it was me who entrusted the
creation of that item to him in the first place.

Beru-nim quickly approached me and then, showed me the ‘item’

hidden behind his back.

“So, what do you think?”

I was so moved by my emotions that I ended up exclaiming out

loudly.

“Hoh!!”

814
The item that I requested Beru-nim who possessed excellent crafting
skills, with its creation even at the risk of inconveniencing him! A
robe with a hood attached that resembled what our liege wore not
too long ago had been completed and was waiting for me.

“Kii-hehehehet!”

“Ehehehehet!”

I threw off the robe on my body right away and put on the brand
new one Beru-nim handed over.

The best!!

Was there a need for any other description than these two words?

I couldn’t control my overflowing, heightened emotions and

addressed Beru-nim with an abashed voice.

“I can’t even imagine how should I go about repaying you for this,
Marshal-nim…”

“Keh-hehehet. How can I turn a blind eye to your wish to become

more like our liege? As long as you’re happy, it’s all good.”

“Yes, I am truly happy. So much so that I’m almost tempted to make

it a duty of every Magic Soldier to wear this robe, Marshal-nim.”

“Kii-hahahahahat!”

“Uwehehehehet!”

Beru-nim couldn’t control his laughter for a long time, but then, he
fixed his gaze on me as if he had discovered something else.

“That thing…. Wouldn’t it be better to turn that item into a staff

rather than walking around with it in your hand?”

815
What Beru-nim was pointing at was the ‘Bead of Avarice’ I carried in
my right hand most of the time.

“Heuh…. Does that mean I can entrust you for this one as well….?”

I was sheepish, but still, I presented the Bead, but Beru-nim raised
his hand to stop me.

“I can’t help you with magical artefacts. Unless you bring me a living
kin of the bearded Dwarves, then the story might change.”

“Ah…. I see.”

“Since we’re talking about it, how about entrusting the job with the
bearded Dwarves? They might be pretty terrible at warfare, but they
are still talented artisans, aren’t they?”

“…..”

I rubbed my chin and pondered this dilemma, and eventually,

nodded my head.

“That is a good idea, Marshal-nim.”

“Kii-hehehehet!”

I bowed my waist 90 degrees to express my gratitude towards Beru-

nim and his excellent work, before quickly making my way out of the
ant’s area. This time, my steps took me to the area populated by my
friends, the Dragons.

We grew quite close after comparing our firepower, you see. I

explained to them my circumstances, and they willingly stepped
forward to lend me aid. I chose the smallest of my friends and
climbed up on his back.

There was only one reason why I chose this guy. Well, I was cursed
with short legs so if I mounted a friend with a bigger body, I might

816
have to suffer through the terrible pain of my groin being torn in
half, that’s why.

Soon, my Dragon friend flapped its wings and flew up in the air. I
pointed in the direction where the bearded Dwarves were residing.

We were currently inside the world of eternal rest. It was wide

enough to be called infinite, and on top of that, there were ten
million soldiers residing here, so some places could only be accessed
after borrowing the abilities of my friends like this.

Flap, flap….

As the Dragon friend flew rapidly to our destination, I sneaked a

glance below us and oh boy, there sure were lots of soldiers below
us.

‘There is… Grand-Marshal-nim.’

Slap, slap!!

“Stand up straight, Titans!!”

Currently, Bellion Grand-Marshal-nim was using his long sword that

could be manipulated by one’s mind like a whip to properly re-
educate the newest additions to the army.

The newbies must’ve been fairly renowned back in their own world
and that resulted in them still being influenced by their old habits,
which meant that Grand-Marshal-nim would have to strictly
discipline them for a little while longer.

“….Ah!”

Bellion-nim discovered me and my Dragon friend in the air and

waved his hand at us, necessitating me to hurriedly bow my head to
him as well.

817
After we flew past the location of the newbie training area, I spotted
Igrit-nim. He was so immersed in studying that he failed to notice a
Dragon flying above his head. We couldn’t disturb Igrit Marshal-nim
when he was being like this, so we did our best to get out of there as
quietly as possible.

Kii-ahhk!

Once we put the areas with Marshal-nims behind us, my Dragon

friend unfurled its wings even wider and increased his speed.

A truly wonderful scenery greeted us!

Countless Shadow Soldiers, now no bigger than ants in our eyes,

went past in a blur below us.

Soldiers that were asleep; soldiers that were in the middle of

training; soldiers noisily chatting away; soldiers playing cards to while
away time; and even those soldiers busy grabbing at each other’s
collars, their voices getting louder still….

What a colourful bunch they were.

Indeed, soldiers of all varieties could be seen below my feet. It

wasn’t originally like this, however.

We were psychically connected to our liege’s mind, and as his

powers grew stronger and stronger, we began to grow closer in
personality to him, as well. Meaning, we who only knew and desired
wanton destruction were gradually learning more about our liege’s
human side.

The process of many new and different emotions of a human filling

up our once-empty chests was quite a refreshing experience, that’s
for sure.

818
When our liege’s heart begins to pound, even our hearts would go
on a riot alongside it.

I liked my liege very much.

I could only express my gratitude to my liege who had shown me a

new world that I never ever imagined experiencing before.

My Sovereign-nim, hooray!!

My exalted and great Shadow Sovereign-nim….

‘Eh?’

While I was unconsciously exalting my liege after being moved by my

emotions once more, we had already arrived at the area populated
by the kins of the bearded Dwarves.

Perhaps fitting for our comrades that enjoyed crafting things, they
had managed to construct a proper village, what with houses and
smithies, as well as other buildings dotting the landscape.

Flap, flap.

After my Dragon friend landed on the ground, I cautiously stepped

down, my toes wiggling and searching for solid footing.

“F-Fangs Commander-nim!”

“Commander-nim?”

The bearded Dwarves discovered my sudden, unannounced visit and

quickly gathered around before politely bowing their heads. I was
pretty sure that they were flustered by my presence, since it would
be very rare for a Commander to come visit this far-flung ‘frontier’
area.

819
I politely explained what my situation was to these very courteous
folks. When I was finished, their Elder replied with a bright
expression.

“Ah, I see…. Please, leave it to us. As a matter of fact, we were

troubled by the fact that we couldn’t find a good place to use the
divine timber our liege had bestowed upon us.”

“Hoh-oh!”

It seemed that the right material had been prepared already.

While I was being treated to a cup of warm tea at the residence of

the Elder, other artisans gathered together to craft my new weapon.

“What do you think, Commander-nim?”

The Elder confidently presented a cool-looking staff and I cried out as

another bout of emotions overwhelmed me.

“Hoh-ohhhhh!!”

I had no choice but to carry around the Bead of Avarice in my hand,

but that beautiful thing glowing in bright crimson hue was now
decorating the end of this great staff.

“Very good! It’s wonderful!”

My mood lifted up so much that I almost flew away from there. And
as I took hold of the staff and assumed several different poses, the
corners of the Elder’s lips curled up.

“The word wonderful would better suit the robe you’re wearing right
now instead of the staff, Commander-nim!”

“Uwehehehehehet! I see that you too have a great sense of fashion!”

820
I was able to leave the residential area of the kins of bearded
Dwarves in utter satisfaction. I watched them wave their hands to
bade me goodbye and raised my thumb up real high as my reply.

If, in the distant future, my liege asked me about the coolness of this
staff, then I swore in my heart to mention their hard work in crafting
this item.

I went back the way I came and returned to the area of the Magic
Soldiers. The first thing I did was to summon all the Magic Soldiers
under my command and showed off my new robe and weapon
combo.

“It’s really cool, Fangs-nim!”

“It’s the best!”

“I can’t stop my tears from gushing out, Fangs Commander-nim!”

Rather obviously, praises kept pouring in from everywhere. It was

the romance of all Magic Soldiers to wear cool-looking robes and
hold cool-looking staffs, after all!

“Uwuhuhuhuhut!!”

I magnanimously shared my joy with the rest of the Magic Soldiers,

and then, gifted the highest-quality robe I used to wear until recently
to this one particular soldier busy clapping his hands who said a
moment or two ago that he couldn’t stop crying.

“Thank you, thank you, Commander-nim!!”

“Uwuhuhuhuhut!!”

He was expressing his joy with his entire body and I lightly patted his
shoulders. But it was at this point that my eyes caught the sight of a
few big guys that I hadn’t seen before.

821
“And who you guys might be?”

The giants made out of rocks scratched the backs of their heads, and
one of them spoke to me in an awkward voice.

“Bellion-nim ordered us to come to this place.”

‘Ah, ah. I see.’

It seemed that there were a few Magic Soldiers among the ranks of
the new additions to the army. But then again, wouldn’t such a big
guy shooting magic spells around be a waste of his hulking…. No,
hang on a minute, that wasn’t something I could say with a straight
face, now was it?

In any case.

There was this one process that all newbie Magic Soldiers had to go
through if they were to be put under my command.

“There, there. Other Magic Soldiers, you’re dismissed for the time
being. The newbies, settle down there for a second.”

The rocky giants were so well disciplined that they politely knelt
down on the spot and quietly waited for me.

“From now on, I shall describe in detail what I’ve accomplished

during the first battle our liege fought against the horrifying enemy
called the Dragon Emperor, and then, every achievement I earned
during the ensuing battle within the gap between dimensions. Listen
well, and then…..”

After I finished telling them the lengthy tale of my unforgettable

history, I had the newbies still stewing in admiration towards me
return to their respective posts. It was then that I realised my day
had come to an end.

822
I sensed the encroaching embrace of Lady Sleep, so I unfurled the
bedding, lied down on it, and let out an almighty yawn.

“Yawn-!!”

I liked wonderful clothes, cool weapons, or telling stirring heroic

tales, but what I liked the most at the end of the day was to fall
asleep. Especially for sleep that closed out a day like today, which
was hectic, to say the least.

I pulled the duvet right up until my neck and slowly drifted into my
slumber while being embraced in this wonderful warmth. But then,
just as the sleepiness sneaked its way closer and carried me off to
the land of dreams, someone suddenly began shaking my shoulders!

How dare he?!

How dare anyone try to disrupt the sweet slumber of Commander

Fangs?! My eyes shot wide open as I got ready to rip the idiot apart.

“…?”

Igrit Marshal-nim was quietly looking at me from near my head.

“I love you, Marshal-nim.”

“….I am also grateful for your sincere loyalty.”

“By the way…. What brings you here, Marshal-nim?”

I pushed my upper torso up and Igrit Marshal-nim pointed to the

distant sky above.

“It’s about to begin. Didn’t we, the Commander-grade soldiers that

serve our liege from close by, agree to cheer him on when the time
came?”

“Heok!!”

823
I kicked the duvet off and hurriedly jumped up before raising my
head towards the sky. Like a gigantic movie theatre, the sky morphed
into a screen to share what our liege was viewing to the rest of us.

“Finally, is our liege about to meet Lady Hae-In?”

“That’s correct.”

“Uwohohohot!!”

So moved by the fact that I was allowed to share this historical

moment together with my liege, I ended up crying out loudly. The
rest of the Shadow Soldiers cheering on our liege then also raised
their arms high up and roared out as well.

Waaaahhhh-!!!

When our liege’s heart pounded away, ours would pound away as
well. I too raised my arms up high and joined in the chorus of
soldiers’ roars.

Waaaah-!!

My heart was beating really loud now.

824
Chapter 257: Side Story 14 - Only I’m Max
Level
Antares was my name.

I was the ‘First Sovereign’ born from the darkness, as well as the
‘Strongest Sovereign’. I was the king that lorded over all Dragon-kind,
an existence that signified terror and destruction.

That’s right.

All those who knew me referred to me as the ‘Dragon Emperor’ as a

sign of respect and awe.

However, something strange happened.

On a certain day, as I was getting ready to invade the planet called

‘Earth’ alongside the ten million-strong soldiers within our hideout
inside the gap between dimensions….

….I opened my eyes to discover that I was now occupying the body of
a human being.

‘…….’

And rather inexplicably, I seemed to have retained all the memories

of this human, as well. I quickly found a mirror in the corner of the
room and took a look at myself, only to emit a shocked gasp.

‘What’s this? Why does this human’s face look so feeble?’

Hah-ah, how pitifully pathetic this man was.

The name of this human was Seong Jin-Woo, a young man acting as a
rank E Hunter in a nation called the Republic of Korea. It seemed that
this human never gave up on being a Hunter, even though his

825
pathetic level of abilities drove him to the moments of near death
quite often.

‘His reason is…. his mother’s illness?’

Just as I began thinking to myself that such a measly little illness

would be healed in an instant with my magic, the human’s mobile
phone suddenly began vibrating loudly.

Vrrr…. Vrrr….

I discovered the miniature electronic device angrily vibrating on top

of a desk and picked it up. When I did, I was greeted by an urgent
female voice coming from the other side of the phone line.

– “Seong Hunter-nim, where are you? It’s almost the raid time, yet
you still haven’t arrived yet….”

I tried to match this voice to the memories of my human body and

soon, came across a result of ‘Hunter’s Association Employee’.

‘Hmph.’

I was thinking of ending this call which was answered purely out of
this body’s habitual reaction, but then, what this female said towards
the end got on my nerves somewhat.

– “Are you going to be late again?”

‘…..!!!’

Being ‘late’.

The action of failing to meet the promised deadline because one

lacked the ability to arrive on time. Meaning, this female just dared
to ask me, the mighty ‘Dragon Emperor’ and the personification of
omnipotent powers, that I’d do something which was the very
symbol of incompetence.

826
Since this was completely unacceptable, rage quickly filled up my
eyes.

“You…. Where are you right now?”

– “What do you mean, where? We are right in front of the Gate, you
know. And why did you suddenly stop using the polite speech all of a
sudden, Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim?”

I concentrated for a bit to find the exact location where this insolent
female was speaking from. My sensory perception spread out to
envelop the entire city and soon enough, I found her coordinates.

“Found you.”

– “Pardon? What do you mean by you foun….”

Click.

The location was about 11 kilometres away in the human distance

measuring system, and since it wasn’t too far, I ran with all my might
and arrived there in only a couple of seconds.

And then, I stopped right in front of that female Association

employee as she began lowering the phone away from her ear, now
that the call had been disconnected.

“Now, am I still late, woman?”

“H-Hunter-nim?!”

Perhaps she had sensed just a tiny fraction of my limitless power,

because she began backpedalling with a deeply frightened
expression etched on her face.

I reached out and grabbed her shoulders as to make sure she’d not
get away and asked her again.

827
“Tell me. Am I being tardy now?”

“N-no, not at all.”

“Very good.”

I released her as a look of satisfaction floated up on my face. I then

swept my gaze around the surroundings to find a group of Hunters
raising a bit of fuss.

Rather than focusing on these unremarkable individuals and their

forgettable faces, I focused on the distinct aroma rising up from the
paper cups they were holding at the moment.

“Coffee…. I also want to drink coffee.”

I turned around to look at the female employee with her rapidly-

paling complexion, and she bowed her waist with all of her heart.

“I-I’m truly sorry, Hunter-nim. We ran out of coffee just now…..”

“It’s not an issue.”

“Pardon?”

Even before she had the chance to raise her bowed heard, I walked
over to the closest human and snatched his paper cup away.

“W-what are you doing?!”

Gulp, gulp.

I swallowed the sweet liquid in one go and formed a crumpled

expression, causing the flustered man who lost his coffee to me to
jump up in fright and quickly flee from there.

“Hahah!!”

828
The one possessing great powers would take away what the weak
possessed, that was the way of the Sovereigns. It seemed that such
logic also applied to humans and that certainly made me feel rather
refreshed.

“Mister Seong…. Isn’t he acting a little bit weird today?”

“Yes, his eyes today are a bit….”

“Well, I’ve been getting this really creepy, eerie feeling from him
since he showed up here.”

Other Hunters were murmuring amongst themselves behind my

back, but there was no reason to pay heed to the opinions of these
lowly humans anyway, so I outright ignored them.

“There, there. Since everyone is here, let’s get started.”

While the Hunters began stretching their muscles to get ready for
the raid, I shifted my gaze towards the ‘Gate’ that these people were
scheduled to enter.

‘….’

That place, it… was quite suspicious.

The Gates that appeared on Earth were, without a doubt, the ploy of
the Rulers, yet…. Why was I picking up the aura of a Sovereign from
there?

There was a need to investigate this. I glared at the Gate with eyes as
sharp as a hawk and stood behind the Hunters getting ready to
enter.

“I’m coming along.”

“O-of course, you do need to come with us, Hunter Seong.”

829
Perhaps they too had detected the eerie, chilling atmosphere oozing
out from the interior of the Gate, because the Hunters were forming
flustered expressions as well. I accompanied them and stepped past
the portal.

***

Pow, bang, boom, thud!!

As I began pummelling the fake monsters placed here to hide the

real purpose of this dungeon into oblivion, other Hunters began
showing me their respect.

“Isn’t Mister Seong acting seriously weird today??”

“No, well…. Maybe the monsters of this dungeon are just too
weak…?”

“But, I can’t see his movements. My eyes can’t follow Mister Seong
at all….”

I took care of all the monsters in an instant and finally discovered a

suspicious entrance.

“We go through here.”

“Hold on, we need to take a vote to decide on such issues…”

This man didn’t get to finish his sentence. Because he lost his
consciousness from a single hit from me.

Plop.

I looked down at the collapsed old man before scanning the rest of
the Hunters.

“Anyone else want to take a vote?”

“….”

830
The decision to enter the passage was unanimous. We walked the
seemingly-infinite corridor and finally arrived at the giant door at the
end.

“But, how can there be a door at the end of the cave?”

“Has there ever been a boss room with a doorway before?”

“No, this is a first….”

“This… wouldn’t this be too dangerous?”

Noisy, noisy….

The Hunters didn’t bother to hide their high level of anxiety. I too
had detected the truly scary aura leaking out from the interior and
agreed with their opinion that things could get dangerous.

That was why as soon as I opened the door, I grabbed the collar of a
Hunter standing at the front of the pack and lightly tossed him
inside.

“U-uwahk?!”

The thrown idiot flailed about unsightly on the floor, but contrary to
initial worries, nothing happened. Only after confirming that it was
safe to enter, I strode right in. The vast open interior waiting for me
was decorated like an ancient temple.

“W-what is this place??”

Other Hunters belatedly entered behind me and began searching

around, but they were wasting their time doing that.

I closed my eyes for a brief moment and focused my senses; soon, I

discovered the b*stard that was basically the true puppeteer of this
place.

831
“It’s that one over there.”

Hunters quickly gathered in front of an angel statue holding a stone

tablet that I pointed at.

“Looks like something is written on the tablet?”

“Uh, uh? It’s the Rune letters!”

It seemed that a Hunter capable of reading the Rune letters were not
present among us, so I read it out loud for them, instead.

“The Laws of the Karutenon Temple.”

When I did, though, someone suddenly pulled at my arm. I looked

behind me only to find a young girl with a completely pale
complexion standing there.

“T-the god statue over there, it….”

“Unhand me.”

I shook off the girl’s hands and continued to read down the stone
tablet.

“One, worship the god. Two, exalt the god. Three, prove your piety.
Those who do not keep to these laws shall not leave this place alive.”

It was at that exact moment two beams of crimson light shot out
from the eyes of the gigantic god statue sitting in a corner over
there.

Zzzziiinnng-!!

I didn’t even bother to dodge or block those beams and simply stood
up proudly to clash face-to-face with the attack.

“You dare to belittle this Emperor with so little power?!”

832
I ridiculed the destructive power of the beams that didn’t even come
anywhere remotely close to that of the Breath fired by an Ancient-
grade Dragon, before stepping forward to display what true
destruction looked like.

Kwahaaaaaaahhh-!!

The ‘Breath of Destruction’ fired out in a straight line from my mouth

completely blew away the head of the god statue.

“Now that is true power.”

That served as the starting signal. The statues lining up the walls of
the temple like some decorations began rushing towards me while
ignoring other Hunters.

“Keuh-hahahahaha!!”

What a bunch of arrogant dolls!

With nothing but my bare hands, I began smashing apart the heads
of the statues pouncing at me one by one.

Boom! Bang! Boom! Kwa-jeeck! Ka-boom!!

“Too slow!! So slow!”

Hunters quickly lowered themselves to the floor in order to dodge

the debris flying all over the place. Some of them even began crying
out, too.

“Why! Why does it feel like there was another way?!”

“What was up with those laws or whatever just now?!”

Even before their desperate cries could come to an end, most of the
statues were turned into nothing more than shattered rubble by my

833
hands. It was only obvious, but well, they didn’t even serve their role
as a proper warm-up for me.

“Is that all you have??”

The angel statue with the stone tablet suddenly rose up from its seat
and loudly shouted out, perhaps incensed by the fact that all of its
careful preparation had been rendered useless by my power.

[Y-you b*stard, just what is your iden…..]

“Silence!”

I yanked the spear loose from the grip of a broken statue and threw
it straight at the angel. In less than a blink, the spear penetrated
through the neck of the b*stard and it collapsed down to the floor.

I didn’t come here to converse with a fake. What I wanted to bring

out was the true figure hidden behind the scenes!

“Reveal yourself, you coward!”

I got rid of all the hindrances and roared out loudly, and that
prompted the headless god statue to quietly raise itself up off its
throne.

Indeed, that’s better.

The corners of my lips curled up as the sensation of boiling blood

coursed throughout this body. The god statue strode closer and
stopped right before me to look down.

[The Sovereign of Destruction, our paths were fated to cross like this.
Here, in this place, I shall put an end to our ill-fated relationship!]

“Ha-ha!! Now that is an excellent idea!”

834
The god statue was rapidly enveloped in a jet-black aura and
transformed into a gigantic shadow, and I unleashed all of my
strength in order to contend with that massive hunk of power.

An ecstatic jolt coursed from the tip of my toes right up to the ends
of my hair.

“Come!”

Our battle would not end that easily!

***

“Heok?!”

Jin-Woo hurriedly raised his upper torso from the bed.

He spotted the familiar bed, familiar wallpapers, familiar ceiling, and

his old computer. He quickly took a look around and finally realised
that the place he woke up was in his own room.

‘It was a dream?’

It was a truly rubbish dream where he had become the Dragon

Emperor. No, should he say that the Dragon Emperor became him,
instead?

‘Hold up….’

He hurriedly confirmed the current time with his smartphone and

sighed in relief afterwards. There was still some time left before the
beginning of the exams.

‘Now that I think about it… It’s been four years already since I got rid
of the Dragon Emperor.’

835
Time flew by in the blink of an eye, and here he was, scheduled to
take the College Scholastic Ability Test later today. Him having a crap
dream like this was good evidence of how tense he felt right now.

Smirk.

Jin-Woo chuckled helplessly for a moment there before getting up

from the bed. Today, he’d get to confirm the fruit of his hard work
and determination of the past four years.

He had already decided on which university he wanted to go to.

Because this one person he just had to meet would attend that
institution later on.

‘What a relief that you aren’t so good with studying, Jin-Ho.’

Yu Jin-Ho.

Jin-Woo reminded himself of the name of the guy he dearly missed

and pulled open the curtains covering up the windows to the side.
The dusky aura of the dawn was gradually fading away outside.

‘I shall go there first and wait for you.’

Jin-Woo breathed in the winds of the early morning entering through

the open gap of his window while thinking about the reunion that’d
take place in the near future. It was at that moment when the door
to his room was pushed open, accompanied by the loud, hurried
footsteps.

“S-son, you know that today is the CSAT day, right?”

“Son, as your father, I can take you there, you know?”

His parents couldn’t catch a wink during the night, worried that their
son might end up missing out on this all-important exam because he

836
woke up a bit late today. Jin-Woo looked at their haggard faces and
gently smiled while nodding his head.

“I’m ready.”

[Let’s go, my liege.]

Jin-Woo soon stepped out of his home as Igrit, sounding tense for
some reason, spoke words of encouragement.

What a refreshing morning this was.

837
Chapter 258: Side Story 15 - I’m going
there to meet you right now (1)
The United States of America, inside the official residence of the
nation’s president – the White House.

Several bigshots gathered in this iconic white building created for the
President of the U.S. of A to live and work.

“….”

Every single one of these important government officials occupying a

spot inside the briefing room all carried tense expressions. Among
them, one person carried the gloomiest expression.

The American President continued to rub his face, wondering over

and over again if he had made the right call.

‘Rifts formed on an empty sky, and unidentified objects began

appearing from there.’

It was an unprecedented historical event. But, was it the right thing

to handle this incredible event without saying a word to the public at
large?

No, before that, did they even possess the capability to deal with
‘the objects that came out’ from there?

All he could do was anxiously wait for the arrival of the commander
in charge of the operation. And, when the entrance to the
conference room opened up and General Chester Harrison entered,
the President quickly got up from his seat to welcome the military
man.

“Harrison, just what the hell happened back there?”

The final report sent in from the location of the event was…

838
– The situation has been normalised. I repeat, the situation this side
has been normalised.

….That report, sadly enough, lacked the most important ‘how’ of that
normalisation process.

That was why so many bigshots, including the POTUS himself, were
nervously waiting for the arrival of the military man inside this
conference room.

Chester mouthed a brief greeting to his boss and scanned the room
for a short while, and stood in front of the room.

“Rather than me trying to describe the situation to you, it’ll be far

quicker to play the video contained in here.”

What he was holding was a small USB stick. The President grew
curious about its contents in an instant and hurriedly nodded his
head.

Not just him, though, but everyone present within the room was
staring at the tense-faced general’s hand. He slotted the USB stick in
the terminal and video footage began playing on the giant screen
installed on the wall of the conference room.

“This is the footage captured by the surveillance drones and robots.”

Chester Harrison spoke those short introductory words and stood

beside the screen while swallowing down his own nervous saliva.

He couldn’t even begin to imagine how these folks would react to

the footage about to be played. Well, he’d seen it several times
before coming here, and he was still unsure how to take it, even
now.

However, what was really important here was that it did happen.

839
The evidence of that was contained within this USB drive, and as the
commander in charge of this operation, it was his duty to reveal it to
this gathering of higher-ups.

The beginning of the footage started off with the ‘cracks’ in the sky.

“Keu-heum….”

“Huh-uh!”

Several gasps of shocks came from here and there as giants

seemingly made out of rocks emerged from the rift reminiscent of
dimension itself shattering away.

If it weren’t for the heads-up they received in regards to the

existence of those bizarre creatures, the inside of the conference
room would’ve descended into pure chaos by now.

But the truly shocking scene happened after that. In front of

terrifying giants, ones so scary that you’d forget to even breathe
while looking at them, stood the lone figure of a person.

‘Judging from his body size…. a boy?’

‘An East Asian, maybe?’

The Secretary of Defense couldn’t hold it back anymore and pointed

at the screen while asking his questions.

“That man!! Who is that man?? Where were our troops, Harrison?
And why was there a civilian standing in the middle of those
creatures?!”

It was as he said; this footage wasn’t a record that everyone in this

room was expecting to see in which the mightiest army on Earth –
the American military – smashed apart and drove back the creatures
of another world.

840
No, this video was all about a lone, nameless man whose face they
couldn’t even see.

With excellent timing, the screen now showed pitch-black ‘soldiers’

suddenly rising up from the ground behind that lone man. General
Chester Harrison, his gaze fixed to the screen until then, spoke as if
he was letting out a pained moan.

“….I’d like to know that myself as well.”

***

“Does it look like I’m alone to you?”

When those words came to an end, nearly ten million Shadow

Soldiers simultaneously lined up right behind Jin-Woo.

The number of Titans that emerged from the rift in the sky was
around several hundred. So, it was ten million versus a few hundred.
In any other normal circumstances, the ‘ten million’ should’ve easily
overwhelmed the opposition with this number.

The problem today, however, was the fact that each Titan possessed
powers equal to that of higher existences.

Ba-thump, ba-thump!!

Facing a battle for the first time in a long while, Jin-Woo’s heart
began pounding away quite loudly. He sent a mental communication
to Fangs, currently in charge of commanding all the Magic Soldiers.

– How are your preparations going so far?

[There is no problem on this side, my liege.]

Not just Fangs, but all of the Magic Soldiers were entrusted with
performing and maintaining magic spells to minimise the shock
waves that no doubt would be generated by this battle.

841
He had no choice but to do this, since this world had no Mana, and it
was simply far too fragile as it currently was.

Also, the uninvited guests came here with the purpose of literally
devouring this planet, so they wouldn’t go about flinging around
unnecessarily powerful magic spells, either. Inevitably, the battle
about to take place would be a confrontation involving physical
powers between allies and enemy forces.

A contest of pure raw strength, in other words.

– Good.

Thankfully, he didn’t dislike such a type of fighting, to begin with. A

smirk formed on Jin-Woo’s lips.

One of the Titans completely misinterpreted the meaning behind

that smirk and in the blink of an eye, smashed its fist down in pure
rage.

BOOM-!!

Too bad, the target – Jin-Woo – had already risen up in the air. He
had lightly jumped up like a pole vaulter and settled down gently on
top of the Titan’s fist like a falling feather.

‘……?’

This Titan’s expression hardened and a sense of ominous foreboding

crept up along its backside after seeing that smile etched on the
human’s face as he stood upright on top of its fist.

Sure enough, the human began dashing forward on top of the arm
next.

Pah-bababaht!

842
His legs were moving so fast that even the Titans, possessing as
much power as higher beings, couldn’t react in time. And when they
did, Jin-Woo was already well past this particular Titan’s shoulder,
heading straight to the back of its neck.

Soon, the shortsword held in his hand penetrated straight into the
Titan’s rocky neck.

[Kuwaaahk!!!]

It was almost like scratching the paint of a car with a coin. While
gripping tight the shortsword still buried in the neck of the gigantic
creature, Jin-Woo ran towards the other shoulder, leaving behind a
long, long line on the poor thing’s skin.

Kwa-gahgahgahgahgahk!!

The black aura loaded on the blade cleanly separated the head of the
Titan from the rest of its body.

Riiip!

Jin-Woo stood tall on the shoulder as the huge head rolled off its
body, and he provocatively glared at the other Titans. He could sense
rage, fluster, and fear creeping up on their expressions.

One at a time….

Memories, as well as the feelings he had while hunting down the

Army of the Chaos World in the gap between dimensions, floated
back up in his head one by one.

He knew he had succeeded in breaking the fighting spirit of these

creatures.

843
His original goal was the complete annihilation of the race of Titans.
And so, he finally had his Shadow Army break out of its standby
mode and enter the fray.

‘All personnel, advance!!’

The will to fight from the enormous army beginning to make its
move could be felt from below.

Waaaaaaahh-!!!

‘It’s no good that their leader stops moving here, right?’

At least, that was not his style, the style of the current Shadow
Sovereign. Jin-Woo’s sharp glare began searching for his next prey.

Flinch.

One of the Titans that met Jin-Woo’s glare flinched its shoulders.

The enemy that lost itself to fear would be the first one to be
devoured. He pounced in that direction while swinging his
shortsword, packed full of black aura.

This blade might not have been the ‘Kamish’s Wrath’, but Jin-Woo
had been roaming the battlefield for 27 years already, and the
control he could exert on the black aura was no longer dependent on
the weapons he wielded.

The black aura spreading out from the end of the shortsword
stretched out towards his front and completely sliced up the face of
the frozen Titan.

Kwa-gah-gahk!!

The giant that got terrified by the overwhelming power of this small
lifeform lost its life so easily like that. However, as it turned out, not
all Titans were cowards like this guy.

844
Jin-Woo’s brows shot up in surprise. Right behind the falling body of
the dead Titan with its torn-off head, he could now see other Titans
throwing everything they had in order to kill him.

He used his ability to fly to dodge beneath the huge fist approaching
him from the front, while another one sharply digging in from his
back was avoided by him flying up.

The skill, ‘Ruler’s Authority’, had now been fully ingrained within his
body and he could manipulate it without any restriction whatsoever.
The thing was, though, the enemies and their abilities also surpassed
his expectations, as well.

The fist of a Titan slammed down like a hammer, and Jin-Woo kicked
it away, only to be greeted by the back of a hand flying in from the
side. He quickly gathered his arms and got ready for the impact while
crouching, to minimise the surface area of his body.

BOOM-!!

In order to ensure that he wasn’t flung away, Jin-Woo yanked at the

back of the Titan’s hand that smacked him with Mana. In an instant,
that huge hand was pulled towards him and his shortsword, swung
without mercy, sliced off the creature’s wrist in one go.

Slice-!!

The Titan grabbed its now-severed wrist and roared loudly to the sky.

[Kuwaaah-!!]

Jin-Woo rapidly approached its neck and stabbed his weapon deep
into where the creature’s Adam’s apple should be.

Kwa-jeeck!

845
One razor-sharp killing move later, and another massive physique
came crashing on its backside. Jin-Woo kicked the chest of the
toppling Titan and jumped up high, before slicing and dicing the
hands of the Titans relentlessly reaching out towards him.

To his side!

He dodged the edge of the Titan’s hand, swung with all of the
creature’s might, by flying up, which in turn helped him to find
enough leeway to take stock of the current situation.

In that briefest of moments, Titans keeping close to his position

crashed into him with their shoulders from both sides.

BOOM-!!

“…!!”

Trapped between the two humongous shoulders, Jin-Woo extended

his hands to stop himself from being squashed and then, shoved
both of the Titans away with his raw physical strength. Like an
unbelievable lie, those two huge figures were pushed away from
him.

[Keu-heum!]

[How could he, with such a small body of his?!]

While there were Titans freaking out over the fact that they lost out
in the contest of strength, there was also another Titan who was
smashing down with its arm as if it was waiting for this precise
moment.

While the palm swung downwards viciously as if to crush a bug to

death….

“UWAHHH-!!”

846
….Jin-Woo spat out Mana with a terrifying roar to deflect it away.

The Titan got flustered by the invisible hand suddenly shoving its arm
away, only to belatedly realise something.

‘….??’

It realised that there was a massive black fist flying straight in its
face.

KWA-BOOM!!

The black aura concentrated on Jin-Woo’s right hand morphed into

the arm of a giant before cleanly blowing away the head of the Titan.
Soon, he transformed into a giant himself by enveloping his body
with the black aura and proceeded to mercilessly destroy the Titans
around him.

Like a group of starving wild beasts, the giant shadow and the Titans
made out of rocks went on a crazed melee of pure chaos and
confusion.

The end result came out pretty quickly.

Right in the midst of the Titans kneeling and collapsing to the

ground, the black shadow giant standing tall was busy crushing an
arm made out of rock with his pure physical strength after ripping it
off from one of its victims.

Wu-duduk!!

Maybe they finally had enough of Jin-Woo’s fighting spirit, the Titans
surrounding him began backing away one step at a time.

‘….?’

847
Jin-Woo scanned his enemies with puzzled eyes, but then, a Titan
even bigger and sturdier-looking than all the rest confidently strode
out from among them.

Strangely enough, though….

[Hoh-oh.]

The one to actually speak was a rather small lifeform standing on the
shoulder of this particular Titan, instead.

[I now see that even a small planet on the outskirts of the universe
can contain a pretty useful talent.]

It was a humanoid made out of rocks that looked like a miniaturised

version of the Titans. It threw a rather insidious grin in Jin-Woo’s
direction.

[However, the mere fact that you need to increase the size of your
body in order to enhance your power is a sure sign of how primitive
your species is. On the contrary, we, the Titans, decrease in size
when we need to fight with everything we have.]

The talkative creature had both its hands reach out before pointing
back at itself as a wide grin formed on its face.

[Fu-hut. Of course, such a thing is only possible for the greatest

warriors of the Titan race…..]

It was then.

Jin-Woo was forming an expression of ridicule as he listened to the

fool talk, but then, his head quickly snapped to the side.

Flash!!

848
With excellent timing, a streak of crimson light flew in from behind
Jin-Woo and utterly erased the so-called greatest warrior of the
Titans from existence.

It was fired by an Ancient-grade Dragon, which was currently being

ridden on by Bellion. The Grand-Marshal asked his boss in a bit of
fluster.

[My liege, were you perchance conversing with that creature?]

Jin-Woo shook his hand to show that it was all good and shifted his
gaze towards Bellion.

“You know, these guys seem to be way too arrogant for their own
good, so it looks like you’ll have to pay them extra special attention
later on.”

[Please leave it to me, my liege.]

The trusty Grand-Marshal bowed his waist politely before flying

away to somewhere else, and Jin-Woo took a sweeping look at the
remaining Titans.

Most of the invading rock giants’ higher-levelled combatants had

been destroyed by Jin-Woo, and as for the remaining ones, they
were being overwhelmed by the black tidal waves created by his
Shadow Soldiers.

[Kuwaaaahhk-!!]

[Kuwahk!!]

Loud screams spat out by the giants made out of rocks completely
filled up this nameless stretch of the desert.

***

“…”

849
“…..”

Utter silence.

Could there be any other words that could better describe the
current atmosphere pervading within the conference room?

As if someone doused the entire room in icy cold water, it was eerily
quiet in there.

The POTUS had become completely speechless after watching the

footage. However, he did eventually regain his voice, albeit with
great difficulty.

“That man…. Have you uncovered his identity yet?”

The general shook his head in silence.

The true monster capable of toying with those scary-looking

monsters ended up saving the United States of America without
anyone even realising it.

‘No, maybe the entire world….’

Unfortunately… if you flip the notion of a power capable of saving

the world on its head, it also implied that the same power could
destroy this world, as well.

The President realised that uncovering the identity of that mystery

man, at the very least, should be their top priority and asked the
bigshots present within the conference room.

“Is there any way to uncover and confirm the identity of that man
from the footage? Anyone?”

They began offering up their opinions here and there, but they all
agreed that it was realistically impossible to do so. But then….

850
“Indeed, it may realistically be impossible. When we are talking
about ‘realistic’ means, that is, sir.”

The director of America’s Central Intelligence Agency, David

Brennan, raised his voice. The President quickly looked at him.

“…..Is there something you’d like to tell us, Director?”

Director Brennan cautiously spoke up.

“If a realistic approach is impossible, how about we employ

‘unrealistic’ means, instead?”

The bigshots around him tilted their heads, but Director Brennan
simply formed a grin.

“We do have a way. A certain person who can inform us of the truths
that no one would have known, through fantastical means.”

Could he be talking about…?!

Pretty much everyone living in the United States of America

would’ve heard of her name by now. It was an open secret within the
world of politics that she had been maintaining a special relationship
with the CIA.

The President recalled her name and his brows shot up.

“What you’re saying is….?”

The Director replied confidently.

“That’s right, sir. It’s Madam Norma Selner. Just like before, she will
help us with the right answer this time as well.”

851
Chapter 259: Side Story 16 - I’m going
there to meet you right now (2)
Once more in the United States of America, somewhere in the quiet
suburbs on the outskirts of a city. A black saloon car gliding smoothly
on a certain road finally arrived at its destination – a small, but cosy
and inviting house, with a red roof.

Tap, tap, tap.

The ones climbing out of the vehicle was the Director of the CIA,
David Brennan, and his two bodyguards. The director studied the
red-roofed residence for a little while before issuing a new order to
his underlings.

“You two, wait for me here.”

“But, sir…”

Since these two agents were charged with protecting him, that order
was a rather difficult one to accept, but the director’s attitude
remained unchanging.

“It’s fine, it’s fine.”

He waved his hand dismissively towards his underlings trying to

dissuade him.

“Madam doesn’t enjoy noisy visits like this, anyway.”

Leaving behind his entourage by the car, the director walked alone
towards the front door and began fixing his attire. Once he felt
satisfied by his grooming attempt, he cautiously knocked on the
door.

“Madam? It’s me, Dav….”

852
Even before he could finish introducing himself, the door opened up
and a young African-American child peeked his head out. The
director recognised Madam Selner’s grandson and crouched lower to
match the boy’s eye level before patting the kid on the head.

“Is your grandma home?”

“She’s been waiting for you, bearded uncle, for a while now.”

David Brennan looked at the child pointing at him and couldn’t help
but chuckle gently.

But, of course. Just who was the woman he came here to speak to?

The psychic, the prophet, the real ‘Esper’.

Didn’t matter which title was used, none of them would sound ill-
fitting to Madam Selner, the world’s pre-eminent soothsayer. That’s
who he came here to see today.

Of course, it wasn’t as if he trusted her words in the beginning.

But then, she began solving serious problems that even the CIA, an
organisation at the peak of the cut-throat intelligence world, had
given up on with preternatural abilities, and the director had no
choice but to stop suspecting her gift there and then.

She was the real deal.

‘A true superhuman…’

So, predicting his unannounced arrival for someone like her would be
easier than, say, changing the channel on TV with a remote.

Guided by the grandchild, the director was led into the sitting room
where the Madam was waiting for him with a cup of warm tea on
top of a coffee table. He politely greeted her.

853
“It’s been a while, Madam.”

“Good to see you, Dave.”

The director raised his head.

The last time he stepped in here was about a year ago; he took a
look around at the interior decoration of the sitting room that hadn’t
changed since his last visit before carefully parking his butt on one of
the couches.

“Madam, you probably can’t imagine how difficult our work has
become ever since you announced your retirement.”

One could say that the information on the past was of no value
compared to the information on the future.

The CIA reaped a great deal of harvest by cooperating with Madam

Selner, so the sense of loss the agency felt after she retired was
indeed well above one’s imagination.

The director might have spoken with a smile as if he was cracking a

joke, but his genuine belief, hidden beneath the surface, could be
heard if one paid closer attention.

Too bad, the Madam spoke composedly as if she was tiding a young
child throwing a tantrum for more cookies.

“Dave, I’ve already told you this, haven’t I? I can no longer see the
future after that person arrived.”

“Ah….”

Was she talking about that story of the ‘God of Death’ again?

The director could only smack his lips wryly at the exact same answer
she gave every time he asked her.

854
It was the story about how her powers became useless after an
existence powerful enough to twist destiny as he saw fit had
descended to this world.

The director forgot what he wanted to say next after remembering

her reason for retiring, one that defied one’s attempt to understand
through logic.

“….”

And so, silence weighed down between these two people.

David Brennan wondered how he should go about breaking this

awkward atmosphere before his nose picked up on the enticing
aroma of food.

“Madam, were you in the middle of a meal?”

She slowly shook her head.

“Actually, I have been entertaining another guest.”

“Ah…. I see.”

She didn’t enjoy meeting with people, yet she was with another
visitor?

The director tilted his head slightly, but soon enough, made up his
mind to stop beating around the bush. The smile on his face vanished
next.

“In that case, I shall get right to the point and get out of your hair as
soon as possible.”

When he said that, though, the Madam replied as if she was waiting
for him.

855
“The answer to the first question is a ‘yes’, and for the second one, a
‘no’.”

“H-hang on….”

The director could only form a flustered expression when his

questions were answered even before he had a chance to say them
out loud. She grinned refreshingly.

“You wish to ask me how I knew about your questions if I can’t see
the future anymore, am I wrong?”

“….Well, no.”

“Dave. The answers you seek from me are actually the matters of the
past. I simply took a glimpse at a portion of the past and provided
you with a suitable answer.”

“Oh. Ohh…”

The director nodded his head, a soft moan leaving his lips. She
carefully continued on.

“Well, then. Shall I provide you with proper answers to your

questions?”

David Brennan pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed the sweat on

his forehead.

“Of course. Please go ahead, Madam.”

She then began with her explanations.

“That’s right, Dave. I know just who it is that you wish to find out
about.”

Her answer to the first question was ‘yes’. However, her answer to
the follow-up question was ‘no’.

856
“Unfortunately, I will not divulge any information on that person to
anyone.”

“But, Madam!”

The director’s voice suddenly grew louder. He wasn’t trying to

threaten her or anything like that. It was just that his agitation got
the better of him and he ended up shouting out.

“If it’s you, Madam, then you should already know what he has
done! We can’t just let someone like that run around without a
respo…..”

It was at that moment that the Madam herself shouted out as if she
couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“I’m choosing not to say anything precisely because I know!”

This must’ve been the very first time seeing her like this.

The director didn’t know what kind of expression he should form

now after being confronted by the Madam’s angry expression for the
first time ever. Too bad for him, though, her angry voice didn’t stop
there.

“Director, are your eyes just for decorations??”

“Madam!”

“Didn’t you see the footage contained in that USB drive, then??”

“…”

Indeed, he did see it.

He saw the sight of a single human being not even taking a step back
while standing up to those frightening giant monsters. The power

857
that man possessed was scary and incredible, but it did rescue
humanity back then.

“Would you believe me if I told you…that event wasn’t the first

time?”

The Madam formed a serious, nay, a grave expression, and the

director’s own expression froze up instantly.

“….”

There was another incident like that in the past??

The moment the director thought of humanity facing extinction-level

threats multiple times in the past without him knowing about them,
his entire body began shuddering uncontrollably.

But when he pondered it some more, he realised that such a case

wasn’t so surprising anymore; even this event had been classified as
a top-top secret by the U.S. government and, besides an extremely
small number of people related to the matter, no one else knew just
what happened or who did what on that particular day.

If that was the case, could he really come out and say with full
confidence that no similar things happened in other countries as
well?

‘Perhaps, just like what Madam has said, that man really…..’

The director rested his chin on his hand and began pondering
something else before raising his head.

“No, I trust you, Madam.”

He only knew her for around three years, but for some reason, he’d
sometimes get this feeling that he’d known her for a far longer time

858
than that. That was perhaps the reason why he felt this sense of trust
in her. One based on absolutely nothing but his gut feeling, really.

The Madam nodded her head in reply. The director cautiously asked
her another question.

“That man from the footage…. Can you assure me that he’s not a
dangerous individual?”

She answered him without a moment of hesitation.

“Yes, I can.”

He nodded his head again, alone this time, and as if he finally came
to a conclusion, raised his head.

“In that case, I understand. I shall pretend that I never heard you
talking about that man.”

The director rose up from his spot while forming a rueful but relieved
face.

“Well, then.”

He bade her a short goodbye and turned around to leave, but her
warm voice stopped his feet from taking another step.

“Dave, I’ve baked some cookies. Would you like some?”

“Oh….”

He spotted a bag of cookies in her hand, but could only decline the
offer with a smile of his own.

“No, I’m fine. Thank you for your offer.”

Now that his official visit was over, his expression reverted to that of
a regular, normal uncle. The Madam bade him goodbye with a gentle
smile and called for her grandson to guide him to the car.

859
The child really liked this ‘bearded uncle’ for some reason, so he
quickly rushed to the bearded David Brennan and hung on to the
older man’s hand.

“I shall come again sometime later, Madam.”

“Be careful on your way, Dave.”

The director, his hand still being held tightly by her grandchild, finally
left the residence, prompting the other guest hiding on the other
side of the sitting room to emerge into the open.

“Huh. I don’t like that old man. Hey, grandma, should I go teach him
a lesson for you?”

He was a giant of a man with slicked-back blonde hair. He took a

handful of cookies out from the bag in Madam’s hand and shoved
them inside his mouth.

“Thomas, I thought your competition licence will be revoked if you

caused another incident outside the ring?”

Thomas grinned sheepishly and chewed on the cookies that filled up

his mouth.

Crunch, crunch….

“Well, that is…”

This man was none other than Thomas Andre.

Not many people knew that the current Heavyweight champion of

the UFC was one of her very few friends that she chose to keep. If
the reporters learned of this fact, they would jump up and down in
sheer madness while clicking the shutters of their cameras non-stop.

He emptied out the bag of cookies in the blink but that didn’t seem
to fill him up at all, so he took the bag itself and tossed the cookie

860
crumbs down his gullet next. When he was finally done, he opened
his mouth to speak.

“Hey, grandma. Can I ask you a question?”

She grinned refreshingly and nodded her head. Thomas rolled the
empty bag into a ball as he spoke.

“I’m sure lots of people die through accidents, not just someone like
me.”

Especially with car crashes, where innumerable people would die

almost every single day. However, almost none of them would
receive a phone call from the Madam before that happened.

On that much-awaited off day, Thomas was climbing inside his

treasured sports car so he could go for a crazy-fast drive through the
back roads. And then, he became one of the very lucky few that did
get that fateful phone call.

After answering her call, he hurriedly checked out the tyres of his
beloved ride only to find a small nail stuck in one. Thankfully, he
avoided getting into an accident, but if he started the car and drove
away, then he’d have lost his life, just as how Madam had warned
him.

Which meant that Madam Norma Selner was the saviour of his life.

Afterwards, Thomas grew close enough to her to share meals like

this, yet what happened on that day still remained a mystery to him.

“Why did you save me on that day?”

Well, she couldn’t possibly have been a fan of the UFC and that
prompted her to quickly pick up the phone, so….

861
Thomas Andre always felt curious about why she went out of her
way to help him.

“…..”

Madam Selner looked at him without saying anything after hearing

his rather sudden question, before providing a belated answer to her
friend, one of the top sports stars in the country.

“Because… you did many good things in your past life.”

“…..I did?”

Thomas Andre, known as the ‘Bad Boy’ of the UFC, no, Devil of the
Octagon, did what now?

He briefly wondered if this grandma ate something she shouldn’t

have, but then, he decided not to say what popped up in his head
after remembering that he owed her big time.

“Hohoh.”

Madam chuckled softly and shifted her gaze outside the sitting room
window to stare at the black saloon driving away with the CIA’s
director inside. Her grandson was waving his hand at the ‘bearded
uncle’ until the car couldn’t be seen anymore.

The ‘relationships’.

Seeing that relationships of the past were being formed anew either
consciously or subconsciously by the parties involved, perhaps this
‘fate’ was a real thing after all.

That’s how she felt right now.

After confirming that the director was gone for sure, Thomas
plopped down on the very spot on the couch where the leader of the
CIA once sat.

862
“Alright, then. Just what did the man in the video do that an uncle
like him came to see you?”

Madam replied in a tone of voice belonging to someone busy putting

up still-wet clothes on the washing line.

“He saved the world.”

“…..”

Sometimes, it was hard to tell whether this old lady was joking or
was being dead serious.

‘Well, that’s why it’s so fun being around her, anyway.’

Thomas put on the pair of sunglasses he liked to wear all the time,
and shifted his now-darkened gaze towards Madam Selner.

“In that case…. What would Mister Hero who saved the world be
doing right about now?”

Madam kept her gaze on her grandchild walking back inside the
house, a quiet smile forming on her lips.

“Hmm, I wonder…. Maybe he’s enjoying his youth to the fullest

somewhere?”

***

Waaahhh-!!

In the location of the qualifying rounds of the track and field

competition filled with the heated cheerings of the spectators,
featuring schools from all over South Korea.

When the captains of the two rival high school track teams came
together on the field, perhaps unsurprisingly, proverbial flames
began erupting from the eyes of both men.

863
“Oiii, Choi Tae-Woong! Looks like you’ve lost your way, doesn’t it!!
You even let a freshman enter every type of competition, didn’t
you!”

Jin-Woo’s school track team was now facing off against the pointed
ridicule belonging to the captain of their long-time rival from
Hwaseong Tech High, Joh Gi-Seok.

“I heard that your former ace, Woo Sahng-In, got injured and took a
break for a few months. Did that result in your prowess falling so
much that you don’t have a choice but to make a freshman your new
ace??”

Joh Gi-Seok continued on with his provocation, but Choi Tae-Woong

simply smirked brightly and grasped Jin-Woo’s shoulder.

“Soon enough, you lot won’t be able to close your mouths at the
talents of this first year.”

“Heee~yah, rather than you guys breaking more records, you got
better at cracking jokes, instead!”

Figurative sparks flew in all directions after these two’s war of nerves
grew to an intense level. Meanwhile, Jin-Woo was scratching the side
of his head with his index finger.

‘With things like this, it’s going to be difficult to stick to my plan of

holding back so that I won’t get noticed….’

While Jin-Woo stood there showing just a tiny hint of how troubled
he was, Joh Gi-Seok scanned him from top to bottom and received a
great boost of confidence from his expression. The corners of the
Hwaseong Tech High Captain’s lips curled upwards.

“Here’s the thing, though. What a funny coincidence this is, you
know?”

864
Joh Gi-Seok turned around and gestured towards his team members;
when he did, a big dude standing behind them strode forward with
an expression filled pure, unbridled confidence.

“You see, we also got ourselves a freaky freshman, too.”

It was at that point that Jin-Woo ended up blurting out a surprised

cry after seeing the face of this so-called freaky freshman.

“Uh?”

“Looks like your own freshman can sense it already, no?”

Joh Gi-Seok increased the volume of his voice while placing his hand
on the shoulder of the newbie team member who possessed a
physique that far surpassed the level of a regular high schooler.

“This kid here, he’s Hwaseong Tech High’s secret weapon, Kim Cheol
from the first year.”

865
Chapter 260: Side Story 17 - I’m going
there to meet you right now (3)
The ‘impulse’.

An overwhelming impulse, that’s what Kim Cheol felt; this powerful

impulse, strong enough to nearly blow his reasoning away, almost
completely swallowed him up.

‘But….. But how come I…..’

Why did he want to kneel down in front of a kid that he’d never seen
before, a student from the same year, but from another school?

In that brief moment, if he didn’t force his ankles and calves to be

still with all his might, then he would’ve shown a pretty disgraceful
sight to everyone.

Way too close for comfort, indeed.

Kim Cheol couldn’t describe this situation in any other way. Still, he
managed to overcome it somehow and wiped the cold sweat pooling
on his forehead with the back of his hand.

It was at that moment that a really plausible theory popped up in his

head.

‘Could it be that…. I’m scared by a dude from the same year as me?’

If it was not that, then how else could he explain away this current
situation where his breathing quickened up suddenly and he wanted
to avert his gaze while all strength drained out of his legs, as soon he
met his opponent’s eyes?

Too bad, Kim Cheol simply couldn’t accept reality as it was.

‘Don’t make me laugh!!’

866
By relying on his superior physique surpassing that of high schoolers,
as well as physical strength that matched his size, Kim Cheol enjoyed
incredible prominence during his middle school days. Yet here he
was, getting scared by another kid in the same age bracket?

Such a thing was not possible. No, more than that, such a thing could
not be allowed to happen.

“H-hey, Cheol-ah? What’s wrong?”

“You feeling okay, my man?”

The seniors began showing concern for his well-being, and as his
reply, veins bulged in Kim Cheol’s throat as he roared out.

“Nothing’s wrong, seniors!!”

‘That’s right, there’s nothing wrong with me!’

Kim Cheol convinced himself of this fact and powerfully nodded his
head.

‘Right, I was suffering from a simple dizzy spell because I didn’t have
a fulfilling breakfast. That must be it.’

In order to prove right the theory that he just cooked up on the spot,
Kim Cheol slowly raised his head and stared straight at the freshman
of the opposing school.

Although possessing a pretty well-trained physique, the first-year

high school kid standing there was like a stalk of straw compared to
himself. Finally regaining some sort of leeway now, a grin floated up
on Kim Cheol’s lips.

Smirk.

‘….I knew it.’

867
Getting scared by a kid that might get knocked out in one punch
from him? What an absurd thing that was.

Kim Cheol straightened his slightly hunched figure as the unbridled

confidence from earlier on returned to his face.

The members of the Hwaseong Tech High’s track team were feeling
worried from the sudden changes Kim Cheol was going through, but
they regained their smiles after confirming that their ace had
returned to how he was.

“Dayum, you surprised me there.”

“I’m telling you, our ace freshman really knows how to command
attention.”

The seniors patted his shoulder to encourage him, and Kim Cheol
replied with a confident smile before fixing his gaze back on Jin-Woo.

‘What a disgrace, why did a dizzy spell have to happen at the same
time as looking into that guy’s eyes…?’

Kim Cheol began thinking that he needed to return this ill-timed

disgrace he suffered back to his opponent tenfold somehow. The
best method to overturn an embarrassing situation was to suppress
the other’s spirit.

‘…….’

Only now did he notice that, even though he was glaring at the kid,
this fellow first-year was being insolent by standing upright and
shooting a glare right back.

Not once did Kim Cheol let a moron like that walk away in one piece
until now.

“Hey, you.”

868
He lowered his voice and pointed to the rear of the athletic field with
his chin.

“I’ve got something to say to you, so follow me to over there for a

sec.”

Oh, ohh-!

While the members of the Hwaseong Tech High’s track team

whistled in excitement at their junior’s spirited display, Jin-Woo’s
seniors were hurriedly blocking him from disinterestedly following
after Kim Cheol.

“Jin-Woo! Listen to me, you mustn’t commit murder!”

“You ain’t thinking of spilling someone’s blood on the day of the

competition, right?? You gotta hold it in.”

“That’s right, let’s just think of it as saving a poor soul today and let
that kid be.”

Jin-Woo chuckled and gently shook off the hands of his seniors.

“Don’t worry, seniors. I’m sure nothing will happen over there.”

The seniors tried to confirm the safety of his ‘opponent’ once more.

“Really? There really won’t be anything bad happening to that kid,

right?”

“We’re choosing to believe you.”

“That friend over there, he’s definitely walking back here on his own
two feet, right?”

Jin-Woo smiled brightly in order to put the worries of his seniors to

rest and quickly walked over in the direction Kim Cheol had
disappeared to.

869
‘…..’

The captain of Hwaseong’s track team, Joh Gi-Seok, watched all of

this unfold from the side and formed a disbelieving expression
before walking up closer to his rivals.

“You guys…. You all being serious right now?”

Choi Tae-Woong sneaked a glimpse at Joh Gi-Seok’s face before

shifting his gaze back in the direction where Jin-Woo had gone off to
and spoke up in a worried tone of voice.

“Don’t talk to me, man. I’m feeling really conflicted right now.”

Choi Tae-Woong had been watching Jin-Woo’s monster-like motor

reflexes from a close vantage point, so all he could do now was to
fervently pray for that fella named Kim Cheol to not try anything
funny for his sake.

***

While walking after Kim Cheol, Jin-Woo’s anticipation grew just a tiny
bit. Could it be that this kid also regained the memories of the past,
too?

If that was the case, how would human ‘Kim Cheol’, and not the
Shadow Soldier ‘Iron’, react to the memories of those days?

Unfortunately, it didn’t look like Kim Cheol had called him over here
to discuss their past, judging from the light in the kid’s eyes as he
turned around.

“Hey, you.”

The high school kid’s murderous eyes were now looking down on Jin-
Woo.

870
“What, just because I’m wearing a school uniform while standing on
the same field as you, you think I’m a pushover?”

Kim Cheol was getting riled up here, but well, the sight of him being
agitated like this reminded Jin-Woo of him losing his crap back inside
the Red Gate, which caused an unplanned smirk to break out in
response.

Sure, he did get annoyed back then, but now, weren’t they all his
cherished memories? Too bad, though, Kim Cheol didn’t remember a
single thing from those days, and Jin-Woo’s smile didn’t go down all
that well with him.

“You son of a b*tch!”

Kim Cheol’s rough hands reached out and grabbed Jin-Woo’s collars
in an instant. When that happened, there was a chorus of ‘Waaaah-
!!’ breaking out from his shadow, made by the Shadow Soldiers
cheering out loudly.

[Yes, Iron is returning to us!]

[Welcome back, Iron!]

[My liege, entrust this lost sheep to me. I, Bellion, swear to re-
educate him properly and ensure an event like this will never happen
again….]

‘……’

It seemed that there was a real need to teach his Shadow Soldiers
about the ways of the modern world. Jin-Woo inwardly tutted and
stared deeply into Kim Cheol’s eyes.

Without a doubt, someone was challenging him right now, but

maybe because the fond memories of the days when this kid was a

871
loyal Shadow Soldier, Jin-Woo just couldn’t bring himself to despise
him.

No, rather than that, he grew real curious about whether Kim Cheol
would regain all the lost memories if they came in physical contact
here.

‘…..’

The burly high school kid sensed something strange from Jin-Woo’s
eyes and inadvertently swallowed dry saliva.

‘What’s going on….?’

If this was in the past, he’d not give a d*mn about being disqualified
from the track competition and have thrown a punch by now, since
the other guy was seemingly making fun of him.

But, rather than emotions of anger or even the desire to settle the
score, a different kind of feeling, thicker and purer than anything
else, began to wiggle violently from the deepest part of his chest.

And as Kim Cheol stood there conflicted on what to do next, Jin-Woo

slowly and cautiously grasped the boy’s wrist right then.

The ends of his fingers touched Kim Cheol’s skin.

When that happened….

“Uh….??”

Tears began flooding out from the boy’s eyes.

He didn’t know why he was crying all of a sudden, yet the tears
didn’t want to stop falling down. Soon, all strength abandoned his
legs and he plopped down to the ground.

“B-but, why….?”

872
Kim Cheol looked up at Jin-Woo.

He was searching for an answer, but all he got in return was a rueful
smile from the mysterious boy, instead.

‘If the Sovereign’s memories weren’t shared in the past, then the
memories won’t come back even if we make physical contact, huh?’

Unless… he restored the memories forcibly, that was.

Jin-Woo recalled the faces of people he shared his memories with, in

the now-erased past.

‘Association President Woo Jin-Cheol, and….’

….And, Madam Norma Selner.

He thought about the distinct possibility that she might have also
regained the memories from the erased timeline, and while
wondering about that, he turned around to leave.

He no longer had any business with ‘Iron’, no, ‘Kim Cheol’. Because…
the kid was living as a ‘human’, and not as a Shadow Soldier, now.

But then, the boy on his knees called out to Jin-Woo and stopped
him in his tracks.

“H-hang on….. Wait.”

Kim Cheol wiped his eyes with his hands and hurriedly stood back up.
His tears might have stopped, but his nose was still beet-red, but not
caring about that, he squarely met Jin-Woo’s gaze shifting back at
him so he could speak, his voice choked up with thick emotion.

“This, is this…. what they call love?”

He was being swept up by the sudden torrent of powerful emotions

that he had never experienced before. Although he was deeply

873
mistaken about what his feelings were, he was dead serious right
now as he had ever been in his life.

“…”

Jin-Woo stared at the boy for a long while in an utter daze, feeling
like he’s been struck hard in the back of his head. Eventually, a
lengthy groan escaped from his mouth.

“….This won’t do.”

Indeed, he couldn’t let some poor kid live the rest of his life confused
about his sexual orientation like this, now could he? When Jin-Woo
walked closer, Kim Cheol’s cheeks blushed beet red like a maiden in
love.

Unfortunately…

Snap!

All signs of cognition and emotion were wiped from the boy’s face
along with the sound of fingers snapping. Kim Cheol’s eyes lost focus
and became blurry. Jin-Woo stood in front of him and began
inserting new memories to replace the old one.

“Okay, so…. You tried to provoke me, but then found out,
coincidentally, that I was the son of your father’s friend’s friend’s
friend and that’s how we got to resolve our differences.”

Kim Cheol dazedly nodded his head.

“Oh, and also….”

For a brief moment there, Jin-Woo recalled back to when the kid was
still ‘Iron’ and was crying his eyes out as they were about to say
goodbye, right before the Chalice of Rebirth was to be used. A thin
smile floated up on his lips and he continued on.

874
“From here onwards, you gotta stop behaving like a bad person,
alright? You were one of the guys who fought to protect this world,
so be proud of yourself, man.”

“…..Yes, sir.”

After hearing a hushed, soft reply leaking out of Kim Cheol’s lips, Jin-
Woo finally undid the hypnosis and let the boy be.

Snap.

“Uh…. Eh?”

Kim Cheol regained his consciousness and stayed rooted in his spot
for a little while, utterly confused, only to belatedly discover Jin-
Woo’s distancing back over yonder.

As if he was separating again from a friend he met after a long time,

Jin-Woo waved his hand in a genial manner.

“Hey, see you again next time!”

“Uh…. O-okay.”

Feeling bewildered by this situation, Kim Cheol waved his hand and
smiled along awkwardly as well.

‘Nice.’

Jin-Woo turned away from the kid’s direction, a happy grin forming
on his face now. The unexpected encounter with an old comrade had
come to a successful conclusion, but it was now time to search for
that girl in earnest.

With excellent timing, he heard the announcement reverberating

throughout the athletics field.

875
– The preliminaries for the middle school participants will begin
shortly. All athletes, please report to the competitor’s area.

***

Somewhere at the far back of the athletics field, which was quiet and
sparsely populated.

A young girl managed to get to the shade of a tree with some

difficulty and plopped down on her butt there. Her shaking hands
reached down to take off one of her shoes and her sock. Her swollen
ankle testified as to what her current situation was.

She lightly bit her lower lips and glared at her ankle, before
squeezing her eyes shut and leaning against the tree’s sturdy trunk.

What a blunder it was.

Her shoulder was shoved away by another runner right next to her
and that caused her to stumble ungainly during the race. She
somehow managed to pass the first round of preliminaries even with
this fairly heavy injury, but now….

Now, it was clearly asking for too much to compete again with her
leg being like this.

‘I’m furious….’

Indeed, she was.

This might be the last time she competed as a middle schooler, and
so, she didn’t want to end the day with an injury.

That was why….

‘That’s why… I should just carry on.’

876
This was a line of thought that could only be cooked up by the head
of an immature middle schooler, who still hadn’t shed the mindset of
a child yet.

And it was the role of the adults to stop such a child from going
down the wrong path since the dawn of time itself.

“You want to hide your injury?”

The girl flinched grandly after hearing the voice of a male student,
walking out from behind the tree, that she failed to detect earlier.
This mysterious male student didn’t look at her, but instead, stared
into the distance.

“Even though a certain someone competed in that condition, hurt

her ankle even more and had to spend over a year to recuperate, but
still ended up as a third-rate athlete and could only regret the
decision she made today?”

The male student shifted his gaze back to the girl with her wide-open
eyes and formed a refreshing grin.

“I was talking about a person that I know, actually.”

Here was a strange guy telling her a strange tale. But the girl, Cha
Hae-In, didn’t immediately run away from here and instead, chose to
observe the boy for a bit longer.

‘Isn’t he an athlete….? A high schooler, right?’

She could detect a hint of this nice scent coming from the male
student for some reason.

As for the identity of that scent, the ‘smell’ of the purest Mana
leaking out of Jin-Woo, as well as her possessing a unique
constitution that allowed her to sniff out Mana, she’d get to learn
about them much, much later on.

877
As Hae-In grew more flustered by the second, Jin-Woo crouched
near her and carefully placed his hand on her swollen ankle.

“Ah….”

She flinched again for a moment there but didn’t resist him all that
much, either. And when his hand left her skin, her ankle was
completely healed.

She raised up her shocked eyes and stared at Jin-Woo.

“Run without any regrets. You only have one shot, right?”

She shone so brightly as a rank S Hunter fighting against monster

threats, but today, her sweating figure under the bright sunlight
would shine just as wonderfully.

Jin-Woo smiled and tried to stand back up, only for his wrist to be
grasped in a hurry by Hae-In.

“W-wait a minute.”

“…..?”

Could it be that a change occurred with the contact they made just
now? Now facing off against Jin-Woo’s curiosity-laden gaze, Hae-In’s
face flushed just a little.

“Excuse me, we…. Have we met somewhere before?”

She had to work up so much of her courage just to ask that simple-
enough question that even her neck had turned beet-red by the time
she was done asking it.

“Let’s run.”

“Eh?”

Hae-In visibly grew confused, but Jin-Woo maintained his grin.

878
“If you run against me and ever win, then I’ll tell you everything.”

“…..I saw you compete, oppa. I saw you coming in at first place in
every preliminary race you entered.”

Jin-Woo smirked and stood back up.

“I’ll take that answer as you giving up.”

But then…

“I-if that’s the case!”

Cha Hae-In worked up her courage once more and made a

suggestion.

“The record for the preliminaries about to take place in a bit…. How
about you telling me the truth when I break that? Even if it’s not
right now?”

Jin-Woo’s head lowered and did his best to suppress his chuckles.

‘Whether she’s younger or older, she’s still so pure.’

While briefly entertaining the idea of breaking the world record for
the under-18 track event today, he nodded his head, a warm smile
filling up his face.

“Alright, deal.”

Having successfully changed the condition of the bet, Hae-In formed

a sunny smile as well.

‘Well, you ain’t going to be smiling later, though.’

Jin-Woo turned around and left her side for the athletics field while
continuing to suppress his chuckles from breaking out.

On that day.

879
Under the bright spring sunlight, the world record for high school
male athletes was shattered in what was supposed to be yet another
ordinary preliminary race meet.

And the track team Jin-Woo was a part of defeated their rival
Hwaseong Tech High on their way to achieving their goal of an
overall first place finish.

880
Chapter 261: Side Story 18
Since he didn’t share his memories with them, Jin-Woo had not
thought of the possibility of it happening, but the truth was, there
were a few other people who were still connected to the higher
beings on Earth.

And, out of them all, one person was quite lucky enough to have
physical contact with Jin-Woo, who was a higher being himself.

A certain early morning.

“Son? What’s the matter?”

His son emerging from the room having just woken up looked like he
was about to break down and cry, so Seong Il-Hwan reached out and
gently grasped the boy’s shoulders, only to be greeted by the
spectacle of a different past playing right before his eyes.

It happened in the briefest of the brief moments that didn’t even last
a blink, but that was more than enough to tell the tale spanning
several years that felt as long as eternity itself.

– I wanted to see you. Always.

– I wouldn’t have minded talking to you for a little bit longer, but….

– I’m sorry for not being a good father to you.

Tumble.

His final moments that caused his heart to tumble to the pit of his
stomach flashed past his eyes. Then, the time wound back and the
memories of how the present came to be played out in a panorama
being played backwards.

881
The one and only tool of God that could cause a phenomenon like
this, the ‘Chalice of Rebirth’. Seong Il-Hwan knew of the artefact’s
existence through the memories of the Rulers, and after looking at
the boy’s current facial expression, he instantly realised that his son
must’ve had reached some kind of a deal with the higher beings.

Indeed, Jin-Woo had decided to carry the weight, the cost, of the
deal all by himself, regardless of how heavy it was. Seong Il-Hwan
had to bite down on his lower lip in order to suppress his emotions
and prevent them from bursting forth right then.

His efforts must’ve not been in vain, because Jin-Woo wiped away
the tears threatening to break out and formed a smile.

“….I must’ve had a nightmare.”

At that moment, Seong Il-Hwan saw the powerful determination

flicker for a blink of an eye on his son’s face.

But even then, no, even when Jin-Woo left behind a single note and
disappeared from this world, he couldn’t even guess just what kind
of ‘promise’ his son had made with the Rulers.

***

“….I’d never imagined that promise was to defeat the entirety of the
Army of the Chaos World all by himself.”

Seol Il-Hwan recalled that very day and let out a helpless chuckle.

What if he got to find out about his son’s deal before the boy jumped
into the gap between dimensions and disappeared? Would he have
stopped Jin-Woo, or for the sake of the world, let the kid leave?

“Still, hasn’t he beautifully taken care of it?”

882
The envoy of the Rulers sitting on the opposite side of him smiled
refreshingly.

Seong Il-Hwan had his lips firmly shut now, but he nodded his head
regardless. Thanks to Jin-Woo’s sacrifice, this world was spared from
the horrifying war that was supposed to tear through this planet.

But, when he thought about the terrible suffering his son must’ve
gone through during those years, Seong Il-Hwan just couldn’t bring
himself to smile anymore.

It had been almost one year since Jin-Woo returned from the gap
between dimensions.

“My son….”

His hesitating voice was drowned out by the gently-flowing

background music of the cafe they were in. The Ruler’s envoy sipped
the half-remaining coffee with his straw as he unhurriedly waited for
Seong Il-Hwan to continue on.

“What was my son’s decision?”

“The Shadow Sovereign has….”

The envoy discovered the traces of nervousness flit past Seong Il-
Hwan’s face and formed a thin smile.

“….Chosen to stay in this world. He said that every minute and every
second spent in this world is precious to him.”

Seong Il-Hwan inwardly spat out a lengthy sigh of relief.

The envoy emptied out his cup and silently placed it back on the
table. He had to remain in this world until Jin-Woo made up his
mind, but that role came to an end yesterday.

883
Which meant that it was time to leave. Seong Il-Hwan would be the
very last guest he’d entertain before leaving this world for good.

Maybe that was the reason? Although he wasn’t really the talkative
type, he wanted to converse for just a bit longer today.

“Are you planning to continue deceiving Shadow Sovereign-nim….

no, your son?”

“That’s what he wants, no one remembering the past. So, yes.”

If what Jin-Woo wanted was the normal, regular family life, then as
his father, Seong Il-Hwan was fully committed to continuing the
charade until the end of time itself.

“I see. Like father, like son.”

The envoy smirked and nodded his head before raising his gaze a
little higher.

“Once I leave, the Rulers will no longer interfere with this world.”

“I know.”

“Which means, this really is the end. With this world….”

The envoy scanned the interior of the cafe and spoke with an
emotional voice.

“It has been fun. Truly. To be honest, right up until the Shadow
Sovereign-nim made his triumphant return, I had been waiting with
bated breath on what destiny had in store for us.”

The envoy held back slightly and didn’t mention that even the Rulers
didn’t expect to see Jin-Woo succeed in his quest. Well, there was no
reason to pour a bucket of cold water on this emotional farewell,
was there?

884
Just before he bade his farewell and stood up to leave, the envoy
addressed his guest once more.

“The Rulers express their unreserved gratitude towards not just

Shadow Sovereign, but to you as well, Seong Il-Hwan-nim.”

It was unknown whether a result like this would’ve been achieved

without his help. He fought for the sake of the Rulers, and he even
suggested that the higher beings cooperate with the Shadow
Sovereign, too. Indeed, his role had been great.

The Rulers had decided as thus, and they prepared a small gift for
him in return.

“By any chance, is there something we can help you with?”

When considering that the Rulers possessed incredible powers as

well as various ‘tools of God’, this was akin to them saying, “We will
grant any wish you have.”

However, Seong Il-Hwan shook his head almost immediately.

“I have none…..”

But, that made sense. The envoy could understand where he was
coming from. There was an existence on the level of a god living as
family right next to him, so what was the point of voicing his wishes
here?

“Well, then.”

The envoy bowed his head slightly and got ready to stand up, but
then, Seong Il-Hwan belatedly said something else.

“Hang on.”

The envoy stopped and settled back down on the chair again.

885
“Is there something else….?”

Seong Il-Hwan pondered for a bit and spoke up with some difficulty.

“My memories…. Is it possible for you to erase my memories of the

previous timeline?”

“Yes, it’s possible, but why would you choose to do so….?”

“Well, it’s unimaginably hard to keep pretending in front of a son

with an amazing perception, you see.”

Seong Il-Hwan smirked once he was done. Again, like father, like son
– his grinning face was almost a dead-ringer for Jin-Woo’s.

“And, also….”

Seong Il-Hwan lowered his gaze and fell into thought for a bit again,
before continuing on with his words slowly.

“I also wish to become a regular dad who worries about his son’s
welfare.”

He wanted to return to being just a simple father who felt anxious

about his son possibly coming back home injured in some way, and a
father who sighed in disappointment at his son’s exam results – a
man who worried about his ‘regular’ son, in other words.

“To me, Jin-Woo isn’t the Shadow Sovereign, but a precious son, you
see.”

That was Seong Il-Hwan’s small wish.

“I understand.”

If that was his reasoning, then it’d be no problem. The envoy smiled
gently and granted Seong Il-Hwan’s wish.

886
“Once you exit from this cafe, all memories of the previous timeline
will completely be erased from your mind.”

As the envoy began performing the magic spell on Seong Il-Hwan, he

whispered a goodbye so small that no one could hear it properly.

“You won’t remember this, but still… I pray that you get to live a
fulfilling life.”

Time continued to tick by.

On a certain cold winter morning.

The alarm set for six in the morning went off without a hitch and
Seong Il-Hwan shot up from his ‘sleep’. His wife woke up at the same
time, too, and stared straight at him.

“What about Jin-Woo?”

“Yes, what happened to him?”

The couple quickly checked the time and breathed a collective sigh of
relief after realising that it was still only six in the morning.

“Dear, what should we do? Should we go and wake Jin-Woo up?”

“No, there’s still some time left until the beginning of the CSAT, so I
think it should be fine to let him rest for a little while longer.”

“You’re right. I can always drive him to the exam location with my
car, anyway.”

“At seven…. Let’s wake him up around seven, Dear.”

Seong Il-Hwan nodded his head at his wife’s suggestion.

887
The couple anxiously waited for the needles of the clock to hit seven
and when the fated time came, they rushed out of their bedroom to
slam the door to Jin-Woo’s room wide open.

“S-son, you know that today is the CSAT day, right?”

“Son, as your father, I can take you there, you know?”

Their son seemed to have woken up not too long ago. He replied
with a chuckle.

“I’ll get ready to leave now.”

After confirming that Jin-Woo left his room, Seong Il-Hwan hurriedly
threw on his clothes and reached out to grab the car keys, only for
his gaze to be stolen by the key ring – a gift from his son.

When he looked at this seemingly-handmade keyring shaped like a

white-coloured castle with a black flag on top, a wide grin formed on
his lips.

The weather was beautifully clear and crisp; it was a refreshing

morning as the early rays of the sun gently seeped into the world.

***

The evening of the 24th of December.

Jin-Woo was walking on a street filled with the festive atmosphere of

Christmas. He could easily spot the smiling faces of movie stars or
top athletes proudly on display on the electronic advertising boards
hung here and there.

‘The streets have changed a lot.’

Whenever Jin-Woo recalled the time when the streets used to be

dominated by the faces of top-ranked Hunters, he still felt a bit
awkward and disjointed.

888
But then, he spotted an advertising poster for a certain sports drink
and broke out into a gentle chuckle. A rather familiar face was on it,
that was why.

Just how many people lost their hair to stress while trying to take
that one photo of her making a natural-looking expression?

‘The idol of the athletic world, is it….?’

Indeed, Cha Hae-In’s smile on the poster was good enough to be

called on the level of an idol.

She drew attention with her stunning achievements on the track,

and eventually, the mass media caught onto her shining star as well.
In a bid to boost the popularity of the track sports, the athletics
organisation pleaded with her and this was the end result.

‘She never stepped in front of a camera even when she was a rank S
Hunter, but now, she must perform the role of one of the most
popular sportswomen in the country….’

This future wouldn’t have come about if he hadn’t healed her ankle
back then; a satisfied grin formed on Jin-Woo’s face. She might be
having a bit of a hard time trying to get used to the cameras, but it’d
only get better with time.

Still smiling, Jin-Woo resumed his walk towards the meeting area.

He took a look around himself without thinking too much about it

and discovered many young couples and their colourful clothing
filling up the streets.

‘Yup, I definitely am an examinee who recently finished his CSAT.

Look how plainly dressed I am.’

Jin-Woo lightly tutted at his rather plain-looking clothes and sought

out the nearest clothing store. With the time being what it was, the

889
shops were all closed, but from the get-go, he wasn’t planning to buy
something, anyway.

Jin-Woo stopped walking in front of a mannequin kitted out in the

coolest outfit inside the shop window.

Sha-ah-ahk….

The pitch-black smoke enveloped Jin-Woo’s figure for a brief

moment and his outfit had changed to the exact same thing as that
mannequin’s. He examined his new look through the reflection on
the shop’s window before asking his Shadow Soldiers.

“What do you think?”

Fangs, having developed an intense interest in all things fashion-

related from some time ago, hurriedly replied first, maybe fearing
that someone else might steal his limelight.

[You look amazing, my liege.]

“Alright.”

Jin-Woo’s steps became a touch cheerier than before and they

helped him arrive at the place of his appointment in the proverbial
blink of an eye.

Surrounding a massive Christmas tree installed in the middle of a

plaza were many people searching and waiting for their companions
to arrive.

Even though many of them were nervously glancing at their watches,

the looks of happiness still could be gleaned from their expressions
regardless, perhaps because today was Christmas Eve.

Unlike them, though, Jin-Woo was staring into the heavens above
since he had more than enough leeway compared to them.

890
There were all sorts of ambient noises made by people walking on
the streets, but Jin-Woo still could accurately distinguish the
footsteps that mattered to him.

‘…..3, 2, 1.’

Just as that ‘kid’ arrived near his back, he turned around to greet her.

“Hey. You came.”

Hae-In was planning to take Jin-Woo by surprise, but could only

sneakily lower her arms, looking a bit disappointed.

“Oppa, it’s like you’ve got eyes behind your back, you know?”

She seemed just a bit despondent, which was rather adorable as

well, so he broke out into a soft grin. Hae-In pulled up the hood on
her top to avoid the attention of the passersby, like how Jin-Woo
used to do.

“Should we take a walk for a while?”

Jin-Woo’s suggestion was met by Hae-In’s brightly smiling face. She

even nodded her head to emphasize her agreement, too.

As the two of them walked, they chose the less populated path
whenever they came across a crossroad. Meanwhile, Hae-In’s eyes
were growing really large after listening to Jin-Woo’s CSAT result.

“You got such a great score, yet you wanna go to that university?
But, why?”

“Well, the fees are completely paid for by the scholarship, plus they
are adding on the opportunity for me to study abroad, as well.
Besides, there is this person I just have to meet in that place, you
see.”

It was at that point that her ears perked up.

891
“Wait, that person isn’t a woman, is it?”

Her eyes narrowed to a slit, but Jin-Woo found her expression really
adorable so he decided to string her along for a bit.

“Mmm, who knows.”

Her cheeks immediately puffed up.

To Jin-Woo, seeing her express her emotions so freely like this –

something she didn’t do back when both of them were adults –
proved to be a different but still wonderfully joyous occasion to
behold.

Around then….

Tap.

Something fell gently from the sky and landed on the tip of his nose,
followed soon after by wet coldness melting on his skin.

It was a snowflake.

He raised his head up to look and white specks began falling gently
from the blackened sky. A White Christmas was coming, it seemed.

He silently stared at the falling snow only to recall the sight of

settling grey ash after he defeated the Dragon Emperor. Ash as white
as snow – no, snowflakes as light as ash silently descended on the
land.

“Oppa? What are you thinking about?”

Jin-Woo smiled softly and tried to gloss over it.

“Nothing much.”

Well, it wasn’t as if he could tell her that, while he was looking at the
snow falling from the evening sky a day before Christmas, he was

892
busy recalling probably the most dangerous enemy he had to fight in
his entire life, now could he?

Hae-In formed a broad grin after listening to Jin-Woo’s reply, then

she brought up something out of the blue.

“Oppa, do you remember our promise?”

“What promise?”

“The one about you promising to answer everything when I win in a

race.”

“Yeah, I do.”

Hae-In promptly pointed towards one of the trees lining up along the
street.

“Well, why don’t we make a bet, then? Let’s see who will arrive there
first.”

Jin-Woo couldn’t help but chuckle after hearing her sudden

challenge and asked her a question.

“What is it that you’d like to ask me?”

“Everything.”

“Everything??”

“What you’re thinking about sometimes, whether it’s a girl or a guy

you want to meet in that university, and also….”

“Also?”

“….Also, about the time we met before that athletic preliminaries

took place.”

“….Alright.”

893
Jin-Woo readily agreed to it and took his hands out from his pockets.
The end result wouldn’t be affected just because he kept his hands
there, but still, he wanted to show her that he was taking this
challenge quite seriously.

But then….

Hae-In had been staying a step away from his position until then, but
suddenly walked in very close to wrap her scarf around his neck
before asking him for a small favour in a whisper.

“Oppa, if you like me, don’t move from this spot.”

“Wha?”

While he was getting flustered by this development, Hae-In began

walking slowly towards the tree in question while looking straight at
him. As for Jin-Woo himself, he couldn’t hold back his laughter after
realising that his defeat had been set in stone from the get-go.

“Hah….”

In the end, Hae-In succeeded in touching the tree first, and she
lightly jumped in the air to announce her victory.

Meanwhile, his Shadow Soldiers watching the two lovers’

competition with a great deal of anticipation and excitement began
jumping up and down themselves in happiness as well.

[Heee-ya~, our liege has lost!]

[Wow, there are times when our liege will lose a challenge with so
much at stake, too!]

[My liege, you did it wrong!]

[Kkiiieehhk-!! Oh, my kinggg! It’s not too late, so please get going
now!!]

894
Jin-Woo was left stupefied and chuckled again while scratching the
side of his head. He took a glance around the street and approached
the tree as well.

Thankfully, he couldn’t spot a single soul on this particular stretch of

road, all due to the fact that they sought out only those paths with
little foot traffic.

“Well, I won, right?”

Hae-In was waiting for his reply with an excited expression clearly
etched on her face. Jin-Woo stopped before her smile and issued a
dignified order to his Shadow Soldiers.

‘Shadows? Every one of you, close your eyes.’

[……]

[……]

While the soldiers were rightly feeling frustrated….

….Jin-Woo slowly brought his lips closer and gently locked them with
Hae-In’s.

The white snowflakes continued to fall silently from the sky.

895
Chapter 262: Side Story 19 - Twelve years
later (1)
Within the ranks of the Central Region Precinct’s Violent Crimes Unit,
there was this one detective nicknamed the ‘Phantom’.

The newbie detective joining the squad this year after passing the
promotion exam, Lee Seh-Hwan, often heard this rumour while he
was walking the beat as a patrolman.

The arrest rate of 200 percent!

The rumour went that, in front of this ‘Phantom’ capable of solving

not just the cases in his own docket, but even the cold cases of the
past, every single violent criminal or bloodthirsty thug would become
a very well-behaved sheep in an instant.

To the officers patrolling these streets, this detective remained an

object of pure respect, a real bonafide legendary figure.

Seriously now, the rumour even went on to say that, although he

was eligible for a promotion, he wished to devote himself fully to
fieldwork and refused to move up the career ladder. How hardcore
was that?

‘Anyone with some sense in them would definitely never refuse a

promotion, obviously.’

In any case – even if only half of the rumours making the rounds
turned out to be true, then the mystery cop was sure to be one hell
of an investigator.

His fellow patrol officers were deeply envious of Lee Seh-Hwan

joining the Violent Crimes Unit. Little did they know, he was currently
swallowing back his nervous saliva while scanning the squad’s office,
wondering who this legendary detective from the rumours could be.

896
As befitting a group of detectives that clashed against seasoned
criminals every day, they all carried manly, no-nonsense
countenances. They began shooting sharp, probing glares in the
direction of an unknown visitor to their ranks.

It’d not be all that awkward to call any one of these fine officers
‘Phantom’, indeed.

‘The light in their eyes are so….’

Lee Seh-Hwan gradually shrunk back from the powerful glares of the
veterans and began inwardly worrying about whether he’d survive
for long in this place or not.

“Ehh…. Are you that newbie joining us from today onwards?”

A voice came from behind without any prior warning whatsoever and
Lee Seh-Hwan jumped up in fright. He hurriedly turned around and
performed an excellent salute.

“Loyalty!”

“Ah, ah… no need to be that tense. We’re all one family now, right?”

The voice belonged to a middle-aged man carrying two paper cups

filled with coffee standing right behind Lee Seh-Hwan. He kindly
offered one of the cups to the still-nervous rookie.

“Here, it’s on me.”

“T-thank you very much!!”

Lee Seh-Hwan bowed deeply and received the coffee.

Instantly, he was greeted by the reassuring warmth that was kind of

like a phone call from his family he dearly wished to see again after
living alone for a long time.

897
Maybe that small first mouthful of the hot coffee helped him to
relax?

Lee Seh-Hwan continued to sip on the hot beverage while cautiously

studying the overall atmosphere of the surroundings, before asking
the Senior who gifted him the drink.

“Excuse me… I went to speak to the Squad Captain, and he informed

me that I’d be working together with Seong Detective-nim from here
on, I was wondering…”

“Ahh, that ‘Phantom’ is your partner?”

“FUU-HEUP!!!”

It took almost everything Lee Seh-Hwan had to stop the coffee from
spraying out of his mouth and nostrils.

“Well, we came up with that nickname for the guy because he’s
supernaturally quick, you see? Dunno when it happened, but that
name got stuck somehow and even the folks in other units began
calling him that. I’m sure you’ve heard of him too, right?”

“Y-yes, I have….”

Lee Seh-Hwan hurriedly nodded his head several times. A meaningful

smirk suddenly crept up on the senior’s face.

“The thing is, that coffee I gave you? It’s meant for him.”

The senior detective turned around to escape to the corridor, but

then he stopped and pointed to the far end with his chin, a grin now
firmly etched on his face.

“Speak of the devil. There he comes.”

898
Unable to suppress his curiosity, Lee Seh-Hwan also quickly came out
to the corridor himself and shifted his gaze in the direction where
the senior was staring at.

That was when he discovered a certain man unhurriedly strolling

towards his direction from the end of the corridor.

‘That man is the legendary….’

Without a doubt, that man didn’t seem to be in a hurry, yet he was

already standing before Lee Seh-Hwan even before the rookie could
fully regain his wits.

What an overwhelmingly intense pressure he emitted.

Lee Seh-Hwan was about average in height for a Korean male, but he
had to physically look up at his new partner, the senior detective
nicknamed ‘Phantom’, who was at least a head taller than himself.
Almost instantly, the poor newbie felt stifled and it became hard to
breathe from this inexplicable pressure emitted by the man in front
of him.

‘The Phantom of the Central Region….’

The reason why this detective was saddled with such a nickname
wasn’t simply because of his preternatural swiftness, oh no. Lee Seh-
Hwan was sure of this fact after finally encountering the person in
question.

“Senior.”

“Ohh, hey man. Going out on a call?”

“Nah, it’s nothing much, really. By the way, is he our new recruit?”

“That’s right, he is. His name is Lee Seh-Hwan.”

899
Jin-Woo bowed his head slightly to greet the senior detective
standing next to Lee Seh-Hwan. He then spun the newbie around to
face the other direction and placed his hand on the completely-
frozen junior’s shoulder.

“Then, I shall go ahead and train the rookie.”

The senior detective with the face of a good-natured uncle continued

to grin as if he found something quite amusing. He nodded his head
to say yes.

“Sure, sure. Go ahead. Have a good day.”

Almost as soon as the greeting with the senior was over, Jin-Woo
dragged the rookie cop he was now entrusted with to outside of the
building.

‘H-he can’t be p*ssed off about me having drunk his coffee, right?’

When that line of thought popped up in his head, Lee Seh-Hwan

ended up hurriedly asking a question.

“S-senior-nim?! W-where are we going?”

Rather than an answer, though, he got a question as a reply, instead.

“Why did you become a police officer?”

“Oh, that…. I….”

Lee Seh-Hwan hesitated for a bit before remembering his original

dream, the goal, that he had forgotten about while working as a beat
cop wrestling with drunkards and other idiots for the past few years.

“I wanted to catch the bad guys….”

“That’s right.”

900
Even though they were exchanging questions and answers, Jin-Woo
didn’t slow down his steps that continued to lead the rookie to their
unknown destination. And he finally let go of the flustered newbie
once they reached the end goal.

“We are going to a place where we can do exactly that.”

Lee Seh-Hwan raised his head, and Jin-Woo formed his now-
trademark smile.

Grin.

It was a smile that eased the minds of all those who saw it. Jin-Woo
looked at the shorter rookie with such a smile on his face before
continuing on.

“That’s why I became a cop too, you see.”

Just those words alone, and Lee Seh-Hwan’s heart began pounding
quite violently.

Ba-dump.

How could one’s heart not throb in moments like this as long as one
was a police officer worth his or her salt?

“You coming?”

Lee Seh-Hwan heard the question with only one possible answer and
replied with an excited face.

“Of course, Senior-nim!!”

***

Completely pooped out from chasing after criminals the whole day,
Lee Seh-Hwan collapsed on top of his new desk and fell asleep. Jin-

901
Woo was planning to dump the write-up of the testimonies of all the
suspects they apprehended today to the rookie, but now….

Tap, tap…

He stopped jotting down on the report paper and quietly studied Lee
Seh-Hwan, utterly lost to the distant lands of sweet slumber.

‘He said he had the experience of catching an armed robber bare-

handed, didn’t he? Yup, it is fun training a rookie like this guy.’

A smile naturally crept up on his face now that a rather excellent

seedling had joined his Unit.

“Hehehe.”

After seeing a smile blooming on Jin-Woo’s face, the suspect sitting

on the opposite side of the desk mistakenly believed that the
atmosphere had become rather friendly and formed a sly smile of his
own.

That only elicited a hardened scowl from Jin-Woo, though.

“….And why the hell are you smiling?”

“I, I’m sorry.”

“Okay, then. Next up is….”

Just as Jin-Woo’s fingers touched the keyboard once more….

[My liege, may I suggest that such miscellaneous tasks be left to us,
your loyal soldiers….]

….He heard the voice of Igrit coming from his shadow.

Indeed, it’d be convenient to utilise his soldiers.

902
Forget about training the rookies to arrest the suspects, he could just
unleash his near-ten million soldiers and have them catch the bad
guys. That would clean up the entirety of the Republic of Korea in no
time at all.

However, what was he supposed to do about the extreme unrest and

the fear from the public at large that would no doubt follow soon
afterwards?

A suitable balance needed to be kept, regardless of what the job

was.

That was why Jin-Woo did his best to control his powers, so as to
minimise the impact against the society at large. And so, as the
administrative work on these petty criminals was coming to an end….

….Although, the rookie still hadn’t been able to extricate himself

from the land of dreams yet.

Jin-Woo heard the voices coming from the corner of the office and
ended up paying attention to the contents of the conversation.

“Detective-nim, please listen to me. Jin-Yi isn’t a girl who’d willingly

take her own life.”

“Look, miss. I understand how you feel. But, I already explained to

you in detail, didn’t I? All the evidence points to….”

“Please, please take a look at these texts messages! Do they look like
something sent by a person planning to commit suicide three hours
later??”

“Hah-ah…..”

Maybe it was because of the fact that the deceased’s name sounded
similar to his own sister’s?

903
For a while now, Jin-Woo’s mind kept wandering towards the
conversation between those two people that didn’t seem to be going
anywhere fast.

The detective, now fed up by this ‘heckling’ ended up responding in

an ill-tempered manner.

“Look here, miss! From the get-go, most suicides aren’t planned out
in advance but are done in the spur of the momen….”

“Do you mind if I take a look at the case?”

The detective flinched nastily when Jin-Woo approached him without

any presence whatsoever.

Detectives were supposed to be able to suss out whether a person

was guilty of a crime or not just by locking gazes with a suspect in the
blink of an eye.

Such detectives couldn’t detect his approach, so it was a small

wonder that Jin-Woo was saddled with the nickname of ‘Phantom’.

“Uhm, Detective Seong….?”

The detective formed a troubled expression while looking at Jin-

Woo, before shifting his gaze forward, only to spot the expression on
the deceased’s friend now gaining a ray of hope.

‘Ah….’

The detective instantly realised that things might get a bit

complicated for himself, so he quietly asked Jin-Woo to step outside
the office for a moment.

He handed over the related case files and pulled out a cigarette after
they got there.

904
“Detective Seong…. I hope you aren’t going to put me under the spot
here.”

“…”

Jin-Woo didn’t pay any attention to the plea of his Senior and
scanned through the files, only for his expression to harden to a
scary degree.

The detective was about to light his cigarette up, but after sensing
the aura oozing out from Jin-Woo, ended up taking a step back in
surprise.

‘He’s like a different person when he’s concentrating like this.’

The senior detective deeply sucked in the smoke puffed out from the
lit cigarette as if to calm his trembling nerves.

The female victim was found inside her bathtub, having died of
massive blood loss from a large cut wound on her wrist. The knife
used to cut her wrist was recovered inside the bathroom, and
perhaps unsurprisingly, only her fingerprints were found on the
weapon, no one else’s.

The file also said that, even though the deceased displayed a bright
personality outwardly, she actually suffered from depression.

Not many other investigators would come up with a different

hypothesis after looking at all the facts available in this case.

Jin-Woo returned the case file back to the detective assigned to the
case.

“I don’t see anything amiss.”

“R-right. You think so, too?”

905
The detective received the files back with a somewhat happy-looking
expression.

“However.”

“H-however….??”

With a hardened face, the senior asked back while thinking, ‘Could
he be…?’

“I shall confirm it myself, just in case.”

“Ah…..”

The Phantom had sniffed a trail, it seemed.

While looking at Jin-Woo’s back as he walked over to the friend of

the deceased waiting anxiously over there, the Senior detective
roughly scratched the back of his head and complained in his head.

‘Doesn’t that guy ever get tired or something?’

The friend of the deceased, her gaze currently fixed to the ground,
quickly raised her head after hearing Jin-Woo’s voice.

“I’m Detective Seong Jin-Woo. Can we talk for a moment?”

The friend nodded her head, her current grim expression seemingly a
blend of new-found hope and sorrow.

“Yes!”

***

Inside a quiet, empty and owner-less home, a black shadow suddenly

rose up. It was Jin-Woo.

906
He found himself in an apartment which was slightly too large for a
woman to live alone. Her warmth from the time she was still alive
could be felt from several corners of this apartment unit.

The current time was late at night.

The surroundings were pitch-black, but there was no need to turn on

the lights because this was the same as broad daylight to Jin-Woo’s
eyes.

He entered the bathroom, the place where she met her final
moments. The thick smell of blood yet to be cleaned stung his nose.
Jin-Woo stood before the bathtub and silently studied the very spot
where the deceased prepared herself to die.

Seeing all the spilt blood, it was as if he could sense the pain of the
woman.

However, he could only imagine what that pain was like, not actually
feel the pain itself. What the deceased was feeling when she chose
death, how painful it was as she lay here dying….

Those left behind would never know them.

Generally speaking, that was.

Jin-Woo crouched slightly and studied the blood splatters before

recalling the last text message she sent to her friend. It was filled
with her anticipation about the upcoming meeting with her friend.

Just like what the friend had said, that message didn’t seem to be
sent by someone getting ready to take her own life.

Most likely, the friend wanted to believe that she’d not choose to die
without saying a single goodbye to her closest friend.

907
For sure, the ones left behind would never know what the dead
wanted to say to them. Ordinarily, that would be true. Ordinarily.

However, Jin-Woo possessed a way to hear the voice of the dead.

‘I needed the actual remains in the past, but now….’

Jin-Woo issued his command, and the blackened, coagulated blood

reverted back to a crimson liquid and began trickling again. The
blood splatter that remained as nothing more than grisly reminders
gathered together to form a deep pit of boiling blood.

As if it was alive, the mass of blood continued to seethe and tumble

as it grew larger and larger.

The Shadow Sovereign, the King of the Dead, then issued the
absolute order that couldn’t be refused at the remains of the
deceased.

“Rise up.”

908
Chapter 263: Side Story 20 - Twelve years
later (2)
A shadow of a woman, yet to shed the hints of her teen years,
vigorously rose up from the thickly-coagulated clump of blood on the
floor.

Chwa-ahck!!

Droplets of blood dripped from the ends of her hair as she took a
look around her, her expression one of sheer confusion regarding her
current situation. Eventually, though, she spat out pained moans.

[Ah…. Ah….!]

Indeed, it’d be quite painful for her since she retained the memories
of her dying moments. Jin-Woo used the authority of the Shadow
Sovereign and calmed the shadow for the time being.

“Don’t be frightened.

The you of now has become an existence untethered from the

boundaries of life and pain.”

The king’s calming, warm voice helped the woman to compose

herself gradually. Jin-Woo then created a new set to clothing for her
sake and wrapped them around her figure since she appeared how
she died – nude.

[Ah….]

She cautiously pulled the clothing on her shoulders tighter.

Her name used to be Seo Jin-Yi. He named the newly-revived shadow

woman the same as back when she was still alive, and began asking
his questions.

909
“Did you… willingly take your own life?”

The shadow woman, no, Seo Jin-Yi, nodded her head.

Jin-Woo placed one of his knees lower to the ground so he could

match her eye level. He studied her expression and quietly asked
her.

“Your reason?”

And when he did, her lips, frozen shut like a block of ice, cautiously
parted ways.

[I….]

***

Ding-dong.

The doorbell resounded out rather late at night; a middle-aged man

put a photo frame containing a picture of his daughter down on its
original spot and looked away.

‘Who could it be at this late hour?’

He tilted his head this way and that while standing up from his seat,
and walked over to the intercom.

The monitor on the device showing the scene outside the front door
now displayed a man kitted out in a smart business suit standing
there. The middle-aged man didn’t think too much about it and
pressed the ‘Speak’ button.

Beep.

The man outside the door pulled out his ID badge and showed it to
the camera.

910
– “I’m Detective Seong Jin-Woo from Central Region’s Violent Crimes
Unit. I have questions to ask you regarding your daughter’s death, so
can we speak for a little while, please?”

The photo in the ID badge matched the face on the monitor.

The middle-aged man forgot that it was far too late in the day for a
guest to show up like this when he heard the word ‘Detective’ and
hurriedly flung the door open.

“Did the investigation’s result come out? How did my little girl die?!”

Jin-Woo quietly studied the face of Seo Jin-Yi’s father, Seo Gyu-Nam,
before shaking his head.

“Nothing is certain yet, sir. However, I do have several follow-up

questions I’d like to ask you regarding your daughter.”

The father of the deceased formed a somewhat disappointed

expression when he heard there was nothing to report yet. Jin-Woo
made a quiet demand towards the man.

“Can you come with me?”

Seo Gyu-Nam seemed to be in a dilemma, but soon enough, formed

a grimly determined expression.

“Of course. If I can help in any shape or form in uncovering the truth
of my daughter’s death, then I shall cooperate fully.”

He came outside and locked the door before turning around to face
Jin-Woo.

“Let’s get going, Detective.”

Jin-Woo nodded his head once and turned towards a certain

direction.

911
“This way.”

***

Seo Guy-Nam initially thought that they would go to the police

station, but instead, they ended up in a cafe near his place. He asked
the detective why they had to come here and only got a vague
answer in the form of “We need a place to chat quietly” instead.

And so, Jin-Woo and Seo Gyu-Nam sat on the opposite side of the
table. The former then began his questioning as the latter formed a
heavy expression.

“What kind of a student was Miss Seo Jin-Yi usually?”

“Excuse me?”

“By any chance, was there anyone who might have been resentful
towards….”

Seo Gyu-Nam belatedly realised the implication behind the question

and hurriedly shook his hand around.

“No, no. Never. She was definitely not a child who’d go around doing
things to make others hate her. She was really kind and pure and…”

Seo Gyu-Nam replied up to there before his head faltered and

sounds of sobbing escaped from him.

How long did it go by like this?

The sobbing man’s shoulder’s stopped trembling eventually and he

raised his head slowly.

“I, I’m sorry, Detective. I still can’t believe that my little girl left me in
that manner…..”

“You must’ve cherished your daughter a lot.”

912
“Of course. I’m sure you know this already, but Jin-Yi wasn’t my
biological child. That was why I cherished and loved her as much as I
would’ve with my real child, no, maybe even more than that.”

His gaze lowered as he struggled to swallow back his sadness. He

continued on.

“If only she told me when she was hurting, when it was getting too
much for her….”

Although Seo Gyu-Nam was displaying an intense emotional state,

Jin-Woo was quite different in his attitude and kept an icy-cold gleam
in his eyes from the beginning right until the end. He then pulled out
his own smartphone from his inner pocket.

“While we were sifting through your daughter’s personal effects, we

uncovered a certain sound file.”

“….Pardon?”

“Well, let’s listen to it first.”

Jin-Woo tapped on the play icon and let the voice of the shadow play
out.

– [I….]

It was the testimony straight from her mouth about the tale of the
horrifying abuse she suffered at the hands of her adoptive father,
ever since she was a young child.

And as the testimony continued on…

Seo Gyu-Nam finally stopped acting like a sorrowful father who lost
his daughter, his eyes constantly shaking from shock.

The girl deliberately chose to go to a university far away from home,

believing that she was finally freed from the torment of her adoptive

913
father, but then, when the b*stard got in contact with her again
some time ago, starting with the text message saying ‘I want to see
you again’, she chose to end her life, instead.

She might have taken her own life, but the culprit that drove her to
that decision was someone else.

Tap.

Once the sound file ended its playback, Seo Gyu-Nam raised his
head, his expression frozen-stiff now.

“Why… why did you play that in front of me?”

This middle-aged man could legitimately claim that he possessed

quicker wits than most other people.

If the real goal of this meeting was to arrest him, then this detective
would’ve shown up with a couple of other officers, slap the cuffs on
him and be done with the whole thing just like that.

However, this cop didn’t take him to the police station, but to a local
cafe, saying that they needed to have a quiet chat.

That was why Seo Gyu-Nam had a hunch that the detective in front
of his eyes had a somewhat different purpose in coming to see him.
As if to reply positively to that hunch, the expressionless detective
finally revealed a toothy grin.

“You now have two options available to you.”

Options were available!

Seo Gyu-Nam clenched his fists tightly after hearing those words that
sounded like the heavens extending a lifeline, just as a precariously
dangerous situation was about to befall on him.

‘Yes!!’

914
Meanwhile, the detective carried on.

“First…. You admit to your wrongdoing, go to the station with me,

and confess everything.”

“And… the other option is?”

“Rather than admit to your crime, you pay an appropriate price,

instead.”

Seo Gyu-Nam had to grit his teeth in order to suppress this powerful
wave of jovial laughter gushing out from somewhere deep inside his
chest.

‘Oh my goodness me.’

And the wise old ‘they’ said that, even if the heavens collapsed, there
would always be a way out, didn’t they? Who would’ve thought that
the detective who uncovered his ugly sins just so happened to be
such an individual?

Seo Gyu-Nam had lived a pretty great life as a medical doctor. So,
regardless of how much this pathetic policeman wanted, he knew he
had the financial wherewithal to satisfy that demand.

Seo Gyu-Nam did his utmost best to stop the ends of his lips from
curling up and asked back.

“How much are you asking for?”

“That is already enough.”

Jin-Woo formed a hollow chuckle and securely pocketed the phone.

He knew better than anyone just how many people regretted with
their whole being the choice they’ve made just now. This middle-
aged man trying his best to hide his laughter came across as utterly
disgusting and ridiculous.

915
In an instance, Jin-Woo’s expression changed.

“Now, listen well.”

With the smile gone from his face, an aura so ominous and bleak
oozed out from him, instead.

“In reality, this place you’re in isn’t the world you were living in. No,
it’s a different world I simply mocked up to resemble the outside
scenery.”

The land of the dead that no living soul could enter without the
express permission of its master – the territory of the eternal rest.
Jin-Woo calmly added that that was the name of the prison about to
seal Seo Gyu-Nam away.

Of course, the middle-aged man became flustered at the suddenly-

changed Jin-Woo’s attitude as well as at this strange, hard-to-
understand explanation.

“E-excuse me, Detective-nim. I, I don’t underst….”

“Think about it carefully.”

Seo Gyu-Nam felt his breathing choke up from Jin-Woo’s murderous

glare.

“Can you remember how you got here?”

Now that he thought about it….

As the chill ran down on his spine, Seo Gyu-Nam finally realised the
oddness of his situation.

‘B-but, how….?’

Within this brightly-lit cafe, how was it possible that there was not a
single soul around other than himself and this mysterious detective?

916
Even if you forget about other patrons, no, maybe even the actual
owner of the place, shouldn’t there at least be one waiter or a clerk
somewhere??

However, whether it was inside the building or outside of the glass

wall, there was not a single trace of other people at all.

“Ah….”

Just as he finally recognised that something unexplainable had

happened to him, everything vanished, just like that, leaving only the
darkness.

The only items left within this inky-black darkness were the table,
plus the two chairs. And of course, himself and the detective sitting
on those chairs.

“U-uwaaaaahhk?!”

Seo Gyu-Nam shot up from the chair and hurriedly stepped back as
his complexion paled instantly.

“W-who the hell are you?! Is this a dream? It’s a nightmare, isn’t
it??”

The middle-aged man pointed at Jin-Woo in a confused mixture of

anger and desperation. Unfortunately for him, his retreating steps
couldn’t go too far.

Thud.

Because he ran into something as hard as a wall, that was why. An

inexplicable chill swept him up and his head slowly shifted towards
his back.

That’s when the ‘wall’ began moving.

917
No, it wasn’t an actual wall, just a giant ‘ant’ standing stiffly like one,
and it was moving now.

This ant creature shoved its head closer to Seo Gyu-Nam’s face and
quietly placed its unfurled index finger against its ‘lips’.

[Shh….]

In that moment…

“Euph! Eu-euph…!!!”

Dozens upon dozens of ant arms reached out from the darkness and
grabbed onto him, before dragging him deeper into the unknown.

He would now be subjected to horrifying torture from here onwards

where he’d eventually beg for death, but too bad, he’d not be able to
die that easily.

See, the thing was, the Shadow now tasked with his punishment was
one of the greatest soldiers in the ranks, and at the same time, the
greatest ‘Healer’ there ever was, too.

[Kkiiehk!]

Beru bowed his waist to perform a smart greeting towards his liege,
before melting back into the darkness.

‘……’

Jin-Woo wordlessly stared in the direction where Seo Gyu-Nam had

disappeared to, and slowly stood up from his chair. This time, not
from his front but from behind, another figure watching the
proceedings unfold while hiding stepped out of the darkness.

It was Jin-Yi.

918
Jin-Woo was well aware that, no matter how badly the guilty
suffered, the victim’s pain would never fully disappear. However, if
such a thing could console the heart of the deceased just a tiny bit….

He walked over to her and placed his fingertip on her forehead to

erase all memories of her adoptive father.

[Thank you. Thank you so much, Sovereign-nim.]

The Shadow bowed her head many times to Jin-Woo afterwards.

Now that she was reborn as a Shadow, she instinctively understood

what kind of a special existence he was, but well, Jin-Woo never
planned to convert her into his Shadow Soldier, to begin with.

So, it was now time to return her to the void.

Just before their goodbyes, Jin-Woo asked her in a gentle voice.

“Is there anything else you’d like to say?”

The Shadow lightly shook her head, before going, “Ah!”

[By any chance…. If it’s not too much trouble, can I ask you for a
small favour?]

***

Next day.

Jin-Yi’s friend came to the station in the early morning to find out
about any new development in the case. Jin-Woo found her first and
took her to the corridor outside the office.

“By all appearances, the chances of the case being treated as murder
is extremely low at this point. The investigation itself will close soon,
as well.”

919
The friend looked at Jin-Woo with a disbelieving expression, before
speaking up with the voice of a person clutching at a straw.

“T-truly…. There isn’t even one percent of any other possibilities??”

Rather than a verbal reply, Jin-Woo quietly nodded his head up and
down. The friend’s head dropped towards the ground next.

She seemed to have a million things to say in her mind, but couldn’t
say any one of them out aloud – her expression sorrowful but
unwilling, she hesitantly spoke.

“That means, Jin-Yi, she….”

Jin-Woo studied her for a moment or two, before presenting her

with a small gift box covered in a cute wrapper.

“This is?”

“The name written on the gift card is yours, isn’t it?”

“…..It is.”

It was none other than a gift the deceased carefully handpicked and
prepared for the friend’s birthday. The gift that would’ve never
entered its intended owner’s hands finally found its way to its
rightful home.

“Jin-Yi prepared this….?”

“That’s correct. I thought that Miss Jin-Yi would’ve wanted this gift to
find its intended owner.”

“Ah…. Thank you….”

The friend thanked Jin-Woo wholeheartedly, her eyes tearing up

uncontrollably.

920
If only the adoptive father’s insidious text message didn’t arrive at
the victim’s phone one hour before she cut her own wrist, wouldn’t
these two friends get to enjoy the birthday party as planned?

Jin-Woo felt complicated in his heart as several thoughts intersected

within his mind and his gaze drifted away to the distance, only for
him to feel the familiar vibration coming from within his pocket.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

He asked for an understanding from the sobbing friend of the victim,

turned around, and answered his phone.

– “Hyung-niiim!!”

A voice he felt relieved to hear came out of the phone’s speaker.

– “It’s me, Yu Jin-Ho!”

921
Chapter 264: Side Story 21 - Twelve years
later (Fin)
Later that evening.

Jin-Woo headed to the local diner that he frequented with Yu Jin-Ho

when they were much younger. Still did, as a matter of fact.

– “Hyung-nim! I have something important I must discuss with you.”

He felt the hints of determination, different from the kid’s usual self,
emanating from Yu Jin-Ho’s voice on the phone. When Jin-Woo
stepped into the diner, Yu Jin-Ho sitting anxiously by the table, easily
visible from the entrance, quickly raised his hand up high.

“Hyung-nim!!”

After graduating from the university, Yu Jin-Ho continued to train in

the art of running a business empire under Chairman Yu Myung-
Hwan, which transformed his body and spirit into a proper man now.

However, he still came across as a little kid brother to Jin-Woo, even

now.

“Hey, man.”

He greeted back with a chuckle and settled on the other side of Yu

Jin-Ho. His gaze then scanned the soju shot glass in Yu Jin-Ho’s hand,
as well as the half-empty soju bottle for a brief moment.

‘This guy, he knows he can’t handle alcohol, so why….’

It was unknown just what he was psyching himself up for like this,
but without a doubt, Yu Jin-Ho needed a massive boost to his
courage to do it, it seemed.

So, Jin-Woo asked.

922
“What’s going on with you? You didn’t even tell me anything yet.”

Yu Jin-Ho greatly hesitated with his reply, before pulling out a small
box from his inner pocket and opened it up. A rather expensive-
looking ring was stored in there.

“Hyung-niiim!!”

“What now?”

“This time, I’m gonna propose to Miss Jin-Ah for sure!”

Aaah.

‘That’s what this was all about.’

Jin-Woo was guessing that the kid got scolded by his little sister or
some such and wanted to complain to someone trustworthy, but
now that he knew the score, a smile automatically floated up on his
face.

Yu Jin-Ho completely misinterpreted that smile, though, and a fierce

glare of determination lit up within his eyes.

“Hyung-nim! I’m really serious this time! I’ll confess to her tonight! B-
but, the thing is…. You think she’s going to like this ring?”

When Jin-Woo thought about how Jin-Ah always complained at

home, wondering aloud just when the blockhead that was her
boyfriend would come around to confess his feelings for her, he
could picture her jumping up and down in happiness already, but
well….

Jin-Woo deliberately left his words vague so the after-confession

swelling of emotions could be even tastier for the couple.

“I wonder… I’m not very good with this sort of things, so….”

923
“Keuh-heuk.”

As if he felt tormented, Yu Jin-Ho dropped his head lower in agony

before raising it back up again.

“I-it’s still fine, hyung-nim. Actually, I don’t know what she’d like to
have anyway, so I prepared lots of presents in advance.”

And then, he began pulling out a large paper envelope out of the
blue. What that contained was a blueprint of a building.

“Actually, there’s this new building about to be constructed in our

company’s premises, so as soon as Miss Jin-Ah is done with her
medical degree, we could build a hospit….”

“Hold up.”

Jin-Woo felt as if he had seen this blueprint lots of times from

somewhere and quickly cut Yu Jin-Ho’s word off.

“By any chance, this building…. The estimated pricing is around 30

billion Won, isn’t it?” (TL: Around $25 million USD)

Yu Jin-Ho was taken by surprise and his eyes opened up wider.

“What the…. Hyung-nim, how can you know that….?”

Well, it was obvious how – because it was the exact same thing.

…The same as the blueprint of the building offered as the

compensation for making Yu Jin-Ho the new Guild Master back in the
erased timeline, that was.

Jin-Woo worked hard to keep his laughter in check. Yu Jin-Ho saw

that expression and his complexion reddened considerably as he
tried to come up with a suitable excuse.

924
“Hyung-nim, this is the best I can do for Miss Jin-Ah at the moment
because I’m still learning about this trade from my father, but I….”

“No, that’s not it.”

To stop Yu Jin-Ho’s misunderstanding from getting any deeper, Jin-

Woo wiped the grin off his face and spoke in a far more earnest tone
of voice.

“Listen to me, Jin-Ho.”

“Yes, hyung-nim.”

“There’s no need for you to give her lots of presents to prove

yourself so hard like this. Because… you are a good man. All you have
to do is be you. Just you.”

“…..”

Jin-Woo’s opinion rendered Yu Jin-Ho completely speechless, but he

began tearing up greatly.

“Hyung-nim….”

It was at this point that Jin-Woo belatedly remembered how this kid
behaved when drunk and felt this ominous foreboding creep up on
him.

And like clockwork, Yu Jin-Ho spoke in a tearful voice.

“Can I hug you just this one time, hyung-nim?”

“Nope.”

“Hyung-niiim!!”

Yu Jin-Ho failed to rein his emotions in the end, and pounced on Jin-
Woo to embrace him, but the latter extended his hand and rather
deftly stopped the former from getting too close.

925
Yu Jin-Ho struggled for a long time before finally regaining control
over his emotions and settled back down on his spot.

“Sob, sob, sobbbb…”

He continued to sob away, though, and Jin-Woo could only smirk at

this sight. Sure, this kid did have a bit of a moronic streak in him, but
Jin-Woo knew the truth very well from what the kid had shown him
during the moments of great life-or-death peril.

Back when they entered the rank C dungeon along with a bunch of
con-men and were forced into making a decision, or when he was
being tortured for information by a rank S Hunter blinded by
thoughts of revenge, Yu Jin-Ho always chose loyalty over his safety.

He was a good kid, indeed. That was Jin-Woo’s honest impression of

Yu Jin-Ho after observing him from a close vantage point after all this
time.

Jin-Woo poured soju into his own empty shot glass.

“Why don’t we pray for your success with this toast?”

“Eh?”

Yu Jin-Ho raised his head to find Jin-Woo pushing forward his shot
glass.

“If your proposal is successful, then we will really become family, you
know. So, how about we share a toast while praying for your
success?”

“A real family with hyung-nim…..”

Yu Jin-Ho’s expression was soon overcome with a great swell of

emotions once more and he lifted his own cup up, only for his gaze
to stop by at Jin-Woo’s left hand.

926
He knew very well what was hidden behind that black glove, of
course.

“Excuse me…. Hyung-nim?”

“Yeah?”

“If I’m not overstepping here, can I ask you about something?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

Yu Jin-Ho sneaked a couple of glances at Jin-Woo’s left hand before

working up his courage once more.

“The scars on that hand…. What actually did happen to you, to get
such serious scars?”

Those scars were so horrendous that just a casual glance would

make people recall heart-wrenching pain in an instant. It must’ve
been a rather serious accident for such a clear burn scar to be left
behind like that.

Although Yu Jin-Ho found it pretty hard to ask this question up until

now, he borrowed the powers of the booze to ask this rather difficult
question.

“Oh, you mean this?”

Jin-Woo glanced at his left hand for a little while, before a smirk
floated up on his lips.

“I got it while saving the world.”

Jin-Woo’s gaze had reverted back to Yu Jin-Ho by then. His reply was
spoken as if it was nothing much to worry about, so the latter
chuckled back lightly, too.

“Hyung-nim, you and your sense of humour….”

927
Jin-Woo also chuckled along as well.

Yu Jin-Ho belatedly realised that the shot glass had been stuck
waiting for a while inside his hyung-nim’s hand and quickly raised his
own higher.

“For the successful proposal!”

Jin-Woo brought his cup closer and prayed for the kid’s fortune as
well.

“Yeah, for your successful proposal.”

Clink.

They clinked their shot glasses and emptied them in one go.

Yu Jin-Ho’s face went into a scowl at the bitter taste of soju, but
unlike him, Jin-Woo could only form a wry grin as he put the empty
glass down.

‘I’d love to get just a little bit drunk on a day like today, though…’

It was then.

“Ah, I almost forgot.”

Yu Jin-Ho must’ve recalled Jin-Woo’s family life after hearing the

word ‘family’ since he suddenly began discussing precisely that.

“Is sister-in-law doing well?”

“Yeah, she’s well.”

“What about Soo-Hoh, though? I should really stop by soon to see

how the boy’s doing nowadays. Has he started walking yet?”

Jin-Woo chuckled and shook his head.

928
“No, not yet. He’s only six months old, so crawling is all he can do for
now.”

“That’s weird. I thought that a kid sharing your and your wife’s genes
would start running around the moment he was born, you know?”

“What the hell. Is that how you think of me and her?”

“Ahaha.”

Yu Jin-Ho scratched the back of his head in a playful manner and Jin-
Woo also chuckled as well.

But then, Yu Jin-Ho went “Oops!” and hurriedly spoke in a worried

voice as he heard that the post-natal care was rather arduous for the
newborn’s parents.

“Well, in that case, shouldn’t you go home as soon as possible?”

“Mm… Maybe I should?”

With good timing, Jin-Woo was also beginning to miss Hae-In and his
son Soo-Hoh waiting for him back home after the word ‘family’ had
been mentioned earlier.

***

A certain residence located in the outskirts of the city.

Arriving back home safe and sound, Jin-Woo parked his car in the
vicinity.

Screech.

Although the house was unimaginably huge for a detective to afford

with his government salary, no one suspected a thing since the
person sharing the residence alongside him just so happened to be

929
the idol of the sporting world that pretty much every South Korean
had heard of before in the past.

However, only he and Hae-In knew the secret of this house not being
built by the hands of humans.

When Jin-Woo stepped into the house, the first thing that greeted
him was the sight of his two Marshals in the middle of a war of
nerves.

Bellion and Igrit were glaring at each other without backing down an
inch, apparently not ready to give up on their ground. Soon, Hae-In
came out to the living room while carrying their son, Soo-Hoh.

“Dear….”

With a smile, Jin-Woo took over Soo-Hoh from Hae-In, and gently
held him up. When he did…

“Ppa-!!”

Soo-Hoh broke out into boisterous laughter and extended his small
hands towards him. The boy wanted to be hugged by his father, so
Jin-Woo helped with that by embracing the baby against his chest,
and then, pointed to his two Marshals with his chin.

“What’s up with those two?”

“Well, the thing is….”

Hae-In was fighting back to keep her own laughter from breaking out
while hesitating with her answer, but Jin-Woo didn’t need long to
figure out what was up with this situation.

Bellion shot back at Igrit with a harsh glare.

930
[What do you mean by we mustn’t teach our Lord Soo-Hoh the ways
of the sword? Do you really think your suggestion makes any sense
whatsoever, Igrit?!]

However, Igrit’s own fighting spirit didn’t lose out an inch, other.

[High academic success is the barometer of one’s capability in this

world, Bellion.]

No one knew when or who ordered them online, but well, Igrit was
holding home-schooling material for toddlers as he argued his case.

Jin-Woo watched the tightly-contested war of nerves between these

two proud Soldiers and became utterly speechless. He stared at
them with a dumbfounded face for a while, before he took a step
closer to address them.

“You guys….”

The Marshals finally realised that their liege was right in front of their
noses, hurriedly turned around to face him, and knelt down on the
floor.

[My liege!]

[My liege!]

Jin-Woo tutted audibly at the two Marshals far too obsessed in the
matters of the post-natal care and spoke to them.

“It’s fine whether you want to teach my son swords or maths, but
let’s worry about that only after the boy learns to walk first, shall
we?”

Bellion and Igrit stared at each other for a little while before bowing
their heads down to Jin-Woo.

[That is a reasonable approach, my liege.]

931
[You are correct, my liege.]

“Alright.”

Jin-Woo grinned brightly while holding his son in his arms, and just
like that, Soo-Hoh also grinned brightly in return, as well.

“Kkyah.”

Nobody would doubt that they were a father and son; Hae-In
watched the two’s smiles that seemed like a carbon copy of one
another and chuckled softly herself.

***

Around the time Lee Seh-Hwan, joining the Unit as someone’s

potential successor, had gotten more or less used to the life as a
detective, Jin-Woo was summoned by the Station Commander for a
private chat.

The senior detective leaving the commander’s office before him

carried a rather suspicious glint in his eyes, so it was unlikely that this
chat would be about a pleasant topic, thought Jin-Woo. He entered
the commander’s office after the senior detective left and walked
over to his superior’s desk.

“Did you call for me, sir?”

The commander was looking out of his office window at the time; he
didn’t turn around and addressed Jin-Woo in a quiet voice.

“I heard that you’re still interfering in other detectives’

investigations….”

As expected – the senior of earlier carried that look of ‘I told you so’
as he was leaving, didn’t he? Jin-Woo inwardly swallowed his fake
cough.

932
The commander turned around towards Jin-Woo and formed a
refreshing grin.

“Please, I beg you to not go overboard and make other detectives

resent you, Seong Hunter-nim.”

The commander’s face was someone quite familiar to him. It

belonged to none other than Woo Jin-Cheol, the youngest Station
Commander in Korean history.

Of course, that feat was built upon the hidden fact that Jin-Woo
played a key role in solving many of Woo Jin-Cheol’s cases.

Jin-Woo smiled and corrected his current boss’s words.

“I’m not a Hunter anymore, Commander.”

“Even still, it’s a lot more convenient for me to refer to you as a

Hunter-nim.”

While saying those things, Woo Jin-Cheol scanned the documents on

top of his desk.

“Did you know that the legal guardian of the suicide victim, her
father, suddenly went missing a few days ago?”

“Really?”

“Rather coincidentally, every CCTV camera around the missing man’s

residence stopped working at the same time.”

“Oh my goodness. How can such a thing even happen?”

Jin-Woo’s feigned innocence brought about a helpless chuckle from

Woo Jin-Cheol. He then threw the documents into the nearby trash
can.

933
“Whatever you decide to do, I shall continue to believe in you, Seong
Hunter-nim.”

Jin-Woo heard Woo Jin-Cheol’s declaration of unreserved faith in

him and as a gesture of thanks, bowed his head just a little.

Afterwards….

“Actually, I didn’t ask you to come and stop by because of that….”

Woo Jin-Cheol pushed forward a piece of memo paper that had been
hidden in the corner of the desk until then. A name of a hospital, as
well as a patient’s room number, was written on it.

“….I thought that you’d like to know.”

“What’s this?”

Jin-Woo asked back and Woo Jin-Cheol replied as if he was waiting

for that.

“The Association President, no, Chairman Goh Gun-Hui is apparently

in critical condition.”

***

This would be Jin-Woo’s second time coming to visit Goh Gun-Hui’s

hospital room.

About ten years ago, he saved the older man’s life by using the
‘Divine Water of Life’ that he also used to save his mother’s life in the
erased timeline.

And now, he was facing the gaunt Goh Gun-Hui once more as the
latter found himself at the death’s doorstep. Since this was his
second visit, the dying man didn’t get surprised by Jin-Woo’s
unexpected appearance.

934
No, he simply nodded his head in the direction of the unfamiliar
young man with a hood pulled up. He then tapped on the oxygen
mask blocking his mouth.

Jin-Woo reached out and cautiously removed the apparatus,

allowing Goh Gun-Hui to speak even though he wheezed heavily and
laboriously in between each word.

“Young… man, you came back again…. Actually, I…. I’ve been
searching for you… all this time.”

Jin-Woo looked on at this sight with sorrowful eyes before raising his
voice.

“If Chairman wants this illness to be cured, then….”

Even before he could finish saying that he could cure the illness one
more time, Goh Gun-Hui shook his head first.

“I’ve… lived for a long time now. I did what I had to do during the ten
years you gave me. That is enough for me.”

Back in the erased timeline, Goh Gun-Hui sold off his company and
became the first President of the Korean Hunter’s Association. But in
this timeline, he had been acting as the role model to all the other
corporate leaders by taking the lead in various charity work. And he
no longer wished for his life to be extended anymore.

What he really wanted, though, was not what everyone would’ve

expected.

“Actually…. I have a favour to ask you.”

Jin-Woo nodded his head. And that’s when he was met with Goh
Gun-Hui’s pleading eyes.

935
“You told me that there was a world where we fought side by side,
didn’t you?”

Jin-Woo nodded his head again without saying anything.

“Can you tell me more about that world? I’d like to know more.
What I looked like, what you looked like back then….”

“Those might not be the memories you’d like to recall, sir.”

“It’ll be alright. I only wish to regain the memories now lost, that is
all.”

Jin-Woo confirmed the earnest desperation on Chairman Goh Gun-

Hui’s expression and gently grasped the dying man’s hand.

When he did….

….The memories of the time now erased rushed into Goh Gun-Hui’s
mind like a tidal wave.

“Ah, ah….”

Tears began flooding out from the older man’s eyes.

Meanwhile, Jin-Woo slowly pulled the hood back and revealed his
face to the Association President Goh Gun-Hui. He tightly grasped
the younger man’s hands and confirmed the face now looking back
as even thicker tears fell from his eyes.

“Hunter-nim, you have…. Again….”

Jin-Woo gently held the Association President’s hand as the latter’s

breathing became harsher and noticeably more laborious.

Goh Gun-Hui’s gaze shifted back towards the ceiling.

“I… I really… Along with young heroes like you….”

936
His voice now contained traces of his satisfaction.

Goh Gun-Hui was overcome with the genuine happiness gushing out
from the deepest part of his heart, and as his tears continued to
flow, he quietly breathed his last.

Jin-Woo also stood there with tears in his eyes, before reaching
down to gently close the older man’s eyes. Soon after, the life-
support machines informed everyone involved of the passing of their
patient.

Beeeep-!!

By the time shocked doctors rushed into the room, the suspicious,
uninvited guest had already left without a trace.

As Jin-Woo wordlessly walked the streets, electronic advertising

boards installed here and there continued to display the breaking
news of Chairman Goh Gun-Hui’s passing.

Emotions of sadness could be spied on the expressions of many

watching the breaking news.

Back then, or even now….

Chairman Goh Gun-Hui was loved by many, and even more paid their
respects after his death.

‘Be well…. You were also a hero who sacrificed so much of yourself
for the sake of the others.’

Jin-Woo stepped away from the populated streets and made his way
towards those avenues with little to no foot traffic.

937
Every time the wind blew, leaves that lost their colours from the
influence of the encroaching autumn fell in droves from the trees
lining up the streets.

Soon, winter would arrive.

‘And then, spring will come again, too.’

Jin-Woo fell into a deep train of thoughts while looking at the

scattering leaves, before belatedly realising that his phone was
ringing off the hook inside his pocket.

The call was from Hae-In.

“Dear?”

As soon as he answered the phone, he was greeted by her incredibly

urgent voice.

– “D-dear!! Soo-Hoh, he… Our son is….!!”

Could something have happened in their home, even though two

Marshals were guarding it?? Jin-Woo’s own voice rose up higher at
what seemed to be an unbelievable situation currently unfolding
there.

“What’s the matter with Soo-Hoh?!”

When he did, Hae-In cried out as if she too couldn’t believe that it
was happening, either.

– “He’s flying!!!”

“Eh?”

– “Our son is flying around the house, right now!!”

It was right at that moment that Jin-Woo recalled what Yu Jin-Ho

said a few days ago.

938
– That’s weird. I thought that a kid sharing your and your wife’s
genes would start running around the moment he was born, you
know?

He became completely speechless after recalling those words and

stood dead still on the spot.

– “W-what should I do?”

For some reason, laughter tried to break out of his mouth after
hearing his wife’s panicky voice over the phone. For the time being,
he decided that calming his wife down would be his first priority.

“It’ll be fine. Don’t worry too much about it.”

– “What do you mean?!”

“I’ll teach Soo-Hoh how to fly step by step, soon.”

– “Babe, you…. know how to fly?!”

‘….Oops.’

Didn’t I tell her that before?

When he was dating Hae-In back in the now-erased timeline, he

wasn’t all that adept at flying around so they used his Sky Dragon
‘Kaisel’ to travel, instead.

Jin-Woo finally couldn’t hold back and guffawed out.

The autumn leaves shook around in the wind and fell to Earth once
more.

After autumn, winter would come, and afterwards, spring would

greet the world. Everything had a beginning and an end, and a new
beginning would follow after the end.

However…

939
– “Oh, no! Soo-Hoh, you mustn’t!!”

Clank, smash!!

….It seemed that the winter of his household was still a long way
away.

940
Chapter 265: Recollections/After Stories
Part 1 - Beru’s memories
Inside a certain egg….

Before he was ready to hatch, Beru heard the voice of the Queen
through the thick shell of his egg.

[For the sake of the kingdom.]

‘For the sake… of the kingdom.’

[Make all the enemies blocking our path shiver in terror.]

‘Make all the enemies blocking our path shiver in terror….’

He needed to become strong.

He simply had to be strong.

That was the very first duty bestowed upon Beru, still sleeping in an
embryonic state. And then, the obsession of the Ant Queen wishing
to build a prosperous kingdom resulted in the birth of a horrifying
monster.

[Kkkieeeehhk!!]

The young soldier ant shattered the eggshell, emerged from the
confines, and screeched out loudly. The ominous and terrifying
murderous intent oozing out from its two eyes didn’t permit any
comparison to other ant monsters in existence.

The Queen shuddered. It felt a powerful surge of emotions by this

creature born from its efforts.

‘If it’s this child, then certainly, those humans wielding strange
powers will be….’

941
The Queen’s eyes sparkled in anticipation, but even before it could
issue a new order to the greatest ant soldier that triumphantly
emerged from the egg, Beru felt hungry, so he did what he wanted
to do.

Grab.

The wrist of one of the worker ants aiding with the hatching process
got grabbed by Beru.

‘…..?’

Even before the worker ant could understand what was going on,
Beru simply began swallowing and chewing on the hapless monster
from its head.

Crunch, crunch….

[….!!]

The Queen was greatly taken by surprise at Beru’s unexpected

behaviour, but it was suppressed by the powerful aura of the future
king of the ants and couldn’t even dare to stop him.

Beru managed to erase all traces of its kin from this world in the
blink of an eye and stood proudly before his queen. The bodily fluid
dripping from his mouth looked rather grotesque.

‘The terror of our enemies….’

The thing was, the subject of powerful fear would also have the same
effect on his own allies, as well. The Queen belatedly realised this
fact and took a look around itself. The brave soldiers of the ant
kingdom were shivering in fear.

The emotions they felt were transmitted in full to their Queen, the
only one capable of exercising absolute control over them.

942
The newborn soldier definitely passed the test. As expected of the
greatest soldier the Queen had produced – he was truly a
masterpiece.

[Become even stronger.]

The Queen issued the next order to Beru, with an eye towards a full-
scale invasion of the human’s lands.

[Stronger, until none can stand in your way.]

***

Beru proceeded to devour everything on the island. When there was

a shortage of food, he didn’t even hesitate to devour his own kin.
From tiny lifeforms on the ground like worms and larvae, all the way
to large fish and aquatic mammals of the nearby ocean….

As Beru voraciously devoured every single life in front of his eyes, a

new realisation dawned on him. Whether it be lifeforms possessing
fatal poison or creatures with huge bodies, they all quaked in fear
upon running into him.

‘Survival’ was the most basic, as well as the ultimate, goal of all living
creatures. But, in front of an absolute being that could easily rip
apart that goal into millions of pieces, the looks carried in the eyes of
other lifeforms were all roughly the same.

‘……’

Beru got to confirm over and over again that he was indeed at the
top of the food chain, and soon, arrived at a certain conclusion.

‘I am….’

I am created to be the greatest predator from the very beginning.

In that case….

943
Beru, submerged deep within the seawater, pushed his head out of
the surface. He could see the land at the far end of the undulating
ocean waves. A world different from the sea was waiting for him
there.

‘Just how powerful will those humans be, those that mother is
greatly wary of?’

He grew quite curious – curious about if there really were powerful

beings that necessitated even a top predator like him to keep a low
profile, curious about if his powers would work against them.

He shifted his gaze towards the mainland several times, but…

[It is still too early.]

The Queen was capable of monitoring Beru’s thoughts and its

resolute voice would always stop him from acting out on his curiosity
without fail.

Left with no choice, he vacantly stared at the distant land before

slipping beneath the surface of the ocean again.

Indeed, he’d get to know when the time was right.

‘……’

Beru heeded the Queen’s orders and waited for the right time to
come with bated breath. And eventually, ‘they’ stepped onto his
land.

For the first time ever, Beru was given a chance to test out his true
capabilities.

And it….

“What, what the hell are you?!”

944
“Uwaaaahk!!”

….Wasn’t even a fight.

No, it was nothing more than one-sided hunting.

What a familiar sight it was to him.

Beru discovered ‘fear’ in the eyes of the dying Hunters and couldn’t
hide his utter disappointment.

‘To fight against these weaklings, I…’

I had to wait for such a long time?

There was this smell of fear oozing out from the entire bodies of the
prey. Beru got to reconfirm through these human Hunters that he
still occupied the top rung in the food chain.

It was a letdown.

And so, as the lifeform standing at the apex of the ecosystem was
about to define what he thought of the human race as a whole in his
head…

For the first time ever, a human that didn’t fear him even when
standing face-to-face appeared out of the blue. Beru’s heart began
viciously pounding away after encountering a situation he had never
experienced before.

‘This human…. He’s not scared of me?’

He felt it’d be somewhat of a loss to kill this human right away, so

Beru tried to start a conversation.

“Are you the king of humans?”

When he did, the human replied back.

945
“…..Huh, an insect that knows how to speak. Well, I’ll be.”

***

Maybe this would be the first time since then that a living creature
looked at Beru with eyes that were filled with something other than
fear.

Sparkle, sparkle….

‘…..’

Beru began shedding cold sweat drops as the young Lord Soo-Hoh,
the son of his Sovereign, stared at him with rather hotly-burning
eyes. So, he tried to escape from this uncomfortable atmosphere,
but then….

“Anty, antyyy!”

He couldn’t endure it and flew up in the air, but then….

“Anty, antyyy!!”

The young lord would already be right behind him when Beru took a
look behind to make sure.

‘…….’

Of course, as long as Beru wanted to, escaping from a toddler would

not be an issue, but…. Well, the problem here was that the toddler in
question was his king’s child.

What if he tried too hard to escape and that ended up harming the
young lord somehow? How could Beru even take care of the
aftermath, then?

“Antyyy!”

946
In the end, the responsibilities of looking after young Soo-Hoh
alongside the child’s mother, Hae-In, fell on Beru’s shoulders, not the
other Marshals.

“….”

After making sure that Soo-Hoh was asleep, Beru quietly returned to
the ‘territory of eternal rest’.

He slid silently into the shadow, and the world of infinite darkness
spread out right before his eyes. Some people might call this place
scary, but for Beru, this world under his liege’s authority was a rather
comfortable place to be.

While he made his way over to where the ant army resided, Beru fell
into a deep pool of thoughts.

‘Why does our young lord continuously seek me out?’

….He just couldn’t figure this one out.

He had always been the object of fear, and he felt that that fact
hadn’t changed even now. This question suddenly invading his head
proved quite difficult to resolve, so Beru changed his destination.
What could be more helpful in understanding the mindset of a
human than a human’s opinion on the matter?

His liege didn’t like using humans as Shadow Soldiers, so there were
almost no soldiers who started off as humans, but…

But, rather fortunately, there was one soldier Beru knew that started
his life as a human. It was none other than Marshal Igrit.

“There is no way that our young lord will hate you.”

[…..??]

Igrit nodded his head and rapidly added further explanations.

947
“Here is an ant walking around that’s much bigger than a person. It
can fly and it can even talk, too. Just which child wouldn’t like that?”

[…….]

Well, that was a fresh take on the matter, which he didn’t consider
before.

Beru headed back to the area occupied by the ant army while
carefully digesting what Igrit had told him.

‘The young lord likes me because I’m bigger than a person, I can fly,
and I can even speak.’

If a person could like something with such simplistic reasons, then

wouldn’t that person also easily fall out of love with something with
equally simplistic reasons, too?

Well, he certainly hadn’t heard of humans liking bugs after entering

their adulthood. When his thoughts reached that far, his mood
seemed to sink just a little bit.

He was familiar with others looking at him with gazes of revulsion,

but when thinking about how the young lord would also one day
carry such a gaze, Beru grew just a little bit sad.

‘…..’

Beru flying silently changed his heading once more. His new
destination this time was the location of a certain construction
project.

The bearded Dwarves and ant soldiers were ordered by Beru to

construct a gigantic stone statue of their liege within this place, the
‘territory of eternal rest’. When they saw the former ant king land
near their vicinity, they all bowed their heads in unison.

948
The Dwarven Elder in charge of directing the project hurriedly ran
over to welcome Beru.

“Marshal-nim, welcome back.”

Nod, nod.

Beru observed the progress on the construction for a bit before

asking the Elder.

[I wish to change the plan just a little bit.]

“Ehhht?!”

Maybe he felt all the hard work his men had put in would go to
waste, the Elder hurriedly tried to dissuade Beru despite feeling
rather scared of the former ant king.

“B-but, Marshal-nim, you planned to commemorate Sovereign-nim’s

upcoming 32nd birthday with this ‘Divine Liege’ statue, so from a few
months ago…..”

[No, no, no. I’m not saying I want to cancel the plan itself. I just want
to change this part like so….]

The Elder quietly listened to Beru’s explanation before nodding his

head right away.

“Of course that is feasible. I think we will get a far grander result with
this new plan, Marshal-nim.”

[Khe-khek, very good.]

The atmosphere that seemed to be frozen for a bit had warmed up

considerably now.

“Well, in that case, I should….”

949
Just as the excited Elder tried to continue on, Beru raised his index
finger and placed it against his lips.

[I shall return after taking care of business first.]

***

“Hyung-nim, are we really doing this?”

“You fool…. What is it? You scared now that we came this far?”

“N-no, that’s not it, hyung-nim.”

A thug glared angrily at his underling sitting on the front passenger

seat of the car, and shifted his gaze back to a certain residence over
yonder.

It was a two-story private home standing all by itself in a rather

deserted suburb, as if the owners wanted to avoid crowded areas.

That place belonged to Detective Seong Jin-Woo.

The thug had it confirmed it multiple times before coming here, so

he was sure of it.

“Because of that son of a b*tch Seong Jin-Woo, our organisation got

obliterated into thin air. We got hurt real bad by the b*stard, so isn’t
it only fair that we leave an everlasting mark on him to balance the
books??”

“You’re right, hyung-nim.”

The three underlings replied in a unanimous voice.

Very good.

“Listen well. We are a quartet of common house robbers now. As for

the wife and the son of that detective, they got killed by the robbers

950
breaking into their home in the middle of the day. Do you get my
drift?”

“Yes, hyung-nim.”

A sinister grin formed on the lips of the man they all referred to as
‘hyung-nim’.

To think, such a massive house didn’t have a single security system –

wasn’t that exactly like declaring to the world ‘Come and swallow us
up’ while washing their necks?

Indeed, it was a miracle that the house hadn’t been burgled yet.

“Stop shaking in your boots and don’t make any mistakes.”

The thug scanned his underlings and they nodded their heads.

“Let’s go.”

Tap, tap, tap, tap.

The four males exited the car and cautiously closed the doors. They
scanned their vicinity and approached the residence before hurriedly
clambering over the walls.

They had rehearsed what they had to several times before, so such a
wall didn’t pose any problems for these folks.

But then…

…Step!

Only four legs landed back on the ground.

‘….Where are the other two?!’

The thug hurriedly looked at the only remaining underling next to

him. The latter shook his head.

951
Four jumped over the wall, yet only two landed back on the ground?
What a bizarrely weird thing this was!

The thug quickly studied all around his surroundings, but when he
looked to his side again, the remaining underling was gone without a
trace, too.

‘These sons of b*tches, seriously now…!!’

The enraged thug briefly forgot where he was right now, and was
about to roar out at the top of his lungs. But right before that, a hand
approached him without being noticed and covered his mouth, hard.

[Shh….]

Right now was the young lord’s nap time. It must not be disrupted by
a bunch of uninvited guests, no matter what!

Thankfully, Beru’s hearing could pick up on the calm, rhythmic

breathing of the young lord in the nursery. With a pair of satisfied
eyes, he looked diagonally down to his side. The thug caught in his
arms was trembling like a lone leaf in the wind.

“Euph…. euph, euphhhh!!”

There it was, that familiar light in the eyes.

The familiar emotion.

Beru certainly enjoyed the unreserved faith his liege had in him, or
the young lord’s favourable feelings towards him, but this… This, as
expected, felt just as good to him. The expressions of the weak prey
caught before the glare of a predator would always be like this.

[Kiiik, kiiik.]

Beru didn’t hold back and revelled in the intense fear displayed in
the thug’s eyes, before dragging the hapless victim away and

952
disappearing from view. The screaming vanished very soon after
from this world.

***

“What do you think?”

The Elder proudly presented the ‘Divine Liege’ statue.

This stone statue with their liege’s countenance boasted such a

humongous scale that, in order to look at its top, one’s neck might
develop a sprain if one carelessly tilted their head back.

Just to complete this masterpiece before the deadline, not only had
every single bearded Dwarf pitched in, but all the ant soldiers also
lent their aid.

[Kiikiik.]

Beru studied the statue of his liege with a very satisfied expression
before confirming the last-minute change that had been added to it.

“Just as you commanded, Marshal-nim. There it is, on the left

shoulder….”

Just like the Elder’s explanation, the left shoulder of the liege’s
statue now played home to the figure of their young lord, sitting
there with a bright expression.

The father and his son.

There was no doubt in Beru’s heart that his liege would be greatly
pleased after seeing this grand and beautiful statue. And also, this
statue would prove to be a deeply-meaningful present to the young
lord if he ever gets to enter this world in the distant future.

Such certainty prompted Beru to roar out in laughter.

953
[Kkiiihehehehehet~!!]

Following after the rejoicing Beru, the bearded Dwarves and ant
soldiers also burst out into loud peals of laughter.

Wah-hahahahaha!!

“Kkyah-hah!”

He suddenly heard a cheerful cry of a toddler mixed among the

raucous laughter.

[….?!]

Beru got stunned out of his shell and hurriedly looked back, only to
discover a certain baby sticking close to his back.

“Annty!!”

Ah, ah…..

Should he say, like father, like son?

Seeing the baby Soo-Hoh who could now freely enter the ‘territory of
eternal rest’ before anyone had the chance to notice it, the Marshal
in charge of childcare, Beru, could only hold his head in agony.

[Khi-hahk!]

954
Chapter 266: Recollections/After Stories
Part 2 - Until we meet again
“Thank you for coming in, Miss Cha.”

“Ah, yes. Hello.”

Hae-In stepped across the doorway of the kindergarten

headmistress’s office with a tense expression on her face.

Soo-Hoh hadn’t had any contact with kids of his own age until he
turned five years old. And today was exactly a week after the worried
parents decided to send their son to the nearest kindergarten.

The preschool educational institution suddenly called her up, asking

her to come for a meeting today. Hae-In was really worried that
maybe something happened to Soo-Hoh, or her son did something
wrong.

The headmistress guided her to the couch on the opposite side and
Hae-In settled down on the cushion as her complexion became even
gloomier than before.

The middle-aged headmistress could fully understand what Hae-In

was going through right now. That was why she worked hard to find
the gentlest voice she could come up with in order to not worsen the
other party’s anxiety.

“It’s not something to be that anxious over, Miss Cha. It’s just that….
We have a few questions we’d like to ask you.”

“Ah, yes. Please.”

Hae-In nodded her head repeatedly with a hardened expression. The

headmistress cautiously pushed forward a sketchbook.

“Here…. Would you take a look at this, please?”

955
Hae-In picked the book up as the headmistress continued on.

“It contains drawings by your son, Soo-Hoh.”

The white paper within said book featured a rather-cute looking ‘ant’
as drawn by a little child’s hands.

But, why was she being shown this? Hae-In couldn’t immediately
understand where this conversation was going and asked back with a
puzzled expression.

“What’s the matter with this drawing….?”

The headmistress hesitated slightly before letting a soft sigh escape

from her lips. She then began explaining herself.

“The class teacher-nim asked the children to draw their close

‘friends’, you see.”

“….Ah.”

Now that she looked at the drawing again, the ‘ant’ was standing on
two feet. Only then did Hae-In realise that this was not a drawing of
an ordinary ant, but Marshal Beru, instead.

“There are others after that page. When the class teacher-nim asked
Soo-Hoh if he had any other friends, he drew those next.”

Hae-In flipped one more page.

There was a drawing of a humanoid figure with a strip of red

plumage attached to his head while holding what was clearly a
sword, no matter who saw it.

‘Igrit….’

Hae-In instantly recognised the protagonist of the drawing and

slowly held her forehead with one hand. He might look like a

956
trustworthy knight to those who knew him, but how would this
situation look like in the eyes of strangers?

Her head began aching just from thinking about that.

After that page came the drawings of Bellion and his extending magic
sword, as well as Fangs, busily putting on a magic show. Inevitably,
Hae-In’s head began developing a stronger migraine.

‘…..’

The headmistress interpreted Hae-In’s speechless expression the

wrong way and spoke in a worried voice.

“The next drawing is what Soo-Hoh drew as his family portrait.”

Flip.

The page of the sketchbook flipped again. What greeted her next
was a drawing of herself, a man that seemed to be her husband, Jin-
Woo, and innumerable black figures standing behind them.

Soo-Hoh grew up from his toddler days surrounded by the Shadow

Soldiers and he must’ve thought of them as his extended family now.

‘This is how we look like in Soo-Hoh’s eyes.’

Hae-In thought that this drawing contained her son’s innocent but
warm gaze, and her nose stung with emotions.

The class teachers couldn’t understand the meaning behind these

drawings and fell into a rather considerable amount of panic and
came to the conclusion that there must’ve been some sort of a
problem with Soo-Hoh.

And of course, that included the headmistress herself, the person

responsible for asking Hae-In to stop by at the kindergarten today.

957
The middle-aged lady formed a pretty grave expression as she spoke.

“The final page contains Soo-Hoh’s drawing of his ‘home’. And the
reason why I requested you for today’s meeting, as well.”

What kind of a drawing would it be this time? With a pair of nervous

eyes, Cha Hae-In flipped to the last page.

There was a cosy little house.

A normal-looking house was standing erect in the middle of some

land.

The problem with this depiction was that the ground below was
completely painted black.

Over 70 percent of the sketchbook’s real estate was dominated by

the black colour.

“We’ve been caring for many children over the years, but never have
we encountered such depictions of friends and family by a child until
now.”

The headmistress pointed to the black portion of the drawing and

spoke in a calm voice.

“The homeroom teacher-nim asked Soo-Hoh why he drew the lower

half of the house like this, and the boy replied that that’s where his
friends, his family, as well as his giant father, are staying.”

‘…..Giant father?’

That explanation was puzzling enough to make Hae-In tilt her head
this way and that, but still, she could more or less guess how this
drawing came about.

However….

958
“By any chance, do you know why Soo-Hoh is drawing these sorts of
images?”

….It was really unfortunate that Hae-In couldn’t reveal what she
knew to other people. She could only shake her head.

“….As I feared.”

The headmistress nodded her head as if she understood the

situation.

Initially, the kindergarten was fearful that Soo-Hoh was being

mistreated at home, but they couldn’t find any evidence of abuse
from the boy’s jovial, good-natured behaviour he displayed every
day.

Although rare, things like this did happen occasionally – young kids
drawing the world as they see it through their eyes.

“Maybe… It’s possible that Soo-Hoh possesses a great talent for art.”

The headmistress convinced herself with this and smiled gently.

Hae-In stopped forming a gloomy expression, now that she knew the
source of today’s ‘trouble’, and smiled awkwardly, as well.

“Ah, yes. Yes.”

What a relief that it was not a huge matter. She could finally relax a
bit.

However, these drawings weren’t the end of the headmistress’s

business today. She again deliberated on whether she should speak
of this or not, before coming to a difficult decision and raised her
head.

The look in her eyes was far graver than when she presented those
drawings.

959
“Miss Cha, actually…. There is something else I’d like to speak to you
about.”

***

In the Central Region’s Violent Crimes Unit.

After the results of the promotion examination had been announced,

excited voices began resounding out and filled up the Unit’s office.

“Senior-nim, congratulations on your promotion!”

“Congratulations!”

“You should buy us all a round, don’t you agree, Senior-nim? No,
hang on, Seong Superintendent-nim?”

Jin-Woo had to spend quite some time being surrounded by the rest
of the Unit’s detectives, and was only able to extricate himself after
his partner, Lee Seh-Hwan, finally showed up.

“Hyung-nim, shall we get going?”

“Yeah.”

Leaving behind the congratulatory words coming from here and

there, Jin-Woo and his beaming smile escaped from the office.

Enough time had passed and Lee Seh-Hwan himself was a veteran
detective now. He quickly congratulated his much-respected senior.

“Hyung-nim, congrats.”

Jin-Woo used a wordless smile to sub for his reply.

He and Lee Seh-Hwan shared jovial banter as they walked side by

side, but then, the younger detective cautiously scanned his
surroundings before sticking real close to his senior.

960
“By the way, hyung-nim…. Why did you accept the promotion this
time? I mean, whenever the brass pleaded with you to move up the
career ladder, you always refused them, so why now?”

Jin-Woo looked at Seh-Hwan from the corners of his eyes with a look
that said, “What’s so important about that?” before breaking out
into a smirk as he replied.

“I ran out of excuses for my refusal, you see.”

Seh-Hwan laughed out loud at that rather remarkable answer.

“You’re truly amazing, hyung-nim. I’m telling you.”

Although what he said sounded like a joke, Jin-Woo wasn’t joking

here. Of course, Seh-Hwan knew that, too.

As it was the case with pretty much every profession out there, a
detective would grow further and further away from field work the
higher his rank became.

Jin-Woo wished to remain close to where the action was, and the
higher-ups, especially Commander Woo Jin-Cheol, respected that.
Unfortunately, that couldn’t go on forever.

Now that all excuses that could stop a detective with a stunning
arrest record from advancing in his career had been exhausted, even
Jin-Woo was left with no choice but to accept the examination result.

“Hyung-nim, don’t you have any goals or wants? I mean, like, better
position or making lots of money, that sort of things.”

Money, was it?

If Jin-Woo said that once upon a time, he made more than enough
moolah to b*tch-slap a huge law firm and their deep pockets in the

961
face all by himself at a younger age than his junior partner, would
the kid even believe him?

Too bad, Jin-Woo could only recall the days when he operated the
Ah-Jin Guild alongside Yu Jin-Ho and swallow back the words dancing
on the tip of his tongue.

‘Well, they’ve really become distant memories now, haven’t they…’

He could swim in the reminiscence of the past for only a short while,
though. As he was about to climb into the car with Seh-Hwan, his
phone began ringing loudly, so he pulled it out to take a look.

‘Mm?’

The call was from Hae-in.

***

After talking on the phone, Jin-Woo returned home earlier than

usual, and after checking out Soo-Hoh’s drawings, could only chuckle
softly.

“I had no idea that our son had such a wonderful talent in art.”

Amongst them, the drawing of Beru especially caught his eyes. There
should be no other five-year-old child that can draw an ant this
wonderfully in the world.

Jin-Woo looked at the drawing in happiness, only to be pricked

harshly by Hae-In’s sharp glare and quickly withdrew his smile.

“Hm, hmm.”

After seeing her husband changing his attitude really quickly like
that, Hae-In just couldn’t hold back her smirk from breaking out
anymore. She then spoke to Jin-Woo as if she was trying to convince
herself.

962
“It’s not a laughing matter, you know? Take a look at the very last
page.”

“The last page?”

The last page in question contained Soo-Hoh’s final piece, named

‘My home’.

“Soo-Hoh said that the black ground is where his giant father is, so
can you think of…. Why are you smiling?”

“N-no, well, it’s just that I remembered something funny. That’s all.”

Jin-Woo recalled the ‘Divine Liege’ statue standing in the middle of

the ‘territory of eternal rest’ and couldn’t hold back his laughter
anymore. Tears even began sneaking out of his eyes, so he quickly
wiped them off and closed the sketchbook.

Wouldn’t it be fine to let this slide with a simple chuckle? Expressions

containing such thoughts flitted in and out of Jin-Woo’s face. Hae-In
let a soft sigh out and relayed what the headmistress had told her
earlier in the day.

“Other kids are apparently scared of Soo-Hoh.”

“….??”

A little bit of the smile on Jin-Woo’s face went away, then.

“Other kids?”

Hae-In nodded her head with a worried expression before continuing

on with her explanation.

“Their complexions change badly whenever Soo-Hoh tries to get

close to them. Even when he has never bullied or shouted at them,
but still.”

963
“….”

Now that was not something he could gloss over. Jin-Woo’s

expression hardened. The previous smile was long gone now. The
thing he was worried about had really happened.

‘Children are….’

Young children were incomparably purer than adults. And he wasn’t

simply talking about their immature way of looking at things.

No, it was about the ‘purity’ of their senses.

Unlike with adults who, through logical reasoning and studying, got
to overcome the primal instincts they were born with, children could
feel the fear of death far more vividly.

The reason why other kids avoided Soo-Hoh was because they
must’ve felt the shadow of death hovering above him.

‘The power of the Shadow Sovereign….’

It became Jin-Woo’s, and that fact prevented it from becoming a full-

blown calamity, but that was about it.

In reality, this power was a horrifying weapon that the ‘God of

another realm’ hid inside its most loyal soldier in order to destroy
everything it had created.

If the powers of the Shadow Sovereign he didn’t mean to give to his

son continued to grow within Soo-Hoh, then….

‘….It’ll be impossible to carry on with a normal life.’

At the very least, there was a need to seal that power away until
Soo-Hoh reached an age where he could exert perfect control over it.

964
Jin-Woo’s gaze shifted over to all the photos hanging on the living
room’s wall. The biggest one was the marriage of Jin-Woo and Hae-
In; surrounding it were many images of their son.

And most of those photos were shot alongside Shadow Soldiers.

Soo-Hoh and his bright smile, as he rode on Beru’s shoulders and

energetically yanking on the ant king’s two antennae.

Soo-Hoh busy escaping from Igrit who volunteered to become the

boy’s home-school tutor, and then, Soo-Hoh busy performing a mock
duel with Bellion using his toy sword.

There were so many others.

Jin-Woo quietly began storing them away in the subspace, one by

one.

“Dear….?”

“Until Soo-Hoh can live among other people without any issues, I…
I’m planning to temporarily seal away Soo-Hoh’s powers and his
memories of the Shadow Soldiers.”

Soo-Hoh had to learn it.

He needed to learn how to coexist among regular people like a

normal person, rather than with Shadow Soldiers.

Until then….

Just as the final remaining photo entered the storage within the
subspace, Beru emerged from the ground after learning of Jin-Woo’s
decision.

[Oh, my king….]

965
The heart of the Shadow Soldier, the one who looked after and loved
Soo-Hoh like his own child, was transmitted in full to Jin-Woo.

However, the Sovereign’s decision was resolute. Realising that there

was no way to change his liege’s mind, Beru’s head drooped to the
ground.

As the former ant king’s gaze fell, a drawing suddenly entered his
view. It was Soo-Hoh’s sketchbook pushed forward by Jin-Woo.

[This is…?]

‘It’s you, drawn by Soo-Hoh.’

Easily the best depiction of Beru he’d ever seen was drawn upon this
white page. Thick teardrops formed on Beru’s large eyes almost right
away.

[My liege…. May I be permitted to say goodbye to the young Lord?]

Nod.

After receiving Jin-Woo’s permission, Beru cautiously entered Soo-

Hoh’s room.

Creak….

The soft, rhythmic breathing of the deeply-asleep Soo-Hoh was like

the sweetest and most soothing music to the former ant king’s ears.
He knelt down cautiously next to the bed, so as to not rouse the
sleeping child from his nap.

[My Lord…. On behalf of all the Shadow Soldiers, I shall bid you
farewell.]

His voice gently reverberated as if it was spoken within the dreams.

In his sleep, Soo-Hoh shifted his body towards the location of the
voice and mumbled softly.

966
“Boss ant…. boss ant….”

With an expression showing how proud he was of Soo-Hoh now

being able to pronounce ‘ant’ more concisely compared to when the
child was still chasing after him a couple of years ago, Beru bade his
goodbye.

[It has been my honour to serve you, my Lord. Until we meet again
next time, I pray for your good health….]

Beru lightly kissed the back of Soo-Hoh’s hand perched at the end of
the bed and stood back up. All the soldiers hidden within the former
ant king’s shadow also said their goodbyes.

[My Lord, even without me, I pray that you strictly adhere to your
study schedules…]

[Please be healthy, my Lord.]

[Sobbbb, sniff, waaaail, waaah….]

With the goodbyes now over, Beru looked behind him. Jin-Woo was
there, nodding his head.

He wordlessly walked over to his son and carefully pulled the blanket
up to the boy’s chest, tucking him in. Then, he placed his palm on the
sleeping child’s forehead. Powerful magical energy very briefly
hovered near his fingertips before leaving him behind.

When Soo-Hoh opens his eyes again, all of his extraordinary power
and memories would be gone.

‘Have a good dream, son…’

Jin-Woo lightly kissed his son slumbering away like a baby angel and
left the room, quietly closing the door behind him.

967
That night, Soo-Hoh dreamed of ants and knights and Orcs dancing
happily together with him.

968
Chapter 267: Recollections/After Stories
Part 3 -Approach
Spin, spin….

The radar of a boy named Lee Eun-Cheol, a recent addition to the

ranks of high school students, began spinning around.

A brand new school, a new classroom, and new classmates.

The eyes of Lee Eun-Cheol, sitting right at the back of the class, as he
scanned the atmosphere of the place remained harsh, predatory.
With just one glance, he quickly judged who was beneath him, and
who was qualified to be his friend.

The laws of the jungle reigned supreme in this world called the
classroom.

Even back in his middle school days, Lee Eun-Cheol ruled the roost
with his fists. To his eyes, the majority of his classmates looked like a
bunch of easy prey. Almost without exception, those that met his
glare all quickly averted their gazes.

‘….How lame.’

However, there was a dude that walked closer to him with a grin on
his face, instead.

‘That’s Jo Seong-Ho.’

He was one of those ‘friends’ who did his thing in the neighbouring
district. Also, they ran into each other every now and then while
sharing casual booze with his other friends, too.

“You were also here?”

“Yeah.”

969
They greeted each other and shared news on their particular circle of
acquaintances while measuring each other up, but that only lasted
for a short while.

Jo Seong-Ho had heard the infamy of Lee Eun-Cheol plenty of times

before, so he lowered his head first and got under the latter’s wings.

“Take care of me from now on, alright?”

Lee Eun-Cheol smirked deeply and grasped Jo Seong-Ho’s extended

hand. They might be in the process of establishing their hierarchical
positioning at the moment, but a guy like this would be classified as a
‘friend’.

And so, as he was about halfway done with establishing the

hierarchical relationship with the rest of the class, there was this one
guy who kept getting on Lee Eun-Cheol’s nerves for some reason.

He wasn’t some model student who sat right in front of the class, nor
was he a punk trying to show off while sitting at the back, either.

It was a strange kid who sat in the middle and didn’t even bother to
avert his gaze away when their gazes collided.

There would always be one like this guy in every class – a dimwit who
didn’t know his place and needed an ‘incident’ to figure who was on
top and who was at the bottom.

That punk was looking behind him, right at Lee Eun-Cheol, before
sighing out, as if he found this whole thing ridiculous, and reverted
his gaze back to his front. Obviously, the high school thug couldn’t
take that lying down anymore and stood up from his seat.

Dururuk…

970
The noise of the chair dragging against the ground loudly rang
around the classroom. Of course, the gazes of the whole class were
instantly focused on Lee Eun-Cheol.

The boy enjoyed all the attention and, while feeling pretty good
about himself, strode right over to the dimwit who didn’t know his
place.

“Oii.”

Just as Lee Eun-Cheol reached out to grab the punk’s shoulder and
turn him around, a tackle came in from a rather unexpected quarter.

“Hold up.”

After confirming that it was Jo Seong-Ho that grabbed hold of his

wrist, Lee Eun-Cheol opened his mouth.

“What now?”

There were distinct signs of displeasure thickly melted into the voice,
and that caused Jo Seong-Ho to nervously swallow his dry saliva.

“We went to the same middle school. If you can help it, you
shouldn’t bother him.”

“…..Same school?”

Just because they went to the same school, he was trying to protect
the punk?

There could be two potential reasons for that. One, a reason that
couldn’t be brought up but still forbade anyone from touching this
punk.

Or, they were looking down on Lee Eun-Cheol.

971
The high school thug’s expression hardened instantly and he began
lightly kicking the chair of the ‘punk’ that didn’t even bother to turn
around in the middle of this commotion.

“Hey, hey? Who the hell are you? Why don’t you say something?
Don’t you have a mouth?”

Jo Seong-Ho’s complexion paled really quickly and tried to jump in

front to stop this. Lee Eun-Cheol’s patience ran out then and he
slapped the latter’s hand away while shooting a fierce glare.

“You, come with me.”

As Lee Eun-Cheol left the classroom, two of his underlings that

graduated from the same middle school followed after him, too. He
stopped right at the doorway and looked back. His eyes caught Jo
Seong-Ho sweating buckets, while the ‘punk’ didn’t seem to care one
jot either way.

Grit.

A chilling murderous aura filled up Lee Eun-Cheol’s eyes.

***

“Keo-heok!”

Jo Seong-Ho and his messed-up face were tottering unsteadily on his

feet. Maybe that didn’t satisfy him yet, Lee Eun-Cheol’s glare
remained frigid and murderous.

He shoved Jo Seong-Ho against the wall before asking his question.

“Who the hell is that punk? Just who is he that you’re trying to
protect him?!”

972
The wounded boy breathed heavily and painfully before spitting out
saliva mixed with traces of blood to the ground. He then raised his
head, his expression one of fatigue.

“He was the strongest in our middle school.”

“…??”

Lee Eun-Cheol’s head tilted to the side.

This kid, did he lose his mind after getting smacked around for a bit?

It was a well-known story that Jo Seong-Ho and his gang had

completely conquered his middle school. However, he shook his
head and emphasized his point.

“We couldn’t even lay a hand on that guy. I stepped forward today,
cuz I was scared that something might go wrong here, too.”

Initially, Lee Eun-Cheol wondered what kind of horse crap this was,
but Jo Seong-Ho’s eyes were far too serious for something like that.

‘This son of a b*tch… He’s being serious?’

But, that couldn’t be.

If there was a scary b*stard like that, then there was just no way that
a rumour wouldn’t have gotten around.

The name of the punk in question was Seong Soo-Hoh.

Lee Eun-Cheol lived in this neck of the woods since his elementary
school days, but he had never heard of that name before. Besides,
what could a nerd like that do to him, anyway?

Lee Eun-Cheol’s rage shot up right to the top of his head after
realising that Jo Seong-Ho dared to make him look bad in front of
others just because of a punk like that.

973
Smaaaack!

Lee Eun-Cheol’s full-blooded swing caused Jo Seong-Ho’s head to

spin to the side. The smacked cheek swelled up in red colour.

The high school thug had apparently learned boxing since from a
young age, and perhaps because of that, his arm strength couldn’t be
treated as a joke.

However, what Jo Seong-Ho truly feared was something else.

It was around the time when he was silently enduring against the
barrage of violent attacks from Lee Eun-Cheol. He discovered ‘that’.

‘…..!!!’

The thug stopped throwing punches only after spotting that Jo

Seong-Ho’s eyes had grown super-large from surprise. He turned
around to look behind him.

From the distance, that nerd was leisurely strolling towards here.

Jo Seong-Ho dropped his head lower as if he didn’t want to meet the

gaze of the one walking closer and spoke in a quiet murmur.

“Just… apologise to him. That’s my serious advice to you.”

“This stupid son of a b*tch…!”

Lee Eun-Cheol grabbed the back of Jo Seong-Ho’s hair to shake the

boy’s head around, but the latter simply kept his mouth shut. Just as
the former was about to spit out another round of abusive words…

The source of the problem itself, Soo-Hoh, finally stood before them.

Maybe it was because of Jo Seong-Ho’s prior warning? Even Lee Eun-

Cheol, who would attack first and ask questions later quickly took a
couple of steps back and warily glared at Soo-Hoh.

974
Although not short, when compared to either himself or Jo Seong-
Hoh, this nerd wasn’t all that tall. His physique also seemed
exceedingly ordinary.

His neck and wrists revealed outside of the school uniform looked a
bit firm, but it didn’t seem like the boy had trained professionally or
something.

The more he looked, the less Lee Eun-Cheol believed Jo Seong-Ho’s

words.

Utterly ignoring the bullies, Soo-Hoh stepped closer to Jo Seong-Ho

and studied the latter’s messed-up face.

“Tsk, tsk.”

The sounds of tutting automatically leaked out from his mouth as if

he felt rather rueful about this matter. Soo-Hoh then addressed the
boy.

“Hey, Seong-Ho.”

“…..Yeah.”

“Let’s pretend that you also did this. I mean, this much is already
enough for self-defence, right?”

Jo Seong-Ho unhesitatingly nodded his head.

“Okay, let’s do that.”

What were they trying to pretend here?

Lee Eun-Cheol listened to this exchange with a puzzled expression

etched on his face, but that soon morphed into an angry scowl.

“Oii.”

975
As he reached out to grab Soo-Hoh’s shoulder to turn the nerd
around, a sudden flash of light blinked right in front of Lee Eun-
Cheol’s eyes.

Thud!

The unconscious Lee Eun-Cheol fell hard to the ground. Almost at the
same time, the two underlings guarding the leader’s back also
blacked out, as well.

Thud, thud!!

‘What a scary b*stard….’

Jo Seong-Ho could only watch on in utter disbelief. If it weren’t for

his excellent dynamic vision honed through exercises and training,
then he’d not have seen those stunning movements.

One hit in the face of Lee Eun-Cheol, and one hit each in the vitals of
the two underlings – those attacks were machine-like in their
accuracy, yet savage in their nature, like a wild predator.

Back when he ‘mistakenly’ tried to get Seong Soo-Hoh riled up, he

ended up wondering whether such power could actually belong to a
human being or not.

But after that, his middle school life became quite stress-free,
contrary to his initial expectations.

While looking at the collapsed and unmoving Lee Eun-Cheol and his
gang, Jo Seong-Ho scratched the back of his head.

‘……’

The high school thug’s nose was broken, while the two underlings
had their bones broken.

976
The rumours should spread around quickly; the rumours of the one
and only XX middle school’s Lee Eun-Cheol getting beaten up by YY
middle school’s Jo Seong-Ho, that was.

Even the thug himself would keep his mouth shut over this matter,
since that rumour would be far more preferable than to let the world
know that he got taken out by some no-name regular student.

‘Well, then….’

Once more, another notch had been added to his records of

victories.

Since this was a win someone handed over to him, Jo Seong-Ho felt
rather embarrassed about this whole thing. As he remained
swimming in several complicated thoughts, Soo-Hoh walked up
closer and extended his hand out.

“Now that things have come to this…. Well, I’ll be in your care in this
place too, alright?”

Jo Seong-Ho sheepishly scratched his cheek before wordlessly

shaking the offered hand.

Well… It wasn’t such a bad trade, this.

***

“Wow, Jo Seong-Ho took on those three?”

“I thought his aura was really something else when I first saw him, so
it’s no surprise.”

“I heard that he learned judo since young and was pretty famous in
his neighbourhood.”

977
Thanks to the news of Lee Eun-Cheol and his goons getting shipped
off to a hospital, the atmosphere of the entire classroom had
become rather heated real fast.

More than that, Jo Seong-Ho was now being treated as a hero even,
after it emerged that he was trying to protect another kid who
graduated from the same middle school as him.

Although it was the start of a new school year and the kids all felt a
bit awkward and unsure of each other, this topic worked wonders
and broke the ice nicely. Even then, Soo-Hoh was dazedly staring out
at the sky outside all by himself.

The end of the school day wasn’t that far away, and the blue heavens
above were gradually dyeing in the hues of rich amber.

For some reason, yawns kept threatening to break out so he was

having a hard time suppressing them.

‘….I’m bored.’

Indeed, he felt bored, restless.

Recently, he often yawned for no discernible reason and felt bored

more frequently than ever before.

And there was this vague, distant feeling that he used to know
‘things’ that made his heart race and surprised him at every turn.
Whenever he was beset with such feelings, it became harder to
endure against this sense of boredom.

Dururuk…

The door to the classroom slid open. The gazes of the kids all shifted
over to the rear door. Jo Seong-Ho didn’t display much of a reaction
and returned to his assigned seat.

978
Ohhh-!

Kids were looking at his wound-filled face with gazes of envy and
respect. Without a doubt, the top dog of this classroom had changed
from Lee Eun-Cheol to Jo Seong-Ho.

“Hey, hey.”

Soo-Hoh remained disinterested as he continued to stare outside the

window, only for his attention to be brought back to reality by
someone poking him on his back. He looked behind him to find a
female student with a neat appearance there trying to talk to him.

“The friend saving you came back looking like that, so aren’t you
going to go and say hello, at the least?”

“…..I already did.”

“Oh. Okay.”

The girl heard his curt reply and as if she got embarrassed by this
exchange, hurriedly opened her textbook to hide her face.
Meanwhile, he reverted his gaze back to the skies outside.

‘So bored….’

The sun was creeping closer to the horizon.

***

The school day was finally over.

While everyone was hurriedly trying to escape from this institution

of learning, only Soo-Hoh remained standing by the window to look
at the athletics field outside.

979
Other students were filing out of the school’s front gate. He didn’t
like the melee of confusion like that. His mom always laughed and
said that he was exactly like his father in that regard.

He read the book he borrowed from the library before raising his
head back up, thinking that maybe he should start heading back
home now. There was no one else besides him in the classroom.

Soo-Hoh leisurely packed his bag and slung it over his shoulder.

It was fine to be relaxed and laid back, but if he were to waste any
more time than this, he’d definitely arrive home late for dinner, and
that would mean he’d have to face the wrath of his mother.

It’d be a relief if the story ended there. If the news of his mom
getting angry reached his father’s ears…..

‘Euk, d*mn it. I imagined what would happen to me.’

Soo-Hoh was overcome with a nasty case of goosebumps and

hurriedly shook his head. Just how old would his father have to be
before he wasn’t so scary anymore?

Seriously now, he got this sneaking suspicion that, even if his father
ended up becoming an old man, Soo-Ho would still never win against
him.

He shuddered once more and quickly headed to the rear door of the
classroom. But, when he tried to open it….

‘The door…. doesn’t want to open?’

If it was locked, then there was no way this thing wouldn’t budge like
this, since it was none other than himself tugging at it. The door
showed no signs of moving, as if it was a wall, to begin with.

‘What’s going on?’

980
Soo-Hoh’s eyes grew rounder and this time, he ran to the front door
and grabbed its handle. But it was the same story here, too.

Now thoroughly shocked, he quickly ran to the window and took a

look outside. That was when a truly unbelievable spectacle
manifested itself before his eyes.

Every single student leaving through the school gates; students

exercising on the field, cars passing on the road, pedestrians walking
on the pavement, and even the kicked ball flying in the air…..

….Everything had come to a dead stop.

‘But, how can something like this be….?!’

Soo-Hoh clenched both of his fists real tight and slammed at the
window with all of his might.

Boom!

Too bad, the window not only didn’t shatter from the impact, but his
fists also bounced away from it as if he was hitting a rubber wall.

‘….!!!’

It happened then.

Soo-Hoh retreated from the windows and while taking hurried steps
backwards, he tried very hard to figure out what was going on in his
head.

And that’s when ‘it’ appeared.

Soo-Hoh’s head snapped towards the black circular ‘hole’ that

appeared out of nowhere at the back of the classroom. It was no
bigger than the size of a volleyball, but it rapidly grew larger and
larger until it was big enough for a single person to walk through.

981
It was basically a doorway of darkness, so dark that it felt like he was
being sucked in.

Regular kids might have been scared out of their wits by this
development, but… Rather than crying out or screaming, Soo-Hoh
placed his hand on his chest, instead.

Ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump.

His agitated heart was pounding away in exhilaration.

Maybe.

Just maybe, it was possible that he was waiting for something like
this for a long, long time.

‘Mom said that I resemble my dad all the time, doesn’t she?’

If it was his father, then… What would he have done?

The answer was pretty obvious, though.

Ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump….

Because his pounding heart was already making his legs move.

Soo-Hoh stood before the ‘Gate’ and touched its surface.

Bzzz…. Bzz…

Although there were some sparks of electricity, he didn’t feel any

pain. No, he felt so much better instead, as if he was returning to his
hometown that he had to leave behind a long time ago.

There was this strange, vague sense of deja vu as if he had already

entered a place like this one before.

982
Soo-Hoh slowly but carefully regulated his breathing. His wildly-
beating heart finally regained some calmness and the inside of his
head seemed to clear up.

‘Good.’

A brief flash of a grin formed on his face.

And then, he jumped inside the ‘Gate’ without a moment’s

hesitation.

983
Chapter 268: Recollections/After Stories
Part 4 -Forward! Forward!
Soo-Hoh walked through the tunnel-like darkness and after emerging
from it, took a look around himself. He was now in a passageway of
an ancient-looking structure.

The only source of light illuminating this place was a lit torch on one
of the walls.

‘What is this place….?’

Because of the low lighting conditions, his eyes narrowed to a slit so

that he could get a better look at his vicinity.

The way back… was blocked off.

Soo-Hoh felt around the solid wall blocking his rear and shook his
head eventually. He couldn’t sense any sort of empty spaces behind
this wall.

‘So, there is no other way besides forward, huh?’

The flames of the torch wavered around. He took it off the wall and
illuminated his front.

When he did….

“Wow.”

He was greeted by the sight of weapons arranged neatly on display

on either side of the passageway.

A longsword, shortswords, a bow, a spear, a mace, etc….

984
A truly vast array of weapons were endlessly stacked against the
walls in this still darkness, as if to wait for their rightful owner to
come and pick them up.

Soo-Hoh dazedly looked at them before swallowing back his saliva.

What could possibly be the reason for these weapons to be here?

Well, it was rather obvious, wasn’t it?

‘I need to choose….’

His gaze became far more circumspect than ever before.

He didn’t know why he was transferred to this place, but if his guess
was right and the exit was at the end of this passage, then the
weapon he chose right now would serve as a trustworthy companion
on his journey.

But, something felt weird.

Why did it feel like his senses were being enhanced?

His heart that didn’t beat too fast while hanging out with his friends
or checking out a game they suggested he should play, was now
pounding away like crazy.

As he observed each weapon on display, Soo-Hoh’s eyes shone from

the light of excitement.

‘Alright….’

He took a close look at all the weapons lined up right till the end, and
then, returned to the beginning to study them for a bit more. A few
interesting hopefuls caught his eye, but in the end, there was
nothing better than ‘it’, or so he decided.

After putting the torch back up on the wall behind him, he cautiously
put ‘them’ on both of his hands.

985
Clank, clank.

They were a pair of steel gauntlets that fit him snugly as if they had
been crafted with him in mind. Unlike other weapons that required
some amount of familiarity in order to effectively use them, his two
fists were without a doubt, the most familiar and most powerful
weapon he possessed.

‘This is it.’

As if he found the gauntlets greatly to his liking, he began folding his

outstretched fingers one by one again and again.

When he was done fooling around…

Rumble-!!

Torches lining up the walls in front of him and all around him lit up all
at once. A long, long passageway now greeted him.

A corridor resembling a secret pathway of an ancient castle seemed

to stretch on forever and ever towards the other end.

Something was about to begin here. Soo-Hoh did his best to calm his
wildly-pounding heart, before his eyes spotted a pair of shortswords
resting next to where he found his gauntlets.

But, his gaze lingered on only for a brief moment.

‘….Who’d use weapons that look so weak?’

For some reason, that pair of shortswords looked saddened

somehow as Soo-Hoh’s cautious steps left them behind in the
darkness.

***

Soo-Hoh carefully tread through the corridor.

986
“Is anyone here?”

He raised his voice and called out, but there was no reply
whatsoever. No, he couldn’t even sense any presence of living
people at all.

And so, just how long did he walk like this?

It wouldn’t be too surprising to get worn out by being continuously

vigilant like this, but Soo-Hoh still kept his senses ultra-sharp and
didn’t let up his wary observation of the surroundings.

He could see the lit torches and sparks of flames dancing on top of
them hanging on the walls. He could also see the old-fashioned
architecture of this place, as well as metallic suits of armour lining up
on the side of the wall with nary a gap between them.

‘Am I in some kind of a basement of a medieval castle or something?’

His curiosity on where he was and why he was summoned here grew
greater and greater the longer he advanced forward.

But then….

‘Hold up.’

Soo-Hoh felt this ominous chill creep down his spine and he quickly
went back the way he came to stand before a certain suit of armour.
For some reason, the positioning of this armour seemed a wee bit
different from when he walked past it a few seconds ago.

‘This…. Wait, did it really have its sword raised up in the air like this
before?’

He was pretty sure that its weapon was pointing down to the ground
the last time. Soo-Hoh tilted his head and took a step forward, only
for the sword of the armour to slice down in a straight line.

987
Clang!

If he hadn’t raised the gauntlet and urgently block the blade in the
nick of time, his head might have been split in half just now.

“What the hell??”

The suit of armour didn’t even give Soo-Hoh any chance to feel
stunned by this development; it dropped its sword and pounced
forward to strangle him with its bare hands.

Boom!! Bang! Kwang!!

His gauntlets soon issued several urgent, thunderous booms, and not
too long afterwards, the suit of armour with its helmet destroyed
stopped moving altogether.

“Pant, pant, pant…..”

While pushing away the collapsed suit of armour with his foot, Soo-
Hoh breathed roughly and quickly. Thankfully, he didn’t suffer any
damage from this encounter, but his heart was pounding away so
hard that it felt as if it’d explode at any time.

‘Hold up!’

What if this wasn’t the only suit of armour that could move? And
what if every single one of them wanted to harm him? All those
inanimate armours he walked past earlier without thinking too much
brushed past his mind.

That wasn’t the end of his troubles, though. There were already so
many of them in front of him, and there were even lining up along
the length of this corridor, too.

And sure enough…

Clank, clink!

988
Accompanied by the chorus of metallic joints creaking and groaning,
the suits of armour began descending from the platforms one by
one. The various weapons held in their hands seemed to glow in
chilling grey under the light.

“Ah…”

….Maybe I should’ve selected that mace?

Soo-Hoh swallowed back the small waves of regret rushing in and

clenched his fists tightly. It was around that time that the suits of
armour rushed his position.

***

BOOM!

When he brought down the very last suit of armour, he got to hear
that announcement again.

[Level up!]

[Current level: 19.]

“Fuu….”

Soo-Hoh bent down and exhaled a large gulping of air before raising
his body up again. Every time he heard that message, all of his
fatigue seemed to get washed away in full. That wasn’t the only
change, though.

After regaining control over his breathing, he threw a straight jab in

the empty air.

Shuuuck-!!

His fist flew out like a bullet. Not only that, his entire body was
overflowing with this unexplainable power.

989
“I get it now.”

It was simpler than he thought.

If he defeated these living suits of armour, then his level would go

up, and the higher his level got, the stronger he’d get, too. And quite
obviously, he’d be able to bring these monsters down much more
easily as a result.

Simple, yet a powerful perpetual cycle, indeed.

Soo-Hoh looked behind at the corridor he’d been waking until now.
Large piles of armours broken beyond repair or recognition were
strewn about here and there. He licked his lips a bit.

‘This sucks….’

It’d been so much nicer if he could raise his level just a bit higher
here. He wanted to get stronger just a bit more.

Unfortunately, every road had an end.

Soo-Hoh looked at the giant doorway now blocking his path. His
senses had matured greatly as his level rose up and they helped him
to detect the presence of a powerful figure behind the door.

That was why he felt rueful about levelling up even more.

He closed eyes and took a deep breath just like how his father had
taught him and reached out towards the door to push it open with
both hands.

Creak….

The heavy-looking door opened up.

The sight of a huge room resembling a castle’s audience chamber

greeted him next.

990
As he followed along the rows of pillars set at a close interval on
either side of him, he soon arrived at the deepest part of this
chamber where a tall throne stood proudly above a raised plinth.

Soo-Hoh was frozen stiff with nervousness in an instant.

Because there was another monster suit of armour sitting on the

throne. But he felt a strength on another dimension altogether from
this b*stard compared to other monsters he encountered so far.

‘That’s it….’

The existence that emitted a goosebumps-inducing aura he felt

outside the door, it was precisely this guy. The ‘monster’ slowly got
up and took one step at a time to descend the stairs below the
throne.

It was a black knight.

The knight boasting a strand of red plumage attached to its helm

finally made its way down to the ground. Just the faint aura emitted
from that creature made his skin tingle and shiver from nervousness.

However, Soo-Hoh began smiling for some reason. An electrifying

sensation thrilling enough to make all the hair on his body stand up
wrapped around his entire being.

Shurung….

The knight began unsheathing his sword.

‘I’ll attack first before that sword is fully drawn out.’

But, just as he got ready to dash forward, the black knight was
already standing right before his nose. A brilliant flash of light shone
from the sword swung by the creature just then.

“….Uh??”

991
That bright, blinding light filled up his view.

***

“Heok!!”

Soo-Hoh hurriedly raised his body up.

Still incredibly tense, he scanned his surroundings but he failed to

see the black knight anywhere. No, he wasn’t even in the same
chamber where that monster was.

Somehow, he was teleported back to the starting point.

‘What the heck was that?!’

He lost all strength on his legs and plopped down on the ground.

‘I thought I was really going to die.’

He felt deeply spooked when recalling the moments of the black

knight unsheathing its sword. He really, really thought that was the
end for him.

“Besides all that, do I need to cross this corridor again?”

Feeling quite unhappy now, Soo-Hoh got up from his spot only to
realise that something had changed from his first attempt. And that
would be the lit torches on the starting point.

Rumble-!

Out of those, there were three with blue flames burning on them,
but now he realised that one of them had gone out.

Could that be a coincidence?

No, it wasn’t.

992
Weapons by the starting point, his level that rose up after killing
monsters, his body that grew stronger as his level rose up.

Not one of them could be called a coincidence.

Soo-Hoh had a moment of epiphany just then.

‘It’s not that I was going to die, but…’

There was no such concept as either pain or death inside this strange
place, but those blue flames substituted for his remaining
opportunities.

If all three flames went out, then…. For now, it was hard for him to
imagine what kind of a result waited for him.

‘In that case….’

….I gotta be more meticulous.

The glare in Soo-Hoh’s eyes grew even more vigilant compared to

the first attempt.

One more time. But he’d not mess up his chance this time around.

Boom!

He made up his mind as he blew away the monster suit of armour

busy pouncing on him.

***

“Uwaaaah-!! Uwaah!!”

Finding himself forcibly returned to the starting point once more,

Soo-Hoh rolled around on the ground while clutching his head. Of
course, he wasn’t doing that because of an injury or crippling
physical pain.

993
He was just p*ssed off by the fact that he ended up throwing away
yet another chance. He pounded on the ground as tears formed on
his eyes. That’s how deeply he felt hurt right now.

After he somehow calmed the raging firestorm in his heart, he raised

his head a bit to look, and to no one’s surprise, the number of lit blue
torches had decreased by one. Now, there was only one remaining.

‘That black knight, he’s just too powerful!!’

There simply was far too great a gap between him and that creature,
and it was more than enough to call it a cheat, that the ‘balance’ of
this trial was definitely broken. With things like this, he’d never be
able to defeat that b*stard.

“Uwaaaah!!”

Soo-Hoh rolled around on the ground once more.

He did that for a while. Eventually, he grew tired of doing that, so he

stopped and leaned his back against the wall before shifting his gaze
over to the corridor.

It was unknown just from where those suits were being summoned,
but well, they had returned again and were manning their stations
once more.

“Aren’t you guys sick and tired of this already?”

Soo-Hoh even felt happy to see those monster armours after seeing
them for the third time like this.

“Hah-ah….”

He spat out a lengthy groan one after other, but then…

“….Uh?”

994
….A lightbulb went on in his head.

He raised his head and looked at the armours once more.

‘When did those things reappear again?’

Initially, he figured that the monsters reappeared simply because he

was sent back to the starting point. However, what if that was wrong
and they regenerated after a certain period of time?

Ba-thump.

Ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump….

A new ray of hope seemed to be within his reach.

‘Okay, let’s try it out.’

Soo-Hoh beat up the monster armours near the entrance and

destroyed them before returning to the starting point. He sat down
with his back leaning against the wall and observed for any potential
changes to the monsters.

After some time had passed by…

Plop, plop.

The ‘dead’ monster armours suddenly turned into sand one by one
and got absorbed into the ground. And then, Soo-Hoh’s eyes grew
wide after he saw what happened next.

‘…..!’

The sand suddenly gathered above the platforms the monsters used
to stand and transformed back into the suits of armour.

“Yeees!”

Soo-Hoh clenched his fists real tightly.

995
Finally, he found the right answer.

The only existences that could aid him with his levelling up thankfully
respawned after a fixed period of time.

Didn’t that mean he should crazily level up by smashing these

monsters apart until he could actually follow the movements of that
horrifying black knight?

A grin floated up on Soo-Hoh’s face as he stood back up.

Funnily enough, the monster armours flinched ever so slightly after

they saw the figurative sparks of flame burning within his eyes.

***

Level 70.

No matter how many times he hunted these monsters down, his

level didn’t want to rise beyond that. However, this should be more
than enough.

Blackish aura was slowly rising up Soo-Hoh’s shoulders. He didn’t

know what these strands of black smoke might be, but he could tell
one thing for sure.

And that would be the fact that his body was currently overflowing
with this incredible energy he found hard to fully control yet.

He unhesitatingly pushed open the door to the chamber where the

black knight was waiting for. Unlike the first two fights, the monster
kindly came to greet him by the door’s vicinity.

Soo-Hoh grinned deeply.

“Were you waiting for long?”

996
Rather than a verbal answer, the black knight unsheathed his sword,
instead. For some reason, it felt as if this knight was smiling.

Feeling confident after managing to push his level all the way up to
70 somehow, Soo-Hoh unleashed all of the magical energy gathered
within his body without holding back.

The ground trembled and pieces of rubble began floating in the air.

“Now, it’s my turn.”

997
Chapter 269 Recollections/After Stories
Part 5 - Conclusion
(TL: One more chapter to go!)

There were around 30 metres between him and the b*stard.

‘….Let’s do this.’

Soo-Hoh concentrated and in an instant, the flow of time around him

seemed to slow down to a crawl, allowing him to see and discover all
those little things he hadn’t noticed before.

For instance, the sword swung by the black knight. And then, that
blue-coloured arc of lightning from the tip of that sword flying
towards him in a straight line with a ‘flash’.

‘So, that’s what it was!!’

Finally, he got to see what the powerful attack that ended the fight
was, even before he could do anything the last two times. His agility
and perception, raised up much higher than before through levelling
up, were pushed to their absolute limits.

He dodged the streak of light flying right into his face and took a step
forward.

Taht!

Just one leap, and in that one moment, the distance between him
and his target decreased in half by roughly around 15 metres.

Flash!!

The second lightning brushed past the top of his head by a hair’s
width.

998
The black knight had quickly changed his posture after sending out
the first attack to follow up with his second. Soo-Hoh felt amazed at
his opponent’s quick reaction as he took another step forward.

Taht!

The distance between them disappeared in the next instance.

Kwa-du-duk!

Soo-Hoh clenched his gauntlet-covered fist tightly.

‘Now you are in my range.’

Flinch.

It looked as if the black knight tensed up greatly just then, and his
emotions travelled through the chilly air to cling to Soo-Hoh’s two
cheeks.

While inwardly thanking the level up system that pushed his abilities
to such an incredible height, Soo-Hoh punched forward, hard.

Shhhwiiiii-eeek!

His fist had broken past the level of a bullet and was more like a
cannon shell now, as it crashed into the face of the black knight.

Kwa-boom!!

The knight urgently raised his sword to block the incoming gauntlet
but in the end, he was powerfully shoved away with both of his feet
briefly leaving the ground.

Kwa-jijijijik!!

The ends of the black knight’s boots broke the stone tiles on the floor
and left behind two lengthy gouges as he got shoved back. By the

999
time he finally managed to stop his seemingly-endless travel
rearwards…

‘….!!’

He realised belatedly that there was a stone pillar behind him.

‘D*mn it!’

The black knight became flustered and quickly shifted his gaze back
to his front. But then, Soo-Hoh was already there, blocking the view.

‘Could he have…. that attack was meant to force me into this very
area?’

The black knight was left greatly stunned by his opponent’s smart
thinking, but still, reflexively moved his sword in the meantime. The
aura oozing off the blade as reflected in Soo-Hoh’s eyes emitted a
chilling blue light.

The boy held his breath for a moment there and smacked the
knight’s blade slicing down diagonally with the back of his hand,
currently safely protected by the metal gauntlet.

He then took a powerful step forward.

Soo-Hoh managed to reduce the distance between him and his

opponent to zero before swinging his fist one more time. This attack
landed squarely on the black knight’s chest.

Kwa-boom!!!

Now normally, the knight should’ve been flung away by the force,
but he crashed into the pillar behind him instead, and the structure’s
surface cracked up grandly.

What a shocking destructive power that was.

1000
However, what was even more shocking was the fact that an attack
carrying such destructive power didn’t end with just one hit. Soon
after, Soo-Hoh’s barrage of fists rained down on his target.

Dududududududu-!!

The black knight, no, Igrit continued to sigh in admiration inwardly as

he blocked and deflected Soo-Hoh’s non-stop barrage of attacks,
which kind of reminded him of his liege’s skill.

‘So, this is the power of the young lord, even if he’s not 100% yet?’

His father, becoming one with a godly being, while his mother, a rank
S Hunter once upon a time in a now-forgotten timeline. Born from
these two people, the sleeping potential within Soo-Hoh easily
exceeded Igrit’s imagination.

Kwa-jeeck!

The sturdy armour began breaking and falling off bit by bit under the
barrage of merciless attacks. Igrit pushed his speed to the limit, but it
was still not enough to defend against every single attack raining
down on him.

And eventually…

Clang!!

The sword barely withstanding against Soo-Hoh’s blunt attacks finally

broke while issuing a loud noise.

That was the end.

Igrit watched the shattered remnants of steel fly away and

instinctively sensed that this battle was now over.

1001
But then, this defeat also quickened his pulse to a great deal
compared to before, just like back when he fought against Jin-Woo
all those years ago in a place similar to this one.

Meanwhile, Soo-Hoh loaded his fist with his magical energy for that
final shot.

Wuuoong-!!

The surrounding Mana in the air rippled like waves on the lake’s
surface and spread out visibly. And then….

KA-BOOM!!

The fist fired forward like a cannon shell left behind a large, empty
hole where the black knight’s abdomen was. The knight collided with
the pillar again and slowly slid down. And then, he stopped moving
altogether.

‘…..’

Soo-Hoh cautiously poked the slumped black knight before finally

releasing his tightly-held breath.

“Hah-ah!!”

He won.

He fought and won against a powerful enemy that he thought he

could never win against in the beginning. Joy began welling up from
the deepest part of his chest like a tidal wave.

However, rather different from his expectations, there wasn’t all that
much of a change.

‘Maybe… this isn’t the end?’

1002
He slowly looked around his surroundings and belatedly discovered
that, in the distance, a brand new Gate had been generated by the
foot of the stairs leading up to the tall throne.

His eyes grew super-large.

It was the exit!

He didn’t know why he ended up in this place, but still, he couldn’t

help but smile brightly after realising that this bizarre adventure was
about to come to its conclusion.

Soo-Hoh hurriedly ran towards the black hole in happiness and threw
himself inside. Just like back when he was entering this place, he
passed through a long tunnel of darkness, and after opening his
eyes…..

“Kkkiiieeehk!”

“Khhiigegegek!”

“…..”

….He found human-sized ant humanoid monsters busy screeching

out here and there.

***

“Pant, pant, what kind of ants are this crazy?!”

Soo-Hoh looked down in utter disbelief at the unmoving corpses of

ant monsters he managed to defeat just now.

For some reason, he liked ants from a young age so he always

cautiously avoided lines of worker ants if he happened to come
across one so that he wouldn’t step on them by mistake. But now, he
felt rather remorseful of his past actions.

1003
That was how powerful and obstinate these ant monsters were.
Those armour monsters couldn’t even be compared to these guys at
all.

‘Still, if I were to look for the silver lining in all of this, then….’

His level that seemed to have gotten stuck began climbing up quickly
again after he hunted these ant monsters down.

Sha-shak, sha-shak…

He could hear the shuffling footsteps of the ant monsters coming

from somewhere. Soo-Hoh was successful in regaining control over
his heavy breathing by then. He tightly clenched his fists and got
ready.

Kwa-du-duk!

“Khiieck!”

“Kahk!”

Remembering the lessons learned during his battle against the black
knight, Soo-Hoh made sure to focus on raising his level higher by
clearing out every single nook and cranny of this cavern.

And so, screams of ant monsters continued to resound out from all
corners of this complicated cavern system with a maze-like layout.

How long did he roam around this cavern in this fashion?

‘Alright….’

When he reached the point where his level didn’t want to rise up
even after defeating the ant monsters, Soo-Hoh headed towards the
last chamber in this cavern and entered it.

1004
As it turned out, it was a giant, open chamber. An empty space, in
other words.

There was not one strand of light inside the boss chamber, but Soo-
Hoh’s senses had already far exceeded that of a regular human and
he had no problem maintaining his vision.

‘Just how big is the master of this place that it has to be this large?’

Just as he began to get worried ever so slightly….

He finally discovered a humanoid ant monster with its back turned

towards him. Unlike the others he fought so far, though, this
particular guy sported insect-like wings.

‘Is that guy the only thing in this chamber?’

The overall atmosphere of this open space was rather similar to the
one found in the chamber with the black knight. However, Soo-Hoh
couldn’t sense any sorts of power from that ant creature, which was
quite different from the knight boss of before.

Was it powerful, or a weakling?

Soo-Hoh tilted his head this way and that and while being as sneaky
as possible, he cautiously approached the creature.

When he got close enough to think that he was in range now, the ant
monster suddenly turned around to face Soo-Hoh without any prior
warning.

‘Heok!’

Soo-Hoh flinched and quickly took a step back.

It wasn’t because he got scared, though. No, he just got surprised by

the unfolding situation, that was all. But, it couldn’t be helped, really.
The thing was, the ant monster turning around was crying non-stop.

1005
It was sobbing so sorrowfully that, even though he knew the
creature was a monster that he couldn’t converse with, Soo-Hoh just
couldn’t bring himself to attack first.

But, why did this happen?

It’d only be normal to feel rather weirded out when looking at an

insectoid creature the size of a grown man standing on two feet
while thick teardrops fell from its eyes.

But, Soo-Hoh wanted to console this ant monster instead, for some
inexplicable reason. That’s what he felt then.

Too bad, such a compassionate thought could only last for a brief
moment. Soo-Hoh sensed an incredible aura from the creature
bursting forth and hurriedly leapt a good distance away.

‘….??’

As if it was trying to get a hold of its emotions, the ant monster

wiped the tears away with the backs of its hands.

‘Oh my god….’

Meanwhile, Soo-Hoh was stunned by the incredible power oozing

out from his new opponent and inadvertently sneaked a look down
at the hair on his arms standing up.

This ant, it was on another scale altogether compared to other ants

or that black knight he fought so far. His entire body began
shuddering.

‘Uh….?’

Suddenly, a huge shadow drew upon him and he raised his head up
to look, only to find that the ant monster had closed the distance and
was standing right in front of his nose.

1006
Its body had ballooned up to over double that of its previous size and
then, it screeched out a horrifying cry next.

[Kiiiiiieeeeehhhk!]

***

What a relief it was.

Indeed, there was no other way to say it than what a relief.

While lying on the ground completely exhausted, Soo-Hoh continued

to think that way.

The winged ant monster was a truly frightening opponent, for sure.
But, for some reason, the ant couldn’t attack him whenever they
were locked in critical moments, apparently feeling conflicted about
something.

But, thanks to that, he was able to bring down the ant somehow,
even though the task proved to be really arduous in the end.

“Euh, euh….”

While goading and twisting his aching body, Soo-Hoh pushed himself
up. As his reward for bringing down a powerful enemy, a new Gate
had been generated over yonder.

Before leaving, he confirmed his current level.

[Level: 99]

His level stopped climbing at 99. Now, normally, most games would
treat ’99’ as the max level attainable.

‘I’m sure I can go home for real now.’

1007
Soo-Hoh’s heart pounded away noisily as his expectations grew. He
then gladly jumped into the awaiting Gate. And when he opened his
eyes….

“Mm? Mmmm??”

“Growl…..”

….He got to discover giants and dragons filling up his view, as far as
his eyes could see.

“Hah…”

***

It was the case of ‘one mountain after another’.

While making figurative mountains out of the corpses of giants and

dragons, Soo-Hoh continued down the path laid out on this
seemingly-endless plains.

His level remained stuck in 99.

Although his stats didn’t rise higher, he was now able to control his
powers far more smoothly and expertly after going through
countless battles. His incredible strength, and technique to control
them, gave Soo-Hoh a rather healthy boost to his confidence.

A short while later, he discovered yet another black knight guarding

the end of the path.

‘…..’

Unlike the previous black knight with a red plumage attached to its
helm, this new guy boasted a much bigger physique, and there were
traces of broken wings on its back, as well.

1008
It was incredibly powerful. So much so that, it must’ve been far
stronger than the winged ant monster he fought earlier. However….

‘….That guy isn’t my real opponent.’

Soo-Hoh was sure of this.

Why? Because, a certain existence that made him think that it was
the real deal was flying silently in the air above his head, that was
why.

Soo-Hoh picked up on that figure’s enormous presence and raised his

head high. When he did…

[Kkiiaahk-!!]

The Sky Dragon flying in the air roared out loudly. The scene of a lone
figure jumping off from its back happened right afterwards.

The figure of a person fell for what felt like an eternity before lightly
landing on the ground, causing the earth below to cave into a big
crater while kicking up an almighty dust storm in the process.

BOOM!!

Soo-Hoh swallowed nervously.

‘That guy’s the real deal….’

The unknown figure, his face hidden behind the hoodie pulled down
low, emitted this intense pressure that even made breathing
difficult.

When he made his descent, the black knight stopped unsheathing his
sword and took several steps back as if to say that he’d not
participate in the upcoming fight anymore.

‘I knew it, the real enemy is this guy.’

1009
Soo-Hoh tried to stop his legs from shaking anymore from this
choking pressure. This was the first time an actual person and not a
monster had appeared in here so he simply had to say something.

“Excuse me!”

He tried to engage the mysterious figure in conversation, but the lips

visible below the hoodie only maintained a simple grin, choosing not
to return any verbal replies.

“Argh, seriously man….”

Soo-Hoh gave up on talking to the figure, but then, his eyes went
extra-round after discovering something else besides.

‘Isn’t that….?’

For the first time during this journey, the Gate had been generated
even before he defeated his enemy. Its location was behind the man
wearing the hoodie.

‘Which means….’

This could very well be the final hurdle.

As long as he could defeat that man, he’d be able to go home.

When that conclusion popped up in his head, Soo-Hoh’s body moved

instinctively.

It moved under the influence of his overall stats that had reached
their absolute limit, as well as the combat abilities that had evolved
to allow him full control over those stats.

Ba-thump, ba-thump!!

While feeling the explosive beatings of his heart…

Taht! Taht! Taht!!

1010
Soo-Hoh broke past the speed of sound and rushed to the front of
the man in the blink of an eye. His enemy was literally right in front
of his nose.

Within this distance that none could possibly dodge an attack, a fist
that couldn’t be withstood even if blocked flew straight into the
mystery man’s face.

Too bad, the man only had to lean his head back slightly and easily
let the attack slide by him.

It happened then.

Inside this world of slowed-down time, Soo-Hoh got to see the

uncovered face of the man, revealed for a brief moment under the
hood.

“….Dad?!”

The mystery man smirked gently.

“Still too early.”

Soo-Hoh’s eyes grew wider as they caught the sight of the man’s
palm closing in on his face faster than the speed of light.

The boy squeezed his eyes shut.

And soon, the light completely blinded him.

***

“Heok!!”

Soo-Hoh shot up from his chair and hurriedly took a look around him.

He was back inside his classroom. The empty, still air of the after-
school hours had permeated into this now-familiar place.

1011
He wiped the cold sweat pooled on his forehead.

‘What a weird-a*s dream that was.’

Did I play way too many games or something?

After wandering around lost inside a strange dungeon, he ended up

running into his own father as its final boss….

What an embarrassing crappy dream that he wouldn’t dare to tell

anyone for, like, ever. He was greatly relieved that it was nothing but
just a dream.

He spat out a sigh of relief and turned around, only to find a female
student frozen stiff like a block of ice behind him. She got surprised
out of her skull after the sleeping Soo-Hoh suddenly shot up from his
spot, actually.

He wanted to break this awkward atmosphere somehow, so he

started talking to her first.

“Uhm, weren’t you supposed to go home?”

Now that he took another look, it was the same girl sitting behind his
spot that poked him in the back earlier in the day.

“I’m supposed to do the classroom duty this week, so… I gotta lock
the doors first before leaving….”

The female student stuttered and took pauses between her words,
but Soo-Hoh replied as if it was nothing to sweat over.

“Want me to help?”

“Eh?”

The girl got flustered for a moment there at the unexpected offer,
but eventually, shyly nodded her head.

1012
“….Thanks.”

***

Around the same time.

Jin-Woo stood on the rooftop of the same school building alongside

Beru and Igrit.

Igrit was the first to speak.

[My liege…. Isn’t it fine to restore the young lord’s powers now?]

They had performed the same test a few times before, but today was
the first time the young lord reached as far as the Sovereign’s
footsteps. Igrit wished to give Soo-Hoh full passing marks after the
boy displayed wonderful progress during the examination.

Jin-Woo replied with a grin on his lips.

“What would’ve happened if I tried to fight the Dragon Emperor

from the get-go while believing in the powers that I possessed at that
time?”

Igrit shook his head.

What Jin-Woo wanted to teach Soo-Hoh was precisely this. No

matter how powerful one was, one should consider escaping when
facing a situation where the victory wasn’t a certainty.

It was not a sign of bravery to jump in head-long against a powerful

enemy without a plan.

‘Indeed, it’s just a reckless, foolish bravado.’

Even when knowing that he couldn’t win, Soo-Hoh still challenged

Jin-Woo, regardless. His courage might be laudable, but from the
perspective of his father, that was a rather worrisome result.

1013
‘Too early.

Right, it’s still too early for him.

However, Soo-Hoh is a smart kid, so he’ll soon figure it out.

He’ll learn that he needs to adjust his powers according to the

situation at hand.’

[Young Lord….]

Beru looked at a sheet of an old paper with him drawn on it, the
edges of his eyes reddening up with tears once more.

Drop, drop….

Jin-Woo lightly patted the shoulders of despondent Beru before

walking closer to the guardrail to take a look at the school grounds
below. He could see the back of his son leaving the school gate along
with a female student from his class.

Jin-Woo rested his chin on his hands and watched Soo-Hoh walk
further away, before a grin floated up on his face.

“It’s been a while, so should I take my family out for dinner later
today?”

1014
Chapter 270: Recollections/After Stories
Part 6 - Goodbye
(TL: Here it is, the very last chapter.)

[The sibling conmen duo of Hwang Dong-Seok and his younger

brother Hwang Dong-Su that caused an uproar in the country have
been arrested earlier today….]

Beep.

The TV located inside the Violent Crimes Unit that spat out the news
was turned off. Jin-Woo put the remote down and picked up his coat
while standing up, prompting Seh-Hwan next to him to stop the
administrative work and ask a question.

“Uh? Hyung-nim, you’re leaving already?”

“Yeah, I’ve got a prior arrangement to attend to, so I’ll be going

home early today.”

“Yessir.”

Jin-Woo replied with a smile towards his partner performing a playful

salute and escaped from the office. Seh-Hwan watched his boss’s
back disappear from view and chuckled slightly while crossing his
arms.

“It’s so strange. Hyung-nim always goes home early on this day every
single year….”

….Hang on a minute.

He shifted his gaze over to the calendar stuck on one of the walls and
a certain thought popped up in his head.

“Ahh, so that’s what it was. Today is….”

1015
***

Baek Yun-Ho spat out a low sigh, his face a mess of black soot and
dirt.

“Fuu….”

Not too long ago, he and his crew managed to put out a massive
wildfire raging near a residential area. This victory came about after
over 50 fire engines and firefighting helicopters, as well as 800 or so
brave firefighters had been mobilised.

Baek Yun-Ho took a look around him. He could see his fatigued
colleagues lying or squatting on the ground here and there.
However, not one of them carried gloomy expressions. Some of
them grinned brightly or raised their thumbs up real high when their
gazes met.

Whenever that happened, Baek Yun-Ho also raised his thumb up as

his reply.

No one died or got injured while they successfully reined in the fire.
That should be seen as a real miracle in the scene of such a large-
scale blaze.

Even though they were deeply fatigued and left with no energy
whatsoever after battling the flames for the whole night, they used
their expressions to cheer each other up and celebrate their success.

Baek Yun-Ho also felt deeply pleased about this outcome.

It was then.

“Ouch, that’s cold.”

1016
He got startled by the sudden coldness touching his neck skin and
took a look to his side to find Captain Seong Il-Hwan holding a bottle
of ice-cold water.

“Thank you, sir.”

Baek Yun-Ho bowed his head slightly and took over the water bottle.
Seong Il-Hwan settled down next to him and wetted his throat with a
different bottle.

The veteran of a hundred battles.

Or, the greatest captain in history.

Didn’t matter what you called him, it didn’t sound ill-fitting with
Captain Seong. And as his nickname had alluded to, he had displayed
unparalleled brilliance in today’s event, too.

Baek Yun-Ho was proud to be in the same crew as Seong Il-Hwan.

Heck, all these bits of soot stuck on his face felt like medals of
honour to him, even.

‘One day, I….’

He sneaked a glance at his respected senior from the corners of his

eyes, before pouring down the remaining cold water over his head.

“Pu-haah.”

Now he felt like a living person again. The stuffy heat clinging onto
him felt as if it got washed away, starting from the top of his head.

But then….

“…Ah.”

….A scene from the past suddenly entered Baek Yun-Ho’s brain.

The side profile of a face he saw back then!

1017
“Captain!”

Seong Il-Hwan’s eyes opened wider as he turned to look at his junior.

“Yeah?”

Baek Yun-Ho hurriedly carried on.

“You know, that the large-scale blaze in Daesung Building three years
ago…. You still remember that, Captain? Our team got trapped in
there and almost died, didn’t we?”

“Yeah, I remember.”

Back then, Seong Il-Hwan and his crew were steadily losing their
consciousness after being trapped within the blaze, but a mysterious
stranger appeared out of nowhere, like some kind of a fantasy, and
helped them to survive the ordeal.

This mystery man rescued the isolated firefighters before

disappearing without a trace, leading some to question whether the
folks that day saw a mass hallucination at the same time or not.

“Actually, I saw the side profile of that man for a brief moment
before I passed out, you see.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Yes. But that guy looked so much like…..”

Unfortunately, Baek Yun-Ho didn’t get to finish what he wanted to

say.

Because Seong Il-Hwan had ripped open a packet of bread he

brought along with the water bottle and pushed the resulting chow
in Baek Yun-Ho’s mouth, that’s why.

“Euph, euph??”

1018
Baek Yun-Ho chewed through the bread and tilted his head.

“Captain?”

Seong Il-Hwan didn’t try to answer with verbal replies and grinned as
he bit into his own bread.

And, as if to cool down the heads of the firefighters fatigued by all

that heat, a gentle breeze blew in from somewhere and brushed past
their hair, ever so softly.

***

Inside a conference chamber located on the top floor of a certain

high-rise building.

“Chairman?”

“….”

“Sir, are you alright?”

Yu Jin-Ho barely managed to suppress the corners of his lips trying to

rise up to the heavens above.

“Yes, I’m fine. Well, then. Let’s continue….”

Yu Jin-Ho fished through the documents placed in front of him

before raising his head up to see the faces of his employees filling up
the conference chamber. He formed an embarrassed grin and asked
them a question.

“Uhm, what were we talking about just now?”

“…”

The expressions of these employees hardened for a short while after

they all realised that their boss hadn’t heard a thing they were
talking about for the past 30 minutes of the meeting.

1019
However, they calmed themselves and got the meeting going again.

“Sir, we were informing you that we need to come up with a new

title for the virtual reality video game our company is about to
publish.”

“Ah, that’s right. Right.”

Yu Jin-Ho nodded his head, but then, couldn’t hold it back anymore
and shot up from his seat to loudly cry out towards his employees.

“Everyone, my wife is pregnant!! It’s already the sixth week,

apparently!!”

His face was filled with an uncontrollable amount of joy right now.
The inside of the conference chamber was filled with a sudden
silence. But that lasted only for a brief while.

Soon, documents were flying in the air and at the same time,
employees were crying out in cheer as well.

“Congratulations, sir!”

“Congrats, sir!!”

“Finally, our Chairman has become a father!”

Yu Jin-Ho did a lap around the conference chamber and high-fived all
of his employees jumping up and down in joy as if this news
concerned themselves.

His absolutely lovely wife, his soon-to-be-born baby, and his game
development company that was making a killing year after year….

How could the world be this beautiful to his eyes right now?

‘Heot!!’

1020
During the middle of his lap of celebration, Yu Jin-Ho had a moment
of sudden, powerful inspiration. He climbed up on the conference
table and confidently made a declaration to his employees.

“The Beautiful World!!!”

Quite obviously, the gazes of all the employees gathered on him.

“Excuse me?”

As they began doubting their ears, Yu Jin-Ho oh-so courteously

proved that their hearing wasn’t faulty.

“That will be the title of our new game! Let’s go with the “Beautiful
World’!!”

The joy-filled conference chamber was enveloped in a sudden bout

of silence.

“….Are you serious, sir?”

Yu Jin-Ho replied without a moment’s hesitation.

“Of course. The name ‘Beautiful World’ fits our game that will
virtually recreate reality as close as it can, so…. Ahh? What are you
all doing?? H-hang on a second, everyone!! I, I might fall, you
know??”

The employees began to tussle with Yu Jin-Ho desperately in order to

pull him off the top of the conference table. In the midst of his
struggle, his gaze inadvertently shifted outside the window.

‘H-hey. Feels like something flew past just now, didn’t it?’

Too bad, the feelings of having seen something got erased from his
head in no time at all after he found himself under the crossfire of
his employees’ holy crusade to stop him.

1021
“Sir, you should rethink this….”

“The fate of our company hangs in the balance with this game, siiiir!”

“I mean, it’s not really a ‘Beautiful World’, is it, sir??”

“You’re being too much, you know?!”

Even though his naming sense was being mercilessly shot down and
trampled on by his employees, Yu Jin-Ho still felt really happy
regardless.

‘Hahaha.

Fine, what if I’m no good with naming stuff?

The world is still really beautiful and all, isn’t it?’

Yu Jin-Ho stared outside the window as the sunlight poured in

through the glass, and muttered to himself.

‘In that case, should I ask Jin-Woo hyung-nim for the baby’s name,
instead?’

***

[The chairman of Ah-Jin Soft, Yu Jin-Ho – the miraculous tale of the

young and successful entrepreneur who rejected the inheritance of a
Chaebol!]

Slice, slice….

The chairman’s office of the Yujin Construction was filled with the
sounds of a pair of scissors cutting through a newspaper. Chairman
Yu Myung-Han only raised his head after he was finished with
decorating his scrapbook’s pages.

“Were there any other articles?”

1022
Secretary Kim, one of his hands full of newspapers, shook his head
side to side.

“….I see.”

Chairman Yu Myung-Han closed the scrapbook, his current

expression filled with dissatisfaction.

“He rejected the position I created for him, and he instead starts a
game company, of all things…. Tsk, tsk.”

Secretary Kim wordlessly glanced at the corner of the chairman’s

desk.

That was where he could see the thick pile of newspapers with all
the articles related to Yu Jin-Ho cut out. More than that, they were
worked on personally by none other than the Chairman himself, too.

‘…..’

Secretary Kim had to dry cough in order to hold back the laughter
rushing out from the deepest part of his chest. It was then – the
Chairman’s head shifted towards the window.

“….?”

Secretary Kim walked over to the windows himself and looked

outside while asking his boss.

“What’s the matter, sir?”

“No…. It’s nothing.”

They were currently on the top floor of a tall skyscraper. It was not
possible for ‘something’ to go past here, anyway. No, even if
something did, it must’ve been a small bird or another creature
similar to that.

1023
Yu Myung-Han shook his head and handed the scrapbook over to
Secretary Kim. The latter politely took the book and placed it back on
the office’s bookshelf.

There were four such books on the shelf already.

Chairman Yu Myung-Han’s precious secret collection that no one

knew about beside himself and his Secretary was steadily growing
larger every day.

***

On a peaceful stretch of a road after school.

Soo-Hoh had grown close to the girl from the same class before long,
and now, he found himself in the midst of an important challenge to
decide who’d get to carry the school bags home with her.

“Rock, paper….”

The girl’s look of concentration only added to the weightiness of this

confrontation. And the hour of judgement soon arrived.

“….Scissors!”

The girl went with ‘rock’, so Soo-Hoh had to change his original
choice of ‘paper’ to ‘scissors’ at the last second. This was the
combined effort of his extraordinary dynamic vision and motor
reflexes.

“Heck yeah!”

The female student celebrated her victory and while forming a

pleased expression, pushed forward her school bag. Soo-Hoh
smirked softly and slung the bag over his other shoulder.

“You know, you really suck at rock, paper, scissors.”

1024
“Tell me about it.”

“What will we do with a guy who sucks at it so bad??”

“I’ll just learn it from you, that’s all.”

Soo-Hoh smiled and strode forward while carrying bags on both of

his shoulders.

“H-hey, wait for me!”

The two of them chatted about this and that as they walked side by
side on a quiet back street. But, out of the blue, Soo-Hoh stopped
walking and raised his head up towards the sky.

‘….?’

The girl followed suit and also looked up, but she couldn’t see
anything else, other than the floating clouds silently drifting away as
if they were spectating on the two teenagers.

“What’s wrong? Is there something up there?”

Soo-Hoh stared at the sky for a while before looking back at the girl
with a light chuckle.

“Nah, it’s nothing.”

***

[Kiiiaahk-!]

A Sky Dragon flew freely and unrestricted in the air while screeching
out joyously. Hae-In riding on the creature’s back asked in a worried
voice.

“Dear, will this really be alright?”

“Yup, it’s fine.”

1025
Jin-Woo went on to explain that he used magic to erase all presence
of their ride, Kaisel, so no one should be able to hear or see them
flying.

“Hold on tight, okay?”

Hae-In heard her husband’s smile-filled advice and her arms tightly
wrapped around his waist gained renewed strength. Taking that as
the go-ahead, Jin-Woo immediately raised their travelling speed.

[Kiiahk!]

Kaisel’s wing speed increased noticeably and they rose higher and
higher until they broke past the layer of heavenly clouds above. The
sight of an endlessly-stretching blue world spread out below their
feet.

‘Just a little bit further!’

Kah-ahhak!

Kaisel flapped his wings even more vigorously.

Higher, even higher!

The two passengers were being protected by magic, which meant

they could fly up to the part of the sky that was much closer to outer
space rather than that of the planet’s atmosphere.

They were soon greeted by the spectacular sight of a giant sun rising
past the outline of Earth.

Hae-In leaned her head against her husband’s shoulder and watched
this mesmerising spectacle unfold in this quiet, still sky, a warm smile
floating up on her lips.

1026
Jin-Woo had been waiting for this chance, so he quickly seized it and
pulled out the present he had readied earlier. Her eyes grew large
after seeing it.

“Dear…”

It was a special necklace he asked the bearded Dwarves to craft, as

those guys happened to be rather handy with things like this.

Jin-Woo gently placed the beautiful necklace shimmering under the

sun’s rays around the neck of his wife.

The Shadow Soldiers watching and cheering on from his shadow all
roared out in exhilaration at this wonderful conclusion of their liege’s
perfect wedding anniversary event.

Waaahhh-!!

Unfortunately, just before Jin-Woo’s and Hae-In’s lips, gradually

closing in, could bridge the last couple of inches….

….He had to break the mood first and speak to her instead.

“Dear, looks like you’ll have to go back first and wait for me. I’ll be
home as soon as possible.”

This was already their 16th wedding anniversary, so Hae-In knew oh-
so-well what was going on when Jin-Woo said those things.

“Come home soon, okay?”

Jin-Woo nodded his head and issued a new order to Kaisel. The Sky
Dragon changed his heading towards Earth and quickly distanced
itself.

He wordlessly watched the back of his wife getting further away

before turning around. Sure enough, a part of the space in the

1027
distance began distorting and tearing up before icy-blue ‘fog’ began
oozing out from there.

It emerged after disintegrating the wall between dimensions and

revealed itself, before coagulating in one point to form a large figure.

Jin-Woo recalled what the envoy of the Rulers had told him all those
years ago.

‘He said that an existence possessing great power can act like a
magnet and attract horrifying beings from other worlds, didn’t he?’

There was no need to question just who that blue-fog monster came
to visit today.

The tear in space grew, so did the number of blue fog clusters at an
alarming rate. Hundreds? A few thousands? It could even be a few
tens of thousands.

“Fuu….”

Just as he would do, Jin-Woo closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Would his son take over this role in the future?

Who knows.

But, when Jin-Woo pictured that scene in his head, he realised that it
wouldn’t be so bad at all.

‘A father and son duo facing off against enemies together….’

As a grin formed on his lips, he opened his eyes.

The countless blue fog clusters had completely emerged from the
gap in dimensions and, upon discovering Jin-Woo’s presence, began
emitting intense, horrifying malice towards him.

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The electrifying tension felt just before the battle travelled from the
tip of his toes to the rest of his body.

‘Nice.’

His own preparation was now complete.

And eventually….

Kuwaaaahhhh-!!!

Those ‘things’ that acted under one will chose to eliminate the
detected threat. As they moved towards Jin-Woo’s location…

….He spoke with a smile on his face.

“Rise up.”

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