‘Hold.’
A ring of light appeared and bound Baek Sang-hyeok’s body.
“Ugh......!”
‘Burning Hands.’
As Baek Sang-hyeok struggled against the Hold, an enormous hand-shaped blaze more than two meters across appeared and seized him.
“Aaaaaaaaaagh!”
CRASH—!
The reception room door burst open, and soldiers poured inside.
“Fire!”
‘Absolute Shield.’
Spheres of light enveloped Kang Hyeon-woo and Lena.
PING-PING-PING-PING!
The energy bullets from the Core Guns struck the shield and were rendered useless.
‘Classification.’
‘Mesmerize.’
THUD.
THUD.
The soldiers collapsed to the floor in an instant.
Immediately afterward, believers dressed in white rushed inside.
“Th-This...... demon! A heretical demon has descended to harm the pastor!”
“We have to protect the pastor!”
The believers began recklessly charging toward Baek Sang-hyeok, who was engulfed in flames.
‘Dispel.’
Kang Hyeon-woo removed the Burning Hands cast on Baek Sang-hyeok.
“Ugggh......”
Baek Sang-hyeok’s entire body was covered in burns, and all he could do was groan in pain.
“Heal yourself. You’re a healer, so you should at least be capable of that much.”
Though he had only been second-string, Baek Sang-hyeok had been a support Mercenary whose actual ability left nothing to criticize.
A moment later, a sphere of light appeared and wrapped around Baek Sang-hyeok’s body.
Soon, his melting skin gradually began returning to normal.
“Ooooh......!”
“Pastor......”
“God’s Representative is performing a miracle!”
“Amen.”
“Evil demon! If you, a follower of heresy, want to harm the pastor, you’ll have to kill us first!”
The believers stood in front of Baek Sang-hyeok, blocking the way with tears streaming down their faces.
“S-Stop...... Everyone, step back.”
“Pastor!”
“That is enough. All of you...... get the hell out!”
The believers flinched at Baek Sang-hyeok’s shout.
“I-I apologize. Th-These people are not heretics, but messengers of God who have come to test me. So please return and wait.”
“Ooooooh......!”
“Messengers of God......”
“Amen.”
The believers left the reception room one by one.
When Kang Hyeon-woo dispelled all his magic, the soldiers also began waking up one after another.
Baek Sang-hyeok sent even the soldiers away, then dropped to his knees on the reception room floor.
“Please spare me, Senior! I failed to recognize you and committed a grave discourtesy.”
***
“This is absurd. Why did you send soldiers to Ground Zero?”
“Ah...... well......”
Baek Sang-hyeok had watched the footage recorded by the sentries.
The tremendous natural phenomena that had unfolded around Ground Zero.
Baek Sang-hyeok had recognized at a glance that they were area-of-effect skills.
“You must’ve known soldiers wouldn’t be enough to handle a Mercenary capable of using area-of-effect skills over an area that large.”
“There are cases where people detonate disposable Core Bombs, and I thought that after using skills on that scale, recovering in a short time would be impossible.”
Core Bombs imitated magic by controlling the elements.
Mercenaries who used magic skills were extremely rare, and even those skills lacked staying power, which was why Shinhwa Company had created such an item.
Even if it had been a Mercenary who truly used magic skills, casting skills on that scale should have nearly exhausted all their Mana and left them on the verge of unconsciousness.
In truth, Baek Sang-hyeok’s judgment had been quite accurate.
There had been only one problem.
His target was Kang Hyeon-woo.
“You cast Charm and Mesmerize over the entire city. Even the food.”
“The ignorant masses are difficult to control. You know that well, do you not? Effective means of control are necessary for survival.”
“So you’ve been playing god. Is that what you’re saying?”
“I merely found an efficient method.”
As they talked, Baek Sang-hyeok concluded that Kang Hyeon-woo did not seem likely to harm him.
Baek Sang-hyeok cautiously got to his feet and sat down on a half-burned sofa.
“By the way, may I ask what brings you to our city......?”
“Have you already forgotten that you’re the bastard who brought me here?”
“Ah......”
For a moment, Baek Sang-hyeok wanted to beat those soldiers to death.
Of all the people they could have brought back, they had brought a human who was practically a calamity.
He might have been holed up here playing god, but that did not mean he had completely closed his eyes and ears to the outside world.
Codename SIN was still alive and wandering around the world.
Baek Sang-hyeok had heard the rumors well enough.
Yet headquarters had made no mention of it and shown no reaction.
Although he had fallen from glory, SIN had once been one of the Final Seven.
To the Mercenaries and City Lords who had survived from those days until now, SIN was an Archmage who stood impossibly far above them.
“May I ask where you are headed?”
“Busan.”
“So you are heading to Fort Busan Marina. Did headquarters give you some kind of commission?”
Instead of answering, Kang Hyeon-woo stared silently at Baek Sang-hyeok.
Baek Sang-hyeok jolted and hurriedly waved both hands.
“Ah, I asked something unnecessary. My apologies. It is only because many believers have recently evacuated here from Busan.”
“Details.”
“I do not know much myself......”
The news was that an Anomaly Break had occurred in Busan, leaving half the city destroyed.
Some of the citizens who had abandoned the ruined city were leaving Busan and flowing into Volg.
“Headquarters had not issued any particular announcement, so I assumed it would be dealt with soon...... As expected, you’re going, Senior.”
Jino’s personal belongings from Eorin’s lair.
Among them was part of a situation report from the Shinhwa Company Intelligence Bureau.
It, too, stated that a Break had occurred in the Busan region.
It also stated that contact had been made with an intelligent life-form and that the extent of the potential damage could not be predicted.
‘Did Park Seong-jun know something and go there?’
Setting aside the fact that Busan was his hometown, the timing was strange.
Of course, things like Dungeon Breaks or damage to a city were not important to Kang Hyeon-woo.
Kang Hyeon-woo had only one objective.
Park Seong-jun.
Through decades of pursuit, he had realized that rushing would not help him catch Park Seong-jun.
If that was the case, it would be more effective to gather a few more Cores and prepare for whatever might happen.
“Old-Model Cores. Why do you use only those here? Aren’t transactions impossible if you don’t use New-Model Cores?”
“It is not that we avoid them completely. We use New-Model Cores for banking and transactions. We simply do not use them as an energy source.”
“Why?”
“That......”
Baek Sang-hyeok swallowed the rest of his words.
Kang Hyeon-woo spoke again.
“Old-Model Cores. How can you keep using them?”
“Ah, well......”
Baek Sang-hyeok’s mind raced furiously.
‘As the old saying went, even rotten, a prized fish remains prized. If it’s this bastard......’
A heaven above heaven.
A heroic Mercenary who stood beyond even the heavens, and a rear-support Mercenary who used nothing more than an ordinary healing skill.
During their active years, Kang Hyeon-woo had been someone Baek Sang-hyeok would never even have dared to approach.
But time had passed, and Baek Sang-hyeok himself had become a City Lord.
He thought there was no longer much reason for him to feel inferior.
Of course, at Shinhwa Company’s Annual Meetings, he could barely secure a seat at the very bottom and usually returned without getting a single word in.
‘If I can win this bastard over......’
Perhaps he could become the star of the next meeting.
Even rotten, a prized fish remained prized. Kang Hyeon-woo was still one of the Final Seven.
If he became Baek Sang-hyeok’s powerful backer......
Then at the next Annual Meeting, all attention might turn toward Baek Sang-hyeok, perhaps even making him the star.
Having thought that far, Baek Sang-hyeok smiled.
“What could I possibly hide from you, Senior? Come with me. I will show you personally.”
***
Kang Hyeon-woo’s group descended to the first floor with Baek Sang-hyeok and got into a car.
Baek Sang-hyeok took the wheel himself and spoke.
“Senior. I imagine you naturally know this already...... but do you know how Core Energy is produced?”
“Doesn’t a reactor do that?”
“Haha. Correct. But that is merely the machine. I mean the principle behind it.”
“Core Stream.”
“Exactly. It is primarily produced from the Core Stream. And that Stream is the foundation of this planet, our Earth.”
The energy possessed by a planet.
That was what they called the Stream.
Core Energy was created by forcibly extracting this energy, which corresponded to Mana from Kang Hyeon-woo’s perspective.
“Thanks to that, humanity has managed to live quite comfortably despite the destruction of the world. If you only look at the lives of people within the cities, they are not particularly different from the old days......”
Not only goods, but even people could be instantly transported between cities if desired.
The lives of people who earned and spent Cores through various forms of economic activity were much the same as life had been in Kang Hyeon-woo’s distant past.
“The problem is...... now that it has been about a hundred years, the population is increasing explosively. Well, excluding Scavengers and groups living out in the wasteland.”
Core extraction and refinement could not continue indefinitely.
Researchers had concluded that, like petroleum in the old days, Core Energy could not be extracted and consumed without limit.
There was also concern that extracting and consuming it too rapidly could deplete the energy of the planet itself.
“Senior. Do you know the greatest difference between Old-Model Cores and New-Model Cores?”
“Not sure.”
“Old-Model Cores are, how should I put it...... more raw.”
The vehicle left the city center lined with buildings and headed toward the outskirts.
In the paddies and fields, believers dressed in white were hard at work farming, sweat pouring from their brows.
“It turns out support skills can be used like this as well. I was the son of a farmer in the old days.”
Acceleration magic and various elemental spells had been cast throughout the fields.
“O-Of course, to you, Senior, these must look like very cute little skills.”
“What are you using to maintain them?”
“We continuously supply them with Core Energy. Haha.”
Ordinary magic skills were based on the user’s Mana.
Things like Core Bombs primarily released the Mana stored inside them in a single explosive burst, making them suitable for one-shot offensive magic.
There were also support items containing buff-type skills in the form of scrolls, but it was difficult to maintain continuous effects over such a vast area in that manner.
“I will show you how it works shortly, so please do not worry.”
Baek Sang-hyeok avoided going into detail and changed the subject.
“Continue what you were saying before. About it being raw.”
“Ah, New-Model Cores...... how should I put it? Various technologies are used to maximize their efficiency. They are versatile, but their concentration...... would that be the right word? It is not particularly high.”
There was probably no one in this world who understood what Baek Sang-hyeok meant better than Kang Hyeon-woo.
The difference in Mana recovery between Old-Model Cores and New-Model Cores was considerable.
“Old-Model Cores...... could be considered the Stream itself.”
“You mean you can produce that?”
“Well...... haha. By sheer chance, I discovered something very useful. A method of obtaining Core Energy in its completely raw form!”
***
The vehicle came to a stop after traveling through the quiet outskirts.
Before them stood an enormous church building.
A high wall surrounded the building.
Coils of razor-sharp barbed wire ran along the top of the wall.
When Kang Hyeon-woo’s group and Baek Sang-hyeok got out of the car, the soldiers standing guard at the entrance with guns immediately straightened their posture.
“Pastor! Greetings!”
“No problems, I trust?”
“Yes! Of course!”
“Open the gate, please. A very important messenger of God has come to visit.”
“Yes!”
The soldiers moved aside, and Kang Hyeon-woo’s group entered the church.
The interior was not significantly different from an ordinary church.
“Now, now, Senior. This way, please!”
Making a great fuss, Baek Sang-hyeok manipulated something at the podium.
RUMBLE......
THUD.
The wall behind the podium slowly opened, revealing an elevator.
“The two who accompanied you should wait here for a moment.”
“I want to go too!”
“I wish to go as well.”
Kang Hyeon-woo shook his head.
“Wait.”
“Tch. Big Sis, I know how to use this. Want to see?”
Lena took Eorin over to a corner and sat down with her.
Baek Sang-hyeok beckoned to Kang Hyeon-woo.
“Let us go!”
.
.
.
The elevator slowly descended underground.
“I do not know exactly how our headquarters extracts Core Energy.”
The elevator continued downward for quite some time, apparently because the underground level was very deep.
“However, I discovered a way to produce what are called Old-Model Cores.”
DING!
The elevator doors opened.
TWITCH.
Kang Hyeon-woo’s brow furrowed at the sight inside.
“Uggghhhhh......”
“A-Amen......”
“Please...... kill me...... I want...... to go to God’s side......”
Hundreds of people were bound inside the enormous space, their bodies covered in various sensors with countless tubes inserted into them.
They were being tortured with all manner of devices.
One person was burning over a fire lit beneath their feet.
Another was being slashed all over by tiny blades.
There was also someone strapped into an electric chair, their body trembling violently.
It was a sight one might expect to see only in an imagined hell.
People in white coats moved among the suffering victims, projecting holograms as they checked various readings.
“Hahaha! What do you think, Senior? Are the believers performing their ministry not beautiful?”
Baek Sang-hyeok spread his arms wide, laughing with genuine delight.
“Welcome! My pride and Castle Volg’s specialty! The Core Energy Production Facility!”