“What is this?”
“We’re producing Core Energy. I told you, didn’t I? It’s raw.”
Baek Sang-hyeok smiled broadly as he looked at the suffering people.
“Core Energy is the power of the planet. But is the planet really the only thing that possesses energy?”
Baek Sang-hyeok had accidentally obtained a research report from headquarters on how to produce Old-Model Cores.
“Human suffering. I realized that pure pain and despair are the most powerful forms of Core Energy.”
Kang Hyeon-woo could feel the Mana—no, the Stream—flowing from the tortured people and being gathered into one place through various devices.
Every living being possessed energy.
Maximizing that energy and extracting it.
That was the method Baek Sang-hyeok had discovered.
“Ah, and you asked how we maintain the magic skills, didn’t you? Over there.”
Baek Sang-hyeok pointed toward one side of the wall.
People with vacant expressions lay on beds there. Various tubes and sensors had likewise been attached to their bodies.
“They’re low-level Mercenaries. We have them use sustained magic skills.”
The farming aboveground, as well as the various magic skills that kept the entire city operating.
The Mercenaries here had been maintaining all of them.
“It is a concept similar to the Recovery Stations in other cities. Haha.”
Twenty-four hours a day, they remained here, supplied with nutrients and Mana while maintaining their skills.
“Who are all these people?”
“Believers who volunteered!”
There was no chance of that.
Charm and Mesmerize magic enveloped the entire city.
If even the food had magic cast on it, then every traveler who passed through this place could have ended up like this.
Anyone who displeased them while they ran the city was probably dealt with the same way.
“Do you consume all the Cores produced here within the city?”
“No. We sell them to headquarters. The amount of Cores needed to operate the city is extremely small. After all, the believers are all voluntarily performing their ministry......”
‘So it’s a laboratory.’
There was no way Shinhwa Company headquarters would have carelessly leaked a research report.
And if headquarters had not intervened despite what was happening here......
Then headquarters was using Baek Sang-hyeok to test Core production in this place.
Headquarters was conducting experiments diverse enough to have created a half-android.
‘This is probably just one of those experiments for collecting data.’
“What do you think, Senior?”
“About what?”
“You still have connections at headquarters, do you not? Please look after me from now on.”
Amid a place filled with agonized groans, Baek Sang-hyeok rubbed his hands together with a vile smile.
“Judging from how interested you are in Cores, I assume you need Old-Model Cores? How about building the future together with me from now on?”
Kang Hyeon-woo silently stepped into the elevator.
Baek Sang-hyeok hunched himself over and followed.
Even as the elevator slowly ascended, Baek Sang-hyeok’s flattery showed no sign of stopping.
“I have heard here and there that you have been wandering the wasteland, Senior...... but I am sure you have your reasons.”
For Baek Sang-hyeok, who barely occupied the lowest seat, learning information from headquarters was nearly impossible.
But the mere facts that headquarters left Kang Hyeon-woo alone and that he had once been one of the Final Seven made him quite useful.
Whatever else could be said, Kang Hyeon-woo’s strength was genuine.
DING!
The elevator reached the surface.
Lena approached Kang Hyeon-woo with a bright smile.
Fire Balls that looked powerful at a glance were orbiting around Lena.
“Mister! Big Sis taught me Mana control!”
Eorin smacked her lips as she watched the circling Fire Balls.
“Tsk. I cannot understand it. Even a Dragon could not do something like this......”
“We’re leaving.”
Kang Hyeon-woo’s group walked out of the church.
After alternating his gaze between the church and the distant fields for a moment, Kang Hyeon-woo spoke quietly.
“I have no attachment to this world.”
“Pardon? Senior?”
Baek Sang-hyeok answered with an ingratiating smile.
Kang Hyeon-woo opened his bag and chewed up one of the Cores Park Seong-jun had left behind before swallowing it.
[Mana restored by 8,500.]
[Direct Core consumption has low recovery efficiency.]
[Use a refined Core or a Recovery Station......]
Seeing Kang Hyeon-woo eat the Core, Baek Sang-hyeok sucked in a startled breath.
“Senior......? What exactly are you doing......?”
“I’m not some champion of justice. Frankly, I’m a bastard who lives without much regard for propriety, but I still believe there’s a certain line that exists between human beings.”
Kang Hyeon-woo concentrated and raised an arm.
RUMBLE......
The atmosphere grew unstable, and thunder rolled across the cloudless sky.
“But right now, I simply...... don’t like this.”
‘Phase Intervention.’
‘Classification.’
THUD.
The separated phase descended over the entire city.
“Lena. This is practice. Move the classified humans outside the city.”
“Ooh! Yes! Yes!”
“S-Senior? What are you doing right now?”
‘Limit Magic, Reality Manipulation.’
CRACK—! CRACK—!
SHATTER！
Reality broke like a pane of glass, and his field of vision twisted strangely.
RRRRRRUMBLE—!
Pitch-black storm clouds gathered in an instant.
‘Hold.’
Baek Sang-hyeok’s body was trapped within rings of light.
“S-Senior! What are you doing?! Huh? Why are you suddenly doing this?! You son of a bitch! What the hell are you doing?!”
‘Silence.’
“Mmph! Mmph! Mmph!”
Baek Sang-hyeok struggled with his face flushed red.
“To invoke God’s name while creating and operating a hell. An excellent idea. Now you can experience with your entire body the descent of God at Ground Zero that you wanted so badly.”
‘Meteor Swarm.’
RRRRRRUMBLE—!
Expressionless, Kang Hyeon-woo lowered the arm he had raised.
SNAP-!
Kang Hyeon-woo snapped his fingers.
And the sky trembled.
***
“Are you truly even human?”
Eorin asked with wide eyes after casting Absolute Barrier on herself.
RRRRUMBLE—!
The blackened sky shook even more violently.
Far away, Lena, surrounded by a white barrier, evacuated thousands of people by practically hurling them outside the city.
Baek Sang-hyeok stared blankly as countless people simultaneously floated into the air and flew beyond the city limits.
Eorin looked at Lena and asked,
“What exactly is that child?”
“None of your business.”
“That may be so, but...... there is no scent of life from her whatsoever. Are there many beings like that in this world?”
“None of my business either.”
“Are there many Mages like you in this world?”
“You keep making me talk. Why does it matter?”
Eorin furrowed her brow.
“Did you not say our world destroyed yours?! The humans of our world...... could never have been a match for beings like you in the first place!”
Eorin could not understand it.
She had only just arrived in this world, but it was completely different from the continent where she had lived.
Even if someone had invaded this world for some reason, it was difficult to imagine even the slightest possibility of victory.
‘Could it be......?’
An ominous premonition flashed through Eorin’s mind.
KABOOOOOOM—!
THUD.
The trembling stopped.
Fragments of meteors began falling through the storm clouds.
Long tails trailed behind the meteors as they plummeted at tremendous speed without making a sound.
The sight of the meteors falling through a field of vision that had become like shattered glass under Reality Manipulation was unreal.
The meteors descended and struck the ground and buildings.
FLASH——!
Brilliant light engulfed the white city.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!
A horrific tremor and blast wave swept over everything.
The direct meteor impacts and overlapping shock waves pulverized the buildings without leaving a trace.
However, the effects of the meteor impacts were blocked off within the phase separated through Reality Manipulation.
The people still inside the city whom Lena had failed to rescue had their dimension separated by Classification magic and suffered no harm whatsoever.
‘Dispel.’
The separated phase and manipulated reality returned to normal.
THUD.
Freed from the Hold, Baek Sang-hyeok dropped to his knees.
“Why...... Why the hell......?!”
“Because I didn’t like it.”
“That...... What kind of reason is that......?! Do you think headquarters will just let this go?”
“I think they will.”
Lena came flying unsteadily through the air from the distance.
“Mister! How could you suddenly dispel the magic?! You scared me!”
“I never taught you Fly Magic.”
“I got the idea from Control Gravity! Hehe.”
Lena grinned broadly.
“This is magic practice. Blow up that church.”
“Ooh! Yes!”
A Fire Ball formed in Lena’s hand.
“Hiyah!”
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM—!
Lena continuously hurled Fire Balls, demolishing the church.
“Demon......! You bastards will suffer divine punishment from God!”
Baek Sang-hyeok glared at Kang Hyeon-woo with eyes filled with hatred.
“God...... A man once called a healer created a hell, yet you still have plenty to say.”
“You bastard...... You destroyed a city belonging to Shinhwa Company. You’re just like Park Seong-jun! Aren’t you a traitor to humanity too?!”
Kang Hyeon-woo silently looked at Baek Sang-hyeok.
‘Mana Control.’
As Kang Hyeon-woo cast the spell, a purple beam of energy shot into Baek Sang-hyeok.
“You won’t be able to play god anymore.”
“W-W-What......?!”
Baek Sang-hyeok, his face deathly pale, brought up a hologram and frantically checked various things.
“Oh? You can use something like that as well?”
Eorin exclaimed as she watched Baek Sang-hyeok panic.
“It’s simple magic.”
“Simple? In our world, only Mages beyond the 7th Circle can use this spell. There have only been a handful in all of human history.”
“Is that so?”
“Your understanding of Mana seems exceptional. To think you could block Mana so effectively.”
Rather than the meteor spell, it was Mana Control that genuinely astonished Eorin.
All of the Mana throughout Baek Sang-hyeok’s body had been blocked as though his blood vessels had been clogged.
It was an ability that interfered by injecting only the minimum amount of Mana into precisely the necessary areas.
It was impossible without profound knowledge of Mana.
“Why is my maximum Mana...... -1? W-What did you do to me?!”
Sweating profusely, Baek Sang-hyeok closed the hologram and prostrated himself before Kang Hyeon-woo.
“S-Senior! Please spare me just this once! Th-This is too much. Why are you taking everything away from me?!”
Baek Sang-hyeok was more devastated by the loss of his Mana than by the destruction of his city.
Suddenly, Kang Hyeon-woo pulled a device from inside his clothes and operated it.
[Mercenary Contract]
[Contractor Information]
[Codename : SIN]
[Class : Mage]
[Grade : ???]
[Affiliation : Shinhwa Company]
[Contract Terms : Junior Training]
[Contract Sent]
“Bring up the Combat Support System.”
At Kang Hyeon-woo’s words, Baek Sang-hyeok hurriedly brought up the hologram.
“I-If I do this, you’ll give my Mana back, right? Th-That’s what this means, right?”
Ignoring Baek Sang-hyeok, Kang Hyeon-woo manipulated the hologram however he pleased.
[Contract concluded.]
[Contractor “SIN” has requested confirmation of contract fulfillment.]
[Confirm contract fulfillment.]
[Junior Training contract completed by mutual agreement.]
“Stars. Review.”
[Contract Target “SIN” awarded ★★★★★ (10 points).]
[Write a contract review?]
[(Seed) : I’m Seed, City Lord of Port Mine. Thank you for protecting the citizens. I strongly recommend him to the other City Lords as well.]
[(Anonymous) : He’s amazing in many ways.]
[(Anonymous) : Thank you very much. This man is...... truly great.]
[(Anonymous) : Thank you for helping Castle Gaudium. Highly recommended.]
[(Baek Sang-hyeok) : Senior, thank you for your guidance.]
Baek Sang-hyeok turned the hologram around to show Kang Hyeon-woo what he had written.
“I-Is that enough now? Please.”
“Mister! I’m done!”
Lena approached with a bright smile after demolishing the building.
Countless people emerged from between the ruins and fled outside.
“We’re leaving.”
As Kang Hyeon-woo turned away, Baek Sang-hyeok grabbed onto his trouser leg and clung to him.
“Senior! Please! I did everything you told me to! Please!”
“Why bother leaving him alive? Wouldn’t it be easier just to kill him?”
Eorin tilted her head.
“It gets troublesome if I kill headquarters personnel.”
“Headquarters......?”
“None of your business. Forget about it.”
“Hmm. So it is fine as long as he does not die. I happen to know a useful spell. Do you know it?”
“What is it?”
Eorin lightly gestured toward Baek Sang-hyeok.
A moment later, Baek Sang-hyeok began furiously scratching his entire body, his face turning red.
“W-What? What did you do, you crazy bitch?! H-Hurry up and dispel this! What kind of skill is this?!”
“It is a low-level spell called Itch.”
“Useful.”
“It is a spell personally cast by me, no less.”
“Why did you do that?”
“What?! I-I was trying to help you! Instead of thanking me......!”
Behind them, Baek Sang-hyeok rolled across the ground while scratching his entire body until he bled.
“Please......! Please! You son of a biiiiitch!”
“Bye!”
Lena waved brightly.
SNAP!
Kang Hyeon-woo’s group set off, leaving the destroyed city behind.
***
Deep in the night.
Kang Hyeon-woo’s group sat resting around a campfire they had built inside a collapsed ruin.
Lena and Eorin were chatting quietly with each other.
“Big Sis! Do you think that weird mister died?”
“There is no chance of that. I set the spell so its Mana would weaken over time, so he should still be alive. Unless he killed himself, of course.”
“Wow...... It’s already been three days. Can you really make Mana last that long?”
“Are you curious?”
“Yes! Yes!”
“Hmm...... Very well. I shall share some wisdom with you.”
Eorin whispered to Lena as she taught her how to control Mana.
Kang Hyeon-woo lay on the concrete floor of the ruined building, lost in thought.
‘Park Seong-jun...... Caroline.’
Kang Hyeon-woo had experienced all manner of things over the years.
Yet he had never found the crucial lead he needed and had merely wandered from place to place for a long time, coming up empty-handed.
Most City Lords acted as though they had never seen him, and his pursuit of Park Seong-jun consisted of little more than slowly searching wherever the rumors he heard led him.
Never before had strange events happened one after another like they had recently.
It had been some ninety years since Kang Hyeon-woo opened his eyes, yet this was the first time he had been able to pinpoint a location and pursue Park Seong-jun so clearly.
And then there was the news he had learned about Caroline.
It was a story even Kang Hyeon-woo, who had cleared countless Dungeons half willingly and half unwillingly since the destruction of the world, had never heard before.
On top of that, he was traveling with a half-android and a Dragon.
He had not yet decided what to do with them once he met Park Seong-jun.
‘Complicated.’
Whatever the circumstances, Kang Hyeon-woo’s objective was clear.
Meet Park Seong-jun, hold him accountable, and remove the buff.
Then he wanted to spend what little remained of his life somewhere quiet.
That was when it happened.
“Hmm?”
“Oh!”
All three of them stood up at the same time.
They had sensed a tiny flow of Mana in the otherwise empty wasteland.
“Humans in our world have a custom of being wary of strangers who come to them at night.”
“You know quite a lot.”
“Hehe. That is because, when I was a hatchling, I occasionally slipped into the human world in secret for amusement.”
“I see.”
A short while later, the stranger approached close enough for the sounds of his presence to become noticeable.
The wasteland was pitch-black.
Lena raised an arm.
“Light!”
A small sphere of light appeared.
It was neither as large nor as bright as Kang Hyeon-woo’s, but the surroundings were so dark that it was more than sufficient.
“Ugh...... Ugh......”
A man emerged from the darkness.
He staggered forward, his entire body drenched in blood.
After looking at Lena and Eorin for a moment, the man stared directly at Kang Hyeon-woo and forced his lips to move.
“C-Codename...... SIN...... G-Go...... back. You must not...... go......”
THUD.
The man collapsed to the ground and stopped moving.
Kang Hyeon-woo crouched down and rolled the fallen man onto his back.
“Shinhwa headquarters. Special Operations Unit.”
It was a special unit composed entirely of A-Grade Mercenaries.
“Mister! Is that mister dead?”
Kang Hyeon-woo gave a small nod.
“He recognized you right away...... How did they know we were here?”
“There’s no way they wouldn’t know.”
He had left star ratings and reviews everywhere he went.
Though it was an old model, the Combat Support System in Kang Hyeon-woo’s possession could also be tracked in real time.
Eorin, who had been standing quietly, shrugged and stepped forward.
“That human knew you?”
“Seems so.”
“And now he is dead?”
“Yes.”
“Did you need to speak with him further?”
“That would’ve been preferable.”
“Hehehehehehe. I shall show you my greatness.”
With a sinister laugh, Eorin quietly raised an arm.
“Dragon Tongue. Power Word, Resurrection.”
FLASH!
A painfully bright silver beam enveloped the man.