A barrier the size of an athletic field spread out around them.
The Core Gun bullets flying toward Kang Hyeon-woo's group slowed to a crawl, as if frozen in midair.
All the soldiers floated into the sky.
“Uh…… uh……?”
“S-save me!”
The soldiers flailed helplessly, stunned by the bizarre sight.
Kang Hyeon-woo waved his hand as though shooing away flies.
“M-my Core Gun……!”
The Core Guns in the soldiers' hands began coming apart.
The soldiers desperately clung to their weapons, but it was useless.
Soon, the Core Guns shot into the sky, flew outside the separated phase, and disappeared beyond the distant horizon.
‘Dispel.’
“Aaaaaaagh!”
THUD, THUD—!
The magic was released, and all the soldiers dropped to the ground.
The soldiers groaned in pain as they struck the ground.
“W-who…… are you……?”
‘Hold.’
Rings of light appeared and bound all the soldiers.
Kang Hyeon-woo checked their insignia, then approached a soldier groaning farther back.
“Major. I have a question.”
“Ugh…… ugh……. Y-you demon…….”
“Was Eagle Actual—Chris—supposed to come here today?”
“Th-that……!”
The Major crawled across the ground, trying to get away from Kang Hyeon-woo with pain and shock mixed across his face.
“If you don't answer, I'll kill you.”
“I-I can't answer……. Urgh…….”
The Major's face turned blue as though he could not breathe.
‘Dispel.’
Kang Hyeon-woo released the Major from Hold.
The moment he was freed, the Major pulled a small device from inside his clothes.
“Unknown individual intervention. Task Force Six. Mission failed. Transmitting records. Executing emergency procedure.”
After speaking, the soldier pressed the device.
The other soldiers immediately followed the Major's example without hesitation.
“Urgh.”
THUD.
The soldiers stopped breathing.
The wasteland, which had been filled with groans, fell silent once more.
The trembling couple approached Kang Hyeon-woo.
“W-what just happened?”
“Suicide.”
“……Why?”
“That's their procedure. You don't need to know.”
During the past ninety years, Kang Hyeon-woo had encountered soldiers from headquarters several times.
The outcome had always been the same.
They chose death rather than reveal anything.
Kang Hyeon-woo carefully moved between the vehicles while using Detect.
Aside from the couple and Lena, he could no longer sense any living creatures nearby.
‘That bastard wouldn't come in person.’
The man who ruled humanity.
Eagle Actual, leader of the Final Seven.
He had not appeared publicly in decades.
This time would likely be no different.
‘Well, none of my business.’
The couple cautiously glanced around before approaching the vehicles the soldiers had arrived in.
A moment later, they opened the doors and frantically began taking whatever they could find.
In the wasteland, looting and theft did not even qualify as crimes. They were simply a matter of course.
After rummaging around for quite some time, the couple pulled a box from the trunk and opened it.
“What's this……?”
The man tilted his head as he looked inside the box from the back of the vehicle.
Meanwhile, Kang Hyeon-woo searched the dead soldiers and collected their Cores.
“What's this?”
The man took something from the trunk and brought it over to Kang Hyeon-woo.
Kang Hyeon-woo, who had been casually collecting Cores, paused when he saw what the man was carrying.
“……The Mona Lisa.”
What the man had brought him was the portrait of the Mona Lisa painted by Leonardo da Vinci.
***
At Kang Hyeon-woo's instructions, the couple unloaded the boxes from the vehicles and opened them.
Works of art from the era Kang Hyeon-woo had lived in.
Relics from the world before its destruction.
Objects whose value had once been immeasurable.
They were humanity's legacy, now remembered by hardly anyone.
‘Van Gogh. Munch.’
Even Kang Hyeon-woo had only ever seen these works on television or the internet back then.
Kang Hyeon-woo pieced the situation together.
The appearance of a Special Dungeon.
A high-grade monster that knew one of Shinhwa's highest authorities.
Headquarters soldiers who had come to the location where the Dungeon appeared.
Humanity's cultural heritage loaded into their vehicles.
‘A trade?’
That was the most likely conclusion.
‘None of my business, I suppose.’
A talking monster and the world inside the Dungeon were certainly surprising, but only briefly.
Kang Hyeon-woo had lived for more than a century, and in his empty existence, there was practically nothing left that he wanted to know.
The only mystery he still cared about was Park Seong-jun.
Meanwhile, the couple ignored the famous paintings and other works from the boxes and continued searching the vehicles.
They had been born decades after the world's destruction.
They had probably never seen art like this before, and even if they had, they likely had no interest in it.
‘They're worthless to them now.’
The world Kang Hyeon-woo remembered and the world these people knew were completely different.
Kang Hyeon-woo approached the couple.
“It's time to leave.”
“What? Why? All the soldiers are dead…….”
“They contacted headquarters just before they died. More soldiers will be here soon.”
They would come to recover the vehicles and the artwork.
The man nodded violently with a terrified expression.
“U-understood. So-jeong, let's go. We have to run. We'll die if we stay here.”
The couple bowed to Kang Hyeon-woo.
“Thank you so much for helping us. We'll be going now.”
“Wait. I don't recall saying you could just leave.”
At Kang Hyeon-woo's indifferent words, the couple swallowed dryly and tensed.
“W-what……?”
“The contract. You need to mark it complete.”
Kang Hyeon-woo pulled a device from inside his clothes.
[Mercenary Contract]
[Contractor Information]
[Codename : SIN]
[Class : Mage]
[Grade : ???]
[Affiliation : Shinhwa Company]
[Contract Details : Anomaly Processing (Emergency)]
[Contract Sent]
After hearing that more soldiers were coming, the man anxiously pulled out a small device and operated it.
“A contract at a time like this…….”
[Contract established.]
[Contractor “SIN” has requested contract fulfillment completion.]
[Contract fulfillment completion confirmed.]
[Anomaly Processing (Emergency) contract completed by mutual agreement.]
The holographic screen above the man's device shifted rapidly.
“Star rating. Review.”
The man operated the screen.
[Contractor “SIN” has been awarded ★★★★★ (10 points).]
[Write a contract review?]
[(Anonymous) : Codename SIN…… Well, he's a legend among magic skill users.]
[(Seed) : I am Seed, City Lord of Port Mine. Thank you for protecting the safety of our citizens. I strongly recommend him to the other City Lords in distant cities as well.]
[(Anonymous) : He's impressive in all sorts of ways.]
“Uh……? A perfect score……?”
The man's mouth fell open.
No matter how poor someone was, everyone possessed at least one hologram device.
In the ruined world, a hologram device was indispensable.
Having lived in the wasteland and traded with people from the cities, the man knew well enough what Mercenaries were.
He also understood the significance of star ratings and scores.
Those ratings and scores served as a measure of a Mercenary's ability.
‘I've never seen a perfect score before…… Was the highest 8.9……?’
Yet Kang Hyeon-woo had the highest rating of anyone he had ever seen.
No, he had never even heard of someone with a perfect rating.
The man swallowed dryly and operated the hologram.
“It's done.”
“Then leave.”
“A-about the vehicles…… Could we perhaps take one?”
“If you want to be tracked, you're welcome to.”
“Eek……! U-understood. So-jeong, let's go. Thank you very much.”
The terrified man ran off into the wasteland with the woman.
“They were nice people…….”
Lena watched the two disappear with a regretful expression.
“Guide me toward where you sense Beast.”
Lena pointed southeast.
“That way.”
Kang Hyeon-woo stared briefly at the Mona Lisa the man had discarded on the ground.
SNAP-!
Kang Hyeon-woo snapped his fingers and turned away.
***
[Mana restored by 100.]
[Direct Core consumption has low recovery efficiency.]
[Use a refined Core or a Recovery Station.]
[Critical Error…….]
It had been three days since they began walking in the direction Lena had indicated.
When night fell, Kang Hyeon-woo found a suitable tree and created a campfire beneath it with magic.
‘She certainly is convenient.’
Lena had the body of a small child, but she was something entirely different.
Lena did not tire.
Nor did she need to eat.
Kang Hyeon-woo, whose life was being sustained by the buff, did not need to consume anything other than Cores either.
Even so, every evening without fail, Kang Hyeon-woo searched his bag and gave her something like a chocolate bar.
Lena always grinned broadly and ate the chocolate bar with obvious enjoyment.
.
.
.
Several days passed like that.
Lena had spent the past few days lost in thought, and Kang Hyeon-woo had not asked her anything.
After spending a long time turning her palm over while thinking deeply, Lena looked at Kang Hyeon-woo.
“Mister. I think I understand.”
“What?”
“How you manipulate the Stream.”
“Manipulate it?”
“Want to see?”
Lena concentrated and raised her arm.
‘Mana……?’
Kang Hyeon-woo's eyes widened slightly.
A moment later.
A small flame appeared above Lena's outstretched hand.
The flame moved slightly as though dancing, then gathered into a sphere about the size of a baseball.
Lena lowered her raised arm.
FWOOSH—!
POP-!
The fireball struck a nearby rock and exploded with a small burst.
‘……Magic.’
For the first time across both the world before and after its destruction, Kang Hyeon-woo had seen someone other than himself use magic without a skill.
Kang Hyeon-woo was different from other Awakened.
The Awakened learned skills and relied on the Awakening System to use them.
But Kang Hyeon-woo could naturally sense the Mana flowing around him, as though he were immersed in water.
Moreover, whenever Kang Hyeon-woo saw an Awakened use a skill, he could immediately understand the flow of Mana.
That allowed him to replicate the same Mana flow without learning the skill and use it with even greater power.
As time passed, Kang Hyeon-woo eventually became capable of controlling Mana flows himself.
From that point onward, he no longer needed to watch the skills of the Awakened to use all kinds of magic on his own.
Most of his magic was created by imitating spells he had seen in media and on the internet before the world's destruction.
The higher the level of the magic, the more complex its Mana flow became, requiring increasingly precise control.
Fortunately, Kang Hyeon-woo was also an Awakened, so the system allowed him to know the exact numerical amount of Mana inside his body, making that control easier.
One who could sense the Mana flow of an Awakened's skill.
And one who could steal it.
It was an ability known only to the other six heroes.
An ability unique to Kang Hyeon-woo, SIN, the man known as the Archmage.
Yet the little girl before him had just copied him precisely.
Without even being Awakened.
A synthetic creation that could barely even be called human.
Lena smiled at Kang Hyeon-woo.
“This energy Stream. This is how you use it, right?”
“It's called Mana. Do it again.”
Lena concentrated.
This time, a pebble on the ground slowly floated upward.
She was imitating Reverse Gravity, which Kang Hyeon-woo had used before.
Controlling gravity through Mana flow was quite difficult.
Although her target was only a single small pebble, Lena had managed to imitate his magic reasonably well.
Kang Hyeon-woo narrowed his eyes as he sensed the Mana flowing around them.
‘She uses magic without any Mana…….’
Lena was casting magic by directly converting the Mana flowing through the surroundings.
Kang Hyeon-woo had considered doing something similar before, but it was so difficult to control that it bordered on impossible, requiring the constant calculation of countless variables.
Yet although the Biodroid Lena seemed to struggle with Mana control itself, the calculations did not appear difficult for her at all.
‘Shinhwa…… Just what are you creating?’
Kang Hyeon-woo sank into deep thought as he watched Lena amuse herself by moving the pebble back and forth.
***
“You can sense Beast over there?”
“Yes. Out of all the places, I can sense him most strongly there.”
“Is that Chungju City?”
“Chungju?”
“That's what it used to be called. Long ago.”
“It's called Castle Gaudium now.”
An impregnable fortress.
That was Kang Hyeon-woo's first impression as he remembered the old Chungju City.
Enormous walls that looked dozens of meters tall completely sealed off access.
The tops of the countless buildings visible beyond the walls shone with brilliant lights.
“Gaudium. Joy, huh……. Useful.”
“Most of the knowledge needed to live in this world has been entered into my head.”
Shinhwa had preloaded Lena with most of the knowledge necessary to survive in the current world.
She was almost like a walking Wikipedia, except she had no actual experience of the world.
“Let's go in.”
Despite the impression of an impregnable fortress, entering posed no difficulty at all.
The guards at the entrance had even brought out chairs to sit on.
They seemed completely uninterested in the people coming and going from the city, engrossed instead in talking among themselves.
“Wow. This place is incredible!”
Lena repeatedly looked around in fascination.
Countless people hurried back and forth.
Vehicles resembling buses filled the roads.
Numerous flashy advertising holograms crowded the air, while buildings dozens of stories tall were connected to one another by skybridges.
In the dark alleys between the buildings, people intoxicated by something lay sprawled wherever they had fallen.
‘The City of Gambling and Pleasure.’
It was another name for Castle Gaudium that he had heard somewhere before.
“Beast. Where do you sense him?”
“I don't really know. He just feels like one huge mass. This city is strange…….”
“Explain.”
“The Stream…… the Mana flow is too weak. It feels like it's being drawn somewhere.”
“Cities generate energy based on the Stream. It's only natural you'd sense it that way. Let's move.”
Just as Kang Hyeon-woo and Lena were about to start walking.
“Mr. SIN.”
A large man wearing a black suit and black sunglasses approached them.
Kang Hyeon-woo stared at him expressionlessly.
“What do you want?”
“The City Lord has been waiting for you. He wishes to meet you.”
“And if I refuse?”
Causing a rampage would not be difficult.
Weak Mana flow or not, Kang Hyeon-woo could obliterate a city of this enormous scale in an instant using only his own Mana.
The man shrugged.
“As I said, he wishes to meet you. If you do not wish to, you are free to refuse.”
“Then I refuse.”
Kang Hyeon-woo walked past the man.
The man let out a quiet sigh behind him.
“The City Lord instructed me to tell you, ‘Senior, if you are not curious about the whereabouts of Beast and Caroline, you are free to leave.’”
Kang Hyeon-woo stopped walking and slowly turned around.
“Beast is one thing……. Lead the way.”