Heaven-Slaying Star Lord, Sword God Baek Cheon-myeong.
Kang Ha-min’s eyes shook as he stared at the window displayed before him.
A Sword God meant a swordsman so skilled that he was called the god of the sword, did it not?
A person like that had been lying here as a corpse?
Before Kang Ha-min could even process it.
“This place is.”
The Sword God, Baek Cheon-myeong, surveyed his surroundings.
He slowly swept his black hair back.
As his night-sky hair curled upward, it gave him the air of someone from a magazine shoot.
Wow, he was seriously handsome.
His face was so striking that even most celebrities would not dare compare themselves to him.
What was this?
For some reason, Kang Ha-min felt as though he had lost as a human being.
Was this how it felt to become a squid beside a handsome person?
You have expended all of your Grave Summoning Authority.
480 hours remain until your next Grave Summoning Authority.
480 hours.
Twenty days.
Then Kang Ha-min’s lifeline was, in effect, limited to a single person.
Baek Cheon-myeong, who stood before him.
“H-Hello.”
He had no idea when the bus would hit him if he left this place.
Forcing a smile, he tried speaking to him.
Swish—
Baek Cheon-myeong’s gaze turned this way.
The instant their eyes met, his body shook like an aspen leaf.
The weakest Shih Tzu instinctively understood.
The aura of a strong being flowing from Baek Cheon-myeong’s entire body.
This was an apex predator!
“I see.”
The moment Baek Cheon-myeong saw Kang Ha-min, he wore an expression as though he had understood everything.
“The price for defying fate and making a deal is cruel indeed.”
What was he talking about?
After that incomprehensible mutter, Baek Cheon-myeong picked up a branch from the ground.
CRACK—
In that instant, the branch shattered all at once and took the form of a wooden sword.
‘How did he do that?’
It was like magic.
“So, when do you intend to climb the Tower?”
The Tower.
Ah, right.
He remembered too late.
Hunters were people who climbed the Tower.
Having worked as a civil servant in the Hunter Department for a while, Kang Ha-min knew a fair amount about Hunters.
‘I’m probably a summoner-type Hunter.’
Hunters possessed many different kinds of abilities.
Among them, those who handled summoned creatures were held in fairly high regard.
Hunters themselves had decent physical abilities, and they could control summoned creatures as well.
People even envied them, calling it auto-hunting.
‘But summoned creatures ultimately use the Hunter’s mana.’
Hunters had mana, the condition necessary to use their abilities.
Once mana was consumed beyond a certain point, it caused dizziness, and excessive use could even lead to unconsciousness.
Mana was a serious matter for Hunters.
That was why they could not control summoned creatures without limit, but...
‘Huh.’
Come to think of it.
‘Don’t I feel like I’ve used any mana at all?’
They said Hunters naturally awakened to the sensation of consuming mana.
Yet even with Baek Cheon-myeong standing before him, Kang Ha-min felt no expenditure of mana.
As he pondered that question, Baek Cheon-myeong tilted his head.
“When will you climb the Tower?”
Ah, he had not answered the question.
So, well.
He swallowed hard and finally answered.
“......I do not particularly intend to climb the Tower.”
Baek Cheon-myeong’s brows rose.
He looked as though he had heard an answer he had not expected in the slightest.
But to Kang Ha-min, it was only natural.
He had lived his entire life putting safety above all and safety first.
As a civil servant, what he had seen most often was Hunters dying.
‘And knowing all that, I...’
A meek everyman, an estrogen man, Kang Shih Tzu, Kang Ha-min, was supposed to climb the Tower?
The world would turn upside down first.
It was absolutely impossible.
“......You do not intend to climb? Why?”
Of course, making him understand was another matter entirely.
“That’s because the Tower is too dangerous, and I don’t think someone like me could climb it.”
“......It is rather surprising that the one who awakened this body could have such low self-esteem.”
“No, it is not that my self-esteem is low. I simply know myself well, that is all...”
Kang Ha-min had never been in a fight even once in his life.
He was the sort of man who avoided every conflict he could, the ultimate avoider.
There was a reason escaping was his specialty.
“You awakened this body, Baek Cheon-myeong. Do you truly not know what that signifies?”
Kang Ha-min merely blinked.
A sigh escaped Baek Cheon-myeong’s lips.
“From now on, you will possess all under heaven. It is as though you hold the card that will clear the Tower in your hand.”
“Uh, um.”
“Wow.”
Feeling awkward for no reason, he hastily raised both arms and cheered.
“......”
Ah, please do not look at him with such completely cold eyes.
He quietly lowered his hands.
But what could he do?
Even if Baek Cheon-myeong said that, it simply did not feel real.
“Fine. If that is your nature, perhaps it is not so bad after all.”
Perhaps Baek Cheon-myeong had noticed how cautious he was.
He compromised in his own way.
“The sole weakness of this body is its master. Considering your own life most important is, rather, a virtue.”
Was he weak enough to be treated like a weakness?
The Shih Tzu was crying.
It was really going to bawl.
“Then, now that you know the master’s value, it is time to prove this body’s worth, is it not?”
“I do not think you need to.”
“No. Your face says that you do not know this body’s worth. I will not be satisfied until I show you.”
Proving his worth.
For some reason, Baek Cheon-myeong seemed to consider that extremely important.
“Ah.”
At that moment, a thought flashed through Kang Ha-min’s mind.
Something more important than anything else right now.
Kang Ha-min’s attitude became respectful.
“......Before that, could you please save me first?”
If he left this place now, a bus would hit him.
“Right before I came here, a bus was about to hit me. I am truly in danger of dying. Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong is the only person I can rely on.”
“Your life is in danger. Good. It is perfect for proving myself. You should have said that from the beginning.”
Why did he look satisfied when his master’s life was in danger?
He thought he might have awakened the wrong corpse.
“So, do I simply cut this bus of yours?”
“What? No! Absolutely not!”
What a terrifying thing to say!
If he did that, the driver and passengers inside would all die.
“You have to save me safely, absolutely safely, without harming the bus.
And if possible, could you save the bus as well?”
He knew it was an unreasonable request, but he wanted to prevent the accident if he could.
“Hm. Very well.”
It did not inspire confidence, but what could he do?
Baek Cheon-myeong was the only person he could rely on.
HUMM—
At that moment, Kang Ha-min’s body began to disperse into motes of light.
“Uh, uhh.”
“It appears the time is up.”
Baek Cheon-myeong was disappearing as well.
Were they returning to reality?
“Come to think of it, I still have not heard your name. What is it?”
“I’m Kang Ha-min. Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong, you really will save me, right? It’ll be okay, right?”
“My word, you are so fearful. You are more timid than the man who feared me and fled even to the Buddha’s palm.”
No, anyone would be scared when their life was on the line!
It was unfair, but the time had already run out.
He was returning to reality.
Perhaps Baek Cheon-myeong would not be able to save him.
He would throw himself out of the way somehow and avoid the bus!
Thinking that, Kang Ha-min’s consciousness flew away in an instant.
Then his eyes slowly opened again.
The light of bus headlights filled his vision.
The number of the bus he often rode was clearly visible.
Ah.
There was no way to avoid this, no matter what he did.
The bus had already borne down right in front of him.
The instant it hit him, his body would surely be smashed to pieces.
Kang Ha-min closed his eyes.
He did not have the courage to keep them open.
SCREEEECH!
The instant the brakes of the skidding bus screeched out.
THUMP—
Someone wrapped an arm around Kang Ha-min’s shoulders and pushed him backward.
His eyes opened too late.
There stood a man in flowing martial robes.
A man wearing a conical bamboo hat, though no one knew where he had found it.
In his grip was a wooden sword made from a branch.
A sensation as though time had stopped passed through him.
“What an uncanny creature.”
One man stood before the bus.
The Heaven-Slaying Star Lord, Sword God Baek Cheon-myeong.
The moment he held his wooden sword at an angle and pointed it forward.
The wooden sword touched the bus window.
Was the bus going to split apart?
Even as he was pushed back, just as he was about to stop him and shout.
THUD—
The bus came to an abrupt stop where it stood.
It had simply stopped without any inertia at all.
Through the bus window, he could see the dazed faces of the passengers and the terrified face of the driver.
The heat of the overworked engine flowing from the wheels told him that what had just happened was no lie.
Everyone here had nearly died.
In the distance, he could see cars stopping along with the sound of sirens.
Since a massive accident had nearly occurred, the other cars had stopped as well.
Before them, Baek Cheon-myeong casually withdrew the wooden sword and turned around.
“I believe I have admirably carried out the first command you gave this body. Are you satisfied?”
Kang Ha-min wore a dumbfounded expression.
Was this really something a sword could accomplish?
But Baek Cheon-myeong had done it and proved it.
He had proved what kind of being he would become in the future.
But before that.
“......I think we need to make a run for it first.”
If they tried to explain this situation to the police, things would become extremely complicated.
“Not difficult.”
Baek Cheon-myeong made a light leap and slung Kang Ha-min under his arm.
Wait, even so, carrying him like this was a bit...
But before he could protest, his vision overturned.
When he barely managed to open his eyes beneath the crushing pressure of the wind, the view of downtown Seoul unfolded before him.
Glass skyscrapers rose as though they were pushing back the darkness.
The light flowing from glass facades adorned with neon signs embroidered the sky like constellations.
At the center of that city.
The outer walls of black stone caught the moonlight, revealing a faint indigo hue.
An enormous Tower that seemed as though it had come from myth, contrasting with the modern buildings covered in glass.
The night wind passed between the skyscrapers and touched the Tower’s upper reaches.
DING—
In response, a faint bell-like resonance drifted down.
The sound was quiet yet majestic enough to overwhelm the engine sounds and city noise.
It was an incredibly unreal scene, like a photograph.
A beautiful sight that would captivate anyone.
But then the gravity wrapping around his entire body told him it was real.
Ah.
He was high in the air.
WHOOOOOOOSH!
The instant he realized it, an instinctive terror surged through him.
The fear of falling from a great height.
“A-A, AAAAAAAAH!?”
“Hahahaha, what a wondrously strange world.”
Amid his uncontrollable scream, Baek Cheon-myeong’s delighted laughter echoed.
He did not know what it meant to be the Heaven-Slaying Star Lord or the Sword God, but one thing was certain.
He had made a disastrously wrong choice.