Jina's smartphone vibrated ceaselessly all the way home. Unlike the disaster alerts from earlier, these were scouting offers from every major guild whose name anyone would recognize, and interview requests from media outlets scrambling for sensational headlines.
The moment she opened the front door, Jina threw herself onto the sofa. On the television news, the Jamsil incident was being covered as a breaking story. Across the bottom of the screen, a red ticker flashed: 'C-Rank Hunter Kang Jina Fells S-Rank Boss Monster in a Single Blow.'
"Here, drink this first. It'll settle your nerves."
Somyeong brought a warm cup of plum tea from the kitchen. Jina took the cup with vacant eyes. She sipped the fragrant, steaming tea, but the trembling would not stop.
"Oppa...... I really don't understand. Everyone says I killed that monster, but I can barely remember. I was just so scared that I was standing there holding my sword."
Jina's voice quavered. She stared at her own hands. She had no sensation of cutting the beast, no conviction of having withstood that colossal magical energy. She had simply opened her eyes and it was gone, and the world was calling her a hero.
"What are you talking about? I saw everything from back there. The second you raised that sword, the lizard's spirit just broke. Its energy must have gotten tangled and it blew itself up. Our Jina's presence is so fierce it got scared."
Somyeong patted Jina's shoulder with practiced ease. Still wearing the same breathless porter look from before, he was the most reliable, most ordinary big brother in the world.
"Really...... was it like that?"
"Of course! Even the Association team leader saw it. If the experts say so, why are you doubting yourself? You just happened to have your potential explode at the right time. That's how heroes are born."
Somyeong's breezy tone softened Jina's expression slightly. She leaned on her brother's comfort and let out a deep sigh.
"Thanks, Oppa. Hearing you say that makes me feel a little better. I'm so tired. Let me sleep for a bit."
"Sure, get some rest. I'll turn off all the calls, so don't worry."
Once Jina had gone to her room, the warmth slowly drained from Somyeong's eyes. He turned off the living room lights and entered his own room, locking the door.
***
The air in the room sank cold. Somyeong placed the bizarre metal device he had recovered during the day onto his desk. Dislodged from near the beast's heart, it was still emitting a faint, unpleasant crimson glow.
'Now let us take a look.'
Somyeong extended his index finger and placed it on the device. Bluish true energy flowed from his fingertip like thread, seeping into the gaps of the device. The components, designed with precise modern magical engineering, began to disassemble one by one under Somyeong's energy.
Click, click.
With the sound of metal friction, the device's outer casing opened, revealing its interior. Inside was not an ordinary mana stone, but a crystal of magical energy contaminated to a deep black. Somyeong's brow furrowed.
'Corrupt energy. And a particularly vicious strain at that.'
It was strikingly similar to the methods used by demonic cult factions in the martial world. Mixing turbid energy into pure magical energy to paralyze a monster's brain, then forcibly combusting its life force to maximize destructive power. The great dragon that had housed this device must have been essentially a living corpse.
Whoever designed the device had converted a Gate monster into a weapon of mass destruction, not mere prey. Had Somyeong not been there to suppress the explosion with his invisible fist pressure and disassemble the beast, Jamsil would likely have been erased from the map by now.
'Planting something this filthy where my sister lives.'
A chill killing intent flickered in Somyeong's eyes. He found a small circuit board hidden in the deepest part of the device. It was emitting an infinitesimal signal outward—likely for activation and status monitoring.
Somyeong opened his eyes slowly. His consciousness rode his true energy and began to trace the signal's path in reverse. The long-range detection and sound-transmission techniques he had used to sense enemies a thousand li away in the martial world now rode modern radio waves across the night sky of Seoul.
Past the forest of buildings, across the Han River, the signal led to the basement of a certain high-rise building in Gangnam, where the lights never went out.
'Coordinates confirmed.'
Somyeong clenched his hand lightly. The device fragments on the desk crumbled to dust in an instant. He gazed down at Seoul's night skyline through the window. Their location was known. All that remained was to root out the people behind this and ensure they could never play such games again.
***
The next morning, an unusual scene unfolded in front of the Kang household.
Luxury sedans worth hundreds of millions of won lined the narrow alley where neighborhood residents usually walked to the market. Men in black suits paced anxiously, each clutching business cards bearing their respective guild logos.
DING-DONG. DING-DONG.
The doorbell rang incessantly from the early morning. Somyeong cracked the door open, rubbing his eyes as though still half-asleep.
"Who is it? Ringing someone's bell this early in the......"
The moment the door opened, a man in a flashy suit approached with a polished smile.
"Good morning. I'm Park Hyeonsu, HR Team Leader at the Sun Guild. I've come to see Hunter Kang Jina. If it isn't too much trouble, could we have a brief conversation?"
"Oh, the Sun Guild? I think I saw you on the news. But our Jina wore herself out yesterday, so she's sleeping right now."
Somyeong deliberately put on a dim expression and scratched the back of his head. Behind him, other guild representatives swarmed forward.
"We're from the Blue Dragon Guild! We guarantee the top industry treatment for Hunter Kang Jina!"
"Step aside! I have the White Tiger Guild's exclusive contract right here! Hunter Kang Jina is practically already one of ours!"
The doorstep devolved into a marketplace in an instant. Somyeong waved his hands in exasperation.
"Oh dear. I'm just a porter, so I don't really know about these things. Jina has to wake up before we can ask her anything. If you all keep standing here, the neighbors will file a complaint. How about waiting at the café down the street?"
"Mr. Kang Somyeong, was it? The brother's opinion matters too. If she joins our guild, we can offer you a dedicated porter position along with a substantial subsidy......"
The Sun Guild's team leader tried to slip an envelope discreetly into Somyeong's hand. Somyeong stifled a laugh internally.
'Well, look at that. Bribes, courtesy of my sister.'
Somyeong smoothly withdrew his hand and declined the envelope.
"Oh no, I'd be in trouble if I took something like that. I just want our Jina to rest in peace. Please go home for now. I'll pass the word along when she wakes up."
Somyeong managed to push the uninvited guests out the door and locked up. The murmuring outside lingered for a while before fading. But he knew: they would not give up easily, and Jina's daily life would never be ordinary again.
***
At the same time, in an underground conference room in the heart of Seoul.
On the cold metal table, footage from yesterday's Jamsil battle was playing on loop. The moment the great dragon vanished and the figure of Jina standing before it repeated over and over.
"A failure, is it? There shouldn't be more than five hunters in the country capable of withstanding that level of magical amplification."
The voice of the man sitting in the shadows was frigid. He tapped the table in displeasure.
"What do we have on the hunter named Kang Jina?"
"She was a C-rank potential prospect affiliated with the White Tiger Guild. However, the output she displayed yesterday is unmeasurable by any standard scale. It is surmised that a unique mutation occurred during her awakening phase."
An aide flipped through a tablet and reported. The man in the shadows curled his lip with interest.
"She turned our carefully prepared toy into scrap. That's set our plans back by a month. Leave her be, and she'll become a nuisance."
"What shall we do? Make direct contact and try to recruit her, or......"
"No, that upright type can't be recruited. Breaking her mentally is faster. We need to crush her under the weight of the name 'hero.'"
The man pointed at a figure in the video standing beside Jina. Somyeong, smiling dimly as he carried Jina's bag.
"Who's this porter? Seems like he's always with her."
"Her biological older brother, Kang Somyeong. A civilian-level porter with an F-rank assessment. Appears to be scraping by on his sister's coattails."
"Is that so? Then deal with him first. I'm curious what expression that 'hero' girl will make when the person closest to her vanishes into thin air. No one's going to raise questions over a porter disappearing."
At the man's order, the aide bowed.
"Understood. It will be handled quietly within the day."
Cold laughter seeped from the dark conference room. They had no idea, not even in their dreams, that the prey they were targeting was in fact the maw of a tiger.
Somyeong gazed at the clouds parting outside his window and murmured low.
"Looks like rain."