episode_0110

Five minutes before the incident.

Irene returned to an empty house. Being high above the ground, it was unusually quiet.

She had returned to get a few necessary items, unaware of what would happen to her in a few minutes.

Of course, she already had more than enough troubles. Starting with one of her cards being suspended three days after she escaped the dungeon, her main accounts were frozen one after another.

“My account has been frozen? What does that mean?”

“Yes, customer. Your account is currently suspended due to an ongoing investigation into suspected illegal activity. For more details, please contact the relevant authorities.”

“Wait a minute! What the…?”

After investigating from various angles, she found herself entangled in several absurd charges.

Illegal drug trafficking, financial fraud, stock manipulation.

She tried contacting her clan’s lawyers and relatives for help, but they all just said they would help and then gave no response.

‘What in the world is going on?’

Her financial limbs were severed within days. Everything happened in an instant, as if someone had maliciously orchestrated it. Within days of leaving the dungeon, Irene found herself penniless.

‘At least I still have my home. I need to calm down and assess the situation.’

The moment she opened the penthouse door, Irene felt a sense of déjà vu. The suspicious air swirling inside the house put her on edge. The shoes at the entrance were haphazardly arranged, as if someone had already been there.

Irene’s golden eyes carefully surveyed the house.

Her keen senses could detect minor discords. Drawers were slightly ajar, and all the doors that should have been closed were open. Every object in the house was slightly out of place.

It looked like someone had rummaged through things and then clumsily put them back. She cautiously looked around.

‘The cleaning lady wouldn’t do something like this.’

The cleaning lady who managed this place was old but meticulous. Irene thought she wouldn’t arrange books on shelves or even individual picture frames crookedly like this.

‘A thief? But how?’

Except for the cleaning lady who visited once a week, her home was a space perfectly isolated from the outside. No one should have been able to access her cozy, isolated 60th-floor apartment, which cleanly blocked out even external sounds. Her visit to the house after entering school was only the second time since she brought Violet.

She wondered what an intruder from outside would have targeted.

It was too meticulous for a theft aimed at valuables. There was no need to spend so much time moving things around.

Her mother’s room was empty. There was nothing valuable in her own room. Important data would be in the clan’s building.

No, as she eliminated possibilities one by one, she realized there was still one important place in the house.

‘I should check Dad’s room.’

The door leading to her father Orion’s room appeared to be locked.

When she turned the doorknob, the door, which should have been locked, opened.

Irene’s heart began to beat a little faster.

Inside, it was a mess. The desk and study were in disarray. She sensed that something dangerous was happening. It was darker, dimmer, and smelled strange.

A horrified Irene walked out to the living room and made a call. The time it took to connect to her father’s secretary felt unusually long today.

‘Cress-ssi! Pick up, please!’

Suddenly, Irene felt a gaze watching her. Turning her head, she spotted an object hovering behind the living room window outside. It was a drone.

Several drones were looking into the house. They hovered around like vultures waiting for an animal to die.

In confusion, Irene turned her head and finally noticed a suspicious object placed on the kitchen table. It was a large gift box decorated with colorful wrapping paper and ribbons. For some reason, seeing the gift box reminded Irene of her friend, the unpredictable blonde girl.

She drew the spear from her back and, without approaching, skillfully cut the ribbon off the box from a distance.

Inside, a jet-black metal object appeared. Irene’s eyes widened.

Compared to the objects Violet often used when exploring dungeons with her, this item had a difference as vast as that between a flea market’s used shopping bag and a luxury handbag.

‘I have to escape!’

The moment she turned, she heard the front door’s lock click shut automatically. She felt it instinctively. There was no other option.

Irene swiftly activated her full body’s magical energy. Before the guidance of sunlight could fully envelop her, she grabbed her spear and sprinted toward the window.

-CRASH!

The moment her disciplined swiftness shattered the reinforced glass, an enormous explosion erupted from behind her. She threw herself out without hesitation, plummeting towards the ground 60 floors below.

‘My home…!’

As she twisted her body in mid-air, flames billowed where she had stood moments before. Enduring the fierce wind, she fell.

Irene knew. No matter how resilient she was, and no matter how her full-body magical energy and unique ability protected her, falling from this height would hurt quite a bit.

In a flash, Irene made a gamble. As she fell, she extended her spear and forcefully stabbed the building’s outer wall.

“Agh!”

The recoil felt in her arm was beyond imagination. She nearly dropped her spear.

The magic-infused spear sliced through the outer wall and windows as if cutting butter. The sound of the vertically cracked wall crumbling and glass shattering assaulted her ears. She gritted her teeth and clung to the spear.

Thankfully, the friction slowed her descent, and a fatal plummet turned into a survivable fall. Soon, the ground rapidly approached. Irene braced herself for impact, curling her body and performing a breakfall.

-THUD!

“Ugh…my body…”

In front of the building, on the broken ground, Irene slowly managed to get up. Passing pedestrians stared at her in shock. Her body ached, but there didn’t seem to be any broken bones. Had she succeeded? She just wanted to rest.

Unfortunately, the instigators of the incident had no intention of letting her rest.

-Rat-a-tat-tat!

“Ugh! What?”

No sooner had she regained her senses than an impact struck Irene’s head. Bullets collided with her golden magical energy, sending sparks flying.

As soon as she drew her spear, a group, led by three four-wheel-drive tactical vehicles, surrounded her. The cars, which had arrived with a thunderous roar, came to a halt. Machine guns mounted on their roofs turned their muzzles towards her.

-Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!

As she cowered amidst the sudden gunfire, mercenaries in exoskeleton suits quickly disembarked. A grenade flew towards Irene’s chest just as she grasped the situation and prepared to charge. She fell with the explosion.

“Pour everything on her! She’s a professional hunter, don’t give her an opening!”

As she lifted her head, mercenaries with heavy weapons shouldered stood in a line before her. Heavy grenade launchers, reminiscent of large revolvers, unleashed a merciless barrage from their muzzles.

Her golden spear blade sliced through the air, deflecting the grenades, but a fierce storm of shrapnel grazed her. Seizing an opening, she barely dodged a grenade and hid behind a nearby pillar. The barrage poured down relentlessly. A whistling sound was heard, and then a rocket flew past her.

“It’s a terrorist attack! Aaaargh!”

“Where are the police!”

“Call the Inspection Bureau! Call them!”

People fled from the street that had instantly turned into a battlefield.

‘I need to send a… rescue request to the clan!’

She quickly pulled out her cellphone and dialed a designated number. It was the distress call number provided by the Helios Clan. A lifeline for the worst-case scenario; if she held out, armed escorts would arrive by helicopter within five minutes.

And for the first time in her life, Irene felt deep despair.

[Signal not connected…]

‘Why? I’m getting a signal!’

The moment she tried to make a call, her cellphone, hit by shrapnel, powered off. Gritting her teeth, she immediately regained her composure.

‘I don’t know why, but it can’t be helped. I have to break free on my own!’

She waited, and the barrage subsided.

She assessed the situation.

Enemy forces? Three modified vehicles with machine guns, about two infantry platoons, wearing exoskeleton equipment, and numerous heavy weapons. Seven hunters! What’s the large truck behind them? Is it their transport vehicle?

Her own forces: one spear, one multi-tool in her pocket, one short sword on her left side. She could still do it. No, she *had* to do it.

She quickly moved out from behind the pillar.

Dodging the hail of bullets and grenades, she deflected some with her spear and blocked others with her body. As she charged, the mercenaries retreated.

If it’s just non-Awakened individuals, she could escape!

“Where are you rushing off to?”

The moment she tried to break through the encirclement, seven Awakened individuals burst in among the non-Awakened troops. As the man at the front swung a massive mace, she gritted her teeth and retreated.

“Who…are you people!”

“That’s none of your business, little lady!”

The Awakened continuously unleashed attacks. She activated her unique ability once more, but the attacks pouring in from all directions made it hard for her to keep her wits about her. Magical chains and rocks suddenly surging from the ground to ensnare her legs were an added bonus.

“A mage…?”

“Well, something like that. Again!”

Relying on her durability, she resisted fiercely. For a moment, the hunters retreated. The reloaded mercenaries unleashed a merciless barrage. The aetheric defense on her skin, her magical energy, was continuously depleted.

“Get out of the way!”

If she endured the barrage, the hunters would charge again. In the pain of battle, Irene suddenly had a realization.

‘This is our clan’s strategy…!’

She realized. The strategy these unidentified enemies were using against her was the ‘Whale Hunt Tactic’.

It was an effective method used when a large number of non-Awakened armed forces and a small number of Awakened forces confronted a single target. While ordinary individuals poured concentrated fire to stop the target and cause chaos, a hunting party of Awakened individuals would then burst in to hunt down the weakened individual.

It wasn’t a special tactic. Organizations composed of mixed forces of non-Awakened and Awakened individuals all used similar tactics.

However, Helios’s Whale Hunt Tactic had a more aggressive characteristic: they would charge forward, even risking friendly fire, to reduce the gap between the two attacks.

The attacks were systematic and intense.

‘If this is the Whale Hunt Tactic, this isn’t the end! At the very end, there must be…!’

She swatted away a twisting cutlass flying from her left. She barely blocked a mace flying overhead by raising her spear shaft. Her hand was cut a bit, but it didn’t matter.

As Irene fiercely engaged in combat, something strange caught her eye. Large equipment had appeared on the roofs of the vehicles in the distance.

‘As expected, it was a magical harpoon cannon!’

“Fire!”

The moment the hunters leaped back, a colossal machine fired a harpoon made of magical energy. Golden magical energy surged up like a counter-fire.

“What! She deflected it?”

“No wonder she’s the Magic Spear’s daughter!”

The shockwave swept through everything. The hunters and mercenaries were agitated. The colossal golden arrow continued forward, cutting through the rain of lead bullets and explosives.

‘I can escape, no. I can win!’

Even wounded, Irene, with a clearer mind, charged towards the enemy.

***

While an extraordinary battle unfolded in front of the penthouse in the central district, several figures sat on red sofas around a monitor in a lavishly decorated room.

In the central single seat, a man with sharp golden eyes stared intently at the screen, while next to him, his wife sipped tea.

Besides them, three or four more people were seated, and quite a few others stood watching.

“Look at that, isn’t it amazing?”

Rigel said with a voice mixed with admiration and annoyance. Irene’s clothing, visible on the screen, had turned to rags in the crossfire, but she was still holding on.

“No wonder, given whose blood she has, she’s certainly sturdy. To be alive even in that barrage.”

Rigel thought of his half-crippled brother, who would be in the VIP ward. Irene’s appearance shared something in common with Orion in his prime.

His wife opened her mouth to reply.

“But, darling. She’s finished there. What good is being sturdy? Her father ended up half-crippled and hospitalized too. No matter how much she tries to escape, she’ll eventually be caught.”

“That’s true. At best, she’s just a child.”

A subordinate nearby whispered to Rigel. Rigel’s eyes lit up.

“Oh, our poor little girl sent a distress signal.”

“That doesn’t work anymore, does it?”

“Exactly. She wouldn’t have known, though. She’d never had to use it before.”

The people around them chuckled lightly.

Now Irene was fighting alone with her spear.

Rigel and his relatives felt a sense of irony. The strategy her father had created to punish evildoers was now being used to capture his own daughter.

It was around that time that the violet-haired woman, who had remained silent, spoke.

“You haven’t forgotten the contract, have you? It’ll be troublesome if she dies. She has to be handed over alive to Magnavis.”

As the violet-haired woman spoke with a serious expression, Rigel scoffed playfully.

“Come on, in-law. Would I forget that? The opponent is one of the four great clans, after all. We’ve even prepared capture equipment, so don’t worry.”

The woman fell silent again. Everyone’s gaze returned to the screen.

Everyone in the room diligently calculated how the clan’s future management rights and the shares that would have gone to their niece would be distributed, regardless of Irene’s life or death.

As Irene continued to bravely fight the mercenaries, some relatives expressed concern.

“She’s holding out longer than expected. What if she escapes?”

“Didn’t I tell you? We’re not doing this in the middle of the city in broad daylight. The police don’t matter, but the Inspection Bureau will show up!”

Rigel responded to his foolish relatives’ agitation with a cold smile.

“Now, everyone, have some patience. Are the Inspection Bureau pigs really that scary? Besides, Magnavis has provided us with a special secret weapon. Now, watch this.”

At that moment, the screen display switched. The cargo bed of the large truck behind the encirclement opened. The true form of Rigel’s secret weapon was revealed.

It was a massive humanoid machine with an intricate appearance. Someone recalled Magnavis’s infamous elite unit.

“Surely, is that a Magnavis Vanguard?”

“An elite unit of mages? Impossible! It only looks similar. They say it’s a product still under research. Just watch!”

This weapon, moving with deadly precision, looked like a robot but moved as if it were human. An amalgam of aether engineering, biotechnology, and robotics joined the battle.

And the battle situation on screen was instantly reversed. Irene, who had been holding her own against the seven hunters, was thrown into the building with a single blow.

From another screen sent by a drone, she threw away her broken spear and drew her short sword.

Rigel exclaimed in admiration.

“Indeed, it was a good idea to join hands with Magnavis. Once I get my hands on the clan, I’ll have to introduce that first.”

While Irene fought a fierce battle against the combat weapon, the people in the room were enveloped in the fervor of victory. They didn’t care what happened to the girl on screen.

One of the party members took out a champagne bottle and proposed an early toast to their impending victory.

“Shall we have a drink?”

Rigel smiled and accepted the glass.

“Excellent. To the future of the clan!”

“To a better Helios!”

While Irene struggled against the merciless weapon, everyone cheered and clinked their glasses, filled with expectation and desire for a future gained by betraying their kin.

“To prosperity…?”

Suddenly, Rigel’s face, which had been fixated on the screen, turned pale.

The combat weapon that had been battling Irene was engulfed in an explosion and sent flying.

The numerous screens floating on the main display flickered as if caught in a storm, then one by one turned black.

Rigel hastily took the comms device handed to him by a subordinate. He cursed.

“What in the hell are you talking about? Explain it again!”

[Unidentified enemies…! A surprise attack…! Aaaargh!]

As the drone cameras relaying the scene vanished, Rigel felt frustrated. He stopped cursing and turned up the volume on the comms network.

Immediately, Rigel regretted his action.

[This is Eos-1 to HQ! Unknown combat forces detected! Scale…company-sized or larger! No! It’s exploding! Get away!]

At the unexpected report coming through the comms network, the people in the room began to stir.

[This is Eos-2, Team 05! All personnel annihilated…!]

Rigel roared.

“Snap out of it! Who are the enemies? Report clearly!”

[The…the military! All of them are Awakened!]

People’s eyes widened like lanterns. A company-sized unit of Awakened individuals, what did that mean?

The last report delivered was even more horrifying.

[‘Princess’ is escaping! I repeat! ‘Princess’ is escaping!]

[No! It’s trying to self-destruct! Don’t come closer!]

Silence after the dying scream. The atmosphere in the room, which had been as fervent as a party, instantly transformed into that of a funeral hall.

“DAMN IT!”

An enraged Rigel threw down his champagne glass.

The plan had failed.