Phoenix of the Flame – Chapter 5

The branch manager frowned as he watched Yunzhang’s battle.
The opponent was “a pyromancer-type villain disguised as a Monster reaction.” Probably a fool trying to smuggle a Monster Core.
Yunzhagn clashed with such a fool. The branch manager gritted his teeth while watching the video equipped on Red Hare’s Mana armor.
‘…Is he struggling on his own?’
His years of experience commanding heroes in Monster battles were telling him that Yunzhang and Red Hare were being toyed with by the nameless villain.
“As expected of Guan Yunzhang!”
However, the employees who didn’t realize the truth were mistaken, thinking that Yunzhang was unilaterally overwhelming the villain.
Kwaang, kwaang, kwaang!
Explosions echoed in the situation room. Every time Yunzhang struck the villain’s shield, the subordinates chanted Yunzhang’s name, convinced of his victory.
‘If I even mention that he’s at a disadvantage here…’
Yunzhang was a ‘hero’ in the Chinese hero world. To put it nicely, that’s what he was, but in reality, he was a propaganda tool of the Party.
Just ordering Yunzhang to retreat or requesting support because he was at a disadvantage would result in the Public Security barging into my house, accusing me of damaging Yunzhang’s prestige.
‘What if Yunzhang dies?’
That wouldn’t happen, but if there was even a 1% chance, people would naturally become anxious.
Just as the branch manager was worrying, Yunzhang tore through the villain’s wings.
[Kwagwagwagwang!]
A thunderous explosion. The relay device broadcasting their battle was destroyed by the force that seemed to shake the entire area.
“What happened?!”
“The relay drone seems to have been damaged by the explosion just now! We’ll switch to the video from Red Hare’s Mana armor!”
The monitor operator hurriedly switched the video feed to Red Hare.
The camera on Red Hare’s helmet showed a girl ready to fire a fireball.
“T-This is…”
“Damn it!”
The branch manager slammed the table and shouted. At the same time, the branch manager’s terminal rang loudly.
Ttiring-
‘Hup.’
The branch manager, who was about to get angry at who had bypassed security to call in this urgent situation, quickly straightened his posture and answered the phone.
“Yes! This is Liu Yaohu, the Hangzhou Hero Association branch manager!”
[Enough with the greetings. I’ll give the order directly.]
The branch manager could only listen in a submissive posture to the other party’s overbearing attitude, as they cut off the branch manager’s words and tried to get straight to the point.
The other party was known as the most powerful person in China, second only to the chairman.
[A missile has been fired at the ‘Monster’ fighting Yunzhang. You take care of deleting the battle footage.]
“Yes? Monster, the enemy is human-”
[Monster, I clearly said.]
What did I just hear? The branch manager momentarily panicked and involuntarily asked back.
[What are you so surprised about? Wasn’t it your idea to get rid of a Monster by launching it into another country?]
Click. The other party hung up, and the branch manager stared blankly at the terminal.
A strategy to chase away Monsters that were difficult to handle in the border area and pass them on to other countries to deal with. That was definitely a plan that the branch manager had submitted to the higher-ups when he was at headquarters.
‘But a missile? They already fired it?’
The branch manager clenched his trembling fist.
‘The Party has finally recognized me!’
He had been banished to a remote place. His body was with the association, but his heart had left the association long ago.
Swallowing the rosy future of entering the Party’s central government someday, the branch manager quickly instructed his subordinates.
“Stop the video! Yunzhang is going to use his ‘Esoteric Art’!”
“Yes!”
The subordinates hurriedly stopped the video.
Yunzhang’s Esoteric Art was a strategic state secret directly managed by the Party, so the subordinates stopped the playback of the video being transmitted to the situation room without any suspicion.
“Huh?”
One of the monitor operators stopped his hand just as he was about to cut off the video. The villain was filling the sky with spheres of fire, as if toying with Yunzhang.
Click.
The branch manager, who had rushed to the vicinity, stopped the video.
“You.”
“Y-Yes?!”
The employee replied, his face pale.
“There was a reporter who tried to film Yunzhang’s Esoteric Art and upload it to the news before, wasn’t there? You know what happened to him, don’t you?”
“…Hic.”
Despite the appearance of Monsters and the status of the Hero Association, the power of the Public Security in China was formidable.
The branch manager smiled kindly and patted the employee’s shoulder.
“That’s good. It’s fortunate that you stopped it. Even the association wouldn’t be able to help you if you saw any more than this.”
Leaving behind the employee, who was pale and nodding, the branch manager shouted to everyone in the silent situation room.
“Yunzhang will defeat the enemy with his Esoteric Art! So you guys should immediately find out where and why the enemy from just now appeared in this sea!”
“Yes!”
Watching the employees regain their senses and return to their roles, the branch manager glared at the employee who was diligently organizing the video with cold eyes.
‘All I have to do is erase that later.’
The branch manager licked his lips, imagining himself wearing the Party’s medal.
* * *
“Get a grip! Red Hare!”
Xiaolin pulled on Red Hare’s reins, who was agitated.
Heeheeheehing?!
Even though she had squeezed out the remaining Mana to strengthen the reins, Red Hare was not regaining his senses.
However, Xiaolin, realizing that Red Hare’s strange behavior was “the instinct of a herbivore in front of a predator,” was unable to actively turn Red Hare around.
‘Am I scared? Me?’
She, who always burned with more fighting spirit in front of the strong, had dropped her weapon in front of the enemy. Her heart, which was pounding violently, showed no signs of calming down.
‘But I can’t run away like this.’
Xiaolin gripped the Crescent Blade tightly with her trembling hands.
What if an enemy that even she couldn’t handle landed on a coastal city and started rampaging? What if the villain who missed her landed on another city as a way of venting?
‘I have to stop it.’
She might die, but she had to stop it. That was the mission of a hero who had an evil person in front of her.
“Red Hare, please! …?!”
Just as she was about to pull on Red Hare’s reins again and turn her gaze to the Azure Flame Phoenix, Xiaolin’s face turned pale as she saw an object passing over her head.
“What is that?!”
Xiaolin sensed it as she watched the missile flying towards the enemy.
The Party, judging that Xiaolin alone could not handle the villain, had made the extreme choice of firing a missile to drive the enemy away.
“Ah.”
Red Hare was still not regaining his senses and was moving away from the enemy. Xiaolin couldn’t take her eyes off the missile until the warhead hit the enemy.
‘Did she smile?’
The girl with blue hair was smiling even at the moment the missile hit her.
Soon,
Kuuuuuuuuung!!
With the girl being blown away with the missile stuck in her stomach, Xiaolin lost consciousness in the midst of a massive Mana explosion.
* * *
No matter how much I thought about it, it was absurd.
‘Aren’t these guys crazy?’
It was common sense in this world that existing conventional weapons were completely ineffective against Monsters.
A very thin Mana barrier that acted on the Monster’s outer skin.
Monsters were born under the influence of ‘Magi’ from Terra, which flowed out of the dimensional gates that the Saint opened indiscriminately to find a new world to destroy. Under the influence of this Magi, Monsters gained an invincible barrier that could not be defeated by the pure power of Earth alone.
‘Only the gifted can defeat Monsters.’
Of course, Earth also created heroes who gained supernatural powers in response to that Magi in order to counter such Monsters. Therefore, the main tasks of the modern military were maintaining public order, evacuating residents, and buying time until the heroes arrived.
‘But they shot a missile at me?’
I cooled my head for a moment in the cold seawater. As expected, I could breathe without any problems even in magma, and there were no problems in the sea either.
‘I ended up testing my defense skills.’
A technique to defend against external attacks by surrounding the whole body with blue flames – ‘Azure Flame’, ‘Azure Flame Veil’.
This skill, which had the terrifying ability to absorb and store the power of fire-attribute attacks, was now wrapped around my entire body like silk.
‘I ended up carrying a missile around.’
The existence of Phoenix alone was enough, but if I released the veil in the middle of the city, a terrible situation would occur.
‘I’m not a suicide bomber, so there’s no need to do that.’
I held the veil tightly so that it wouldn’t scatter and checked the Mana flowing through my body.
‘Let’s not act rashly.’
I got hit by a missile because I didn’t properly understand Phoenix’s abilities.
In addition, I played around with one of the 12 Heroes without knowing that I would be this strong, so the whole world would soon know about Phoenix’s existence.
‘No. Mystery is important to Phoenix.’
It was a character with a strong sense of mystery, as he didn’t show himself until just before the boss fight, before all the executives were defeated. Wasn’t his first appearance the scene where he spread his wings and took off from a US Navy aircraft carrier just before the boss fight?
‘I should live quietly now, even if it’s late.’
If I didn’t appear on the ground after being hit by a missile and falling into the sea, they might misunderstand.
That I drowned in the sea.
‘First, let’s hide my Mana thoroughly.’
I carefully sealed it so that no Mana leaked out, and I piled up and hid the Mana deep inside my body so that even the Mana inside my body couldn’t be felt.
‘No one will know now, right?’
Although it would be difficult to use Mana immediately, I didn’t want a situation like the one with Xiaolin to happen again.
‘Then let’s move slowly now.’
Fortunately, the bottom is sloping. If I go up the slope, I’ll reach land.
I gently placed my feet on the ground and walked forward, cutting through the water.
‘It feels new again, like scuba diving.’
Thanks to the possession, I swam in magma and flew through the sky like a fighter jet.
‘Well, how else would I get hit by a missile with my bare body in my life?’
I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurd things I had experienced.
The one who fired the missile was probably Mao Zedong, the second-in-command in China and the main villain of the Xiaolin event, the director of the Great Monster Management Countermeasures Headquarters.
‘Who else but that guy would commit such a crazy act?’
He was a man with the ambition to unify the world with China using Monsters.
If the missile had affected the Korean Peninsula, he would have used it as an excuse to start a real war. Later, he was a warmonger who launched missiles without a declaration of war, saying that he didn’t care about justification.
It’s hard to believe that such a beautiful girl came from such a man’s seed-
“Huh?”
The feeling on the soles of my feet is strange. It feels like something has passed my chin. Even the feeling of the sand is a little damp.
‘Oh. Wait.’
I stopped in my tracks and recalled my experience in the original work.
Was it the 7th playthrough? In a mission to defeat a Monster in the sea, a female colleague I had worked hard to raise fell into a trap and died. I was quite angry, so I thoroughly killed that Monster in the next playthrough.
That Monster’s name was ‘West Sea Weapon’. It usually hid in the sand, and when prey passed by, it quickly put it in its mouth and sprayed acidic liquid.
‘It’s only A-class, though.’
Azure Flame Phoenix is officially set as an S-class or higher Monster.
As long as it’s an animal, West Sea Weapon will instinctively know the danger of Phoenix-
‘Ah. Am I really an idiot?’
I hid my Mana so thoroughly because I was worried about being harassed by Xiaolin.
A strong person like Xiaolin would feel the hidden aura, but a moderately strong guy would feel it as just weak prey.
‘T, then let’s release it just a little-‘
Just before I was about to draw out the Mana that had been stored in my body.
Suuuk!
The floor collapsed and huge walls were erected around me. I lowered my head at my own stupidity at the sight of the ceiling closing like a dome.
‘Ah, really, nothing is working out from the start.’
Was the luck stat of Azure Flame Phoenix officially set to E? I created a fireball at the sudden surge of annoyance and fired it into West Sea Weapon’s mouth.
Kwang! Kwagwang! Kwang!
Kyaooooooo!
“Shut up and just di-”
Ah.
I swallowed water.
* * *
Hero Association, Shinseoul Branch, Great Monster Observation Network.
As always, an anomaly came into the eyes of an employee who was addicted to cigarettes and coffee and watched the radar 24 hours a day.
Bleep, bleep.
“West Sea?”
Far west of Incheon. A very weak but intense Monster reaction flickered for a moment.
“……?”

The employee blinked, doubting his own eyes. The concentric circles, which grew according to the size of the reaction, were clearly of S-class or higher.
“Huh? Now it’s gone again?”
Did he see it wrong? The employee was doubtful and was about to pick up his paper cup when a new reaction appeared.
“Eek?!”
A-class. A Monster capable of devastating an entire city was flying from the sea towards the land of the West Sea.
“Emergency, emergency-”
Beep.
This time, the A-class reaction also disappeared. Whether it was S-class or A-class, the reactions of both Monsters had completely ‘evaporated’ without a trace.
“…What the hell?”
The employee hesitated internally, wondering if he should report it, then shook his head and closed his eyelids again.
“It’s because I’m sleep-deprived…sleep…”
The employee nodded off again, mumbling in his sleep.