Part 1, Chapter 1 (6)

I had a dream.

The Azure Flame Phoenix.

A heroine I could only meet after dedicating nearly half of a long year.

Her human form, revealed on the official website, was my ideal type, and I fell in love at first sight.

That Phoenix, with an idiotic expression, flew through the sky,

trolling Shaolin, then getting hit by a missile fired from China,

and then, trying to suppress her presence as much as possible, she was mistaken for a mob by the Seawater Sword and devoured whole. I saw it all.

What was that? The Azure Flame Phoenix I knew wasn’t such an idiot.

‘That’s because you’re an idiot.’

When I turned around, the Azure Flame Phoenix was wearing a deeply disgusted expression.

Her blue eyes, looking at me, were mixed with contempt.

‘Idiot.’

* * *

“Aargh! No!”

The girl screamed and sat up. The cold sweat on her forehead seemed to show how terrifying the nightmare she had in that short moment was.

“Ah… What kind of dream was…?”

Feeling as if she had suffered a great emotional wound, the girl placed a hand on her chest and took a deep breath.

A light green veil wrapped tightly around her entire body. Coming out of the water, it looked as if she was covered in seaweed, so she snapped her fingers, generating mana.

Hummm-

The mana flowing from her fingers enveloped the veil. The veil, which had simply been a long, flowing silk, wrapped around the girl’s body like a dress in response to the mana.

‘Like an Azure Flame Veil (Explosion Edition)?’

If a dangerous moment approached, she decided to release the veil and escape.

‘By the way….’

It seemed someone had saved her while she had unconsciously lost consciousness.

‘It looks like a really old country house.’

The condition of the wallpaper and doors felt like a remote country guesthouse, but the furniture and items placed inside had a fresh, girlish taste.

‘……Although losing consciousness is surprising.’

She didn’t know why she suddenly lost consciousness, but she remembered bursting the inside of the Seawater Sword and leaping out onto the surface of the sea.

After the Seawater Sword’s head was stuck on the beach, her head started to ache. Vomiting out all the swallowed water and seeing the old man who found her was her last memory.

‘Then, is this that old man’s house?’

With an awkward feeling, she carefully opened the door. The sound of old hinges scraping echoed in the living room.

From the connected kitchen, the savory smell of rice wafted out.

“Ah. You’re awake?”

The old man, wearing an ill-fitting pink apron, was stirring porridge.

What should she say? The girl scratched her head for a moment, then bowed her head.

“Th-thank you for saving me.”

“Saving you? What’s a dying old man like me going to do? There’s nothing to do but treat a Hero-nim who took down the Seawater Sword.”

The old man chuckled, scooped the porridge into a bowl, and placed it on the table.

“Come on, sit down and eat. Even if I look like this, I’ve cooked for 30 years to feed my son and granddaughter.”

“Yes.”

The girl sat at the table as the old man guided her. At the old man’s gesture to eat, the girl awkwardly nodded and picked up her spoon.

“I was wondering, seeing your hair color, but you’re Korean, aren’t you?”

“Ah, yes.”

“Indeed. Koreans live by the power of food. But I haven’t heard of a Hero like you, miss….”

Ah. Right. The girl took a spoonful of porridge and said with a smile.

“I haven’t officially debuted yet. During a combat ability test, I fell behind alone, and….”

The girl’s eyes darted around as she continued speaking.

Anyone with even a slight understanding of the industry’s trends would have realized that her words were full of holes, but unfortunately, the only way the old man could communicate with the outside world was through his old, worn-out radio.

“Oh ho. A young lady who can take down the Seawater Sword alone. Following Seolhwa Princess, this country has gained another blessing. Hehehe!”

The old man poured barley tea into a cup and chuckled as he drank. The girl just awkwardly smiled along and continued eating her porridge.

“Have you perhaps seen Seolhwa Princess-nim, miss? Our great Korea’s only two….”

“She’s an S-rank Hero.”

‘Seolhwa Princess’. A Hero with the moniker given for her ice ability and beautiful looks.

“That’s right! Wow. Was it about 5 years ago? I saw her in action before the TV stopped working, and she was truly beautiful. Even before she became an adult, the sight of her sweeping away B-rank monsters was truly-“

“‘A celestial maiden dances in a field where ice flowers bloom.’… That’s what people said.”

As the girl put down her spoon and focused on the old man’s story, the old man, delighted, continued speaking.

“Indeed! That power, freezing a horde of monsters trying to cross from Gangbuk in a single blow! It’s no exaggeration to boast that she’s truly the strongest in Korea-“

Seeing the girl’s expression turn bitter, the old man waved his hand.

“Ah, no, no! I absolutely wasn’t trying to compare her to ‘Gwanggeom’!”

“It’s fine. I’m not really interested in who’s stronger between the two.”

The girl shrugged and picked up her spoon again. The old man took a sip of tea and nodded.

“Well, if you can survive the Seawater Sword, then B-rank is a sure thing. You said you haven’t registered yet, right? B-rank is confirmed at minimum, and if you build up some achievements, you could even become A-rank.”

“You know a lot about Hero ranks?”

When the girl asked in surprise, the old man pointed to a photo on the edge of the table and smiled.

“My granddaughter studied to become an association employee. She used to come here often until Incheon became like this….”

There was a hint of resignation in the old man’s eyes. The girl pondered for a moment, then carefully asked,

“Why are you still here, elder?”

“Ah. You’re asking why I’m still living in a place that’s already become monster territory, aren’t you? My granddaughter has told me to move to New Seoul almost dozens of times.”

The old man chuckled and continued speaking.

“…My son went out to sea and went missing.”

“Ah.”

The girl’s expression hardened.

“The guys who went with him came back alive and told me. They said some eel-like creature attacked the boat, and that idiot, well.”

The old man spoke calmly, as if recounting someone else’s story.

“Didn’t they say his friend’s leg got caught and he was about to be dragged into the sea, so he grabbed a harpoon and jumped into the water to save him? That crazy fool even saved his friend and sent him back onto the boat.”

There was even a hint of pride in the old man’s voice.

“They said he had Hero talent, but he wanted to take over the fishing business…. Anyway, the boat returned to port, but he didn’t. That was seven years ago already.”

The old man pointed to the oldest photo among them. In it, there was a young man who looked just like the old man, and his high school daughter holding his hand tightly.

“Fortunately, I had saved up enough money to send Soyeon to college and get her a job in New Seoul. She’s so admirable, saying she’ll earn money and that I should pack up and move to New Seoul from this dangerous place. My kid has grown up, you see! Hahaha!”

The old man stroked the photo of himself with the girl in a graduation cap and laughed heartily.

“Well, thanks to Incheon turning into this mess, I can’t meet my granddaughter anymore. She probably thinks I’m dead, huh? Haha. Now that this old geezer isn’t interfering with her love life, she should find a rich man and live well. Cough, cough!”

The girl quickly poured tea into a cup and handed it to the old man.

“Ah, thank you. It’s been so long since I met someone, I’ve been talking way too much.”

“He’s alive. Your son.”

The girl said with a voice full of conviction. The old man smiled gently and ruffled the girl’s hair.

“You even know how to comfort an old man. Huh? Your parents raised you very well. You’ll become a good Hero.”

“It’s the truth.”

When the girl showed a slightly pouting expression, the old man nodded as if he understood.

“Thank you for the words, at least. But don’t you have something you should be doing now?”

“Something I should be doing?”

At the girl’s question, the old man pointed out the window.

“You need to retrieve that Core.”

At the end of the old man’s finger, the limp corpse of the Seawater Sword lay on the white sand.

* * *

“Haaaat!!”

The guandao drew an arc, cutting through the air. The mana-infused slash cut down the steel pillar as if it were straw.

“Hup!”

With a shout, the guandao drew a new trajectory and split the adjacent steel pillar in half. The upper part, split diagonally, slid down.

Slice!

The masked warrior cut that pillar again,

Slice! Slice!

Cut, and cut. The continuous slashes, as if to cut the entire pillar until it turned into iron dust, ended as the mana infused in the guandao faded.

“Haa, haa!”

The warrior propped the tip of the guandao on the ground and gasped for breath.

“This isn’t enough….”

The emotion of fear, felt for the first time since wearing the God of War’s mask. Even a day later, the blue flame still flickered before her eyes.

“—!!”

The guandao, swung quickly horizontally, cut through the blue flame. But it was just the remnants of the steel pillar that still remained.

“Ah….”

The warrior-Shaolin-gathered her remaining mana and caught her breath.

“This won’t do.”

The fear she felt from the enemy. But more than that, what infuriated Shaolin was the laughter of that blue girl, codenamed Phoenix, etched into her memory.

Heehee. Heehee.

‘She mocked me. Definitely.’

She narrowly dodged the slashes and toyed with Shaolin and Jeokto with homing fireballs. And as if the first attack was just a taste, the Phoenix created dozens of fireballs, toying with her.

‘Was I afraid?’

To be precise, it wasn’t the attack itself that was scary.

What was truly terrifying was the endless amount of mana that still had plenty of reserves even after creating so many fireballs.

Shaolin was simply overwhelmed by that colossal mana, burning infinitely like the sun.

“…Haaaat!”

With a shout, she poured all her mana into the guandao. The weapon enhancement ability was fully unleashed, and the entire guandao began to glow blue.

“Haa, haak!”

The light grew stronger, scraping out mana to its limit, but Shaolin squeezed out even more mana and infused it into the guandao.

‘It won’t reach.’

Even though all her mana had recovered over the past day, the amount of mana she managed to gather was less than half of the fireballs the Phoenix had created.

Crackling!

“Ugh?!”

The guandao, unable to withstand the overloaded mana, shattered. Fragments flew into the hand holding the shaft, and red blood flowed.

“This won’t do.”

Although she fought with Jeokto, her individual mana was Shaolin’s own problem.

The lack of mana was a clear limitation Shaolin had felt for the past few years.

Until now, this small amount of mana had been enough to defeat monsters, but after encountering that blue Phoenix, she desperately felt the need to break through her limits.

“This won’t, won’t do….”

Change was needed. But there was no one around Shaolin who could advise her on this situation.

[Shaolin. You have a call. A press conference has been arranged, so come out of your accommodation in an hour.]

Shaolin clenched her blood-stained hand tightly and picked up the green coat hanging on one side of the training room.

* * *

Monster byproducts include various elements like bones and skin, but among them, the most useful to humanity is the ‘monster Core’.

It acts like a heart, but it’s distinctly different from a heart. It’s the trace of an ability that circulates mana throughout the body.

“Simply put, it’s an organ where a monster’s mana accumulates.”

“Who are you talking to?”

I simply ignored the old man’s interjection and stood on top of the Seawater Sword’s head.

“Alright. From now on, I’m going to find the ‘Core’ in the Seawater Sword’s corpse.”

“Ah. Is that it? That broadcast you do on YouTube or whatever?”

I placed my hand on the Seawater Sword’s scales and emitted a small amount of mana. My mana, flowing through various parts of the corpse, enveloped the entire body like a fuse.

“But how do you plan to find the Core? For a monster of this size, I don’t think you can do it alone without professional dismantling experts.”

“I’m going to burn it all.”

Whoosh!

“Wh-what?!”

The old man stumbled back in surprise. Blue flames rising from the Seawater Sword’s entire body began to burn away all its bones and flesh.

“Ah, what are you doing, wasting it?!”

“I only need the Core.”

Various byproducts might be useful to Heroes and humanity, but from the perspective of an evil organization executive, monster byproducts are just troublesome trash.

What was truly needed was only the Core. As the scales burned away, the rising ash soared into the sky.

“Ah. Found it.”

I found the part where the flames that had been burning the entire body subsided. Because I had intentionally lowered the mana output to the minimum, it was just enough not to burn the Core itself.

I ran along the still unburnt spine and stopped where the Core was located.

Click.

When I snapped my fingers, all the debris around the Core burned and vanished. Just before the Core, which had been floating in the air for a moment, was pulled by gravity and fell to the ground, I quickly snatched it and held it in my hand.

“Th-that’s its Core? That tiny little orb?”

“The sizes are all different. Especially for an A-rank like this….”

Oops. A slip of the tongue. I flicked the Core to the old man.

“Ugh?!”

The old man, startled, tried to catch the Core but then threw it back to the ground.

“It’s fine. It’s just a Core.”

“My heart isn’t okay! Why are you just throwing around something worth hundreds of millions?!”

“…It’s worth hundreds of millions?”

In the late stages of the game, A-rank monster Cores were just rolling around and used for playing marbles. At the surprisingly high price, I was almost embarrassed for having thrown the Core.

“That’s right! They say catching even a B-rank monster can turn your life around, but you, miss, just got an A-rank monster’s Core! If you take that to the association, rich people will come running eagerly, willing to pay extra for it!”

“Ah… Is that so?”

It was simply astonishing that something like this was worth hundreds of millions.

I had no intention of selling it, though.

Crackling. Crackling.

Several minutes passed until the blue flames completely burned away every last remnant of the Seawater Sword.

I adjusted my clothes neatly, picked up the Core, and was about to put it in my pocket when I stopped my hand.

‘Ah. I don’t have pockets.’

I had merely wrapped a long, flowing veil around myself like a dress.

“Miss. Don’t you have anything else to wear besides those flowy clothes?”

“…You’re right.”

If I went to the city like this and it slipped off somewhere, I’d definitely be labeled a pervert. I absolutely had to go to the city, but I couldn’t start my Otherworld debut with a public indecency charge, could I?

Most importantly, I couldn’t let other guys see Phoenix’s naked body. This body, sculpted as if by David, is for my eyes only.

“Then, take that Core and let’s go back to my house. The size should roughly fit you.”

The old man roughly scanned my body up and down, then turned towards his house.

I followed the old man, fixing the veil’s shape with mana so it wouldn’t slip down.