Part 1 Chapter 2 (2)

April 4, 2020, 10:00 AM, Park near City Hall.

In the end, I couldn’t sell the A-rank monster’s Core.

‘In the game, I used to sell even S-rank ones without a second thought.’

Why did it insist on being so strangely realistic in this situation? Baek Sang-woo vehemently refused to purchase it, passionately arguing about the dangers of an A-rank monster’s Core.

‘There’s no point in me consuming it.’

At the pinnacle of monsters are the Seven Executives. Among them, the one with the title of ‘strongest’ is the Azure Flame Phoenix.

If I were to carelessly consume an A-rank monster’s Core, my pure mana would only be contaminated.

‘Then, should I feed it to Deokbae?’

That was also rejected. His growth was so slow that he couldn’t even properly absorb a C-rank, let alone an A-rank. If I had known this, I would have just made a monstrous human with an A-rank without holding back.

‘If I had known it would succeed, I would have definitely made an A-rank one.’

Next time I have to create a monstrous human, I’ll definitely use an A-rank, no, an S-rank monster’s Core. I glared at Deokbae for a moment before turning my eyes back to my smartphone.

‘What should I do now?’

There was no immediate need to enter New Seoul. So, for now, I had to go to Seoul, specifically Yeouido, first.

‘Because that’s in Yeouido.’

The God’s Fragment. The divine artifact of the Otherworld God that Seongju brought to summon it, only for it to be destroyed and scattered across the world.

It could also be called the Otherworld God’s Core, scattered into 27 Cube fragments, each finding a place somewhere in the world.

‘Half of them are being researched by various national associations, and the rest are hidden.’

Each fragment was about the size of a sugar cube. To find these objects, which couldn’t even be detected by mana sensing, by traveling around the world would require an enormous amount of manpower.

‘Destroy every single one without leaving anything behind.’

Killing Seongju, the final boss, would end the story.

However, that would only be the usual normal ending. Only by defeating the avatar of the Otherworld God summoned by Seongju could the true ending be achieved.

If Seongju was a fake boss, the Otherworld God was the true final boss. And the Phoenix only survives in the true ending.

‘Ending with the normal ending means it ends unsatisfactorily.’

It would end with a message implying that the Otherworld God had detected Earth and would someday cross over.

Even if Seongju was killed and the ending reached, the Otherworld God would eventually come to Earth. The key to this was the God’s Fragment, the Cube. Before it could find traces of its body and cross over to Earth, all fragments had to be recovered and destroyed.

‘First, let’s find the ones with clear locations.’

A total of three fragments lay dormant on the Korean Peninsula.

One in Daejeon, one in Pyongyang, and one in Seoul-Yeouido.

‘But going to Yeouido is a bit awkward, isn’t it?’

Even if I wanted to go, I wasn’t really keen on it.

A small island in the heart of Seoul. This island, where the God’s Fragment was hidden, was a battlefield that held significant importance in the main story among the battlefields in Korea.

‘The place where the Azure Flame Phoenix dies.’

In the game, the Phoenix, having flown across the Pacific Ocean, lands on the ruins of the National Assembly Building, marking the beginning of the battle.

At the end of the battle with the protagonist’s party, which took place throughout the Yeouido area, the protagonist, whose comrades had all fallen, finally faced the Phoenix.

The protagonist, prepared for self-destruction, unleashed their sealed power.

The Phoenix, rampaging, realized its identity as a Spirit.

Seongju, trying to re-brainwash the Phoenix, who had just awakened and broken free from brainwashing.

As the powers of these three converged and ran wild, the Phoenix, for revenge against Seongju, transferred all its power to the protagonist and vanished.

‘I could also experience such a future.’

A place where I might die.

I really didn’t want to, but to retrieve the Cube, I had to go to Yeouido.

‘Right. First, let’s collect the Cubes and then think.’

Grrr.

“…Right. I should probably eat first, shouldn’t I?”

I hadn’t eaten properly since leaving Yeongjongdo. I rummaged through my pocket and pulled out two banknotes.

‘20,000 won should be enough for two people.’

I got up from the bench and approached Deokbae, who was sitting on a bench far across from me. Deokbae seemed to have fallen asleep, showing no movement, and a small sparrow was pecking at his hood.

Chirp.

Perhaps because he was a monstrous human based on natural elements, wild animals didn’t shy away from him. I wondered if those birds truly thought Deokbae was a large rock.

Flap.

As my hand approached, the bird startled and flew into the sky. At the same time, Deokbae opened his eyes.

“What is it?”

“You were awake?”

Deokbae adjusted his hood and stood up from the bench. His height, around 2 meters, cast a shadow over me.

“I wasn’t sleeping in the first place.”

“Is that so? Then let’s go eat now.”

“….Eat?”

I nodded.

“That’s right. Whatever else I may be, I’m thorough when it comes to employee welfare.”

“You’re buying food?”

I smiled and pointed to the building beyond the park.

“Yes. While we’re at it, I’ll teach you a few things to pass the time.”

* * *

“Goodbye.”

Giu said goodbye without even looking at the departing customer and sat down in his chair. It was the first customer in two hours since he had sat at the counter, but Giu wasn’t particularly pleased.

‘Today’s a bust.’

When Incheon became like this, Giu urged his parents to move to the countryside. To the rural area of Jeonju, where his grandmother’s house was.

But that day, Giu was hit by his father for the first time. The reason was that they couldn’t just leave behind several buildings in Incheon and the commercial properties in Yeongjongdo.

‘Are those mere buildings more important than human lives?’

Giu couldn’t understand. It was something they could do by just going to the countryside for a while and then coming back. If they avoided the disaster for a bit, the monsters would be exterminated, and Incheon would be restored.

This convenience store was also one of the buildings owned by Giu’s parents. They had plenty of money to hire part-timers, but no one was willing to work, even if they offered double the minimum wage.

“We should run away too.”

Giu, who had grown up spending money freely under his parents, never once thought of disobeying his parents’ orders and running away alone. As a result, despite his reluctance, he ended up guarding the convenience store without part-timers, playing the role of an unsuited store owner.

“Is there anything interesting?”

The only thing that could pass the meaningless time was, as expected, YouTube.

The building’s internet connection was still intact.

“Popular videos… Oh.”

Amidst thumbnails of various Heroes, a video with hundreds of millions of views caught his eye.

[China’s God of War! Slaying an S-rank monster in a single strike?!]

“What kind of TV show is this?”

Giu played the video. He skipped past the annoying commentary and stopped his hand when the main video began.

“Amazing.”

A great man in a green battle robe with a long beard flowing from beneath his mask. The God of War, Guan Yu, whom no Korean man could not know, was said to have incarnated as a Hero in modern times-China’s great Hero, Unjang.

Unjang silently walked across the desert, holding his guan dao. At the end of it, a furious black monster was rampaging ferociously.

“Black Scorpion?!”

It was an S-rank monster, a Black Scorpion, smaller than the one he had seen before, but unmistakably one. A vicious monster whose sting could instantly take down even a B-rank Hero.

Unjang approached the monster, twirling his guan dao without any fear. With a gait like he was out for a stroll, the enraged Black Scorpion lunged at Unjang, spreading its two pincers.

Just before its tail could pierce his mask. Unjang’s spinning guan dao drew a blue line, creating a vortex.

Slice! Slice!

Kieeeek!

The Black Scorpion’s tail was severed as if it were weeds cut by a lawnmower. The venom at the tip of its tail scattered sideways from the wind pressure Unjang generated.

Fwoosh.

The extreme poison, which could instantly melt even desert sand, did not touch Unjang’s body at all. Unjang gripped his spinning guan dao tightly and raised it high diagonally.

“Wow! Ultimate Skill!”

Every Hero had a ‘Ultimate Skill’ that could be called their signature. Since ‘War Demon’, China’s great Hero before Unjang, called his Ultimate Skill ‘Musou’, Unjang also inherited that Ultimate Skill.

Slice!

The guan dao drew a crescent moon, cleaving the Black Scorpion. A single strike. Unjang stopped in place after just one swing.

“Huh?”

Giu recalled Unjang’s Ultimate Skill that he remembered. Didn’t he swing his guan dao three times, like a figure skater performing a triple axel?

What was it? Was he not in good condition?

Kyaaaak….

No sooner had he thought that than the Black Scorpion let out a death rattle and stopped moving. Its upper body slid to the ground along the trajectory of the guan dao’s slash.

“Whoa!”

What did I just see? Giu covered his mouth with his hand and paused the video. The thrilling shiver that ran down his spine, giving him goosebumps all over, was enough to stop his thoughts.

“What, what?!”

Giu rewound the video. In the video, Unjang precisely cleaved the Black Scorpion in half with a single strike.

“Hmph. Seriously. The Round Table has its limits.”

The Round Table.

World-class Heroes transcending gender, age, skin color, nationality, and ideology. This group, named under the leadership of the British Hero Sir Gawain, was an organization dedicated solely to ‘world peace’. While some, like China’s God of War, were heavily influenced by their nations, they were undoubtedly heroes who could boast of being the best.

“China and Japan each have one… Ugh.”

It was a moment when the East Asian pride rivalry crumbled. Unfortunately, there were no Koreans among the 12 Round Table Heroes.

“What if the only two we had disappeared? Ugh.”

Gwanggeom and Seolhwa Princess. The only two S-rank Heroes in South Korea.

“It would be really great if we had just one more S-rank.”

Because they were such rare talents, they were protected like sacred relics in strategic locations in their respective countries.

Gwanggeom in New Seoul, Seolhwa Princess in Busan.

If there had been Heroes comparable to them in Seoul or Incheon, the central region wouldn’t have been damaged to this extent.

However, people sought safe places and moved to the cities where those two resided, and Seoul, in particular, saw its population decrease the fastest after Gwanggeom moved to New Seoul at the government’s request.

In the end, only two types of people remained in Seoul, Incheon, and southern Gyeonggi: those who had no assets to move to other cities, or those who remained in the city for some reason. Giu’s family, among the latter, remained in Seoul for the sake of ‘real estate’.

Jingle-jingle~

“Even in the outskirts of New Seoul, an apartment costs 2 billion won….”

Should I try Hero Coin too? Pick any Hero on a Hero channel, sponsor them generously, and then that Hero hits it big. He still remembered hearing from an acquaintance who had earned hundreds of times their sponsorship money if things went well.

“Ah, if I became a Hero, I’d be set for life.”

Five to six people win the lottery every week, but becoming a Hero has even more extreme odds.

The mechanism of Hero awakening is still completely unknown, with some saying they awakened while sleeping and others surviving a monster attack by awakening. If he knew the method of Hero awakening, he would try it even if it cost him a fortune.

“That’s what I’m saying. Hero awakening is actually nothing special. There are seven types of mana, you see? The method to awaken as a Hero is whether or not you can feel the mana that suits your constitution among those seven types.”

What kind of novel nonsense theory was this? Giu checked his tablet, wondering if some strange video had started playing. Beyond the paused video on the tablet was a high school girl with blue hair, piling all sorts of food and daily necessities onto the counter.

“Wh-who are you?”

Giu was so startled he bit his tongue. The girl pointed to the cup ramen and triangle kimbap on the counter.

“Please ring me up.”

“Ah, yes. Yes.”

He tried to calm his pounding heart and scanned the barcodes of the items one by one.

His slow hands were absolutely not for the purpose of glancing at the girl in between scans.

The girl was chattering incessantly to the hulking figure who had come with her. Giu thought her voice sounded just like a bird’s chirping.

“Mana has ‘attributes’. Have you played games? Oh, you haven’t. Well, do you know about Aristotle’s four-element theory from back then? Like, elements are made of warmth, dampness, and so on, but what Aristotle discovered wasn’t the characteristics of elements, but the characteristics of mana, they say. Simply, the four types of mana: fire, water, wind, earth-the four classical elements. Actually, it’s not quite like that, but in this world, that’s the setting. They’ve unnecessarily complicated the setting.”

The girl continued her explanation, then, as if thirsty, added a latte drink to the counter. The hulking figure glanced at the drink and then added another drink next to it.

“What is it? Your favorite drink?”

“……1+1.”

At the hulking figure’s voice, which sounded like scraping metal, Giu startled and dropped the can of cola he was about to scan. The rolling can hit Giu’s shoe.

“I-I’ll get you a new one! Just a moment!”

Due to his mistake, Giu rushed to the refrigerator, pulled out the same drink, and returned to the counter. His hands trembled as he brought the can of cola, feeling as if the hulking figure, whose hood was pulled low, was glaring at him.

“Hmm. Anyway, those four types of mana are the most common attributes. Even if the attribute is fixed, how the ability manifests differs from person to person. If I had to guess, you’d be an Earth attribute.”

He flinched. Giu’s eyes darted around at the girl’s words. Did that mean the hulking figure was a Hero?

“Oh? Me? Of course, I’m a Fire attribute. What other attribute would I have if not Fire? Burning blue flames! The sun itself! That’s me!”

Giu’s heart felt like it would explode watching the girl stretch her hand towards the ceiling as if performing a play. Her confident smile was utterly lovely.

“…Nonsense.”

The hulking figure, seemingly displeased with the girl, turned around and began looking at other products. The girl froze for a moment, then lowered her arm and met Giu’s eyes. Giu had just scanned the last barcode.

“Would you like a bag?”

“Yes. …No. Wait a moment.”

The girl looked at the checkout counter and then crumpled her face at a sign. Even her scrunched-up expression was beautiful.

“Bag fee, seriously. They even copy things like this.”

The girl pointed to the mountain of food with slumped shoulders.

“…Please bag it. Oh, really.”

Giu considered just giving her a bag without charging, but then gave up. His parents had strictly charged for every single bag since Incheon’s downfall. Getting caught meant death.

“The total is 22,100 won.”

“…Oh.”

A look of bewilderment first appeared on the girl’s face. The cash she had just pulled from her pocket was only two green banknotes.

“J-just a moment.”

The girl frantically rummaged through her pockets, then froze. Only dust tumbled out of her pockets.

“Ah, haha, ha. …How many should I take out?”

The girl glanced at the price tags on the counter where she had brought the items and began taking things out of the plastic bag. Her neck, half-hidden by a turquoise scarf, was flushed red.

“……Wait.”

The hulking figure returned to the counter. The girl smiled brightly at him as if seeing a savior.

“As expected! You’re helpful too… Oh. What’s that in your hand?”

The girl bit her lip, looking at the two hotteok sticks in the hulking figure’s hand. Her expression suggested she was about to unleash a volley of f-words.

“Ugh. I’ve already picked out too many, and I need to remove some, but if you add more on top of that….”

“Move.”

“Huh?”

“I said move.”

The girl’s eyes widened as she stared at the hulking figure. He shrugged and placed the hotteok sticks on the counter.

“Oh? Wait a minute. I told you I don’t have enough money, didn’t I? Are you an idiot who can’t even calculate money?”

Pfft. Was it Giu’s imagination that he heard the hulking figure snicker?

The hulking figure pulled out a 5,000 won bill from his pocket and took the money from the girl. Giu, receiving the three banknotes, tapped the POS machine and began counting out the change.

“Received 25,000 won.”

“Keep the change.”

The hulking figure picked up the hotteok sticks he had brought, as if it were obvious.

“…Is this for real?”

As the girl stared in disbelief, the hulking figure smoothly peeled off the hotteok wrapper and said,

“Heat it up yourself.”

He stuck the unheated hotteok into the girl’s hand, grabbed the bag of food, turned around, and walked out of the convenience store.

“Hey.”

The girl glared at the hotteok in her hand and asked Giu.

“If I hit him with this, will he die?”

“…No?”

When Giu questioned her, the girl nodded and left the convenience store.

Jingle-jingle.

The swaying bell announced the customer’s departure. Giu, feeling as if he had been possessed by a ghost, slumped into his chair.

“There are still people who use cash these days.”

Giu rubbed the back of his neck, then suddenly came to his senses.

“Hey! Take your change!”