Part 1, Chapter 8, Section 7

Immediately after returning from the hot springs.

I pondered and pondered how I could safely swipe the Chaos Dragon and the Cube from China. I summoned the key personnel needed for my operation to the Azure Syndicate’s headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul.

Eun Yuha, who would arrange my means of travel to China.

And the Round Table’s Hero, Undine Anastasia (Rusalka), who would provide the justification for my trip to China.

“Are you really saying that slacker is in China?”

“Yes. They’re probably asleep there. That’s why we need to get inside China.”

“…If you just fly there, you’ll be caught on radar. Then they’ll definitely use that as an excuse to do something.”

Eun Yuha was wary of Mao Zeping’s madness and extreme choices. While I knew his true identity based on my knowledge of the original work, Eun Yuha was uncannily good at discerning the investment risks and losses that would come from him.

“Then what do you propose? Smuggling yourself in?”

“No. We need to eliminate the unstable elements. We’ll depose him.”

“Is that possible?”

Rusalka scoffed at me.

“Unlike this small land, that place is vast. Your opponent is the de facto leader of a country. Are you going to occupy a city and pressure them again, like in Seoul?”

“No. I’m going to expose the truth.”

I pulled out a profile. It was the profile of the former Round Table Hero, God of War, whom everyone in this world should be grateful for.

“Why him?”

Even Eun Yuha showed respect for the man; the God of War was a global hero. If he had survived the battle with Seongju instead of dying, he would have been revered as a living legend.

“Mao Zeping is trying to revive him.”

“……He’s not even a customer-nim, is that possible?”

“Ah, that child.”

Rusalka immediately understood what I meant.

“His scheme is to awaken the Chaos Dragon and then revive him as a monstrous human.”

“……My goodness.”

Eun Yuha gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. As someone who had also contributed to reviving an SS-rank ability user as a monstrous human, she knew very well how strong the God of War would be if he were revived.

“Even if it’s not the Chaos Dragon, Mao Zeping will mobilize every possible method to revive the God of War. His body must have already been recovered from the decisive battle with Seongju and interred in a tomb.”

“Then the body in that tomb…?”

“It’s obviously a fake. A fake swapped out with a counterfeit like Eun Yuha-agassi’s X-roid. The real one is probably hidden somewhere underground. You see it in wuxia novels, don’t you? Blood Zombies. It’s like that.”

“……So what if the God of War is revived, whether as a monstrous human or a zombie? Is there still a problem?”

Rusalka raised her head, showing confidence.

“My husband-nim is stronger.”

“……I wish that were true, but.”

Could Gwanggeom defeat the God of War? I was highly skeptical.

“What about customer-nim?”

“If it’s 1-on-1, somehow. But…”

“Ah. Right. That child shouldn’t be attached.”

I explained the Chaos Dragon’s attributes. Since its essence is a spirit, it can possess other bodies. If the Chaos Dragon were to gain and use the God of War’s body, it would become an existence even greater than Pyongyang’s Nucleon.

“To put it simply, we’d take double the damage, but they’d only take half the damage.”

“……?”

“Can’t you explain it in a way that’s easier to understand?”

“Hmm…”

This world is based on a game, yet they can’t understand it when I explain it in game terms. Come to think of it, both of them were women a million light-years away from games. If it were Praetor, they would have understood immediately and said, ‘A bugged character?’

“……He’s a man who earns double the money but only pays half, and he can go twice as long but only expends half the stamina.”

“Isn’t that crazy?”

“He’s truly insane.”

Eun Yuha and Rusalka seemed to understand immediately. Since they seemed to have grasped it, I began to explain my plan in detail.

“The top priority is securing the Chaos Dragon. Then, the Round Table will move to search various places in China directly, looking for the research facility studying the God of War’s body.”

“Mao Zeping won’t just sit still, though. Do you have any clever tricks up your sleeve?”

“Yes.”

It would just be a matter of throwing out a rather plausible bait. I decided to personally deliver a honey pot that Mao Zeping wouldn’t be able to resist.

“I’m going to China. Myself. Right away.”

“……Honey, Gawain did negotiate on those terms. But you don’t necessarily have to go to China yourself.”

Rusalka tried to gently dissuade me. Although she had transferred ownership of her husband, Heo Yun-hwan, if I died, Gwanggeom would die too. Because if the creator dies, the monstrous human dies.

“Don’t worry. I’ll bring a bodyguard.”

“Who?”

“Jo Deokbae?”

“…Wouldn’t it be better if I just went with you?”

Rusalka offered to accompany me to China herself. My heart was moved by Rusalka’s thoughtfulness-though, to be precise, she was probably worried about what would happen to her husband if I got hurt-but I politely declined.

“You’re more dangerous than I am.”

“Why? If push comes to shove, I can ask my dad to help me escape north-“

“Mao Zeping has a taste for married women. Especially for stealing other people’s wives, that’s his nature-“

“Ah, sorry. Have a good trip to China.”

Rusalka immediately retracted her statement. I also declined Rusalka coming along. If it were a heroine, maybe, but traveling to China with my mother-in-law was a bit too much.

“Ahem. So, back to the operation. Anyway, if I go to China, Mao Zeping will use every means and method to try and win me over. Among those methods, there might even be crimes that defy common sense.”

“I don’t think customer-nim would fall for something like that…. Ah, justification?”

Eun Yuha quickly grasped my intention.

“You’re going to use your kidnapping or an accident as an excuse for the Association or the Round Table to gain justification to enter China.”

“Yes. Otherwise, entry itself would be difficult. But if a special ability user, the only one in the world who can control monstrous humans, were to vanish in China, what do you think the global opinion would be?”

“……They’d think they kidnapped you to monopolize you. You really have a bad personality, don’t you?”

“Thanks for the compliment, Mother-in-law.”

“Do you want to die?”

Rusalka and I exchanged pleasantries, then began to devise the operation in earnest with Eun Yuha.

Villains, humans, and the Round Table.

Within the framework of the operation I planned, the strategy was finalized in a way that was most appropriate from each party’s perspective, and all that remained was execution.

“The Cheonghwa smartwatch I receive from the Association. If its signal is cut, the operation begins immediately. Understood?”

“Yes. I’ll prepare Yuseong’s full force.”

“I’ll go ask the Round Table lads too. Oh, right. What are you going to do about Unjang?”

“Xiaolin?”

Rusalka brought up China’s Round Table hero. Since he was someone they had easily defeated once in Dandong, I wasn’t particularly concerned.

“……Let him be free. If he stands with the Round Table, he’s an ally, and if he stands with his father, he’s an enemy. Either way, we can deal with him.”

“What if he doesn’t stand anywhere?”

“If he’s gray, neither black nor white…”

I shrugged.

“No matter what stance he takes, we just have to beat him down.”

And so, the planning of the operation concluded.

As designed by Eun Yuha, I received an invitation from the Association, officially registered as a hero, and immediately boarded a flight to China from Gimhae Airport.

When should I cut the signal?

After awakening the Chaos Dragon?

After swiping all the Cubes?

Or after swiping all the S-rank monstrous humans’ cores in China?

Until then, I never imagined that the signal would be cut less than an hour after I boarded the plane.

* * *

The location confirmed via Deokbae’s burner phone was about 600km from the destination. It was a distance more than enough to travel back and forth between Seoul and Busan, but having to run that distance was quite inconvenient.

“Through mountain paths where there are no people, you see.”

I ran leisurely with my hands clasped behind my back. Deokbae was following me at a full sprint, but his speed was only slightly over 50.

“You’ll get scolded if you go around saying a C-rank is slower than a car. You know that?”

“Then, *gasp*, let me use, *cough*, a Spirit Stone!”

“Then what’s the point of training?”

I pulled out the Spirit Stone I had taken from Deokbae from my pocket and shook it. The Spirit Stone, made by melting two A-rank cores, gave Deokbae immense power, but now that it was taken from him, he was just an ordinary C-rank ability user.

“*Gasp*, *gasp*!”

Deokbae panted and collapsed onto the ground. His entire body was crimson, like a volcano about to erupt at any moment.

“Are you tired? Shall I make it easier for you?”

“You mean you’re going to kill me!”

“I just meant to rest. Shall I do as you wish?”

Deokbae seemed to have no strength left to even raise his hand, only shaking his head slightly to refuse my offer. I sat down on a tree stump opposite Deokbae.

“There’s not much left now. Just a little more effort.”

“*Huff*, *huff*. You said you were busy, *huff*, but you have time for this?”

“Time spent cultivating talent is never wasted. The opponent we need to catch isn’t going anywhere else, anyway.”

“……Hey.”

Deokbae tapped his watch with a steady breath.

“Let’s say your friend is there. Now the entire Chinese population will be in an uproar trying to find you. Is this really okay?”

“Of course it is. Will they even be able to find me?”

I pointed to the sun in the sky.

“As long as the sun is out, I won’t be detected by anyone.”

“…Isn’t it usually the opposite?”

“Alright, great god of Cheonghwa. Repeat after me. What am I?”

“…The sun. Fuck.”

“That last word was long. Anyway, I am the sun itself. Meaning, I won’t be detected as long as the sun is out. Puhuhu.”

The reason I deliberately left Seoul at dawn was because of time. Especially now that the sun was high in the sky at noon, I could defeat anyone. Except for Seongju.

“Then let’s pick up the pace a bit. We need to wake the princess before the sun sets.”

“Alright. ……Hey, wait a minute.”

Deokbae held out his watch to me with a stiff expression. I was annoyed, thinking he was playing another trick, but as soon as I saw the content on the watch’s screen, anger surged within me.

“No, fuck.”

“You’re swearing now. You told me not to swear.”

“Is this really not a situation to swear in?”

I couldn’t help but swear. I should have been wary when those impotent bastards from my alumni association pulled their stunts on the plane, but I never imagined such an insane situation would unfold separately from that.

“J-just a moment.”

I grabbed the butterfly-shaped badge pinned to my shirt collar. Fortunately, the other party responded immediately.

[Seok Harang, what is this news?]

[It means exactly what it says. …This news came in right after your signal was cut.]

“This is insane.”

They say it’s just my luck, but isn’t this too much?

“Is the timing really this coincidental?”

“It seems like your life is jinxed, don’t you think you should get an exorcism or something?”

Deokbae chuckled, as if mocking me. I felt like digging my nails into Deokbae’s heart, but I barely managed to suppress my anger and calm myself down.

“……Ugh, whatever. Life never goes according to plan anyway.”

“I have a feeling it’s going to get even more tangled here?”

“Deokbae-ssi. Are you cursing your master’s life to end? Is that it?”

“No, look at this.”

Deokbae tapped his watch and pulled up another article. The English article was broadcasting breaking news about the situation in China to the world.

“……Wow.”

I wanted to cry.

“It seems the guys who tried to kidnap you weren’t working for Mao Zeping after all?”

Inside the newspaper article.

Mao Zeping was personally stepping forward to make a statement to the public.

“An unidentified terrorist organization attacked and blew up the plane carrying Beast Tamer…?”

I didn’t blow up the plane. And what followed was even more absurd.

“Naming this terrorist organization the ‘Phantom Bandits (幻巾賊)’, a group of ability user criminals that has recently been on the rise, and declaring a national state of emergency until they are all rooted out…?”

This situation was beyond the scope of the original work’s precedents. As Deokbae’s expression became more cheerful, the corners of my mouth, which I had been trying to keep smiling, trembled uncontrollably.

“Wow. I’m going crazy, seriously.”

The borders were sealed.

“This means the Round Table guys can’t get in either, right? It’s not even a monstrous human incident.”

The operation wasn’t just tangled from the start.

“You’re screwed. What are you going to do now?”

It had fallen apart from the start. I could only laugh hollowly and say this:

“And who the hell are these Phantom Bandits…?”