Internet streamer.
Lately, as society entered the information age and video platforms flourished, it had become a highly touted profession under the name of "one-person content creator."
Ever since word of its profits spread, it had become a red ocean of a market with everyone rushing in.
“···The place I just visited was worse than I expected. The presentation was good, but it felt like they went overboard with the MSG, if I had to say. My personal rating is 4 out of 10! I had been looking forward to it, but the taste didn't live up to the rumors.”
The young man who was currently on the street, talking energetically while looking at a smartphone attached to a selfie stick—Hong Dusik—was also one of those who had jumped on that bandwagon.
His main content was finding hidden gem restaurants.
The truth was, he didn't know the first thing about gastronomy, but he was confident in his ability to talk a good game, which was why he had jumped in ambitiously, but···.
‘Ah, why aren't viewers coming in today of all days? Do I really need to go in a more provocative direction after all?’
His average viewer count barely crossed into the double digits, and the view counts on the video platforms where he uploaded his clumsily edited videos were equally miserable.
Despite mustering all his family accounts and receiving help from friends, struggling desperately to squeeze every drop of benefit from the algorithm!
“Then next is dessert! The place I'm visiting this time is a crepe street vendor that's been slowly gaining buzz on social media. Let me try it for myself and···.”
Today was another ordinary day no different from usual.
It was a slice of a boring daily life so unremarkable that he wondered if he should just pack it all in and get a part-time job.
Right.
Until that incident occurred.
Fzzzt—!
A sparking sound like high-voltage electricity flowing.
“Huh···?”
Along with that suddenly heard sound, a tingling sensation raced throughout his entire body.
He unknowingly halted his steps at the goosebumps that instantly rose on his skin.
Hong Dusik wasn't the only one who reacted to this anomaly.
Others nearby also stopped what they were doing and looked up blankly toward the sky, toward where the sound came from.
Like them, his head slowly rose upward.
Crackle—!
Was this what they meant by a bolt from the blue?
In the middle of the clear sky, loud sparks were flashing ferociously.
‘Wait, could that be···!’
Then, as if doused with cold water, his spine chilled and his frozen mind began to race fiercely.
Wasn't that a phenomenon caused by supernatural abilities no matter who looked at it?
And a large-scale supernatural ability manifestation carried out without any prior warning at that!
Which meant···.
‘Awakened terror attack!’
A sense of crisis shot to the top of his head.
With groups like Hahoetal and Phantom, so-called vigilantes, actively operating in recent times, the public order in Korea—especially Seoul—had improved to a rarely seen excellent state.
The fact that he had chosen outdoor activities as his main content had also been greatly influenced by that···!
Crackle! Fzzzt—!
The sparks above his head began growing larger and larger.
He was an ordinary person without even the remotest connection to supernatural abilities, yet for some reason he could intuitively tell.
If all the energy contained within ‘that’ exploded at once, he—at this distance—would vanish without leaving a trace behind.
‘Ah, I haven't even gotten a girlfriend yet!’
All sorts of thoughts tangled chaotically, flashing by like a revolving lantern.
Even in the midst of that, without realizing it, he turned the camera angle and captured the strange phenomenon occurring in the sky within the frame.
Whether that was the meager journalism of a broadcaster, or an instinct to leave behind proof of how he died, even he didn't know.
Fwaaash—!
Then, from the center of the sparks, a blinding golden radiance burst forth.
And immediately after.
[Rwoooooar——!]
Along with that being's appearance—.
An enormous, bone-chilling roar swept through the surroundings.
Rumble—
“Aaaack! Agh!”
“Kyaaaack!”
“What what what?! What is that?!”
In that fleeting moment.
A fierce wind whipped through and the surroundings turned into a pandemonium in an instant.
This chaos wasn't happening only in the immediate vicinity.
Every area from which that gigantic form was visible, every place that its roar reached, was under its influence.
Hong Dusik felt his entire body trembling from the pressure emanating from that being and stared blankly up at the sky.
At a lifeform tens of meters in size, its entire body covered in golden scales—flapping its wings and swimming through the upper sky.
“Dragon···?”
He had obviously never seen one in real life even once, but facing that being, the name naturally came to mind.
It was a subject so familiar now because it had been covered to a tiresome degree in various media like games and comics.
However, if there was one thing that bothered him—.
‘But what's that?’
It was a large sphere held in that golden dragon's mouth.
It was also his first time seeing it, yet it was something he somehow felt he knew the name of.
“···Yeouiju?”
Another kind of confusion visited his still-disorganized mind.
It looked like a typical Western dragon, yet it held a Yeouiju that was said to be carried by Eastern yong—what kind of hybrid was this?
‘Hmm, no. Rather, that might have been a prejudice···.’
Well, what would he know, having never even seen a dragon or yong in person to begin with.
With the real thing appearing so brazenly in reality.
He had apparently been trapped in fixed notions from all the information he had consumed through media.
After thinking such listless thoughts with a blank mind, he suddenly came to his senses.
“R-r-r-real D-Dragon?! Huh? The real thing?!”
His brain, which had been mired in confusion, belatedly grasped the current situation.
In other words, simply put, this situation right now was···.
In the skies above Earth.
In the heart of Seoul.
A dragon had appeared.
In the real flesh.
-???
-What, is this a real-life situation?
-Crazy, it's real! It's chaos outside right now!
-Why is this real?
The smartphone chat window that entered his blankly turned field of vision was also a cauldron of chaos.
The sparse chats that had been coming up were rapidly scrolling upward, and the viewer count was also beginning to continuously increase.
Everyone was in shock at the dragon in the screen he was filming.
‘···Come to think of it, this spot really is prime real estate.’
The distance itself was just right—not too far, not too close—and with no obstacles in between, it was the optimal position to capture that gigantic body entirely in the frame.
Perhaps because he had recklessly grown bold in the face of this shocking situation, greed gradually began to fill his heart, which had initially been filled with fear.
‘This might be an opportunity.’
The first report of a dragon appearing in the present world—wasn't this the scoop of all scoops!
Hong Dusik gulped and gripped the smartphone in his hand tightly.
Logically speaking, even fleeing far away immediately wouldn't be sufficient, but currently, he couldn't see anything for the opportunity in front of him.
‘My streaming life begins now!’
‘It's a scoop! I have to film this no matter what!’
‘Jackpot! If I post this on social media···!’
And in this wide Seoul with many people, he wasn't the only one harboring such thoughts.
Was this what disaster insensitivity looked like?
Amidst those trying to get as far away as possible in the chaos, people one by one began thrusting out their lenses and filming this event that would go down in history.
As befitting the information age, this news quickly spread throughout Korea··· no.
It spread throughout the world in an instant via the internet.
Carrying the gallant figure of Horus who had appeared on Earth.
***
‘As expected, the effect is certainly decisive.’
Frankly, showing Horus so abruptly had felt a bit impulsive.
What was more, immediately using [Elder Dragon's Heart] to bring out the complete body of a fully mature dragon.
‘But this is the most certain way.’
In short, shock therapy.
Any Awakened who had reached a certain level would have felt it the moment they saw the dragon swimming through the upper sky.
That this lifeform did not belong to this world.
That it could absolutely never be such a being.
Not a quasi-humanity derived from humans like vampires, werewolves, or undead—a species fundamentally different from Earthlings from the very root of its species.
That was the position of the lifeform called dragon, which reigned supreme in most dimensions.
‘The High Elf Harris would have been a decent alternative too, but visually, Horus is overwhelmingly superior.’
Between a slender, humanoid elven male and a gigantic dragon tens of meters long, there was an incomparable difference.
Thanks to that, the objective was sufficiently achieved.
However, it was unavoidable that a very slight··· minor problem had occurred in the process.
The space where a dialogue with Heinrich had been taking place until a short while ago.
“······.”
“···Hoo.”
Those who had watched the overwhelming figure of the suddenly appearing Gold Dragon from the best seats, exclaiming in admiration, now rubbed their eyes with tired faces.
What was different from before was that the people in this place were not all those who had been seated as dialogue participants from the beginning.
The headcount was at least double what it had been initially.
Most of their serious gazes were concentrated in one direction at the corner of the meeting room.
Nom nom.
In that heavy atmosphere, the sound of something being leisurely chewed echoed softly.
As if paying no mind to the sharp gazes around him, a child sitting astride a high chair, dangling his tiny legs and diligently picking at snacks—Gold Dragon Horus.
He was truly this place's main character, surpassing even Heinrich.
“···I must apologize once again. I caused trouble for many people by acting hastily.”
While everyone's attention was focused on Horus, Heinrich bowed his head once again, speaking words of apology.
Of course, a gigantic dragon had suddenly appeared above the city; it couldn't be passed over without incident.
“Ha, haha···.”
“···It's alright. It's already in the past.”
“Hehe, it couldn't be helped. We should have informed you sooner.”
It was truly a mess.
Emergency sirens blared continuously, a large-scale magic barrier activated, and combat units of Awakened personnel including Guardians swarmed in from all directions.
To the extent that even Lightning Emperor Yoon Jiyoon—said to rank within the top three in Korea—had rushed over with her entire body covered in lightning.
Of course, Horus had also reined in his energy as much as possible while undoing [Polymorph] and using [Elder Dragon's Heart].
Because no matter what anyone said, this was the heart of Seoul, capital of the Republic of Korea.
If Horus in serious mode unleashed his full power and emitted Dragon Fear, wouldn't an enormous catastrophe occur!
Most civilians here had very low resistance to supernatural abilities, so a terrible disaster could have occurred if things had gone wrong.
‘While my goal was to intentionally blow this up and get it reported as a major story worldwide··· I still took as much care as possible on this side, and with the Saint Heinrich here, a truly serious accident shouldn't have happened.’
There was still some damage even now, but fortunately, it wasn't at a very serious level.
The people gathered here now and other related personnel had to go through quite a bit of trouble in the process of handling it, however.
“That child was that dragon earlier···?”
“Goodness, a being that should exist only in another world has crossed over to Earth. It seems another upheaval is coming.”
“I simply can't associate it with its earlier form. If not for the enormous magical power dwelling within that small body, I wouldn't believe it even now.”
“···So cute.”
At any rate, everything went according to plan.
There was not a single person left who didn't believe that Heinrich had come from another world.
Not just those present here, but everyone who had caught wind of this commotion.
***
Pantheon Main Headquarters, United States.
“Pffft—!”
Tea sprayed from the mouth of a clerk who had been enjoying a leisurely teatime with a relaxed mind.
Her eyes shook violently as if an earthquake had struck.
“···What is that?”
Reflected in her pupils was startling news transmitted from somewhere on the other side of the globe.
On a large monitor placed in one corner of the lounge, a magnificent lifeform held a mysterious orb in its mouth and repeatedly flapped its wings, displaying its majesty.
“Dragon···? Why is that on Earth···?”
Moreover, of all places, it was an incident that had occurred in Seoul, Korea.
Right at the point where the Saint of Auterica, Heinrich, and the investigation team dispatched by Pantheon were scheduled to meet!
An unknown ominous feeling began to creep up from her feet.
She could feel it with the intuition of one who had reached the level of a superhuman.
‘···Wait, if this is how it turns out···.’
That something had gone wrong.
And very, very wrong.