Something felt from that distant place made my expression naturally furrow.
It was both a rampage of violent emotions triggered by an unspecified multitude, and a rapid current of causality swaying under its influence.
‘This is…’
And before long, I was able to discern the cause.
-Breaking news! Reports are coming in of indiscriminate bomb terror occurring throughout downtown Seoul! The government is…!
-Kwaang—!
The TV screen I had turned on just in case.
Within it, the news anchor delivering the report with an urgent expression had his words cut off by a sudden explosion.
It seemed to have detonated near the broadcasting station; the anchor’s pupils, which had flinched unconsciously at that sound transmitted without any filtering, shook as if an earthquake had occurred.
Wuuuung— Wuung—
And timed with that, email notification alarms began popping up in succession on the work smartphone I had prepared.
-Jinsoran: Lord! Large-scale bomb terror near the Blood Alliance branch and the Howard Industries store site…
-Hans, Slave No. 1: Lord Hahoetal! It seems the Buncheonhoe bastards have committed this! The Ability Management Bureau is also on emergency alert right now…
From Jinsoran, who managed the Korean vampires as proxy for Heinz II, to the black magician An Seongjin whom Hans had taken in.
They must have all been out of their minds due to the sudden situation, yet they were trying somehow to deliver the news.
And even…
-Yo, don’t come ou of the hous stay insid!
A single text message arrived from Gang Taesan, who could be called his only friend.
In such a messy sentence that the urgency of his heart was vividly palpable.
Having clearly grasped what was happening right now, I gently closed my eyes right there and accelerated my thoughts.
Large-scale bomb terror occurring suddenly in various parts of Seoul.
The situation was clear.
‘Yes, the only ones who could pull off something like this are those Buncheonhoe bastards.’
Korea’s underworld had already been pacified under the name of the Blood Alliance.
Not even organizations specializing in smuggling were exceptions there, and naturally, bringing such weapons into the country while evading the Blood Alliance’s eyes was something nearly impossible.
Of course, in this world riddled with supernatural abilities, what was one hundred percent impossible… but…
‘Not just anyone can lead something of this scale. They’d been so quiet I thought they’d completely withdrawn from Korea.’
It seemed that even as their tails were continuously cut off by persistent purging, they had held their breath and hidden until the end.
And that while having preparations in place to cause such a major incident.
“How dare they.”
A gloomy voice leaked out unconsciously from between tightly clenched teeth.
It was a sound that had flowed out so unconsciously that I only realized it after hearing it with my own ears.
I didn’t know about other places on Earth, but now this Korea was my unshakeable domain.
Those bastards must certainly be aware of that fact as well.
Yet for them to pull such a trick so openly was nothing short of a provocation against me.
“Huu—.”
I took a deep breath and tried hard to calm my heart.
Due to an inexplicable unpleasantness, my insides were boiling excessively.
It was only thanks to ‘Clear Mirror Still Water’ working overtime that it was only this much; if not for that, it would have taken more time than expected to control my emotions.
‘For now, let’s think about how to respond to this matter.’
Resolving the problem was the top priority.
If I didn’t properly handle such a disturbance, the public order of Korea that I had finally stabilized would become a mess again.
This rage could be resolved by thoroughly annihilating them.
‘I can’t pull Hans out right now.’
Of all times, Ganghwangye was also in a state where I couldn’t easily take my eyes off it.
The Murim Allied Forces were gathering one after another near Beijing; it was a hair-trigger situation where all-out war could begin at any moment.
If something were to blow up while Hans, who was in charge of coordination, was away, it would become impossible to manage.
‘Of course, it wouldn’t really matter if the real Hans didn’t come.’
Didn’t he just happen to have a skill useful for times like this?
Without hesitation, I immediately used that ability.
Ssssss—
At the same time.
The ambient temperature began to drop sharply.
The light illuminating the interior lost its momentum, and creeping darkness took its place.
Supple skin and tough muscles melted away, leaving only a gaunt skeleton.
The heart that had vigorously pulsed and supplied blood was replaced by a heart that scattered death, and the limitations on focus in the eyeballs disappeared, replaced by the senses of the dead.
An omnipotence alien enough to be bizarre welled up throughout the entire body.
At that, I burst into laughter unconsciously.
[Kekekeuk— Kehahaha!]
‘Entity Projection,’ which overlays the avatar’s existence onto me.
In that way, I became Hans, the Demon King who had invaded Ganghwangye.
Next, as the Chimera wrapped around my body disappeared, leaving the martial uniform loose, I threw a robe over it and firmly fixed the Hahoetal mask onto the skull.
[Keuheu— The rat bastards that had been quietly hiding in their burrows have dared to crawl out.]
It must mean that the sudden advances of Howard Industries had been that much of an eyesore.
To the point that the patience they had been enduring while gauging the timing had finally burst.
Of course, with only this rough guess, I couldn’t know exactly what guts they had to act so openly, but…
[Well then, what you lot are scheming—]
That was none of my concern.
[—Let us look inside those heads.]
I simply had to catch them and find out directly.
***
A young man clutching a smartphone connected to a selfie stick and wearing an action cam on his body exhaled rough breaths as he ran.
“Hurk, hah… what the hell is going on!”
Hong Dusik, an internet broadcaster who had filmed the immediate aftermath of the Gold Dragon’s appearance from the best seat in the past.
Thanks to that incident, his viewer count had surged in an instant; unable to forget that day’s thrill, he had been wandering outdoors today as well, looking for an exclusive scoop.
The fact that viewers had been continuously dropping off as the high from that time wore off was one of the reasons as well.
Though he had briefly made his name known along with the world’s attention, that moment had been but an instant, and since he had rehashed that story until the broth had been boiled down to tasteless water, it had begun to clearly reveal his lack of capability.
But he couldn’t just give up like that.
So he had purchased an action cam with great resolve, and under the pretext of carrying out his main content of finding hidden famous restaurants, he kept his eyes peeled while roaming outside; if he sensed something happening, he would immediately thrust his camera at it.
Hoping that, like the day he filmed the dragon, an exclusive scoop to turn the situation around might fall from somewhere.
‘Damn it, I’m not even a reporter, what exclusive scoop! If I had known this would happen, I should have just holed up in my room and done game broadcasts!’
When he first heard the explosion, he had run toward it in high spirits, thinking his chance had finally come.
Korea was currently one of the world’s foremost public order superpowers in name and reality.
It was due to the complacent thought that whatever problem arose, it would soon be resolved… but…
The situation was not so easy as he had thought.
Soaring flames and acrid smoke.
Collapsing buildings and falling debris no different from blades.
People screaming in grief and crowds rushing in like cattle, swept up in confusion.
Since he could lose his life if swept away wrongly, he had to keep his wits about him more than ever.
‘The situation is this bad, what the hell are the Guardians doing! No, what about the firefighters and police?’
What he didn’t know was that this terror wasn’t simply just bomb terror.
Right before the terror, a flood of tips—or rather, ‘terror advance notice’ calls—poured into relevant agencies like fire stations and police stations.
But their number was too great, and while there were real ones among them, far too many pieces of false information were included as well.
The reporting system paralyzed by ceaseless calls, handling scenes of already occurred incidents, defusing bombs that hadn’t yet exploded, wild goose chases due to false information, etc.
Related agencies were already frantically running around, so short on manpower that they were forcibly recalling even those who had been off duty.
‘Huh? What is that?’
While being swept by the crowd and frantically escaping the scene.
Suddenly, Hong Dusik’s gaze turned toward an old man standing in the middle of the road with a vacant expression, blocking the way.
Given the current situation, it wasn’t so strange for someone to have such a dazed expression, but due to an inexplicable anxiety, he simply couldn’t take his eyes off him.
“Uh, uh? Th-that!”
Hesitating to a stop, he soon realized the cause of the anxiety he had felt.
Click!
The lighter held by that man lit up, and the flame transferred to the bundle of papers held in his other hand.
And the burning bundle of papers fell powerlessly to the floor—
Whooosh—
Following the line of oil previously spread on the ground, it began spreading in all directions instantly.
“Kyaaah!”
“Wh-what! Hey you, what are you doing! Are you crazy?!”
“Don’t push! Turn back! Turn back!”
As flames suddenly soared from the front, the crowd fleeing frantically came to a halt.
But even in the situation where the surroundings had become a scene of chaos, Hong Dusik couldn’t pay attention to his surroundings.
His gaze followed the path of fire.
Whooosh—
The transferred flames sprinted rapidly.
The place it reached at the end of that rapid advance was—
“Uwaaaah! Get down!”
A medium tank truck transporting oil, a fuel tanker.
He screamed and roughly grabbed the people on either side, throwing himself to the ground.
He couldn’t guarantee he would be safe from an explosion at this close range even if he lay prostrate, but it would still be better than standing defenseless.
And immediately after.
Kwaaaaaang—!
Shatter—!
A thunderous roar erupted, burying all surrounding sounds, and all nearby windows shattered.
‘Ah, I should have just gamed at home after all!’
Hong Dusik squeezed his eyes shut while lying prostrate, bracing for the approaching heat.
They say burns hurt so much.
Didn’t they say you die if a certain percentage of your skin is lost?
Wouldn’t it be better to die instantly than to survive in agony?
All sorts of stray thoughts whirled through his head.
They say time flows slowly when the moment of death approaches?
Subjectively it felt like several seconds had already passed, but still no heat, let alone sound.
‘No, it actually feels a bit cold instead…’
Could it be that I died before feeling anything?
Just as he felt something strange.
[Hmm. This is…]
A bizarre voice, as if not of this world, passed by his ears and bored into his mind.
A chilling voice that immediately evoked the image of a reaper the moment it was heard.
‘Ah, so I am dead after all.’
Strength drained from his tensed body.
He bit his lips at the rising emptiness and resignation.
After staying like that for a moment, Hong Dusik soon took a deep breath and slowly opened his eyes, raising his head.
Thinking silly thoughts like—if I film the afterlife, it would be an incredible exclusive scoop.
And such thoughts.
“Ah.”
All cleanly flew away upon seeing the surreal sight before his eyes.
It was—
A world where everything had stopped.
No, time hadn’t truly stopped, but there was simply no other way to express it.
The flames bursting forth were frozen as they were, and sharp fragments and debris were fixed in the air in the exact shapes they had been flying in.
The space that had been so hot from chaos and flames that sweat flowed was now wrapped in a chill cold enough to see one’s breath.
Those frozen in terror had all stopped moving as well, unable to say anything and staring blankly at it.
A scenery as if even time had frozen solid.
Like those around him, Hong Dusik watched that scene with his mouth agape, his gaze turning unconsciously toward the upper air.
As if drawn by a strange attraction he couldn’t explain.
The place his gaze reached.
At a height requiring one to look up at least ten meters.
‘He’ was there.
A pitch-black robe as if draped in darkness, and a mask showing a bizarre smile visible within the pressed-down hood.
Ghost fires chillingly cold flowing from the eye holes, and frigid air erupting like fog.
An existence as if ominousness had been forged into human form.
‘Hahoetal…?’
Korea’s most famous dark hero, Hahoetal.
The moment he saw him, thoughts began to connect rapidly in his dazed mind, as if nutrients were finally being supplied.
No matter how much he looked at him, he looked like a grim reaper, but he was definitely an existence in reality.
Unless, without his knowing, he had changed jobs from a dark mage to a grim reaper.
Then perhaps he wasn’t dead, but...
[...So it is brainwashing after all.]
Just then, the Hahoe Mask, who had floated the elderly man who committed the terror attack beside him and was quietly observing him, murmured in a low voice.
Unfocused, slack pupils, and saliva dribbling from the corner of his mouth.
Even his soul, visible through the “Eye of the Abyss,” was far from intact.
‘They really prepared this with intent.’
Worse, the brainwashing wasn’t a continuous control type but a trigger type that activated when certain conditions were met, so even when he tried to trace the caster through the connection, he couldn’t pinpoint the target.
The thoroughness of erasing even the traces that would inevitably remain, even if it meant crushing the subject’s soul.
Because of that, all he could learn was, at most, a fragmentary impression of the place where the one who cast the brainwashing and this man were presumed to have met.
No matter how he looked at it, this had been done with him in mind.
‘So you want to have a go at me, is that it?’
The ghostly fire leaking from the curved eyeholes of the Hahoe Mask blazed fiercely.
He had already been in a foul mood, and now, facing a situation like this, it felt as if his insides were twisting into knots.
Though he didn’t actually have any insides.
‘If someone challenges you, it’s only natural to respond with all your strength.’
And what he possessed was not limited to his own personal abilities.
He immediately conveyed his will to someone through his mindscape.
[Andrew Weaver, there’s work.]
—Hup! Y-yes, sir?
To a talent possessing “Trajectory Observation,” which could be called the greatest unique skill when it came to tracking and information.
Though if he focused on this side, it would become difficult for him to lend a hand in this disaster situation, there were ways around that.
Because he wasn’t alone.
***
“Save us! Please save us!”
“Cough, cough, over here... please...!”
People stranded on the rooftop of a burning building kept screaming.
To those in despair, death drew nearer by the second, flicking out its crimson tongue.
Then, at a certain moment.
Fwoosh— whooom—
Without any warning, the fiercely blazing flames rapidly died down.
The black smoke billowing up was swept away cleanly by a refreshing wind from somewhere, and the air, which had been scorching hot, settled calmly with moist coolness.
“Save u... huh?”
“Uh...?”
The change was so sudden that even those who had been screaming could only blink.
As they blankly exchanged glances with one another at the situation that had transformed as if the hellish scene had never existed, the same strange phenomenon was already repeating itself in other places.
‘Ah... what a pain... It’s hard to breathe... I want to finish quickly and go back...’
Following the movements of the motorcycle-helmeted weirdo flying through the air, limp and utterly unmotivated.
***
And in another place.
“It’s Ir*n Man!”
“What nonsense are you... h-he really is?”
“But that thing in his hand... isn’t that Spi*der-Man?”
A mysterious hero, his entire body encased in metal armor of futuristic design, was flying about at high speed in every direction.
Swiftly rescuing those in danger with black threads extending from his right hand.
‘I am neither.’
He let out a small sigh and smacked his lips.
He had deliberately made the design quite different, but it seemed people’s thoughts were all much the same.
Of course, that wasn’t what mattered right now.
‘I never thought it would even have an ability like this. Well, it’s an object from a mechanical civilization, so I suppose it’s only natural.’
Following the guidance of “Mechanical Eye: Callicas,” Hesperon accelerated even faster.
Leaving the public with an unforgettable first impression in his unexpected debut on Earth.