Clatter—
The soft sound of a coffee cup, wisps of warm steam curling up from it, being set on the table echoed quietly.
‘The Southeast Asia branch, huh.’
Right after finishing that sudden outing.
Having returned home, taken a shower, and enjoyed a cup of coffee to refresh myself, I sat in the massage chair as usual and quietly sank into thought.
I needed to ponder a little more over the information I had just obtained.
‘Singapore.’
A representative city-state of Southeast Asia, larger than Seoul and smaller than Busan in area.
Yet one of Asia’s developed nations, having achieved economic growth that made its size seem irrelevant.
That was the place where the Beoncheonhoe’s Southeast Asia branch was most likely located.
‘The fact that its area isn’t all that large is certainly good news. It’ll reduce the effort needed for a detailed investigation by that much.’
I had obtained information while stripping the devices of the bastards who had been operating in Korea, but unfortunately, there was a serious flaw in it.
Obvious as it might have been, there was no way the Korean branch, practically nothing more than a lower-level outpost, would know high-grade information like the exact location of the Southeast Asia branch, an organization above it.
The only reason I had even managed to obtain its rough location was entirely thanks to the dramatic growth in the capabilities of 「Mechanical Eye: Callicas」.
If not for the precise analysis through that, even I would have had a hard time gaining such a result.
‘Did management of Korea get transferred over there after the East Asia branch led by the Lawgiver collapsed? …Well, the newly organized East Asia jurisdiction must have its hands full just normalizing China right now.’
Hans’s trip through China, which had followed after hunting down the Lawgiver, had come to a temporary halt once the Beoncheonhoe began responding in earnest.
While the remnants of each branch, his original targets, had quickly hidden beneath the surface, the enormous country called China had begun reacting irritably and actively. Even for him, that created no small difficulty in continuing his hunt.
‘Of course, unless the head of the Beoncheonhoe steps forward personally, there’ll be a limit to how much they can obstruct Hans’s direct movements. But it’s also undeniable that their interference has severely lowered efficiency.’
I already had plenty to do, so I couldn’t cling forever to something whose efficiency had hit rock bottom.
Besides, because of the time difference, the longer I stayed on Earth, the more time I lost—roughly ten times more than if I spent that time in another world.
So I had intended to take care of other matters first and watch the situation for a while until my subordinates on Earth brought me more definite information, but…
‘A perfectly suitable target just appeared. Of course, since it’s a branch overseeing an entire region, breaking through its ironclad security and finding its exact location won’t be easy.’
Fortunately, I had someone on this side more talented in that field than anyone else.
The hidden contributor who had once found the location of the East Asia branch and played a major role in eliminating the Lawgiver, and the ace of the intelligence department who this time had provided decisive help in wiping out the bastards hiding in Korea.
***
“Achoo!”
Andrew Weaver shuddered as a sneeze suddenly burst out of him.
There was no way someone as sturdy as an Awakened like him could be coming down with a cold, yet an inexplicable chill ran through his entire body, making the fine hairs on his skin stand on end.
A creeping sense of ominousness whose source he could not identify began prickling at the back of his head.
“…Phew, I guess my energy’s gotten weak. Should I get some herbal medicine brewed or something…?”
A complaint in Korean slipped naturally from his mouth.
Though he was a blond-haired American, watching the lives of Koreans every day through dozens, even hundreds of eyes had inevitably caused him to be quickly steeped in their culture.
He had never been dull-witted to begin with, and with the influence of his ability added on, his now fluent Korean was so skillful that anyone hearing him would think he had already lived in Korea for years.
Then again, that was exactly why he had been able to track the movements of the Korean Beoncheonhoe remnants and discover the ones hiding in the Demilitarized Zone.
‘No, wait. I really pulled off something big this time, so they’ll at least give me a vacation soon, right? I should take this chance to go back home and rest properly for about a month. Money’s just been piling up in my bank account all this time, so I might as well spend it like crazy.’
Whatever else one might say, his salary alone was enough to make anyone’s jaw drop.
The problem was that his working conditions were so awful and the welfare so poor that he barely had time to spend it.
It was an environment where he could order most things online and receive them within a few days, but that could never compare to the pleasure of swiping a card in person.
‘A car… Even if I bought one, I’d have no chance to drive it. I don’t know how long I’ll be in Korea, either. Then I’ll just buy a watch. Ah! Sunglasses too, the highest-end luxury brand—I’ll clean out the duty-free shop…’
As his happy fantasies began, the ominous chill that had felt almost cold at some point could no longer be felt.
It seemed it really had just been his imagination.
Andrew squeezed his eyes shut again to handle the work entrusted to him by the Blood Alliance.
Thinking that he would soon be able to rest properly once he finished the work currently piled up, the motivation that had sunk to rock bottom began blazing again.
‘Let’s finish everything quickly and go on vacation, vacation, vacation! Yeah, I’ll go all the way to Las Vegas and make my bank balance hit zero!’
After all, if he worked here for just a few years, he would be able to earn an amount of money he had never seen in his life.
He used his ability as if wringing it out of himself and began clearing, one by one, the tasks that had piled up while he tracked the Beoncheonhoe remnants.
Without the slightest idea what future was approaching him.
***
‘I need to make a language-interpretation magic tool as quickly as possible. That’s definitely the best way to draw out Andrew’s ability to its fullest.’
Although nearly half of Singapore’s population used English as their first language, put another way, that meant more than half primarily used other languages.
If we went to the trouble of gathering information only to let half of it slip by because he couldn’t understand it, what could be more wasteful than that?
“They say to strike while the iron is hot. Since I’ve thought of it, let’s get it done now.”
I sprang up from the massage chair and gulped down the coffee placed on the table beside me.
Of course, no matter how amazing I was, I couldn’t just mass-produce such a magic tool at will.
Automatically interpreting every language was not exactly low-level technology.
Unlike translation using science and technology, interpretation not based on an enormous database inevitably required a process of interpreting the intent contained in the user’s language.
That process was essential in order to perfectly understand homonyms, ambiguous rhetoric, and even expressions found only in certain cultural spheres without causing even the slightest error or misunderstanding.
And the ability to fully receive the meaning of language—
Was nothing less than the minimum basic requirement for mastering Word Spirit (言霊), a top-tier supernatural ability in the spell arts system.
There was no way it could be easy to realize such extraordinary qualities with a mere magic tool, was there?
‘Even if it’s only a basic requirement, Word Spirit is still Word Spirit. Even Horus, with all kinds of corrections, would have needed at least ten years if he had learned 「Dragon Speech Magic」 properly, so there’s no need to explain its rank and difficulty at this point.’
If I had not already possessed 「Xenoglossy」 and Horus’s 「Dragon Speech Magic」, and if I had not properly established a foundation of knowledge through Hans’s 「Forbidden Truth」, I would not have dared even attempt it.
In other words, saying that I was giving it as a reward to Andrew, who had rendered great service, was by no means simply me putting my own desires first!
‘Well, I’ll need to downgrade it a little and place a few restrictions on it. Limiting it so it only responds to Earth’s languages wouldn’t be bad.’
On top of that, if I incorporated other technologies and linked them together, I should be able to greatly reduce the difficulty.
Since the theory was already complete, the production period likely would not take as long as expected.
Having finished that thought, I looked straight ahead and quietly focused my mind.
‘As expected, using that will be the most certain.’
With a deep breath, I took a firm step forward.
Immediately afterward, the moment a strange sensation swept through my entire body—
I was already standing somewhere else.
A floor densely covered in solid tiles, walls finished in smooth marble, and a high ceiling studded with countless beads emitting a gentle light.
“…Then shall we begin?”
This was not some barrier on Earth, but a separate phase space governed by entirely different laws.
A secret hideout that only I could enter, and a final bastion where I could flee in a moment of crisis.
This place was none other than the 「Dragon Lair」.
***
「Dragon Lair」, the privilege Horus obtained upon accomplishing the achievement of being the “Last Gold Dragon.”
Moving into it, a place closer to subspace than to the manifested world, could in a sense be considered dimensional movement.
Of course, since it was not true dimensional movement, it had all sorts of restrictions and limitations, but when considering what could be done with it, those hardly felt like major drawbacks.
The first of those was—
“Uha-ha-ha! This is quite excellent!”
A space in one corner of the cave connected by a clean corridor.
A stocky dwarf looked around the workshop furnished with top-quality furnaces and anvils and burst into hearty laughter.
Along one wall, the devices taken from the Korean Beoncheonhoe remnants were lined up as well, but that was not what mattered right now.
It was a space prepared separately from the workshop in Tarak, but once it was filled with items he had personally made and prepared, the desire to start working immediately surged up strongly.
‘Well, the sooner the work starts, the better.’
I slowly approached that dwarf, Howard, and smiled faintly.
This was one of the effects of the 「Dragon Lair」.
It was the function that allowed avatars in different dimensions to be temporarily gathered in one place.
‘Thanks to this, we can collaborate without having to go through the trouble of exchanging workpieces in the middle of the job or deliberately crossing dimensions. All the necessary materials have already been placed in the lair’s storage.’
The second advantage was time difference adjustment using that.
This space was a parasitic world that did not belong to any dimension, while at the same time could exist only because other dimensions existed.
So the time difference, which would originally have had to automatically conform to the flow of the relevant dimension, could be chosen and applied however I wanted.
It meant I could use my time as efficiently as possible even while on Earth.
Of course, there was a separate reason why I had not used something this good frequently until now.
‘If only there weren’t a time limit, I could have used it much more freely.’
There was a limit to how long one could remain in this space, the 「Dragon Lair」.
Assuming I stayed inside all day, roughly one week out of a month?
Considering that it allowed me to create an extradimensional space without any special medium and enter and exit it at will, this level of restriction could be said to be entirely natural.
‘Of course, if I distribute the time well, I can use it more efficiently, but…’
The problem lay in the fact that the more avatars entered inside, the more the maintenance time decreased exponentially.
To begin with, a Dragon Lair was a nest a dragon created to gather its treasure and hibernate in a safer environment.
Perhaps, in order to eliminate the time limit, there would be no choice but to put Horus into hibernation at the center and make him the core of the space.
‘Well, for now, this alone is enough.’
Not only could I not bring others in, but when returning, I could only go back to my original position. Still, as an insurance policy for contingencies, it was a fairly decent privilege.
It was also perfect for use in urgent situations like this one.
[Phew— Then since time is precious, shall we begin right away?]
I, wearing Hans’s shell, immediately spoke in a low voice.
Although I suppressed it as much as possible, the surrounding air began freezing in an instant. However, the other avatars had accumulated such tremendous basic specs and skills in the meantime that an indirect aftermath of that level did not have much effect on them.
“Uha-ha-ha! I just happened to have an item in mind, so this works out well! I’ll be able to test it out this time!”
“Mm, if we mix magic and Taoist arts, I think we can design it more efficiently. Among them, the most effective would be…”
The beings affected by it were, after all, a master craftsman-level dwarf whose rank had greatly risen after receiving three blessings, and a foreign-educated genius dragon who had mastered the mysteries of two worlds.
At some point, the hatchling Horus, who had taken up a place there, began preparing an enchant beside Howard, who had started processing various materials.
[There’s no need to go so far as to include functions for speaking and writing language. As long as it can hear and read… In that case, if I do this like this…]
On top of that, even the main body (Hans Ver.), stepping in to lend a hand in place of the real Hans.
With such high-caliber personnel gathered in one place and pooling their strength, creating a magic tool was only a matter of time.
Clang—! Clang—! Hiss—
The worksite progressed step by step amid the steady noise.
The scene was astonishingly still, with a strange tranquility hanging over it.
At that same time.
Unlike what was happening elsewhere.
In the Ganghwan Realm, where the true Demon King Hans, the Fighting King Harley, and the supreme martial artist Hugo had been dispatched.
Among them, near the capital, Beijing, which was no different from the heart of the world.
—A battle upon which the fate of the world hung was just about to begin.
***
Beneath a sky blanketed in pitch-black storm clouds, so dark that the heavens themselves could not be seen.
“Khhut— So it’s about to begin.”
Upon the land cloaked in deep darkness despite it being broad daylight, a chilling voice flowed out, enough to make one’s hair stand on end just by hearing it.
The owner of that voice, Hans, wearing a human guise made from a chimera, sensed the crowd approaching nearby and quietly looked up at the sky.
At a glance, it merely seemed as though storm clouds had gathered irregularly, but within them, complex rules and systems were intertwined—things ordinary people could not even dare to imagine.
…No, it was the very embodiment of mystery, something even the greatest intellectuals of this world could not hope to grasp.
A unique composite technique of his own, blending all manner of theories: Qimen formations and magical knowledge, as well as magic arrays, numerology, Kabbalah, and more.
It was a single miracle he had remained here to prepare without leaving his post even amid the commotion on Earth, and it was a stage device he had personally arranged and set for the actors who had willingly climbed onto the stage.
So that, upon this one and only stage, they might burn more brilliantly and splendidly.
“Now—come, heroes. With your own hands, strike down evil and save the world. Peace without sacrifice has no meaning. Make fertilizer of your bodies, scatter your blood like water, and burn your souls to cast forth light.”
In later days, the people of the world would call it—
The final battle upon which the fate of the world hung.
A head-on clash between the convictions of the wicked Demonic Cultists and the martial artists of the Murim Alliance.
And the last fight of the heroes who had thrown away their lives to save a world on the brink of destruction.
“And when your tenacity and longing reach the heavens, I shall personally bring salvation down upon this land.”
Yet in truth, it had been planned by one man alone.
The curtain rose on the “Home Theater Rehearsal (Ganghwan Realm Edition).”