One Month to S-Rank
Camila looked flustered at Dohyun's proposal.
"Mr. Kim? You're aware that once you accept an awakener residency visa, you must enter the country within six months?"
"I'll enter the United States within one month."
"And you understand you'll be required to take the level assessment immediately upon arrival?"
"Of course I do."
"A promotion from B to S within a single month? Pardon my bluntness, Mr. Kim, but are you aware that under the American AAA system, you're merely Lv. 3?"
The International Awakener Association graded awakeners on a letter-based scale, dividing them from D to S rank.
But with so many high-tier awakeners flocking to America, the US had established an entirely new standard of its own — the AAA (American Awakener Assessment), breaking ranks down into fine-grained levels.
For the record, America was the only country using the AAA system at this point. Later, once the apocalypse began and awakeners across the globe grew dramatically stronger, AAA would become the international standard.
'Not that America will even exist by then.'
In any case, B rank corresponded to a mere Lv. 3 or 4, while S rank began at Lv. 7 at minimum. Dohyun was proposing to jump from Lv. 3 to Lv. 7 in one month — her incredulous reaction was only natural.
"Are you aware that the AAA assessment is far stricter than the traditional letter-grade system?"
"I am."
"Awakeners assessed as S rank in their home countries have walked away with A rank here — sometimes even B."
"And yet judgments have gone the other way too, haven't they? B rank receiving an A assessment, for instance."
"!!"
Camila shook her head.
"…No matter what, there has never been a single case of a B rank receiving an S assessment. And isn't Mr. Kim's class notoriously difficult to grow?"
Dohyun's class was Knight — a special subclass within it, to be precise.
Obviously not a 'Legend' or 'Unique' tier class, but one belonging to the 'Rare' category.
Shadow Knights.
So-called assassins — a class built around killing.
Where ordinary knights excelled against monsters, the Shadow Knight specialized in facing their fellow man. Specifically, in murder.
That was why Camila had come all this way for a mere B rank.
"Shadow Knights are undeniably potent when it comes to maintaining public order and hunting down villains. But growth is, for all practical purposes, impossible."
An awakener's abilities were never fixed. They could grow.
However, that growth was only achievable by conquering the Abyss — short of truly exceptional circumstances, no one could advance simply by killing their fellow humans.
'Even the villains only raid the Abyss now and then to sharpen their skills, after all.'
It said something that there was a running joke claiming the Ten Evils had cleared more Abysses than the Ten Stars had. Not that the Ten Evils ever did the world any good — without their chaos, the apocalypse would have been that much easier to weather.
'Come to think of it, most of the Ten Evils were from doomed America. Well, that tracks — practically every star-grade awakener worth the name is concentrated there right now.'
It was a situation much like baseball teams existing all over the world while the best players all gravitated to the American Major Leagues.
"And since this is only a preliminary contract, it carries no real weight, does it? The terms aren't finalized until after the AAA assessment."
Camila winced.
To be fair, standard practice was to respect the applicant's wishes as far as possible when drafting a preliminary contract.
"······If that's your reasoning, then why make such demands at all right now? Once a high-level assessment comes out of the AAA test, you'll receive treatment commensurate with it anyway."
Fair point.
It was a pointless demand.
Assuming Dohyun tested at S rank, Lv. 7 or higher, the Bureau would extend appropriate treatment even if he refused everything else.
"Unnecessary hassle simply annoys me."
"You mean revising the contract later? Certainly, the procedures would become more complicated, but that much is…"
"That's part of it. But think about it — if I enter the country under these terms, I'll be classified as a 'B-rank awakener immigrant' and shunted into the low-level assessment, won't I?"
"!!"
Dohyun looked at her in silence, then said,
"I have no interest in being tested a dozen times over. Prepare the high-level assessment for S-rank candidates from the start."
'That lunatic.'
After parting with Dohyun, Camila shook her head in sheer disbelief.
Shadow Knights were useful against villains, so he was indeed a priority recruitment target — but that absolutely did not make him a special enough existence to justify that kind of attitude.
She only had to look at the HPD — the Hero Police Department handling awakener law enforcement in the county — to find any number of Shadow Knights on the roster.
And yet…
'What was with that look in his eyes…?'
In that final moment, a chill had crawled up her spine at the way Dohyun had looked at her.
As a Bureau officer, Camila had met countless awakeners over the years.
A rankers, surprisingly, showed little meaningful difference among themselves.
But from Lv. 7 — that is, from S rank onward — the feeling changed unmistakably.
It wasn't about flaunting raw power.
From Lv. 7, the very dignity of the soul ascended, and one began to sense a pressure of the spirit — spiritual pressure.
Dohyun's eyes had carried that spiritual pressure — the kind only a Lv. 7 could radiate.
'And it wasn't ordinary spiritual pressure, either…'
Camila swallowed hard.
'It was almost exactly like the White Reaper.'
A star-grade hero whose name rang out across the entire United States.
A Slavic man from Poland, he had already slaughtered innumerable Russian-affiliated villains by the time America recruited him.
Perhaps because he had killed so many villains — unlike any ordinary S rank, the White Reaper carried a sinister aura steeped in blood. And the feeling Dohyun had given off just now was unsettlingly similar.
'…Absurd. Comparing a mere Lv. 3 B rank to the White Reaper.'
Whether her instinct was true or false, granting Dohyun's request was impossible. The Bureau's regulations forbade it.
To be sure, special treatment beyond the regulations happened often enough — but a B rank was not a candidate for it.
There was only one thing Camila could do.
Designation: Person of Interest — Flag for Observation
Camila's assessment report on Dohyun went up to the upper echelons of the Immigration Bureau.
Dohyun, too, knew Camila would never grant his request.
'Instead, she'll flag me as an observation target.'
Ordinarily, becoming a person of interest was a bad thing. It meant more eyes would fix on Dohyun — in the worst possible sense.
But rather, it was exactly what he wanted.
'I need to move fast.'
Dohyun's goal was not to become America's strongest hunter.
It was to conquer America itself.
'Not going to be easy. Far harder than taking Korea.'
America was nothing like the Republic of Korea. Everything about it was tens of times greater — its landmass, its national power, its capital reserves, the number of its awakeners, and the caliber of those awakeners.
If the Phase 1 apocalypse hadn't occurred, America would have succeeded in establishing a true Pax Americana.
The difficulty gap would far exceed the difference between winning a KBO championship and winning the World Series.
And the greatest problem was the time limit.
'The moment Phase 1 begins, America collapses at breakneck speed. All of today's glittering facade revealed as a lie.'
— This stop is Bupyeong Station!
Dohyun was riding the subway at that very moment.
His destination: Incheon.
It had always been the butt of jokes calling it the demon realm — and after the Cataclysm, its deteriorating public safety had made the nickname the plain truth.
The closer one drew to Incheon Port, the worse the lawlessness became; the area around the port was completely beyond the reach of government authority.
— This stop is Dongam Station!
— This stop is Juan Station!
As the train approached Incheon Port, the passengers emptied out at a rapid clip. Only two kinds of people remained aboard.
Those addicted to drugs.
Or those eyeing Dohyun sideways, glinting at him like predators sizing up prey.
'Even those creeps are oddly comforting.'
After his regression, Dohyun had visited Incheon Port early on every single cycle.
There was important business to attend to.
In any case, even if these vermin belonged to the Triad gang that controlled Incheon Port, they wouldn't make a move inside the subway car.
The Republic of Korea had some of the finest public safety in the entire world. Spill blood on the subway, and awakener security forces would descend on the spot.
Of course, that safety only extended as far as the station walls.
The moment he stepped out of Incheon Station, the line's terminus, hostile stares came flying at him from every direction.
"Now that's a face I haven't seen before. What brings you here, hm?"
A sneering drawl laced with a Chinese accent.
This was no mere street thug.
These were the Triads — Chinese mafias that had expanded into Korea, men who kidnapped ordinary people and sold them off as slaves across Southeast Asia, or hauled them back to China for live organ harvesting.
'And even that's a cover story. In truth, they procure human sacrifice offerings for the Outer Cult.'
That was a fact he'd learned in his seventh cycle.
At the time, Dohyun had operated as a villain and wiped out China's high-ranking officials wholesale — and in the process, he'd uncovered a great deal of intelligence.
Even at this point in time, more than half of China's ruling elite had already been turned over to the Outer God cults.
Of course, these small fry probably had no idea what use their kidnapped victims were ultimately put to.
In any case — men who deserved to die.
"I don't like the way you're looking at me. Let's start by carving out those eyeballs of yours— AAAAAARGH─!!!"
CRACK!
Dohyun drew his jackknife, drove it into the man's eye, and raked it sideways in one clean motion.
Clutching both eyes, the man screamed, and the gang members, startled, drew their guns.
Then the gang froze.
Dohyun had vanished.
"A stealth skill?"
"He's gotta be B rank or below anyway! Deploy the infrared scanner!"
But—
SHHHKK─!
The man fumbling frantically for the scanner collapsed in a spray of blood.
Only then did the gang realize they had poked something that should never, ever be touched — and they bolted. Too late.
They didn't make it five steps before they were cut down to the last man.
One barely clinging to life growled through a ruined throat.
"You… you… you'll regret this. Playing hero, are you? You'll die horribly."
CRUNCH. Dohyun crushed the man's windpipe.
Without a flicker of feeling.
"Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not here to play hero."
Soon, more Triads came swarming in.
The outcome, however, did not change. They were slaughtered, mercilessly, no matter how many rushed at him at once.
Once everyone nearby had been dealt with, silence settled over the street.
Dohyun slipped into the back alleys of Chinatown, the Triad's home base.
Despite the commotion outside, Chinatown itself was quiet. Fights like this broke out every other day, after all.
No doubt the report was only now reaching their superiors.
Through alleys he had walked so many times they were imprinted in his memory, he arrived at the tallest Chinese-style building in Chinatown.
The Gongcheonggwan.
In the past it had been a famous Chinese restaurant — now it served as the Triad headquarters. He could feel bodies bustling back and forth within.
Dohyun reached into his bag and pulled out an object.
A Specter Bomb.
An explosive crafted from refined mana stones — its production method was a jealously guarded secret.
Not that such things mattered to Dohyun.
As casually as flicking away a cigarette butt, Dohyun hurled the Specter Bomb at the Gongcheonggwan.
FLASH!! KABOOOOOOM──!!!
The building detonated and came crashing down.
And then, the message rose before his eyes.
You have achieved the feat of One Hundred Killings!