The Idle Game Character Destroys the Building
“Hmm. Should we just head back?”
“Why? You were all for it earlier, and now you’re backing out?”
“I’m wondering if it’s right to put you in danger like this.”
Just a couple of months ago, I’d still seen Siren as a child. Now that I’d felt firsthand how powerful she was, I felt a little reassured, but did I really need to push her into something this risky? The thought nagged at me.
“Hehe. Are you worried about me?”
“Of course I am.”
“Why? Because I look like a kid again?”
“Maybe?”
“Hmmm. Well, okay then.”
Just then, Yu Gang-hyeok, who had been glancing at the rearview mirror, spoke up.
“Lady Siren, thank you so much for cooperating. Once this is over, I’ll personally make sure you receive proper compensation…!”
“Be quiet.”
“…Did I do something wrong?”
“No?”
“Kgh…! I don’t know what it was, but I’m truly sorry!”
“I said no.”
“Y-yes…!”
A short while later, we arrived at the scene. It was the same open field where I’d last seen Lee So-rin.
Yu Gang-hyeok hadn’t planned on deploying Siren from the start. To him, she was an unexpected windfall, a cash cow, and the heroic figure who had single-handedly revived the crumbling Association. Even if the villain’s only demand was Siren herself, he couldn’t bring himself to summon her so easily.
At first, he followed protocol and sent in the Special Operations Hunter Unit, coordinated with nearby guilds, and evacuated civilians. But the villain was beyond standard parameters. “Beyond standard” meant two things: overwhelmingly powerful, or impossible to counter. The villain Lee So-rin, codename Phantom, fell into the latter category.
She possessed both invisibility and teleportation. Invisibility erased the presence of everything that originated from her—footsteps, footprints, sound, body heat… nothing could be detected. Magic was no exception. Without any trace to sense, there was no way to respond, and combined with teleportation, she was practically a reaper to anyone facing her.
Her previous records showed she had been an elemental mage, but how she’d obtained these abilities remained a mystery. Phantom had been demanding only Siren from the beginning. Even when a public hunter with polymorph abilities disguised themselves as Siren to make contact, Phantom never showed herself. A battle mage team composed entirely of high-ranking mages was deployed, but they couldn’t catch her. Phantom simply avoided any fight she couldn’t win, and because of her invisibility, it was impossible to even tell if she had fled.
If Phantom hadn’t revealed the location where she wanted Siren sent, we probably wouldn’t have been able to pinpoint her position today either. Every time an operation failed, the number of hostages only grew. With nothing accomplished except repeated retreats, morale hit rock bottom, and the guilds and magic towers soon withdrew their cooperation. In the end, the only one left was an archmage. Lee Seon’s relationship with the Association had soured five years ago, so it had to be Siren.
Yu Gang-hyeok felt a little—actually, quite a lot—wronged. Because of that Phantom bastard, he hadn’t even been able to appear on Siren’s broadcasts, which were causing daily innovations. His true mission was to assist Lady Siren, yet someone dared to interfere! It was infuriating. And heartbreaking. To think he’d ended up troubling Lady Siren like this… When had things become so lamentable? Surely this wouldn’t happen twice in his lifetime. So, he made a vow. From now on, the Association’s administrative power would revolve around Siren—
“That’s enough. I don’t want to hear any more.”
“Ah, but the rest was important.”
“He seems like a weird person.”
“He does have a bit of a foolhardy side.”
Yu Gang-hyeok’s secret efforts, which he’d asked Lee Hyun to help with, had come to nothing. Leaving that conversation behind—one that would have made Yu Gang-hyeok weep tears of blood if he knew—Siren stepped into the open field. Halfway in, she turned back to look at Lee Hyun. Their eyes met as he watched her with concern.
“Umm…”
“…What?”
“Nothing.”
Ironically, the emotions they were feeling were similar.
I’m worried…
I’m anxious…
Lee Hyun felt like he was leaving a child by the riverbank, while Siren simply felt strange because this was the first time she’d been separated from him. Amid their mutual separation anxiety, the one who made the decision first was Lee Hyun, who was at least the adult in the situation.
“Go on.”
“Okay… I’ll be back.”
With that, Lee Hyun turned first and headed back to the car. Siren looked back every three steps, but eventually entered the open field. Lee Hyun watched her retreating figure from inside the car. Dozens of public hunters followed behind her.
“We’ll escort you.”
“Yes.”
The car only left once she was out of sight. Honestly, he was incredibly worried and wanted to stay by her side if he could, but he knew he’d only get in the way.
“She’ll be fine.”
“I hope so.”
A quiet conversation passed in the still car.
“She demanded Siren, yet allowed the public hunters to accompany her. That’s unexpected.”
“I suspect she’s planning to use Lady Siren’s kind nature to turn the public hunters into bait. There shouldn’t be any problems. They’re not exactly pushovers.”
Yu Gang-hyeok mostly tried to reassure him. There was no way an archmage would be defeated. To support her, they’d even sent along public hunters who could, in the worst case, die in her place.
“You don’t need to worry too much.”
“Thank you.”
Whether that was purely from the heart or just bait to ease Siren’s inexplicable hostility toward him, Lee Hyun briefly wondered before simply nodding.
“We’ve arrived.”
Just as Lee Hyun opened the car door and stepped out in front of his house—
Thunk.
The moment he closed the door and turned around, he found himself inside a concrete building.
“…?”
Lee Hyun looked down. An iron chair. Chains were wrapped tightly from his legs all the way up to just below his neck. His arms were bound behind him, and right in front of him… a camera was pointed straight at him.
“Hic, hic…”
“Mom…”
And from behind came the sound of gloomy voices. What the hell was going on? As Lee Hyun looked around, he recalled what had just happened. He’d clearly gotten out of the car and turned around, only for the location to change in an instant. The place had shifted in the blink of an eye? An instantaneous spatial change. Spatial movement. One word surfaced in his mind.
…Kidnapping.
Then the people behind him must be hostages just like him.
“Hello? Long time no see? Hehe.”
His guess soon turned into certainty. Lee So-rin. She revealed herself. But her appearance… was quite different from the last time he’d seen her. Lee Hyun spoke cynically.
“Did you trade your eyeballs for candy or something?”
“Oh my. Your attitude’s changed a lot. Hanging around that successful bitch must’ve made you think you’re something special too?”
She had no eyes. Her mouth was torn wide open and stitched back together, barely holding its shape. The moment those stitches came undone, her jaw would probably touch her collarbone. It was a terrifying sight, but… for some reason, it just looked ridiculous.
Lee Hyun said, “No? I know my place. Siren’s the impressive one. I’m nothing special.”
“For someone who says that, the way you talk—”
“I’m just better than you. At least I look better than some sloppy bitch who lost her eyes and got her mouth ripped open like a pair of castanets.”
With his limbs tightly bound and only his face able to move, Lee Hyun spat out sharp words without regard for his situation. Even he was surprised at himself. Had he always been this fearless? But he didn’t stop there.
“You want to die, don’t you?”
“You talk like that, but the fact that you’re not killing me means you either want something or have some kind of plan.”
“…”
“If you’re going to threaten me, at least watch a noir movie first. There’s no effort here. None. Did you think I’d start shaking just because you kidnapped me half-assedly? Screw off, castanet bitch.”
“…You—”
“So, who’d you sell your eyes to? The devil? You got scared when they said they’d give you power, so you followed along and traded them? Are you satisfied with what you got? Doesn’t look like a very good ability to me.”
Lee So-rin, who had only been taking the verbal beating, let out a sneer for the first time.
“Of course it’s a good ability. Want me to guess what the Association told you? They probably said it was teleportation. Sorry, but it’s not something that simple.”
“Didn’t think it was.”
“Right. It’s not. But what do you know to be running your mouth—”
“It swaps positions, doesn’t it?”
“…”
“Exchanging the positions of two objects. If I had to name it, maybe Phase Shift? Definitely qualifies as a higher-tier ability than teleportation.”
“…What the hell are you?”
“You probably swapped positions with whoever was tied up here just a moment ago. Then you used Phase Shift to come over here right after.”
“…”
“And the fact that you haven’t said anything about invisibility until now means that part’s probably real too.”
“Shut up.”
“Still telling people to shut up when you run out of things to say. By the way, why does your face look like that?”
Lee Hyun was so relentless that it was hard to tell who the real aggressor was. Sensing that she couldn’t win with words, Lee So-rin ignored his muttering about how the public hunters had been allowed to join Siren’s side to scatter their forces as much as possible. She walked over to the camera set up in front of Lee Hyun.
“Siren. I’m going to give that bitch an unforgettable wound. You two are all lovey-dovey, right? I’ll record you dying in agony and preserve it forever.”
“So that plan you mentioned was just recording this. Hey, seriously, do you have brain damage or something? Your creativity is a little…”
“…I’ll kill you painfully.”
“Wow, scary.”
“Just die.”
At that moment, a blue spear shot toward Lee Hyun. Aimed at his head. She couldn’t endure the verbal lashing anymore. However—
BOOM—!
“……What?”
The spear was blocked, plain as day. By a golden barrier. Lee Hyun smiled brightly.
“I can use magic now. Guess you didn’t know?”
“…So what.”
Lee So-rin unleashed a barrage of magic. Each time, he deployed a barrier, not allowing a single attack through.
“Don’t tell me your academy background was a lie?”
“…I’ll tear you apart.”
“That’s a pretty scary thing to say when you can’t even break a newbie barrier.”
He said that, but Lee Hyun was starting to feel the strain. Siren had declared he had talent, but going up against an academy graduate still had its limits.
“Soul-Destroying Black Sphere.”
Just then, a black sphere rose behind Lee So-rin. Crackle, crackle. The space around the sphere distorted. He didn’t know what kind of magic it was, but her intent to tear him apart was crystal clear. Lee So-rin’s body had become slightly transparent—probably the price of the magic. It was a spell manifested through bodily sacrifice. There was no way his beginner-level barrier could withstand it, and Lee Hyun knew that well. Even so, he didn’t run. He’d bought enough time.
“Die.”
The black sphere shot forward. And then—
BOOM—!
“…What.”
It was blocked. By a barrier. A rainbow-colored, bubble-like barrier. The caster, of course, wasn’t Lee Hyun.
“She’s here.”
Lee Hyun smiled brightly. Right after—
BOOOOOOM—!!
Dust and concrete fragments flew in all directions. The ground shook as if an earthquake had struck. But the scene revealed as the darkness brightened was far beyond anything an earthquake could compare to. The ceiling had been ripped away. More precisely, the entire concrete building had been torn off. The sky that appeared was filled with black smoke. Between the dark clouds, bright red fireballs flowed down like lava. In the center of that calamity, a woman in a cute yellow outfit looked down with a cold, dignified expression.
In response to Lee So-rin’s “Die,” Lee Hyun belatedly replied.
“You die instead.”