Mission: Imagination
The training dragged on longer than usual, delayed by the earlier accident.
Having properly completed their formation transition drills, the team focused today on timing for dealing and tanking, pouring sweat into it.
"Tankers, get your heads in the game! Your timing's off! Sync up exactly with the main tanker. Even a slight mismatch slashes your tanking power!"
The Pink Team currently had three tankers.
Choi Muhyun's rock-solid stability made him perfect for main tanker. Do Jin-yong lacked finesse but had solid defense on his own; if he nailed the timing, they could expect some nice synergy.
An Seong-ho primarily handled buffer duties, but Kim Jun drilled him to step up as third tanker when needed. Quick on the uptake and sharp-minded, An Seong-ho grasped his team leader's intent right away, adapting smoothly and occasionally flashing surprising talent.
I have to bring him over to Uramata, no matter what.
Kim Jun resolved to work out the details after the Sokcho raid.
The tankers' coordination sharpened quickly with each round.
The problem was the dealers.
Skyla and Bang Yun-a... they were like water and oil, never meshing. They were trying, but their dealing timings were subtly off, always falling short of expectations.
He'd heard ice dealers and fire dealers didn't always get along, but he hadn't realized it'd be this bad. Probably because Yoo Min-jeong and Skyla clicked so well, he'd taken it too lightly.
Pushing harder wouldn't fix it.
After some thought, Kim Jun switched up their attack pattern—from simultaneous strikes to alternating crosses. It wasn't perfect, but... it was tolerable.
"That's it for today."
The moment Kim Jun spoke, every Pink Team member collapsed right there on the spot.
Kim Jun stepped out of the simulator first, grabbed bottled water from the fridge, and passed it around to his exhausted teammates.
"Thought we'd get a break today."
Bang Yun-a's voice.
Kim Jun grinned. With the surprise incident's main player pushing for training, the team had no choice but to roll with it.
"You really okay?"
Do Jin-yong asked.
"No issues."
Under pressure from the guild doctor, he'd undergone nearly an hour of full scans. Results: minor abrasions aside, he was flawless.
The others headed to the showers.
Kim Jun called out to An Seong-ho.
"Find anything?"
"Yeah, but... no luck. Upper-tier raiders like Jeong Myeong-ho or Kwon Joo-chan— their guilds lock down combat footage tight. There's some public stuff, but it's too short to analyze properly. Skills shown are all famous ones anyway. Won't help much."
"...Got it."
"Sorry."
"No sweat."
Kim Jun was genuinely disappointed.
Once they entered the Sokcho Dungeon, clashes with Jeong Myeong-ho and Kwon Joo-chan were inevitable.
Even with full intel on their skills, strengths, weaknesses, and styles, victory would be an uphill battle. That's why he'd asked An Seong-ho, but even he couldn't dig up the good stuff.
Of course, he had basics on Jeong Myeong-ho's Water Creation and Kwon Joo-chan's Icarus Machine. But seeing them in action firsthand would reveal so much more.
He shoved the frustration aside for now.
Get stronger than this... and he wouldn't need footage to make it work.
Kim Jun touched his thigh.
Beneath the firm muscle, he felt the spring settled there. Ever since the accident, that odd sensation lingered. When he'd asked Go Cheolmin, who rushed to the hospital, the man had smiled and explained.
"Kid, that's image formation. A virtual spring, born from imagination, properly rooted inside you now. Activating Jungchwi will be a breeze from here on."
After arriving at the rundown Urama Raid Center, Kim Jun looked up image formation on his reader pad.
As skills advanced, deploying inner energy grew more complex—and image formation was a crucial step.
Jungchwi required crafting virtual springs in both legs; reaching image formation made them feel as vivid as real muscle or bone.
Experts said it not only eased activation immensely but boosted the skill's power too.
To eradicate the Absorption Tree... in that desperate Jungchwi charge, his laser focus had propelled him to image formation.
Kim Jun shifted his Cheonnoe Heart Technique energy to his legs. Even a partial infusion made the spring tense unmistakably.
Pop.
He covered 15 meters in a blink.
The activation jolt was smoother now—no body shake. Launch time shortened too.
But one issue remained unsolved.
It was single-use.
Store power normally, tap the spring's elasticity only when needed—and Mok Honbo's core Tan-Dang-Po-Chu principles would upgrade entirely.
On a whim, he searched "spring" on the reader pad.
Articles on automatic watches costing hundreds of millions per piece popped up. Even one a celebrity had bought and made famous.
Kim Jun tilted his head. Why spring searches yielding watch ads?
Skimming a few, he found himself grinning wide.
There it was—the answer.
Mainspring, escapement, balance spring!
Articles on automatic watch mechanics gave him the hint: channeling stored mainspring power precisely when needed.
If luck held, he'd crack Jungchwi's final flaw.
Skyla: You say the Red Spider Sect differs from typical guilds—what exactly sets it apart?
Dongbang Chu: Guilds, no matter how they dress it up, are profit-driven like any corporation. Raiders join for core earnings. They're specialized laborers learning martial arts and magic to make money, right?
Skyla: And the Red Spider Sect?
Dongbang Chu: Our disciples pursue martial arts and magic for their own sake. I've never once entered a dungeon my whole life—to prove I'm after power, not wealth.
Skyla: Don't your sect raiders enter dungeons?
Dongbang Chu: Of course. But the purpose differs. Not for money, but conviction. To demonstrate the might of pursuing pure strength.
Skyla: Still, practically speaking, cores must help fund the sect.
Dongbang Chu: People need food to live; organizations need money to run. But you don't say people exist to eat.
Yeom Sang-taek slipped a black cricket, pinched in chopsticks, through the slightly ajar lid of the cage.
Medusa lunged, snagging the wriggling bug and dragging it to the corner. The cage rattled from her strength. The Violet Tarantula devoured the cricket in seconds, then eyed her owner with a still-hungry glare.
Truth was, she always looked hungry.
"Yeah, you're in a mood."
Yeom Sang-taek fed her a mana-infused mantis next.
The burly mantis thrashed futilely once caught.
He watched closely as she savored it.
She'd nearly doubled in size since he got her—time for a bigger cage.
Everyone who saw Medusa, especially magic-using raiders, had a comment.
"Raised her well. Ready for marble extraction."
Sa Yeonggyo's words.
"She's plenty grown. Tell me when you extract the marble—I'll help."
Yoo Min-jeong's offer.
"Get too big, and extraction's a pain. Do it soon."
Skyla's advice.
Truth be told, he'd been thinking the same for days. But the once-ferocious, cruel-looking Medusa had grown on him—he'd been delaying without realizing.
Absorbing the condensed mana marble from a medium's body... killed the medium.
Knowing that full well, Yeom Sang-taek couldn't bring himself to end her for the marble.
Sigh.
But he couldn't put it off forever.
Above all, to contribute to the team, he needed strength. As main buffer, he had to support with diverse skills—but his mana reserves were still lacking.
Besides, the marble was the starting point for Yungma-seo cultivation.
Yeom Sang-taek steeled himself and grabbed his phone.
"Hey, it's me. Planning marble work tomorrow. Yeah, thanks."
Short call with Skyla. You couldn't do marble extraction solo—mediums could bolt anywhere; needed a skilled raider for safety.
He hung up, lay on the bed. Early start to the Raid Center tomorrow—better sleep.
Sleep wouldn't come.
Violet Tarantula's gleaming eyes haunted him.
He couldn't stand it.
Yeom Sang-taek went to his desk, fired up his laptop. Searched ways to absorb a medium's marble without killing it. Surprisingly, plenty of posts.
Reading calmly, most were nonsense.
No active raiders— just clueless civilians spouting off about raider life and magic.
Mediums were a luxury hobby for the rich with time and cash; even average folks eyed them. Tough for Violet Tarantulas, but turtles or lizards were mid-class affordable.
"Huh?"
One article caught his eye.
One Violet Tarantula yielding seven marbles absorbed. If true, she'd lived over three years.
"Red Spider Sect Leader Dongbang Chu..."
First time hearing the name.
Photo included.
An elderly man with snow-white hair, piercing gaze. Spiders crawling his cheeks, neck, shoulders—even arms and hands. Striking.
Yeom Sang-taek dug into Red Spider Sect.
They specialized in spiders, blending their traits, strength, venom into martial arts and magic for power. Sect Leader Dongbang Chu's views felt... unconventional.
One Skyla interview popped up.
He barely resisted calling her right then. Whether Dongbang Chu was legit, if he could extract without killing—Skyla would know tomorrow.
Tap, tap, tap.
Medusa scuttling in her cage—louder, rowdier than usual.
Yeom Sang-taek sat by the cage.
Her eight black eyes fixed on him.
As if she knew what tomorrow brought. If Skyla called Dongbang Chu a rambling half-mad geezer, then for Medusa... tomorrow was her last day.
Tap-tap-tap, tap-tap-tap.
Excited, she started slamming the cage walls.
Unheard of—Yeom Sang-taek panicked. Then, one hinge snapped.
Before he could grab the lid, the second gave. As it lifted, Medusa shoved through with her bulk, leaping to the floor.
Yeom Sang-taek froze in shock.
That cage was sturdy as hell.
Catch her quick!
He grabbed the styrofoam box by the shoe rack—old mandoo set box, big enough to cover her.
Creeping close to trap her—and she scampered up the desk leg, vanishing into his prized figurines.
Plan B.
One black cricket into the cage, taped shut tight.
Step back—hear wings flutter, Medusa heads over. While she munched, close the lid, wrap in tape... safe till tomorrow's extraction.
She crawled in.
Creeping up—"Hey!" A drunken passerby's yell outside.
Startled, Medusa retreated, scaled the wall to the window.
Window cracked just a centimeter—too small for her bulk, he thought. But she smashed straight through the glass and fled.
Crash.
"Damn it!"
Disaster.
What if she bit someone? Her venom was potent, boosted by pricey feeds and mana infusions—could kill on contact.
Even one death, and his raider license was gone. No staying with Pink Team or Uramata Guild.
Yeom Sang-taek rushed outside.
Medusa scaled down the wall, onto a streetlamp.
A middle-aged man approached below.
"Watch out!"
Yeom Sang-taek yelled.
Medusa from atop, poised—then dove.
"...No!"
Dreams of top buffer, mastering Yungma-seo... all ashes. Then, the impossible.
The man reached out and snatched Medusa mid-air.
Fierce Medusa bit his hand—but he just winced. No convulsions, no foaming collapse.
Looking up at Yeom Sang-taek, the man said,
"Your spider?"
"...Yes."
"Keep dangerous things like this locked up proper. Where's the cage?"
"Uh, inside."
The man gripped Medusa tight, followed Yeom Sang-taek in, dropped her in the cage, slammed the lid shut.
Yeom Sang-taek taped it secure—and spotted the man's swollen hand.
"Sir, you okay? Should see a doctor."
"This? Hmm, stings a bit. Lucky for you—I'm immune to spider venom. Still, she's a strong one. Raised her right."
"Sorry."
"Yeah, you should be. Anyone else, dead in ten seconds."
"Really, truly sorry. Um... you a raider?"
"Was once."
"Retired, then?"
The man just smiled faintly.
Yeom Sang-taek fetched orange juice from the fridge, handed it over.
"Thank you so much. Without you... I'd be done for."
"Big for a medium. Past marble time, no?"
"Well..."