One Blow to Fell the Giant
I had soloed an A-rank dungeon boss.
In a single strike, no less.
I split that massive body clean in half.
"Almost died there."
Why do things always twist sideways on me like this?
With S-10 mana and the abilities I carried, I had figured it would be a simple win. Who could have guessed that just blocking the first blow would burn through every scrap of energy I had?
I would have to be more careful from now on.
Still, I could not wipe the grin that kept spreading across my face of its own accord. His filthy blood soaked me from head to toe, but so what? The stench of Minotaur blood had already been thick in the air. Nothing much had changed. The gate sat right in front of us; I could just step outside and wash off.
Daedalus’s enormous spear, drenched in blood. How much would this thing fetch? Tens of billions? Maybe more. It was the weapon an A-rank dungeon boss had actually used. Between the mana content and the chance it was a metal that did not even exist on Earth, this was a real jackpot.
On top of that, the bastard had been wearing clothes. My attack had sliced them in half, of course, but that hardly mattered. No human was going to wear a giant’s outfit as-is. The fabric, the decorated metals, the jewels—those would all be worth a fortune too.
One problem, though. I could not put anything up for auction under my own name. It had to go through a properly licensed corporation… well, I would just have to use Ahn Jihyun.
It had been a hair-raising mess, but unexpected income had fallen into my lap. Time to walk out of here in a good mood. Still, I needed to keep my expression under control. How many people had died inside this place?
I first retraced my steps to collect my teammates.
"Where are you all? I took down the boss. Come out."
At my shout, faces filed out one after another from the nearby buildings. If the fight had intensified and debris had flown this way, collapsing the structure, we would have been finished. Then again, there had been nowhere decent to hide in the first place.
"D-did you really take it down alone?"
"Yes."
"Team Leader~"
Lee Donggeul ran over and threw her arms around me. Ahn Jihyun just stared at me for a long time with wide, startled eyes. The blood still streaming down my entire body had everyone looking shocked.
"Donggeul. I reek of blood. Get off."
"It’s fine. It’s you, Team Leader… Are you hurt anywhere? Want me to heal you?"
"No injuries. Let’s move out already. Before we get tangled up in something annoying, we need to get out of here fast. This place has turned into an A-rank dungeon now—the military will lock it down."
Part of the long corridor leading outside had been destroyed, but after clearing a few pillars and chunks of stone we had enough space for people to pass. We left the dungeon cart and the remaining food behind and carried the wounded and the bodies ourselves. The abandoned gear could be recovered by the military later, or not—whatever.
Once the entire party had exited through the gate, I went back alone to collect the loot. I had already dragged the spear up to the gate entrance. Since I had no idea what would actually sell, I planned to haul the giant’s entire corpse out and sell that too. Dragging it past the collapsed corridor, though, was awkward. The passage was simply too narrow. I could not exactly chop it into pieces either…
"What now…"
Leave it here for the moment. If it turned out to be worth money, I could always come back for it. A few minutes would not make it rot.
So I took the long spear, stripped the clothes and ornaments the giant had worn, and stepped through the gate. The teammates who had already gotten out were waiting for me.
"S-someone else just came out!"
"Wh-what the hell is that thick thing?"
"If this is the last of them, the survivor count is…"
The area in front of the gate was in an uproar. Of course it was. A full day had already passed; it was three in the afternoon. The bodies had already left with the people from Cool Support. Senior Kim Chan-il had been rushed straight to the hospital. Kim Isol, though, I had left alone. I was taking her with me.
I hurried over to the civil servant who was still talking with Ahn Jihyun and spoke without preamble.
"Who are those people? Get the reporters out of here right now."
"Ah, well, that is… there is nothing I can do. The raid teams showed up."
"Raid teams?"
If it was a raid team, Jang Ahra—Jang Yong’s older sister—would be part of it. With her personality, the second she heard her little brother had been caught up in an incident she would have come flying. So why so late? No—she was not even here. Jang Yong was standing over there, but the people around him were all strangers.
The civil servant’s next words explained why.
"Yes… well, the thing is… Jang Ahra herself never even heard the news about this place. She joined the rescue team at the Bukhansan Gate. So her colleagues only arrived here late, and right then all of you returned. They are redrawing the rescue plans from scratch now… but, uh, if I get fired over this…"
"I will handle it exactly the way I told you last night. Stop worrying."
"Oh, thank you so much. Actually, Dragon Guild called at dawn and…"
Dragon Guild had called. They had found out Ahn Jihyun went inside, and the civil servant had also been told I was not one of Dragon Guild’s people. That was why the man was fretting now. I did not care in the slightest.
My mana is S-10, you bastards. Just try me. I will erase Dragon Guild from South Korea entirely.
The civil servant had dark circles hanging halfway down his face. Clearly he had not slept a wink last night. In a situation like this, sleep would have been impossible.
I finished pulling free the spear of Daedalus that was still only halfway out of the gate. The blood-soaked weapon, more than ten meters long, finally revealed its full length. The shaft alone was thicker than my thigh, and the weight went without saying.
"If you do not want to get hurt, move."
Get out of the way already. You are in the way, you fucking gutter-press bastards. Who the hell gave you permission to fire off flashes?
"Whoa, what the hell is that… Skipping the wait at Bukhansan and coming here was the right call!"
"That place is going to take at least five days for a rescue. Idiots. The area is huge—how long did they think they would wait for a rescue team to come back while camping out front? Just stroll over after three or four days."
"Right? Glad I followed Reporter Kim here. Anyway, what is that iron pole? Looks like a weapon with that edge on it."
My face was about to be plastered all over the internet. Would they try to slap me with a disciplinary action for entering a gate without permission? It had been an emergency, and I had brought people out alive. Just try it. I would flip the entire government if I had to.
"Reporters, clear the area! It is dangerous!"
When I hoisted the spear to move it, the whole pack scrambled backward. I toyed with them a little longer, then carefully set the weapon down on the ground and walked over to Ahn Jihyun.
"Jihyun. How much do you think that spear will go for? And this armor, these ornaments… tell me everything among Daedalus’s loot that is worth money. Is there more? Would anyone buy the bones or the half-split skull?"
"W-well… I am not really familiar with auction prices…"
She lived a life where she never had to worry about money, did she? Looking at her made me feel suddenly shabby, and a wave of self-loathing washed over me. Once I had my own company I would hire people for every little thing, stop fretting about cash, and just play and eat.
Given the scale of the incident, a sizable crowd had gathered inside the management office—military personnel, high-ranking civil servants, people from various corporations. The truly important ones were busy with other dungeons, of course, so this place was an afterthought. Once they heard my story, though, their attitude would change.
I told them. The monsters inside had been A-rank, and I had not wiped them all out. I roughly explained the situation up through the defeat of Daedalus.
"Is that true?"
"What would I gain by lying? Go inside the dungeon right now if you want to check."
"Ugh… all right. Good work. Which organization are you with, and what is your name?"
"……"
They kept asking one annoying question after another, but I had reached my limit. I was starving for sleep. So I gave vague answers and immediately slipped away. The moment I stepped close in my blood-soaked suit, they were suddenly eager to tell me to go rest well and see me next time. Cowards.
Still, there was one thing I made absolutely clear. The corpse of Daedalus still inside the dungeon—every last drop of blood—belonged to me. Do not even think about quietly snatching any of it. I drove that point home hard.
In a half-dazed state I stopped by the company, returned the equipment, and left the spear of Daedalus and the rest of the loot in storage. I had promised a generous storage fee, so there should be no problems. The moment the five-hundred-billion-won deposit came back, my legs nearly gave out.
"Team Leader… are you all right?"
"Yeah… just a little tired. Everyone’s exhausted, right?"
"Um, about Isol…"
"I will take her. It will be hard, but wash her, change her clothes, and bring her out."
I stripped off the suit and scrubbed for a long time. The blood smell refused to fade, which was the real problem. It took forever.
"Fuck, I am so tired I could die…"
Once I finally stepped out I booked the nearest motel. Exhaustion hit so hard I simply collapsed onto the bed. I was not the only one; every survivor who had made it back piled into a few rooms and fell asleep tangled together. I had brought everyone I wanted to protect out alive. That single fact let me sleep without a single worry.
I had fallen asleep Friday afternoon. When I opened my eyes it was nearly noon on Saturday. The motel owner himself had come upstairs because we had occupied the rooms right up to the time limit. He told us to get the hell out if we were not staying another night, so we scrambled outside in a hurry.
I sent the team members home. Their families would be worried; better to get them back quickly. I put them in taxis. Contrary to my expectations, Ahn Jihyun was stuck right next to Hong Eunyoung.
"Hm?"
"What?"
"Just surprised you did not go home."
"Ah… I have not gotten all of my mana back yet, have I?"
Fair enough. After tasting a Transcendent’s mana, I understood her feelings perfectly. That power. It far exceeded anything I had imagined. Even with my energy completely drained and Thought Acceleration unusable, I had still dropped the boss in one strike… damn. The only regret was that I had not felt the cutting sensation with my own hands.
We had already had sex more than ten times. Even I would want one or two more rounds to reclaim perfect mana before heading back.
Hong Eunyoung, standing beside us, asked me,
"So what do you plan to do with her?"
Kim Isol, the original owner of my transcendent power. She was still asleep, currently riding on my back.
"Well. If there is nothing wrong with her health, we will take her with us for now. Once she wakes up I will take her home…"
According to Hong Eunyoung, when a Mana Manifestor used a massive amount of mana right at the moment of awakening, they sometimes fell into a deep sleep for several days. Leave it to an Academy instructor. Kim Isol’s case was similar—she had simply fallen asleep. In her case it was not an awakening but becoming a Transcendent, but still.
We headed for Hong Eunyoung’s house. My smartphone was exploding with calls and messages; I ignored every one of them. Even Dragon Guild, who had clearly tracked our movements, made no attempt to approach. It looked like they intended to keep the promise they had made with me.
"By the way, Hong Eunyoung."
"Yes?"
"What happens when an Academy instructor skips work without leave for two days straight?"
"How should I know! Whose fault is this right now?"
"If you get disciplined, do not worry. I will hire you myself."
"Hmph…"
We were starving, so on the way to Hong Eunyoung’s place I ordered a bunch of delivery in advance. This time the goal was food, not bikes.
"That spear of Daedalus had better sell high… otherwise we will be in the red."
"How are you planning to sell it?"
"Ahn Jihyun agreed to help. Right? If it does not work out I can just start the company and sell it later."
"I will sell it for you. It is not even difficult. No commission needed. Just give me my mana back properly."
"Are you ready for that?"
Ahn Jihyun, sitting in the front seat, nodded. Good. Everything else was settled; today I would push the synchronization rate to a clean one hundred percent. While stroking the hair of Kim Isol, who was lying with her head on my lap in the back seat, I was already thinking about having sex with Ahn Jihyun. I really was something else.
We arrived at Hong Eunyoung’s house. Two full days after leaving, we were back. We ate the delivered food, then I had a rough, intense round of sex with Ahn Jihyun. I was satisfied, and she looked pretty satisfied too. One more time and it would hit one hundred percent. I was resting for a moment, wondering how to make the finale spectacular, when everything seemed to be wrapping up smoothly.
That is, until I got bored and turned on the TV.
Fuck…
I knew it would come to this.
New business permits suspended for two years? The content did not stop there. It looked like they intended to merge small and medium enterprises and completely restructure the industry around the major conglomerates. They were even talking about abolishing the ordinary Supporter system entirely and pouring tens of trillions of won into retraining lower-rank Awoken as professional Supporters.
In short, even if I tried to start a company in this industry, the permit would never come through.
Ahn Jihyun, sitting beside me, looked extremely apologetic. Hong Eunyoung asked me directly.
"So what are you going to do now… huh? Why are you smiling? That is creepy…"
"I am truly sorry. Our guild pressured the government and…"
"It is not your fault. Even without that pressure, the Double Gate incidents would have led to this eventually."
"No, but then you cannot start your company. Have you given up? Why are you smiling?"
Why was I smiling? Because it no longer mattered. This whole affair had made up my mind for good. I was not going to start my own company.
"You have some other idea, do you not? What is it? Come on, I am dying of curiosity—tell me already!"
"Do I really need to build one from scratch? Hiring every single office worker one by one, all the extra hassle…"
"You cannot mean…"
"Exactly. I am just going to buy one whole. Another company. There is actually a firm I have already been thinking about acquiring."
With everything around us spinning like this, what choice did I have? Just buy it. Then every problem I had been fretting over would be solved in one stroke.