Holding Out Wins
Hearing Jeong-Hoon’s threat to blow up the New York branch, the leader and deputy leader of Nova fled Lumen in a panic, the three unconscious SS-class Awakened slung over their shoulders.
“It’s not blowing up?”
“……Did he just bluff us?”
At Lumen’s New York branch in Manhattan—the glittering hotel with the Statue of Liberty faintly visible behind it—there was not the slightest sign of collapse. The leader and deputy shook their heads.
Five minutes passed. Then fifteen. Lumen remained perfectly still.
“Damn it. If it weren’t for that immortal old bastard, we never would have fallen for it!”
They had already blown up a hotel once with the hardliners, so they had half-suspected it might be a joke. But the instant the broadcast went out, Fernandez had latched onto them screaming, “Where do you think you’re going? Let’s die together according to the Gaju’s will!” They had taken it seriously and bolted with everything they had.
“……If we summon every last member of Nova right now, how many can we pull together?”
“Uh…… only the hardliners will answer. Roughly eight thousand?”
“Call them all. Looks like we have to prepare for total war.”
If the Nova list leaked, every plan they had for America would be finished. All the careful groundwork for seizing the country could go up in smoke. The leader decided it was better to jump straight to the final stage of the plan.
Every road around Lumen’s New York branch had been sealed off.
“What’s going on?”
A driver rolling down his window to ask the police manning the barricade received a friendly smile as the officer approached.
“A dungeon has appeared inside Lumen Hotel. We’re going to clear it as quickly as possible, so please take a detour for the time being.”
“Huh. A dungeon in Lumen? That’s something.”
The driver laughed in disbelief at the polite explanation and turned his car around.
A high-end hotel like Lumen could, in theory, spawn a dungeon. But nobody actually believed one would. The police officer—who was also an Awakened hardliner of Nova—watched the car leave with an amused smile.
“Ha. People are actually buying this?”
The deputy leader found the sight so absurd he couldn’t help laughing. Everyone simply accepted the lie and drove away.
“It only works because the Gaju already evacuated everyone from the New York branch.”
If the other side was buying time, so were they—using it to gather their full strength. With a dungeon as the excuse, they could keep the area locked down for as long as a week.
The real problem was the panic room the Gaju would have fled to.
Lumen’s panic room sat deep underground and could sustain five people for a full month. It was built to withstand external shocks; according to Lumen’s own claims, even a nuclear blast wouldn’t breach it. That left them no choice but to seal the perimeter completely and smash the door open with S-class or higher firepower.
The two hundred A-class Awakened under their command had locked the building down so tightly that not even a mouse could escape. They had even jammed every signal. If a single transmission got out, the Nova list could reach the outside world. They could not afford a single mistake.
“Never imagined a few words would put us in this corner.”
“If those idiots had just dragged out that S-class girl they were fighting, we could have taken a hostage.”
The deputy shot a glare at the two S-class Awakened who had faced Min-Ha. Both of them merely shrugged as if to ask what the problem was.
“Drop it. What’s done is done. And do you really think taking an S-class hostage is that simple?”
Besides, a hostage might not make the enemy curl up—it might make them charge out instead. Their goal wasn’t simply to eliminate Senator Richard; it was to keep the Nova list from leaking. If someone slipped away during the chaos and released the list, that would be an even bigger disaster.
If they hadn’t taken the Gaju’s bait, the situation would still have been in their favor. They had been outmatched by three SSS-class fighters, but the overall battle hadn’t been going badly. Another few minutes and the two hundred A-class waiting outside would have entered, leaving only a skeleton crew on the perimeter. They could have captured both the Gaju and Senator Richard.
“Hey, boss. They say Lumen’s panic room is basically a nuclear bunker. Can you melt it with your power?”
“……Guess we’re about to find out.”
But that was all water under the bridge. With no other options left, the leader let out a long sigh.
“Hwaaah!”
On the bed inside the panic room, Jeong-Hoon woke with a long yawn.
“Ugh, Butler Ju. How long has it been?”
“Thirteen hours.”
He wasn’t asking how long he had slept; he was asking how much time had passed since the incident began.
“Then we still need more time.”
Grumbling, Jeong-Hoon got up, pulled a canned coffee from the refrigerator, and drank.
“How’s Senator Richard?”
“The tension must have finally drained out of him. He’s sleeping.”
For a panic room, the facilities were indistinguishable from a Lumen suite. Unlike a normal guest room, it had been designed for multiple people and contained several separate bedrooms. That was why Jeong-Hoon had asked—Richard was in a different room.
“Whether the tension left him or he just collapsed from exhaustion, I’m glad he’s finally asleep.”
When Jeong-Hoon had first told him to get some rest, Richard had been trembling so hard he could barely stand. Knowing the man was finally out cold was a relief.
“Internet still down?”
“Still the same.”
If the internet came back even for a moment, they would win. Jeong-Hoon drained the rest of the can in one gulp and muttered.
“And them?”
“Still digging themselves a deeper hole.”
Butler Ju answered with a faint smile.
Lumen’s panic rooms were not limited to one. They had been built underground for VIP guests to take shelter. When they had evacuated, Jeong-Hoon had sent Fernandez and Jeong Si-Min into separate panic rooms. A panic room could be locked from the inside but not opened from the outside. They hadn’t managed to lock every single one, but by placing Fernandez and Jeong Si-Min in two different rooms, they had forced Nova to choose among three sealed panic rooms.
And of those three options, Nova had chosen the one containing Fernandez and were now busily melting the door.
“If they actually get that one open, it might be even more fun.”
Watching the external cameras, Jeong-Hoon snickered. Butler Ju gave a light cough. The mental image of Fernandez bursting out the moment the door opened and sending the attackers into a panic was simply too amusing.
“Huh. Did they give up?”
“……They seem to be trying a different approach.”
The seven S-class and higher Awakened who had been melting the walls of Fernandez’s panic room suddenly stopped. They exchanged glances, then shook their heads. Aware of the cameras, they said nothing aloud. After what looked like a telepathic conversation, they spun on their heels and vanished.
“Oh, by the way—where’s Min-Ha? I don’t see her.”
“She is currently absorbing both magic and martial arts.”
Having essentially lost to two S-class opponents, Min-Ha had asked Butler Ju to teach her magic and martial arts the moment the siege began. Even though her opponents had been two fighters of the same rank, being forced onto pure defense had left her seething.
“……She can just absorb them like that?”
“The family possesses such secret methods.”
When Si-Eun had been taught magic and martial arts, the process had felt far more gradual and theoretical. Jeong-Hoon found the difference strange, but the murderous aura rolling off Butler Ju made him nod obediently. Apparently the old man was still furious that his granddaughter had lost.
The room assigned to Min-Ha no longer looked like a bedroom. Every piece of furniture, including the bed, had been shoved into the corners to clear as much space as possible. In the center of the open floor a massive magic circle glowed, and inside it Min-Ha sat with her eyes closed.
“Our family never lost the ability to learn. We simply spent long centuries preserving and refining both martial arts and magic.”
Min-Ha’s eyes were shut because she was inside a deep-layer consciousness constructed by magic. Before her stood a young version of Butler Ju, patiently explaining the family’s martial arts. He looked very much like her late father, Ju Geon-Woo, only with a far sharper edge to his features.
“Yes, yes, I know. I’ve heard this story a dozen times already.”
It wasn’t the first time she was hearing the lecture. The knowledge forcibly poured into her mind by the magic was simply replaying on its own.
“Among the arts refined that way is the secret technique handed down in our house—Paseong, the City-Breaker.”
The phantom of Butler Ju clenched his fist. A vortex of aura spiraled into existence. When he swung, the compressed energy shot forward in a whirling storm that ground everything in its path to dust.
“It can be used with a fist, but it is not a fist technique alone. You must be able to release it through any weapon, in any form.”
The name “City-Breaker” was no exaggeration. Even inside the mental world, Min-Ha shuddered at the raw power. This was the same technique that had blown away entire packs of Ogre Lords at Diana Theme Park. The Air Dungeon zone Butler Ju had been responsible for was distinctive for one reason: more of the ruined facilities had been smashed by him than by the Ogre Lords themselves. That was how destructive Paseong was.
“Now learn it. Until you master this, true Paseong will remain a dream.”
And even this was only the most basic form. The reason Butler Ju could never unleash his full power in a confined space was precisely the catastrophic destructive nature of the art.
“What’s wrong? Can’t do it? Your father used to laugh while performing this much.”
“Dad was the same SSS-class as you, Grandpa! Don’t compare me to him when I just reached S-class!”
She tried to gather mana for Paseong, but her form was still clumsy. Comparing her to her father only made her more irritable.
“You said you wanted to become chief butler, didn’t you? At this rate you won’t even make the Twelve Vassals.”
Min-Ha’s face twisted at the slight. It wasn’t Butler Ju’s real opinion. The illusion created by magic was simply speaking with her own subconscious. In other words, the scolding was coming from herself. That only made her angrier. She exploded her mana outward and focused.
Aura began to whirl around her hand.
“Huh?”
Sensing something in the spiraling energy, Min-Ha let her concentration slip—and the aura vanished as if it had never been. Yet the sensation remained vivid. She shifted her mana into her legs. Instantly the same vortex of aura spun around them.
“This is it!!!”
Whack!
“Training’s over. Get up.”
Mid-shout, Min-Ha felt a sharp knock on the top of her head and scowled. She opened her eyes—not the eyes of the mental world, but her real ones.
“G-Gaju?!”
“Why are you looking at me like you’ve never seen me before?”
Min-Ha stared at Jeong-Hoon, who stood with a fist still half-raised, and nearly jumped out of her skin. She had expected her grandfather to be the one waking her. She had never imagined the Gaju himself would do it—and with a noogie, no less.
“Ugh, you could have just called me. Did you really have to wake me like that?”
“……I shouted myself hoarse and you still didn’t get up, so I resorted to violence.”
Jeong-Hoon was the one who had struck her, yet he was the one frowning and shaking out his hand. Min-Ha, the one who had been hit, looked only mildly startled and showed no sign of pain.
“Did something happen?”
“Yeah. Something happened.”
Seeing how tense she became at being pulled from training, Jeong-Hoon answered with perfect calm. His tone made it sound as if nothing serious were going on at all.
“Did Nova just leave on their own? You look way too relaxed, Gaju.”
“No. We just got buried alive.”
“What?! Wh-what do you mean?!”
At the words “buried alive,” Min-Ha’s eyes went wide. Jeong-Hoon raised his right index finger, pointed at the ceiling, then pointed at the floor.
“Lumen New York branch collapsed.”
“…….”
“They brought it down.”
“For real?”
“Yeah. For real.”
Min-Ha shook her head in disbelief. She had never imagined they would actually carry out the threat Jeong-Hoon had made about collapsing the hotel.
“Is Nova some kind of organization that only exists to demolish hotels?”
“……I even asked Senator Richard just in case. He says no.”
Once she heard the full story, Min-Ha finally understood why Jeong-Hoon looked so calm. He wasn’t calm. He was so flabbergasted that his soul had left his body.