Uninvited Guests

Hwaseong Group.

Top floor of the headquarters building, the Vice Chairman's office.

The air inside the room was as cold as ice.

A freshly delivered report rested atop the mahogany desk. Yet Vice Chairman Jeon Myeong-cheol's gaze was not on the paper; his eyes smoldered with boiling fury as he glared at Kim Jin-gu, President of Hwaseong Energy Solutions.

"So, you're telling me you couldn't figure it out?"

His voice was deceptively low, contrasting sharply with his flushed expression. A razor-sharp hostility bore directly into President Kim Jin-gu.

"My deepest apologies, but..."

Taking the full brunt of the vice chairman's wrath, President Kim repeatedly wiped cold sweat from his brow. Struggling to find words, he swallowed hard before resuming his report.

"With our current capabilities, we are unable to determine the operating principle behind the Magician."

"You call that an answer?!"

Jeon Myeong-cheol's brow twitched violently.

"Unable to determine it?! How long has it been since we ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠secured that sample from Suseong, and you still haven't figured it out?! Every top brain across the entire conglomerate poured their minds into this, and all you have to show for it is 'we don't know'?! What the hell am I supposed to say to that?!"

"I am truly sorry."

Faced with the explosive outburst, President Kim bowed his head deeply.

"We mobilized every available method. We forcefully fractured the bonded joint and thoroughly analyzed the cross-section using the group's full technological arsenal."

"And?"

"Two completely disparate substances—the electrode active material and the solid electrolyte—were literally, seamlessly united as if they were a single continuous material. The interface boundary itself had vanished entirely. Under current materials science theories, this is physically impossible to explain."

"What about the moment of bonding? We gave you the Magician itself, so you must have watched the bonding process firsthand! Did you inspect that?"

"We deployed ultra-high-speed cameras, thermal imaging, Raman spectrometers—every analytical instrument at our disposal. The result was... completely inconclusive."

Slam!

Jeon Myeong-cheol smashed his fist onto the desk.

"Are you mocking me right now? You watched the bonding happen with your own eyes and you still don't know?!"

"It was beyond our control. There was no chemical reaction, no phase transition, not even the slightest fluctuation in temperature. Out of nowhere... the two materials simply clicked together into one. It was... like magic."

Jeon Myeong-cheol's eyebrows twitched with rage.

"Ma-gic?! And you call yourselves researchers?! If that's the kind of drivel you're going to spew, write your resignation and get the hell out!"

Kim Jin-gu bowed his head even further.

In truth, he had nothing left to say. As the man who had spearheaded the research on the Magician and as a scientist standing at the cutting edge of modern industry, the entire phenomenon was utterly baffling.

Arcane Technology's Magician.

It was an uncharted anomaly that lay completely outside their realm of understanding.

If it really were actual magic, at least my conscience would be at ease.

Because then they could have given up right from the start.

Whether aware of Kim Jin-gu's inner turmoil or not, Jeon Myeong-cheol gulped down a glass of water to cool his searing temper. Grilling Kim Jin-gu any further here wouldn't yield answers. Having worked together for over a decade, Jeon Myeong-cheol knew very well just how competent the man was.

If Kim Jin-gu can't crack it, nobody can.

Having reached that conclusion, Jeon Myeong-cheol waved his hand dismissively.

"Fine. Get out."

President Kim Jin-gu quietly slipped out of the office.

Left alone, Jeon Myeong-cheol sank deep into his leather chair.

This won't do.

Replicating zero-interface bonding technology.

At first, he had been bursting with confidence. This was Hwaseong Group. He assumed knocking off a single piece of tech from a fledgling startup would be child's play.

Yet the outcome was an unmitigated disaster. They couldn't even grasp the fundamental mechanism.

If time continued to slip away like this, what would happen? Suseong, having secured an early adoption of the Magician, would completely monopolize the next-generation solid-state battery market. Losing the domestic throne was the least of his worries; Hwaseong's foothold on the global stage risked plunging off a cliff in an instant.

I will never ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠allow that to happen.

He couldn't stomach the mere thought of kneeling before Lee Chang-ryong.

Jeon Myeong-cheol pressed the intercom.

"It's me. Get in here."

Within seconds, his chief secretary entered and stood at attention.

"What's the latest on Arcane?"

"Our last intelligence confirms they hired professional security personnel. We haven't verified their exact background, but their numbers appear to be around ten."

"Hmph. Sitting on a pile of cash, do they think they're royalty now? Doesn't matter. Contact those guys in Incheon."

The chief secretary's expression stiffened subtly.

"Those guys... sir?"

There was no way the chief secretary didn't understand the dark, bloody reputation that name carried.

"Yes, them." A cruel smirk tugged at the corners of Jeon Myeong-cheol's lips. "From what I hear, those Arcane punks made quite a mess with the Chinese, didn't they? Perfect. That gives us the ideal scapegoat."

Gazing coldly at the chief secretary, he barked his command.

"Ten guards? What are they going to do when twenty or thirty descend on them? Tell them to hit the laboratory in one sweep. Drag both founders back alive, and strip that place clean down to the last scrap of paper."

If analysis failed, take it by brute force.

Jeon Myeong-cheol's eyes burned with rabid greed.

Following our meeting with Kwon Jeong-geun, our company's headcount expanded to twelve.

Though designated as bodyguards, they were essentially NIS operatives tasked with keeping tabs on our movements as well. Still, since we would have needed to hire security sooner or later anyway, we chose to look on the bright side—resolving merely to be extra cautious with our words.

Flipping through the personnel files of the new arrivals, Hyung-jun let out a weary sigh.

"Two employees doing actual corporate work, and ten people handling security detail. Is this for real? The tail is wagging the dog."

"We needed bodyguards anyway. Just think of it as getting them a little early."

"True enough." Hyung-jun nodded. "While we're at it, I need to kick off a proper expansion. I can't keep juggling the entire company's administrative operations on my own forever."

"Go for it. Since our workloads are both growing, let's start handling our own business independently instead of trailing each other everywhere."

"Sounds like a plan." Having agreed on how we'd operate going forward, Hyung-jun asked, "So, are you going to keep looking for a new house?"

"Of course. Why?"

"Let's tweak that plan a bit."

"Why?"

"If you're going to flex with a new place, I might as well join in."

With that, Hyung-jun slid a document across the table.

"The core of this plan is expanding our current laboratory while completely segregating the corporate office wing," Hyung-jun explained. "We'll add a cleanroom equipped for ultra-precision manufacturing on a much larger scale than our current setup, while isolating the administrative building entirely to block any newly hired staff from ever stepping foot inside the research facility."

"Sounds solid."

Kim Hyung-jun, you really do have a plan for everything, don't you?

Every single point was necessary, so I had zero reason to object. Except for one small issue.

"I'd really like to sleep in my own bed soon, though."

I still hadn't been able to go home.

Ditching the swarm of reporters camped outside wasn't the hard part. So what was the issue? My apartment was way too cramped. The NIS security detail assigned to me took one look and shook their heads in dismay, which meant I had no choice but to check into a hotel suite spacious enough to accommodate both myself and my dedicated guards.

"You're swimming in cash now. Consider it a tax on fame."

"Taxes are inevitable, I suppose."

"Anyway, we need to scout a location that can accommodate the lab, my house, and your house all in one plot. Let's put house hunting on pause for now. Once I narrow down the candidate zones, scout for our residential plots nearby."

"Got it."

Today's conclusion: moving plans were postponed.

"So what am I supposed to do now?"

"Shouldn't you be doing research?"

"I'm already doing it."

My duties as CTO broadly broke down into two tasks:

1. Identifying technological bottlenecks that can be solved through magic.

2. Raising my magic Circle.

Task 1 was currently on hold per Hyung-jun's advice. The Magician alone was generating more revenue than we could spend. Rather than rushing into the next objective, raising my magic Circle first would broaden our strategic options down the line—or so our discussion had concluded.

He wasn't wrong, so I was currently pouring my focus into Task 2: raising my Circle.

"It's running twenty-four hours a day, without wasting a single second."

"Really?" Hyung-jun eyed me skeptically.

"Who do you think you're doubting?"

Earth's mana was criminally sparse, but my body was drawing it in relentlessly, voraciously. If someone capable of perceiving mana had been standing in the room, they would have recoiled in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠terror at the raging atmospheric vortex swirling around me.

"At Earth's concentration, I can control it to accumulate continuously without even having to consciously focus on it. Think of it like an auto-farming bot in a game."

"Which means right now, I have nothing to do," I added with a shrug.

"Hmm..." Hyung-jun pondered for a moment before asking, "What about searching for that stone?"

"Huh? Stone? What stone?"

"Didn't you say you needed a stone for your research?"

"Ah."

He was talking about a Mana Stone.

Ever since the security guards had been stationed with us, Hyung-jun and I deliberately avoided any terminology directly associated with magic or mana. Dropping clues where we shouldn't would only invite unnecessary headaches. The magic itself would never leak, but getting entangled in questions over minor slips was a hassle we didn't need.

Back to the topic at hand.

Let's talk about a mage's Circle hierarchy.

A mage ascends to the next Circle only when two fundamental conditions are met:

First, comprehension of mana.

Second, the total quantity of mana.

The first condition was a complete non-issue. If an Archmage who once attained the 9th Circle struggled in the lower tiers because he failed to comprehend mana, he might as well drown himself in a teacup. Therefore, the sole bottleneck holding me back was Earth's desperately sparse mana.

Roughly speaking, the mana required to break through each sequential Circle escalates exponentially. Expressed numerically, it looks something like this:

By the time one approaches the 9th Circle, the numbers become truly mind-boggling. That was why on the supercontinent of Letnia, a 9th-Circle Archmage was described as:

For me, having not even broken through to the 2nd Circle yet, that realm was still a distant peak. Well, I'd get there eventually, wouldn't I?

Regardless, despite retaining all the experience of a 9th-Circle Archmage, I couldn't just snap my fingers and jump ranks; I was stuck waiting on time to pass. That was precisely why I needed a Mana Stone—the cornerstone of Letnian magitech civilization, and the very item I was searching for.

Its trait was singularly simple: it possessed the property of drawing in surrounding mana endlessly, like a black hole. In its natural state, it merely hoards the absorbed mana, but through specialized enchanting, it can discharge that stored mana like a battery.

Harnessing the immense mana stored within a Mana Stone to blast through my bottleneck—that was my plan.

If anyone else tried this, I would pack a lunchbox and chase them down to talk them out of such a suicidal stunt. But who was I? A former 9th-Circle Archmage. I was leagues above the clumsy amateurs who blew themselves up mishandling a Mana Stone.

The only problem...

"I don't even know what it's called here."

Mana Stones were a mineral from Letnia. I had no idea what name Earth gave them. I also had to consider the very real possibility that the material didn't exist on Earth at all. In that case, I'd have to find a viable substitute, and the only way to confirm that...

"I have to visually inspect every single sample with my own eyes."

"Pure manual labor, then."

"Pretty much."

After all, 'Dragon Heart Powder' might just turn out to be rare-earth powder in the modern world. And the 'Breath of the Ice Spirit' might just be dry ice, for all I knew.

"Then your official duty from now on is field research," Hyung-jun concluded neatly, wrapping up our meeting.

I stretched my arms high into the air.

"Ahhh, my back is stiff. And I'm starving."

"Shall we grab dinner? What do you feel like? Anything you're craving?"

"Not particularly... How about the spicy stir-fried pork and rolled omelet set at the diner down the street?"

"Add a pork cutlet on the side?"

"Living lavish, aren't we? Deal."

"That's why we make the big bucks. Let's roll."

Hyung-jun and I stood up from our seats.

Right at that moment—

BOOM!

A deafening explosion tore through the air outside.

"W-What was that?"

"Did something happen?!"

Rushing to the window, Hyung-jun and I froze simultaneously.

Along the perimeter wall surrounding the laboratory grounds, a heavy wing-body truck had smashed clean through the front gate. And from the opened cargo bed of that truck, a swarm of men armed with weapons was pouring out.