The Dragon's Kin Makes an Appearance
The Hunter Association’s situation room was nothing short of a battlefield.
Dozens of alarms screamed without pause while broadcasts in every language on Earth blared nonstop.
“Another post just went up on social media! It says ‘Life Ruined’ is the being necessary for America to become truly great….”
“China’s doing the same thing! They’re insisting they’ll enter Korea even if they have to mobilize their National Power-class hunters!”
“Prime Minister Koizumi has also spoken! He claims Korea and Japan must cooperate closely….”
The flood of reports turned the Association President’s eyes bloodshot.
I'm actually going to lose my mind.
He yanked his tie loose with a groan.
Clearing the first floor of the Tower on Hell difficulty in one second.
And then the first-ever clear of the ‘Extreme’ difficulty—a realm no human in history had ever reached.
All because of a single Awakened known as Life Ruined, the world’s Hunter Alliance and every superpower were now glaring at Korea with burning eyes, applying relentless pressure.
The unprecedented appearance of a catastrophe-class monster in Korea had been shoved completely into the background.
“Life Ruined… just who the hell are you…?”
The President swallowed dryly, feeling his throat burn.
Hundreds of intelligence agents hammered their keyboards as if trying to break them, scraping up every scrap of data across Korea.
That was when it happened.
“P-President! Just a second! You need to see this!”
A young intelligence officer who had been staring holes through his monitor shot his hand into the air.
The President rushed over like a man possessed.
“Did you find a clue?”
“Well… I’m not sure if it’s a clue, but while I was cycling through social media, I found a post that’s spreading across real-time trends at insane speed.”
What the officer pulled up on the monitor was a feed from the popular SNS platform ‘Inbel.’
On the screen played a short video that looked like it had been filmed with a shaky smartphone camera.
Cafe ☕️ The happiness of drinking one cool iced Americano
You worked so hard today too!
By the way, I saw an absolutely insane cosplay today!
#InsanelyGorgeous #PerfectProportions #WhatTheHellIsThatTailDetail
In the video, a massive crowd parted like the miracle of Moses while a woman walked through with noble grace. Her back and side profile were captured clearly.
An overwhelming chest that strained against her clothes. Tight jeans hugging a pelvis line that looked ready to burst.
Deep blue-black hair and transcendent beauty that stole the soul.
But what truly captured the officer’s gaze was the long, thick ‘tail’ extending from her waist, slapping rhythmically against the ground with heavy thuds.
“This… no matter how I look at it, it’s not CG or a cosplay prop. You can see the muscle contractions… and there’s even the sound when it hits the ground. It’s a real tail. Even through the screen… I can feel some kind of energy coming off it.”
The officer gulped and added his analysis.
The President’s eyes sharpened like blades.
“Run her face through the facial recognition program and cross-reference it with the national database!”
“Yes! Running it right n—huh?”
The officer’s fingers froze above the keyboard.
Not even a single second after the facial recognition program started, a clean, perfectly formatted ‘National ID Card’ popped up on screen.
Name: Yuhwa
Age: 24
Nationality: Republic of Korea
Race: Dragon-kin
Both the officer staring at the screen and the President standing behind him were rendered speechless for a moment.
The word Dragon-kin was written plainly in the race field.
It was registered in Korea’s national resident registration system…?
And then, shortly after—
“Ah… she was just a really pretty lady. Now that I think about it, there are dragon-kin living in Korea, right?”
“Well… there are elves too. Don’t the elves live in Australia?”
“Australia? Isn’t that the place with the killer rabbits?”
“I heard there’s a war going on there every single day. Between the elves and the rabbits.”
No one sensed the slightest discomfort. Not even the President, who was Korea’s National Power-class hunter.
He did hesitate for a second, but an incoming transmission immediately stole his attention.
“We have a major problem! An emergency notice just came from the Japanese Hunter Alliance! Japan’s National Power-class hunter, the Priestess of Amaterasu, has taken off in a private jet headed for Korea!”
“What? Japan’s National Power-class is crossing the border without permission? Are they insane?!”
The situation room plunged once again into an uncontrollable vortex of chaos.
Amid the storm of information, the President pressed hard on his temples and let out a heavy sigh.
What on earth is about to happen to this country…?
Swish.
That was when it happened.
An eerie chill crawled up the spine of the President, whose senses were superhuman.
At the door to the situation room.
In front of the tightly sealed door that required a security card, fingerprint, and iris scan to open.
Someone had been ‘standing there’ for who knows how long.
“…!”
The President whipped his head around on reflex.
Silver hair. Blue eyes that seemed to hold the deep sea within them.
And a grey tail swaying gently behind her waist, along with small grey horns sprouting from her head.
“W-who are you!”
“…!”
“H-how…?”
The girl, facing the frozen President and officers, lightly pinched the hem of her skirt and gave a very polite bow.
“The person you’ve all been desperately searching for… could it perhaps be me?”
“Y-you… just who—!”
The President stumbled backward.
The overwhelming pressure radiating from the girl—Yujin—felt like it was crushing his windpipe.
It was like being thrown naked into the middle of the deep ocean, crushed by extreme water pressure.
Yujin smiled brightly, as if she hadn’t noticed at all, and continued.
“I came to deliver a message.”
“A… message…?”
The President gasped for breath as he repeated her words, and Yujin answered.
“Regarding the power I possess.”
The quiet riverbank of Han River Park, where civilian access had been strictly restricted.
Several black vans from the Hunter Association screeched to a halt.
Doors opened, and the President and measurement officers stepped out, cold sweat pouring down their faces.
Leading them with relaxed steps was the silver-haired girl, Yujin.
“Haa… haa…”
Even though a river breeze was blowing, the officers could barely breathe under the suffocating pressure.
The intangible aura Yujin emitted.
Simply by walking, the air seemed crushed and the space itself screamed under the alien weight.
“Alright, this spot should be good.”
Yujin stopped gracefully while gazing at the flowing Han River.
She turned to look at the Association officers standing behind her, swallowing nervously.
“I just need to show you my power here, right? How is a normal measurement usually done?”
“W-well…”
The employee clutched his trembling tablet and explained in a tiny voice.
“According to our Hunter Association standards… we quantify the sustained output and destructive power when a hunter releases firepower for a set period of time, then assign a rank based on that…”
“Hmm. In short, I just need to pour out firepower for a while so you can see how strong I am with your own eyes.”
Yujin nodded.
“Understood. Is this how it’s done?”
The moment her words ended, a cracking sound rang out as Yujin’s body began to change.
“Everyone back! Get behind me!”
The President panicked and grabbed the officers by their collars, hurling them backward.
Kwaaaaaang—!
Yujin’s body began to expand while glowing with light.
A powerful shockwave made the Han River surge, and trees started to whip wildly.
The parked black vans rocked and even tipped over.
As the light slowly faded, what was revealed—
“Ah… aah…”
The President and officers lost all strength in their legs and collapsed onto the grass.
What completely filled their vision—indeed, everything above their heads—was a massive silver-grey dragon roughly sixty meters long, easily the size of an entire apartment building.
A gigantic and beautiful monster that utterly transcended human common sense.
Translucent silver-grey scales and enormous wings that blocked out the sky.
Kuuuuuuu—!
As she flew lightly above the water’s surface and flapped her wings once, the Han River began to churn madly.
Then Yujin opened her mouth toward the river.
Crack… crackle…
The surface of the Han River began to freeze. The cold was so intense it defied imagination.
The President thought to himself:
If that breath hit me head-on… even I would freeze solid in one hit…
“M-measurement…! What does the meter say?!”
When the President asked in a daze, the employee answered blankly as well.
“…Measurement impossible.”
Rank measurement impossible.
The President stared blankly up at the sky.
He could produce firepower at a level that registered as unmeasurable. Yes, he could ‘produce’ it.
But he couldn’t wield it so freely…
And then—
Fwaaaash—!
The dragon that had been circling through the air, imprinting her power, was once again enveloped in brilliant light before gently landing back on the ground.
When the light faded, the silver-haired girl Yujin stood there once more in a neat, proper posture.
Not a speck of dust marred her skirt.
She slowly approached the President and officers who had collapsed with weak legs.
Then, with a bright curl of her beautiful lips, she tossed out the words as if they were nothing.
“I forgot to mention this. I am a ‘kin.’”
Everyone froze at those words. And… the President asked back.
“Did you just say… ‘kin’?”
“Yes. Kin.”
With that, Yujin vanished on the spot.
…A long silence followed.
Yuhwa said to the returning Yujin,
“So you took it easy, right?”
“Yes!”
Yujin was clearly sneaking glances. What’s with her?
“Do you have something you want to say?”
“Um…”
“Um?”
“Could you… pat my head…?”
Is she actually a dog instead of a dragon?
Thinking that, Yuhwa reached out and stroked Yujin’s head. Yujin giggled happily with a silly smile.