A Talent for Speeches
"You've got quite the talent for speeches, huh?"
"Just listening to it makes the whole thing sound like some colossal operation."
"It is a big deal, but it's worth attempting. That said, why have all of you followed us this far?"
Pigeon 4 tossed the question at Park Seok-gyun while explaining the broader situation aboard the military helicopter racing toward the front lines. The man had remained firmly in his seat the entire time.
"It's not over yet, is it? I'm the type who does whatever he can."
"Same here. I feel too ashamed that I couldn't catch that bastard. I'd rather win this war, survive, and then go speak to Myeong-ho's parents."
"I simply believed this group needed at least one sorcerer. Besides, if we don't commit our strength to that front, won't this country fall?"
Lee Go-cheon had struck the heart of the matter. This was a moment when every ounce of fighting power was invaluable. Park Seok-gyun and Heo Kang-yoon were the talents who had survived against Lee Han until the bitter end, while Lee Go-cheon—despite his internal injuries—had blocked three surprise strikes from powerful sorcery. At this point in time, they ranked among the highest-tier assets available.
"...This actually works out perfectly. The transport plane carrying the Grade 2 Moonstone has made an emergency landing. Under normal circumstances an emergency transport team and the Taoist sorcerers needed to control it would have been assembled, but—"
They had a shaman right here. The higher-ups had signed off on the conclusion that she could control the Moonstone.
"Moonstone? Grade 2? Where on earth... Are you seriously claiming you people manufactured a Moonstone in just two months?"
"No. One month."
"That's insane."
"Excuse me, but what exactly is a Moonstone?"
Heo Kang-yoon, a West Server user, found the unfamiliar term—which sounded like game jargon—nagging at him.
"It's an item name from the East Server. Simply put, it's something on the level of an Epic-grade Tier 2 item."
"I see... Wait. You made it in one month?"
Kang-yoon had nodded at the useful knowledge Lee Go-cheon shared, but the growing sense of wrongness finally hit him. At a stage when nearly everyone was still a beginner, was it even possible to produce an Epic item—even a Tier 2—in a single month? The doubt refused to leave him.
"To be exact, it's unfinished. That's why an accident occurred during the 'unlucky' transport. The outdated transport plane sustained damage, but the cargo was worth it. Both the pilot and the lead researcher confirmed they were alive during their last transmission."
"...Are you telling us to use that problematic thing on Master?"
Yu-seong, who had been listening quietly, finally burst out in a voice thick with disbelief.
"The country is on the verge of collapse. Even something like this will raise our odds of victory."
That didn't mean he couldn't understand. If they lost here, the nation would perish. They might win, but the scars would fester, fill with maggots, and ultimately lead to death.
"Do we really need to overthink it? We just transport the thing without using it and we're done. Besides, with this guy here, we'll manage."
Seok-gyun chose to keep things simple, skipping the complicated implications. He simply added one more delivery mission to the list of tasks.
That complacent thought lasted exactly thirty minutes—until he felt the ominous energy rising from the ground below and reconsidered his own carelessness.
"Mr. Chickigeon. You definitely said this was just a delivery run, right?"
"Yes, I did."
"Then why do I have the distinct feeling I'm about to have to throw down with whatever's down there?"
Seok-gyun frowned as he stared at the countless presences he sensed beneath the helicopter.
Human shapes. They clearly possessed limbs and the silhouette of people, yet their entire bodies were covered in black skin. They wore pure white masks, and their eyes bulged outward as if ready to burst from their sockets.
"Those are Changgui. When people die inside the Beomyogoe they become ghosts, but... those are the remnants."
"...And if they're not remnants?"
"In the Mountain Lord's case, they function like living armor. They also act as radar and trip up the ankles of prey."
"Isn't that basically a regional boss? Then this is fucking awful, isn't it?"
It wasn't on the level of Gangcheol, but it was still a clear calamity. And fragments of that calamity had, at some point, turned their gazes upward toward the sky—at the humans inside the helicopter.
"I'll handle this. Please set me down."
"Descending."
At Pigeon 4's order the helicopter began to descend. The Changgui grew frenzied at the sight of prey willingly approaching. In an instant they boiled like maggots in a grotesque mass, merging into a colossal mountain of ghosts that tried to reach the aircraft.
And the one slowly climbing that mountain was none other than a man wearing a fully sealed white hazmat suit.
"...The thing he's holding is the Moonstone... Wait. That blade. I remember it."
"Now that you mention it, he was from Jeju Island. Yes—it's been polished from the shell of a scale-footed conch."
"Then the Mountain Lord's part... I don't think I need an explanation."
Yu-seong frowned while staring at the sword's hilt. More precisely, at the ominous object running from the blade's spine all the way into the handle.
"Tsk. This country must have been truly desperate. I never imagined they'd embed a blade into a tailbone."
"It's not the spine—it's part of the tailbone. The Mountain Lord's actual spine couldn't possibly be that small, could it?"
"Huh. Just how big was it?"
"Roughly a little larger than a dump truck."
While they discussed the Mountain Lord's approximate size, the distance between the helicopter and the swarm of Changgui had closed until they were nearly touching. The man gripping the sword raced up the living mountain of ghosts.
The helicopter door opened. Yu-seong, who had been pressing his palms together in prayer, opened his eyes and slowly parted his hands. Inside them, a vivid radiance had descended.
Onsaemiro
At that instant the orb of light transformed into the glow of dawn.
"Nam Hong-ryeon. Hurry."
"I'm on my way!"
Nam Hong-ryeon was bewildered. The appearance of Changcheon Amgui and the tilting of the scales had been startling but undeniably a good omen. The current situation, however, was something she had never anticipated.
Just who...?
Who had driven the full military strength of the Gilt Jade World all the way to the northern front lines?
Once she crossed the forest, Nam Hong-ryeon's eyes took in the army and Awakened locked in formation, facing one another. Behind them stretched an overwhelming number of additional Awakened. Familiar faces among them confirmed these were indeed the forces of the Gilt Jade World. The fact that they were even waving banners made it impossible to mistake.
"Oh! It's the Vice Guild Master!"
"Vice Guild Master! We're here!"
"That person? Wait... Isn't she the one who came with Binggwa?"
"I heard she followed to crush the guy who fought Gangcheol, but she's the Vice Guild Master of the Gilt Jade World?"
With Nam Hong-ryeon's arrival, countless gazes converged on her. Goodwill, welcome, trust, suspicion, hostility—the emotions were as varied as the number of eyes, yet the scale of the negative far outweighed the positive.
Raial's thunderbolt-like message nearly made her legs give out.
"Hong-ryeon. Message from the VIP. They've reached an agreement with the Guild Master. The Gilt Jade World members gathered here are the combat personnel from the neutral and moderate factions."
"All of them?"
"Yes. Every last one."
"Fuuuuck... What kind of mess has that guild master bastard caused this time...?"
Nam Hong-ryeon felt like she was truly about to lose her mind. That rotten guild master—upon awakening as an Awakened—had suddenly begun spouting nonsense and gone half-mad. He had led a bunch of shady characters to completely seize a city, remained strangely quiet afterward, and now he had caused yet another incident.
...Is it really an "incident"?
Nam Hong-ryeon looked at the man approaching her. He was the third raid captain of the Gilt Jade World. Wearing heavy armor and a crimson cloak, he held a conch trumpet in his left hand as he strode forward.
"Vice Guild Master, we've arrived. The kids are all prepared as well."
He spoke with confidence. Even with swords and gun barrels pointed at him, his bearing remained proud.
"The ones who caused trouble?"
"We left them all behind. Only clean members are here."
She already knew that. Which was why, amid crushing tension, Nam Hong-ryeon climbed to the top of the watchtower. She infused mana into her voice and shouted.
Nam Hong-ryeon paused to catch her breath, then turned toward the soldiers and Awakened who watched her with heavy wariness. Every single person was overwhelmed by her movements and even the sound of her breathing; all attention locked onto her. Something felt off. It was as if a faint halo lingered behind her.
She was dignified. She was both an innocent person and one seeking to clear her name, standing here for the sake of her country and its citizens. A strange power threaded through her voice—not something that bewitched, but mana carrying only the sincerity of her emotions.
One by one, gun barrels lowered. Eyes still held suspicion, yet the hostility receded.
"Yeah. In an all-out war, refusing this much reinforcement would be idiotic."
"I won't let you down."
The atmosphere softened. Soldiers began to gather at the once firmly locked gates of the heart.
Raial's praise was followed by a flood of compliments from the Patagonians, yet Nam Hong-ryeon could not accept a single one.
What is this? What is this? What is this? What is this? What is this? What is this? What is this? What is this?
It felt as though, while delivering the speech, she had not been herself. The strange warmth that had seemed to envelop her left her drenched in cold sweat.
In her confused state, her gaze caught sight of a helicopter. It was just before the Tiger Hour—between three and five in the morning—but the time was still precariously within the Ox Hour, at 2:54 a.m.