The Beginning of the Great Game
The opulent executive office came with an equally luxurious private space. On the massive dining table, high-end mooncakes and green tea were placed before Jin Heon and Jincheon. Considering how many more people were starving to death outside than before, these mooncakes and tea were nothing short of a symbol of power.
“At nine o’clock this morning, Korea’s yokai—the Burning Imugi—was subjugated. We’ve also received word that Korea has restored limited domestic internet access.”
It would be easy to simply say well done and move on, but from the perspective of someone who had to consider the Great Game, the view had to be different.
“When a cousin buys land, the ones with stomachaches will start moving.”
“Hah, so studying abroad in Korea taught you proverbs too. Exactly. Those sycophants will hound that cowardly Chairman. No—if this fact reaches the general public, they’ll join in. Once the information spreads across all of China, the Chairman will have only one choice.”
In other words, every citizen of China would become a wife with a stomachache, endlessly nagging her husband—the Chairman. But who chooses not to buy land simply because they don’t want to? It’s more like they want to but can’t afford it.
“It’s impossible. Looking at cases from other countries, shells coated with catalysts can land effective hits on a land god, but delivering a fatal blow is out of the question. Even when the Korean military focused all their firepower on a target the size of Gangcheori, they only just managed to take it down now. So clearly there’s a limit… How exactly did they kill it?”
Jincheon had only heard that Gangcheori had been subjugated; he hadn’t learned the details of how it was done.
—Snap!
When Jin Heon flicked his fingers, the secretaries attending him placed a document and a single photograph in front of Jincheon.
“This is…”
“That woman is the one who exterminated Gangcheori. I don’t know the exact process, but she fought it one-on-one and won. Her nickname is Binggwa. Her real name is…”
“Ha Dowol. Gold medalist at the 16th and 17th World Kendo Championships. She has quite the impressive list of achievements.”
“Oh-ho. So she was a talent you’d been keeping an eye on.”
Jin Heon was surprised that his daughter—who was now his son—had been watching a high-level expert overseas. He and Jincheon, along with the other executives of the Oryong faction, were busy. It wasn’t ordinary busyness; an unprecedented workload had exploded onto them. All of it stemmed from the government’s withdrawal from the North China region and its retreat all the way down to Shanghai. What made it even more of a headache was that the black societies, including the Oryonghoe, had inadvertently taken on the role of maintaining order in a society abandoned by its government.
The black societies, who had suddenly found themselves filling the government’s shoes, ended up swallowing their tears and eating the mustard—reluctantly enforcing the remaining invisible order for the people left behind in place of the hollow government. No matter how much they belonged to the dark underbelly of society as a criminal organization, they were still part of society at large. The collapse of society would bring far more loss than gain.
And in the midst of all that busyness, when Jin Heon learned that his child was keeping an eye on a foreign expert, he felt secretly relieved.
She’s trying to look at the Great Game beyond her work.
At the very least, he judged that it was a vast improvement from three years ago, when he had called her to China to escape the family business tied to crime that had sickened her. But—
Dowol.
Did Jin Heon know? That when she was him, and when he was her, they had suddenly parted ways right at the point when they had grown distant. And it didn’t take long for him to realize that the face in the photograph looked subtly different from the one he remembered.
Something’s… No, her face has definitely become much prettier. Extremely so.
If he had to describe it, she looked like Dowol’s younger sister after receiving proper filters and makeup. Then his eyes drifted to the bottom of the photo.
…They’re huge.
He discovered two buds so large they inspired awe rather than feminine jealousy. Dowol had become a woman. Just as Jincheon had become a man, Dowol had become a woman. Their genders had reversed in a way neither had intended.
Are they proportional to the size?
The sight of those enormous breasts sent stray thoughts racing through Jincheon’s mind. Yet in front of his father, the boss of the Oryong faction, his poker face remained perfectly intact. Unfortunately, his unfamiliar new body eventually betrayed him. He couldn’t stop the fantasies from continuing.
Ah.
“I’ll take my leave now. We can discuss the details later. We both have a lot of work to do.”
“I… will look over these materials a little longer.”
“Hm? Very well. But don’t stare at them too much.”
It was only after some time had passed that Jincheon finally rose from his chair.
As soon as the internet reconnected, people regained communication that transcended distance. Some consumed real-time news. Others reconnected with friends through social media. Still others didn’t just gather information—they provided it. And the true meaning of the internet lay in communication within an ocean of knowledge. That communication inevitably revolved around common topics. And if there was one overwhelming subject, it was, of course, Glorious Land.
Better known as Glorious Land, there existed a space for communication called the Glorious Land Gallery.
(A photo of Ha Dowol in the middle of a thicket, wearing an outfit that prominently displays her chest while polishing her sword)
“Whoa.”
Yu Seong let out a sound like an ordinary person waking up at an airport. Anyone would be flustered to suddenly see a familiar person’s photo in the gallery they occasionally visited for strategy guides and the occasional funny shitposts.
“What are you looking at so intently?”
“Hiek!?”
But during a short break, as Yu Seong was fiddling with his phone, Dowol approached him. He hurriedly covered the screen, yet Dowol had already moved to the other side and was looking at his phone.
“What? It’s just a photo of me. I thought it was something special.”
“It’s… something that’s been posted online.”
“Yeah. So what?”
“?”
“?”
For a moment, their conversation came to a complete halt. It was the instant their common sense clashed. The misunderstanding arose because Dowol, who had experienced this sort of thing often, quickly regained her composure.
“Photos of me circulating online are just everyday life… I used to get stalkers sometimes. Actually, pretty often.”
“Ahhh… I see.”
Yu Seong immediately understood after looking at his master’s appearance. It would have been stranger if it hadn’t happened.
“Still, Master would be able to shake off a stalker in one breath, right?”
Yu Seong thought that a master who had trained in martial arts even before the change would have no trouble dealing with something as minor as a difference in gender. But unexpectedly, Dowol scratched her head and answered,
“Even if you say that… most of them were women, so it felt wrong to use force. Haha…”
“Huh? Isn’t it usually men?”
Yu Seong was greatly flustered. No, she was certainly attractive enough to captivate women too, but it was strange that female stalkers outnumbered the males.
“Ah, come to think of it, I never mentioned it. I used to be a man.”
“Wow.”
A short gasp of amazement escaped him. Yu Seong’s gaze drifted toward the exhibition hall lined with trophies and photographs. It was the same face… well, not exactly, but clearly similar. Looking at it now, the face seemed to possess more masculine charm than feminine beauty. Then he looked back at the real person in front of him and saw an overwhelming feminine charm of enormous proportions. Yu Seong shrank in on himself and pouted.
Deceiver.
They say that day he stayed sulky, and as a result spent far more time lying on the floor than usual because her techniques landed with even greater precision.
The day after experiencing the everyday occurrence of her photos floating around the internet, Dowol visited a café. It had become a place where rather unusual… no, at this point she was starting to worry that this kind of person would become a regular.
“Drinking coffee so leisurely like this feels like a day off. Though this café does feel rather empty.”
“It’s still closed, after all. But does the Blue House even have days off? Especially for someone who serves as Chief of Staff?”
She didn’t know for sure, but the people working at the Blue House probably didn’t keep the same hours as ordinary civil servants. Especially now, during the reconstruction efforts, it was almost certain they weren’t here just to relax.
“It would have been far more convincing if you hadn’t arrived in a car with bodyguards.”
She probably wasn’t really here to rest.
“First, thank you for yielding.”
“It’s nothing. If Dohwa can be properly cured within the promised period, this much is trivial.”
It really wasn’t anything grand. The inner dan of a Gwerieoknanshin held tremendous value. And researching it would undoubtedly bring enormous progress toward the future that lay ahead.
“As long as these two conditions are kept, there won’t be any problems. Leave enough of Gangcheori’s inner dan to fully transform Dohwa’s constitution. And you must supply me with the promised amount by July without fail. As long as you don’t waste it all, I don’t really care what you do with the rest.”
March, when new sprouts push through the weight of the harsh winter and lift their heads. The world was racing toward the peak of summer. That cursed Yin-Cold Body would naturally be influenced by the yang energy present in nature, gradually improving her physical condition. And at that time, feeding her the refined inner dan of Gangcheori without burden would be perfect.
“Actually, I really did come because I had some free time during lunch. And with these words.”
The Chief of Staff took a long sip of his coffee and set the mood. If this was news that they had located Lee Han’s position, she was ready. However, what came out of his mouth completely missed her expectations.
“China and Japan have begun to move. As an added bonus, we’ve also received word that North Korea has completely collapsed.”
The latter she had already guessed. After all, whenever Gangcheori left his seat for a while, he always headed north. As far as she knew, if that final battle had allowed just a little more time for reinforcements, even if she had defeated Gangcheori, the Republic of Korea would have still lost. That was how severely infested the north was with yokai. Even if some people had naturally awakened as Awakened, without anyone playing the game, the number of Awakened would be utterly hopeless. It was probably accurate to assume they had been massacred by starvation and yokai.
That aside, if China and Japan were starting to move, then as expected…
“There are many factors, but the one related to Lady Dowol of the Ninefold is support regarding the Gwerieoknanshin.”
Yeah. Let’s refuse.