Baengnokdam's Depths
“Detection results. Baengnokdam has expanded by approximately 220,000 square meters compared to its original area. The freshwater—”
“Keep it brief. Just the detection results and the target’s depth.”
I wasn’t in the mood for a geography lesson. Of course, understanding the changes across the Korean Peninsula mattered in the long run, but that wasn’t the priority right now.
“Ah, yes. To summarize the results, it’s about half a success. We’ve confirmed a monster at an 800-meter depth based on the energy pattern, but since research is still in its early stages, we couldn’t pinpoint the pattern color—its attribute—exactly.”
“That can’t be helped. Since there’s a volcano underneath, it’s more than capable of masking its own energy. In the worst case, whatever’s down there could even be a tree.”
Of course, that would be inefficient, but it wasn’t impossible.
“Communication… probably impossible, right?”
“Yes. It might work underwater, but beyond that lies lava. We considered entering from the side, but…”
“Then whatever’s inside will notice the disturbance. We proceed as planned—enter through the already-opened passage and observe from right up close.”
“And depending on the observation results—”
“Yes. Immediate disposal. Leave it to me.”
After a few more minor exchanges, the researcher ended the conversation to return to their post, and I began my own preparations.
-Rustle. Clatter.
I threw up a makeshift partition with talismans and stripped off my clothes. Without anything else to wear, I’d simply taken off a women’s suit that roughly matched my size and fit. That part was fine. Women’s clothing wasn’t all that different from men’s once you set aside the truly bizarre outfits—putting it on worked the same way.
The bandages binding my chest were still just bandages. No matter how absurdly large and shapely they remained even without support, covering them or not was an entirely separate issue, and I peeled them away with hands that still felt foreign.
The panties were… well, panties.
“…”
Once I’d tossed the clothes into a basket, I looked down at myself—at the body I was born with mixed with the one that had been made. There was one clear discrepancy. All I could see below were my breasts, large enough to block any view of my feet.
“Come to think of it, everyone else said their chests got smaller when they merged with their characters. Why am I…”
I wished this had gone to someone who genuinely needed or wanted it. Thanks to these breasts, I constantly had to endure Dohwa’s obvious desire to grope them, and it was exhausting.
‘Well, she does ask to be held a lot, so it’s not all bad.’
The memory of her as a baby was pleasant enough. Enough idle thoughts. It was time to move.
-Snap!
The moment I flicked my fingers, black frost gathered around me like smoke, clinging tightly until it formed a complete set of clothing. It was the regalia granted alongside the body given to an Awakened who had merged with their game character. In the West Server, knights received armor, mages received robes or dresses, and thieves received outfits prioritizing mobility. Of course, any customizations carried over as well.
Since my class was in the Taoist line, an Eastern-style outfit had manifested. The problem was that the design was far too revealing.
“All of this is my own fault.”
It was my own fault for picking such suggestive clothing back when it was just a game. Still, my case was relatively tame. Somewhere out there were people whose regalia had been dyed skin-tone so they looked naked from a distance, and others who had turned their entire character customization into purple freaks.
I retrieved the talismans and walked slowly toward Baengnokdam. Warm hot-spring water lapped at my toes. I could have frozen it instantly, but I didn’t. The key was to suppress my energy as much as possible while entering. At my current level, it was possible.
As I approached, the water rose higher, eventually reaching my chest. I took a deep breath, swallowed a talisman, and dove downward. Hoping for at least a creature on the level of a Lesser Yang Fire Li, I submerged.
Entry was simple. It ended with just diving, and the first objective soon came into view.
‘This is the bottom of Baengnokdam.’
The edge of Korea’s most famous crater lake. Or perhaps it should now be called a caldera lake, though both shared clear, defining traits. Lava replaced by water—rather than grotesque, the violation of nature’s laws felt almost comical.
The temperature felt like 90°C. Unless someone wanted a brief taste of hell’s boiling pot, there was no reason to enter, and no ordinary organism could survive here.
I drew my energy throughout my body without letting it leak past my skin, achieving complete concealment, then opened a crack in the floor and slipped inside.
***
Hot. Of course it was hot. It was lava, after all.
I was swimming through liquid averaging 1,000°C, with some variation. To hide my presence, I couldn’t use energy to shield my body from the outside; instead, I had to reinforce it internally, which meant enduring the agony of my skin being baked at 1,000°C. On top of that, superheated water kept surging upward, and forcing my way through it was another challenge.
Still, it was fine. If this let Dohwa keep living, I could endure it.
‘Found it.’
And with that, the pain would end as well—I had gotten close enough to detect my target. Since it was now right in front of me, I had to be careful. There was no room for failure.
I raised my hand blade, compressed energy into it, and prepared to pierce and extract the inner dan. It was originally a hand technique the nine-tailed fox used to rip out livers, but at its core it was still just a hand technique. Far easier than manifesting images and body-inscribed incantations.
The distance to the target was roughly fifty meters. A bit far, but not impossible.
‘Sorry, but die for Dohwa’s sake.’
I offered a silent prayer for the creature’s soul. Since its inner dan would let Dohwa live, I was genuinely grateful from my perspective.
Just as I was about to explode my energy for the leap—
-Shiver!
A sudden chill made me flinch.
‘Cold? Did my senses finally break?’
There were stories of people whose nerves misfired right before freezing to death, making them mistake cold for heat, but this was different. This was real cold water touching my body.
I reached out with a trembling hand, tracing the energy backward. I had prayed it wouldn’t be so, but fate mocked me—the source lay below, leading straight to what I had thought was my target.
The target was a water spirit (provisional name). It seemed to absorb the volcano’s yang energy and lava, then expel water and residual energy.
‘But what kind of spirit is that?’
While disappointment washed over me, a question arose. It didn’t exist in the game. It didn’t fit any ecosystem, and I couldn’t understand why a water spirit would be in a volcano. Its appearance was also strange—something between dark, rough stone and metal.
There was a similar animal that could have served as its motif…
‘Scaly-foot Gastropod.’
A bizarre snail that lived in submarine volcanoes and armored itself with heavy metals from the volcanic vents. Once I recognized the motif, its behavior made sense. It had cooled the lava to create armor for itself.
‘For now… should I head back up?’
Its defenses looked stronger than expected; my earlier strike wouldn’t have been enough. Besides, it wasn’t the creature I was looking for, and my mission had only been to confirm its presence. My personal goal was a failure, but the public objective had succeeded.
***
“This is troublesome.”
Alone in his office, the mayor pressed a hand to his forehead. More accurately, he was clutching his head over the report in front of him.
“It’s too peaceful.”
Peace was supposed to be good. But it depended entirely on the reason behind it. A plain filled with nothing but rabbits and grass could be called peaceful. Yet the moment a wolf pack appeared, the grassland would be soaked in rabbit blood and that peace would shatter in an instant.
Currently, Jeju Island kept its Awakened relatively safe, but the number of game-based Awakened was smaller than expected. There were few strong individuals and many weak ones. While the outside world suffered invasions from external threats, Jeju was a grassland containing only rabbits. A group without the power to protect itself would be wiped out by external forces even if it remained peaceful internally—just like the future awaiting Jeju Island.
He needed to find a solution. He had to obtain the strength to defend themselves. The easiest method was recruiting powerful individuals. But to do that, what was required?
A reward enticing enough to lure the strong.
“We don’t have that kind of money… Should we advertise our peace?”
But the mayor soon discarded the idea. It risked attracting low-quality Awakened as well. Moreover, advertising safety could spark factional wars over this land in the future. If he was going to draw people in, he needed another way.