A Very Special Boss Monster

The scenery reminiscent of a European hotel dining hall vanished in an instant, replaced by the grand, sweeping view of an opulent aristocratic manor. Yet to call it a mere residence felt absurd—the interior stretched out on an almost unfathomable scale.

"Where are we?"

The moment they crossed over, Baek Sunwoo's expression hardened. In a fluid motion honed by countless battles, he sprang forward, falling into a protective formation in front of Jiyu.

Wait, isn't this supposed to be the tenth floor?

Jiyu had cleared this very floor back during her days as a dealer, yet she had never laid eyes on an estate like this. Had the Tower itself changed? Was such a thing even possible? An altered floor meant only one thing: the boss waiting at the end had almost certainly changed as well.

"I'm turning on my bodycam just in case," Sunwoo said.

"Good call," Jiyu agreed.

Sunwoo pressed the power button on the camera mounted to his shoulder. Despite being slammed with an absurdly unfair curveball, he remained remarkably composed. That was simply the nature of the Tower—a labyrinth brimming with sheer malice toward humanity and hunters alike. The Tower was inherently impartial, but it had never been benevolent.

Chime!

The two took a single cautious step forward, only for a blinding, shocking banner to detonate right across their vision.

Status alerts had been pinging incessantly since yesterday, but this one took the cake.

"Wait, what the hell is this?!" Sunwoo blurted, his uncharacteristic burst of agitation breaking his ironclad calm. It was hard to blame him. In a situation like this, their sole remaining sliver of hope rested on the Tower's defining virtue: its absolute fairness.

"Holy shit, I thought my heart stopped," Jiyu gasped, finally exhaling the breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

"Mmh... isn't this still a bit stingy?" Jiyu muttered. The Tower's arbitration felt underwhelming. What good was boosting the rewards if they died before laying a finger on the boss? With trembling hands, she checked the details of the compensation.

"Whew... I mean, it's nice, but... Sunwoo, you got any idea what's going on?"

"Uh, this place..."

It was time to assemble a battle plan, yet Baek Sunwoo looked entirely frozen, as though the shock hadn't worn off. I've never seen him look like this before, Jiyu thought, a prickle of unease creeping up her spine. Even when confronted with the fact that his best friend had turned into a woman, Sunwoo had maintained outward poise. Did that mean whatever they were facing was even worse than that?

"This is yesterday's place," Sunwoo said hollowly. "The S-rank Gate."

"Wait, what?"

Before the revelation could fully sink in, the stone tiles beneath their feet shattered violently with an earth-shattering roar.

The creature roared, its mangled wings torn ragged. Manacles the size of small cottages bound its neck and legs, but the ancient metal was rusted through and offered little reassurance. With another deafening bellow, the dragon shattered the chains like brittle glass and locked its blazing eyes onto Jiyu before unhinging its massive jaw.

An instant breath attack straight out of the gate. Facing an onslaught like this, it was no wonder Sunwoo's raid party had wiped yesterday.

"What kind of crazy—?!"

"Breath incoming!"

Sunwoo scooped Jiyu up in a bridal carry with lightning reflexes.

"Ah?!"

His hand brushed against the bare hem of her skirt—a hem with nothing underneath—causing Jiyu to flinch on pure instinct. Her head burrowed firmly against his chest, tucking her neatly into his frame. While that made it far easier for Sunwoo to sprint at full speed, he couldn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠help screaming into the cavernous air.

"Why the hell is this thing showing up again?!"

A colossal inferno churned inside the beast's gullet, violently sucking in the surrounding atmosphere as it expanded at a terrifying pace. There was nowhere to hide, no cover in sight. Cradled in Sunwoo's arms, Jiyu's thoughts snapped into focus.

That breath... I think I can counter it.

Her attention was no longer fixed on the dragon, but on the third skill she had unlocked upon maxing out the Support class.

Planet Destruction Ray.

She knew she could cancel out that torrent of flame with it. It wasn't logic or calculation—it was pure hunter's instinct.

Having exhausted herself sweeping up the digital filth, the Chief Mod had finally offered an ear to the culprit. Yet the moment a stage was set, the real culprit vanished into the ether, leaving the poor mod to bear the brunt of public outrage. The board burned with blistering posts cursing both the terrorist and the moderation team.

Watching the forum devolve into madness, one woman was on the verge of tears.

"Ugh... somebody save me... bleeegh!"

She crouched alone in the basement lobby of the Awaken Palace—the sanctuary every hunter on earth dreamed of entering. Her silver bob cut framed a strikingly cold, elegant beauty that would have drawn reverence from anyone in sight, had it not been for her thoroughly undignified posture.

"Why do I have to live like this?!"

Her identity was none other than Kang Mirae: S-rank tanker and the youngest daughter of the Mirae Group conglomerate. Blessed with a life of prestige and power that the entire nation envied, she gnashed her teeth in fury.

"You little punk... I will hunt you down and destroy you."

She was also LizardLover, the legendary Chief Mod of the Dealer Info Gallery. It was the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠best-kept secret of South Korea's highest elite.

"Please... just stop posting those disgusting pictures...!"

Having dry-heaved several times already, Mirae clamped her eyes shut, but stepping down from her mod seat was out of the question. It wasn't out of some sadistic pleasure derived from watching pathetic dealers vent their petty insecurities either.

"Filthy lizards... do you think you can hide forever?"

Clutching her smartphone tightly, Mirae steeled her resolve. She was a devout believer in the grand conspiracy that an underground cabal of reptilians secretly ruled the earth. The day she had earnestly pitched the reptilian world order theory to her father, she had been instantly stripped of all managerial duties within the Mirae Group and relegated solely to hunter field work.

Considering the conglomerate's stock price, it had been a remarkably wise corporate decision. To Mirae, however, it was suffocating. No matter how passionately she tried to enlighten them, her family merely smiled and thanked the heavens that their daughter was growing up healthy and strong.

Of course, she was remarkably healthy—she was an S-rank hunter, after all.

"Hmph. One day, everyone will realize I was right."

Despite her grand ambitions, she couldn't keep pace with deleting the endless flood of revolting images dumped by the macro bot. It wasn't just disgust that slowed her down; she was physically starved for time.

"When is Jiyu going to come out...?"

She was currently tasked with a clandestine assignment: providing security for Jiyu. Outside the Tower, hunters were significantly weakened. Stripped of the system's level and item benefits, they had to rely entirely on artifacts. Guarding hunters beyond the Tower's threshold was a critical duty of the Hunter Association and the Management Bureau. For an S-rank hunter, such protection was redundant, but Jiyu's unknown Support rank threw standard procedures out the window.

Strictly control all information. Assign a trusted elite hunter as a personal guard... But why did it have to be me?

Standing sentry before the Tower's entrance, Mirae had kept a close watch over the pair even before they stepped inside.

"What kind of ability is it anyway? This 'Support' thing..."

She needed to understand how Jiyu's powers worked before she could breathe easy—preferably knowing the girl had a way to defend herself.

"Huh? What's this? Sunwoo's hunter cam is live? I should check it out."

The sudden broadcast caught her off guard. They had been explicitly instructed to prevent data leaks at all costs.

"Did something go wrong?"

Mirae hurried toward the monitoring hub where the live feeds were routed: the Magic Tower's underground crisis response center. Connected directly to the fixed gate, the facility was designed to offer seamless tactical support to active hunters. Naturally, every event occurring inside the regional towers—clear logs, telemetry, and bodycam footage—was monitored in real time.

"I'm here," Kang Mirae grumbled as she pushed open the heavy blast doors.

No one answered.

"Is there a problem?"

Despite her slightly tarnished reputation among the corporate brass, she was still an S-rank tanker. She was accustomed to being greeted with deference whenever she set foot in administrative facilities. Yet the operators sitting before the massive consoles seemed to have forgotten how to speak.

"What's the situation?" she pressed.

"Huh? Uh... this is... holy crap!"

"Excuse me?"

Realizing the personnel had completely lost the capacity for coherent human speech, Mirae bypassed them and locked her eyes onto the main screen. The instant she did, her jaw dropped just as hard.

"Wait... is that a dragon's breath?! And what the hell is that light?!"

On screen, two cataclysmic beams of radiant energy collided violently in midair, triggering a monumental detonation that filled the entire monitor. Framed within the inferno was a scene of bizarre, sensual tension—though none of the stunned onlookers in the bunker possessed the sanity to appreciate it.