I'm the Heavenly Demon?

I'm the Heavenly Demon?

Ding-!

His phone chimed with a notification.

"Hah."

The man checking the screen—Lee Jun-ho, Director of the Awakener Management Agency—twisted his mouth into a bitter smile.

The message waiting for him was the same old boilerplate he always got.

A rejection text ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that opened with the usual canned courtesy.

He wasn't ready yet. The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠terms were good, but becoming a public figure felt like too much pressure. They piled on the excuses at exhausting length, but boiled down it meant one thing: they would not work with him.

Nine times out of ten, some other country or a major guild had already snagged them. Painfully obvious.

Still, at least this one had bothered to write a long-winded apology. That put them in the gentleman class. Most people just typed "I'm not going" and blocked him cold.

Put another way, a wall of text like this meant there might still be a sliver of room left to negotiate.

"Hoo."

Lee Jun-ho snatched up his phone and hit call with the ease of long practice.

After everything they'd already spent on this person, he was not about to hand them over to another country on a silver platter. He would grab whatever pant leg he could find and hang on.

It was grimly amusing, even to himself, that a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠man with a title as polished as Director of the Agency was still doing work that belonged to a brand-new hire on the lowest rung.

But what choice did he have?

The director of a weak nation's agency had no option but to run himself ragged on his own two feet. That was the only way to even cling to the coattails of the ones pulling ahead.

Brrr. Click.

"Ah, yes. I read the message you sent, Awakener. Which is why I wanted to say—if the terms aren't to your liking, we can stretch as far as you need. Whatever you want, we'll do our best to match it."

Lee Jun-ho clung to the other party with a desperation that bordered on undignified.

He had no other choice. The Korean Awakener Management Agency was always starving for talent.

To protect South Korea's citizens from the Tower Collapse that returned every year-end, the Agency had to secure even one more awakener by any means necessary.

"Ah, yes. Ah…… they offered double the salary of our proposal, no questions asked……"

Of course, going endlessly polite was no guarantee a negotiation would end in a happy ending.

"Ah, yes. Yes, no, of course not. I wish you every success, Awakener."

Click-!

The call cut off.

Negotiation failed. He'd expected something like it, but today the bitterness sat especially heavy in his gut.

Maybe because the search for the Heavenly Demon wasn't turning up anything either.

"Damn it."

Lee Jun-ho dug irritably through his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠pockets.

He would have killed for a cigarette, only to realize he'd already burned through the last one a moment ago.

"Hell. Nothing's going right."

Not a single thing was working out.

Ding-!

Then the phone chimed again.

"This is—"

The moment he checked the alert, Lee Jun-ho's face went rigid.

"Ha. Maestro, you absolute bastard."

Maestro.

South Korea's one and only S-class awakener.

To Lee Jun-ho, though, Maestro was nothing more and nothing less than a walking headache.

Fail to stroke his ego and even shoving him into the Tower every year became an ordeal.

The way he shrewdly leveraged the fact that he held all the cards made Lee Jun-ho itch to slap him across the face.

This latest alert was just more of Maestro's usual top-dog bullying.

"Manage the gallery? Damn it, does he think I've got nothing better to do?"

The Mage Awakener Gallery.

Magakgal, for short. One of the countless communities that had sprouted like weeds after the Tower appeared. Maestro himself had founded it.

The problem was that after scribbling around for a few days, Maestro had gotten bored and dumped the entire management of the gallery onto Lee Jun-ho.

Naturally Lee Jun-ho had tried to refuse. He had never had a choice in the matter.

"Tsk."

Years had passed since then. At this point Lee Jun-ho could no longer tell whether he was the Agency Director or a gallery mod with a badge.

Other galleries vote their mods out sometimes.

The Magakgal crowd was uselessly docile. Or maybe they simply never thought about it at all.

He would have loved to dump this nonsense on a subordinate even now, but if he did, Maestro would throw another tantrum for sure.

Piece of shit.

Lee Jun-ho clicked his tongue and checked the contents.

This little—

A user going by the nickname HeavenlyDemon.

Ordinarily the guy walked a careful line while stirring up aggro, but lately he had stepped clean over it and kicked up a real mess.

And now that same user had sent a link through open chat.

"Hmm."

He hadn't actually expected a verification shot.

Threatening him into filming a verification video had just been something Lee Jun-ho tossed out to quiet the gallery while he was already drowning in the Heavenly Demon mess. That was all.

What the hell is a gallery even worth.

He didn't understand it. Lee Jun-ho clicked the link without a second thought.

"Huh?"

And exactly thirty seconds later, he shot up out of his chair.

"Somebody get in here right now!"

Exactly ten seconds after that, Lee Jun-ho couldn't take it anymore and bolted barefoot out of his office.

"And delete that post immediately!"

There was no time to hesitate.

"Ahh, that was a good sleep."

A clear, refreshing morning. The day after a Tower run always seemed to gift me an especially deep rest.

Maybe I should put together an insomnia treatment package while I'm at it. Business would probably boom.

"Nnngh!"

I stretched with everything I had, and my body felt light enough to float.

"Alright then—time to check the reactions."

I'd slept well. Time to do what needed doing.

"Hope I didn't get too many recommends."

I'd deliberately tossed a post into the Awakener Gallery engineered to pull maximum aggro.

At this rate I might even break the gallery's all-time recommend record.

"Eheheh."

Just thinking about it was fun. My mouth was watering.

Ding!

"Huh?"

What greeted me when I logged into the gallery with my heart full of hope was not a flood of friend requests, but a notification window informing me that my verification post had been wiped without a trace.

And only ten minutes after I'd uploaded it.

"What the hell is this……"

Not that I hadn't considered the possibility of a deletion. That was why I'd deliberately targeted a lawless gallery with no real moderators.

So who on earth had gone and nuked my post?

"Whoever you are, you've miscalculated."

Did they really think deleting a post could delete my influence along with it?

These days, clicking delete on a single post didn't end anything. If anything, that was how you poured gasoline on the fire.

There it was.

A rush of satisfaction made me clench my fist without thinking.

Every single post on the Awakener Gallery was about the Heavenly Demon and the verification thread.

So what did it matter how hard they tried to smear me or tear me down?

The dignity of This Seat seeps out on its own even when I sit still. Hide it all you like—it cannot be hidden.

"Ahem."

Just a few more, maybe?

"Mmmmm!"

More. Praise me more. Exalt This Seat with the utmost reverence, I say.

And they were even comparing me to Maestro of all people. Every post I read detonated a dopamine bomb so hard I could barely stay coherent.

I had no idea what that last four-character phrase was supposed to mean, but roughly speaking it had to mean they were worshipping This Seat.

"Hoo. Hooo."

I'd gotten so worked up I had to take several deep breaths.

"More time passed than I thought."

I'd meant to skim a few more posts and somehow ended up binge-reading every single concept post on the board. It had been a long time since I'd sunk this deep into gallery surfing.

Time to head back to home base. The triumphant return of the king.

"Alright. Let's go."

Magakgal was in much the same state as the Hunter Gallery. The entire board was plastered with talk about me.

The flavor of the content, though, was a little different.

Looks like another warrior with that sword, someone save the mages, why the hell is Maestro doing nothing—and so on.

Rather than the Heavenly Demon as a person, most of the posts fretted and ranted about the damage mages would take from the sudden appearance of an overwhelmingly strong melee awakener.

"Hmm."

I guess these guys really do see things differently because they're mages?

"Well. Maybe they'll cheer up if I verify that I'm a kind of mage too."

My main account ban was due to lift right around now anyway, so I ditched the alt and tried logging in with the familiar one.

"Now then—time to properly display the dignity of This Seat……"

The instant I hit the write-post button with full momentum—

Ding-!

"Huh?"

No, what is it this time.