Learning About the Heavenly Demon
Just make damn sure the articles clearly say the Heavenly Demon is Korean and will stay Korean from now on.
The instant Lee Jun-ho checked the note, he had to clamp down hard on the laugh that nearly burst out of him.
The Heavenly Demon!
She was demanding that he make her Korean identity crystal clear. It was basically the same as declaring to the entire world that her affiliation was the Republic of Korea. Of course she wasn't officially affiliated with the nation yet, but once articles like that hit the presses, South Korea would seize the official title of "Heavenly Demon-holding nation."
If we could actually get her under the Agency's banner it'd be the icing on the cake, but…
That was probably impossible for the time being. Whatever he'd done had clearly pissed her off—pretty thoroughly, in fact.
Damn it.
Even now, just thinking about the Mage Gallery mess made his head throb. He'd frantically lowered his tail and handed the gallery modship over to another user because contacting the Heavenly Demon took absolute priority, but that was a blatant violation of Maestro's orders. Later, no matter how hard he explained that he'd had no choice, Maestro wouldn't even pretend to listen.
He must never find out.
The one silver lining was that the guy had stopped caring about the gallery ages ago, and the user who'd taken over as mod was also an Agency employee. So he wasn't completely without cover.
For now, just focus on the Heavenly Demon.
Better to pour everything into the big fish he was about to reel in than the one already in the net.
Still… impressive.
How long had it been since her face stopped registering properly? Easily over an hour by now. And yet the perception-dulling magic was still holding strong. The Heavenly Demon was nothing more than a newbie awakener who'd only just cleared the fifth floor of the Tower.
Insane potential, pure and simple.
Exactly the kind of awakener who'd smash Super's records right out of the gate. Even if he couldn't scout the Heavenly Demon into the Agency, keeping some kind of thread connected was still the right call. In that sense, ditching the modship against Maestro's orders had been the correct choice a hundred times over.
Scratch, scratch.
The Heavenly Demon stared at Lee Jun-ho's face for a moment, then picked up the pen and started scribbling something else.
What is she going to say this time?
He told himself not to get his hopes up, but after watching her shatter every expectation just moments ago, anticipation swelled against his will.
She shoved the paper across the table. Lee Jun-ho took it carefully, heart thudding.
Now give me the item.
Ah. The item. Right. He had to hand that over.
The expression that had been brimming with expectation twisted into something complicated for a second.
It was the deal, after all.
He had no idea what she would demand, but thinking about it, the Heavenly Demon was still a rookie awakener who had only just started climbing the fifth floor. The odds were high she didn't even properly know what kinds of items existed in the Tower, let alone what was sitting in the Agency's vaults.
"Yes, of course. What would you like?"
Lee Jun-ho asked with his best good-natured smile. If he could palm her a few decent items and solidify a real connection with the Heavenly Demon, he would be the one coming out ahead.
Scratch, scratch.
She wrote without a second's hesitation.
What is she going to ask for?
Potions, most likely. No matter how thoroughly she was demolishing the Tower on the way up, the early floors were where potions were always in short supply no matter how many you burned through. By that logic, potions were the strongest contender for what she would demand.
She held out the paper.
"Ah, yes."
Lee Jun-ho snatched it up at once. Now, what could she possibly want…
Give me the Goblin Pouch.
The moment he took the paper, Lee Jun-ho froze solid in that exact pose.
How the hell does she know about this?
The Goblin Pouch. One of the handful of unique-grade items the Agency possessed. Exactly as the name suggested, it was a subspace pouch that could store spare equipment. Capacity: two items. Simply owning it expanded a base inventory of five slots to seven. If it ever hit the open market it would fetch tens of billions—whatever price the seller named. The Awakener Management Agency itself only held three of them.
One had gone to the S-class Maestro. Another had been handed to Ice Blade, the A-class prospect the Agency was grooming. That left exactly one spare sitting in the Agency vault, and even that one was a trump card locked away for recruiting some future heavyweight. Information about it barely circulated in public. Sure, rumors drifted among the absolute top-tier awakeners, but there was no way a brand-new rookie who'd just entered the Tower should know about it.
"Th-the Goblin Pouch, you say? Perhaps something else instead…"
Setting aside the mystery of how she even knew, Lee Jun-ho scrambled to speak. No matter what, he could not just casually hand that precious Goblin Pouch over to an outsider who wasn't even affiliated with the Agency.
Scratch, scratch.
The Heavenly Demon wrote without the slightest pause and shoved the paper at him.
I only need the Goblin Pouch. Don't need anything else. If you can't give it, I'll immigrate to somewhere that will.
Thud!
She set the pen and paper down on the table with deliberate finality. It was a clear declaration that she had nothing more to discuss—and an extremely effective threat at the same time.
We're screwed.
As expected of the Heavenly Demon. This completely unidentifiable figure was clearly a whole level beyond even Maestro.
We're completely screwed.
One of the Agency's pillars was about to get yanked out by the roots.
The next day.
The Goblin Pouch the Agency had promised still hadn't arrived, so I decided to push the Tower climb back a day.
"Even that bastard Maestro has his useful days."
He used to brag about it so much that I'd learned whether I wanted to or not—the Goblin Pouch's performance, and exactly how many the Agency was stockpiling. Back then I'd just wanted him to shut up, but today that TMI was finally paying dividends.
"Two extra subspace slots is huge."
Expanding the inventory by two slots meant that much more tactical flexibility and that many more spoils I could haul out. Pure numbers-wise, expected earnings went up by roughly 1.2 times. Sitting down across from the Agency director and putting up with the hassle had been worth it.
"So what am I doing today."
Anyway, I had to wait for the item delivery, which left me with a floating block of free time.
"Might as well research the Heavenly Demon a bit."
Nothing better to do with the leftover hours, so why not stack some murim knowledge.
"The Heavenly Demon is the leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, and the cult runs on pure might-makes-right…"
In short, yaksha rules. Biggest guy eats first. I liked that kind of straightforward logic a lot.
"Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, huh."
The searching continued after that—everything from origins in Zoroastrianism or the White Lotus Society to the setting where they lived buried in the brutal Ten-Thousand Great Mountains.
"Ugh, my eyes hurt."
Reading dense walls of text in a short burst was starting to hit my limit. For a modern person marinated in short-form dopamine, long-form reading was just too brutal a way to take in information.
"Guess there's only one real method."
Time to take the faster, more reliable route.
Murim Alliance Gallery.
I'd heard it was the hangout for warrior-class awakeners, especially the ones completely pickled in murim tropes. I'd only heard the name a few times; this was my first time actually stepping inside. And for good reason.
"Ugh."
Even knowing it was a bit, the titles alone hit with pure rejection. The thick layer of mage-hate that blanketed everything was just a free bonus.
Still, as far as I knew, nobody was more serious about murim than these guys. Time to write a question post.
Ugh. The comments alone were already hard to process. For now I threw a question at InfiniteWarrior, the fixed-nick who at least seemed friendly.
Pretty much everything about murim was a complete blank to me.
Not InfiniteWarrior—some other fixed-nick answered. For reasons I couldn't quite grasp, he seemed extremely angry.
"Oho."
So just jacking up the numbers wasn't enough. If I ever learned that technique later, I'd have to be careful using it.
"Oh, they're different things?"
I didn't know. I just thought they were the same rank with different names.
The replies were starting to slow down. The flood of comments that did appear were all screaming for the mods and asking why this bastard hadn't been banned yet. Even the ironclad concept posts started dropping their bit entirely.
What exactly had I done?
Every previous question had been setup for this one.
This was what I'd actually been most curious about.
The reactions exploded.
"Hey, why are you only cussing me out instead of answering."
I'd just asked out of pure curiosity.
Ding!
Blocked IP.
Reason: Aggro. Don't ever come back.
Duration: Permanent ban
"Ah."
Why did I get banned.