Heavenly Demon Project
The moment I typed "Heavenly Demon" into the portal search bar, related news articles poured out in a cascade.
Thanks to that, I grasped the whole situation in a single glance.
So it's the Korean government versus the Blood Demon.
More precisely, it was the usual pattern: the Blood Demon side picking a fight as always, while the Korean government—meaning the Hunter Management Bureau—stuck to its usual non-response.
A situation as common as dirt, the kind I'd seen a hundred times.
But this time the subject itself was the subject, and the flames were spreading fiercer than I'd expected.
It all started with the Blood Demon's address to the nation today.
Since the bastard was Chinese, maybe it should be called an address to the people? Either way, it was the same tired stage he used periodically to show off China's safety and his own undiminished power to his countrymen.
Normally it was nothing but empty noise, an event that drew interest only from state agencies and people with peculiar tastes.
But today, the Blood Demon dropped a bombshell there.
The content was predictable. The forced claim that the Heavenly Demon was Chinese.
At the same time he ranted that the Korean government's announcement of securing the Heavenly Demon was a blatant lie!
"Oh, this son of a bitch."
Had the Blood Demon finally lost his mind? Pulling a stunt this transparent.
In fact, right after that declaration, when reporters bombarded him with questions about the Heavenly Demon's identity and whereabouts, the Blood Demon answered none of them.
Or rather, he couldn't answer.
A move so obvious you can see straight through it.
Why he'd taken such a reckless gamble wasn't hard to guess.
He's looking for me.
Deep down, the Blood Demon was surely certain the Heavenly Demon was in Korea.
That was why he was pressuring Korea—to pry my information out of them somehow.
The reason was obvious. He wanted the Heavenly Demon card in his own hand.
With China's overwhelming capital and manpower, he firmly believed he could bring the Heavenly Demon—whoever it was—over to his side.
An extremely arrogant, self-centered idea, but that was just how that neighborhood operated. Hadn't that bizarre "wolf warrior diplomacy" been all the rage once?
Their leadership still clearly believed without a doubt that they were the center of the world and every other country was just a supporting cast.
Hiding the information backfired, huh.
Even so, I couldn't just casually reveal my personal details. I had no way to handle the flood of questions about why I looked like this, how I'd obtained these abilities, and so on.
At this point I was practically a person without papers—someone who didn't exist on any official record.
So I had to keep my identity hidden, for other reasons as well. As a result, the content the Korean government could release about the Heavenly Demon was inevitably thin.
Still, I thought it wouldn't be a big problem.
It was, after all, the official announcement of a national government. Who would openly pick a fight with that? Especially when every circumstantial piece of evidence pointed to the Heavenly Demon being Korean.
Just in case, hadn't I even handed the Bureau chief the unedited original of the verification video?
I'd thought that alone would be enough.
I was too complacent.
Far too complacent.
Beyond the existence of the Blood Demon, I should have taken the weight of those two characters—Heavenly Demon—more seriously.
What now.
The water was already spilled. Regret meant nothing; what mattered was what to do from here.
Revealing my identity is impossible.
Unless I could crush all their dissatisfaction and suspicion with my own power, I was still too lacking to come clean right now.
And of course I'm nowhere near ready to face the Blood Demon head-on either.
The gap between the Blood Demon and me right now was vast beyond measure.
Someday I would definitely surpass him, but as I'd said, for the moment I had to acknowledge my shortcomings and build my strength.
Hmm.
Let's think. Was there a way to firmly imprint on the public that the Heavenly Demon was Korean without exposing my identity?
Yeah… this might work.
After mulling it over, a plan so simple it almost looked crude floated up in my head.
But it shouldn't be a problem. Filling in the missing details could be left to the Bureau.
That was what they were there for, wasn't it?
With that settled, I opened the chat app without hesitation.
"Ha, that Blood Demon bastard."
Lee Junho, Director of the Hunter Management Bureau, spat a thick curse as he stared at the news articles flooding the portal site's main page.
Blood Demon. Cao Feilong.
A vicious man who periodically used Korea as a punching bag to jack up his domestic approval ratings.
This time the son of a bitch had launched a provocation of historic scale against the Korean government.
"Ha, this is driving me insane, seriously."
The claim that every announcement from the Korean government was a lie, and that the Heavenly Demon was unequivocally Chinese. An individual Awakener had flatly denied the official statement of an entire nation.
If it were up to him, he would have snapped back cleanly and told the guy to shut his nonsense, but reality was not so kind.
The Blood Demon was China's Awakener. And not just any—ranking second in the world, right behind the number-one "Super," with overwhelming force.
A single S-Class Awakener was treated like a walking tactical nuclear weapon, and the Blood Demon was world number two.
An Awakener who, if he felt like it, could redraw the world map by force.
So no matter how the anger boiled up, for now he had no choice but to endure.
They had already lodged a formal protest with the Chinese government, but it was obvious it wouldn't amount to a damn thing.
Nine times out of ten they would come back with something like, "This was entirely the personal, impulsive act of the Blood Demon, Cao Feilong; the government has no involvement."
They need to say something that actually makes sense.
They had propped him up as the face of every single state-related event until now, and suddenly he was an uncontrollable private individual? Their kid when convenient, someone else's when not?
His affiliation was stamped plain as day as the "People's Republic of China Awakener Association," yet they were still trying to play blind man's bluff.
But they couldn't actually protest effectively.
Even a lie you could see straight through still had to be swallowed when you lacked the power—that was the current position of the Republic of Korea.
Ring-ring!
The internal line rang.
"Director, the press requests for interviews are pouring in nonstop."
When he picked up, a subordinate began reporting in a voice that sounded ready to burst into tears at any second.
"Ignore them all."
"But other countries are flooding us with calls asking about the authenticity as well. The U.S. and Japanese sides are even talking about lodging formal protests."
"Hold the line for now. Tell them we're still assessing the situation and coordinating our position with the Heavenly Demon."
Finished speaking, Lee Junho hung up a little roughly.
The snowball the Blood Demon had started rolling was growing out of control.
The single video the Heavenly Demon had handed over had long since left the realm of anything they could clean up. From the start, that bastard had been aiming for exactly this situation.
If the Bureau failed to respond properly, it would damage Korea's international standing—good for him. And even if they did respond somehow, he had nothing to lose.
The very act of actively explaining would, in reverse, fully expose the Heavenly Demon's existence to him.
Thinking that the Heavenly Demon's perception-distortion magic made it fine was underestimating China far too much.
Those people would find a way to pierce the perception-distortion magic and track the Heavenly Demon no matter what.
Once they succeeded in making contact, they would simply scout him over to China—that was the thinking.
The intent was crystal clear, and the fact that they still had to take the hit made him furious.
The Heavenly Demon is…
Completely silent. He must have seen the news by now.
Did that mean he didn't care how the world turned, as long as it didn't affect him much?
No. The Heavenly Demon was the one who had found being called Chinese so unpleasant that he had specifically demanded an official declaration. For him to be this unresponsive was definitely strange.
Don't tell me the Chinese bastards have already made contact with the Heavenly Demon?
And if he had received an offer too good to refuse and was preparing to switch sides because he liked it?
No.
That would be the absolute worst-case scenario.
Not just for the Republic of Korea—perhaps for all of humanity.
Should I contact him first?
But when they had parted last time, the Heavenly Demon had clearly driven the nail in: if they bothered him with contact first, he would block them immediately, and there would be no further conversation with the Bureau.
What the hell am I supposed to do.
Lee Junho sank into the dilemma of a lifetime.
Ding!
That was the exact moment his phone chimed.
"This is…?"
He lifted the phone and saw the name displayed in huge letters.
Heavenly Demon.
He had reached out first.
Does he have some kind of response in mind?
Clinging to that hope, Lee Junho hurriedly opened the message—and in that instant completely failed to keep his expression under control.
"…Is this for real?"
Because the words the Heavenly Demon had written were simply too hard to believe as sincere.
The next day, I entered the Tower's 11th floor at once.
NIGHTMARE difficulty has been selected.
May glory be with the challenger.
The familiar phrases rose, and with a swirl of light my vision brightened.
"A wasteland this time, huh."
The stage of the 11th floor was a weed-choked wasteland.
On top of that, the monsters that appeared had finally broken free of the goblin one-trick.
"Gruk! Intruder!"
Orcs.
Pig-headed, massively muscular… well, not quite. Green monsters with a decent amount of lean muscle and a slight belly—muscular-pig builds.
One of the monsters that came to mind first when you thought of fantasy.
Well, if goblins had shown up, it only made sense for orcs to follow next.
"Alright then, let's—"
Just as I confidently started to loosen up, a sudden sense of wrongness made me shut my mouth.
"Uh… hmm."
A situation I had never once experienced since entering the Tower.
Why am I perfectly fine?
I was completely in my right mind right now. In other words, Heavenly Demon Mode was not activating.
"Gruk! Die, intruder!"
One orc charged, crude iron axe raised high.
"Uh."
A completely unexpected development.
Why was this happening all of a sudden? What was the cause?
Don't tell me… Mr. Rabbit?
The hidden second effect of Mr. Rabbit, whom I still kept hanging at my waist just in case!
But wasn't that only supposed to keep me sane for a short while?
"Gruk! Die!"
The orc exhaled its characteristic rough snorts and brought the axe down.
"Shield first."
KWAANG!
The crude axe blade slammed into a transparent barrier and bounced off.
Defensive magic works fine.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
"Gruuuk!"
Attack magic was no problem either.
Slicing up another orc that had been sneaking closer with a barrage of magic arrows was as simple as breathing.
It left its characteristic snorting cry and collapsed.
How had I sensed the orc's approach? The sense of reality was a bit lacking, but the experience I had built up until now remained with me intact.
So even if Heavenly Demon Mode suddenly failed to activate, I wasn't going to flail around helplessly and get wrecked.
About nine left?
I could still roughly pin down the positions of the remaining orcs. With a little more adaptation, clearing the Tower in my right mind probably wouldn't be impossible either.
But today I have a purpose.
I absolutely had to turn Heavenly Demon Mode on.
So this guy really is the cause?
The only thing different from usual was Mr. Rabbit hanging at my waist.
Then all I had to do was remove the cause.
Without a shred of hesitation I stuffed Mr. Rabbit into my inventory.
"Gruk! Human shaman! Kill!"
Meanwhile the first orc refused to give up and swung its axe down at me with all its strength.
Hardening
Thup!
My hardened bare hand casually snatched the edge of its axe blade.
The cold that began at the fingertips raced up the wrist and in an instant froze even the axe the creature gripped pure white.
"Gr-gruk!"
The orc panicked and urgently snorted—exactly the moment.
"Quiet, you pig."
Dare not snort in front of this seat.
Crack-crack-crack!
The cold swallowed the creature's entire body in an instant.