Turbulence Over a Divided Land

It should go without saying, but subduing terrorists ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠at the level of mere hunters — men who couldn't even qualify as heroes — was nothing at all.

I didn't even need to step in. They were exactly the kind of people Kim Seohyun could take down in a heartbeat.

Something's off, though.

Because this situation was unmistakably strange. They were targeting the personal jet of Paewang himself — did that make any kind of sense? Common sense said no. But then again, of all the places in the world, we were here.

...Now that I think about it, we're in China.

The China of today made even the Warring States period look tame by comparison. The country itself was staggeringly vast, but the number of groups claiming to be nations was even vaster — a full sixty of them, and the count was still climbing.

Which meant China was, quite literally, still at war.

In the chaos of a warzone, everyone was too busy clawing for survival to recognize anyone else's face. In murim terms, bandits had just come swarming down the mountain out of nowhere.

"Seohyun, take those guys down."

"Huh? Sure."

Kim Seohyun tilted his head for a moment, then moved toward the hunters.

"The hell? Just two pretty-boy guys in here?"

"That flight attendant over there's my type."

"I want the black-haired one over there."

Talent — Insight — translated their words for me. Kim Seohyun smiled faintly at the last woman's remark, closed the distance in a flash, and dropped her with a single blow to the solar plexus.

"Kgh — what the—!"

"H-hero? Why are you in a place like this!"

"W-wait a second! Where even are we?! That's obviously a private jet — rich people only fly on things like this!"

The terrorists screamed in panicked voices.

Don't tell me they really didn't know what they were hijacking.

No, that's not the point.

Paewang's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠personal jet was slathered, inside and out, with layer upon layer of protections, all for the sake of style. Punching through all of it in one shot was simply impossible for creatures of that caliber.

An artifact, then?

Artifacts. Items that emerged from ruins in the other worlds as dimensions overlapped and folded together.

Artifacts wielded power on an entirely different plane from ordinary items or armaments. They governed power over concepts themselves — even a low-grade artifact, in the right hands, could unleash something dangerous. A kind of interference with reality's fundamental rules.

Certain artifacts even granted the special stats that would later serve as the basis for the 'Concept Stats'.

Usually these things don't show up until midway through the story.

Well, no matter. Even the strongest of the strongest were already showing their faces well ahead of schedule. The original story had long since been bent badly out of shape. Clinging to the plot was a good way to die. I needed to stay flexible.

I rose and picked up the thing that looked like an artifact, then activated Insight.

...A rather ambiguous artifact.

Most artifacts carried effects exactly like this. One that let you travel anywhere on Earth, once a month. A spear that was guaranteed to strike its target true. They ranged from terrifying to merely odd.

Well, an artifact like this one had its meaning in infiltration, so I pocketed it for now.

"What should we do with these guys?"

"...It's a delicate question."

Frankly, the simplest and most convenient answer was to dispose of them. These people hadn't come here with any noble purpose, so they wouldn't exactly die with legitimate grievances.

"P-please spare us, heroes!"

The terrorists wailed in Chinese.

I looked at Kim Seohyun. Kim Seohyun looked at me. His expression was unreadable.

I didn't want to spare them. But there was no need to bloody my hands over it, either. Above all, Kim Seohyun was the protagonist — the one who carried the role of Good. There was nothing to gain from making him watch blood spilled.

"Before that — does anyone know where they got this artifact?"

"I-I know!"

The woman I'd said was my type just a moment ago spoke up.

"We got that artifact by shattering a ruin with the Black Vermilion Bird's black flames."

"...The Black Vermilion Bird?"

That was more interesting information than I'd expected.

"Y-yes! It's a divine beast currently flying across all of China, gathering power. It's a being that burns everything to ash with black fire."

"Its flames are that strong?"

"Yes... its fire is especially powerful at burning away every kind of ability."

"I see."

I looked at Heukcheon.

-That's right, Master. It's the Vermilion Bird. The creature that received a portion of my previous master's power.

-Be careful with it. Unlike the other divine beasts, that thing reveres the Heavenly Demon — it rendered the Heavenly Demon's body down into a violent essence and rebuilt its own flesh from it.

The Heaven-Defying Physique.

A strange expression crossed my face. The more I heard about the Vermilion Bird, the more one thought settled into place: I simply could not imagine myself losing to it.

"Y-you're going to spare us, right?"

"Sure."

I would spare them, all right. Just not in the form they were hoping for.

"Anyone trained in martial arts gets their dantian shattered. Anyone trained in magic gets their core shattered. Cut their tendons too."

"Fine by me."

Kim Seohyun nodded readily.

Personally, I thought this was the crueler way of doing things, but apparently Kim Seohyun didn't see it that way. A few of the terrorists actually looked relieved — proof, at least, that they wouldn't be killed outright.

Of course, we wouldn't do it the ordinary way. Medicine in this era was astonishingly advanced; there were methods to restore even a shattered dantian or core.

Not that these people would ever have the money or connections to get that treatment.

Still, better safe than sorry. With the Heaven-Defying Qi, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I negated everything they had.

"Can I ask you something?"

"What is it?"

Once the work was done, Kim Seohyun came over to me.

"Why did you spare them?"

He looked at me with eyes full of questions.

"Is that all it is — curiosity?"

"Yeah. You never go easy on enemies, Seoha. I honestly thought you were going to kill them."

Did I look like that?

Well, if Kim Seohyun hadn't been there, I probably would have.

"Because you hate it."

"Huh?"

At my answer, Kim Seohyun blinked for a moment.

"I didn't do it because you hate it."

"...You actually factored that in?"

"I factor in everything. I just don't bother mentioning it most of the time, because it isn't worth the thought."

Everyone else assumed I treated all of them the same — like demons or Villains. Those two were different things, quite substantially, but when it came to Villains, I dealt with them coldly all the same.

Erciel chose killing over handing them to the police. Hong Yuhwa was the same. Seo Gayeon would go along with whatever I decided, without a word of complaint.

But not Kim Seohyun.

She was the most important person in this world.

I looked at Kim Seohyun. He ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was staring back at me, dazed.

"You spared them... because of me?"

"That's right."

Kim Seohyun, who had been wearing that lazy, easy smile, lowered himself into a chair and hid his face.

"You should really watch yourself a little, Seoha."

"...Watch myself how?"

Don't tell me he'd seen through my intentions.

"Sometimes I look at you and think, that's someone who'd be pretty hard to actually approach."

"Me?"

I was puzzled. I kept my distance from most people, sure, but with the main cast I'd thought I'd been consistently helpful, consistently friendly.

"Yeah. There's just something about you. You wouldn't know, though — you're hopeless at reading the room."

"..."

Hopeless at reading the room, huh.

But if I replayed what my girlfriends from my past life used to say... maybe I really was dense in exactly this way. I considered arguing the point for a moment, then simply kept my silence.

"Honestly, I've never much liked fighting other people over something — wrestling it away from them. Call it my nature."

Kim Seohyun looked at me.

"But just now, I wanted it too much. More than I could hold myself back from."

"...Is that so?"

"Yeah."

Silence settled over our conversation after that.

As I leaned back in my chair, drowning in the awkward quiet, an urgent voice came from the cabin.

"We apologize. The aircraft is currently unable to proceed to its destination. We will need to make an interim landing and depart again by an alternate route."

"Unable to reach the destination?"

"There are far too many flying monsters nearby. The risk of crashing mid-flight is significant."

"I see."

Kim Seohyun nodded at once.

This was one of the reasons every nation on earth had been building warp gates in droves. The skies and the seas had long since become the monsters' domain.

"If we drive from the landing site to the destination, how long would that take?"

"At least fifteen hours."

At that point, we might as well just wait.

We landed briefly in a city, where we received a long list of warnings.

"You are guests of Paewang, but you must remember that China is currently at war. There are few fools brazen enough to touch a guest of Paewang — but there are even fewer people who can tell at a glance that you're his guests at all."

As she said this, the flight attendant pinned a small emblem to each of our chests.

"As long as you're wearing this, you can at least avoid picking fights."

"Understood."

It didn't much matter, honestly — neither Kim Seohyun nor I intended to cause trouble here. It wasn't as if we lacked the strength for it.

Unless one of the absolute strongest came after us personally, nothing dangerous would happen.

And right now, hunting one of the strongest alone is beyond us anyway.

That would change the moment my sigil fully took root. And besides, most of them were heavyweights who never left their seats — hard to meet even if you went looking.

"Shall we do a little sightseeing, then?"

"Sounds good. I didn't expect a chance this soon."

Kim Seohyun drew closer beside me.

"Doesn't this feel just like a date?"

"Does it? Then shall I escort you?"

At my offhand remark, Kim Seohyun's face flushed faintly.

"Then it's a date. Today, you and me — for the whole day?"

I was in a state of utter panic.

How, in the name of everything, did it come to this?

"S-Sorry, Seoha!"

Kim Seohyun's rear end was sitting squarely on my face.

He happened to be wearing a skirt, so a pair of plain white panties was pressed directly against my mouth. The heat of Kim Seohyun's thighs was squeezing my face from both sides.

And watching all of this: Paewang, his expression deeply uncomfortable.

Beside him, Kim Ara, wearing a look of flustered panic.

"...So that's it. That's why you never took the bait no matter how I came on to you..."

Kim Ara was looking at me with something dangerously close to pity — the look you'd give a man you'd just realized played for the other team.

Seriously — how did it come to this?