The World Notices the Primordial Demon

The message popped up right in front of me: Come forth, Great Demon Lord.

The first floor was over in the blink of an eye. The moment I cleared it, that system message appeared right before my eyes. I just stood there, completely stunned.

“Huh…?”

The previous number-one score had been 9,771 points. Yet here I was with 15,162—nearly six thousand points higher. Even across all floors, scores over ten thousand were rare.

“Well done, Asmodeus! We’re in first place!”

“Haaahng…! To receive such praise from Lady Lucy makes this girl’s waist tremble with delight…!”

“Why is your waist trembling?”

“Haaang~”

“…”

The moment I praised her, Asmodeus started twisting her whole body in ecstasy. Even while she did that, more system messages kept scrolling down.

All sorts of rewards and back-to-back level-ups. I’d heard that magic stones could be sold for money, and several pieces of equipment had dropped too. On the Hunter Gallery, people said the first floor usually gave E-rank rewards. But most of mine were C-rank. It was probably because I’d taken first place.

“These mere magic stones are unworthy of the great Lady Lucy. Something far larger and more magnificent would suit your exalted status.”

“It’s only the first floor. Besides, hunters really make their money from gates.”

The main source of income for hunters was usually clearing gates. Ever since the Tower appeared, gates had started popping up all over ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the world, ranging from E-rank to S-rank in difficulty. Inside them were monsters and all kinds of danger. If you cleared a gate it would disappear, but if you failed to clear it in time, the gate would rupture and monsters would pour into the real world.

Clearing gates also gave rewards. Plenty of hunters made a living by only running gates that suited their level. On the other hand, growth like leveling up or ranking up could only happen inside the Tower, so hunters aiming for the top climbed it diligently too. That sort of thing.

Anyway, I needed to make money. Even so, the reason I came to the Tower first instead of heading straight for a gate was simple—

The nickname registration prompt had appeared. That was exactly why I’d cleared the Tower first. Clearing the first floor let you officially register a nickname with the system. Once you did, all the other functions in the status window would open up—including the awakened-only community and the gate information feature. With those, I could easily find gates suited to me and look for parties.

“Hmm…”

I had to pick a nickname first. I thought about going with something safe, but then wondered if I should choose one that somehow revealed a bit of who I was.

“Hmm… How about ‘TheWorld’sStrongestPrimordialDemonCuteLucy’?”

“Even kindergarteners wouldn’t use a name like that these days.”

“But Lady Lucy is cuter than any kindergartener, are you not?”

“I’ll just pick it myself.”

Asking Asmodeus for advice had been pointless. Something simple would be fine. I decided on a name loosely related to my traits. ‘Demon’ or something like that should work. I typed in the nickname I’d chosen and hit enter, but—

“Ah, typo!”

It was my first time typing on the status window, so I’d made a mistake. I’d hit enter out of habit the moment I finished typing, and it locked the name in place.

I’d meant to type “Demon” but ended up with “Angma” instead. And apparently you couldn’t change it once it was set. Wait, shouldn’t the system have warned me before I confirmed it? Logically, shouldn’t there have been a confirmation prompt like Are you sure you want to use this nickname? Who just locks it in the second you hit enter? If I’d known, I would’ve typed more carefully…!

“Angma…! Such an adorable pronunciation truly exists! It is a concise, dignified, and utterly cute nickname that perfectly suits Lady Lucy!”

“…Please just be quiet. It was a typo.”

I kept tapping the screen, but nothing changed. In the end, I had become Angma. The ranking registration began immediately.

There sat my nickname, proudly displayed in first place. From now on I’d have to use “Angma” for all awakened community activity too.

“Now the entire world shall come to know Lady Lucy’s dignity.”

I didn’t really feel any dignity from the name Angma. Oh well. It was just a nickname. The more I looked at it, the cuter it actually sounded.

“Let’s get out of here for now.”

“Understood.”

I decided to leave the Tower. It was dark, creepy, and I didn’t want to stay any longer. As I was exiting the Tower of Trials, a sudden thought occurred to me.

Wait… rankings are visible to every hunter in the world, right…?

I’d taken first place on a leaderboard that literally everyone could see. My nickname [Angma] was now plastered at the very top.

Eh, it’s only the first-floor ranking. No one’s going to care that much… right?

It was just the first floor, after all. There were people who had reached the 66th floor—who would even bother looking at the first?

Still… the score gap with second place is way too big…

The problem was that I had completely shattered the record of the person on the 66th floor. I had blown right past the world’s number-one hunter’s score.

“Hmm…”

I was starting to get a little worried. Not only was Messiah the current world number one, but I’d heard that among the really strong hunters there were a lot of weirdos…

Inside the President’s Office at the Korean Hunter Association headquarters, President Park Cheolyong was in the middle of handling paperwork.

Knock knock knock—

Someone rapped on the office door. Without even turning his head, Park Cheolyong answered in a low voice.

“Come in.”

The door burst open with a hurried bang. The visitor was Lee Changho, head of the Hunter Management Division.

“P-President! We have a serious problem!”

“Division Head Lee Changho. As far as I can recall, the times you’ve said there was a serious problem, it’s never actually been serious. Are you here to waste my time with another trivial matter?”

“N-no, sir! This really is serious! The first-floor ranking has been updated!”

“…What?”

The president flinched and immediately opened his status window. As a former hunter himself, he could use the community features. Park Cheolyong hurriedly checked the first-floor ranking.

“Huuuuh…!”

Park Cheolyong let out a stunned gasp the moment he saw the ranking. The spot that Messiah had held firm until just yesterday had been snatched away by a hunter named “Angma.”

“When was the ranking updated?”

“Ten minutes ago. I came running the second I saw it.”

Ranking updates didn’t send notifications unless you were actively checking. But monitoring the rankings was part of the Association’s job—looking for promising new hunters. Until now, the first-floor number-one spot had never changed. Someone who could beat Messiah’s first-floor score? If such a person appeared, the whole world would flip upside down.

“The international awakened channels are in complete chaos right now.”

“I can see that. The whole country’s gone mad.”

Park Cheolyong spoke while staring at his status window. The awakened community feature had many different channels. There were country-specific ones like the American Awakened Channel or the Korean Awakened Channel, as well as global ones used by every nation. They were basically like famous internet galleries. Anyone could browse any country’s channel, but American channels mostly posted news about American hunters, and so on.

“America, China, Russia, Japan, South America… every single national channel has been flipped upside down.”

All the channels were in an uproar. It had only been ten minutes since the ranking updated, yet every single one was flooded with posts about the new awakened named “Angma.” That was what breaking Messiah’s record meant. And it wasn’t even by one or two points—it was by nearly six thousand.

“Judging by the Korean characters, this hunter must be Korean, right?”

“Very likely.”

“But what does ‘Angma’ even mean? Ang? Aaaang?”

Division Head Lee Changho made an awkward noise as he asked. At least the nickname was written in Korean, so the person was definitely Korean. But the meaning of “Angma” was impossible to guess.

“Have any new S-rank awakeneds registered recently?”

“None. Even if there were, 15,162 points seems nearly impossible.”

“Then the probability that this is an unregistered awakened is high.”

A score this absurd could only belong to an S-rank class. And not just any S-rank—one with power so overwhelming it surpassed even Messiah.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for Korea.”

“It certainly seems that way. Even watching it myself, I can hardly believe it. I was smoking when I saw it, got so startled I threw the cigarette down and ran straight here.”

“Didn’t I tell you not to smoke during work hours? And you should dispose of the butts properly.”

“Ah, that was just to clear my head… I mean, I put it out properly before throwing it away.”

“Haa… Never mind. That’s not what’s important right now.”

Park Cheolyong turned back to the screen. Angma. Whoever they were, this person could become Korea’s hope. Park Cheolyong had once been a fairly famous hunter himself. He retired as an A-rank after getting older. He could have lived comfortably off his savings, but instead he came to the Association.

“We might even be able to surpass America. No—if Angma becomes our strength, we definitely will.”

Park Cheolyong’s patriotism had played a huge role in his becoming president. Unlike other countries where the system had settled quickly, Korea had suffered a lot of chaos. During that time, many promising hunters had emigrated to places like America. Even though Park Cheolyong had been working hard to hold onto them since taking office, it still wasn’t enough. Korea’s hunter industry was still so underdeveloped that they sometimes struggled even with B-rank gates.

“We need to take proper care of this hunter called Angma. I’ll contact them personally.”

“Wouldn’t it be off-putting if the Association President contacted them directly?”

“…Division Head Lee Changho. As I’ve said many times, if you want to quit, just submit your resignation. I’ll approve it immediately.”

“Haha, of course that was a joke. I’ll help too.”

Lee Changho laughed far too cheerfully. He was probably the only employee crazy enough to joke around with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the president.

“Of course we need to hold on tight… but with a score this high, other parties won’t just sit still, will they? They’ll be desperate to naturalize Angma. Messiah’s record was beaten by a huge margin.”

“…Which is exactly why we have to do even better. Angma. This person is the key that will decide Korea’s future.”

Things in Korea had been getting harder lately. The appearance of an awakened named Angma in Korea might just be fate. The problem, however, was that Angma had entered the Tower without registering with the Association. Unregistered awakeneds weren’t that uncommon. But they absolutely could not let Angma remain unregistered. They had to register them with the Korean ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Hunter Association and keep them firmly in Korea—no matter what rewards it took. Otherwise, just like the many promising talents who had emigrated before, Angma might leave Korea too. And that would be the path to saving Korea.

That was what Park Cheolyong thought.

“The whole world has realized Lady Lucy’s cuteness… I mean, dignity! This is truly how the world should be!”

After clearing the first floor and coming out, Asmodeus was clapping with a satisfied expression. The reason was the awakened-only community feature that had opened when I cleared the first floor.

Not only the Korean channel, but the American, Chinese, Russian, South American, European, African… every single channel was flooded with posts about me. And it hadn’t even been that long since I cleared the first floor. But that wasn’t all. Along with the flood of posts on every national channel, my personal chat window was exploding with messages.

Every single person sending me messages was a heavyweight that couldn’t be brushed off as a joke.