The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl (1)

The instant Kim Sunghyun finished off the Hell Gate—

Rrrrrumble—

The entire Seoul branch shuddered.

Lee Hanshin knew at once. This was no ordinary earthquake. A law had been broken. Something deep in the instinct of every living thing screamed the fact into his bones. Anyone else standing here would have felt it too. When gravity vanishes, when light dies, when the rules themselves crack open—you notice.

And on the screen in front of him, something very much like that was happening.

The Hell Gate's entrance, which should have been warped and twisted by temporal distortion, now looked like nothing more than an ordinary mine shaft.

Hanshin jabbed the blue button in front of him and opened a channel to the field agents.

"Alpha Team Two, currently on-site—prepare to enter the Hell Gate."

Every hair on his body stood on end.

Roughly forty seconds of real-world time after Sunghyun had gone in, the quake began. At one minute and ten seconds, Hanshin realized something fundamental had changed. How much time had passed inside after that, he couldn't say. But one thing was certain.

Kim Sunghyun had done something.

That was why Hanshin was scrambling agents into the Hell Gate as fast as he could.

He threw his head back and laughed.

"Hahahaha! You really outdid yourself, Mr. Kim Sunghyun! No—I should be calling you Research Director now!"

A grin split his face from ear to ear. On the monitors, the feed switched to the approach toward the Hell Gate. Agents in specially fabricated hazmat suits took position at the entrance, then one by one checked the temporal distortion over their radios.

"The time distortion… it's gone?"

Faced with a phenomenon none of them had ever seen, the agents fell silent. Then Hanshin's voice cut through.

Something in his tone said he already knew. The agents nodded and moved.

Hanshin was already planning to go down personally once Sunghyun arrived. The memories of that place had kept him from ever setting foot there again. But maybe now it was possible. Maybe he could finally leave that nightmare behind.

Not long after the agents entered, a man emerged, leaning on their support as they walked him out.

"Just as I thought…"

Hanshin's eyes swept over Sunghyun's body. Scorch marks everywhere—but not a single real wound. He looked exhausted, nothing more. No sense of injury. No sense of death.

Two human-types and one object-type left. The object-type was well within BMS Control ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Bureau's capacity to contain. Take out the human-types and the plan was ninety percent complete.

Hanshin was so elated he could barely contain himself. If he could have, he would have sprinted over and kissed the man on the spot. Of course, actually doing that would get his head blown clean off.

So he waited for Sunghyun the way a child waits for Santa Claus.

The moment Sunghyun arrived at the control room under the agents' escort, Hanshin shot out of his chair. One look at that face and he simply could not hold it in. He had to let this excitement out somehow. His face went tomato-red, ready to burst.

"Mr. Kim Sunghyun! You actually did it! This is—this is truly extraordinary. Even that Hero couldn't manage it, and you pulled it off. When headquarters hears about this…!"

"I'm exhausted. Mind if I get some rest?"

Hanshin's expression, his tone—none of it registered. Sunghyun just wanted to sleep. He was starving and bone-tired. From the moment he had dropped into the BMS Dimension, he had not had a single proper rest. Even at Changshik's place he had been too busy watching his surroundings to actually relax. Fight after fight after fight—that was all it had been.

Ah. I miss Armin.

His current share of the Hermopolis Dimension sat at roughly 0.3 percent. Unlike BMS, it wasn't an ownerless dimension, so the accumulation rate was nothing to write home about.

Still. I should be able to keep the promise.

The one-week deadline he had set looked doable.

"Is there somewhere I can rest?"

Sunghyun tried to open his Simple Rest Space, but for some reason it refused to function here.

That same message, over and over.

Damn. That thing is the best tool I've got.

In dimensions with this kind of travel-blocking interference, he wouldn't even be able to use the Rest Space as an emergency escape hatch.

It was such a sweet exploit, too.

Losing a method he had leaned on so hard left a real hole.

"This way, please."

Hanshin led him to a surprisingly luxurious room. On a long table sat a single chicken box.

"That's a BMS, isn't it?"

Sunghyun's status window unspooled the information on the box. Hanshin beamed at him with pure paternal pride. At this point, nothing Sunghyun said was going to wipe that expression off his face.

"You recognized it. Can you read its ability as well?"

How does this stack up against the chicken in the Coin Shop?

"So I can eat as much chicken as I want, basically."

"Exactly. And if there's anything else you'd like—food, drinks, alcohol, whatever—just say the word and I'll have it prepared. Research Director."

"Research Director?"

"Yes. Think of the Hell Hound as a standard qualification test. The Hell Gate was a perfect pass. As of now, you are the Research Director of the Korean branch. Ordinarily I'd hand over the keycard hanging around my own neck as well, but I still have a few things to wrap up. The moment I'm done, it's yours."

Authority, huh.

Something interesting flickered through Sunghyun's mind.

But ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠first—rest.

"In that case, grilled pork belly and kimchi, and a bottle of soju. Andong soju, if you have it."

He had already eaten chicken earlier. It didn't particularly call to him.

"Of course."

Hanshin stepped out and returned almost instantly with everything Sunghyun had ordered—three bottles of Andong soju on a long tray, perfectly grilled pork belly, and kimchi.

Oh man. I'm already drooling.

"Here you are."

"That was fast."

"It has to be. From now on, I'm here to serve you."

"Serve me?"

"You're still unfamiliar with the Control Bureau, aren't you? I'll support you in every way I can—materially and otherwise."

Sunghyun cracked open Thoth's Book and checked Hanshin's intentions. Astonishingly, they matched his words one hundred ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠percent.

Interesting guy. All right. You're hired.

"Then I'll be counting on you, Secretary Lee Hanshin. Have a seat. Let's have a drink."

Sunghyun had always drawn a hard line between his people and everyone else. Lee Hanshin had just become one of his people.

"Are you sure? I mean, I…"

Sunghyun had already pulled out two soju glasses. He set one down on the seat across from him with a sharp clack.

"Ha! It's fine—sit. You're working for me now, aren't you? We ought to get along."

Hanshin's eyes went wide. So this was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the kind of man he was.

I made the best decision of my life today.

Handing over the Research Director's seat had been a stroke of pure genius. He sat down across from Sunghyun with that thought still warm in his chest.

"Drink up."

"Yes, sir."

Glug, glug—

"Pour me one too."

"Of course."

"Good. We met for the first time today, and that first meeting was a transaction—not exactly intimate. Fair?"

"Haha…"

Hanshin laughed, a little sheepish. Sunghyun's mouth curved up at the corner.

"But in the end, Lee Hanshin became my secretary. I'll do everything I can for your revenge. You'll do everything you can for my goals. Let's give each other our best. Now—cheers!"

Clink!

The two glasses rang against each other.

"Khah! Meeting a good person like this, and getting pork belly and soju after so long—this is the life."

"You look young on the outside, but the way you talk is just like someone my age."

"Hm? I probably am about your age. Did I not mention it? I'll be forty the year after next."

Hanshin's chopsticks froze midair.

"Thirty-eight? With that face? Same age as me?"

Sunghyun leaned in close.

"Oh? Class of '88? Mind if I drop the formalities?"

Sunghyun's face looked like a man in his twenties, not someone staring down forty. But his manner and speech were pure peer. The dissonance made Hanshin's head spin.

"Ha! That just sobered me right up. Yes—speak freely. I'll keep using the honorifics on my end, though."

Sunghyun was used to this kind of situation. He dropped the formal register without a second thought.

"Fine, do whatever you want. Let's work well together."

Hanshin found the atmosphere pleasant enough and smiled.

"Yes. I'll be of use to you until my body wears out."

"Haha. Good."

The conversation between the two men bloomed and showed no sign of stopping. As the alcohol settled in, the talk turned serious.

"So what about the remaining BMS? What kind of freaks are we dealing with?"

"Ah, those ones. They're all peculiar. The human-types are called the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl."

"The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl?"

"Yes. They're… unique, you could say. Absolutely impossible to separate."

"What, do they teleport or something?"

"Not quite. No matter how thoroughly the Bureau prepares, no matter how far apart we put them, the two of them close the distance in an instant and end up right next to each other."

Spatial movement in a zone where even the Simple Rest Space doesn't work? What kind of trick is that?

Just in case, he checked Thoth's Book—but the Book only displayed known information. It never revealed what no one knew.

Shame. I was hoping for an easy route.

"I assume it's not dimensional travel?"

"Correct. The Bureau already ran every experiment on that front."

"But if that's all they've got, there's no way their danger rank is five."

"You're right—on its own, it isn't particularly threatening. The problem is the ability that activates when the two of them are together."

"Which is?"

"Any living creature that enters a ten-meter radius of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl is turned into thread. The Cowherd converts them. The Weaver Girl weaves the thread into clothing."

And the appearance of those clothes was truly—

Hanshin shook his head with the face of a man who had seen something he could never unsee.

"Spit it out."

"It looks like people torn to shreds and forcibly stitched back together."

"They use those clothes to attack others, then turn the victims into more thread and weave more clothes."

Yeah. There's a reason they're Rank 5.

Spatial relocation. The power to convert people into thread. Clothes woven from that thread, each with special abilities of their own.

What a fascinating world.

"Hahaha! Looking forward to tomorrow already."

Hanshin laughed at the sight of him.

"I was a fool to worry. I see now—worrying about you is like worrying about a celebrity. Pointless."

"That's right. Anyway, let's call it a night and get some sleep for tomorrow. It's already morning."

They were underground, so the hour hardly mattered for sleep. Flip the lights off and you were done.

"Then I'll see you tomorrow, Director."

Sunghyun waved and headed for another room. His mind, though, was not on the BMS information he had just heard. A different problem was chewing at him.

Do I raise my stats or not?

From the moment he had laid eyes on those SSS-rank items, the information on them had refused to leave his head.

They're completely broken.

But the prices were the prices.

Base cost of ten million coins, right?

The fight with the Hell Gate had driven the point home.

My physical stats aren't enough.

Sunghyun made his decision.

Invest.

The Hell Gate had paid out 2.5 million coins. He had already been sitting on 2.05 million. The coins earmarked for purchasing Hermes's dimension came to roughly 1.25 million. Total currently available: 3.55 million coins.

"How far do I push it?"

At last, the time had come to accelerate the physical and magical growth he had been putting off.