The Spirit Realm of Hainan
"Oppa...?"
When I stayed still, Seong Ha-ri looked at me with puzzled eyes.
I let out a long sigh, straightening her disheveled clothes as I explained the situation.
"They're coming this way. We're going to have to fight."
"......!"
Understanding at once, Seong Ha-ri tensed and gripped her spear. The soft, unguarded look on her face vanished without a trace, replaced by a sharp, predatory gaze as she scanned the surroundings.
Through Makina's vision, I confirmed their positions. They were drawing closer by the second—far too careful, placing each footfall with deliberate caution.
These bastards have a rough idea of where we are, but they don't know the exact spot.
If they had known precisely, they would have hit us hard and fast without wasting time.
How to handle this?
After a brief moment of thought, I pulled C4 from my inventory and planted it on the surrounding trees.
"...You're using bombs?"
"Nothing beats explosives for seizing the initiative."
Seong Ha-ri eyed the charges with open skepticism. At her level, bombs weren't particularly threatening unless you were completely off-guard—and the approaching enemies were ability-wielding heroes themselves. The explosives wouldn't do much real damage. I knew that as well as she did.
Looking at how they're moving, they're operating under cover. Some kind of secret mission.
The simplest way to piss someone off is to do exactly what they don't want.
I'll coat everything in oil first. When the bombs go off, the fire will spread. Might even take the whole forest with it. Heh. Plenty of eyes will turn this way... cleaning up the mess is going to be a real headache for them.
I'd been in a foul mood from the interruption. The thought of making them just as miserable improved things considerably.
As I chuckled under my breath, Seong Ha-ri shook her head. Whatever sticky, intimate atmosphere had hung between us earlier was gone without a trace.
"Ha-ri. This way. If we want to draw them in, heading over there works a lot better."
"...This is going to get big, isn't it... Am I just imagining that?"
I shrugged. As always, Seong Ha-ri's instincts were sharp.
A short while later, the enemy appeared at the spot where I'd planted the charges. I pressed the detonator without hesitation. That particular thrill of mashing a red button with your thumb—only people who've done it understand.
KWA-KWA-KWANG! BOOM! KWAANG!
The explosions tore through the trees. Black smoke billowed skyward, and the oil I'd spread beforehand caught fire, flames racing outward. I watched the spectacle with deep satisfaction.
Then the air itself changed.
Pung! Peoong! Pung!
Bursting sounds cracked through the atmosphere—air itself detonating. The black smoke climbing toward the sky stalled as if something had blocked it, swirling in place instead of rising.
They used wind to cut off the oxygen and smother the fire. That's not amateur work.
Meaning there was a veteran mixed in among them.
I handed Seong Ha-ri a spatial transfer scroll.
"Running away?"
"We engage first. If it looks bad, we bail. Got it?"
"Got it."
They appeared.
About twenty of them, forming up as if they were facing a massive monster. Seong Ha-ri and I exchanged a glance and settled into combat stances.
From their ranks, a middle-aged man stepped forward. Judging by his bearing, he was the field commander.
"H-hello... hello there."
Clumsy Korean. So clumsy that the taut tension in the air loosened a notch on the spot.
"We no want to fight."
"......"
A new trap?
I kept my guard up and opened my mouth. Fluent Chinese rolled out.
"What's your objective?"
"...Your Chinese is excellent. Native-level. Are you Chinese, by any chance?"
My Chinese came from the Leisure Life app.
"There's no law that says only Chinese people can speak Chinese."
"True enough."
"You're clearly not from the Orthodox Gate faction. Why attack us?"
"We want your cooperation. More precisely... we need the help of Seong Ha-ri standing beside you."
This was how China asked for cooperation?
"You're criminals, aren't you? You especially are a terrorist. We can hardly treat you the same as ordinary people."
Time dragged on. Their numbers swelled from twenty to thirty. Still, they made no move to attack first. The claim that they wanted cooperation seemed genuine.
"...Fine. I'll hear you out. What exactly do you want from us?"
"Does that mean you'll cooperate?"
"I need to hear what the job is first. And you're not planning to work us for free, I hope?"
"We'll promise fair compensation. But this location is hardly ideal for discussing the details."
"Say it here."
The man narrowed his eyes.
"...This is critical information. Top-secret classification. Not something you discuss just anywhere."
"I'll say it again. Talk here. You're the ones threatening us right now. We have no reason to trust you."
"We don't need you. I want to speak with Seong Ha-ri."
"Seong Ha-ri doesn't speak Chinese. And she and I are partners."
"......"
The middle-aged man's lips moved. No sound came out, but the shape of his mouth was clearly a curse. He lifted a radio, reported the situation, and received orders from someone on the other end.
"...Fine. We're the ones in a hurry, so we'll take a step back."
"Acting magnanimous when you're the desperate ones."
"You really know how to get under someone's skin. Do you actually intend to cooperate with us or not?"
"Depends entirely on how you play this."
The middle-aged man exhaled a heavy sigh.
He gestured to the people surrounding us and issued orders.
"Stand down. Fall back and start securing the perimeter. If civilians ask what happened, tell them a monster showed up."
Wind rose around him, wrapping the space between Seong Ha-ri, the man, and me.
"Top-secret classification means we have to prevent information leaks. You're not going to complain about this too, I hope?"
I told Makina to keep monitoring the situation just in case. Fortunately, they weren't pulling any tricks. The request for cooperation appeared to be real.
"It's unpleasant... but I'll tolerate this much."
"How generous of you."
The man cleared his throat, organized his thoughts, and spoke.
"About a week ago, a dungeon broke open on Hainan."
"Where's Hainan?"
"Ignorant, aren't you. Hainan is an island at the southernmost tip of China. People call it China's Hawaii."
China's Hawaii?
First I'd heard of it, but I nodded along anyway.
"If a dungeon broke there, shouldn't the Chinese Hero Association handle it themselves?"
"Due to the dungeon break, part of Hainan has transformed into another world."
"...Another world?"
My face hardened.
A dungeon break meant an uncleared dungeon rupturing and spewing monsters. Usually you just cleaned up the monsters—but sometimes the environment itself was affected, the way contamination zones formed. Transformation into another world was the worst-case scenario among dungeon breaks.
"Exactly. Which has left us in a very difficult position."
I eyed him with open suspicion.
"I've never heard anything about this."
"We're controlling the information so the residents don't panic."
Bullshit.
Since when did China care that much about its people?
Something reeked about this whole affair.
They were probably running experiments with the dungeon and it went sideways.
Seong Ha-ri jabbed my shoulder with her finger.
"Looks pretty serious. What are you talking about?"
I gave her a quick summary. She showed no particular reaction.
"You handle it, Oppa. I trust you."
"Alright. We'll pick up where we left off earlier once this is done."
"...Eut."
Her face flushed red as she smacked my shoulder with her palm. The sting was sharp enough to make me flinch. I shook my head and turned back to the middle-aged man.
"Come to think of it, I still haven't gotten your name. What is it?"
"Yang Tao, Fourth Team Leader of the Chinese Hero Association Headquarters."
"I see. I'm Seong Yujin."
"Will you cooperate? We'll make sure the compensation isn't stingy. Two hundred million yuan in cash. If you'd prefer, we can offer A-rank items instead."
"I haven't agreed yet. We don't have enough information to take your request."
"...A request? So that's how you're framing it. Not a bad approach. What do you want to know?"
"Tell me more about this other world."
"......The other world that appeared in Hainan Province is a Spirit Realm. We attempted to suppress it three times, but the spirits went berserk and we failed every attempt."
A Spirit Realm.
The moment I heard those words, the whole picture snapped into place.
"You know about Seong Ha-ri's trait."
Spirit Devourer.
Seong Ha-ri's trait—an absolute counter against spirits, strong enough to call it a hard counter.
"How did you find out about her trait?"
"China has a large population. Naturally, we have no shortage of talent."
Yang Tao kept it deliberately vague.
My guess was that someone with an information-type ability had uncovered Seong Ha-ri's trait—future sight, or some specialized power that revealed an opponent's abilities, something along those lines.
Whoever it is, they're almost certainly a state-managed ability user. Asking won't get me any real details.
Seong Ha-ri had said she trusted me, but her opinion mattered on this. I explained everything I'd heard.
"The Chinese Hero Association wants you to wipe out the spirits."
Her mood darkened at once. Despite possessing the Spirit Devourer trait, she didn't hate spirits—she liked them. Facing them would be anything but pleasant.
"...Using Spirit Devourer, you mean?"
"That's right. Have you ever actually used it?"
"Once, when I was little..."
"What do you want to do? If you don't want this, we can run. You've got the scroll."
"You said the spirits are rampaging. How bad is the damage?"
"I'll ask."
Yang Tao answered my question in a grave tone.
"Confirmed dead alone number four thousand. Struck by lightning, suffocated, burned alive, buried under the earth... the spirits killed the residents in every way imaginable."
I translated for Seong Ha-ri immediately.
"Ha-ri. Four thousand people are dead."
"......"
Her eyelids trembled.
Seong Ha-ri was different from me. Whether four thousand died or four hundred million, I didn't care. But she was fundamentally just. She never looked away from injustice. The Seong Ha-ri I knew was a hero.
"If I don't step in here... more people will die, won't they?"
"Probably. But you'll be fighting spirits. Can you do it?"
She squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them. Resolve hardened in her gaze, a determined light settling in her pupils.
"If people do wrong, you set people right. If spirits do wrong, you set spirits right."
"That so? And if it turns out people were the ones at fault, not the spirits?"
"...I already answered that. What about you, Oppa?"
"I'll help you."
I was curious.
This incident had never become public knowledge in the future. Meaning China had successfully buried it.
In the original history, Seong Ha-ri probably stepped in and resolved it herself.
Maybe the information I wanted was buried somewhere in this case.