Chapter 15
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: First Day at Work
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Stepping out of the car and riding the headquarters-exclusive elevator up to the 30th floor, I savored the bizarre sensation that my body no longer felt like my own.
'It's definitely different.'
The aftermath of that horrific marrow cleansing from this morning surpassed all imagination.
Every step I took felt different in the density of my calf muscles pushing off the ground.
The once-loose shirt now stretched taut over the muscles in my back and shoulders, and my vision was so sharp it was like wearing lenses—I could clearly read the name tag of a security guard dozens of meters away.
And my hearing? I could stereoscopically pick up the hum of the ventilation motors inside the building and even the faint friction of the elevator wires straining.
This paper-thin body of a shut-in had been reassembled overnight into a "human weapon" through soul-binding with a 5,000-year-old sun god.
"Hmph. What's with that dopey grin, you pack mule? Hurry up and show me to the nest."
The little girl with jet-black hair standing beside me—Fry—crossed her arms and haughtily tilted her chin up.
Even though she looked ridiculous wearing my black plain T-shirt like a loose dress, the cool, oppressive aura she exuded overwhelmed the stares from everyone around us.
"Aw, come on, ma'am. How could I not smile on my first day with a 10-billion-won salary? Plus, thanks to you, my body's light as a feather. But this is the office—lots of eyes around, so no breathing fire. If I lose that 10 billion, we'll really starve."
"Hmph. Do you think I, who reigned for 5,000 years, would be bound by human rules? Lead the way."
As I bantered, Fry snorted but subtly lifted her chin higher, clearly pleased deep down.
At my feet, the cute black puppy Pepper wagged her tail like a propeller as she took the lead.
Tagging my VIP access card made the patrolling armed agents part like the Red Sea, bowing their heads in respect.
The true taste of capitalism and power. Barely suppressing a twitching smirk, I boarded the Team 7 exclusive elevator on the 30th floor.
*Ding-*
The moment I arrived on the 30th floor and stood in front of the Team 7 office, I felt a strangely unpleasant aura seeping through the door.
A dry, gritty sandstorm scent mixed with the feral, fishy killing intent of a beast.
'It's Sa-hyeon.'
"Hey, partner! You're here?"
The second Sa-hyeon spotted me, he tossed his smartphone aside and sprang up like a coiled spring.
He approached with that serpentine smile from yesterday.
His gaze was fixed on my nape.
The exact spot where he'd licked his lips and sniffed me yesterday.
"Sleep well in that rooftop room? You smell delicious this morning..."
Whoosh-!
Just as Sa-hyeon's massive hand reached to roughly grab my shoulder like yesterday.
Yesterday, I wouldn't have even reacted before he grabbed my collar—but now I was different.
Sa-hyeon's hand slicing through empty air, its trajectory approaching me—it all appeared crystal clear in my eyes, like slow motion.
I didn't dodge.
Instead, I stepped forward and thrust my right hand savagely toward the wrist of his snaking arm.
BAMMMMM-!!!
A deafening explosion that made the entire office rumble.
Sa-hyeon's wrist was perfectly clamped in the vise of my right hand's grip.
"......Huh?"
Sa-hyeon's body froze for an instant.
His golden eyes quivered faintly.
And the overwhelming rebound force tingling through his wrist left him visibly, genuinely flustered.
I casually brushed off my collar and spoke politely but firmly.
"Sa-hyeon, I clearly told you on the way home yesterday—don't cross the line. I don't like people touching my body without permission. Especially shoving their nose in to sniff. I'll pass on that."
His vertically slit golden pupils gleamed with intrigue as they scanned me up and down.
'What the hell? This guy's shed his skin?'
Sa-hyeon's beastly instincts were screaming warnings.
The Kang Han-gyeol he'd sized up yesterday had absurdly overflowing spiritual power but a shell so frail it would snap with a tap.
But overnight—what the hell happened?
The grip twisting his wrist, the lower body rooted immovably to the floor like iron stakes, and above all, the dense muscles boiling like lava beneath his skin—they weren't the body of that rotten, skinny shut-in from yesterday.
"Let go. Doesn't look great for partners to hold hands first thing in the morning, right?"
I smiled calmly and shoved his wrist away.
With that simple push, Sa-hyeon's hulking frame slid back two steps.
A faint scraping sound came from his shoe soles grinding the floor.
"Haha, did my partner pick up some miracle drug overnight?"
Sa-hyeon shook out his wrist and chuckled.
Far from scared, he seemed even more stimulated.
It was the thrill of a predator realizing its prey—thought to be a defenseless herbivore—was actually a beast with sharp horns.
"Your scent's way thicker than yesterday. Ah, bet you taste even better now."
Just as Sa-hyeon licked his lips and started building killing intent again.
Fry, who'd been watching from behind me with arms crossed, clicked her tongue in annoyance and stepped in front of me.
"Where does a lowly striped kitten dare drool over my mule's rations? Should I scorch that muzzle?"
Sa-hyeon's gaze shifted to the tiny girl in front of me.
He probably first thought she was just some human kid I'd brought.
But the moment his eyes hit Fry's jet-black hair and her blazing copper-gold irises like a deep smelting furnace.
"......?!"
Sa-hyeon's muscles tensed rigidly in an instant.
His beastly instincts blared alarms like mad.
That's no human.
The apex of the food chain.
An ancient divine beast aura, ancient and overwhelming, that a mere mountain lord like him could never touch—bearing the heat of the sun as it reigned supreme.
"Insolent beasts need a good whipping."
Fry snapped her short, pale fingers.
Snap!
In that instant, golden flames shot out like razor-sharp arrows.
"Urk-!"
Sa-hyeon instinctively twisted his neck and leaped back.
Incredible reflexes.
But the flames grazed his right cheek by a hair, charring the hair at his temple pitch-black.
The concrete wall behind glowed red-hot, melting as acrid smoke billowed up.
"Ha, haha... crazy. That little miss has some temper."
Sa-hyeon rubbed his singed cheek, sweat beading coldly.
His eyes filled with primal wariness.
That flame wasn't ordinary fire.
An overwhelming purifying blaze that burned away yokai essence.
Even just grazing it, the pain on his cheek lingered without regenerating.
But instead of backing off, Sa-hyeon flashed manic eyes and cackled.
"This is fun, real fun. A suddenly buffed partner and a mystery monster kid. Glad I joined Ghost Gate—no boredom here?"
Sa-hyeon dropped his killing intent, raised both hands in surrender.
"Let's call it here for today, partner. Push more and the team leader'll chew us out~."
Bang!
At that moment, the office door flew open roughly as Seo Hwa-rin entered, bundles of documents and coffee in both hands.
"Agent Kang Han-gyeol, Agent Sa-hyeon! You're late... What the hell is this? And why's the wall like that?!"
Seo Hwa-rin's eyes widened.
Kang Han-gyeol, who'd been a skinny shut-in yesterday, now had a ripped physique straining his shirt—and in front of him, the swaggering black tiger Sa-hyeon stood half-singed, a step back.
And in the middle, a black-haired little kid stood arrogantly with arms crossed.
"Agent Kang... your body changed overnight... No, more importantly, who the hell is this kid? No outsiders allowed!"
Seo Hwa-rin set down the documents sharply, demanding answers.
"Ah, Team Leader. Don't freak out. I told you yesterday about the two shikigami I made with my spiritual power, right? This one's the fire user, 'Fry.' Overnight, she gobbled up my spiritual power and... suddenly turned human-shaped. Haha!"
I broke into a cold sweat, spouting nonsense.
"......A shikigami humanized?!"
Seo Hwa-rin's voice boomed through the office.
Humanization: a shikigami shedding its original form for perfect human shape.
A mythical realm only the rarest A-grade-plus shikigami sorcerers could achieve.
For a newbie in his early 20s freshly awakened to pull it off overnight? A miracle rewriting Ghost Gate history books.
"Yeah... guess she super-grew from my overflowing energy. Puberty hit or something—temper's gotten nasty too."
Fry kicked my shin hard at my words.
"Who's pubescent, you cheeky mule?! Watch your tongue or I'll burn it off!"
"Ow! See, Team Leader? She's got a foul mouth."
I clutched my aching leg, playing the clown.
Seo Hwa-rin stared incredulously at me, Fry, and Pepper wagging her tail nearby.
Beeeep-!!!
As she sighed deeply and shook her head.
A piercing red alarm blared from the special radio on her waist.
Not a normal call—this was the [Red Alert] from HQ for Level 1 threats.
"......!"
The office air froze instantly.
Seo Hwa-rin checked the radio, face hardening coldly.
"Kang Han-gyeol, Sa-hyeon. Enough chit-chat. Gear up now. Team 7's first dispatch."
She yanked open her dedicated cabinet, grabbing a blue longsword swirling with chilling aqueous energy and suppression barrier talismans.
Sa-hyeon suppressed his earlier mania, eyes sharpening with yokai battle lust.
"Location, Team Leader?"
"Seoul Nowon-gu, Junggye-dong—academy district at the bank intersection. High population density right now with students heading to school and commuters."
Seo Hwa-rin furrowed her brow deeply, continuing.
"Target isn't a single entity. It's a swarming yokai called the 'Endless Black Swarm'."
"Endless Black Swarm?"
"Named for multiplying endlessly like Avici Hell, without gaps. Individually, they're worthless below E-grade bugs, but they latch onto living things, suck spiritual power, and split exponentially into dozens, hundreds. Team 4 sent for containment just got buried under their overwhelming 'numbers'—contact lost."
An endless black bug tsunami, proliferating no matter how many you cut.
Right now, blanketing the bustling Junggye-dong academies.
"My Haetae Sword has limits. Swing it to slice hundreds, and thousands more spawn. To stop them, don't slash—unleash firepower like burning a whole forest. That's why HQ called us Team 7 with our wide-area annihilation."
Seo Hwa-rin's gaze turned to me.
Weak individually, but grotesque in quantity to devour a city.
Needed raw firepower to ash them in one shot.
Time to prove my 10-billion-won worth.
"Swarm tactics, huh. Annoying to chase 'em one by one, but works for me."
I cracked my neck leisurely, smiling as spiritual power boiled like a furnace inside me.
"Just burn the whole damn zone."
Pepper at my feet barked "Woof! (Let's go!)" and bolted for the door.
Fry beside me snorted disdainfully at mere bugs, igniting copper-gold embers at her fingertips.
"Agent Kang, don't get cocky. Let even a gap in their swarm touch you, and you'll be a drained mummy in seconds."
Seo Hwa-rin warned sternly, buckling her Haetae Sword, but inwardly I smirked.
"No worries, Team Leader. I'm killer at pest control."
Flanked by hellhound and sun lord, with disaster-class yokai partner—a 10-billion rookie’s debut.
Only thing for the Endless Black Swarm over Junggye-dong: rest in peace.
"Team 7. Let's roll."
We turned as one toward the elevator.
The moment Ghost Gate's armored special vehicle crossed the police cordon, the sight outside the window nearly made me gasp.
"......Insane. What the hell is all that?"
The street that should bustle with schoolkids and commuters was drowned in pitch-black darkness.
Looking up, no sun—just billions, trillions of 'Endless Black Swarm' filling the sky between buildings like a massive thundercloud, blocking all light.
Shaaaaak—ssssss—
The creepy cacophony of countless bug legs scraping asphalt and walls pierced into the car.
Academy building walls writhed black under occupation, roads littered with cars buried grotesquely in bug masses.
"Team Leader, normals can see those creepy things?"
"Low-grade yokai are invisible. Felt as sudden breathlessness or mystery fog."
Seo Hwa-rin from shotgun replied grimly.
"But when their swarm gains physical mass to corrode buildings, it's different. Teams 1 and 4 have a massive 'perception hindrance barrier' on the perimeter, disguising as toxic gas leak for civilian evac. But the line won't hold long."
"Whoa. Spectacular. Hell's got nothing on this."
Backseat Sa-hyeon pressed his face to the window, golden eyes gleaming.
This mad tiger yokai felt thrill over fear before the mega-disaster.
"All bugs? Gross as hell."
Fry on my shoulder shuddered her short feathers in disgust.
"Mule, get out and torch 'em. Can't stand vermin blotting the sky—my eyes are rotting."
"Got it, little ma'am. Stomach was churning anyway."
Car halted, doors opened.
Whoosh—
Stepping out, fetid bug stench and murky yokai energy invaded my nose.
Sensing us, tens of thousands on a nearby wall swiveled toward us.
Detecting our spiritual power—especially my overwhelming aura.
[...Prey... strong... spiritual power...!]
Kieeeek!!!
With eerie screeches, the black bug tsunami poured toward us.
Like a suffocating mudslide collapse.
"Agent Kang! Fire now! Physical attacks or slashes just make 'em split!"
Seo Hwa-rin yelled urgently, drawing Haetae Sword.
But eyeing her pure aqueous energy repelling yokai, I held back flames.
'I know fire's the way, but...'
Facing the oncoming black wave, I clenched my fist.
This morning's hellish rebirth via marrow cleansing.
This body straining my shirt—how monstrous was the power latent in these muscles and bones? Untested fully.
That overwhelming feel blocking Sa-hyeon's strike barehanded.
What if I unleashed it as a blow?
'Just once. Test run.'
I maxed pure physical output.
Heavy power surged from grounded legs, up waist and back, compressing into my right arm.
Steel-hard muscles taut like a bowstring pre-explosion.
"Huuuup..."
Short inhale, then straight punch at the black bug wall inches away.
Pure muscle power.
Vanilla straight right.
But the result? Far from simple.
KABOOOOOM-!!!
A horrific blast like a tank cannon point-blank rocked Junggye-dong.
My fist cutting air explosively decompressed the insanely compressed atmosphere into a massive 'air pressure cannon'.
Rumble rumble!
Asphalt ahead cracked fan-shaped, upheaving.
Hundreds of thousands directly ahead? No screams.
Split on cuts? No chance.
Typhoon-compressed physical impact pulverized their shells and cells to 'molecular dust'.
Instantly, a gaping highway punched through the black bug sea's heart.
The blast stopped only after shattering 50m-ahead shop glass to powder.
Silence.
The deafening bug noise vanished.
I stared blankly at my right fist, white steam still rising.
"......Huh?"
This... just a punch?
No spiritual blast, no purifying fire.
Just full-force swing, and disaster swarm formation evaporated.
Clang—
Seo Hwa-rin's Haetae Sword slipped from her hand, hitting the ground with a clear ring.
The elite team leader's jaw hung slack like an idiot, pupils shaking wildly like an earthquake.
"No... way..."
Her lips quivered.
Swarm yokai immune to slashes or physical hits—fire only answer—wiped by pure 'air pressure' from muscle power?
This wasn't exorcism.
A walking natural disaster.
My teammate was a real freak monster.
"Ha... hahahaha! You psycho!"
Sa-hyeon's manic laughter erupted behind me.
Mocking his morning self eyeing me as prey, pure shock and glee uncontainable.
And.
"Hmph. Finally a body worth using."
Only Fry stayed calm amid the madness.
Arms crossed, she nodded at the bug remnants ground to dust by the blast.
"Now you're worthy of my mule. Worth the effort I put in. Good job, human."
Her eyes brimmed with unstoppable pride and arrogance—like a Gangnam parent eyeing their Seoul Uni top-scorer kid.