Coup d'État
A veteran guild's affiliated Hunter hospital.
Special inpatient ward.
Crack—!
A jolt of electricity tore through her entire body, and her eyes snapped open.
"Hah… hah…"
Sarah Cameron pushed herself upright. The density of the mana coursing through her veins was on an entirely different level from before.
A second Awakening.
Sarah looked down at her hands.
He remade me. He let me be reborn.
He had told her to come find him the moment she woke. Sarah hurriedly gathered her belongings, retrieving her personal clothes and gear from the storage locker and equipping herself.
"Snap out of it! Why won't you wake up—please!"
"Doctor! Is there a doctor here? This person won't wake up!"
"What are you standing around for? Get that patient gown out of the way!"
The corridor was chaos. A television mounted on the wall was blasting breaking news.
At least the ritual formula laid across the surrounding area was keeping people's minds and bodies somewhat stable. As Sarah Cameron traced the boundaries of that formula, she froze in astonishment.
The range is enormous…! The only person who could cast large-scale magic on this scale is him.
The coverage was vast, but the density was thin. If someone fine-tuned it on-site, the effect would be maximized. Sarah drew up her mana and bound the hospital's surrounding formula into a single weave. Stabilizing energy locked into place across the entire building.
I think I know what I need to do right now.
She had to tune the formula so people could stay calm. Sarah stepped out of the hospital.
The streets beyond were a deeper circle of hell.
BOOM—! CRASH!
Vehicles that had lost control slammed into buildings and burned. Shop windows lay shattered. Looters filled the streets, stripping stores of essentials and valuables.
"Let go of me! The world's already over!"
"Someone help me! Please, stop this!"
"Hahaha—nobody's coming to help you!"
Sarah strode forward, unleashing a crushing wave of mana. She seized the wrist of a looter who had torn open a convenience store shutter and was beating a female clerk—and twisted.
Crack!
Even with his arm broken, the man didn't go down.
"Ohh. So you're an Adapter too?"
He cocked his head as if to say, What the hell is this? Bloodshot eyes, black blotches rising across his skin.
Kang Hanul had told her. Accept the energy properly, and you evolve to the next stage. Fail, and you fall.
Whatever had happened while she was unconscious, the air around her was thick with unfamiliar energies. Not only his power—several other alien forces as well.
"I'll kill you t— ghhk!"
WHAM!
Of course, it made no difference. Sarah Cameron, whose mana had been personally infused by Hanul himself, was on another level entirely from the ones who had merely drunk the energy leaking through dimensional rifts.
"Stay hidden. This chaos won't last much longer."
"Th-thank you."
Sarah pulled the convenience store shutter shut again and stepped out, checking her smartphone as she went.
That was the mass message. And a separate one had come in just for SSS-rank Sarah.
Sarah shoved the device into her pocket without a second thought.
U.S. nationality? SSS-rank?
Orders from her home country no longer ranked first. Or perhaps, in the age that was coming, nationality itself would no longer matter much at all.
A reporter's frantic voice burst from a storefront television, confirming the bulletin. Armored vehicles and armed soldiers were already locking down the roads, struggling to subdue people who had violently mutated.
If he's watching over this country, then what I have to do is obvious.
Sarah moved through the streets, tuning the mind-and-body stabilization formula for greater effect—and whenever she spotted arsonists or looters, she put them down.
Hunter Army Strategic Command conference room.
"…We will overcome this crisis together with the people…"
President Namgung Hyeon's martial-law broadcast was playing. Sitting with his back to the screen was Lieutenant General Park Mugang—one of the S-class Hunters still remaining in the Republic of Korea.
So this is the current of the new age.
Before he knew it, people stronger than him were everywhere. Park Mugang knew that better than anyone—through the American channels he had cultivated for years.
"General, I've brought it."
His trusted subordinate, Strategic Planning Director Colonel Kim Jincheol, held out a briefcase. Inside were top-secret materials stolen from the Hunter Defense Research Institute: mana satellite observation data, orbital occupancy rights, and even dimensional frequency channel authority.
"Well done, Colonel Kim. Here—the materials I promised you."
"Let's verify them at once. Robert, take a look."
Seated across from him were key personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Korea and core agents from the CIA's East Asia branch, along with Hunters and researchers from American guilds.
And one more organization had joined the table. Because the deal had been structured as a sale of government assets to a private corporation, the Americans had brought them in: executives from Nebula, the massive logistics conglomerate that had started in Korea and gone public in the United States.
"The data checks out."
"Thanks to General Park, the United States will pull ahead in dimensional resonance channeling."
The CIA agent reviewed the documents with a satisfied smile.
"Britain and Russia appear to be scraping data out of Korea through other routes, but at this level of precision, we win by a landslide."
"We won't forget General Park's contribution. We'll make certain the home office hears of it."
"No—shouldn't you be moving into politics yourself? Perhaps even a run at the next presidency?"
"Ah, come now. What are you saying?"
Park Mugang laughed heartily.
"Shall we finish the contract?"
"Our side is already done."
The Nebula Express executive signed. Park Mugang finished signing the contract and extended his hand—
BANG—!
The conference room door exploded inward as a man stormed through.
"General Park! What the hell do you think you're doing here?!"
It was Brigadier General Choi Youngdo, another powerhouse of the Hunter Army—and Park Mugang's academy classmate.
"Brigadier Choi! You might want to mind your manners, both on and off the record."
"Manners?! You're selling national assets to foreign powers and you still have the gall to talk about manners? Stop this at once! Hunter Army—why aren't you arresting this traitor?!"
Not a single soldier moved. The personal guard standing behind Park Mugang smirked and adjusted their weapons. They were men whose evaluation grades Park Mugang had forcibly inflated by abusing his personnel authority.
"Brigadier Choi, you don't seem to grasp the situation."
Park Mugang tilted his chin with leisurely ease.
"This command has already been rearranged to my liking."
"Kh—! You traitorous dogs!"
"Arrest him. Throw him in the underground detention cells."
Choi Youngdo hurled curses as he was dragged away, but Park Mugang paid them no mind. He sat back down across from the American personnel and shook hands smoothly.
"Then the rest of it—America looks the other way?"
"Of course."
"With Korea's political situation this unstable, how could we fault General Park for making a bold decision?"
On top of the satellite contract, they exchanged additional secret agreements, and the American personnel filed out. Park Mugang and his subordinates followed.
Vrrrooom—
Armored vehicles and jeeps waiting outside pulled away from the command compound.
"General, where do we advance? The Capital Defense Command?"
"No. There's somewhere we hit before Capital Defense. Colonel Kim—you take the Blue House. The two S-class left there should be manageable at your level."
"Understood! Then is the General heading to the National Assembly?"
"The Assembly is already being secured by Colonel Oh. I'm going to the Dungeon Management Department."
"The Dungeon Management Department… Ah!"
"Special Affairs Director Kang Hanul. That bastard is the most dangerous variable in Korea right now. Minister Kang Eunha is his niece, isn't she?"
The units split into several columns, and Park Mugang's main force arrived at the Dungeon Management Department building.
"Breach now!"
"Suppress everyone in an instant!"
Park Mugang and his personal guard stormed inside without hesitation. Reaching the executive floor, they cut down the corridor—only to be stopped cold by a bizarre phenomenon at the door.
A transparent violet barrier stood like a wall across their path. A defensive wall raised by Hanul and Hatchery. Beyond it waited the senior staff of the Dungeon Management Department—and standing before them like a shield was Kang Eunha.
"Smash it! Use every means you have—break through!"
Fwoosh— BOOM! BOOM! The barrier did not so much as tremble.
"National Assembly secured!"
"Key Blue House personnel detained successfully!"
"Hey, Minister Kang. You heard that transmission from my men just now, didn't you? It's already over."
"Stop this even now. Innocent people are dying because of what you've done!"
Park Mugang snorted at Eunha's plea.
"The world has already changed. No—people have always been a resource at their core. It's just more nakedly obvious now."
He pressed his face close to the barrier.
"Those waking up, and those who sleep forever. It's time to sort the wheat from the chaff. Soft-headed complacency won't survive this age of upheaval. So cooperate with us instead."
He jerked his chin toward the staff sheltering behind Eunha, sneering.
"Minister Kang, pass this along to your uncle. He's a strong man—he'll understand my meaning at once. Only the strong can establish order and set the world right."
"Don't put my uncle in the same category as someone like you. Having power doesn't mean he commits the kind of filthy acts you do."
"Hah. Stubborn, aren't you."
The die was already cast. He chose the most extreme measure available. He had to put a collar on the niece before the uncle arrived. Park Mugang gestured to his subordinates.
"Did you bring it?"
"Yes, sir. Setting it up now."
Hanul halted mid-stride above the skies of Seoul. Below, a column of jeeps was racing toward the Dungeon Management Department.
"Lilith—focus on stabilizing the city center. Keep the souls that haven't fallen asleep from being contaminated."
"As you command."
Lilith melted into the shadows and vanished. The situation in the sky was going from bad to worse. In the aftermath of the dimensional rifts, Gates across the city were hitting critical thresholds. Baal was holding back the descent of colossal beasts with ice barriers, but the lesser Gates looked ready to burst at any moment.
"Hatchery—circle the Gates about to rupture and clean up the monsters that come out."
"Got it, yong! I'll unleash the Goat Demons and scrub everything clean, yong!"
"While you're at it, if you see anyone who've been corrupted by Demon Realm energy the wrong way, clean them up too."
"Yes, Master! And you, yong?"
Hanul's gaze turned toward the windows of the Dungeon Management Department executive office.
"I'm going to Eunha."
"I already put up a barrier for Eunha-unnie, yong! She's safe as long as she's inside it!"
"I know. But that doesn't mean I have to leave dung flies buzzing around in front of it."
Flash—!
Hanul's form split the air. In an instant he landed at the main entrance of the Dungeon Management Department building.
"Hey—halt! Which Hunter affiliation are you with?"
"One of the Top Ten Guilds? Aside from a few like Veteran, I thought everything was already settled with the General."
Hunter Army soldiers blocked his path. Hanul unfolded the Abyss Spectrum over them. As expected—men bought off by Park Mugang. Less soldiers of a nation than private troops or mercenaries in Park's pocket.
…Pathetic weaklings.
Energy from the Demon Realm and the Immortal Realm, squeezing through dimensional seams—or power from still other dimensions. They had gotten drunk on it and come to crave nothing but strength.
"Wait a second—isn't this guy the famous Kang Hanul?"
"Ohh. So it is!"
One of the soldiers guarding the entrance stepped forward. A lieutenant colonel who looked like the ringleader adjusted his grip on a greatsword, competitive fire burning in his eyes.
"I've gotten pretty strong this time myself. I've been wondering whether I've reached SSS-rank level."
The lieutenant colonel kicked off the ground and charged. Mana sheathed the greatsword in a razor-sharp arc. Hanul didn't even glance his way.
A single, casual flick of the hand.
Before the man could react, his body was driven into the floor.
KRAAAASH!
The ground spiderwebbed with cracks as a thunderous boom rolled out.