Effective Pest Extermination Method
There are several excellent methods for exterminating pests that have broken into your home. Catch the pests and burn them to a crisp. Burn any passing pests to a crisp. Or burn the entire house down so they have nowhere to run. In any case, setting things ablaze has long been proven as an effective approach. There's even a proverb about burning down a thatched house while trying to kill bedbugs.
Our wise ancestors possessed the bold spirit to torch an entire thatched house just to get rid of bedbugs. Which also implies those bedbugs were wretched little bastards.
Ants are the same. These invaders slip into your home unnoticed and start a one-sided symbiotic relationship, forcing you into endless battles until you kill the queen ant. The queen of Big Ants is classified as a disaster-level catastrophe. If they set up an anthill beneath a kingdom, the ground will collapse within a few years, dooming the realm. There have been real cases like that.
That's why you have to wipe out every last one from the start, ensuring they never return. It was a stroke of luck that this wasn't some apartment basement but a rift. And Hong Ji-hwa wasn't around either. Until now, he'd held back somewhat to avoid dragging her into it, but he was glad he didn't have to worry about that this time.
Having consumed so much mana returning to Earth, he needed to test his limits anyway. Cheon Ji-hoo snapped his fingers, flicking a spark into the air. The magic circle behind him rotated forward, swallowing the spark before erupting in ferocious flames.
It was the moment hell descended upon the anthill. The intense blaze melted exoskeletons and internals alike. Like crashing waves, it surged through every hole in the anthill. Even breathing would sear their insides, so the giant ants wailed in agony as they slowly met their end.
Crimson flames roiled, forging a hellscape. Ant corpses melted, pooling on the floor, only for the fire to feed on them like kindling. Amid it all, Cheon Ji-hoo strolled leisurely, as if out for a casual walk. The raging inferno devoured everything—except him. With unhurried steps, he headed toward one of the anthill's openings. There was no need for light; the flames clinging to every surface illuminated the way.
"This much is no problem."
He sensed the spread of his mana-fueled flames halting, burning steadily in place. They'd likely reached the anthill's limits, reducing every ant to ashes. As the eternal-seeming blaze began to die down, Cheon Ji-hoo cast a short-range Spatial Movement.
The longer he lingered, the more likely someone would spot the open rift outside and report it. It was early dawn, so most would be asleep, but there were always night owls—like web novel authors hammering away at manuscripts till sunrise.
About eight minutes total.
Three minutes since entering the rift, so five more. Kill the queen if she wasn't dead yet, retrieve the core, and get out. Then swallow the core whole. A brilliant plan.
His vision flickered rapidly. The ultra-fast Spatial Movement nearly induced nausea, but he arrived before his stomach could rebel—right in front of the queen ant beside the core.
How deep had they burrowed into this anthill?
"Hoo..."
Exhaling deeply to steady himself, he regarded the queen. She wasn't in good shape. Swept by the flames, her body was melted in patches, barely clinging to life amid evident torment. The crimson blaze hadn't fully extinguished yet. Still, she strained to move, making a final desperate lunge for the core.
But Cheon Ji-hoo wouldn't allow it. With another finger snap, five magic bullets materialized in midair, shattering her jaw and the four legs that had survived intact. An elegant, efficient spell.
Having finished her off completely, he stepped forward and reached for the core. The mana emanating from it was extraordinary—several times more potent than the C-rank cores he'd seen before. Probably around A-rank, if he had to guess.
Concentrating, he adjusted the mana flow, stripping every drop sustaining this massive anthill and slamming it back into the core before ripping it free. With a sickening crack, the core tore loose, and the anthill shuddered, on the verge of collapse.
Cheon Ji-hoo tossed the extracted core into his subspace and immediately cast Spatial Movement back to the entrance. He'd memorized the coordinates, so no need to recast repeatedly.
Leaving the crumbling anthill behind, he stepped out of the rift and stretched languidly. This raid had burned through a fair bit of mana. Probably overdid the Spatial Movement.
"Still more than twenty percent left."
With this much mana... well, he could handle three dragons at once. Mages who didn't grasp magic's elegance and wasted it on inefficient spells were no real challenge.
As he stretched, the rift behind him vanished. Total time: about six minutes. A quick scan of the surroundings—no signs anyone had spotted him. Time to head home.
He blinked, and the scenery shifted in an instant via Spatial Movement. Standing with the moon at his back, he muttered softly.
"Got a little rat watching."
Someone was observing from afar. No way it was just an apartment resident prone on a rooftop. The Spatial Movement had taken him out of sight. Now, what to do?
Killing him would be easy. But if he belonged to some group, it'd get messy. They'd send people to investigate the corpse, and dealing with them would bring more... Those sneaky voyeurs always led to endless hassle.
It wasn't the direction Cheon Ji-hoo wanted, so he sighed deeply and murmured.
"Guess it's time to dust that off after so long."
* * *
"...What the hell? Did he go in but bail because he couldn't clear it?"
A figure cloaked in black, peering at the rift through binoculars, muttered to himself. Checking the time— just over five minutes. He'd rushed here after the rift opened unexpectedly early, only to see a white-haired man emerge.
Since it hadn't been open long, he figured the guy was just a hunter who'd spotted it, entered, and chickened out. But then something bizarre happened.
The massive rift vanished in a blink. This was clearly an A-rank rift. Rifts only close one way: destroy the core or take it outside.
And...
The closure was way too fast.
Raiding a rift usually took at least thirty minutes for it to fully seal. This? Not even one minute. Rubbing his eyes in disbelief, he watched the rift—and the man—disappear.
"Huh? Where'd he go?"
No way he noticed the surveillance. It was over a kilometer from the rift here; no normal human could detect that. Unless they had Search or Sonar skills. Impossible.
The irrational defied cognition, birthing terror and dread. That's exactly what he felt now. If that guy really cleared the rift in five minutes... he wasn't human. Absolutely not. Solo? Even packs of so-called S-rank hunters would take hours.
His instincts screamed to flee immediately. Ancestors banging warning bells like a frenzied drumline, promising disaster if he stayed.
And then.
"Where are you from...?"
As he rose, piercing blue eyes met his. Barefoot in sweatpants. Plain white tee. Snow-white hair gleaming under moonlight. Cheon Ji-hoo stood before him, his casual attire clashing with his ethereal looks.
"Answer me."
"I-I..."
He racked his brain for an escape route mid-conversation. No clue how the guy closed the distance so fast, but he was confident in running. He gripped the flashbang tucked in his waistband. Lob it to blind him, then bolt.
After mental simulations, he tensed to throw—
"I said answer."
Suddenly, his body froze. Not Intimidation or Petrification—nothing like that. His hand wouldn't budge despite straining, nor his feet. Only his eyes and mouth moved.
"I..."
"If you won't answer... no choice."
Cheon Ji-hoo wasn't known for patience. Ignoring two direct questions meant no intent to reply.
As he extended his hand, the spy's body floated into the air, drifting slowly toward him. Then shoved headfirst into Cheon Ji-hoo's grasp.
"Wh-what the—?!"
His body ignored his commands. At least B-rank skill, yet dragged helpless. Insane. What kind of hunter power let you do this? He thrashed futilely.
"F-fuck this shiiit!"
"Enough vulgarity. I'm about to rummage through your head now."
"Wh-what're you doing, you psycho fuck!"
"Nothing much. Just poking your brain with mana. Won't even hurt that bad. Like, hmm... yeah. Imagine twelve hours of migraines crammed into five minutes."
Terror gripped him just hearing it. Calling that "not that bad" from this smug bastard?
"I'll be precise, so relax. Think of it like getting a wisdom tooth pulled. With a monkey wrench."
"What kinda lunatic pulls wisdom teeth with a monkey wrench?!"
"It's doable. Why assume otherwise?"
The world was full of freaks. Cheon Ji-hoo retorted casually, channeling mana into his grip on the man's head. He wasn't fond of manhandling skulls, but it was the best way to access the brain.
His refined mana pierced the man's mind. Mana was formless energy—impossible to block without inscribed Mana Resistance.
"Gaaahhhh...!"
Pain crashed in; the unknown assailant screamed. Such noise at night was a nuisance, so Cheon Ji-hoo sealed his mouth with a spell. Much quieter. Raising his other hand, he continued the delicate work.
This spell was taboo even in the otherworld. Mad wizards chasing ultimate power avoided it. Too difficult, with brutal side effects on the victim.
But Cheon Ji-hoo planned to exploit those side effects deliciously.
He inscribed the spell directly into the brain: Brainwashing. Far superior to fleeting Suggestions needing constant renewal. Few mages in the otherworld knew it—insanely hard to learn, requiring direct brain inscription. You needed deep understanding of hippocampal manipulation. Botch it, and you killed the target nine times out of ten. Hard to practice without turning subjects into vegetables.
But Cheon Ji-hoo was an archmage. He could calibrate it perfectly, no waste.
By the time the man recovered, he'd forget this encounter. Even reporting back to his group, the side effects would leave him in a sorry state.
Because the spell's side effect was...
Heat.