The True Ancestor That Has the Association in Knots

After the overwhelming record on Floor 4, following Floors 1, 2, and 3...

it had become hard to find anyone who still doubted Jinjo's combat power.

Instead, the public's greatest curiosity had shifted elsewhere.

Just how far did that strength go?

How was a performance that absurd even possible?

Those were the questions everyone cared about most now.

And at the same time, one more concern was beginning to rise.

It was concern over Jinjo's disposition.

Everyone now knew that Jinjo was the real deal, a powerhouse beyond imagination.

But whether that strength would be directed toward humanity...

or become a calamity no one could stop, nobody knew.

At the Korean Hunter Association,

the atmosphere was even grimmer.

Unlike the general public, they held secret information others did not.

Inside the association president's office,

Taesung Kim sat reviewing the papers on his desk.

"Hoo..."

After reading the report in full, Taesung Kim pressed his fingers to his temple.

Jinjo had refused every personal contact attempt so far and had never made any sort of statement.

And then came that first official remark.

It had been nothing less than a declaration-level threat directed at the world's S-class awakeners.

The exact situation he had feared had come to pass.

Jinjo... are you truly a calamity?

There was only a single word's difference between "calamity-class" and a genuine "calamity."

But the result was worlds apart.

Would she be like a nuclear power plant, controlling tremendous energy to light ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the world?

Or a nuclear bomb, slipping beyond control and blowing everything away?

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

That was the question.

Still, if there was any silver lining at all,

it was that according to the report, after that intense appearance, Jinjo had vanished again without leaving the slightest trace.

In other words, there was a good chance she had not truly meant to wipe out the world—only tossed out a warning because the noisy attention surrounding her was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠annoying.

Right. Most rankers are eccentric in one way or another, aren't they?

Taesung Kim chose to think of it in the most optimistic direction possible.

After all, once a person awakened to a transcendent class, it was only natural that their lifestyle and way of thinking would differ from ordinary people's.

Take Cheonma of China, for example, the ranker famous for her attitude of "above heaven and earth, I alone am honored."

She too spoke like a figure straight out of a martial arts film and behaved with complete self-importance.

Yet when a national crisis erupted or a major Gate opened, she always ended up cooperating in the end, fulfilling her role as both the leader of a major guild and a hero.

Perhaps Jinjo was that kind of person as well.

Perhaps, at first, she had simply reacted harshly because the attention had been too overwhelming and irritated her. If handled carefully and treated properly, she might yet become a reliable pillar of strength.

Of course, that was nothing more than Taesung Kim's hopeful speculation.

...In that case, making contact with Jinjo becomes even more important.

Even at this very moment, countless individuals, institutions, and organizations around the world were likely desperate to reach her.

Jinjo's words had been threatening and entirely one-sided, yes, but they still mattered.

For the first time, she had responded at all.

That meant she was not wholly unwilling to communicate.

Still, the Association had already promised top-level rewards and publicly declared through the media that they would meet any and all conditions—and had been ignored anyway. That made one thing clear: simple material compensation was not what mattered.

If she were the sort of person moved by money or power, she would have accepted the offers from the world's number one guild or the U.S. government long ago.

And we're not even sure she's fully human to begin with...

Taesung Kim's eyes settled on the line in the report: Possibility of a demonized human or a monster.

The Seollim-dong Gate incident from not long ago.

The mysterious vampire powerhouse who had aided the Ice Emperor there.

And the nickname "Jinjo."

If she was not human at all, but a demonized human who had gained the power of a vampire...

or perhaps a vampire in the truest sense?

It had never been confirmed whether monsters could climb the Tower of Trials, but when it came to an irregular like this, who knew what variables might appear.

The Association's principle was simple: monsters and demonized humans that threatened humanity were to be exterminated immediately.

But that principle changed when the other party was a monster like Jinjo.

To raise a weapon against an overwhelming natural disaster was not courage. It was recklessness.

We may need a different approach.

In ages past, humanity had bowed and offered sacrifices to calm the wrath of typhoons and volcanoes.

Perhaps the same would be necessary in how they dealt with Jinjo.

Not a "deal" struck from equal standing, with terms and conditions attached...

but a thorough lowering of themselves, as though presenting tribute.

If they approached her that way, would she show interest?

For a national association to bow its head to someone who might not even be human would be humiliating.

But they could not endanger the nation for the sake of shallow pride.

Rather, if doing so secured a friendly relationship—or at the very least, a non-hostile one—that would be an enormous gain.

It's more than worth trying once.

Moreover, if the contact were made unofficially rather than as an official Association position, it would partly avoid the loss of face that came with the Association bowing its head.

Of course, there was every chance even that attempt might be ignored.

Why has Jinjo remained unregistered this whole time?

Taesung Kim turned the matter over in his mind once more.

If she really was a vampire, then naturally she would avoid registration for fear of exposing her identity.

Or perhaps that arrogant nature of hers simply found the idea of placing herself beneath any organization intolerable.

Or perhaps it was both.

Whichever it was, the conclusion remained the same.

Do not pry into the other party's identity.

Guarantee complete autonomy.

And cater thoroughly to her sensibilities.

Was that not, most likely, what she wanted most right now?

Having made up his mind, Taesung Kim opened a system message window.

At the very least, he needed to create some minimal point of contact with Jinjo.

And with the goal of getting her, if only in name, "registered" within the framework of the Republic of Korea, he began composing a letter stripped of all pride.

A message so deferential it was hard to believe it had been written by the head of a state institution.

Please... let this reach you.

After taking a quiet breath, Taesung Kim pressed send.

Munch munch, chomp chomp.

I was sprawled across the bed, eating fresh Korean beef blood curd like jelly.

Ahhh, I swear, this is so good.

At this point, blood curd really felt like it had become my soul food.

My shut-in life was peaceful as ever today.

Yesterday, when I'd accidentally stirred up trouble on the climber community, I'd nearly freaked out...

but thanks to Solo Warrior's guide post, I'd secured information on Nightmare Floor 5.

And before long, the one-month cooldown on Familiar Summon, the skill that would let me call my third familiar, was about to end too.

Everything was moving along smoothly.

Still, there was exactly one thing bothering me.

Something that nagged at me now and then even while I lay around like this.

I'm still unregistered...

It had already been almost a month since I awakened.

And I was still not officially registered with the Korean Hunter Association.

To be exact, it wasn't that I hadn't done it. It was that I couldn't. Even if I wanted to register, I had no way to.

Still, not being registered was more inconvenient than I'd expected. I couldn't deposit the money I'd earned into a bank account. I couldn't trade items openly on the legal market. And honestly, I felt kind of guilty, like I was breaking the law.

Mmm. Wouldn't it be nice if a hunter ID just fell from the sky?

Chewing on blood curd, I drifted into ridiculous fantasy.

Ahh~ if only some angelic person would show up and neatly solve my identity and registration problem without wanting anything from me or being a pain in my ass~

Well, obviously nobody like that existed.

The thought was so absurd even to me that I let out a dry laugh.

Then, all of a sudden, I remembered the system inbox I'd gotten a while ago and never once looked at since.

Maybe I should open it for the first time in a while.

"Hrk...!"

Sure enough, the messages had piled up to an insane degree.

Scouting offers and all sorts of contact attempts were pouring in from all over the world.

Just reading all of these would probably take days straight.

That was what I was thinking when one message at the very top caught my eye.

Huh? The Association president sent this?

The man at the very top of Korea's hunter world.

The very head of the institution that oversaw the registration problem I was worrying about.

I could've ignored it, but since that had been exactly what I was just thinking about, a nervous idea suddenly occurred to me. What if this is a warning to an unregistered awakener? Or some kind of notice of arrest?

With that uneasy feeling, I opened the message.

"...Huh?"

After reading the whole thing, I doubted my eyes for a second.

Why had an angel actually shown up...?