The Blood Phoenix Rises
The trees rose like skyscrapers, blotting out the sky. A dense sea of green erased even the concept of time, forming a colossal emerald labyrinth.
The lungs of the Earth. The world’s largest jungle.
The Amazon.
And deep within it lay the South American Gate Danger Zone.
“Huff… huff…!”
A woman gasped for breath as she sprinted through the undergrowth.
Thick beads of sweat poured down her chin. The wand at her waist, tactical vest, and various pieces of equipment all screamed that she was a high-ranking Hunter. Yet right now, she was beyond desperate—she was terrified.
Why? Why is this happening?!
Why would anyone do something so horrific?!
Swallowing her tears, the woman looked back at the events that had led her here.
South American Gate Danger Zone, Camp 33.
Located in the deepest part of the Amazon, it was a gathering point for fairly skilled Awakeners and Hunters even among those who regularly explored danger zones.
And there, the woman had been drinking beer with her teammates.
We were just watching the Asia Finals and having fun!
John clicking his tongue and saying Namgoong Sega had lost their minds, Bill scolding them for not even reaching the edge of that family’s level.
Riley muttering “Hmm, is that all they’ve got?” while watching Korea’s geniuses, and Emma listing off their careers one by one to argue with her.
The jealousy and admiration that “hunters” felt toward those who had stepped onto the dream stage was everyday life in this industry.
Just ordinary daily life. Tears welled up in the woman’s eyes.
We were exactly the same as always. So why?!
The disaster struck then.
Beeeeeeeeeeep——!
The alarm blared, followed by the sounds of chaos.
The clash of weapons, the shockwaves of unleashed magic power.
It was battle. No—it was war.
The entire guild, who had been cracking jokes moments earlier, poked their heads outside.
They weren’t the only ones. Everyone in Camp 33 faced the source of the disturbance, and soon after, the woman and every person in the camp simultaneously prayed to God.
“Oh God…”
“Fuck… what the hell is that?”
It was darkness.
Sticky, ominous darkness like tar was devouring the forest.
The overwhelming horror that covered the entire horizon froze everyone in place. And the realization that this terror was about to swallow even Camp 33 plunged them all into despair.
“Aaaaaaaaagh!!”
“S-Save me!!”
“My leg… ugh.”
The sounds of chaotic combat mixed with screams.
At that moment, the person who snapped the frozen woman and the others back to their senses was her leader. The same leader who usually drank beer and spouted nonsense, the one who would proudly pat his protruding belly even when his teammates teased him. Now he shouted with a seriousness they had never seen before.
“You idiots, run!!”
“!!”
That thing could not be stopped.
If you got swept up in it, you’d die like dogs.
If you wanted to live, forget about honor and run!
The instant their leader’s shout rang out, everyone scattered in every direction.
Not just her guild—every single person in the nearby Camp 33.
Yet even though he had told them to run, their leader stayed behind until the very end.
Thinking of him sending off his comrades with his final moments, the tears that had pooled in the woman’s eyes finally spilled over.
Sniff… Captain.
She bit her lip hard and looked at her forearm.
The names of her comrades were tattooed there like a spell. It was a survival enchantment that could detect whether a teammate was alive or dead in emergencies.
The captain’s name had vanished first. Then John, Bill, Riley, and Emma disappeared one after another.
I have to escape somehow. I need to get out of here and tell everyone!
She couldn’t let the captain and her comrades’ deaths become meaningless.
No matter what, she had to escape this hell and reveal the identity of those bastards.
With that resolve, the woman gulped down a stamina recovery potion.
But resolve was one thing—reality was another…
Before long, she froze at a sight so unbelievable her feet stopped moving.
“This is…!”
The shock that shattered her train of thought made her try to speak, but—
Shuk——!!
Before the words could even form, came the sound of flesh being pierced.
A sword tip, closer to darkness than metal, had pierced straight through her heart. The woman collapsed with a wet thud onto the damp ground.
The last survivor, carrying the weight of her captain and comrades’ sacrifices, became a cold corpse and breathed her last.
Soon after, figures emerged from the bushes.
“Done.”
“Was she the last one?”
“If the other teams didn’t miss any, yes.”
“Check it.”
“No need. Four hundred seventy-one. Numbers confirmed. We’ve hunted every last person in Camp 33.”
Pale skin like a corpse. Blue veins bulging like worms across their bodies.
Yes.
These were the ones who had invaded Camp 33.
Those who viewed magic power as the word of God and Awakening as absolution. Fanatics who wished to cleanse worthless non-Awakeners and create a world for the new humanity.
Xenocratus.
They were Crain.
“The beginning went smoothly.”
“It was tight, but we managed to keep it concealed.”
“Now all that remains is time.”
“Couldn’t we just deal with the Bureau somehow?”
And at that moment—
“There’s no need to worry about the Bureau.”
At the voice coming from the darkness, the Crain combatants bowed their heads and parted to both sides.
The owner of the voice shuffled forward with a limp, cutting through the crowd.
“The continental finals have just ended. In other words, we’re at the stage where only the harvest of a year’s farming remains. Do you really think they’ll pay attention to us with nothing but vague suspicions and no solid evidence? I don’t think so.”
Under normal circumstances, the Bureau would have tried to intervene the moment an incident occurred in a Gate Danger Zone.
They would have dispatched troops or at the very least pressured neighboring countries. But at this point, with the Champions League right around the corner, every ounce of the Bureau’s administrative power and military strength was focused there.
Would their discussions even proceed properly in this situation?
They would either drag things out with indecisive meetings or arrogantly assume they could clean up any mess after it happened.
Either way.
“It doesn’t matter. With the ‘Saint’ secured, we don’t need much time. While they’re distracted, we’ll swallow the Amazon and establish our holy ground.”
Like this.
The man’s sword pierced the back of the woman’s corpse.
The blue veins attached to the blade pulsed violently, and the body rapidly shriveled like a deflating balloon.
On the sword’s surface, an eye drew a pleased arc, as if satisfied.
It looked eerily similar to the eyes of the masked man.
And at that moment, the eyes attached to the Crain members’ weapons all opened at once.
“My children, to whom I have granted power. Obey my commands. If you do, the future you desire will unfold before you.”
“Yes, Third Corps Commander!”
“Understood, Blood Phoenix Corps Commander!”
Crain Third Corps Commander.
The master of all demonic swords and the very first demonic sword. The Blood Phoenix. Hyeol-bong.
He looked at the scene spread before him and smiled brightly.
“Not much time left. Truly.”
A massive magic field churned in the distance.
·
·
But despite Hyeol-bong’s optimism, the Bureau was already on the verge of becoming extremely noisy.
All thanks to Lee Shin.
Bang——!!
“We must immediately terminate the league.”
Warning!!
Warning!!
Xenocratus has invaded the South American Gate Danger Zone. Their goal is to cleanse humanity and summon a great catastrophe. The Bureau has not yet recognized the severity of this situation. Convince the Bureau to stop Xenocratus.
There is no time.
Success: Rewards will be given according to performance.
Failure:Game Over
“……Director Lee Shin. Say that again. What did you just say?”
“We must immediately terminate the league.”
“Once more.”
“The Champions League must be terminated.”
“Oh… thank goodness. So my ears aren’t broken after all.”
Kim Mi-young, Chief of Korea League Division 1, was certain. In all her years, she had never been this confused.
I stayed up three nights straight because of the Asia League Finals, then yesterday an unidentified organization suddenly sealed off the South American Gate Danger Zone and we went into emergency mode again, and now the guild representative is saying he wants to shut down the league…
Kim Mi-young’s gaze shifted toward the man across from her.
A man so ridiculously handsome that it had transcended mere attractiveness and become an aura of pure dominance.
Lee Shin. The man currently tormenting her head.
The representative of a guild that had just won the Asia League Finals and now stood on the threshold of the Champions League.
Who had personally come to her office and said:
“Suddenly wanting to end the league… may I ask why?”
“Here.”
Lee Shin handed her a newspaper.
[Brazilian Coup Occurs! Massive Unrest Breaks Out.]
[Unidentified Organization Seals Off Amazon South American Gate Danger Zone.]
Articles tucked away in the corner, not even on the front page.
So this is what it was about. Kim Mi-young let out a sigh of relief. She had been worried something had happened to his guild.
But Lee Shin continued as if he could read her thoughts.
“You seem to be taking this rather lightly.”
“Not at all. Gate Danger Zones are under special Bureau supervision. We held an all-night meeting about it just yesterday. I am certainly not taking this lightly. However…”
“Is it because it’s in South America?”
“As expected, you understand quickly.”
South America was notorious for its poor security.
Politics were corrupt, coups happened as often as meals, and armed factions popped up constantly—enough to slap a villain across the face.
In such chaos, would they really leave the South American Gate Danger Zone alone?
A danger zone that held the massive interest known as “magic stones”?
“The Bureau believes the Brazilian coup forces are applying pressure to monopolize those interests.”
“You think that once things settle down as usual, they’ll reach out to the Bureau?”
“As long as a ridiculously confrontational leadership doesn’t take over.”
“Then what if they decide to openly oppose the Bureau?”
“Then we can deploy forces at that point. It won’t be too late.”
“Because they’re just a coup faction, right?”
“Even if they have Awakener forces among them, they’re no match for the Bureau. Especially since it’s in South America, close to headquarters.”
Kim Mi-young nodded, her eyes full of pride.
Lee Shin smiled and rubbed his face.
As expected. I knew it would be like this.
The reason this sudden quest had such high difficulty wasn’t simply because of Crain’s strength.
The real start of the quest was convincing the Bureau sitting right here.
In other words—
If the representative’s performance is too low, you can’t even get a meeting with the division chief.
First, your guild’s achievements are evaluated.
If you haven’t built relationships, accomplishments, or fame, they won’t even talk to you.
Second, the representative’s own abilities are tested.
And finally…
The degree of persuasion changes depending on the representative’s social stats and how you handled previous quests.
Even past careers and real-world evaluations were factored in.
It was a comprehensive gift quest that demanded every single ability a representative possessed.
That was why it had “screwed over” so many newbies.
And on top of that, it’s a time attack.
There was no time to waste.
That was why Lee Shin had decided to go a bit aggressive this time.
He pointed at the newspaper article.
“That’s Crain.”
“……Excuse me??”
“Xenocratus. The unidentified organization mentioned there.”
“Wait a moment.”
“No, Chief. Please listen to what I have to say first.”
The first time Lee Shin had felt something was off was during the Haimoo Guild incident.
The event that marked the beginning of the DLC Era of Frenzy.
Originally, the DLC that should have followed was Inheritance, where you created a mentor and inherited their unique trait.
But it had been strangely skipped over.
It felt wrong from that point on.
While paying close attention, the next anomaly appeared.
They shouldn’t be doing this well right now.
The story of Namgoong Sega dominating the Chinese league with the ego sword they received from Hyeol-bong was supposed to happen next season.
In other words, everything had been moved forward by a year.
There were also various sudden quests and an accelerated progression tempo.
Lee Shin had carefully packaged these facts and presented them.
Naturally, Kim Mi-young’s face turned deathly pale.
“So… you’re saying you’ve been personally monitoring this since the Haimoo Guild incident, Representative?”
“The opponent is Crain. If they hold a grudge against us and target our guild, what would you do? As the representative, I have a duty to protect my guild members.”
“A-and the Namgoong Sega matter…?”
“I investigated the fact that they’re operating in China. And I found that Namgoong Sega’s skills had improved to an absurd degree. The Bureau must have at least known they were using some kind of item.”
“……That’s true. We were monitoring them to some extent.”
“Even taking that into account, it was beyond common sense. So I thought about it, and there’s only one way that could happen.”
“What is it?”
“Handing orders over to an ego sword. Separating the learned ego sword and creating a connection…”
When he even revealed Namgoong Sega’s secret, Chief Kim Mi-young’s face went from pale to completely white.
Because she knew too.
At her level, she was a high-ranking mage. Naturally, she had access to many of the Bureau’s secrets, and she knew that the “learning” done by ego swords referred to demonic swords.
And she knew exactly what the result of that was…
Still, she made one last desperate attempt.
“B-but without physical evidence or proof, suspending the league is…”
“I knew you’d say that, which is why I brought someone.”
“Today’s meeting must remain absolutely confidential.”
“……??”
“Sir.”
At those words, the door opened. An elderly man with a bent back entered.
A craftsman chosen by the heavens.
The father of the first learning-type demonic sword, Hyeol-bong.
And the man who had lost his family to the demonic sword he created, even having his grandson’s body stolen…
“Nice to meet you. I am Ak-bong, Ji Jung-chul.”