A Neck Worth 100 Billion
In the pitch-black darkness beneath Seoul's closed underground sewers, thick with damp moisture and the stench of mold, I burst into laughter.
"A hundred billion won."
Not a bad price for my head—the body that would one day stop the apocalypse. Even when I beheaded the Demon King as humanity's last survivor in my previous life, I never got treatment like this. The world losing its shit over one measly lizard? It really drove home how nothing draws the masses like heroics.
"Cough!"
The laughter didn't last. A metallic glob of blood surged up my throat. Aftereffects of using an advanced teleport scroll on this mismatched body. The fallout from forcing mana through this pathetic F-rank frame. I gasped raggedly, leaning my head back against the wall behind me. Sewage dripping from the ceiling smacked my forehead. The cold actually cooled my fevered brain.
'Three days left.'
Time until Isha von Estelle regained her senses and activated precise tracking magic. Knowing her personality, she was probably combing every inch of Seoul right now. They say it's darkest under the lamp, right? While she raged on the surface, I hid below. The world hunting me was turning out far more ruthless—and ridiculously over-the-top—than I'd expected.
I peered at my smartphone screen glowing through the cracked display. One username in particular stood out amid the news headlines.
"What the hell? You can't just smash the door like that! Where's the warrant? Isn't this breaking and entering?!"
Username: BearCandleAddict. Real name Kim Min-su jumped in outrage. His steel front door had been ripped off like paper. Agents from the Hunter Association's emergency investigation team, clad in black suits, filled his cramped studio apartment.
The team leader shoved a tablet PC screen right in Kim Min-su's face with cold eyes.
"Kim Min-su-ssi. At 2:32 PM. And 2:35 PM. You posted two comments on the Hunter community forum Hunter Inside."
"Huh?"
"Ah, no, that was just a joke. A meme, really…"
"A joke with impeccable timing."
The leader swiped the screen, revealing damning logs from a brokerage app.
"You dumped your entire fortune into short positions on Hunter-related stocks via overseas futures options—especially Estelle Guild shares owned by Isha von Estelle. With 50x leverage, no less."
"……."
Kim Min-su's mouth flapped like a fish.
"And that's not all. Exactly three minutes after you placed your sell order, Desolatus died. That's compelling evidence of prior insider knowledge. Or complicity in terrorism."
"No, it was just my gut! The chart hit a double top and was primed to drop. Pure technical analysis, I swear!"
"Technical analysis?"
The leader scoffed, grabbing Kim Min-su by the collar.
"Do you have any idea what's happening out there? That finger of yours hitting 'short' might get Seoul wiped off the map by the Saintess."
The leader pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Hoo. Kim Min-su-ssi, you're under emergency arrest for violations of the Anti-Terrorism Act and National Security Act."
"Wait! Let go! I swear, I just shorted! I knew it'd tank, but I didn't think it'd actually die!!"
"Shut your trap. We'll see if you're still singing that tune in the Seocho-dong branch interrogation room. Take the suspect away!"
"Aaaagh! My money! I need to close my position!!"
Kim Min-su's wails echoed pitifully down the hall as he was dragged off. He had no clue Isha von Estelle's fury had no time for trolls or stock junkies—it was burning the whole country down.
Isha von Estelle's mansion, the crime scene. The air reeked of blood. Even that metallic tang couldn't mask the icy killing intent radiating from the Saintess. Forensic team members from the Hunter Association on site barely dared to breathe.
Isha von Estelle stared blankly at the floor. The massive dragon corpse, head and heart gone. Her soul-bound companion, friend, family.
"……."
No tears fell from her eyes. Grief too vast had sublimated into rage, drying up her tear ducts. The air around her crackled with sparks. Uncontrolled transcendent mana crushed the space.
"Saintess."
The forensic lead spoke cautiously. Approaching alone made his skin prickle.
"Scene preservation complete. May we recover the body? Further delay risks secondary explosion from mana backlash."
Isha didn't answer. She moved slowly instead. Toward something rolling on the floor beside the dragon's corpse.
She knelt and picked it up. A sword hilt, snapped clean in half.
The weapon the culprit used to block her. The proof of the indelible humiliation he'd hurled at her face before fleeing.
"This."
Isha's voice rasped low, scraped from the depths of hell.
"Analyze it."
"Pardon? Oh, that's the F-rank mass-produced dagger the culprit used. Cheap 50,000-won convenience store junk—no real clues there—"
"That cheap junk."
Crunch.
Isha gripped the hilt tight. The steel handle crumpled like clay, screeching in her grasp.
"Deflected my holy sword's arc."
"Pardon?"
The forensic lead doubted his ears. A convenience store dagger blocking a swing from the empire's sole Swordmaster in rage? Physically impossible. Even an A-rank artifact shield should've shredded like paper.
"Coincidence, or my mind wavered. But…."
Isha's red eyes bored into the broken blade's edge. Her mind replayed the culprit's final move in slow motion. Just before she swung, he'd already twisted away. Like someone who'd seen the future.
"He reacted exactly 0.1 seconds sooner. Before my muscles even moved."
As if he'd pierced her action patterns, sword path, habits perfectly. Or he was some monster defying causality itself.
Isha shoved the mangled hilt into the forensic lead's chest.
"Fingerprints, saliva, mana residue—analyze every sweat droplet on the handle down to the nano level."
"Y-yes, sir! Priority processing!"
"If even a scrap of DNA turns up…."
Isha looked up, staring into the void. Golden aura rippled behind her like vast wings. No longer the Saintess's merciful light—but flames of vengeance to burn all.
"I'll chase him to the ends of the earth. Or hell itself. And tear him apart."
The trophy from my subspace storage. The Dragon Heart pulsed grotesquely in my palm, alive.
◈ Source of Desolatus's mana. Holds immense power, but corruption from abyssal energies is progressing.
◈ Effect: ??? (Revealed upon consumption)
Corrupted. The system knew. People saw Dessoir as a cute pet. No one dreamed it was a toxin clump polluting ambient mana. Not even Isha, who fed it her holy power every hug.
'Swallowing this raw means instant death.'
An F-rank body is like a paper cup. Pour in Dragon Heart molten mana? Boom—meat paste on contact.
Still. There was a way.
I pulled prepped ingredients from my bag. Mandrake root, Ice Queen's Tear, lowest-grade mana stone powder. My unique recipe from the pinnacle of magical engineering in my past life.
Scritch, scratch.
I drew an arcane magic circle on the floor with mana stone dust.
'Purification and neutralization.'
Filtering the Dragon Heart's explosive energy to make it body-compatible.
Unique magic circle completed: Dragon Blood Purification Array!
High Intelligence stat applies comprehension bonus.
Placing the Dragon Heart on the circle purified the red aura into soft gold. The foul blood stench vanished, replaced by sweet, fruity mana fragrance.
"Now the real fun begins."
I sliced my wrist with a spare dagger.
Drip, drip.
My blood hit the circle; the heart glowed, craving it. I gripped it with both hands. Lukewarm, writhing texture. This power. The sole key to saving the world and surpassing that woman.
I shoved the heart into my mouth.
Crunch. Squish.
Solid-liquid hybrid. Bursting juices filled my mouth with each chew. Metallic blaze scorched down my throat.
"Gaaahhhh!!!"
Pain too raw for screams. Like red-hot pokers jammed into every vein. Stomach melting, heart pumping wildly to burst vessels. Bones crushed and reformed, muscles tore and regenerated—repeating every second.
Mana exceeding vessel limits!
Body collapse initiated!
Unyielding Tenacity (Grade: F) activated.
Black out, and it's over. I bit my lip bloody to cling to consciousness.
'This pain's nothing.'
Sounds of comrades chewed by beasts before my eyes. Isha's final contemptuous gaze. The silence of a ruined world. Compared to that despair, this bone-scraping agony was just proof I was alive—a stimulant.
"Hss, ngh!"
I forcibly opened my mana circuits. Blocked meridians burst; the F-rank shackles shattered.
BOOM!
Sewage exploded around me. Golden aura from my body banished the blackness. Cracks spiderwebbed the ceiling concrete; the whole sewer quaked like an earthquake.
How much time passed? Agony faded, replaced by infinite power. I slowly opened my eyes. Vision sharpened. Dust motes in the air. Mana density in the flowing water. The world rendered in crisp data.
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