The Tip of the Iceberg
The tip of the iceberg.
We use this phrase when pointing to some vast conspiracy, or something overwhelmingly enormous.
For example, the unconscious.
The deepest parts of our inner selves lie submerged beneath our awareness, and what we see is only the tiniest fraction.
Most people come to this realization the moment they undergo a colonoscopy.
But it can be used in other situations too—like when you’re literally standing on top of an iceberg.
And the phrase “literally” is, as always, a rare thing to use accurately.
After all, there are almost no people on Earth who can stand atop an iceberg and genuinely declare, “Ah, so this is just the tip of the iceberg!”
Kim Hwang-je was one of those rare people.
“So this really is just the tip, huh.”
The iceberg floating in the middle of the distant ocean was the largest among those that had drifted down from Antarctica. It glowed with the characteristic brilliant emerald hue of Antarctic glaciers.
Kim Hwang-je felt the crunch of the ice cracking beneath his feet.
“Y-yes, that’s correct.”
To think the man had actually asked for an iceberg.
At first, the official thought it was a joke. But the so-called president had come in person to inspect the iceberg in real life.
The Australian civil servant rubbed his nose, which had turned bright red from the cold.
The air smelled of freezing ice.
“But, Mr. Kim… are you truly planning to purchase this iceberg? Mr. Seo seemed to be speaking half in jest.”
“Well, what does it matter if it’s a joke or serious? As long as it’s fun, isn’t that enough? This was actually on my bucket list.”
While translating the words into English for the official, Seo Jun-seo marveled inwardly.
‘As expected of the boss. He plays the role of a rich, idle slacker perfectly.’
But right now, he truly was a rich, idle president.
Thanks to that, the Australian official had been dragged along against his will to stand on top of the iceberg for this inspection.
The ship they had arrived on circled the blue waters around the iceberg.
It was a good thing they had teleported up here. If Kim Hwang-je had suggested climbing it with mountaineering gear, the official would have refused outright.
“Ughhh…”
At any rate, standing on an iceberg—which wasn’t even frozen ground but a literal chunk of ice—left the Australian official so cold he could barely keep his senses together.
“W-will this be sufficient? If we provide this iceberg, iron ore, and a poultry farm, you’ll really take care of ‘that thing’? Truly?”
Desperate to get back down, the official shivered and stamped his feet.
Kim Hwang-je laughed cheerfully.
He didn’t know the details, but he’d heard the first rule of negotiation was to make the other party impatient.
This probably wasn’t what that meant, but someone stamping their feet because they wanted to get off an iceberg could, in a way, be considered “impatient,” right?
Kim Hwang-je kindly explained the situation to the official, who had grown so anxious he had skipped over the negotiation details entirely.
“That’s not all. Didn’t we agree that Australia would help me establish an independent nation and join the Commonwealth?”
“Ah… Y-yes, of course. If it’s that kind of business, both the UK and we remain very welcoming. So you intend to claim this iceberg as your territory?”
It was a rather astonishingly creative idea, but the official didn’t particularly care what it was.
In most cases, it was impossible to gain any real profit from a piece of land the size of a rat’s tail.
These days, with the monster crisis calming down, joining the Commonwealth through such methods was usually just a tax evasion route for a handful of filthy rich people looking to make money through intermediary trade.
No one seriously tried to establish a nation out of fear of monsters anymore.
Compared to the permanent members of the UN Security Council operating their “privateer fleets,” this independent nation-building was downright “peaceful,” wasn’t it?
That was the great misconception of Australia’s elite civil servant.
Because Kim Hwang-je had no intention of rolling this iceberg around for just a day or two.
“Yes.”
“Ahem, I’m sorry, but instead of that, why don’t you consider purchasing one of the unclaimed lands provided by the Commonwealth? You only need to pay five percent of the profits for a ninety-nine-year lease.”
He was so cold he was stuttering, yet he still managed to counteroffer. As expected of an elite.
But if they had asked for one trillion won in gold, Kim Hwang-je would have gladly bought Australian land.
Or perhaps purchased some of the undeveloped territory the Commonwealth had “pioneered.”
Unfortunately, these people lacking in imagination had no way of grasping just how much money five percent of the “goods” Kim Hwang-je would be trading represented.
Kim Hwang-je had to unite all the refugees of the fantasy world and conquer it.
The population of the Adel Kingdom was rapidly increasing as it absorbed the surviving people in the surrounding areas.
How long would it take to grow as large as Hong Kong?
At the very least, he wanted to raise it to that scale.
So Kim Hwang-je simply shook his head and said,
“That’s fine. As promised, this ice is now my territory, and…”
“Y-yes, of course. If more natural glaciers drift in later, you may expand as much as you like. It’s just ice, after all. Goodness… it’s so cold, could we please head back down now?”
Perfect. This was exactly it.
During the meeting earlier, Kim Hwang-je had casually slipped in these words:
Of course, adding concrete or similar materials to artificially expand the land would be problematic. However, as you know, if a ‘natural glacier’ drifts in and merges with it, that would become my territory, correct?
And so, Kim Hwang-je had secured confirmation once again.
And surprisingly… there was a glacial zone in the northeastern region of Briquia Island.
The distance was far, but that didn’t matter.
He had the all-weather, all-purpose manual laborer—the green dragon Nax.
She would probably welcome hauling glaciers more than spreading fertilizer.
Probably.
Anticipating how much wider the territory of Iceberg Land would become, Kim Hwang-je marveled at himself.
“Heh heh, excellent. Let’s head back and go catch that bastard.”
The land belongs to the meek.
And Kim Hwang-je was very meek.
The inside of the transport plane was spacious.
Well, it was a plane capable of carrying tanks, after all.
Yet compared to its size, it felt rather empty. Only briefing monitors and chairs stood alone in the space.
They rose and greeted Kim Hwang-je.
“Master Kim. Welcome.”
“Hello.”
Three agents from the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) had been waiting for Kim Hwang-je inside the military transport aircraft.
They were three agents wearing black suits and sunglasses, looking strong enough to catch monsters with their bare hands.
They scanned Kim Hwang-je with their eyes.
A golden cloak, a crown, and a scepter. On his back, he carried several unidentified metal rods. It was far from ordinary.
‘As expected… what an overwhelming presence.’
Intelligence agents tended to have very strong senses of authority and elitism.
Yet even they became as docile as children before the halo radiating from Kim Hwang-je’s crown.
They even politely began removing their sunglasses.
This was an important courtesy extended to distinguished guests.
The plane took off and flew toward Urulu.
After a brief silence, the female agent seated in the middle spoke up.
“I’ll be frank. Without Maester Jung’s recommendation, we would not have gone through with this. You are… still only a 3rd Class Hunter, after all.”
“Ah, I’m still 3rd Class, huh.”
Kim Hwang-je scratched his head.
Should I raise my rank?
Maester Jung.
She was referring to Jung Da-yeon, the head of Lost Korea.
Lost, the colossal multinational corporation that protected American interests worldwide and moved hundreds of trillions of won. As the head of its Korean branch, Jung Da-yeon was one of the few people who could access the deepest secrets and underbelly of the world.
“But what exactly is ‘this matter’?”
“The matter of exposing a Disaster-grade monster to outsiders.”
“Ah… so that thing ended up on paper and became like this?”
“Correct. Our country has been strengthening that entity. We sincerely hope it will be resolved this time.”
“You must have gone through a lot.”
“Indeed. Controlling the media is the hardest thing in the world. Dropping bombs every day on a First-Class danger zone is actually the simpler part.”
The agent shook her head, then tensed as she looked out the window.
“You should be able to see it soon. Please be careful with your mental defenses. If you hear any ‘whispers,’ please let us know.”
But she quickly realized her warning was unnecessary.
The golden items wrapped around Kim Hwang-je’s body looked extraordinarily powerful.
So instead, she simply shrugged.
“Well, I’m sure you’ll block them far better than we could.”
Whether it was the manta or this thing, it seemed mental manipulation of humans was completely natural to them.
When Kim Hwang-je glanced out the window, he saw what had once been Urulu.
The beautiful mountain once called the navel of the Earth had been smashed to pieces and now lay in ugly ruin.
“Is that it?”
On the mountainside, a single ash-gray mass sat conspicuously.
It looked like a piece of meat that had been cut and left to spoil until it turned gray. It was clinging to the cliffside.
“Yes, that’s the one. It recovers like that every three hours. Once the gray fades, it will turn back into red flesh.”
“Flesh?”
Now that she mentioned it, the shape did resemble neatly sliced rectangular steaks from a butcher shop.
“Ah, it’s changing.”
The flesh instantly turned a vivid, bloody red!
So that was the recovery.
The agent put her sunglasses back on and frowned.
“That is a fragment of the corpse of Gugalanna, the colossal bull that was once a Disaster-grade monster. It is literally just meat.”
“I see. Well, it is a chunk of flesh, after all.”
Kim Hwang-je hadn’t known, but the sky bull named Gugalanna had mercilessly ravaged central Australia.
Quite literally, the giant bull had rampaged through buildings with its horns, drunk seawater, and slammed its head into Urulu.
The agent shuddered and continued.
“After three rounds of nuclear strikes, we pulverized it into tiny pieces. All that remained was that single lump of flesh.”
“And yet it recovers on its own.”
“Yes… we have no idea what will happen once it finishes recovering…”
The agent nodded.
“To prevent recovery, we drop ten thermobaric bombs every three hours. Here they come now.”
Two fighter jets could be seen flying in from the distance.
Even at a glance, they were heavily overarmed.
Instead of normal missiles, five heavy thermobaric bombs were mounted under each jet, making them look visibly weighed down.
“They’re firing.”
Each jet launched their five missiles in sequence.
Moments later, ten white trails lined up across the sky.
“Attention passengers. Brace for impact.”
At the pilot’s warning, Kim Hwang-je cast a barrier over himself and Seo Jun-seo.
The ten missiles soon reached the ash-gray mass and detonated.
BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—!
The smell of cooking meat!
As the thermobaric bombs rained down on the gray mass once more, shockwaves spread out in halos while small mushroom clouds rose into the sky.
The flames did not die down quickly.
Thanks to the specially formulated fuel, the inside would continue to boil fiercely for a long time.
Watching it, Kim Hwang-je muttered,
“Man… I’m getting hungry.”
No matter how you looked at it, it really did look like a perfectly cooked steak.
And of all things, it had to be beef.
When Kim Hwang-je licked his lips while staring at it, the ASIS agent exclaimed in admiration.
“As expected, you are truly someone Maester Jung would recommend. To see such an inhuman monster and actually salivate…”
“It can happen.”
He found it strange himself, but it was true.
“Of course. However, do not stare too deeply into the madness. It may…”
He had simply been hungry and licked his lips, but it seemed to have flipped some kind of switch in this intelligence agent.
Well, it made sense. Someone with no interest in the occult or secrets wouldn’t work for a secret intelligence service.
He launched into a long speech about the madness that gnawed away at the human world.
“That monster is quite literally the most horrifying demonic entity, filled to the brim with the madness of the human world.”
What followed was this:
Madness had seeped into that monster.
Therefore, the one who dealt with it would become a great hero respected by Australia.
Of course, very few people would ever know.
“If you could become such a hero, it would be wonderful. Because…”
Having grown tired of listening, Kim Hwang-je decided to put it into practice.
“I’ll be returning via teleportation. Don’t come looking for me later. Just assume that if the thing disappears, it’s been exterminated.”
“You’re leaving already?”
“If I stay any longer, I feel like I’ll end up hearing stories from your LA days.”
“I’ve never lived in LA.”
Anyway, that was that.
Kim Hwang-je shrugged without offering further explanation.
“Understood. However, in three hours, another round of thermobaric bombs will be dropped. Retreating will be up to you. If we lose contact, we will assume you are dead.”
“Good. That works. Mr. Seo Jun-seo, you may return first.”
“Yes, sir.”
Kim Hwang-je sent Seo Jun-seo into the kingdom.
The agents’ eyes widened as they watched Seo Jun-seo shrink and vanish, but they weren’t overly shocked.
They simply assumed it was one form of teleportation.
“Right then, let’s go catch it!”
Kim Hwang-je teleported from the moving plane straight toward the massive lump of flesh.
The closer he got, the more it truly looked like real meat.
For this hunt, Kim Hwang-je had prepared special subordinates.
The basics were the ‘Hunter’ and the ‘Artisan,’ and he planned to call others depending on the situation.
“Come forth, Hunter! Artisan!”
“Your Majesty! You called?!”
“Your Majesty. I have answered your summons.”
The three of them stood together, looking up at the lump of flesh.
A steak as large as a small hill.
It really did look exactly like a steak.
The Hunter met Kim Hwang-je’s eyes.
He seemed to be thinking the same thing.
“Hehe, Your Majesty. This looks pretty damn tasty.”
“Doesn’t it?”
At that moment, a sonic wave—a voice—rang out from the massive lump of flesh, shaking all of Urulu.
The voice was so loud it shook heaven and earth as it roared:
Kim Hwang-je realized why the agent had spoken of madness.
“Ah… madness… our old friend.”
Kim Hwang-je furrowed his brow deeply and pulled out his golden club.