Phase 3 (5)

An intersection near Seomyeon Station in Busan.

Faces tight with tension, the people gathered there stared at the vortex churning in the street.

Among them, a girl shifted from foot to foot as if she could not bear another second of waiting. Small inside an oversized hoodie—Seo Subin. She was the one who had begged the Fire-Lightning Mage to save her brother, and now she squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her hands together like a prayer.

Please...

Let her brother be safe.

After the Cataclysm took their parents, Jihun was the only blood Subin had left. That was why she had clung to the plea so desperately.

She was still waiting when a black shadow fell across her. She noticed a beat too late. Just as she started to turn—

Smack!

A huge palm cracked across her cheek.

The blow came out of nowhere. Subin could not even scream before she went down, and the one who had struck ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her seized a fistful of her hair.

"Agh!"

A short cry tore past her lips.

Her vision swam. She blinked and dragged her eyes upward, and the man gripping her hair came into view.

"You goddamn bitch..."

Oh Jeongho, leader of the Busan Alliance.

A former baseball player, and a gangster whose name had carried an ugly reputation. After the Cataclysm he had seized Busan in short order and gathered the survivors under his hand.

Still clutching her hair, he snarled, his face flushed red.

"This would've sorted itself out if you hadn't run your mouth. You just had to grab that mage and drag the whole thing into this mess?!"

"B-but my brother—agh!"

"What the hell do I care what happens to Seo Jihun?! I didn't shove him in. He walked in on his own two feet!"

Another fist came flying.

Subin curled in on instinct, trying to take even a little of the impact. The gesture only fed Jeongho's rage.

He was about to hit her again when a voice cut in.

"Jeongho. That's enough."

"What? You want me to just let this go?"

"...Stop. Too many eyes."

Checked by one of his own, Jeongho finally came back to himself and looked around. Not everyone gathered here stood on his side.

A few were already looking at him differently, the way a person looks at an insect. Under that contempt his face twisted hard.

"Goddamn it..."

The look of a man who had just understood his mistake.

He swallowed his anger and flung Subin onto the ground with all his strength.

"Anyway, I don't know a thing about this. You and Seo Jihun can clean it up yourselves. Fuck. Five hundred thousand coins isn't chump change."

"Ugh... hhk..."

Subin let out a sob tangled with pain.

A little later she forced herself up, brushed the dirt and grit from her clothes, and smoothed her tangled hair as well. If her brother came back and saw her like this, there would be hell to pay.

A long while after that, a single notice appeared before every eye.

"Whoa, they cleared it that fast?"

"It hasn't even been an hour..."

"Yeah. Level fifty really is something else."

Admiration and breathless laughs rose on every side. Subin's face colored with hope along with them.

Not long after, a man stepped out from beyond the vortex. Close-cropped hair, a solid build, armed with a shield, an axe, and a rifle.

The moment Subin saw him, she kicked off the ground.

"B-brother!"

"Subin."

Jihun found her and broke into a wide smile. She threw her arms around him, let out a breath of relief, and looked his body over.

"Are you okay? You're not hurt anywhere?"

"I'm fine. More importantly..."

His mouth shut all at once. The smile left his face.

"...What happened to your face?"

"N-nothing. I think I got hurt when I fell earlier. Don't worry about it."

A lie. Anyone could see the marks of a beating.

Jihun bit down hard on his lip. The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠only man who would do a thing like this rose in his mind, and he turned a killing glare on Oh Jeongho, leader of the Busan Alliance.

"...Oh Jeongho. Was this you?"

"She said she fell. Don't go pinning it on an innocent man."

Jeongho sneered, the corner of his mouth crooked. Jihun's hand closed on his axe, but he could not close the distance. The men at Jeongho's side had leveled their guns as one, as if to say that one more step and they would fire.

"It's okay. I'm fine, so stop..."

Subin held him back as well. Her voice trembled thin, and fear filled her face at the thought that her only brother might come to harm.

Jihun was forcing the anger down when Jeongho spoke again.

"Before that, you'd better find a way to scrape those coins together. Unless you want the Fire-Lightning Mage holding a grudge."

"Coins? What nonsense is this all of a sudden..."

"Ask your sister."

Lost, Jihun turned to Subin. She hesitated, then explained what had happened earlier. When the whole of it was out, his face went hard.

He was not the only one. The rest of the vanguard, coming out behind him, twisted their expressions and piled on.

"Ha. I knew something smelled off."

"Right. Like that bastard Oh Jeongho would've politely asked somebody to save us."

The vanguard glared at Jeongho. Subin, on the verge of tears, spoke up.

"I'm sorry, Brother. This is all because of me..."

"No. It's all right. You didn't do anything wrong."

Jihun shook his head. All she had done was ask someone to save her family. The commission itself had begun with something Jeongho brought up on his own.

"We have no reason to pay the coins. He's the one who hired the mage."

"Your sister's the one who started this game."

"If you'd just sent the main force in on time, we could've won without the mage."

"Once word got out that you go in and you don't come out, the volunteers dried up. What was I supposed to do, shove people in by force?"

The two men fired back and forth. Neither gave an inch, and the air grew uglier by the moment. A fight could have broken out then and there, and no one would have been surprised.

Step.

Footsteps sounded from beyond the vortex.

A moment later, a figure in a motorcycle helmet showed himself. With his arrival, the overheated air went cold. The one at the center of every argument had appeared. The Fire-Lightning Mage.

Hanseong had only just stepped clear of the Rift when an unexpected sight met him.

Seo Jihun of the vanguard and Oh Jeongho, leader of the Busan Alliance, stood squared off against each other. The air looked vicious enough that he narrowed his eyes. They look ready to tear into each other right now.

The vanguard had been outside the Rift for five minutes. He had followed almost at once, so the real gap was little more than that. What in the world had happened in between? The question rose, and he set it aside. Not my problem. Some quarrel inside the group, most likely.

The subject stirred no interest, so he let it go. He turned Phantom toward Oh Jeongho and approached.

"As promised, I've brought the vanguard out."

"..."

"The coins are ready, I trust?"

In truth, he did not believe he would actually receive the full five hundred thousand. That was no ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠small sum. Turn out every pocket here, and it would probably still come to less. Even so, I'll take whatever I can get. If only to be ready for the VIP Auction Hall about to open. The more coins, the better.

He was waiting for an answer when the man who had been watching Phantom's mood abruptly pointed at Jihun.

"Get the coins from the vanguard."

"Don't make me laugh! You're the one who made the request!"

"Yeah. Why should we be the ones paying?"

The moment Jeongho finished, the vanguard beside Jihun pushed back hard, and the argument started up again.

Hanseong understood, then, why the two groups had looked so ugly. They had been passing a bomb back and forth, and a fight had come of it. Leave them to it and this will take forever. He hated wasting time.

He sighed, stretched Phantom's hand toward an abandoned building south of Seomyeon Station, and cast straight at those coordinates.

Boom! Crash!

The building came down in a roar. The structures around it folded as well, like dominoes. Only one person here could do a thing like that.

Every survivor's eyes—Jeongho, Jihun, Subin, all of them—turned to a single point. Once he confirmed the stares had locked onto Phantom, Hanseong pressed Jeongho.

"So you can't pay?"

"N-no! If you just take it from the vanguard—!"

"Then you collect it and hand it to me. Do you really think I ought to go around collecting it myself?"

"...!"

Jeongho's eyes went wide for an instant. A moment later he grinned, as if he had caught the meaning.

Click.

He raised his rifle and aimed it at the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠vanguard.

At that signal, nearly a hundred people leveled their guns together. Jihun and the vanguard were just reaching for their own rifles when—

Bang!

Jeongho pulled the trigger.

The round buried itself in the ground at Subin's feet. Jihun flinched, and Jeongho's men, watching, snickered.

"Easy. Try anything cute."

"And we'll blow your head off."

There were plenty of witnesses, but it could not be helped. If they did not do this, their side would be the one coughing up the coins. The other survivors seemed to think the same; no one moved to stop them. For once, everyone was of a mind.

Jeongho laughed, pleased with himself.

"Take turns and dump every coin you've got on his sister. Don't leave a single one."

"Oh Jeongho, you son of a—"

"Don't make me say it twice."

The air turned lethal in an instant. Jihun ground his teeth. Then, leaving the urging Jeongho behind him, he suddenly shouted toward Phantom.

"Mage! I have a proposal."

"...?"

"I'm on the Sejong Provisional Government's Special Summons List. The Frenzied Rider. Level thirty. Job, Assault Warrior. And I have more than enough combat experience."

An abrupt introduction. The unexpected identity made Hanseong's eyes open a little wider. Just in case, he used his Magic Eye, and the man's words proved true.

"If you're willing, I want to pay for saving us with my own body."

"You mean..."

"I'll do whatever you tell me. No matter how dangerous. Can't that stand in for the coins?"

"M-me too! I'll pay with my body!"

"Just give us orders!"

Starting with Jihun, the other survivors of the vanguard spoke up one after another.

On the surface, it was a clever fix. They could settle this peacefully, without blood. But Hanseong shook Phantom's head and answered coldly.

"I refuse."

"What...?"

"None of you are worth that much."

The vanguard's average level was twenty-five. Even if all of them rushed in together, they would not match a single Collector. Put them in the Special Mission Battalion and they might be of some use, but not enough to replace five hundred thousand coins.

Then—

"I-I'll help too!"

Subin, who had been silent, stepped forward. She stared straight toward Phantom and made her case.

"If you take me, I'll be useful. I have a skill that modifies machines. I can modify weapons, too, and convert them!"

Interest stirred at once. Modification and conversion meant a production class, and a production class would help more than some middling combat job. Hanseong used Detection.

A blessing holder.

A different light gathered in Hanseong's eyes. A word set in front of a job meant a Blessing had been received, and the blessing was not the only thing that caught him. Looking over her skills, a good number of them resembled an enchanter's. He moved Phantom over to Subin.

"Tell me in more detail."

"Ah, yes! So, um..."

Her account began. Until now she had modified all kinds of weapons and built machines of new types. The most representative of them were the rifles. Every rifle used by the Busan Alliance's fighters, she said, had been modified by her. She went on to explain what those rifles could do.

"I modified them so that when the rounds run out, they can switch over to energy. The power's weaker than a real bullet, but it's still enough to kill."

He had not expected an ability like that. Hanseong moved Phantom, took one of the vanguard's rifles, tossed it into the air, and stored it in Inventory. A moment later he drew it back out at his base and opened its details.

So it was real.

Hanseong's eyes glinted with interest. Then a thought cut across his mind. Wait. Then maybe...

Could she also build something that moved on ether?

The enchanter at the Suwon Air Wing was working hard at it, but for now the pace of production was painfully slow. He asked at once.

"Can you modify vehicles too?"

"You mean cars, motorcycles, things like that?"

"Yes. Ideally something that spends ether—energy—in place of fuel."

"Oh! If that's what you mean, I made one before. The motorcycle my brother rides. That red one over there."

A red motorcycle, parked east of Seomyeon Station. Hanseong stored it in Inventory, then took it out at his base and opened its details.

The result was astonishing. Not only did it replace fuel with ether—it even carried the autonomous driving he had wanted.

He was still wearing his surprise when a notice appeared that startled him even more.

"...!"

With news he had never imagined, Hanseong's eyes flew wide.