The Alliance Leader's Protection
As soon as the Alliance Leader stepped into the living room, the hunters froze like they'd been struck by lightning, snapping to attention in unison. He issued a low, heavy command toward them.
"Stand down. Don't accidentally kill anyone."
"A-Alliance Leader! But that girl dared to touch the Sword Master's divine relic…!"
"Are you deaf? This child is my honored guest. Wait outside."
Crushed by the overwhelming presence of a Hyeon-gyeong martial artist, the hunters grumbled and slunk out through the shattered front door.
The moment they vanished from sight, the Alliance Leader flicked his sleeve wide with a whoosh.
Paaat—!
A translucent barrier enveloped the living room in a perfect dome. No sound or presence could leak out—an impeccable veil of concealment.
With his hands clasped behind his back, the Alliance Leader slowly opened his mouth.
"Lee Gyu-yeon…"
The instant my name left his lips, my throat stiffened involuntarily. My legs, which hadn't trembled even when severing the Heavenly Demon's neck, now shook uncontrollably.
He approached me, staring intently at my empty left sleeve dangling loosely. A deep regret flickered across his sharp eyes.
"It's been a long time."
"You've… truly changed so much. You're like an entirely different creature now."
I pouted and grumbled, sticking out my lower lip.
"Can't you fix that old-man speech pattern? What era do you think this is?"
The Alliance Leader gave a wry smile at my jab.
"Right after the battle with the Heavenly Demon twenty years ago. When you tossed me his head and vanished, I was the only one who knew you'd sacrificed your left arm to his jaws."
He was right. The fact that the Sword Master had lost an arm was the utmost secret—not even known within the murim, let alone the Hunter Association.
"I knew you'd lost your arm and gone into seclusion, but I never imagined a sturdy man like you would shed your mortal form into this tiny silver-haired girl. What a sight."
"You wanna get punched for real? Even like this, my Mugyeok realm is stronger than back then. You think the state I risked my life to achieve is a joke?"
In that moment, the Alliance Leader's hardened gaze softened like spring snow melting. A faint smile spread across his lips as he placed his large, rough hand atop my silver hair with a gentle pat.
"Still…"
Warm inner energy flowed through my scalp.
"I'm just glad you're alive. Welcome back, even if it's late."
I stared up at him in a daze. My eyes stung, that girly sensitivity from when I first awoke in this body threatening to burst forth again.
"…Huh?"
The Alliance Leader, his expression now relaxed, gazed out at the penthouse view and continued.
"I thought you'd gone off quietly to breathe your last."
"But to think you're alive in this bizarre, cute little form."
"In front of those hunters outside, I'll say you're the Sword Master's sole disciple."
It was a touching reunion line with thoughtful consideration, but that word slipped in the middle grated on me hard. I swatted his hand off my head and yelled.
"Bizarre my ass! I'll admit to cute, but from the outside, I'm super adorable, you know?!"
The Alliance Leader let out a disbelieving chuckle, shaking his head.
"Sure, utterly cute and adorable. I don't know when our Sword Master, who once made the world tremble with a single blade, decided to conquer it with charm instead."
His expression hardened coldly in an instant, turning deadly serious.
"But this isn't the time to bask in sentimental reunions. The real problem is elsewhere."
I tilted my head.
"Problem? What problem? Don't you know I've retired? You said you'd handle everything and even gave me this place."
The Alliance Leader sighed deeply.
"That was when you were quietly hiding like you were dead. The Hunter Association is moving to detain you on charges of national treason and terrorism."
"…What?"
I thought I'd misheard.
"You vaporized the entire boss room and outer wall of the Tower's 10th floor? And you smashed the goblin ecosystem on the 3rd?"
"No… The orc lord was so gross-looking, I accidentally put a bit too much power into it… Okay, fine, I admit to the goblins."
"Accidentally? A bit too much? Does an 'accident' punch through the Tower's dimensional barrier? That freakish energy you fired has warped the spatial coordinates around the area—it's chaos out there."
"It was just a tiny flick! I only used two fingers!"
The Alliance Leader sighed deeply—very deeply—and pinched his brow.
"That freakish energy of yours breached the dimensional barrier. The Hunter Association's tracking net pinpointed this 'Cheonmu Penthouse,' so the moment I got the report of their forces mobilizing, I flew here first."
"Oh…"
Speechless, I gazed up at him with teary eyes.
"The Hunter Association President is coming up soon with her subordinates. Steel yourself."
But the Alliance Leader averted his gaze from my pleading look. My face drained of color.
Yet in my mind, national treason be damned—the one insane problem looping wildly was right in front of me.
"Alliance Leader, what about my dried squid mukbang stream tonight?!"
"…What?"
"I blew up the 10th floor outer wall and dropped that sneak broadcast— the gallery's about to explode! This is the perfect timing to go live, pull some aggro, and watch the viewers freak out!"
The Alliance Leader stared down at me with eyes full of contempt and disillusionment. Seeing the greatest powerhouse under heaven, who commanded the world with raw might, fret over internet reactions like this—deep wrinkles carved into his brow.
"You rotten kid… You're about to get thrown in solitary for treason, and you're worried about that damn aggro? You have no grasp of how serious this is."
"Alliance Leader! Aren't we bros? Don't you have some loyalty? Can't you smooth this over with your rank and pull some strings?"
"The mess you made is too big to cover even with the Murim Alliance's name."
I was just about to roll on the floor in protest when—
Paaat—!
The Alliance Leader withdrew his sleeve, and the translucent barrier around the living room dissolved smoothly.
As if on perfect cue, the penthouse's private elevator chimed with a cheerful 'ding—' and opened.
Breaking the heavy silence, three figures strode in with intimidating steps. Mechanical armor forged from cutting-edge mana alloy, red cloaks symbolizing the Korean Hunter Association. The ferocious mana density pouring from them marked them as S-rank powerhouses at a glance.
But the real deal stood at their center.
An overwhelmingly heavy, vicious pressure that choked the breath from your lungs. The woman at the core advanced into the living room with the click of her military boots.
Flaming red hair like roaring fire, sharp Western features on a stunning beauty. But more captivating than her looks was her off-the-charts power—the rare, suffocating presence unique to the world's few irregulars.
Just twenty years ago, "hunters" didn't exist in this world. In 2020, as the long, brutal twenty-year war with the Heavenly Demon finally ended, Towers suddenly erupted across the globe. Awakened appeared, and hunters began to emerge.
Elena was an awakener who shot to fame like a comet in that cataclysm. Mocking the lifelong realms built by ancient martial artists, she shattered human limits in a mere fifteen years through the Tower's system and her overwhelming talent—an irregular.
She gripped the nascent hunter world tight with her choking might and charisma alone. She was the president of the Korean Hunter Association, the EX-rank hunter Elena.
Elena glanced once at the wrecked front door and trashed living room. Once at the frozen hunters outside. Then she turned her cool red eyes toward the Alliance Leader.
"Alliance Leader, I apologize for showing you such a unseemly scene. I didn't expect you to come all the way here yourself."
The Alliance Leader nodded heavily, hands behind his back, in response to Elena's polite but pointed greeting.
"To think the President herself would come. I figured you'd just send a few hunters."
"The Tower's 10th-floor dimensional barrier evaporated. For an incident like this, isn't it natural for me, the President, to handle it personally?"
Elena's sharp gaze slid past the Alliance Leader and locked onto me.
The dangling empty left sleeve. The slender silver-haired girl faintly glowing. And above all, the Mugyeok Divine Sword hovering at my side, emanating a blue radiance.
A deep light gleamed in Elena's blue eyes. Her keen senses seemed to rapidly analyze the contradictory scene before her.
"Alliance Leader, who the hell is that girl? Why is a civilian in the Sword Master's penthouse… No, how is the Sword Master's divine relic resonating with her?"
As Elena pressed sharply, the Alliance Leader calmly spat out the lie he'd cooked up moments ago.
"She's the Sword Master's sole disciple, whose whereabouts were unknown. Seems she was managing the house her master left behind."
Elena's neat brows twitched at his words.
"The Sword Master's disciple? That's news to anyone—the Hunter Association, the world, everyone. Regardless, we need to take her in immediately."
"Even with me, the Alliance Leader, vouching for her identity?"
The Alliance Leader and the President's eyes locked.
"Regrettably, I just got word from the forensics team. The anomalous energy signature leaking from that girl's body matches the residual explosion energy from the Tower's 10th floor at 99.9%. Even the Murim Alliance must cooperate in the face of clear evidence."
"The evidence is solid, I take it."
The Alliance Leader shot me a pathetic glance and clicked his tongue.
Elena strode toward me briskly and declared in a cold, businesslike voice.
"You're coming with us on suspicion of massive Tower structure destruction and inducing a dimensional rift in the surrounding area."
In this desperate situation, I squeezed my eyes shut and screamed internally.
I'm not going! I have to go live tonight to check reactions!
"Just go get investigated quietly, you rascal!"
And that afternoon, high above Gangnam, my indignant screams pierced through the helicopter rotors, mingled with the Alliance Leader's endless nagging as he desperately tried to smooth things over with the President. They echoed long and loud.