Something Big Is Coming

Government: "Guys, something big is coming."

Bang—!

"Sujin!"

Lee Soyeon shot up from the table without warning.

Jin Sujin just stared blankly at her.

"……."

"What? What's going on?"

"It's a mission!"

A mission?

What was she talking about all of a sudden?

Jin Sujin just blinked.

This wasn't the first time something like this had happened, so that was about the extent of her reaction.

"Hiki-nim gave us a mission."

"Ah!"

Only then did Sujin leap up from the sofa.

"What is it, what is it?"

Jin Sujin clung tightly to Soyeon's back.

"Look at this."

Lee Soyeon showed her the chat she had exchanged with Hiki.

"Hmm?"

Jin Sujin's brow twitched.

"What?"

"Hiki-nim didn't tell you to shut up?"

"She didn't, actually?"

As expected, she was a kind person.

That said, Awakener registration…

For a hunter to climb the Tower smoothly, that was definitely the better option.

The Awakening Management Bureau and the Association would pour massive support into her, after all.

But from Hiki-nim's perspective, no.

A kid who struggled even to communicate over messenger, let alone face people in person.

How was she supposed to go to the Bureau herself and go through the registration process?

Sujin recalled the time she had registered as an awakener.

It had been a thoroughly annoying and irritating memory.

Mountains of paperwork and verification procedures.

Tests to prove her awakening ability.

Training and education for the tutorial climb.

For a minor without a guardian like Hiki, they would have forced her into a boarding camp to prepare.

And that wouldn't even be the end of it.

The Hunter Association would hound her to sign up for every service imaginable.

Every guild under the sun would pitch her to join them.

They were so relentlessly annoying.

It had been enough to make her, in a fit of pique, form a two-person guild with the flaky friend sitting right next to her.

Something I regret several times a day, sure.

Still, if she went back, she would probably make the same choice.

Anyway.

"For the Hiki-nim we have now, this is far too harsh."

They had to handle it secretly and privately, just as the kid had asked.

"People might call it special treatment and pick a fight over it."

"Special treatment? Are you seriously arguing that a little girl who's lost her entire family and is suffering under nationwide witch hunts and fake news should have to reveal her identity in front of everyone and become the center of every gossip column?"

Sujin, are you a trash human?

"No, that's not what I meant…!"

Jin Sujin hastily retracted her own thought, startled.

Well then. Who could possibly criticize Hiki now?

Not special treatment—consideration.

Object and you're trash.

"Anyway, so what do we do?"

Bribe a Bureau registration officer and send them to Hiki's house?

The secret would never hold.

Articles with the Capybara Guild and Hiki's name would hit the presses immediately.

Or hack the system and register her in secret?

She didn't know how, and she couldn't handle the fallout even if she did.

"Do you have a plan?"

"Well, about that…"

Lee Soyeon glanced away.

"You took the job without thinking again!"

"Yeah…"

"Aigoo, Soyeon!"

Jin Sujin would have stepped up to help even if it had been her, but she scolded her once first.

"W-well, I do have one idea."

"What?"

"Let's ask the Director directly."

"The Director of the Awakening Management Bureau?"

A nod.

Right. If they asked the Director, there would be no worry of the secret leaking.

The very top would only bring in people he trusted to handle it.

It was the best alternative they had.

But.

"……."

Jin Sujin's brow furrowed.

"You know what kind of person the Director is, right?"

Sujin had met the Director of the Awakening Management Bureau in person once.

Right after her registration, at the training camp.

It had been a special lecture schedule padded with the usual encouragement and platitudes.

"Even now, just thinking about it makes me want to piss myself a little."

Eyes like a tiger's.

Overwhelming charisma.

And mana that shoved all of that into the background.

It had been a storm.

A storm of whirling blades.

That was the shape the Director's mana had taken.

While everyone else listened to his lecture with admiring eyes,

Jin Sujin alone had felt pure fear.

Go find that person?

I can't do that, though?

"So you're going to abandon Hiki-nim?"

"…I can't abandon her."

"You have to do it, Sujin."

Jin Sujin squeezed her eyes shut.

"Soyeon, is your dad the Director or something?"

"No."

"Uncle? Maternal uncle?"

"Not them either."

Shame.

Well, let's at least get ready.

I'd cleared floor 8…. Now it was floor 9.

Tap-tap-

I pulled up YouTube.

I need to prepare.

I'd heard the difficulty spiked hard on floors 9 and 10.

Because that was when the mother Dire Wolf showed up.

A beast twice the size of any Dire Wolf I'd met so far.

That much stronger, too, no doubt.

It might even tear through tree trunks and charge me.

To clear it properly, I should refine my strategy and tactics a bit more, right?

Click-click-

Today's clear video was Hwageom's.

The recording from when she had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠broken the domestic #1 record for floor 9.

This was my first time watching one of Hwageom's videos.

I'd only ever watched foreign ones until now.

— Floor 9 hard difficulty. One mother wolf and five regular Dire Wolves.

— I'll be back.

Hwageom finished her briefing in that flat, terse tone.

Then she headed straight onto the field.

Her greatsword flickered into view on the bodycam now and then.

True to her name, Hwageom fought by setting her blade on fire.

Then isn't she a mage?

If you can light a sword on fire, you should be able to throw Fireballs too.

A lot of people had apparently shared that same doubt.

But she herself insisted fiercely that she was a swordsman, so she had been classified as one for now.

There had been snide comments that she was just being stubborn because she didn't want to be lumped in with mages—

But I heard that's settled now.

Because every magic awakener who tried to pack magic into a blade and fight up close like her had failed completely.

Once they tried it, they understood.

Not just anyone can do that.

Mages can't fight the way Hwageom does.

Anyway.

I skipped through the video.

Before long, the combat scene.

Whoosh-

Fire bloomed along the blade.

A searing red edge.

Flames so intense you half-expected the steel to melt.

Of course, the flexible yet rigid feel of the blade remained intact.

I heard the Bureau got her that weapon too.

Sponsored Bureau gear really was on another level.

Woom-

So hang in there, Musang too!

Bwooom—!

Shwoooooom! Crash!

I heard the sound.

Not Musang swinging— the greatsword swinging.

I focused on the video again.

She was surrounded by wolves.

Hwageom first swept her flaming blade to keep the monsters at bay.

Fire is threatening to wild animals.

The wolves couldn't get close.

They would approach, then backpedal, over and over.

Then, the moment their formation looked like it was about to collapse—

Slash—!

She lunged like lightning and took them down one by one.

Even to someone like me who knew nothing about swordsmanship, it looked like a textbook clear.

Even surrounded, there was no sense of crisis.

That meant her stance and distance control were perfect, right?

I'd heard she had been an elite kendo athlete before awakening.

As expected, her combat sense was outstanding.

One by one she cut the wolves down.

Until only one monster remained.

The massive mother Dire Wolf.

"Grrrrrrrk—"

The roar of a wolf that had lost her children.

The bodycam footage looked terrifying.

Scary…

Was Hwageom tense too?

She adjusted her stance in front of the beast.

Then she swung her sword, and a wave of flame—

"That's magic!!!"

Are you kidding me right now?

Something the size of an elephant just flew out!

How is that swordsmanship and not magic!

Anyway, Hwageom created a house-sized flame wave and cleared the mother Dire Wolf with it.

The mother wolf was cooked in no time.

And just like that, floor 9 was cleared.

Ha, seriously.

No wonder people called her a mage.

With a finisher like that, why hadn't she used it from the start?

I looked up Hwageom's floor 10 recording next.

This time I would focus even harder on her movements.

— Sssrk-

The moment she entered, she made a motion like she was gathering energy.

What is that?

— Floor 10. Two parent wolves and eight smaller ones, ten total.

Her combat style was the same.

Defend first, then counter.

Even against enemies far faster than her, her footwork never broke.

Was she predicting and moving first?

Fascinating.

Then, when she had cleared about half the enemies,

Hwageom's movements changed.

This time she moved like she was trying to break out of the encirclement.

A few steps punched through the net, herded the wolves into one spot, and then—

Fwoooosh-!

She just blasted them with a wave and cleared it.

"Huh? Why did she use the wave mid-clear this time?"

What was the difference?

I rewatched the floor 9 and 10 clear videos several times.

Then I found the hint.

"The clear times are similar?"

Floor 9: 30 minutes.

Floor 10: 33 minutes.

But even on floor 10, she had switched stances around the 30-minute mark.

Looks like she held out until the casting finished.

With that much destructive power, gathering the energy must take time too.

"If it were me, I'd cast first and then go fight. Right?"

Woom-woom-

Just gathering energy while trading blows head-on.

That was impressive in its own way.

Is this the Korean "hurry-hurry" spirit?

I recorded Hwageom's video with the status window.

Then illegally ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠shared it straight to the Archmage Gallery.

I wanted you to look at how she fights.

They were just trying to mess with me again.

Anyway, so Hwageom wasn't Fire Sword but Fire Mage?

I see.

But why was the conversation turning into a Hwageom consulting session?

I had just posted it so they could look at a fighting style that even saved casting time.

What mission are you issuing.

I'm not even streaming right now.

And how am I supposed to fight without any CC either.

Well, from the Archmages' perspective, my specs didn't seem lacking.

Then let's go.

"Floor 9 entry!"

While Hiki was thrashing wolves on floor 9,

a life-or-death struggle was also unfolding in one corner of the internet.

A bloodbath between the Hiki Protection Corps and those who insisted that fucking Hiki needed to be destroyed.

Even while mainstream media put out positive coverage of Hiki, the comment sections told a different story.

Negative public opinion about Hiki was the majority.

One reporter was watching this current carefully.

At times like this, you have to ride the wave.

He immediately texted a contact inside the Bureau.

The reply came quickly.

America's major announcement? The reporter's instincts fired.

Oh of course not.

He wrote the article immediately.

Once he had the title, the words poured out.

'According to a source well-versed in the hunter industry'

He put an anonymous source front and center.

And padded it out.

'While speculation mounts that American hunters are challenging the highest floors.'

'Claims of a Hiki recruitment announcement are also gaining traction.'

None of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that was technically wrong.

Just a little more seasoning and it was done.

'Hiki's domestic Tower-climbing journey is expected to conclude at floor 8.'

He uploaded the article as-is.

Views shot up in an instant.

His article even hit the top of the portal.

"Heh heh."

Hiki can go be #1 at Tower climbing.

I'll be #1 in views.

He was about to stretch leisurely when—

"Hey you bastard! Take the Hiki article down right now!"

The editor-in-chief's roar crashed over him.

"Huh? The views are doing great right now though?"

"Do some damn research before you write, you bastard! Did you see the Bureau announcement or not!"

Whirrr-

A wad of paper came flying at him.

Articles from other outlets.

The reporter's face went white.