The Mantra of Efficiency
Death was not the end. Jinseong dressed and headed for the dining hall. The moment he received Lee Serin's message, he had changed clothes and set out, yet it still took him quite a long time to reach the dining hall. There were several reasons for this. One was that the unnecessarily enormous mansion required a considerable walk just to reach the dining room. Another was that the pointless, overpriced artworks scattered along the way—lacking any sense of unity—irritated him so much that he had to stop repeatedly to calm his mind. But the most important reason was that those nouveau-riche pieces reminded him of his mercenary days, specifically the ones after World War III had erupted.
When he finally arrived after all that time, the dining hall was truly a spectacle. A long, oversized table reminiscent of medieval noble households awaited him, laden with an ostentatious and heavy breakfast that threatened to upset one's stomach. As if that weren't enough, the entire spread was Western-style, emphasizing superficial elegance, and the family members seated at the table were devouring it with practiced familiarity.
'What a farce.' Even among the nouveau riche, this was extreme.
"You're late," said the very embodiment of nouveau-riche excess—the man responsible for turning the household into this mess—as he glared at him. It was Lee Yanghoon, head of the Lee family where Jinseong resided and chairman of Kwangyang Group.
"Yes." Their exchange ended there. Jinseong sat down in an empty seat with an indifferent expression, and Lee Yanghoon, showing no particular reaction, resumed eating.
But then the door burst open again, and the situation changed. A girl entered who shared the same face as Lee Serin—who was currently radiating gloom while eating—yet whose entire being loudly proclaimed, 'This is what a good-for-nothing looks like.'
"Why are you late?" Lee Yanghoon snapped at the girl who had arrived even later yet carried herself with such brazen confidence. His eyes said that if her answer displeased him, he would discipline her on the spot.
"Ugh, so noisy. People can be late sometimes, you old fossil." With that, she plopped down in the seat beside Jinseong. As soon as she sat, she poked his side repeatedly with her index finger and whispered, "He's such a total fossil, right?"
Lee Yanghoon's face flushed red with anger at the sight, but when he saw Jinseong smiling faintly, he could only let out a long, heavy sigh.
"Lee Arin. After the meal, come to my study."
"Yeees~ yeees~" Lee Yanghoon, unable to explode in front of Jinseong, chose to swallow his rage for now. But Lee Arin answered half-heartedly and began shoveling food into her mouth as if nothing had happened.
Watching her, Jinseong felt a pang of nostalgia. 'It's been so long since I've seen something like this.' A scene from the days when he had lived protected within this mansion—something he hadn't even considered during the time he was obsessed with sorcery and money. It was comfortable enough to make one want to settle down and stay forever.
But that was impossible. 'Having resolved to offer my soul to sorcery, that determination must be fulfilled.'
Jinseong smiled gently and spoke.
"I have attained enlightenment."
Enlightenment? At his sudden, out-of-nowhere declaration, everyone at the table turned to stare at him. Lee Yanghoon's wife, his concubines, his daughters… all eyes focused on him. Enlightenment with no context whatsoever? Of course they were bewildered.
Basking in their collective gaze, Jinseong continued.
"Enlightenment may take a long time to arrive, yet it comes and goes in an instant. My enlightenment arrived just so."
"Has he finally lost his mind from obsessing over sorcery…?" A mutter came from beside him, but Jinseong paid it no mind and went on.
"All principles reside in all things, and within every thing lies the answer to the world. Just as the tide is drawn by the moon, so too did enlightenment come to me."
Lee Yanghoon spoke with clear exasperation. "Fine. Enlightenment. What kind of enlightenment?"
"It concerns a revolutionary alternative to breakfast."
"Alternative?"
"Indeed. Breakfast is originally an act of preparation to face the day's activities in perfect condition. Therefore, if we simplify the process while fulfilling the necessary conditions, surplus time will naturally emerge. How could this not be beneficial?"
His unnecessarily archaic and weighty tone, combined with phrasing so convoluted it was hard to grasp in one go, left everyone in silence.
"So, in simple terms, what does that mean?"
"Would it not be acceptable to replace my breakfast with nutritional supplements from now on?"
The moment they understood the true meaning behind his words, everyone could only let out hollow laughs. He had delivered the childish complaint of 'I don't want to eat breakfast' in an absurdly serious tone, like some fortune-teller revealing a profound prophecy. There was no way they could have held back their laughter.
"Enlightenment has visited this unworthy body, so it seems there will be progress in my sorcery. From now on, I wish to devote myself to training without lingering attachment to food and drink."
"...Hah. I see. If it's enlightenment, there's nothing to be done about it…" Lee Yanghoon started to say something, then gave up and let out a deep sigh. "Fine, I understand… When will you start?"
"The beginning is like a lightning strike—it is only possible when storm clouds gather. Therefore, it would be best not to delay."
"...Understood. You no longer need to attend breakfast from tomorrow. I'll have someone send simple meals and nutritional supplements separately."
Jinseong held a rather ambiguous position in this household. His real name was Park Jinseong. He shared not a single drop of blood with the Lee family; he was a complete outsider. Had their parents been close, then? Not at all. Jinseong's parents, now deceased, had almost no connection to the Lee family. To be precise, the organization the Lee family belonged to and the one his parents belonged to did have a relationship, but it could hardly be called friendly… In fact, it was closer to outright hostility.
Was the Lee family his legal guardian, then? That was ambiguous too. Legally, Jinseong's guardian was a distant relative from the Park family—a nominal guardian whose whereabouts, whether alive or dead, were unknown. In practice, however, the Lee family had been acting as his guardians until he came of age. It was a complicated relationship: guardian yet not quite guardian.
What made it even more ambiguous was that normally the supporting party held the superior position and the supported party the inferior one, yet between Jinseong and the Lee family, both sides alternately occupied the roles of superior and inferior in a truly bizarre dynamic.
'The Lee family was obligated to look after me without shortfall until I reached adulthood.' It was a kind of unfair contract. He could receive flawless support until the year he turned adult—that is, one year from the current point. And what did he have to give in return? Nothing. It was a perfectly one-sided contract.
How such a contract could have come about… 'It is quite a long story.' And not just any story, but one so absurd and ridiculous that it would make one burst into hollow laughter multiple times.
"Coincidence must be accepted as coincidence, and the price of choice must be borne by the one who chooses."
Yet no matter how tangled it was, cause and effect remained clear. The spark that led the two organizations into conflict had been the Lee family's blunder, and in the process, his parents had died. The two organizations then ordered the Lee family to raise him as atonement. The process had been so riddled with coincidences that it almost felt like fate, and his parents' deaths were not the Lee family's fault but the result of their own karma. Perhaps everything had simply been the inevitable future.
"ॐ—"
Because it was so twisted, their relationship was naturally ambiguous as well. Despite the entangled karma, the people of the Lee family were not bad. Chairman Lee Yanghoon had strong nouveau-riche tendencies, but he at least understood noblesse oblige. His understanding might be clumsy, but his intentions themselves were not malicious. Had he been born into a proper prestigious family and received the right education, he would have become a respected wealthy man. Even Jinseong, who harbored near-disgust toward the nouveau riche, felt no ill will toward Chairman Lee Yanghoon. That alone proved he was a good person.
Lee Yanghoon's wives and concubines were also not cruel by nature. Just seeing how Lee Serin and Lee Arin, born to a concubine, had grown up receiving abundant love from the primary wife and the two concubines showed that their personalities were not bad. Of course, there must have been twists and turns, various circumstances that led to such a relationship… But at least in Jinseong's view, both women's characters were good.
The daughters were the same. Lee Arin might look like a good-for-nothing at first glance, but she didn't torment others. Aside from her somewhat excessive spending and slight vanity, her personality was flawless. As for her twin sister Lee Serin, although she had a gloomy demeanor and peculiar hobbies, she wasn't the type to harass others either. Rather, she would endure being tormented herself but would never torment others. In a nouveau-riche household overflowing with money, it was rare to find only such people. Even in families called prestigious, scoundrels appeared frequently, and there were almost always those who would throw away their own lives or ruin others'.
Yes, it was a truly harmonious family with good people. So much so that Jinseong felt awkward just being part of it.
That was precisely why their relationship could only remain ambiguous. If their personalities had been cruel, they could have dismissed his parents' deaths as mere coincidence and drawn a clear line. If Jinseong could have hated them, it would at least have given him a clear reason to sever this murky connection.
That was why Jinseong had no choice but to leave this house the moment he became an adult. They would have continued supporting him even after adulthood, the ambiguous relationship would have dragged on, and eventually they would have become shackles to each other.
'I had learned enough sorcery that making a living was no problem.' The sorcery he had steadily studied and mastered since middle school had reached a level sufficient to earn a living by the time he became an adult. Naturally, he chose the most lucrative profession: mercenary. It was dangerous, but it offered many advantages.
The ability to wander the world, to meet all kinds of people, to touch the underworld that ordinary life would never reveal, the potential to earn a great deal of money despite the high risk, and the opportunity to cultivate combat abilities that would prevent him from dying an insignificant death anywhere… Excluding the major drawback that his life was constantly in danger, it was an excellent profession.
'Even that drawback of danger eventually disappeared.'
The reason mercenaries were dangerous was because they had to take dangerous missions. Deployment to conflict zones, assassination of key figures, protection of key figures, search and destroy operations… Even things like exterminating wild beasts, hunting wanted criminals, or caring for dangerous pets. There wasn't a single safe job from start to finish.
Could one choose only safe jobs? No. If the job was safe, they would use their own people—why spend money to hire mercenaries? Therefore, once assigned, it was routine to be sent to the front lines or treated as disposable pawns. There were contracts, so they wouldn't openly try to kill them, but neither would they make any effort to ensure the mercenaries' survival. After all, they weren't their own people, just outsiders, and the more mercenaries died, the lower the commission fee became in some cases. It was only natural.
Thus, where mercenaries went was dangerous, and even if it wasn't, it became dangerous.
But then… 'World War III broke out.'
The entire world turned into a dangerous place. The African continent became a den of madmen performing human modification under the banner of returning to the beginning. Europe became a battlefield where insane dictators led armies into war. The Americas became a place where nukes and grand sorcery flew back and forth, and the Asian region was also engulfed in the flames of war. As the whole world burned in the fires of conflict, madmen capable of wielding army-level power sprang up everywhere, turning everything into chaos. In response, the use of ABC weapons—atomic, biological, and chemical—only made the chaos even worse.
'Yet astonishingly, the world kept turning surprisingly well.'
It would not have been an exaggeration to call it five minutes to apocalypse, yet strangely, the world continued functioning. Passenger ships and planes exploded without warning, but trade somehow continued smoothly. Terrorist attacks struck national capitals and key facilities almost daily, yet people who had already accepted mass death as routine carried on with their normal lives. Even if a building exploded and hundreds of students died, school continued. Even if an entire provincial city was wiped out by a nuke, the nation's administration did not collapse. Missiles flew and chaos reigned, yet secret trade continued in the shadows. Countries that were enemies would declare ceasefires, then break them and declare war again in bizarre cycles that happened as regularly as meals.
Jinseong didn't know exactly why it kept running, but somehow, creaking and groaning, it did. Even after World War III, the world had not ended.
If one were to force a guess at the reason, it would be the desperate efforts of countless people who did not want to live in hell, the sense of crisis learned from history, and the hard work of those single-person army-level ability users.
'Heroes, heroes… This house has one too.'
Thud.
While Jinseong was lost in thought, the sound of footsteps came from outside the door.
'Light and irregular footsteps. A small-framed female.'
Knock, knock, knock.
"Oppa, are you there…?"
Along with the knock, Lee Serin entered.
"Um, here… the nutritional supplements and food. It's food…."
Lee Serin set down the bundle she had been carrying with some difficulty and smiled awkwardly. The sight reminded him of a squirrel that had been running around with an acorn, only to freeze upon witnessing something strange. It naturally stirred a protective instinct, but instead of that, Jinseong recalled something else: the future Lee Serin.
'She really looks harmless. It's hard to believe this is what the person who single-handedly turned Kyoto into ruins used to look like.'
Around six years into his mercenary career, the Unified Republic of Korea and Japan had entered full-scale war. Japan, having amended its constitution to allow a military, chose the Unified Republic of Korea as the first target to demonstrate its power. The only countries Japan could realistically provoke were China and Korea. China was a dinosaur armed with all kinds of sorcery and cutting-edge science, making it difficult to touch. In contrast, although Korea possessed strong sorcery, much of it had been destroyed and plundered during the period of Japanese occupation, and they had yet to recover. Their weaponry had also failed to develop properly due to pressure from the United States and China. On top of that, they had no nuclear weapons, so Japan judged them to be a manageable opponent.
Moreover, the northern region, which had only recently been reclaimed from a puppet regime, had become a barren wasteland uninhabitable by humans due to the puppet state's excessive use of sorcery, which had depleted the land's spiritual energy. Using the now-ownerless north, they calculated they could easily land a decisive blow against Korea and begin the war from there.
In addition, there were pro-Japanese factions planted since the occupation period, and the memory of how easily they had annexed Korea before. For Japan, there could be no better target than Korea.
Japan continuously stirred friction through territorial disputes over Dokdo and the Seven Gas Fields, then launched a surprise attack without declaration of war, bombarding Pohang with artillery and missiles to start the conflict. Korea responded swiftly, but the industrial complex in Pohang was already destroyed, and difficulties arose from the very beginning of the war. Furthermore, Japan landed large numbers of special forces to infiltrate the north and commit terrorism, spreading throughout Korea to conduct guerrilla activities and sow constant chaos.
Enraged, the Korean side decided to conduct sabotage and terrorism on the Japanese mainland in return. That was how they infiltrated ability users possessing single-person army-level power. A total of four ability users were dispatched to Japan. Among them, Lee Serin was the one tasked with the operation to incinerate Kyoto.
'This squirrel-like girl…'
Jinseong thanked her and accepted the food, then looked at the space behind her head. What entered his gaze was empty air. A faintly distorted atmosphere could barely be seen, but beyond that, nothing.
'I need to restore my realm quickly.'