The Demon's Trap and the Virgin Apostle's Leap
The office, decorated like a lavish boardroom, felt suffocatingly cold. A woman sat hunched over a monitor, her small hands gripping the mouse with mechanical clicks. Each deliberate click deepened the sigh that escaped her lips. Ahn Gyeong-yang, guild master of the Jeulheonsaeng Guild—solid but far from elite among the major guilds—had good reason to look that way.
Her guild had climbed into the big leagues just enough to earn curious glances from the top tiers when her name was mentioned. "Oh, there? The one with the glasses?" They had said. She had plenty of capable hunters, but now her precious little guild was tangled in a disaster that made even seasoned veterans flinch.
The real stars, Baek Seolha and Baek Seolhun, had been dragged away by some weird hunter. The guild and its master were hemorrhaging in real time. Something had to be done.
So Ahn Gyeong-yang had done what any smart guild master would do in the middle of an emergency: she had opened the internet.
The Non-Awakened Gallery.
Originally the kind of place she would have ignored like garbage on the street, it had now become her only lifeline. A forum for unawakened young men who never studied, never got jobs, never did anything useful. A society’s sewer. A nightmare fusion that refused to die.
How she had first discovered it still amazed her. A tip had come in from somewhere. A tip that the criminal behind the chaos was hiding information here.
Right before Dasan, that absolute madman, had been permanently banned from the hunter community—right after the post that sparked the whole chain.
The chaos at the Temple of Artemis. Baek Seolha’s hacked account. And the ridiculous posts from the virgin-obsessed man who called himself OnlyVirgin.
The connections were so obvious that even a stray dog would have been shocked for not knowing them.
Ahn Gyeong-yang had spent hours scrolling through every single post by that username. She had told herself it was just for clues. But the posts were all the same: endless worship of virginity, goddess worship, and one single line that made her want to throw her monitor out the window.
“If you want to become a deity’s apostle, just go attack the god and see what happens.”
Was that supposed to be helpful? She had almost laughed. Almost. Then she had remembered who the target was.
An A-rank hunter. Not a fearless one, but still A-rank. That advice was a death sentence.
And even that one line had been the only remotely useful part. The rest was just pure virgin worship. “Virgins are the best because they’re virgins. Virgin. Virgin. Virgin.” She had read it over and over, wondering if the man was actually a virgin or if some childhood trauma had turned him into a lesbian hater. Either way, it explained how a broken person had gotten this much power.
She had felt like she was staring at a crime scene with only the motive left visible. The rest—the evidence, the methods—had vanished into the void.
“Guess he raided the Temple of Artemis because he likes pretty faces. Took Seolha along for the ride. Smart.”
She had nodded at her own logic. But the post had ten thousand likes. She didn’t need to broadcast the fact that she was worshipping the same virgin-obsessed psychopath.
Still, hours of digging through the garbage had left her head spinning. If she ever fed these posts into an AI, the system would probably evolve into an auto-extinction protocol aimed at humanity itself.
‘Seolhun’s stuck too. Guess I’m the only one left who can move.’
When Baek Seolha first went missing, Gyeong-yang had warned Baek Seolhun to stay put. The girl was always cautious. Seolhun was usually the same. But when family was involved, the brotherly instinct had won. He had charged in anyway.
Gyeong-yang had needed more information. She had scanned the gallery again and found… nothing. Just more poison in the air.
The Tower was never a dream. It was a battlefield where you risked your life every second. Traps, ambushes, death waiting around every corner. She had watched her guild dissolve after losing key members more times than she could count. This time it was her turn.
Her heart felt like it was being squeezed. Her head pounded. If she passed out, she prayed she would wake up and find Seolha and Seolhun safe in front of her. But she was no child anymore. She was a guild master. She had to steel herself.
“Damn it. We’ll figure something out!”
A tiny spark of hope still flickered inside her chest. The hope of a virgin who had never even dated.
If you worship virgins so much, maybe you’ll spare one?
Half-mad with preparation, she was about to head out when a message pinged from Seolhun.
[That bastard is a monster. Don’t touch him.]
She had tried calling. No answer. So she typed back.
[What happened?]
[You weren’t caught too, right?]
[He’s not even A-rank. I misjudged him badly.]
[At the very least, something above S-rank. A demon.]
Seolhun’s certainty made her face go cold. She had thought Baek Seolha, an A-ranker, would handle it. But Seolhun’s tone told her the truth: S-rank or higher.
An A-rank rampage could be apocalyptic. An S-rank one could end South Korea.
‘Maybe the guild was never in danger. Maybe the country was. At least I won’t be alone when it ends. Haha.’
She had been gripping her last drop of courage—ready to squeeze it out like laundry from a spinning machine—when Seolhun’s warning drained it all away.
She sat back in her chair, body trembling.
I’m scared. What do I do? Someone help me.
[When I finish what I came for, I’ll return Seolha safely.]
[Just wait and believe.]
[There’s nothing else I can do.]
[Damn it.]
Seolhun knew throwing insults at Ahn Gyeong-yang wouldn’t help. But he couldn’t hold it in anymore. He was breaking.
Gyeong-yang stared at the screen again. Tens of thousands of posts from OnlyVirgin—all the same virgin worship. She pulled strength from them.
He won’t kill her. I’m a virgin.
[I’m going to save Seolha.]
She squeezed every last ounce of courage left in her and stepped out as guild master.
* * *
The Tower’s floor trials followed the same pattern.
1. Gather the items required for the challenge.
2. Defeat the guardian at the trial gate.
3. Complete the scenario quest given by the NPC.
The scenario quests had always been wild—steal something, assassinate someone, whatever. But with other hunters who had already cleared these floors beside her, everything was easy.
The items had been gathered by Seolha and her followers in record time. The guardian? One shot. The quest? Annoying, but solved in minutes.
They climbed the Tower casually, chatting with the team. Before they knew it, they had reached the 40th floor.
The atmosphere had changed completely from the starting village on the first floor. It felt like the courtyard of the Demon King’s castle.
Monsters here were mostly undead or demons. Like the final battle was already starting.
“We haven’t gone beyond this floor before.”
“My personal best is 45.”
“Anyone tried going higher?”
“I held back because my power isn’t enough yet.”
Seolha’s followers had been stuck at 40. Seolha herself at 45. The guardian could only be challenged once; the hunters who passed had to come back down to take the bus. But there was no need to worry.
There was a knight here.
“I’ll escort you to the 50th floor in record time.”
“Who the hell—!”
The 40th-floor guardian had been skewered by Dasan’s distant spear throw and died instantly.
He had clearly been about to start the usual “I’m the strongest” speech. Not worth listening to.
[System: Trial cleared.]
[System: Personal best record updated in the Hall of Fame.]
[System: 1st place—Gam Dasan: 00:00:02]
[System: 2nd place—Han Yujin: 18:26:37]
She had dominated every boss room so far. Campfire, guitar, barbecue, then the boss—still number one.
[Achievement reward: 3,000 coins!]
[Current coins: 148,500]
The coins opened the Tower shop for skill books and equipment. Honestly, she didn’t need most of them yet. She was just saving for when she did.
They had casually cleared the 45th-floor boss and reached the 46th floor when a new face blocked their path.
A woman in an office-style suit and glasses.
“I don’t like glasses much,” Dasan had muttered. “Lens upgrade later?”
“Release my guild members.”
“Release them? What are you talking about? They follow me because they like me. Right, everyone?”
“Yes!”
“That’s right, Master!”
The woman’s eyes widened at the strange state of the guild members. But she didn’t back down.
“Anyone can see they’re not normal! What the hell did you do to them!”
“I just showed them pretty faces.”
She hadn’t lied. Not her.