The Necromancer Who Only Watches
The conference room was deathly silent.
Only the faint hum of the air conditioner and the occasional dry cough broke the stillness. Twenty or so people sat around the long table, their faces pale and drawn. They were the last remaining leaders of what had once been the Korean server’s top guilds.
At the head of the table, a woman in a black suit tapped her finger against a thick stack of documents. Her name was Baek Seoyeon, former vice-master of the Cheongun Guild and one of the few S-rankers still alive.
“As of 09:00 this morning,” she said quietly, “the World Tree has been completely overrun. The Eternal Flame has been extinguished. The Four Heavenly Kings… three of them have fallen. The only one left is the Plague Lord, and even he has gone silent for the past six hours.”
A heavy sigh rippled through the room.
Someone muttered, “It’s over.”
Another voice, trembling, added, “We should have evacuated to Busan when we still had the chance…”
Baek Seoyeon didn’t rebuke them. She simply continued in the same flat, exhausted tone.
“Communication with the Japanese and Chinese servers has been cut off for four days. The American server’s last broadcast said they were abandoning the East Coast. We are alone.”
She lifted a remote and clicked it. The large screen behind her flickered to life, showing a bird’s-eye view of Seoul. Or rather, what used to be Seoul.
The image showed a colossal black tree piercing the sky above the ruined city. Countless tentacles writhed from its trunk, dragging screaming survivors into its maw. The once-proud Namsan Tower lay snapped in half like a toy.
Baek Seoyeon turned back to the group.
“We have two options. One: scatter and run. Survival rate estimated at less than three percent. Two: make one final stand at the Cheongun Headquarters and buy time for the remaining civilians to escape south.”
A man with a bandaged eye slammed his fist on the table.
“Buy time with what? We don’t even have a single SS-ranker left! The Apollo Worshipper died three days ago, the BringBackTheHotLawyer went missing yesterday, and the ChoiJonghyun'sWig… that crazy bastard logged out permanently after his little sister was eaten!”
The room fell into despair again.
Then a soft voice spoke from the far end of the table.
“…What about her?”
Everyone turned.
A petite woman with short silver hair and a tired expression raised her hand slightly. Her name tag read Han Chae-in, former strategist of the White Lotus Guild.
“The Death Sovereign. The one who held the number one spot in the necromancer class for four straight years. Overall ranking thirteenth on the Korean server. If anyone can turn this around, it’s her.”
A bitter laugh came from the man with the bandaged eye.
“That woman? She disappeared the moment the World Tree appeared. Probably ran off to save her own skin. Typical backline coward.”
Han Chae-in shook her head.
“No. I checked the logs. She hasn’t logged out. She’s still in Seoul. But… she hasn’t participated in any raids for the past month. She’s just… watching.”
“Watching what?”
“The Heroine.”
Observer Mode Activated
📍 Target: Unknown Heroine Candidate
🎁 Current Action: Passive Observation Only
⚠ Warning: All combat skills locked by user’s self-imposed restriction.
Baek Seoyeon narrowed her eyes.
“She’s watching a single player while the world ends?”
Han Chae-in nodded slowly.
“Every major battle, every gate break, every massacre… she’s been there. Not fighting. Not helping. Just… standing on a rooftop or hiding in the shadows, watching one particular girl. A C-rank healer named Lee Ha-yul. The girl doesn’t even know she’s being watched.”
The man with the bandaged eye scoffed.
“A stalker necromancer? Great. Just what we need.”
But Baek Seoyeon didn’t laugh. She stared at the frozen image of the black tree on the screen for a long time.
Then she spoke, voice low.
“Find her. Even if we have to drag her by the hair. If she’s the only SS-ranker left on the Korean server, we need her power. I don’t care if she’s obsessed with some girl. Tell her the heroine she’s protecting will die too if we don’t stop that thing.”
She stood up. The chair scraped loudly in the silent room.
“We move in three hours. Anyone who wants to run, leave now. The rest of you… prepare to die standing.”
As the meeting dissolved into grim preparation, no one noticed the small black raven perched on the windowsill outside. Its eyes glowed with an eerie purple light.
Far away, on the roof of a half-collapsed building overlooking the World Tree, a figure in a hooded black robe stood motionless. Countless undead soldiers waited in perfect silence behind her, an army that could have ended the war in a single night.
But she did not give the order.
Her gaze was fixed on a small group of survivors fighting desperately near the tree’s roots. At the center of that group was a young woman with a gentle face, desperately casting healing spells even as monsters tore at her party.
Lee Ha-yul.
The hooded figure whispered, voice soft and almost loving.
“Just a little longer, my heroine. I’ll protect you. Even if I have to burn the entire world to do it… I’ll protect you.”
The raven on the windowsill cawed once, transmitting the conversation from the conference room directly into the necromancer’s ear.
She smiled faintly beneath her hood.
“They’re coming to find me.”
Her skeletal fingers gently stroked the head of a tiny bone dragon perched on her shoulder.
“Shall we go meet them, then? It’s about time I stopped only watching.”
Legion of the Dead — Standby Order Cancelled
The one-man army begins to move.