Hwasan Grand Tournament (1)
It was hard to even call it lightning. A red flash had blazed across the entire world in an instant, accompanied by the roar of thunder... but its form was different. It wasn't branching out in all directions. It shot straight down from the sky in the shape of a pillar. Its radius was about 20 meters. And the power of it, which he'd ended up experiencing firsthand... was electrifying. Not figuratively—literally.
"......"
Smoke rose from his rigidly stiffened body. A mere 0.1 seconds of current coursing through him had cooked his organs from the inside out. The Blood Demon Divine Art had quickly repaired the damage, but it had been a close call.
The moment the sky had turned black, some instinct had prompted him to activate Force Shield. If not for that, he might have vanished without a trace. Just like the now-invisible main body of the hatchery.
It might be the strongest single technique there is...
With his body restored to normal in no time, Yun-seok quickly flapped his wings to hover in midair. Well, "midair" wasn't quite accurate. He'd been falling toward the massive hole that the beam had gouged into the ocean. Yun-seok flapped his wings and ascended. And he beheld an even more absurd sight.
Shwaaaaa—!
The warships were being battered by the waves surging up in reaction. For a brief moment, the scene evoked images of a disaster movie. But the ships were positioned far from the epicenter, and each one was enormous, so none capsized.
Good thing.
Yun-seok breathed a sigh of relief, oblivious to the thoughts racing through the minds of the countless onlookers witnessing the spectacle.
"Accepting his proposal that day was truly a stroke of heaven's fortune."
A white man in the American mainland muttered as he watched the events unfold on the screen. No doubt, none of the staff present thought otherwise.
Pahur felt his shoulders tense with pride.
"That's why I kept telling you. Challenger Choi Yun-seok is not someone we should be fighting."
There had been all sorts of talk in America during that time. Terrorist, criminal, we shouldn't negotiate but retaliate on an institutional level. Each time, Pahur had raised his voice. Don't even think about it. Do you all want to commit suicide? If they planned to antagonize him, he'd leave Earth.
Of course, even Pahur, who had boasted so boldly, hadn't imagined Yun-seok possessed such absolute power. When that pillar of light erupted at the end, even he had shuddered involuntarily.
He didn't seem human back then either, but now...
Suddenly, Pahur chuckled. The agency director had slipped back into his office at some point and was signing reports. If memory served, it was one from the Korean branch a few days ago. The main request was to increase security personnel for Yun-seok's family.
Pahur felt it anew. Things would change dramatically from now on. All because of one man with absolute power.
In a hotel somewhere in Korea, Yun-seok turned off the TV blaring the news.
At first it was fascinating, but now it's just embarrassing to watch.
A week had passed since that day. Nothing much had happened, and it had been the most peaceful time he'd had recently. Though the outside world was a whirlwind of chaos and upheaval.
—March 9th will go down as a historic day. We... no, humanity has triumphed.
Surprisingly, the very next morning after everything ended, footage from multiple angles—filmed in just a few hours—had been edited into a cinematic masterpiece and released worldwide under American leadership. The impact was enormous.
The London Massacre. The hatchery beginning to overrun the Pacific. People who had been losing faith in the world's governments, unable to mount any defense for days, flipped their attitudes overnight. The U.S. president, who even mentioned dispatching agents to the Tower to summon Yun-seok, saw his approval ratings hit an all-time high.
In just one day, Yun-seok became the world's most famous hero. Though only a few knew his real name and face.
Is "a few" even accurate?
Honestly, anyone who needed to know already did. Nearly every challenger management agency worldwide had intel on Yun-seok. But it wouldn't leak to the public. No country would want to paint a target on their back after seeing that footage.
And so, the world began to change. Stock markets, politicians' approval ratings, national politics. But the real, substantial change...
Well, they've finally reached the proper starting line...
Maybe they'd realized they could truly face the end, or perhaps they saw Yun-seok as a threat to counter by building their own strength. Whatever the motive, challenger organizations worldwide awakened to the potential of a single powerful challenger.
As a result, they all poured even more effort into nurturing their challengers. Yun-seok had served as a kind of awakening catalyst. Which was the real reason he'd allowed the broadcast in the first place.
It'll take time, but they should be able to handle most invaders on their own.
Not just invaders. They needed to fend off malicious challengers from other dimensions independently too. Until they reached that point, Yun-seok couldn't relax and focus on growing stronger in the Tower.
In that sense, buying a week-long ticket on a whim felt like a slight waste... but.
Call it a recharge.
Recharge. Not wrong. The U.S. president, heads of challenger organizations worldwide—they all wanted to meet Yun-seok, but he refused them all. Instead, he'd spent the week wandering city streets, enjoying Earth's simple pleasures he'd occasionally missed in the Tower.
Money wasn't an issue. Even without the compensation, the U.S. government had bought the rift stones he'd extracted when closing the rifts, depositing an unimaginable sum.
Eh, not that it mattered much.
So this is the end of it.
He'd gotten a few check-in calls, but he hadn't met his parents. Contact would cut off once he entered the Tower anyway. Better to use "traveling" as an excuse. His mother fretted about traveling in times like these, but...
She'd be far more at ease thinking he was sightseeing than knowing the truth.
Feels like I'm exploiting their guilt... sorry about that.
When Yun-seok showed firm resolve, his parents didn't push. Maybe the Kang Hyung-woo incident made them feel they had no right to interfere as parents.
"......"
Soon, Yun-seok lay on the sofa and started web surfing on his smartphone. Nothing cleared a cluttered mind like it.
He binged overdue webtoons, checked gaming communities he'd enjoyed before, and when bored, followed trending searches to read articles. Almost all were about him.
The articles repeated the same info, barely worth reading, but the comments below? Pure entertainment.
What was publicly known about Yun-seok boiled down to two facts: he was Korean, and he maintained close ties with the American challenger agency. That was all the U.S. had officially confirmed.
Occasionally, people posted insider info anonymously online, but it was dismissed as rumors, and national agencies diligently censored them. That comment would probably vanish soon too.
Yun-seok smiled bitterly at the last comment. It wasn't the only one. Keywords like savior and hero appeared in nearly every article. Whether sincere or not, he couldn't tell. But one thing nagged at him.
If they learned of the wish he sought at the Tower's summit... would they still call him that?
Savior...
Before leaving Earth for the Tower, Yun-seok mulled over those three syllables.
The Ticket (Rank E) has expired.
Returning to the 10th-floor waiting room.
Back in the waiting room after a full week. Was it because he'd grown accustomed to comfortable living? It felt strangely unfamiliar. But that tension sharpened his slightly laxed mindset.
As he'd felt before... this wasn't a place to rest. It was literally for preparation.
First things first, check my gains.
Settling the debt with America and invigorating the challengers weren't the only fruits of his Earth trip. No—recalling the power he'd witnessed a week ago... this might be the biggest harvest.
Judgment of the Destruction Lord (Rank B-)
10 seconds later, a beam of destructive light fires at the designated location. Cooldown: 600 seconds.
Trait 1: Instant Kill — Cooldown increases 4x, but casting time reduces to 1 second.
Trait 2: Massacre — Beam radius increases by 15m.
Trait 3: Sure Kill — Mana cost fixed at half of max mana. Power doubles proportional to absolute mana spent.
Three traits attached. After meticulously checking via challenger info, Yun-seok nodded slowly.
So that's how it was.
Now he understood the absurd power on Earth. All thanks to the third trait, Sure Kill. Normally, it would've required S-rank mana—all of it—not half, to achieve that output.
Now I can use it like a true ultimate.
He finished checking absorbed stats too. No idea why the demon's highest stat was stamina... but his stamina, which had grown to D+ after slaying the hydra, reached C+.
With Blood Demon Divine Art, raw stamina meant little to him... but better than low.
No gear, just the skill... empty haul otherwise.
Yun-seok smacked his lips in disappointment. Did the Tower only count its own gear as lootable? Sadly, no equipment from the demon duel. Demons crossed dimensions unequipped.
If I'd known I could challenge like this, I would've spared that guy.
He recalled Shin Sang-hyun. Later learned he had a unique skill to bring Tower gear to reality. If acquired, it'd hugely aid Earth against invaders.
Well, Predation doesn't guarantee what I want anyway.
Yun-seok shook off the fleeting regret. Can't turn back time, and even if he could, no guarantees. Plus, non-unique methods to import gear likely existed. The Tower was that kind of place.
All answers lay above.
Time to start again.
Yun-seok tapped "Challenge" on his tablet. And...
Prepare yourself. The duel will begin shortly.
He opened his eyes not in the circular arena, but amid the faint scent of plum blossoms... Murim.