The Absolute One's Shadow
In a secret underground bunker located in an extremely classified position.
China's President Hao Jianlin was sweating coldly as he stared at the various pieces of information, footage, and photographs displayed across a massive screen in the situation control room.
It had just been confirmed that the American Seventh Fleet had been defeated and was retreating after facing a single individual. Casualties appeared to be surprisingly minimal, but the nuclear submarine had definitely been crippled, and every weapon system on all combat vessels—including the aircraft carrier—had been destroyed.
The man had withstood a barrage of missiles like a torrential downpour, pushing straight through them, and had now suppressed an entire fleet while deliberately avoiding unnecessary loss of life. It was a display of power that truly shook heaven and earth.
'His strength is one thing, but...'
His mobility was on an absurd level—traveling from Korea to America, then instantly appearing in the Pacific where the Seventh Fleet was stationed.
Even more terrifying was the high probability that this monster could not only read people's memories but also manipulate them at will.
There were countless other reasons to fear him, but those alone were more than enough to regard him as an absolute being.
'We have to use nuclear weapons.'
It was the final card left to play.
From the perspective of Earth's humanity, there were surely many peaceful alternatives. But from Hao Jianlin's personal standpoint, that wasn't an option.
Judging by Han Yujin's movements, his intent to thoroughly punish everyone responsible was crystal clear. If he wanted to survive, he had to kill the man.
Had he known beforehand that his opponent was such a terrifying existence with no room for compromise, he would never have provoked this disaster.
As those thoughts crossed his mind...
"He's here...!"
At the tense report from one of his staff, Han Yujin's figure appeared on a divided section of the display screen. It was footage from a surveillance camera inside the Huajinglou building in Zhongnanhai, Beijing.
Considering the fact that the target could read memories, everyone who knew the location of this underground bunker had either been brought here, hidden far away, or even eliminated. Yet his heart still pounded with unbearable tension.
And now was the perfect opportunity.
"Detonate it! Now!"
He hadn't left Zhongnanhai completely empty when he fled to the underground bunker. In preparation for Han Yujin's arrival, tactical nuclear devices had been secretly and urgently installed.
The moment the President's order was given, the staff who were all in the same boat reacted instantly. Even though it was the detonation of a nuclear weapon, everything proceeded without a hitch.
Right in the middle of that...
A bizarre scene unfolded on the screen: a woman's figure slowly rising from Han Yujin's shadow.
The woman who emerged from the shadow immediately stared straight at the hidden camera. Her wide-open eyes were completely pitch black, sending chills down the spine even through a video feed.
"W-what the hell is that...?"
The moment someone voiced their confusion...
Crackle...!
All the lights in the underground bunker suddenly flickered once.
And on every single display screen that had gone dark, the woman's face now filled the entire frame—having approached right up to the camera.
"Ugh...?!"
Right after someone let out a suppressed scream of terror...
The lights flickered two or three more times in succession with the sound of electricity cutting out. Before anyone could even fall into panic and confusion, a scene far more horrifying was revealed.
The woman who had pressed her face right against the camera—the entity that felt like a ghost—was now crawling out of the monitor screen and into the bunker itself.
Crackle...!
Once again, all the bunker's lights flickered, plunging the room into brief darkness.
When that short darkness passed, the woman had already completely emerged from the monitor and was standing there motionless.
An overwhelming chill and the metallic scent of blood surged forth, engulfing the entire space.
Around that time, it seemed the tactical nuclear device had finally detonated, as all camera feeds monitoring Zhongnanhai suddenly cut out.
But no one paid any attention to that.
Everyone was frozen stiff from the cold, choking on the blood-scented air, only able to let out strangled gasps under the gaze of the ghost's pitch-black eyes that seemed to peer into the abyss.
Soon...
Waves of hair surging from the darkness in all directions swallowed them whole.
Eric Weiss, an S-rank Hunter affiliated with Germany's most famous guild, had halted all activities and was staying at home.
He sat on the living room sofa without even eating properly, busily checking news updates on his tablet and smartphone.
At the table nearby, Lucas Blecht—another Hunter from the same guild and a longtime friend—sat checking major headlines on his laptop.
"America... really looks like a monster that's lost its head."
"To Han Yujin, it's not even a monster."
When Eric Weiss replied, Lucas Blecht nodded in agreement and offered another opinion.
"Even if the chaos settles, they won't be able to formally hold him accountable. At most, they'll just make noise domestically and try to use it politically... though they'll have to be extremely cautious even then."
"What do you think China will do?"
"They detonated a nuke despite the damage it would cause, and it still had no effect. If they can avoid a civil war, it'll be a miracle."
The tactical-nuke-scale mushroom cloud that had suddenly risen without warning over Zhongnanhai—the political heart of China—was enough to shock the entire world.
And the sight of Han Yujin emerging completely unscathed from that explosion, then sweeping through the Eastern and Northern Theater Commands in one go, was even more horrifying. It inspired a sense of awe.
A human being had endured a nuclear explosion!
And not just endured it—he had done so perfectly enough to immediately engage in combat!
In the face of that fact, how the Eastern and Northern Theater Commands had been wiped out hardly seemed worth mentioning.
Japan, clearly aware that they would be Han Yujin's next target for retribution, had preemptively arrested and handed over the 'terrorist crime perpetrators' before he even arrived.
For those arrested, it was a betrayal by their own people, but power had always been ruthless and politics had always been cold.
Thanks to that, Japan was able to get through this crisis while paying the lightest national price.
"Russia... do you think he'll get involved there?"
In Russia, an attempt to handle things like Japan had instead triggered a civil war. The situation was fundamentally different from Japan's.
Because of that chaos, even though Han Yujin had headed there, no clear news had emerged yet.
"If I were Han Yujin, I'd deal with the targets and help the rebels establish a regime infused with my influence. That might be the thing we need to watch most closely. It would give us a sense of how interested he is in power."
"Haa..."
Eric Weiss let out a sigh filled with complex emotions that were difficult to explain in a few words. Even so, his hands never stopped moving as his eyes scanned the major headlines.
He had already reviewed them dozens of times, yet every time he watched, the footage still filled him with shock and wonder.
The sight of him advancing while completely blocking a downpour of missiles with clouds of a soaring dragon. The image of him leisurely flying through the skies over Washington D.C., throwing the city into chaos. The view of him emerging unscathed from a mushroom cloud, leaving behind a long trail of light as he headed toward the Eastern Theater Command.
All of them were recent videos, yet their view counts and rate of increase were staggering. They had already broken records and showed no signs of ever being surpassed.
It was proof that so many people around the world were focusing their attention on the emergence of this 'Absolute One.'
The media reactions from every country were all intensely emotional on the surface, but upon closer inspection, they were incredibly cautious. Even the public's reaction to those media responses seemed incredibly loud at first glance, yet carried an unmistakable sense of restraint.
It seemed everyone vaguely understood.
That if an absolute being greedy for power appeared, no one could predict what would happen next. That a careless comment scribbled on the internet today could come back to haunt them as a major disaster later.
Of course, the ignorant or those with nothing to lose continued to speak aggressively and bravely as always, but unlike before, the response to them was noticeably lukewarm.
In the midst of this atmosphere...
Eric Weiss made his decision.
"I need to go to Korea."
"...Without watching the situation a little longer? I might not have a choice, but you don't need to rush, do you?"
Lucas Blecht was only an A-rank Hunter, while Eric Weiss was S-rank. As an extremely valuable talent, he would easily qualify as one of the 'students' Han Yujin had announced, no matter when he went.
But Eric Weiss shook his head.
"You never know. If I go late, I might miss a huge opportunity."
"Hmm."
After a brief pause, Lucas Blecht asked.
"Have you considered the option of not going at all?"
Eric Weiss immediately shook his head.
"I can't pass up an opportunity like this without a clear reason."
As he answered, the overwhelming and mythical power Han Yujin had displayed during the subjugation of the Aheti race flashed through his mind.
He wanted to become like that too.
Even if it meant following someone who would become an absolute ruler and dictator, he didn't want to turn his back on his own desires for the sake of justice or ideals that he had never particularly cared about before.
'If it's an unstoppable trend anyway, I should get on board as quickly and firmly as possible.'
Having made up his mind, he turned off his tablet screen entirely and declared.
"I'll have to leave the guild. It would only get in the way of my trip to Korea."
It took four days.
That was how long it took to handle all the major matters and regain some breathing room.
After returning to Korea, Han Yujin contacted Park Seryong from a park in Yeouido. Soon after, the man quickly arrived with Oh Tae-min and Kang Min-ah from the Ability Management Bureau.
Oh Tae-min and Kang Min-ah had already been promoted one rank each and were now a Grade 4 secretary and Grade 5 administrative officer, respectively.
"It's been a while, sir."
The two greeted him with far more polite attitudes than they showed Park Seryong, and in a manner completely different from before. It was as if they were facing the President himself.
After brief greetings and small talk, Han Yujin got to the point.
"I've finished punishing the terrorists, so the government should now step forward and demand compensation. There's no need to be excessive—just make sure it has symbolic meaning. It would be good if you could secure as many manastones as possible."
It sounded like he was giving orders to the government, but no one questioned it.
"Would you like to meet the President and the ministers?"
They even made the suggestion first.
"No need. Just convey my opinion. I have no intention of getting directly involved in politics."
After discussing the matter a bit more, Oh Tae-min and Kang Min-ah soon took their leave.
Watching the two of them walk away for a moment, Han Yujin fell into deep reflection.
To those two, it must seem like he had become an unimaginable existence in an extremely short time. In reality, it had already been hundreds of years since he first met them.
Shaking off his idle thoughts, he began discussing matters concerning Park Seryong and the Neo Dominion.
Confirming that things were progressing smoothly without major issues in all areas, he nodded in satisfaction.
"How is the site acquisition going?"
"With the government's cooperation, we've secured a location near Hanam City in Gyeonggi Province."
He took out a tablet from the Spacer Ring he had been granted before and showed satellite map data. It looked like a suitable location, so Han Yujin nodded once more.
"You'll be very busy for a while, but please do your best."
"Not at all. It is my honor."
After staring at Park Seryong for a moment, Han Yujin spoke.
"I will soon accept you as my disciple. As one of my true transmission disciples."
Park Seryong had provided significant help from the very beginning.
Although their first meeting had been slightly unpleasant, he had astonishingly quickly changed his attitude afterward and had shown no shortcomings since. Excluding his somewhat lacking talent, that is.
'In any case, he's exceptional at handling people and managing tasks.'
Not every true transmission disciple necessarily needed outstanding talent and ability.
"Th-thank you...!"
Park Seryong revealed his genuine, profound gratitude.
It was more than understandable. After all, this was an offer to make him one of the closest aides to Han Yujin, who had now undeniably become the strongest and most unique existence in the entire world.
In other words, it meant treating him like a meritorious retainer of an emperor. Given Park Seryong's personality, it would have been strange if he hadn't been moved.
"Russia is in a lot of chaos right now with the new government in place, so keep a close eye on it. Because of the nuclear weapons, I may need to visit a few more times."
"I will keep that in mind."
After discussing the matter a little longer...
He activated the Five Elements Heavenly Escape Art to move to an uninhabited location, then opened the Mountain Sea Pearl and stepped inside.
It was time to release the people he had temporarily kept safely protected within the Indestructible Ice, and to speak with the young Lee Won-hee as well as his friend Park Heewon.
After that, while continuing to organize Earth, he planned to personally construct buildings on the newly secured site.
This too was the beginning of his grand plan.
Starting with Ethan Cross, America's former world rank number one Hunter, as well as Eric Weiss—Germany's most famous Hunter—and even Zaid bin Nasser Al Saud, the Saudi royal considered the greatest Hunter in the Middle East.
Famous S-rank Hunters whose names alone were instantly recognizable began entering Korea in droves. Below them, A-rank and lower Hunters poured in like a flood, as if it went without saying.
The Korean media, which had already been overwhelmed reporting on the aftermath of the shocking 'retribution' incident carried out by Han Yujin, became even busier.
In fact, it wasn't just Korea. With the exception of the nations left mentally devastated by Han Yujin's retribution, nearly every country in the world was treating this as major news in a similar fashion.
The sight of powerful Awakened from all over the world flocking to become students of Han Yujin—who could no longer be denied as an absolute being—made it painfully clear where the new center of the world's order would be.
Many nations felt internal discontent as they lost talented individuals, creating gaps in their rift defense capabilities. However, no country dared to openly express it or attempt to interfere.