They say that when a person dies, they leave behind a name, and when a beast dies, it leaves behind its hide.
Yet the Beast's gruesome deeds had carved themselves so deeply into people's memories that they were difficult to forget. In the end, the Beast had left behind not merely its hide, but a name that remained vividly etched in people's minds. And those who had no idea it had already been defeated and killed continued to tremble in fear.
‘Ugh...’
And as Sophia pondered the Beast's identity, the face of ‘that man’ naturally surfaced in her mind as well.
‘Creepy!’
At one point, Brooklyn Morgan had joked on a television program that perhaps the Beast was simply an S-rank Hunter whose abilities had yet to be revealed.
But if she considered someone whose Awakening history was unclear and whose personality was ruthless enough to kill the same person multiple times...
Why did one particular person keep coming to mind?
‘No way.’
Blond hair.
Sanpaku eyes.
The sound of boots following behind her.
Cold skin.
A longsword dragging along the ground...
‘Heuk.’
Sophia shook her head violently, trying to drive the terrifying thoughts from her mind.
Right.
No matter how she looked at it, pursuing that line of thought was completely unnecessary.
What she needed to focus on now was the matter at hand, not that frightening Eastern Hunter.
If she wanted to pay off her gambling debt without years of suffering, she had to place high in this tournament, where the prize money was enormous.
And fortunately, she wouldn't have to run into that terrifying Asian man here.
Among the S-rank Hunters China had publicly confirmed as participants, the name Kim Goryeo was nowhere to be found.
‘If it were me, I would've rushed to sign up even if I had to drop everything else for that Item Box. Hm. Well, anyway, I guess that's a relief.’
Sophia relaxed, her expression visibly easing.
Of course, at that moment, she had no way of knowing.
The reason China hadn't used Kim Goryeo's name in its promotional material wasn't anything particularly complicated.
He had simply taken longer than the others to make up his mind.
Because, just as he had previously thought, even the basic participation reward—the Item Box—was simply too large and tempting a prize to ignore...
The neatly paved road.
The vast, open sky.
And from far away, the cheers of spectators, mixed with the irritating buzz of drones circling overhead.
[The 5th Match of the Yellow Dragon Battle-I]
Sophia listened to the organizers' announcement, which was being translated into three languages, and thought to herself.
[This is a commemorative match featuring a Six-Star Awakener from Korea-I]
God was dead.
More specifically, Tyche, the goddess of fortune, had unquestionably died and vanished from this world.
Otherwise, there was simply no explanation for how her desperate prayer for a favorable draw could have produced something like this.
She couldn't believe it.
At this point, her despair was so profound that she was on the verge of becoming a nihilist.
‘Whoaaa~’
‘Amazing!’
‘S-rank Hunter. S-rank Hunter!’
The resolution of drone cameras improved with every passing year.
By now, her trembling pupils were probably being broadcast into living rooms all over the world.
Sophia, drenched in cold sweat, barely managed to raise her head.
And there stood the very person she had hoped never to see again, not even in her dreams.
‘— —’
At that moment, the man standing across the arena finally seemed to recognize Sophia.
As he fiddled with the cufflink of his dress shirt, one eyebrow rose slightly, as though something had just occurred to him.
But that was the full extent of his reaction.
The blond man soon fell silent again.
Since all equipment containing magic had to be removed before entering the arena, there was no point in trying to communicate anyway.
The Ploy Translator had also been confiscated under tournament regulations.
What conversation could they possibly have now?
[Then, get ready...]
[10]
[9]
Unlike the S-rank Hunter, who was completely prohibited from using items, Sophia had been granted permission to use her primary equipment as a minor handicap.
[1]
Yet as the countdown on the arena's digital display continued ticking downward, all Sophia could think about was throwing away her weapon and fleeing for her life.
[Start the match]
‘God...’
As expected, she really should never have gotten into gambling...
***
Now, let's take a look at how Sophia ended up in such a desperate situation.
Four hours earlier.
Goryeo was aboard a plane bound for China with Kang Changho.
To be precise, they were aboard the contractor's private jet.
During their previous trip to Japan, they had traveled on a commercial flight like everyone else.
However, Kang Changho had found the experience particularly inconvenient, and that had ultimately pushed him to finalize a purchase he had already been considering for some time.
A private plane.
"You're saying you're not going there to win?"
After a moment, the S-rank Hunter sitting across from him spoke casually as he opened a bottle of champagne.
Apparently, he had no interest in something like “Triana.”
"What I want is a completely different item. That thing is practically indispensable for illegal transactions, so it almost never appears on the black market. The people who have them simply don't want to let them go."
"Ah."
"It seems they're relatively easy to obtain through the ordinary Hunter market, though."
Goryeo unconsciously asked a question befitting an Alphauri.
"Really? Then couldn't you just have someone else buy one for you...?"
"That's right. I'm already doing that."
"Yes?"
"I'm already having people buy them for me, obviously. So if I really wanted one, I could get my hands on it."
Yet the more answers he received, the stranger the conversation became.
"Then why on earth are you going to China?"
When Goryeo stared at him blankly, Kang Changho seemed to understand his confusion and elaborated.
In truth, he hadn't decided to participate in the tournament merely for the item rewards.
Well...
"But China is enormous, and people are scattered all over the country."
The tall Hunter tapped one index finger against the corner of his eye.
"If the Awakeners are gathering in one place on their own, there's no reason not to go have a look."
"Ah."
"The item is just a souvenir. This is my real objective. You understand now, right?"
Goryeo immediately understood when he noticed the magical tool moving beneath the man's eyelid.
"Well, even a Dragon's Eye must have limitations on its range..."
To someone possessing [Improvement], a gathering of high-ranking Awakeners must have looked like the fresh-produce section of some gigantic supermarket.
Still, wasn't there a limit to how many times that skill could be stolen?
Besides, he had already secured another offering to replace his previous contractor.
And yet here he was, searching for still more Awakeners...
‘An Earthling who never knows when enough is enough.’
Goryeo inwardly clicked his tongue at the greed of the man sitting opposite him.
Naturally, he couldn't allow any of that contempt to show on his face.
Kang Changho, meanwhile, was occupied with the nuts on his plate.
Crack.
He casually crushed a walnut shell with his bare hand.
Goryeo fell silent for a moment as he stared at the exposed kernel.
To be fair, even if Kang Changho had never Awakened, his natural muscle mass alone probably would have been enough to crack a walnut barehanded.
That realization caused Goryeo's attitude to become involuntarily more respectful.
Around that time, the Awakener sitting across from him made a rather troublesome suggestion...
"By the way, Kim Goryeo, are you really sure you don't want to participate?"
"What?"
"The tournament."
Kang Changho continued.
Since they had already gone to the trouble of flying all the way here on a private jet, wouldn't it be more economical, considering the fuel costs, if Goryeo participated as well?
They probably wouldn't end up facing each other in the tournament anyway—though Kang Changho sounded strangely confident about that.
And even in the unlikely event that they did, he promised to forfeit immediately.
Thus, the S-rank Hunter continued encouraging Goryeo to enter the tournament.
To be honest, his intentions were painfully obvious.
Just as he had sensed during the Kagoshima Gate incident, Goryeo had long suspected that Kang Changho frequently wanted opportunities to verify the true abilities of his contractor.
‘He's absolutely desperate to see me use some magic.’
And now he was asking whether Goryeo had any intention of entering a tournament for superhumans.
‘Hmm.’
Of course not.
Goryeo was about to answer immediately when he suddenly hesitated.
Come to think of it, the participation reward for S-rank Hunters was an [Item Box (Rare)].
‘Item Box.’
A Rare-grade Item Box was worth at least tens of billions of won.
After swindling Jung Haeseong, he had somehow become bolder when it came to money, but when he reconsidered the amount involved, wasn't this far too valuable to ignore?
‘Now that my lungs are healed, if I were matched against an A-rank, I feel like I could at least win the first round.’
If the organizers had any sense at all, they wouldn't arrange for an S-rank Hunter—the centerpiece of their viewership—to be eliminated immediately.
‘If I were matched against an A-rank...’
Ten billion.
Ten billion won.
For convenience, let's assume the minimum value was ten billion.
If he calculated it against a part-time job paying 12,000 won per hour, that came to roughly 833,333 hours.
Approximately 34,722 days.
More than ninety-five years.
An amount of money that would ordinarily take an entire lifetime to earn—
and with S-rank status, he could obtain it by fighting for only three minutes.
‘Hmm.’
Ssssk.
Goryeo leaned back against the metal frame of his seat, lost in thought.
Kang Changho had already stopped trying to persuade him and had fallen silent.
Yet for some reason, the two numbers that had entered Goryeo's mind refused to leave.
An entire lifetime.
And three minutes.
Three minutes.
Three minutes, huh...
And that was why I ended up standing here now.
‘— —’
Things had already gone this far.
What was the point of making pathetic excuses?
Yes.
Blinded by the participation gift China was offering, I had willingly stepped into this Earthling spectacle.
[Item Box (Rare)]
That magical pouch, several times more spacious than the ordinary one I currently used, was simply too valuable a reward to disregard.
‘In the end, I broke both my promise to stay home and my resolution not to get greedy...’
Damn it.
If only the registration period had already closed, I could at least have preserved my dignity as an archmage.
But S-rank Hunters were the centerpiece of the entire event.
In other words, someone like me could apparently register even a minute before the match began.
‘An archmage like me, choosing to participate over mere money... This truly is the downfall of an intelligent being.’
With Kang Changho egging me on because he wanted to see his contractor's abilities, I somehow ended up going through the registration process.
At this point, all I could do was invent one excuse after another in my head to justify the decision.
‘I can't help it.’
This could also serve as a good opportunity to demonstrate the physical effects of the [Sacred Tree Seedling] and conceal the fact that I had once been a weak F-rank.
And even putting such intimidation tactics aside, my respiratory problems had recently been resolved as well.
It might be worthwhile to properly circulate mana through lungs that had gone largely unused until now.
While I was at it, experiencing an actual combat arena might not be such a bad idea either.
‘Somehow, the more excuses I make, the more ashamed I become of my own greed.’
Well, anyway.
What I hadn't expected was the opponent I ended up facing after all of this.
‘Her name was Sophia.’
It felt as though I had seen that face somewhere before.
What an extraordinary coincidence.
I had now encountered the person responsible for the summoned-beast attack once again.
She claimed to be a freelance Hunter, but with my transcendent senses, I had already noticed her speaking quite intimately with Enzo of Spectrum.
‘Hmm.’
Her connection to Spectrum.
Combined with the interest that particular healer had shown in me, everything from the past finally began to make sense.
I had occasionally wondered why that attack had happened in the first place.
Now that the mystery was solved, I felt a peculiar sense of relief.
But that was one matter.
Although I had rashly entered the tournament after being blinded by the temptation of the Item Box, I certainly hadn't expected this much attention to be focused on me...
"Whoaaa!"
Beyond the spectator stands in the distance, protected behind several layers of barriers, excited cheers thundered through the arena.
These were inhabitants of this planet who had gathered simply to watch Awakeners fight.
Moreover, just before my appearance, some nameless A-rank Hunter had apparently put on such a brutal performance that bone had been exposed.
As a result, the crowd's excitement had already reached a fever pitch.
‘Is there really any need to go that far for mere entertainment?’
Being matched against an A-rank Hunter was fortunate.
The order of the matches, however, was anything but.
‘Those barbaric mammals...’
Jung Haeseong.
Esther.
Until now, Earthlings had always reacted poorly whenever I shed blood.
To be honest, I had assumed they possessed some instinctive aversion to seeing members of their own species bleed.
But the Earthlings gathered here were completely different.
Whenever someone was injured, they became even more excited, cheering with obvious satisfaction.
Seeing how much they enjoyed these fights, my carefully constructed understanding of Earth's customs was beginning to blur once again...
‘Hmm.’
Well, anyway.
I apologized to the spectators who had paid so much for their tickets, but my match was essentially going to be an intermission.
With Hydra taken away and even the surprise box confiscated, what exactly was an F-rank Hunter thrown into the arena practically empty-handed supposed to do?
[Basic Rules]
① Victory is achieved either by targeting and destroying the pendant attached to the opponent's necklace or by rendering the opponent incapable of continuing the fight.
[Detailed Rules]
① Crossing beyond the arena's golden boundary results in disqualification.
② If a contestant fails to stand within 10 seconds after the referee blows the whistle, they lose by KO.
③ Whether an injury is serious enough to stop the match will be determined by the healer.
Simply appearing in the tournament as an S-rank Hunter earned an incredibly valuable Item Box.
However, the reward would only be granted after successfully completing one match without losing.
‘Keugh.’
In other words, if I wanted the Item Box, I had no choice but to secure victory in this first match.
And with F-rank mana, there was only one way for me to win.
I raised my right hand and gripped the pendant of the tournament necklace resting against my chest.
Ssssk.
Fortunately, Earthlings didn't consider the effects of the [Sacred Tree Seedling] to constitute item usage.
Of course, this degree of toughness would reveal its limits immediately against a genuine powerhouse.
But the opponent standing before me wasn't some lunatic swinging a battle-axe.
If I had been matched against a true S-rank, I would've forfeited immediately, participation reward or not.
But my opponent was a summoner rumored to be weak in direct combat.
More importantly, she appeared to be the sort of opponent who would have difficulty breaking through the Sacred Tree's protection with physical force.
And so, I put into motion the plan I had been considering since the flight to China.
‘Let's endure!’
Trusting in the Epic-grade [Protection] effect, I began preparing a certain spell.
This particular magic possessed a useful characteristic.
The longer I spent casting it, the less mana it required in proportion.
‘There's a reason magicians developed the concept of chanting.’
Of course, extending the casting time couldn't reduce mana consumption indefinitely.
It merely allowed the spell to be performed more efficiently.
But that was enough.
I intended to spend nearly the entire three-minute time limit of the match preparing the strongest and most precise telekinetic spell I could manage.
‘I've ended up trapped inside an F-rank vessel, so I can't exactly knock a person unconscious. But with this method, destroying the match pendant should be perfectly possible.’
[The match begins]
The only thing that concerned me was that, no matter how I looked at it, the audience probably wouldn't appreciate such an obvious delaying tactic...
‘Hmm.’
As a sorcerer who appreciates the magnificence of magic, even I felt somewhat apologetic about the situation.
But what could I do?
As I said, without Hydra, I was little more than an exceptionally durable punching bag.
I wasn't even in a position to overwhelm a summoner reputed to be weak in close combat.
At this point, I was prepared to accept whatever criticism came my way—whether people accused me of lacking enthusiasm for the match or simply having no shame.
‘Anyway, with the body swap just around the corner, there's no reason to fear a minor loss of reputation.’
I offered a brief apology to the owner of this body, then emptied my mind.
The short-haired Asian woman standing across from me was still sweating profusely, clearly unsure what she should do.
To be honest, the longer this standoff continued, the more advantageous it became for me.
So I had absolutely no intention of stopping it...