Day 5 of my reclusive life.
It was surprising how quickly time had passed. Then again, Earth was a planet with a smaller radius and a shorter rotational period than Alphauri, so perhaps it was only natural that its days felt so brief.
"Oh, it's finally over!"
Anyway, this was good news.
After five days of intense concentration, I had finally finished preparing the dummies to perfection.
[Search History]
– Abandoned factory in Seoul
– A place where no one passes by
Now I was looking for a suitable location to carry out the next stage of the ritual.
As I scrolled through the internet gathering information, that article caught my eye again.
[Debate Erupts Over Hunter Tournament... Experts Divided]
A tournament in which participants fought using their Awakened abilities.
At first, I had assumed it was nothing more than another loud entertainment spectacle, but after looking into it more closely, I discovered that the Hunter Tournament announced by China was tied to far more interests than I had initially expected.
The standing of the United States had begun to decline after Brooklyn's disappearance—which, in reality, was her death.
People around the world started questioning whether America's Hunter industry was functioning properly if it couldn't even protect a precious S-rank healer. Some had even begun calling for the Association itself to be abolished.
And at that exact moment, China, which had apparently been waiting for an opportunity, played its card.
A tournament.
By taking advantage of the loss of confidence in the United States following the Brooklyn incident, China intended to gain the upper hand in the international power struggle by successfully organizing duels between high-ranking Hunters.
However, hosting such a tournament was hardly an easy undertaking.
[Free Bulletin Board]
– You're seriously making Hunters fight each other? What are you going to do if someone gets hurt?
– You're wasting high-ranking personnel who should be protecting civilians on something like this? ￢￢ That's insane.
– The whole idea is barbaric.
Using ability users as a form of entertainment drew heavy criticism.
Yet despite the flood of objections, China maintained a remarkably consistent stance, boldly insisting—almost as though it could effortlessly fill the void left by Brooklyn—that there was nothing to worry about.
We have the means to take full responsibility for and treat any injuries sustained by participating Hunters, so there is no reason to fear for their safety.
The barriers surrounding the arena have also been thoroughly reinforced to ensure the protection of spectators.
And if you intend to argue that it is inhumane for people to fight one another, then perhaps you should begin by shutting down the UFC before criticizing us.
Duels have been part of human culture since ancient Greece.
So by what right do you tell us what we may or may not do?
– China: Who said we're forcing anyone to fight? Everyone's participating willingly, you know?
Furthermore, China boasted of the arena's safety while dangling additional bait before the curious public.
In truth, recordings of magic used by lower-ranked Awakened—from F-rank to D-rank—could already be found quite easily across various platforms.
But China's tournament had selected only participants whose abilities were ranked B or higher.
A league for battles between B-rank Awakened.
The Silver Tiger Battle.
And above it, the Yellow Dragon Battle, which began with A-rank participants but even permitted monsters of S-rank to enter.
China's argument was simple.
The abilities of high-ranking Awakened could not be compared to computer-generated imagery created with budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Anyone who witnessed that intensity and vitality with their own eyes would naturally come to recognize the artistry contained within those powers.
Before anyone realized it, humanity had already entered the age of superpowers.
And if modern people could not even witness the full extent of those talents with their own eyes, then what was the point of having been born into such an era?
"A struggle for dominance? A display of national power? The claims made by the United States are simply untrue. We only wish to share the mysterious talents of the Awakened with the world."
A member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese Politburo strongly defended the value of the Hunter Tournament.
As footage of his speech spread, global public opinion gradually began shifting in favor of China's event...
[China Reveals IHT (International Hunter Tournament) Rewards, Causing Uproar]
No matter how magnificent a Colosseum one constructed, it would all be meaningless if there were no gladiators willing to fight inside it.
And so China decided to offer extremely tempting rewards to the participants of the Yellow Dragon Battle—the elite Awakened from overseas, whose rarity alone made them highly valuable.
[Exclusive Participation Gift for Top-Tier Awakened]
[Item Box (Rare)]
Were they really planning to turn people into spectacles for this much money?
Once such staggering wealth entered the picture, calling the organizers stubborn hardly seemed sufficient.
***
"The basic participation gift is only distributed to those who win at least one round, and S-rank participants who finish without a single victory receive nothing beyond the participation fee?"
Several hours later.
Kim Giryeo's one-room apartment.
I leaned against a section of old, faded wallpaper while fiddling with my phone.
The screen displayed the announcement for the event that had recently become the center of public attention.
[Yellow Dragon Battle Ranking Rewards]
[1st Place: [Great Sea God Spirit Trident]]
[2nd Place: [20 Bottles of God's Droplet]]
[3rd Place: [Sacred Tree Seedling]]
For some reason, every reward seemed to have the character for 'god' somewhere in its name.
Apparently, the organizers had deliberately chosen prizes around a theme.
Anyway, the page I was reading contained detailed information about the competition rules and the various rewards.
And the moment I reached the identity of China's announced third-place prize, my fingers instinctively froze in the middle of scrolling.
"Oh my. A Sacred Tree Seedling is only the third-place reward?"
God's Droplet.
And that absurdly long-named trident.
Just what were those things if even a Sacred Tree Seedling—an item that was at least epic-grade—had been pushed all the way down to third place?
"Hmm."
I moved my thumbs and entered the names of the prizes into the search bar.
The results were—
[Free Bulletin Board]
• Great Sea God Spirit Trident = Officially named 'Triana' by Play.
• Crazy; They're seriously offering Triana as a prize??
• Why does China keep naming items however it wants?
• Honestly, I had zero interest in this event, but holy crap, what even is Triana? ￢￢
The reaction was explosive.
Apparently, the championship prize was something even those exalted S-rank Hunters found difficult to ignore.
As expected, various forums frequented by Awakened were already overflowing with posts claiming China had completely lost its mind.
"Let's see. The specifications of this magic weapon..."
A blue spear said to summon an enormous surge of water with a single swing.
But the true value of this epic-grade item lay elsewhere.
"Oho. So this is why everyone was making such a fuss."
Triana was one of the few epic-grade items whose full capabilities had been publicly disclosed, and its detailed effects were still proudly listed in Play's database.
[When equipped, the user's strength increases by approximately 20%.]
[When performing a fire-attribute beast attack, inflicts 'massive' additional [stabbing] damage.]
[Destruction Immunity]
[Overall Skill Power Enhancement [25%]]
[Special skill 'Tempest' becomes available after charging for 10 days.]
Five powerful attributes.
With effects like these, it was easy to understand why the Hunters were so excited.
"Even if I ignore everything else, that twenty-five-percent skill power enhancement is absurdly rare. The fact that a single weapon can provide such an enormous boost to magic output is incredible."
Of course, from an archmage's perspective, a magic weapon with effects like these probably came with the drawback of increased mana consumption while equipped.
But epic-grade weapons were meant to be wielded by top-tier Awakened in the first place—A-rank or S-rank individuals.
A minor loss in efficiency would hardly matter to them.
Unlike certain useless bodies, they wouldn't collapse after casting one or two powerful spells.
"Haha."
For some reason, my mood suddenly soured.
Suppressing the irritation rising inside me, I continued tapping at my phone.
I still hadn't found any detailed information about the second-place reward, [God's Droplet].
"Oh, people are going just as crazy over this one?"
Naturally, I became curious about what exactly [God's Droplet] was...
And it turned out to be nothing more than a luxury product made exclusively for Awakened individuals.
In simple terms, it was a liquid that functioned almost exactly like alcohol.
Something created solely for the purpose of getting Awakened people drunk.
Once a person's Awakening reached a certain level, ordinary alcohol ceased to have any effect on them.
No matter how much beer or soju they drank, all they achieved was a full stomach.
Not even the slightest trace of intoxication.
[God's Droplet] came in magically sealed 800ml bottles.
It was potent enough to make even an S-rank Awakened feel tipsy.
For an ordinary human, a single drop could be enough to send them straight to the emergency room.
[Free Bulletin Board]
• 20 bottles of [God's Droplet]???
• Just registered for the Yellow Dragon Battle, lol. Overseas participants get priority, right? RIP to all the S-ranks. ￢￢
• - Are you saying you're going to beat them-
• I don't think a Korean will get it. The U.S. has a high rate of alcoholism, and there are quite a few Awakened who were forced to quit drinking. I bet Spectrum's Enzo is eyeing that prize.
But why were these people...
so obsessed with something like this?
[Free Bulletin Board]
• Let's be real, China's obviously going to steal the Yellow Dragon Battle victory using host-country privilege——.
• ￢￢ Seriously. There's a 100% chance they'll pull something shady. No way they're just handing that thing over to another country.
• Then I guess the Droplet is the best we can realistically aim for.
• Guys, the rewards for 4th through 16th place are out too ￢￢￢ This is insane. They're literally throwing money around.
Because [God's Droplet] could only be obtained from a dungeon in Kaifeng, China, no other country had access to it.
As a result, 'item diplomacy' had gradually begun replacing panda diplomacy.
China monopolized the luxury product, earning enormous profits from it while also presenting it to selected countries as a gesture of goodwill.
The deeper I searched, the more information I found about this rare item.
Yet even after reading through all of it, my confusion remained.
Why were Earth's wizards so eager to spend hundreds of millions just to poison themselves?
"Saying this might make Earthlings think I'm primitive, but... since I don't even really understand what being drunk feels like, I just can't relate."
Kim Giryeo possessed no memories of drinking alcohol, so he had no personal experience to draw upon.
Still, the concept itself wasn't completely incomprehensible to him.
Even Alphauri had once indulged in poisonous stimulants.
In modern times, however, those substances had simply been replaced by psychoactive magic that produced similar effects without harming the body.
"Alcohol..."
For a brief moment, I found myself genuinely interested in one aspect of Earth's entertainment culture.
If the opportunity ever arose, perhaps I might even try obtaining [God's Droplet] someday.
But that was as far as the thought went.
After all, a certain archmage had absolutely no intention of participating in that international tournament.
Growl.
I switched off the phone and rose from my seat.
Then I opened the refrigerator and searched the bottom shelf for something to snack on.
For a fraud who survived only because of his items, acting too arrogantly could lead to a remarkably brutal downfall.
Hadn't I been reminded of that very lesson only recently?
"Thanks for the lesson... Really brings tears to my eyes, Morgan..."
After the Mimic City incident, I had resolved never to act recklessly again.
From now on, I would only leave the house if there were a guaranteed 100% chance of obtaining a corpse.
Esther had once called this lifestyle 'being a shut-in,' but what exactly was wrong with prioritizing safety when I'd already made more than enough money?
With rewards of this magnitude at stake, the tournament was bound to attract an unprecedented number of S-rankers from countries around the world.
For a rank fraud like me, staying quietly holed up in my room was unquestionably the safest way to avoid unnecessary trouble.
"Let's not do anything reckless out of pointless greed."
I repeated my newly established rule to myself as I pulled some nutritious food from the refrigerator.
A pack of convenience-store tofu I'd bought during a buy-one-get-one promotion.
And a packet of seasoned seaweed whose opening date I couldn't even remember.
I wasn't particularly hungry, so this would be more than enough for a snack.
At that moment, the familiar ringtone of my phone suddenly cut through the dry air of the one-room apartment.
[Kang Changho]
What does he want at this hour?
"Hello?"
Holding the packaged tofu in one hand, I answered the call.
But as the conversation continued, I could feel the corners of my mouth slowly sinking.
Ah, Hunter Kim Giryeo. Are you free to talk right now?
"Yes."
It's nothing serious. There's just something I need to inform you about.
Looks like you'll need to keep next Saturday open... If you already have plans, cancel them now.
Wait.
Next Saturday?
No way.
I'm planning to leave for China then.
"China, huh."
But now that I think about it, it'd be troublesome if something happened while I'm away.
So this time, how about I bring our dear contractor along with me?
It was the temptation of Satan himself.
But I refused to waver.
I clung firmly to the secluded lifestyle I had resolved to maintain only moments earlier.
After all, I was an archmage.
I had dignity.
How could a wizard treat his own promises so lightly?
"Oh, about that. Next week, I'll—"
For reference, I naturally expect someone with enough free time to go dungeon raiding at two in the morning to participate in this schedule.
"_"
And one more thing.
I'm actually standing right outside your house right now.
You're not planning to give me some strange answer and make this more troublesome, are you?
I have to refuse.
Sure, when plans are unexpectedly disrupted, anyone feels a little stressed.
But the damage that sort of mental strain does to your lifespan is nothing compared to dying instantly.