BOOM!
Like fireworks bursting across the sky at the start of the Lunar New Year, thick smoke billowed over the arena. Sophia, the American A-rank Hunter, had suddenly launched the first attack. Since she had been concealing her innate attributes as an Awakened, she had entered the arena without any summoning stones, leaving her primary abilities sealed for the time being.
Fire, explosions, and searing heat that scorched the flesh.
In addition to her summoning magic, Sophia possessed a measure of talent for fire-based magic, and over the years, she had acquired a number of skills related to it.
FWOOSH!
Among them was a technique whose power increased dramatically according to the amount of mana poured into it. It was a rare case in which even auxiliary magic could produce destructive force roughly appropriate for a battle of this level.
'Urgh!'
BOOM!
Another deafening blast shook the arena.
As the A-rank Awakened unleashed unfamiliar magic, the spectators erupted into cheers as though they had been waiting for exactly this.
Yet, for some reason, the face of the mage casting those attacks was twisting as though she might burst into tears at any moment.
'H-Heuk... Ugh...'
To put it bluntly, Sophia was currently gripped by overwhelming fear.
An S-rank Hunter stood before her without even attempting to pursue his opponent. Yet Kim Giryeo's calm demeanor looked entirely different through Sophia's eyes.
'Damn it! Damn it! No matter how skilled that healer from China is, can they really bring back someone killed by that Asian sociopath?!'
Tremble.
The sorcerer's fingertips shook as she cast her magic.
How could she possibly not be afraid?
During the previous ambush, Sophia had fallen prey to a particular misunderstanding after seeing the blond man chase after her.
In reality, he had merely stopped because his poor lung capacity had left him short of breath.
But in Sophia's mind, the sight had transformed into something far more sinister—a monstrous S-rank casually toying with a weakling while effortlessly neutralizing the King of the Dead.
H-How... How could you treat an A-rank Awakened like nothing more than a toy...?
That was why she had trembled so pitifully while reporting the incident to Brooklyn.
And now, back in the present.
The mysterious East Asian man who had once toyed with her had appeared before her again.
Unlike the other S-rank Hunters, he remained comfortably where he stood, maintaining an eerie silence. He showed no intention whatsoever of attacking.
As though he were saying that she could take her time, endure the two minutes, collect her reward, and leave peacefully.
It was, in truth, an exceptionally generous concession.
But Sophia could not simply stand there.
'Heuk...!'
This was mockery.
Kim Giryeo was deliberately refusing to attack her.
He was 'letting her try.'
It was as if he were staring down at her, daring her to show him what she could do.
And if she failed to entertain him—if she simply stood there and did nothing—wouldn't that monster eventually grow bored and express his disappointment physically?
Sure enough.
Around fifteen seconds into the match, Kim Giryeo tilted his head, openly displaying his confusion.
There was a deep question in his gaze.
But to Sophia, it felt like crushing pressure.
As though Kim Giryeo were silently demanding,
"What are you doing just standing there? Aren't you even going to try?"
'He wants to watch me struggle like last time, doesn't he? He's enjoying this. He wants to see me fight desperately for it...'
The smell of burning filled the arena.
And strangely enough, it was the attacker herself whose expression twisted in distress.
FWOOSH!
Another [Fireball] erupted.
A miracle of the new age unfolded before the spectators' eyes, something ordinary people could never hope to reproduce.
But when the dense smoke from the flames finally began to disperse—
"Gasp!"
The American Awakened swallowed hard.
A man's silhouette stood beyond the smoke.
And as the opaque white haze gradually cleared...
"..."
A Hunter emerged without so much as a speck of soot on him.
The man in the suit tilted his head slightly once again at Sophia's behavior.
'She's suddenly throwing everything she has at me without conserving mana. What's going on? Is this some kind of Earth-style combat strategy?'
[Sacred Tree Seedling].
Originally, he was nothing more than a rank fraud who could have suffered a fracture if Sophia casually flicked him with one finger.
However, the defensive effect he had obtained by applying knowledge from his previous life possessed truly formidable protective power.
Sophia knew her attacks were useless.
Even so, she desperately continued.
To her, Kim Gi-ryeo was utterly unpredictable, the sort of person who might do something completely unexpected at any moment.
The American Hunter, with a black choker wrapped around her neck, continued targeting the S-rank pendant.
And the audience, thrilled by the provocative spectacle, roared like thunder.
'Huh?!'
However...
Her desperate struggle did not last long.
Before she knew it, the match was already approaching its end.
Caught up in launching attack after attack without pause, Sophia suddenly realized that nearly one minute and thirty seconds had passed.
The arena's scoreboard had been positioned for the spectators rather than the Awakened competitors.
Because of that, one particular alien instinctively reached toward his left wrist to check his analog watch instead.
"—I surrender!"
Immediately afterward, a miserable cry rang out from the opposite side.
"I give up...! I'm giving up! Where's the referee?! I made a mistake, so please, come stop this quickly!"
At the same time, Sophia abandoned every shred of pride she had left and even dropped to her knees.
For reference, when an overwhelmingly powerful opponent who had silently endured attacks for nearly a minute and a half suddenly raised one arm as though preparing to cast a spell...
Well.
Naturally, the gesture carried quite a different implication from what had actually been intended.
'No...'
It truly was a match in which absolutely nothing went according to plan from beginning to end.
A few minutes later, Sophia's surrender was officially accepted, and the South Korean Hunter was declared the victor.
Giryeo watched the summoner being carried away on a stretcher by the medical staff, his pale face lost in thought.
'Earthlings have always been difficult to understand, but they've never been this incomprehensible before...'
Why did I even win...?
Technically speaking, if she had simply stayed where she was for another minute, she would almost certainly have destroyed the pendant.
Her completely unexpected surrender left him utterly bewildered.
And that was not the only thing bothering him.
'Is this just how Americans behave? If I want to understand them properly, should I get my hands on an American corpse later?'
The audience had fallen silent, as though someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over them.
They must have paid a considerable sum for the privilege of watching high-level sorcery firsthand.
But now that he thought about it, the match had essentially consisted of an S-rank Hunter standing there and getting bombarded without resistance.
From the spectators' point of view, how boring and exhausting must that have been?
'Hmm.'
Korea's rank fraudster eventually reached that conclusion and lowered his gaze.
'It really must have been boring...'
Maybe the voices he had heard from the stands during the match had actually been people insulting him.
This body possessed no functions related to the Chinese language, so all those incomprehensible words the spectators had shouted continued to bother Giryeo.
'I'm really sorry...'
But what could he do?
The match was already over.
He returned the pendant necklace used for the bout to the organizers.
Then, as he leisurely descended the stairs, another thought crossed his mind.
'It's obvious I'm going to get criticized from every direction for ruining the event, so maybe I should stay off the internet for about a week.'
Of course, there was little chance that this semi-internet-addicted alien would actually give up browsing the web.
And his worries never became reality, either.
***
Creak.
Saturday, 11 a.m.
A perfectly ordinary-looking man in his thirties gave himself a light stretch before dropping his exhausted body onto the living-room sofa.
He was an office worker employed as a developer at a mid-sized company.
Until now, he had shown virtually no interest in international events.
Whether Awakened people fought one another or not, he was merely an ordinary man trying to make a living one day at a time.
'Ugh. The Olympics, this, all of it... Seriously, people who don't care about sports at all normally always make such a huge fuss on days like this...'
It was the weekend.
He considered ordering some chicken, but with the rush today, getting a delivery might prove difficult.
The office worker sighed, still carrying the fatigue of the entire week, and pushed himself back to his feet.
Then he switched on the kettle, deciding to settle for a quick bowl of instant noodles.
Bubble, bubble...
CLICK!
While waiting for the water to boil, his hand naturally reached for his phone.
Resting his chin on the dining table as usual, he opened the YouTube app.
The video platform had a separate section dedicated to clips no longer than sixty seconds.
Repeatedly flicking his thumb upward was an excellent way to kill a little time.
CLANK!
Hahaha!
KICK!
But then—
A short, fifteen-second video suddenly caught the office worker's eye.
BOOM!
Unlike the comedic clips that had come before it, the video began with a thunderous explosion.
The man's thumb, which had been swiping almost automatically, froze in place.
What appeared on the screen was an enormous burst of heat accompanied by a deafening blast, as though fireworks and metal meant to decorate the night sky had instead come crashing down onto the ground.
"H-Heuk...!"
And yet, despite the ferocity of the attack, the figure on the opposite side remained coldly silent.
One hand calmly gripped the end of a silver necklace.
The camera, initially focused on that hand, slowly began to pan upward.
Veins and bones stood out sharply beneath teal-colored skin.
And eventually, the screen filled with the man's eyes.
His dry, apricot-colored eyelids slowly opened, revealing striking sanpaku eyes.
"..."
The moment the video automatically looped back to its opening frame, the office worker instinctively opened the comments.
[gfj] [5531] [★172,000]
[**Is that a person or a monster? ⌧ ⌧ ⌧]
[0:13 What the hell is this? Fireworks are exploding right in front of him and he doesn't even blink...]
[Amazing]
[This approach is certainly refreshing.]
[At this point, the opponent who didn't surrender the instant she saw his face is even more amazing...]
.
.
.
People with superpowers.
The very existence of such beings still felt unfamiliar.
So if those people were to actually use their powers and fight one another, how could anyone not be curious?
[Oh?! I thought that IHT or whatever was fake news. It's actually real??]
########################################
Hunter Association: This is South Korea's national archery representative.
↳ What the hell? Give them back.
↳ Don't take them away!!!
########################################
Of course, even one particular country's signature sport was no exception.
Mana was still a newly emerging concept, and society was consequently going through all kinds of transitional problems.
[If things are going to be like this, why don't they just hold a separate Olympics for Awakened people?]
[That actually sounds like a good idea.]
[No, seriously. There's even the Paralympics, so why are Awakened people automatically disqualified? These athletes devoted their entire youth to their dreams ⌧ ⌧]
[Guys... Apparently there's a huge difference between Awakened people. But the games themselves are going really well.]
[That's true too.]
[Oh, right;]
Discussions over whether Awakened individuals should be allowed to participate in sports had become increasingly active in recent days.
[China faces controversy over discussions of hosting an international tournament...]
And right in the midst of all that, an event in which competitors openly used genuine supernatural powers had appeared.
Naturally, the reaction was explosive.
Even intellectuals who had maintained a negative stance toward the event eventually succumbed to curiosity and quietly switched on the television.
Before long, what filled living rooms across the country was the historic opening page of the Awakened Tournament.
The beginning of the Silver Tiger Battle.
The B-rank competition.
There was the opening-ceremony performance by an ice-attribute mage.
There were also relatively minor controversies, such as the debate over whether seats costing six million won were worth the price.
But putting all of that aside and getting straight to the point—
China's event was an enormous success.
Just as expected, the brilliance of magic was more than enough to captivate humanity.
[Wow... Until now, I've only ever seen Hunters in shaky footage that ordinary people happened to record on their phones, but seeing their abilities filmed properly like this is incredible.]
There was a peculiar thrill inherent in violence.
After successfully concluding the Silver Tiger Battle on Friday, China's IHT had only the highlight of the entire event remaining.
The Yellow Dragon Battle.
And then—
Saturday arrived.