Chapter 127

By the time Ha Yeri arrived at the scene where Flauros had appeared, she was a step too late.

The Yellow Tower had already melted away. As the massive darkness shrouding the sky gradually lifted, the sun revealed itself once more. Fortunately, the damage to Seoul—where both the Archduke and the Outer God had vanished—was not extensive. This was partly due to the prior evacuation of citizens, but primarily because Division 1, who had been engaging the Archduke, retreated immediately upon Flauros’s appearance.

They remembered what Seona had said back in Daegu:

‘The Archduke of Flames is no longer a threat to humanity.’

Thanks to that, they were able to avoid a catastrophe where the entire city was annihilated, as had happened in Daegu.

Two facts came to light during the aftermath.

The first was Flauros’s objective. The fact that an Archduke had attacked another was unprecedented since the appearance of the Gates, drawing intense public interest. After every Magic Tower collaborated on the research, the reason was discovered to be surprisingly simple. It was that unprecedented power observed in massive quantities during the manifestation of the Outer God of Salvation.

Various terms like ‘Source of Mana,’ ‘Essence of the World,’ and ‘Blood of the Stars’ circulated in academic circles, but the term officially adopted for the substance was ‘Star Scar.’

There was a small anecdote behind how the name was settled. No matter how hard academia tried to assign a scientific name based on data or the discoverer’s name, terminology sometimes simply follows public sentiment.

On the <Special Unit Bamboo Forest> anonymous board, a certain user whose identity was impossible to trace spent several days spamming a post: “The blood shed by the Outer God of Salvation is a Star Scar. If you do not call it that, the Outer God of Tentacles will grow angry and cause tentacles to sprout from the heads of every balding person.” Coincidentally, this went viral and stuck.

Regardless, when the flames erupting from Flauros’s fist transferred to the Outer God, the Outer God of Salvation vomited out the Star Scar it held. Flauros, having recovered it, vanished without a trace.

The Special Unit also failed to slay the Archduke, but they recovered the four severed fingers left on the ground. Within them, they succeeded in confirming and securing the existence of a faint Star Scar. While its exact use required further investigation, some argued it might be used as leverage in dealings with the Apostle of the Outer God.

As the eleventh night passed peacefully and the dismantling of the makeshift Magic Towers across Seoul began—while everyone else was raising toasts late into the night, relieved to have protected the city—there was one unit that quietly summoned all its members to Training Ground 3 without any official notice.

It was Special Unit Division 3. The Frontline Breakthrough Unit I belonged to.

“Looks like Alexei left first.”

I had returned to the dormitory late in the early hours after meeting a hacker to change my smartwatch IP and spam the Bamboo Forest board. My room door was locked. What leaked through the crack of the door wasn’t the sound of a roommate snoring, but the brilliant radiance emitted by 101 ‘Kandu Mirror Balls.’

Inside, I turned the heads on the display case—which had recently started moving on their own—to face the wall. I prepared to head back out without even a moment to lie on my bed. A summons had come down from the seniors.

“I shouldn’t get scolded for nothing, so I’d better get going.”

To others, I might look like I was just muttering to myself, but the subject of my conversation was always inside my sleeve. My light and my darkness, my rest and my soul. The one and only Mala-nim in the form of a snow-white tentacle.

“Why did they call us? A major mission just ended, so it won’t be training… I bet it’s a snack party.”

I prattled on toward my robe as usual, but no answer came. Using the light from the mirror balls, I checked inside my sleeve only to see Mala-nim’s body. She was listening to me but refusing to reply. When I lightly poked the side of her coiled body, a single short word was transmitted.

『Fear.』

It was a sharp, venomous tone that meant, ‘Don’t touch me.’

“What is it this time? Are you upset because the existence of the Star Scars was revealed to the public?”

『Fear.』

“Or is it because I ordered a different avatar—not a tentacle this time—to continue my VTuber activities on that account that got suspended last time?”

『Fear!?』

Mala-nim was aghast, wondering when I had found the time to place such a request while juggling a triple identity. This is why even though I earn nearly ten million won a month, there’s no way any money stays in my bank account.

Anyway, after her brief shock, she coiled back up and returned to silent mode.

『Fear.』

She only wanted to say one thing. She was disappointed in me for failing to collect the Star Scars.

“How was I supposed to know Flauros would attack the Outer God of Salvation and intercept the Star Scar? That was an accident.”

『Fear.』

“Of course, it would’ve been different if I had been right there. But…”

Because of Norkel, my timing was off. In the end, during this Great Invasion, I protected the tower as the Special Unit agent Hayan and liberated Velada as the black mage Patel, but I failed my duty as Mala-nim’s sole Apostle.

“Don’t worry so much. We can just fight Flauros again later to take the Star Scar of Salvation, and as for the Chairperson’s one that went to the Special Unit, we can get it back if I talk it over with Leader Ha Yeri.”

The owners had changed, but unlike before, they were now within reach at any time. After I spent a long time persuading her, Mala-nim finally relented, uncoiling her body and emerging from my sleeve. As she slid toward the smartwatch on my wrist, I let out a sigh of relief.

“Don’t spend too much on in-game purchases. When I unlocked the kids-lock for you last month, Moon Ah-rin gave me an earful because the billed amount was so high.”

『Fear not!!』

Ignoring my words entirely, Mala-nim immediately spent 115,000 won to purchase a stack of Blue Magic Stones.

She’s likely trying to pull the newly released characters for War of the Monsters: <Digestion’s Tentacle, Francoise (SSR)> and <Black Mountain Goat, Veladatrix (SSR)>.

A moment after the payment is approved via Face ID, a notification pinged on my phone.

After confirming that my bank account balance was, once again, zero for the month, I made my way toward the training ground to fill my stomach. I still didn’t know exactly why I’d been summoned, but it was bound to be a snack party. With the damage from the demons still being repaired, there weren’t any formal training schedules on the books.

If nothing else, I could at least count on eating my fill of snacks.

I even brought a zipper bag, planning to stealthily hoard a month’s worth of treats. But when I pushed open the doors to the training ground, there wasn’t a hint of a presence inside.

“Seniors?”

Where did everyone go?

And where’s Alexei?

The moment I step cautiously into the darkened hall, peered into the gloom—

“He’s here!”

“Get Hayan!”

“Gah! What is this all of a sudden?!”

Countless hands materialized from the walls and ceiling, dragging me inward.

There was no snack party.

After returning from a grueling day’s work (manipulating internet posts), all I found was the malice of mankind.

Having learned from the failure of Division 2, who were nearly wiped out in an elevator, my seniors have prepared thoroughly. Without giving me a chance to resist, they quickly bound me and tied me to a training scarecrow.

Normally, I would never fall for such obvious tactics, but because they came armed with ‘Leader Yoo Se-byeol’s Foot Towel,’ I was left utterly defenseless.

“Mmph! Mmph-mmph!”

“Shouldn’t we let him go soon?”

“No way. You don’t know what kind of silver-tongued lies Hayan will spin the moment he opens his mouth. If we let our guard down for a second, we’ll be the ones tied to the scarecrow.”

“True. It’s probably better for him to keep that foot towel in his mouth until we finish talking. Then we’ll untie him.”

“Mmph…!”

It was truly lamentable that even my brothers-in-arms, with whom I’d faced life and death, could be so distrustful. Granted, I’d faced them as an enemy behind a mask far more often than I’d worked with them as Division 3, but technically, we had shared life-and-death moments.

Once I calmed down, my seniors began to explain why they’d kidnapped me. Despite the absurdity of the situation, their expressions were remarkably solemn.

“Hayan, we didn’t want it to come to this. But what choice do we have? At this rate, all of Division 3 is at stake.”

“Mmph-mmph?”

“Exactly what you’re thinking. We can’t just stand by anymore. Not while this deep-seated favoritism toward mages continues within the Special Unit.”

“Mmph?”

For a second, I doubted my own ears.

When they said the whole division was at stake, I expected talk of our pathetically low hazard pay, our substandard facilities compared to other units, or perhaps something about our leader, Yoo Cheol-jin, who tried to sell Yoo Se-byeol out to the Blade King last time. But what?

Discrimination against mages?

“Think about it. Look at the frenzy the Bureau was in when the Magic Towers were attacked. But what happened when Tartaruga appeared at Cheonsan, the sanctuary of us swordsmen?”

“Mmph-mmph.”

“Those mage bastards were too busy trying to occupy our base to win at reinforcement training. This is the discrimination swordsmen face today—the difference in public perception.”

“That’s right. Even this time, we in Division 3 are being treated like idiots who just swing around hunks of iron.”

I had a mountain of rebuttals.

First of all, the appearance of Tartaruga was just a single Gate, whereas the attack on the Magic Towers happened simultaneously across the entire globe. Naturally, the response was going to be different.

Furthermore, unlike the world of mages, which was an alliance of numerous Magic Towers, the focal point for swordsmen in Korea was limited to a single guild: The Old Gods’ Wound. Regardless of the superiority between martial arts and magic, there was a clear difference in their sheer scale.

Lastly, speaking from the perspective of someone who had actually taught students at the Magic Tower… they were indeed idiots who just swung around chunks of iron.

Not long ago, I had even seen one of them holding a wooden sword to a broken water purifier in the hallway, threatening it by saying, “If you don’t spit out water properly soon, I’ll find your family and siblings and sell them off as scrap metal.”

“You think so too, don’t you, Hayan? That the treatment we’re receiving is stingy compared to our achievements.”

“Mmph-mmph!”

However, in Division 3, common sense was far away while fists were very close, so I had no choice but to nod.

Only then did the seniors grant my mouth its freedom.

Tucking away Yoo Se-byeol’s foot towel, I decided to hear out their objective for the time being.

“So, what exactly are you planning to do?”

“We believe it is time for a change.”

“A change?”

“Yes. We can’t keep being treated like leftovers anymore. Right here, right now, we are going to enthrone a new Commander.”

A new Commander?

“That’s right. It is this guy… no, this gentleman.”

Before I had time to be bewildered, the figure that emerged from the darkness was none other than my roommate.

“Alexei?!”

“It’s been a while, Hayan.”

It was Alexei.