The name ‘dragon’ felt familiar enough. Even the Ancient Shop had a product called Gold Dragon Meat, didn’t it?

Of course, to Go Byeonggap, the dragon was like a celebrity he knew by name but not by face.

Seo Sihui continued her explanation.

Madmut worked a miracle, and the Last Eighteen hurtled backward through time, crashing into the past.

As she let the currents of spacetime carry her, drifting without direction, she encountered a vast mystery that seemed adrift itself.

That’s right. That mystery was the dragon.

The beast came at her with an utterly desperate fury.

It wasn’t as if she had done anything wrong. The dragon simply spotted Seo Sihui and bulldozed its way toward her.

Before she could stop it, it attempted fusion.

Seo Sihui had to endure the horrible sensation of her identity being seized. Her mind was a mess from everything else, but she fought back on instinct.

A battle for dominance over the body raged between two selves. The ordeal might have lasted a mere 0.1 seconds, or it could have stretched across a hundred million years.

In the rift of spacetime, time paradoxically doesn’t flow, so precise calculation was meaningless.

But Seo Sihui used the phrase ‘for so long it made my mind go blank.’ And finally, the struggle for self ended.

She was the victor.

“After that, I gained mysterious abilities I never had before. Opening portals connected to this world is one of them. But more than anything, what changed was my ideology.”

“Ideology?”

“Yes, the endless fight for control of the self. In the end, I won, but I couldn’t help being profoundly influenced by that other me.”

Seo Sihui paused for a moment and stroked her chest. The gesture felt like she was patting someone else’s head.

“All that’s left in this one is hatred for Madmut. A hatred so vast that even if you could draw all the seawater in the world, it wouldn’t fill it.”

“…From how much it hates, I guess the whole species got eaten by Madmut or something.”

“Huh!?”

Seo Sihui’s eyes went wide as she stared at Go Byeonggap. Her look plainly asked, ‘How did you know?’

‘How would I know? It’s all written in the Ancient Shop. It says dragons were used for a god’s feast.’

Go Byeonggap waved his hands dismissively and changed the subject.

“Why the deadpan? Just making conversation. So you’re saying that because your ideology got restructured, you wound up hostile to Madmut?”

“Essentially, yes. The dragon’s hatred overwrote my own.”

“Not exactly a noble motivation, is it?”

He said it with a teasing lilt.

Seo Sihui gave a bitter smile and nodded.

“But it’s different now. I’ve come to realize that annihilating humanity just for vengeance is wrong.”

“If you hadn’t merged with the dragon, wouldn’t you have gone along with that plan? Isn’t that just a pretty-sounding hypocrisy?”

“Th—that…”

Her voice trailed off. Honest as she was, even she couldn’t vouch for herself.

He decided to drop it. What was the point of moral debate now?

“Forget it. Let’s leave the past behind. So what’s the plan? You must have one of your own.”

He asked probing. Seo Sihui’s gaze flickered unconsciously toward the children by the fireplace, then snapped back.

Her hands, clasped on the table, looked restless as a child who’d lost her mother’s hand in the market.

“We came back to the past. The return point is February 9, 1999. That’s about twenty-seven years ago from the present.”

In 1999, the world was still reeling from the Deep Impact.

Doomsday preachers filled the streets, soldiers were garrisoned all over the city. It was around this time that clueless awakeners rushed into rifts only to die like dogs or vanish without a trace.

In 1999, Seo Sihui was nineteen. Back then, she was just a high school girl who hadn’t even awakened yet.

Then came the next year, 2000. The awakening boom hit, and countless people worldwide woke up to their powers.

Seo Sihui was among them. No—in 2000, Korea’s star was undeniably Seo Sihui. The birth of the Korean Peninsula’s first SS-rank hunter!

At first, she followed the original timeline. Her emotions were too tangled to steer otherwise. Still, just in case, she created an extra identity.

Under the alias Kim Hana.

Time flowed on.

With a heavy heart, Seo Sihui repeated the old history. Then came 2003. Bilian Miller—a member of the Last Eighteen—came to find her.

“The time has come. Come with me.”

They flew on Bilian’s private jet to an uninhabited island in Norway. The entire Last Eighteen had gathered there.

Among the members were some who hadn’t even awakened yet. Their appearances and auras were so alien that Sihui barely recognized them at first.

One figure stood out especially: a child who looked barely ten years old.

If the child hadn’t greeted him in Korean, he would never have recognized him as Go Geonryong.

Seo Sihui was dumbfounded in every way. Then, something even more absurd happened.

The members of the Last Eighteen bowed their heads to Go Geonryong and spoke as follows.

“O Messiah, everyone has finally gathered. Please hurry and give us your next command.”

“Messiah?”

“Yes, people called him the Messiah or the Archbishop.”

“Why? Did he gain some special power like you?”

“Right, I only found out later, but he was a little different from us. He could communicate directly with Madmut.”

‘Communing with a god… that’s something else.’

“So what happened?”

Go Byeonggap urged the story on. Seo Sihui didn’t hesitate and continued.

“The members of the Last Eighteen, with Go Byeonggap at the helm, started pulling all sorts of strings. Founding the Hexagram Order was one of their main projects.”

“You mean that cult, the Hexagram Order.”

“Exactly. They needed pawns to use as their chess pieces. So they created that ridiculous religion, the Hexagram Order, and spread it worldwide. They also accelerated the development of the Magic Stone Power Plant by more than fifteen years.”

Seo Sihui pressed her hand to her forehead and groaned.

“Back then, I had no idea. Why they were so intent on building those plants…”

“Did you just sit there and watch? You said your hatred for Madmut was boiling over. Why didn’t you raise hell right then?”

“At the time… I hadn’t made a clear decision yet. I was confused. By the time I finally made up my mind, it was already too late.”

2011. Go Geonryong awakened and earned the title of the strongest man in the world.

Around that time, Seo Sihui began trying to persuade the members of the Last Eighteen.

Saying that what they were doing was wrong.

That rather than leading humanity to ruin, they should persuade and unite them!

As if the members of the Last Eighteen were moved by her heartfelt plea.

They killed her without mercy.

“They didn’t even try to convince me. They just tore me limb from limb.”

“W-Wait a minute. You said you died that day, right? So how are you alive?”

“Thanks to the dragon’s power. As long as the proper preparations are made, I can be immortal.”

“……”

Go Byeonggap was at a loss for words and couldn’t muster a proper response.

So he decided to just ask something else.

“Didn’t you think about asking for help from others?”

“Of course I did. The first time I was killed, I realized it was impossible to stop them alone. So I went looking for trustworthy people to ask for their cooperation.”

“How did that go?”

“Heh heh…”

Seo Sihui let out a small laugh. It wasn’t because she was in a good mood. She laughed because she was so utterly hollowed out.

“Everything was shattered before I could even try. Everyone tied to me was slaughtered, and I was killed again myself.”

“……”

“It wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience. I shed the identity of Seo Sihui completely after that day. I went deep underground, stayed hidden.”

Looking at her sunken face, he craved a cigarette. Go Byeonggap glanced away for a moment, toward the children by the fireplace.

A shame they all had their backs turned to him.

“So… what now? You said wrecking power plants with three kids in tow became pointless. You didn’t drag me here just to vent, did you?”

“Of course not.”

Seo Sihui paused, then spoke.

“I know a fatal flaw in their plan.”

“Let’s hope it’s actually plausible.”

Go Byeonggap sneered, but she paid it no mind.

“Without the one they call the Messiah—in other words, without Go Geonryong—they can never complete their grand undertaking.”

“……”

“Alpha. Beta. Omega.”

“Yes, Master.”

The three children ran over the moment she called. Go Byeonggap watched them with folded arms.

“Are they dragons too?”

“No, these children are human. But not like ordinary humans.”

“What’s different about them?”

“I told you before—that I was looking for Irregulars. These children are Irregulars. They’re growth-type awakeners, observed very rarely.”

“Growth-type awakeners?”

For all his years as a hunter, he’d never heard that term before.

Normally, one’s awakening grade stays fixed for life from the initial assessment—unless you’re a special case like the Goblin Lord.

“So they can keep getting stronger?”

“In theory.”

“Didn’t look all that strong to me.”

His provocation hardened the children’s expressions. Seo Sihui raised a hand placatingly to calm them.

“Because they have limits in place. If even one limit had been removed that day, you wouldn’t be alive right now.”

“……”

Confidence rang in her voice.

“These children are the hidden daggers I forged. Three daggers to stab into the side of a god.”

“You’re planning to assassinate Go Geonryong and end this game?”

“Exactly.”

“Then that means you need me too…” “Right. Because I want you to become the fourth spear.”

* * *

It was evening when Go Byeonggap slipped out of Seo Sihui’s quarters.

They had traded a great many words. Their stance against humanity’s extinction was the same. But in the end, they couldn’t reach an agreement.

He headed straight back to Asvillam as soon as he crossed over—not the peak of Mt. Cheondo, but Baltadren.

«Ah! Lord came?»

«Yeah, I’m here. Did you eat?»

«Uh-huh, ate earlier.»

«Good. Get back to work.»

The goblins he passed acknowledged him with nods. Their faces had grown noticeably brighter over the past few weeks.

He shuffled toward the kitchen. The staff there were in the midst of cleaning up.

After weathering another round of greetings, he called for Ea and asked her to bring him something to eat. He hadn’t eaten all day, and his stomach was growling.

«This is all that’s left, I’m afraid. If you’d told me earlier, I could’ve caught a chicken. Or should I catch one now?»

«Nah, this is fine. More than enough.»

She set down steamed corn and a few sweet potatoes. Go Byeonggap picked at them, lost in thought.

‘It still doesn’t feel real.’

What Seo Sihui had told him—he’d half expected it, and yet it was still astonishing.

But the part about a massive slaughter breaking out soon… no matter how many times he chewed on it, it just didn’t sink in.

‘All I want is to live in peace.’

To earn money on Earth and come to Asvillam to farm, living a carefree life—that was the life he’d aimed for.

But that meeting had blown that little dream to pieces. Knowing the truth isn’t exactly pleasant.

‘Can’t just whine about it. I need to prepare, and fast.’

Still, knowing the disaster ahead made preparation easier.

What’s more, he had a shelter that no one else possessed—an ultrapowerful one that even the unworthy couldn’t set foot in.

‘I should get ready to relocate everyone to Asvillam if it comes to that. First, bring my mom here. And gather more goblins before it’s too late.’

Go Byeonggap chewed a sweet potato, sketching many plans in his mind.

This was the time when the Second New Asvillam was set to launch.