“It’s over there.”

“To think it was this close…”

Was I blind to what was right under my nose?

The place Yuki had brought me to was located at the entrance of the Regalavak Great Plains, not far from the First Plains.

“What makes you think there are Mandrakes in this location?”

It wasn’t far from the city.

Was I to believe that all those champions had passed by without examining this place?

Statistically, that would be impossible.

Still, I was curious about what led Yuki to deduce this location.

“Can you see over there?”

Yuki pointed somewhere with her finger.

Following the direction of her fingertip, I saw tall grass with wild animals leisurely playing about.

I strained my eyes, searching for the blue mana herb, but nothing was visible.

No matter how I looked at it, this seemed like a wild goose chase…

“Doesn’t something feel off to you?”

But Yuki was brimming with confidence.

Seeing it in person must have made it more convincing.

‘What exactly is supposed to feel off…’

The way she spoke with such certainty suggested there was something there, but I couldn’t tell just from a casual visual inspection.

“Would you stay still for a moment?”

Yuki pulled something from her coat.

A round sphere.

Whoosh-

Yuki tossed the sphere toward where the animals were gathered.

The sphere fell to the ground, rolled for a bit, then came to a complete stop.

Tap- tap-

The feline creatures batted at the sphere out of curiosity, but nothing happened.

Watching this, Yuki spoke with absolute certainty.

“What I threw was a Flash Bomb, a device that emits light mana upon impact. It’s designed to explode when it hits the ground, but nothing happened—which means the Flash Bomb lost its functionality.”

A Flash Bomb?

‘Why is she carrying something like that?’

Whoosh-

Perhaps to prove her point, she tossed another Flash Bomb to the opposite side of where she’d thrown the first one.

I stood there staring blankly at the sight.

Yuki, seeing my expression, shouted.

“Close your eyes!”

Flash-!

Even though I hastily shut my eyes at Yuki’s warning, I could still feel the intense light.

If I had kept watching, I might have been temporarily blinded.

It was a somewhat extreme way of proving her point, but Yuki had been telling the truth.

“Well? Does it make sense now?”

“You’re saying mana phenomena don’t occur there.”

“It’s also strange that wild animals would be this close to the city. There’s no way Solar’s hunters would have missed such easy prey.”

Which meant something was protecting those wild animals.

But I still couldn’t be certain it was a Mandrake.

“Now, would you come over here for a moment?”

Yuki dropped to the ground and hid herself among the tall grass.

Tap- tap-

Yuki patted the spot beside her.

A signal to get down beside her.

“Good.”

I followed her instruction and was rewarded with praise.

A peculiar feeling.

Yuki pulled two sheets of paper from her coat.

Yuki immediately pressed one sheet against her body, and in that instant, she vanished from beside me.

“Yuki?”

Flustered, I called out her name, and a reply came from where she’d been standing.

“Now, stay still. Moving from this point on could be dangerous.”

Yuki pressed the remaining sheet of paper against me.

And just like that, my body disappeared from sight as well.

What in the world were those things?

“Fascinating.”

“Shh—stay still for a moment.”

I could sense tension in Yuki’s voice.

What was going on?

I soon found out.

Footsteps approached from behind.

An unfamiliar voice reached my ears.

“What? There’s nothing here.”

“Something definitely flashed here… Look carefully, it could be a phenomenon caused by ruins appearing.”

The second Flash Bomb Yuki had thrown.

People nearby had seen the light and come to investigate.

Don’t tell me.

She deliberately lured people here to check if a Mandrake was present?

If Yuki was right about there being a Mandrake here.

Those people…

“Are the ruins actually real?”

“I don’t know, but look at that.”

“Oh, there’s plenty of game over there. Let’s skin them and buy some drinks with the money.”

Unable to find any trace of ruins despite their search, they settled for the next best thing.

They approached the animals, planning to at least earn some drinking money.

Should I just leave them be?

“… …”

My hesitation dragged on.

In the end.

I couldn’t move.

And then it happened.

Boom-

A sudden rumbling sound.

“Huh? What’s that sound?”

They looked down at the ground, the source of the sound.

Crack-!

Bang- bang- bang-

“Get back!!!”

Knowing what was coming, I shouted in desperation.

The people, startled by my cry, tried to scramble away.

But it was already too late.

Squirm.

A blue hand, reminiscent of a corpse, surged up from the ground.

Beside me, a voice filled with ecstasy whispered.

“See? I was right, wasn’t I?”

Damn it-!

I glared in Yuki’s direction.

Having shouted at them, all I could do now was watch.

I was a 1-Cost champion who couldn’t even use skills.

If I’d known this was what Yuki had in mind, I wouldn’t have followed her so obediently.

I stared with bloodshot eyes at where the Mandrake had emerged.

Hands and legs, head and genitalia.

Watching the Mandrake mimicking human form, an inexplicable revulsion surged through me.

Its blue skin made it look like a rotting corpse breaking through the earth.

“What the hell is this!”

The people scattered in terror, trying to flee.

One of them tried to gather mana to use a skill.

But.

“My mana… I can’t use my skill!”

Skills couldn’t be used near a Mandrake.

Completely unaware of this fact, the man panicked and stumbled backward.

“Huh?”

Flop-!

Like a puppet with its strings cut, he collapsed to the ground.

“Mana Exhaustion. Once you step into a Mandrake’s domain, your mana is continuously drained without you even realizing it.”

Yuki explained the situation in a calm voice.

Something felt deeply wrong.

She was quietly observing a person dying.

No matter how accustomed I was to the battlefield, I wasn’t emotionally barren.

But Yuki was unfazed.

“Now, would you like to see what happens when you touch the Mandrake?”

Jjuuug-!

The moment the roots touched him, his skin shriveled in an instant, turning him into a mummy.

Fizzle-

As if that wasn’t enough, the mummy crumbled into dust and scattered into the air.

“… …”

This wasn’t a battlefield.

A person had actually died.

So senselessly.

It didn’t take long for the remaining man to suffer the same fate.

“Well? Do you understand what kind of monster a Mandrake is now?”

Hadn’t she said it wasn’t a dangerous monster?

The Mandrake I saw was an unstoppable monster.

Yuki said evenly.

“A monster is a monster. It’s different from the fakes you encounter in the battlefield.”

Those who had only experienced monsters in the battlefield could never understand this terror.

Why the Empire still hadn’t claimed so much territory.

Boom-!

Having finished its meal, the Mandrake sank back into the earth.

I watched it disappear, then quietly followed Yuki back to the city.

***

“You can stay here tonight. How’s the lodging? Nice, isn’t it?”

Yuki smiled.

A nonchalant smile.

As if telling me to forget what I’d just witnessed.

But I couldn’t easily shake off the emotions crashing over me.

I was afraid.

Afraid of the existence of a monster that could kill humans so effortlessly.

“Why did you show me the Mandrake?”

After some thought, I figured it out.

Yuki had already known the Mandrake was there.

Yet she brought me along to confirm it with my own eyes.

And in the process, unnecessary casualties had occurred.

Yuki flashed a bright smile.

“How about it? Do you feel any new emotions? After seeing the Mandrake, my perspective on the world changed too. I gained an epiphany. That people can die this easily.”

Was this what she meant when she said it would be an opportunity for me?

I’d already known Yuki was somewhat twisted…

Trusting her words so readily was my mistake.

“I won’t stop you from reporting this to the Adjudicator. Whatever choice you make is yours to make, Mr. Lee Shin. But you should think about what it means for a Mandrake to be this close to the city.”

Yuki smiled meaningfully.

“Because I know you’re a wise man, Mr. Lee Shin.”

With those parting words, Yuki disappeared, and left alone, I turned her words over in my mind.

I had confirmed the Mandrake’s existence, but whether ruins lay there remained uncertain.

However, that was the only place untouched by human hands.

Following Yuki’s logic, the probability of ruins being there was high.

But had other players and champions really been unaware of this?

Had Trivik truly been unaware?

‘They knew.’

They knew and pretended not to.

Why?

If Trivik was the one cultivating the Mandrakes, the puzzle pieces fell into place.

The ruins hadn’t gone undiscovered all this time.

They had been kept from being discovered.

No one had the courage to defy Trivik’s will.

Those ignorant of the truth were probably still scouring the Great Plains.

Those who knew the truth had long since given up, merely waiting for the day the ruins would open.

Waiting for someone else to take the lead first.

***

Belatedly, I exchanged greetings with Chasey.

But I didn’t mention the ruins or the Mandrake.

I merely reaffirmed our arrangement to meet again in the Western Region in six days.

The Mandrake and the ruins were still problems too complex for me to involve myself in.

My mind was in turmoil.

‘Is this what Yuki wanted?’

Don’t waste time searching for ruins pointlessly.

This was Yuki’s way of repaying me for the help she’d received by chance.

Though the process had been rather extreme, admittedly.

Lying on the soft bed, I reflected with my eyes closed.

My reason for coming to the northern region was the private battlefield opening in four days.

I hadn’t been thinking about ruins in the first place.

As someone who couldn’t manipulate mana, discovering the entrance to ruins was impossible for me.

That hadn’t changed.

I’d bury today’s events in the back of my mind and focus on what needed to be done.

Rustle-

Despite the late hour, sleep eluded me as I tossed and turned.

My chest felt tight.

Today had driven home just how insignificant I was in reality.

Seeing a monster with my own two eyes had made it hit home even harder.

That as a 1-Cost champion, I was worth less than an ant in this world.

All the running around had apparently built up stress without me noticing.

Tap- tap-

Unable to sleep, I fiddled with my Device.

The light from the Device illuminated the pitch-black room.

One item caught my eye.

[Champion Matching]

I hadn’t done this once since Hans’s death.

I’d been too busy fleeing from assassins and engaging in player activities.

But right now, I had time to spare.

‘Should I give it a try after so long?’

I wanted to release my pent-up stress, even if only in the battlefield.

Because while I could do nothing in reality, I could perform brilliantly in the battlefield.

That uncanny combat ability hadn’t been a one-time fluke.

Even in the second private battlefield I’d participated in after Body Enhancement, that ability had persisted.

No—I was growing even more proficient at it.

“Huu-“

I let out a deep sigh.

If only I could wield even half of my battlefield power in reality…

I could keep growing stronger in the battlefield, but the wall of reality was far too high.

I was still a 1-Cost Shieldbearer with a Mana Efficiency of zero.

There was only one way for someone like me to get stronger.

Learning a good skill was one way to get stronger.

But my Mana Efficiency was zero.

The Solid Exoskeleton I’d been using was fragile enough to shatter from a thug’s kick.

Even if I learned a new skill, it wouldn’t produce the expected power.

‘I need to focus on Body Enhancement.’

Compared to others, the only advantage I had was the ability to earn a lot of gold.

As both a player and a champion, I was one of a kind.

Seeing the Mandrake in person had made me realize.

Just how weak I currently was.

To get stronger, I needed to be desperate.

Which meant I had to amass as much gold as possible, no matter what.