Chapter 91 – Why a dog of all things?

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The most successful hotel in Gwangju was, without a doubt, the Peace Hotel, located right in the center of the downtown area.

This newly completed hotel overlooked the Yeongsan River, which cut through the heart of Gwangju.

And at the top of the Peace Hotel, in the penthouse with the best view, sat Oh Yuhyeon.

Zzzzt—

He floated blue electricity in the air, channeling it into his smartphone to charge it while browsing Apoin.

[Praise SSWOO! Worship SSWOO!]

[Stop it! Just stop it! Seriously, stop it now.]

[Our dear Comrade Leader SSWOO—.]

[SSWOO, I always believed in you, hey!]

Grit.

Oh Yuhyeon clenched his teeth.

“Dammit!”

Whoosh!

With a curse, Yuhyeon hurled the smartphone.

Bang!

The phone shattered and exploded upon hitting the wall.

It was unclear how many smartphones he had gone through; black ash was smeared across various parts of the wall.

Without even glancing at the wall, Oh Yuhyeon pointed to a monster loitering nearby with an annoyed expression and commanded.

“Hey, find me another smartphone.”

The monster left immediately upon the order.

Once a Villain reached his level, it was possible to treat monsters as mere servants. However, even so, they were no match for machines.

“Pathetic fools.”

Oh Yuhyeon was dissatisfied with his own ability.

His power was electricity.

Specifically, it was an electrical ability that could be called S-Rank, overwhelming in every aspect—quantity, quality, and precise control.

It was one of the top abilities in all of humanity, but it wasn’t enough for him. He wanted a different power.

‘At the very least, I wish I had an ability better than Seong Siwoo’s.’

He took the smartphone brought by the monster—the owner of which was unknown—and flowed electricity into it.

Zzzzt— Ssssh— Zzzzzzt—

It was likely something scavenged from one of the corpses covering downtown Gwangju. But that didn’t matter to Oh Yuhyeon.

[Unlocked.]

He had hacked it in an instant by creating fake electrical signals.

He headed toward Apoin once more.

And once again, an electric shock.

Zzap! Zzap! Zzzap—

He had lost count of how many times he had attempted to hack Apoin.

However, unlike other sites that were easily paralyzed, Apoin remained impenetrable no matter how many times he tried.

“They say a tree will eventually fall if you hit it ten times…”

He had attempted the hack not ten, but over a hundred times.

Meanwhile, as this proverb crossed his mind, another person came to Oh Yuhyeon’s thoughts.

“I wonder what she’s doing now…”

The person Oh Yuhyeon was thinking of was none other than Minju. Even long before Minju drew attention as the Scarf Woman, Oh Yuhyeon had noticed her.

Back when no one knew her, he had guessed she was his fan, approached her first—performing actions that were nearly predatory—only to be met with a cold rejection.

And shortly after, when Minju began to be noticed as the Scarf Woman, he figured it was only natural. With her looks, it was inevitable.

But when he found out that Minju was a devoted fan of his rival, Seong Siwoo…

It felt as if his heart were being torn apart.

‘Why does it have to be that bastard!’

From then on, Oh Yuhyeon could not afford to lose. He felt that if Seong Siwoo were to win, the two of them would end up together.

Indeed, such rumors were common on the internet.

Rumors like Minju had made the first move, but Seong Siwoo told her to wait until he won.

If one dug deeper, they were typical internet delusions full of holes, but such rumors were enough to shake Oh Yuhyeon’s heart.

Especially…

‘Why are those two together…?’

His heart felt like it was collapsing even further when he happened to see the two of them sitting alone in a cafe in Seoul, talking.

Of course, that had only happened once.

And even then, it was a small event Minju had arranged to cheer for Siwoo, but to Oh Yuhyeon, it didn’t seem that way.

In his mind, if they met once, they would meet twice; if they met twice, they would meet a third, and he didn’t even want to imagine what they might be doing while stuck together.

So now, truly…

Oh Yuhyeon absolutely could not lose to Siwoo.

More than ever before.

When he felt that Siwoo’s macro management skills were improving day by day and that he could never win through pure skill, he clung to his position by exploiting the tournament rules and even using bugs.

He was cursed for being cowardly and pathetic.

However, since he came from a powerful, “golden spoon” family with connections to the tournament organizers, he was able to brush it off.

Later, he even spent his own money to hire hackers to find bugs that weren’t banned in the tournament.

Even after doing all those dirty tricks, when he was on the verge of defeat, he used his “wit” to sabotage the restrooms mid-set to cause a power outage…

But he still couldn’t win Minju’s heart.

“Exactly what do I lack compared to that bastard!”

Oh Yuhyeon shouted in an angry voice. No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t find anything he lacked compared to Seong Siwoo.

In his eyes, he was a person of power from a wealthy family, and despite the tricks, he had always won the tournament, while Seong Siwoo was just an orphan who had been a perennial second-place finisher.

And yet, Minju only looked at Seong Siwoo.

“Seriously, I wonder what Minju is doing?”

With a miserable feeling, Oh Yuhyeon simply gazed at the lonely, darkening city where he was the only human (if he could even be called that).

‘I should use my ability to turn some lights on in the city today.’

It was a hobby he had picked up recently.

* * *

Meanwhile… Geumhwa New City.

“Ugh, seriously. Are you eating cereal with water again today?”

Minju was scolding Seongjae.

“Um… well, the price of milk is like gold these days.”

“Wasn’t it always like that?”

“…Well, that’s true.”

Minju, Seongjae, and I were all the same age.

I spoke informally with both Minju and Seongjae, but because Seongjae did so many strange things, the two of them hadn’t spoken informally to each other until recently.

However, as time passed, they seemed to have grown fond of one another, and lately, they had started using informal speech.

Watching the two, I asked with a smile.

“Seongjae, come to think of it, are you eating cereal again?”

“Yeah, there’s nothing else to eat for breakfast.”

At those words, Minju snapped.

“It’s not breakfast right now! The sun is setting!”

“Huh? Really?”

Seongjae looked completely oblivious.

Shaking her head at him, Minju turned to Seongjae’s younger brother, Seongmin.

“Seongmin… please do something about your brother. Tell him to stop mixing water into his cereal… no matter how expensive milk is these days.”

Thanks to the dwindling number of cows, the price of milk and dairy products in the market was whatever the seller asked for.

But…

“Ah, Minju Noona… my brother has always eaten cereal with water. He’s been doing it since before the Apocalypse happened.”

Seongmin dropped a bombshell.

* * *

Meanwhile, I steadily monitored Gwangju with the Observation Ship. It was quite impressive to see the lights coming on across the entire city at night.

‘No one lives there… but it looks like it would be bustling.’

I couldn’t understand why he was doing this, but… it didn’t seem to be a critically important reason.

‘He’s probably trying to hide where he’s staying.’

If only one spot in all of Gwangju had electricity, wouldn’t it be too obvious where he lived? I reasoned that he was turning on the lights for the whole city for that reason.

‘It’s all useless anyway.’

Of course, it was laughable. I knew Oh Yuhyeon’s exact location through the Observation Ship. A significant amount of mana was concentrated in the penthouse of the high-rise building known as the Peace Hotel.

‘At this scale… it’s the largest I’ve seen so far.’

Thanks to the Mana Absorption Amplification Essence, it was several times larger than the Baengnokdam Monster, which had boasted a considerable amount of mana. Of course, that monster had used its Mana Facility Upgrade effectively.

Additionally, there was Advanced Research that added a small amount of mana absorption functionality to each machine, which greatly reduced maintenance costs.

However, even the Baengnokdam Monster was an opponent that might have been quite overwhelming for the machines. With a mana quantity like Oh Yuhyeon’s… I couldn’t even imagine how much damage he could cause.

‘Machines alone will be difficult for that.’

Of course, if I kept sending Colossi and Aerial Motherships, I could eventually kill him, but I couldn’t afford heavy losses right now while maintaining the Siberian Front in the Northern Region and saving troops for the Northern Advance.

‘I’ll have to go out there myself.’

That was my conclusion.

And for that to happen…

There was one prerequisite.

“Then I’ll leave it to you!”

“Yeah!”

That, of course, was Minju.

* * *

As a Monster Watcher, Oh Yuhyeon kept a close eye on Seong Siwoo’s machines, which were steadily approaching.

“What? They’re already here?”

A vein popped on his forehead.

“I thought he lived around Incheon…?”

Siwoo’s forces had already moved past Incheon, clearing Suwon and Daejeon as they headed south, but it seemed Oh Yuhyeon’s information was very outdated.

As a single person, there were limits to the information he could gather through Apoin alone.

“Well, this is actually better.”

Oh Yuhyeon muttered with burning eyes.

Then, he climbed onto the roof.

It was the moment the machines began their battle.

Boom—

The artillery barrage from the Magitech Artillery Unit began to rain down from afar.

K-boom!

And at the edge of Gwangju, Colossi and Assault Cannons stood in a line, pressing the front. Under that systematic attack, Oh Yuhyeon’s monsters were almost helpless.

“Useless fools.”

Oh Yuhyeon gnashed his teeth.

“What’s so great about those mere machines.”

The moment he muttered that.

Whoosh— Bang—

Interceptors began darting around frantically, clearing the aerial monsters in the vicinity. Those interceptors were now targeting the Watchers, which were not easy to obtain.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

Other monsters aside, the Watchers were now like a second set of eyes for Oh Yuhyeon. He had to save the Watchers, who allowed him to understand the surrounding situation at a glance.

Oh Yuhyeon watched the movements of the interceptors for a moment.

“So that’s where your home is.”

He observed the interceptors returning to the Aerial Mothership.

“Let’s give them a lesson.”

Whoosh—

And then, a massive amount of mana was drawn up.

“Do you have a lightning rod?”

And so… a bolt of lightning struck.

K-BOOM!

It was a strike powerful enough to pierce through the Aerial Mothership’s thick Mana Barrier and Mana Shield in a single blow, damaging the engine.

Rumble—

Losing its buoyancy, the Aerial Mothership began to slowly crash.

“Kwahahaha!”

Oh Yuhyeon began to laugh with joy at the sight.

Of course, the Aerial Mothership hadn’t completely lost its function, and there were 11 more regardless, and these were merely a diversion to draw Oh Yuhyeon’s attention.

But Oh Yuhyeon had no way of knowing that.

“Hehe… not much after all.”

Just as Oh Yuhyeon sneered.

Swoosh—

A peculiar movement appeared in the Watcher’s Mana Sense.

“Huh?”

Flash!

Along with it, Minju appeared before Oh Yuhyeon’s eyes.

“Huh?! Uh… uh…”

At the sight of her—so welcome and looking even more beautiful than before—Oh Yuhyeon was momentarily speechless, as if he had regressed to infancy.

However… Seong Siwoo was right there beside her.

“How’ve you been?”

Standing close to Minju, he grinned.