«Haul!»

Go Byeonggap called out the rhythm.

«PULL!»

«Heave!»

“Hooo-yah!”

Dozens of goblins—and a few hunters who prided themselves on their strength—gripped their ropes and heaved with everything they had.

The colossal creature, a good fifteen meters from snout to tail-tip, was dragged forward inch by inch. A long red line traced across the ground behind it—blood still pouring from its wounds.

«Grugles! They’ve smelled the blood and they’re coming!»

«Don’t let them get any closer!»

Kunta directed the spirits. Flame spirits unleashed a torrent of fire all at once. A moment later, a massive wall of flame rose to block the creatures’ approach.

In the meantime, the dragon was moved inside the castle walls. Only after the gates were bolted tight did the commotion finally subside.

Go Byeonggap wiped the sweat from his forehead and checked on the dragon’s condition again.

To put it plainly, it was a wreck—like a doll a vicious dog had mauled to pieces.

Go Byeonggap hurriedly gathered the healers and ordered them to treat the dragon. They cooperated, albeit reluctantly, but looked like they had no idea what they were doing.

“Wha—what in the world is this? Ain’t it a monster?”

“It’s Ms. Seo Sihui.”

“What’d you say!?”

“Just focus on the treatment, please. We can’t let her die.”

“Ah, got it.”

The crater-like wounds in her flesh gradually healed. Beside himself with worry, Go Byeonggap brought a whole basket of rice cakes and potions and force-fed them to her.

Despite all his care, Seo Sihui didn’t wake. He dragged her to a sunny spot and lit campfires around her.

And so the night’s turmoil came to an end.

She woke the next day in the late afternoon. When the dragon stirred its massive body, goblins passing by tumbled head over heels as one.

Some, even in their shock, scrambled to report to their Lord.

Go Byeonggap hurried to the place he’d put her. Even from a distance, things didn’t look good.

The dragon—that enormous creature—had its scales bristling, wary of the goblins. They dared not approach, keeping a safe distance.

“Hey!”

Before something terrible happened, he rushed to catch the dragon’s attention.

Seo Sihui whipped her head around and stared at him. Only then did her fierce aura seem to ease somewhat.

Go Byeonggap stood facing the dragon. How on earth was he supposed to start this conversation? He took a moment to gather himself.

“It’s you, isn’t it? It’s really you, right?”

“Grrrr……”

The growling lasted only a moment. The monstrously huge lizard soon shifted into the form of a human woman.

Several onlookers gaped, mouths wide open in awe.

Seo Sihui walked straight toward Go Byeonggap. Her first words were baffling—and shocking.

“I failed.”

Go Byeonggap noticed her pupils trembling uncontrollably.

“I… I….”

“Hey, calm down first.”

“Humanity is doomed now.”

Go Byeonggap smacked his lips bitterly. Her words sounded like a death sentence handed down by a judge.

He masked his troubled heart and spoke into the air.

«Dorma. You there.»

«You called.»

Dorma swept aside a curtain of black mist and stepped out.

«Gather the people. Summon a meeting now.»

«As you command.»

Go Byeonggap led Seo Sihui to the kitchen first. He asked Ea to put together a simple meal. But Sihui shook her head, listless.

“I don’t want to eat.”

“Eat anyway. Do you even know how much blood you’ve spilled?”

“…Humanity is heading for its end. There’s no stopping it now.”

“Tch. Fine, just eat, will you?”

He forced a potato into her hand. It crumbled to a pathetic mash in her grip. Tears were streaming down her cheeks.

Byeonggap suddenly noticed the empty space beside her. He forced the words out.

“The children you kept with you…”

“Dead.”

She sobbed. But Byeonggap could hardly feel grief from her. It was closer to emptiness.

“Geonryong killed them?”

“Beta and Omega died by his hand. Alpha died from the backlash of deactivating his Limit while trying to get me out. In the end, all those kids died for my sake—a dog’s death.”

“That’s… unfortunate.”

“Those little ones are all dead, and I survived again. Survived and flew here, ugly and filthy. I… what the hell am I…”

Byeonggap clicked his tongue briefly, then looked up. Ea was staring back at him with wide, blinking eyes.

«Ea. Clear this away.»

«Huh? But that woman didn’t eat a thing.»

«Never mind. Even if I laid out a feast, she wouldn’t touch it.»

«By the way, shouldn’t you comfort her? She’s crying.»

Byeonggap threw a sidelong glance at Seo Sihui. Then he spoke, his tone bitter.

«Comforting won’t fix this.»

Sihui never ate a single bite of that potato. Byeonggap took her to the meeting hall. Those Dorma had called were already filling the seats.

The moment Sihui stepped inside, the hunters shot to their feet. They fidgeted like rookies meeting some legendary senior. Even an S-rank hunter scrambled to pull out a chair for her—a faintly nostalgic sight.

Of course, the spirit Kunta and the goblins couldn’t care less. To them, one human was the same as the next.

“It’s really Seo Sihui.”

The meeting began with someone’s whisper.

Sihui hung limp as a strand of seaweed, utterly drained. Still, she answered every question diligently.

She told her story at length. To summarize her grand tale: it went like this.

She had met Go Geonryong in combat — and lost. There was nothing more to add.

“What exactly is Geonryong’s ability?”

The moment Seo Sihui fell silent, Hunter Ho Chanmyeong jumped in as if he’d been waiting. Sihui stared at him with dull, frozen-fish eyes for a long moment, then shook her head.

“The bastard doesn’t have any ability to speak of.”

“Huh? What do you mean by that?”

“Exactly what I said. Go Geonryong isn’t a psychic, nor any kind of special-system awakener.”

The room went blank.

Come to think of it, information about Go Geonryong was shrouded in secrecy. The only thing that even vaguely described him was the tag that followed him everywhere like a brand: the world’s strongest man.

All kinds of theories ran rampant about what his ability might be — that it must be a powerful mind-control type, or something that transcended space to manipulate spacetime itself.

Just as the hunters were starting to feel not just baffled but outright disappointed, Sihui added flatly:

“The problem is his karma. The karma he emits is extraordinarily dense. And it’s infinite.”

“Infinite? Did you just say infinite?”

“That’s right. It’s why people say Go Geonryong alone could wage an all-out war against the United States. And his karma is so dense that if he decides to put up a defense, you can’t even scratch him.”

“Th-then what do we do to take him down?”

This time it was Hunter Shin Yeji who asked. Sihui answered with a pitying look.

“The only way to defeat Go Geonryong is to catch him off guard and ambush him — but I failed. He’s no fool; he won’t fall for the same trick twice. And now I can’t see any path forward either.”

A heavy silence settled over the conference room. Sihui slowly looked around at the people there, then spoke.

“So what are all of you gathered here doing, anyway?”

“That didn’t take long for you to ask.”

Go Byeonggap gave Sihui a rundown of everything that had happened so far:

the monster wave that had swallowed South Korea, Illumission’s human hunts, and how in the cracks they’d been scraping together survivors to mount a counteroffensive.

After hearing it all, Seo Sihui showed no emotion. She just let her head hang low and muttered in a bleak tone:

“Give it up. There’s no point anymore. You don’t know — you can’t know what’s happening across the sea.”

“…….”

Go Byeonggap didn’t like her attitude one bit. Everyone was fighting day by day just to survive, and here she was telling them to quit.

There’s a limit to shitting on people’s hopes. His voice turned sharp.

“Then why did you come here? To blame me for turning down your offer back then? Or did you fly all that way just to tell us to give the hell up?”

“That’s…”

“There’s still regret left in you too, or else you wouldn’t have dragged your ruined body all the way here, would you?”

Seo Sihui’s mouth opened, working around a word she couldn’t quite catch, then closed. Even she hadn’t sorted through her own thoughts yet.

“Unless you’re planning to bite your tongue and die, how about cooperating with us? We desperately need your strength.”

“It’s meaningless, I’m telling you. Even if we drove out all of Illumission and the monsters on the Korean Peninsula, beyond the sea…”

“Damn it, we’ll think about that when we get there. Or are you saying you’d rather just sit back and watch?”

“…….”

“You, of all people, should fight to the last breath. Otherwise, what face will you have to meet the ones who went ahead?”

Seo Sihui bit her lip, sinking into thought. Then, from across the way, Jeong Seongyeong spoke.

“Ms. Sihui, fight on our side. We need at least one SS-rank to have any dignity when we face those bastards. Don’t you all think so?”

“That’s right. If Ms. Seo Sihui joins us, it’d be more reassuring than having a million troops at our backs.”

“Yes! Even if we go down in the end, let’s go down fighting!”

The other hunters echoed Jeong Seongyeong’s sentiment.

Seo Sihui still seemed troubled, but at last she nodded.

“…Fine. I’ll help you.”

“You made the right call.”

The hunters all cheered at the news of Sihui joining them. Who wouldn’t? She was an SS-rank powerhouse—the kind of talent you couldn’t buy with money, the kind you could only pray to recruit.

They welcomed her with clapping, applause rolling through the room. Amid the sound, Go Byeonggap drew everyone’s attention.

“Alright, let’s focus back on me.”

‘Good. The condition is met now.’

Another person who could open the door to Asvillam. There was no more reason to delay the operation.

Go Byeonggap suppressed the rising thrill in his chest and spoke.

“Let’s start preparing for a full-scale war with Illumission.”

* * *

For several days, assassination-type hunters—skilled in stealth and detection—led the reconnaissance efforts.

Their mission: locate Illumission’s base. They ran day and night, hunting down the twelve points they needed to strike.

‘No matter how much he wears a human skin like a goblin, his core is still a man. Lose the center, and he crumbles into nothing but a handful of scattered individuals.’

So their first target became the Design Plaza in Dongdaemun.

“Then I wish you good fortune in battle.”

“Be careful.”

“Byeonggap, take care of yourself.”

“Noona’s the one fighting—why worry about me? Don’t sweat it, I’ll see you later.”

A classic plan: the decoy team draws the enemies’ attention while the infiltration team destroys the target.

Go Byeonggap volunteered for the decoy team—alone. All twenty-three S-rank hunters were assigned to Seo Sihui.

Was it because he was so overwhelmingly strong? No. He had loyal subordinates no less formidable than S-rank hunters.

«Alright, let’s move.»

«Yes!»

«I’ll take point.»

«You know, I always work best with you lot.»

«And we’re happiest with our Lord!»

Eight goblins moved in perfect sync with Go Byeonggap. Each one was a commander who had consumed the soul of an ancient hero.

His party crept toward the target, using every shred of cover. When they were within a kilometer or two, they went to ground and held.

He checked his watch, steadying his breath. Twelve twenty-seven. Three minutes until go-time.

In that silence, he ran the plan through his head one more time.

«Remember this, all of you. Our job isn’t to wipe them out — it’s to lure as many as we can.»

«Yes, Lord. It’s burned into our memory.»

«Good. I want a racket that wakes up every sleeping dog in this neighborhood and sends ’em jumping.»

«Lord! That one — I am great at that!»

A grin tugged at the corner of Go Byeonggap’s mouth.

The watch finally hit twelve thirty. He drew his sword.

«Alright, everyone — let’s go raise some hell.»