World-class
When Seowoon opened his eyes, sunlight was pouring in through the bedroom window, high in the sky.
"Yaaawn…"
-Crack!
A refreshing sound came from his body as he stretched.
Just then, his phone rang, as if it had been waiting for him to wake up. He picked it up and was greeted by a familiar voice.
"Hyung! Did you eat yet?"
"No. I just woke up."
"Then let's start with food. I'll come over."
"I don't mind, but… didn't your school start already?"
"Ah, school's fine. I've got more than enough attendance days left."
That's not what those days are for, though, Seowoon thought, tilting his head slightly.
"If you keep skipping, it'll bite you when you try to get a job."
"Huh? Come on, as if I'd ever get a normal job."
"Oh, right."
Still a bit groggy, Seowoon finally remembered—Kichan wasn't your average high schooler.
Right… kid's technically a CEO.
"Alright then, come over. Let's eat and then head down to Wonju."
They ordered pork ribs at a local BBQ joint, and just as the meat was cooked to perfection, Kichan walked in.
Seowoon hadn't noticed it much when they played together in Cloyd, but every time they met in real life, Kichan's looks stood out more.
How does his hair stay perfect even after wearing a helmet?
It must've just been his imagination, but Kichan's hair looked perfectly styled despite just taking off his helmet—and it annoyed Seowoon more than he'd like to admit.
"Good timing."
"Yeah. Eat up, you bastard."
"Huh?"
"I said, help yourself."
Without another word, Kichan sat down and got straight to eating. With swift chopstick skills, he polished off four servings in the blink of an eye.
"Whew. That hit the spot."
"If you're done, let's go. We need to check the insight too."
"Yessir!"
They paid the bill and stepped outside. As they mounted their machines, passersby naturally turned to look at them.
"Looks like all the people who were staking out the neighborhood are gone?"
"Seems like it. Didn't see anyone when I came out."
"Think something happened on their end?"
"I don't care. I've had enough of those bastards."
-VRRRROOOM!
Seowoon's machine roared to life as he took off first, with Kichan following close behind.
They made their way to Seowoon's house in Wonju, which they'd left just yesterday. Stopping in front of it, Seowoon called out in his mind.
Hamit.
—I hear you, master.—
When Seowoon absorbed Wonyoungshin, Hamit had been all formal and respectful. But now, his tone was back to normal. Not that Seowoon minded—his eyes were locked on the three figures standing in front of the house.
Hamit, hanging from his neck, unraveled into a bandage and coiled around his hand. Kichan, too, pulled out his golden Abyss Staff.
"We're not here to fight."
It was Jung Soohee, waving both hands, who broke the silence.
"The last time you guys showed up, blood was spilled. That's not something I can just ignore. Thanks to you, we ended up with a whole new batch of annoying enemies."
"We're only here to tell you that those 'annoying enemies' have completely backed off."
At her cryptic words, Seowoon and Kichan exchanged glances.
"This is important stuff. Standing around feels rude, don't you think?"
They led her and her two bodyguards inside.
Tossing some canned drinks from his subspace storage—the kind you pick up from the supermarket—Seowoon watched her take a sip and look around.
"Nice place. You built it well."
"You didn't come just to tour the house, did you?"
Unbothered by the bluntness, she got to the point.
"The ranking system got updated."
As Seowoon and Kichan stared at her with unimpressed faces, she gave them a knowing smile.
"Knew it. You joined the updated game, didn't you?"
"So what's your point?"
"Jeez, so cold. Right now, rumors about the rank system are spreading like wildfire among the fixed players. Survivors from the updated game are leaking information, and it's gotten everyone hyped. There's even debate over whether the guy ranked last in the top 'Crown' tier—one Jin Seowoon—is really Korean."
Kichan blinked and muttered,
"Ah! That's why only we could see that ranking window! If it was open to all games…"
Ignoring his rambling, Seowoon kept his eyes on Soohee.
"Go on."
"Even if other players are in the dark, both we and Central Intelligence know exactly who Jin Seowoon is. All their field agents and even those pro-China factions vanished. Rumor has it Kim Chilsang even cut contact with Central and went into hiding."
"…"
When Seowoon just kept staring silently, she sighed and continued.
"Not the reaction I was hoping for, but fine. In case you didn't know, it's rare for someone from Earth to reach Crown rank. Rumor has it there are only three—including you. That fact alone put a hard stop to our conflict with Central."
"And you came all the way here to share that because…?"
"No need to be so defensive. I'm not here to recruit you. I just figured it'd be safer for us to stay friendly with someone who's gone from national to world-class. You always seemed a bit weak on intel."
"Thanks for the good news."
"Well, in exchange—mind if I ask something?"
He nodded, and she didn't hesitate.
"You're not planning to join any guilds, right?"
"No interest in making friends. After that last game, I've seen how annoying guilds can be."
"You probably felt it, but going forward, guilds will dominate not just squad games, but every fixed game. Teamed-up guilds are already becoming the norm, and more players are trying to get into one. And as you know, the biggest guild in Korea is being built by none other than Kim Chilsang."
"Bunch of rabble gathering doesn't mean much. A solid, high-skill fixed squad will grow much faster."
"Well, everyone's got their own opinion."
She stood up from her seat.
"Let's stay friendly, Ranker."
Just before stepping out the door, she turned back with one last remark.
"Oh, and by the way. The two pro-China organizations that tried to approach you? They gave up all their business interests and vanished. They're probably shaking in fear right now, wondering if you'll come looking for them."
That got a smile out of Seowoon at last.
"If you want to find them, give me a call. Our intel network could track them down in a few days."
She flicked a business card out from her subspace. Seowoon caught it—black cardstock, white print, nothing but a phone number.
After she and her crew left, Kichan spoke up.
"Guess you're famous now!"
"Not sure that's a good thing. Fame invites attention… and pressure."
"True. But at least we don't have to deal with those pesky stalkers anymore."
"That's a win."
Seowoon took a sweet latte from his subspace and took a sip. Kichan pulled out a coffee of his own and said,
"So… ready to check it out?"
Seowoon's lips curled into a pleased smile. He nodded and retrieved the parchment.
As he unfurled it, a translucent lock shattered with a magical effect, and elegant cursive Korean script appeared across the page.
"If something happens to me while reading this…"
"I know. I won't touch you."
Kichan answered before Seowoon could even finish—clearly, he'd read a few wuxia novels in his time.
Smiling faintly, Seowoon turned his gaze to the parchment.
I lived sixty years as the 32nd Heavenly Demon, training in martial arts that only the Heavenly Demon could master, and gained countless insights.
Yet at the end of every enlightenment, a new wall always appeared.
These are the thoughts I leave behind—lessons learned breaking through those walls.
To be born human is to eventually face the equal wall of the dantian's limits.
For orthodox martial artists, who cultivate more slowly, that wall may take decades to appear—or never come at all. But for us demon cultivators, we encounter it before our forties.
Despite the limit of a dantian that could only store internal energy equivalent to three Heavenly Stem, many demonic practitioners either stagnated there or sought detours and alternative methods.
"A human dantian can only hold three Heavenly Stem worth of internal energy?!"
Seowoon's eyes widened as he read the parchment.
In martial arts novels, even passing extra elder characters often had that much energy.
If he hadn't met Jang Docheon and received the Blood-Demon Vitality Technique, he might not have cared. But having already built up two Heavenly Stem himself, the revelation that the human dantian couldn't hold more than three was a huge shock.
Regaining his focus, Seowoon continued reading the insight :
"… Some say enlightenment causes the dantian to expand and thus accept more internal energy, but in my experience, that's false.
Enlightenment doesn't enlarge the dantian. It simply opens the middle dantian.
Usually, after training in steel qi techniques and gaining deep insight into them, the next stage is the opening of the middle dantian.
Once a martial artist masters control over tangible qi—overcoming its naturally unstable nature—and fills their lower dantian to the brim, they reach a bottleneck. In the process of struggling to break past that limit, they naturally begin to perceive the path to the middle dantian.
Some high-level practitioners, in trying too hard to open the middle dantian, end up restructuring their physical bodies instead—triggering rejuvenation and drastically expanding the lower dantian. But falling into this path makes it impossible to open the middle and upper dantian and attain communion with nature through the Realm of Nature.
So to any reader of this insight, I urge you: don't become impatient and stray down that path.
Returning to the main point, unlike the lower dantian, the middle dantian seems capable of storing more than four Heavenly Stem of internal energy.
At the time, I had about three Heavenly Stem stored in my middle dantian when I opened the upper dantian and stepped into the Realm of Nature. Realizing I no longer needed to accumulate energy, I ceased all accumulation.
Once the crown point opens and the upper dantian is activated, the very concept of dantian becomes obsolete. If you've opened your middle dantian as a martial artist, it's better to focus on opening the upper dantian than obsessing over internal energy accumulation.
Now, I will describe the enlightenment that led to the opening of my upper dantian…
***
"W-Wait! You can't just move on like that! That's no help at all!"
Startled by the abrupt progression, Seowoon unintentionally raised his voice.
"W-What's wrong?"
Kichan looked up, startled, as Seowoon let out a deep sigh and handed him the parchment.
Kichan skimmed through it quickly, then said in a deflated voice:
"Hyung… this is the second volume."
"What?!"
Seowoon snatched the parchment back.
"Where does it say that?"
"Up at the top…"
Right above the main body of text—words he'd skipped in his eagerness—tiny letters read:
Insight of the Mad Light Demon (Part 2)
"What the hell?! Since when was the main reward this half-baked?! If it's the second part, they should've made that clear up front!"
"Well, complaining won't change anything…"
Of course. No amount of complaining would sway them.
In hindsight, it made sense—how it glossed over the basics and jumped right into high-level concepts. He should've seen it coming.
Still, it wasn't a total loss.
"I didn't know the lower dantian was this limited."
"Huh? You think three Heavenly Stem is small?"
"You're not a martial artist. I've already passed two Heavenly Stem, you know."
"What?!"
Kichan's eyes bulged as Seowoon opened his status window for the first time in a while.
***
[Name: Jin Seowoon
Race: Human
Class: Demon (Mage)]
Strength: 81
Stamina: 48
Agility: 142
Toughness: 73
Magic Resistance: 180
★ Special Stat – Internal Energy: 739
★ Special Stat – Mana: 60
***
"Internal energy sits at 739."
Even without counting internal energy, his strength had increased thanks to Kalera's Shirt and his agility had skyrocketed with Kaiser's Ring.
"Whoa… that's not even a martial arts protagonist's level. Two Heavenly Stem already?"
"I'm kind of an oddball, remember? If things had gone right, I might've even hit the full three Heavenly Stem this round. Anyway, this insight isn't super helpful to me right now… but for him, it might be."
Kichan instantly understood who he meant.
"You mean Namsagwang, right?"
"Yeah."
"Now that you mention it… he did say something similar. Something like, 'Rejuvenation isn't the goal—it's just a side effect,' and that it's a 'misstep in his case.'"
"That guy… he'd definitely get something out of this insight."
Kichan frowned in concern as he looked at Seowoon.
"You're not thinking of accepting a fixed quad, are you?"
"I'm tempted, sure—but the risks are high. Let's discuss it more later. For now, I've only confirmed three for sure: Sahyung, Juriel, and Lilingwei."
"Makes sense. I'm fine with those three. Especially Juriel—her magic's top-notch. Oh, and I picked up some sweet items this time too."
Grinning, Kichan pulled a 6th Circle Stone and a fist-sized pink gem from his subspace.
"Wait—aren't you already at 6 Circles? Why'd you get another one?"
"This is what matters."
The moment Seowoon took the pink gem, its identity became clear.
-Ding! You've obtained a Supreme Mana Stone.
The familiar notification chime made Seowoon's expression turn strange.
"Don't tell me…"
"Yup. The chances aren't great, but if we find an alchemist willing to try… I once heard a rumor that someone made a 7th Circle Stone, and they needed this stone to do it."
"You're powering up for real, huh?"
"We'll see. It might fail. I gave up two AoE spells just to carry this."
Seowoon handed the stone back to Kichan, tilting his head slightly.
"When did you get that, anyway?"
"Ah, Juriel tossed it to me just before I died to Namsagwang. I'm not sure if it was hers originally or something she'd squirreled away."
"That woman's impossible to read. No weak spots anywhere."
Kichan nodded with a smile.
"During the wheel draw, I noticed every mage had at least one hidden item stashed away—even besides Juriel."
In a squad game where loot was supposed to be shared, hoarding items was all too common.
"Greedy bastards like that ruin team synergy. No wonder those guys never got beyond Gold Wing. Useless parasites."
Thinking of the mages they'd played with made Seowoon's blood boil.
They were the kind of people he never wanted to party with again.
As they reflected on the last game and drifted into a postmortem discussion, both men suddenly went silent.
Their eyes turned toward the same direction—toward the front door—as a knock sounded.
Knock knock knock.
Kichan summoned the Staff of the Abyss, waved it, and the door opened… revealing an unexpected visitor.
"Of course. Like twins."
Seowoon's muttered words, thankfully, were muffled by the Silence spell Kichan had cast earlier.
Dispelling the spell, Kichan spoke calmly:
"Please, come in."
Cautiously, Jung Suhwa stepped inside, locked eyes with Seowoon, and said:
"I came because I have information to share."
She said the exact same thing her sister, Jung Soohee, had said earlier.
Seowoon shook his head in disbelief.
Kichan stepped in on his behalf.
"Have a seat."
He gestured to the empty sofa and handed her a can from his subspace. She set it down and got straight to the point.
"This is something I thought Jin Seowoon absolutely needed to know. As of today…"
"Kim Chisang has gone off the grid from the Department of Homeland Security. Most likely, he's cut ties with them, right?"
Seowoon cut her off with the exact words she was about to say.
She stared at him, wide-eyed.
"…You're fast with intel."
"Thanks to some ugly woman from God-knows-where."
Seo-woon twisted his lips as he spoke. For some reason, that response irritated Jung Su-hwa, though she didn't let it show.
"Right now, many high-level agents in our Department of Homeland Security have lost contact along with Kim Chilsang, which has caused a major upheaval at the top. With him gone—he who managed and reported on the unofficial organizations—we've lost our grip on many of the groups we were working with. It's thrown our superiors into a panic. Most likely, he's…"
"He's formed a guild and is gathering Korean ability users to consolidate their power."
"…Yes. That's my assessment as well. I came here today to explain the connection between him and the Department of Homeland Security, in case there's a chance it could affect you, Mr. Jin Seo-woon."
"You probably came to ask more than just that."
At his pointed remark, she let out a sigh.
The man in front of her was never easy to deal with.
"You're right. I'll be direct. You're Crown-ranked, aren't you?"
"I am. And just so you know, no matter what offer you make, I'm going to refuse."
"I'm not here to ask for your help like last time. But… would you make me just one promise?"
Again, he answered before hearing the question.
"No need to worry—I have no intention of lending power to the Resistance. I'm strictly neutral."
"That's not it… I want you to turn down any offer that comes from other countries, too—just like you're doing now."
For the first time since she arrived, a spark of curiosity flickered in Seo-woon's eyes.
"Other countries?"
Seeing that he was unaware, Su-hwa's gaze sharpened as she began to reveal more information.
"Most major countries are now fully aware of the world of ability users and Cloyds. In fact, some of them are moving swiftly to organize these ability users and build up their strength."
At that, Ki-chan's eyes widened.
"Not to control them, but to build their strength?"
She let out a quiet sigh and her shoulders slumped.
"Every country tries to keep ability users out of public view. That much is the same. But very few do it as forcefully as we do. Most try to win them over with benefits."
"That's the smarter approach."
With a bitter smile, she nodded and continued.
"Right now, nearly every country is aggressively forming guilds and doing everything they can to expand. It's also becoming common for them to scout talent from abroad. Because of that…"
"They might come scouting you, Seo-woon hyung, now that you've emerged as a Crown-rank?"
Su-hwa shifted her eyes from Ki-chan to Seo-woon, her gaze now full of certainty.
"It's not just a possibility. It's a guarantee. We've already confirmed that several well-known ability users from Japan and China have boarded planes headed this way. Normally, our department would've blocked them by any means necessary, but…"
"But now that Kim Chilsang's taken most of the agents with him, that's no longer possible."
"Exactly…"
Seo-woon looked at Su-hwa, who seemed especially weary today, and gave a small nod.
"Don't worry. I'll never be the kind of guy who puts a leash around his own neck. No matter how great the treatment they offer, I'm staying here in Korea, breathing Korean air."
Under normal circumstances, those words might have sounded tragic. But in the midst of the current upheaval, they felt reassuring to Su-hwa.
"Yes. I'll take that promise and hold you to it."
She gave a respectful bow and turned to leave, but Seo-woon called out to stop her.
"Wait."
"Yes?"
"If they come by force…"
His voice trailed off. Su-hwa smiled knowingly.
"In Korea, ability users are classified under a special National Security Act as potential terrorists. That means if, in the name of national security, we're forced to eliminate them… no one will ever be prosecuted for murder. I guarantee it. Even if those ability users from Japan and China die, I'll personally make sure everything is handled cleanly."
Ki-chan looked startled by her ruthless words, but Seo-woon simply gave a deep smile and nodded.
Just as she was about to step outside the front door, her phone rang loudly.
She picked up—and immediately shouted into the receiver.
"What?! Civilian casualties?!"
At that, both Seo-woon and Ki-chan naturally turned toward her in alarm.
Ki-chan, who clearly heard the voice from the receiver, quickly pulled out his phone and opened a portal site.
"Hyung…"
He held it out. On the screen, the trending search terms appeared:
#1. Terror Attack at Sinsa Station
#2. Fire at Sinsa Station
#3. Superpowered Individual
#4. Superpower Terrorist
#5. Sinsa…
.
.
.
As the two men stared at each other with grim faces, Su-hwa hung up the call. She then stepped forward aggressively, and a spiderweb of cracks splintered across the tiles in the entryway, the entire house trembling slightly.
[T/L: Read extra chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : https://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]