The twelve hunters of the Miracle Guild’s primary vanguard didn't move. The tactical searchlights mounted on their carbon-fiber armor cut through the toxic, sulfurous mist of Mapo Sector 4, pinning Min-jae in a crossfire of sterile white beams.
To their internal system interfaces, the scene before them was a complete systematic failure. The multi-ton carcass of the Toxic Swamp Hydra—a creature whose scale armor was mathematically rated to withstand standard C-Rank magical artillery—was deflating like a punctured tire, its flesh rapidly dissolving into gray ash as the Overmaster System aggressively drained its biological data.
"Identify yourself!" the vanguard captain shouted, his voice amplified by his helt's external speakers. He was a Level 24 Aegis Knight, his massive rectangular shield glowing with a layer of dense, blue mana data. "Step away from the anomaly carcass and show your status window! This sector has been declared a state-controlled asset under the jurisdiction of the Miracle Guild!"
Min-jae didn't step down from the Hydra’s skull. He stood with his weight perfectly distributed across his bare soles, his lean, jade-tinted chest rising and falling in a slow, unbroken rhythm.
Inhale. Hold. Exhale.
With his Perception sitting at 28, he didn't just see the twelve hunters; he saw the structural integrity of their gear. He saw the microscopic stress fractures in the captain’s shield handle. He heard the slight, uneven friction in the cooling fans of their power-armor. To a master of the [Jade Bone] realm, their advanced, corporate-funded equipnt looked like an overly complicated assembly of fragile parts held together by a thin glaze of synthetic mana.
"State-controlled asset," Min-jae repeated, his voice carrying that deep, tallic ring that seed to vibrate the water in the puddles around them. "The creature was drowning your civilians in their own basents while you were posing for the news drones on the bridge. I didn't see your jurisdiction when the acid was pumping."
"You rogue bastard—" One of the Mages in the rear raised his staff, a dense sequence of blue runic data beginning to circle the crystal tip.
[Skill Initiated: 'Chains of Frost (C-Rank)'.]
[Targeting designated entity's lower limbs...]
"Drop the spell," a sharp, trembling voice cut through the tactical channel.
The female analyst stepped forward from the back of the armored line, her eyes wide as she stared at her holographic tablet, then up at Min-jae’s bare fists. The digital screen was flashing an error ssage she had only seen once before—at the base of Mount Naksan.
"Minsu, cancel the cast imdiately!" she commanded, her voice dropping all corporate decorum. "Look at the localized mana pool! It’s dropping! The mont you channel into that sector, your data matrix will short-circuit!"
The Mage froze, his staff trembling as the blue runes around the crystal tip began to flicker unevenly, losing their structural cohesion. He looked down at his own interface. The ambient mana density around the teenager wasn't just low; it was a physical vacuum. It was sucking the ambient energy out of his spell formulation before the data could even lock onto the target.
Min-jae casually slipped off the dissolving skull of the Hydra, landing in the shallow pool of acidic sli without making more than a faint tap.
"You're smart," Min-jae said, his golden-ringed eyes locking onto the analyst. "You look at the data instead of the rank. Tell your captain to lower his shield before I have to show him what happens to a Level 24 parater when it ets an unyielding lever."
The vanguard captain gritted his teeth, his grip tightening on his shield. He was a corporate elite; he had spent the last twelve hours being praised as one of humanity’s saviors. Being threatened by a bare-chested teenager who didn't even have a visible weapon was an intolerable insult to his programming.
"Form up!" the captain roared. "He’s a lone rogue variable! Secure the core matrix before the Helios scouts arrive!"
"There is no core matrix left to secure," a deep, weathered voice rumbled from the dark alleyway to the left.
The twelve hunters snapped their heads around, their rifles swinging toward the shadow. From the mist stepped Choi Sung-min. The 'Iron Wall' was no longer wearing his mythic-grade silver power-armor; he was dressed in a standard military fatigue jacket, his right arm bound tightly to his chest in a dense, carbon-reinforced dical sling. He looked exhausted, his face lined with the deep, systemic fatigue of a man who had spent the last two hours arguing with corporate boards and state ministers.
"Director Choi!" the analyst gasped, lowering her tablet.
"Stand down, Captain," Choi Sung-min commanded, walking past the armored line without looking at them. His single operational eye was fixed entirely on Min-jae. "The Hydra is dead. The spatial tear in this sector has been neutralized. Your mission here is over."
"But Director—"
"I said, stand down," Choi Sung-min repeated, a cold, heavy authority dropping into his tone that brooked no corporate backtalk. "Unless you want to explain to the Chairman why an entire vanguard squad was annihilated in a Gray Sector because you couldn't read a simple battlefield map."
The captain stared at his director, then at the deep, hand-shaped indentation still visible on the edge of the auxiliary shield Choi Sung-min was carrying on his left shoulder. The captain’s throat went dry. He gave a sharp, curt nod, signaling his n with a quick hand gesture.
"Fall back! Secure the periter three blocks out!"
The twelve hunters moved with rapid, synchronized efficiency, their boots splashing through the sli as they retreated toward the main avenue, leaving Choi Sung-min alone in the dark street with the rogue variable.
Min-jae loose-jointed his shoulders, leaning his back against the brick wall of a ruined warehouse. "You look lighter without that silver tin can, Director."
"The armor was trash anyway," Choi Sung-min said, a grim, self-deprecating smile touching his lips as he looked at the dissolving remains of the Hydra. "The State Council didn't take the warning well. Park Jin-woo is throwing a tantrum in the assembly, claiming you're an intentional terrorist asset deployed by a rogue state or a foreign guild. They've already authorized the release of the Sovereign Bounty list."
Min-jae didn't look surprised. "A bounty. What's the price on my head?"
"Ten billion won," Choi Sung-min said, his eye narrowing. "And three mythic-grade mana cores from the upcoming B-Rank gate openings. Every independent Hunter and corporate rcenary from here to Busan is going to be hunting your silhouette by sunrise."
Min-jae turned his internal gaze toward his status sheet, watching the golden Core Seed spin with a smooth, relentless montum.
[Current True Ki: 33 / 50]
[Your 'Jade Bone' matrix has fully assimilated the C-Rank Elite essence.]
[The internal engine is preparing for the Stage 3: Stabilization threshold.]
"Ten billion won," Min-jae murmured, a cold, sharp smile breaking across his face. "They're underestimating the market value of a perfect fist. That won't even cover the cost of the shields I'm going to break this week."
He straightened his spine, stepping away from the wall. His bare skin glead with that faint, jade-like luster in the moonlight, completely untouched by the toxic acid dripping from the warehouse eaves.
"Tell them to raise the price, Director Choi," Min-jae said, his body beginning to blur into a gray mist as he executed the first movent of the Formless Step. "Because if they're going to send their entire network to fill my pool... I want to make sure the harvest is worth the effort."
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