The air over Gwanghwamun Square ripped open like a raw wound.
The violet do of the Mutated Gate expanded with a violent, concussive boom, sending a thermal shockwave across the plaza that blew out the remaining windows of the surrounding office buildings. From the center of the vortex, a massive figure descended, its heavy iron boots slamming into the concrete with enough force to cause a localized tremor.
It was the Orc Chieftain—a C-Rank Vanguard Commander.
The creature stood nearly nine feet tall, its flesh the color of bruised iron and thick as armor plating. Unlike the feral, naked goblins, this monster wore a heavy, rust-stained breastplate made of crude abyssal steel. It had three heads, each grotesque jaw lined with jagged, yellow tusks, and its six bloodshot eyes burning with a terrifying, militaristic intelligence. In its massive, four-fingered hands, it swung a colossal executioner's axe that humd with a corrupt, dark purple mana aura.
[Warning! A C-Rank Vanguard Commander (Mutated Anomaly) has descended!]
[The local area has been designated as a 'Calamity Zone'.]
[All nearby universal interfaces are locked into combat state.]
The blue status screens of Park Jin-woo and his seven squad mbers flashed with a frantic, pulsing red border. The confident, arrogant expressions on their faces vanished in an instant, replaced by a pale, breathless terror.
"C... C-Rank?!" one of the Mages scread, his voice cracking as his knees trembled. "The gate was listed as a D-Rank! The system said it was a D-Rank!"
"Shut up! Don't break formation!" Park Jin-woo roared, though his own knuckles were white as he gripped his glowing steel broadsword. His A-Rank Blessed Knight class was powerful, but at Level 3, his total health pool couldn't withstand a single direct hit from a weapon that massive. He forced his mana to circulate, activating his premier defensive skill. "Mages, layer your Lesser Shields on ! Vanguard, we hold the line!"
"GURRRR—ROAAAR!"
The Orc Chieftain’s central head let out a deafening battle cry, while the two flanking heads snapped their jaws, tasting the air. It didn't hesitate. With a terrifying explosion of speed that defied its massive bulk, the chieftain lunged forward, the executioner's axe drawing a wicked, purple arc through the air.
"Activate shields!" Jin-woo yelled, thrusting his broadsword upward.
Three translucent blue barriers manifested in front of him, stacked sequentially to form a magical wall. To a Level 3 Mage, these shields were supposed to deflect the blunt-force impact of a speeding vehicle.
CHOMP.
The Orc's executioner's axe struck the first shield. The magical barrier didn't just crack; it shattered like cheap glass. The axe tore through the second and third shields in a single, uninterrupted motion, the corrupt purple mana eating away the World Tree’s data before the spell could even register the resistance.
"What—?!" Jin-woo’s eyes widened in horror.
The flat side of the massive axe blade slamd directly into Jin-woo’s mythic-grade silver breastplate. The impact sounded like a cannon firing. Jin-woo was lifted off his feet, propelled backward like a broken doll. He skipped across the concrete three tis before crashing into the base of a stone monunt, coughing up a torrent of bright red blood. His glowing broadsword clattered uselessly to the ground, its blue aura flickering out.
[Your party leader has suffered a 'Critical Fracture' condition.]
[Party morale has collapsed.]
"Leader! Master Jin-woo!"
The remaining six squad mbers panicked completely. Without Jin-woo’s Command buff, their basic status paraters plumted. The Orc Chieftain cackled with all three mouths, its massive legs flexing as it prepared to sweep the axe horizontally to incinerate the rest of the vanguard in a single blow.
From the shadow of the shattered bus stop, Min-jae observed the entire sequence with absolute clarity. His perception stat of 15 allowed him to see the precise flaw in Jin-woo's defense.
He relied on the numbers of the shield instead of his own center of gravity, Min-jae thought coldly. He didn't even attempt to redirect the kinetic force. Flashy trash.
Min-jae stepped out of the shadows. He didn't draw a sword. He didn't call upon a shield. He simply uncoiled his shoulders, his body slipping into the effortless rhythm of the Breathing of the Primordial Core.
Inhale for four. Hold for two. Exhale for eight.
The 10 units of True Ki inside his solar plexus ignited smoothly, moving down his legs and supercharging his muscle tissues without a single watt of wasted energy.
[Active Skill Initiated: 'Formless Step'.]
BOOM.
The asphalt beneath Min-jae's feet didn't just crack; it dissolved into dust as he launched himself forward. To the remaining hunters, it didn't look like a human running—it looked as if a ghost had passed through the smoke. He covered the fifty-yard distance to the Orc Chieftain in a fraction of a second, appearing directly within the monster's blind spot just as the executioner's axe reached the peak of its backswing.
The Orc’s left head snapped toward the sudden presence, its two yellow eyes widening as it detected a human vessel completely devoid of mana. It tried to abort the swing to crush the intruder, but Min-jae was already inside its guard.
"Your armor is heavy," Min-jae whispered, his voice cutting through the roaring wind of the battlefield. "But your bones are still just marrow."
He dropped into a low, mathematically perfect stance. He drove his left fist upward, targeting the unarmored joint right beneath the Orc’s left shoulder plate—the precise point where the arm t the central torso matrix.
He didn't just punch. He circulated 3 units of his compressed True Ki straight through his knuckles.
Formless Style: Mountain Breaker.
BA-BANG!
The sound of the impact was completely different from Jin-woo's magical clash. It was a dense, dull thud that resonated deep within the earth. The sheer physical force of Min-jae’s 22 Strength, multiplied by the explosive density of his True Ki, generated an internal shockwave that traveled straight through the abyssal steel breastplate.
The Orc Chieftain’s left arm instantly went limp, the joint completely dislocated and the muscle fibers inside shattered into mush. The massive executioner's axe slipped from its grip, the heavy iron head burying itself three feet into the concrete.
"GURRR... AHHH?!" The central head roared in agony, while the right head snapped its jaws toward Min-jae’s neck in a desperate, predatory reflex.
Min-jae didn't retreat. Retracting ant losing the kinetic montum he had built.
Using the rebound force of his first strike, he spun his torso clockwise, his right leg whipping around like a steel column. His heel, reinforced by another 2 units of True Ki, caught the Orc's right head cleanly across the jaw.
CRACK.
The three-headed beast was blasted sideways by the sheer physical weight of the kick, its massive nine-foot fra stumbling three paces across the plaza before its knees buckled, slamming heavily onto the concrete.
The surviving mbers of the Helios squad stood frozen, their mouths open, their spells completely forgotten. They stared at Min-jae’s back—at a plain black t-shirt soaked in sweat, at a teenager who had just dropped a C-Rank Calamity Boss to its knees with nothing but his bare hands and feet.
"Who... who is that?" the Mage whispered, his status screen flickering erratically as it tried to calculate Min-jae's non-existent mana level. "Is he a high-level Hidden Class?"
Min-jae ignored them. He stood over the thrashing Orc Chieftain, his hands loose at his sides, his eyes cold and calculating as the golden screen flashed once more.
[The Anomaly's core is fracturing.]
[Execute the final strike to claim the essence of the Vanguard Commander.]
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