Global Descent: I Alone Can See Hidden Evolution Paths

The black iron wedge was cold in Jun-ho’s left hand. He stood inside the shed, looking down at his feet. The rubber boots Gyeong-su had given him were too big, but they were better than walking in his socks. He shifted his weight, and the thick rubber gave a dull scrape against the packed dirt floor.

Outside, a car horn beeped twice. It was a short, sharp sound that cut right through the quiet hum of the brick stove.

Jun-ho walked out of the wooden door into the dirt yard. The drizzle was still falling, making the ground soft and muddy. Eun-bi’s gray sedan was parked sideways across the gravel, its engine spitting out thin clouds of gray smoke into the cold air.

Eun-bi got out of the driver’s side. She was wearing a big yellow rain jacket that looked cheap and carried the faint scent of old vinyl. Her hair was wet and messy, sticking to the sides of her face. When she saw the massive piece of black iron in Jun-ho’s hand, she stopped walking entirely, her boots freezing on the wet stones.

"What is that?" she asked, her voice high and tight, her fingers gripping the edge of her car door. "Did you pull that off a train track?"

"Gyeong-su made it," Jun-ho said, his tone perfectly flat. "Why are you here?"

"Sang-woo’s father didn’t wait for the government auditors," she said, wiping water off her face with her wet sleeve. Her chest was heaving under the yellow plastic coat. "He paid a private team from the central district guild office. They brought a tracker named Chang-sik. He has a skill that smells blood mana. He took a sample from Sang-woo’s torn coat at the hospital and followed your path straight to the subway exit."

Right then, a thin gray box popped up at the bottom of Jun-ho’s vision. It didn’t make a sound or flash with a bright light. It just sat there quietly in his line of sight.

[Warning: High-density mana signatures are approaching.]

[Distance: 150 meters.]

[Number of targets: 5.]

Jun-ho kept his eyes on the road. The text was right. Two hundred meters down the hill, three large black SUVs turned the corner into the dirt alley. Their bright headlights cut through the gray fog, shining straight into the scrap yard and casting long shadows behind the piles of old car frames.

"They found my car papers at the station," Eun-bi said, her teeth chattering from the cold wind. She walked closer to him, her voice dropping into a desperate whisper. "They know a paramedic helped you slip away from the gate. Jun-ho, Chang-sik is a Tier 4 hunter. He has four guild enforcers with him. They have grey steel breastplates and heavy iron maces. You need to run into the back alley before they block the path."

"The car won’t make it up the mud hill, girl," Gyeong-su said, walking out of the shed with an iron poker in his hand. He looked at the trucks, then at Jun-ho. "The iron is hard enough. Don’t let them scratch it."

The three black trucks stopped forty meters away, their lights blinding the yard. The tires sank an inch into the soft mud as the engines went quiet.

A tall man in a long leather coat stepped out of the first car. The left side of his face was covered by a flat metal plate, and his right eye was a glowing blue stone that turned slowly in his head, making a tiny, clicking noise as it adjusted its focus. This was Chang-sik. He held a small glass tube with a drop of dark, frozen red blood inside.

Four big men in grey steel breastplates stepped out behind him, holding heavy iron clubs that looked thick as tree branches.

Another gray box flashed in Jun-ho’s eye.

[Target Identified: Tier 4 Tracker (Chang-sik).]

[Target Identified: Tier 3 Enforcers (x4).]

[Multiplier System Note: Defeating these targets will grant 100x standard experience and loot value.]

Jun-ho felt the cold lake of mana in his chest start to stir. The gray text was giving him a clear choice. If he fought them here, his level would skyrocket. He didn’t feel afraid. With his strength over a hundred and his mana pool sitting vast and hidden under his ribs, these men didn’t look like high-ranked killers anymore. They just looked like obstacles.

"Kang Jun-ho," the tracker called out, his voice sounding like dry gravel being rubbed together. He didn’t pull a weapon, but his artificial eye locked straight onto Jun-ho’s chest. "You are under corporate arrest for the theft of a Tier 3 Core and the destruction of Sun God property. Drop the iron bar and put your hands behind your head."

Min-ah had clearly done her job at the district office, turning him into a thief to hide her own back-stab.

Jun-ho didn’t answer them. He took two steps forward, his oversized rubber boots squelching in the wet mud. He raised the black iron wedge, holding it with just his left hand. The weapon was heavy enough to break a normal man’s wrist, but in his grip, it stayed perfectly still, the blunt tip pointing straight at the tracker’s blue eye.

"Eun-bi," Jun-ho said, his voice quiet but carrying clearly over the sound of the rain. "Get behind the stone container."

"Jun-ho, you’re going to get killed," she muttered, but she saw the look in his eyes—the same cold, steady expression he had when he walked out of the dungeon gate. She didn’t argue anymore. She grabbed her bag from the passenger seat and ran behind the blue storage bins near the wall.

The four enforcers looked at each other, letting out short, mocking laughs. The leader of the group, a man with a thick scar across his nose, raised his iron club. "A Tier 1 meat shield holding a scrap bar. This won’t take two seconds. Don’t break his legs too much, boys. The boss wants him alive for the audit."

The four men dropped into a stance, their steel armor clinking as they prepared to charge.

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