'An S-rank Hunter from Imabari is here?'
That distinctive cool-colored hair typical of an Earthling mana Awakener. A muscular body with almost no excess fat. And in combat, static electricity crackling around her with every step.
Crackle, crackle.
I'd met all four of Japan's S-rank Hunters in person only a few hours ago.
There was no chance I could mistake her identity now.
'Could this be a serious problem? If those crazed, red-eyed lunatics are actually under Imabari's command, things could get very complicated.'
I swallowed dryly as the newly arrived Awakened entered Building A.
But my fears soon proved unfounded.
The lightning mage who had smashed through the window immediately asked, with obvious concern, whether I was all right. Shortly afterward, another red-eyed Awakened dropped through the hole in the ceiling, and she dealt with that one as an enemy as well.
'Ah, so that's what this is. Nothing more sinister—the Japanese representative guild simply came to clean up the mess.'
Crackle!
The Japanese lightning mage electrocuted the dangerous target.
Apparently, she'd already received a rough explanation of the situation before arriving. Even though the opponent was wearing a Japanese name tag, she activated her skill without the slightest hesitation.
Watching her magic, I immediately understood why she had been sent here.
'In a situation like this, of course she'd be more useful than Japan's number one.'
When it came to sheer destructive power, Moritake Ito had an overwhelming advantage.
But fire didn't stop hurting just because you applied it gently.
If the goal was simply to subdue members of the same species without killing them, then naturally that woman was better suited to the task.
Korea didn't have any top-tier Hunters with an electric attribute, so I'd never really had a chance to appreciate the difference before, but electricity certainly seemed to have quite a few advantages. Relatively speaking, it was much easier to control.
Chiiik!
Huh...
Or maybe not?
"Keugh—!"
I'd been smelling something burning for a while now.
That's just the poster, right?
For a split second, something flashed before my eyes.
I blinked.
And in that brief instant, the entire situation had been brought under control.
All three Awakened who had come through the ceiling were sprawled across the floor like fallen logs, completely motionless.
The one struck by the S-rank Hunter's lightning looked particularly bad.
At the sight, I found myself glancing around nervously like a guilty Jindo dog, trying to gauge the mood.
"Ranker!"
Apparently unaware that the sheer presence of an electric-attribute S-rank had already overwhelmed me psychologically, the lightning mage—who had just thoroughly fried one of her own species—strode toward me with long, confident steps.
"Ranker Giryeo, I'm sorry...!"
It was right around then that I noticed the A-ranker who had been writhing at my feet had gone quiet.
The attacker who had tried to assault an alien had ultimately failed to remove the [Screaming Stake] I'd slipped into his clothes.
'Poor thing.'
Was this simply the inevitable fate of a jointed creature with insufficient flexibility?
Seeing the attacker finally pass out from the continuous pain was almost pitiful.
But sympathy for an enemy only leads to losses, so I immediately turned my attention back to the Japanese Hunter.
"By the way, what exactly happened here? Could you give me a brief explanation?"
"Yes. If you need one..."
Before answering, I casually clasped my hands behind my back.
"Do you see that hole in the ceiling over there?"
I moved one hand slightly behind me, where the other person couldn't see it.
It would be troublesome if my secret weapon were exposed in a foreign country like this.
"Those Awakened suddenly came down through there."
While the Japanese S-rank focused on the words of this supposed corpse, I calmly retrieved the dagger-shaped artifact I'd used.
"And this person attacked me with clear intent to kill, even though I hadn't done anything to them."
"Gasp! Did that really happen?"
The collar of the fallen assailant's clothes.
Across the shattered remains of Hall 1.
Past the legs of a man in a suit.
Then, at last, quietly toward the hand hidden behind my back.
Taking advantage of the fact that the other person's attention was fixed on the ceiling, I naturally returned the equipment to my item box.
Telekinesis really was an exceptionally convenient form of magic in situations like this.
It was clean, silent, and difficult to detect either visually or audibly.
If you have the talent for it, I definitely recommend learning telekinesis.
"What the heck is this?!"
Now then.
Let's turn our attention back to the Japanese side.
Just as I safely finished putting away my weapon, the bluish mammal standing in front of me gave a slight nod.
"Iori. Where are you now? Still in Building D?"
A reply came almost immediately.
Of course I'm in Building D! How do you expect me to leave? Did you catch all three who escaped?
"Yeah!"
Then send someone to the storage room too. I've already caught two more myself!
"Wait a second! You're saying five people in total caused all this chaos?"
I still had no idea what exactly was going on.
But whatever the explanation, the place was an absolute mess.
An S-rank lightning mage was now rushing from place to place without even having time for proper greetings, while uniformed personnel had suddenly surrounded Hall 1 before I knew it.
'Judging by how quickly they arrived, they couldn't have come from a police station. Damn it... So there was a separate law-enforcement patrol stationed inside the exhibition grounds all along.'
Information I had discovered far too late.
Apparently, police officers had been periodically patrolling the Tokyo venue to maintain public order.
The complex was enormous, so they'd been spread out across a wide area. Naturally, a certain Alphaurian hadn't happened to notice them until now.
'And they weren't Awakened, so they would've been difficult for me to keep track of in the first place.'
But...
Was that really a problem?
Those uniformed humans hadn't entered Building A until now anyway.
As everyone knows, theft is all about speed and precision.
I'd estimated that the plan I devised would take approximately three minutes.
If everything had gone smoothly within those three minutes, then even if the police came running after hearing the fire alarm, it wouldn't have mattered much.
Exactly.
All the nearby barriers had practically been decorative.
If I'd gotten even the slightest opening, I genuinely might have succeeded.
Who could have expected everything to collapse this spectacularly?
"Hurry and secure the area. If there are any spectators still inside Building A, escort them somewhere else."
"I came as soon as I received the report. Are there any injured people?"
"Everyone lying here is an assailant, so secure them first..."
But there was nothing I could do about it now.
'Phew.'
Police officers were swarming the area right in front of me.
More importantly, an S-rank Hunter had already moved upstairs.
"Mission failed!"
I gave up on the [Fragment of Midnight] without hesitation.
I'd barely committed petty crimes like this in my entire life.
There was no way I could bring myself to try again under these circumstances.
'Objectively speaking, I have almost no experience in situations like this, and I'm terrible at dealing with unexpected variables.'
At this point, I was almost relieved that the plan had fallen apart right at the beginning.
Considering how badly things had already escalated, if some outside factor hadn't interrupted me, wouldn't the situation have become far more dangerous?
'I should make sure to write my witness statement for my international friends as thoroughly as possible...'
I looked at the mammal who had just been electrocuted.
Perhaps this was divine punishment telling me not to be greedy.
Better to abandon all desire here than end up like that because I'd grown arrogant from knowing too much.
Yes.
It would definitely be wiser to make up my mind and return to Korea now.
The lightning unleashed by the Hunter who had appeared here was truly terrifying.
As expected, no matter what country they came from, an S-rank was still an S-rank.
***
Much later.
On the rooftop, along one side of the event hall.
"Block off everything from there to there, please. There's still a crack here as well. Make sure this section is reinforced."
Area A had now been completely sealed off, and the damaged building was undergoing inspection.
It hadn't been part of the original plan, but during the early days of the Dungeon Shock, the Imabari Guild had frequently handled restoration work in areas destroyed by Breaks.
Before long, civil engineers and Awakened personnel with relevant abilities had been dispatched from the guild and were busily repairing the damage.
Yet despite the smooth progress of the restoration work, one person's sighs showed no sign of stopping.
"Ha... Of all places, it had to happen at an international event like this..."
Judging from the footprints left behind, the red-eyed guards—who had apparently been moving in a zombie-like state—had reached this garden through the skybridge.
From there, they had smashed through the floor and entered Hall 1 of Area A, where the actual event was taking place.
The blue-haired Japanese Hunter recalled the sequence of events once again and dragged a hand down his face.
"Ahhh!"
What an utterly disgraceful humiliation.
While she was still brooding over it, Japan's number-one-ranked Awakened finally arrived at the scene.
"Representative Ito."
For the guild master himself to show his face only now.
How embarrassing.
"Don't tell me that National Party assemblyman kept you there this entire time?"
But Moritake Ito had his reasons.
The politician attending the event had placed considerable pressure on Imabari's representative.
'I don't even know exactly what this commotion is about, but if I leave him alone here now, it'll look as though I abandoned an important figure in Japanese politics. That could create problems for the guild later...'
This was exactly why he hated discussing politics whenever the subject arose outside.
Everything about it was nauseating.
All because those entrenched in power couldn't resist casually abusing their influence.
"Whoo."
Moritake Ito let out a quiet sigh.
The Hunter beside him immediately understood what he meant.
His younger colleague's expression also darkened, as though she wanted nothing more than to remain uninvolved in Japan's political troubles.
Moritake was the one who finally resumed their interrupted conversation.
"Anyway, to put it plainly, this event is a failure."
The declaration was unequivocal.
"There's a hole in the building, for heaven's sake. There's no chance news of this won't get out."
"Wow."
"We'll probably be in the foreign press soon. The headline will be something like, 'Is the Japanese government incapable of hosting an international event?'"
"Representative Ito. Ever since I was young, my dream was to make a name for myself around the world. Now that I've reached S-rank, I feel like I'm accomplishing that in far too many ways."
And then there was the main auction, scheduled for the second day.
After Area A was closed because of the unexplained incident, anxiety began spreading among the attendees.
The organizers did everything they could to reassure everyone that the situation had been fully resolved.
But some guests were already checking flight schedules back to their home countries.
News traveled quickly.
There was little doubt that reports of the incident would reach S-rank Hunters overseas almost immediately.
The predicted ceiling for bids would fall.
Overall profits would decline.
And from this point onward, the number of people willing to travel all the way to Japan simply to participate in the main auction was certain to decrease.
"At this rate, this event might do nothing but increase Tokyo's debt."
The outlook was bleak.
"By the way, are you sure there isn't anyone whose medical expenses we'll have to cover?"
Still, there was one fortunate aspect to the sudden disaster.
"Yeah. I asked the responding police several times. There weren't any injured civilians."
The mere possibility was enough to make one's head spin.
What if civilians had been hurt?
And worse, what if those injured civilians had been foreign visitors?
Even the wealthiest lobbyists wouldn't have been able to completely suppress the backlash.
Yet strangely enough, as she'd just said, this particular incident had produced only perpetrators.
There were no injured victims.
Why?
Because certain foreign guests had reacted quickly enough, and the incident in Hall 1 had occurred without involving 'any' ordinary civilians.
'My God.'
Kim Giryeo.
In fact, by the time Imabari's lightning-attribute Hunter arrived, the Korean man had already brought most of the situation under control.
Even more astonishingly, the blond man had left almost no trace of battle on the first floor of the event hall where he'd fought.
How was that even possible?
Even though Iori's side had held the numerical advantage, their fight against lower-ranked Awakened had still destroyed half a hallway.
That was precisely the problem with S-rank Awakened.
Their overwhelming power often made dealing with human opponents more difficult, not less.
And yet that man...
Just how quickly had he neutralized his opponents to leave the surroundings almost completely untouched?
'Results that clean...'
One of the attackers had simply collapsed as though drifting into sleep.
The other had been crawling across the floor and screaming in agony, almost as if suffering from some internal injury.
'He subdued an A-rank Awakened that easily, without even making a scene... How did he do it? I can't understand it at all.'
It was almost as though that Hunter had experience capturing humans the same way one might capture wild beasts.
Imabari's guild master swallowed dryly as he recalled the account his colleague had given him of the scene.
And at that exact moment, his phone rang.
The call brought new information.
Information that even Moritake Ito couldn't help but find shocking.
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