The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

"The core of this operation is simultaneity."

I pointed back and forth between inside and outside of the Gate on the map.

"The outside team protects Hunter Choi Juran and holds off the monsters spilling out. The inside team induces the Gate breach from within, then takes the head off the overloading boss and closes the Gate."

Right then, Kang San shot a hand up.

"Hold up! Feels like you've been dancing around the most important part this whole time."

He cocked his head, and went straight for the point.

"How the hell do you actually cause this Gate breach artificially?"

Every eye in the room swung to my lips at once.

The most fundamental question everyone had been holding onto but couldn't quite bring themselves to ask.

"The method is surprisingly simple."

I tapped the pointer against the center of the Gate on the board.

"You just pour a massive amount of mana into the dungeon's core."

"...Excuse me?"

"Wait. When you say the dungeon's core... you don't mean the boss monster, do you?"

"That's exactly what I mean."

"You're kidding...! You want to give the boss mana? Not attack it?"

The shock was fair enough.

Pumping mana into a boss monster was, essentially, handing your enemy a buff.

"Calm down and think about it. You all know why Gate breaches happen, right?"

At my question, Seo Jihyeok pushed his glasses up and shot back at once.

"Well, obviously — because of mana pressure. When the mana inside the dungeon exceeds the Gate's holding capacity, the structure can't take the pressure and collapses—"

His eyes suddenly went wide.

"...Ah!"

His mouth dropped open, like he'd figured something out.

"Right. That's the one."

I jabbed the pointer at the boss monster.

"If we can't sit around and wait for rainwater to fill the dam and spill over on its own, we just take a hose and force the overflow ourselves."

I laid it out in a voice full of certainty.

"You artificially push the mana pressure into overload. Meaning — you force mana into the dungeon's heart, and blow the dam."

At my declaration, Seo Jihyeok knit his brows and pushed back at once.

"Theoretically it sounds plausible. Realistically, it doesn't hold up."

He pushed his glasses up and cut in, cool and clinical.

"Countless Hunters put out enormous amounts of mana during raid operations. By your logic, Director, a Gate breach should be going off every single time. Isn't that right?"

He wasn't wrong.

The mana released when a Hunter uses a skill does feed into the pressure inside a dungeon.

But I smirked, easy, and shot back.

"That's not the same thing. What I'm talking about is pure mana injection."

I turned my head and looked at Han Jewoon.

"Not driving a skill into a monster — I mean dumping mana straight into one, wholesale. Ever done that?"

At my question, Han Jewoon let out a disbelieving laugh.

"Insane. Killing them is already a full-time job — why the hell would I feed them?"

"Exactly! That's the whole problem. Nobody ever tries something that stupid, so nobody figured out this method existed."

"...!"

"A normal Hunter's mana pool won't even come close. You need a mana pool on the level of an S-rank, and the guy has to sit down and pour every drop in on purpose — only then does the water clear the dam."

"Hah... this is nonsense..."

Seo Jihyeok muttered, his face hard to convince.

"How on earth are you so certain of this? It isn't even a proven theory."

"What idiot spills his own intel for free?"

Not like I can tell them it's from a story that hasn't been written yet.

The sorrows of a transmigrator.

"But I'll give you evidence. That artificial Gate breach that turned Seoul upside down not long ago. How do you think that was even possible?"

The moment the words were out, Seo Jihyeok's eyes shook, violent.

Sharp kid that he was, the puzzle had just clicked.

"Don't tell me... Mad Dog and Fox... those bastards injected the mana themselves...!"

"Bingo. With their kind of power, C-rank and D-rank Gates were the ceiling. But..."

I looked at Han Jewoon sitting beside me and grinned.

"We've got the Sword Emperor, don't we? With the biggest mana pool in Korea, an A-rank Gate's latch is well within your reach. Wouldn't you say?"

Han Jewoon slid the corner of his mouth up sideways at the compliment-and-provocation combo.

"Ohh~ you rate me that high? I'm flattered."

He propped his chin on his hand and smiled, easy.

"Well... doesn't seem like it'd be impossible."

With Han Jewoon on board, I laid a finger on the map and closed out the plan.

"Like I said — we split into two teams, inside and outside. Interior: induce the artificial breach and kill the boss. Exterior: protect Choi Juran and hold the monster line."

"Role assignment is the whole game."

Han Jewoon thought for a moment, then, as commander, made the call fast.

"Gate entry as A-team, exterior defense as B-team, then... A-team, no question. You need someone who can dump mana."

He pointed, in order, at Seo Jihyeok, Cheon Sarang, and Choi Juran.

"You three, B-team. Jihyeok takes field command, Sarang keeps eyes on Juran-noona's state."

"Understood."

"Yeees..."

"Okay!"

"And Kang San. You're on A-team with me."

"Kek! The rough side, huh? Got it!"

Personnel set, Han Jewoon turned his head and looked at the kids.

"What about the little ones?"

I bit down on my lip for a beat.

Truth was, I wanted to put all of them on B-team.

At least outside, if something went sideways, they could still run.

But...

To kill an A-rank boss — and one juiced up on injected mana, no less — I need firepower.

I pushed the reluctance down and opened my mouth.

"Cha Yul and Kim Sihyeok — offense is their strong suit — they go on A-team."

"..."

"Lee Sea-ah, the little twins, and Park Suho — the healer — go on B-team."

Personnel assignments done.

But one was still left.

"And I'm going too... A-team."

That one line blew the meeting room apart.

The first ones out of the gate were, no surprise, the kids.

"Director! Are you insane?!"

"You go in there, you die! Absolutely not!"

"A non-Awakened, going in there?!"

Even Lee Sea-ah crossed her arms and voted no, and Cha Yul planted himself in front of me with a growl.

"You lost it? Aching to get treated like dead weight?"

Cha Yul was growling, and even Han Jewoon shook his head — no.

"The kids are right. No non-Awakened is going into that Gate."

Under the incoming fire, I gave a big, exaggerated shrug.

"Ah, geez, tough crowd. I was just floating it — why the heavy reaction?"

I waved a hand and threw up the white flag.

"Fine, fine. I like my neck attached, so I'll sit tight and watch. Happy?"

At my surrender, sighs of relief broke out here and there around the room.

But.

Sorry... I'm not keeping that promise.

I played along on the surface, then flicked a glance, subtle, at Sihyeok tucked in the corner.

The kid caught my eye and tilted his head, confused, like he had no idea what I was up to.

Sihyeok. Just once — lend me your power.

However reckless the gamble, I had to be inside that Gate.

The reason was simple.

I needed to get my hands on the thing that dropped from the boss when a Gate breach was triggered.

That's the only way I can safely try for a second Awakening.

While I was turning the original's hidden piece over in my head, Kang San chimed in, excited.

"So — we're going in tomorrow? For real?"

"Sooner the better. Have to close this out before the Bureau bastards catch the scent."

"Judging by the pulse readings, the Gate should be fully open by noon tomorrow."

Han Jewoon nodded and rose from his seat.

"Good. Tomorrow noon, then. See you on-site."

The next day.

Whupwhupwhupwhup—!

The huge rotor noise smacked against my eardrums.

"Whooooa—!"

Even the din of the helicopter's rotor couldn't drown out the kids' shrieks of excitement.

"Whoooa—!"

"Director! Look over there! The houses are the size of ants!"

Suho and the twins had my arm in a death grip — scared out of their minds — but their eyes stayed fixed to the window, refusing to let go.

Sea-ah and Cha Yul, who usually played the older-and-wiser routine, kept sneaking looks over too, and even Sihyeok — who had flown before — had his eyes bright with curiosity.

The little punks. Too cute.

I smiled, warm, and mentally ran a fast check down the artifact list.

[Candy of Calm], packed... [Mana Pistol], packed.

The most important thing, the [Warding Jade Talismans] — after that whole Mad Dog incident, I'd torn every auction house apart to scrape together five.

If I could've gotten hold of an [Aegis Shield], I'd have burned my entire net worth. But the market's bone dry.

I clicked my tongue at the missed shot, but even without it, we could hold on somehow.

And, above everything else, the one thing that mattered most.

I eased the subspace pouch inside my coat open a fraction and checked, buried in that deep dark, the strange doll sleeping there.

...This one was a nightmare to get my hands on.

The instant it hit the auction block, collectors from all over the world had swarmed it, eyes lit up.

The money I'd sunk winning that auction was on par with a mid-size company's annual revenue.

But it hadn't hurt to spend.

Given what this thing could do, I'd actually gotten it cheap.

Kwuuung—!

Along with a rough gust, the aircraft rocked and settled onto the ground.

The middle of the vast Honam Plain, stretching all the way to the horizon.

"You've arrived."

Cutting through the dust, Seo Jihyeok pushed his glasses up and came over.

"Please put one of these on each of the kids."

Seo Jihyeok adjusted his glasses and handed over six small, weighty-looking bags.

"Specially made bags. Inside are A-rank healing potions and emergency defensive gear—"

Mid-explanation, his words locked up.

The instant his eyes landed on the kids' bodies, the pupils behind his glasses shook like an earthquake had gone off.

Fair enough.

The kids were already head-to-toe kitted out in high-performance artifacts I'd bought out the auction houses for.

"...Um, Director."

Seo Jihyeok pushed his glasses up with a shaky hand and asked:

"Just how much... rotting money are you sitt— I mean, how much of a budget do you have? At a glance, each of them is wearing several hundred million won of gear, and you're putting it on children..."

At his genuine bewilderment, I gave a light shrug.

"Beats me. I don't know my own card limit. Whatever swipes through, swipes."

Faced with the overwhelming force of that kind of capital, Seo Jihyeok went silent as a stone.

Leaving him standing there dumbfounded, I dropped to one knee in front of the kids and got down to eye level.

"Forget the operation and all that — your lives are what matter most. You hear me?"

I put a stern face on and fussed with their clothes, straightening them.

"You're my expensive dolls. So much as one of you gets broken or scraped and I'm not having it. Understood?"

At that, Suho and the twins nodded fiercely, solemn little faces on, and the older ones just gave a single small dip of the chin.

I ran my hands, obsessive, over the kids' gear and potions — checking, checking again.

"Good. Nothing missing."

The second I let out a breath, Seo Jihyeok's voice cut across the field.

"All right, attention! Final briefing before we begin! Full focus, everyone!"

While every eye swung to Seo Jihyeok, I flicked, subtle, a look meant only for Sihyeok.

We moved silent as a pair of stray cats and slipped into the deep shadow the helicopter's huge fuselage threw off.

A perfect blind spot.

"Sihyeok. You know what I need."

I looked the kid dead in the eye and whispered, low.

"I'm counting on you."

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