Yeon-woo narrowed his eyes at Phante, who just whistled and looked away. Yeon-woo clucked his tongue to himself and turned to the mercenaries. “What do you want to say?” His voice was filled with annoyance.

The mercenaries’ faces fell, but they tried to look as intimidating as possible.

“You look like someone we know who owes us a lot. That’s why I want to ask you to tell us who you are. Let’s exchange names.” He didn’t say it directly, but it was clear he wanted to know Yeon-woo’s identity.

Yeon-woo didn’t want to deal with them any longer. He crossed his arms and icily replied, “And if I’m who you think I am?’

“What?”

“The Hoarder. That’s me.”

“This bastard!”

The mercenaries all glowered and ran at Yeon-woo and the room quickly became chaotic. Yeon-woo didn’t move and called out to Phante. “Phante.”

“What’s up?”

“Get rid of them.”

“Why should I do your business?”

“Because it’s annoying. No? Should I do it?”

“Your personality is really…” Phante muttered under his breath and stepped forward. But when he got ready to fight, a sinister smile spread on his face. “Well, I was feeling bored so I guess it’s all right.”

Bang! Phante ran forward as though he’d found a fun toy, waving his fists around as they began to burst with the Cheongram family’s Thunder Regime. There was a large explosion, but just as he was about to sweep them all away, Yeon-woo said, “Don’t kill anyone.”

“Tsk!” Phante stopped and looked accusingly at Yeon-woo. The energy building up in the room decreased, but it was still enough to have a great effect. Boom! Boom! Phante broke everything within reach. If a weapon flew at him, he broke it with his bare hands. If a body flew at him, he deflected it with his elbow, and if magic flew at him, he simply incapacitated it with thunderbolts.

“Ack!”

“What the hell is this?”

He destroyed, crushed, and broke. Every mercenary who charged at him ended up with their legs or arms folded back in painful angles. The floor was soon covered in blood, and the air was filled with dust.

“My arm! My arm!”

“Leg! My leg! Ow!”

Phante moved around like he was in his comfort zone in the middle of all the screaming.

“Tweet, tweet!” 『Master! Master! I like that guy!』 Chirpy twittered on Yeon-woo’s shoulder like he was having fun, laughing with his wings spread wide. Since Chirpy was too young to tell wrong from right, Yeon-woo was about to lecture him on not ending up like Phante when he suddenly felt a presence behind his back.

“Dieeee!” A mercenary who had been hiding his presence ran at Yeon-woo, waving his sword.

Yeon-woo didn’t even lift a finger. Instead, Chirpy yelled at the mercenary, 『Go away!』 Boom! A blue flame erupted from the Phoenix, accompanied by lashing wind. The mercenary lit up with flames as he was thrown outside the building.

『Ugh! You’re so annoying!』 Chirpy crossed his wings and snorted, puffing his chest up adorably.

Edora looked at him in surprise. She knew he had the power of the Legendary Beasts, but she didn’t realize how strong it was.

Yeon-woo looked inside. The fight—or one-sided attack—was already over. Fifty players with broken legs and arms groaned on the floor, and the rest of the players looked at Phante with fearful eyes.

“Shit. I only got dust on my hands.” Phante lightly brushed off his hands as though he hadn’t done much. He turned to look at the trembling players. They couldn’t meet his gaze and looked away, their will to fight completely crushed.

However, Phante wasn’t done. An eyebrow twitched. “What? You’re still standing? Why aren’t you beating your heads on the floor?”

They looked at each other and hesitated, but as Phante brought up his thunder energy again, they knelt and began hitting their heads on the floor.

“How come you guys aren’t doing it, too?” Phante didn’t plan on excluding the injured players, and in fact, he was tougher on them because they were the ones who’d led the rebellion. Only those whose necks were broken were exempt, and Team 2’s fierce aura, which had been like that of a wolf pack, completely dissipated. Phante grinned, although he didn’t know why so many humans wanted to get beaten up.

However, Edora was slightly worried. “Um, that burn...”

These were all people that would become Yeon-woo’s hands and feet. It was OK to intimidate them, but there was no point in injuring them so much that they were useless. She thought about grabbing some potions from the medical center, but Yeon-woo waved his hand in the air. A blue fire as big as a person’s head appeared. It was Holy Fire.

Edora had no idea what Yeon-woo was going to do. He lightly flicked the Holy Fire and it split into little flames that flew towards the injured.

“Wh-what?”

“Huh?”

They flinched at the approaching flames, but the warmth that entered their bodies left them shocked. Their bloody wounds healed, dislocated and broken bones knitted back together, and the pain completely disappeared.

They weren’t perfectly healed, but the recovery speed was stunning. It was like the Cure or Recovery they had once heard of, but those kinds of healing powers were the exclusive territory of expensive Apostles or priests.

The mercenaries saw Yeon-woo in a new light. Phante’s and Edora’s eyes widened as well, however, Yeon-woo, who had simply used the Purification option of the Holy Fire couldn’t care less. He continued to give orders dispassionately. “Phante.”

“Huh, yes?”

Yeon-woo pointed at the mercenaries whose heads were planted on the ground with his chin. “Don’t miss a single one and break more of those bastards’ bones.”

***

‘H-he’s a d-devil! No, he’s worse than that.’

‘That guy isn’t human! Not at all!’

‘Shit. Healing us and breaking us, healing and breaking...how is that human?’

The mercenaries felt wronged. They wanted to cry, but they couldn’t let any tears fall. They couldn’t even groan in pain. All of them went through tremendous pain for the next few hours, from those who had openly rebelled to even the ones who had only sat back to watch the situation.

Yeon-woo didn’t listen to their pleas as their bones broke and healed over and over. He quietly looked on as though nothing was out of the ordinary. After a while, the mercenaries completely lost it, but the Holy Fire brought back their consciousness as well. They had no way to avoid the torture.

Eventually, even those who continued to have rebellious expressions in their eyes gave up and tucked their tails in between their legs. Now, they were too scared to even look Yeon-woo in the eye.

“I have only one thing to say. I need a good hunting dog. I don’t need a crazy one that bites its owner. This is your last chance.”

The mercenaries shut their mouths, their bodies full of goosebumps from the cold air. They finally realized how the alliance of the clans had been destroyed. Even though hundreds of players had tried to capture the Hoarder, none of them had ever returned. Some even said the bar that had leaked the Hoarder’s whereabouts had been pulled out by the root, and the only reason the Hoarder spared the people in it was because they were useful. However, he’d warned them that if they did anything against him again, he’d remove them all.

Even though the mercenaries were part of Red Dragon now, he still wouldn’t let anything slide. Gulp. The mercenaries swallowed, looking at the ground because they didn’t want to meet Yeon-woo’s eyes.

‘Now there won’t be any more annoying situations.’ Yeon-woo was sure that the mercenaries would become his faithful dogs in the future. Alive, they were good hunting dogs. Dead, they would be healthy souls.

The mercenaries continued staring at the ground as though they’d read Yeon-woo’s thoughts. Finally, Yeon-woo got up and left the rest to Phante. Phante complained about all the work that he hadn’t expected to do, but none of his whining worked on Yeon-woo. “Go back to your tribe if you don’t want to.”

“Damn! I’ll do it! Geez! Seriously, you are so…!” Phante shouted, sick of Yeon-woo’s attitude. His head turned sharply towards the mercenaries who had already been healed. He had to vent his anger somehow. The mercenaries turned pale. Ack!

***

“Brother Phante is working hard even here.”

“It’s his fate.”

Edora cocked her hear to listen to Phante’s despair and chuckled. He had come with them because he was sick of dealing with the tribe’s business, only to end up dealing with someone else’s here. However, her brother’s pain was her joy and the smile didn’t leave her face.

Yeon-woo laughed as he looked at Edora. He suddenly thought of the calm, blue-haired woman in the strategy room who was filled with a familiar, immense power. ‘The power of the Draconic species.’

Only three people in the Tower had this kind of power. One of them had been Jeong-woo, another was a half-human half-dragon who had disappeared, and the last one was the woman in Red Dragon. ‘The Summer Queen.’ Yeon-woo’s eyes darkened. ‘The clan leader of Red Dragon has finally appeared.’

***

“Did you pick up an OK kid?” After everyone left the strategy room, the Summer Queen smiled exuberantly.

Bahal bowed, going down on one knee. “I never expected that child would end up bringing such precious information with him.”

“Hm.” The Summer Queen twirled her hair around a finger. Raul had just reported that the map had accurately placed the Cheonghwado’s locations. Red Dragon’s forces had moved, and after taking one location, the rest fell like dominoes. The Cheonghwado was likely very surprised at the sudden attacks.

“You seemed very attentive.”

“To that child?”

“Yes.” Bahal carefully nodded, and the Summer Queen couldn’t help but smirk. “Of course. He’s the third disciple of that geezer. Who wouldn’t be interested?” The Martial King was the only one the Summer Queen called a geezer. “Keep him reined in well. It’ll be fun. He definitely seems to have some plans of his own as well.”

“I’ll stay aware.” Bahal bowed.

Yeon-woo’s present had come as a surprise. His interest in Yeon-woo had been piqued by the Hoarder’s acquaintance with Henova, and he’d grown angry after hearing that Yeon-woo ended up joining forces with the One-horned tribe, and by extension, the Cheonghwado. But his anger had melted like snow. Yeon-woo grew more interesting the more you looked at him.

“What about Leonte?”

“He’s still stuck outside. The Sword God is protecting him, so it’ll take some time.”

Leonte hadn’t known that the only reason he’d managed to escape was that Bahal had allowed it to happen so that he could lead them to the stone. Bahal had even stuck a tracking device on him. However, Leonte hadn’t gone anywhere and had stayed stuck in the same spot.

“So annoying. He’s doing more research on the stone, I suppose?”

“We think so. As you know, the Saber God recently got rid of the Four Legendary Beasts, and some people think it’s because of the stone.”

“Hm.”

“But he’s probably not going to pull out the stone until it’s finished, so we decided to throw some bait.”

“Bait?”

At her question, Bahal revealed his plans. After he was finished explaining it to her, the Summer Queen laughed, licking her red lips with her tongue seductively. “Adorable. I think it’ll be fine.”

“Thank you.”

“As a reward. I’ll let you lick my feet. How’s that?”

“It’s an honor.”

The Summer Queen held out a foot. With a delighted expression, Bahal slowly took off her shoe, and when he put his face close to her foot, the scent of roses filled his nose. The Summer Queen let go of the lock of hair she’d been twirling and ruffled her hair.

Her hair was usually a fiery red, but right now it was a mild blue. Her red hair was her symbol and the origin of her magic power, and she needed to recover it as soon as possible. ‘Heaven Wing, that son of a bitch.’ She had to endure the humiliation of stepping down to the lower floors because of a dead person. However, it wouldn’t be long. “OK. Find the stone quickly. It’s fine even if it’s incomplete.” The Summer Queen’s eyes grew pensive. “It’s the only way I can restore my Dragon Heart.”