Weltschmerz!
For the past few days, the whole world was filled with stories about them.
The confrontation between the Butcher and Weltschmerz was broadcasted, and the public was crazy about this rare battle.
Even though the video quality was degraded due to the mana floating around, people didn’t mind. The battle between the gleaming ice spears and the dark red demonic energy shone quite impressively even in the choppy screen.
Since the appearance of awakeners, various media have been talking about how amazing awakeners are, but the general public rarely had the chance to see the abilities of awakeners. At best, 3-Circle or lower awakeners would show off tricks like spewing fire or water from their hands on entertainment shows.
This means it’s the first time seeing two 6-Circle or higher awakeners fighting with their lives on the line.
Moreover, this incident wasn’t portrayed as a simple fight between two villains.
While the Butcher was depicted as an unparalleled villain, Weltschmerz, who fought against him, was suddenly overlaid with the image of a good person.
The change in Weltschmerz’s image, who were known as unparalleled villains just a few days ago, was partly due to this confrontation with the Butcher.
To be precise, their good deed of rescuing hostages during the fight changed their image.
Some people disparaged this good deed as a shallow trick for image laundering, but it was indeed Weltschmerz who rescued the children who were waiting helplessly to die at the scene.
Moreover, this rescue scene was witnessed by the eyes of many people.
Scenes of a large man who seemed to be a member of Weltschmerz carrying children, scenes of a skeleton clacking its mouth while bringing out children, and so on.
Although they looked rough and fierce on the outside, they were quite kind to the children. The scene of Weltschmerz’s leader blocking demonic energy flying towards the children was witnessed by everyone at the scene.
“Thank you.”
The faces of parents finally embracing their children were vividly spread from the scene. At least to them, Weltschmerz were true heroes.
And the giant lightning that astonished everyone at the scene.
The impact Weltschmerz left that day was tremendous.
Weltschmerz, who were just petty thieves, had now become great villains known to every citizen of Korea.
There were even crazy people saying we should contact Weltschmerz and persuade them.
The more information about Weltschmerz was revealed, the hotter the interest grew.
There were also people who were quite displeased with this series of trends.
The person lying on the sofa wearing comfortable clothes and horn-rimmed glasses was Jin Yeon-hwa, the vice guild master of Sirius.
Jin Yeon-hwa bit her nails while looking at the screen.
“This can’t be. A 7-Circle lightning attribute user? It completely overlaps with our Seon-je. No, if it’s a complex talent, does that mean he loses?”
Yoo Seon-je should become the brightest star among the many 4th generation hunters, befitting the name Sirius. But at this rate, the name Yoo Seon-je will end up being overshadowed by Weltschmerz.
Why did it have to be the same lightning?
Although Yoo Seon-je is also evaluated to soon become 7-Circle in terms of potential, he’s only 5-Circle now without actual skills. To receive a 7-Circle evaluation, he would need to subjugate about five A-rank Gates or one S-rank Gate.
The problem is the ‘complex talent’. Even after doing all that, he can’t be compared as an ‘equal’ 7-Circle.
Jin Yeon-hwa slowly closed and opened her eyes.
“This is troublesome, troublesome.”
Come to think of it, it was also Weltschmerz who made her drink water at the auction last time.
She really didn’t like them.
But she can’t touch them right away. She doesn’t even know where they are right now, and their strength is not to be taken lightly. Although they could catch them if they tried, it’s not worth investing Sirius’s strength.
It would be better to show power in another way.
“I’m thinking of moving up Seon-je’s debut a bit.”
Jin Yeon-hwa’s words were directed behind her. Lee Hye-won, who was always listening to every word beside Jin Yeon-hwa, immediately answered.
“You mean Yoo Seon-je’s debut?”
“Yes. No matter how much Weltschmerz jumps around, they’re ultimately villains, right? The true hero is the hunter who saves the world from the threat of Gates! That’s what we should say.”
Now that it’s come to this, we need to bring all the attention focused on them. A real hero? No, Weltschmerz are villains. In the end, they’re evil people who kill people, covet others’ things, and eat away at this world.
Debuting Yoo Seon-je as a perfect hunter, and once again showing that Sirius is the best in Korea.
That was Jin Yeon-hwa’s goal, and she could do anything for it.
“Let’s create a stage just for Seon-je.”
Jin Yeon-hwa, with shining eyes, began to hum strategies for Yoo Seon-je’s perfect debut.
Jin Yeon-hwa didn’t know.
That Lee Hye-won, her bodyguard and attendant who was listening to all this behind her, had already become Seol Rok-jin’s possession.
* * *
“Faster than I thought.”
Seol Rok-jin, who had heard all of Jin Yeon-hwa’s plans from Lee Hye-won, muttered like that. Yoo Seon-je’s debut was much faster than he had expected.
He thought the greedy Jin Yeon-hwa would drag out time to polish Yoo Seon-je more.
He had already been thinking about how to deal with Yoo Seon-je for a while.
Sirius was certainly a good business partner, but an overwhelmingly superior one is not helpful.
“I’ll have to remove him.”
Seol Rok decided without hesitation.
That he would make the brightest star in this night sky fall.
* * *
“I’m bored.”
I muttered while lying on the sofa. Lying on the sofa all day was unbearably irritating, but I couldn’t go out and wander around either.
Han Seo-hyeon and Kim Jae-ho’s surveillance was quite sharp.
Well, with both arms in this state, there wasn’t much I could do outside anyway.
The temperature had dropped to the point where it was beyond chilly and could be called cold. The forest that had been lush green was now wearing brown clothes, and starting to shed those brown clothes. It won’t be long before the first snow falls.
Looking out the window, I muttered:
“We need to go shopping.”
At my muttering, Han Seo-hyeon, who was standing next to me, quickly opened his mouth.
“We still have plenty of food, and, uh, Jae-ho hyung went hunting too, shouldn’t that be enough to last for a while?”
“Do you know how to prepare meat?”
“If I learn somehow from the internet…”
I sighed involuntarily.
Several days had passed, but I was still in the state of a seriously ill patient. Han Seo-hyeon was quite good at housework, but he couldn’t drive so he couldn’t go shopping to restock supplies, and Kim Jae-ho just didn’t match well with housework.
“How long are we going to stay holed up like this? We need to go shopping soon, and you can’t keep me locked up in the house like this forever.”
“You can’t even move properly yet and you want to go somewhere!”
“Then at least give me a smartphone. I’m dying of boredom.”
At my words, Han Seo-hyeon firmly shook his head.
“Don’t look at this and that and give yourself a headache, just focus on resting for now. When you recover, I’ll make you work whether you like it or not, and I’ll give you back the smartphone as much as you want! Why are you so obsessed with a smartphone when you can’t even use your hands?”
It’s a valid point, but it was suspicious how he kept glancing at me unnecessarily while saying that.
‘There’s definitely something.’
Let’s say it’s fine to prevent me from moving. But why control information too? What on earth are they saying about us on the internet?
We did cause trouble, but in the end, we successfully dealt with the Butcher Park Sang-pyeon and rescued all the hostages, so there shouldn’t be much bad talk.
‘Suspicious.’
I looked at Han Seo-hyeon, but avoiding my gaze, he disappeared saying he was busy. I couldn’t stop him anymore as he said he was going to train.
I sat down again. As Han Seo-hyeon said, recovering my body comes first for now.
—Do you think you can recover your body?
‘Nothing’s impossible.’
In fact, in some sense, my body is already fully recovered.
Ray said there’s no way to recover my completely burned arms. In fact, he said the only reason they’re still attached to my body is because of the mana circuit inside them, otherwise it wouldn’t be strange if they rotted and fell off.
‘But if I master Super Regeneration, it can be solved, right?’
—Haven’t we been talking about this for days? If it were that simple, why don’t you heal right away?
As Ray said, even though I knew the method, solving it was difficult.
I hadn’t mastered Super Regeneration yet, and the most I could revive with regeneration was the sensation in my fingertips and up to my shoulders.
But if I keep trying somehow, won’t I break through? I’m starting to get the hang of it too.
As I returned to the living room like that, Han Seo-hyeon’s smartphone left behind caught my eye.
Seeing that, I slowly walked towards the smartphone.
—Are you really going to act like a little mouse like this?
‘A little mouse! That’s harsh. He shouldn’t have left the smartphone in the first place!’
While his intention to protect me is admirable, he can’t keep hiding all information from me forever.
Anyway, I’m the leader of this team, and I have a duty to take responsibility for Weltschmerz. We’ve caused a big incident, so there must be some reaction, and I need to decide how Weltschmerz will act based on that reaction.
Well, there are many reasons, but…
To be honest, the main reason is that I feel like I’m going to die of frustration. I twitched my fingers to touch Han Seo-hyeon’s smartphone.
“Ugh.”
Even pressing the power button on the side of the smartphone made me break out in a cold sweat from the pain. If just this much movement makes my whole body sweat, Han Seo-hyeon and Kim Jae-ho’s overprotection wasn’t really that excessive.
Since I can’t bend my arms at all, holding the phone in my hand is impossible even in dreams.
I finally opened the smartphone screen and entered the pattern.
I had seen the scene of unlocking the pattern with touch so many times that I could easily solve the pattern.
Ray clicked his tongue in my head seeing my appearance.
—No wonder you’ve been persistently glancing for the past few days.
‘Please think of it as my own way of dealing with information concealment.’
—Information concealment, saying it like that makes it sound quite grand.
‘It’s not a lie, is it?’
It’s certainly not a lie.
What on earth are they hiding?
The problem is that it took ages just to unlock the smartphone pattern. I had no idea how long it would take to search for the information I wanted. As I was tapping the screen with fingers that wouldn’t move well, Ray said as if I was pathetic:
—You fool, why don’t you use telekinesis?
‘Ah.’
Why didn’t I think of that?
—Because you’re stupid!
It’s annoying, but I decided to let it slide. I moved my arms with telekinesis. Since I had almost no experience moving objects with telekinesis, at first I threw the smartphone or bent my arm in directions it shouldn’t bend, but soon I was able to move the smartphone quite naturally.
I entered the portal site and typed in the word Weltschmerz.
An enormous amount of information poured out, incomparable to a few days ago.
I carefully checked all that information and…
The conclusion was…
It was a mess.
‘I see why Seo-hyeon tried to hide information from me like that.’
I hardened my face looking at the information appearing on the screen.
[Public wanted notice for suspect believed to be a Weltschmerz member.
Han Seo-hyeon (17 years old, disappeared while attending Seongho Hunter Academy)]
It was a public wanted notice with a photo prominently displayed.