Chapter 2

Chapter 2.

“Is this a dream?”

It was not.

“Is it a bug?”

…That was not it either.

“…An NPC?”

[Where did Hunter Han Seol-ah go?!]

[W-we are still trying to determine what exactly is happening…]

“We’re finished! The Republic of Korea is done for!”

The press conference hall was in uproar, screaming that Han Seol-ah had vanished.

[…Excuse me?]

Meanwhile, Han Seol-ah was speaking to me from inside the game.

She had disappeared from the press conference and then appeared in the game?

The timing was far too perfect.

‘Did a person… get pulled into a game?’

It was absurd.

It felt as though my brain had stopped working.

[Ah. I suppose I should have introduced myself sooner. My apologies. I am Han Seol-ah, an S-rank Hunter from a country called the Republic of Korea. Though I am lacking, I am also known by the title ‘Guardian.’]

“…?”

[At the press conference… Ah, I suppose you would not know what a press conference is… Hmm~ how should I put this? So, on a stage… no, in a performance hall?]

“…That really is Han Seol-ah.”

That was when a chill ran down my spine.

Han Seol-ah was famous for being an extreme introvert, lacking social skills, and only ever speaking in official settings such as press conferences.

One of her peculiar habits was that the thoughts running through her head would spill right out of her mouth before she even realized it.

And at times like this, instead of the calm, clear voice she used for press conferences, she reverted to her real voice—the one that trembled.

Among her fans, it was called her “tiny little voice”…

A habit unique to Han Seol-ah.

And that muttering just now had been exactly that—her “tiny little voice.”

[So anyway, all of a sudden, a message popped up right in front of me asking if I would seize the chance to become an EX-rank Hunter. And it was not the usual kind of system message I see either, but these shining golden letters, all radiant and divine-looking… so I answered yes. Then there was this flash! and I blinked and closed my eyes, and when I opened them again—]

“….”

The longer she spoke, the more scattered her words became, and the faster she talked.

That was exactly like Han Seol-ah too.

And what about the content of her explanation?

“…She is saying she was suddenly summoned in the middle of the press conference.”

[Hunter Han Seol-ah! Please come back!]

“It is the end! Accept death!”

It was exactly what was happening in reality at that very moment.

“Heh.”

I felt like I was losing my mind.

My reason was that this was impossible…

but I could feel it.

…The real Han Seol-ah had truly been summoned into my game.

“Come to think of it… that quest from earlier.”

I opened the quest window.

[Emergency Epic Quest]

[Save the Republic of Korea from the brink of destruction]

[Quest Objective]

[Awaken S-rank Hunter ‘Han Seol-ah’ to EX-rank]

[Reward]

[Awakening]

[Possession Ticket]

There was no need to tangle my thoughts up with things like a new region, new content, portrait rights, or anything else.

Lost Honor had not lied.

It meant exactly what it said.

The “S-rank Hunter Han Seol-ah” named in the quest objective was the real Han Seol-ah.

“Haha.”

How could the real Han Seol-ah possibly have entered my game?

“How should I know?”

…I did not know!

But it had really happened.

There was no point in dwelling on it any further. It would only give me a headache.

‘Set that aside.’

…Once I sorted out the situation, my mind cleared.

I just had to focus on the quest.

There was only one thing I needed to do.

Complete the quest objective.

In other words, make Han Seol-ah into an EX-rank Hunter.

“All right….”

Now that it had come to this, my eyes went back to the reward as well.

‘Awakening.’

This Awakening…

Would it happen not to my character, but to me?

In other words, not “Nebula the character,” but “Ha Seong-un the human”?

For someone like me, an Awakening-defective, to awaken was absolutely impossible unless a miracle occurred.

‘But something strange enough to be called a miracle already happened just now.’

And if a miracle could happen once, could it not happen twice?

…But.

‘No. Probably not.’

As always, I cut off the hope before it could grow.

I had lived as an Awakening-defective for ten years.

How many times had I repeated the cycle of hoping and being disappointed?

Empty hope ruins a person’s mind.

‘Seeing a miracle happen right in front of me must have made me weak for a moment.’

I regained my composure.

[…So, can you really make me into an EX-rank Hunter?]

“Hmm.”

Han Seol-ah’s long, overly elaborate explanation of the situation finally ended, and now we were at the main point.

Turning an S-rank Hunter into an EX-rank…

“Hmm.”

Hunter ranks existed from F-rank all the way up to S-rank.

As for the “EX-rank” proposed by the quest objective, only two existed on Earth. It was something “outside the ranking system.”

Which meant I had to raise Han Seol-ah, an S-rank said to be the very limit a human could reach, into an EX-rank—an existence so far beyond the norm that it was practically a walking natural disaster….

To begin with, when a Hunter’s assigned rank changed—what people called a “promotion”—it only happened when they achieved something called an “Enlightenment” and their awakened ability evolved to the next stage.

But that Enlightenment was such a vague, intangible thing that actual cases of it were exceedingly rare.

Even so, a promotion was still a promotion.

Was the answer to somehow grant Han Seol-ah that “Enlightenment”?

‘Rejected.’

…Unfortunately, no. That was impossible.

The chance was zero. Absolutely none.

Because Han Seol-ah’s awakened ability, Ice Crystal, was already a system-certified EX-rank ability.

“Since EX-rank is the end, there is nowhere higher for it to go.”

So why had Han Seol-ah still remained only S-rank?

Because there was another criterion used to determine a Hunter’s rank besides the rank of their awakened ability.

Mana capacity.

A Hunter’s rank was determined by averaging those two grades together.

In Han Seol-ah’s case, even though her awakened ability Ice Crystal was EX-rank,

her mana capacity was only A-rank.

That was why she was S-rank.

[…I am a Hunter who cannot be promoted, after all.]

“That is true.”

She was right.

[Because there is no way to increase mana capacity.]

There was absolutely no way to increase mana capacity after birth.

That was why Han Seol-ah had been S-rank from the very moment she awakened…

and why she was fated never to break through the wall of S-rank for the rest of her life.

A Hunter who could never be promoted.

That was one of the disparaging names people used for Han Seol-ah.

In that case…

Was there really no way to clear this quest?

“No. There is.”

The answer was yes.

What? There is no way to increase mana after birth?

That may be true in the real world.

“But it is possible here.”

Because this was a game.

Now that Han Seol-ah had come into the world of Lost Honor,

it was possible.

In fact, there were so many ways to do it that the real problem was choosing one.

“You should consider yourself lucky that you met me… Han Seol-ah.”

More precisely, it was only possible because this was my world—the world of someone who had poured ten years into this game.

I opened the storage.

I opened Storage No. 98, where I kept my legendary elixirs.

“It should be in here somewhere.”

Rattle— rattle—

The shelves were packed with legendary elixirs, each one rarer than rare.

There were so many different kinds that my mouse wheel kept scrolling and scrolling.

‘Among them, the elixirs that increase mana are especially rare… there are barely any.’

After digging through the storage for quite some time,

I found it.

[Concentrated Elixir of Primordial Mana Arcana of the Ancient High Elf, Blessed by the Long-Forgotten Primordial Blue God]

An ultra-rare elixir with a name so long it was hard to remember.

When consumed, it increased mana by a full 100.

“I am going to feed her this from now on.”

Han Seol-ah’s Ice Crystal was already EX-rank.

If I could just raise her mana from A-rank to EX-rank as well, then Han Seol-ah could become EX-rank.

In reality, she had been judged impossible to promote because there was no way to raise mana.

But in a game world, where a method to raise mana actually existed, the answer was practically spelled out.

“The only problem is figuring out how much I need to raise her mana before the system recognizes it as EX-rank….”

But that was not really a problem.

More precisely, it was not a problem because it was me.

[Concentrated Elixir of (…)]

[Quantity Owned: 99,999 (MAX)]

Because I was an insane veteran.

“I can just keep feeding it to her until she becomes an EX-rank.”

***

[Time until quest clear: D-4]

[If the quest fails: Destruction]

The countdown to destruction was steadily tightening around our necks.

[Where the hell did Hunter Han Seol-ah gooooo?!]

“It is over! Over! We are finished!”

Judging by the screams coming from the television,

the people who had lost Han Seol-ah, their only pillar of support, were losing their minds in real time.

“Hmm.”

I would admit it.

Listening to those screams was making me anxious too.

But never—

never did I sink into despair like they had.

[Munch.]

…Because Han Seol-ah was currently inside my monitor, infinitely consuming elixirs.

Flash. Flash.

Once she finished each one, the blue light that signaled an increase in mana continued without end.

Every flash meant Han Seol-ah was growing stronger.

Just watching it made me feel calmer.

“Are you all watching, people of Korea…? Han Seol-ah’s only weakness, her mana pool, is being treated right now.”

After drinking the first hundred, Han Seol-ah had complained that she was suffering because she was too full.

But at some point, she started turning the elixirs into ice cream and eating them.

[Munch.]

And once she did that, the elixirs kept going down without stopping.

But unlike the happy face someone made when eating something delicious,

her pale blue complexion revealed the suffering she was enduring.

‘…Yes, of course it would not be that easy.’

When my character drank potions, I had never thought about it… because I just clicked once and they were consumed.

But in Han Seol-ah’s case, since she counted as an actual being existing in the game, it seemed she had to physically drink them.

‘If someone sat down and chugged one hundred cans of 500-milliliter drinks in one sitting, anyone would lose their mind.’

And yet Han Seol-ah endured.

She was going to return to Korea stronger than before. She was going to kill the Ice Dragon and protect everyone.

That single determination seemed to be pushing her onward.

…Or so I thought.

Her stomach was so cold that her face had gone blue, but her cheeks were stuffed full from all the elixir she had crammed in, puffed up so much they looked ready to burst.

[…Hehe. It is tasty.]

Seeing her little chewing mouth and her eyes curved in contentment, I found myself slightly confused.

‘She is forcing herself to eat this out of duty… right? She is not just eating it because she likes it, is she?’

Either way, she looked exactly like a hamster.

But Han Seol-ah’s ice-cream struggle was starting to reach its limit.

Because the speed at which she was eating had clearly begun to slow.

“Emergency! Emergency!”

At this point, there was no helping it.

“This is the final measure.”

I moved my character in front of Han Seol-ah.

[?]

Han Seol-ah, her mouth full of ice cream, looked up.

‘She really does look like a hamster.’

As I watched her,

click.

I activated duel mode.

Boom!

With a majestic sound effect, a flag flew down from the air and planted itself between Han Seol-ah and me.

[A duel will begin.]

A warning message flashed red between the two of us.

[Huh? Huhhh? What is this?]

Han Seol-ah panicked.

She hurriedly crossed her hands in an X, but—

“Stand up straight, Han Seol-ah.”

[3]

The countdown began.

“This is a post-meal exercise.”

If you are too full, you work it off with exercise.

And while I was at it… I might as well see what she could do.

[…You are joking, right?]

[Duel Start!]

[Skill: Aura of Despair is activated.]

[Aaaah?!]

Until Han Seol-ah’s stomach emptied out,

I enjoyed an endless series of duels with her.

“Oh, come on. You could not react to that? Then you deserve to get hit.”

Thud!—She was struck directly by magic before she could even fully raise her ice shield, then rolled across the floor.

“You fell for that? Then you deserve to lose.”

[Aaaah?!]

Her wide-area spell was interrupted mid-cast, and she ended up trapped inside her own ice, flailing helplessly.

In the end, as I watched her sprawled on the floor, trembling and raising a hand in surrender, I became certain of one thing.

Conclusion—

…Han Seol-ah was ridiculously weak!

***

After repeating the cycle of dueling, feeding her elixirs, and dueling again,

[The ‘Long-Forgotten Primordial Blue God’ awakens from a long slumber and gazes beyond the worldline.]

[The title of the ‘Long-Forgotten Primordial Blue God’ has been readjusted to ‘Primordial Blue God.’]

[Han Seol-ah receives the blessing of the ‘Primordial Blue God,’ and her mana hall is reopened.]

[Han Seol-ah awakens to EX-rank.]

Flaaash—!

A brilliant white light burst forth, and at the same time, the quest window appeared.

[Quest Objective]

[Awaken S-rank Hunter ‘Han Seol-ah’ to EX-rank] (Completed)

The word “Completed” was inscribed beside the quest objective, and a line struck cleanly through it.

“At last….”

[It is over…!]

Han Seol-ah threw her hand up and shouted in triumph.

I shouted in triumph with her.

The more time passed, the more desperate I had been getting.

‘If this takes too long, the Republic of Korea is going to fall!’

The people on the loudly blaring television next door had been singing a funeral dirge like they thought the world was ending. It was driving me insane.

[An unprecedented achievement!]

[You have restored the lost title of an ancient god forgotten beyond a distant worldline.]

[Your renown echoes across the entire universe.]

“But I still pulled it off, did I not?”

An Awakening to EX-rank, hailed as an achievement impossible in reality—

In my hands, it was nothing special.

[Emergency Epic Quest Complete!]

[Would you like to complete the quest and receive the reward?]

[Reward]

[Awakening]

[Possession Ticket]

[1. Yes] [2. No]

Flaaash—

Wrapped in white light, Han Seol-ah slowly rose into the air.

As I gazed at her with eyes full of emotion,

[Thank you….]

I—

pressed [2. No].

[Ghk.]

Han Seol-ah, who had been floating upward, dropped to the ground with a thud.

“Where do you think you are going, trying to complete the quest on your own?”

I picked up Han Seol-ah, who was sprawled across the floor, and opened a portal.

“It is not over yet.”

There was still a hidden quest left in this mission.

Other people might not know it,

but I, a true veteran, could see the thread of possibility hidden in the gap.

And because I was who I was,

I knew for certain.

If I failed to solve this hidden quest,

the Republic of Korea would never escape its fate of destruction.

And if I did solve it,

then the Republic of Korea would remain safe from now on as well.