I Became a Disaster-Class Sorcery Genius

Salvation Society (What It Used to Be) (1)

"Hey, you crazy bastard, what is this!"

"?

Kim Dojun looked at Shin Se-yeon, who suddenly appeared and started shouting, with a bewildered expression.

"What is?"

"This!"

Shin Se-yeon, voice frantic, thrust her smartphone at him.

[Total usage history, -165,532,400]

Seeing the number displayed on the smartphone, Kim Dojun realized why she was yelling.

"Ah."

"'Ah'? What kind of 'ah' is that! What is this!"

"Minus 160 million?"

"That's not what I'm asking!!!"

Seeing Shin Se-yeon scream once again, Kim Dojun frowned slightly and replied.

"I mean, why are you so mad?"

"How could I not be mad!?"

"It's the price of your life, isn't your life worth at least that much?"

"... Well, that's not wrong! But this is way too much for just diversion!"

"Haaa~ Can't you even spend that much on a companion?"

"Do you think 160 million is the name of a child!?"

She shoved the smartphone at Kim Dojun, protesting at his irritating words.

Kim Dojun didn't quite get her talk about 'diversion,' but he still answered for the moment.

"Well, it'll be fine, won't it?"

"What will be fine?!"

"I'm not the one who has to pay it back."

"?"

"So I'll be fine, right?"

"???"

"Anyway, for you, that's an amount you could cover with your allowance, isn't it?"

"I mean, that's not exactly wrong but—!"

Kim Dojun looked at Shin Se-yeon, who wore a dumbfounded expression, and handed back the card he'd received from her.

"Ah~ Anyway, thanks for letting me use it."

He lightly tapped her shoulder and flopped down, as if to take a nap right away.

Watching him, Shin Se-yeon thought,

'... Was I mistaken?'

She began to seriously doubt her own hypothesis.

####

The headquarters of the mafia cartel organization Avalanche, where the 'Iron-Blooded' Tia serves as leader.

In particular, in the office where Tia was staying—

"..."

"..."

A cold, harsh air filled the room.

By now, since a day had passed, the desk Tia had smashed was already replaced with a new one.

The computer she'd shattered as well was back and running.

But Tia herself, who always sat there with an indifferent expression, was still brimming with anger, unlike before.

"Did you find them?"

At those words, an underling who had come to report glanced nervously and hesitantly spoke in a very cautious tone.

"W-well, the members are urgently looking for that '18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan'... but we haven't found them yet."

"Isn't this the kind of thing the information team could find in just a day?"

Tia pressed further.

The underling, suffocating under the tense atmosphere, continued speaking inwardly groaning.

"U-um, normally that would be possible, but the problem is it seems the opponent is using an untraceable PC... Even though we managed to get information from the game company, we still haven't found them."

"... So, in conclusion, you haven't found them?"

At Tia's words, the underling fell silent for a moment.

"W-we'll keep checking with the information team, so we'll find a way somehow...!"

Bowing deeply, he finished his report.

Tia glanced at the underling showing her his head.

"Go on."

"Yes...!"

She dismissed him with a lazy wave of her hand.

Clack! Thud!

Watching the underling flee, Tia undid her necktie and tossed her fingerless gloves onto the desk.

"Whew..."

She let out a deep sigh and stared at the computer screen.

On the computer screen was the character she raised in Lantiarval.

Her character, whose level had dropped after being PKed dozens of times yesterday by '18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan'.

"..."

Without a word, Tia moved her mouse and clicked the community button at the bottom of Lantiarval.

Up came the friends list.

She had never clicked this button before.

As Lantiarval was basically an RPG, it had party-type dungeons. But she had never partied with anyone, nor did she ever chat much in-game.

Because of that, her friends list was always empty and she never needed to check it—except now.

-----
Friend List (0/1)

18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan (offline)
-----

Currently, her friend list displayed the very '18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan' who had PKed her dozens of times the day before.

The reason was because she herself had sent a friend request.

Of course, Tia absolutely, not even for a second, wanted to be friends with this bastard.

The only reason she added '18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan' as a friend was for the in-game alert system.

Lantiarval's system would notify her in real time whenever a friend logged in or out, as long as they'd been added to the friend list.

In order to use this notification system, she'd added the friend and now waited for '18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan' to log in.

For revenge.

She had already finished all preparations for revenge.

After being continuously PKed yesterday, she had for the first time spent real-world money to restore her character. She poured a large sum to upgrade her weapons, becoming much stronger than before.

She probably ended up paying for several months' worth of Lantiarval's server costs—she'd spent that much.

Thanks to this, her rankings, previously stuck in the low 100s, shot up to double digits right after equipping her new items.

Now that all preparations were done.

'Once this jerk logs in, I'm going to utterly destroy them...!'

She swore to herself to smash '18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan' in-game, and even hunt him down in real life if she had to, waiting anxiously for his return.

####

Late at night.

"...?"

Jin Tae-shik, vice president of the Korean Sorcery Association, unconsciously rubbed his tired eyes and glanced around with a puzzled look.

All he saw were piles of files and the glow of a computer.

"..."

And his smartphone, laying beside him.

After checking these things, Jin Tae-shik realized he was in his own office inside the Sorcery Association and massaged his eyes.

'Did I doze off...?'

He checked the time.

Just past 11 p.m.

"?

Jin Tae-shik felt a hint of doubt.

He'd been going to sleep at dawn for years, already accustomed to late nights. So 11 p.m. felt like early evening to him.

'... Am I just worn out?'

Wondering briefly about it, Jin Tae-shik picked up the document in front of him.

Soon, he checked the contents.

'Salvation Society, huh.'

The file concerned the Salvation Society, whose illegal entry into the country was recently detected. It contained estimates on where the group had moved since slipping into Korea.

"... What is this?"

Staring at the document, Jin Tae-shik felt something was off.

'I'm sure I already processed this file yesterday.'

It was not a doubt but a certainty. Knowing he had dealt with it, Jin Tae-shik flipped through the pages to look for any additions.

'No supplement or appendix.'

Finding nothing different, he stared blankly, then suddenly remembered something.

'Now that I think about it, that person kept pressing me about the Salvation Society, too.'

He recalled Han Soyeon, who repeatedly asked for information about them.

"Hmm..."

Naturally, Jin Tae-shik hadn't told Han Soyeon any more than necessary about the Salvation Society.

In fact, if she hadn't been involved this time, he wouldn't even have revealed the Society's existence to her.

'No need to say anything.'

But more than that, Jin Tae-shik deliberately withheld information for another reason.

'She might try something reckless.'

He just had a bad feeling about it.

Of course, it was just intuition.

He didn't know if Han Soyeon would actually do anything, but he trusted his own instincts enough not to provide her with unnecessary details except for a warning to be careful.

Anyway, salvation Society information was really useless to her at this point.

'Of course, just knowing about them doesn't mean Han Soyeon could actually do anything.'

Jin Tae-shik himself didn't know everything about the Salvation Society, but there was one thing he was certain of:
The Salvation Society is not a group to be underestimated.

"..."

Lost in thought, Jin Tae-shik stared at the Salvation Society file for a while.

'Must have been a duplicate report.'

With that, he pushed the file aside and picked up the next stack on his left, getting back to work.

Around the same time Jin Tae-shik resumed his work—

At the Sorcery Institute's promenade, Han Soyeon sat alone on a bench.

Woom—

She felt something behind her—a wave, like some kind of cloaking barrier trembling intensely. Seeing this, she smiled.

"As expected, you really know so many things."

She glanced back at the wavering presence, muttered to herself, and tapped her lips with her smartphone before turning on the screen.

Tap— Tap—

A moment later.

[The Salvation Society was confirmed to have entered via a smuggling route on the East Sea two days ago.]

As she operated her smartphone and hit play on the recorder, Jin Tae-shik's voice flowed out.

[The number of Salvation Society members who entered by boat is about eight, and they moved from the landing site to Gangneung in the upper region. The precise location is—]

His tone was flat and monotonous.

[—So the Association's sorcerers, taking into account that the Salvation Society members have escape sorcery formations set up to retreat should things go wrong, are not moving to subdue them immediately, but are instead taking time to discern their goals, and a large-scale cleansing operation is being prepared.]

Jin Tae-shik's voice continued, emotionless.

[The Association is choosing to deploy sorcerers at the moment when the Salvation Society attacks their targets, in order to capture them, and currently—]

Listening to his voice, which contained no emotion and only relayed information, Han Soyeon kept a calm expression.

[End.]

As the recording finished, Han Soyeon glanced at her smartphone.

"Now that I know where the rats are... Shall I go hunting?"

She muttered.

At that—

Woom.

Once more, the enormous presence behind her rippled, obscuring the moonlight that had been shining on Han Soyeon, asserting its existence.

"The vermin who target... my understanding one."

A gentle smile appeared on Han Soyeon's lips.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
Nobody's normal...
【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】