“Hey, sisters! Set out the spoons and chopsticks so we can eat!”
“Junga! It’s your turn to set the table today!”
“Ah, is it already my turn? Ugh, what a pain……..”
While checking the seasoning of the bubbling stew, Jeonghu spoke up.
“If you don’t want to, you can cook instead.”
“That’s even more annoying!”
“It’s not that you don’t want to—it’s that you can’t. Let’s be honest here.”
“What? Have you ever seen me cook?”
“Hmm……. I can tell without seeing it.”
As evening fell, leaving behind the lively sibling chatter, Yohan was watching the news on TV.
-This is truly a tragic situation. The world is in chaos due to the so-called ‘Game’, which appears to have started with an unidentified flying object that appeared around 11 a.m. today. In the Republic of Korea, the death toll from the ‘Game’, which lasted exactly two hours, is estimated to be over two million…….
“Heh! Two million…….”
Yohan clicked his tongue in disbelief.
He never imagined so many people would lose their lives.
Then again, with over 100,000 deaths just in Bucheon, two million nationwide didn’t seem so strange.
“What about the Army? Did the Army not do anything?”
-Meanwhile, the Republic of Korea’s military was unable to approach due to the Magnetic Field generated by the Game. In response, the government has declared a State of Emergency to prepare for the second Game and is working on countermeasures…
“Ah!”
Those who forced this Game on us were extremely thorough.
Since the orcs were weak, they blocked the Army from the start.
If they could create a Magnetic Field and hand out mysterious powers and weapons, keeping the Army out wouldn’t be hard for them.
‘Honestly, with that level of technology, if they wanted to, they could just wipe us all out.’
While he was smacking his lips, a new breaking news alert came on.
“What now?”
On the screen, a rocket was launching skyward.
It was a scene straight out of the national anthem, white flames shooting up into the sky.
Yohan swallowed nervously, his face tense, then clicked his tongue again.
‘Things have escalated, but I never thought the United States would actually do something like this.’
“Tsk, tsk.”
“Ah, Dad, what’s wrong?”
“Man, this is insane. The United States used a Nuclear Bomb.”
“N-Nuclear? Where? On the Spaceship? Whoa…….”
“Seriously? A nuke?”
“Wow! ……So, does that mean radioactive fallout will rain down from space?”
“Who knows…….”
“Wow, a nuke! That’s awesome!”
“Our youngest even knows about nukes?”
“Of course!”
“Hey, quiet! So, what happened next?”
“Failure.”
Yohan shook his head.
The nuke didn’t even go off.
The Spaceship swallowed it whole.
They say it was even more powerful than Little Boy, the one that turned Japan into a sea of fire.
But it just ate it.
‘Just what kind of thing is that?’
Yohan looked up at the sky through the big living room window.
Somehow, the blue glow in the sky seemed even more vivid.
“If even a nuke doesn’t work, there’s really nothing we can do. All we can do is play the Game and survive.”
“Right? If they get annoyed, couldn’t they just wipe us out in one go? What do you think, sis?”
“I don’t know……. Maybe we’ll all get captured and used for human experiments……?”
“Hey! Don’t say such unlucky things!”
“Yeah, sis! Ugh… just thinking about it gives me chills.”
“My kids, can you quiet down a bit? Dad’s trying to watch the news.”
‘Honestly, these noisy kids.’
Grumbling, Yohan turned his eyes back to the news.
After the main headlines, the news started reporting the damage by region.
The problem wasn’t what happened during the Game, but what was happening now.
It was utter anarchy.
Thefts, violence, murder, rape—every kind of crime was breaking out.
People who thought the world had ended were going berserk.
Even after the Game ended, they still had the powers the Spaceship gave them.
The Army and police had to put all their efforts into stopping this chaos before worrying about the second Game….
“Wait!”
Clack!
Without thinking, Yohan slammed his spoon down on the table.
Crack.
“Hey! You’ll break the table!”
“Oh my!”
“Dad!”
“Papa!”
“Ah, sorry.”
When I act on instinct, it’s hard to control my strength.
Scratching his head in apology, Yohan suddenly sprang to his feet, realizing there was no time for this.
“We need to hurry.”
“Why? Hurry for what?”
“The store! Our store!”
“Why, Dad? What’s with the store?”
“Some lunatics might come to rob it! Our store! Our family’s livelihood!”
“Gasp!”
Yohan looked at his four children, who all gasped in unison, then threw open the window wide.
“Dad!”
Without hesitation, Yohan jumped out of the living room window.
When the shocked four siblings looked down, they saw Yohan sprinting barefoot toward the store.
“……Guess being on the third floor isn’t a problem for him.”
“What kind of Game did Dad play, anyway? Do you know, bro?”
“..Who knows? How would I know about a Game from twenty years ago? I was just born then. Anyway, let’s go down too.”
“Let’s go!”
“Sejeong, you stay home—it’s dangerous!”
“Aw! I want to go too!”
“No way!”
Except for the youngest, Sejeong, the whole family ran toward the store.
Yohan, who arrived first, shouted in surprise.
“You brats! Don’t break the shutter! It’s expensive!”
A handful of guys, looking to be about Jeonghu’s age, were aiming their guns at the store’s shutter.
“Huh? What the?”
“Isn’t that the store owner?”
They looked vaguely familiar… but their cocky stance was unsettling.
And sure enough.
“Wow, you survived. Hey, should we just shoot him?”
“Yeah, why not?”
Guns were aimed at Yohan.
‘Can I really dodge or block bullets with just first-level Heavenly Demon Divine Art?’
He hesitated, unsure.
Bang!
The muzzle flashed.
Yohan flinched, belatedly trying to dodge.
But he didn’t need to.
Whoosh, boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Ping!
In an instant, dozens of Blocks appeared, shielding Yohan. More precisely, they protected him from the hail of bullets fired by the young thugs.
“Ohhh! My Blocks are awesome! They blocked all the bullets!”
“Wow! Thanks to you, third child, we’re not orphans now! Dad, are you okay?”
“With that mouth of yours, I’ll die of stress, kid.”
At least the immediate danger had passed.
“What the heck is that?”
The thugs muttered.
“Ugh, we missed.”
“Are you guys idiots? No aim at all. No wonder you can’t get a chicken dinner in any Game.”
At those words, Yohan’s eyebrow twitched. Peeking out from behind the Blocks, he called out.
“You there, boys! This isn’t a Game—this is reality!”
Bang! Ratatat!
“Damn, missed again.”
“That old man’s reaction speed is insane. He’d probably beat you guys in a Game, idiots.”
“Come on! He keeps bragging about killing two old men.”
“Old men? Hey, I shot from 300 meters and hit them. What does being old have to do with it?”
“Idiot, you thought they were orcs and killed them.”
‘They shot and killed old people? Two of them?’
Suddenly, the kill list flashed through his mind.
Two victims killed by humans.
‘So… it was them who did it?’
“You there… did you kill people?”
Ratatat!
Their answer was more bullets.
Yeah, it’s not easy to point a gun at a fellow human and pull the trigger.
But if they’ve already killed once or twice, it’s not surprising anymore.
Yohan felt a heat rise in his chest. Or maybe it was a chill.
Suddenly, his head spun, and he felt blood surging through his whole body.
No, this wasn’t blood.
It was inner energy.
It was boiling up, ready to explode.
“You brats need to be taught a lesson.”
He stood up.
The thugs immediately aimed their guns again.
At that moment, Yohan vanished from their sight.
“What the—!”
Startled, the thugs’ eyes widened as Yohan leapt into the air above their heads and swung his arm wide.
Clang!
A metal rod, the size of his palm, appeared in Yohan’s hand with a metallic ring. In an instant, it extended, its spear tip gleaming sharply.
This was the item Yohan chose as his reward from the Game.
The so-called Heavenly Demon Spear.
Among the Eighteen Arms of Cheonma, weapons that the Martial Arts Alliance’s Heavenly Demon could wield freely, this was one of them.
The Eighteen Arms had their own ranks, and the Heavenly Demon Spear was only Rare Grade—nothing too special.
Screee! Crack!
“Argh!”
Crash!
“Guh!”
Crash! Crash! Crash!
It was more than enough to shatter the helmets—their so-called “skullcaps”—worn by these punks playing their real-life survival Game.
Thanks to the Game, those helmets could take several bullets without a scratch, but Yohan smashed them to pieces, shards scattering through the air.
Landing with a thud, Yohan slammed the spear into the ground, glaring at the fallen thugs.
In the darkness of the market street, with the lights out, Yohan’s eyes glowed a fierce, blood-red.
“You beasts… worse than animals…”
His voice was thick with murderous intent.
“Eek!”
“Ahh!”
“P-Please, spare us!”
The thugs, terrified to the point of wetting themselves, began to beg.
Yohan gripped the spear shaft so tightly his hands turned white.
‘These cowards… trembling at this, unable to resist at all… And yet they treated human life like it was nothing.’
To Yohan, human life was precious above all else.
As precious as the wife he lost.
And to see that precious life snuffed out so unjustly—he couldn’t stand it.
Just like when his wife was taken from him.
“Please… spare us…”
Yohan raised the spear, aiming at their heads.
‘If I just bring this down…’
At that moment—
“Dad!”
“Out!”
At the sound of his children’s voices, Yohan froze.
He saw his son and daughters.
In that instant, his senses returned.
‘If I kill them now, how am I any different from them?’
With a light movement, Yohan swung the spear.
Swish, swish.
The terrifying weapon shrank back instantly and disappeared from his hand.
But he hadn’t just put it away.
“Huh?”
“What the—?”
“W-What is this?”
All the guns the thugs had held—or which were rolling on the ground—had been sliced clean in two.
“Old folks who never even played a real Game… what weapons did they have? You killed people like that.”
‘So I hope you experience it for yourselves.’
To know what it’s like to be thrown into this insane Game with no weapons or powers—just like those old people.
“Get lost.”
Looking at the thugs fleeing in terror at his icy command, Yohan thought to himself.
Do I feel any guilt?
‘Well, if they end up dying without being able to do anything… that’s just karma, isn’t it?’