I traveled through the warp opened by Samia and arrived at the Alliance Headquarters in Switzerland.
It had been five years since I last visited with Hong Yul. No matter when I ca here, it was always breathtakingly crowded and bustling.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen that too.
The colossal hunter statue erected in the center of the hall remained as majestic as ever. Small statues had sprung up around it since the last ti I saw it.
But was it just my imagination?
...Why is my face up there?
There was no mistake. It was a bit idealized, sure, but seeing the robe-style suit and the Spectre slung across its back... it was undeniably . My face flushed hot for no discernible reason.
-From the perspective of the general public, you are the hero of a generation who sacrificed his life to save countless people during the Cold dicine Incident, Tower Master.
...Hearing her say that only made feel even more embarrassed. I pulled my hat down tighter over my face and kept walking.
Twenty-Fifth Floor of the Headquarters Building, Office of the Alliance Secretary General.
The attendant guiding knocked lightly on the door. Upon hearing permission to enter, she opened it, bowed her head respectfully, and stepped aside.
I strolled into the Secretary General’s office at a leisurely pace.
"Oh, hunter Kim Yusin! My goodness."
A man wearing classic oval glasses strode over and suddenly threw his arms around . I awkwardly accepted the embrace.
"It truly is a miracle! To think a hero like you would return alive just as humanity faces an unprecedented crisis! God has clearly not abandoned humanity yet!"
"...Haha."
Pulling away from , he offered his hand for an enthusiastic shake. "I am Phil Neville."
"Kim Yusin."
He gestured to a seat, saying, "Please, sit."
This man, who looked impeccably smart yet gave off the slightly sly impression of a weasel, was none other than the Secretary General, the highest-ranking official in the Alliance.
It was no exaggeration to call him the de facto president of the world, a position capable of wielding imnse power. When Albert’s identity was exposed to , the very first thing he did was seize the Secretary General’s weakness. He had even used that leverage to completely halt all Alliance functions that were keeping him in check.
And yet.
"You’re younger than I expected," I noted.
The upper echelons of the Alliance were crawling with bureaucrats in their fifties and sixties. For the Secretary General to be in his late thirties at most...
He shrugged. "I was surprised too. To think that hunter Kim Yusin, a legend in the magic world, would be so young! The dia often portrays you as a dignified man with a rather bulky build."
"...Haha."
Phil snapped his fingers while crossing his legs. An attendant hurriedly approached and placed a luxurious leather case on the table.
Phil spun the case around so I could see it properly, then unlatched it.
"What more needs to be said?"
Nestled inside the purple velvet lining was a pure gold dal engraved with the number ’1’.
"The absolute pinnacle of humanity! Congratulations on becoming a Certified Rank-1 hunter."
I hadn’t thought much of it when I first got the call, but actually receiving the rank-1 dal in front of the Secretary General like this was a surreal feeling.
It truly felt like I had finally made it to the top.
Phil pinned the dal onto my chest himself and said with a beaming smile, "It’s a bit late to bring this up, but actually, after you were declared dead, you were posthumously promoted by one rank in honor of your sacrifice, making you a rank-1 Certified hunter."
I chuckled out loud. "That must have been a tricky situation for you."
"It was an unprecedented situation. There was a bit of noise over whether a hunter returning from the dead should maintain their posthumous promotion. However, with your performance during the Red Gate Incident and the hunting of Alexandro, all that controversy completely vanished. I couldn’t help but think, ’As expected of Kim Yusin.’"
He spread his arms wide. "Now, no one will dare to complain about hunter Kim Yusin’s promotion. Welco to the divine realm!"
I smiled. "Thank you. But I’m not entirely familiar with it... What exactly is the difference between becoming a rank-1 and a rank-2 hunter?"
"There are many differences."
"Like what, exactly?"
Phil shrugged. "Well, in terms of policy, it’s actually quite similar to rank-2. There are no fundantal structural changes."
"So you’re saying there’s no major difference."
Phil stroked his chin with a grin before speaking. "What do you think is the most crucial requirent to jump from rank-2 to rank-1?"
Now that he ntioned it, I was curious.
"It is the existence of a legend."
Phil’s eyes sparkled. "Universally revered, indisputable! Only hunters who possess an achievent so overwhelmingly and profoundly valuable that everyone is forced to acknowledge it can beco rank-1. It’s not sothing decided by pencil pushers like us. We only promote those who make people say, ’Co on, anyone can see this guy is a rank-1, right?’"
Phil leaned back against his chair, pulled one knee up, and rested his interlaced hands upon it.
"Regarding your earlier question... Let ask you one in return."
Phil craned his neck forward. "Why would soone who has already reached the realm of gods need the policies of the human world?"
I remained silent.
"You want to talk to the President? Do it. You want to take command of a calamity? By all ans, go ahead. The power of a rank-1 hunter doesn’t need to be decorated with a few trivial sentences from the Alliance."
Phil pointed a thumb at himself. "The very fact that you are sitting here, face-to-face with , is ’power’."
"I suppose it is."
"If you ever called and said you wanted to talk, I would cancel my entire schedule to make ti for a rank-1. Do you need operating funds? Demand whatever you want from the Alliance or the local association. That’s what being a rank-1 ans. Your achievents, records, and strength are your power. There is only one thing the Alliance can give you."
He raised his index finger and smiled. "That the world ’certifies’ you as the strongest of humanity. That is all there is to it, end of story."
"I understand."
Phil groaned slightly, supporting the back of his head with his hands. "Because of that, our control only extends up to rank-2. The re ten rank-1 hunters currently active all do whatever they want, and many blatantly ignore the Alliance’s orders."
I slowly crossed my arms. "Hong Yeon seems to get pushed around a lot for soone with such transcendent authority."
"Ah, well, hunter Hong Yeon is the President of the Korean Association. She can’t help it because of her position."
He waved his hand dismissively. "To be blunt, rank-1s usually don’t want to be Association Presidents. It’s too botherso. They much prefer dumping it on their rank-2 juniors and living a life of leisure. hunter Hong Yeon is just an eccentric who goes out of her way to find work."
"...Haha."
"You’ll find it highly amusing once you attend a rank-1 eting later."
We talked about a lot of things.
My first impression of Phil had been a little shaky, but the more we spoke, the more I felt he was actually a decent guy. Perhaps because he was only in his first year as Secretary General, he was practically overflowing with enthusiasm.
"Then I suppose I can make a proposal to you regarding Alliance directives?"
"Ah, of course! If it’s an order from a rank-1, our Alliance command will deliberate it with the utmost seriousness."
I pondered for a mont before speaking. "Then I will make my proposal. It’s regarding the Nesis Raid Team."
"Ah, you are speaking of the final calamity."
"Yes."
Once Nesis begins, towers summoning massive hordes of monsters would crash down at random locations all over the globe. Monsters would endlessly pour out from them, turning the world into a living hell.
"But as the Oracle ntioned, that is nothing more than a smokescreen. The condition to clear it lies elsewhere."
"Elsewhere, you an..."
"No one knows if it will be in the United States, Europe, the North Pole, or the desert. What is certain is that a Rank-11 monster, Nesis, will appear in a specific region as the boss monster. Just like every other calamity, we have to slay it for the disaster to end. It sounds simple, but no one has succeeded so far."
Phil blinked in confusion. "Isn’t that obvious, considering this is the first ti this calamity is appearing?"
"What? Ah, haha! I just an it’s an incredibly tricky calamity."
Breaking into a nervous sweat, I continued my explanation. "The monsters guarding Nesis will be a minimum of Rank-7. Humanity needs to assemble the strongest raid team possible."
"Rank-7... Ah, that will be difficult. In that case, the minimum requirent for the raid team would have to be rank-3 hunters."
He catches on fast. I nodded and went on.
"However, if Nesis begins without any prior planning, humanity will simply establish nation-level defensive asures like they always have. They’ll try to secure their own safety before mounting an offensive."
"Yes, that’s correct."
"But trying to raid the falling towers is a complete waste of ti," I declared firmly. "The towers will keep falling, and the monsters will pour out infinitely. If it drags into a war of attrition, we will inevitably lose. The only way to clear it is to leave behind a minimum defense force and strike Nesis with one incredibly powerful blow."
Phil stroked his chin. "That won’t be easy."
I imdiately understood what he ant by ’not easy’.
Up until now, humanity had consistently fended off calamities on a national level. Sure, there had been instances where unaffected nations sent reinforcents to those struck by a disaster. But to ask every nation to risk its own destruction by committing their main forces to a ’global public front’ was entirely unprecedented. It was bound to cause a massive conflict of interests.
It would essentially turn into a global ga of chicken.
While committing more troops to the raid team would undeniably increase Operation Nesis’s success rate, the individual governnts didn’t see it that way. From their perspective, dispatching more forces simply amplified the risks their own nations had to shoulder.
Every country would want to contribute the bare minimum to the vanguard, aiming to protect their own borders without suffering major military losses.
Phil frowned, deep wrinkles carving into his forehead.
"You’ve been gone for five years, Tower Master, so you might not fully realize just how much things have changed," Phil said. "The current global political climate leans heavily toward extre nationalism. It’s a strict ’our-country-first’ ntality."
"Yes, I’ve heard as much."
Because of this insular trend, the power of the World Coalition had steadily eroded over the past five years.
Historically, the Coalition utilized a dispatch system that drafted hunters from powerful nations to support remote regions where the hunter system hadn’t yet been established, such as Africa.
However, when those drafted hunters were killed or injured—and the effort and funds invested yielded no tangible compensation—the powerful nations footing the bill naturally began to voice their aggressive dissatisfaction.
It was amidst this volatile atmosphere that the alliance of hunter superpowers known as ’M10’ was established.
Currently, thanks to the ergence of mages, the overall number of hunters worldwide had significantly increased. Yet, the actual volu of internationally dispatched hunters had dropped by half compared to five years ago.
Even then, the majority of those who did deploy were simply leaving temporarily to find better environnts because their dostic hunting grounds were too small, or they reluctantly accepted overseas assignnts just to earn their rank-2 hunter certifications.
"In this kind of climate, how much of their military power would they willingly commit to a global public front?" Phil sighed. "As the head of the Coalition, I can’t help but feel skeptical."
"Still, the pot’s already starting to boil, don’t you think?" I pulled out my phone and navigated to an English news article, sliding it across the desk.
[The Prophet Oracle, Boasting a 100% Accuracy Rate, Predicts the Appearance of the Rank-11 Calamity, Nesis!]
[The Beginning of the End: Six Months From Now.]
Seeing the screen, Phil’s expression drained of color. "...H-how are there articles about this already?! This was supposed to be top secret!"
I’d felt my initial declaration of war lacked a certain punch, so I had Ea leak the intel to the press.
I retrieved my phone. "Now that the news is out, the Coalition will have to move faster. This ti, it’s a worldwide cooperative calamity. You must beat them to the punch and announce the formation of the raid team before the M10 nations can hold their own summit."
Watching Phil fall into deep contemplation, I smiled inwardly.
Just then, a sharp knock echoed from the door.
"I have an important guest right now—" Phil started.
"I’m coming in."
The door abruptly swung open, and a woman strode inside.
"Phil. Did you see the article too—"
Our eyes t, and we both froze in our tracks.
"Ah, Pharaoh! Please, co in," Phil said, gesturing forward. "I was just discussing that very matter with the Tower Master."
Black hair cascading down to her waist, bronze skin, and a dazzlingly ornate suit of golden armor.
It was none other than my old friend, Han Yoonjeong.
I forced a casual smile and waved. "Hi."
She stood rooted to the spot, her pupils trembling violently. Phil looked back and forth between us, utterly oblivious to the tension.
"So you two know each other!" Phil chuckled. "Ah, co to think of it, you were both part of the World Guild, weren’t you? Haha!"
She abruptly turned on her heel. "Sorry, I’m interrupting. I’ll co back later."
"Yoonjeong."
I called out to her by her real na as she practically tried to flee the office. She stopped dead in her tracks. Phil blinked, wearing a puzzled expression at the sudden shift in atmosphere.
"Are you running away again?" I asked. "Just like back at the Academy?"
Biting her lip hard, she looked back at , her expression completely inscrutable.
I softened my tone. "Let’s talk."
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