Chapter 35

Chapter 35
## Chapter 35: The Savior of the Old World is a Pro at Saving the New One

Lee Se-eun stood within the shimmering boundaries of the confinement field, scrutinizing its structure before clicking her comms unit.

“Tell the conductor to wait. I’m going to demolish this barrier and be out in a few minutes.”

“Hurry all you like; you’re already behind schedule.”

She shifted her focus to a man standing nearby, his robes hanging loosely off his frame and a smirk plastered on his face. He wasn’t physically present—merely a projected image.

“Is that so?”

Lee Se-eun didn’t waste words. She gripped the hilt of her massive greatsword, channeling her internal energy. The sheer density of her mana caused the local atmosphere to thrum with a heavy, low-frequency vibration.

“Judging by the getup, you’re one of those ‘Blood of Dan-gun’ fanatics, I assume?”

“The name is I Ha-yoon. And you are the famous Lee Se-eun of the Yangnyeong Grand Prince faction, correct? Small world. As it happens, I’m a distant relative from a branch family—it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Are you finished?”

Without waiting for a response, Lee Se-eun brought her blade down in a devastating arc against the edge of the isolation seal. The weapon shattered into a thousand shards upon contact, unable to withstand the force she’d poured into it.

Despite the sword breaking, the entire seal let out a metallic screech, trembling violently from the impact.

“So, you’re a fan of the direct approach.”

A bead of perspiration rolled down I Ha-yoon’s brow. He had heard she was formidable, but this woman was a freak of nature. The disparity between his intel and the reality before him was staggering.

She had just sacrificed a high-grade weapon by overloading it with mana, yet her own energy levels hadn’t dropped by a single percentage point.

“I take it you thought this cage was indestructible.”

Lee Se-eun gestured with her hand, and a ring on her finger pulsed with light. In an instant, a flawless replica of the greatsword she had just destroyed appeared in her palm.

“The Mirror Ring.”

“Oh, you’ve heard of it? I thought it was relatively obscure.”

It was a legendary artifact she’d claimed after conquering a Rank-1 Erosion Core. The ring allowed her to “save” a specific piece of equipment; if that item ever broke, a duplicate would immediately manifest in her hand.

The brand-new blade slammed into the seal again, detonating with the same explosive force.

— Don’t rush on my account. I’ll handle things here.
Yoo Chan-seok’s voice crackled through the radio.

“What a joke. What is a bottom-tier hunter like him supposed to achieve?”

I Ha-yoon let out a dry laugh at the broadcast. Lee Se-eun, already winding up for her next strike against the barrier, didn’t miss a beat.

“You’d be surprised.”

“Nikolai might be from a ‘lesser’ heritage, but his technology is top-tier.”

Lee Se-eun’s voice turned icy.

“Three years back, your little Dan-gun cult tried to recruit me.”

“I recall you declined. If you’ve had a change of heart, we’d be honored to have you join us.”

Lee Se-eun didn’t bother with an argument. She summoned yet another blade to replace the one that had just crumbled, flashed a sharp grin, and spat:

“Go jump off a cliff, you Neo-Nazi freaks.”

“Such crude language. We are patriots. Do you ever spend even a few moments a day considering the welfare of your nation?”

It was a bastardized version of a quote by Dosan An Chang-ho. The historical figure would likely roll in his grave knowing his words were being used this way. They were acting exactly like a doomsday cult, twisting sacred texts to justify their own delusions.

Lee Se-eun scowled.

“I have a lot I could say to that… but I won’t.”

It was a waste of breath. She clamped her jaw shut and redirected all her focus into the systematic destruction of the seal.

—

Lee Se-eun was effectively sidelined, trapped in a cage she was slowly pulping with her bare hands.

“At this pace…”

She’d likely break through in about forty minutes. That meant we had to survive for two-thirds of an hour without our heavy hitter.

In the distance, a figure propelled by a jetpack’s roaring flames descended, hitting the ground with a bone-jarring thud.

“What’s this? Some budget Iron Man?”

A massive suit of reinforced steel loomed over us, its heavy cannons tracking our movements. Through the reinforced glass of the helmet, a face was visible.

Bald, scarred, and ugly. It was Nikolai, without a doubt. He looked exactly like his dossier photo. He barked an order through his suit’s external speakers.

📢 PUBLIC BROADCAST 📢
— Throw down your gear and give up! Do it now, and I might consider sparing your lives!

As if anyone would fall for that. “Might let you live”? He might as well have just told us to start fighting.

“That’s some serious hardware, though.”

There wasn’t a drop of mana in the pilot’s body. Nikolai was a completely ordinary human inside a high-tech shell. Han Sang-ah drew her blade, centering herself as she spoke.

“That’s from the Predator Project a decade ago. They built a few trial units. The military tried to integrate them, but the cost of materials was astronomical, so the project was mothballed.”

How did a Russian mobster get his hands on a classified prototype? Stealing it was one thing, but keeping it was another.

Unless some high-ranking government officials were looking the other way, he should have been executed and the suit reclaimed long ago.

Regardless, the armored suit Nikolai operated used mana as a combustible fuel source. That meant there was a concentrated mana battery somewhere inside that chassis.

“I just hope it isn’t the type of energy source that turns your insides to mush if you try to absorb it.”

Not every mana-dense object is safe for consumption.

Think of it like energy density: a piece of steak has a few hundred calories—perfectly edible.

A chunk of Uranium? It has billions of calories—completely lethal. You could technically swallow it, but you wouldn’t live to see the benefits.

Ingesting a material that boosts your power but can’t be digested by your system is like eating nuclear fuel for a “calorie boost.” It’s total lunacy.

📢 BATTLE ORDERS 📢
— Fine! Kill every last one of them!

The irony? All of Nikolai’s henchmen were actual mana users.

“Soldiers, keep your distance.”

I tightened my grip on my spear and charged alongside the other hunters, glancing at Han Sang-ah.

“Your first time killing people, isn’t it?”

“It’s yours, too.”

I chuckled, spinning my twin blades to deflect an incoming strike before driving my spear through a man’s skull.

He dropped instantly, his life ending in a messy spray of blood and gray matter.

“I’ve been ready for this.”

Han Sang-ah winced slightly at the carnage. Cutting down monsters is one thing; ending a human life is a completely different psychological weight.

“If your heart isn’t in it, stay back. You’ll just get in the way.”

Sympathy for the enemy makes a partner a liability. I’d rather fight alone than with a hesitant ally.

“No.”

Han Sang-ah gripped her weapon until her knuckles turned white. She lunged at an opponent.

“I can handle it.”

“Then show me.”

I threw the words back at her and kept moving.

The weight of a kill usually sneaks up on you like a shadow once the adrenaline dies down.

The tremors, the recurring nightmares of that first victim, the sudden flashes of guilt.

But for most, it passes within a few weeks.

“Hah.”

The air was thick with the sounds of dying men and foreign obscenities. The ring of steel on steel, the wet sound of opening wounds, the metallic tang of blood.

It was a chaotic, disgusting whirlwind of base human survival.

It felt strange. I had hoped to never be back in a place like this.

“This is nauseating.”

I wasn’t talking about the violence. I was talking about the fact that this slaughter felt like a homecoming.

😂 CRAZED LAUGHTER 😂
— Hahahaha!

In the center of the fray, Nikolai was a blur of motion, boosting toward the train’s shield generator. He was firing his heavy cannons indiscriminately while wielding a crackling mana-blade in his free hand.

The power behind his movements was terrifying. The Zanabi hunters were struggling to contain him, but they were being pushed back.

“Hey, scrap heap.”

A glowing blade descending toward a hunter’s head was suddenly caught by the shaft of my spear. I triggered the spear’s extension mechanism, stabbing repeatedly at the suit’s joints.

He parried with mechanical precision and glared at me.

— Oh? You’re that Korean rookie.
Data flickered across his visor. He was scanning me.

— What? You’re nothing. Is the Korean hunter scene this pathetic?
“That’s the common consensus.”

I waved the Zanabi hunters away, letting the black flames of the Paradox Flame coat my spear.

“At least until I knock their teeth down their throats.”

— Arrogant brat! I’m going to tear your tongue out and keep it as a trophy!
The suit’s internal turbines began to whine, and the lights on the armor flared to life. He was redlining the engine.

“He’s quick. And heavy.”

It’s always the same story with these types. He closed the distance in a heartbeat, shoving the muzzle of his cannon directly against my forehead.

— Move an inch, and I’ll blow this cargo to hell!
I stepped to the side with a bored expression. As expected, Nikolai didn’t pull the trigger.

— What?! How did you—?!
“If you wanted to destroy the cargo, you would have stayed at a distance and bombarded us. You wouldn’t be standing here.”

Only a moron threatens to fire a cannon point-blank at something they’re trying to steal.

I swung the flaming spear in a wide arc; he boosted into the air to evade, creating some breathing room.

“Not everyone is as slow on the uptake as you are.”

If you have a brain, you should try using it occasionally.

— You think you’re smart? I’ve crushed dozens like you!
His cannon shifted into a rapid-fire mode, spraying mana-infused rounds at me. To my heightened senses, the glowing projectiles moved in slow motion.

I didn’t need to dodge. I simply swatted them out of the air with my spear. While deflecting the searing bolts, I pressed the attack.

— Those eyes… you think you’ve won? Let’s see how you look when I peel that suit off your skin!
He swung his energy blade at my head. It didn’t even come close. It never would.

“Friend, your script is getting predictable.”

I don’t just rush in blindly, take a hit, and then act surprised. That’s amateur hour.

I had already gauged his reach, the velocity of his shots, and his power output. This was a fight I could win.

— No way…!
After five minutes of trading blows, his movements became erratic. My spear wasn’t designed to pierce that specific alloy.

But the physical spear wasn’t the threat—it was the Paradox Flame riding along the tip. The spear just had to hold together.

“Dummy.”

Gradually, the suit began to lag. I could see the reason why. It wasn’t reacting correctly to my feints.

— Why is the combat assist failing?!
“So, you weren’t even the one fighting me.”

That made everything clear. The machine was doing the heavy lifting—not the pilot.

It was logical. A regular human can’t react to a mana user’s speed. But an automated system powered by mana could.

The “glitch” was a result of my recent surgery. My nervous system had been completely rewired.

I process information and react just a fraction faster than a human should.

Nikolai’s automated defense system was hitting an error loop because of it. It was programmed for human limits—and I was operating outside of them, causing the AI to panic.

“The suit is fine. You’re the problem.”

If he were a master technician, he might have been able to adjust the settings… but a bald, muscle-bound mob boss isn’t usually an expert in software engineering.

“Let’s give you a proper beating today. You’ll wish you stayed in Siberia.”

A streak of blue light followed my spear as it cut through the air.