Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Heavenly Slaughter Star Lord, Sword God Baek Cheon-myeong.

Kang Ha-min's eyes trembled as he stared at the window floating in front of him.

If he was called the Sword God, did that mean he was a swordsman so powerful that people called him the god of the sword?

And someone like that had been lying here as a corpse?

Before Kang Ha-min could even recover from his confusion,

"This place..."

Sword God Baek Cheon-myeong looked around.

He slowly brushed back his black hair.

As his night-sky-black hair swept upward, he suddenly looked like someone posing for a magazine photoshoot.

Wow, he's seriously handsome.

His face was so good-looking that even most celebrities wouldn't dare compare themselves to him.

What is this?

Why do I suddenly feel like I've lost as a human being?

So this is what it feels like to turn into a squid when you're standing next to a handsome guy.

[You have exhausted all Grave Summoning Authority.]

[480 hours remain until your next Grave Summoning Authority becomes available.]

480 hours.

That was twenty days.

Which meant that, for now, Kang Ha-min had only one lifeline.

Baek Cheon-myeong, the man standing right in front of him.

"Um, hello."

The moment he left this place, he might get hit by that bus.

Forcing a smile onto his face, Ha-min tried talking to him.

Rustle.

Baek Cheon-myeong's eyes turned toward him.

The instant their eyes met, Ha-min's body began trembling like a leaf.

The weakest Shih Tzu instinctively understood.

The aura of a powerful being flowing from Baek Cheon-myeong's entire body.

This guy was an apex predator!

"I see."

The moment Baek Cheon-myeong looked at Kang Ha-min, his expression said that he had understood everything.

"The price for defying the heavens and making that deal was truly severe."

What was he talking about?

After muttering those incomprehensible words,

Baek Cheon-myeong picked up a tree branch from the ground.

Crackle.

At that moment, the branch shattered and reformed into the shape of a wooden sword.

How did he do that?

It looked like magic.

"So, when are you planning to climb the Tower?"

The Tower.

Ah, right.

He had almost forgotten.

Hunters were people who climbed the Tower.

Ha-min had spent enough time working as a civil servant in a Hunter-related department.

He knew quite a bit about Hunters.

I'm probably some kind of summoner-type Hunter.

Hunters possessed many different kinds of abilities.

Among them, Hunters capable of controlling summoned creatures were rated quite highly.

Hunters already possessed decent physical abilities on their own, and on top of that, they could control summons.

People were often jealous of them, joking that they could simply auto-hunt.

But summons still use the Hunter's mana in the end.

Hunters possessed mana, which was required to use their abilities.

If too much mana was consumed, it could cause dizziness, and in severe cases, even unconsciousness.

Mana was extremely important to Hunters.

Because of that, no one could control summoned creatures endlessly.

Wait.

Come to think of it...

I don't feel like I've used any mana at all.

He had heard that once someone became a Hunter, they naturally learned what it felt like to consume mana.

Yet even with Baek Cheon-myeong standing right in front of him, Kang Ha-min couldn't feel any mana being consumed.

As he wondered about it, Baek Cheon-myeong tilted his head.

"When are you going to climb the Tower?"

Ah.

He hadn't answered the question.

Well, about that...

Ha-min swallowed hard before finally replying.

"...I'm not really planning to climb the Tower."

Baek Cheon-myeong's eyebrows rose.

His expression made it clear that he had never expected such an answer.

But to Kang Ha-min, this was obvious.

He had spent his entire life believing in safety first.

As a civil servant, one of the things he had seen most often was the deaths of Hunters.

And someone like me, who knows all that...

Kang Ha-min, an ordinary little citizen, an Estrogen Man, Kang Shih Tzu, was going to climb the Tower?

The world would turn upside down first.

There was absolutely no chance of that happening.

"...You're not going to climb it? Why?"

Of course, whether Baek Cheon-myeong could understand that was another matter.

"Well, the Tower is extremely dangerous, and I don't really think someone like me could climb it anyway."

"...For someone capable of awakening this body, your self-esteem is astonishingly low."

"No, it's not that I have low self-esteem. I just know myself very well..."

Kang Ha-min had never even been in a proper fight in his entire life.

He was the ultimate avoidance-type human being who had avoided every conflict he possibly could.

That was Kang Ha-min.

Running away wasn't his specialty for nothing.

"You awakened this body, Baek Cheon-myeong. Do you truly not understand what that means?"

Kang Ha-min merely blinked.

A sigh escaped Baek Cheon-myeong's mouth.

"From this day forward, you possess the power to take everything beneath heaven, and you now hold a card capable of clearing the Tower."

Uh.

Hmm.

"Woooow."

Feeling awkward, Ha-min hurriedly raised both arms and cheered.

"..."

Ah.

Please don't stare at me with those cold, disappointed eyes.

Ha-min quietly lowered his arms.

But what was he supposed to do?

Even after hearing something like that, it honestly didn't feel real.

"Fine, I understand. Perhaps that personality of yours isn't entirely bad."

After watching Ha-min's reaction for a while, Baek Cheon-myeong seemed to reach a compromise with himself.

"At present, this body's only weakness is its master. In that case, valuing your own life above all else could actually be considered a virtue."

Was he really weak enough to be called a weakness?

The Shih Tzu was going to cry.

Seriously, he was about to bawl.

"Now that I've learned what kind of man my master is, I suppose I should prove the value of this body as well."

"I don't think you really need to do that."

"No. Your face tells me that you don't understand this body's value. I won't be satisfied until I prove it."

Proving his value.

For some reason, Baek Cheon-myeong seemed to consider that extremely important.

"Ah."

At that moment, a thought flashed through Ha-min's mind.

There was something far more important right now.

Kang Ha-min's attitude instantly became much more respectful.

"...Before that, could you please save my life?"

The moment he left this place, he was going to get hit by a bus.

"Right before I came here, a bus was about to hit me. I'm seriously about to die. You're the only person I can rely on, Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong."

"Your life is in danger? Excellent. That is perfect for proving my worth. You should have said so from the beginning."

Why did he look so pleased when his master's life was in danger?

I think I raised the wrong corpse.

"So I merely need to cut down this 'bus'?"

"What? No! Absolutely not! You can't do that!"

What kind of terrifying suggestion was that?!

If he did that, the driver and all the passengers inside could die.

"Save me safely. Absolutely safely. And don't damage the bus either."

"Actually, if possible, could you protect the bus too?"

Ha-min knew he was asking a lot, but if possible, he wanted to prevent the accident itself.

"Hmm. Very well."

Ha-min wasn't completely confident in him.

But what choice did he have?

Baek Cheon-myeong was the only person he could depend on.

Wooooong.

At that moment, Kang Ha-min's body began breaking apart into particles of light.

"Huh? Huh?!"

Baek Cheon-myeong's body was also beginning to disappear.

"It seems our time is up."

Were they returning to reality?

"Come to think of it, I haven't even heard your name yet. What is your name?"

"I'm Kang Ha-min. Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong, you really are going to save me, right? Everything's going to be okay, right?"

"Good grief, you're truly a coward. You're even more frightened than the man who once fled all the way to Buddha's palm because he feared me."

Of course I'm scared!

My life is on the line!

Ha-min felt wronged, but their time had already run out.

He was returning to reality.

There was still a chance that Baek Cheon-myeong wouldn't be able to save him.

I'll throw myself aside if I have to. Somehow, I'll dodge that bus!

The moment he thought that, Kang Ha-min's consciousness was pulled away.

His eyes slowly opened again.

The bus headlights filled his entire vision.

He could clearly see the route number of the bus he often rode.

Ah.

There was no avoiding this.

The bus was already right in front of him.

The moment it hit him, his body would undoubtedly be smashed apart.

Kang Ha-min shut his eyes.

He didn't have the courage to watch.

Screeeeeeeeeech!

The scream of the bus brakes echoed through the street.

Grab.

Someone wrapped an arm around Kang Ha-min's shoulder and pushed him backward.

His eyes opened a moment later.

A man stood in front of him, his martial robe fluttering in the wind.

He was even wearing a traditional bamboo hat that Ha-min had no idea where he had found.

In his hand was a wooden sword made from a tree branch.

For a moment, it felt as though time itself had stopped.

"What a strange thing."

One man stood alone before the bus.

Heavenly Slaughter Star Lord, Sword God Baek Cheon-myeong.

He tilted his wooden sword and pointed it forward.

The wooden blade touched the windshield of the bus.

Don't tell me he's going to cut the bus in half.

Even while being pushed backward, Ha-min opened his mouth to stop him.

Thud.

The bus stopped dead in place.

There was no remaining momentum at all.

It simply stopped.

Through the windshield,

Ha-min could see the blank faces of the passengers and the terrified expression of the bus driver.

Heat rose from the bus's wheels, proving that what had just happened was real.

Everyone here had nearly died.

In the distance, cars had also stopped as sirens began to ring out.

Since this could have turned into a massive accident, the surrounding vehicles had stopped as well.

In front of them,

Baek Cheon-myeong casually lowered his wooden sword and turned around.

"It seems I have successfully completed the first order my master gave me. Are you satisfied?"

Kang Ha-min stared at him with a dumbfounded expression.

Was something like this really possible with a sword?

But Baek Cheon-myeong had done it.

And he had proven it.

He had shown exactly what kind of existence he could become from now on.

But before anything else...

"...I think we should get out of here first."

Explaining this situation to the police would probably become extremely complicated.

"That is simple enough."

Baek Cheon-myeong lightly leaped into the air and tucked Kang Ha-min under one arm by the waist.

Wait.

Even if you're carrying me, isn't this position a little...

Before Ha-min could complain, his entire view changed.

The crushing pressure of the wind wrapped around his body.

When he barely managed to open his eyes,

the entire city of Seoul came into view.

Glass skyscrapers stood tall as though pushing back the darkness.

Lights flowing from glass walls covered in neon signs decorated the sky like constellations.

And there, in the middle of the city,

black stone walls absorbed the moonlight, giving off a faint dark-blue glow.

Standing in contrast to the modern glass buildings was an enormous Tower that looked as though it had come straight out of mythology.

The night wind flowed between the skyscrapers and brushed against the upper levels of the Tower.

Dooong.

A faint sound, almost like the ringing of a bell, spread through the air.

It was quiet, yet majestic enough to drown out the sounds of car engines and the noise of the city.

It was an unbelievably surreal sight.

A beautiful scene that could leave anyone speechless.

But then the force of gravity wrapping around Ha-min's body reminded him of reality.

Ah.

I'm really high up in the sky right now.

Whoooooooooosh!

The instant he realized that, the natural fear buried inside every living creature exploded.

The terror of falling from an incredible height.

"U, ah, AAAAAAAAAAAAH?!"

Amid Ha-min's uncontrollable scream,

Baek Cheon-myeong's delighted laughter rang through the sky.

"Hahahaha! What a fascinating world this is!"

Ha-min didn't know exactly what being the Heavenly Slaughter Star Lord or Sword God meant.

But he knew one thing for certain.

I seriously picked the wrong one.