* * *

"Heavenly Flower Department Store, Black Dragon Restaurant, and Xiao Shopping Center are still out of contact!"

"A request for help has come from Sahwa Hall!"

"Urgent report: the Black Fiends stationed at Black Dragon Bank have engaged the attackers!"

A simultaneous assault on every subsidiary. The news spread at once despite the late hour. So many sites had been attacked, and the emergency alarm network at the subsidiaries enrolled in the Guardian System had gone off. As a result, Leviathan was bustling even in the dead of night. Hotel Leviathan was both the command center overseeing the Black Dragon Clan across the world and its forward base for supplies and combat forces.

"Please give us your orders!"

"Where should we send reinforcements?"

Yet for all their frantic activity, the Black Dragon Clan could not bring itself to act. It wasn't only because they had no idea how to respond to the absurd situation of every attacker being a count-class player—and the same person at that. At the heart of their command center, the general manager who served as Leviathan's brain remained silent.

"General Manager!"

Unable to bear the frustration any longer, one warrior called out to him impatiently. Given the Seven Dragons Society's strict hierarchy, it was an act of insolence for which he could have been summarily executed for insubordination. The subsidiaries were in such danger that he risked his life to ask for orders anyway.

But Yo U-in neither grew angry nor issued orders to respond. He merely spoke in a low voice.

"Everyone is to stand by."

"At a time like this?"

"Yes. No reinforcements. Tell the Ink Dragon Unit and the other staff to make every preparation, but not to move without orders."

"Why?!"

Yo U-in calmly returned the question to the warrior, who plainly could not understand.

"Must I explain my reasons?"

"... Forgive my impertinence."

The warrior fell silent and withdrew. A general did not explain every operational order to his soldiers. The warrior realized that demanding an explanation was a flagrant disregard for the clan's chain of command—but that was not the only reason he backed down. An oppressive force weighed on his shoulders.

Having silenced the warrior, Yo U-in gave a bitter smile where no one could see.

'This is troublesome.'

The warrior would never know why Yo U-in had drawn on his psionics to shut him up. It wasn't merely to preserve his authority as general manager. Yo U-in himself did not know the exact reason they had to wait. At best, it was dereliction of duty. Exaggerate a little, and he could hardly object if someone called it deliberate neglect or even betrayal.

'Your Highness, you put this old man in a difficult position.'

There was only one reason he was doing it: these were the orders Li Qingyu had given when he urgently informed her that the subsidiaries were under simultaneous attack. Of course, that would be no excuse. Perhaps it would have been in the past, but now that the princess's standing had fallen so far, he could not escape responsibility if the rest of the clan learned he had abandoned the subsidiaries under attack, even on her orders.

Still, Yo U-in did not change his decision. Before he was Leviathan's general manager, he was a member of the Black Dragon Clan, a warrior of the Seven Dragons Society duty-bound to put the princess's wishes above all else.

*'I know you must have your reasons, but...'

Yo U-in was also one of the few people who knew how clever and meticulous Li Qingyu was, and an old veteran who had survived countless deadly situations. Naturally, he knew she would never give such an order without reason. He could even guess, in broad strokes, what the order meant and what she was after. Even so, it was hardly comfortable to receive urgent reports and pleas for help from subsidiary after subsidiary and answer none of them.

'To feel anxious at my age. I still have much to learn.'

Lamenting his lack of composure, Yo U-in kept his back straight and listened to the flood of reports.

"All members of the Ink Dragon Unit are standing by!"

"A request for help from the guards who escaped Heavenly Flower Department Store..."

"An urgent report from the Wang family of Shanghai's combat unit..."

"The Silent Shadows report..."

The reports poured in without pause, each important and urgent.

THOOM!

A tremor shook the place.

WEEEEEE!

The emergency bell, silent through all the commotion, began to ring.

"What is that...?!"

"Impossible!"

"Find out what's happening, quickly!"

The Black Dragon Clan members were about to scramble into action, their faces showing shock and disbelief far beyond their earlier confusion.

Then Yo U-in spoke quietly.

"Ink Dragon Unit, assemble in the lobby."

His voice was calm and low, yet the order cut through to every ear. As everyone stopped what they were doing and turned toward him, he said coldly, "Prepare to receive our guest."

* * *

Footsteps tapped along at an easy pace.

A lone figure walked leisurely down the darkened street. An oversized hoodie pulled low over her head, jeans that exposed one thigh, a guitar slung across her back—the blonde woman looked like an ordinary street musician to anyone who saw her.

Eugene was thinking.

'What should I do?'

Her current Commander, the braided-haired man, had ordered her to go on a spectacular rampage so long as she did not get in the way. Of all the missions she'd received lately, it was a simple one she genuinely liked. She had only one question: where and how should she go wild?

It was surprisingly complicated, depending on how she looked at it. Unlike Ryu Gang-cheol, she had no way to attack several places by herself. She could only wreak havoc in one. That meant it might be hard to meet the "spectacular" part of the order the way he could.

"Mm, this is the place."

Eugene kept it simple: she would pick somewhere she could make a big splash. Even she, who knew little beyond music, knew which of the Black Dragon Clan's subsidiaries was the largest. And so, late that night, she appeared before a building.

"What a shame. Your customer service is lacking."

Perhaps because a state of emergency had been declared, thick iron doors sealed the building. Standing before the entrance, Eugene reached behind her, unslung her guitar, and raised it high in both hands like a hammer.

"Open Sesame!"

Her cheerful cry rang through the air. Then the guitar—strangely heavy for its appearance, heavy enough that even Limon, a Sword Master, had felt its weight—slammed into the iron doors.

KRAAANG!

The thick doors buckled, and Leviathan shuddered.

"What the hell...?!"

The warriors guarding the lobby stared in shock. Their job was to prepare for the worst, but they had never expected the worst to actually happen. The doors sealing Leviathan were made of dungeon alloy 330 millimeters thick, designed to withstand a direct missile hit without a scratch. They were practically indestructible objects.

BANG! BANG! KRAANG!

Yet now the doors were not merely denting with every blow. They were being crushed out of shape before the warriors' eyes. It was utterly unreal, a sight more like a dream. What happened next, though, would not even let them pretend it wasn't real.

KRAAAANG!

"Wow... It's sturdier than I thought. Made by Seven Dragon, all right."

The blonde woman finally kicked the battered doors clean off their hinges and sent them flying inward, then walked inside. Eugene rested the guitar on her shoulder and tilted her head.

"Why are there only two guards here? Shouldn't there be more?"

It was a fair question. Even in the middle of the night, two warriors were far too few to guard the entrance of a building already on emergency lockdown.

The two warriors, naturally, did not answer her. They gritted their teeth and drew their swords.

"Die, you villain!"

"For daring to break into Leviathan, you'll pay with your life—"

WHAM!

It happened in an instant. The two warriors who had charged Eugene so fearlessly were reduced to bloody pulp against the wall.

They had not been weak. Both were accomplished fighters, capable of a fierce fight against most high-level players. There was only one problem: Eugene was too strong. With a single swing of her guitar, she had swept through their techniques, shattered their swords, and crushed their bodies.

"Huh? Why'd they die in one hit?"

Eugene blinked at what she had done, then cocked her head and muttered, "Aren't the Seven Dragons Society's experts stronger than that? Don't they usually keep coming even after they're crushed?"

Her voice held equal parts surprise and disappointment. Had the dead warriors heard her, they might have coughed up blood—especially because she was not mocking them. She meant every word.

The two warriors' vengeful ghosts might not be there to object, but someone else was.

"Even an expert is still human. How could anyone fight after every limb and organ in their body had been crushed?"

"Who are you?"

"I am Yo U-in, this hotel's general manager."

The old man in a suit introduced himself calmly, his steady eyes fixed on Eugene.

"If you don't mind, may I have your name?"

"Nope. That's a secret."

"A pity."

As if he had never expected an answer, Yo U-in accepted her refusal and continued in a low voice.

"I had hoped to learn the name of the strategist who made fools of our clan—striking in the east to draw us west, then luring us out of our stronghold."

"What???"

"... I see. It seems the strategist is someone else."

"We don't have a strategist, though. Just a Commander."

"Whoever devised the plan to weaken Leviathan's defenses by attacking our subsidiaries deserves to be called one."

Yo U-in spoke with a note of regret.

Now he had confirmation of why the attackers had spent more than a month repeatedly assaulting the subsidiaries: they had wanted to divide the clan's attention and draw its warriors away before striking Leviathan. And the plan had worked. Normally, three combat units and numerous other warriors stood ready here at all times. Now only one combat unit and a few dozen warriors remained.

Even that was thanks to Guardian's efforts, which had kept the subsidiaries' losses down. If Limon's prediction had not enabled them to protect the subsidiaries, they would have had to send away what little strength remained as well.

But Yo U-in neither blamed himself for failing to prepare sooner nor took comfort in having a countermeasure. He simply raised one hand.

"Ink Dragon Unit."

Figures emerged quietly from all around the lobby: thirty-two warriors in dragon-patterned black robes, white masks covering half their faces. Each radiated an aura as sharp as a blade.

"Our doormen's hospitality seems to have been lacking. This time, allow us to give you a proper welcome."

RRRRRUMBLE.

Their auras intertwined. Their psionics mingled. The power of thirty-two warriors, each an expert of unit-captain caliber, merged into one through a meticulously constructed formation. The aftershock alone shook the lobby. Amid a flow of psionics that seemed to warp space itself, Yo U-in glared at Eugene with icy eyes.

"Come. Experience the power of the Black Dragon Clan's strongest combat unit."