* * *

["Team One, Heavenly Flower Department Store clear. Two targets eliminated. Awaiting further orders."]

["Team Two, Black Dragon Restaurant clear. One target eliminated, five seriously wounded being evacuated. Will report when done."]

["Teams Three and Four engaging at Xiao Shopping Center. Two targets sighted. We'll finish within ten minutes."]

["Team Five, Black Dragon Bank..."]

["Team Six..."]

The room was filled with monitors. Modeled after Leviathan's situation room, it was now handling just as many calls and reports. There were three differences: the reports came from Infinity Guild, not the Black Dragon Clan; not one was a plea for rescue or an emergency alert; and a single person oversaw the entire operation.

"Team One, stand by for another attack. The Guardian System has detected a new intruder."

"Team Two, proceed to Sahwa Hall as soon as you've finished evacuating the wounded."

"Teams Three and Four..."

It was a struggle to keep up. Wei Ling, a woman dressed as a man, issued orders so frantically she might have been a six-armed, three-headed Asura. All the while, she thought, 'Sword Lord, the next time I see you, I'm going to kill you.'

Limon's out-of-the-blue security contract with Infinity Guild had already left her cleaning up after him through night after sleepless night. Then, not long ago, she'd had to add an emergency response system to the Guardian System and take charge of operations in a crisis. Having nearly worked herself to death—and still being overworked—Wei Ling had every reason to resent him.

'If I actually worked myself to death, my descendants would be ashamed for generations.'

Yet the fact that she had handled it all flawlessly was proof of just how capable she was. The operation she was directing now would normally have been too much even for three or four people working together.

'... Still, it's true we got through the worst of it thanks to him.'

Wei Ling had practically built the Guardian System single-handedly and was now running it. She knew that all her exhausting preparations had saved subsidiaries and clan members that had been on the brink of collapse. She also knew that, in the end, it was thanks to Limon.

Securing a security services contract with Infinity Guild had been impossible in the first place. And if it hadn't been Infinity Guild, one of the ten great guilds, they could have mobilized several major guilds and still failed to handle this crisis. Even now, they could hardly claim to have it completely under control.

'Our subsidiaries have stabilized, at least. The rest are the problem.'

Wei Ling frowned as she checked the status of the subsidiaries not enrolled in the Guardian System on a monitor linked to Leviathan's situation room. Only the subsidiaries contracted with Guardian had seen any improvement. The others were still fighting bloody battles against Ryu Gang-cheol's clones.

'We can't send help.'

Wei Ling made a cold assessment. The contract covered only subsidiaries enrolled in the Guardian System. Even if the others belonged to the same Black Dragon Clan, Infinity Guild would never help them without separate contracts. And even if it did, there was another problem.

'We don't have enough people to protect them all.'

Even Infinity Guild didn't have unlimited personnel. Meanwhile, no matter how many times Ryu Gang-cheol's clones were killed, more sprang up somewhere to attack the subsidiaries. Splitting their forces to help those without Guardian contracts would defeat the purpose if the contracted subsidiaries fell as a result. An endlessly reappearing killer in the eighties was that difficult an enemy. Anyone who wasn't a player of at least level 60, or an expert of comparable strength, couldn't even be counted as a combatant.

'We need three times our current strength... At the very least, twice as much. There's no other way.'

Wei Ling calculated the minimum strength needed to protect every subsidiary and shook her head. Although only a portion of their forces had been mobilized, the Seven Dragons Society's combat units and Infinity Guild's raid teams were already fighting Ryu Gang-cheol. They were elites whose combined strength nearly rivaled a nation's military. Perhaps they could find comparable reinforcements if they had a few days. There was no chance of getting them right now.

["Hey, smart-ass."]

A call came in then. Wei Ling managed to pick it out from the flood of reports just before it slipped past her, and frowned for an entirely different reason.

"Where have you been at a time like this? And why are you only calling now?"

["We can talk about that later. Work out a route and send it to me."]

"What sort of route?"

["Through the subsidiaries that don't have Guardian contracts. One that gets me to the most critical ones first, as fast as possible."]

The request came out of nowhere. Understanding what he meant, Wei Ling gave him an odd look.

"... You're going to take on all the other subsidiaries by yourself?"

["I wouldn't call it taking them on. I just thought I might swing my sword for a little amusement while I'm out for a stroll."]

"It's impossible," Wei Ling said flatly.

Of course she knew Limon was strong. He had helped her thrash Ryu Gang-cheol just by coaching her over the phone. In a direct fight, he could probably dispose of Ryu in thirty exchanges at most, perhaps as few as ten. But that was only if there were one Ryu Gang-cheol, in one place, and killing him once solved the problem. No one could single-handedly stop the Ryus at the dozens of locations already confirmed, especially when they kept popping back up like zombies no matter how often they were killed.

["Well, ordinarily it would be impossible."]

To her surprise, Limon readily agreed. Just as one hand couldn't fend off ten, a difference in numbers was an overwhelming disadvantage in itself.

["But, smart-ass, I'm not an ordinary man. I'm a Sword Master."]

He had added one qualification.

"..."

There were always exceptions in the world, he declared, and Sword Masters were those exceptions. Wei Ling fell silent. It wasn't that she was stunned by his shameless confidence in making a claim so arrogant it reached the heavens. If anything, it was the opposite: she was disturbed by her own state of mind, because somehow that absurd claim sounded plausible.

"I'll send it shortly. Wait there."

["Good. I'm counting on you."]

"..."

As though that settled the conversation, Limon casually ended the call. Wei Ling immediately set to work compiling a route to send him, then murmured without thinking, "Counting on me, are you?"

She knew he was counting only on her ability. Limon didn't trust the Seven Dragons Society at all. He would doubt even the information she sent him, filter it, then make his own judgments before acting. Perhaps there was something wrong with her for feeling a strange pride when he said it anyway.

'This is all his fault.'

Ever since fighting Ryu Gang-cheol under Limon's guidance, Wei Ling had changed. Whenever she closed her eyes, she saw a sword. She picked one up whenever she had the chance, but no matter how much she swung it, she felt no satisfaction. She could never wield it the way she had while Limon guided her, nor could she recapture the sensation she'd felt then—something beyond pleasure, almost ecstasy. The more she swung her sword, the worse her thirst became. Yet she couldn't stop: an endless cycle of torment.

*'If only it weren't for him...'

She should hate him. She should resent him for thrusting her into hell. Instead, she yearned. The mere sight of him reminded her of that sword and set her heart racing. She loathed him terribly, yet admired him; she didn't want to exchange a word with him, yet wanted him to teach her. To escape that bewildering contradiction, she'd deliberately kept herself busy and avoided Limon ever since that day. But simply hearing him say he was counting on her was enough to shake her resolve.

'It's pointless to dwell on this.'

Wei Ling shook her head. This was no time to let such trivial thoughts distract her.

BEEP.

Even while wrestling with her feelings, she'd swiftly plotted a route from the subsidiaries' information. She sent it straight to Limon's pager.

"... No matter how I look at it, this is reckless."

She had done it only because he'd told her to. Wei Ling remained pessimistic. The more dispassionately she considered it, the more absurd it seemed that Limon could protect so many subsidiaries on his own.

BEEP.

'Just as I thought.'

On the monitor showing the subsidiaries' status, she saw the first subsidiary's marker suddenly turn from red to green. But disappointment filled her eyes.

'Too slow.'

Roughly three minutes had passed between receiving her information and clearing the first subsidiary. For someone who'd had to rush there and deal with a player in the eighties, that was remarkably fast. It still wasn't fast enough. More than ten subsidiaries were in immediate danger. Even at one every three minutes, the remaining five or six would be bloodbaths by the time he reached his third or fourth.

*'What was I expecting?'

It was the obvious outcome. She spent a moment mocking herself for feeling disappointed, then forced her attention away from Limon. Instead, she focused on directing Infinity Guild to protect at least the subsidiaries contracted with Guardian.

Or rather, she tried to.

BEEP.

*'Already?'

Less than two minutes had passed when another red marker turned green.

*'Was the second subsidiary especially close?'

Wei Ling analyzed the possibilities. Perhaps Limon was moving faster than she'd expected, or the geography favored him, or he'd simply been lucky. That was the last moment she could keep her composure.

BEEP.

*'Another one?'

This time, a marker changed in just one minute. The drastic reduction was hard to explain by any of those factors, and even Wei Ling couldn't help raising an eyebrow. But it was only the beginning.

BEEP-BEEP.

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP.

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!

"...!?"

Fifty seconds. Thirty. Fifteen. Ten. The time between alerts kept shrinking. Green spread across the status board in a flash, like neon lights on a nighttime street, while the signals came so quickly they became a continuous alarm.

*'What... is happening?'

Not even ten minutes had passed. Wei Ling caught her breath as she stared at the monitor: forty percent of the red markers that had covered most of the map were already green.

Even for a high-level player with a spatial skill, making one long-distance leap after another at such a ridiculous pace would have been nearly impossible. Yet Limon, who wasn't even a player, was crossing tens of kilometers in the blink of an eye and saving subsidiaries. At this point, it seemed a million times more plausible that a virus or a hacker had broken the status board.

But Wei Ling didn't think that. More precisely, she couldn't. Limon's proud declaration, her experience of being taught by him, and above all the pounding of her heart told her more clearly than any evidence that this was no error. This was real. This was what happened when Limon took action.

Staring at the status board in bewilderment, Wei Ling could only murmur, "What on earth is that crazy Sword Master doing?"