A soldier stationed at the outpost of the Mungyeong Saejae Tower, Sergeant Jang Wook, bolted upright from his sleeping bag as the ground began to shake.
“F*ck!”
The lights in the barracks flickered on, and Jang Wook, cursing loudly, hurriedly packed up his sleeping gear.
“Just two months left!”
Two months until what?
His discharge.
If a ‘break’ were to occur in the Tower, he selfishly wished it would wait until after he left, even if it meant inconveniencing his juniors.
Perhaps that wish was the very reason for his current predicament.
“A break during my last months?!”
A dungeon had collapsed. The ground was trembling, and soon monsters would be swarming everywhere.
“Damn it, if it’s come to this…!”
There was no choice.
He had no family, no girlfriend, and no one to protect—aside from the countless civilians around him.
“Sergeant Jang! B-big trouble! R-right now…!”
“I know! Even if I die, I’ll die for my country and its people… Wait, what?”
Outside the barracks, through the window, the white silhouette of the Tower loomed.
But the Tower, radiating a white light toward the heavens, was slowly disintegrating.
This was not the sign of a ‘break’ but the radiant resonance of a Tower being conquered.
“The S-Rank Tower… wait, when…?”
“The Tower has been cleared!”
“I-I know that, but isn’t it an S-Rank Tower…?”
Sergeant Jang Wook witnessed it.
A star, glimmering gold even in the pitch-black night sky, falling from the peak of the Tower to the ground below.
At the moment when his eyes locked onto the golden brilliance, a memory suddenly surfaced.
“Elaine…?”
The mysterious hunter who had shaken the entire nation—at least an A-Rank.
Perhaps her anger at being underestimated as just an “A-Rank” drove her to secretly conquer the S-Rank Tower?
“…Oh.”
Jang Wook’s legs gave out, and he collapsed.
Although his service in a high-risk area had shortened his military term by nearly half, he had spent countless days haunted by nightmares and imagining the devastation caused by dungeon breaks.
“Elaine…!!”
Finally, those nightmare days were over.
“Ah.”
But then a thought struck him.
“…What happens to my discharge now?”
Would the Ministry of Defense decide that, since the high-risk area no longer existed, his remaining service period would revert to its original length?
“…”
Jang Wook wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. Struggling to his feet, he sighed heavily.
“Ha, haha…”
One thing was clear: the dungeon was gone.
“…What were the protocols for when a dungeon disappears again?”
* * *
Using your phone while driving is a no-go.
Focused solely on driving, I had no spare time to manipulate my phone or anything else.
Why?
“Master, wouldn’t speeding right now only get you in more trouble?”
“With the S-Rank Tower gone, they’ll think I’m just running away!”
I was speeding down the highway as fast as I could.
While I cautiously slowed near traffic lights and speed cameras to avoid tickets, I still pressed the pedal to escape Mungyeong as quickly as possible.
“Elaine, can you pull up a live news feed on UTube?”
I handed my smartphone over to her.
Having hastily picked up Elaine after clearing the Tower, she had settled in the passenger seat, and I hadn’t had the chance to ask her to move to the back.
“Y-you want me to do this?”
Elaine looked flustered.
Glancing at her briefly, I saw her in my clothes, which she’d draped over her upper body, holding the phone and glancing back and forth between me and the device.
“Hurry!”
“Ah, yes!”
Elaine took the smartphone and turned on the live broadcast. Thanks to unlimited data, there was no need to worry about usage.
[Do you see this, everyone? The Mungyeong Saejae Tower has vanished!]
[Currently, all S-Rank Hunters in Korea have been accounted for! As such, everyone is speculating that the one who conquered it must be none other than the ‘Maid’…!!]
The anchors and reporters were practically shouting with excitement.
And it wasn’t just them—streamers, UTubers, and anyone else profiting off dungeon and Hunter-related news were likely losing their minds too.
‘It’s probably the same overseas.’
Even clearing an A-Rank Tower alone would garner enormous attention from the Hunter Association and the Awakened Management Committee.
But to clear an S-Rank Tower?
Especially one where an S-Rank Hunter had died just a few months ago?
[To all citizens: if anyone locates this ‘Cosplay Maid,’ I will personally ensure a reward! I stake my position as Prime Minister on this!]
“What? The Prime Minister?”
“Isn’t he the second most powerful person after the President?”
“This is insane.”
Even the Prime Minister was now involved in the search for Elaine.
Likely, the President didn’t want to risk their own reputation by appearing publicly, so they had the Prime Minister act as the front.
Or perhaps the Prime Minister wanted to take the lead for personal gain.
“If the Prime Minister can find an S-Rank—no, something even beyond an S-Rank Hunter—and secure her as a national asset, he’ll probably win the next election.”
“Master?”
“Ugh, I swear. A guy like me who knows nothing about politics trying to think politically is giving me a headache.”
“I-I’m sorry. Was it my fault…?”
“No, no. Elaine, you did nothing wrong. We acted righteously.”
It might seem like Elaine’s presence was complicating the situation, but I had orchestrated everything from the start.
If I had let her focus solely on the A-Rank Tower, there wouldn’t have been any issues.
But I aimed for the S-Rank Tower, trusted Elaine, and succeeded.
The only S-Rank Tower in the country.
One of only six S-Rank Towers worldwide, a Tower that typically required over ten S-Rank Hunters from various nations to conquer.
“…With this much, we should have plenty of leverage to negotiate—!”
“Master, watch out…!”
Ahead, a police car was blocking the road.
A police officer in a high-visibility uniform waved a traffic baton, signaling us to slow down.
Gulp.
I swallowed hard. My throat went dry.
I hadn’t committed any crime, yet my heart pounded like it was about to burst.
Gulp.
Bringing the car to a stop, I rolled down the window and greeted the officer with a friendly smile.
“Good evening! Thank you for your hard work!”
“My apologies for the inconvenience.”
The young officer bowed slightly, his expression distracted. He seemed to be performing his duties out of habit, but his mind was clearly elsewhere.
[Attention all units. Stay calm and focus on your assignment…]
The brief transmission over the police radio allowed me to quickly grasp the officer’s state of mind.
In the midst of a world struck by successive waves of chaos, if this were an emergency caused by a break, it might be understandable.
But since it was due to the Tower’s conquest, even his superiors were likely flustered and unsure how to proceed.
For now, they were just maintaining the status quo.
So, I decided to play along.
“Haha, the country seems to be in complete turmoil. You must be working so hard in these trying times.”
“Ah, yes.”
“By the way, is this some kind of control checkpoint? Because of the Tower?”
“Oh, no, it’s not that.”
Pretending to share his confusion, I distracted him with casual small talk.
“Just a breathalyzer test…”
The young officer glanced toward Elaine, seated in the passenger seat, and visibly faltered.
Although she was draped in my coat, the hem of her maid outfit peeked out below, drawing his attention.
“…Huh?”
The officer, holding the breathalyzer, seemed to freeze as if some realization struck him.
His gaze flicked repeatedly between me and Elaine, his mind clearly working overtime.
“Ah, do you need my driver’s license?”
“N-no, just blow into this. But, um, excuse me—this is really impolite, but…”
If he knew it was impolite, he should stop, but I couldn’t blame him for doing his duty.
He was just trying to follow protocol.
“The person next to you… are they, uh…”
“My girlfriend.”
Elaine answered in a slightly lower voice.
“Girlfriend.”
“Y-your girlfriend. I see. And, uh, the outfit…?”
“Well, it’s… uh…”
“Oh, for crying out loud…”
laine’s voice, slightly sharp and brimming with irritation, broke the tension.
“That’s why I said we should’ve just stayed at the motel…!”
Her frustration and embarrassment were directed squarely at me.
Simultaneously, she fiddled with her hands resting on her thighs and hung her head low.
“Ah, no, Hye-jung, it’s not like that.”
“You got all weird after seeing a maid costume on the news, insisted I try it on, and then had to go and—ugh, wanted to test it in the car of all places!”
“Uh, Ahem!”
The officer hurriedly thrust the breathalyzer toward me, cutting off the awkward exchange.
“Blow into this, please. A little harder. Yes, that’s fine. Thank you… my apologies for the inconvenience.”
The officer quickly stepped back, his expression unreadable. I gave him a polite nod, then turned to Elaine, who was fuming in the passenger seat.
“Hye-jung, I swear, it’s not like that—”
“Enough! Just start driving already!”
I rolled up the window, started the engine, and sped away, putting distance between us and the bewildered officer. Only when the flashing lights in the rearview mirror disappeared did I finally exhale.
“…Phew.”
I felt a brief moment of relief. If our cover was blown later, so be it, but for now, escaping the immediate situation was paramount.
“That was close. That officer must’ve had some experience with girlfriends and costumes like this.”
“Master.”
Elaine’s voice, colder than during the act, pierced through the quiet.
“Who is Hye-jung?”
“…”
A chill ran down my spine.
It felt like all the blood in my body was drying up.
“Ah, this is… making me feel a little tense…”
“Tense, Master? Have I done something wrong?”
“No, it’s not that.”
It had been a long time since I felt this kind of nail-biting pressure.
“I just made up a random name. Your name sounds way too foreign, so I thought something local would make more sense.”
“…I will think of a more appropriate alternative name for next time.”
Thankfully, Elaine didn’t seem too upset and simply placed the smartphone back on the console.
“But Master, what do we do now? This location…?”
“We’re heading to Seoul.”
“Didn’t you say we’d go further south if things went badly?”
“Yeah, that was the plan.”
When we first set out, heading south had seemed like the safest course of action.
“Elaine, your combat abilities—can you still use them at full power, even outside the Tower?”
“Yes.”
I had no doubts after witnessing her climb the Tower, clear it, and then sprint back to the highway where I was waiting in record time.
“Then we’ll go to Seoul. Home.”
Heading south to Busan would’ve been a retreat.
But heading to Seoul meant standing tall and facing this changing world head-on.
“And Elaine, make an SNS account. Use the app with the blue bird flying over an ‘X’.”
As an S-class summoner, if I was going to stand against the world and protect Elaine, I needed to act boldly—perhaps even recklessly.
“This one, correct?”
“Yes. Now, look at the top of the profiles. You’ll see a list of people. Find the one at the very top…”
Time to think like the new generation.
“The guy with sunglasses and muscles. Yeah, that’s the one.”
DMs would solve everything.
“The President of the United States.”
