Chapter 158

Jin Geumho stood with his arms crossed, gazing out the window.

The smile he had shown while greeting Zeon had long since disappeared.

Seo Taeran stood behind him, hands neatly folded, watching his back.

It was only after a long silence that Jin Geumho finally spoke.

“…How interesting.”

“…Pardon?”

“The way the world works. A sand user appearing out of nowhere.”

“Ah… yes.”

Jin Geumho turned around to face Seo Taeran.

“What did you think of him?”

“He didn’t seem easy to handle.”

“So you saw it that way too?”

“Yes. If we treat him carelessly, it could lead to serious trouble.”

“Then we’re thinking the same.”

Jin Geumho nodded.

The Zeon he had observed had a very particular nature—

He was strong toward the strong, and kind toward the weak.

It wasn’t recklessness or eccentricity.

It was confidence in his own power.

“My Heavenly Eye didn’t work on him.”

“…Is that truly so?”

Seo Taeran raised her head in shock.

Heavenly Eye.

One of Jin Geumho’s primary skills.

Unlike Xiaolun’s Petrifying Eyes, it wasn’t directly harmful—

But in some ways, it was even more dangerous.

Its most terrifying aspect was that it allowed him to roughly read causality.

By observing someone with it, he could foresee the general flow of their future.

In other words, he could predict what lay ahead for them.

The problem, however, was interference.

If he personally intervened, the variables would change unpredictably.

That was why Jin Geumho avoided direct involvement whenever possible.

Instead, he guided others to make their own choices.

His principle was to achieve desired outcomes with minimal intervention.

“Until now, the only person my Heavenly Eye couldn’t read was Daeyodeun. Now Zeon joins that list.”

“…Then are you saying Zeon could be as strong as Daeyodeun?”

“There’s a high possibility.”

“…I see.”

“Even being a sand user alone makes him someone to be wary of. And it seems his rank is high as well.”

“…Then wouldn’t it be better to eliminate him now? If we deploy the execution squads, we could remove him easily.”

“If we did that, the carefully balanced causality would collapse. It’s somewhat burdensome, but the current flow benefits my plan more.”

“If you ever change your mind, please give the order.”

“I will.”

Jin Geumho smiled faintly.

At that moment—

Hummm—

A faint vibration spread through the room.

Both their expressions changed instantly.

It was a vibration that could only be felt inside the mayor’s office.

All of Neo Seoul’s magic formations and barriers were managed from City Hall.

Even the slightest fluctuation was immediately reported here.

Seo Taeran spoke carefully:

“We’ve received notice that Neo Seoul’s anti-magic resistance level has dropped again.”

“Let’s go down.”

“You’ll inspect it personally?”

“I need to see it with my own eyes.”

“I’ll accompany you.”

The two entered the elevator.

Whooom—

It descended at terrifying speed.

In an instant, it passed the first floor—but didn’t stop.

Basement level twenty.

To the public, City Hall was known to have 50 floors above ground and 20 underground—a total of 70 floors.

Even those working inside believed that.

But beneath the twentieth basement level, there existed a hidden space unknown to most.

A secret area far below—

Known among a select few as the Excavation Chamber.

The elevator continued descending far beyond the twentieth basement level.

It felt longer than the trip from ground to the 50th floor—and it actually was.

Ding!

At last, it arrived.

The doors opened—

Revealing a vast underground expanse.

It was so enormous that the entire City Hall building could fit inside it several times over.

It was hard to believe such a space existed beneath Neo Seoul.

But even more shocking—

Was what lay within it.

A colossal creature, easily over 150 meters long from head to tail, lay sprawled on the ground.

A pair of limp wings.

Closed, lifeless eyes.

Two massive horns rising from its head.

And scales as white as salt desert sand.

It was a dragon.

A pure white dragon.

Even just looking at it made one’s breath catch.

A massive, overwhelming being—lying silently beneath Neo Seoul.

There were no signs of life.

It was dead.

Jin Geumho stared at it and muttered:

“Tamulas… one of the eight dragons that crossed over after Earth turned into a desert.”

Long ago, Jin Geumho had witnessed it himself.

A massive dimensional gate connecting to Kurayan had opened—

And eight dragons had crossed through.

For some reason, they scattered in different directions.

One of them flew to Bukhansan and made it its territory.

That dragon—

Was the white dragon Tamulas lying before him now.

Tamulas had been a young dragon.

Naturally, it was weaker than the others.

Having expended most of its strength passing through the dimensional gate, it couldn’t fly far and settled near Bukhansan.

“…Back then, Daeyodeun and I joined forces to kill it.”

Daeyodeun had lost his wife and child to a dragon and was blinded by rage, while Jin Geumho, through his Heavenly Eye, knew that only by killing Tamulas could humanity have a future.

There had been no other choice.

Tamulas had to be slain.

Under their leadership, countless awakeners joined the hunt.

It was the early days after terraforming’s side effects, when awakeners had only just begun to appear.

Naturally, they lacked experience in combat.

Fortunately, Tamulas was still a young dragon.

It too lacked experience and could not fully control its own power.

That was why it made the mistake of nesting near what remained of the old Seoul—an area where relatively many humans had survived.

Perhaps it simply underestimated humanity.

In any case, Daeyodeun, Jin Geumho, and the human awakeners fought Tamulas in a fierce battle.

After four days of brutal combat, nearly all the human awakeners were killed.

Only a handful survived—among them Daeyodeun and Jin Geumho.

But in the end, they brought Tamulas down.

It was humanity’s first victory.

Jin Geumho knew he had to seize this opportunity.

He constructed a massive building over Tamulas’s corpse.

The body was concealed beneath what would become City Hall, and buildings began to rise around it.

That was the beginning of Neo Seoul.

Tamulas was a dragon—

A noble being at the very pinnacle of all monsters that crossed over from Kurayan.

Even in death, its presence remained overwhelming.

Monsters feared approaching it—even as a corpse.

Thanks to that, Neo Seoul remained safe from monster attacks.

As word spread that this was a monster-free zone, survivors began to gather.

With more people came growth, and civilization—once fallen to medieval levels—began to recover.

It was a secret known only to a select few.

But around Tamulas’s corpse, workstations had been set up.

Many people were working there.

“Just a little more!”

“We’re almost done!”

They were removing the dragon’s scales.

Tamulas’s scales were lighter than aluminum, yet stronger than diamond.

Even removing them was no easy task.

To extract a single scale required magicians, alchemists, engineers, and miners working together for over a month.

By the time one scale was removed, everyone involved was utterly exhausted.

And it wasn’t just the scales.

Flesh, blood, bones, and marrow were being harvested as well.

The dragon’s corpse was a treasure trove.

Nothing went to waste.

The scales were used for armor and weapons, the blood for medicine, and the marrow for research into immortality.

The rapid development of Neo Seoul was largely due to materials extracted from the dragon’s body.

Alchemists and mages at City Hall studied it extensively, using the knowledge gained to advance the city.

That was the true secret behind Neo Seoul’s rapid progress compared to other colonies.

“The problem is… the more we harvest from the dragon’s body, the faster our anti-magic resistance is depleted…”

The moment materials extracted from Tamulas were processed, the anti-magic force diminished.

That was why Neo Seoul’s resistance had recently been weakening.

For over a hundred years, humanity had continuously mined Tamulas’s corpse.

Now, only about one-third of it remained intact.

Once that was gone, Neo Seoul’s anti-magic protection would disappear entirely.

And when that happened, the city would be exposed to monster attacks.

“How long do we have?”

“At this rate… about thirty years until it’s completely depleted.”

“That’s faster than I expected.”

“But technological advancement is accelerating at the same pace.”

It was a dilemma—

The more they advanced, the more vulnerable they became.

Seo Taeran spoke cautiously:

“Would it not be better to slow down the excavation?”

“It’s too late.”

“…I see.”

“Once we’ve set the course, we must follow it through. Stopping now would only create bigger problems.”

“Will Zeon be able to obtain Moby Dick’s heart? Without it, Heaven’s Punishment cannot be completed.”

“It will be completed. Whether he intends to or not, he’ll be swept along by the flow I’ve created.”

Jin Geumho’s confident voice echoed through the vast underground chamber.

***

“Jin Geumho…”

Zeon suddenly stopped walking and turned back.

In the distance, the massive City Hall building stood tall.

He could no longer feel Jin Geumho’s gaze—

Yet its lingering presence was hard to shake.

That was how strong an impression he had left.

One didn’t need heavy armor or weapons to be terrifying.

Some beings exuded overwhelming power by their mere existence.

Jin Geumho was one of them.

All of Neo Seoul was under his control.

There was no need for him to arm himself within his domain.

With a single snap of his fingers, every awakener in Neo Seoul would mobilize.

“…He wants Moby Dick’s heart. Just what kind of plan is he making?”

Moby Dick was over 120 meters long—

A colossal monster, comparable to a dragon or Leviathan.

Creatures of that size naturally possessed immense mana.

Maintaining such a massive body required it.

A monster’s heart was essentially a reservoir of mana.

The larger the creature, the greater the amount stored within.

Asking for Moby Dick’s heart meant he needed an enormous amount of mana.

Zeon did not refuse Jin Geumho’s request.

Not because of the benefits he offered—

But because of something Daeyodeun had once said in passing:

—If you ever meet Jin Geumho, helping him once wouldn’t be a bad idea. His methods may be extreme, but everything he does is for the sake of humanity’s survival.

Those words carried weight.

Daeyodeun was the person who had influenced Zeon’s life the most.

He couldn’t ignore them.

That was the biggest reason Zeon accepted the proposal.

“…Though who knows when I’ll ever encounter Moby Dick in this vast desert.”