Fired Characters from an Idle Game

15. The Storm Dragon Subjugation – (1)

Whether fortunate or unfortunate.

The shocking news of the five nests being subjugated in a single night was overshadowed by the announcement of the Storm Dragon Tempestora subjugation the next day.

Compared to the potential threat of the provincial nests or Actor, Lord of the Abyss, Tempestora was a real calamity witnessed by the majority of Seoul’s residents.

Naturally, it garnered more attention.

Especially regarding the awakened ones participating in it.

And so, crowds had gathered in front of the Administration Bureau building.

Since the world had changed, awakened ones had become figures who enjoyed greater stardom than celebrities.

“Ah, you’ve arrived.”

As I reached the Administration Bureau building through a barrage of admiring gazes, one of the employees greeted me.

She checked my ID and then led me inside.

“Ms. Nam Juyeon, you’re assigned to Team Two. Please stand here.”

“Team Two?”

“Squad One directly engages Storm Dragon Tempest, Squad Two supports Squad One while chasing away other calamities. Squads Three and Four exist, but they don’t venture inside the nest.”

It seemed I had been assigned a fairly important role within the subjugation force.

“Couldn’t I just be in Squad Three or Four?”

“A Grade B Awakened can’t slack off. It’s your duty.”

That blasted duty.

Starting with the duty of national defense, why did this country love duties so much?

When it hardly gave anything in return.

As I grumbled for a while, a man with a short haircut approached me from across the way and offered his hand.

Coincidentally, I was acquainted with this man.

“Nam Juyeon, it’s been a while.”

Jo Geon-wook had started using informal speech with me again at some point.

“Somehow, I ended up as the Squad Two representative. Didn’t expect to meet you again like this. Anyway, please take care of me.”

“Ah…”

He was someone I didn’t particularly want to meet.

Not after a management bureau employee was murdered in front of my house by someone impersonating the name ‘Actor’.

“Why are you so stiff? Are you nervous?”

Jo Geon-wook patted me on the back.

Already, the three-star calamity, Wandering Knight Albert, stood behind him.

“Ah, this? I got it from synthesis. I heard it’s stronger than the average three-star calamity, so I got lucky.”

“Impressive. Congratulations.”

“No, no, you don’t have to praise me that much.”

In truth, Wandering Knight Albert was a rock-attribute named calamity. Among three-star calamities, it possessed quite excellent performance.

“It seems your luck is just as good.”

Jo Geon-wook gestured with his chin towards my side.

At that precise moment, I had also summoned a calamity under the guise of a management bureau power assessment.

[3★ Faded Wraith Lucyben is surveying its surroundings.]

A three-star calamity of the sky attribute.

It was spoils that Selene had brought back after subjugating a nest in the south the day before.

As the name suggested, it was a named calamity, so its performance itself was excellent.

This storm dragon was also a sky-attribute calamity, so Lucyben, who could halve the attack, had a crucial role.

“Given the existence of Three-Star Calamities, if this subjugation succeeds, Nam Jooyeon-ssi, you could be classified as A-Rank.”

“Hmm… I don’t particularly *want* to be A-Rank, though.”

“Huh? Didn’t you know A-Rank Awakened get monthly support payments? You must see those refugees in the streets these days, Jooyeon-ssi, wailing for food they can’t get without ration tickets. In times as chaotic as these, you need to grab whatever advantage you can.”

Thankfully, Jo Geonwook didn’t seem to suspect my involvement in last night’s Nest annihilation.

Though of course he wouldn’t. I was at home, orchestrating the calamity synthesis from the safety of my house that night.

Besides, no one currently possessed a Calamity as advanced as a scorched saintess Celine, capable of independent action and long-distance expeditions.

“Anyway, the Second Squad’s role is simple. You’ll be supporting the First Squad. Support in name only, mind you, since you’ll essentially be going up against that dragon directly.”

Geonwook pointed to the First Squad Awakened, who were checking personnel on the far side of the field.

It seemed the First Squad’s leader was none other than Bureau Chief Yoo Junseo, a face familiar from the news.

Next to him stood two Three-Star Calamities, a hefty presence.

“That guy’s something else, isn’t he? Community service, and the moment all this happened, he quickly procured Calamities and became an overnight sensation. A real piece of work, personality-wise, though.”

Geonwook gave a wry smile and placed a hand on my shoulder.

“The point is, there are folks like that. People who adapt to the new world quickly and succeed. Jooyeon-ssi, you’re something like that too, in a way, aren’t you? We’re blessed, you know? A-Rank Awakened is something other Awakened can only dream of.”

“…”

Come to think of it, considering my life until recently – living off a small house left to me by my parents, unable even to find a job – I *was* being treated remarkably well now.

The problem was that the reason the world was in this state was because I had dropped a game.

Lost in such trivial thoughts, Geonwook spoke.

“…About that, though, I’m afraid I have some bad news.”

“Bad news?”

“One of our employees died near Jooyeon-ssi’s house. I wasn’t exactly intending to make you uncomfortable, but an unfortunate incident occurred. We assigned someone to look after things, just in case, so please don’t take it the wrong way. Protecting Awakened is the Bureau’s duty, after all.”

So that employee was for surveillance.

I tried to project an expression of nonchalant normalcy as I nodded.

“It’s fine. I had no idea.”

Frankly, I had nothing to feel guilty about. It was true that I hadn’t noticed the surveillance, and I had no direct involvement in the murder whatsoever.

Geonwook seemed to assess my expression before relaxing his lips and removing his hand from my shoulder.

“Anyway, we’ll be embarking on the Storm Dragon subjugation soon. What do you think? Do you think it will be manageable enough? You’ve seen the beast more up close, Jooyeon-ssi.”

“Hmm…”

In Disaster Order, Tempest, the Storm Dragon, was a versatile Calamity with reasonable characteristics, reasonable attack power, and reasonable endurance.

Stronger than the Hellfire Hounds, but compared to the previous subjugation, the qualitative levels of the awakened had also increased.

“…Well, given the military presence, I would think we can subjugate it somehow.

“Oh, really?”

Jo Geon-wook gave a dry chuckle, shrugging his shoulders as he looked westward, towards the nest.

“I wish that were so.”

He, at least, seemed unconvinced that this subjugation would be an easy affair.

And in that regard, I found myself in agreement.

After all, the one commanding the Storm Dragon Tempestura was none other than the master of the tower that had risen in Yeouido.

[5★ Mirien, Storm of the Northern Sea, is watching you.]

“…”

As this message, now surfacing, attested.

*

It was a memory from a distant past.

A fragment of a previous life, now fading into oblivion.

‘Eat. It is a mana stone of the highest grade. Continue to eat, and prove your insignificant worth to me.’

The girl was an experiment.

A possession of a mage who had once dreamed of defying the heavens.

A disposable vessel, used and discarded in the process.

‘You are to become my nourishment. You were born for this purpose.’

Mages, as a species, were notorious for disregarding the means in pursuit of results.

In that sense, the mage who owned the girl was cut from similar cloth.

Food was provided only enough to prevent death, and she consumed far greater quantities of mana stones than actual sustenance.

Her heart, deemed worthless as a vessel, was replaced with a mana stone, and her limbs were likewise transformed into crystalline structures.

The girl was closer to a doll than a human.

She had little reason to voice complaints.

She had been a slave to the mage since birth, destined to be exploited as a vessel until her death.

There was no particular reason, then, why she plunged a ceremonial dagger into the heart of her master, the mage.

‘Gah… You… You wretch! How dare you betray me!’

It was an instinct for survival.

The girl’s master, the mage, had overlooked one crucial fact.

With each repetition of the experiment, she had become something far closer to an omnipotent deity than a simple doll.

For an inherently incomplete being is destined to converge towards completeness.

The girl slew the wizard who was once her master, and inherited her name.

‘Mirien.’

From a nameless test subject, to Mirien, a wizard of repute, the girl resolved to stride towards omnipotence, towards perfection.

There was no motive.

Only the instinct for survival.

A natural manifestation of the logic to become perfect.

‘…I need a heart.’

Mirien intended to extend her lifespan first.

As she was now, she was living on borrowed time.

Without a heart, she could not live long.

Only with a longer lifespan could she advance towards omnipotence, towards defying the heavens.

As her previous master had done, she ravaged the continent. From every corner, she captured bodies and used them as test subjects. To fill even the smallest particle of mana, she killed every human in sight, and used the collected dust as fuel.

It was around this time that she earned the moniker, “The North Sea Tempest, the Wizard of Heavenly Defiance.”

Mirien was a wild, runaway colt, a natural disaster.

More than half of the continent’s population was sacrificed for her lifespan. With each repetition of bloodshed, mana permeated the magic stone embedded in her chest, and Mirien felt a sense of satisfaction.

For a natural disaster who knew no emotion, that alone was her only pleasure.

However, Mirien’s objective was not achieved.

For heroes gathered from across the continent vanquished the cruel and ruthless wizard.

‘Kill the witch!’

Struck by a sword and on the verge of death, Mirien leapt from the top of the tower.

[Entering a Rift.]

Mirien’s last desperate gamble was to entrust her body to another dimension.

Thus she arrived in a new dimension within the rift.

There, the monster in human form acquired a new emotion.

[The Ruler of the Rift ‘Actor’ gifts the 5★ North Sea Tempest Mirien with a 5☆ Pulsating Lunar Heart.]

‘…Ah.’

The emotion called love.