Loki scrubbed a hand down his face."Ahhh, why did I say that? I could've just gone with 'earning trust' or 'better partnership'… aahahaha…"
Embarrassment clung like burrs.
He sighed, then looked up at the pale ruin-sky. Time slipped in GFS, but if you lived here long enough, you learned the feel of it on your skin. Almost a full day, gone.
"What a wa—"
Her smile cut through the thought, the one she hadn't quite been able to hide.
"Well, it was not all a waste."
Loki slapped both cheeks once, sharply.
'Ok. I need to lock in now.'
He had work: test the twin daggers and the armor, feel out dual-wield tempo, run the new skills, and try that idea with the greatsword.
"Let's look for a Rare or a dungeon first," he decided, and melted into the trees.
…
Real world.
Haeun opened her eyes to a ceiling she knew. Her heartbeat was already up, as if her body had decided first and her mind was catching up.
"Definitely not a dream," she said to the empty room.
She showered away the sweat, dressed with automatic neatness, and stepped into the hall.
The bodyguard outside the door jolted upright."My lady, you are awake."
House comms crackled to life down the corridor."The lady is up. Inform Chairman Yoon."
"There is no need," Haeun said. "I will see him myself."
She walked.
Paper-paneled corridors yielded to quiet galleries of stone and water. A dry garden of raked gravel and black pine framed the inner court. Koi turned like coins beneath a smoked-wood bridge. Security hid in the margins, camera eyes in lintels, locks that never announced themselves. Staff bowed just enough; the house learned her pace and made room.
At the end of a still corridor, she stopped at a door of oiled walnut and knocked once."Father, it is me."
"Come in," said the voice inside, low and unhurried.
Yoon Seung-min stood behind a clean desk. He was forty-three, iron at the temples, eyes clear despite the fatigue he did not bother to hide. His gaze moved over her face, gait, color. Only then did his shoulders ease a fraction.
"You are finally awake."
"Yes, Father." She stood straight. "I assume you have some idea of what is happening."
"I have spoken with President Kim," he said. "We are aligned on the basics of the phenomenon."
"Good. Let's share what you know about the outside, and I will share what I know about the inside."
She did not sit, and he did not insist. They traded information cleanly and without ornament, filling each other's gaps.
When they finished, Haeun inclined her head.
"You can sleep now, Father. I will brief the head maid and tell her to inform everyone in the mansion. You just follow what I told you. Get competent people, promise to pay them when you get out, and start leveling safely. When someone gets to level five, go to the gate and come to Ashen Hollow."
He watched her as much as he listened, measuring steadiness more than words."Very well. You go ahead."
"Goodnight, Father." She turned and left.
When she was gone, Seung-min's faint smile vanished, and a serious look settled in."Who is this Loki to make her smile like that?" he said, frowning.
Unknown to Haeun, when she talked about Loki, a small smile had appeared on her face, and that did not escape her father.
"I need to meet this person as soon as possible", he said and closed his eyes.
…
Ashen Hollow, deep forest.
A party of five moved through the trees, blades out, eyes greedy. They heard fighting before they saw it and bled toward the sound.
"Look," the archer whispered, pointing through the brush. "Someone is fighting a Rare boss solo."
The shield-bearer snorted. "Fighting? He probably got caught running away. Poor bastard."
"Let's see how he gets crushed," said the mage, already smiling.
The others were weirded out by the mage's tone, but drifted forward anyway.
They peered through a frill of leaves and went still.
In the clearing a gorilla-thing the size of a van hammered the earth and roared. Bramble hide, iron knuckles, a ridge of bone over both eyes.
[Kongfang Ravager, Rare, Lv. 4]
The man facing it did not run. He moved in close, twin crimson daggers in hand, every step a measured cut through its reach. When the Ravager swiped, he dipped inside the elbow and let the blow blur past his back. When it feinted, he watched the shoulders, not the hands. When space grew tight he vanished into a shadow, reappeared behind the beast, and set both knives in with neat economy.
"H-How is he fighting it head-to-head with that thing?" the healer whispered, voice high. "He just used an assassin skill."
The gorilla roared, scooped a boulder, and hurled it. The man slid sideways, then forward. The twin blades crossed the Ravager's forearm and bit, then separated like scissor points.
He spoke once as if to himself. "I kinda get the rhythm now."
The Ravager pounded forward and tried to crowd him against a root mass. He did not yield the line. He rode along the inside of its reach, shoulder almost brushing fur, and then the shadow under its arm thickened.
[Shadow Blink]
He reappeared across the creature's spine and struck as his boots found earth. The daggers kissed in the air, pulled apart, and wrote a clean diagonal.
[Passive 5]
[Backstab Triggered]
[Weakspot Triggered]
"Nice," he said, quiet and pleased. "I have the feel now."
The Ravager wheeled and raised both fists to crash them down. The man stepped and drew the line straight through it.
[Riftstep Cut]
[Assassination Triggered]
He dashed in a narrow lane, passing through the gorilla's bulk like a seam ripper through cloth. A single, straight stroke, clean and final.
The Ravager hit its knees and went over.
The man reached out as if to use something, then let it go when nothing answered. He looted with the efficiency of someone late for another job and looked at the tree line without seeing them at all.
"Good. On to the next one." Then he was gone into the green, as if the clearing had swallowed him.
The party stayed frozen until the mage found her voice again."What did I just see. An assassin fighting like a frontliner."
"Wait, I think that was Loki."
"Who?"
"The name above Miss Yoon on the board."
"Ah, I remember now. No wonder he is number one."
"But how can he fight like that," the shield-bearer said. "What is his job in the real world?"
"Could he be a professional fighter, or maybe a soldier?"
"No way. I've seen those people in town. They can't fight like that."
They were still talking when a voice at the edge of the group muttered, "Maybe he works as an assassin in real life too."
No one laughed. They stared at the place where the man had been and swallowed hard.
…
High in the trees, Loki sat on a broad branch and let the forest breathe under him. The twin daggers rested across his knees, balanced and obedient. His pulse had already settled.
"Let's start spending the evolution points," he said, more to test the sound of it than anything else. He opened the panel, eyes steady, and began.