Inferno Pizzeria was tucked away in the basement of a building in Old Seoul's Sector B-4.
The employees of the Cheong-Am Center were there for a staff dinner.
"Daaamn, that smug pointy-eared bastard. I really wanna punch him in the face."
Yi Rang cursed Lee Sang-Deok between bites of pizza.
Lee Sang-Deok wasn't a Cheong-Am employee, so he wasn't there. Officially, he was an "external consultant."
His explanation, apparently, had been: "Why would I ever work under someone inferior to me?"
"If you want to punch him, you'll have to train a lot harder," Yu-Han said. "From now on, once you're done with your chores, you'll train with me."
Yi Rang grimaced at the word training.
"Ehh... What about my free time?"
"You think I recruited you just to do odd jobs? You're supposed to work as a sanctioner too."
"Fine! I'll do it! I'll get stronger than that elf bastard, and then—"
"Not happening."
Yu-Han, Alice, and Kim Ga-Eun replied in perfect unison.
"I can do it, damn it!"
Yi Rang bristled at their brutally honest response.
Watching her, Yu-Han wondered how a woman in her mid-twenties—one who was older than him, no less—could act so pathetic.
Strangely, though, her physique and combat movements had already been honed to a remarkably high level by someone.
Even more puzzling was the fact that she had remained completely unaffected while everyone else at the Hwang-Ho Center fell under Kim Je-Hyeon's mind control.
...Did she inherit that weird stubborn streak from her father?
Yu-Han wondered.
Just then, a muscular Italian man with a mustache and tattoos covering both forearms approached their table.
At the sight of the enormous man, Alice's first thought was that they must have done something to offend him.
"Yu-Han! Ga-Eun wasn't enough for you, so now you're walking around with three women? Bwahahaha!"
Alice and Yi Rang both wilted like dying plants.
Yu-Han immediately protested.
"They're just business partners! Ga-Eun too!"
"Oh, Yu-Han, Yu-Han. Then I would very much like to know why nearly all your business partners happen to be women."
"It's a coincidence! All of it! Fate is screwing with me!"
Yu-Han cleared his throat.
"...Anyway, let me introduce you. This is Antonio C, the owner."
"Signorine, a pleasure to meet you. This damned fool and I go back a long way—and not in a good way."
Antonio removed his chef's hat and greeted them with surprising courtesy.
"I'm Alice, and this is Yi Rang. Your pizza is amazing, by the way!"
"Grazie, grazie. After eating all the fake pizza they serve in Korea, of course the real thing tastes better."
Kim Ga-Eun, however, noticed something odd.
"Alice C? Aren't you a robot? How are you eating pizza?"
"I only found out recently, but apparently I can eat food and convert it into energy. I can even taste it."
Alice shrugged.
"This body comes with all kinds of weird features."
Kim Ga-Eun briefly worried that Alice might also possess the particular feature she was thinking of, but quickly dismissed it as needless paranoia.
Then Yu-Han cut in with yet another stupid remark.
"Kuhuh... So do you have to get rid of whatever's left over too? A robot taking a dump. Now that's funny."
Still smiling, Alice pointed her left fist at Yu-Han.
Her fist shot out from her wrist, slammed into his forehead, then snapped neatly back into place.
As Yu-Han clutched his head, Alice spoke in a soft, gentle voice.
"...I discovered this feature too. What do you think, Yu-Han?"
Kim Ga-Eun and Antonio clicked their tongues.
"Yu-Han C, you really do ask for it."
"You certainly do. Tsk, tsk..."
They went back to enjoying their meal: Margherita pizza, carbonara made with house-cured guanciale, and another pizza topped with prosciutto and burrata.
Then they heard a commotion outside.
Antonio checked the security feed on a holographic screen and groaned.
"Ah, maledizione! Those bastards again!"
"What's wrong, Antonio C?" Alice asked.
"Those damned fools are setting up another feeding station for stray cats in front of my restaurant! Yu-Han, I'll pay you. Go deal with it."
"Sure."
Yu-Han didn't move an inch.
Instead, he turned to Yi Rang, who was sitting beside him.
"All right, Employee Yi Rang. Go show us what you can do."
"Why're ya dumping this crap on me? Ain't ya heard the old Korean saying? You don't even bother a dog while it's eating!"
"I'll knock a hundred thousand won off your debt."
"Leave it to me! I'll show 'em the pride of tiger beastkin!"
Her entire demeanor changed in an instant.
Yi Rang leaped from her seat and dashed outside.
Everyone watching thought the pride of beastkin came remarkably cheap.
"Employee Yi Rang!" Yu-Han called after her. "You're both felines, so maybe you can talk things out with the cats!"
"Alice C," Kim Ga-Eun said, "please give him another rocket punch. Aim for the mouth this time."
When Yi Rang stepped outside, she found a feeding station for stray cats beside the building, just as Antonio had said.
"Seriously... Putting this crap in front of somebody else's building is a damn nuisance. If they care that much, they should take the cats home and raise 'em themselves."
As Yi Rang reached down to remove it, a shriek rang out from nearby.
A hysterical woman marched toward her, eyes blazing with rage.
"You! What do you think you're doing?!"
"Removing something that was installed illegally. This isn't your building, is it?"
"What are those poor cats supposed to do—starve to death on the streets?! We're supposed to live in harmony with animals, you psychopathic beastkin!"
Yi Rang glanced at the cats gathered nearby and came up with an idea.
"Listen, lady. I asked those cats myself, and they said they're ashamed of living off handouts. They wanna be proud, independent cats that survive in the city on their own!"
"What kind of dogshit is that?!"
"Technically, it'd be cat shit. I'm a feline too, ya know."
The woman apparently couldn't think of a comeback.
Instead, her entire body began trembling with rage.
"You're a tiger, not a cat... What would you know?!"
Her body twisted.
Flesh and bone warped as her human form mutated into something resembling a monstrous cat.
Yi Rang recoiled at the impossible sight.
"Die, enemy of cats!!"
The woman slashed at Yi Rang with claws as sharp as kitchen knives.
"What the hell?! What kinda insane situation is this?!"
Yi Rang calmly knocked the monster's arm aside and drove a fist into its abdomen.
Then her body suddenly refused to move.
The cats around her had begun clinging to her arms and legs with unnatural strength, piling onto her and pinning her in place.
The monster pushed itself back to its feet.
"Cats are the most perfect life forms in existence... I will build a paradise for cats upon this earth!"
"What the hell does that even mean?!"
The cats continued piling on until Yi Rang was in danger of suffocating beneath them.
Then Antonio burst out of the restaurant.
He had been watching the whole thing through the security cameras.
"...Signorina, it seems only right that I, as the owner, handle this personally."
He was carrying an enormous hunk of metal—a flamethrower.
Without a moment's hesitation, he pointed it at the cat monster.
"INCINERATION!!"
The monster screamed as flames swallowed it whole.
Within moments, nothing remained but a neat pile of ash.
As soon as the monster died, the cats released Yi Rang and returned to normal.
"T-thanks, Antonio C."
"Prego. Now, could you step aside for a moment?"
Yi Rang moved out of the way.
Antonio turned the flamethrower on the remaining cats and incinerated every last one of them.
Judging by the enormous smile on his face, he had been holding that grudge for quite some time.
After Antonio and Yi Rang returned, the group gathered for a much more serious conversation.
"Yu-Han, that was exactly like what happened to those protesters!"
"That was a Mana Overdrive," Yu-Han explained. "When someone has more mana than their body can handle, the excess mana reshapes their body into a form capable of containing it."
Antonio frowned.
"But Yu-Han, that almost never happens with mana a person produces naturally. Is someone pumping it into them from the outside?"
"I think it's Kim Je-Hyeon. That bastard could use mind-control magic."
"Kim Je-Hyeon? The leader of the opposition?"
Antonio's expression hardened.
"This is getting serious."
"I'll pay you. Why don't you fight with us?" Yu-Han asked. "You haven't gotten rusty, have you?"
From that exchange, Alice gathered that Antonio had once been a fighter himself.
Not that she needed to be told. One look at his physique had already made that obvious.
"That depends on how much you pay. If the enemy is a politician, I'm charging extra."
"Oh, come on. Money, money, money! Is money the only thing in this world worth loving?"
Alice narrowed her eyes at Yu-Han.
"You're more obsessed with money than anyone here. Do you really get to say that?"
"Don't get me wrong. I don't love money!"
Yu-Han thumped his chest.
"Everyone else loves money, so unfortunately, I'm forced to need it!"
Through her conversations with Yu-Han, Alice had developed a valuable new social skill: ignoring pointless nonsense.
"Yu-Han... We still have to become Grade 3 National Contributors, there's a bounty on our heads, and now both Thanatics and the opposition leader are after us. What are we supposed to do?"
"Well, fewer people in Old Seoul have been picking fights with us lately, right? Looks like our reputation's starting to spread."
Yu-Han paused.
"But that also means the next people who come after us will have done their homework. They'll know what we can do, and they'll come prepared."
"The next enemies... You don't mean major Euthanasia Centers, congressmen's private armies, or criminal organizations posing as civic groups...?"
"Exactly!"
"Haa... We're screwed."
Alice couldn't understand how the kind of ridiculous movie plot where the whole world turned against the heroes had somehow become her life.
Yu-Han, however, looked at her with the blazing eyes of a shonen manga protagonist.
"Don't worry! As long as we have love, justice, and the bonds between friends, there's no obstacle we can't overcome!"
Everyone at the table had the exact same thought.
They wanted to sew Yu-Han's mouth shut.
Meanwhile, in his penthouse, Kim Je-Hyeon was issuing orders to his followers through magic.
[Heed my command, my supporters.
Snuff out Yu-Han and his lackeys. They dared to stand in my way, and they will pay for it.
And you, Lee Gwang-Cheol—you will lead the attack.
Show them the power of five hundred years of Joseon history...!]
[I shall obey your command, Great Champion of Democracy, Kim Je-Hyeon-nim...!
I will return with their heads!]
After ending the communication, Kim Je-Hyeon sank deep into his armchair.
Thanatics might have been allied with him for the moment, but he couldn't stand them.
They showed little interest in attacking Yu-Han's group directly. Instead, they seemed content to sit back and scheme in the shadows.
Rationally speaking, there was no reason for Kim Je-Hyeon to be angry with them. Their arrangement had been nothing more than a mutually beneficial transaction.
But rationality had nothing to do with it.
"...How dare a band of terrorists try to negotiate with me as equals?!"
Kim Je-Hyeon's democratic pride could never tolerate such an insult.
He swore that once he ascended into the sky like a dragon, he would burn them all to ash.
Yu-Han.
Thanatics.
Seong Dong-Hyeon.
Every last one of them.