It was quitting time at the Seo-An-Dang Center.
Yu Seo-Yeon was about to head home after warmly saying goodbye to her coworkers, as usual.
But for some reason, her subordinates had all gathered in one place.
"What are you all doing? Aren't you going home...?"
"Yu Gwajang! Look! Those Cheong-Am guys are dueling the 'Red Chasers' this time!"
"What the...!? What kind of trouble are they causing now?"
Yu Seo-Yeon hurried over to check. Sure enough, the Cheong-Am Center employees were on the holographic screen.
Keeping tabs on Cheong-Am was part of her job.
Which meant more reports for her to write...
Meanwhile, Yang Su-Hyeon, idly browsing U-Tube while relaxing at home, also came across the livestream.
"That moron... Does he go around picking fights with women all over the world?"
She muttered in disbelief...
Though Yu-Han would probably object to that assessment.
---
The friendly matches were being held at a stadium in New Jamsil.
"I really... don't understand.
Why would they willingly humiliate themselves in front of the entire country?"
Eurel, the Elf, grumbled.
Chae Da-Seon, however, looked uneasy.
"What bothers me is that we ended up with no information at all on how those guys fight."
"You're worried about something like that? If they were strong, we'd have heard of them by now.
They're probably just the usual frogs in a well who don't know their place."
Sim Yun-Seol gave her indifferent assessment.
Chae Da-Seon agreed.
They had fought their way through dungeons all over the world, facing not only monsters but countless relic-hunting raiders as well.
It would be fine.
At least, that was what Chae Da-Seon told herself.
"Hey. What are you three whispering about without me?"
Son Min-Hyeok asked from the bench.
Chae Da-Seon answered in a soothing tone.
"Nothing you need to worry about~ Just a strategy meeting."
"Strategy? Ha! You'd better not lose after making such a big deal out of it."
"As if! We'll finish this quickly, so why don't you get some sleep in the meantime, Leader?"
Chae Da-Seon winked at Son Min-Hyeok, then strode confidently toward the center of the stadium.
The first match was between her and Yi Rang.
Yi Rang stared silently at Chae Da-Seon.
"Yi Rang... I'm sorry. You're really angry, aren't you? But..."
"Save it! Ya ain't gonna tell me what ya really think anyway."
Yi Rang cut her off coldly and prepared for the match.
Chae Da-Seon gave up on saying more and moved to her assigned position.
[Then let the first friendly match begin!]
Light filled the stadium as a field began to form.
In the next moment, Yi Rang and Chae Da-Seon found themselves separated somewhere in a mountain range vastly larger than the stadium itself.
Damage suffered inside this field would not carry over to their real bodies.
Since this was a friendly match and they couldn't exactly kill each other, it was an obvious safety measure.
"All right, then. Let's go find my cute little Yi Rang..."
At that moment, a gigantic tiger leaped out behind Chae Da-Seon.
She immediately smashed its skull apart with a punch.
But the tiger wasn't Yi Rang.
"...An environmental NPC? That's just confusing."
Apparently, it was just an environmental NPC programmed to behave like a real animal.
But Chae Da-Seon did not miss another movement nearby.
It seemed to have waited for her attention to shift.
"Then... you must be the real one!"
Already in Full Beast Transformation, Yi Rang rushed Chae Da-Seon with a flurry of punches.
Chae Da-Seon traded blows with her at close range.
"Hmm~ Your movements do seem a little more careful now...
But you're still nowhere near good enough."
"Ya sure 'bout that...?"
Yi Rang grinned and assumed a strange stance.
Chae Da-Seon inwardly mocked the inefficient-looking motion.
But before she could react, bright yellow magic surged through Yi Rang's fist and slammed into her side.
"...!?"
The hit hurt far more than Chae Da-Seon had expected.
Yi Rang immediately followed with a second and third strike.
Chae Da-Seon barely blocked the second with her arm and dodged the third.
"That one actually hurt a little, Yi Rang...!"
Slightly irritated now, Chae Da-Seon looked around.
Yi Rang was already gone...
---
"Yu-Han, what the hell was that just now!?"
Alice asked as she watched the match.
"A technique that uses the strike itself to trigger magic.
The physical blow and the spell land at the same time...
It's a combat discipline passed down in Asia under the name 拳法 (Asian martial arts)."
"Did you teach her?"
"I wouldn't exactly say that. It looked like someone had already trained her before.
All I did was help restore as much of that old feel for it as I could."
"Then who taught her...?"
Yu-Han had no idea either.
China had long since been reborn as a corporate alliance known as 'Feilong.'
Feilong was powerful enough to rival K&R.
Yu-Han had no idea how one of its combat techniques had found its way to Yi Rang.
---
'That's definitely Feilong's 拳法...'
Chae Da-Seon had already figured out Yi Rang's technique and strategy as well.
In pure hand-to-hand combat, that style of 拳法 gave Yi Rang a huge advantage.
Yi Rang's plan was obvious.
Hide, strike from close range, retreat, and wear her down bit by bit.
'So that's why that Yu-Han bastard had relics and even weapons banned... Good grief...'
Thinking about how Yu-Han had designed the rules only made Chae Da-Seon more irritated.
Still, she was hardly the kind of person who would give up over conditions this unfavorable.
"You little bastards!! Just how much are you looking down on me!?"
Chae Da-Seon's mana spread thinly over a vast area around her.
Skilled in fluid magic, she spread mana through the air and sensed every moving object within range.
There were two ways to deal with an enemy who kept hiding.
Destroy every place they could hide.
Or find every last one of them.
Chae Da-Seon, sophisticated as ever, chose the latter.
"Yi Rang! You're this old and you still want to play hide-and-seek!? Fine, I'll play with you!"
Chae Da-Seon started tracking down and wiping out anything human-sized or larger within her detection range.
Before long, only one suspicious tiger wearing clothes remained.
"Looks like it's over. Yi Rang, what kind of ridiculous look is that?"
The tiger stood on all fours, glaring up at Chae Da-Seon and growling.
Was she trying to pass herself off as an animal NPC and ambush her?
Chae Da-Seon figured anyone would notice something was wrong if the tiger was wearing clothes like that.
"Well, bears are naturally superior to tigers anyway...
Even in the Dangun myth, the bear stayed until the end and became human, while the tiger ran away...
You should've just stayed by my side too."
As Chae Da-Seon mocked her, the tiger charged fiercely.
But Chae Da-Seon quite literally smashed apart the painfully obvious frontal attack...!
"...?"
Something felt wrong.
The tiger disappeared, leaving only the clothes behind.
Then the real Yi Rang sprang out from behind her.
"Why're ya talkin' to yourself in front of an animal?"
Yi Rang's mana-infused 拳法 strike landed squarely in the middle of Chae Da-Seon's back.
Without a proper guard, the hit was devastating.
Even through the pain, Chae Da-Seon immediately understood what had happened.
"You put your own clothes on an NPC...!? Full Beast Transformation or not, aren't you embarrassed!?"
"If I didn't go this far, you'd never let your guard down!"
The longer the battle continued, the worse Yi Rang's position would become.
She intended to keep pressing the advantage and finish it quickly.
And even if she was currently in the form of a tiger, being completely naked was still rather embarrassing.
"Enough already... You're always...!!"
The now thoroughly enraged Chae Da-Seon's face and body transformed into those of a bear.
At this range, precise magic was pointless.
She kept only physical enhancement and basic defense, then committed fully to close combat.
Chae Da-Seon and Yi Rang began trading punches wildly.
Even after taking several vicious hits each, neither showed any sign of going down.
But after taking two heavy hits earlier, Chae Da-Seon reached her limit first.
Of course, Yi Rang had also slowed considerably compared to the start.
'Now's my chance...! With this, I can end it easily!'
Chae Da-Seon created countless blades of air with magic.
They could grind an enemy apart like meat in a blender.
But in that moment, her eyes met Yi Rang's.
Yi Rang was staring straight at her, without fear or hesitation...
'I...'
Chae Da-Seon did not attack.
And then Yi Rang's strike landed almost absurdly easily.
The field disappeared, returning the two of them to the center of the stadium.
For a moment, both looked as though they had just woken from a long dream.
"Da-Seon... why'd ya just..."
Yi Rang didn't even celebrate her victory.
She knew Chae Da-Seon would have won if she'd used that attack.
"Like I'd use magic like that on a friend."
That was all Chae Da-Seon said before returning to her team.
"You useless bear! You lost pathetically!
And why did you throw away your last chance like that!?"
As Son Min-Hyeok berated her, Chae Da-Seon's eyes turned murderous for a split second.
Son Min-Hyeok flinched.
But Chae Da-Seon quickly returned to her poker face.
"Sorry~ Leader. I guess I got careless from playing around too much!
Well, the other two will win for us, right? I'm counting on you."
---
"Deputy Director! Ya see that!? I won!"
Yi Rang boasted proudly to Yu-Han, but he looked completely indifferent.
"You actually won...? I expected absolutely nothing from you."
"What!? Ya bastard...! Would it kill ya to give me one damn compliment!?"
Kim Ga-Eun, sitting beside Yu-Han, asked,
"But... taking off your clothes and putting them on an NPC—was that a strategy Yu-Han C taught you?"
"As if I'd teach her to strip in the middle of a fight.
What is this, a strip show?"
"Oh, c'mon!! That was my brilliant idea, and that's all ya got to say about it!?"
While Yi Rang kept arguing, Alice cut in with a more practical question.
"It's good that Yi Rang won, but Yu-Han. Who's fighting next?
You didn't tell me or Ga-Eun anything."
"Because you two aren't fighting.
I'm not wasting valuable human resources on these idiots' little game.
I hired someone else."
"Hey! So I'm fine to waste!?"
As Yi Rang started arguing again, someone approached them.
Silver hair.
Pointed ears.
And the unmistakably arrogant look of an Elf...
Lee Sang-Deok.
"Hey, Yu-Han. You weren't lying when you said I'd get to beat the shit out of an Elf bitch who doesn't know her place, were you?"