The glare from the high-beam headlights of the Daesung Corporation SUVs cast long, distorted shadows across the cracked pavement. Fifty automatic rifles, all loaded with glowing blue mana-infused ammunition, remained locked onto Min-jae’s chest. The air smelled of ozone and hot engine grease.

"I will count to three!" the scarred corporate commander barked through his megaphone, his boots planted firmly on the hood of the lead vehicle. "If you do not drop your items and submit to the system override collar, my men will fire! One!"

Yoo Ji-a didn’t look at the soldiers. Her violet eyes were fixed entirely on Min-jae. The trust metric hovering at 65% in his vision pulsed with a fierce, burning anticipation. She had just received a weapon capable of shattering skyscrapers, and her battle-hungry blood was roaring for a proper test.

"You said no to a frontal assault," Ji-a murmured, leaning her head closer to his, her sleek ponytail brushing against his shoulder. Her voice was a low, dangerous purr. "But you didn’t say I couldn’t tear them apart from the shadows while you hold their attention."

Min-jae turned his head slightly, meeting her fierce, predatory gaze. A cold smile touched his lips. He could see her stat sheet vibrating with raw kinetic energy.

"The front line belongs to me," Min-jae replied smoothly, his hands remaining casually inside his pockets. "They are going to focus every single piece of lead they have on my forehead. While they’re busy wondering why their bullets aren’t working... you can harvest their flanks."

"A perfect division of labor," Ji-a whispered.

Before the commander could even utter the word "Two," Ji-a’s figure blurred into a streak of violent purple static. Utilizing the raw Agility boost from her newly evolved Void-Valkyrie’s Crescent Fang, she vanished from the center of the intersection, slipping into the dark, shattered storefronts lining the eastern flank of the corporate convoy.

"Two!" the commander roared, his tracking device flashing frantically. "Wait... where did the female target go?! Scan the perimeter!"

"Don’t bother looking for her," Min-jae called out, his voice carrying clearly across the quiet plaza. He took a slow, deliberate step forward, his heavy boots crunching on the glass shards. "Your problem is standing right in front of you."

The commander’s face contorted in rage. Min-jae’s utter lack of fear was a direct insult to the absolute authority of the Daesung Corporation. In this new apocalyptic reality, their board of directors had ordered the immediate accumulation of all regional boss loot by any means necessary. A single teenager in casual clothes was not going to stop them.

"You brought this on yourself, kid. Three! Fire!"

A deafening, synchronized roar shattered the night air as fifty automatic weapons opened fire simultaneously. The muzzle flashes illuminated the street in a continuous, blinding strobe light. Hundreds of mana-infused rounds— designed to pierce through heavy monster carapace— tore through the air at supersonic speeds, tracing bright blue lines through the twilight gloom.

Every single bullet was perfectly aimed at Min-jae’s head, chest, and limbs.

Min-jae didn’t dodge. He didn’t even blink. He stood perfectly stationary, a monument of absolute arrogance in the middle of a literal storm of lead.

The moment the first wave of bullets made contact with his skin, the newly unlocked SSS-Rank passive Vajra Retribution - Absolute Counter roared to life.

[ Received 120 points of mana-infused physical damage. Negated.]

[SSS-Rank Passive Active: ’Vajra Retribution’ triggers 300% amplification on reflection!]

[Reflecting 180 points of True Damage back to the source!]

[Ding! Received 115 points of physical damage. Negated. Reflecting 172.5 points of True Damage!]

[Ding! Received 130 points of physical damage. Negated. Reflecting 195 points of True Damage!]

What followed was a scene of absolute, unadulterated horror for the Daesung soldiers.

Min-jae’s body didn’t push back an inch. A faint, blinding golden-crimson ripple manifested across his skin, absorbing the kinetic impact of thousands of rounds as if they were harmless raindrops. The flattened lead projectiles simply slid off his t-shirt, clattering harmlessly onto the asphalt in a massive, growing pile of useless metal.

But the soldiers who were firing didn’t get to celebrate.

Boom! Boom! Booomm! Boomm!

A cascade of internal explosions erupted down the corporate firing line. The 150% True Damage reflection bypasses all physical armor, Kevlar vests, and magical shields. The moment a soldier’s bullet hit Min-jae, that exact soldier’s chest collapsed inward with a gruesome spray of blood.

"Agh! My lungs! My ribs!"

"What is happening?! The armor isn’t stopping it—!"

"He’s a monster! Stop firing! Stop fir—"

Within three seconds of continuous fire, twenty-five corporate soldiers on the front line suddenly choked on their own blood, their hearts bursting from the inside out from the amplified reflected force of their own weapons. They collapsed to the pavement in a gruesome heap, their automatic rifles clattering beside their lifeless bodies.

"What kind of demonic talent is this?!" the scarred commander screamed, nearly falling off the hood of his SUV. His tracking device was malfunctioning, unable to calculate how his entire front platoon had just committed mass suicide by simply pulling their triggers. "Cease fire! Cease fire you idiots! Hold your—"

Before the remaining twenty-five soldiers could even process the command to stop, a cold, predatory whisper echoed from the shadows of the eastern alleyway.

"My turn," Yoo Ji-a voiced.

’Voom!!’

A violent shockwave of purple void lightning tore through the darkness. Ji-a leaped from the second-story window of a ruined boutique, her dark tactical bodysuit cutting through the air like a phantom silhouette. Her hands gripped the hilt of the Void-Valkyrie’s Crescent Fang, the double-crescent blades glowing with a volatile, cosmic violet aura.

[Subordinate Talent Active: Valkyrie’s Judgment (Rank S)]

[Weapon Passive Active: Void Penetration — Armor Parameters reduced to 0%!]

She descended upon the right flank of the armored convoy like a goddess of war.

’Slit!’

With a fluid, spinning arc of her obsidian spear, she cleanly severed the heads of three corporate soldiers before they could even turn their weapons toward her. The newly evolved growth weapon sliced through their reinforced alloy helmets as if they were warm butter.

"Enemy ambush from the right!" a lieutenant yelled, desperately trying to swing his heavy machine gun around.

Ji-a didn’t give him the chance. She planted the blunt end of her spear into the hood of an Suv, using the momentum to vault her long legs over his shoulder. Mid-air, she executed a brutal, reverse-thrust. The crescent blade of her spear pierced straight through the lieutenant’s heavy chest plate, extending out of his back in a spray of dark blood.

[ Your party member ’Yoo Ji-a’ has eliminated an Elite Corporate Combatant. Gained 120 EXP!]

[System Synergy Active: Stacking ’Vajra Retribution’ speed buffs onto the Host!]

Min-jae felt a sudden, intoxicating rush of adrenaline flood his muscles. Thanks to his new passive, every time damage was reflected or a party member engaged, his baseline movement and attack speed scaled upward.

[Current Buff Stacks: 20/20 (Max Stacks Reached). Movement and Attack Speed increased by 100%!]

Min-jae’s hands slowly slipped out of his pockets. His figure blurred, moving at a speed that completely transcended human limitations. He didn’t even pull out his S-Rank blade. He simply dashed into the remaining cluster of panicked soldiers on the left flank.

’Boom!’

He delivered a simple, straight casual punch to the chest of a heavily armored soldier. With his quadrupled strength parameter doubled by the 100% speed velocity, his fist carried the impact force of a literal freight train. The soldier’s chest plate shattered into a thousand jagged fragments, his entire body flying thirty feet backward before smashing through the reinforced windshield of a Daesung truck.

On the other side of the road, Ji-a was a whirlwind of violent elegance. She spun her obsidian spear in a continuous, lethal dance, her high ponytail snapping through the air as she deflected a stray pistol round and immediately countered by pinning another soldier to the asphalt. Her violet eyes were wide with a fierce, ecstatic thrill. The weapon Min-jae had given her was perfectly attuned to her soul; she could feel the Void Core inside the spear drinking the blood of her enemies, its glowing runes turning a deeper, darker shade of crimson.

In less than forty seconds, the entire small army of fifty elite corporate soldiers was completely dismantled. Forty-nine bodies lay scattered across the blood-slicked concrete.

The plaza fell into a dead, suffocating silence once more.

The scarred commander was the only one left standing. He was trembling violently, his hands shaking so hard he dropped his megaphone onto the pavement with a loud, metallic clatter. He looked to the left—Min-jae was casually wiping a speck of dust off his shoulder. He looked to the right—Yoo Ji-a was resting her blood-stained crescent spear against her shoulder, her chest heaving slightly as she offered him a beautiful, terrifying smile.

"C-Monsters..." the commander stammered, stepping backward until his spine hit the door of his lead Suv. "You... you don’t know what you’ve done. The Daesung Corporation owns three entire military storehouses in this sector. Our Chairman is already an S-Rank Awakened! If you kill me, they will hunt you to the ends of the—"

Min-jae didn’t let him finish his generic corporate threat. He turned his head slightly toward Han Chae-won, who was waiting at the edge of the plaza.

"Chae-won. Clean up the battlefield," Min-jae commanded coldly. "Store the Suv, the armor, the weapons, and the mana ammunition. We can recycle the materials later."

"Yes, sir!" Chae-won ran forward, her eyes wide with fanatical excitement as she raised her hands, unleashing a massive, sweeping wave of her Spatial Devour skill.

’Vooomm!’

Before the commander’s eyes, the forty-nine corpses, their high-tech automatic rifles, the dropped crates of mana-infused ammunition— and even three of the heavy armored Suvs— vanished into thin air, leaving behind nothing but clean, blood-stained asphalt.

"Now," Min-jae said, walking up to the terrified commander, his obsidian eyes locking onto the tracking device still clutched in the man’s trembling hand. "You’re going to tell me exactly where those three corporate military storehouses are located."