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“The Amazon is a competitive ruin.”

Essence of the Strait was busy meeting while it was heavily snowing outside. Their main focus this time was none other than the Amazon. They were aiming to dig up the artifacts buried deep within its jungles.

“Quite a lot of guilds sent their scouts to survey the Amazon, but most of them didn’t take any actions after that.”

Some guilds showed interest in the Amazon, but it was a place that required great effort, sacrifice, and time. It wasn’t guaranteed that they would find any treasures there, so it was an inefficient use of their time.

“We are certain that it will be an extremely inefficient raid, but it’s worth a shot now thanks to the advancement of modern technology and…”

“Rather than that… our guild possesses the exact gift needed for that place,” Yoo Yeonha continued the guild analyst’s words.

The analyst looked at her and nodded in agreement, “Yes, that is correct. Hero Yi Jiyoon possesses the ability to neutralize the disease in the Amazon. Hero Zellin also possesses the ability to control temperature. Both of them will play a huge part in the Amazon raid.”

The Amazon raid team formed by Essence of the Strait was composed of the golden batch from Cube such as Yoo Yeonha, Yi Jiyoon, Chae Nayun, and other cadets.

The meeting continued after that as they discussed support personnel, division of the loot, analysis of government reports, and other essential information before they concluded.

“Alright, go back and rest for now. We’ll conclude the meeting here,” Yoo Yeonha said.

She left the meeting room and headed straight for her office. Then she switched on her smartwatch as soon as she sat in her chair.

[Chae Nayun★]

The first thing she did was check Chae Nayun’s official social media account. The account had been inactive for two years, but it recently came back two weeks ago.

“Hmm…” she scanned through the posts without much thought.

There wasn’t much on her account. She posted a few pictures she took with her brother today, a picture of her pet dog, and a picture with Rachel.

“It’s probably not…” Yoo Yeonha muttered.

She was trying to find any clues to what had been bothering her. No, she was curious this entire time about the relationship between Chae Nayun and Kim Hajin. However, that didn’t matter anymore as there didn’t seem to be anything between them.

She wouldn’t have cared if there was something between them. She was just curious in general, so she checked… A person had to be curious to succeed… was the self-justification she came up with.

“…”

She carefully scoured the social media pages and flinched in surprise when the smartwatch on her wrist vibrated.

Bzzt!

“Ah… I thought I liked something by accident…” she grumbled.

She calmed herself down and looked at the screen. It was from one of her organizations, [Falling Blossom].

“What is it?” Yoo Yeonha asked.

— We heard some interesting rumors.

“Interesting rumors?”

— Yes, it isn’t that important, but it’s something related to your previous bodyguard.

Yoo Yeonha’s shoulders flinched at those words, but she pretended to be calm and replied, “Is that so? I completely forgot about him.”

— Then, I shall not report the matter.

“No, go on.”

— Yes, he was spotted in the Amazon. There is a rumor that he’s hanging around Jin Seyeon these days.

“… Jin Seyeon?”

Jin Seyeon was a world-renowned archer and a top-tier hero who reached the pinnacle with the bow. Not only that, but she was also revered for her flawless beauty.

“What are they doing together?” she asked as nonchalantly as possible.

— We aren’t sure about that, but there are rumors that Jin Seyeon accepted him as her disciple. Other guilds are keeping a close eye on him right now.

Yoo Yeonha immediately checked Jin Seyeon’s social media account after hearing the report. The latest post was three months ago with no updates after that.

“Alright, you did well… Continue observing them.”

— Thank you.

The call ended and she buried herself in her chair. She stared at the ceiling for a while before reclining in the chair.

Creak!

Her upper body was now lying flat in the chair.

“Ah… Why do I feel so annoyed…?” Yoo Yeonha grumbled.

***

A base camp for heroes and mercenaries existed in the South American Amazon. Actually, it was more like an inn and there were at least thirty customers a day in this place called [Amazon’s Rest].

“They say Essence of the Strait is coming to the Amazon, Hajin,” Jin Seyeon said while watching the news.

I was watching TV with her.

“Yeah, it seems so.”

I had no idea how we were watching TV in the middle of the dense tropical forest, but that wasn’t the most surprising part as we were watching Korean channels right now while eating a pack of potato chips.

— Essence of the Strait is expected to raid the Amazon with the help of the latest mana-tech technologies from Essential Dynamics.

“It’s risky to advertise it like that. I know it’s essential to do it for the guild’s image, but…” Jin Seyeon looked concerned.

I nodded in agreement and said, “… There are a lot of djinns lurking in the Amazon.”

I was surprised at first. There were a lot of tribes residing in these forests. Most of them were actually djinns. I suppose they had no choice but to become djinns as the environment they lived in was quite hostile and rough.

“But aren’t you going to make a comeback?” I asked out of curiosity.

She tapped her chin with a finger before shaking her head, “I’m not sure. I don’t have any plans right now. Besides, the world is fine without me anyways. I’d rather help those who really need my help for now.”

She came to the Amazon to make money and used that money to do more charitable work.

Jin Seyeon smiled and asked, “What about you, Hajin?”

“Hmm… I’m not sure as well,” I replied and took a sip of my tea.

The red tea tasted excellent. Oh, and a cup of this tea was worth fifty thousand won.

“Why not? You’d win against me with just archery. I’m sure there will be a lot of guilds willing to take you.”

“…”

I simply smiled in response.

I wanted to go back to Seoul one day… After all, the person I liked was there. I missed her every night, but I didn’t really miss her once the sun came up. I couldn’t sleep at night because I wanted to see her, but then I didn’t really feel like going back once morning came.

I guess they called this bipolar disorder.

“Oh right, I was quite curious, but…” Jin Seyeon looked at me straight in the eyes and asked, “Was the scandal between you and Yoo Yeonha real?”

I could feel curiosity oozing out from her eyes and voice.

I smiled and shrugged, “Well, technically there wasn’t anything, but…”

I suddenly recalled the memories from that event a year ago when we were in the car together.

“If I think about it…”

There was a motive behind Yoo Yeonha’s words at that time and I left on my own accord after not being able to accept her motive.

That was why…

“I guess I was dumped?”

Jin Seyeon’s expression changed as if she was watching a drama…

***

It was now February and the rivers were frozen solid.

Essence of the Strait arrived at the portal station in Houston, USA to raid the Amazon.

— Yoo Yeonha! Yoo Yeonha!

— Please give me your autograph!

— It’s Chae Nayun!

They were greeted by a huge crowd as they moved to the hangar. The military plane that would transport them to the Amazon was already waiting in the hangar.

It was a modified ES-3 specially designed to deal with flying monsters. One of these would cost one trillion won and it was the masterpiece of Essential Dynamics.

“Let’s go,” Yoo Yeonha said.

The guild members entered the ES-3 and the plane immediately departed after everyone got on.

“Wow… this is amazing. Wow… We’re already this high up?” Yi Jiyoon exclaimed while filming her vlog.

On the other hand, Yoo Yeonha kept glancing beside her.

Chae Nayun reclined her chair and was fast asleep with her mouth wide open. She mentioned that she had dueled or something last night and that she was tired.

Bzzt!

Chae Nayun’s smartwatch vibrated, but she didn’t show any signs of waking up.

“Lala~ Lalala~ Lala…” Yoo Yeonha hummed a tune while discreetly extending her hand towards Chae Nayun’s wrist.

[Please bring your eyes closer or enter your passcode.]

However, she was blocked by the smartwatch’s security system. Yoo Yeonha let out a sigh.

Only two or three hours passed and the ES-3 was already flying over the heart of the Amazon.

The plane landed and Yoo Yeonha gave the command, “Everyone, move out!”

The guild members hopped off the plane at her command.

Their first order of matter was to scout for a suitable spot to erect a base camp. They searched for about ten minutes before they found a flat land surrounded by trees and built their base camp there.

They used a new technology called mana-tech fortress. It was a small twenty-five square meters structure when seen from the outside, but the interior was big enough for fifteen adults to comfortably stay.

Yoo Yeonha divided the guild members into teams, “… I will take care of the most dangerous eastern path. Zellin, Yi Jinah, and Hazuki can handle the northeast path. Yi Jiyoon and Rain will stay behind in the base camp as support or reinforcements.”

The first batch sent by Essence of the Strait consisted of seven heroes. Establishing a foothold was imperative when it came to raiding these kinds of dangerous places, so they didn’t have the luxury to rest.

“Move out!” Yoo Yeonha gave the command once again.

She trudged through the eastern path to the ruins with Chae Nayun. They were confronted by a bunch of monkey monsters known as darkies as soon as they stepped on the path.

“Kyaruk! Kireuk!”

The darkies were one of the more annoying monsters to deal with in the Amazon because of their long poisonous nails, but they were easy prey for Yoo Yeonha and Chae Nayun who were fully armed with artifacts.

“Wow, there are quite a lot of monsters here. It’s crazy,” Chae Nayun said while swinging the blood off her blade.

There were at least hundreds of monsters hiding behind the foliage and monitoring them.

“Yeah,” Yoo Yeonha nodded and smacked her whip into the ground.

Bzzzaaaat!

An electric shockwave appeared on the ground and spread throughout the area through the humidity.

Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!

The leaves were burnt to a crisp and the area reeked of burning flesh. Almost half of the monsters around them died after Yoo Yeonha used her ability, Lightning Field of Destruction.

“Wow~ What was that just now, Yeonha? That was one hell of an AoE attack. When did you learn that? Have you thought of a name yet?”

“Name…?”

“Yeah! Hey… don’t tell me… you haven’t yet? Ah, then I’ll make one for you. Hmm… What do you think of… Ah! Electric Kablam! What do you think?”

Yoo Yeonha bitterly smiled and shook her head, “Forget about its name. Hey, Nayun…”

“Yeah, what?”

Yoo Yeonha continued walking to ask the question as naturally as possible.

“Are you seeing anyone these days?”

“Huh?”

Then, Chae Nayun frowned and grumbled, “We came all the way here and you’re talking about dating…?”

“Hmm? Ah, no. Just to ease the tension, you know. We talked about these kinds of things quite often back in Cube, right? We’re only in our mid-twenties, but I felt we were living like a bunch of oldies.”

Chae Nayun smirked after Yoo Yeonha gave all sorts of excuses.

“Well, I guess you’re right. I wasted a lot of time on Mount Baekdu. But well, there’s really no one right now. I haven’t met anyone who piqued my interest.”

“… Really?”

“Yeah, but you’re asking because of Kim Hajin, right?”

Yoo Yeonha froze on her spot at those words.

‘How did this klutz figure that out? Don’t tell me… Did she already talk about that with Kim Hajin?!’ Yoo Yeonha panicked inside, but licked her dry lips and replied, “Kim Hajin… Who was that again…?”

Chae Nayun held her laughter back and looked at Yoo Yeonha with her cheeks inflated like a frog.

“What are you doing?” Yoo Yeonha asked.

“… Pfft!”

“Hey, stop that.”

“… Pfft…!”

“I said stop it.”

They bickered for a bit until Yoo Yeonha jumped on Chae Nayun to deflate her cheeks. Chae Nayun turned around to make a run for it when she suddenly spotted something.

“Hey, Yeonha. What’s that…?” she asked while pointing into the distance.

There was smoke rising from their base camp. It was a signal fire requesting for help.

“Let’s go!”

Both of them ran as fast as they could. They used their mana to run faster and arrived at the base camp in no time.

What greeted them was a shocking sight.

“What the hell…?”

The base camp was surrounded by hundreds, no, thousands of monsters. It wasn’t only surrounded by land, but it was surrounded by air as well. Strangely enough, there was a monster resembling a pterosaur hovering above the base camp and a man with tattoos all over his body wielding a spear was riding it.

“Vice guild master! It looks like djinns!” Rain shouted while valiantly defending the base camp with her sword.

Chae Nayun immediately infused mana into her blade and Yoo Yeonha tightly gripped her whip.

However, Yoo Yeonha wasn’t confident. The combined powers of thousands of monsters and the djinns weren’t something to look down on.

But where the hell did they come from…?

“Yeonha, let’s fight,” Chae Nayun said.

“No, we rescue our guild members and retreat.”

“I don’t think that’s possible right now…?”

Alligators, monkeys, snakes, mosquitoes, and a bunch of dinosaur-like monsters living in the Amazon were gathered here.

Yoo Yeonha gripped her whip and Chae Nayun swung her sword.

Krrzzaaah!

The electric current burned the insect monsters to a crisp while the gigantic blade cut down the alligators and monkeys.

It was then that a spear filled with demonic mana came flying down from the sky.

Yoo Yeonha rolled on the ground and avoided it, but the spear exploded when it made contact with the ground and swept the whole area with a powerful explosion.

The area was covered in dense fog and crackling fire.

Yoo Yeonha grimaced, but Chae Nayun only snickered.

“These guys aren’t easy. It’s going to be fun.”

“What fun are you talking about?”

“Relax. Take a look at that,” Chae Nayun said as she pointed at the sky.

The sky was covered with flying monsters and djinns mounted on them.

However, what happened next was…

A silent ray of light pierced through the pterosaur and the djinn riding on top of it.

Yoo Yeonha’s eyes shot wide open at the destructive power of that light. She immediately recalled someone and her heart started to race as she thought of that person.

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