D.I.O

“Ugh, hurry it up you country bumpkins! I’m busy— Ouch!”

“Hahaha, sorry about this lady’s mouth. She’s not very good with the Korean language.”

“What are you talking about, you fool? I’m much better at Korean than you— Ouch! Stop pulling! It hurts!!”

The plain-faced man gave a reassuring smile as he stretched the red-haired girl’s cheeks.

“You don’t need to be nervous. Even though this flying disc may look flimsy, I assure you that it’ll be able to carry us all safely to our destination.”

“Wait, the two of you aren’t equipped with artificial spiritual pathways, right?” Taewoong commented.

Since artificial spiritual pathways were foreign to a human’s body, it was virtually impossible for a person to hide the unique presence of an artificial spiritual pathway they were equipped with even if they had completely assimilated the artificial spiritual pathway with their body. Of course, it was possible for a person to hide their presence through the use of martial arts, but they couldn’t hide one’s energy and aura when they were face to face with another person in such close proximity, just like how close the party members were to each other right now.

It might be possible for a person to hide their energy and aura if they were equipped with a [fully functional] Level 10 or higher artificial spiritual pathway… However, as far as Taewoong knew, the highest level of artificial spiritual pathways available in the market was Level 3…

The red-haired girl shook her head. “Dude, just get on. Do you think Merlin is trying to kill us?”

Listening to the young girl’s exasperated yet logical words, everyone climbed onto the flying disc.

The flying disc, which was five meters in diameter, was large enough to allow the entire party to climb atop it with ease, and it soon floated upward.

“This…” Taewoong’s facial expression, which had maintained a sense of calm until now, hardened.

He couldn’t feel the inertia that he should have felt when the flying disc rose upward.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s not just a floating spell that’s been placed on this flying disc; it also has an inertia control spell placed on it. This sort of object can’t be created unless it’s done by a Level 10 mage or higher.”

Whoosh!

The surrounding background seemed to be pushed back in an instant. Even though the flying disc accelerated to hundreds of kilometers per hour in just a moment, the party members atop the flying disc didn’t feel the slightest pull.

Whiz!

“We’ve arrived.”

When the flying disc stopped, the red-haired girl jumped down. The place they arrived at was a building that looked to be about thirty stories tall.

“That was fast.”

“It wasn’t just fast… It didn’t shake no matter how fast it moved, and I couldn’t feel any sort of wind resistance…” Taewoong couldn’t help but mutter in disbelief after experiencing the excessive performance of the UFO-like flying disc.

Of course, many of them played DIO, so they had all experienced something like this in-game, but those were experiences that were restricted to the game, not experiences that could be had or witnessed in real life. Although magic had started to appear and take hold in reality, it still seemed absurd that something so advanced like this flying disc already existed.

As soon as they got off, Boram looked at the flying disc, which went away in an instant as if it had finished its assignment and had other things to do. Then she turned her head toward the building.

“Anyway, why is this called a tower? It looks like a normal building.”

The word ‘tower’ gave her the impression and expectation that she’d arrive at a spire-like building, so Boram mumbled her confusion aloud as she approached the building.

Yongno currently attracted the world’s attention, but little was known about the layout of his mansion. Many rumors circulated about all kinds of buildings and [gardens] existing in this space that occupied one-third of a city’s land, but not a single picture of the inside circulated on the Internet.

“Come to think of it, a lot was said about this building.”

“Huh? What do you mean, Taewoong?”

“Its image isn’t capturable through satellite imagery. Not even the shape of this building can be photographed.”

If someone were to try to take a satellite picture of Yongno’s mansion, all they would see was a dot of sparkling silver light. It was possible to see everything on the outside from within the building, but it was impossible to see what lay inside the building from the outside.

“Moreover, it’s warm here. Even though it’s not hot enough to say that it’s like summer weather, it’s hot enough to be like spring weather. However, it’s freezing outside.”

Winter was in full swing, with Christmas just around the corner. It wasn’t too windy in the area, so the actual temperature that one felt wasn’t that cold, but all the visitors were wearing thick clothes anyway.

Boram took off her coat. It seemed that the perimeter fence surrounding the mansion had a function that regulated the internal temperature; the temperature had changed significantly the moment they stepped through the building’s entrance.

“Welcome.”

Then the space shuddered and shimmered with a snapping sound, and Eunhye appeared in her tight men’s formal business suit.

This was a common way for a user to appear in DIO… but knowing full well that this was happening in reality, Taewoong groaned inwardly at the scene.

‘Oh, my God, space travel. It’s something that could spark a logistics revolution.’

Taewoong had divided his spiritual power focus between both life force and magic power in DIO, but he was knowledgeable enough in magic to know that magic power and its capabilities would have a tremendous impact on reality.

Actually, the world had already completely changed in the span of a few weeks after Yongno revealed his artificial spiritual pathways.

The even more shocking thing was that only the Level 1-3 artificial spiritual pathways had been unveiled. Once higher-level abilities were utilized through higher leveled artificial spiritual pathways, the things that could be done in reality would increase almost exponentially.

“Oh, Eunhye. Long time no see.”

“Yes, it’s been a while.”

Sociable by nature, Boram had maintained a certain level of friendship with Eunhye. Of course, it wasn't as close as it would have been if Boram hadn’t spent most of her time abroad before entering a university in Korea. Nevertheless, Boram talked on the phone more often with Eunhye than she did with her own younger brother, Yongno.

“Anyway, where’s Yongno? I always see his face on TV, but he never answers his phone.”

“He’s been a bit busy. We’ve all been busy.”

This conversation was between Boram and Eunhye while Taewoong kept silent and listened. The red-haired girl and the plain-looking man followed suit without a word.

Bam!

As they moved to a place where a strange pattern was engraved on the ground, the surrounding background changed.

Yongno’s Magic Tower was a building without stairs or an elevator, so the only way to move between floors was through teleportation.

“Oh! You’re all already here. I’m almost done setting dinner~!”

When they arrived at a sort of dining hall, they saw a white-haired girl wearing an apron setting a dining table. Seeing her tall, slender body, curvy features, and impressive jade green eyes, Boram, as well as everyone else in the party, hesitated momentarily.

“Oh, how can this be… Mary? No, wait, is it really her?”

“Is it some cosplay costume?”

“No, wait, look what’s above her head!”

When Boram shouted, everyone in the party raised their eyes to the lettering above the white-haired girl’s head.

[Merlin’s Guardian]

[Snowflake Flower]

“Wait a minute… She has an ID floating above her head even in reality?”

“No, wait. More importantly, why isn’t her ID ‘Mary’? Instead, it’s ‘Snowflake Flower’? What is going on…”

“Shut it, and sit down. You all are so loud.”

The one that growled wasn’t a human but a ferocious-looking monster with green skin and a snub nose, which made his nostrils flare upward. The monster had tightly packed muscles rippled all over his body. His body proportions did not normally exist in reality, so everyone just stood around as if they were frozen.

“… Sungmuk?”

Amidst the chaos, the girl with red hair, who had been relatively calm up to that point, stiffened after seeing Sungmuk and took a few steps back.

Seeing this, Sungmuk chuckled. “Oh? Long time no see, kid.”

“Loading!”

At that moment, the red-haired girl—Cruze in disguise—conjured up dual pistols. Although the pistols looked like gunpowder weapons, they weren’t modern weapons; they were plasma pistols made with the scientific power of a Third Stage Civilization. Cruze’s compact weapons packed a larger punch than any modern firearm, but she didn’t immediately pull on the pistols’ triggers.

“What? Huh!? An orc! An orc in real life?!”

“Oh, my God. The Sword Sovereign…!”

Mary—the initial guide who accompanied and helped all users initially acclimate to DIO—was a popular and celebrated figure, not only in DIO but also in the real world. However, when it came to being famous, or infamous in this case, the Orc Hero Sungmuk was second to none. It was not an exaggeration to say that he had the highest name value among the monsters that users fought against.

However, letters were also floating above his head.

[Tamed by Merlin]

[Sword King Sungmuk]

“What? Tamed? [That] Sungmuk was tamed?”

“Wait, before being surprised by that… shouldn’t we be surprised that all of this exists in reality?!”

“Being able to summon NPCs into reality… I know Merlin has the authorization to operate DIO, but this…”

“No, wait. Weapon materialization… You must be Cruze!”

The scene was like a blazing crucible of roaring confusion. Although the beings present didn’t immediately enter battle, the atmosphere became more and more tense as the seconds passed.

Then…