The iron doors of the 'Crow's Nest' hissed shut, sealing the sound of the bustling Jagarchi Abyss outside. Inside, the silence was heavy, thick with the scent of ozone and the metallic tang of Madame Blood's crimson mana.
"Ten thousand souls?" Madame Blood repeated, her voice a low, dangerous purr. She leaned back, tapping a razor-sharp nail against the mahogany table. "In this city, ten thousand souls isn't an army, Kang-woo. It's a market. If I give them to you, I lose my workers, my dealers, and my muscle. What exactly is a 'future' worth in credits?"
"Credits won't buy you oxygen when the sky turns to bone again," Kang-woo replied, his voice calm. He stood perfectly still, but his shadow was expanding, slowly licking the boots of the other syndicate leaders.
"The Association is already collapsing," Kang-woo continued, his silver eyes locking onto a man in a silk robe—Master Oh, the head of the 'Golden Scale' syndicate, who controlled the mana-drug trade. "They lost an S-rank hammer and a branch office in one day. The government is terrified. They're about to implement a 'Mana-Tax' and seize all private artifact stores to fund a national defense shield that won't even work."
Master Oh flinched. The Golden Scale's entire business model relied on the lack of government oversight.
"You're talking about a coup," Master Oh whispered.
"I'm talking about a Sovereign Territory," Kang-woo corrected. "Busan has always been the Association's blind spot. I'm making it their graveyard. I don't want your credits. I want your infrastructure. Turn your drug labs into mana-reclamation centers. Turn your slave auctions into training grounds."
"And if we refuse?" a scarred man at the end of the table growled, his hand resting on a massive axe.
Kang-woo didn't answer with words. He looked at the shadows.
[Skill: 'Sovereign's Presence'—Pressure Level 2.]
The temperature in the room plummeted. Frost, tinted with black ink, crept up the legs of the table. The axe-wielder gasped, feeling a spectral weight on his shoulders that felt like the crushing gravity of the deep ocean.
"If you refuse," Kang-woo said, "the Association will come for you first to prove they still have teeth. And I won't be here to stop them."
Madame Blood watched her colleagues squirm. She saw the fear, but more importantly, she saw the opportunity. She was a predator who knew when a bigger predator had entered the forest.
"I can give you three thousand 'Hollow-hearts'," she said, breaking the tension. "Mercenaries who have nowhere else to go. But I want the exclusive rights to salvage any Citadels you bring down."
"Deal," Kang-woo said.
[Quest Update: 'The Sovereign's Syndicate'.][Progress: 1/7 Syndicates Subjugated.]
As the meeting dispersed, Yeon-hee stepped out of the shadows. "You played them well. But you've just painted a target on Busan. The Blue House won't let this sit."
"I want them to come," Kang-woo said. "I need the world to see that the Association is no longer the only power in Korea."
His phone buzzed—a burner device Yeon-hee had provided. It was an encrypted message from Seol-ah.
[Seol-ah]: The Association has authorized the use of 'Experimental Hunter-Drones' in the Busan sector. They aren't looking for you anymore. They're looking for a reason to declare martial law. And... Nam Goong-jin is awake. He's talking about a 'Silver Plague'.
Kang-woo stared at the screen. The silver plague. The mark he had left on the Thunder-God was more than a siphon; it was a psychological weapon.
"Yeon-hee," Kang-woo said, pocketing the phone. "How fast can we mobilize the Crimson Fang?"
"Why?"
"The Association isn't sending hunters next. They're sending a message," Kang-woo said, his Viper's Sense tingling with the distant hum of high-altitude engines. "They're going to bomb the Abyss to 'cleanse' the infection."
High above the clouds, three 'Vulture-Class' stealth bombers, owned by the Association's private military wing, began their descent over the Busan port. Their bays didn't contain conventional explosives. They contained 'Mana-Nullification Bombs'—weapons designed to wipe out both monsters and hunters alike.
Kang-woo stepped onto the balcony of the Crow's Nest, looking up at the gray Busan sky.
"Knight-Commander," he commanded. "Show the world what happens when they try to audit a Sovereign."
The shadow giant rose from the harbor floor, its ink-spear growing to the size of a lighthouse.