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Suddenly, white petals appeared as if conjured from a dream.

Snowflakes, brimming with a flame closer to obsession than anger, fluttered and danced in the air.

Is that red in the center of what looks like a finely sliced snowflake flame or blood?

Perhaps it resembles the bloodshot eyes of something glaring at me.

The petals sway lightly.

Then, betraying their ignition point of merely 35 degrees, they pretend to surrender to that soaring temperature and ignite, bursting into flames. Like a fire moth flitting about in the air, the flames flutter and seem to drop down glowing powder from their wings as they dance through the void, vanishing into nothingness.

Snowflake.

A burning snowflake.

A petal snowflake that disappears more fleetingly than real snow.

A snowflake that adorned with obsession engraved into the petals, oxidizing painfully alongside the flames.

The snowflake burns.

The flames flicker and move.

Repeating their disappearance and reunion, they set the world ablaze.

Whoosh.

A closed world, ignite!

An ego-driven spark clings on.

Using petals as wings, it mimics insects, scattering flower pollen wherever it goes.

Ah, sparks like flower pollen.

Flames like wings.

And a volatile substance that instantly ignites the sparkling seeds just buried!

Whoosh, it burns fiercely.

Devouring energy, it ignites.

Melting, burning, and transforming the coffin that played the role of the river and sea.

That coffin’s shape turns dark as it transforms.

This self-centered thing leaving nothing but ashes in its wake.

The space heats up, and the liquid that should fall evaporates, leaving no trace behind.

As if a famine article had passed through, leaving not a single trace of life, it burns this closed world to ashes.

The tungsten pillar might be intact, but does it hold any meaning?

Does the pillar left among the ruins truly carry any significance?

Thus, this closed space loses its meaning.

Leaving only a mere skeletal framework behind.

As if attempting to make it resemble a wasteland with a few dead trees stretching their skeletal branches.

Thus, the closed world has burned.

Burned away…

“Whoo—”

In such a burned world, only the Cistus remains.

Even amidst the dreadful selfishness of burning flower fields and forests, it protects its seeds from the flames and nourishes itself on the ashes’ fertility, embodying the essence of that selfishness.

So, the Cistus survived.

Having mimicked the Cistus.

Thus, it was chosen by the Goddess of Fierce Flowers.

That proud Cistus has survived like this.

As another Cistus had decreed before, that flame did not dare to sully its pride…

Except, the heat of the flames caused its roots to disappear.

So, to seek land to extend those roots, it could only wander, making a clomp-clomp sound.

Ah, the one who mimicked the plants has vanished.

The Cistus, once human, now simply returned to being fully human.

And amongst the ashes that had become this scenery, while rummaging around looking at everything, it did not think to plant its seed in this fertile ground, instead, it simply explored and examined the space…

Park Jinseong looked closely around here and there.

“Hmm? This tungsten… has melted?”

At the end of that observation, he discovered something.

A deformation had occurred in one of the tungsten pillars that formed a pyramid.

The melting point of tungsten is 3,422 degrees.

Of course, it shouldn’t be melting at this level of flame.

Though tungsten alloy might melt at a much lower temperature…

Even so, it shouldn’t melt at just this level of flame.

“No way?”

Jinseong began to inspect the tungsten pillar meticulously, with a slight hope.

“This is something.”

And he found the reason why the tungsten had melted.

『 風狸鋼鐵 』

“It was made in China.”

* * *

Mercenaries say,

“Anyone who buys a new firearm advertised as made of a new alloy must be out of their mind.”

Mercenaries say,

“Anyone who goes to a request with a Japanese weapon has nothing in their head.”

Mercenaries say,

“Anyone who trusts weapons made from Chinese metals is a fool in many ways.”

“Hmm.”

Mercenaries are perhaps the most weapon- and equipment-conscious group.

It is not merely a means of trade but an insurance to protect their precious bodies, a lifeline that can save their one and only life.

Therefore, mercenaries often peruse weapons and equipment whenever they can, actively sharing information within their community.

And within such community, certain phrases often pop up.

Those very sayings above.

“Anyone who buys a new firearm advertised as made of a new alloy must be out of their mind.”

The most important thing about a weapon is reliability.

Yet, a new weapon made of an unheard-of new alloy?

Naturally, those who buy such things are either true early adopters willing to experiment with their lives for a new product, complete newbies unaware of how critical reliability is in equipment, or simply foolish kids caught up in appearances.

“Anyone who goes to a request with a Japanese weapon has nothing in their head.”

Japanese weapons are infamously notorious for various reasons.

Perhaps due to localization, they are exorbitantly expensive, and for not having been deployed in actual combat, they come with a plethora of inconveniences.

Moreover, that’s not all.

In the case of modern weapons, they haven’t been mass-produced, making it difficult to procure parts, and they often suffer from many minor malfunctions, rendering them practically unusable in real combat.

Of course, there are decent ones, but in those cases, innumerable capable alternatives are available that are cheaper, more reliable, durable, and less prone to breakdowns, making it unnecessary to seek out expensive Japanese products.

As for cold weapons, they are somewhat usable, but again, there’s no real reason to bother.

A wealthy person can simply use handcrafted or artifact items, while a person without money would find it overwhelmingly efficient to use factory-made items with alloys.

And…

“Anyone who trusts weapons made from Chinese metals is a fool in many ways.”

Chinese metals are.

Needless to say, infamous.

Could it be they are made in a “high furnace” style?

Chinese metal strangely overflows with impurities and often carries significant deficiencies.

A steel plate that should easily stop a rifle could be easily punctured by a pistol.

Or, after just a few shots, a machine gun’s barrel quickly melts, losing its functionality.

Constructing a bunker using Chinese rebar and concrete, yet astonishingly, the thermal expansion coefficients that should match differ, so not long after, it develops gaps and loses its effectiveness.

Shooting a rock with a hammer made of Chinese metal, yet remarkably, the rock remains intact while the hammer gets crushed…

Each anecdote related to Chinese metals is often quite astonishing.

So these stories accumulated, leading mercenaries to believe that “Chinese metals should not be trusted,” instilling a lesson that using cheap products could lead to unforeseen demise. This perception remained despite the technological advancements in China reaching a somewhat reputable level, leaving mercenaries terrified of Chinese metals.

And Jinseong, having lived as a mercenary, shared this perception.

Chinese metals are difficult to trust.

“Tch. This is what happens when you use cheap materials.”

Well.

It wasn’t entirely wrong.

The deformed tungsten pillar right in front of him served as proof.

It wasn’t even melted in a furnace.

A tungsten pillar that would melt due to flames ignited by the Cistus…

A metal renowned as heat-resistant and sturdy enough to be used in hypervelocity rod bundles shouldn’t melt at such temperatures…

Especially given such a special purpose, it should have been even more so.

At a glance, it clearly wasn’t a standard, meaning it must have been custom-made.

Thus, it should have required heightened attention during production.

…

“Hmm. Wait, custom-made?”

Custom-made.

Custom-made…?

“Was it custom-made by a Chinese steel company?”

Not even a Korean company, but a Chinese company producing custom jobs.

Installed in the Secret Space within the Formation Technique of Seoul Specialization High School for Ability Users in Korea?

“How strange.”

This is definitely odd.

If the government or military were involved, it would have naturally been ordered from a Korean steel company.

It was undeniably a top-secret facility.

But…

Made in China?

“Spheres. What about the spheres?”

Jinseong pulled a sphere rolling on the ground toward him.

Then, he inspected the sphere carefully.

『 頭滾莊 』

…There, he found another character.

 

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