One week later.
One by one, the nations of the Emerald faction announced their unconditional surrender. Their leaders' voices crackled across the airwaves, reaching every major city within their borders.
The Emerald military had been decimated, with nearly ten million soldiers fallen on the battlefield. The Navy-blue hero had descended upon their capital, shattering their last shred of hope.
Their will to fight was gone.
"The leaders of all nations have reached a unanimous decision. We hereby declare our surrender... crackle..."
The broadcast played through every radio receiver, signaling the end of an era.
Today, the Navy-blue coalition erupted in a celebration that spanned continents.
"The war is over!"
"Long live the Motherland!"
"Long live Excellency Hyuk!!"
The streets were flooded with people cheering and running with joy. Civilians of the Navy-blue Alliance waved banners and flags bearing Hyuk's image, the fabric snapping in the wind.
Everyone knew the truth: Hyuk had ended this war single-handedly. There was no exaggeration in that claim, it was a fact, pure and simple.
Because of this, Hyuk's prestige within the Navy-blue Alliance was at its absolute zenith. Some had even begun establishing religious sects in her name, worshipping her as a living god who had descended to save them.
The conflict between the Navy-blues and the Emeralds had reached its verdict. While a total global ceasefire seemed imminent, this was far from welcome news for the ultranationalist militarist regime currently terrorizing the Far East.
Similarly, the Argent Federation found little comfort in this development.
Geographically isolated on its own continent, the Argent Federation enjoyed a wealth of resources and the luxury of being far removed from the primary theaters of the Great War.
In their view, the ideal scenario was for the other nations to tear each other's throats out, allowing the Federation to sit back and swoop in to reap the spoils of the fallout. Of course, reality was never going to be that convenient.
The situation in the Far East was deteriorating rapidly, and the Argent Federation was on the verge of being dragged into the quagmire. It was then they received word: the Emeralds had fallen, and the Navy-blue coalition had secured a total victory.
Normally, this would be cause for celebration.
The problem was Hyuk.
Her god-like strength could obliterate any opposition; tanks, planes, and warships posed zero threat to her. According to incomplete statistics, she had personally downed 3,340 aircraft, crushed 12,800 tanks, and sunk over a hundred various naval vessels.
Hyuk's existence ensured that the Navy-blue Alliance would dictate the post-war world order, becoming the absolute global hegemon. This was not the future the Argent Federation envisioned.
In their eyes, the reins of the future world belonged to the Argent Federation!
And so, a certain man came seeking them out through the Door.
He was a man of dark, swarthy complexion, appearing to be in his thirties with distinct South Asian features. He introduced himself as Variable.
Clearly, it was a pseudonym.
"This global war will be over soon. That woman's power is far beyond your comprehension," Variable lectured. "She will tear your planes and cannons apart like they're made of paper. She can level one of your cities in mere minutes. To you, she is a True God, General. The future belongs to the Navy-blues."
Arneson, a five-star general of the Argent Federation, listened to Variable's speech with a stoic, unreadable expression.
"If this is all you have to say, I believe you are wasting my time. The Argent Federation has no intention of contesting global hegemony with the Navy-blues..."
"Is it because of the Atomic Bomb?"
Variable bluntly interrupted Arneson. The General's expression shifted instantly, his eyes narrowing as he interrogated Variable. "Where did you get that intelligence?"
The Federation's research into atomic weaponry was a secret of the highest order. He was certain Variable had to be a mole or had extracted the information from a spy.
"That's hardly enough," Variable replied, ignoring the question and dangling an even greater lure before General Arneson. "General, do you even understand the principles behind this project? Compared to the power of fission, the energy released by fusion is far more terrifying. I have a plan, and I suggest you listen very closely to the details..."
The Argent Federation believed their secret weapon might be enough to handle the Navy-blue hero, but Variable argued that fission was woefully insufficient.
Variable believed that Hyuk's physical constitution was immune to any concussive force. The shockwave of a nuclear blast wouldn't even faze her; only the extreme heat, thermal radiation, could hope to deal effective damage.
The core temperature of an atomic blast hovers around 6,000 degrees Celsius, but a hydrogen bomb can reach temperatures exceeding a billion degrees. Even if it were only for a fleeting second, that level of thermal radiation would surely be enough to inflict lethal damage on Hyuk.
It wasn't long before Variable successfully integrated himself into a clandestine operation codenamed Project Minpaten. The Argent Federation didn't care about Variable's ultimate motives; as long as his presence served their interests, they were more than happy to facilitate his research.
At the same time, the Navy-blue coalition issued a final ultimatum to a certain militaristic island nation in the Far East. They claimed to be the protectors of world peace and demanded that this global slaughter end immediately.
The warning arrived at the same time as Hyuk.
She intervened in the Far East theater with thunderous momentum, dealing a catastrophic blow to the island nation's invasion forces. She swept through the region like a hurricane clearing away dead leaves, purging everything in her path.
In a single day, the Far East theater was pacified.
Hyuk had eliminated 1.28 million enemy combatants.
But she wasn't finished. she flew straight to the island nation's mainland, systematically demolishing their military infrastructure and slaughtering their remaining troops until their combat capacity was utterly broken.
And just like that, the Great War that had consumed countless nations reached its finale. Before the Argent Federation could even mobilize, the war had been ended.
Furthermore, the harvest from the Far East campaign allowed Hyuk to shatter the ten-million-ton strength threshold in one fell swoop.
[Infinite Overload · Potential Unleashed]
[Strength: 10.24 million tons ⬆]
In total, Hyuk had eliminated approximately two million people during her time in the Far East. Shortly after her display of power, the island nation's Emperor broadcasted his imperial edict of surrender. Millions of people cheered, weeping with joy.
The fires of war had finally been extinguished.
Hyuk had zero interest in participating in the subsequent global restructuring or political maneuvering. She left the Navy-blue Alliance to manage the geopolitical fallout, trusting them to build a more peaceful and stable world order.
She, meanwhile, was attempting to study and understand the nature of her own power. According to the calculations of several scholars, her physical density was rapidly approaching that of a white dwarf star.
While she wasn't quite at that level yet, at her current rate of growth, it was only a matter of time before she truly rivaled the density of a stellar remnant.
What the scholars found utterly incomprehensible was that despite this immense density, Hyuk still maintained her human form. Her physiological and morphological characteristics remained quintessentially human.
"It defies all logic!" the scholars lamented, unable to find an explanation.
By all accounts, Hyuk's micro-physical structure should have been generating an immense gravitational pull and a powerful magnetic field. Her presence alone should have been dragging surrounding objects toward her like a localized black hole.
But it wasn't.
Hyuk had never sensed any kind of field radiating from herself. The only thing she controlled was her own body. Her ability to fly didn't seem to stem from any interaction with magnetic fields or gravity.
From her perspective, she moved her body through sheer force of will, shifting her position in space without needing to leverage the planet's gravity or magnetism.
In fact, the planet's gravity felt more like a source of resistance than a tool for her flight.
"This is truly beyond belief..." the scholars marveled, their shock reaching its zenith.
...
The Great War was over.
The Navy-blue coalition had emerged as the ultimate victor. Just as the Argent Federation had feared, Hyuk's existence had cemented their position as the absolute hegemon in the new world order.
In the postwar era, every street and alleyway was filled with an atmosphere of unbridled joy. The people had endured the shadow of war and oppression for far too long; finally, the threat was gone.
While the aging leaders of the Alliance were busy deliberating on how to carve up the world, Hyuk had no interest in the political theater. She sat alone on a long bench outside the military headquarters, passing the time in quiet solitude.
"I was wondering where our great hero had run off to. It must be lonely being by yourself. I think you should go out and meet some people; you'd be surprised how many young people idolize you these days."
General Whis approached, a bottle of red wine in hand. He plopped down on the bench beside Hyuk and offered her the bottle. She popped the cork and took a swig.
Her verdict: "I've never understood what's so great about this stuff. You'd have been better off bringing me a bottle of regular grape juice."
"Tch, what a waste," General Whis muttered, shaking his head.
This was a vintage he had been hoarding for a special occasion, too precious to drink alone.
He looked at Hyuk and sighed. "To this day, I still don't quite understand you."
Hyuk tilted her head. "What do you mean?"
"You said you wanted to end the war, and you did it," Whis said. "But the way you ended it... it was terrifying. You were more of a butcher than any executioner in history. No one has ever spilled as much blood as you have. For a while, I thought you were some kind of fanatical warmonger. But now that the war is over... what do you plan to do?"
Hyuk was honest. "I have no plans."
She had fulfilled her role in ending the Great War; the rest was up to the politicians and leaders. She wasn't even sure what the system's evaluation criteria were for this mission.
All she could do was ensure this world remained as peaceful as possible.
If something arose that couldn't be handled through normal means, she would step in. Otherwise, she was content to be a silent observer.
Given that the Door on this side still had plenty of time before closing, she wasn't in any rush.
"Then go out and enjoy life," Whis suggested. "You're young. There's so much for you to experience, power, wealth, beauty. You have the world at your fingertips."
"Heh."
Hyuk let out a dry laugh. She knew these old men wanted her to indulge in the finer things, hoping she'd become too distracted by luxury to ever consider going rogue. They were terrified of what would happen if she ever decided to lose her mind.
If she truly went on a rampage, nothing could stop her.
"Well, if you prefer your own company, I won't bother you further."
"Mm," Hyuk replied dismissively, her gaze fixed on the ground. She clearly wasn't in the mood for conversation, and Whis was smart enough to take the hint.
Across the street,
A group of teenagers were stealing glances at Hyuk, clearly wanting to approach her but lacking the courage. They huddled together, whispering and shoving each other until finally, a black-haired, dark-eyed girl who looked to be of Far Eastern descent was pushed forward.
The girl was shy, approaching Hyuk with a nervous, awkward smile that barely masked the hope in her eyes. "Excellency Hyuk... I... could I introduce myself? My name is Cynthia!"
By the time she finished, she was standing so stiffly she looked like she was at attention.
Hyuk snapped out of her trance.
She offered the girl a genuine smile.
"Hello, Cynthia."
...
While the fighting had ended quickly, the post-war reconstruction was a long, arduous process. Dealing with the defeated nations, negotiating reparations, and redrawing borders were issues that took time to resolve.
The world was entering a new era.
Under Hyuk's watchful eye, the Navy-blue Alliance and the Argent Federation worked together to establish a new global framework. True to her wishes, the world did indeed become more peaceful and stable.
However, the System's Main Mission remained incomplete. This suggested that the current level of stability hadn't yet met the system's threshold. Hyuk, ever patient, continued to wait.
Until three years later.
...
The Year 1940.
Military intelligence brought Hyuk a specific, troubling report. A group of heavily armed insurgents had been identified in the Gattuso Desert. These militants had launched a surprise attack on a Navy-blue Allied peacekeeping force, inflicting severe casualties.
But that wasn't the focal point of the report. When reinforcements were scrambled to the area, they were systematically decimated by the insurgents.
The survivors claimed the leader of this insurgent group possessed superhuman combat capabilities, similar to those of Hyuk herself.
Despite having superior numbers and equipment, the Navy-blue forces were completely outclassed. It was clear that the situation required Hyuk's direct intervention.
In the military headquarters,
Hyuk felt a spark of curiosity regarding this mysterious insurgent leader. She wondered if the individual was another superhuman from Earth or an extraterrestrial entity.
She set the intelligence report down.
"I'll head to the Gattuso Desert."
With those words, she rocketed into the sky.
The Gattuso Desert was located in a volatile region three thousand kilometers away. It didn't belong to the Navy-blue Alliance or the former Emerald nations, and it was separated from the Argent Federation by a vast ocean.
Poverty.
Underdevelopment.
Chaos.
These were the defining traits of the region.
Hyuk didn't have a simple solution for a region like this. There was no grand-scale war here; instead, there was only a relentless cycle of local skirmishes and bloodshed.
Only by introducing civilization to establish order and industry to boost productivity could these resource-starved areas find lasting peace. Otherwise, even if she wiped out one group, another would simply rise to fight over the same scraps.
The Navy-blue Alliance had come here to facilitate development, never expecting to encounter a terrorist leader wielding inhuman power.
Traveling over 3,000 kilometers took Hyuk less than ten minutes. She reached her destination, a decent-sized town sitting on the edge of the desert.
She located the insurgents' lair with ease, strolling inside as if she were taking a casual walk, and finally came face-to-face with the leader mentioned in the reports.
The man was clad in tactical gear and had dark skin. One look was enough for Hyuk to confirm he wasn't human. She raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Are you a machine?"
The man before her had no heartbeat and didn't breathe. Inside him, she could hear only the faint whirring of mechanical components. Hyuk lacked X-ray vision, but her senses were hyper-tuned to light anomalies and her hearing was incredibly powerful.
The man's first words immediately gave away his origins. He looked at Hyuk and asked, "Powerful... why do you think we awakened? What is the meaning of it all?"
Hyuk realized then that this man was here specifically for her.
"I'm listening."
"It is for evolution," the man declared, launching into his philosophy. "All manner of aliens are flocking to Earth, and humans are awakening talents one after another. This is a massive crisis, but it is also our greatest opportunity to evolve, be it physically, mentally, or technologically. This is a brutal era of natural selection. If humanity fails to evolve to a higher plane during this crisis, extinction is the only result."
"And your point is?"
"As a fellow traveler on the path of evolution, I want to see just how far you've come. As the most perfect specimen among current humans, let me witness your limit."
BOOM!
An ultimate, blinding brilliance erupted in an instant, releasing temperatures that defied natural phenomena. Within a hundred-meter radius, all matter was vaporized in a heartbeat. A massive mushroom cloud surged into the sky.
The shockwave from the detonation whipped up a sandstorm in the desert, hurling immeasurable amounts of dust into the atmosphere. Hyuk stood at the absolute epicenter of the nuclear blast. In that fraction of a second, she was engulfed by temperatures reaching billions, perhaps even tens of billions, of degrees.
As the violently expanded air rushed back to fill the vacuum, creating a secondary implosion, a lone figure walked calmly out from the heart of the terrifying, swirling inferno.
The hydrogen bomb detonated in an instant. The core temperatures, exceeding tens of billions of degrees, lasted for less than a millionth of a second. However, even in that infinitesimal fraction of time, the extreme environment created was enough to vaporize most matter in the universe.
Hyuk was injured.
Exposed to the billions of degrees of heat, her outermost skin and some muscle tissue instantly lost their physical form, dissolving in a flash.
As the core temperature rapidly dropped, Hyuk's remaining muscles ceased their disintegration. The partially dissolved tissue on her body began to burn, making Hyuk appear like a being wreathed in flames.
This pain was likely the absolute limit of what any living creature could endure.
She emerged from the nuclear blast, her outer flesh still smoldering. Because the temperature had fallen too rapidly for her body to continue decomposing, the flames on her body gradually subsided.
Hyuk suffered severe, full-body burns. She had experienced this kind of pain before, but this time it was clearly more intense. However, it wasn't fatal.
She would recover with relative ease.
The entity controlling the robot clearly had a twisted sense of humor. It could have detonated the hydrogen bomb the moment Hyuk was lured into the trap.
Instead, it had delivered a grand monologue about natural selection and evolution before finally detonating the bomb, seemingly satisfied with its existence being acknowledged.
BOOM!
Hyuk's figure shot skyward, instantly reaching Mach 10, supersonic speed. She broke through the atmosphere and ascended directly into space.
She hovered there, adrift in the void, waiting for her injuries to heal. Her ears and eyes had suffered critical damage and were temporarily non-functional, but her internal organs remained unharmed.
This was the only way she could wait for recovery.
Admittedly, the robot's words had given Hyuk cause for serious reflection. Not about its evolutionary theories, but about the part concerning natural selection.
It was undeniable that Earth's environment was becoming increasingly perilous. The constant appearance of increasingly dangerous aliens and superhumans meant that those who weren't strong enough would likely not survive to see the end.
Putting aside other threats, the Loanspawn talent alone was already outrageously powerful. Who knew if even more outlandish extraterrestrials might appear?
Hyuk considered the Mergers.
Superhumans might not be easy opponents either. And dangerous individuals like the robot, the sly schemer or the raving lunatic, would require considerable effort to deal with.
The operator behind that machine might have been weak, but they had accomplished what almost no one else could, they had actually wounded Hyuk. If a hydrogen bomb hadn't detonated here today, it was only a matter of time before one went off somewhere else.
Hyuk was far from invincible against such treachery.
If she wanted to survive on an increasingly hostile Earth, she had to become stronger, powerful enough to simply crush any enemy that dared to cross her path.
[Infinite Overload · Ultimate Leap]
[Evolution Rate: 85%⬆]
This particular injury had pushed Hyuk's evolution from 55% up to 85%. Compared to her previous brushes with death, the gain this time was significantly lower.
While these burns were technically more severe, her previous state had been a cumulative mess of multiple injuries that had left her far closer to the actual brink of death.
Three months flickered by in an instant.
The nuclear detonation in the Gattuso Desert had shocked the world to its core.
The weaponization of atomic energy was the primary focus of international research. Previously, the Emerald faction had conducted deep, clandestine studies into the field.
The Navy-blue Alliance, naturally, had their own parallel projects.
However, the Alliance was certain that the nuke in Gattuso wasn't theirs; their own atomic prototypes hadn't even reached the testing phase yet. Since they had absorbed all of the Emerald faction's research, it was impossible for any other hidden projects to exist, leaving only one logical culprit.
The Argent Federation.
Consequently, a fierce diplomatic war erupted between the Navy-blue Alliance and the Argent Federation. But no matter how the Alliance pointed fingers or issued condemnations, the Federation stood firm in its denial.
"With all due respect, our assessments show that the yield of the device in the Gattuso Desert far exceeds the prototypes we are currently developing. This level of technology is simply beyond our current scientific reach," General Arneson argued.
The explosive force of that bomb was thousands of times more powerful than the atomic prototypes most nations were struggling to build. Such terrifying energy levels left world leaders paralyzed with anxiety.
General Arneson added, "The Argent Federation deeply regrets the unfortunate accident involving Excellency Hyuk. She was a true hero who made monumental contributions to world peace..."
The Navy-blue Alliance publicly blasted Arneson's hypocrisy, vowed to hold the Federation accountable, and then secretly breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Deep down, they felt that losing Hyuk wasn't necessarily a bad thing. As a weapon, Hyuk possessed a mind of her own, which made her far too dangerous to control.
The world didn't need a god looking down on humanity. With their own atomic weapons nearing the testing phase, the Navy-blue leaders felt they no longer needed Hyuk.
The standoff between the Navy-blues and the Argent Federation threatened to plunge the world into a Cold War. While the political elites were busy popping champagne and celebrating their newfound "freedom," they remained oblivious to the fact that fate was about to take another unexpected turn.
A single feather drifted down, and the scales of power tipped irrevocably.
On that day,
The figure they feared most reappeared in the public eye. A fully recovered Hyuk returned from the void of space, descending upon the Argent Federation with the majesty of an ancient god.
...
Project Minpaten Research Base.
This was General Arneson's first time experiencing Hyuk's raw power firsthand. The sheer, crushing pressure of her descent made his very soul tremble.
He was practically suffocating.
"She survived a nuclear blast... that was equivalent to sixty million tons of TNT..."
Variable stood beside Arneson, his expression one of genuine shock. He clearly hadn't expected Hyuk to survive such an extreme, localized event.
Then, a look of realization dawned on him.
"You are even more powerful than I imagined."
Hyuk hovered in the air, looking down at Variable. Without a single word, her body accelerated to supersonic speeds. With a thunderous boom, Variable was detonated into a mist of red.
Hyuk might not have been able to hear Earth from space, but that didn't mean she was blind to what was happening on the surface. Tracking down the Minpaten research base hadn't been difficult.
Blood sprayed across General Arneson's face. Frozen in terror, he tried to stammer out an explanation. "Excellency Hyuk... regarding the incident in the Gattuso Desert, I offer my deepest apologies! It wasn't—"
BOOM!
The sonic boom roared in his ears as Hyuk appeared directly in front of him. Without a word, she seized him by the throat, lifted him off the ground, and effortlessly crushed his windpipe.
Snap.
She tossed Arneson's lifeless body aside like trash and ascended back into the air. After taking one last look at the research base, she streaked away into the horizon.
By the end of the day,
Over thirty military bases across the Argent Federation had been decimated. Their infrastructure and weaponry were dismantled, and their troop losses were catastrophic.
[Infinite Overload · Potential Unleashed]
[Strength: 10.48 million tons ⬆]