The realization suddenly dawned on Heo Do-yoon.

Why people were so desperate to attach the word "sea" when expressing something vast.

Behind him lay thousands of small corpses.

Traditionally, fire was the weakness of the undead.

Even if their skin was torn, organs fell out, as long as the skeleton remained, the dead would somehow continue moving—burning them to ash was the definitive method of elimination.

In a world without holy power, few were as capable against the undead as someone who could manipulate flames.

His performance had been as brilliant as fire itself.

But looking ahead again, the countless undead army made those thousands seem trivial.

Human wave tactics.

They called it a strategy of sending people like a sea to fight.

The thought "what kind of strategy is that?" completely changes once you actually see a sea of people.

Well, those aren't people but undead.

Undead here, undead there, everywhere he turned was completely filled with undead.

Ah, this really is like a sea. An overwhelming number using human wave tactics that made him truly feel it.

They had warned the rabble not to come, saying they would only increase the number of corpses.

That was certainly an effective strategy against an army of the undead.

But what could they do?

Even the strongest would eventually tire as long as they were human.

It wasn't even a major lapse in attention.

Just one moment of disarray from exhaustion.

The enemy seized that opportunity, diving in, and another corpse rose to join the undead army.

Fortunately, the guild's mascot, that mad dog Kang Si-yeon, still seemed to be running around energetically.

But the condition of the others was too dire.

At this rate, they would be finished.

In fact, some had already...

Heo Do-yoon recklessly raised a wall of fire to push back the chaotic frontline.

A massive tidal wave of fire like a fortress wall.

With this excessive force, he temporarily held back the enemy while retreating.

During that time, his comrades gradually fell back to reestablish a new frontline...

He needed to regroup as well.

Heo Do-yoon came to the Jeongsang Guild's command post, slightly behind the newly formed frontline.

"Has anything changed?"

Kwon Ji-hyuk, whose specialty was ambush using shadow manipulation abilities, had terrible compatibility with the undead and was serving as the command post in the rear.

In such a simple battle situation, the only judgments he could make were "they're being pushed back, go there" or "that area is empty, fill it," but...

For that reason, Kwon Ji-hyuk, who had been keeping his ear to the ground for external news, could answer Heo Do-yoon's question precisely.

"Han Su-a has destroyed dozens of key strongholds, but the undead still haven't stopped. It seems they won't stop unless we kill Kaisel himself."

"That young lady should be protecting Korea first if she's Korean! Why did she drop into mainland China?"

"Because stopping Kaisel is the only fundamental solution."

I know. Heo Do-yoon obviously knew, but he just grumbled anyway.

"It would be nice if she could just go 'boom!' with a 'Meteor' and be done with it."

"If she did that, the continent would be wiped off the map."

He knew this too.

Irina's area attacks weren't suitable for Earth, unlike in space.

Her power didn't conveniently distinguish between friend and foe.

What they needed was fierce firepower that could solve this human wave tactic, yet precise enough not to wipe out the continent or human forces.

...Did such a thing even exist?

"They haven't increased, have they?"

Finding it difficult to even speak about it directly, he asked vaguely without using the exact words.

Nevertheless, Kwon Ji-hyuk immediately understood what Heo Do-yoon was asking.

After all,

What he was asking about was,

The number of guild members who had become corpses.

"That's right."

Still seven.

7 out of 35 members.

One-fifth of their total, if calculated by ratio.

A death toll that was really high if you thought about it that way, but could also be considered low.

Though he might seem careless on the surface, the meticulous Heo Do-yoon always put his heart and soul into dungeon conquests, so the Jeongsang Guild rarely had to hold funerals.

But eventually this day came, and such an incident occurred, resulting in multiple funerals.

It was because the enemy was too strong.

It was because there were too many enemies.

*If only we had a little more time.*

The Jeongsang Guild's growth rate was abnormal.

If they had been given just a little more time, they wouldn't have been defeated by such vermin.

It was pathetic that they were dying at the hands of mere fragments of power, not even the Transcendent's direct subordinates, let alone the Transcendent himself.

*Indeed, with power, there would be no injustice.*

The world has always been, without exception throughout history, an era of survival of the fittest.

Whether that power was physical strength, authority, or something else had changed several times.

But in the end, power was everything.

If they hadn't been weak, if they had been stronger,

Even though Do-yoon had never been lazy,

He felt regret without knowing exactly what to regret.

They lacked power.

"Goddess Gaia, couldn't you help us out by now? Huh? Is this like a lion throwing its cubs off a cliff? Are you trying to make us stronger or what?"

"That thing about lions throwing their cubs off cliffs is bullshit."

"I know, damn it."

Please, someone.

Help us.

Praying was all Heo Do-yoon could do.

If nothing came like this, they would naturally be annihilated and Korea would fall.

Though it didn't seem likely that Han Su-a would abandon Korea until then, their own deaths still felt like an imminent reality.

At that moment, light suddenly poured down from the sky.

Yes, it was light. That was light.

It was an intense and concentrated beam of light strong enough to erase the undead without leaving a trace.

"What the hell! Is this divine judgment?"

Heo Do-yoon exclaimed in surprise, his eyes wide open.

"Oh! Gaia!"

"I knew you'd come through, damn it!"

Voices praising the goddess could be heard from all over the battlefield.

Had Gaia finally used her power because the battle was going so poorly?

"No, that attack method seems familiar. And considering there's no reason for Gaia to intervene only now..."

Kwon Ji-hyuk analyzed coldly.

Thoughtless people hastily concluded it was Gaia because it looked like divine judgment and seemed to be on their side, but Kwon Ji-hyuk and Heo Do-yoon here didn't.

"It must be Antares."

"So he was hiding this level of technology all along."

Precision strikes that made their eyes bulge.

The bombardment of light from the sky, like divine judgment, precisely wiped out only the undead.

Whether it was fired from space or from the sky so high it couldn't be seen.

Anyway, the ability to shoot with such accuracy from that distance was truly godlike power.

"If you were going to help anyway, you should have helped earlier, much earlier."

"Don't harbor resentment, Heo Do-yoon. It's like a puppy charging at a T-Rex."

"I know that, you bastard! You're always saying such annoyingly correct things today! Want to get hit?"

"Getting angry at me won't do any good."

If only he had helped just a little, just a little bit earlier.

Heo Do-yoon couldn't simply be happy about surviving.

* * *

"Idiot."

Antares berated himself.

"They'll just curse me more for this."

He understood people well.

He knew that even if he came late to save them, they would be angry, asking why he hadn't saved them sooner!

He knew that wasn't wrong.

Antares could have saved many more people much earlier if he had just decided to.

The massive drone hovering about 500km above ground level.

Precision laser strikes fired with the aid of ultra-high-definition telescopic cameras and AI computational assistance.

Despite limitations in firing rate, it was true that he could erase the undead faster than anyone else on Earth.

That is, under the condition of keeping the continent and people's lives intact.

"Most seem to be mistaking it for Gaia's doing, so should I let them continue with that misunderstanding?"

He had prepared a plausible scenario.

Let people misunderstand all they want, then show the laser strike another time and surprise them with "That was his technology?"

By then, people would have forgotten that Antares was late, and instead react with "How cool that he did such a great deed without showing off."

The public is stupid, forgets quickly, and is easily swayed by the atmosphere.

Even if some remembered and pointed it out, there would be defenses like "Don't you see he just did his job without showing off?"

It's all a ridiculous farce. What's the point of being swayed by people's evaluations?

With such immense power, and yet these are the concerns he has.

"Idiot, idiot, fucking idiot."

His self-evaluation plummeted.

He had gone from being a garbage person who at least knew how to take care of himself, to a foolish and spineless idiot.

Not giving anything more to Gaia was like a rule that absolutely had to be kept.

At this rate, he would end up handing over Kaisel's power on a silver platter.

Even he didn't know what would happen after that.

One thing for certain was that Gaia was hostile to the Hero Party itself.

The fact that he saved people despite knowing this, because of something said by the woman he had been secretly watching, made no sense.

"This is clearly just sexual desire."

He thought of her.

She wasn't a proper human. Besides being pretty, having large breasts, and a good figure, she had no merits and was full of flaws.

She might be ideal as a mating partner, but was the worst for building a human-to-human relationship.

She pretends to be nice, she's not smart, she's too gullible, and her mental fortitude is weak.

And since she's stronger than me, I can't even control her.

Such a troublesome person to have around,

Why.

"The blackmail plan is too risky. What if she goes berserk and decides on mutual destruction?"

He made excuses.

Reproductive desire was something base, trivial, and to be avoided,

And feelings of attraction toward the opposite sex were merely such reproductive desires with a slight veneer.

Yet it was already too late.

He knew it wouldn't work out.

He knew it would never be realized.

He knew that blackmail would have a higher chance of success.

Even if she could never be his,

Antares couldn't admit that he just wanted to make her smile.

*It's already too late anyway.*

If he had decided much earlier, much sooner,

If he had saved people faster,

If they hadn't fought,

If he had comforted her when she was sad,

If he hadn't spied on her,

If things hadn't gone wrong from their first meeting,

Knowing it was too late and irreversible, making all these actions meaningless,

Why would he end up helping her even at his own expense?

Love is just a fancy word for reproductive desire toward a pretty woman.

His wise self should have known that well, he definitely knew it, so why?

"Haah... damn it."

But after spending time thinking alone, he realized.

That he didn't really want to hurt her.

That he didn't want to make her cry.

Throughout history, countless men have died foolishly trying to win the hearts of women they fell for.

Becoming idiots, ruining their lives, so foolishly.

But what about himself?

He knew painfully well that it couldn't work out.

He perfectly understood with his head that it was already ruined.

Knowing that he had reached a point of no return, that he was someone who could never earn anyone's love.

Despite knowing all that, he was still going to do something foolish.

That's just being an idiot.

"I've come to help."

Antares crossed the dimensional gate and stood before Han Su-a.

"Thank you for coming."

She shed a single tear and smiled sadly.

The idiot became a happy idiot.

Idiot.