Stay-at-Home Summoner

A soldier working at the S-Rank Tower post in Mungyeong Saejae, Jang Wook, jolted awake from his sleep due to the trembling ground.

“Damn it!”

The lights in the barracks turned on, and Jang Wook swore as he quickly tidied up his sleeping bag.

“Only two months left!”

What was left? His discharge.

He inwardly wished that if a ‘break’ occurred at the tower, it would prefer to happen after his discharge, even though he felt sorry for his juniors.

Was it a mistake to have such thoughts?

“What do you mean a break at the end of my service?!”

A dungeon had broken.

The ground shook, and soon monstrous creatures would begin to swarm.

“Damn it, given the circumstances…!”

There’s no choice now.

He had no family and no girlfriend, only people he needed to protect all around him.

“Jang Wook! We, we’ve got a big problem! Right now…!”

“I know! I’ll die for the country and its people… huh?”

Boom.

Through the barracks’ window, he could see the white light of the tower.

That white tower was gradually vanishing, emitting a light.

This was not a phenomenon of a ‘break,’ but a resonance of light signaling that the tower had been conquered.

“The S-Rank Tower… No, when…?”

“The tower has been conquered!”

“No, I know! But that’s an S-Rank…”

Corporal Jang Wook looked.

He saw a falling star descending towards the ground from near the top of the tower.

The moment he felt he had made eye contact with the golden light shimmering even in the black night sky, a sudden memory flashed back to him.

“Elaine…?”

The minimum A-Rank hunter that caused a stir in South Korea.

Was he angry at merely being called an A-Rank?

What if she secretly came to conquer the S-Rank Tower—

“…Ah.”

Jang Wook’s legs lost strength, causing him to collapse to the ground.

Though he had served half the length of others due to his special duty in a dangerous area, how much mental anguish had he experienced imagining and dreaming about dungeons breaking and the surrounding area getting devastated?

“Elaine…!!”

Those days, which were like nightmares, were now over.

“Ah.”

If that were the case…

“… what happens to my discharge?”

Surely the Ministry of National Defense wouldn’t say, “The danger zone has disappeared, so the remaining service period will go back to normal…”

“…….”

Caught in complex feelings of whether to laugh or cry, Jang Wook barely managed to get back on his feet.

“Hah, hah…”

What was certain was that the dungeon had disappeared.

“… What did they say about how to act when the dungeon disappeared?”

* * *

Using a smartphone while driving is a no-go.

When driving, I had to concentrate solely on that, leaving me no room to operate anything else.

Why?

“Master. If you speed now, wouldn’t you get caught instead?”

“They’ll think I’m fleeing in the situation where the S-Rank Tower has disappeared!”

I was already driving at the best speed I could on the road.

I was careful to avoid getting caught with speeding tickets at traffic lights and detectors, but I still pressed on as much as I could while leaving Mungyeong.

“Elaine, can you turn on the live news on YouTube?”

I tossed my smartphone aside.

In a hurry to pick up Elaine after she conquered the tower, I had no time to tell her to move to the back seat as she got into the passenger seat.

“I-I can do this…?”

Elaine looked flustered.

Glancing to the side, I saw her draping my clothing over her outfit, alternating her gaze between her phone and me in a panic.

“Hurry!”

“Ah, yes!”

She took the smartphone and turned on the live video feed.

Since my data was unlimited, there was no need to worry.

[Can you see, everyone! The S-Rank Tower in Mungyeong Saejae has been destroyed!]

[Currently, all A-Rank hunters in Korea are accounted for! Accordingly, as everyone expects, could it be that a ‘Coser’ has conquered it?!]

Even the anchors and reporters were in an uproar.

And don’t get me started on the hunters, streamers, and YouTubers who make a living off dungeons; they just had to be buzzing.

‘It must be the same overseas.’

Even simply breaking through an A-Rank Tower alone would attract significant attention from the Hunter Association and the Awakener Management Committee.

But for it to be an S-Rank Tower?

Especially one where an S-Rank hunter had died a few months earlier?

[Citizens, we will reward anyone who helps find this ‘Coser Maid’! I stake my position as Prime Minister on this…!]

“What? The Prime Minister?”

“Isn’t that the one after the President?”

“This is insane.”

It was astonishing that even the Prime Minister was looking for Elaine.

Considering the President would find it difficult to step out personally and show their face, it made sense to bring the Prime Minister forward.

Or perhaps the Prime Minister had jumped the gun.

“Finding an S-Rank hunter… or someone beyond that, and making them a national asset would mean the Prime Minister could secure their position in the next presidential election.”

“Master?”

“Hah, really. I’m getting a headache trying to think politically when this wasn’t even related.”

“I-I’m sorry… I…”

“No, it’s not your fault, Elaine. We acted out of righteousness.”

It seemed the situation was getting complicated because of Elaine, but ultimately, I was the one who created it.

If I had simply let her conquer the A-Rank Tower quietly, there wouldn’t have been any issues.

Yet I sought to conquer the S-Rank Tower, and thanks to Elaine’s trust, we succeeded.

The only S-Rank Tower conquered in this country and just six times throughout the whole world.

Moreover, each attempt required over ten S-Rank hunters from different nations to gather and conquer it.

“…With this much, I should have enough leverage for negotiation…!”

“Master, be careful…!”

Ahead.

A police car was blocking the road.

Specifically, a police officer in a fluorescent jacket, visible even in the dark, was motioning for us to slow down and go through.

Swallow.

My heart raced, though I hadn’t committed any crime.

The tension was palpable.

With my heart pounding, I slowed down and stopped the car before the officer while forcing a friendly smile to say hello.

“Thank you for your hard work~”

“Excuse me.”

The young officer bowed his head, looking somewhat absent-minded.

He was mechanically doing his job, but his mind seemed distracted elsewhere.

[Ah, all units, do not panic and do your best with your duty…]

From the short sound over the radio, I sensed this man’s state.

While chaos was erupting externally, if the emergency was a ‘break,’ that’s one thing, but if it was a ‘tower conquer,’ even the higher-ups would likely be flustered and stammering.

For now, maintaining the status quo.

Thus,

“Hah, the country is quite chaotic; thank you for your hard work.”

“Ah, yeah.”

“What’s the protocol? Is it due to the tower breaking…?”

“Ah, that’s not it.”

While putting on a somewhat flustered appearance, I engaged in mundane small talk to disrupt his train of thought.

“Alcohol testing…”

The young officer glanced at Elaine, who was seated in the passenger seat, looking flustered.

Though she was wearing my top over her outfit, the hem of her maid uniform peeking out beneath her lower garments caught his eye.

“…Uh?”

The officer holding the alcohol tester looked taken aback.

As though an idea had struck him, he kept glancing back and forth between Elaine and me.

“Ah, do you need my license?”

“Ah, no. Just blow into the tester… uh, I truly apologize, but…”

I wanted to tell him that if he knew it was rude, he shouldn’t do it, but he was fulfilling his duty after all.

“And your companion is… uh…”

“My girlfriend.”

Elaine responded in a slightly lower voice.

“Your girlfriend.”

“Oh, is that right? …Um, if you don’t mind me asking, what’s with the outfit…?”

“Well…”

“Oh, come on….”

Elaine began to get annoyed, her voice turning somewhat menacing.

“I told you I wanted to just stay at a motel…!”

Frustration and embarrassment directed at me.

At the same time, she buried her head, fidgeting with her hands resting on her thighs.

“Ah, no. Hyejeong, that’s not it.”

“You act as if you’re the one who insisted on trying it out just because the news had a maid on it, and you really wanted to try it in the car too…!”

“Uh, ahem!”

The officer quickly shoved the tester towards me.

“Blow into it, and harder. Yes. That’s enough. …Thank you for your understanding.”

The officer stepped back quickly, and I nodded my head to him, turning my gaze aside.

“Hyejeong, I really didn’t mean it like that…!”

“Shut up! Just start the car already!”

Rolling up all the windows, I revved the engine, drowning out our voices as I sped away, creating distance from the officer.

“…Phew.”

I breathed a sigh of relief.

I couldn’t help it if I got caught later, but getting through this moment was the priority.

“Thank goodness. That officer looked like he might have done something on this subject with his girlfriend before.”

“Master.”

Elaine’s voice, colder than during our act, pricked at my ears.

“Who is Hyejeong?”

“…….”

For a moment, a chill ran down my spine.

It felt like all the blood had drained from my body.

“Ah, this is a bit nerve-wracking…”

“Nerve-wracking? Master, have I done something wrong?”

“No, it’s not that.”

This feeling of panic that I hadn’t experienced in so long.

“I just made up a name on the spot. Your name sounds like a foreigner’s no matter how I think about it.”

“…I’ll consider other suitable names.”

Fortunately, Elaine placed the smartphone on the console box without any further complaints.

“But, Master. What should we do now? This location is…”

“We’re heading to Seoul.”

“Didn’t you say if it’s necessary, you’d descend further south?”

“Yeah, that’s the plan.”

That had been the plan when we first descended.

“Elaine. You can display your combat prowess even outside the tower, right?”

“Yes.”

But I had confirmed when Elaine jumped out of the car to charge up the tower and after we conquered it, she immediately rushed back to the road in Mungyeong where I was waiting.

“Then let’s go to Seoul for now, to my home.”

Going to Busan was an escape route.

But going to Seoul was to face this changing world head-on.

“And Elaine, create an SNS account. An app where there’s a bluebird flying over an ‘X’ mark.”

As a holder of an S-Rank summoned beast, to face the world.

To protect Elaine, from now on, I had to become a madman.

“Is that what you mean?”

“Yeah. And at the top there, check out the profiles of various people, find the one at the top…”

Like a member of the new generation.

“A muscular guy in sunglasses. Yeah, that’s right.”

Handle it via DM.

“The President of the United States.”

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