The creep’s hideout was a dilapidated apartment complex.
Dilapidated isn’t quite right—more like it stopped short of total collapse.
In a sea of complete ruins, one building stood intact, barely.

The monster attacks had smashed Seoul’s infrastructure indiscriminately.
The only thing unequal was the reconstruction after the war.
Central Seoul’s glitzy districts were quickly rebuilt, but the outskirts remained in ruins.

The building before me was one such relic.
And a home’s quality is one of the clearest indicators of the kind of life its occupant leads.

Good news.
This guy was a loser like me, scraping by.
If some rich Gangnam heir had been harassing me, things might’ve gotten complicated.

My bag held a teddy bear.
One of the “gifts” the stalker sent, with a hidden camera predictably tucked inside.
I dragged it all the way here for dramatic effect.

The creep lived in a corridor-style apartment.
I propped the teddy bear on the railing by the front door, adjusting its height, and waited for a reaction.
Think about it.
You plant a hidden camera in a female streamer’s home, and suddenly that camera starts showing your own front door.
Wouldn’t you freak out?

My senses for reading situations are razor-sharp.
With focus, I can even pick up movements behind a door.
Since he’d likely been glued to the camera, his reaction came fast.

Rustle.

The faint sound of footsteps carried clear panic.
What’s he gonna do about it?
I popped up in front of the teddy bear, flashed a grin, and waved.

“Hey there.”

The footsteps grew louder.
Trying to escape through a window?
He’d get caught in no time.

Clank!

Maybe I’m too used to being the strong one.
It was like that in my past life, and at the orphanage too.

– Hope Orphanage’s crazy girl.

That’s what they called me.

– Dude, you can’t fight her, seriously.
– She’s legit insane, I’m telling you.
– Honestly, even the army couldn’t take her.

I heard stuff like that a lot.
Back then, I hadn’t even used proper swordsmanship, still adjusting to my new body.
Just a little girl.

Naturally, fewer people challenged me directly over time, and more started running away.

“Oho.”

So this feeling was pretty refreshing.

The door flung open, revealing a scrawny guy.
Surprisingly decent-looking. Short-cropped hair, a lot taller than me.

My impression? Nothing special.

“He really looks like a mage.”

How do all mages manage to look so insufferable?
Their appearances vary, but that smug, annoying vibe is always the same.

“Riding a tracking magic tech tree, huh? Seems like you’ve got some talent. Most people can’t even pull off a surveillance camera like this.”

No answer came to my question.
The guy half-ignored me, letting out a disbelieving laugh.

“How the hell did you even find this place?”
“Guess I’m after a nice bounty.”
“What?”
“Guys like you always end up messing with people you really shouldn’t.”
“Hah. Wow.”

A brief silence hung in the air.
A clear spring morning sky. Ruined concrete fragments scattered around.
The third floor of a lone apartment standing tall in a destroyed complex.
In the oddly languid silence, I looked at him and smiled brightly.

“And here I am, still waiting.”

This fight should’ve been over by now.
Mages are weak to ambushes.

“Go ahead, take the first shot.”

At that moment, four metallic spheres floated into the air.
Red lasers shot from lenses in their centers, forming a cage-like grid around me.

More talented than I thought?

An ability rooted in a narrative of mechanical devices.
Tracking, surveillance, and now a step further—control.
At this level, he could hold his own in real combat.

Crack!

A single chopstick was enough to deal with him.
I flicked it at one of the spheres, and instead of scattering, the fragments lingered in the air.
He’d created a field to control movement through the device.

The flow around me shifted.
Some of the red lasers turned blue, beginning to bombard my restricted position.

Energy from the devices scorched the corridor floor.
I dodged lightly, and as expected, his fist came swinging at my face.

A predictable move.
Use the spheres to restrict movement, corner me with laser attacks, and land a decisive blow from an unavoidable angle.

A guy with this kind of strategy wouldn’t lose to most.
At least, not to your average street thug.

I reached out and brushed off his resistance.
Before sheer strength, the red grid of the field crumpled instantly.

As the slow-motion effect of the field ended, the fight’s outcome lay clear.
My attack was a step faster.
The guy took a hit to the chest and crashed into his own front door.

Boom!

“Guh!”

He should’ve either trained his own body more or fought solely with the spheres.
Right now, his strategy was half-baked, neither here nor there.

With the main body neutralized, the spheres vanished too.
They were just a concept manifested by magic, not physical objects.

I looked down at the creep, clutching his chest and gasping for air.

“Lame.”
“What… you crazy bitch…”

An easy opponent.
His magic wasn’t high-level, and he didn’t seem to have much combat experience.
Aside from it being my first real fight against a mage in a while, there wasn’t much to take away.

Next, I ran a hand through the hair at the back of my neck.
I was worried about the lasers, but thankfully, nothing was singed.

This hair took effort to grow out.
It was mid-length before, and I only started growing it out toward the end of my orphanage days.
The reason? To boost my streaming visuals, obviously.

Check-up done, I moved on to my planned task.

“Hey. Get up.”
“Fuck off… you bitch…”

How do I intimidate this guy?
Breaking an arm would work, but that’d be too loud.

Instead, I pulled out my second weapon from the bag.
Nothing fancy—just a small paring knife for peeling apples.
If he’d been a bit more talented, I might not have needed it.

Slice.

The metal front door was cut clean through.
I carved out the lock area and pushed the now-limp door open.

“Wha… what?”

The guy stared blankly.
Then, as if realizing something, he lunged at me in a panic.

“You—!”

I grabbed his hand, locked fingers, and squeezed.

“Ghh…!”

The brief struggle ended quickly.
As I tightened my grip, his face contorted with the sound of cracking bones.
He tried to pull away, but it was too late.

“Aaagh!”
“Guess it had to come to this.”

Pathetic.
With this level of ability, he could’ve gotten a decent job.

Well, “decent” might be a stretch.
No matter how magical your powers are, fighting monsters always puts your life on the line.

From that perspective, maybe he was like me, looking for an easy way out.
Just as I chose streaming over fighting monsters, his place was full of traces of living the easy life.

“Oh, so you digitize footage with these devices?”
“Yes… that’s right.”
“And you share it on a private server?”
“Correct.”

The now-submissive creep answered with his head bowed.
Correcting his attitude was tough at first, but a few hits made it easy.

“How much profit do you make?”
“Between selling premium currency and ad revenue, about 1.2 million a month…”
“You’re insane.”

He was making money by sharing illegal footage shot with his ability.
I carefully examined the list of his victims.

“…You’re done for.”
“Huh?”

My gut was right.
This wasn’t something I could just extort money from and move on.

“You shouldn’t have messed with people with connections.”

One punch, and the guy collapsed.

Turns out, this guy had racked up a lot of grudges.
When I checked the bounties on him, I was floored by the amounts.

“I’ll die if I go to prison!”

He’s probably right about that.
Messing with not one but several daughters of Seoul’s Gangnam elite? That’s his own doing catching up with him.

“Please, spare me! Please!”

He won’t get the death penalty, but getting killed in prison is the real issue.
Prisoners paid off by who-knows-who cause a few “incidents,” and a new inmate like him vanishes from the world.

I briefly considered milking him for money long-term, but getting tangled up with him could land me in jail too.
Taking the bounty is safer and cleaner in every way.

“The bounty will be processed and deposited within three days.”

A suddenly flush bank account (pending).
My worries about living expenses, gone in an instant.

Grinning ear to ear, I headed back home, only to find someone standing at my door.

“Wooyeon.”
“Teacher…?”
“Scamming and taking money from your orphanage friends isn’t exactly okay, is it?”
“Gasp.”

The triangle of my conscience began spinning wildly in my heart.