All Chapters of THE STRATEGIST: Monster of the game : Chapter 1
- Chapter 10
12 chapters
The End of One World
Twenty years.That was how long it had been since I left Earth and was dragged into this world.The battlefield stretched for kilometers, a ruin of shattered mountains and collapsed plains. Entire ridgelines had been carved flat by brute force, the earth gouged so deeply that molten rock bled through the cracks like open wounds.At the center of it all, it stood.The Great Monster.Its body towered higher than a city gate, a grotesque fusion of flesh, obsidian armor, and jagged bone. Six massive limbs supported its hulking frame, each claw long enough to tear through fortresses. Its head was crowned with twisted horns that coiled backward like blackened roots, and its eyes vast, burning orbs—glowed with ancient contempt.Every breath it took distorted the air.Every step crushed the land.Around me, magic crackled wildly. The remains of spells hung suspended like dying stars, flickering and breaking apart under the monster’s pressure alone.Today was the day.The final day.A blinding
The World I Escaped
Earth twenty years ago.I was thirty years old then. A regular office worker. No special talent. No heroic ambitions. Just a man trying to survive deadlines and rent.Then a woman calling herself a goddess appeared before me.“Choose, Hero,” she said.“Please save our world from monsters.”I had read stories like that before. Everyone had.An ordinary human summoned to another world. Given power. Given purpose.But the world I was taken to was not a fantasy.It was hell.“Help me.”“Please.”People begged constantly.But that world had no mercy.The only way back was clear from the beginning:Defeat the monsters. Save the world.So I trained.For twenty years.Blood, bones, exhaustion, and death became routine. I survived battles that should have killed me a dozen times over.Yet monsters weren’t the worst thing in that world.“Hero,” the guards said coldly, blocking my way, “you are not allowed to break curfew.”I ignored them.I was carrying a boy in my arms. His body was burning wi
RETURN TO REALITY
Hot water poured down over his body the moment he turned the handle.Soren froze for a split second, then laughed under his breath.No waiting.No rust-colored trickle.No boiling uncertainty.Just clean, endless heat cascading over his shoulders and down his back.Steam filled the bathroom as he tilted his head back, eyes half-lidded, letting the water wash away sweat that no longer smelled like blood or rot. His body this new body was solid. Muscular. Strong in a different way. Not forged through endless combat alone, but well-fed, intact.He stared at his hands as they might vanish.“I’m really… back.”When he stepped out, a towel draped over his head, he pressed a button on the wall.Whoosh.Cool air flooded the room instantly.Soren inhaled sharply.Air that didn’t stink of ash or decay. Air that didn’t scrape his lungs raw.He walked to the window and pulled the curtain aside.A clear blue sky stretched endlessly above towering buildings. Cars moved in neat lines far below. Peop
DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
I was sent to another world and spent twenty years fighting monsters before returning to Earth. Only to discover that something called erosion points had started popping up here too. Thanks to my combat experience, I managed to survive. And after promising some kid that I would save the world… …I did absolutely nothing. Swish. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. My fingers danced across the keyboard, the cursor flashing impatiently as the screen exploded with color and effects. “Victory.” I leaned back in my chair, staring at the result. “…Won again.” Too easy. My eyes drifted to the dark monitor as an old memory echoed mockingly in my head. You need to know your stuff if you want to save the world. What happened to that? I had sounded so confident when I said it—like some hardened veteran passing down wisdom. But whatever resolve I had felt back then evaporated almost instantly. There were games I’d never seen before. Food I never even knew existed. And the sheer convenience of havin
The Board Is Set
Soren sat in the waiting hall of the Hunter Association, chewing slowly on a piece of convenience-store candy like he was attending a dentist appointment rather than a government-sponsored power evaluation.The room was enormous. Too clean. Too quiet.Walls of reinforced glass rose on all sides, displaying floating holographic statistics: threat indexes, erosion activity maps, guild influence rankings. Everything was categorized. Everything was monitored.Everything was controlled.And that bothered him.He leaned back in the chair, hands behind his head, eyes half-lidded.“So this is what you turned it into,” he murmured.In that other world, warriors were blades. Here, they were assets.Not much of a difference.Across the hall, dozens of applicants whispered nervously. Some checked their equipment. Some meditated. Some stared at him when they thought he wasn’t looking.He had already made a mistake.He had stood out.And standing out meant attention.That was bad.Very bad.A door
The Game Beneath the Game
Soren didn’t leave the underground level right away.He watched.That was what people like him did best.From a raised observation deck, he leaned against the reinforced glass, eyes following the silent choreography below. Teams of analysts moved between holographic displays. Engineers recalibrated mana conduits. Armed response squads rotated in perfect intervals.It was all… too clean.Too controlled.Too rehearsed.“You built this like a military state,” he said.Lyra stood beside him, arms folded. “We are one. Just without uniforms.”“You’re lying,” he replied calmly.Her head turned.“This isn’t a military state. It’s a corporation with weapons.”Her jaw tightened.“That’s not an insult,” he added. “It’s an observation.”She exhaled.“You don’t sugarcoat.”“Saves time.”They stood in silence for several seconds.Then—“Tell me,” he said, “how many guilds actually answer to you?”Lyra’s eyes flicked away.“That many, huh?”“…Officially, twelve.”“Unofficially?”She hesitated.“Five
The First Move
Soren didn’t speak after Kaelith left.Not because he was intimidated.Because he was calculating.Lyra stood beside him, arms crossed, eyes fixed on the holographic globe still rotating in the air. The red fractures pulsed faintly, some growing brighter.“You didn’t have to antagonize her,” Lyra said quietly.“Yes,” he replied. “I did.”She looked at him.“You just rejected one of the most powerful political entities on the planet.”“Good.”“That wasn’t sarcasm.”“I know.”She exhaled sharply.“You don’t understand what you’ve done.”“No,” he said. “I understand exactly what I’ve done.”He reached out and tapped one of the red fractures.A new one blinked into existence.“…What?” Lyra whispered.Then another.Then two more.She stared.“That’s impossible,” she said. “New erosion points don’t appear without precursor destabilization—”“I didn’t create them,” he said. “I revealed them.”She turned to him slowly.“You’re saying these were hidden?”“Yes.”“By what?”“By who,” he correcte
The Variable
The Thing That Shouldn’t ExistSoren arrived before the sirens.That alone told him everything he needed to know.The city was quiet in the wrong way not peaceful, but muted. Traffic had frozen mid-lane. Streetlights flickered like nervous eyes. Even the wind felt hesitant, as if unsure whether it was allowed to move.Urban Sector Thirteen was a residential district.Families. Students. Office workers. Normal people.Not a battlefield.Soren stood on the rooftop of a mid-rise apartment building, coat fluttering faintly in the strange pressure hanging in the air. He inhaled slowly.“…This isn’t an erosion point,” he muttered.He closed his eyes.Mana drifted through the atmosphere like dust motes, thin but unmistakable. But beneath it was something else.Not mana.Not anti-mana.Something between.Something that felt… edited.He opened his eyes.Down below, the street had split open—not like a crater, not like a tear. It looked as if someone had erased a section of reality and forgotte
When the World Notices You
Soren felt it before he understood it.Not fear.Not danger.Attention.It pressed against his skin like humidity, invisible but heavy, seeping into every pore of reality around him. The street no longer felt like a place—it felt like a stage.People were staring.Not the frantic, confused stares from moments ago.These were… different.Careful. Measuring. Afraid.Mina’s hand tightened around his.“Are you going to disappear too?” she asked.That sentence hit harder than any monster.Soren crouched in front of her, bringing his eyes level with hers.“No,” he said.And for the first time since returning to Earth, he meant it.Sirens grew louder.Drones hummed above the skyline.Windows lit up with recording lights.Someone shouted, “It’s him! The anomaly!”Another voice: “Don’t provoke him!”Another: “Are we supposed to evacuate or…?”Soren exhaled slowly.So this is what being visible feels like.In the other world, he had been watched.Here, he was being judged.Lyra’s voice came thr
Cracks
The moment Lyra stepped in front of Soren, the air changed.Not magically.Politically.Cameras refocused. Commentary drones adjusted their angles. Analysts behind screens started talking fast, voices overlapping, feeding interpretations into the world in real time.“Soren, this is your last chance to disengage,” Director Reeves said quietly. “If you remain here, you become a permanent factor in global security doctrine.”Soren glanced at her.“Sounds expensive.”She didn’t smile.“You just rejected Zephyr Union,” Lyra said. “You embarrassed them. They don’t forgive that.”“I wasn’t trying to embarrass them,” Soren replied.“That makes it worse.”He sighed.“Figures.”Behind the barricades, people whispered.Some looked hopeful.Some afraid.Some furious.Some calculating.He could almost hear their thoughts.What is he?Can he protect us?Can he be controlled?Can he be killed?Soren rolled his shoulders once.This is why I stayed out.Lyra stepped closer. “I’m taking you off-site.”