Slaughtering the Gwichuk Guild (Part 4)
I activated Twin Asura's Authority and was immediately seized by a sensation I'd never felt in my entire life.
Six additional arms tore through space and sprouted from my sides.
The feeling was so vivid I could sense every single one of my sixty fingers.
And these newly grown limbs existed slightly beyond the control of my rational mind.
They showed no mercy before the punchable prey right in front of them.
Thud—
Crunch—
Crack—
Smack—
Thump—
Squelch—
A thrilling sensation rippled through my palms with every strike.
The targets of my blows gradually turned into a grotesque state too horrific to witness with open eyes.
Even stopping this insane pummeling required tremendous mental focus.
Each arm refused to follow the neural commands from my brain and acted on its own.
Only after I finally reined in their rampage did the arms vanish.
The blunt weapons clattered noisily onto the floor.
The pregnant ogres pressed their heads forward like beasts, trying to devour the pulverized corpses of the two hunters.
But they were already dead…
Soon they turned blue and crumbled into ash, scattering away.
“Don’t be disappointed. They’ll be stored on the first basement floor, so I’ll feed you later. For now, find Go Jutae first!”
The three queens—the Queen Dowager, Royal Consort, and Noble Consort—didn’t understand my words perfectly, but they caught the gist and began scouting the area.
The rotters also spread out to search for Go Jutae.
It didn’t take long to find him. His loud, miserable sobbing echoed quite clearly through the space.
“Uwaaaahngh! Uhhhaaaangh!”
He had rolled up his sleeves, tightly bound his upper arm, and was trembling while gripping his war axe.
A rotter had grabbed his wrist, forcing him to cut off his own arm, but he lacked the courage to bring the axe down.
“Choose. Do you want to live as a rotter? Or die right now?”
With a face that had given up on everything, he threw the war axe and spoke.
“I’d rather die… than live as a rotter. Just kill me already!”
“Poor bastard. Whether you live or die, you’re a rotter either way.”
“What the hell does that mean!”
“You’ll find out when you die.”
I swung Stabbing Shovel! and took his head clean off.
You have obtained 1 Skill Point.
I scooped up some dirt with my shovel and poured it over my arm.
It was still fine for now.
* * *
A short while later, after thoroughly looting everything at the scene, I used the waypoint to exit to a waypoint outside the tower.
I could have gone from the first-floor waypoint to the first basement level and then out through the redevelopment demolition zone, but I had a feeling Han Yejin would be waiting in front of the tower.
Sure enough, Han Yejin was standing in front of the waypoint with an anxious expression, waiting for me.
“……! Oppa! Uhhk!”
The moment she saw me, the tears she had been holding back burst forth as she ran over.
I gently embraced her and said,
“I found it. I’ve recovered your father’s belt.”
“…Uhhk. That’s not what matters… What on earth happened? When did you come out of that artificial pond, and how did you get here so fast… Did you not run into the Gwichuk Guild?”
I placed the belt around her neck and spoke.
“Fortunately, our paths didn’t cross. And the important thing is that I found this.”
She then hung half the belt around my neck and said,
“This… half of it is yours, oppa.”
“Pardon?”
“I already… received permission from Dad. That’s why I asked you to retrieve it earlier.”
Gulp!
Not ten percent. Not twenty-five percent.
Fifty percent!
She was really giving me half?
Half a kilogram of liquid adamantium worth six billion won?
For now, I kept my expression composed and showed the minimum amount of humility.
“That doesn’t make sense. How could you give me half of something so incredible?”
“It’s not. The grace our family has received from you is far too great to ever repay with this. You even paid off all our hospital bills…”
“Compared to the price of this, how much could that possibly be?”
Besides, I had basically strong-armed them into it, so it hadn’t even cost me anything…
“That’s not all. You stopped me from becoming that disgusting Go Jutae’s plaything. On top of that, you arranged for my family to receive treatment at Jeguk Medipharm, the best facility in the world, instead of Yonghwa Island…”
If calculated as hospitalization fees, that would indeed amount to tens of billions in the long run.
Well, since it wasn’t coming out of my own pocket, there was no need to brag too much.
“…And most importantly, if it weren’t for you, oppa, this item would have ended up in Go Jutae’s hands today. Considering all that, giving you only half would be far too shameless for a family that has received such immense grace. However…”
She stopped there and took my hand.
“However… I’d like to keep half of it for my family’s future.”
“Keeping half is only natural. No, giving me half in the first place… I mean, what I’m trying to say is…”
My words were getting tangled.
Han Yejin smiled softly and continued.
“Oppa, you developed the world’s first rot virus mitigator. With that momentum, please continue the related research even faster and on a broader scale. And on the day the cure is completed, I will give you the remaining half of this belt without any hesitation. For me and my family, the remaining days we can spend together are far more precious than money…”
What?
If I develop the cure, she’ll give me the other half?
When I thought about it calmly, I could fully understand her position.
From the perspective of a kind-hearted girl like Han Yejin, what use was money when her entire family was suffering from the rot disease?
If it meant she could cure her family quickly, she would give up not just six billion, but even more precious things.
Her proposal subtly fueled my motivation.
In reality, I could raise my intelligence at any time using drugs to gain deeper insight into the rot disease.
Of the five billion won I earned from subjugating ogres, four billion remained. If I boldly invested all of it, I could raise my intelligence past twenty.
Whether that would actually allow me to develop a cure was still unknown, though.
“All right. I will devote myself fully to rot virus research from now on.”
Instead of pointless humility, I answered vigorously. Han Yejin beamed and replied,
“My family and I will be waiting with our eyes glued to the horizon for that day—and for the other half of the adamantium!”
* * *
After that, I soon parted ways with Han Yejin.
She had only reunited with her father earlier, so she wanted to return to Yongin quickly to talk with her mother, older brother, and the rest of her family.
I hailed a taxi for her, slipped the driver some money, and immediately headed to ‘Tae Forge,’ the most famous blacksmith shop in the country near Gwanghwamun.
“Whoa, a pickaxe made of mithril glass? Man, this isn’t a work of art—what are you even supposed to use it for?”
“Can you plate this?”
“It’s possible, but it probably won’t do much good. Mithril glass is basically just mithril mixed with silica and soda ash. It’s a bit harder than regular glass, but fundamentally weak.”
“What if you plate it with adamantium?”
The craftsman’s expression changed instantly.
“Adamantium, huh… Heh heh. It’s expensive, sure, but if you actually do it, the performance will be outstanding.”
“Then could you give me a quote for adamantium plating?”
The blacksmith looked me up and down with a skeptical gaze before starting to calculate.
“Let’s see… To keep the mithril glass inside from breaking, you’ll need at least… 800 grams. At today’s adamantium market price of 12.36 million won per gram, 800 grams would be…”
The craftsman skillfully tapped on a calculator and showed me the result.
“That comes to 9.89 billion won. Adding 800 million for the plating fee… It’ll be around 10.7 billion total.”
He said it with a slightly teasing expression.
His face clearly asked whether a shabby guy like me could afford that kind of money.
Tsk.
“So if I bring the adamantium myself, I only need to pay the 800 million plating fee?”
“Hehe, that’s right. But liquid adamantium is hard to get, you know? You’ll have to search reeeal hard for it.”
* * *
I ate seolleongtang at a nearby restaurant and fell into thought.
I currently had 500 grams of adamantium.
To make up the remaining 300 grams, I would need an additional 3.78 billion won.
Including the 800 million plating fee, that was 4.5 billion.
My current balance was around 4.2 billion.
Even if I sold all the rune stones and items I obtained from wiping out the Gwichuk Guild today, it still wouldn’t be enough.
In the end, it seemed I would have to sell the earth centipedes in the refrigerated truck…
The problem was that dumping 2,300 kilograms of centipedes on the market at once would be burdensome, and even if I called Ji Yosin, he had already secured 600 kilograms. There probably wasn’t room for him to take four times that amount.
Should I just go to Han Yejin, explain the situation, and ask for another 300 grams?
But that would be a matter of pride.
I had already received 500 grams. Running right back to ask for another 300 grams seemed shameless no matter how I thought about it.
Should I ask Jang Hancheol to lend me some money?
But that man had mentioned his situation wasn’t great—he had even faced the risk of bankruptcy recently.
Of course, if I waited, the problem would solve itself.
Once the sales revenue from Gini-1 started coming in, a few billion wouldn’t be an issue.
The real problem was that I couldn’t wait.
Telling someone dying for a drink that they could drink to their heart’s content in three months wouldn’t register at all.
Then how about this?
Out of the 4.2 billion I currently had, I would invest everything except the 800 million plating fee into intelligence.
The Elixir of Intellect, which raised intelligence by 1, cost 320 million per bottle.
Investing 3.2 billion would raise my intelligence to 20.
It was said that when top elites—prosecutors, judges, doctors from prestigious universities, or foreign PhDs from SKY universities—awakened, their intelligence usually hovered around 20.
I could reach that level in one go just by spending money.
Of course, reaching intelligence 20 didn’t guarantee I could develop a cure for the rot virus.
Since I was the world’s first to receive the degree, there was nowhere to ask or search for information…
My head was starting to hurt.
I had achieved a great victory and even obtained the adamantium I had dreamed of…
So why did another headache like this have to appear!
Then, suddenly, an idea flashed through my mind.
Aha! There was that method.
Seems raising my intelligence to 10 wasn’t completely useless after all.
* * *
I immediately headed to the alchemist’s shop ‘Wildcat and Crow’ in the hunter alley.
“A potion that instantly and dramatically raises intelligence?”
“Yes.”
“It probably won’t be very useful for you.”
“Why not?”
“For example, even if you drink it, raise your intelligence, and read secret manuals or something, once your intelligence drops back down, everything returns to normal.”
“I know that much.”
“Hmm, how high do you want to raise it?”
“Around 20?”
“What’s your current intelligence?”
“10.”
“Let’s see. You’ll need to raise it by about 10 from your current level. To go from 10 to 20… Hmm, since it’s a domestic product, Intelligence Great Restoration Soup should work. This one raises intelligence by 10 for 12 hours… The price is 430 million.”
430 million.
From here on, it was a complete gamble.
If I raised my intelligence to 20 with 430 million and nothing changed, I would have thrown away 430 million.
But if it enabled me to develop the cure…
I could immediately cure Han Yejin’s entire family and receive the 500 grams of adamantium.
Good.
Let’s gamble.
And even if I lost the bet, there was still a minimum gain.
I would at least learn that there was nothing to be found in the intelligence 20 range.
Then I could seal off the intelligence route for a while.
“Give me that. The Intelligence Great Restoration Soup!”
I boldly purchased it, then immediately took a taxi to Yongin.
* * *
Han Yejin was startled to see me return so suddenly.
“Is something wrong?”
“A sudden idea came to me. I’d like to run a few tests.”
“I-is it related to the cure?”
“Yes, it is, but please don’t get your hopes up too much. Medical progress is usually achieved only after thousands or tens of thousands of attempts.”
“Ah, yes. I know that.”
When everything was ready, I stepped out of the lab and took the pouch containing the Intelligence Great Restoration Soup from the break room.
Fuck.
Please let it be the cure! The cure! The cuuuuure!
I tore open the pouch and gulped down the bitterly bitter liquid until the very last drop.
Intelligence has increased by 10.
Intelligence has reached 20.
You have acquired all intermediate knowledge regarding the Rot Virus.
You can now use the acquired knowledge to create the Rot Virus…