Chapter 121
Chapter 121
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 121
Chapter Title: Cleanup
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“Gahhhhh!!!”
Goo Jin-cheol bolted awake with a scream.
“Are you back to your senses now?”
“Gahhhhh!!!”
The screaming went on. Geez, kid.
It wasn’t exactly a pressing situation, so I let him scream it out a bit longer. Did this fail?
[Keystone (A-grade magic tool) - The waves emanating from this stone have a startling effect on the human mind.
Mental Keystone: On use, randomly restores a target in delirium to normal. However, failure means the delirium worsens.]
‘The judgment clearly succeeded, though?’
Fortunately, he started to bite.
“My hand! My foot! My head! They’re fine? Fine? Huh? But earlier, I swear…’
Goo Jin-cheol’s face drained to a sickly blue as he recalled what he’d witnessed before.
“What happened earlier?”
“I, I was definitely eaten by the monster… Gahhh! Eek! Please! Spare me, Kim Shin-hwa!”
“Sigh. Didn’t I tell you not to? Why don’t you ever listen?”
“Forgive me! Please! Just kill me instead! Don’t feed me to the monster! Please!”
Tears, snot, and spit overflowed from Goo Jin-cheol’s face. Ugh, please! Stay back! I summoned mana to shove him away.
“Sigh, feed you what? The boss might get off on treating people like trash since he’s shaped like one, but I’m human, you know?”
“Huh? Huh?”
Goo Jin-cheol blinked in confusion and looked around. The space felt alien now, vastly wider than before.
The Child of Darkness had only eaten the random junk scattered around the room. It preferred living things but could digest stone or wood just fine.
Outside, it was already daytime.
“While you were out, about a day passed.”
I briefly recalled the message that had popped up when the Child of Darkness had tried to stuff Goo Jin-cheol into its mouth.
[Quest completed!
[Search Quest: Tiger’s Daughter]
Reward: 450,000 XP + Blue Tiger’s trust + 300,000,000 won + bonus based on mission performance]
[You have accumulated enough experience to reach the next stage. Level increased by 1.]
[You have summoned a monster created by an abyssal being. And you chose a human as its first meal. Not a choice anyone could make. This event will grow your soul into something greater. You will become one with the ever-deeper abyss. Come closer. Just a bit more, a bit more, a bit more… The chaotic future will be with you.]
I’d never planned to feed Goo Jin-cheol to the Child of Darkness from the start.
Then that message appeared, which soured my mood completely, so I decided to act opposite to what the thing behind the window expected.
I fed the Child of Darkness the furniture and stones littering the room, then put it back into dormancy.
The Child of Darkness shrank back to a 15cm egg.
It was in my possession now. If I wanted, I could restore it to its monstrous form anytime. With mana or…
[The Child of Darkness is not the obedient pet you imagine. Someday, it will demand living things, things with blood, things with souls. Whether you can stop it then is unknown. You vaguely foresee a horrific future accident and are seized by unbearable anxiety.]
Ah, that bastard’s persistent.
Sure, it’ll demand that eventually, but I’m not worried at all. Mana overflows in excess anyway.
“Get lost!”
My flailing hand to dismiss the message window must’ve looked pretty threatening to Goo Jin-cheol.
He slammed his head to the ground again, yelling “Spare me! Please!”
Chae Tae-won, who’d been watching from afar, spoke up.
“You okay?”
“Huh? Ugh, I’m not crazy, so don’t worry.”
“Ah, no. I didn’t think that.”
Chae Tae-won’s stern face flushed bright red. A rare sight. Why react so strongly? He must’ve really thought I’d lost it.
“Anyway, Director Goo Jin-cheol. Lift your head. Time to settle up.”
“Huh? Huh? Settle up?”
“I did mention something about your life earlier, but I won’t go that far. Gotta keep my promises, though.”
“Promises?”
“Come on, don’t you remember? Right before you tried to put a bullet in that temple—your boss’s daughter, a minor girl—with those hands of yours. The promise I made then.”
I deliberately spaced it out to recount his heroic deed.
Don’t remember what I said?
A little beating, a little humiliation, lose some wealth, status, connections you built up.
While Goo Jin-cheol slept, I’d checked. Blue Tiger’s side had plenty injured, half-mad, needing counseling and treatment for a while, but no deaths.
Fences crumbled, walls smashed, the sketchy observatory wrecked—but Red Banner’s thugs and Fomalhaut’s spawn failed to breach the inner compound.
That was just Blue Tiger’s damage, though.
Outside the mansion now, the “iron flies”—Paju underworld cleanup crews—were having a field day. A peek out the window showed a massive crane hauling away the burned trailer. That’ll cost a fortune.
“I’m not really into sadism, but you gotta pay what’s due, right?”
Actually, before this, Chae Tae-won had asked me first to hand over Goo Jin-cheol.
He’d shown me his funny side plenty, but this was one of the Three Heads’ mansions. These guys managed violence across the central region, not just Paju.
If I left it to Chae Tae-won, Goo would get dragged to the basement, squeezed dry, then dumped in the Han River somewhere.
“No need for that right now. A live director can do more than a dead one.”
Chae Tae-won pondered briefly before saying,
“Normally, there are procedures in our line of work.”
For traitors. Torture for torture’s sake.
“But if Kim Shin-hwa took him, everyone’ll think he suffered worse than death.”
“Guess I’ve got some weird reputation now.”
“No, more than that. If you’re okay with it, could you step to the window for a sec?”
“Huh?”
“Near the window.”
I walked over, puzzled. No real window left, really. Goo Jin-cheol shattered it once, and I finished the job coming in. So I stuck my head through the hole in the wall and…
“Ahh! It’s the wizard!”
“Wizard! Wizard!”
“Waaaaaah!!!”
“Kim Shin-hwa! Kim Shin-hwa!”
Ugh, what the hell.
A massive crowd of gangsters, thugs, punks, bruisers, beefcakes—all the organization grunts called for cleanup and repairs. They erupted in cheers and roars at the sight of me.
I pulled my head back inside.
“Kim Shin-hwa! Kim Shin-hwa! Kim Shin-hwa!”
Still, the idiot thugs chanted my name relentlessly.
I turned to Chae Tae-won, who smiled faintly.
“Shin-hwa, you’re probably a legend—no, a myth—in our world now.”
“Ugh, try to prevent that if you can.”
“Hmm… Well…”
Yeah, impossible. They’d been name-dropping me without permission even before I helped. Wait, was it Tudor who sold my name? Whatever. My rep kept rising thanks to it. Leave it a bit longer, and I wouldn’t even need to hype it myself.
“Do what you want. But I’m taking the director.”
“Understood. But… what do you plan to make him do…?”
“First off, give me some pocket money.”
“I-I’ll give it!”
Huh?
“A-All of it! Take my entire fortune if you say the word! The mercy you’ve bestowed, wizard! I’ll remember it forever!”
“No, I don’t need that much. But if you’re offering, I’ll take it all.”
“Thank you!”
Something weird got imprinted on him… He’d probably cry tears of joy even if I made him do something crazier.
“Anyway, branch chief. I’ve got more to ask of Director Goo Jin-cheol later, but…”
Goo Jin-cheol needed to stay alive a bit longer.
‘Tch.’
To find Blue Tiger, he had to live.
Honestly, half the reason I put up with this midnight mess and spared the rampaging Goo Jin-cheol was that.
Even without, he’d be useful down the line in various ways.
“I’ve got prep to do now, so leave him with you for the moment. I know you have your ways here, but keep his limbs intact if possible.”
“Got it.”
And so Goo Jin-cheol was dragged off somewhere. Namu Amida Butsu.
The beating part, Chae Tae-won would handle. What good comes from me hitting some old guy myself? Just sours my mood.
This place’ll be hectic for a while.
Anyway, rough wrap-up done.
Truth be told, jumping into the Red Banner feud was also to settle things with Fomalhaut’s spawn while I was at it.
Beacon Fire cult totally crumbled, lost an adjudicator-level elder. No need to worry about them now.
‘Well, it’s a huge denomination, so they’ve got elders on Hwa-in’s level…’
None as aggressive or combat-specialized as Hwa-in, though. The rest dig into doctrine or have non-combat skills.
Now they’ll just pester Holistic, get beat, and fade away.
And Red Banner.
They’re a headache.
They’ll lie low for a while.
Before they regroup, find Blue Tiger, dump her off with a “handle it,” and wash my hands clean.
‘If I can?’
If Blue Tiger’s totally crushed and can’t return, headache.
Just swallow the whole organization? Seems doable anytime. Over 300 businesses under Blue Tiger? Daily tribute pouring in…
Nah. World’s doomed anyway. What’s the point hoarding cash?
Time to prep to leave. Just find Blue Tiger, and done. Should end quick. Probably?