3000 Times the Sensitivity... I'll Win!
The moment had finally arrived.
"Whew... the three days we promised passed in the blink of an eye."
"Are you nervous?"
"Yes... I mean, they said the opponent is Chairman Kim Mija's sidekick. Honestly, I'm scared."
The day of the promised bet.
As if waiting for it, a luxurious limousine had arrived in front of the orphanage at dawn.
It seemed the other side had been looking forward to this day quite a bit as well.
I bowed with both hands to Hayeon and the orphanage director, and after receiving their tearful, well-wishing encouragement, I climbed into the car.
The limousine sent by the Cheongryong Group was luxurious inside and out, and even the atmosphere felt extraordinary.
Inside, I cautiously confessed the tension and anxiety swirling in my heart to my mentor.
Then, my mentor gently stroked my hair and said,
"Don't worry. You're going to win anyway."
"...Pardon?"
"Do you think I spent those three days doing nothing? You just need to trust me, your mentor."
If it was Chairman Kim Mija's sidekick, it had to be Jin Areum.
The peerless super-rookie who shook the Korean hero world before Shin Yura appeared.
Now, having shed the title of rookie, she had become a full-fledged hero in her late twenties and was proudly promoted to a C-rank hero just last month.
If I hadn't been promoted a few days ago, the title of the youngest E-rank hero in Korea would have been hers.
'Jin Areum of the Red Rose'.
That name wasn't just a nickname; it was a symbol naturally attached to her from the countless battlefields and records of victory she left behind.
Overwhelming firepower, beauty, and cruelty.
Always standing in the center of the battlefield, wrapped in blood and fire, she was a presence that brought both fear and admiration to those who saw her.
Is there... really a way to beat such an opponent?
I leaned in slightly so the driver in the front seat wouldn't hear and asked my mentor,
"M-mentor... what exactly is that method?"
"Heh. It's this."
What she carefully took out from her pocket was a small bottle the size of a finger joint.
"...What is this?"
"It was a bit of a hassle to get it shipped to Korea."
A skull mark was clearly stuck on the front of the bottle.
No matter how I looked at it, it didn't seem like a legal item in this world. When I kept pressing for an answer, my mentor laughed nonchalantly and said,
"Oh, it's nothing special, just an ordinary 'drug'."
"D-drug?!"
"Yeah. But it's not an ordinary drug."
Wait, wait!
Why do you, a hero, have that?!
Just as I was getting anxious, wondering if she really got it from a criminal, my mentor giggled at my flustered face and said,
"Don't be so scared~. Do you think I bought this in some back alley?"
Stroking my hair vigorously again, my mentor continued,
"Don't worry. I made this myself."
"Y-you... made it yourself?!"
"Yeah. When I was active in the US, I mainly handled cases in the underworld."
"Underworld...?"
"Yeah. So to catch drug dealers, I had to know what drugs they were using myself. Eventually, I learned how to make them."
...Wow.
Her life is more hardcore than I thought.
As I stared blankly, my mentor shrugged and added confidently,
"Honestly, I'm quite an expert in this field. But this isn't just any drug. It's a completely different class."
She placed the bottle in my hand and said,
"This is a drug that is still talked about like a legend in the underworld. They say 80 percent of drug cases around the world happen because of this."
"I-is it that serious?!"
The white powder we saw in movies or dramas?
Those are just things used by rookies who have just dipped their toes into the underworld. My mentor asserted that the real big shots use drugs like this.
But why give this to me...?
"Then, mentor. Giving this to me means..."
"Haha, calm down. I'm not telling you to fight with this. It's just part of the plan."
My mentor leaned in slightly and whispered in a very small voice,
"When the bet starts, spray this on the opponent."
"...Pardon?"
As the limousine bumped and shook, my mind shook along with it.
"You said this was a drug, though...?"
"Yeah. To be precise, it's called a '3000x Sensitivity Aphrodisiac'."
"3, 3000 times?!"
"Yeah. When the match starts, use the fact that you're a man to suddenly pretend you have a stomachache and catch the opponent off guard. That's when you spray this drug."
Then the opponent would just breathe and make a pig sound like 'Buhihit~!' and collapse immediately... Is this, really right?
The 3000x sensitivity aphrodisiac, carefully placed in my hand.
My mentor gave a thumbs up as if proud and added,
"Usually, the ones traded in the underworld were at most 5 to 10 times. But this time, I got a good sample and extracted only the essence, so I was able to pull it up to 3000 times!"
"...Then, there are no aftereffects to this, right?"
"No? When the effect wears off, the brain gets fried and infantile regression is guaranteed. Walking is obviously out of the question, and they'll probably stutter when they talk, too."
Brain fried in one shot, guaranteed to be a moron for life.
...This, even a villain would cry hearing this.
Thanks to that, I was able to make a decision immediately.
I would never use this drug!
I thought I might really have to go deep into the wilderness and live in hiding later.
As I sighed and looked out the window, one thing I was curious about suddenly came to mind.
"But, mentor. Even in the US, it was a maximum of 10 times, right? But how is it possible that you could make it up to 3000 times after coming to Korea...?"
What on earth is the 'good sample' my mentor mentioned?
When I glanced at her, the corners of my mentor's mouth twitched slightly.
"Uh, w-well, that is..."
Could it be... did she really commit a crime?
What on earth did she use as ingredients to make it that she's slurring her words like that?
When I looked at my mentor with suspicious eyes, she opened her mouth as if she had no choice.
"Wh-while you, Hyunwoo, were going out of your room to train every day..."
"While I was going out...?"
"Th-the c-curly hairs that fell on your room floor... there seemed to be a lot of 'ingredients'..."
"......"
...Uh.
Let's organize this again.
So, the identity of that 'sensitivity aphrodisiac' that is currently trending worldwide and driving fans and haters into a frenzy is, in other words...
"This sensitivity aphrodisiac... requires male bodily fluids, or hair... things like that..."
My mentor laughed awkwardly and slurred her words.
"...By the way, what is the name of this 3000x aphrodisiac?"
"Th-the name?"
"Yes. Like Fentanyl or Cocaine, drugs all have names. What is this one?"
When I asked that, my mentor's mouth twitched and an answer came out as if she had squeezed it out.
"Co... Cocaine..."
"......"
It was a truly 'dick-ish' name.
On top of that, my mentor added a decisive remark.
"By the way... your Soul Weapon helped with the ingredient supply."
"Uh, wh-what?! Look here! We agreed to keep things about me a secret! That's why I even tested the performance of that Cocaine on my own body without the master knowing!"
At that moment, Ego, who had been quiet since the morning, suddenly shouted at the top of her lungs from inside the dagger-shaped main body.
Seeing that, I let out a deep sigh, rolled down the window, and...
Whoosh!
"Wh-what?! That precious thing...!"
"N-no! I haven't even tasted it all yet...!"
Ignoring the two who were trying to stop me, I threw the liquid in the bottle outside entirely.
"Don't ever make anything like that with me again. You both understand, right?"
"Yeah..."
"Yes..."
Passing through a huge underground tunnel, we thought we were heading to the Cheongryong Group headquarters at first.
But the destination was different.
The place we arrived at was a remote mountain area in Gyeonggi-do, far from Seoul.
And there, a huge dueling arena reminiscent of the Roman Colosseum stood tall.
"Whoa...!"
"Is this a hero-only sparring space? Even so, the scale is no joke."
Unable to hide our surprise, we entered the arena as guided.
A circular arena, wider than it looked from the outside, unfolded before our eyes.
And in the center of that barren field, something fell from the sky.
"You finally came! Disciple!"
"...Disciple?"
Boom!
The existence that landed, kicking up dust.
She was exactly as I had seen on TV... no, even more so.
Her chest was barely covered by two metal plates, and below her waist were ultra-light combat bottoms that left her skin almost entirely exposed.
On both sides of her crotch, a single flimsy leather strap was barely holding on.
As if it weren't clothes but ritual wear for battle, her entire body was precariously exposed.
It was a suggestive outfit that made me not know where to look even when seeing her from the front.
But she didn't seem to mind at all.
Rather, she was confident, as if boasting about how perfect a weapon she was and the fact that she could overwhelm enemies on the battlefield with just that body.
Twin tails fluttering like red flames, red eyes flashing sharply as if grazing her eyes.
A female warrior who had just jumped out of the battlefield.
Chairman Kim Mija's sidekick, and a hero who was recently promoted to C-rank.
Jin Areum.
The weight of that name alone was enough to overwhelm the battlefield.
To think I would see such a legendary big shot in person...
While my heart raced, a strange sense of antipathy also arose at her attitude of calling me 'disciple' as if she had already won.
But what made even that emotion freeze for a moment was the golden spear she held in her hand.
"Is that... a Soul Weapon?"
"Yes. That is Jin Areum's Soul Weapon, 'Hwangmyeong'!"
"Ho... that's pretty good?"
Good, indeed...
That wasn't just 'pretty good'. It was in a different league from my Soul Weapon, Ego, from its very origin.
Jin Areum's 'Hwangmyeong' was a weapon called a legend, having been active on countless battlefields.
To think I had to face such an opponent.
But.
Wooooooong.
"Huh? Hwangmyeong, why are you like that? ...Aha! You're excited because we're fighting after a long time!"
A faint vibration occurred in the spear.
At first, I thought it was just a battle cry, but it grew stronger.
Woooooooong—!
"Huh? She's really excited today... Huh? What? Your heart is racing?"
...Is that spear genuinely excited?
The vibration spread to Jin Areum's arm holding the spear, and spread throughout her entire body.
Jin Areum herself seemed a bit flustered, but she had an enjoyable expression.
In contrast, Ego in my inner pocket said nothing.
Is she scared?
Or is she overwhelmed?
But I didn't blame her.
Because I, too, was so scared that I couldn't say anything.
As the same 'weaklings', we had no choice but to rely on each other from now on.
I quietly stroked my inner pocket and whispered to her,
"I'm counting on you, Ego."