Not a Poison Human, But a Real Madman
The moment I saw it, I knew. This guy was out of his mind. Why the hell would he stab a goblin poison needle into his own arm like that? I remembered one of the stories from Kang Tae’s gang—something about a guy who got hit by a goblin’s poison needle and kept fighting anyway. Sure, maybe it doesn’t kill you. But why would you stab yourself on purpose?
“Why is he… why is he doing that to himself?”
Both Ji-yoon and Si-eun were staring at Daejang-ajeossi with stunned expressions. How was I supposed to know? I wasn’t a mind reader.
Daejang-ajeossi stood motionless for a moment with the needle still buried in his arm, then slowly pulled it out and returned it to the metal case. As expected, he didn’t die. Did he actually have some kind of poison immunity skill?
He clenched and unclenched his fist a few times, muttering under his breath, “Good… that’s done it.”
He reached for the door to the station staff room and began to open it. Was he really going inside? I quickly vaulted over the wall and slipped into the room ahead of him. Ji-su must have heard the door because she started to sit up, alarm written across her face.
Don’t get up! Pretend you’re asleep!
I sent the command urgently. Ji-su flinched, then immediately closed her eyes and lay back down without a sound. Whew. That was close.
From inside the Cradle of Rest, the three of us—me, Ji-yoon, and Si-eun—watched the now-open doorway. Daejang-ajeossi’s hand slid through the gap. Then, without making a single noise, something sprayed from his palm. It was too dark to make out the exact color, but a hazy, colored smoke began to fill the staff room.
Once the spray was done, his hand withdrew and the door clicked shut again. We stared at the thick cloud now drifting through the room.
Ji-yoon waved her hand in front of her face. “What… what is this stuff?”
“It feels… really dangerous,” Si-eun whispered.
The smoke couldn’t hurt us while we were inside the Cradle of Rest, yet Ji-yoon was still waving it away on instinct. And honestly, she wasn’t wrong. Even to me, it didn’t look like anything healthy. What kind of skill was this? Had he stabbed that goblin needle into his own arm just to activate it?
Tsk. No matter how I looked at it, this didn’t seem like the kind of ability a hero would have. Felt like I’d wasted my time expecting something cool.
“Oppa, will that woman be okay?” Ji-yoon asked, pointing at A-young lying beside Ji-su.
“I’m not worried about Ji-su, but… that woman’s still a normal living person, right? If that smoke is harmful…”
“I doubt it’s lethal. Let’s just watch. I want to see what exactly Daejang-ajeossi is up to.”
While we talked, the smoke that had filled the staff room gradually thinned until it vanished completely. Then the door suddenly flew open. Daejang-ajeossi rushed inside and shut it behind him before turning on the lantern.
Wait. Look at that.
“Oh my god…”
“Ugh…!”
Ji-yoon and Si-eun both frowned, shooting him looks of pure disgust. I couldn’t blame them. The crotch of his shabby suit pants was obscenely tented.
Daejang-ajeossi slowly approached the two sleeping women. First he poked A-young’s cheek. She didn’t stir. Then he grabbed her shoulder and shook her hard. Still nothing. He repeated the same test on Ji-su, who remained perfectly still—just as I had ordered.
So that was it? It felt almost anticlimactic. Boring, even. No matter how violently he shook her, A-young wouldn’t budge. The colored smoke from earlier must have been some kind of sleeping gas. I could guess what this meant: whenever Daejang-ajeossi built up stress, he’d been using this exact method to have his way with the women here.
Hmm… So that’s why his office is right next to the staff room? Look at this setup. This uncle is way more perverted than he lets on.
To think the man I’d believed was perfect and upright had this side to him. How interesting.
Ji-yoon looked at me anxiously. “O-oppa… what should we do?”
Yeah. What now?
Honestly, I didn’t think what he was doing was all that bad. In this insane world, how many people actually gathered survivors and took care of every little detail? If this was how he relieved stress, did he really have to go through all this secrecy and skill usage? The women should’ve been the ones running to him, spreading their legs and begging him to use their bodies to ease his tension.
If anything, I thought the people in this survivor group were the real problem—
“O-oppa!”
Ji-yoon’s urgent whisper snapped me out of it. Oh? Look at this guy.
After confirming both women were definitely unconscious, Daejang-ajeossi moved toward Ji-su and started stripping her clothes off. Well, she was much prettier than A-young. The woman he’d muttered about in his office must have been Ji-su.
Still. That was crossing the line, uncle. No matter how much I could understand his stress, touching what was mine was unacceptable.
While I watched with a deepening frown, he finished undressing and reached for the rest of Ji-su’s clothes.
That’s far enough. Subdue him, Ji-su.
Her eyes flew open. She grabbed his arm in an iron grip.
“!!!!!!”
Wow. He looked absolutely terrified—like he’d seen an actual ghost. Ji-su seized both his arms and yanked him forward.
“Urk!”
She rose at the same time, flipping him over. Daejang-ajeossi landed face-down in a pathetic heap while Ji-su mounted his back, twisting both arms behind him. She waited calmly for my next order.
But… why was it so easy? Weren’t his combat feats against monsters supposed to be legendary? Even with Ji-su’s high stats, pinning him down this effortlessly seemed wrong.
Anyway, it was time to make my entrance. I couldn’t leave her holding him forever. I told Ji-yoon and Si-eun to wait inside the Cradle of Rest, then stepped out through the Gate of Rest and yanked the curtain wide open.
The scene beyond was exactly as I’d left it—Ji-su perched on top of a naked Daejang-ajeossi. Ugh. Pathetic.
When he saw me standing there completely unfazed, his face twisted in horror.
“H-how… How is the sleeping poison not working?!”
Oh. So it really was poison.
I walked over with a sour expression and crouched beside him.
“Daejang-nim. Uncle. Dear Daejang-ajeossi. Why are you lying there butt-naked under our Ji-su?”
The phrasing itself pissed me off. At my words, he started stuttering desperately.
“L-listen to me! I only came in to check whether the newcomers were resting comfortably!”
“Aha, I see. Then why exactly are you naked?”
“T-that’s… I was about to take a shower, so I took my clothes off and just stopped by for a moment—”
“Aha, I see. Then why did you spray that weird gas in here?”
“H-how did you—?!”
How? Because I was standing right next to you watching, idiot.
“Uncle, what’s your class?”
“C-class…? I used to be a t-teacher. High school—”
“Come on, stop talking nonsense. You think that’s what I’m asking?”
“.....”
“I saw you stabbing that poison needle into your own arm. What kind of class makes you do something that insane?”
“H-how did you—!”
I told you. I saw everything.
He looked completely rattled now that he realized I knew it all. Still stuttering, he tried again.
“C-can I at least put my clothes on first? If someone comes in and sees me like this…”
“Who’s going to come at this hour? You know no one will. That’s why you came here to fuck the women in the first place.”
“F-fuck? I only came to check if they were uncomfortable—”
“Enough. Stop with the bullshit. You haven’t answered a single question. You still don’t understand how serious this is, do you? What do you think will happen if I just shout and call everyone over? A naked Daejang-ajeossi lying on the floor of the staff room? After all the effort you put into building that perfect image, it would crumble in an instant. Are you okay with that?”
“Khhk…”
He bit his lip hard enough to draw blood.
“So answer the damn questions. Got it? What’s your class?”
“.....”
This stubborn old man. I was seriously considering telling Ji-su to snap his arm when he finally muttered,
“…It’s not finished yet…”
“…What?”
“Those damn brats… because of them…”
What the hell was he mumbling about? The moment I leaned closer—
“…Huh?”
I heard it. Voices. People murmuring outside, getting closer to the staff room. Why were people who had been sound asleep suddenly heading this way? What was going on?
I glanced at the door and called Ji-su to my side. Freed from her hold, Daejang-ajeossi scrambled for his clothes. Then—
BANG!
The staff room door flew open. A crowd of people stood outside.
While pulling on his pants, Daejang-ajeossi roared, “Kill them!”
The crowd surged forward at his command. I couldn’t process what was happening. Why had they come? Why were they attacking us without hesitation just because he said so?
My thoughts were a mess. In situations like this, there was only one answer.
Retreat.
I grabbed Ji-su’s hand, stepped back, and slipped through the Gate of Rest.
“Oppa!”
“Ji-su!”
Ji-yoon and Si-eun greeted us with relief.
“Oppa! What happened? Who are those people…?”
I had no idea. But I was going to find out.
Outside, Daejang-ajeossi stared at the empty spot where we had vanished, face twisted in disbelief.
“W-what? Where did they go?! Damn it!”
He looked around frantically, clearly panicked.
“I went through all that trouble to wake the incomplete Poison Humans! You fucking bastards!”
He was practically foaming at the mouth. Poison Humans? What the hell were Poison Humans?
I stepped back out and approached the people who had frozen in place the moment their target disappeared. They were all women. Young women. Ju-hee was among them—the same girl who had been guarding the entrance when we first arrived and had guided us to Daejang-ajeossi’s office.
And their eyes… what the hell was wrong with their eyes?
Even in the dim lantern light, it was obvious. Every single one of them had completely black eyes. No sclera at all. It was terrifying.
From the context, these must be the “Poison Humans” he’d mentioned. They gave off the same vibe Ji-su, Si-eun, and Ji-yoon had before I used the Sanity Restoration skill on them.
I moved outside the staff room. The station was in chaos. Lanterns were being lit everywhere as awakened survivors stumbled around in confusion. No surprise—seeing sleeping women suddenly bolt upright and run toward the staff room would freak anyone out.
People were desperately calling the women’s names, trying to snap them out of their trance. Dong-seong was one of them. When he spotted Daejang-ajeossi standing beside the women, he ran over.
“D-Daejang-nim! What’s going on…?”
I watched quietly to see how he would spin this.
“I’m not sure myself,” Daejang-ajeossi said smoothly. “I came because I heard a commotion in the staff room and found it like this.”
Hmm. Denial, as expected. Predictable.
He continued, “The two newcomers who said they would rest here have disappeared. I suspect this may be their doing.”
“You mean Min-gu and Ji-su?”
“Yes. And look at Ms. A-young over there.”
He shook the still-sleeping A-young violently.
“…As you can see, she’s in a deep sleep and won’t wake up. This must be their work as well.”
Deny responsibility, then frame someone else. Classic villain move.
Dong-seong ground his teeth as he looked at A-young and the black-eyed women standing blankly nearby.
“Why would they do something like this…”
It wasn’t me, but I knew no one would believe me if I stepped out now. Not when the great Daejang-ajeossi was the one speaking.
Daejang-ajeossi kept talking to the furious Dong-seong. “We need to find that man and woman, Min-gu and Ji-su. They may know how to restore these people to normal.”
“I-I understand. I’ll organize a search party immediately.”
Daejang-ajeossi nodded. “Mobilize every single person in the station. Anyone who can move.”
“Then… the women…?”
“I will protect them. It’s nighttime, so don’t go too far. I believe they’re still somewhere near the station.”
“Understood.”
Dong-seong bowed and began gathering people to head outside. Even though it was obvious Daejang-ajeossi was trying to clear everyone out, they followed his orders without question. That was the power of the trust he had built up.
Once he confirmed that everyone except himself and the Poison Human women had left the station, Daejang-ajeossi finally began his real work.