Chapter 70
Chapter 70
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 70
Chapter Title: Mind, Energy, Body (3)
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“Uh, um.”
Riak glanced to the side and muttered.
“…My apologies.”
“……”
“I did not know it would turn out like this.”
Oh-jin, who was curled up naked, glared at Riak with fierce eyes.
He slowly got up, put on his underwear and pants, and then let out a deep sigh.
“Haa. So, what’s the problem?”
“Take a look at your body.”
“My body?”
Oh-jin stood in front of the mirror and spread his arms.
Thanks to his consistent training, his muscles were sculpted like a statue, but…
“Ah, so that’s it.”
*Clap.*
Ha-eun clapped her hands.
“What is it?”
Oh-jin tilted his head, looking completely clueless.
“Take a good look at yourself. You’re so scrawny you look like you could snap.”
“Hey, it’s not that bad…”
Oh-jin looked in the mirror once more.
“……”
“See?”
Just as she said.
He had some muscle, but he was so thin that his ribs were starkly visible.
“Uh…”
He hadn’t noticed before because he was used to it.
Now that she pointed it out, he was definitely on the skinny side.
“Jeez. I’ve been thinking this guy was too thin for a while now!”
Ha-eun scolded him, smacking him on the back.
“Oof. So what do I have to do?”
“What do you mean, what? Are you asking the obvious?”
Riak used his mouth to pull open a drawer on one side of the room.
*Thud, thud, thud!*
A cascade of cheap calorie bars, which had filled the drawer, came spilling out.
“First, throw all of this away.”
“Hey, how could you waste such precious food…”
“Your body is in this state because you eat this garbage!”
Riak roared, conjuring lightning.
*Crackle!*
Blue lightning incinerated the pile of calorie bars, turning them black.
“Aargh!! What are you doing!!”
Oh-jin shrieked in horror and hugged the pile of ashes.
“Th-This was several days’ worth of food!!”
A superfood that could sustain you with just two a day!!!
“Haa.”
Riak let out a deep sigh.
He turned to Ha-eun with an accusatory gaze.
“How in the world did he end up like this?”
“Uh… Um. W-Well, you see.”
Ha-eun looked away with an awkward expression.
Since she was the main reason Oh-jin had become this way, it was hard for her to rebuke him.
“In any case.”
Riak said with a firm expression.
“From now on, you will eat high-protein meat with various vegetables.”
“Huh? That’s it?”
Oh-jin asked back with a look of anticlimax.
He’d thought there was some grand problem, what with all the talk about the balance of mind, energy, and body.
To think all he had to do was eat well.
Wasn’t that too simple?
“It means that until now, you have been neglecting even that simple task.”
“Ugh.”
He had no excuse.
Even after his wallet had gotten thicker from getting the Dragon’s Eye for Ha-eun, he had rarely spent more than 5,000 won a day on food.
‘Nunna did nag me about eating so poorly.’
But it was a habit so ingrained in him that it wasn’t easy to fix.
“The body is a vessel that contains the ‘mind’ and ‘energy’. You obsess over the other two to an excessive degree, so why do you not care for the vessel itself?”
“…I have no excuse.”
He was a hundred percent in the wrong here.
As a living being.
Nothing had a more direct impact on the body than the consumption of unbalanced nutrients.
“Alright! Since it’s come to this, let’s eat until we burst today!”
Ha-eun’s eyes sparkled as she exclaimed.
“Nunna?”
“Kyahaha! Come to think of it, we haven’t had our housewarming party yet, have we? As a celebration and to help you recover quickly, this big sis will make you something delicious!”
“No.”
If she made it, that would be like smashing the plate and all.
“Tr-Trust me! I can do it right this time!”
She sounded like a gambler who had just lost the family fortune.
Oh-jin looked at Ha-eun with disbelief.
“Aish! If I say I’ll make it, just shut up and eat it, you punk!”
*Thump, thump.*
Ha-eun threw a few punches.
“Pfft! Alright. I’ll trust your skills this time.”
“Hehe. That’s right. Just leave it to your big sis, okay?”
Ha-eun raised her chin proudly, rolled up her sleeves, and placed her hands on her hips.
[Huhu. This looks amusing. Since it is for my beloved child… I cannot simply stand by!]
Even Vega’s eyes lit up with interest.
And so, Oh-jin lay in bed, waiting for the two women to finish cooking.
“Kyaaaah! Wh-Why is it doing this?!”
[Hmm. Is it truly necessary to bother with grilling it over a fire? A single bolt of this goddess’s lightning could reduce this to ashes in an instant.]
“No, we’re not trying to turn it into ashes!!”
Sounds of utter chaos flowed from the kitchen.
“…Riak.”
“What is it.”
“Don’t you think just eating the calorie bars would have been better?”
“……”
*Swish.* Riak turned his head away and pressed his lips together firmly.
“Haa.”
Letting out a deep sigh, Oh-jin sat up in bed.
He took out the USB he had received from Jang Seok-ho.
‘I should check the information while I wait.’
Hadn’t he gone through all that trouble just to get this information?
“……”
Oh-jin looked down at the USB with a bitter expression.
*Tsk.*
He clicked his tongue, took out his old laptop, and plugged in the USB.
“This is.”
Oh-jin’s eyes narrowed as he read through the information.
The Black Star Guild’s objective, as Jang Seok-ho had mentioned.
“…They’re going to kill all the current Awakeners and then make everyone an Awakener equally?”
Was that the Black Star Guild’s goal?
“Ha.”
Oh-jin let out a short, dry laugh.
‘Well, that’s refreshingly simple.’
Could there be a plan more ridiculously simple than this?
*Scroll.*
He rolled the mouse wheel down.
“P.S. This is merely the public-facing objective. Each faction has its own separate plans and goals.”
Well, that was to be expected.
‘No one would blindly follow such a crazy plan.’
It was, as stated, a public-facing objective.
Nothing more than an attractive lure to expand their forces.
“I think I have a rough idea of what they’re plotting.”
Scanning through the data, Oh-jin clicked his tongue.
‘Are they trying to frame the current Awakeners as a privileged class to rally the non-Awakeners?’
In the modern world, two types of people existed.
Awakeners who had received a stigma from a Star, and ordinary people who hadn’t.
In a world overrun by monsters, it was obvious which group was the privileged class.
‘The Black Star Guild can give non-Awakeners stigmas and turn them into Awakeners.’
That’s why.
They were planning to exploit it.
The resentment that non-Awakeners inevitably held toward Awakeners.
“…It seems even Jang Seok-ho doesn’t know their true objective.”
This was likely the limit of the information a low-ranking member like Jang Seok-ho could access.
‘Well, whatever.’
Even if it was just their superficial goal, wiping out all the Awakeners was likely one of their primary objectives.
‘It’s clear they need to be dealt with as soon as possible.’
Oh-jin’s eyes narrowed as he opened another file on the USB.
The other file contained, as Jang Seok-ho had said, the locations of several branches and information on the executives of the Owl faction.
As he was looking through the information, one name caught his eye.
“Cheon Woo-seong…”
Oh-jin recalled Ashad Khan’s memories.
‘Was it Cheon Woo-seong who was talking with Ashad Khan back then?’
The King’s Proxy and the one who practically leads the Owl faction.
“I should tell Mr. Jun-man about this.”
He was planning to stop by the Association anyway. This was good information.
*Clack.*
He closed the laptop and put the USB back in his pocket.
‘I’ll visit the Association tomorrow.’
For today, as Riak had warned, maybe he should just rest up.
—*Click!*
“Oh-jin! Dinner’s ready!”
Ha-eun, with sauce smeared all over her face, came into the room with a bright smile.
Oh-jin gave a wry smile and went out to the living room.
“Ta-da! Your big sis’s super nutritious meal!”
[Huhu! This goddess also put great effort into preparing this!]
Ha-eun and Vega, sitting on either side of him, simultaneously held out spoons.
He wondered if he would ever experience such luxury again in his life.
‘Well, of course.’
It tasted absolutely disgusting.
* * *
The next day.
As soon as he woke up, Oh-jin headed straight for the Association.
“…Are you saying that Cheon Woo-seong was part of the Black Star Guild?”
Manager Han’s expression hardened as he listened to the information Oh-jin had obtained from Jang Seok-ho.
“Yes. According to the information I’ve gathered, that’s the case.”
“Ha. To think that man…”
“Is there a problem within the Association?”
“……”
Manager Han clutched his head.
“As you might have guessed, Mr. Oh-jin… the Association is currently split into two completely separate factions.”
I knew it.
So there was an internal faction problem.
And Cheon Woo-seong had infiltrated one of them.
“One side is the Chairman’s line, which I belong to. The other is the executives’ line. The leader of the executives is…”
“Cheon Woo-seong, you mean.”
“…That’s right.”
A deep sigh echoed through the office.
“I was thinking I’d have to tell you someday, Mr. Oh-jin… but it ended up happening like this.”
“Was this the reason you called me to the Association in the first place?”
“…Haha. I can’t get anything past you, Mr. Oh-jin.”
He nodded with a bitter smile.
“That’s right. Of course, there was the goal of raising the Association’s fallen prestige… but there was also the intention of pulling the Apostle of the North Star onto our side.”
So that was why he had offered him an ambiguous position rather than making him an ‘official member of the Association.’
‘If I became an official member, the other faction would also have the authority to give me orders.’
The questions were starting to fall into place.
‘I did think it was a bit strange.’
Until now, despite being affiliated with the Association, he had almost no direct contact with anyone other than ‘Manager Han’.
Of course, he had met one other Special Officer in the middle of things, but that was an exception.
‘He was deliberately limiting contact.’
In a situation where it was unclear who belonged to which faction.
As one of the definite members of the ‘Chairman’s line,’ he had been in sole charge of contact with him.
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
He couldn’t care less if the Association split into two or three pieces, but…
If the Black Star Guild had infiltrated one side, that was a different story.
“…No. For now, we will handle this matter ourselves.”
Manager Han shook his head and continued.
“If a time comes when we need your help, Mr. Oh-jin. I will request it then.”
“Of course…”
“Of course. You won’t have to worry about the appropriate compensation.”
He then grinned as if he knew everything.
‘This guy really is easy to talk to.’
If there was fair compensation and a just cause.
It was an offer he had no reason to refuse.
‘Though there is a bit of a problem.’
Namely, that Cheon Woo-seong was an opponent he couldn’t handle with his current strength.
He had barely managed to defeat a mid-level Executor; winning against a key executive of the Black Star Guild known as the ‘King’s Proxy’ was a distant prospect.
‘For now, it’s right to trust Mr. Jun-man and wait.’
Even if he went off on his own, he couldn’t face Cheon Woo-seong.
It would be wiser to build up his strength in the meantime.
“Oh, and this.”
Oh-jin placed the wire shooter and spear he had brought on the table.
Manager Han looked at the completely shattered weapons and let out a dry laugh.
“You really did a number on these.”
“Ahem.”
He cleared his throat and turned his head.
“On that note, I’d like to request the crafting of new weapons.”
“Hmm… one moment.”
Manager Han gathered the broken weapons and stood up from his seat.
“Ah. Since it’s come to this, would you like to meet them in person? I think that would be a much better way to create weapons optimized for you, Mr. Oh-jin.”
“Meet them?”
*Grin.*
The corner of his mouth lifted as he opened the office door.
“You’ll see when you get there.”
[Character Information: Cheon Woo-seong]
- Son of Cheon Do-yoon, the Owl King. Known as the King’s Proxy, he effectively manages the Black Star Guild.
- Presumed to have currently infiltrated the Association.