Don't Misunderstand
Clang!
Oh Hyeon-seong's chopsticks slipped right out of his hand.
It was because of the single piece of meat that had entered his mouth.
His tongue, abused until mere moments ago by the most horrifying taste and smell in the world, had just been graced by a single strand of salvation—and in that instant, he could only whisper, "Good lord..."
When was the last time he had eaten meat that actually tasted like meat?
It was so far back in his childhood that he couldn't even remember the flavor anymore.
But this single bite of samgyeopsal shattered everything he thought he knew about meat. The supreme taste, capable of demoting even the ten-million-won premium synthetic meat served at a single meal to the rank of "imitation product," rolled across his tongue.
Chomp!
Half out of his mind, he began devouring the meat like a man possessed. Only after completely emptying the grill did he recover his senses.
As he savored the lingering aftertaste for a moment, he turned to look at Alisa.
"What did you do?"
"?"
Alisa blinked at him.
The light she had produced had transformed that horrible meat—by driving out the miasma still lingering inside it.
The other spirits can purify miasma too. But only ever within their own domains.
The water spirit supplied clean water. The earth spirit shaped its environment by cultivating healthy soil free of miasma. That was how these delicious crops could exist at all.
But Alisa was not a spirit of meat. She had purified miasma in a domain entirely unrelated to her own attribute.
If she possessed a special purification ability like that, then perhaps she could do more than just make food healthy—she might even be able to remove the miasma that had accumulated inside a human body.
"..."
But Alisa shook her head.
Even her power could not fundamentally heal a person. Her purification could only ever be projected onto objects—nothing more.
For Oh Hyeon-seong, who had briefly entertained the thought of healing his own body, that was a bitter truth.
Still, this alone was a remarkable achievement. The range of dishes he could make from now on had expanded enormously, and there were plenty of other ways to put her ability to use as well.
"Ah, come to think of it, I just stuffed my face while you watched. Here, have some."
He grilled more meat and offered a piece to Alisa. Even the pickiest eater alive wouldn't turn down meat like this.
But once again, she didn't open her mouth.
"You won't eat this either? Hmm... I wonder why. I can't figure out what you like."
"...It's dirty."
"Huh? Dirty?"
Startled by her suddenly speaking up, Oh Hyeon-seong flinched.
Dirty? This was produce grown by spirits in the purest environment on the planet, and meat she had purified herself with her own power. It was the last thing in the world that could be described with that word.
It made absolutely no sense to him.
Riiiing!
Just then, a phone call came in. He checked the screen—it was Choi Jeong-il.
"What's going on?"
"Senior, the analysis results are in!"
"Analysis results... you mean that sample I sent you last time?"
"Yes, that's right."
Choi Jeong-il's voice carried a noticeable excitement over the line. Apparently, he had dredged something up.
"When we compared the potato samples you gave us by cultivar, we found some interesting results. Just as you said, the cheaper cultivar actually performed better. And not just in flavor—it also showed a superior ability to neutralize miasma."
"...So it wasn't my imagination after all. But why? What reason could there possibly be for the cheap cultivar to taste better?"
"We found it odd too, so we ran a deeper analysis. It turns out the expensive premium cultivars on the market have been 'improved' by corporations over and over again. The cheap ones, on the other hand, went through relatively little of that process. In a word—less alteration."
"Alteration... ah."
Oh Hyeon-seong nodded slowly. Only now did he grasp why such a phenomenon had occurred.
"So in an environment shaped by the spirits' touch, cultivars closer to the original actually have the advantage. Not the ones artificially gene-tweaked over the years to resist miasma or improve flavor."
"Exactly. The environment itself has changed completely compared to the past, when miasma didn't exist."
"Well, that solves one mystery. Thanks for letting me know."
"I'll report to you the moment anything else comes out."
After hanging up with Choi Jeong-il, Oh Hyeon-seong sank into thought for a while.
So that means... rather than hunting down this cultivar or that one, the most delicious and effective option for neutralizing miasma would be the originals.
"Originals" here meant the cultivars that had existed before the Gate catastrophe.
The question was whether such originals could still exist in this world.
In the current era, where miasma had come into being, the old crop cultivars simply could not survive. And this wasn't a matter of a few years—the Gate cataclysm had thrown the world into chaos over a decade ago now.
Even if originals did still exist somewhere, finding them would be practically impossible for a private individual.
No, wait. There's someone who'd know exactly how to find this kind of thing.
A certain person sprang to mind, and his head bobbed in a firm nod.
The National Security Bureau's notoriety was famous.
And precisely because that notoriety was so well known, its headquarters was deeply etched into every hunter's mind as a place of fear. It was a Class-1 security facility that no one could approach without clearance—but even those who could get permission had no desire to go. Unless you were being dragged there, there was no reason on earth to walk in through the front door of your own accord.
And yet, broad daylight or not, there was one man boldly knocking on that very front door. He'd even brought a small child along with him.
Slurp.
Oh Hyeon-seong took a sip of coffee and nodded to himself. Yep. Tastes like garbage, as expected.
"Um... on behalf of our staff member, I apologize for the rudeness."
"Don't worry about it. It's water under the bridge."
The woman serving the coffee was Seo Ho-yeon. She was hardly the type to flounder in front of a stranger, but at the moment she had no room in her mind for anything but keeping her head bowed.
Director Baek's senior... of all people...
Click.
"Ah, Director!"
"Go on out."
Seo Ho-yeon bowed her head and left, and Baek Ji-soo took the seat across from him.
"Aren't you two directors awfully formal with each other? You'd never guess you're the same rank."
"That's just the title on paper. I have no intention of being paraded around by politicians like Han Su-yeon is. Anyway—a new spirit?"
Baek Ji-soo asked, her eyes on Alisa. Unless someone deliberately revealed it, her mana couldn't be sensed at all, and to all appearances she looked every bit a human girl. But Baek Ji-soo had seen through her instantly.
"Contracted her just recently."
"Well, with your strength recovered, it's not surprising. But she's odd. There's something different about her from all the spirits you've contracted until now."
"Right? We're in the middle of a bonding project. By the way—you been skipping meals lately?"
Oh Hyeon-seong said it while staring straight at her face. She looked noticeably paler than the last time he'd seen her, like she'd lost quite a bit of weight.
Like someone who wandered around starving.
"Ah... it just worked out that way."
"Forget work—eat properly. Didn't I tell you cutting your meal time just tanks your efficiency?"
"I never thought I'd be getting lectured about my eating habits by you, of all people..."
"Quiet, and take it."
Thud!
Oh Hyeon-seong set down a hefty lunchbox.
It was a labor of love, packed with spicy stir-fried pork made from the pig he'd gotten and a careful selection of side dishes. Having packed his first ever full-f lunchbox in his life, he was thoroughly satisfied with the result.
"The taste is... well, whatever. But it'll fill you up. Save it for dinner later."
Taste meant nothing to someone who had already lost their sense of it, but it would at least be good for her body. One meal wouldn't produce a dramatic effect, but she'd accumulated a considerable amount of miasma in her system over the years, after all.
"...Thank you. I'll eat it well."
She stared blankly at the lunchbox for a moment before thanking him. Contrary to Oh Hyeon-seong's expectation of a lukewarm reaction, something almost friendly had slipped out.
She even seemed a little pleased.
Probably his imagination, though.
"Anyway, I doubt you came all this way just for that. And I never expected you to visit first. Is something the matter?"
"I have a favor to ask."
"Coming from you, it must be important."
"It is."
For him, it was a critically important matter. It was the key to meeting the spirits again.
"I need seeds that haven't been gene-altered. More precisely—seeds from before the Gate catastrophe."
"So... you need the original seeds from the past?"
"That's right. Type doesn't matter. Domestic or overseas, I'd like you to track down where they are. That's why I came to you."
"Well, this is a first. Asking me to hunt down seeds. You do realize it won't be an easy job?"
"I know how hard they are to find. That's exactly why I came to you."
He had to find untouched originals in a world drenched in miasma—and that was by no means a simple task. Forget planting them in today's soil; the slightest mistake in storage and the seeds would rot outright.
But the National Security Bureau just might manage it. They handled the most extensive information network in the country, staffed with experts whose ears were planted all over the globe.
Screeech!
Baek Ji-soo rose from her seat.
"Fine. I'll help you."
"You're agreeing a lot faster than I expected. Before I even mentioned terms."
"Don't need any terms."
"...You'll help without asking for anything in return?"
"The timing's oddly fitting, as it happens—there's been some news coming out of the country. The job itself should be simple enough."
Oh Hyeon-seong looked at her, utterly taken aback. Knowing her personality, he'd assumed she'd extract some kind of payment for the favor—he hadn't expected her to be this cooperative.
Turning around and picking up the lunchbox, Baek Ji-soo murmured quietly.
"Besides... I've already been paid. More than enough."
Clack!
As the two of them stepped out of the office, Seo Ho-yeon, who had been waiting outside, bowed her head and approached.
"Did you finish your discussion?"
"Director Seo, that unusual item that surfaced on the black market a while back. The rice seeds."
"Ah, yes! Did you read the report yourself, sir?"
"Our senior here wants it recovered. Guide him through it."
"Ah... me?"
Seo Ho-yeon looked at Oh Hyeon-seong and asked, a little dazed.
An elite of the Security Bureau, she was a high-ranking Grade 11 hunter serving as Public Security Director. In the government hierarchy, that was a vice-ministerial post—in practice, a top operational executive wielding even greater authority. Unless the President himself were dropping by, she wasn't the caliber of person assigned to personally shepherd a single individual around.
"Should I have the new hire from last month do it, then?"
"N-no, sir! I—this way, please."
Seo Ho-yeon jumped and hurried to comply. Baek Ji-soo, apparently with a business trip to another region waiting for her, headed straight out. Following her director's instructions, Oh Hyeon-seong was escorted to the Public Security Office and handed a thick stack of documents.
The Public Security Office also handled domestic intelligence-gathering, and the goings-on of the underworld fell squarely within their field of view.
"We've received intelligence that a sample of original rice seeds recently entered the domestic black market. Having undergone no artificial improvement, it naturally carries no miasma resistance. It seems there's some reason the seller couldn't offload it to the seed corporations, and it's slated to go up at an auction house. Its registration on the auction catalog has already been confirmed."
Seo Ho-yeon, standing at his side, continued the briefing.
"Its exact origin hasn't been verified yet, and its authenticity will need further scrutiny... but if it's genuine, the bidding will likely be astronomical."
"Certainly... a few hundred million won won't even come close. Especially for original rice seeds."
"Around two billion would be something our side could handle with some flexibility, but the final figure will grow far beyond that."
Seo Ho-yeon said, glancing at him sideways.
Original rice seeds had vanished into the mists of the distant past, and any food corporation would pounce on them with eyes blazing. In the past they'd never drawn that much attention, but now that food held staggering value worldwide, original seeds commanded lofty prices for research purposes alone.
What puzzled her was why a private individual would want one. He didn't look like a collector hoarding such curiosities, after all.
"Well, honestly, money isn't a concern."
"Do you have another method in mind?"
"Before the auction happens, let's have a word with the owner of the goods. Could you dig up some information for me?"
"Of course. It's a good idea, but... they'll likely demand a hefty sum."
She asked carefully. Oh Hyeon-seong shook his head.
"No need to trade with them at all. Those people are all operating outside the law anyway, aren't they?"
"Then... are you saying you intend to rob them?"
"No. We won't be stealing anything—we'll be executing justice. It's a sweep of criminals operating in the black market, that's all."
"Ah. I—yes, of course. How admirable..."
Seo Ho-yeon nodded along repeatedly, genuinely impressed. No wonder he was Director Baek's senior, she thought, sincerely awed. She felt she had just been taught a valuable lesson.