Chapter 77
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 77
Chapter Title: A Power User Like a Mandragora
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The crackling of the campfire woke I Baekho.
When he opened his eyes, he was met with a night sky full of stars.
‘Where am I?’
Why was I sleeping outside? He wasn't sure, but it was soft and comfortable.
Still half-asleep, he started to pull up the blanket, then froze. A sense of wrongness belatedly settled over him.
‘Why is there a blanket outdoors?’
Come to think of it, lying on a soft bed outside was strange too. He looked down at the blanket.
“Huh…?”
The blanket slipped through his fingers like silk.
What he thought was a blanket was a mass of black hair. What he thought was a bed was also hair.
“Ugh, aghhh!”
I Baekho scrambled to his feet in terror. He tried to get away, but the hair tangled around his ankles, and he fell.
It was terrifying. The sensation of hair tickling his entire body sent shivers down his spine.
And yet, what was this sweet scent of shampoo he could smell?
‘Strawberry scent!’
Yes, it was strawberries. I Baekho was confused. He could smell a fragrant strawberry scent coming from what seemed to be a ghost's hair.
As he flailed, a hand shot through the hair and grabbed his arm.
“Aaaahhh!”
He remembered the arm he'd seen just before passing out.
The arm that had emerged from the hair and crawled across the floor. Had that arm caught him?
I Baekho felt his eyes about to roll back into his head again.
“Get a grip.”
If he hadn't heard the relaxed voice, he might have actually fainted.
Cheon Doun pulled I Baekho up by the arm. Once on his feet, he gasped for breath and scrambled out of the hair.
“Hah... hah... hah...”
A cold sweat drenched his body. Cheon Doun looked at him quizzically.
“What's wrong? Have a nightmare?”
He had. This very moment felt like an extension of that nightmare. Unable to bring himself to say so, I Baekho glanced around instead.
Figuring out where he was came first.
The first thing he saw was the group sitting around the campfire.
“The mister's awake!”
Kim Nari waved at I Baekho. Seeing the child's innocent smile calmed him a little.
That sense of calm vanished when he saw the fluorescent house over Kim Nari's shoulder.
The sight of the cobwebs draping the house made his skin crawl.
‘Wh-what in the world is that.’
Wouldn't a den of devil worshipers look something like that?
He turned his head and saw a staircase leading down into a basement, glowing with a yellow light. He imagined an altar for summoning demons must be down there.
I Baekho looked at the firewood shed and shivered.
“Wh-where is this?”
“My house. Now that you're awake, come and sit.”
Cheon Doun went over to the campfire.
As I Baekho hesitantly followed and sat down, Cheon Doun offered him a skewer.
“You woke up just in time. It was snack time.”
“Sn-snack time?”
“We picked some grapes earlier today. Try one. The texture is nice.”
The skewer Cheon Doun held out had plump, lightly grilled grapes on it.
He took it, but he had no appetite. The atmosphere was too eerie for him to swallow anything.
‘How can they eat in a place like this?’
I Baekho glanced at the others. Everyone was calmly munching on grapes.
Not a single one of them seemed to mind the bizarre house.
At this point, I Baekho started to wonder if he was the strange one for finding this place so creepy.
“Um, about the test. Did I pass?”
“The test…? Oh, that.”
Cheon Doun looked at the basement he'd dug with the siblings.
The logs I Baekho had brought were already cut and stacked in the basement.
‘We have enough firewood now, so that's done.’
There was nothing else to make him do, so it was time to send him back.
Cheon Doun tossed I Baekho a return stone he had prepared. Of course, he wasn't going to let him off that easily.
“You half-passed. Since you fainted at the end, there's one more test.”
“One more? Wh-what is it?”
“Information gathering. Find out about the faction trying to tear down the slum.”
“Ah, I understand.”
I Baekho's face filled with relief. That was something he could easily find out with his connections.
Eager to return, he shoved the grape skewer into his mouth.
Sweet juice burst with every chew, but he couldn't enjoy the taste.
Staring at the alien-like house in front of him, it felt less like eating grapes and more like eating alien eggs.
“Well, that was delicious! I've finished, so I'll be on my way.”
I Baekho devoured the skewer in an instant and stood up. Seeing this, Cheon Doun stood up as well.
“Open the Gate. I'm going too.”
“B-Boss, you're going too?”
“Yeah. I have some business in Gold City.”
In truth, he had no business there. He was going with I Baekho for one reason.
‘It would be convenient to set up a point to open a Gate in that city too.’
He couldn't open a Gate to a place he hadn't been to.
Because of this, he had always used the slum's plaza as his point of entry.
He'd never felt inconvenienced by it, but there was no harm in creating a doorway to Gold City as well.
“Ah, I see. Well, I'll be going then. I'll see you all later.”
After crushing the return stone, I Baekho bowed his head to the group.
“I'll be back.”
Cheon Doun gave a light wave and stepped into the Gate.
The remaining group watched them disappear, still munching on their grape skewers.
“That I Baekho guy. How long do you think he'll believe all this 'test' nonsense?”
“Who knows. If we don't tell him, he'll probably believe it forever.”
The siblings said, eating their grapes with amused expressions.
“So what kind of group does he think this is?”
Yu Beom looked around the house. Yu Jia also surveyed their surroundings. Whatever he thought, he probably didn't see them as a normal group.
The siblings thought in unison.
* * *
After passing through the Gate, Cheon Doun looked around.
He had arrived in a residential area overlooking the city.
The brilliant glow of neon signs showed just how prosperous the city was.
‘A sight you wouldn't see in the slum.’
As he looked down at the city, I Baekho approached him.
“This is my neighborhood. Where do you live, Boss?”
“Inside a Gate.”
Cheon Doun told him the simple truth.
I Baekho took this to mean he couldn't say and nodded.
‘That place before must be the organization's headquarters, right?’
Thinking of Cheon Doun's home as some kind of secret base, his expression turned curious.
What kind of person had a base in the Demon World? He was curious but didn't ask.
A low-ranking member knowing too much was always dangerous.
Having seen too many movies, he swallowed nervously.
“Where's your house?”
“Ah, right here.”
I Baekho pointed to the wall next to them.
The wall stretched endlessly along the road, its end out of sight.
It was a wall of such a size that one couldn't even guess the scale of the house.
“Well then, I'll be heading in... Oh, it's my grandfather.”
I Baekho had stopped in front of the iron gate.
A luxury sedan was approaching in the distance.
“Ah, now that I think about it, you said you knew my grandfather. Would you like to meet him before you go?”
“Sure. That sounds fine.”
It was a reunion after some sixty years. There was no reason to just leave after coming all this way.
Soon, the car stopped in front of them, and the chief secretary and Chairman I Unsu got out.
Chairman I Unsu looked at his grandson and Cheon Doun with a puzzled expression.
“Baekho, why are you out at this hour? And who is this person?”
“Ah. This person is my boss... no. He's an older brother I know.”
He corrected the title 'boss' a moment too late, and Chairman I Unsu's eyebrow twitched.
Anyone could tell that 'boss' was not a typical title.
‘Looks like he's fallen in with the wrong crowd again.’
Chairman I Unsu sighed inwardly.
Throughout his life, many people had approached his grandson hoping to exploit his background.
And many times, I Baekho had been used without realizing their malicious intent.
‘It's my fault for spoiling him. I'll have to get rid of this one appropriately.’
He gave a look to his chief secretary. The secretary gave a slight nod and walked over to Cheon Doun.
“Could I have a word with you?”
He looked down at Cheon Doun, exuding an intimidating aura.
A physique reminiscent of a bodybuilder. A height of 2 meters and 7 centimeters. A scar on his face from his days as an active Hunter.
Usually, people would be so intimidated by his presence that they would run away.
He expected the same this time, but he was wrong.
“Speak.”
“Pardon?”
“You said you wanted a word. Go ahead. I'm listening.”
The relaxed reply left the chief secretary dumbfounded. Had anyone ever acted like this in front of him before?
‘Yes. There have been a few. Riffraff full of empty bravado.’
This was the type that words didn't work on. You had to crush them with force to prevent future trouble.
Knowing this from years of experience, the chief secretary grabbed Cheon Doun's shoulder.
“It seems you misunderstood me. I meant we should speak somewhere quiet, just the two of us.”
He shoved Cheon Doun. He had intended to establish dominance, but he was inwardly surprised when the man didn't budge at all.
That feeling soon turned into stubbornness.
‘He must be a physical-type Awakened.’
If he was relying on his strength to resist, he had made a mistake. The chief secretary smirked and activated his ability.
His ability was to absorb the mana of anyone he touched. He would then store the absorbed mana within his body.
This rare ability was so much like a Mandragora's that he had earned the nickname 'Human Mandragora'.
‘I'll drain every last drop of your mana!’
With a shout, a whirlwind erupted around the chief secretary.
As the ability activated, Cheon Doun's mana began to flow into his palm.
‘How's that? You can't move, can you!’
The chief secretary grinned.
Once the mana absorption began, his opponent's body would stiffen as if paralyzed.
The standard procedure was for them to be drained of mana until they passed out, unable to even twitch.
‘An interesting ability. It's just like a Mandragora, isn't it?’
Cheon Doun looked at the chief secretary with interest.
He could feel the mana absorbed from him being stored inside the man's body.
A true Human Mandragora.
This was the first time Cheon Doun had seen such an ability, and he became curious if the man could really absorb as much as a Mandragora.
‘Should I feed him this much?’
Cheon Doun stealthily released some of his internally compressed mana.
At that, the chief secretary's eyebrow twitched.
‘Wh-what? His mana reserves are larger than I thought.’
The chief secretary was momentarily flustered by the chunk of mana flowing into him.
Still, it was within his acceptable range.
“Hyaaap!”
With a shout, the chief secretary stored the absorbed mana in his body.
‘He's handling it well. Should I feed him more?’
Cheon Doun released another bundle of compressed mana, as if untying a sack.
‘Wh-what the. Why is the amount I'm absorbing larger than before?’
A cold sweat broke out on the chief secretary's forehead.
Normally, the amount of mana being absorbed should decrease over time.
But instead, an even larger mass of mana began to surge into him.
“H-hyaaap!”
He shouted again and continued to absorb the mana.
Surprised? I can absorb even this much. With that spirit, he pushed his ability further.
In truth, his instincts were screaming that something was wrong.
After absorbing this much, his opponent should have been pale and on the verge of fainting.
So why was this man perfectly fine? Why was he looking at him with such an interested expression?
The chief secretary gritted his teeth.
‘Hmph, I take back what I thought about him being all bravado.’
The chief secretary revised his assessment of Cheon Doun.
‘He's a good eater. If I raised him, he could become a pretty good power user.’
They were both revising their assessments of each other.
The difference was that Cheon Doun was composed, while the chief secretary looked pale enough to collapse at any moment.
‘Guhhh...! Why, why isn't he collapsing yet! I feel like I've absorbed enough mana for three people! Is it just my imagination? Am I not in good condition today?’
He was approaching the limit of mana he could absorb. Yet, the sight of Cheon Doun being perfectly fine made his back slick with sweat.
‘I-I can't lose!’
At this point, it had become a battle of pride between men. The chief secretary pushed his ability to its absolute limit.
“Oh. That's not good.”
Cheon Doun said. The chief secretary's eyes widened. I Baekho and Chairman I Unsu, who were watching, gasped in shock.
“H-he spoke?”
When mana absorption begins, the body goes rigid. You can't even breathe properly.
To be able to speak normally in the middle of it was impossible.
Defying all common sense, Cheon Doun removed the chief secretary's hand from his shoulder.
“Stop eating now. If you're not careful, your ability control will... ah. Too late.”
Cheon Doun clicked his tongue as the man absorbed his mana in one go.
At that speed, it was already beyond his control.
He probably intended to drain all of Cheon Doun's mana and then regain control, but absorbing all of his mana was impossible from the start.
“You're too stubborn. You'll die like that.”
“G-guhhh...”
He wanted to stop, but he couldn't control it anymore.
As the mana began to pour in like a waterfall, the chief secretary's face turned red as if it would burst.
Even without Cheon Doun feeding him compressed mana, he had already absorbed more than his capacity, and his body felt like it was on fire.
“You overate.”
Cheon Doun scanned the chief secretary's body. He had absorbed so much mana that his 'vessel' was on the verge of breaking.
If left alone, he would either become a cripple or his mana hall would shatter, causing him to lose his ability.
‘He's not a bad guy, though.’
Cheon Doun looked at the chief secretary. He could guess why the man had picked a fight with him.
He hadn't resorted to throwing punches right away for that purpose.
His disposition wasn't evil. He didn't feel like letting such a person die.
‘And I did sort of feed him a heaping bowl just for fun.’
If giving him too much was the problem, then he just had to take some away.
All he had to do was pull out his own mana that the chief secretary had absorbed.
Cheon Doun took Dodagi out of his waist pouch. He held it out toward the chief secretary.
“Dodagi. Time to eat.”
It was time for him to face what true mana absorption looked like.