Does Honest Noona Appeal to You?
The transparent ring settled into my palm.
Name: Seed – Ring
A ring the Fairy King of the Great Labyrinth desperately tried to hide until the very end. It does not reveal itself easily.
Possessed Concepts:
《???》 – Your Emotion level is insufficient to glimpse this.
《Deception Lv.2》 – It is secretive like a clown. It mixes a small amount of chaos into the owner’s words and actions.
Because it carried the Deception concept, the ring was so perfectly transparent it was almost invisible. Pretty fascinating. The unidentified concept 《???》 did nag at me a little, but—.
With this thing, I figured I could handle even sudden surprise interrogations from the police noona. The misfortune of getting my ass sat on by Bbangddaeng and having coins dumped out of a jar had actually turned into a blessing in disguise!
Time to head out. Just as I thought that and tried to leave the treasure vault, a problem arose.
◈ No matter how much you squeeze, it refills itself.
◈ Literally an infinite supply of ketchup.
“Aaaargh!”
Why the hell could I only take one item?!
Bbangddaeng just frowned like he couldn’t understand my desperate agony.
“You’re really picking the ketchup bottle? Ha Namjin, that’s so you!”
“I’m pretty cool, right?”
“That wasn’t a compliment, you idiot!”
After agonizing like that for a while, we finally reached the entrance of the treasure vault. Captain, wearing those ridiculous party glasses, glared at us.
“You guys didn’t steal or hide anything, right? With these Detection glasses, I can see everything you’re hiding. Changsik, you grabbed an extra coin for your pocket, didn’t you?”
“S-sorry. I’ll go put it back.”
“Deokhui brought just one. Yeoul too. And Ha Namjin, you…”
Captain’s face twisted in disgust behind those ridiculous party glasses.
“A ketchup bottle? Hey, you dumbass Ha Namjin! Of all the things you could’ve picked, why the hell did you bring that? Do you think choosing a Bogu from the treasure vault is a joke? Huh? A ketchup bottle?!”
Captain kept scolding me while staring at the ketchup bottle I’d brought. He never once mentioned the ‘ring’ I was wearing, which was strange. He then glanced at the tag attached to the microphone Deoksun had brought and started typing on a nearby computer keyboard.
“D-108. A microphone with the Courage concept. Excellent choice. Now, what the hell is this ketchup bottle Ha Namjin brought? There’s ketchup all over the tag, I can’t even read it.”
Captain searched for “Charge” in the search bar. Information on “Sauce Container C-102” popped up. It seemed like searching for a concept on that computer would pull up info on any object containing it. Kind of like a massive library system that helped you find the exact book you wanted.
Suddenly, a question occurred to me.
“Captain, is there anything here that possesses the Deception concept?”
“Deception? Hmm, let’s see what the search says.”
Tap tap tap—click!
No results found.
There was no information on the ‘transparent ring’ I was currently wearing. That meant this Deception ring wasn’t registered in the treasure vault. I had no idea how that was possible, but—.
“Captain, I actually found a ring and I’m wearing it right now. To be honest, I was really torn between taking this ketchup bottle or the ring. It’s a ring of Deception.”
“A ring? Where?”
Captain, still wearing those ridiculous party glasses, looked at my hand. Then his face scrunched up hard. He looked genuinely pissed. Was it because I’d brought two items?
“Ha Namjin, are you messing with me right now? Where the hell is this ring?!”
“It’s right here! A transparent ring! Just touch it and you’ll know!”
I casually extended my right middle finger toward Captain. It ended up looking like I was flipping him off, but what could I do? That was the finger the ring was on!
But after touching my middle finger, Captain got even angrier.
“What ring?! You little punk, are you taking your instructor for a fool?! And what the hell is with the ketchup bottle anyway? Of all the treasures in the vault, you pick a ketchup bottle? A ketchup toooootle?!”
“My eye for quality is just that amazing, right? Honestly, I can confidently say this ketchup bottle is more incredible than every other item in here combined.”
“…I’m actually speechless from how ridiculous this is. Next person!”
I’d been completely honest because stealing from the treasure vault didn’t seem very manly, but Captain got mad at me for treating him like an idiot. As a result, I was able to walk out of the treasure vault with two Bogu without any interference.
Even though the ring called Seed – Ring was clearly on my finger.
Maybe it was only visible to someone who possessed the Appraisal concept.
# # #
“Look at this! A talisman with the Absorption concept! Perfect for me, right? Maybe it’ll absorb some of my Bad Luck? Like those moisture-absorbing dehumidifier packs!”
On the way back home, Bbangddaeng proudly showed off the item he’d permanently borrowed from the Treasure Vault. It was a yellow talisman with red writing on it.
“If it keeps absorbing bad luck… won’t some horrifying amount of misfortune eventually condense inside that talisman…?”
Changsik trembled as he stared at Bbangddaeng’s talisman. Just like he said, imagining what would happen if Bbangddaeng’s bad luck became heavily concentrated in that thing was terrifying.
I wondered what kind of bogu Changsik had picked. But he just chuckled and said, “Heh heh, I’ll reveal that later!” and changed the subject.
“With this talisman, I should be able to control my bad luck a little, and maybe our family’s house in Gyeonggi will recover too!”
“Heh heh, I’m getting nervous just thinking about all the experiments I’ll run when I get home.”
Everyone seemed happy about their new items. Well, strictly speaking, Deoksun looked a little downcast.
“Deoksun, what’s wrong?”
“I was hoping I might find a World bogu… but I guess it wasn’t there…”
Come to think of it, she had mentioned something about the World earlier too. What the heck was that?
“The World… it literally means an object containing an enormous concept that makes up the World itself. For example, there’s a fishbowl with the Ocean concept in the Presidential Office. It’s an incredible item. Tactical-nuke level…”
A tactical-nuke level bogu? To think something like that might have been in the treasure vault. That’s seriously insane!
Even so, I wasn’t all that disappointed.
“The potential of my ketchup bottle surpasses even the ocean and the universe. An infinite ketchup bottle. With this, I’ll never have to worry about starving to death. I’m honestly scared of my own discerning eye.”
I proudly showed everyone my ketchup bottle. But the others just gave me subtle, unreadable expressions, apparently unable to understand my profound and lofty vision.
With that kind of atmosphere, we all went our separate ways. I was thinking I should hurry home and feed Seo Gaeul when someone approached me.
“Youth, ah, youth. It’s nice to see. I was a high school girl once too, you know.”
It was the police noona who had been watching the students from in front of the school gate. What was her name again?
“Noona, your name was… Jin Ramen Mild Flavor, right?”
“What the hell is that? I’m Jin Rihyeon.”
The handcuffs dangling at her waist jingled and flashed silver.
“Strange one Ha Namjin, I have a few questions about Yeom Hun and Sama Jun. Can you spare a moment before you head home?”
With that, the police noona grabbed my right hand and dragged me into a nearby alley. Then she started inspecting every inch of me—even sniffing my palm!
“You don’t smoke. And seeing how long your index and middle fingernails are, I guess you don’t have a girlfriend yet? Or maybe the relationship just hasn’t gotten that deep. Hehehehehe─.”
What did fingernails have to do with having a girlfriend? Maybe there was some college-grad level romance equation that a middle-school dropout like me just couldn’t understand.
“But what if I said you killed someone with this hand? You’re the one who killed Sama Jun and Yeom Hun, aren’t you, Ha Namjin? You had a grudge against them. After all, you lost your family two years ago.”
“Me?”
To think I’d be treated as the culprit who killed Yeom Hun and Sama Jun. I’d been planning to keep them alive and beat the stress out of them for a long, long time.
“My sixth sense concept lets me see through all sorts of things. And people tend to show more openings when they’re flustered or nervous. You wouldn’t happen to be the Judge, would you?”
“Huh?”
“Temporary or not, you have the skill to fight on equal footing with a Grade 3 Awakened. The boldness to commit violence without hesitation. A heart that hates criminals─. It all points to you.”
So I was currently being suspected of being the serial killer known as the Judge. Just when I was thinking how troublesome this was, the police noona said something I absolutely couldn’t ignore.
“It’s pretty well known that the Judge is targeting Seonam Group. After all, Seonam Group is stained with all kinds of corruption and darkness. So the Judge killed Seo Gaeul as punishment─. What do you think?”
This was the first I’d heard that the Judge was targeting Seonam Group. It was also the first I’d heard that he might be after Seo Gaeul. When I shook my head, the police noona laughed softly.
“Sorry, that’s the backlash from my ability. I have no secrets. In exchange for being able to see through other people’s lies so easily, I can’t tell lies myself. It’s like a tic disorder—I end up blurting out everything.”
“So if I asked about your ideal type, you’d answer honestly?”
“That’s right. I like older, dependable men. My job is what it is, so I don’t really have time to meet people, but my eye for character is accurate. That’s why you’ve been on my mind so much.”
“You really do have an excellent eye for people. After all, I am the man among men, the Alpha Male!”
“You give off the same vibe as all the criminals I’ve caught and thrown in jail so far. Why is that? What exactly are you?”
I gave off the same vibe as criminals? She really did have good instincts. It must be because I was the miraculous man who had returned alive from a lawless world.
That was when it happened.
The police noona’s hand suddenly grabbed mine and pulled it toward her chest. The moment my palm touched that soft sensation, every hair on my body—including the ones on my head—stood on end, and all the blood in my body surged upward.
“Normally this would be a crime if done to a minor, but my senses tell me it’s okay with you. I can feel that you’re flustered too. So, do you really know nothing about the Judge or Seo Gaeul’s disappearance?”
It was an extremely direct question. It seemed like she was trying to fluster me and create an opening in my mind, and the effect was incredibly powerful. She had even sensed with her instincts that I wasn’t actually a minor but a young man well past twenty. She really was an outstanding investigator.
If I answered awkwardly here, I might end up wearing those silver bracelets. In that case, I should trust the newly acquired Deception from my ring.
With that thought, I clutched my head!
“I’m curious too about where Seo Gaeul is and what she’s doing right now.”
It wasn’t a lie. I really was curious about what she was up to. I’d left her with Ing-ing, so I wanted to make sure those two hadn’t caused any trouble.
“Hmm, really? Then do you know anything about Wang Ja-hyeon? Like why he suddenly stopped coming to school recently?”
“No idea.”
Only then did the police noona release my hand. The warm, soft sensation disappearing from my palm left me with a sense of loss like I’d been kicked out of heaven.
The police noona laughed softly.
“I don’t usually do things like this. I just thought you were cute and wanted to tease you a little. And… I might have gotten a bit excited.”
“I already have someone I like, so I’ll have to turn down Noona’s feelings. Though if being a concubine is on the table, that’s a whole different story…”
“Concubine? You’re really funny. Think you could handle it? When I fall for someone, I like hitting and beating them. What do you think? I’m basically human trash, right? And even someone like me thinks you’re suspicious.”
Crack, crackle—.
The police noona loosened her wrists. Was she seriously thinking of beating me up?
“So, want to go somewhere a little more secluded with Noona and have a nice, deep ‘body conversation’? It might take a few days.”
“That’s a really tempting offer, but I’m sorry. I have to go to school!”
“It’s fine! I’ve got good connections! I’ll talk to the school so you can miss a few days! As for your parents—ah, you don’t have any. Sorry, I have to say everything so honestly because of my condition.”
This was bad. I had no idea what she was planning to do, but if I got caught here and ended up having a ‘body conversation’ with her, even with the help of the Deception concept, things might get exposed. In that case, I might have to use my secret ultimate move—right as I was thinking that, someone came sprinting toward us from far away.
“Hey!!! Ha Namjiiiin!!!”