Meeting with the Head Mod (1)
Meeting with the Head Mod (1)
I stared at the gallery with a dazed expression.
"Coming to meet me?"
Wasn't socializing forbidden?
No, wait, is there even a way to just pop up unannounced in the first place?
Looking at the burning gallery, I remembered the moment earlier when Red Mask's head exploded.
'Some strange hand popped out and blew it up....'
Perhaps the dragons wielded that kind of power.
Grow strong enough to defeat the dragons. That hadn't changed.
"Now... can I summon it again?"
Having confirmed that Back Mountain Spirit had fled, I pressed the button on the capsule.
"Ugh... I get motion sick when traveling from far away...."
Red Mask, appearing in the capsule, spoke in a thin voice.
"How was it?"
"It was fun. Plus, I think my power grew a bit too?"
"Grew?"
"Must be because I fed on human fear."
An anomaly itself was a being created from rumors and stories. Such a being had directly descended and engraved fear into people.
"So the more humans feel fear, the more your power rises..?"
This seemed like something I needed to research a bit.
I opened the gallery to take a breather.
Title) Boo! Condemn the Main Admin trying to meet Occult Newbie alone!
'Talisman-selling Girl'
The strongest in the gallery, the Main Admin, is meeting the powerhouse rookie Occult Newbie to engage in pure-love steamy night-time activities and mass-produce the strongest occult child, right?!
I! Know! Everything!
└Spiritual Master: Crazy bitch.
└Back Mountain Spirit: Seeing Bupali's post makes me regret surviving.
└Talisman-selling Girl: What?! Take that back right now.
└Back Mountain Spirit: (Meme of a ghost reading the room)
└Monk No. 24: Amitabha... Though it is a bit vulgar... Bupali's words are not entirely wrong.
The words of Monk No. 24, who was always serious, continued.
└Monk No. 24: Doesn't it mean the situation has changed enough to break the rules one made oneself?
└Spiritual Master: Exactly. With Newbie's power, he really might be able to stand against the dragons. Besides, beating a suicide ghost to death with bare hands makes no sense in the first place, right? I'm certain there's something inside Newbie's body.
└Occult Newbie: Excuse me. What about my opinion?
I was completely ignored.
└Spiritual Master: And about identity exposure. I'm the Main Admin, aren't I? Don't you know I can make strange information vanish from this gallery immediately...?
└Back Mountain Spirit: Shivers
└Talisman-selling Girl: Th...that's true? (Flustered ghost meme)
└Spiritual Master: The dragons haven't found my identity yet, and there's no way they'd know Newbie's identity.
└Monk No. 24: I understand. This humble monk merely brought it up out of concern that the rules might lose their meaning.
└Spiritual Master: Thanks for understanding. So, Newbie-nim. Address.
└Occult Newbie: Huh...?
└Spiritual Master: Ad. Dress.
And that was how I ended up surrendering my address.
'There's still some time left until the next raid....'
I opened my status window.
[ Occult Newbie ]
Level: 31
Spiritual Rubles Held: 8,000,034
Skill: Anomaly Bloodline
Title: Monster Bird Slayer, Survived Red Mask
Special Equipment: Artificial Eye of Acceleration
My level became Level 31, and most importantly, the Spiritual Rubles...
"How many zeros is that..."
There were a whopping 8 million Rubles. This was none other than the payment for trading the Yangban-grade curse-dispelling potion.
Furthermore, the title 'Survived Red Mask' was added. It seemed like a title given for meeting a boss and surviving.
'Does the title not have any effects? That's a bit disappointing.'
It would be nice if it gave some additional stats.
"And~"
I looked at the curse-dispelling potions held in both of my hands.
I knew the Monster Bird's heart was large, but I didn't expect a whopping three curse-dispelling potions to come out of it.
Since I gave one to Sansinryeong-nim, the remaining two were mine.
"Khehehe... Two of them worth ten million Rubles each...!"
I could use them in emergencies, and besides, according to Bupali, they go for more than ten million Rubles.
"Khehehe..."
Laughter just spilled out.
I was already chuckling, thinking about what to buy with this.
'Am I liking this even more than real money?'
As I was snickering to myself, Red Mask, who was placed next to me, spoke up.
"What are you smirking like that for? What about praising me? What about my reward?!"
Despite being given a true lesson by me several times, this Red Mask guy was truly consistent.
"Good job! I'll buy you a hamburger. Now be quiet for a sec."
"Hamburgers are great. Make it Mom's Touch, please."
I ordered the hamburger I usually picked up via delivery instead.
A whopping two set meals, plus an extra chicken patty added on.
"This is... the bourgeois life!"
I was simply moved.
Even after spending money like this, my bank balance remained stuffed to the brim.
"It's not an empty bank account, it's a seasonal account packed full of roe..."
"I don't know what you're talking about, but it's nice seeing you happy."
Red Mask had completely adapted to life with me.
A moment later.
Ding-dong—!
The doorbell rang.
"Yes~ Coming."
It seemed Mom's Touch had arrived.
I wanted to take a huge bite out of that chicken patty right this instant.
"My hambur...ger?"
I pulled the door wide open, but standing before me was not a delivery rider, but a woman wearing a black hat and a mask.
I froze dead in my tracks.
The woman in front of me was a beauty so striking you could tell just by looking at her eyes.
The moment I realized that, my brain short-circuited.
"This address should be right."
"Ah... ah...?"
"You're Occult Newbie, right? I'll speak comfortably from now on."
At those words, my senses barely returned.
"Then... you're...?"
"That's right, I'm Spiritual Master."
"Wait... you were a woman!?"
You should have told me that first?!
"Don't make a scene and let's go inside first."
Spiritual Master, the Main Admin, immediately pushed her way into my studio apartment.
But there was something visible to my eyes.
'What is that eyeball?'
There was something that looked like a human eyeball floating above her head.
"It doesn't smell in here, at least?"
"Of course! You have no idea how clean I am."
Even as we spoke, my gaze was fixed on that eyeball.
The eyeball, looking back and forth between me and the Main Admin, rolled around frantically. It was blatantly abnormal.
I reached out my hand to grab the eyeball and check it out—
Pusyuk!
The eyeball touched by my hand popped, leaving only a white liquid in my grip.
"Ew, gross."
Shaking off my hand, I walked inside, just as Red Mask, who was sitting on the floor, locked eyes with the Main Admin.
"Hey, you're that woman I see all the time, right?"
"It's been a while."
The Main Admin spoke as if she already knew Red Mask.
"What, do you two know each other well?"
"How many times do you think I've been to the Spiritual World? Just the number of times I entered that alleyway is probably over 50."
"I saw her until I got sick of it. It was my deep regret that I couldn't catch her."
Wow, she really is a total veteran.
Come to think of it, she did say she hunts bosses too.
'But... now that I think about it, isn't this the first time a woman has entered my studio apartment?'
Gasp.
Thinking about it, it really was.
My heart couldn't stop pounding.
"Alright, then."
Having stepped inside the room, the Main Admin took off her hat and mask.
"Now... shall we check?"
"...!"
I couldn't even form words.
Because the identity of the woman before my eyes, Spiritual Master, was none other than the Nation's Little Sister, Choi Sua.
"Miss Choi Sua...?"
"You know me here too...? Good grief."
"P-Please... give me an autograph."
Choi Sua brushed back her hair and laughed.
"I'll give you one after we're done. Give me your hand."
"My hand?"
As I reached out my hand, Choi Sua snatched it firmly.
This is absurd.
Choi Sua felt a headache from the moment she faced Red Mask.
The unpleasant sensation and gruesome energy felt from a being known as an anomaly affected even a half-dragon human like her.
Yet Kim Yongtae next to her was just talking about burgers as if nothing was wrong.
'Just how is his body built for him to be perfectly fine even with a creature like that next to him?'
If an ordinary person had walked in here, they would have panicked and run away.
Not a single shred of spiritual power could be felt from Kim Yongtae's body. That in itself was strange. Normally, humans were born with a certain amount of spiritual power.
The magnitude of spiritual power and the presence of spiritual vision were what divided spiritual psychics from ordinary humans.
Choi Sua held Kim Yongtae's hand and injected spiritual power into him.
"What the...?"
As if blocked by a colossal wall, her spiritual power wouldn't enter at all.
Narrowing her eyes, the moment she poured in spiritual power with all her might—
Kwaaaaah—!!
She encountered a massive tsunami.
Paang—!
With the sound of something popping, she hastily pulled her hand away from Kim Yongtae's body.
"Sua-ssi? What's wrong?"
"You... what are you?"
"Huh?"
"The moment I put spiritual power into your body just now, I felt spiritual power completely filling your flesh."
Bones, muscles, blood vessels, nerves—without exception, his physical body was brimming with spiritual power.
A spiritual power infinitely higher and vaster than that of Red Mask, who was whining nearby about when the burgers were coming, was packed inside that body.
'Is that why the talisman turned out like that?'
To use a talisman, one had to push in a certain amount of spiritual power.
What would happen if a talisman touched a body like a living nuclear bomb?
A narrow path would open up in a place that previously had nowhere to release energy.
Excessive spiritual power would have poured into the talisman like a bursting dam, and the talisman's circuit would have absorbed it all.
What was born from that was a massive flame explosion reminiscent of a missile.
"You... name all your parents' names."
"Uh...."
Kim Yongtae, who was about to speak their names, suddenly realized.
The names of his parents, which he clearly used to remember, could not be recalled.
"Why... can't I remember?"
He immediately rummaged through various papers placed on the desk in a corner of the room.
Even on the family relation certificate, there was only his grandmother, Seo Ok-ja; his parents' names were not written.
"Normally, if they had passed away, their records should be marked as closed on the family relation certificate...?"
"You... your memories were manipulated."
"Manipulated...?"
At the word 'manipulated', a sudden headache struck.
-Yongtae-ya.... You must never go near wicked things.
-You were born with a destiny that defies heaven.... You will surely cause a great wave.
His grandmother's words continued.
-If a confusing situation comes where you don't know what's going on, open this notebook. It will show you the way.
"Newbie-ya?"
Passing by Choi Sua, who was looking at him with worried eyes, he pulled out a notebook from a bag under the desk.
With trembling hands, Kim Yongtae opened the keepsake notebook. On the notebook where nothing had been written when he checked it in the past, words were now inscribed.
-To state the conclusion first, I succeeded in killing the dragon.
Choi Sua and Kim Yongtae began to read the writing drawn in blood.