People Aiming for the Golden Chest (2)
“Mom. Dad.”
Jin-hwan sat dazed beside his parents’ cold corpses.
The man watching him asked him to explain the golden thing in detail.
“Recently, crimes hunting for golden keys have been happening in the neighborhood. I lost one of my friends to those bastards.”
“Who exactly is the guy using the name Golden?”
“I don’t know for sure. But anyone who has a golden key will be killed to take it.”
Jin-hwan couldn’t tell if the man was telling the truth or lying.
But the feeling he got was that he wasn’t lying.
“Where can we find those guys?”
“They show up anywhere as long as you have the golden key…”
“You said having the golden key is enough?”
Jin-hwan took one golden key out of his inventory.
The man shook his head at the key Jin-hwan held.
“It would be better to hide that. You might really die if those guys catch you.”
“It’s fine. Can you use this to lure them out?”
“Lure them out?”
The man looked surprised at Jin-hwan’s words.
“Think about it again. Those guys are really dangerous.”
“I’m not saying that to lure them. Those bastards are the ones who killed my parents.”
“They killed just for an item?”
“I can’t just watch them set up traps around here.”
“Are you really sure about this?”
The man asked again.
Jin-hwan nodded, and the man nodded back as if he understood.
Then he started preparing something.
In the dark alley.
Two men were waiting in a car for someone to arrive.
“Hey. Su-hwan. You definitely have it this time, right?”
The big guy driving the car asked the man in the passenger seat.
“Yeah. I’m sure he has the golden key.”
“So we’re heading there right now?”
“He said he’d be here within ten minutes.”
They continued talking while watching under the streetlight where they were supposed to meet.
“Ha… Why are we even here?”
“We have to. What else can we do?”
“Why is the boss listening to some woman’s words?”
“I don’t know either.”
Their boss was a guy who had built up a loan shark organization in Busan and was as tough as anyone else.
But now he was acting on the orders of just one woman, which was obviously strange.
“There must be something.”
“I think so too. It started after he joined the shelter.”
The incident had begun a few days ago.
When this phenomenon started, all five organization members spun the roulette and became awakened, so they survived without much trouble.
But once they learned about the bulletin board and the shelter mentioned there.
Since everyone was players, entering the shelter was no problem.
But the problem came after that.
After the boss met the woman who ran the shelter, it seemed like she had made him her subordinate.
It was even weirder that the boss, who had the power to make someone his subordinate, had instead become one himself under absolute orders.
“That woman must have done something.”
“That’s what I think too.”
“We’ll figure it out for sure after this is over.”
They waited a little longer.
A person appeared in front of the streetlight.
“He’s here.”
“Let’s take him out cleanly in one shot. Got it?”
“Yes, sir.”
The two men who got out of the car slowly walked toward the man standing under the streetlight.
“You’re the one with the golden key, right?”
“Ah, yes. That’s right.”
“So that’s it?”
At those words, Su-hwan signaled to Gang-su.
At the same time, Gang-su stabbed his knife straight into Jin-hwan’s stomach with the knife he was holding.
Clang!
“What the hell are you doing?”
Jin-hwan caught the knife that had been digging toward him with one hand.
Gang-su was startled.
It was an instant attack from close range, and he had blocked it.
Thud!
With that, Jin-hwan brought his fist down on Gang-su’s face.
The guy fell backward.
“He’s not that strong.”
They were awakened, but they attacked when people were off guard, so their combat ability didn’t seem that great.
After one attack failed, they realized something about Jin-hwan’s power and quickly ran toward the car.
“Start the engine!”
“Yes!”
At Su-hwan’s order, Gang-su quickly started the car.
Brum brum brung!
As soon as the engine started, Gang-su put it in reverse and floored the gas to escape the area.
But the car didn’t move, despite the loud noise.
“Why isn’t it moving?!”
“Sir… It seems to be because of that.”
Behind the car stood a bugbear blocking the way.
“Damn it! Where did that come from! Get down here and catch the bugbear!”
“Yes, sir!”
Gang-su hurriedly got out of the car and pulled out his weapon to face the bugbear behind it.
But he couldn’t bring himself to attack the bugbear.
“Sir… What do I do?”
“What? Why?”
“It’s… It’s not one bugbear.”
“What?!”
At those words, Su-hwan who got out of the car looked ahead.
In front of them were at least ten bugbears.
And it wasn’t just bugbears.
There was also a giant goblin that looked completely different from normal goblins.
Kwang!
One bugbear smashed the car’s hood, and the engine inside started smoking.
“Sir, can we do this?”
“I don’t know, man! Why are monsters even here?!”
The guys gripped their hammers and swords tightly while staring at the approaching monsters.
If the car had been fine, they would have driven away, but now that wasn’t possible.
While they swallowed nervously, a man approached them between the monsters.
It was the guy who had the golden key earlier.
“Did you summon this?!”
“Ah, you don’t need to know that. Why don’t you tell me why you’re gathering golden keys?”
But the guys didn’t answer.
They moved the big goons.
Kung! Kung!
The big goons approached with large swords, making the guys tense up.
“If you don’t talk, you get hit once each.”
Even with that threat, they kept their mouths shut, and the big goons swung their huge fists.
But the guys weren’t about to take it lying down and started fighting back.
But had they ever fought monsters of this power before?
The guys were easily suppressed.
Thud!
Jin-hwan slowly approached the ones who took a fatal hit from the big goon’s fist and pointed his knife at their necks.
“You want to talk now?”
The knife dug into Su-hwan’s neck little by little.
When blood started flowing, the guy quickly answered.
“W-what do you want?”
“Ah, before that, you should pay for trying to kill me.”
Jin-hwan pulled the knife from his neck and cleanly severed Su-hwan’s left arm.
A fountain of bright red blood sprayed out from there.
“Aaaah! It hurts! Healing potion!”
Su-hwan started thrashing in pain.
Jin-hwan wiped the blood off his knife and said while looking at him.
“I may be kind to people, but I’m not kind to those who try to kill me.”
Gang-su, the other guy, tried to sneak away.
But how could the monsters just let that happen?
“Get away!”
Boom! Boom!
He tried to run away while threatening the bugbears with his hammer, but his legs were chopped off by the bugbears’ axes.
Blood poured from the leg wounds.
“Big goon, move them.”
Jin-hwan threw all those guys onto the car and asked why they were doing this.
“Khhahaha. I was going to tell you about me… Aaaack!”
Su-hwan, who still didn’t know his situation, got stabbed in the shoulder with the knife again.
The guy was panting as if he was about to die.
“Hey, is there a healing potion here?”
The guys hesitated while looking at the potion in Jin-hwan’s hand.
But soon they refused to talk.
“Even after doing this?”
It honestly didn’t make sense.
It was surprising that they would do this even when their lives were on the line.
Maybe they were under some kind of restraint.
“Well, I wasn’t planning to keep them alive anyway.”
They were the ones who killed Jin-hwan’s parents for the golden key.
And if he let them go like this, they would just kill more people.
“Finish them.”
Even if the world had changed, Jin-hwan still hesitated to kill people with his own hands.
Some remnant of morality remained.
The bugbear slowly walked toward the guys while holding an axe.
Then it swung the axe down hard at Su-hwan’s head.
Crack!
Su-hwan’s head split in half and he died.
A fountain of blood spread around.
Gang-su, who saw the scene, shouted desperately before the bugbear could even approach him.
“I’ll talk! Please spare me!”
Maybe he was afraid of dying.
Gang-su limped toward Jin-hwan while dripping blood from his leg.
Jin-hwan stopped the bugbear from swinging its axe.
“Really? Then tell me why.”
“It’s because we were hunting the golden key. When we kill an awakened person, we can get one of the items they have….”
“Ah, I already know that. Then what are you going to do with it?”
“I-I can’t tell you that.”
Just a moment ago he was about to say everything, but Gang-su suddenly changed his mind.
Anyway, there was no point in listening to these guys anymore.
It was obvious they would lie.
Jin-hwan signaled the bugbears to finish them.
Gang-su, seeing that, grabbed Jin-hwan’s leg and begged.
“Please spare me! I didn’t do it because I wanted to. If I refuse the boss’s order, I’ll die.”
“Even if I want to, if I keep you alive, I won’t be safe in the future.”
From what they said, it seemed they weren’t acting alone.
They were probably gathering golden keys systematically for something.
“No! I swear! I won’t do that!”
“Who am I supposed to believe?”
“Even if I betray the boss… Kugh!”
At those words, Gang-su suddenly clutched his heart.
It wasn’t Jin-hwan who did it.
“Kuaaaak!”
Gang-su writhed and screamed.
At the same time, his body suddenly swelled abnormally.
“Save… Save me! I don’t want to die!”
Contract Violation Has Occurred.
According to the contract, the Monster’s Fruit has activated.
Gradually, Gang-su’s body changed from human form to something else.
Kueeeeruk!
His skin gradually turned red, tentacles started appearing from his legs, and something new appeared in the severed leg part.
“What the hell is happening?!”
Jin-hwan hurriedly backed away and watched in shock as Gang-su transformed.
[Giant Squid - Lv 8]
Just a moment ago he had definitely been human.
But now Gang-su’s entire body had turned into a squid.
And a message indicating he was a monster appeared.
One person had completely become a monster.