Chapter 29
Chapter 29
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 29
Chapter Title: Fang in Crisis
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“This is a total mess.”
Geon-woo muttered as he looked at the news articles popping up on his screen after returning to Earth.
The headlines were still dominated by stories about Ark Capsule users.
Geon-woo had spent about two weeks on Onboroad.
But in that time, Earth had seen several major bloody clashes between users.
“It’s inevitable when you’ve got haves and have-nots fighting, but in the end, the have-nots can’t even get in on the action.”
The fights were between Ark Capsule users who had split into factions, generally pitting those affiliated with national organizations against those in private groups.
The national affiliates wanted to preserve the status quo, while the private groups pushed for a new order.
“In the end, they’re just scrapping over who gets the bigger share. Tsk.”
Geon-woo clicked his tongue as he skimmed the news, shoved his mouse aside, and rose from his chair.
He headed straight out of the room to where the jiangshi were being prepared.
= You’re here?
Ilryeong greeted him there.
“Yeah. How’s the status?”
= It seems mostly stabilized now.
“Really?”
Geon-woo’s face lit up at Ilryeong’s words as he approached the stone coffin.
Inside the open-lidded stone coffin floated a single jiangshi submerged in a translucent brownish liquid.
It was the body of Cheonyangwi, the one they’d captured in Incheon earlier.
But visually, while it looked like Cheonyangwi’s jiangshi body, what now inhabited it was the jiangshi spirit extracted from the demon tribe leader they’d just brought back.
Transporting the demon tribe leader into dimensional space and bringing it to Earth had been no issue at all.
After that, Geon-woo had pulled the jiangshi spirit from the demon tribe leader and shoved it into Cheonyangwi’s body.
He’d obtained the demon tribe leader’s corpse without any problems after extracting the spirit.
And the soul that had been in Cheonyangwi’s body was pushed out by the demon jiangshi spirit, losing its vessel and vanishing.
“How’s the unique ability?”
= The original body enhancement unique ability from the human known as Cheonyangwi doesn’t seem usable. With the soul changed, the soul stone doesn’t respond.
“Hmm, I see.”
= But becoming a jiangshi has granted it a body superior to that enhancement anyway, so there’s nothing to regret.
“Fair point. No ordinary body enhancement could match a jiangshi’s physical prowess. What about the phantomization the demon used?”
= Fortunately, that one seems usable as is.
“Nice.”
Geon-woo’s expression brightened at Ilryeong’s response.
= Yes. It appears unique abilities granted by the system are tied to the soul. Even after transplanting the demon leader’s spirit into Cheonyangwi, it can still use phantomization, so that’s almost certain.
“Just the fact that you need a certain level of soul fusion to use Onboroad user abilities on Earth suggests the system’s powers are soul-related.”
= In any case, now we can capture demon tribe with special abilities, turn them into jiangshi spirits, and transplant those spirits into human user bodies.
“Why not just use users with good abilities directly as jiangshi?”
= Turning a user into a jiangshi means maintaining the Ark Capsule and soul stone, which is a burden. Transplanting a demon spirit means no need to worry about capsules or soul stones, so that might be better.
“Hmm. True, transplanting demon spirits does eliminate that weakness.”
Jiangshi made from users would revert to ordinary human jiangshi if they couldn’t maintain the Ark Capsule’s soul stone.
That was a fact they’d learned while turning villains like Cheonyangwi into jiangshi.
Reverting to ordinary meant losing all user abilities.
Especially the unique abilities gained upon becoming a user—that was the problem.
Physical prowess could be boosted by turning them into jiangshi, but what was the point of producing defective goods without unique abilities?
They could only command eleven familiars, after all.
= Capturing demon tribe with good abilities alive, extracting their spirits, and implanting them into jiangshi bodies secured on Earth seems optimal.
“Either way, human jiangshi look better than dragging demon jiangshi around, so that’s preferable. Plus, they’re not really dead, so less uncanny valley effect.”
Fully trained jiangshi could act like normal people.
They could even hold complex conversations.
The only difference was the lack of free will—otherwise, they could pass for ordinary humans.
And now that his Heavenly Brain Multi-Heart Spirit Art had advanced, he could rapidly instill knowledge directly into their minds via mind link.
= No more need to hide their bodies and faces.
“Hmm. Not the main point, but at least we won’t have to bother concealing creature or demon tribe corpses. Not bad…”
Beeeep! Beeeep! Beeeep!
As Geon-woo spoke, a sharp signal tone rang from his pants pocket.
His expression hardened instantly.
= My lord, what is it?
Ilryeong asked as Geon-woo pulled out his smartphone.
“This tone only rings for emergency network contacts.”
Geon-woo dashed down the hallway as he spoke.
He burst into the bedroom, yanked a large suitcase-sized box from the closet, and flipped it open.
= What’s this?
Ilryeong landed beside him, eyes sparkling curiously.
“Emergency network.”
Geon-woo tapped a few buttons on the small keypad.
A palm-sized screen flooded with text made of numbers and letters.
He stared at it intently for a while, then typed a few more commands and closed the lid.
“Top-tier mercenaries and agents like us sometimes need to coordinate. Misunderstandings have led to bloody chains of vengeance too often.”
= I see.
“So we built our own networks. Obviously, no single one connects everyone. There are several. But each has solid authority—good enough for me to use.”
= So one of those networks reached out to you… Is it Fang?
Ilryeong asked as if the name had just occurred to her.
“Yeah, it’s Fang. But he used a higher security network than I expected.”
That was why Geon-woo looked so serious.
The network Fang had used was reserved for truly critical matters.
For him to request contact through it…
“Means Fang’s in some kind of trouble. And he’s asking for my help.”
= What will you do?
“What else? Contract’s over, but no reason to ignore Fang.”
= It could be dangerous.
“Even normally, I wouldn’t pass up a chance to put Fang in my debt. And this isn’t normal times.”
= If not normal, then what?
“Hahaha. A time when the world feels like a pushover no matter what? Something like that.”
Geon-woo flashed Ilryeong a refreshing smile.
He was Geon-woo, who no longer feared even Onboroad’s masters.
Earth’s users and armed groups were beneath notice.
Fang’s call for help was no dilemma.
“With my full Onboroad avatar powers available now, there’s no one I need fear—not even someone who could wield theirs at 100%. Add the jiangshi I can summon anytime, and what’s left to say?”
= True enough.
“Alright, let’s go meet Fang.”
Geon-woo immediately prepared to head off the island.
Soon after, a speedboat shot from his island toward the mainland.
* * *
Crunch!
“Gahk!”
Fwoosh! Roarrrrr!
“Kaaack! Mercy!”
“There! He’s there!”
Bang! Bang-bang-bang! Ting! Clang!
In an old industrial complex clustered with abandoned factories, Ark Capsule users were battling.
Dozens of users attacking Fang.
Fang dodged here and there using his concealment unique ability while summoning his hydra to fight back.
But the pursuing users tracked his position in real time.
‘He’s using his unique ability properly. How are they doing it?’
Geon-woo, watching from a short distance away, was stunned by how the user group pinpointed Fang’s location.
Even he would struggle to find Fang without Ilryeong’s detection.
Yet these users instantly knew whenever Fang shifted position.
= My lord, they’re using electronic devices to track Fang.
Ilryeong, who’d gone invisible for recon as a half-spirit, reported back.
‘Electronic devices?’
= Yes. Something like your smartphone—they’re detecting his movements with it.
‘So they planted a tracker on him. And Fang let that happen?’
Fang was one of the world’s top agents.
He would’ve noticed a tracker on himself ages ago.
If he hadn’t removed it…
‘Means it’s embedded somewhere dangerous. Inside him, like his heart or brain—somewhere he can’t easily touch.’
Geon-woo reached that conclusion immediately.
He still couldn’t fathom how Fang had let such a thing get implanted.
Bang! Bang-bang-bang! Bang!
“Grab him! He’s there!”
“What are you doing?!”
Crunch! Crunch-crunch! Fwoosh!
The users fired at Fang, who summoned snake heads to chomp and incinerate them.
Already, seven or eight users had died or been injured in the time Geon-woo watched.
Yet the pressure on Fang didn’t let up.
‘They’re mercenaries too.’
Not ordinary users.
Veterans with real life-or-death combat experience.
Real stakes, not fake avatar deaths.
Otherwise, they couldn’t fight so desperately.
= Fang’s injured. There’s bleeding.
‘I see it.’
= What’s your plan?
‘Rescue just Fang. No need to attack others and complicate things later.’
= Extract only Fang?
‘Better not cross lines if avoidable.’
For Geon-woo, uninvolved in their conflict, intervening was already overstepping—but pulling Fang out without casualties left room for excuses later.
Geon-woo gathered his telekinetic power.
Rumble! Groooan!
“It’s collapsing! The building’s coming down!”
The factory pillars sank into the floor, twisting the entire structure.
The mercenaries instantly sensed the anomaly.
Seeing walls and pillars warp, they intuited total collapse.
Building failures were obvious at a glance.
“Damn it! Get out!”
“Out and encircle!”
“Move! Move!”
The attackers attacking Fang panicked and fled the factory.
Even as they escaped, they kept up suppressive fire toward his position—proof of their elite status.
Roooar! Kabloooom!
“Damn! It really collapsed!”
“Target’s still stationary. He’s right there!”
“Stay sharp. Don’t know when he’ll move.”
The factory crumbled into thick dust clouds, obscuring vision.
It was a large facility despite being abandoned.
Yet the pursuers maintained their encirclement, monitoring the tracker.
“You okay?”
Geon-woo sat beneath the rubble with Fang.
“I figured it might be you when the pillars started dropping.”
“Happy to see me?”
“Yeah. Very.”
Ssssh. Thud!
Fang admitted it plainly.
Then he slumped forward, passing out.
“Pushed to the limit, huh? Looked fine on the surface.”
Geon-woo clicked his tongue at Fang collapsing.
Moments ago, he’d been holding his own; Geon-woo hadn’t expected this sudden drop.
= My lord, now’s your chance. Check who Fang really is.
Ilryeong approached as Geon-woo watched the fallen Fang.
‘Normally I shouldn’t, but we can’t take him without removing that tracker. No choice, right?’
Geon-woo easily rationalized it at Ilryeong’s words.
He slyly reached for the hood covering Fang’s face.