Chapter 63
Chapter 63
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: uly
Chapter: 63
Chapter Title: The Key is the Magic Circle
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Ugh.”
Geon-woo opened his eyes as he roughly sorted through the memories he’d gained from turning Ruatlohit into a jiangshi spirit.
“You okay?”
Paeng approached as he sensed Geon-woo stirring.
“Well, it’s nothing I’m not used to.”
Geon-woo shrugged nonchalantly, as if it were no big deal.
“So, how’d it go? You said you could pull memories from demons that way. Get anything good?”
“More than I expected.”
Geon-woo flashed a satisfied smile.
“Nice! Like what? Spill the details.”
Paeng’s mood lifted to match Geon-woo’s bright expression.
“For starters, the biggest haul is that thing over there.”
Geon-woo pointed to the magic circle Ruatlohit had been using.
“That? What about it?”
“It’s got an anti-ability effect built in. Meaning you can create an anti-ability field with it.”
“Anti-ability field? Why would you need that?”
Paeng looked puzzled.
“Places where abilities don’t work are to our advantage—me and the jiangshi.”
“Huh? It works like that?”
“That’s why I’m planning to install it on my island. At least that way, we can dodge ability-based attacks to some extent.”
“Oh, yeah. Sounds super useful for defense, especially with the jiangshi around.”
Paeng got it right away, having experienced the anti-ability field firsthand.
“And that’s not all it does.”
“Huh? What else?”
“The anti-ability effect? That’s just the groundwork they laid to use the circle in the first place. If abilities work there, it means the system’s power is active.”
“So they block the system’s power to... Ah, they brought bio-armor factors from the demon dimension, right? That’s what the circle was for.”
“Exactly. But it’s not limited to bio-armor factors. It’s just a gateway connecting to the demon dimension.”
“So that possessed demon came through that gateway with the bio-armor factor?”
“Yeah. And that factor was actually tech from the Ravolas clan he belonged to. Oh, apparently that was the only one of their kind to come to Earth.”
“Oh, so bio-armor’s off the table now? Worth conquering this Cheonjungchon place after all.”
Paeng grinned widely, pleased with the successful raid.
“Unfortunately, no. Bio-armor’s going to be a headache on Earth for a long time.”
Geon-woo’s response threw him off.
“What? What do you mean?”
“You know bio-armor can turn people into demons, right?”
“Yeah. High assimilation rate, and they become demons instead of humans. That’s why we decided not to treat bio-armor users as human.”
“But what if you could split off pieces of that bio-armor?”
“Split it off?”
“From Ruatlohit’s—yeah, that demon’s name—memories, once bio-armor reaches a certain level, it can self-replicate. Like laying eggs or scattering seeds.”
“That’s insane.”
Paeng stared blankly, shocked by Geon-woo’s words.
“That’s why I said it’ll be a chronic problem. At least later generations are supposed to be less demon-like...”
“Either way, that bastard unleashed poison on Earth!”
Paeng glared fiercely at Ruatlohit’s lifeless spirit form.
“Easy there. He’s already dead. Reborn as my jiangshi’s jiangshi spirit.”
“Ugh, frustrating!”
With no target for his anger, Paeng thumped his own chest.
“What’s done is done, and it’s not something we can fix right now, so let’s move on. At least we’ve stopped more bio-armor factors from coming through.”
“Yeah, but... Ah, whatever. Blocking even a little is what matters. Sigh.”
Despite his words, Paeng couldn’t hide his dejected look.
“Still, that magic circle will come in handy. We can open a gateway to the demon dimension, after all.”
At that moment, Geon-woo pointed at the circle again, his eyes gleaming meaningfully.
“What’re you scheming?”
Paeng’s eyes widened as he asked.
“If they poisoned our world, why can’t we poison theirs? No guarantee it’ll work, but we can at least open a gateway to their dimension with this circle.”
“Well, sure, but... Do we even have poison that’d work on demons? Got a plan?”
“Not yet. But we could start a project to develop some. With this circle.”
“Hmm. Kinda iffy, but having options isn’t bad.”
Paeng nodded reluctantly, still skeptical.
“Who knows? Maybe we send our common cold virus over and wipe them out. Hahaha.”
Geon-woo laughed brightly as he said it, watching Paeng.
= My lord. It’s getting hard to hold onto the monsters’ spirits much longer. We need to do something.
Just then, Ilryeong called out to Geon-woo in a slightly urgent tone.
Geon-woo paused his chat with Paeng and turned toward the monsters.
“These are monsters made with Ravolas clan secret arts. They inserted mutation factors into spirits from their dimension.”
“Mutation factors in spirits?”
“They drag the spirits here, possess them into bio-armor, and the factors inside make the armor proliferate through predation, restoring it close to its original form. The problem is...”
“Huh? What problem?”
“I mentioned earlier—those factors are stuck to the spirits, making it hard to extract them.”
“Oh! Right, yeah.”
“If we could just pull out the spirits, it’d be easier to deal with. Guess we’ll have to go physical.”
Geon-woo gave the order to the jiangshi gripping the monsters’ vital points.
At that instant, the jiangshi attacked the six monsters’ weak spots in various ways, and the beasts dropped dead on the spot.
Multiple hearts or heads didn’t matter when they were all hit at once—no time for regeneration.
“Hmm. At least we got intact monster corpses. Bound to be useful somewhere.”
Geon-woo mobilized the jiangshi to shove the six fallen monsters into his dimensional space.
He also stripped as many core materials from Ruatlohit’s magic circle as possible.
By the time they finished clearing the monsters and circle, Commander’s team appeared in the cavern.
Ssssh!
“Wow, looks like the fight’s over.”
“Knew Director Kang would win.”
“But who are those people?”
“When did all these folks get here...”
They’d apparently used Jumper’s ability to return to the cavern, and they immediately made a fuss.
Geon-woo eyed the Guardian special team with displeasure.
“Rude.”
The special team shut their mouths at his words, their chatter dying out.
Commander stepped forward and bowed slightly.
“Sorry. We had orders...”
Commander’s face flushed, clearly embarrassed.
“Looks like Director Bayrun gave some reckless orders.”
Geon-woo muttered indifferently.
“W-Well...”
“Commander, why hide it? Just say what happened.”
Jumper grumbled at Commander.
Shooter picked up from there.
“He’s right.”
“Exactly. We didn’t do anything wrong. So, after the emergency evac, HQ ordered us back here ASAP if the anti-ability field lifted—to check the situation.”
Attacker followed Shooter, laying out their exact orders.
Commander sighed, resigned.
“Director Kang, HQ demanded results no matter what. And if you were in danger, we were to help if possible.”
“Ha! Help? The fight’s already done.”
Paeng shot back sarcastically at Commander’s explanation.
“Sorry. Some team members opposed re-entry, so we had to hash it out.”
Commander bowed again, explaining right away.
From the team’s vibe, Geon-woo guessed Jumper, Shooter, and Attacker had been against coming back in.
He didn’t know why, but it had delayed them.
“I’d appreciate it if you left now. I’ll compile and send whatever Neuron Age needs to know about what happened here.”
No matter the circumstances, having the Guardian special team pop up and spot his jiangshi forces soured his mood.
His response was icy and sharp.
“Um, that’s...”
“I already bent over backward to let the special team tag along on this op. This unannounced reappearance? You should be grateful I didn’t attack on sight.”
Geon-woo cut off Commander’s attempt to explain, warning of how serious it could’ve been.
The team’s reactions varied wildly.
Angry faces, apologetic ones, some looking ready to lunge.
“Tell Director Bayrun this: if he takes my goodwill for granted, our relationship won’t be the same. Now go.”
Geon-woo’s gaze swept over Commander and Jumper.
“Director Kang...”
“Or stick around and test me. Your lives on the line.”
“A-Alright.”
Commander bowed to Geon-woo’s warning, unable to speak his piece again.
With abilities back online, he’d thought maybe they could take Geon-woo, but those mysterious people around him were a problem.
Five special team members against them all? No chance.
Their only option was to withdraw quietly.
“Feels like things are getting messy with Neuron Age.”
After the special team vanished via Jumper’s ability, Paeng approached Geon-woo, frowning.
“I’ll tolerate it for now. If they cross the line more, we flip the table then.”
“Not cutting ties?”
“Can’t cut ties with Neuron Age. They’re central to defending Earth from dimensional invasions.”
“So not cutting ties, but flipping the table?”
“Yep.”
“Heh heh heh. If it comes to that, you’ll let me join in?”
“If you want.”
“Obviously! Count me in!”
“Got it. If it happens.”
Geon-woo readily agreed to Paeng’s request.
They were comrades in arms, after all.