Chapter 15: Who's the Bastard Who Made This?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 15: Who's the Bastard Who Made This?
“Oh, just one more drink, I said!”
Kim Bok-ja, completely plastered, slumped over my shoulder, whining like an old man.
I was carrying the dead weight of her over my shoulder, heading towards Bok-ja's workshop.
“…I really couldn't have imagined it. That she'd be chugging soju-and-beer mixes like that at a tteokbokki place.”
“Oh, you were late! Everyone was staring, so I was embarrassed, I couldn't help it!”
“Did it ever occur to you they were staring because of the pile of empty bottles in front of you?”
“Who told you to drink? Minors, scram! Your unnie's gonna drink more by herself!”
“Go shove the rest down your throat at home.”
Kim Bok-ja hissed like a cat and clawed at my back, but it had no effect, so I just ignored it.
Then, a sudden chill ran down my spine.
“Bite him!”
A black, smoky thing, swirling above Kim Bok-ja's head, lunged at me and bit my forearm.
Kiiiaaah—
Its true identity was the Evil Spirit that had possessed Kim Hyeon-seung.
The moment Kim Hyeon-seung spat out the talisman and it detached, Bok-ja had subtly summoned it.
It had happened while everyone was distracted, only concerned with the unconscious Kim Hyeon-seung.
‘I knew she could do it. She really has some insane talent, doesn't she?’
If a shaman or a Spellcaster had been there, she might have been caught, but while Martial Arts Practitioners could sense the presence of Ghosts, very few could actually see them with their own eyes.
‘But why can I see it so clearly?’
Right now, the amorphous, pitch-black Evil Spirit was clearly visible to my eyes.
…And I hadn't even drawn on my Internal Energy or expanded my Qi Sensing Domain.
I could only speculate that it had something to do with my regression to the past.
“It's itchy, get lost.”
I swatted it away with my other hand, like shooing a bug off my arm, and the Evil Spirit yelped, falling off.
‘That worked?’
Then Bok-ja grumbled that her first Summoned Creature was too weak.
“Ugh. Why is this thing such a pushover?”
“You know how to summon Monstrous Beings, so what have you been doing all this time?”
At my question, Bok-ja mumbled in a slightly timid voice.
“…To summon them, you have to find them and subdue them first, right? That's harder for me.”
From what I heard, she knew how to do it, but she'd been too scared to confront Monstrous Beings until now.
This kid was really a scaredy-cat, huh?
I rummaged through my pre-regression memories, roughly recalling the locations and times when powerful Monstrous Beings had appeared, and said,
“Let's go catch a few together sometime.”
I didn't know how powerful a Monstrous Being Bok-ja could summon, but usually, around strong ones, there were always some mediocre ones too.
If she could catch and summon even one of them, she wouldn't have to worry about getting beaten up everywhere she went.
“Really? Really, really? Heeheehee! You cute little thing! Come here!”
“Stop pulling my cheek. I'll kill you.”
“Ahaha? Why? Are you embarrassed that your unnie is doting on you?”
While bickering back and forth with Kim Bok-ja, we arrived at the shop.
On the way, a few people glanced at us, but since I was already wearing a mask and a hood, no one recognized me.
“Hey. We're at your shop.”
I roughly shoved Bok-ja into her workshop and let out a deep sigh.
Bok-ja, sprawled on the sofa, yawned and rummaged through her jacket pocket.
“How much was the taxi fare earlier? Unnie will pay.”
“It's fine, just lock the door properly. Oh, and I'm borrowing this, okay?”
“Goggles? Hmph. Do whatever you want.”
I stepped outside, heard the door lock from within, and turned around.
“Thanks for the tteokbokki! Let's hang out again sometime!”
A chuckle escaped me at Kim Bok-ja's unnecessarily cheerful voice from behind me.
“She's drunk, alright.”
The next morning.
I covered my face with the goggles and mask I'd taken from Bok-ja's workshop the day before, put on a black tracksuit, and returned to Namdaemun Market.
I wore a sword at my waist, and just in case, packed a few tools in the backpack slung over my back.
That's because the place I had business today was the Hidden Tower, a spot frequently visited by people from the Underworld.
“Welcome, sir… Goggle Murderer?”
The Waiter, recognizing me, flinched and mumbled.
“Which bastard came up with that nickname?”
“My apologies, sir! I'll show you in!”
I followed the Waiter, who bowed respectfully, inside.
The interior of the Hidden Tower was quiet.
That was because I had deliberately chosen a time when there weren't many customers.
A moment later, Hwang Suk-su, the Owner of the Hidden Tower, appeared, his face gleaming with a mix of welcome and oiliness.
“Oh my! Look who it is! None other than the Goggle Murderer, the rising action leader of Martial Crew Cheongrang in the Underworld!”
“…You came up with that nickname?”
“Hahaha! It's one of the few hobbies and privileges of a Betting Duel addict!”
I hadn't done anything, so why had Martial Crew Cheongrang suddenly become a rising organization in the Underworld?
The question arose, but then I realized it would make things easier to handle, so I didn't press the issue.
“So, what brings you here?”
There were two reasons I had returned to the Hidden Tower.
I licked my lips and told Hwang Suk-su my first purpose.
“I kept thinking about this place's Dongpo Pork. It was the best Dongpo Pork I'd ever tasted.”
At the compliment about his cooking, a satisfied smile spread across Hwang Suk-su's face.
“Hahaha! Come, sit over here. I'll make it and bring it right out!”
I was guided to a bar table.
After sitting and waiting for a moment, the Waiter brought out steaming Dongpo Pork, and as I ate distractedly, Hwang Suk-su was suddenly sitting across from me.
Watching me eat with a pleased expression, he asked in a subtle voice,
“How is it? Compared to last time?”
“It's softer. It's not just that it was simmered longer; it feels like the meat itself is different.”
“Hahaha! You're a friend who makes cooking delicious food worthwhile. I used especially good meat.”
“But I preferred the one I had before.”
“…Hm?”
When I had just become a Vagrant, I quite liked the Dongpo Pork sold at the Hidden Tower and often came to eat it.
It was a taste that brought comfort to a poor and struggling Vagrant, you could say.
A few years later, Hwang Suk-su had suddenly died, making it a dish I could no longer eat, so when I tasted it again last time, I was quite moved.
I picked up the last piece of Dongpo Pork with my chopsticks, put it in my mouth, and said,
“Well, this is delicious too, but.”
“…You're a strange one, alright. Anyway, enough about Dongpo Pork.”
Hwang Suk-su narrowed his eyes and asked in a lowered voice,
“You didn't just come here to eat Dongpo Pork, did you?”
“Your intuition is like a ghost's.”
“Ten years as an Underworld broker, and I can tell just by how a customer handles their chopsticks. Did you come here to gamble on a martial arts duel like last time? Or for a request?”
Unfortunately for Hwang Suk-su, it was neither.
I took an item from my pocket and placed it on the table.
“Do you know who makes things like this?”
It was a piece of the Strange Yellow Paper that Kim Hyeon-seung had spat out just the day before.
Hwang Suk-su took the paper, on which a faint part of the Chinese character for 'demon' (魔) remained, and examined it closely.
“Hmm…”
After examining the Strange Yellow Paper for a moment, he nodded as if he understood immediately.
“It's a talisman made by the Ghost Sound Hall.”
Ghost Sound Hall?
It was a name I didn't recall.
In other words, they were nobodies.
“They're bad seeds. They mainly deal in talismans that cause Spirit Possession, and they even deliberately possess children with Evil Spirits, then trick the parents by offering to introduce them to a skilled shaman.”
I understood that to mean they were pests that could be dealt with without hesitation.
Hwang Suk-su wasn't a professional informant, but I knew that the information coming from his mouth was more reliable than most.
‘He might look like a pot-bellied middle-aged man now, but he was once a successful Freelance Vagrant.’
Just seeing a Vagrant who must have made enemies everywhere retire with all his limbs intact and run a business, I could guess Hwang Suk-su's resourcefulness and skill.
“But why did you bring a talisman made by the Ghost Sound Hall? And a torn one at that, rendered unusable.”
“…An acquaintance of mine was put in a difficult situation because of that item.”
“Oh my! Your acquaintance, of all people? Those bastards picked the wrong fight.”
He made an exaggeratedly surprised expression with his mouth agape, but his eyes sparkled with interest.
As if he already anticipated what I was about to do.
I lowered my voice and said to him,
“Tell me the location of their base. And can you make sure our conversation today never happened?”
It meant he should keep silent about our conversation so far, and about whatever would happen at the Ghost Sound Hall afterward.
Of course, once things happened, rumors would spread to some extent, but it would be different from them spreading directly from Hwang Suk-su's mouth.
“Hahaha! My friend. Isn't it a bit much to ask for that level of loyalty from me? If you were to participate in the Martial Arts Tournament I'm hosting next, then maybe…”
To Hwang Suk-su, who was slyly trying to cut a deal with me, I proposed a different price.
“That won't do. Instead, I'll give you a good piece of information I know. It's something money can't buy.”
Hwang Suk-su looked unenthusiastic, but his expression showed he was willing to hear me out.
I retrieved the Strange Yellow Paper from his hand, put it back in my pocket, and said,
“Be careful with allergies. I hear people can die from severe reactions, right?”
“…”
Hwang Suk-su's expression instantly turned strange.
A few years later, Hwang Suk-su's cause of death, when he was found as a corpse on the street, was an extreme allergic reaction.
A man cautious enough to work as a Vagrant for over ten years and retire completely unscathed, dying from a mere allergy?
It was highly probable that it was a murder involving someone close to him.
‘He's a sharp man, so he'll understand. That there might be a traitor among his own.’
Hwang Suk-su's face twisted into an awkward smile.
“Haha… What do you mean by that? I'd appreciate it if you could elaborate.”
“Why don't you just ask me to spill all my secrets?”
“How can I trust your words?”
To the serious-faced Hwang Suk-su, I mouthed a single word.
‘Strawberries.’
When I mentioned his strawberry allergy, which almost no one knew about at this point in time, Hwang Suk-su's expression froze coldly.
“Who… who exactly are you?”
“Someone who likes the Dongpo Pork you make. I've told you this much; you can handle the rest yourself, can't you?”
“…I'll write down the address.”
Taking the address of the Ghost Sound Hall's base, I rose from my seat, leaving Hwang Suk-su with a grave expression.
“I'll come back to eat again next time. Please make it the old flavor then.”
I didn't get a reply, but I had a feeling that many things would be different the next time I came to the Hidden Tower.
I immediately headed to the Ghost Sound Hall.
After passing through several winding, maze-like alleyways, I arrived in front of an abandoned building that exuded an eerie aura.
All the windows were boarded up, and the main gate was heavily rusted and locked.
“Looks like exactly the kind of place Ghosts would love.”
I placed my hand on the hilt of my sword and slowly drew Qi from my Dantian.
‘Can I do it?’
I hadn't yet formally begun cultivating an Internal Energy Cultivation Method, but that didn't mean I couldn't control Qi.
Qi flows through every human body, whether a lot or a little.
Even I, who had an unsuitable Constitution for a Martial Arts Practitioner in my previous life, was no exception.
It was just that I couldn't condense Qi to form a Dantian; I didn't have Severed Meridians or anything like that.
Moreover, this body had lived with an Artificial Dantian for twenty years.
I was accustomed to manipulating the small amount of Qi I had.
‘I think I can do it.’
An Internal Energy Cultivation Method is a systemization of how Qi circulates within the body, based on a sect's or individual's knowledge and experience.
Its efficiency differs by several to dozens of times compared to simply drawing Qi haphazardly, but ultimately, it's just a difference in method.
If I could draw Qi, even inefficiently, and add the techniques I had honed over an entire lifetime…
“…I'll cut it.”
Kaaang!
Even if I couldn't cut through the entire iron door in one go, I could certainly sever the rusted hinges.
I sheathed my sword and violently pulled at the door where the hinges had been cut, tearing it open with brute force.
The roughly torn-off iron door fell with a Kwoong!.
And as I strode inside, the group gathered within stared at me with expressions of horror.
“Wh-what is it?!”
“It's an attack—!”
In front of them, I held up the piece of Strange Yellow Paper between my index and middle fingers, waved it, and asked,
“I'll keep it brief. Who's the bastard who made this?”