Aberrantia Syndrome
A rare disease manifested in a small number of children born on the day the First Wave engulfed the world. These children are characterized by their horrifying appearance, resembling a haphazard mix of monsters, along with having extraordinary awakened abilities.
Crack- crack-
The woman with striking green eyes, currently nervously chewing her nails, was also born with Aberrantia Syndrome. However, she was far from possessing a monstrous appearance; she was a beautiful girl.
Among hunters, there are those who surpass certain realms and appear younger than their actual age, but even considering such cases, her appearance looked exceptionally youthful.
She looked no older than a middle school student, with chubby cheeks that hadn’t fully slimmed down yet. It has been over 30 years since the First Wave occurred—what could have happened?
“Eom Sang-wook…”
Her cherry-like small lips parted as she whispered a man’s name.
Tremble-
The man whose name was called shuddered with excitement.
“Oh my god…”
Overwhelmed with emotion, he bowed his head toward the green-eyed girl, even shedding tears.
Eom Sang-wook.
An S-rank Hunter from Korea who was the very last to receive the goblin mask from the “Dao”.
He was known for his rough and reckless nature and refused to wear the mask, leading to a poor reputation among goblins as well.
In this world, it had long ceased to matter whether one judged humanity by the standards of humans.
It was all about the ability. That was what mattered.
Thus, among domestic hunters, excluding the early awakened, he ranked in the top 200; he was someone who deserved to be treated with respect wherever he went in Korea. And he actually did receive such treatment.
However, the way he currently looked didn’t seem to match that status at all.
He was curled up in front of the green-eyed girl, serving as a footrest for her legs.
“Huff- phew-”
Sweat poured down his body like rain, creating a small puddle on the ground.
The puddle had taken on a reddish hue, undoubtedly mixed with the blood flowing from his nose and mouth.
It had barely been a day since he had taken a hit from Kang Yeon-su and had his body shattered; therefore, this was to be expected.
He should have been in a situation where even high-level healers were offering him care, and he should be resting adequately. So why was he experiencing such humiliation?
“Jo Gi-man and Dnarr Panijial. To think there’s another human I haven’t seen aside from those two… Why did such an obstacle suddenly appear? Is that girl hiding something monstrous behind her like those guys?”
“Grrggh… If I recover, I will fix this immediately…!”
“…… Don’t interrupt when I’m speaking-”
The green-eyed girl lifted her foot over Eom Sang-wook’s head, and then brought it down hard.
Pow-!
“Ugh-! Gahk! I, I made a mistake again-”
“Hey, you pathetic bastard!! Die! Just die already!! Blubbering around like a pig!! Trash! Waste! Corrupted kobold! You little cockroach!!”
Eom Sang-wook was taking quite a beating from her kicks, but in reality, he wasn’t feeling any impact. However, he pretended to be hurt to appease her.
And every time he was kicked, he wore a big grin on his face, clearly seeming to enjoy the situation.
He hadn’t lost his mind from being hit by Kang Yeon-su, but it was evident that Eom Sang-wook was certainly not in his right mind.
“You should have at least salvaged something from an unexpected situation! You pathetic goblin trash!!”
As the girl kicked the crumpled Eom Sang-wook on the ground, she suddenly turned her head and yelled at the other goblins watching her.
“Get out and die! You useless things! Just old in age, yet you can’t do anything!!”
“······.”
Despite hearing such extremely insulting words, the goblins simply stood there with their mouths agape, entranced by her.
To an outsider, this would be an incomprehensible situation, but she seemed to treat this as a natural response, kicking Eom Sang-wook again in annoyance.
“Me!”
Pow!
“If I tell you the entire script!”
Thump thump thump!
“Do it just like a puppet!”
Crack- crack! Thump thump!
“How many times must I say it?!”
“······.”
In truth, they had faithfully complied with the girl’s commands, but it seemed she wanted to blame their repeated failures on them.
What was absurd was that such behavior appeared adorable in the eyes of the goblins.
While the goblins couldn’t muster a word and were deep in thought about how they could be in closer proximity to her,
Boom-
Smoke billowed like a smoke grenade exploding in the green space they were in, and an elderly goblin appeared.
“You, you! I told you it would be pointless to meet those things!! You just need to throw the goods!!”
In a fit of irritation, the green-eyed woman hurled insults at the newly appeared goblin.
But the elderly goblin simply smiled gently and bowed his head respectfully, saying,
“At this age, one would certainly wish to try something they have never done before. I would like to ask for your understanding with a heart as vast as the ocean—”
“I don’t care!! So did that girl receive the ‘whistle’?”
“The summoned creature of the summoner received it instead.”
“Why!! I told you to give it directly to that girl! You stupid bastard!”
Previously, he’d said it was okay just to toss it aside and the summoner would receive it, but now he was saying something else.
The elderly goblin chuckled, as if this were just a usual occurrence.
“Upon investigation, it seems that most of the time, it stays close to the summoner. You could say that it’s carried around all the time.”
“Is, is that so? They should react immediately when I contact them later, right?”
Crack- crack-
The elderly goblin looked at the green-eyed girl, who was showing a rare anxiousness, and continued speaking.
“The third one… ‘The Invisible One’…”
“…! You, you! Don’t beat around the bush and try to test me!! Cough… cough-”
“Calm down. Your body… wasn’t it severely damaged yesterday?”
“Huh- That’s all your fault! I finally got a body I’m satisfied with!”
“Please take your time and select. We’ve short-listed more candidates for you to move to.”
The girl nodded for a moment, then suddenly rushed over to the old goblin and kicked him in the shins while cursing, followed by saying something absurd.
“So! Was Lee Yeon-hee that pretty? It’s all the rage online! Tell me. You’re too good to say sweet nothings even if you die!”
“She was indeed beautiful. The color of her magical essence, just about to bloom like a flower, shone like a gemstone, and the source of her endless talent… I couldn’t dare to fathom its depth. As a competitor mentioned by the ‘God’, she’s truly fitting—”
“Who, who said that girl was a competitor!! My only competitor is Jo Gi-man! Maybe I’d consider Dnarr too, but she isn’t!”
“I suppose that’s the case. So what do you intend to do next? It seems that it would be okay to keep the Korean side in a lull for a bit. Kang Yeon-su won’t sit idle, after all.”
After causing a ruckus for some time, the girl finally calmed her emotions upon hearing his words and fell into thought.
A moment later, her eyes glowed a deeper shade of green, and her skin began to peel away, revealing a horrifying main body.
“Ooooh-”
“The essence of… the divine! What an honor—!”
Unlike the other goblins, even the elderly goblin, who had maintained a semblance of sanity, quickly smashed his head against the ground, praising her divinity.
Gooohooo──
Their praises became tinged with madness, and as one goblin thought there was no longer a way to express his awe, he began to harm himself.
At that moment, the green-eyed girl spoke.
“Indeed… The words of the reflected goblin were correct. Kang Yeon-su… I didn’t anticipate that girl would possess such skill. Securing support from other countries as well?”
Just now, the green-eyed girl had seen a changed future through her unique ability [Predetermined Future].
And with the intervention of ‘The Invisible One’, the future that had altered made her rarerly astonished.
In that future, if she remained here much longer, it would lead to an inevitable encounter with both Kang Yeon-su and ‘The Invisible Existence’ shortly after.
An existence cloaked in a hazy fog.
To the girl, who had always seen them at 100%, these beings only appeared at 50%, and that was pure terror.
When she was with others, they might appear faintly, but when acting alone, they could not be detected at all.
“Ugh…”
She couldn’t tell if what showed was Jo Gi-man from the same guild as Kang Yeon-su, or perhaps Lee Yeon-hee, or out of the blue, Dnarr could appear.
That was something she didn’t know.
And the fact that this would happen within half a year… Furthermore, with the future accelerating constantly, it was uncertain when an unexpected situation would occur. Her foresight ability could not be activated at all times.
“Kang Yeon-su is manageable. But those invisible ones… I can’t stand it! I have no clue what they might do! Just imagining it feels like dying.”
She was someone who had always walked the predetermined future.
Any hint of an unstable future was akin to an unimaginable disaster for her.
Even yesterday, the unknown power used by the summoner’s summoned creature heightened that anxiety even more.
“That monster… is an extremely dangerous being that must never be encountered.”
Thus, her retreat was entirely natural.
And to prepare for such variables, she had established evolved creature factories around the world for ten years.
“For now, I will pull back from Korea. I will leave the existing projects with only minimal troops behind and begin collecting the ‘Stone Houses’.”
After all, the significance of the factory in Korea to her was largely symbolic, like raising a flag in the territory of Jo Gi-man; she didn’t feel much loss at all.
“I will return to the base with only the reflected goblin and Mutal.”
For a time, she needed to work in other countries to grow her strength further.
“The quest for the Evolutionary Gem… Once that’s achieved, I’ll devour not just Jo Gi-man but the monster behind him as well. If that can happen, heehee…”
The goblins behind her eagerly nodded, meaning they believed it would surely happen.
“Let’s go!”
At her shout, a dark-skinned goblin among them activated his power, creating a massive paper airplane.
The green-eyed girl and the goblins climbed onto the paper airplane, which soon shrank to the size of a bumblebee and smoothly flew away down the corridor.
“Huhuh- this is truly wonderful.”
It was only after a while, once the elderly goblin, nicknamed ‘the Reflected Goblin’, regained his senses, that he kicked the side of the crumpled ‘Mutal’ lying on the floor.
“I don’t care if you wear the mask or not, but if you provoke the master one more time, this time I won’t let it slide.”
“I just wanted to be next to the divine…”
“Don’t come near the divine in that foolish body. The bandages wrapped around your face are the items the master despises most. What a pitiful fellow.”
“I understand… I’m sorry.”
“Those bastards will surely aim to trample on you from behind. So you absolutely must not go outside.”
“I’ll hold back for a while.”
The conditional “for a while” did not sit well with him, but the Reflected Goblin had no choice but to be satisfied with that. Where else could he acquire such a force? He’d need to carefully manage and utilize them.
“Tsk-”
He clicked his tongue and hurriedly walked away. Completing the orders issued by his ‘God’ felt like it was a race against time.
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