Chapter 278. Value Is Something That Can Disappear
–Creak.
Hmm… wait a second.
Somehow, this doesn’t feel like the right time for daydreaming.
‘Is that Earthling really planning to activate [Enhancement Heart] right here?’
At first, I thought he’d only check things out and call it a day. As time went by, Kang Chang-ho didn’t loosen his breathing apparatus.
‘Guess I was wrong.’
But that nagging anxiety surged within me, and just as I was about to suffer brain damage, the mammals stopped their actions.
My neck was free at last.
–Caw.
“That’s strange…”
Unbelievably, Kang Chang-ho muttered to himself in confusion after doing such absurd things, but I had no reason to correct him when I was the one getting hit.
“I expected that given how you interrupted skill usage, at least [Judgment] attached to Justitia would activate.”
“Ugh.”
“The scales haven’t tilted back, and the [Judgment] feature is totally silent. So, is it really true that Hunter Kim Gi-ryeo is only responding with the pure truth…?”
Thunk.
Kang Chang-ho put down the magic tool he was holding.
And while he was lost in thought with his hand on his chin, I struggled to shake off the pain in the back of my head and jumped into a new conversation.
‘It’s clear now. He’s uncertain too.’
Once again, what’s most important in this situation is revealing that I’m not the ki-simche.
‘He’s pushing me this hard, yet he hasn’t crushed my cervical vertebra… Kang Chang-ho is still unsure about what the truth is. If I can just instill enough certainty in him that I’m of the same kind, the tide might change!’
I cleared my throat and spoke.
I don’t know what he’s checking for, but I might be able to handle Justitia’s [Judgment], yet I obviously lack any super cool innate active skills or any other means to respond.
Besides, I need to repeat that I’m just a modern person who has suffered more than enough from the Dungeon Shock, with no relation to that disaster.
I’m not some government agent floating around on the internet. I’m just a normal 25-year-old citizen of Mapo-gu, so why are they attaching such grand crimes to me, etc.
“Please don’t do this. We’re on the same side.”
Blood oozed once more from the spot where the blue nail had been lodged.
I explained with all my might through the wound on my throat caused by the earlier friction.
After all, I absolutely have nothing to do with the Gate disaster. So, I requested that they at least assume I’m a person and not jump to conclusions.
With a tiny hole in my neck, a pitiful-sounding croak escaped me.
“…Is it because you were really annoyed with me for deceiving you last time? So, have you really made up your mind to kill a person now?”
However, strangely enough, the expression on his face remained unchanged.
He wasn’t furrowing his brow like usual or letting his bloodshot eyes shed clear fluids or anything like that.
There are various ways to evoke sympathy for humans on Earth.
But I didn’t use those incidental expressions and just continued to argue dryly.
Looking back, the acting strategy I had previously used didn’t seem to draw good reactions from a certain Association Employee.
‘Come to think of it, I intuitively noticed while talking to Earthlings that Seonwoo-yeon tended to empathize with my words more than my expression. No matter how much I moved my facial muscles, the employee seemed to stiffen and wide-eyed instead.’
No matter how naturally I express a smile, the intrinsic awkwardness from my blonde flesh was just too simple to evoke any comfort.
As a great mage who has lived for a long time against his will, I sensed certain rules.
Judging by my current identity as ‘Kim Gi-ryeo’, it seems to have been fixed publicly in a very blunt atmosphere.
So now, if I try to act out of character, it’s only going to amplify the suspicion.
For those reasons, I was bound to the means of expression and had to rely solely on verbal stakes.
“I’m sorry.”
It stung my pride a bit, but I had no qualms about apologizing to escape a dire crisis.
“Looking back, it seems I was indeed at fault. I, I didn’t think it through… I want to repent. I’ll make a skill stone for Hunter Kang. No matter what, proposing a trade over murder is better, right…?”
Skill stone production.
Upon hearing my words, Kang Chang-ho raised an eyebrow.
After a moment, I half expected a reply from him.
“It’s impressive you can admit your mistake. You seem very mature, and I want to emulate that. But, while you’re busy repenting, I’m curious, where do you always gather such information, Hunter Kim?”
“…Skill stone production?”
“Yeah.”
“Well… when I go through dungeons, I come across various things. Even if I don’t want to, I gather information.”
“Dungeon, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“You had barely any strategy records in the system as of last summer?”
He’s not even an Association employee, casually bringing up the hunter’s system.
But I had expected this level of Q&A.
Even if it wasn’t based on Seonwoo-yeon’s testimony, as proven through extensive stalking, that S-Class man had been able to acquire government agency data quite freely.
“…That would definitely be me missing my report.”
With conscious manipulation, my vocal cords produced language.
Moving my injured throat at the cost of causing subtle discomfort below the pain threshold.
The voice I had momentarily altered with various injuries felt regrettably weak.
But this isn’t the time to quibble over sound preferences. I continued my excuse without batting an eyelash.
I explained why I had almost no registered strategy records.
“Ahem. Ahem! Anyway, hunters going through dungeons… It’s not a bad thing. As long as I don’t mess with others like those stealing criminals, there’s no need to report every little thing to the authorities… is there?”
“Hm.”
“If you’ve heard how I behaved when the unavoidable malice appeared, you’d naturally understand why I dodged proper awakening registration…”
“Oh, during the incident with the Association President?”
“Honestly… I have, well… I have anarchism. I don’t like government orders, like you.”
“I’m not an anarchist.”
Wait a minute.
That guy, who ignored Association orders and sank down to a Hunter ranking in the thousandth place, isn’t an advocate of anarchy?
‘So he just got bumped down there due to being contrary?’
I widened my eyes slightly and glanced at him for a moment.
Although I was weaving an elaborate lie, genuine reactions slipped out this time.
Seeing this, Kang Chang-ho responded with a smirk and a casual shrug, but that ordinary atmosphere didn’t linger long.
“As I said, I have a face that easily invites misunderstandings. But in reality, I’m not that anti-social, so don’t push it too hard. Anyway, I heard your philosophies well, Hunter Kim.”
“….”
“But if we go down that road, it only creates more questions, doesn’t it? Even if you were hostile to the Association, it still doesn’t add up.”
“What do you mean…?”
“A rat hiding because it was marked as F-Class due to hostility towards the state. And that same guy, who didn’t expect to recover after being gravely injured before, why would he hunt?”
It’s not just about the Imugi battle being weird. Patients who’d risk the pain just to escape their agony can go off to a Dragon Raid or be the first on the scene when a Dungeon Break like Thornbush Forest occurs.
The actions of the fourth S-Class are rife with contradictions, as pointed out by Kang Chang-ho.
During our conversation, if that person, whose intestines had been ruined in battle with something, definitely could have posed as an F-Class, but after experiencing trauma or strong aversion due to exposure, it seemed contradictory for him to be so overly curious about abnormal phenomena.
Leaving too many traces while fixing [Defecation], the most significant flaw of reincarnators.
‘Damn it.’
Rather than answering the Earthling’s question, I started the topic with that thorny point.
“What about you, Kang Chang-ho?”
I countered his question with another question.
“I’ve got plenty of questions too. It sounds like you think I’m not just a simple con artist but some monster…”
“….”
“If that’s the case, regardless of [Enhancement Heart], I should kill you off. What… do you believe, torturing me? Isn’t this situation the very proof of my innocence?”
“….”
“Moreover, what was your reason for involving Seonwoo-yeon in this? Is it because she’s the only employee who’s somewhat familiar with me? You sent her to my lair just for that reason?”
How can a person who acts this way possibly be in the right?
Following that was the pitiful expression of the blonde flesh, now twisted with the smell of iron. The new facade of the Great Mage.
Just like the old saying, “The thief is in the stick,” I felt a twinge of guilt. Thus, I countered with an accusing tone.
My goal was to stall for time by forcing some kind of excuse.
“Seeing Justitia here… it seems like you went to meet that Association employee while I was knocked out, didn’t you?”
Yet, while every sentence was filled with the intention to redirect the topic, to be honest, I found myself genuinely curious about what came next.
“Is that B-Class Awakened person safe?”
I asked about Seonwoo-yeon’s well-being and fell into momentary silence.
A thin sheen of cold sweat trickled down from my parched temple.
Then, after a few seconds, the person involved in the third kidnapping incident began to respond.
“You’re really curious, aren’t you?”
At first, I thought he would ignore all my questions after hearing that. I felt anxious. But fortunately, the conversation soon flowed smoothly.
“Does it look like I’m fumbling around because I’m not using [Enhancement Heart] right now?”
It could be just sarcasm, after all.
“Is Hunter Kim Gi-ryeo a person or a monster? I’m not just sitting quietly to confirm that now.”
“Guh!”
“Staying silent without turning that body of yours into a blue hedgehog and allowing you to talk freely… was simply because there’s much I want to ask.”
“Ugh.”
Regardless of how consistently I insisted I wasn’t a monster, it was useless.
During the flowing sentences, Kang Chang-ho slapped the blue nail near my throat with his fist.
I tilted my head with a stiff face.
But Kang Chang-ho was unconcerned, speaking almost generously.
“By the way, don’t worry about the agency employee. Justitia was simply sent to fetch me again. After all, keeping that individual alive was their ‘role,’ so why would I cause harm now…”
“Role?”
“Are you curious about that now?”
However, I should have sensed something had gone wrong ever since that mammal became so generous.
“Right. If you first give me a proper answer to my question, I could share Seonwoo-yeon’s safety as part of the exchange.”
At last, Kang Chang-ho brought up the exchange of information and started asking me this question.
“Do you know how Gates are created?”
Was the third S-Class Hunter of Korea someone who had always shown interest in the space of that other world?
After that, similar fervent inquiries flowed out in abundance in the dark room.
Dungeons.
Skills.
Items. And monsters.
Even if one isn’t a scholar, these are clearly topics a modern person living through the Dungeon Shock era would naturally be curious about.
Yet, since Kang Chang-ho’s statements presumed the existence of the root cause of the Gate incident right in front of us, a fully-informed inquiry might be posed, yet it was difficult to provide a smooth reply.
“I don’t know anything….”
So, by the end of the conversation, I ended up sticking to this claim.
“Nothing at all?”
“I said I don’t know.”
Clang.
From somewhere, the sharp sound of metal rang out.
Kang Chang-ho walked over to the nearby workbench and grabbed an extra blue nail.
“The reaction was entirely as I expected. But now that you’re fluent in Korean, if you keep it up like this… you’ll regret it in no time.”
With a dry laugh, the Earthling revealed a somewhat shocking truth.
“Haha. You know, all the friends I met back then, they all died while acting like that.”
Someone’s friendships had already been reduced to pitiful victims!
Wait a moment. Something feels off.
Because I.
‘I didn’t have friends from Alphauri…?’
How could I have killed something that hasn’t even existed in this world?
Sweating as if sharing a ghost story.
With a pounding carotid, the nails in my throat smothered me. Each strike left me feeling disoriented and created a vaguely strange emotion.
However, when I thought about it coldly again, it dawned on me that Kang Chang-ho’s word “friends” probably didn’t refer to particularly close relationships but rather a general kind of group…
