Chapter 27
Editor: Stomatopoda, Nets,
“That’s amazing . ”
Machangsa was seated in the chairman’s spacious office . On the other side of the desk , Yoo Jin-soo, the chairman was clutching a mug of steaming coffee in his hands while deep in thought .
“I didn’t see it . ”
“That’s what Gabi said, too”
“…”
Machangsa crossed his arms and stared off into the air . Someone had saved his life . Saved the lives of his whole team . Yet no one had seen the mysterious saviour . Yoo Jin-soo shook his head from side to side .
“I congratulate you, though, for mastering your class . Your rating will be adjusted soon, making you the fourth first-class awakener in Korea . How does that make you feel?”
“I’m glad about it . Does my salary increase?”
“Yes . “
“I don’t have time to spend my money, so what’s the point of raising my salary?”
“Do you want a vacation?”
“No, you know we’re busy during the rainy season . I suppose you could give my team a bonus . ”
“Alright then,”Yoo Jin-su replied, and laughed bitterly . He savoured the rich aroma of his coffee before speaking again .
“Have you decided on your next class?”
“Yes, I finalised my career development path while at Cypher School . The next class I’ve picked is ‘steel heart’ . ”
‘Steel heart’ was a class for surviving . It raised the endurance of the whole body dramatically, such that when it was mastered the body would become as hard as steel .
“It’s a good choice . Survival itself is a meaningful goal . Anyway,” Yoo Jin-su shrugged, “Gabi is investigating the mine . I expect she’ll want you to follow her . ”
“I’m going, old man . ”
“You still haven’t got over your habit of calling me old man?”
“No offense . ”
Machangsa thought about the mysterious power that had helped his team . The power somehow didn’t frighten him . It seemed to give a warmth that made you want to get closer to it .
Who could it be?
Suddenly, Machangsa recalled Belto . The Belto incident and the magic stone mine incident . What do the two have in common?
‘It’s a type of power that’s on a different level from the kind of power we have . ’
Machangsa left the association building, the gloomy sky welcoming him .
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Cheol-ho thought the rainy season was starting today . He looked up at the sky, holding open the door of the restaurant . It was early in the morning, but he couldn’t see the sun . He could only see a hazy, dark sky .
As expected .
Raindrops began to land one by one, until it slowly and steadily began to rain . Cheol-ho ducked back into the restaurant to avoid his clothes getting drenched .
He didn’t like the rain very much . It gave him bad memories . Moreover, the rainy season was the worst . But even in this rainy season, he was a busy man .
“Hello sir! Yikes, the rainy season is starting today, right?”
The talkative guest who came by in time for the restaurant opening was Choi Jae-woo .
“Oh, this is great . It’s been a while since I’ve had a full meal, I’ve just been so terribly busy these past few days,” Choi Jae-woo said to Cheol-ho, speaking quickly while chewing a full mouthful of fried rice .
Choi Jae-woo said he was extremely busy because of an incident he couldn’t talk about . Not only Choi Jae-woo was busy, but also the entire Awakening Society . Cheol-ho pretended not to know . It had already been a month since Cheol-ho played his anonymous role in the magic stone mine .
When this rainy season was over, there would be a hell of a heat wave waiting . Then once the heat was over, the world would be ready for another season .
Time went by pretty fast .
“Thank you for the meal!”
Choi Jae-woo put down his spoon cheerfully . Choi Jae-woo raised his head as if he had suddenly thought of something, while he was pulling out his money .
“Oh my god . The old lady Arirang has been walking this way lately . ”
“Hmm?”
“Oh, you don’t know about her? She’s the one who picks up the waste paper around here, and she’s…”
Choi Jae-woo smiled bitterly and shook his head .
“She looks a little sick . ”
“…”
Grandma Arirang seemed to be the old lady he had met earlier .
“Sometimes she asks me where to go to board the Arirang train . Have you seen her?”
“Oh, yes, about a month ago . What does she mean?”
Choi Jae-woo shrugged .
“Well… no one knows . ”
“Hmm . ”
“No matter how much the world has improved nowadays… it’s still not like before . Many generations have lost precious people, and many people couldn’t hold on to their sanity . ”
“…”
“I’ll be going now”
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Choi Jae-woo seemed lonely as he spoke . He bowed his head .
“Goodbye . ”
The world was going through a transition period . The age of the world grew each day, but the length of their lives did not change . The world was full of scars of the past .
“Yes, yes!”
Recently Tangerine’s movements had been unusual .
Tangerine had shed twice now . She had grown in size, and could articulate her thoughts better . What had changed the most?
“Okay, fine, Tangerine! That’s it,” Khan shouted at her with an excited look on his face .
Tangerine nodded seriously, and blue energy leaked out of her body .
“Yay!”
Tangerine jumped up and down, shouting excitedly .
“It’s a failure . ”
“Failed . ”
Khan and Cheol-ho shook their heads at the same time . Tangerine was trying to polymorph to her human form, but unfortunately she’d only transformed her head . It was quite grotesque .
Tangerine grinned at Cheol-ho . He could see her neat dainty teeth . Come to think of it, if Tangerine completely polymorphed, would she look like a child of about five years old?
He thought she would be cute in her own way .
Pang!~
The polymorph was released again and Tangerine returned to her original form . Cheol-ho-ho laughed lightly and stroked Tangerine’s head .
“Is this a trick, too?”
“Yes . Once you can do it , you won’t forget it . It’s just hard to succeed the first time . ”
“I see . ”
“Come on Tangerine . Let’s try it again . ”
Cheol-ho-ho left his two noisy siblings behind him and headed downstairs towards the restaurant .
He was afraid they wouldn’t have customers for a while .
It was going to be a leisurely day .
Today’s menu was sweet and sour pork .
It would be made out of some of the Kingpin’s remaining sirloin . It was actually quite extravagant to make sweet and sour pork with sirloin, but that didn’t mean it would taste bad .
Cheol-ho had just taken out the Kingpin’s sirloin and was beginning to slice it into bite-sized pieces .
creak~
The door to the restaurant opened . Cheol-ho turned to see a familiar old lady standing there .
“Hello . ”
The old lady’s voice was soft and calm . Cheol-ho-ho tilted his head and bowed .
“Welcome . ”
“It’s raining heavily . I opened the door to see if I could stay for a while . ”
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“Of course . Please make yourself comfortable . ”
“It’s alright, I’m fine enough out here . ”
The old lady closed the restaurant door again . When Cheol-ho stepped outside after her, he saw a handcart pulled under the overhanging roof of the restaurant . It was carrying a lot of waste paper .
“It’s raining, let’s have a cup of tea . ”
“It’s okay . If it rains, I have to go quickly . ”
The old lady smiled merrily . It was strange . Didn’t she speak with a noticeable dialect before? Cheol-ho shrugged his shoulders while he thought . He briefly ducked into his restaurant, before returning with a large umbrella .
“Then please take this, at least . ”
The old lady smiled radiantly .
“Oh, thank you . ”
The old lady drew plastic bags from her handcart and used them to cover her handcart to protect it from the rain . She bowed neatly .
“I’ll make sure to see you soon . Oh, and by any chance… . ”
“Hmm?”
“Do you also sell black bean noodles?” she asked carefully .
“Black bean noodles . ”
He had none of the ingredients needed to make that .
“We don’t have any ingredients today, sorry, but I’ll have it ready the next time you come . ”
Cheol-ho headed back into the restaurant . He was going to make a cup of warm tea, but the squeaking of the cart interrupted him . He could see the old lady pulling her handcart down the alley, walking slowly .
“Ah, oh dear . ”
Cheol-ho-ho clicked his tongue in thought .
The rainy season continued . It was hard to catch even a glimpse of the sun .
‘It looks like the rainy season will continue . Watch out for aquatic monsters during the rainy season . For example, Kelp is typically a 10th-class low-level monster, but I’d like to remind you again that when it rains, it can upgrade to a seventh-class monster . ’
The news was coming from the radio .
But thanks to this man talking louder than the radio, he wouldn’t be bored tonight .
“I was wrong, sir . ”
Tonight’s guest was Gearwalk . Gearwalk emptied each beer glass one after another, complaining while he drank .
“What do you mean?”
“Yoon-ah said I’m not her type at all . ”
“Yoon-ah?”
“Oh yes . She’s a really pretty girl and very strong . She’s a girl who fights like a professional . ”
Yoon-ah must be the Blade Queen .
“But she hates me . Before I thought we had so much in common, but now she wants to carve off my limbs when she sees me . ”
What tough love .
“So I asked her, who the hell is your ideal type?– Oh, another beer, please . ”
Cheol-ho poured him another glass of beer . Gearwalk said nothing for a moment, staring at the bubble filled beer glass with a maudlin expression . Cheol-ho-ho was rather curious, and listened closely for his next word .
“And then she said that she likes Sang-hu . Damn it! Is she out of her mind? She used to curse and fight with Sang-hu all the time, but I guess that’s what she likes, right? So I asked her if I could curse at her from now on, and then she tried to cut me into pieces! Huh?”
“…”
Gearwalk suddenly startled .
“I should mention this is top secret, okay?”
Cheol-ho-ho smiled and nodded .
“Yes . ”
The radio, which was playing quietly in the background, filled the silence .
‘In addition, the consistent rainfall has led to the renovation of the ‘Sacred Tomb’ in the northern area of Seodaemun . ’
When Gearwalk heard the voice on the radio, his face suddenly became serious . Gearwalk emptied his glass at once without a word .
“…”
“What is the ’Sacred Tomb’?”
Gearwalk smiled bitterly at Cheol-ho’s words .
“Ah…”
His mouth closed . Gearwalk looked down at the table for a moment, then spoke .
“The graves of past victims . ”
Victims of the past .
“In the past, too many people died too quickly, and it wasn’t easy to get rid of the bodies . They cremated the bodies and carved the names into a common cemetery . ”
“Oh, I see . ”
There seemed to be something bothering Gearwalk, but Cheol-ho didn’t press him about it . After a while, Gearwalk went back to complaining . If you went back to that, the world would be quiet again .
Mid-morning the next day, Tangerine walked over to poke at Cheol-ho’s knee, while he sat in his usual chair in the restaurant . Tangerine had been making rapid progress lately . Cheol-ho looked down at her and smiled .
“Papa . ”
This time she was pretty close to completing the Polymorph state . She was only about 1 meter tall, but her arms and legs had improved in form .
The problem was .
The wings on her back and her pair of long tails still had yet to be transformed . Cheol-ho lifted Tangerine, pulling off the sweater he was wearing and placing it on her .
The shirt covered Tangerine to her knees . Tangerine smiled and wiggled her legs excitedly .
“Are you there?”
Usually no guests came this early .
However, an unexpected guest had just showed up .