Chapter 120: Goo Jin-cheol
[Heavenly Sight]
Giiiiiiiing...!!
When I focused my magical power into my eyes, Cheong-ho's distant mansion rapidly zoomed in.
Though I couldn't hear any sounds, I saw the broken window of the room where Jeong Hyeon-ah was supposed to be. Through the shattered window, I saw Jeong Hyeon-ah's back and...
"Ugh, of course."
Goo Jin-cheol's face came into view. Yeah, it could only be that guy.
Judging by his mouth movements, he seemed to be shouting something like "Take this!" or "Kuh! Ha! Ha!" It was probably "Take this." but considering he's the stereotypical classic villain, "Kuh! Ha! Ha!" might actually be correct. No, this isn't the time to be thinking about that.
[You have accepted an unexpected quest!
<Search Quest: Tiger's Daughter>
One of the three heads of the Triad, Cheong-ho's daughter, had been kidnapped. Locate Jeong Hyeon-ah and ensure her safety.
! Time Limit: Jeong Hyeon-ah will die in (2) hours. !
Reward: 450,000 XP + Cheong-ho's trust + 300,000,000 won + bonus based on mission performance
Failure: You will become hostile with the Triad.]
What? Now it's accepting the quest as it pleases?
"Wait, is this?"
It was the same message that had appeared when I had to find Jeong Hyeon-ah before. Well, bugs like this did happen sometimes in the game.
[! Time Limit: Jeong Hyeon-ah will die in (5) minutes. !]
"Hey, it was 2 hours earlier!"
[! Time Limit: Jeong Hyeon-ah will die in (4) minutes. !]
...Fine, have it your way.
Anyway, there was no time to waste. I gathered my magical power and took to the sky.
[The unique effect of the L-grade garment 'Winged Robe of the Night Veil', 'Wings of the Heavenly Steed' has been activated.
// Wings of the Heavenly Steed: Automatically casts the 'Flight' spell.]
Cheong-ho's mansion, which had been far away, rapidly approached.
Smoke billowed from trailers, the walls collapsed, and the windows were shattered!
[Arrow of Destruction]
[Spell Enhancement: Explosion]
[Spell Enhancement: Chain Explosion]
Booooom!!
"Aaaaah!!"
"Kyaaaa!!"
A part of the wall crumbled along with the window.
Glass shards flew in all directions, stones scattered, and dust rose.
In the process, furniture, fixtures, books, and even a few people on this side of the wall crashed down. Crash! Bang! Bang! All kinds of chaos occurred at the same time.
I looked down at the scene from a position with my foot on the still intact window frame.
There was a bodyguard knocked out in the corner, Chae Tae-won lying down with a bleeding head, Shim Young-hwan, who had wet himself earlier, and Goo Jin-cheol who was clutching Jeong Hyeon-ah's neck with one arm. Jeong Hyeon-ah was still unharmed for now. Additionally, there were some insignificant NPCs of the Triad hesitating helplessly at a distance.
And mouths opened at the same time.
"Mage-nim!"
"Kim Shin-hwa!"
"Fixer-nim!"
"You damn bastard! You made it all the way here!"
Different words were used, but they all meant roughly the same thing.
"They're all referring to me. Am I a bit late?"
"You're already too late! Get out now!"
[System: The 'Enhanced Vigilance' trait has been activated.]
The gun in Goo Jin-cheol's hand pointed at me.
[Distortion Field]
Bang!
Before he could pull the trigger, the Distortion Field activated and twisted the bullet's trajectory. With a dull thud, a hole was punched in a corner of the ceiling.
"What, what's going on?!"
Bang! Bang bang bang!
Thud, ping, ting, thud. The various materials in the room each made their own sound when hit by the bullets.
"Aah! You monster! Don't come any closer!"
Click.
In the end, Goo Jin-cheol changed the direction of the gun. As expected of a lowly villain, he pointed the gun at Jeong Hyeon-ah's temple.
"Ugh... M-Mage-nim...!"
"Don't mess with me! No matter how skilled a mage you are, you can't cast a spell faster than I can put a hole in this girl's head!"
"Oh, really. Director, I knew you were trash, but to actually get to this point. Isn't it much more reasonable to take that young and healthy guy over there as a hostage instead of a minor?"
I pointed to the bodyguard knocked out in the corner. He'd been making a fuss on his own and then fainted at the critical moment. Tsk tsk.
There were also other young and healthy men in the room, those lackeys of the Cheong-ho faction who couldn't come any closer. What were they doing that let things get to this point?
"Kim Shin-hwa! Please, save the young lady!"
That was Chae Tae-won, lying on the floor, who shouted. Haah, take care of yourself first.
"D-Don't try anything funny! Why! Why are you interfering and ruining my plans from start to finish!"
"Maybe it all started when you began looking at me strangely, Director. I had a feeling. From the moment our eyes met, I suspected our fates would intertwine like this."
"What on earth are you talking about, you lunatic!"
So from the moment I entered the conference room and Goo Jin-cheol looked at me with that annoying smile, I thought things would end up like this.
"Let me make one thing clear, I gave you a chance, Director. Earlier, I could have just hit you, made up some excuse, and that would have been the end of it."
"Hmph, so what are you getting at?"
"Don't shoot that. If you don't shoot, you'll get beaten up a bit, humiliated a bit, lose some property, your position, and many of the connections you've built up... Hmm... You do have a lot to lose. But you won't lose your life."
"You dare... you dare..."
Are you mocking me? He seemed to want to say something like that, but he was so angry his face turned red, and he couldn't continue speaking.
There's only one reason I'm saying all these pointless things.
No matter how washed-up they might be, Goo Jin-cheol and Shim Yeong-hwan are key figures in the Triad.
Casting a spell while avoiding both their eyes is not easy.
"Director! That guy is using magic!"
"What!?"
"Too late!"
An enormous amount of golden sand began to scatter from my hands.
[Ka's Golden Sand]
[Spell Enhancement: Maximization]
[Spell Enhancement: Multicasting]
Whoooooosh!!!
"Aaaahhh!!"
Goo Jin-cheol instinctively raised one arm to defend himself.
That single movement required a significant amount of magical power which meant that he had consumed various rare elixirs in his later years. However, neither Goo Jin-cheol nor Shim Yeong-hwan were the targets for this spell.
"Ugh..."
Jeong Hyeon-ah's body went limp.
Thud. Thud, thump.
The sound came from the lackeys of the Cheong-ho faction collapsing all around.
"W-What?! What's happening?!"
Shim Yeong-hwan frantically turned his head in all directions.
"Sh-Shin-hwa... why...?"
Only Chae Tae-won, who had minimal magic resistance, managed to utter a few words before falling asleep.
"F-Fell asleep? Why? What did you do?"
"Let me repeat, we are adults, aren't we? Even though morality is crumbling and society is falling apart these days, shouldn't we at least keep to the minimum standards and have a conversation between adults while the minor is asleep?"
"W-What!? Magic, already!? What did you do!?"
"Sleep magic. What's about to happen isn't suitable for children. Restricted to those 18 and older. Let's enjoy our time as adults."
"Are you mocking me!? You think I can't shoot!?"
Click!
[Gremlin's Scream]
Bzzzzz!!
Click! Crunch!
As he pulled the trigger aimed at Jeong Hyeon-ah's head (Wow, he's really shooting!?), the gun disassembled itself instead of firing a bullet.
I had placed an enchantment on Jeong Hyeon-ah. While body strengthening magic would be useful for a bodyguard, what would be the use of strengthening Jeong Hyun-ah's body when she was just a child?
If anyone with hostile intent tries to shoot her, an equipment destruction magic activates.
"Th-The gun, it broke!?"
"The attack itself failed, but—"
Blue light began to emanate from my mask. A large amount of magical power was flowing out through it.
"—since you attempted an attack, the trigger is activated."
"Trigger?"
"Yes, the activation condition. I lent an artifact that activates when someone attacks the owner."
Shhhh... Shhh...
Is it more of a summoned creature than an artifact?
"Let me remind you again, I warned you not to shoot earlier."
But it seems that Shim Yeong-hwan and Goo Jin-chul can no longer hear my voice.
"What is this sound? What is this sound? What is this sound? I'm hearing an unpleasant noise!"
"A strange sound is coming. A strange sound is coming. A strange sound is coming. Something is approaching! Something is growing!"
Shhhh... Shhh...
An unsettling noise that shakes the human mind can be heard. It was a predator's noise imprinted in human DNA. This was not a fear that could be suppressed by reason.
From Jeong Hyun-ah's clothes, an unpleasant presence started to ooze out.
The egg I gave her.
It originated from the bodily fluids of the [Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young], once absorbed the magical power of the [Father of Ghouls], fed on the flesh of a parasite from space to grow, and finally mutated by consuming the magical power of the [Blind Idiot God].
Shhhh...
Honestly, I didn't expect it to grow like this.
"It" continued to grow with writhing pale milky-white tentacles. Ugh, it consumes more magical power than I expected.
Crunching and creaking noises repeated. Writhing tentacles split open in various places, revealing unpleasantly gaping maws.
Sharp teeth that were coated with saliva appeared in dozens of mouths. They were grotesquely malformed and randomly grown.
One more tentacle, then another, quickly multiplied into dozens, then hundreds. They constantly writhed, twisted, and entangled with each other.
Goo Cha-jeol's mouth and eyes opened wide. His sanity had already collapsed. Some meaningless noise escaped from his mouth.
"Why? This? What? Uh? Eww? Why? Ah?"
Shin Young-hwan who was a little further away managed to utter slightly more coherent words.
"Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?"
From the hundreds of maws on the pale tentacles came a simultaneous noise.
"Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry."
This monster, known by many names such as Child of the Forest, Pale Child, Offspring of the Goat, Tree of Death, Hand of the Goat, Servant of the Mother, and the Wriggling One, was most famously called the Dark Young.
I scratched my head for a moment before speaking.
"Well, a promise is a promise, so I can't help it. Director, I'm sorry, but I did warn you."
At the center of the giant tentacles, a huge swollen body rose like a bloated lump. And in the middle, a huge mouth gaped open. It was large enough to easily swallow a person whole.
It opened wide.
From the gaping maw, a noticeably huge tentacle emerged; its unpleasant grayish color was dripping with sticky fluid.
That was its tongue.
Whirrr.
"Ha, hahahahaha! Hahahaha! Ahahahahahaha!"
Goo Jin-cheol's laughter echoed. It was a terrible laughter that only someone whose mind had been utterly destroyed could make.
"Ahahahahahahahahaha!!!"
Shin Young-hwan continuously muttered incomprehensible words. It seemed like a prayer, but which religion it belonged to was unclear. Perhaps it was a newly formed one.
"Uha, uha, uhahahahahaha!!"
Crunch, crack.
Snap.
Snap.
Snap, snap...
Snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap.