Chapter 148: Strangers in Paju

Park Kwang-lim paused for a moment.

He seemed to be thinking about what I meant.

"Isn't this your specialty? Fraud and information manipulation."

- My specialty is finding people. And I am a detective.

But as a side job, he also committed fraud and manipulated information, hired enforcers to beat people up, and collected unpaid debts.

Just like Tudor, another broker who ran café Vasilisa as a front, this broker from China also ran a business.

[Opposition Detective People Finder Specializing in Affair Investigations, Fraud Investigation, and Errand Center].

"In the end, it's just an errand center, isn't it? So, can you do it?"

- Create several mages with the name Kim Shin-hwa?

"Make about six people from all over the country. And not as mages but as enforcers. I'll explain their unique abilities and traits separately."

- Are you saying you want the name Kim Shin-hwa to become famous? You've been doing that through Vasilisa anyway, right?

The word "anyway" bothered me a bit, but it didn't matter.

"Something like that."

- It's not too difficult to spread rumors about the existence of an extraordinary person with special abilities.

"What I want is not just rumors. I need addresses, registrations, and ID cards so that they actually live in those areas. They must have acquaintances from their childhood and a complete growth history."

- That's a difficult task.

"How much?"

- I'd have to make an estimate. Plus, we'd need to buy a house for each one, and for the six of them, we'd need about 100 extras. Even without the commission, it would be at least 6 billion won.

"Give me a good estimate."

- Since you helped me last time, I'll do it without commission.

"No, take the commission. Don't betray me later and say that you were out of money."

- I won't betray you.

Given our firm alliance for now, he wouldn't betray me easily.

- By the way, since you're doing this...

Of course, this swindler wouldn't end it here.

"What?"

- How about making Fomalhaut famous too?

"Hmm."

Park Kwang-lim had gotten into big trouble last time when he was dragging his feet between me and the descendants of Fomalhaut. It seemed he wanted to completely shake off that part.

In other words, while spreading the rumors, he also intended to spread that fixer Kim Shin-hwa had stolen items from the descendants of Fomalhaut.

"Well, I don't mind that much."

- That's a relief. Now I can sleep with my feet stretched out.

After finishing the discussion on specific requirements, we ended the call.

I lay on the bed and continued my thoughts.

If one were to follow the flow of events, they would eventually reach the monstrous birds that had been wandering around Paju, that is, the Shantaks.

Where did these Shantaks come from?

Who was the fixer who lured the Shantaks down to Sejong City?

Who was the broker who mediated the request?

Sooner or later, the Immigration Bureau would barge into Vasilisa.

Tudor wouldn't tell my story.

Even so, there were many gaps, and there was a limit to hiding things anyway.

In any case, as long as Kim Shin-hwa, the mage living in the hungry mansion of Paju, wasn't tracked, it would be fine, right?

In fact, just the rumors Tudor had already spread made the actions of this "fixer Kim Shin-hwa" seem excessively numerous for one person.

So, I decided to create more versions of Kim Shin-hwa over an appropriate amount of time.

It's not a perfect solution, but it's something at least.

Anyway, I do what I can one step at a time.

Although I was somehow impatient about needing to get stronger faster, there was no need to rush. A slower but more certain method is better.

"There's hardly any groundbreaking way to get significantly stronger now, anyway."

Making a deal with that fellow who had his molars pulled out in the basement can make me stronger as if I paid for it right now. But is that all?

The cost of the deal would not be in cash, but in my future.

[Perception] is a really necessary spell in the future, so I traded for it, but I don't need anything else right now.

It's not like that's the only way to obtain things, either.

I shouldn't dispose of my remaining time cheaply.

Getting stronger, making money, becoming famous, collecting grimoires, and deceiving the guy beyond the message window, and so on.

All these are just means I've chosen.

I have a different goal to reach.

Survive, no matter what.

As a castaway who was trapped in another world called [Cthulhu World], my primary goal is survival.

And the ultimate goal?

"What else? Escape."

I will return to where I came from.

A flexible and soft world, a world where superpowers and magic, gods and demons exist, where power and knowledge can achieve anything? I didn't need any of that.

"Phew......"

I raised both hands and covered the mask on my face.

In this world, power and knowledge were curses.

Getting stronger and smarter?

That was truly descending into fear, madness, and the abyss.

And the ruin I could reach was not simple death.

If it was death, I could accept it.

I could suffer the same things I had done to others.

For example, suffering for 254,700,000,000,000,000,000,000 years?

Horrifying.

What I could do, others could easily do to me as if they were just breathing.

"And I learned one lesson."

Never trust the beings of the abyss.

Some might help me, but that was just a momentary whim. There could never be complete trust between us.

Wasn't it the three-eyed masked fellow from the Yellow Forest Church who threw his comrade's head at me?

I recalled the three-eyed one's impressive pitching form.

He was a left-hander. There's a saying in baseball that "you should bring a left-hander even if it's from hell", but right now, the importance of left-handers wasn't the point.

It had been a chaotic situation, but that didn't mean I was so foolish as to not know what I needed to protect.

My fingertips touched the belt securing the mask.

The [Carcosa's Mask] was held in place by three leather straps on my head, along with magical protections to maintain, secure, and guard it.

Yet all of that got shattered in one blow.

And right before that, the trait [Feast Offering] had activated.

Surely, a being of the abyss had lent power to that three-eyed bastard.

The being of the abyss worshipped by the Yellow Forest Church is the [King in Yellow].

I could identify the culprit with a simple syllogism.

The [King in Yellow]. He was the one who attacked my mask.

But why?

...I have no idea.

Was it just out of boredom? It might be part of a grand scheme that I couldn't understand at the moment.

In the end, it meant those beings were my enemies too.

"Tch, it's a pity there's nothing I can do about it right now."

I couldn't reach it all at once. So I kept doing what I could, one step at a time.

The next scenario would unfold soon. In Sejong City, I performed a talent show in front of so many cultists.

Surely, a new being of the abyss that had not appeared until now would start to intervene in a completely new way.

This could be interpreted as a new crisis approaching, but it also meant I would have more cards to play.

"Alright, then. Shall I drop by Vasilis today to check the atmosphere of Paju today?"

And hopefully, I'll pick up a quest to acquire some decent artifacts and get some work done.

"......"

But I couldn't muster any strength.

Maybe I'll just lie down a bit longer.

Or perhaps, sleep a little more...?

Dark hours. Geumchon neighborhood.

Geumchon neighborhood was an old neighborhood located at the center of Paju.

It was also the place most similar to the real Paju.

A charming yet messy and underdeveloped area where the 80s, 90s, 2000s, and modern times blended seamlessly together.

Of course, there were plenty of bizarre elements that only existed in the game. For example, the giant brass reclining Buddha statue in Hwangnyeongsan Mountain Forest Park.

The huge Buddha statue loomed on the mountain and overlooked the Geumchon neighborhood.

I was now moving through the alleys of the Geumchon neighborhood on my skateboard.

Drrrrrrr—

In fact, it was not a good neighborhood to ride around on a board. The pavement blocks were mismatched, the asphalt was damaged and left unrepaired, and signs that were lined up along the road obstructed the traffic.

What is the Paju City Hall even doing?

According to Jang Hyeon-deok, many property owners were just waiting for redevelopment, and they didn't care whether their buildings fell into ruin. But the city hall remained silent as always.

Well, if left alone, monsters or cultists would eventually destroy them, so there was no need to spend money on demolition.

"Hey, Mage. Want a gift?"

A gloomy voice echoed from the darkness of the alley.

"I don't need it."

Were those things starting to appear now? It was an old man wrapped tightly in dirty and ragged clothes. At a glance, he looked like a mentally ill homeless person but...

As I glanced back, I saw centipedes and worms spilling out from between the layers of his clothes.

"Hee-hahk, heuh-hehk—hee! Shhhh!"

This sound came from another alley. It wasn't a noise a sane or healthy person would make. I didn't know who was making that sound, but it was probably some other species or an alien.

I didn't slow down and continued riding through the tangled back alleys on my board.

"This neighborhood is already filthy enough."

In the darkness of the alley, bizarre-looking vagrants and otherworldly languages could be heard. It wasn't just one or two.

Come to think of it, this was slightly different from the usual Geumchon neighborhood.

I whistled as I observed the surroundings.

"Have even aliens started to crawl in now?"

A six-armed peddler was selling a luminous liquid to a customer with five joints.

A drunkard was vomiting insect-mixed fluids in a secluded alley.

Vagrants barely maintaining a human form were still around.

And a giant was getting beaten up by a petite woman.

"Die, you bastard! Die already!"

Ugh, that had nothing to do with aliens. It was just Curtain Call.

I didn't know what crime the giant had committed, but Curtain Call seemed to be doing just fine, right?

I passed through the chaos and madness tangled in the alley and reached the most mysterious place in the back alleys of the Geumchon neighborhood.

A neat and bright building wedged between dirty and dark ones.

Vasilisa.

A café run by a witch and the base of the most influential broker in the Geumchon neighborhood.

"Ah, there are really a lot today."

Vasilisa was bustling with a huge number of fixers.

"Hel-lo, Kim-Shin-hwa?"

A good figure with a well-toned, V-shaped upper body and a tight waistline, but instead of a human head, he had a large monitor.

Vasilisa's barista Orb greeted me.

"Hello, Orb? There are a lot of people today too."

"Big-boom-yes. Tudor-said, Kim-Shin-hwa, is-my-love."

A large heart and L.O.V.E. were displayed on Orb's monitor.

"Love? I don't know what you're talking about, but you seem to be in a good mood?"

Orb seemed to think about what to say and lifted his head, no, he lifted his monitor slightly. "Um-" Before he could finish his answer, Tudor's voice suddenly rang out.

"Oh, my love! You're here?"

Suddenly, the entire place fell silent.

Dozens of fixers began to focus on me all at once.

"Love? Who is that?" "Tudor said she loves someone?" "What's with that mask?" "Oh, I know who it is." "Are you an idiot? Don't you know? It's Kim Shin-hwa!" "Oh, right. I've seen him before." "Kim Shin-hwa! That Kim Shin-hwa?" "Is that little guy really that great?" "Don't you know? He's the fixer who handled the Devil's Violin incident!" "Oh, the incident with the 3,000 to 1 odds?" "I heard he's sworn brothers with Cheong-ho." "You know, he fixed the cannibal incident!"

Wait, three thousand to what?

"Dear, come over here right now!"

"What about my turn?!"

One of the waiting fixers protested.

"Oh, sorry, this is really urgent. You understand, right?"

Tudor winked at the protesting fixer.

"Oh, we-well, o-of course."

The fixer muttered as he slumped down. Is he that pleased with the wink?

With a charisma stat of 20 and transcendental beauty, the ageless witch approached me.

"Dear, come inside. Let's talk."