Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Debts must be repaid

When Seo I-hyeon gestured, Black raised one guy. He grabbed both arms from behind and lifted, and the lifted guy suffered because the grip strength was so strong.

"Kuuuuh."

"Let's finish quickly. That way it hurts less. Ah, are the legs a bit okay?"

There's no way they're okay. The thigh and calf bones broke with a crack.

Seo I-hyeon drew blood from the shadow. Anyway since here is a dark place the entire open space was no different from shadow.

Of course even so there is something called a limit range.

A magic circle was drawn on the floor. It was a magic circle Seo I-hyeon drew by manipulating the shadow.

"Confusion. Compliance. Truth."

At the spell Seo I-hyeon muttered the magic circle reacted. The magic circle drawn with blood collapsed and became blood-colored mist. And that was sucked into the nose along with the five men's breathing.

Now the preparations are finished.

"Alright, first question. Who ordered it?"

The answer came immediately.

"We just received a request. We were deceived too. They said just scare one civilian and bring him."

"Five of you flocked to bring one civilian? Even holding swords?"

"We originally move as five. Whatever the request we do it together and divide the money equally."

"Yeah. Well, let's say that. Where did you receive the request?"

At Seo I-hyeon's question the man made a bewildered expression.

"Where. We received it from the broker."

"Broker?"

"Guys like us contract with a broker and move. That way we get backstabbed less."

"Does the broker gather requests?"

"Something like that. Usually they gather requests from the dark web. You don't know anything? Is that why you were mistaken as a civilian? Fuck, no luck."

"Don't say useless talk. The broker's identity?"

"We put a restriction when contracting so how can I say. Even if I want to say I can't."

Seo I-hyeon thought for a moment.

Honestly speaking even if caught by a restriction there was a method to hear. But if using that this guy will definitely die.

He didn't particularly think of killing these guys. Instead he will receive the price.

"Do you guys also use E coin?"

"Of course. Then what do we use? Don't tell me you trade with cash? That would be bothersome."

"Cash is more bothersome? Rather isn't coin more bothersome? To use it you have to cash it."

"Anonymity breaks. E coin is safe because the request community guarantees it."

"They guarantee?"

"How much fee do they eat so they should do at least that."

It seems he has to check what the request community or whatever is.

"Anyway since you have E coin it's good. Hand it all over."

"What?"

The man looked at Seo I-hyeon with an expression mixed with shock, fear, and chaos. Earnestness settled in his eyes.

"You're going to take all my coins? How did I gather that!"

Seo I-hyeon looked at the man with peculiar eyes. Even caught by magic he does that? How much is he obsessed with money?

Of course he did use a somewhat soft magic.

"It's better than dying, right?"

"No, dying is better, fuck. How much is that."

Seo I-hyeon chuckled. It seems he really regards it similarly to life.

"Yeah? Then do that."

He lifted the sword and slightly stabbed the place where the man's heart is. Then the man urgently said.

"Wait, wait! Why so urgent. Let's resolve through conversation. Violence is bad. We should live peacefully. Right?"

"How much is there? Coins."

"3 thousand... pieces."

Since he said about 100,000 won each it's 300 million. Considerable? Well, not to the degree of risking life.

Seo I-hyeon said.

"300 pieces."

The man's expression brightened completely.

"Really? If I give only 300 pieces you'll let me live?"

"What nonsense. I'll leave only 300 pieces. Hand over the rest all."

The man made an expression as if the world was collapsing.

But he also knew well enough that he had no choice but to accept this. The fact that Seo I-hyeon gave a lot too.

"Fuck."

A curse came out naturally. No, if he doesn't even curse a thousand fires rise inside and he can't endure.

"Take it out."

At Seo I-hyeon's words the man took out a smartphone from his pocket. He handed the coins to Seo I-hyeon with a trembling hand.

The remaining four also all had to hand over the coins with their own hands.

Seo I-hyeon confirmed the E coins that entered his own coin wallet. The first guy who gave was 2700 pieces, and the rest were a bit over a thousand pieces level. Still adding all he obtained close to 7 thousand coins.

He obtained the coins, but he doesn't know whether there will be no problem at all even if changing this to money.

Seo I-hyeon put the smartphone in his pocket. And glanced around the five men sprawled on the floor.

The tattoos on their necks caught his eye. The tattoo of a pentagram with a sword stuck.

He didn't ask them about that. Probably it's the symbol of some organization. That can be found quickly if rummaging the dark web a bit.

"Everyone can treat on their own, right?"

When Seo I-hyeon asked casually, the man who had the most coins taken burst in anger.

"How expensive treatment ampoules are! How can you say that after sucking our coins!"

"Treatment ampoule?"

It's a word he's hearing for the first time. Probably it's a potion made into an ampoule, he can only guess.

"How is the effect?"

At Seo I-hyeon's question the man flinched then answered in a slightly reduced voice.

"It differs by ampoule. Expensive ones are good, cheap ones a bit less."

"What kind do you guys use?"

"We use something around the middle. For the current wound degree that is enough. If using the cheapest the treatment takes a bit of time. The pain is also severe."

"How much?"

"The cheapest is about 50 coins. What we use is 300 coins, no aftereffects and it raises recovery power a lot for a while so the cost-performance is decent."

"The most expensive?"

"I don't know that either. I heard it's thousands of coins, and they say even cut body parts grow again. I only heard the rumor that regeneration power rises for a while and it's really amazing."

"Thousands of coins?"

Seo I-hyeon's eyes widened. Thousands of coins. Putting hundreds of millions into just one treatment potion?

It was very excellent information.

"Can anyone make and sell that?"

At Seo I-hyeon's question the five men looked at Seo I-hyeon with surprised eyes.

Doesn't that talk mean he can make the potion that goes into the treatment ampoule?

But they didn't rashly put that in their mouths. They just answered the question. Because sometimes carelessly taken out words can take lives.

"Would they let anyone make and sell? You have to receive Management Bureau approval."

"Approval? How do you receive it?"

"How would we know that? The pharmaceutical company guys would know."

At the word pharmaceutical company Myeongjin Pharmaceutical came to mind, but he soon erased it from his head. He didn't want to burden Jeong Sang-cheol for no reason.

And an individual receiving approval is probably close to almost impossible.

He has to find some other method.

Seo I-hyeon quietly looked at the five guys then nodded.

Now it's done. It was a truly enjoyable conversation after a long time. Weren't they also enjoyable? Of course they won't remember that.

"Everyone don't move. If you don't want to become idiots for no reason."

At Seo I-hyeon's terrifying words the blood drained completely from the five men's faces.

"W-what are you going to do to us?"

"Since you saw my face I can't just send you."

"You said you'd let us live! We even handed over all the coins!"

"I'll let you live. I'm just slightly touching the memory. It's nothing so don't worry."

Seo I-hyeon said that and moved the shadow to draw a magic circle on the floor. A fairly large magic circle was drawn centered on the five men.

Everyone seeing that was seized with fear. But they didn't rashly move.

There was also Seo I-hyeon's words that they might become idiots and the influence of the magic used before that.

"Confusion. Mental weakening. Bulk deletion. Faint."

Seo I-hyeon recited the spell and scooped up a handful of blood from the shadow.

It was magic that deletes memory according to the amount of blood used.

The amount of blood is also important to some degree, but there are various conditions including the opponent's mental power or physical ability so precisely deleting only the desired memory was really difficult.

So he used blood by roughly estimating. What Seo I-hyeon wanted was to blow away about three days of memory, but even if deleting more than that it didn't matter.

Since deleting less is a bit so he decided to give a bit more blood. Seo I-hyeon scooped up one more handful of blood.

The blood became mist and disappeared as soon as it came out from the shadow. And was sucked into the five men's noses through breathing.

The blood that entered like that dug into their brains.

Still since he uses his own blood it was good because he could confirm the changes well.

Seo I-hyeon nodded.

It was perfect. The five men lost consciousness, and the memory was also deleted. He doesn't know up to where it was deleted, but at minimum three days' worth flew.

This is enough.

Seo I-hyeon extended the shadow and cleaned up any even slightly strange parts.

Incidentally he also took all the good-looking items they were carrying on their bodies.

Especially he definitely took the five black swords and scabbards.

Seo I-hyeon picked up the noise blocking box, turned off the switch and left the place.

Because of some weird guys the day was long.

He decided to go sleep quickly and look for a house to move to tomorrow.

'By the way it must be Etherix, right?'

The only things he could get involved with somewhere are Myeongjin Pharmaceutical and Etherix, and since Myeongjin Pharmaceutical wouldn't have done this it must be Etherix.

'Debts must be repaid.'

If roughly passing it will definitely cause trouble later. This he knew better than anyone because he had seen and experienced it countless times when in the other world.

Especially in a world made up of those who handle special powers like this it's even more so.

Seo I-hyeon headed home while worrying how to repay this.

* * *

Three days had passed since being attacked.

In the meantime Seo I-hyeon first prepared to move.

Since it's better to leave the one-room even a moment sooner he contacted the landlord saying he would leave and just came out taking only the important luggage.

In fact even saying important luggage there wasn't much.

The needle and tube for drawing blood when sleeping, and one old laptop, various chargers was all.

The remaining luggage was only things that didn't matter even if thrown away.

In fact since the deposit wasn't much it didn't matter even if not receiving it back.

If it was before maybe, but now isn't there a full 7 thousand E coins.

Changing this to money is another problem though.

Coming out like that he entered an appropriate goshiwon. Of course it was a place very far from where he originally lived.

When entering the goshiwon, he didn't leave a record. Of course he used magic.

Probably it will be safe for a while.

After settling in the goshiwon like that he earnestly explored the dark web.

Since doing it with the smartphone was a bit unpleasant he used the old laptop.

It lagged and was slow, but still it was doable.

What Seo I-hyeon was interested in was information. He decided to acquire information by gradually expanding centered on the request community those guys mentioned.

Going around the community, very old memories, that is memories from before being taken to the other world, gradually revived little by little.

At that time too he lived going around the internet like this contacting all sorts of guys' delusions or nonsense, and occasionally popping out high-quality information.

Rummaging the community like that, three days passed in an instant.

Seo I-hyeon obtained several important pieces of information through the community.

First the method of cashing E coins.

In fact he can just sell it himself using a coin trading platform. Then he might have to prove the source of funds later.

If the amount is small the possibility is extremely low, but Seo I-hyeon has to find a residence. Of course he has to withdraw hundreds of millions, and in this case he has to prove the source.

Since he can't say he took it from someone there is room for a problem to arise here.

If processing requests through the dark web's community and receiving E coins as the price, this is also very difficult and troublesome to prove the source.

What is used then is exactly Obsidian.

Obsidian was an organization of considerable scale, and an organization extending like a spiderweb all over the world.

They do anything as long as it makes money, and cashing E coins without trouble was also one of their main businesses.

However the fee was a bit strong.

Still since he can cash cleanly without worrying about tax problems and such small things it was usable.

If desired depositing into the bank account in his own name that he is currently using was also possible. Resolving all problems cleanly.

However to do that he has to hand over personal information, and since identity can be revealed he has to accept that.

The information Seo I-hyeon obtained besides that was the method of making requests and receiving them etc.

And he also found out about the organization the guys he caught a few days ago, that is the guys with the pentagram sword stuck tattoo belonged to.

It's an organization called Geomuhwe. In a word it can be regarded as mercenaries who handle small jobs.

It seemed he didn't need to particularly pay attention. They didn't seem particularly great guys either.

And another thing he felt while looking around the community, the dissatisfaction toward the national institution Management Bureau was considerable.

Well, it's not that he doesn't understand. Seeing it seems the Management Bureau is controlling quite strictly.

Anyway he obtained a lot of information this way and that, but the important thing is that he hasn't verified even one yet so he doesn't know if it's real or not.

He can't know without actually colliding.

"It's fun."

For the past three days he was immersed in the community without knowing how time passed.

So now it's the turn to gradually verify what he found out like that.

"By the way what should I confirm first."

Seo I-hyeon who was scrolling the community post list while worrying stopped his finger seeing one title.

His eyes flashed for a moment.

© Kim Kang-hyeon #12i09