Chapter 7

Chapter 7. A Rookie Drawing Attention (1)

“Phew, all that work was worth it.”

After the voice in my head finished.

I wiped the blood off my hands and closed one eye.

Then letters appeared in the darkness.

[ID]: Lee Gang-sik

[Status]: Hungry

[Traits]: 【Bulgasari (E)】, 【Mental Barrier (E)】(NEW!)

[Karma]: 【Endless Hunger】, 【Picky Eater (Metal)】

A new trait had been added to the trait section.

【Mental Barrier】

[Type]: Special (E), Enhancement-Type

[Origin]: Folklore, Shamanism

“When Jeogwi comes, he brings the plague spirit with him.”

You overcame the plague spirit alone and gained a strong body and mind.

(Current Rank Proficiency: 0%)

[Effects]

―While this trait remains active, you are immune to hacking attacks of this rank or lower.

Like my ‘Bulgasari,’ it was one of the few enhancement-type traits in R.O.K.A.

As long as it was activated, hackers at or below Mental Barrier’s rank could no longer affect me.

‘Disabling equipment, taking over personal networks, and so on...’

On top of that, it was treated as a passive whose proficiency naturally increased over time.

So the sooner you acquired it, the better.

“Without this, things get seriously annoying.”

You either had to wear anti-hacking equipment while sacrificing a huge amount of stats.

Or always keep a hacker in your party.

In this insane futuristic city, it was practically the equivalent of basic human rights...

“And the only way to get a trait like this is through that bullshit.”

You had to break through every gang member blocking the way in a hideout as complicated as an anthill.

If you took even a little too long, Jeogwi would summon mobs.

And against Jeogwi, who disabled all electronic equipment when you approached him, you had to take zero damage?

And clear it on the very first try?

“Goddamn game. There should be a limit.”

Even back when I was actively playing, I’d only pulled it off a few times.

Jeogwi was always buried in the deepest part of his hideout, so sniping didn’t work either.

And if you failed on the first attempt, even if you came back and killed him later, you couldn’t obtain Mental Barrier on that playthrough.

Was it only manageable if you started on the Awakened route?

“This condition was why I was planning on making it a long battle with hit-and-run tactics, but thanks to metalization, things became several times easi―”

―Bang!! Ratatat!

“Kill them!! Those pig bastards!”

“Why isn’t the boss coming down!?”

“Someone go check on him!”

“Kang Geum-man, that bastard’s half-dead, so why the hell is he still rampaging...”

“Give me back my money! You sons of bitches!!”

The shouting voices of gang members.

The gunfire and explosions had gotten closer too.

About time I got out of here.

“The item is... there.”

The steel case I had seen in the briefing materials was sitting on the table in front of the sofa.

―Click.

“The contents are intact too.”

A core component of a military cyberware operating system.

If I were a cyborg or android, it would actually be more profitable to just pocket it.

“Of course, then my relationship with Saetani would become the worst possible.”

I smirked, closed the case again, and put it into the backpack I had brought.

And.

“I know you’re awake. I’m not going to hurt you, so you can stop pretending and get up.”

At my voice, the presence in the corner flinched visibly even in the darkness.

It was the kidnapping event that always occurred in Jeogwi’s hideout.

“...Ugh.”

―Rustle.

I took off the jumper I was wearing and tossed it toward the corner of the room.

Then a figure cautiously picked it up.

“...”

But apparently still wary of me.

They wrapped only the jumper around their body and took a step back.

Still, thanks to that, part of their upper body, which had been hidden in shadow, came into view.

Long, disheveled blond hair and elongated ears.

Blue eyes shimmering even in the darkness.

“...An elf?”

It was an elf, a race that was bitter enemies with orcs.

‘I’m sure the kidnapped victim was always human when I played the game.’

Once again, it’s similar to the R.O.K.A I played, yet slightly different.

Is it because of that major update?

It feels like the overall difficulty has gone completely insane.

‘Kidnapping, assault, and human trafficking against elves, a race with especially strong racial solidarity?’

And by a gang that even kept a group of orcs as underlings?

If something had happened to her here, it could have escalated beyond the district into a war between races.

“Fine, then. Bring it on.”

Do you know how many years I spent playing this game?

This level of unfairness doesn’t even count as unfair anymore.

‘I guess I should consider this fortunate, at least.’

Normally, gathering information would take a day or two.

But since I came here immediately after receiving the request, she survived.

There were marks all over her body from being beaten, probably because she resisted heavily during the kidnapping.

Looks like they starved her for a few days too.

Was the scar on her left cheek from something like a knife?

―Clink.

So it would be easy to see even in the dim room.

I placed a handgun on the table beside her.

As a bonus, a half-finished bottle of water and Kang Geum-man’s data chip too.

“If you go out and turn the first corner on the left, there’s a secret passage beneath the fire hydrant that leads outside this building.”

“...”

“If you want to live, get out through there as fast as you can. I warned you.”

If she were already dead, that would be one thing.

But if she was alive, I could at least give her a chance to escape.

‘What happens after that is up to her.’

I’d done the bare minimum.

If she wanted to live, she’d find some way to escape and survive.

With that, I slung the backpack over my shoulder and headed outside.

“Th-thank you... for helping... me.”

A cracked voice reached my ears.

“What are you thanking me for?”

There was also the matter of disposing of the clothes and jumper I’d been wearing, just in case I’d been caught on CCTV.

And I didn’t want some war breaking out later and splashing trouble onto me.

It was just convenient.

I don’t want to leave Jamsil yet.

I only just stuck a straw into this honey pot, so who the hell thinks they can kick it over?

“I’m leaving first.”

I walked outside and leisurely left the chaotic building behind.

______________

“You certainly made quite a spectacle.”

After delivering the item to the military base on the outskirts of Jamsil that served as the delivery destination.

That was the first thing Maria said to me when I returned to Saetani to collect my payment.

Did she hack the street CCTV or something?

“You already heard about it? This is kind of embarrassing.”

“...That wasn’t a compliment.”

Maria lightly rubbed her forehead.

“We told you to retrieve one item... and yet you’re the first person I’ve ever seen single-handedly destroy two armed gangs, even if they were small ones.”

“Haha, no need to praise me that much.”

“I said it wasn’t a compliment.”

Another small sigh followed.

“Haa⋯⋯ Well, in the end, things turned out well. Those two gangs, especially Silver Fang, were infamous for being vicious despite being a newly formed gang.”

“Were they?”

When I asked while feigning ignorance, she answered in a tone that practically said, Why are you asking when you already know?

“Kidnapping, assault, aggravated murder, human trafficking. Recently, I don’t know where they were getting their supply, but they were even trying to distribute unidentified drugs.”

“Knew they looked like bastards at a glance.”

“...Phew.”

Maria let out another small sigh.

Then she placed a small data chip on the table.

“What’s this?”

“It’s an account registered under your hunter identity. You should be able to use it if you insert it into your phone.”

At those words, I took the chip and inserted it, and the linked account appeared on the phone screen.

“We covered the account-opening fee, so don’t worry about that.”

“Oh, nice service.”

“It’s inconvenient for both sides to prepare cash every time. If you want to be paid in another form, such as bonds or stocks, tell us in advance.”

Speaking curtly, Maria placed a thick envelope on the table.

“Three million. Your payment for this request.”

Then she placed another envelope down, slightly smaller than the first.

“And this is...”

“A personal bonus from me to you.”

A dignified voice continued Maria’s sentence from behind.

A troll entered wearing a bartender uniform so tight it looked ready to burst at any moment.

It was Ma Cheol-sik.

“A reward for surviving your first request and completing the job rather cleanly. There are bounties on those men as well.”

“Then does that mean the verification is over now?”

“It does. I look forward to working with you. I’m glad it seems we’ve gained a capable and trustworthy talent.”

Ma Cheol-sik held out his thick hand as he spoke.

Bullshit. You still don’t trust me.

If he truly trusted me, he would’ve brought up renewing the contract first.

“I look forward to working with you too. Now that I’ve proven myself, I assume there won’t be any passion pay?”

I threw the joke back lightly, and Ma Cheol-sik burst into laughter.

“Kahah! No matter how I look at you, you really are troll-like. Were you perhaps a troll in a past life?”

“What a hurtful thing to say. I’ll have you know I’m a proper descendant of the Jeonju Lee clan, however many generations removed.”

I was, in fact, an upstanding young man of the Republic of Korea.

Even if I had become an orphan when I was young.

“Jeonju...? Ahem. Anyway, in that spirit, two million as a bonus. Feel free to check it.”

With those words, Ma Cheol-sik slid the bag of money toward me.

“No need to check. If you’re giving it to me, I’ll take it gratefully. Seems about right for hush money.”

“...Kahahah, so you noticed even that.”

As though I had hit the nail on the head, he laughed loudly and glossed over the subject.

‘Strictly speaking, this request was me cleaning up after someone else failed.’

Even if the hunter who transported it was from another district, Jamsil was Saetani’s territory.

So there would be consequences for his reputation as the district administrator.

And judging by how the client hadn’t withdrawn the request even after one failure.

It seemed they wanted to keep this delivery from becoming public.

“Working hard and earning money. What a fulfilling day.”

Saying something I didn’t mean in the slightest, I put both envelopes into my backpack and stood up.

“Is there anything else you need?”

“Hmm. Nothing comes to mind right now.”

I was tired and hungry, and all I wanted was to rest as soon as possible.

Let the thirsty one dig the well.

“Then I’ll see you on the next request.”

“Right. Get home safely.”

“We’ll contact you when a suitable request comes in.”

Seen off by Ma Cheol-sik and Maria.

I left Saetani and headed through the dark streets toward the cheap motel.

________________

“What did you think?”

Watching Lee Gang-sik’s back as he left the shop.

Ma Cheol-sik asked Maria.

“Without the slightest exaggeration, Lee Gang-sik destroyed two gangs single-handedly.”

Maria, who had watched Lee Gang-sik’s every movement throughout the day, answered with gleaming eyes.

Lee Gang-sik’s actions poured out of her mouth one after another like a machine.

Starting from when he entered the Gold Claw establishment.

To when he used the building’s secret passage to assassinate only Jeogwi and leave.

And afterward, when the remnants of Gold Claw and Silver Fang, having lost their bosses, fought each other and destroyed themselves.

“I could only extract part of the combat footage from inside the hideout, but there was definitely no other person assisting him.”

“You’re telling me he really destroyed two gangs alone with his bare hands?”

“Yes, I’m certain.”

“How is that possible with a body that is neither Awakened nor enhanced with cyberware?”

Ma Cheol-sik gave an incredulous laugh.

“Especially that Jeogwi from Silver Fang. Even a team of veteran C-rank hunters failed against him.”

It wasn’t publicly known.

But Saetani had already handled a request to hunt Jeogwi once before.

The client was, of course, the family of someone Jeogwi had kidnapped and murdered.

However, because the information provided by the Association had been swapped partway through, the hunters ended up being the ones taken down.

The client who had posted the request was also murdered by someone.

It had been a trap intended to weaken Saetani.

“Hmm...”

After losing a fairly strong team, they had no choice but to become more cautious than before.

‘That was why this was meant for verification purposes, nothing more and nothing less.’

He only needed to infiltrate and retrieve the item.

They had even given him an entire week as a way of telling him to be sufficiently cautious.

And yet he hunted Jeogwi instead.

In just one day!

‘Someone with that level of skill deliberately behaves as though he wants us to suspect him.’

Even Ma Cheol-sik, who had spent decades as a local administrator, had never seen this type of man before.

A man with a faint madness about him, as though a serpent starved for a hundred years had been coiled up inside his belly.

What had made him that way?

“Could he possibly be one of those extremely rare psychic-type Awakened... No, that seems unlikely.”

―Tap. Tap-tap.

Ma Cheol-sik tapped the wooden table with his finger.

As though operating a calculator.

“Judging by the fact that he crushed Jeogwi, he probably isn’t a corporate spy.”

“...”

“Then why deliberately act suspicious... I can’t read him at all.”

“...”

“For now, we’ll need to raise both his danger rating and his potential. At minimum, A-rank or higher. Perhaps even S-rank would be entirely―”

“...”

“Maria?”

“Ah, yes. Manager.”

Maria, who had been staring intently at the CCTV footage, finally answered.

“Something is bothering you.”

“It’s just... I was reviewing the records from this request again. There were no civilian casualties at all.”

“Hmm? Really?”

“Yes. More precisely, it seems Lee Gang-sik deliberately prevented the damage from spreading.”

Maria answered briefly and turned the monitor toward Ma Cheol-sik.

“It was the same with Gold Claw. And at the Silver Fang building, one additional elf escaped.”

“Oh.”

“Considering that the passage the elf used is the same one Lee Gang-sik entered and exited through, I can only conclude that he gave her some kind of assistance.”

Even if they were small-scale gangs, the destruction of two gangs was not a minor event.

Even unintentionally, someone was bound to get caught in the fallout.

‘And this isn’t the well-policed central or upper districts either.’

In the lower districts, where conflict never ceased, dying from a stray bullet was practically considered a peaceful death.

And yet not only had he ensured there were no casualties, a hunter had rescued a civilian who wasn’t even part of the request?

Ma Cheol-sik slowly replayed the footage.

“I see. Interesting. He doesn’t seem like the hunters these days, who are overflowing with psychopaths.”

It really was exactly as Maria said.

Especially in the case of the elf rescued from Silver Fang.

Had he arrived even one day later, she would have died.

“So in your judgment, at the very least, he isn’t someone intoxicated by his own strength or controlled by it.”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“And it means he had enough composure to pay attention to his surroundings as well.”

Even though he had only just become a hunter.

“Interesting. A man with that level of power...”

He was too merciless in his methods to be called purely good, but looking at his actions, he wasn’t purely evil either.

He was ruthless toward those he deemed enemies.

And knew how to show a minimum amount of compassion toward those who were not.

‘A man who truly fits the hunter’s creed.’

That would be impossible for someone thoroughly conditioned by the corporate way of thinking, where everything revolved around efficiency and profit.

“Power that can’t be controlled is worse than having none at all. All the better that he’s professional.”

Whatever kind of power he was hiding, if he continued to grow smoothly...

The five SSS-rank hunters in the Empire.

The Immortals and Taoists, the elite among elites of the Awakened Families.

The Silent Tiger who had guarded the summit in the central district for decades.

His fangs might even reach those monsters beyond monsters!

For the first time in more than a decade, Ma Cheol-sik felt a chill of excitement again.

“Even if we have to take a slight loss, we should somehow bring him firmly over to our si―”

―Clunk!

At the same time Ma Cheol-sik muttered.

The door of Saetani, which had already put up its Closed sign, was thrown open roughly.

“?!”

“Phew... Earlier, you asked if there was anything else I needed, right?”

The one who came through the door was.

“Do you have a room here where I can sleep?”

Lee Gang-sik, covered head to toe in blood and wearing an awkward smile.

I Became an Immortal Who Chews on Steel

Author |

Mwiu

Publisher |

Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.

Managing Editor |

Editorial Department

Published by |

Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. - Dream Books

Address |

Rooms 806-810, Kolon Science Valley I, 187-10 Guro-dong, Guro-gu, Seoul

ISBN |

G720:N+A063-20261006118

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blog.naver.com/dreambookss

Twitter (X) |

@dreambookss

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