Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Chapter 23 Home Sweet Home (3)

After getting out of the car, we followed the employees who had belatedly caught up with us and arrived before a door surrounded by thick steel walls.

And there, waiting for us, was a familiar face I was glad to see.

"I never thought I'd live to visit the National Intelligence Service."

"I'm sorry. These are classified documents, so they cannot be taken outside the building."

"That's not what I meant. I'm grateful enough that you're letting me see them."

"Then, please come in."

Director Baek and another employee spent quite some time operating the advanced locking mechanism, the sort I had only ever seen in movies.

-Clank.

Finally, the door, as thick as an adult's torso, opened.

"We've sorted the information that can be disclosed into files on the desk. Please take your time looking through them before coming out."

"Thank you."

The room beyond the steel door was so empty that its rigorous security seemed almost absurd. Its only furnishings were a crude desk and chairs of the sort one might see in a movie from the 1980s, and there were far too few chairs for the number of people present.

"But why did you ask to see these? If there's something you're curious about, I could simply tell you."

"If you knew a way to create a soul in Lia's body, you would have told me already instead of pestering me like this."

"Ahem. When have I ever pestered you?"

"Have you forgotten? Yesterday, you nearly went all the way to Egypt to look for the scarab talisman. Even if you found it, simply taking it would cause a diplomatic dispute."

"Something is only a problem if someone makes an issue of it. Do you think I cannot steal a mere stone the size of a fist?"

"Yes, you're quite the righteous thief."

Leaving the Elder to grumble behind me, I began skimming through the files stacked on the desk, one page at a time.

"Can you even read everything when you turn the pages that quickly?"

"Of course not. I'm just looking for the parts I need to check."

"Check? You brat, you've already found a way, haven't you?"

I had.

A way to create a soul for Lia without making the Elder Nine-Tailed Fox resort to theft.

However, I needed a little more reliable evidence before I could be certain.

The possible repercussions were too difficult to predict for me to attempt it based on nothing more than a vague suspicion and a casual whim.

And thanks to the consideration of the National Intelligence Service, I had finally obtained enough information to give me confidence.

【Cases of Waterspouts Occurring Under Stable Atmospheric Conditions】

"Elder, there's a monster we need to find."

__________

A construction site where a small studio apartment building was being erected.

-Bang, bang. Rrrrrr.

Amid the deafening noise of heavy machinery echoing in every direction, a small commotion broke out.

"Who took the extension cord I left here? Damn it, I need to charge my phone. Who's the bastard this time? I hauled that whole coil of cable up here for nothing."

"Who the hell's going to call you anyway? What do you need to charge it for? Choi, just get up here!"

"No, I'm telling you I definitely left it right here! Boss, you saw it too, didn't you?"

"It's gotta be somewhere. Just come on up."

The worker, who had been loudly protesting his innocence, perhaps because of the noise, finally started moving again when another worker pushed him from behind.

Meanwhile, behind a wall on the opposite side, a young man was chuckling as he used the very extension cord Worker Choi had been desperately searching for to charge his phone.

'Heh heh, these inferior creatures. Look at the garbage they've posted today.'

The young man, who appeared to be around twenty years old, busily moved his fingers across the screen of an old phone that was cracked in several places and had its coating peeling off. Whatever he was looking at seemed to amuse him greatly.

As the screen rapidly scrolled upward, a dark shadow suddenly fell over it.

"Hey, porter."

"What?"

"Did you take this extension cord?"

"No, it was just lying here."

"What'd you say? You little brat who's barely dry behind the ears, what? It was just lying here? Have you lost your damn mind?"

"Choi, just get on up here. Don't waste your energy first thing in the morning again."

"Let go of me for a minute, will you? Boss! Are we going to keep using this bastard? I know it's hard to find porters these days, but he's got no manners whatsoever! He comes here every day to play with his phone, and he keeps tossing mortar bags around until they burst!"

Despite the foreman's attempts to stop him, Worker Choi continued shouting at the top of his lungs, apparently having accumulated considerable resentment.

"I'll have a word with him, so get on upstairs. There's sundae and soju up there, ain't there? Go ahead and eat first. What, you don't want your day's pay?"

"All right, fine. I'll let it slide this time for your sake, Boss. You'd better straighten up. Got that?"

After waving for Worker Choi to hurry along, the foreman turned to admonish Yongman with a good-natured smile.

"Good grief, Yongman, you're no better. I know there ain't much hierarchy in this line of work, but still. You can't just talk back like that... Hey, I'm not finished talking."

But the young man ignored the middle-aged man and sauntered over to the stacks of cement bags, where he hoisted a load onto his back.

'Damn it. Who does that bastard, who won't even live a hundred years, think he's raising his voice at? Once I finally ascend, insects like him won't even dare look me in the eye... Hah.'

Yongman's job was simple.

Starting early in the morning, he carried the piles of cement bags, soil, and tiles up to the building on his back, a type of construction work commonly known as *gombang*, or manual material hauling.

For Yongman, whose background was unclear, this work, which paid a daily wage without requiring any particular documents, was both his best and last employment option.

But that aside, his personality was so unpleasant that the disapproving looks he received from those around him were as sharp as ever.

And so, he finished his workday, as always, a little past the scheduled quitting time.

"If you'd just hurried a bit, we could've wrapped up early, but you're late every single time."

Yongman carelessly stuffed the fifty-thousand-won bill the foreman handed him along with the nagging into his pocket.

'Seriously annoying. I couldn't even check the message board properly.'

Heading toward a deserted bench in the opposite direction from everyone leaving work, Yongman turned on his phone. A crudely designed web forum appeared on the screen.

【Hero's Path Mobile Game Free Discussion Board】

-Production of various game hacks and automatic hunting programs.

-Trustworthy private gambling with 100% guaranteed payouts.

-Easy daily-paid work-from-home jobs. Earn 400,000 won a day with nothing but a computer!

-Enter for a chance to win a cruise ticket and a discount on funeral services at the same time?

...

From the titles he saw as he scrolled through the pages, Yongman could vaguely guess what had happened while he was away.

'Hah, looks like another useless bastard came by.'

After deleting all the advertising posts filled with special characters at once, Yongman immediately pressed the button to write a new post.

-Tap, tap. Clatter, clatter.

『Title: I'm exhausted today, so I think I'll skip the raid.

Author: (Administrator)zSupremeMircoolz

Content:

Things have been pretty busy at work lately.

Not enough to work overtime, but I'm the only one on the team who can handle these tasks, so everything keeps getting dumped on me.

It's a real pain.

If I quit, several major projects would collapse. I don't even know if the company could survive.

My supervisor knows that too, so he's always walking on eggshells around me.

Still, if the raid's short on damage because I'm not there today, whisper me.

I'll try my best to log in.』

【Are you sure you want to publish this post?】

Just as he was about to press the confirmation button,

"It's been a long time."

"Y-You! How did you find this place?"

"Heh heh, glad to see me? You have no idea how much trouble I went through looking for you. In any case, you've certainly mastered the art of hiding. Why have you been honing your hiding skills instead of cultivating? Oh, my aching bones."

The person who rose from the bench beneath the streetlamp while patting his shoulders was none other than the nine-tailed fox.

"I won't waste words. I have an urgent need for it, so hand over one of your Dragon Pearls."

"You crazy bastard. Why the hell would I give you..."

-Whoosh. Thud.

Yongman could not finish his sentence. The nine-tailed fox's hand had approached so quickly that it made a whistling sound as it cut through the air, seizing him by the throat.

"Urk."

"I was not asking for permission."

The nine-tailed fox's tone had changed. The playful look in his eyes had also turned cold.

"Ghk, first let go of me so we can talk..."

'He's serious. This lunatic really intends to kill me and take my Dragon Pearl. Why all of a sudden?!'

Yongman struggled desperately to maintain his fading consciousness, but his vision grew steadily darker.

After Yongman struggled and finally went limp, the nine-tailed fox carefully laid him on the bench, then took a long tobacco pipe from the folds of his robe and thrust it into Yongman's chest.

-Thud. Fwoosh.

As the old tobacco pipe pierced Yongman's body, a powerful burst of divine energy erupted, bright enough to illuminate the surroundings.

"Aaaaaaargh!"

Within the beams of divine energy pouring outward, Yongman's body swelled as black smoke billowed from it while he screamed hideously. His body expanded to an enormous size, tearing through his clothes, and gradually took on the shape of a gigantic serpent covered in black scales.

[Grrrrrr.]

"Has your mind become this clouded? Just how much impure energy have you accumulated? Tsk."

The serpent, which appeared to be well over three meters long, showed no intention of answering the nine-tailed fox's question.

"To think I've ended up playing grandfather to a granddaughter I never expected, and now I even have to help someone else ascend. We haven't much time, so come at me."

At the provocative curl of his fingers, enormous fangs lunged toward the nine-tailed fox in an instant.

But Yongman's attack was blocked with almost ridiculous ease.

And for quite some time afterward, the nine-tailed fox subjected Yongman to a one-sided beating, pinning his enormous body to the ground.

[Aaaaaah! Stop! Stop! I lost! So stop hitting me!]

Only at the pitiful screams did the nine-tailed fox finally stop throwing punches.

Once the assault ended, the enormous serpent gradually lost its form and barely managed to return to that of an ordinary human.

"It would be better for you to hand over the Dragon Pearl obediently. A Dragon Pearl was originally meant to be one, not two, was it not? One is used to ascend to the Celestial Realm, while the other is meant to be discarded so that one leaves no lingering attachments to the mortal world."

"You think I don't know that?"

"It is precisely because you know but are too foolish to act that I have come to help you. And while I'm at it, I'll take a Dragon Pearl with me. Heh heh."

The nine-tailed fox answered calmly, as though stating the obvious.

"You crazy bastard..."

"I have gone to all this trouble to help you ascend, and yet listen to the way you speak. Tsk."

The nine-tailed fox struck Yongman's forehead, which had turned red with rage, with a sharp tap of his tobacco pipe.

"Now then, hand over the Dragon Pearl. And once you reach the Celestial Realm, see if you can straighten out that rotten mind of yours."

But despite the nine-tailed fox's urging, Yongman did not move a muscle.

"Have you gone deaf as well? I told you to hand over the Dragon Pearl and go to the Celestial Realm."

"I don't have one..."

"Huh? What do you mean, you don't have one?"

"I only have one left!"

In Yongman's trembling hand, there really was only a single Dragon Pearl.

"You bastard, don't tell me you used it! You've spent your entire life dreaming of the day you'd ascend! What on earth did you use it for?"

Could there have been a more fitting moment for the saying about the guilty party being the first to get angry?

Despite having come to steal a sacred treasure someone else had treasured his entire life, the nine-tailed fox was instead loudly scolding Yongman.

But even under that scolding, Yongman merely stared blankly at his phone lying on the ground.

On the phone's screen, the nickname 'zSupremeMircoolz' was displayed in large letters. Beside it was the title 'Administrator.'

It took the nine-tailed fox quite some time to understand what the Dragon Pearl, completed through a thousand years of waiting, had been used for.

__________

"Get up."

Despite the nine-tailed fox's command, Yongman, who was sitting slumped on the ground, showed no sign of moving.

"Oh, honestly. I said get up. I've called someone, so a car will arrive shortly."

"Then you can get in it and piss off."

"Do you need another beating before you come to your senses? Tsk. There's somewhere you need to go with me."

Only then did Yongman slowly raise his head.

His face had been beaten so badly that it was difficult to find a single uninjured spot among his eyes, nose, and mouth.

"Ahem. Stop arguing and come along. There may be a way for you to reach the Celestial Realm."

"You're saying I can go to the Celestial Realm?"

"I don't know."

"You said there was a way!"

"I said there might be! Stop arguing and get in. It's not as though you have any better ideas, is it? That fellow will surely come up with something. He goes in and out of the Celestial Realm as though it were his own home."

The nine-tailed fox had brought up Jinseong's ability to travel to the Celestial Realm with the intention of getting Yongman into the car.

'Well, what else can I do now that I've come this far? Heh heh. That fellow is exceptionally clever, so I'm sure he'll take care of everything this time too.'

At any rate, he had managed to arrange for the Dragon Pearl to be brought to the coffeehouse, so his original objective had been achieved.

It was just that the Dragon Pearl he had assumed was a spare turned out to be the only one remaining, and he now had one additional byproduct(?) coming along with it.

To the Jinseong the nine-tailed fox had observed thus far, a problem like this was utterly trivial. Beyond his divine eyes, it was Jinseong's wisdom and extraordinary nature, which even the nine-tailed fox, despite having lived for thousands of years, could not hope to approach, that gave him such confidence.