Episode 171: Master! Here’s another bowl! (3)
All Mute’s secretary, Kane, was dazed. He blinked his wide-open eyes several times.
The shock was so great that my head was spinning. Was this a dream? I only had vague doubts. However, the cold sweat that had formed on my nose reflected reality.
He strained his eyes and looked at the smokescreen. Olmute was lying there with her limbs cut off. Kanggeomma walked towards her.
In order to finally conclude this unfinished duel, he approaches the already helpless Olmute.
At that sight, large beads of sweat ran down his cheeks. He shouted without realizing it.
“Ellie!”
As if responding to that sound, Kanggeomma turned his head. Cold, piercing eyes stared at him. At the same time, he felt as if an invisible hand was tightly grasping his heart. Kanggeomma spoke with a murderous look in his eyes.
Quiet.
Kane’s focus blurred at that muted word. He scratched at his throat as if something was stuck.
“Crash… … .”
With a short groan, Cain fainted. Just before his consciousness completely flew away, Cain thought. The rumor that he had caused the ogre’s heart attack was true.
Mao Lang’s face also became shocked when he saw Kane, who had fallen down. His legs, which had been crossed arrogantly, naturally became polite.
After the sparring, Mao Lang went to see Olmute and tried to mock him by laughing out loud. That was the only reason he came all the way from China.
But then I really felt like doing that. It had to be something. Mao Lang looked at Jiang Jian Ma. His lips were as dry as a seaweed.
‘Now you’ve become a real monster.’
Kang Geum-ma had not developed since the time he had sparred with her. That was evolution. If I were to draw a graph, I could picture a straight line rising at a 90-degree angle in my head.
‘If I had fought the current Kanggeomma… … .’
A chill ran down my spine. My pupils shrank. Then my lungs contracted and expanded repeatedly. My stomach rumbled and my throat tickled.
Hiccup! Mao Lang covered his mouth. His hands were trembling. If Kang Geum Ma’s eyes were to turn here, he would not be able to avoid looking like Cain.
Mao Lang no longer regarded Jiang Jian Ma as a fellow human being. It was a sword-wielding monster.
Mao Lang bit his tongue to hold back the hiccups. It would be a big deal even if his tongue was cut off. It was better than becoming a victim of a monster. Shiver shiver.
In the midst of the crucible of fear, Kanggeomma soon came close to Olmute. He looked down at the results of his creation.
All Mute’s life responses were shaky and weak. If there was a living corpse, it would be like this. In short, it was just horrific. My eyebrows furrowed.
‘I didn’t intend to go this far.’
It was because I was temporarily blinded by [Protection of Blocking]. If I had been able to see, I wouldn’t have been so disoriented. In fact, I felt like I had taken excessive measures to increase my proficiency in [Protection of Charity].
‘I have to finish this right away.’
Kang Geum-ma lifted the sashimi with that determination.
At that moment, Olmute spoke, only moving his lips. Blood gushed out from his severed vocal cords.
“Please… save me… … .”
All Mute forgot that this was a subspace duel. He was so immersed in fear that his cognition had flown away.
Even though she was the strongest hero, she was also human. When a human faces death, their minds tend to become tangled.
Sashimi, who was aiming at Olmute’s forehead, stopped. Kanggeomma scratched his head with the bottom of his sword handle.
“I don’t know what you’re saying because I don’t speak English.”
“… … !”
“But it still sounds like you want me to finish it quickly.”
An earthquake struck All Mute’s pupil. He tried to stop it by raising his hand in a hurry. But he had no arms. This sword demon had taken all his limbs.
Urgency and fear were intertwined. All Mute flailed around. Kanggeomma softly consoled her.
“It’s okay. It won’t hurt if you finish it in one go.”
Kanggeomma spoke like a dentist. But to Olmute, it looked different. He looked like a Japanese chef about to stab a gill. Olmute let out his usual scream.
“FUCK!”
Oh, right. This curse word was universal. Like the Korean word ‘shit’.
“swear word?”
The reaction was immediate. Kang Geum-ma’s arrogant expression distorted violently. Koreans, the land of courtesy in the East, do not tolerate rudeness. The sashimi that had stopped in midair began to move.
A sparkling liquid formed in Olmute’s eyes. The moment tears of repentance flowed, a blade struck his head.
Bam!
All five senses of All Mute were completely blocked. The price for swearing was death.
* * *
“Are you coming to your senses?”
At that sound, Olmute’s two eyes opened. She glanced to the side and sighed.
“…Mao Lang.”
“But you still have the presence of mind to remember my face? After the duel, my eyes rolled back completely, so I thought I was really dead.”
Mao Lang giggled and sat down on the hospital bed. She asked, tapping her foot wistfully.
“So, what are your thoughts on sparring with Kanggeomma?”
All Mute couldn’t answer right away, because he hadn’t completely made up his mind yet.
She held the quilt for a long time and then unfolded it before speaking.
“It was a monster. I couldn’t even guess at the level of the strong swordsman. I thought there might be some possibility before I met him, but it wasn’t. I couldn’t even draw out his sincerity.”
“… … .”
“If it was only the lack of force, I would have thought of overcoming it. But the depth of the conflict was so deep that I couldn’t even see the bottom. To be honest, it was just an overwhelming difference, so if I were to list the reasons for my defeat, it would be endless.”
Mao Lang stared at Olmute, who was mocking himself calmly.
Khan, who grew up without knowing defeat. She, who had been suffering from an inferiority complex since childhood, was defeated today. At least she thought she would show herself to be better than him.
Mao Lang groaned quietly inwardly. Then he tried to sound triumphant as he spoke.
“Right? I told you that I wasn’t treated unfairly during the festival. After that incident, I was treated with all kinds of contempt by the hero society. Oh my. Anyway, you should know since you’ve dealt with me. Kanggeomma was a monster, not me. Do you admit it or not?”
“I admit it.”
Khan nodded obediently. Mao Lang’s face turned pale at his indifferent response.
Khan said with a blank face.
“And I never thought of you as weak in the first place.”
“… … ?”
A question mark spread across Mao Lang’s eyes. Khan asked as if something was strange.
“You were second to me during your cadet days. Second to me at Joaquin Academy. That means a lot. If you had trained consistently, I probably wouldn’t have been able to guarantee victory.”
Mao Lang bit his lips as he listened to the argument. He had come to make fun of him, but instead he was being praised.
Mao Lang roughly tousled her hair. After clearing her mind of distracting thoughts, she opened her mouth again.
“So Chilseong has completely given up now?”
“Yeah. I’ve lost this much, so I can’t be stubborn any longer.”
“What’s going on, you patriotic girl? I thought you were going to challenge me again, representing the United States of America.”
“If the opponent had been cruel, I wouldn’t have given up until the end. But that sword… no, that swordsman is the hero of the Joaquin tragedy. It’s not right to be stubborn toward someone like that.”
“But then, wouldn’t the White House or Lancelot Company quietly tease you? Even if you’re a Sashimi Sword Master, there’s a high chance that they’ll ask you all sorts of questions, saying that you couldn’t beat a single cadet.”
Mao Lang’s voice was full of concern. Olmute’s expression seemed somewhat surprised. When he was a cadet, he would only scold me fiercely, but now that he is an adult, he gives me advice like a friend.
It must have been because a consensus had been formed that he had been ‘defeated by the strong sword demon’. It was a strange feeling. He even felt a little gratitude towards the sword demon who had mercilessly beaten him.
A smile appeared on Khan’s lips. Then he shrugged his shoulders slyly.
“Put all those people in front of Kanggeomma. They’ll probably fall over just by making eye contact, like Cain.”
“Phew, why are you joking when it’s not like you? When a serious person says something like that, it makes me feel really uncomfortable.”
“This is American stand-up comedy. Come visit America later. The food and facilities are no joke.”
“Huh, you’re the one who’ll be addicted to food when you come to China?”
Outside the hospital room where the conversation was in full swing, Kang Geum-ma, who was about to knock, stood there for a moment.
“It’s a class reunion, so I don’t think it’s right to interrupt.”
He just placed a basket of fruit in front of the door and quietly left.
* * *
[Location of the third piece of 【???】: Pertinax Secret Auction House.]
[Tip: As you proceed with the auction, you will naturally find out what the third fragment is.]
I lay down on the bed and looked at the status window before closing it.
“…Why is it in a place like that?”
Pertinax’s Secret Auction House. I was a user at the time, so I knew the general inside story.
A huge trading floor created by groups of cancer cells. It is large in scale and they say they have everything for sale except for the items that are not there.
As the ominous word ‘secret’ suggests, it did not sell commonly available items. The auction items were only disgusting things that were too much to even mention.
There were even rumors going around that the Villain Alliance executives were attending in hiding their identities. It was hard to emphasize how shameless this place was.
I already shudder at the thought of crime. It was a very uncomfortable thing to go to that den of such men on my own two feet.
But if it’s a bit unpleasant, you can just close your eyes and attend. The problem was something else.
The Pertinax Secret Auction House is a membership-based operation. In short, you need a membership card to enter. Of course, I, a good citizen and teenager, don’t have that.
‘Damn, I just got my association pass and now I have to get an auction house membership card too?’
Moreover, since the location is an auction house, it means that I have to bid on something. There’s no way I have that much money. If I had known this would happen, I would have quickly received 1 billion as a subspace training fee, damn it.
There are two problems to solve.
First, somehow get a membership card. Second, prepare the amount to bid.
The only good thing is that I was able to save up the living expenses that an unknown sponsor sent me, penny by penny.
Of course, it’s infinitely lighter than the wallets of those participating in the auction.
This 500 dollars of dirty money is more valuable than the dirty money of criminals.
I looked up at the ceiling and came up with a plan. First, I needed a membership card. Since I didn’t know how to get one, I had to think of someone who might be around me.
“… But, are there any people around me, who are Academy students, who are involved in such underworld?”
As I was muttering like that, an electric current suddenly ran through my temple.
There is just one person. I got up and made a phone call.
Tutu – Click.
A loud clattering sound comes from the other end of the phone. It looks like the call was answered in a hurry.
[Hey, hello. What are you doing out this late at night?!]
“Choi Seol-ah, do you have a membership card for the Pertinax Secret Auction House?”
I paused for a moment, then ordered more.
“It would be better if you also have savings.”
