Chapter 104

The first thing that caught his eye was, as expected, a large Seed emitting a subtle chill.

Name: Psyhan Tentacle

Level Requirement: 20

Type: Seed

Grade: Rare

Effects:

1. Poison Resistance +15%
2. Decoy Level +1
3. Supersense Level +1Description: A special Seed held by the monster Krollovagan. It can be equipped to items or cards with a Seed slot to enhance abilities. A special function, ‘Detach,’ is required to remove an equipped Seed.[Click here to equip this Seed to an item or card.]

“Decoy?”

Poison Resistance was self-explanatory, and Supersense could easily be understood as a skill or special ability similar to the effects of the Seeker Potion. However, the exact effect of Decoy was ambiguous. Thinking it might be related to the tentacles’ ability to mimic female forms, Jun-sang checked the information on Decoy.

Decoy: Transforms a specific object within range to lure one target.

• Can activate 1 decoy per skill level.
• Decoy deactivates upon contact with the target.

“Luring, huh…”

It depended on how it was used, but for Jun-sang, who often fought alone, this function seemed quite useful in many ways. The only slight problem was that it wasn’t a formally acquired skill, so its level couldn’t be raised independently.

Jun-sang equipped the newly acquired Krollovagan’s Seed into an empty slot on his Hero Card. Then, just like when he drank the Seeker Potion, information about his surroundings began to flood into Jun-sang.

“Hmm…” Jun-sang closed his eyes. Immediately, information from his surroundings began to materialize into visual images within his dark vision. Jun-sang could sense Heness soaking in the bathtub beyond the wall.

‘Is it because her chest is small, I wonder…’ Heness cupped her swelling breasts with her small hands and sighed deeply. In truth, her chest wasn’t particularly small for her age. It only seemed relatively small when compared to the voluptuous women who appeared on TV; it would be more accurate to say it was a compact size that fit perfectly in one hand.

“Ahem…” Jun-sang quickly opened his eyes, deactivating Supersense. It was a very useful ability, and it would be good to get used to it for surprise attacks, but for now, it seemed better to turn it off.

Jun-sang put away the flag and examined the other Seeds, but nothing remarkable caught his eye. Jun-sang pocketed the Seeds and then took out and examined the items he had personally collected, separate from what Mongmong-yi gathered.

The first thing he took out was a large, white ball of thread. This was a collection of the white threads spewed from Krollovagan’s mouth, bundled together. It was extremely elastic, tough enough not to break easily, and its ends were sharp enough to pierce knights’ armor. Jun-sang, having noticed the threads’ efficacy during his battle with Krollovagan, had cut them during combat and carefully collected them instead of discarding them.

For now, he had no way to process them, but like Amungan’s corpse, these too seemed likely to be useful later. Jun-sang carefully stored the thread ball, then checked a box of grenades he had painstakingly found. Among the equipment left behind by the routed Chinese forces, this was about all that remained intact in Jun-sang’s sight after the massive explosion caused by Bloodseeker.

Opening the box, he saw it filled with long, round containers. He picked up one container and opened its lid, revealing a stick-shaped grenade that resembled a thick pine mushroom.

“Type 77-1…” Given his current abilities, he wondered if he would ever need such grenades, but since he never knew what the future held, he decided to keep them for now. Jun-sang packed the grenades back into the container and then stored the entire box in his Inventory. Then, he checked the quest completion message to see the rewards.

For now, the experience points were listed as “a little” and “a lot.” Although it was hard to pinpoint exactly, considering the experience points gained from defeating a colossal monster like Krollovagan, it was highly likely that he would level up upon claiming these rewards. In the previous instance, the time until the next quest exceeded seven days, rendering it meaningless, but Jun-sang decided to postpone claiming the rewards once more, just in case. Six additional reward boxes, one Triple S-grade reward box, and the acquisition of the Savior-grade reward box and the title “Savior of Eshtalen” were thus deferred to the next opportunity.

As Jun-sang finished tidying up his spoils, Heness emerged from the bathroom, dressed in a gown. “Phew… I’m done.”

“Alright.” Jun-sang stood up and went into the bathroom to wash. After a quick wash, Jun-sang came out and looked through the delivery menu on the table, ordering pork cutlets. Though they were a bit soggy and not very tasty, hunger was the best sauce, so the two hurriedly finished their meal and went to bed.

And the next morning. Jun-sang contacted Seo-yoon via messenger.

‘Going up to Seoul. I’ll wait in front of XX Station at XX PM.’

Though it was a unilateral notification, Jun-sang had no doubt that Seo-yoon would show up on time.

“It’ll take some time, so if it gets tough, just go inside,” Jun-sang told Heness, but for some reason, she shook her head, her eyes heavily shadowed with dark circles.

“No.”

“…” Jun-sang shook his head and drove the Humvee towards Gangneung, intending to take the Yeongdong Expressway to Seoul. He had given himself plenty of time for the appointment, so he drove leisurely. As he was almost arriving in Gangneung, he belatedly noticed black vans driving in front of and behind the Humvee.

“This is…” Trapped between the vans, the Humvee had no choice but to stop by the roadside as the lead vehicle directed. Had they already discovered that he was driving this Humvee? Jun-sang quickly unsummoned Heness, who was dozing beside him, and slowly got out of the car. A group of people then emerged from the vans in front and behind, beginning to surround him. A sturdy man in a black suit spoke to him.

“Mr. Park Jun-sang, correct?”

“And if I am?”

“There’s someone who wishes to meet you. Please come with us.”

“…” Although he used polite language, he was clearly disregarding Jun-sang’s wishes. Jun-sang had experienced this kind of invitation before.

“What if I refuse?”

At that, a snicker escaped the lips of the men in black suits surrounding him. “We’ve heard you’re quite strong. But the world isn’t so easy that you can just act high and mighty on your own… Aren’t you old enough to generally know that?” The man said this, subtly pulling out a Taser from his pocket.

A Taser is a type of weapon that fires two electrodes connected by wires from a distance to incapacitate a target. Unlike a stun gun, which is generally called an electric shocker, its advantage is that it can effectively incapacitate an enemy from a distance. As the man in front pulled out his Taser, the other men, as if on cue, also subtly revealed the Tasers hidden in their pockets.

But Jun-sang scoffed at the sight. How to put it? Contemptible, perhaps. Seeing this level of preparation, he had a rough idea of who sent them.

“Kim Jong-kyung, did that madman send you?”

“…” Kim Jong-kyung was Kim Sung-jin’s father, the guild master of the Alliance, and a current member of the National Assembly who had spearheaded the special law for returnees.

The suit-clad man’s eyebrow twitched for a moment. “It seems… you need a little taste of pain to come to your senses.”

“Hmph.” Jun-sang snorted at the words. And immediately activated Gaze of Fear.

“Gah!” The man reached into his pocket to pull out his Taser, but the moment he met Jun-sang’s Gaze of Fear, he froze. Jun-sang equipped the Binding card, then slowly approached the man and gripped his neck.

“Ugh…” The man was now completely unable to move a single finger of his own will.

“You said ‘a taste of pain’?”

Just then, one of the men observing from the side fired his Taser at Jun-sang. Two needles shot out instantly and struck Jun-sang’s shoulder. But what happened? The needles couldn’t pierce Jun-sang’s skin and simply bounced off. Although he wasn’t wearing armor, his physical resistance was a whopping 79 percent. Even calculating only the physical resistance inherent in his tough body, excluding his defensive gear, four-fifths of ordinary physical impact vanished the moment it touched his skin. How could mere needles possibly pierce his skin?

The men, unaware of this, fired their Tasers at Jun-sang one after another, but none of them embedded in Jun-sang’s skin. A few needles did stick to his clothes, but Jun-sang didn’t even bat an eye when electricity flowed through them. Perhaps a stun gun with a stronger current might have been different, but it was impossible from the start to inflict any damage on Jun-sang with a Taser, which uses a relatively small amount of current.

A Taser is a weapon designed to incapacitate humans. But Jun-sang had long since surpassed the abilities of ordinary humans. In fact, the Taser is the most efficient non-lethal weapon. And the kind that makes an ordinary person collapse like a log when hit. While there are ability users in the Alliance, there are no ability users who have surpassed the human category yet. If ten or so people shot a Taser at once, an ordinary person could die. It was only because Jun-sang had swept the rewards of four Epic-grade quests that he was unfazed, so in Kim Jong-kyung’s view, he had poured in sufficient overkill.

“Is that all?” As Jun-sang turned his head, holding the man in one hand, the men around him were overwhelmed by the Gaze of Fear he emitted, their minds corrupted, and they froze. Jun-sang slowly turned his head back to the man trembling in his grasp and repeated, “Where is Kim Jong-kyung?”

“…” But the man could not answer. Gaze of Fear had completely robbed his body of its freedom. Realizing this, Jun-sang withdrew Gaze of Fear and asked again, “Where is Kim Jong-kyung?”

Only then did the man stammer his reply, “Th-that…”

Seeing the man’s bewildered state, not knowing what to do, Jun-sang spoke again, “You have to tell me where he is so I can go find him, don’t you?”

“…” The man trembled, then stammered out the location of Kim Jong-kyung’s office. After getting the answer, Jun-sang threw him into the bushes by the roadside and approached the black van blocking the front of the Humvee. He then bent down, grabbed the bumper with one hand, and lifted it, flipping the van over to the side of the road. The men were dumbfounded by Jun-sang’s action of tossing the large van in one swift motion, as if flipping a table.

Jun-sang looked back at them and left a single message, “Tell Kim Jong-kyung. I’ll be coming for him soon.”

“…” The men, suppressed by his gaze, only nodded their heads, unable to even reply. Jun-sang approached the Humvee and opened the door, then spoke again, “One more thing.”

“…”

“Tell him I seem to be very angry, and not to forget to prepare thoroughly.”

After saying that, Jun-sang drove the Humvee away from the scene.