Chapter 52

As Jun-sang staggered back, enduring the pain of his severed arm, the man spat out the arm from the mouth that had formed on his chest.

“Tsk, it ruined my appetite. Men are too fishy, truly…”

“…”

Jun-sang carefully picked up his severed arm.

“Why? Going to the hospital to reattach it? Heh heh…” the man sneered.

But Jun-sang ignored the taunt and brought the picked-up arm to the severed part.

“Red medicine.”

“Red medicine?”

“Open Healing Potion.”

“What are you talking about?”

Then, the severed parts reacted violently to each other, emitting white smoke.

“Ugh…” Jun-sang grimaced in intense pain, biting his lip.

The man, seeing Jun-sang’s expression, finally realized that something was wrong.

“You… you weren’t an ordinary human!”

Jun-sang wiped his face, which was drenched in sweat, and said to the man, “Only just realized that?”

“…”

Hearing the answer, the man nodded as if he finally understood. “That’s right. Attacking me like this after seeing my true form… it’s impossible for an ordinary person. Heh heh…”

The man chuckled foolishly, then looked at Jun-sang and smacked his lips. “Your power… is it that regeneration? Good. Very good.”

“…”

Jun-sang silently moved his reattached arm. There was still pain at the joint, and the muscle regeneration wasn’t perfect, so he felt a slight weakness in his arm, and his bones hadn’t fully fused, causing a tingling sensation. Still, the fact that his brutally torn and severed arm had recovered to this extent in an instant was astonishing even to Jun-sang himself.

Currently, Jun-sang’s regeneration rate was 37 percent. If a severed arm could reattach with just this much, how much more would it improve later? Jun-sang wanted to wait for a more complete recovery, but the man didn’t allow it.

“I’ll eat that power, too!”

The man again transformed his arm into a massive size and attacked Jun-sang, but Jun-sang tilted his head back, dodged the attack, and struck the man’s knee with a low kick.

“Kugh!”

The man hurriedly reshaped his leg and attempted a counterattack, but this time, Jun-sang’s punch struck his side.

“Cough!”

Jun-sang, in a low stance, pursued the retreating man, swinging his fist. Seeing this, the man created a large mouth at the point where the fist would land, but Jun-sang’s movement was a feint.

“Cough!”

The man, stumbling after being hit in the knee by a low kick instead of a punch, limped backward and looked at Jun-sang with a shocked expression.

“H-how?”

Nothing had changed, no, Jun-sang, whose arm had been severed and reattached, was at a much greater disadvantage, so why was he being pushed back so badly? Seeing the man’s utterly bewildered expression, Jun-sang calmly said, “One at a time. And not the whole body.”

It was an abrupt statement, but the man immediately understood its meaning. It was the limit of his own ability. Jun-sang, even amidst the pain of his severed arm, had grasped this limitation from the man’s fighting style and was now testing it. The result was a great success. The transformed parts of the body were so robust and hard, beyond what could be considered human, possessing a power that even Jun-sang couldn’t easily contend with. However, the other parts that weren’t transformed were only slightly more robust than a human’s, not at a level comparable to Jun-sang’s.

“KRAAAAH!”

The man screamed, transformed his arm again, and swung it madly. The trees in the windbreak snapped and broke instantly in its fury, but Jun-sang calmly dodged all the attacks and moved closer.

“Open Gentle Breeze.”

But as Jun-sang plunged inward, the man suddenly lunged as if to embrace Jun-sang. Unbeknownst to Jun-sang, a mouth with sharp teeth had formed on his body.

“Got you, you bastard!” the man shouted.

However, Jun-sang, seeing this, said, “Gentle Breeze, push him back.”

“What?” The man wondered what he meant. But the next moment, he was shocked as his body was pushed back by something soft and wind-like. “W-what is this?”

Jun-sang, however, flexed and straightened the fingers of his reattached arm, checked its condition, and confirmed it hadn’t fully recovered, then said again, “Wolfpack.”

Following Jun-sang’s command, three gigantic wolves appeared in the air with a flash of light.

“What on earth… is this…” The man was flustered and at a loss as another incomprehensible phenomenon occurred.

Pointing at the man, Jun-sang said again, “Bite.”

As soon as the command was given, the wolves charged at the man like lightning. The man, flustered, transformed his arms and swung them around, but lacking experience in fighting giant beasts like this, he was constantly wounded and began to be pushed back.

“You, who on earth are you!”

Jun-sang muttered, looking at the man, “The interface isn’t entirely trustworthy either.”

If one were to simply consider strength or agility, the man’s abilities were certainly comparable to Jun-sang’s. However, unlike Jun-sang, who had gone through several bloody battles, he had thoroughly preyed only on the weak, so he lacked the ability to overcome being cornered. As a clear example, if Jun-sang were in the man’s shoes, he would have decisively ended the fight the moment his arm was severed, but the man, filled with petty arrogance and curiosity, squandered that golden opportunity.

“GRAAH!”

Wolves are skilled at group hunting. Tactics like one acting as bait and another delivering the killing blow were not particularly advanced strategies for wolves. But the inexperienced man was easily fooled by these wolf tactics, and as a result, he was bitten in the shoulder by a Timber Wolf aiming for a weakness, and a chunk of his flesh was torn off.

Injured, the man was gripped by fear as he looked at the eyes of the wolves surrounding him. Once the emotion of fear began to consume him, the man became unable to make rational judgments and recklessly swung his arm again, this time getting his thigh bitten by a Crimson Wolf.

“GRAAH!”

Seeing the man scream and fall, Jun-sang again moved his fingers. The shimmering aura that had been emanating from the severed area was almost gone now, and he felt no abnormality in his muscles or bones. Jun-sang, realizing his arm was fully recovered, slowly approached the man.

As Jun-sang approached, the man again created a large mouth on his body and lunged at Jun-sang with outstretched arms. But Jun-sang didn’t dodge it. He didn’t even summon Gentle Breeze to push him away. Instead, he reached out, grabbed the vertically opened mouth as if opening a sliding door, and began to pull it open horizontally.

“KRAAAAAH!”

The man screamed and thrashed. In this stretched state, he couldn’t return to his original form, so the man desperately struggled, trying to chew Jun-sang with his large mouth.

However,

“Frenzy.”

The moment that word left Jun-sang’s mouth, a red aura surged and flowed from his piercing eyes. It wasn’t just his gaze that changed. Overwhelming power, extending through both his arms, began to pry open the man’s mouth. As the man’s mouth began to open with an uncontrollable, immense force, he felt death approaching.

“S-save me…”

But Jun-sang ignored the man’s plea and tore open the vertically opened mouth horizontally.

“GUAAAAAH!”

As the vertical mouth on his body was torn, the man couldn’t bear the pain and began to scream.

“Shut up.”

Jun-sang gripped the man’s neck with one hand. Unable to return to his original form or transform other parts due to the torn mouth on his body, the man looked at Jun-sang, who was gripping his neck, with terror-filled eyes and said, “M-monster…”

“…”

“You monstrous bastard!”

Jun-sang didn’t answer. Instead, he simply slammed his knuckled fist hard into the man’s philtrum.

“Cough!”

Even as his teeth were completely broken and his mouth was crushed, the man did not lose consciousness. But he couldn’t endure the punch that once again exploded between his brows and simply went limp.

“Hoo…”

Jun-sang looked at the man’s blood-soaked face in his hand with a complicated expression. But that was only for a moment… The battle finally ended with another explosive punch that shattered the man’s skull.

“…”

Jun-sang looked at the man, who had collapsed into a gruesome state, remaining silent for a moment. If the man’s imagined image hadn’t been such a monster, would he have been able to end his life so unhesitatingly? If this man’s bizarre desires hadn’t manifested in the form of cannibalism, would he have been able to kill him so easily? No, all the appearances the man showed might have been the inherent power of the Dark Seed. Only one thing was certain: the fact that he had not used any of the card abilities that every returnee should possess. But if he wasn’t a returnee, how did he get his hands on the Dark Seed?

Jun-sang shook off the complicated thoughts that were invading his mind and extracted the Dark Seed from the man’s head. Immediately, the bracelet reacted, and as the Dark Seed in his hand seemed to disappear, a new message appeared in his left field of vision.

Retrieve the Dark Seed.

: This evil dark seed is an object that should not exist in this world. Sanction the user and retrieve the Dark Seed.

[This quest is a solo quest.]

-> Completed!

Reward: Much experience, Special Mission Reward Box.

-> Would you like to claim your rewards now? (Y/n) _ (Caution) Unclaimed rewards will be automatically deleted after 7 days.

Unlike other quests, the reward came immediately without a contribution settlement process. Jun-sang immediately claimed the rewards, left the reward box for later, put the man’s corpse into his inventory, and sent the wolves back.

“Hoo…”

Jun-sang took out the cabinet again, pulled out a shovel and a bag, and then cleaned up the area by putting the blood-stained soil from the man into it.

“…”

Jun-sang briefly surveyed his surroundings, then approached the unconscious woman and checked her pulse. He needed to be sure she wasn’t awake… in case he had to deal with her afterwards. But the woman was still unconscious. It was truly fortunate for both Jun-sang and the woman.

“…”

Jun-sang had Gentle Breeze check for any other witnesses, and once he confirmed everything was clear, he immediately left the area. Moving to an uninhabited place with Gentle Breeze’s guidance, Jun-sang first changed his blood-stained clothes. He only opened the Special Mission Reward Box after arriving near a small village quite far from the windbreak where the incident occurred.

Congratulations!

Waiting time ‘5 minutes’ acquired.

: As waiting time is already applied, ‘5 minutes’ will be added to it.

Current waiting time is a total of ’10 minutes’.

You can now prepare for new missions with more leisure.

“Hmph…”

A self-deprecating laugh escaped him. It was absurd that the value of a human life was merely equivalent to five minutes, and he found his own joy at merely getting an additional five minutes of waiting time equally absurd. Jun-sang looked at the sky, which had become overcast again after the sunlight faded, and wondered what the value of his own life was.

He walked silently for a long time. After walking along the road for over an hour and entering a small town, Jun-sang immediately booked a room at a motel. As soon as he entered, he filled the bathtub with hot water. He then stored the clothes and combat boots he was wearing in his inventory and immersed himself in the tub. The heat, almost scalding, warmed Jun-sang’s skin, but soon, a shimmering aura rose, beginning to heal his heated skin.

“Phew…”

After finally soaking in hot water to his heart’s content, Jun-sang looked through the restaurant phone numbers next to the phone and ordered Chinese food. The delivery arrived in about 30 minutes. Jun-sang changed into fresh clothes and began to eat.

“Hoo…”

Only after scraping clean both the ganjajang and tangsuyuk did Jun-sang lay down on the soft bed and try to sleep. Was it because his body and mind were exhausted? Or was it because the waiting time had increased to 10 minutes? He was able to fall into a deep sleep for the first time in a while. Jun-sang eventually woke up the next evening. He was even surprised himself at how long he had slept.

This was a problem. Even though the waiting time had increased, he couldn’t avoid being transferred. If he had been transferred while sleeping so soundly that someone could carry him away without him knowing, and then sustained an injury like having a limb torn off from a surprise attack, or his intestines ripped out like the woman who died before, even Jun-sang might not have survived.

“This is troublesome.”

Jun-sang re-focused his mind, which had become lax due to various events. He left the motel and went for a mountain run. As he furiously climbed the mountain until he was breathless, his muscles, which had relaxed in comfort for a moment, screamed and began to regenerate. Feeling that sensation, which could be called pain, Jun-sang instead felt a sense of calm.

Indeed, Jun-sang was not yet in a situation to ponder such things. No… the very act of pondering proved that he was still weak. Jun-sang clenched his fist tightly. He wasn’t strong from the beginning anyway. Therefore, being weak now was not something to be ashamed of. The truly shameful thing was to be content with his weakness and live that way.

As Jun-sang gazed at the sea of clouds stretching below the mountain and etched these thoughts into his mind, a new message appeared in his left field of vision.