Chapter 70

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Sponsored Chapter- 3/3..

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“Um, wait a minute!”

As I hurriedly went out into the street and called out to Horie Yuzuki, she turned her head with a look of confusion on her face. 

And as soon as she saw me, she smiled brightly as if she were happy to meet me.

“Oh, Ji-Hyuk! It's been a while!"

Horie looked at me and reached out her hand as if pleased, and we shook hands lightly.

“Ji-Hyuk, why are you here? Skipping?”

“I'm not skipping…… I have some personal circumstances.”

I replied with a smile to her, who spoke to me with a mischievous smile.

“Then why are you here, Horie-ssi?”

“I’m on a date right now.”

It was only then I could notice the person standing next to Horie.

She looked at me with wary eyes and clung to Horie's side.

It was definitely my first time seeing her, but somehow she seemed familiar.

"No way…… .”

“Yes, that’s right. she's the guild master’s younger sister.”

Horie said so and looked at her.

“Miss Hye-Rin, this is Yoo Ji-Hyuk. He is a student who will become a hero in the future, having done many things like the guild master.”

Then, Lee Myung-Joon's younger sister, Lee Hye-Rin, who would have become an extreme hardline hero along with Horie Yuzuki if it had been the original story, nodded her head silently.

After nodding at each other, I immediately brought up the main topic to Horie.

“Hey, Horie-ssi. I'm sorry, but can I ask you a favor?”

“To me?”

I nodded to the woman who asked back with round eyes.

“Actually, I've asked Hunter Lee Myung-Joon to leave a message, but he hasn't responded at all for three days. No matter how many times I call, there is no answer...… .”

"What? For three days?”

She made a surprised expression.

"That can't be true…… Unless he's in the middle of a battle or on an important mission, he checks everything within that day. And I also contacted him yesterday for a regular report?”

"What?"

It was my turn to be surprised.

What the heck, while I was thinking about it, she squinted and spoke to me.

"By any chance…… You didn't call from a different number than the original one, right?”

She nodded as if convinced that it was the correct answer from my expression.

“Then it has to be. Since the guild master is so famous, no matter how hard he tried to hide his number, it kept leaking out. So, I set it so that he will not receive any number unless it's saved by the guild master.”

“… I really didn't imagine that.”

"A celebrity's life is always hard. But why in the... ?”

“My cell phone was broken.”

"Aha."

I almost kept waiting for a call that would never come.

Nodding, she pulled out her own cell phone.

“Ji-Hyuk, can you give me your number then? I will send it to the guild master right away.”

“Can you please?”

“It's a piece of cake.”

When I gave Horie the new number, she immediately sent a text message to Lee Myung-Joon.

After confirming it, I bowed my head to her, thinking that it was a relief.

"Thank you so much. It was really urgent.”

"What. It’s not a big deal.”

"It was nice meeting you. Enjoy your date.”

“Thanks, I hope things go well for you, Ji-Hyuk.”

With those words, Horie Yuzuki and Lee Hye-Rin continued to walk on their way.

As I was looked at the backs of the two of them, who were close together like real sisters, my cell phone suddenly started ringing.

Already?

With that thought, I checked my cell phone, but it was Jin Ye-Seul, not Lee Myung-Joon.

But I was not disappointed.

Jin Ye-Seul's call meant that she had something important to say.

"Hello?"

― Hello, Ji-Hyuk.

"What's going on?"

― I have something important to tell you.

After saying that, Jin Ye-Seul hesitated for a moment.

When I wondered what was going on, she muttered.

― I'm not joking, it's kind of hard to talk about over the phone, can you tell me where you are?

“… I'm on the five streets now."

― Oh, okay. Let's meet right now. I'll tell you something important then, and I'll tell you what I found out today.

"Right now?"

― Yes. I can sneak out. One hour…… No, just wait two hours. Okay…… Let's meet at the square.

With those words, Jin Ye-Seul hung up the phone immediately.

Her voice was different from usual, I could tell through the phone that she was somehow anxious.

What the hell is going on?

Out of the eight playable characters, Jin Ye-Seul was the one who was the furthest away from tension or anxiety, unless it was related to the Shadow Walker.

Her anxiety was so contagious that I could clearly feel it spreading to me.

First, I moved to the square where all of the five streets met, where I decided to meet her.

Because I had nothing to do right now anyway.

When I arrived at the square, it was crowded with people, as usual.

The square on the five streets was as wide as a football stadium, because of the huge stone statue in the middle of the square.

A stone statue modeled after a giant creature called a dragon.

Even though it was in the shape of a full-body curled up as if it had fallen asleep, it was so huge that it made my neck hurt from looking at it.

And in the vicinity of such a stone statue, many tourists were posing and taking commemorative photos.

In fact, it was not an exaggeration to say that most of the numerous tourists who come to Five Streets was because of that huge stone statue, the so-called symbol of the street.

And only a few people knew that the statue was none other than a Seven Evil.

In addition, I was the only one who knew that it was the first one to be released from the seal and was responsible for killing two of the six guild masters and countless hunters and heroes, despite only being able to use half of its power.

“…… .”

Seven Evils.

In the original story Clouds on the Horizon, it refers to beings who are clearly different in class and are truly final bosses.

And if they have one thing in common, it's that they can't be killed by ordinary means.

Therefore, in the original story, the main content was that many people were sacrificed to find out their weaknesses or strategies, and eventually found out and defeat them through numerous episodes.

But I didn't have to do that.

Even though I had forgotten most of the stories after 10 years, I could confidently say that I remembered the things related to the Seven Evils clearly.

I couldn't even count how many times I died and played the game again because of the Seven Evils.

Even more so in the case of the first one to be released.

No matter how many times I played, no matter which character I played with, I couldn't beat him, so I looked for a strategy book and found out that only the same Seven Evil could beat him in the setting, and I can't tell how despondent I was then.

And maybe I wasn't the only one who felt this despondency, as the developer realized the strategy during an interview, which still remained vivid in my memory.

In short, the Seven Evils are beings that ignore and deal with a kind of concept.

In the case of Ariman, which I had to catch, was a being who dealt with the concept of space.

And in the case of the Seven Evil sleeping over here, the concept assigned to him was none other than ‘Perfection’.

Perfection.

It means a bead without blemish.

And in the case of this Seven Evil, who have the concept of perfection, when he woke up, he didn't get hurt no matter what one did.

Sword, spears, bows, magic, or even a nuclear bomb can't do any harm to him.

To put it simply, he is like an invincible being that can not be touched systematically.

The developer clearly said this.

As with any of the Seven Evils, but if the concept of each of them is broken, their immortality will be stripped away from that moment.

In other words, it means that one has to hurt even a little to catch that perfection, and at the time of injury, he loses the concept of perfection, so he can be defeated if firepower is poured in.

And to do that two things are needed.

One is the Aegis system, which can pour accurate and powerful firepower on the Seven Evil flying in the air.

And the other was to have Jin Ye-Seul inflict wounds before the seal was released.

Among the characteristics that only Jin Ye-Seul can have, there is a characteristic called Flaw Jade.

Simply put, it means 'blemish on jade', and anyone could tell that it was a name that was created for the purpose.

In other words, the strategy was to have Jin Ye-Seul inflict a wound and take away the concept of perfection, and then intercept the flying guy with the Aegis system and drag it down.

And, of course, in the game 10 years ago, such a high degree of freedom was not possible.

Moreover, the Aegis system could not even be accessed by any playable character in the original story.

In a word, it was just an interview that was nothing more than a set-up play, but who would have thought that it would be so helpful now?

There was still plenty of time until the appointment time.

I went to the bench right under the stone statue and sat down so that Jin Ye-Seul could easily find me.

Since the statue is so large, I was able to find a place with few people by walking around for a while.

"Hmm…… .”

In the meantime, I made a portal with the shadow and moved my right hand.

I hit it hard with Nidhogg's fang, but only felt a tearing pain in my hand.

Just in case, I stroked the surface once, but it was smooth and showed no signs of being damaged at all.

In the end, it meant that only Jin Ye-Seul could do it.

Then should I give her the Nidhog's fang and order her to secretly damage the statue later?

If that happens, she'll have to inflict damage to some extent....… .

“Ji-Hyuk.”

Before I knew it, Jin Ye-Seul was standing in front of me and looking down at me.

When I motioned for her to sit down, she sat down next to me, taking off the bag she was carrying from her back to her arm.

"You came quickly."

“Yeah, I rushed a bit. Oh, that's right.”

With those words, Jin Ye-Seul opened her bag and pulled out what was inside.

It was a statue of a bird of some unknown species I had never seen before.

Inseoljo's Statue (Unique)

―This is a statue made in the shape of a bird that is said to have a human tongue and vocal cords in the legends of the ancient natives.

It has no value or feature other than that it is an antique of artistic value and the signature of an unknown sculptor is engraved on the bottom of the statue.

― Only ‘Jin Ye-Seul’ can be applied to the hidden effect.

― You can learn the [Hidden] skill ‘Bird’s Tongue’.

Seeing the explanation, I clicked my tongue slightly.

Then, Jin Ye-Seul asked me with an anxious expression as if she had taken it in a different way.

“… Isn't it this?"

“No, it is.”

As I nodded my head, she quickly made a bright expression and gently pushed it towards me.

At first, I thought she was simply asking me to judge whether it was real or not, so I thought at the moment what she was doing.

“What are you doing?”

“N, no…… But since you are the real owner, I think I need to get permission from you...… .”

I was dumbfounded by her hesitating attitude, so I spat it out without realizing it.

“If I don’t allow it. What, will you give it back?”

“…… .”

Jin Ye-Seul didn't answer.

She only looked at me with a gloomy look, and I was about to say something about that look, but then stopped, and shook my hand a little and said to her as if telling her off.

“It was a promise, and on top of that, it’s a fair price for what you did, so just take it. This is yours now.”

Without answering my words, she nodded her head and put the statue back into the bag.

Looking at it with bitter eyes, Jin Ye-Seul hugged the bag tightly and preciously.

Looking at her, I felt mixed emotions.

Jin Ye-Seul's setting that she was despised by her parents and relatives, ignored by her siblings as inferior, and that she was an unfortunate genius who could not get along well with others throughout her life.

And the only thing she felt attached to and was obsessed with was the Shadow Walker and his traces.

“…… .”

The bird's tongue was not helpful in combat at all, but it could be said to be a very useful skill.

At first, it was a skill that allowed you to mimic another person's voice, then their face, and finally their body shape.

The reason why the original Shadow Walker was able to have so many fake identities was thanks to this skill.

To be honest, I would be lying if I said it wasn't regrettable.

‘Yeah, it’s because I couldn’t even learn it from the beginning anyway.’

If Jin Ye-Seul learns it, there will be many things that will be more helpful later.

Besides, if I want to entrust her with the work regarding the stone statues of the Seven Evils, it would be better to tie her up like this.

Just as I was thinking this, Jin Ye-Seul began to carefully look around while hugging her bag tightly.

"First of all, I've got some information from the two. But I heard something that I never thought of…… .”

“And it was so important that we had to meet and talk in person like this?”

She nodded her head slightly.

Then she leaned even closer to me and whispered quietly in my ear.

“The reason they raided the academy was to divert gaze.”

"What?"

Jin Ye-Seul swallowed her saliva a little, perhaps nervous, and continued to talk.

“They say the organization has already figured out where the heart of the Aegis system is.”

They've already sent another Killer team there.

And it's been a few days since that happened.

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[Note: 데이트 (date) just means meeting/going out with someone. It can be lover, friend, family, etc.]

[Note: 옥에 티 similar to the idiom 'a fly in the ointment'.]

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