Chapter 5
"Wow! Wo-wow! Wow! Wow!"
"Kieeeek!!!"
'...'
Right now,
I'm watching a bunch of masked wooden dolls hack Kim Young-hak's corpse to pieces.
They're the things that sucked up my mana and popped out on their own the moment I kissed the ring.
"What are they doing the moment they come out...?"
It was clear from the circumstances that they weren't hostile toward me, but they were being so cruel. Still, I was too scared to stop them.
I watched them silently for a while.
But I wasn't simply spacing out. Curiosity had gotten the better of me, and I was observing them closely.
'Their joints are far too flexible for them to be simple dolls.'
They were about twenty to thirty centimeters in size. Visually, they were unmistakably wooden dolls. But the way they moved was just like monkeys.
I felt there was a limit to how much I could observe from a distance, so I gathered my courage, approached them, and picked one up.
The moment it touched me, it became eerily docile. Thanks to that, I got a chance to examine it closely.
'This doesn't feel like dead wood.'
"What... are you?"
Ding-
[Lowest-Grade Pygmy Warrior]
--------------------------
Attack: 15 (+10)
Defense: 15 (+10)
Piranian's Ancient Ring
Effect active.
--------------------------
"Close the status window."
So the ring boosts the summoned creature's stats too.
Or was that obvious, since it came out of the ring in the first place?
How do I dismiss a summon?
For the moment, I tried saying something that sounded plausible.
"Dismiss all summons."
"K-Kieeek!!"
"Waaah!!"
The Pygmies were sucked back into the ring. At the same time, a message window appeared.
Ding-
[The command for dismissing summons is 'Delato.' The command has been automatically translated, and the Pygmies have been dismissed.]
------------------------------
Would you like to keep this setting?
Accept(Y) Reject(N)
------------------------------
"...Accept."
There was no reason to use monster-speak when I wasn't used to it.
Good.
I'd gained an unexpected windfall. I wasn't confident in fighting directly, so having beings who could stand in for me in an emergency was a stroke of luck.
Besides, my mana recovered when I summoned the Pygmies again.
Of course, there was a slight loss, but it would be worrying in its own way if it recovered completely. Nothing in this world came without a price.
I folded my arms and muttered,
"So... what now...?"
Despite asking the question, the answer came quickly.
First, I had to get out of here as soon as possible.
The Pygmies had chopped the corpse into pieces, making even a remotely plausible excuse impossible.
Fortunately, Kim Young-hak's van was still there.
I grabbed only a few simple belongings from inside and left.
'The navigation is working fine... Getting to the city shouldn't be difficult.'
After driving nonstop for several hours, I managed to reach Cairo.
***
"Skill window."
Swoosh!
[Skill List]
-----------------------------------
Claw Blades LV.1
Enhances the claws.
Confusion LV.1
Disorients the target's mind.
Pygmy Summon LV.1
Summons Pygmies.
(Maximum number currently stored: 2+5)
Pygmy Sculpting LV.5 - Mind Bonus (+4)
Creates a lowest-grade Pygmy.
Creates a low-grade Pygmy.
Creates a mid-grade Pygmy.
(Essence and wood required)
-----------------------------------
I examined the skill window as I walked through the slums.
Since I was now both a murderer and in a monster's body, my first priority was finding something that could get me out of this situation.
But then...
"Hmm... For now, this Confusion skill looks useful."
"الرجاء النقر فوق يوصي!!"
"اريد ان امارس الجنس معك"
"What the hell are you saying? Quit following me already!"
I shouted without meaning to.
A bunch of close-shaved kids and teenagers had been trailing me ever since earlier.
I kept waving them away in annoyance, but it did no good.
'What the hell do they want...? Huh?'
Tap—tap—
I felt something touch my chest.
When I turned my head, I saw someone repeatedly pressing his elbow against me.
He was a boy who looked about middle-school age.
He pretended to be distracted, but the gesture was clearly deliberate, making me sigh.
......What a crazy bastard.
"Hey, stop while I'm asking nicely, okay? You may not understand my words, but you can understand my expression, can't you?"
"وجه لطيف (Feisty.)"
"What?"
Groping—
......Huh?
He was openly groping me?
I froze in confusion for a moment. It was my first time experiencing something like this, and I had no idea what to do.
Perhaps thinking I couldn't fight back, the other children began approaching as well, watching for an opportunity.
'M-My body... I haven't even properly touched it myself yet...!'
Was this how women felt when they were sexually harassed?
I was furious that some nobody was enjoying my body for free.
Deciding I couldn't just sit there and take it, I tripped him with a leg throw.
"Die, punk."
Crash!
He fell straight to the ground, then immediately scrambled back to his feet.
I hadn't used enough force to injure him, but he looked around with his eyes opened wide.
'Embarrassed?'
I sneered at him.
"Before you see something worse..."
"من فضلك أوصي (Egyptian Punch!!)"
He wasn't going to give up without a fight. He was probably acting this way because he didn't know I was an Awakened—or rather, a monster—but it was truly pathetic.
I lightly dodged his punch and returned it with a slap.
Smack! He fell over again.
"اقتراح (Ugh!)"
"You want more?"
"يرجى التعليق أيضا (Interesting. Actually, he's the weakest among us.)"
Then one of the boys sitting a little farther away spoke. Since everyone around him fell silent, he seemed to be the leader.
He was even holding a piece of lumber.
'That's a problem...'
No matter how strong an Awakened person was, unless they were a high-ranking Hunter, getting hit with something like that would hurt. Besides, this body didn't look like it had any defensive abilities at all.
......Should I try using that?
As the leader charged toward me, I activated one of my skills.
Ding-
[Activating skill 'Confusion LV.1.']
[Randomizing the target's aggression.]
Rapid footsteps—!
"أحبك نوبل!!! (This is revenge for my little brother, you bitch!!!)"
Wham! Wham!
"ماذا تكتب الان!! (Huh? B-brother, it's me, bro!!!)"
'Wow...'
The leader began beating the fallen boy instead of me.
Even though his companion kept shouting something right in front of him, he paid no attention and continued swinging the lumber.
I was beginning to understand what the Confusion skill did, so I stopped the one doing the beating before things went too far.
'If something serious happens, I'm the one who loses out.'
I had used the skill in the first place so I wouldn't have to lay a hand on them. If the police came because of this, I'd be the one in trouble.
After that, I quietly left the area and headed as far into the city as possible.
I had to get rid of Kim Young-hak's car somehow, so I took a route with few people around, but... I now knew that this place was hell.
"It's a good thing the Pygmies didn't wreck my wallet..."
When I reached the city center, I used Kim Young-hak's money to buy some simple clothes. I'd expected people to stare at my beggar-like outfit, but other than the lecherous looks, I didn't notice much.
......But there were quite a lot of those lecherous looks.
I needed to learn more about the Confusion skill. In the end, unable to bear the pressure, I only conducted a few experiments before finding a place to stay for the night.
The moment I entered my assigned room, I ran to the mirror, and only then could I properly examine my appearance.
"Wow... I only caught a glimpse of myself in the rearview mirror earlier, but..."
I was beautiful.
My features looked as though they were a perfect blend of Eastern and Western faces.
I was short, in the low 150s, and my soft, youthful features made me look young, but all my features were attractively defined.
'Why is my skin so white?'
It was skin like a vampire's, as though it had never seen sunlight in its life.
That made me start wondering.
...Wait, then could this body be a vampire?
No, but its appearance was completely different from a vampire's.
Most monsters' traits and appearances were well known, so there was no way I would mistake myself for one of them.
Then what about other pale-white monsters?
A succubus? Or a siren?
That couldn't be it.
Afterward, I thought of every humanoid monster I could remember, but ultimately, I couldn't find any connection to any of them.
"......Let's just sleep."
Both my body and mind were exhausted.
There was still so much I had to discover and so many problems to solve, but none of that was possible unless my mind was functioning properly.
So I went to bed early.
"Let's go, Raebi."
The next day, with the help of a Korean couple staying at the same inn, I headed to the Korean Embassy.
Someone had shown up in the middle of the night claiming to be a guide and tried to break in, and I had met the couple by chance while releasing the Pygmies to distract him.
They seemed to have no idea that the monsters who had torn their clothes to shreds as a prank belonged to me.
'L-Let's be careful...'
I'd ordered them not to hurt anyone, so why had they gone and done something like that?
I'd been experimenting to see how far the Pygmies would obey my orders, but I realized that things could turn disastrous if I wasn't careful.
"What brings you here?"
After the couple left, I barged into the Korean Embassy.
The building was larger than I'd expected, and I was wandering around without knowing where to go when a woman in her thirties wearing office clothes spoke to me.
'How should I explain this?'
"Um... I want to go to Korea."
"......?"
The woman's eyebrows rose once.
"Did you lose your passport?"
"Yeees..."
"How did you get to Cairo?"
......In the car of the man I killed.
Unable to speak, I kept my mouth shut for a moment and smiled awkwardly.
At the time, I had no idea what kind of enormous upheaval the words I was about to blurt out would set in motion.
I was simply planning to use my skill to get past this and board a flight to Korea.
Trusting only in Confusion, I answered without thinking.
"Actually, I don't remember anything."
"What don't you remember?"
"I mean, maybe I was kidnapped, but I don't remember a single thing from beginning to end."
The woman's eyes widened.
"K-Kidnapped?"
"Huh? Probably. It's just..."
"......This sounds like a serious problem. With so many disturbing incidents happening one after another, a directive came down. Just a moment."
......A directive?
The woman hurriedly began making a phone call. She nervously tapped the back of her smartphone with her finger.
A moment later, a man's voice came through the speaker.
-Yeah, Secretary Kim. What's up?
"Ah, Ambassador. It's just..."
-What is it? I'm busy, so get to the point.”
"......There's a young-looking woman here claiming to be a kidnapping victim."
-What are you talking about? A kidnapping?
"No, she says she doesn't have a passport either, and she looks foreign, but she speaks Korean..."
-......Bring her to the ambassador's office right now.
"Ah, yes, yes. Understood."
......Huh?
Ambassador?
"E-Excuse me, ma'am. Did you say ambassador?"
"Did you hear him? We're going to meet him now. He's the highest-ranking person here, so he may be able to help you."
"What? No... I just need you to put me on a plane...!"
"Yes, yes. We'll meet the ambassador first. Come on—this way."
......I'm screwed.
The ambassador had to be an Awakened of at least C rank.
How was I supposed to use my skill on an ambassador when it barely worked on ordinary people...?
Besides, if he was the Egyptian ambassador... Could it be Lee Chang-jin?
'I have to run.;
He was the most famous Korean hero in Egypt. Thinking I was finished if he caught me, I began trying to pull my hand free.
"Huh? Why are you acting like this?"
"Ah, it's just...! I suddenly need to use the bathroom!!"
"Oh, the bathroom isn't that way. It's this way."
...That's the right way!!
But the ambassador had already been informed.
There was never any escape route to begin with, and despite my countless excuses, I was dragged into the ambassador's office.