Chapter 132: Building a Nest (10)

Seong Min-hyeok grumbled, his voice at odds with his massive build. Despite his complaints, his gaze never left the bizarre golden figure. He maintained a stance ready to strike at any moment.

"That old man always dumps the annoying tasks on me."

Kim Jong-su wasn't a bad person. He never assigned tasks that were beyond one's capabilities. If a job was dangerous, he'd even try to dissuade others and handle it himself. However, he often passed on cases with disproportionately small rewards to his juniors, making all sorts of excuses.

Yet, after such tasks were completed, he'd buy lavish drinks or give generous gifts for the family. In a way, he was both an annoying senior who brought troublesome work and a generous one.

'It's annoying, but he probably thought I could handle this on my own.'

Kim Jong-su never assigned impossible tasks. Therefore, dealing with this sorcerer or whatever it was should be something Seong Min-hyeok could handle easily.

He carefully examined the being before him:

A bizarre entity.

An insect-human hybrid wearing golden armor.

A form that could be neither human nor monster.

He couldn't understand why it had emerged from the well, why it had killed the loan shark, or why it stood there blankly without trying to escape.

He knew nothing.

This is unsettling.

Seong Min-hyeok sighed inwardly as he watched the strange being staring at him with gleaming eyes.

Its appearance was so bizarre that if he had a junior nearby, he'd want to dump this task and run away too.

But what could he do?

If he didn't like it, he should have been senior to the Ghostblade. If he wanted to pass it on, he should have had a junior nearby.

Seong Min-hyeok glared at the bizarre being, ready to draw up his qi at any moment.

He glared.

He glared and glared.

He glared at the gleaming eyes, glared without turning his head, and even searched with his qi sense while glaring...

As he continued to glare, he suddenly felt a surge of irritation.

"Damn it..."

He didn't expect it to turn its head or roll its eyes.

But shouldn't it at least blink?

It wasn't like they were having a staring contest.

Why on earth was it behaving like this?

"What the hell are you here for?" Seong Min-hyeok blurted out, annoyed.

Realizing what he'd done, remembering Kim Jong-su's warning about 'sorcery', he quickly covered his mouth in shock. But Jinseong, as if not wanting to miss the opportunity, answered the question with gleaming eyes:

"I am here for the Unified Republic of Korea."

This answer was something the Patriotic Association would love to hear.

For the country.

For Korea.

Wasn't this the phrase the Patriotic Association loved more than anything?

Seong Min-hyeok, enticed by these words, was about to ask another question but stopped himself.

If asking questions was sorcery, then the answers must be sorcery too. He didn't want to become the target of sorcery with unknown effects.

No matter how strong a martial artist he was, unpredictable sorcery was threatening.

But Jinseong continued as if to reassure him.

"I have seen the future. A brilliant flame like the sun rose from the earth, and its light overturned the whole world. The dust that rose up, turning the earth's crust inside out, became dark clouds, sprinkling terrible black rain everywhere. That flame was like the one that rose twice in Japan long ago, truly brilliant yet evaporating everything without a trace, like the sun itself. Ah, seeing that, I couldn't hide my utter dismay."

His words were an extension of Seong Min-hyeok's question and contained enough to bewitch him.

But Seong Min-hyeok just tilted his head in confusion.

"What are you talking about...?"

It was like reciting sutras to a beast or giving a university lecture to an elementary school student.

Seeing this reaction, Jinseong smirked.

No wonder he left this to him.

There's an old saying:

An ignorant ghost doesn't recognize a talisman.

Seong Min-hyeok was the same. He was too ignorant to understand even half of what was said, let alone be bewitched by words. He would likely misinterpret or let the words go in one ear and out the other, no matter how elaborate the metaphors.

Moreover, he was too simple-minded and already had blind beliefs, making it difficult to interfere.

I wanted to beguile the Patriotic Association, but instead I got this beast in human skin.

As far as he knew, the End Times Well should have been managed by the Patriotic Association. It was an important yet relatively low-risk environment, so it should have been staffed by those the Association considered "promising"...

Tsk. Instead of the Patriotic Association, the Patriotic Group has taken over, and it's not even a promising youth but an old man who's good at scheming in charge.

To make matters worse, the old man, not having wasted his years, had left behind a person difficult to deal with for someone good with words. It was truly a headache, but...

There was still a way.

If he couldn't bewitch peacefully…

Why not bewitch by force?

"That's a good question. So I'll explain simply," Jinseong said briefly but with weight.

"I have seen the future. And those I killed deserved to die."

Seong Min-hyeok looked at Jinseong in disbelief.

"What did you say?"

He seemed so dumbfounded that he forgot he should be cautious of sorcery.

"No, well... Ha."

Seeing the future.

At those words, Seong Min-hyeok scratched his head in confusion and took out his smartphone.

He sent a text message to Kim Jong-su, who had already left in the helicopter.

[ Brother. This bastard says he can see the future. ]

After a while, a reply came back.

[ He's a sorcerer, so of course he can do fortune-telling. Why are you contacting me about something like that? ]

[ No, it's not like that. I'm telling you, he really seems like he can see the future. ]

[ Come on. Why are you suddenly acting like this? Just think of it as nonsense like usual, why are you so restless? ]

[ No, seriously, the atmosphere is really strange. ]

[ Stop talking nonsense and just handle the job well. He seems skilled at running away and hiding, so focus on not letting him escape. ]

"This guy, really..."

“That’s good.”

Seong Min-hyeok was about to complain while quietly looking at the text messages, but he jumped back in surprise at the sound right next to him. He saw the bizarre being's head with its neck stretched out like a turtle where he had been standing, and his face contorted.

"Whoa, you scared me! What are you trying to do, you bastard?!"

A question thrown out in surprise.

Jinseong grinned at that question, his mouth splitting impossibly wide.

No, his mouth actually split.

The jaw part of the golden mask cracked open, drawing an arc, and a smile stretched long enough to reach his ears. The drawn line deepened and became a deep hole, from which wriggling things poured onto the floor.

Thud.

Thud thud.

Thud thud thud thud.

"You've asked three correct questions and heard the answers, yet you haven't paid the price. Well, this is troublesome, very troublesome indeed."

The wriggling things were made of banknotes. Numerous insects that looked like they were made of folded banknotes covered in gold dust writhed on the floor as if alive, twisting their bodies and creating a disgusting scene.

Then, something curled up like a ball slowly rose, stretched out its wrinkled wings as if ironed, and flew up into the sky, flapping its wings. The flying things looked like butterflies or moths, and at a glance, they could be mistaken for clouds.

As countless banknote insects swarmed around Jinseong, those that had fallen to the floor also began to form shapes as if they couldn't be outdone.

There were spiders moving with pointed, curled banknote ends as legs.

There were centipedes with square-folded bodies and numerous short, pointed legs protruding from both ends.

There were crickets and grasshoppers hopping around with long hind legs.

These disgusting things made of banknotes swarmed around Jinseong.

"Listen here. I answered your questions, so why aren't you paying the fee?"

The banknote creatures clung to Jinseong's body as if he were a tree. Centipedes and spiders crawled up his legs and stuck to his body, while winged insects folded their wings and attached themselves, occasionally spreading them as if claiming their spot. Crickets and grasshoppers hopped a few times before settling on the upper part of the armor.

The insects that clung to him returned to their banknote form, sticking to the surface of the golden armor like stickers. After this was repeated several times, Jinseong's entire body was covered in banknotes.

The sight was like...

A mummy wrapped in banknotes instead of bandages.