Five hundred million won’s worth of used car slicing through Paju’s dazzling night view.
“But wizard. What were you and your senior doing together?”
Right up until he started the engine, Jang Hyundeok had dug his heels in over the used-car issue, but his curiosity had since wandered somewhere else.
“Hm? What were we doing?”
Mm—how to put it?
For me it had been almost two months, but from Jang Hyundeok’s point of view only about two hours had passed.
We were shoved into time travel, I roamed the tainted wastes of a four-fifths-ruined world smashing monsters, looting treasure, raiding facilities tied to Helistic, and I met Gapurim.
And although I told Gong Isu I’d refused Gapurim’s request—
In truth I met Yang Seoho, warlord of the end times, last hope of humanity, savior of the wastes, and introduced him to Kkumul (for the record, even then Yang Seoho tried to kill me).
Anyway, a lot happened.
But that wasn’t what Jang Hyundeok wanted to know.
“Yeah. What exactly did you do there to end up dressed like that in such a short span?”
Ah. My outfit.
Obviously my clothes changed a lot during that stretch.
You could say I had an absolute blast clearing the post-apocalypse-themed DLC that didn’t exist in reality.
Right after a big event like that, veteran players usually end up in outfits that don’t match the vibe of the original story line.
“Is it that weird?”
“Mm—you were always weird, so...... it’s fine.”
Judging by his face, it’s very weird.
Fair—maybe it’s over the top.
Should I stow a few pieces?
I glanced down at my getup.
Which should I pare away: the goggles with seven lenses, the mask with an oversized filter, the battered leather boots, the backpack, the big shield strapped to my back, the staff with a human head and wings that was spraying five colors of radiance, the brass cogs stuck here and there on my clothes and spinning, or one of the extra pouches attached at the shoulder?
Of course I still had on the [Night Veil Wing Cloak], and at my waist I was properly rigged with the [Butcher’s Hook], the [Four-Sign Sword], and the [Blade of Flesh].
“No matter how eccentrically fixers dress....... I do think you’ll stand out a lot right now, wizard.”
“True. Hey, aren’t these goggles-and-mask pretty nice? Like this they become a mask.”
Click—clack, shrrr—
“How is it? Cool, right?”
But Jang Hyundeok said, aghast:
“Oh, my God....... Are you going to wear that from now on?”
Mm.......
Seems I’ve strayed too far from human society.
Thankfully, Heo Sanghyun had nothing to say about my outfit.
“I’ll prepare your meal while you wash.”
“Hahaha, I look pretty filthy, huh?”
“No....... It’s fine. Don’t wor—”
Grrrrr! Scrrriiik! Fffft!
“Eeeek!”
No matter how long I’m gone, the animal friends swarm me to welcome me home.
Sniff—yeah. I came home after two months.
Good to see you, little ones!
“Everyone, don’t get near Mr. Sinhwa! And Red, you had a bath today!”
But Heo Sanghyun would not allow the good animal friends to rub all over the grimy Kim Sinhwa.
“Please, go ahead and bathe, Mr. Sinhwa. I’ll get dinner ready.”
“......Yes.”
Was I really that filthy...... I’d better wash before Heo Sanghyun kills me.
I dumped every artifact dangling all over my body into the basement—
Clatterrrrr! Clang-clang! Kang! Thud-thud-thud!
Thanks to [Spatial Dominion], I could feel Heo Sanghyun’s gaze from the kitchen side. Sorry. I got a little excited.
Anyway, I went straight up to the second floor and sank into steaming hot water.
“Wow. Civilization is the best.”
Of course I can conjure hot water with magic—but here you just twist a faucet and hot water comes out.
When I came back down after a long wash, a Korean spread was set with nine side dishes.
“Huh? Uh? Mr. Sanghyun, why is this......?”
Mr. Sanghyun, it’s three in the morning.
I’m the lunatic who barged in at 3 a.m. demanding food, but I wasn’t expecting a nine-dish spread.
Unless this is.......
I looked at Heo Sanghyun with a trace of anxiety—
He smiled gently and spoke quietly.
“I don’t know what happened today....... I just tried to be a little thorough.”
Which is to say—
Uh—“You came home looking like a beggar, so a lot must have happened. I made plenty. Eat and keep your strength up, kid.”
I can almost see a halo flaring behind him. An optical illusion? Or am I insane? My eyes sting like I might cry.
“I can’t believe this.......”
The soybean paste stew, simmered with Cheongyang chili, is...... so spicy-clean it catches in my throat. And why is this lustrous rice so perfectly sticky? It’s so good I’m almost mad about it.
How on earth did he prep this many banchan in that short time and also fry pollock pancakes? Did he use magic? When Heo Sanghyun casts necromancy in the kitchen, the ingredients must run to him on their own and marinate and stir-fry themselves.
Damn it, Gong Isu, get back here. You need to be in this time and space too. Come here right now and experience the same rapture.
Ah, he stir-fried pork belly and kimchi in perilla oil. The slightly tangy, nutty kimchi and the big chunks of pork belly are dancing in exquisite harmony.
And this dongchimi with a crust of ice.
That musty, peppery, icy complexity shakes the soul of the Korean trapped in my flesh.
Jang Hyundeok shimmied into the dining room (“I made fifty million today, so I’m off work~”), then, seeing me shoveling rice like a famished ghost, blurted in alarm:
“Wizard, did something really happen?”
“No....... Nothing....... Nothing happened.......”
Nothing has happened yet.
Night.
“But wizard, why do you go out only at night these days?”
“Most fixers do.”
“You still used to move around in the daytime, right? Lately it feels like you’re committed to nights only.”
I looked out over Paju’s nightscape and said:
“I was cursed by a vampire.”
“Eheh?”
“Heh, Hyundeok, do you know what that means?”
“Huh? You suck blood too?”
“I’m holding back for now, but you should be careful.”
He’s an idiot, but this is Paju in [Cthulhu World], where impossible incidents crop up every day.
Not long ago a vampire with moth wings appeared on the Incheon Bridge and a horde of fixers swarmed there.
So when a mage who wields the supra-real freely says “vampire’s curse,” Jang Hyundeok—
“Amen!”
—reacting like that isn’t strange.
“Anyway. Looks like we’re here.”
“Yeah. We’re here. But are we really doing this?”
Beyond the flimsy green fence lay a sprawling lot jammed with all kinds of vehicles.
There were ‘ordinary’ cars you see everywhere—but this place deals in something more special.
“Explicit firearm possession is illegal, so how are those things being traded legally?”
Piles of heavy-weapon parts heaped like scrap at one edge of the lot. Vehicles closer to armored cars than automobiles. Bodies designed in grotesque ways for special purposes or for ritual intent.
“Mm? Well, fixers can’t work without those.”
“No, I mean this setting has no consistency or verisimilitude.”
A slapdash world with convenience patches stuck on all over.
Even the physics, the magic, the monster lore grind and clack without meshing consistently.
Take the lunatic dealer who sold a car to Jang Hyundeok.
22yo_low-credit_full-installment
2021_model_mana-stone_engine_full-mod
hello_this_is_Armor_specialty_vehicle_dealer_of_Paju_Gwangtan
today_a_customer_living_in_Paju_urgently_needed_a_fully_upgraded_combat_mana-stone_engine_vehicle_but_their_installment_limit_was_difficult_but_who_am_I
I’m_the_bulletproof_friend_of_Paju_fixers_and_special_activity_pros_>>Armor<<_aren’t_I
500_million_won!
approved_I_helped_them!
A post on the SNS run by the used-car dealer.
Attached below is a photo of that dealer in neon shorts with some punk with long blond hair hanging to his shoulders.
Hey, five hundred million won, ten-year term with a three-year grace?
For a resident of this world, who can’t even guarantee the next six months, that’s a remarkably farsighted outlook, isn’t it?
And sure, if he did this in a stable neighborhood with stable clients, I could buy it—but farming a ten-year plan on an unstable armored-taxi driver who could die any day?
“Let’s go.”
“Uh—am I going too?”
“Whose car are we here to get refunded?”
“My car?”
“Move it.”
“Ueh.”
He followed me wearing the face of a man having his ear dragged.
“Do we really have to refund it?”
Still not convinced?
I was weighing how to explain when my senses picked up something off.
“Ah, perfect timing. Hey, just watch with your own eyes and decide.”
I said that and triggered the trait attached to the [Nine Lives Mask].
[Unique function ‘Schrödinger’ of L-grade accessory [Nine Lives Mask] is activated.
// Schrödinger : Can reduce the owner’s presence to the absolute minimum. Duration scales with mental-fortitude modifier. Cooldown is 9,999 seconds.]
A prefab-shack office; young men in their early twenties kneeling; thickset bruisers ringed around them.
And a muscular thug lounging on a sofa, looking down on them with smug posture.
“Aww—well—times are tough, huh—hard to make the same money every month—”
This is the used-car dealer Jang Hyundeok called a good guy.
Name’s Armor. Probably just a handle.
One of the young men, face swollen from a heavy beating, clutched Armor’s ankle and begged:
“Please, just a little more time....... I’ll pick up one more job somehow and pay it all at once.”
From the feel of him and his latent power, he isn’t living a normal life either.
Looks like a mid-lower-tier fixer.
Armor giggled and shoved him off with his foot.
“Nah—nah—don’t do hard stuff—running around hunting monsters is rough—how about I introduce you to work that’s a bit—easier and guaranteed—”
Watching in a semi-phased state, Jang Hyundeok whispered in my ear:
“He says he’ll introduce a job?”
“Hey, you don’t see that?”
The big emblem on the wall.
A black, deformed human silhouette with a huge single eye painted in the center.
It means this place is an outlet under the Black King.
“Ah, you have to hang that if you want to do business in this area.”
There he goes defending Armor again.
“Don’t worryyy—our friend has good skills—rather than fighting unknown monsters in dangerous places—if you perform on a protected stage you’ll make money fast—thanks to meee I’ve got friends who sailed to success and got rich—”
“The arena is a no. Please! Just a little more time! I’m begging you!”
“Nah—I don’t know what rumors you heard—but the arena isn’t that dangerous—show business, I tell you—it’s all scripted—”
There’s an underground arena in this vicinity run by the Black King.
People vs people, monster vs monster—or monster vs person—bets laid while spectators watch. An illegal entertainment den.
Commonly called the Hell Arena—a hideous place.
“Got it? No—let me summarize the point. That thug never expected to get his money back in the first place.”
His goal is to stock bodies to shove into the Hell Arena.
Wow—come to think of it, if I’d sat on my hands, was an event going to trigger for Jang Hyundeok too? “Heh heh, then you’ll have to pay with your body.”
I’m glad I moved before the hassle started.
I dropped the trait and showed myself, addressing Armor:
“All right, lesson over. Hey, Neon Shorts.”
“Huh—? Who are you—?”
As Armor jolted in shock, I let my four eyes gleam and spoke kindly:
“Who do you think. We’re from the Red-Head Faction.”
“R-Red-Head?!”
