The moment I saw Je Hyun-oh, only one thought crossed my mind.
My subordinate!
I wasn’t the least bit curious about how on earth he had entered a trial with a strict personnel limit.
He missed me.
So much that he couldn’t wait a single second.
Quite a bit of time had passed inside the trial, but outside, it must have been a mere instant.
The fact that he couldn’t even endure that and came searching for his master brought an involuntary smile to my face.
I looked at my subordinate with a smile.
He approached me with slow, deliberate steps.
Footprints made of blood stained the floor.
The one who approached, leaving red marks in his wake, stopped in front of me and scanned me over.
I could feel his gaze sweeping over me.
I loved the moment when my subordinate thought of nothing but me.
And as expected...
His original form is the best.
The appearance that mimicked a human was not my subordinate’s essence.
I loved the metallic wings-the strongest and fastest--the metallic hands that could rend anything, and the golden pupils embedded in the center of his eyes.
My subordinate, who had been staring intently at my smiling face, finally shifted his gaze.
CEO Cha stood frozen, sword in hand, at the sudden appearance of my subordinate.
This was likely a first for him as well.
Forcing one’s way through the system of a trial.
It was an act that deviated from the standard, shaking the very foundations of order and law.
"Lt. Col. Je... I didn’t know you had such a talent."
My subordinate showed no reaction to CEO Cha’s words.
He simply kept CEO Cha framed within his darkened goggles.
Kwang!
Then, he immediately unleashed a blow with his metallic hand.
The white sword and black metal collided.
After a brief, precarious friction, Je Hyun-oh swung his metallic wings.
CEO Cha recoiled, but the sharp blade had already grazed his skin.
Blood splattered, staining the test subject’s clothing in dots.
Je Hyun-oh pursued the retreating CEO Cha, swinging his metallic hand.
As CEO Cha leaned forward instinctively to avoid the blow, his upper body shifted.
Je Hyun-oh didn’t miss that split-second opening and drove a kick straight into CEO Cha’s solar plexus.
CEO Cha’s body was slammed instantly into the wall. The wall buckled around him, resembling a meteor crater.
As Je Hyun-oh approached the man embedded in the wall, his metallic hand made a continuous grinding sound.
CEO Cha briefly lifted the bottom of his mask and spat out blood.
Readjusting his mask, he gripped his sword and stood up in silence.
And just as they were about to clash again.
< Press This Button> Clear!
- Glorious?? Death!! Ending.
I was in the middle of a battle, caught between the system window popping up to block my vision and the ego of a social misfit.
’I have to stop them quickly...!’
Je Hyun-oh looked poised to cut off at least one of CEO Cha’s arms.
However, my subordinate needed a toy to vent his anger on.
Which.. was a fair point.
Since CEO Cha had snatched me away right before his eyes, Je Hyun-oh wouldn’t calm down easily.
I could stop him by imposing a restriction, but that would only work for a few seconds.
I could already see him lunging back in immediately.
What if I just let them play for 80 seconds?
80 seconds?
I examined the popping system window.
[’Han Goyo’ makes a name for themselves in Akasha!]
[■■ ■■■ is smiling! They are watching you, completely fascinated.]
[Current Recognition: 10.001%]
Although the system window announced that I had made a name for myself, the recognition had only risen by 0.001% upon clearing The Cell-X.
It was such a minuscule increase that I felt grateful it was even displayed.
Meanwhile, Mr. Black Block didn’t miss a beat and watched the whole thing.
I was starting to suspect if he spent 24 hours a day just staring at me.
As I continued to check the system window, I was startled.
[The trial < Press This Button> has ended.]
[In 80 seconds, the trial will be permanently clo?sed?? clo-clo-closed-closed-close it! Close it! As the child god wishes! closed.]
[You are NOT the max? contrib? utor?? No. No. No.]
[You may take ’0* items.]
Though the text was strangely corrupted, the notification stated that it was closing.
It was a True Ending.
However, perhaps because it was an abnormal clear, there were no items to take.
As I looked at the glitching system window, a new image suddenly appeared on the floor.
Large letters were displayed.
[Press this button!]
It was the name of the trial.
I looked at the floor in confusion for a moment before shifting my gaze back to Je Hyun-oh and CEO Cha.
The white sword was barely holding off the onslaught of the metallic hand and wings.
The feathers that weren’t blocked were shredding CEO Chas clothes and skin.
This is fun.
I watched with satisfaction as my subordinate went wild.
The brilliantly exploding exchange of light was entertaining.
Screeeech!
The metallic hand scraped long across the blade of the white sword. Sliding up the sword, the metallic hand aimed for the mask.
As CEO Cha jerked his head back to avoid it, the fingertips left a shallow, long gash under his chin.
A red line appeared instantly, and blood trickled down.
But before it could even stain his collar, the next attack followed.
Blue veins bulged on the back of CEO Cha’s hand gripping the sword.
He slashed the Great Sun Tathagata horizontally, unleashing a burst of white sword qi.
Pushed back by the sword qi, Je Hyun-oh braced himself against the floor with his metallic hand.
He was slowing down to avoid slamming into the wall.
Beast-like claw marks were carved into the floor, sending sparks flying.
CEO Cha immediately pursued him, launching a counterattack.
However, just before he swung the Great Sun Tathagata.
For a split second, our eyes met.
In that tiny moment, the tip of the sword wavered momentarily.
Simultaneously, Je Hyun-oh unfurled the six wings on his back with a sharp clatter.
An eerie metallic sound echoed, and the wings decomposed into feathers, pouring down toward CEO Cha.
In such a narrow space, there was no blind spot to escape to.
"..!"
Ultimately, a black metallic feather embedded itself in CEO Cha’s thigh.
As if possessed by a will of its own, the metallic feather moved automatically, digging into the flesh and scraping the bone.
CEO Cha’s body staggered violently.
Subsequently, feathers embedded themselves in his other thigh and both arms.
The thick scent of blood snapping me back to my senses.
It was truly time to stop them.
Why? Let’s play a bit more.
Just as I was about to impose a restriction, ignoring the thoughts of the social misfit.
The world distorted in a kaleidoscope of colors and began to melt away.
The 80 seconds had passed.
Right before exiting the trial, the text displayed on the floor began to change.
[Press! Press! Press! Press! Press! Press! Press! Press! Press! Press!]
The word ’Press’ filled the floor densely.
Then, suddenly, all the words vanished, and a single sentence was printed.
I didn’t get to see the final sentence before I was ejected from the trial.
[This has been Day News!]
To think I found it entertaining to watch Je Hyun-oh and CEO Cha fight.
The thought process of a social misfit wasn’t just crazy; it was a different level of crazy.
I had a feeling the two of them would keep at it even after getting out.
The moment my consciousness returned, I snapped my eyes open.
"..?"
Prayer beads were tangled everywhere.
"I knew it, I knew this would happen."
Kwak Han-mook stood in the middle of the ruined CEO’s office with his arms crossed.
The prayer beads extending from him had me, Je Hyun-oh, and CEO Cha tightly bound in mid-air.
For some reason, Je Hyun-oh was bound quietly, appearing as if his mood had improved slightly.
CEO Cha was bleeding heavily.
Since he was bleeding from all four limbs where the feathers had been embedded, the pool of blood gathering at his feet was steadily widening.
And beside him, Mo Hae-in was pointing the Black Moon Blade at him with a cold expression.
"Seriously, CEO Cha, you’re fucking something else."
Kwak Han-mook narrowed his eyes and glared at CEO Cha.
"Where did you learn the etiquette of throwing a guest who came for a hospital visit into a trial?"
CEO Cha said nothing.
Then, Mo Hae-in, still aiming the Black Moon Blade at him, spoke softly.
"CEO Cha. The Era Bureau is also capable of using force."
She then cast a glance to the side.
"The responsibility is clear, so please ensure the subsequent handling is dealt with decisively."
Mok Sae-hwa and Seo Moon-chan were standing by the office door.
They had expressions that said ’the inevitable has happened’.
As if they had expected this from the moment they planned this hospital visit.
Seo Moon-chan stepped forward with a genial smile.
"I am truly sorry, Captains."
Without making excuses, he apologized immediately and made a polite request.
*Pasung will provide separate compensation for this incident. If it’s alright, could you please return the CEO to us?"
As if annoyed, Kwak Han-mook moved the prayer beads and flicked CEO Cha over.
Mok Sae-hwa and Seo Moon-chan immediately caught him.
CEO Cha, rejecting the directors who tried to support him, looked at me.
He stared silently into my eyes, which would have returned to their normal color, no longer gold.
"CEO Cha."
I called him first. Then I spoke calmly.
"I hope something like this doesn’t happen again in the future."
As if the moment I had shown my ’social misfit’ self in the trial never existed
CEO Cha let out a short laugh.
That was it. In the end, he said nothing.
Under Kwak Han-mook’s arrangement, I was to return to the Era Bureau.
Je Hyun-oh was loaded into a container that Kwak Han-mook had prepared in advance.
To prepare for any unforeseen circumstances, Mo Hae-in decided to board the container with Je Hyun-oh.
And before entering the container, Je Hyun-oh beckoned me with his metallic hand.
I quickly approached him and whispered the words I had wanted to say for a while.
"I’m sorry for making you wait..."
At that, Je Hyun-oh took off his goggles and pushed them up onto his head.
The man, revealing his eyes with golden pupils once more, stared at me.
"Goyo."
He smiled, his eyes narrowing.
"Aren’t you curious about how I got in?"
"If l ask, will you tell me?"
"No."
"But keep being curious."
"Excuse me...?"
Je Hyun-oh put his goggles back on and disappeared into the container.
While I was talking to Je Hyun-oh, Mo Hae-in signaled Kwak Han-mook.
After exchanging a silent message with Kwak Han-mook through their eyes, she closed the container door.
And I returned in the military vehicle that Kwak Han-mook had brought.
It was the same type of sedan Je Hyun-oh had driven, but the ride quality was like heaven and earth.
Sitting in the passenger seat, I praised Kwak Han-mook’s driving skills while glancing at the back seat.
It was filled with desserts from the cafe I had intended to visit.
There was an endless supply of paper bags and cake boxes stamped with the cafe’s logo.
’So this is what he meant when he said he’d go buy them himself.’
It seemed he had already planned to come to Pasung from the start.
"I bought coffee, so drink up Chestnut."
Kwak Han-mook gestured with his chin toward an iced americano in a cup holder as he turned the steering wheel.
Next to the coffee, a refreshing fruit smoothie-like drink was also placed.
I drank the coffee and looked at the system window in front of me.
◆ < Han Go-yo> Epic Quest: Close 7 trials within two months.
[Currently closed trials (2/7)[
[(Warning! If the quest fails, your eyeballs will be extracted! If successful, eyeballs are maintained.)]
By closing The Cell-X and PTB, I had now filled 2 out of 7.
However, I felt that PTB was definitely not enough.
Judging by the timid increase in recognition, at least.
I felt somewhat dazed.
The fact that Je Hyun-oh tore through the trial to enter, and the fact that he got angry to the point of speaking informally to CEO Cha.
It all felt unreal, like a dream.
’How on earth did Je Hyun-oh get in?’
Forcing entry into a trial with a personnel limit.
The image of the metallic hand that seemed to slice through space was vivid in my mind.
Moreover, it didn’t seem like he had done this for the first time.
’And yet, it’s not an infection...’
I tried to ponder it while cooling my heating head with coffee, but there was no way an answer would come.
There was too much I didn’t know.
I forced myself to shake off the temptation to dig deeper into Je Hyun-oh and shifted my thoughts.
Still, thanks to Je Hyun-oh entering PDB, I was able to regain my composure to some extent.
Until then, I had been acting completely irrationally.
I had momentarily lost control of my emotions and screamed at CEO Cha.
No matter how much he had scraped me to the bottom, it was an excessive reaction.
I felt a bit of regret, but I felt that even if I went back to that moment, I wouldn’t have been able to hold it back.
Still, one thing became clear.
Both CEO Cha and I were hiding things from each other, but neither of us had any intention of revealing them first.
It was a situation where we couldn’t trust the other.
Even if I were to tell CEO Cha everything first.
He wouldn’t give up his own secrets.
For someone who even had the ’Distrustful’ trait, there was only one way to get something out of him right now.
’He’ll only open up if I sign that hamster contract.’
Setting aside the impossible method, I slowly continued my thoughts.
That wasn’t the only irrational behavior.
As a child god, I had peered into the delusional researcher.
Because I had looked into him without knowing the proper limit, the NPC had completely lost his mind.
And yet, I didn’t feel any particular emotion about it.
Rather, since he was already broken, I only thought about digging deeper into his mind.
’What if I act like that toward Lt. Col. Je or the Captains?’
I was afraid that in a moment when I couldn’t control myself, I might do something strange.
Especially since the Captains didn’t even clearly know what a god was...
It was while I was weakly sipping my coffee amidst these jumbled thoughts.
"Goyo."
"Yes."
"Are you okay?"
"Yes. I’m fine."
Kwak Han-mook, who had glanced at me, sighed for some reason.
"A kid who said they were going for a hospital visit ends up entering some trial and coming out."
"...I’m sorry."
"No, CEO Cha is the crazy one. Captain Mo and I were shocked."
He examined my face once more and spoke.
"Tell me what happened."
I recounted the events at Pasung as briefly as possible.
Since it would have been shared with Samra through the phone I possessed anyway, I also confessed about Geum-cheon and reporter Sa Gong-yeon.
And as for the story in the trial with CEO Cha... I explained it with some parts omitted.
Kwak Han-mook listened throughout, giving short responses.
And only after my story ended did he speak in a low tone.
"About the dispatch contract. If it’s burdensome, I’ll try to resolve it somehow."
But the dispatch contract with Pasung was also for my own sake.
When I told him again that I was fine, Kwak Han-mook was silent for a moment.
He frowned slightly and tapped the steering wheel with his finger.
"Captain Kwak."
"Huh?"
"Thank you for coming today. I survived thanks to you and the other Captains."
"Ah. I was planning to go anyway."
He said that while they were waiting nearby, Samra detected the entry into the trial and sent Kwak Han-mook up to the CEO’s office.
After giving me a brief explanation of the situation, Kwak Han-mook drove in silence for a while.
Then, as if he had suddenly remembered, he spoke.
"You have to move your lodging tomorrow. Pack your things tonight."
Since I had already heard from Samra, I immediately replied, "Understood."
"Where am I going?"
"You’ll be moving to the Era Bureau official residence, Chestnut."
Is that really okay?
It wasn’t for nothing that they had kept me in the isolation ward.
Even if it was meaningless, there was a need to show others that they were doing something.
I naturally assumed the new place would be similar to the isolation ward.
Perhaps feeling my gaze, Kwak Han-mook chuckled and called out a six-digit number.
"The house password."
I memorized the numbers immediately and asked back.
"But Captain Kwak. Is it okay for me to stay in a general residence?"
"It’s not."
"Then..."
"I decided to be the person in charge of the Little Chestnut."
He spoke while keeping his eyes on the road.
"It’s a three-bedroom residence, so it won’t be cramped even with the two of us... but there’s nothing in the house except beds. Tell me if you need anything."
".. Am I staying in the same lodging as you, Captain Kwak?"
"Yup. So I can tie you up with prayer beads if you cause trouble."
As I stared with wide eyes in shock, Kwak Han-mook chuckled.
"Even if you’re dissatisfied, just bear with it. Otherwise, you’re back to the isolation ward."
"N-no. I have no complaints.
I truly had not a single complaint. That’s why I was more worried.
"I’m fine, but I’m worried you’ll be uncomfortable, Captain Kwak..."
Since he had been living comfortably alone and now had to bring in someone he had to monitor, it would be inconvenient for him.
I checked his reaction out of worry, but Kwak Han-mook only smiled.
When the car stopped at a red light, he leaned over the steering wheel and looked at me.
Then he spoke playfully.
"Get ready, because I’m going to work you like a f***ing recruit."
"’Yes. I’ll do all the cleaning."
After that, I talked with Kwak Han-mook about the move.
Since Captain Mo also lived in the same building, we chatted about miscellaneous things--like grabbing late-night snacks together every now and then and soon arrived at the Era Administration Office.
After agreeing that Kwak Han-mook would pick me up tomorrow morning to handle the move, I returned to my quarters.
It was just as I closed the door and was about to set down my duffel bag.
"..."
The strength left my grip.
Thud.
The bag hit the floor.
"Roasted Chestnut?"
A surprised voice reached my ears.
Someone leaning over brought their face close to mine, observing me in my frightened state.
I couldn’t say a word; I just trembled.
At that, he let out a short laugh and began to collapse his form.
The 3-meter-tall man shed his human appearance and transformed into a grotesque shape.
Countless pupils of varying colors stared at me, and then, he slowly began to shrink.
And finally....
He returned to a form I recognized.
A tiny, blue-lit slime called out to me from atop the table, looking soft and squishy.
"Now, Roasted Chestnut. Is it alright now?"
"..."
"Am I not this small? I am in a form that cannot possibly cause you any harm."
"..."
"Roasted Chestnut."
I forced my feet to move. I slowly approached him.
Looking at the small slime, my heart gradually began to settle.
As I drew closer, Dominic looked up at me and spoke.
"I took a brief moment to look around the perimeter of Roasted Chestnut’s planet. I apologize for disappearing without being able to tell you."
After offering a gentle apology, he showed me his shimmering form.
I tried to ask if he had a safe trip, but the words wouldn’t easily leave my lips.
Just as I was struggling to part my lips, the being who sparkled like the stars of the infinite universe whispered.
"I noticed that Roasted Chestnut is in possession of my property."
I immediately thought of the signet ring I had received from 3Clean.
Then, in a kind, low voice as if trying his best not to scare me he spoke.
"Will you return it to me now?"
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