“Maybe?”
“Resisting the Knight’s Oath was because of my awakened attribute... That parchment is actually an item that exerts mental influence.”
I stammered through the explanation.
It sounded strange even to me, but in truth, mine had been a case where I hadn’t awakened with the usual kind of active skill. Other people said that the moment they awakened, the knowledge of their ability suddenly surfaced, like a memory that had been sleeping deep inside their muscles.
Even after awakening as a psychic, however, I couldn’t produce so much as a spark or push an object any meaningful distance.
Most of the skills I had demonstrated recently were things I had learned afterward through experience.
“....”
That should be enough of an introduction.
“Cough, keugh...”
As you already know from hitting me yourself, I’m fairly durable—at least when I’m in decent condition.
For someone who was supposedly merely an S-rank, the toughness of my outer body rivaled that of a full-fledged defense-type Hunter.
On top of that, even without taking any special measures, this body possessed an unusually high resistance to mental interference.
So, after forcing the words out by straining the muscles of my neck, I finished with this conclusion.
“...Maybe my awakened ability is, broadly speaking... some kind of power that protects me from external forces.”
I left most of the implications unspoken, but that man was unusually interested in magic. He should have been able to understand the rest on his own.
After all, the so-called “skills” of Earth were merely phenomena that people had observed one by one and then recorded.
How accurate could such a system really be?
‘There must still be plenty of magic that hasn’t been properly registered yet, including abilities that their users deliberately keep secret. And even the information already recorded about magic can hardly be considered complete.’
I continued pressing the same argument.
I honestly didn’t know the exact details myself. All I knew was that, for as long as I could remember, my body had automatically nullified outside threats.
And the scope of that defense wasn’t limited to physical force.
Since there was no previously registered information to compare against, Earth’s psychics could only infer the nature of their innate talents through personal experience.
“I don’t know either. I really don’t know why I have this kind of ability... I just awakened after getting bitten by a dog... and this is simply how my body turned out...”
“Awakened... because of a dog-bite accident?”
I hadn’t forgotten to mix a genuine incident into the lie to make it more convincing.
I explained in detail why I had supposedly been immune to the Knight’s Oath.
Kang Changho remained silent for a long while, his arms crossed.
‘Is he thinking it over?’
Several seconds passed.
At last, Kang Changho seemed to reach some kind of conclusion and shifted his posture. Resting one hand near the erector muscles of his lower back, he spoke.
“All right, then. Let me ask you this.”
“That sounds plausible.”
“....!”
The PIXY notation only seemed simple because it resembled a game interface.
But as someone had once said, a skill itself was actually a rather complex concept.
An awakened ability devoted purely to preserving the mental and physical integrity of its owner.
It was vague, certainly, but there was nothing impossible about such an ability existing.
Kang Changho appeared to have reached a similar conclusion. He nodded with a fairly receptive expression, seemingly accepting a good portion of my argument.
‘Oh!’
Unfortunately, too many suspicious details still remained for him to believe me completely.
“But you know.”
The next question came almost immediately.
“Here’s what bothers me. With such an excellent ability, Mr. Kim... why did you go out of your way to pretend you were an F-rank?”
Of course, answering that wasn’t difficult.
I had no idea what line of reasoning had brought him all the way back to this question, but I had already addressed that suspicion long ago.
“...Back then. I told you I’d been badly injured and couldn’t use my strength for a while... didn’t I explain that already?”
“Hmm.”
“Even if I was born with a powerful defensive ability... when my mana is completely depleted, th, that ability doesn’t work.”
“So?”
“...Then what’s left... my rare ability is basically just resistance to mental effects. A, and, well... there’s no particular benefit in revealing something like that to the world....”
“Normally, no.”
“Come on. It’s not like I’m the only awakened person in this world who hides their abilities.”
The blue nails embedded in my upper body interfered with the circulation of magical energy required for a sorcerer’s breathing.
But I deliberately refrained from blocking their effect in order to conceal the fact that magical tools had no real influence on me.
As a result, the strange, almost unsettling tremors running through my body became useful props, lending urgency to my plea.
With a cracked voice, like a patient suffering from a parched throat, I continued desperately insisting on my innocence.
“I really am nothing at all......”
When someone went to such lengths to explain himself, surely anyone with even a shred of conscience would at least pretend to listen.
“The things Lee Hwayoung said... there were just complicated family circumstances involved. I can explain everything.... There were reasons why it couldn’t be helped...”
But at that moment, Kang Changho, who had been quietly listening to my claims, turned his back on me.
Then he began striding toward one side of the room.
‘What is this?’
The underground room was dimly lit overall, and anything beyond the reach of the lone ceiling light had initially been difficult to make out.
But as the conversation continued, this mammal’s eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness.
Objects that had been invisible only moments ago now came into fairly clear view.
What I saw looked like something one might encounter in a slaughterhouse in Hoengseong.
The S-rank Hunter approached a workbench where a series of objects had been arranged in a row.
And the true nature of the items occupying that workbench was—
“....!”
Several mana potions.
Screaming Stakes.
Surprise Boxes.
And a Hydra.
They were pieces of equipment I knew very well.
More precisely, all of those artifacts must have come from the same item box.
If there had been only one of them, perhaps I could have dismissed it.
But with that exact collection laid out in front of me, there was no possible way he didn’t know they belonged to me.
And that wasn’t the only bad news.
From the moment I opened my eyes, I had already sensed against my skin that the necklace I normally wore was missing.
Now I finally discovered what had happened to the absent [Pyromancer Necklace].
Looking closely, I saw fragments of a gemstone—presumably the pendant from the necklace—scattered near the right edge of the workbench.
‘Wait, fragments?’
Shards of something solid, mostly gold with a small amount of red mixed in.
‘Keugh...’
To put it simply, Kang Changho had completely destroyed one of my possessions.
More specifically, the unfortunate victim had been the [Pyromancer Necklace].
And judging by the fact that every other item—equipment I had never once used to flaunt my strength or intimidate anyone—remained perfectly intact without so much as a scratch, there could only be one explanation for this act of property destruction.
‘That damn Earthling bastard... He’s still holding a grudge over the time I showed off my power with that necklace.’
Even though my income had increased considerably thanks to tutoring and various side jobs, the price of the Pyromancer Necklace still felt painfully high.
I swallowed my tears as I stared at what remained of an item worth roughly 50 million won.
Kang Changho, however, had no interest whatsoever in the victim’s feelings.
He cared only about achieving his own goal.
Tak, tak.
He walked steadily to the workbench and picked up a magical tool positioned on the exact opposite side from the shattered necklace.
‘Hmm.’
My possessions weren’t the only things lying there.
Alongside the confiscated belongings of the kidnapping victim were several tools that presumably belonged to the owner of this room.
And among them, there was one item that unquestionably possessed the highest value.
‘[Justitia].’
Kang Changho returned carrying a silver scale.
A faint sense of unease began to creep over me.
I wasn’t worried about Justitia’s two effects—the ability to distinguish truth from falsehood and the intermediate weakening spell, [Judgment], which targeted those who lied.
‘Come to think of it, is it around ten o’clock now?’
The problem was the very fact that the tool had returned to its rightful owner.
Justitia.
At one point, I had considered using that item as bait to lure Kang Changho.
I had therefore proposed transferring the scale to another Earthling.
But Seonwoo Yeon hadn’t refused simply because it belonged to someone else.
Surprisingly, she had pointed out that Kang Changho’s hair might itself be used as bait, and therefore it would be better for us to keep firm possession of the scale.
‘The Association employee was right. After all, forcing the opponent into a one-room apartment immediately was always a plan with a low chance of success...’
In the end, Seonwoo Yeon had left the one-room apartment still carrying the Scale of Truth.
If the magical tool had already made its way back into Kang Changho’s hands, then that meant he had reestablished contact with the Association employee.
“Kim Giryeo.”
Naturally, I became concerned about the safety of that B-rank Awakener.
I rolled my eyes, thinking it over.
Then Kang Changho, holding Justitia, placed one hand on the top of the scale and spoke.
“—And including the consciousness controlling that body, are you truly completely unrelated to Dungeon Shock?”
It sounded as though he was attempting to identify the creator of the Gates.
I gave a slight nod.
“Yes.”
Crack!
Strictly speaking, the Gisimche had fled to this distant galaxy after being pursued by an archmage.
Only afterward had Earth become entangled in the Gate phenomenon.
Depending on the exact wording, then, my statement could easily have been judged false.
Fortunately, however, I had already discovered a countermeasure against Justitia earlier that very day.
So there was no danger.
The right pan of the scale tilted downward.
‘Considering that he entrusted this magical tool to Seonwoo Yeon, does that mean he still trusts Justitia’s function despite what he said at the beach?’
Seeing the result, I thought that perhaps now—after going so far as to rely on the magical tool—he might finally begin accepting my claim.
‘Huh?’
That was when the owner of the room tilted his head and stared intently at Justitia’s result.
“Hmm, the right side. So, the right...”
He observed it carefully for a long time.
And then—
“Well, I suppose you could have done something to the scale during that time.”
Tuk.
A massive Korean hand, befitting someone nearly 192 centimeters tall, suddenly seized something with tremendous force.
What it had closed around was a cylindrical part of the body measuring roughly 36 centimeters in circumference.
In simpler terms—
my kidnapper was strangling me.
‘The mammal caught the alien!’
Oh my!
The barrier generated by the [Sacred Tree Seedling] began to wear away in real time.
Kang Changho showed absolutely no mercy.
As though he genuinely intended to crush the alien’s neck, his grip tightened further and further.
His strength steadily rose.
About 20%.
Then 44%.
Finally, 68%.
This was bad.
‘Oh my.’
One minute later.
In less than seventy seconds, the limit of the protective effect was suddenly almost upon me.
The magical barrier, barely holding together beneath the continuous pressure, weakened at an alarming rate.
As a result, someone’s body began returning to the frailty appropriate for its original F-rank status.
And soon afterward, the Earthling’s characteristic keratin fingernails dug directly into the sternocleidomastoid muscle of my neck.
Crack.
If he continued applying that same amount of force, there was no doubt the area would eventually be crushed all the way down to the bone.
But the instant my body’s defensive ability sharply declined, Kang Changho did something unexpected.
‘What now?’
The mammal reduced his strength.
Now he applied only enough pressure to obstruct the other person’s blood flow.
Looking more carefully, the area he was pressing appeared to be near the carotid artery.
And the reason Kang Changho had chosen the carotid artery, of all places, was—
‘I see.’
Anyone knowledgeable about modern magic would have understood immediately.
Kang Changho, Korea’s third S-rank Hunter, had first shattered the barrier of the Sacred Tree and then begun repeatedly tightening and loosening his grip around the prey’s throat.
At first glance, it might have seemed like a meaningless action.
‘So this is a fact-check.’
Crack.
When heavy pressure was applied from the outside, an unpleasant sound resonated through my closed vocal cords.
What did all these actions mean?
‘This bastard understands far too well how heavily a mage is affected by breathing!’
Restricting a person’s breathing just enough to interfere with it, without causing death or unconsciousness, was actually a primitive method used to determine who had cast a particular spell.
When a mage’s airflow was disrupted, most magic connected to them would become unstable at the same time.
‘That...’
Kang Changho tightened his grip around the alien’s neck muscles once more.
Throughout the irregular pattern of compression and release, he calmly kept his gaze fixed on Justitia, which he held in his other hand.
He was checking whether the judgment value fluctuated even slightly.
‘Uh... yeah. I really don’t think I should die like this. Looking at the bigger picture, for the sake of this entire planet, I should probably get rid of that mammal first—and then maybe rest afterward...’
The blood vessels of the person beside him were practically bursting in real time, yet Kang Changho cared only about that cold scale.
He watched it with the concentration of someone checking the markings on a glass measuring tube.
Fortunately, the countermeasure I had prepared against Justitia was unaffected by this kind of verification.
To be precise, the judgment had already been finalized and transmitted to the scale the instant the statement left my mouth.
In other words, there was no possibility of my trick being exposed.
At least not by a primitive Earthling.
However, technical success aside—
wasn’t the behavior of this third kidnapper becoming deeply concerning?
‘Kang Changho. You definitely bought this testing method from somewhere, right?... You didn’t figure it out yourself through actual field experience, did you?’
As time passed, I found myself increasingly curious about the source of the information the kidnapper was using.
At the same time, various ethical concerns regarding Earth’s black market began surfacing in my mind.
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