CHAPTER 52……………………………….
“I checked.”
Kang Kwon-ho spoke down to Shiri without hesitation.
He can be pushy with people, sure, but he still uses formal speech with them. Is he thinking a mere system-made doll isn’t even worth that courtesy?
A small doubt crossed my mind, but it was quickly swept away by worry.
“Mr. Woojin, are you still not changing your mind?”
Everyone except me seemed to share the same opinion, and they were all waiting for what I would say. It seemed difficult to push my stance through on my own, but my anxiety hadn’t disappeared, so I couldn’t make a decision easily.
“Bro, don’t worry.”
Kim Jun tapped my shoulder and flashed a sly grin. Then he rose onto his tiptoes and whispered into my ear.
“Mr. Kang Kwon-ho personally coached me, you know. I got pretty strong.”
Jun glanced at Kang Kwon-ho and then quickly looked back at me. I had no idea where that confidence came from. Maybe it was just youthful bravado.
“If things get dangerous, you must surrender. Okay?”
“Of course. But that won’t happen.”
Maybe he was fearless because he’d never actually been in battle before. I figured if he had a few rounds of wits with Ga Gi-ho, he’d surrender immediately…
“He’s fast.”
About twenty minutes after the chosen participants moved to the map area, Jun was doing surprisingly well. First, he hid and watched where Ga Gi-ho was heading, then sprinted in the opposite direction and planted a flag at the nearest pole.
“Ah… so close.”
A map of the area Jun claimed lit up, but the location of the treasure wasn’t marked. Meaning there was no treasure where Jun was.
“There’s still plenty left.”
Then something even more surprising happened in the next area. Whether by coincidence or some unknown method of tracking Jun’s location, Ga Gi-ho appeared. I thought Jun would surely run, but instead he dropped to the ground and placed his hand on the floor. Purple liquid began flowing out of his palm, quickly spreading in a large circle around him. The range was wide—approaching Jun had suddenly become a lot more troublesome.
“He’s got good adaptability.”
Maybe it was because they both used poison-type skills in different ways, but seeing it reminded me of Park Jae-su, one of Kang Kwon-ho’s former subordinates. I was starting to understand why Kang Kwon-ho and Ryu Ji-su insisted Jun should participate. Jun actually knew how to fight intelligently.
— Scared? Try getting closer then!
He was even trash talking. The gentle, timid Jun I knew was nowhere to be found; instead, he radiated such aggressive energy that it overflowed.
[A hunter with poison skills?]
Ga Gi-ho underestimated him and got close to the poison, injuring his left hand.
[Stronger than he looks.]
Ga Gi-ho then backed off to a safe distance and analyzed Jun. Even then, Jun kept provoking him nonstop.
[Was… was Jun always like this? No, wait, no way. This is an illusion, right?]
Even watching and hearing him, I couldn’t believe Jun’s behavior or what he was saying. I started wondering if Shiri and Kei were showing us a fake feed.
“You’re watching well. I taught him properly.”
Kang Kwon-ho answered proudly, as if he had imparted something great.
So this is real? Did Jun’s personality get warped like that after all the mental torment and physical training he went through under Kang Kwon-ho? Like how some people turn into different people when they drive?
It was a reasonable suspicion. I looked back and forth between Kang Kwon-ho and Jun with a sense of blaming them for what they’d done to such a sweet kid.
“He acts like that during combat, sure, but he was never completely meek to begin with. He just… acts a little cute around you, Mr. Woojin.”
Even Ryu Ji-su felt awkward seeing Jun like this, though not as shocked as I was. Kids his age aren’t perfectly docile, sure. But hearing both Baek So-hyuk and Ryu Ji-su insist that Jun only puts on an act around me… I felt like the world was conspiring to fool me.
“At least it’s not as dangerous as we feared, right?”
“We still need to watch him carefully. We don’t know what that guy will do.”
I cleared my throat and argued back to optimistic Ryu Ji-su. Even now, Ga Gi-ho was circling and calculating his attack range.
— Come out, my babies.
Soon Ga Gi-ho summoned something with a sickening laugh.
“Ugh, gross.”
When the smoke from the summoning dissipated, a two-headed dog covered in falling chunks of flesh stood there. The sleeping cat, Yaong, jolted awake, growling.
— Ruff! Grrr…
The summoned dogs on screen barked wildly, then charged at Jun under Ga Gi-ho’s command. But before they got close, Jun summoned vine-like plants that bound the dogs and dunked them straight into the poison.
“Nice!”
Ryu Ji-su cheered, pumping her fist.
“Watch out!”
But despite being drenched in poison, one of the heads survived. It must’ve had high resistance. The dog’s eyes turned red, and it devoured its unconscious other head, growing larger.
“Jun! It’s okay to surrender!”
I shouted urgently through the radio as the beast charged again.
At that moment—
Bang.
Jun punched the creature’s head. The drooling dog collapsed instantly and didn’t get back up. I blinked, unable to process the series of unbelievable events.
“For the record, I taught him that too. Turns out he had a reinforcement skill once we pushed him hard enough.”
Ji-su…
“He was crying that it was too hard, but I kept forcing him up. Worth it, huh?”
Tormented by the two of them, Jun had become a remarkably capable hunter.
“So relax a bit, okay? The kid’s talented. His skill level was already 25 from the moment it manifested.”
Maybe because his summon had fainted, Ga Gi-ho backed off willingly. Another flag went to Jun.
So far, Jun held two areas while Ga Gi-ho held one. Unfortunately, Jun’s map still didn’t show the treasure.
“That crazy sadist coming to claim a new area probably means there wasn’t treasure in the first place he went to, right?”
Ryu Ji-su had apparently decided she didn’t even want to remember Ga Gi-ho’s real name.
“There’s no telling. You can’t interpret crazy people using normal logic.”
“Ga Gi-ho completely underestimated him earlier. If he’s playing casually instead of fighting seriously, he wouldn’t be desperate to find the treasure.”
Kang Kwon-ho added to my explanation. As expected, no one understood a madman better than another madman.
“But after seeing Jun fight like that, would he still underestimate him?”
Ryu Ji-su seemed to want to believe Jun was now ahead. From what we saw earlier, Ga Gi-ho did look like he was avoiding the fight, so from her perspective, cheering for Jun, that was understandable.
“Ga Gi-ho wasn’t even using full strength. We should keep watching.”
As for me, I couldn’t afford to relax. I’d never met Ga Gi-ho in-game myself, but anyone with a bounty was always trouble.
“Jun, don’t let your guard down. Who knows what Ga Gi-ho is hiding.”
Jun, still moving, nodded as the camera caught him.
“Can you hear me?”
This time, he didn’t respond verbally—just tapped the radio twice.
— Signal keeps cutting in and out.
Given the location, reception was unstable. Even with a high-end radio, this much interference meant the physical distance must’ve been huge.
— I’ll move carefully for now.
Using his small size to his advantage, Jun moved quickly, hiding in bushes whenever he sensed anything. Contrary to my fear that Ga Gi-ho might be setting something up, he reached the next area without trouble.
“There’s no one here either.”
As Ryu Ji-su said, Ga Gi-ho wasn’t at this pole either.
The moment Jun planted the flag, the treasure location appeared.
— Whoa!
Jun couldn’t hide his excitement and quickly covered his mouth.
At that moment, Ga Gi-ho emerged from the bushes with his signature disturbing laughter. He hadn’t been absent—he’d already claimed other territories and waited in ambush.
A massive black bird circled over his head.
