Chapter 43
“No signs of a concussion, right?”
“Yes. There aren’t any bruises either. Everything looks fine.”
“Ah, it seems he’s regaining consciousness.”
“Shh, everyone be quiet. Everyone except one person, leave. If we keep standing around here, Chief Gi will scold us again.”
Amid the medical team’s noisy whispers, Han Chasu sensed it instinctively. ‘I’ve been found out.’ Well, seeing as there was no mention of blood, it seemed they had only found out exactly as much as he had expected. ‘Should I call that a relief, at least?’ Swallowing a sigh, Han Chasu opened his eyes. Just as the medical team had whispered, only one person was standing by his side.
“Hunter Han Chasu, do you remember how you ended up collapsing?”
Of course he remembered. But he couldn’t very well tell the truth.
He couldn’t exactly say he had poured poison into his empty stomach to make a bound item drop.
In Han Chasu’s exhausted mind, everything that had happened before he lost consciousness flashed past like a panorama.
So, it had happened right in the middle of his checkup. After two hours of being dragged through as many as fifteen examination rooms, when he was finally given time to eat. [We have news that Hunter Geum Myeonggyeol, guild master of Exilis, entered the country one hour ago. According to an official, Hunter Geum Myeonggyeol, who resides in the United Kingdom….]
Han Chasu had seen it. ‘God damn it.’ The fact that the future owner of the earrings had once again set foot on Korean soil.
Soon after, just as expected, the Awakened Management Bureau began to stir.
“I heard he was about to come straight to the Bureau, but Exilis stopped him. Anyone know anything?”
“Geum Myeonggyeol tried to come here as soon as he returned?”
“Yeah, that’s what the Exilis people were saying.”
“Isn’t it because of that? Those guys who fought at the item exchange are locked up in the detention cells.”
“Right. Those guys are still there, aren’t they?”
Listening closely to the words of the people passing through the corridor, Han Chasu instinctively realized it.
The reason Geum Myeonggyeol had tried to come to the Bureau was because of him. There was no doubt. ‘He must have heard I was on the verge of death and tried to come watch for an opportunity.’ When the owner died, a bound item dropped on the spot. In other words, whoever picked up the dropped bound item became its owner. Geum Myeonggyeol was probably worried about that.
Once Han Chasu thought that far, a shadow fell over his face. With a grave expression, he gripped the handles of his wheelchair. ‘If this goes wrong, Geum Myeonggyeol might just try to kill me.’ From the standpoint of efficiency, it made sense. Rather than going through the trouble of keeping him alive and coaxing him, wouldn’t it be better to get rid of him while he was weakened? Even if Jeong Iheun questioned him later, all he had to do was brush it off by saying Han Chasu had already been sick to begin with. In truth, he had been carried into the Bureau in a state close to suspended animation, so there would be plenty of witnesses too.
“We’ll be going in now.”
Cold sweat ran down Han Chasu’s back as he entered the examination room.
It seemed he would have to settle this today, no matter what.
And so, after returning to his new hospital room, Han Chasu devoted himself to finding a method that could put him into a state of suspended animation in one go. ‘I had poison, didn’t I?’ While rummaging through his inventory, he found half-used reagent bottles. A hollow laugh filled Han Chasu’s face as he stared at the bottles.
A way to inflict an injury severe enough to endanger his life in a short time, while leaving no wound behind.
Wasn’t that exactly what poison was? ‘Why did I only realize this now?’ He had been trying to find a difficult path with an easy one right in front of him. It was almost absurd.
Han Chasu locked the hospital room door and quickly began making poison. Naturally, only after checking that there were no listening devices or CCTV cameras inside. ‘All right, then.’ [ Poison Manufacturing (A) ] [ Poison Manufacturing (A) ] [ Poison Manufacturing (A) ]
Each time he used the skill, small effects burst out with little pops. Deep down, he had worried that he might suddenly start coughing up blood as some kind of penalty, but nothing of the sort happened.
Thankfully, his damned cover identity seemed to have granted that a potion maker was allowed to make poison.
“Hmm….”
There were three types of poison he had made in total.
An A-rank persistent bleeding poison, a B-rank neurotoxin, and likewise a B-rank sleeping poison. ‘I wanted to make something stronger.’ Unfortunately, the Poison Manufacturing skill could only make poisons whose recipes he already knew. Still, this much seemed to have a fair chance of success. Besides, while the variety was limited, the quantity was plenty.
Han Chasu swept roughly ten bottles of poison into his arms and headed to the bathroom.
Then he lay beneath the shower, turned to its maximum pressure, and opened the lids.
The sharp, pungent smell that stung his nose was soon swept away by the streams of water.
Gulp. As he slowly drank the poison, the earrings had already been inserted into his earlobes.
Soon, along with the sensation of his insides rotting away, blood surged up and poured from his mouth.
“Cough, hack…!”
His esophagus burned hot. His eyes became bloodshot, and his fingertips instantly turned blue. No sooner did clots of blood fall drop by drop than the fierce stream of water swept them away. [ Warning! ] [ You have suffered a fatal wound! ] [ Status abnormality “Persistent Bleeding” has occurred. ] [ Health is decreasing. ] [ Health is decreasing. ] [ Health is decreasing. ]
System windows began to surge upward like mad. Han Chasu hurriedly threw the poison bottles into his inventory. As an added measure, he tossed his upper body out of the bathtub in case the earrings were swept away by the water.
Yes, that was his last memory. And then….
“Ah, right. The Chief told me to give you this.”
“……?”
The staff member handed him a small box that had been placed on the bedside table. Han Chasu accepted it without thinking, then widened his eyes.
Inside the box lay a small pair of earrings.
The very earrings he had been wearing—the cursed Earrings of Resonance. ‘It worked… wait.’ “What’s wrong?”
Han Chasu stopped the medical staff member, who had been about to turn away. Then, shaping the words with his mouth, he asked her. ‘Did the Chief give this to you himself? Was he with me when I collapsed?’ “Pardon? Yes. He personally carried Hunter Han Chasu to the bed. He also changed your clothes.”
“…….”
“What’s wrong?”
With a pale face, Han Chasu called up the system message window again. ‘…
It’s not there.’ The message windows that had covered his vision before he fainted. Among them, there had been no warning message saying he was entering a state of suspended animation. ‘Then how on earth was the bound state released?’ Han Chasu’s eyes were filled with confusion as he looked at the earrings. Surely the item could not be released unless he died or entered a state of suspended animation.
However, the confusion lasted only a moment. [ Warning! ] [ The energy required for the passive skill “Regeneration” is critically insufficient! ] [ A restriction will be added to conserve energy. ] [ Currently applied restriction: Watch Your Tongue ] [ Searching for an additional applicable restriction…. ] [ Search complete. ] [ Analyzing the target’s activity patterns and applying the restriction optimized for energy conservation. ] [ Restriction: Sufficient Sleep ] [ To smoothly maintain the Regeneration skill, 8 hours of sleep per day are required. ] [ Caution! Adequate sleep is an essential element of health. ] [ Please be sure to keep your sleep schedule! ] ‘This is insane.’ Perhaps this was the consequence of pouring ten bottles of poison into an already frail body. The Regeneration skill had fastened a new shackle onto him.
“Hunter Han Chasu, Hunter Han Chasu? Are you sleepy? Should I turn off the lights on my way out?”
Through his gradually fading vision, Han Chasu shouted. This wasn’t an overpowered skill; it was a trash skill.
However, thanks to the skill that had even confiscated his voice, his curses never reached anyone’s ears.
And the next morning. ‘I’d like to see Chief Gi Taeyeon.’ As soon as he opened his eyes, what Han Chasu demanded of the medical team was none other than Gi Taeyeon.
***
“Hello, Mr. Han Chasu.”
Gi Taeyeon appeared while letting out a yawn, and the man’s face looked far more exhausted than usual. ‘Come to think of it, they said he came here after being at the detention center explosion site yesterday.’ For someone who disliked working, he was quite a diligent man. And also an extremely suspicious human being.
As Han Chasu stared at him silently, he naturally began rummaging through his coat.
“What are you doing right now!”
“Ow.”
“A cigarette in front of a patient? Are you in your right mind?”
“Ahh….”
After being struck on the back of the hand, Gi Taeyeon tilted his head back with a hollow expression. At that look, as if he had lost all hope, Han Chasu frowned.
Even in the original work, he had never been able to keep a cigarette out of his mouth. At that level, it was an addiction.
But whether Gi Taeyeon was addicted to nicotine or not had nothing to do with him. He had called him here for another reason.
Han Chasu took out the Post-it notes the medical team had brought him and wrote something on one. Scratch, scratch. At the sound of the pen brushing over the paper, Gi Taeyeon lowered his head.
“……?”
The blue eyes that looked at the yellow Post-it note blinked blankly. Not because he failed to understand the contents.
“You called me here just to ask this? Whether I was the one who changed your clothes, Mr. Han Chasu?”
It was because he found it absurd.
Seeing Han Chasu nod with an indifferent expression, Gi Taeyeon burst into laughter.
“Ha, seriously…. Fine. I personally undressed you while you were soaked, dried you off from head to toe, even put you into a nice, soft change of clothes, and laid you gently in bed. Happy now?”
His attitude said that if Han Chasu had a problem with it, he should come at him. But far from being startled or angry, Han Chasu merely blinked quietly.
Scratch, scratch.
He held out another Post-it note. Gi Taeyeon no longer even felt like laughing.
“…….”
When he did not answer, Han Chasu stuck the Post-it note onto his knee. With an utterly annoyed expression, Gi Taeyeon said,
“Fine. I was changing your clothes, and they kept getting in the way, so I took them off myself. No, did you really call me here to ask me this?”
Han Chasu nodded with a faint smile.
This made it certain. ‘Gi Taeyeon doesn’t know the earrings are a bound item.’ He was not curious at all about how they had been released when he had not entered a state of suspended animation, or why ownership had not transferred to him despite it being a bound item. ‘I can just hand them over to Geum Myeonggyeol and run.’
Now there was no longer any need to remain with Cheonryeong Guild.
Han Chasu smiled quietly.
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