Used to Enhance Lifetime Luck - Chapter 64 (64/196)

Episode 15. Hunting the Defectors (3)

The special passive skill that the Gold Goblin Trio obtained upon evolving to B-rank.

The moment they acquired the skill, the goblins began coveting food as if possessed by a ravenous spirit.

But Dukkeugi and Samkkeugi at least had some self-control. Even when starving, they knew to follow Ted’s orders and restrain themselves. Dukkeugi was being loyal to earn Ted’s attention, while Samkkeugi simply feared Ted’s scolding.

But for some reason, unlike the other two goblins, Ilkkeugi wouldn’t even listen to Ted when food was in front of him.

Kki-eek?

The wide-ranging feaster, Ilkkeugi!

It was an everyday occurrence for him to eat pretty flowers while climbing a mountain or to try eating insect-type monsters.

He had often eaten poisonous mushrooms and come down with , or suffered after eating cacti in the fields.

‘Even so, I never thought he’d eat Jamnyeokchung…’

This was a meal beyond imagination.

No matter how thoughtlessly the creature shoved things into his mouth, how could he eat even the ancient secret weapon that Pixie had prepared?

“You little—Ilkkeugi!”

Ted hurriedly used Cheonritgil to grab Ilkkeugi by the ear and pulled him up.

Kiiieeeek!

The creature immediately let out a sound.

Ted thought it was because his ear hurt from being grabbed… but it wasn’t. Ilkkeugi was smacking his lips with a happy expression!

‘What, is he not affected by eating Jamnyeokchung at all?’

Ted pondered for a moment seeing the creature’s bright face, then let go of the ear. Soon the excited Ilkkeugi rushed toward the other . And then he began devouring them.

The Jamnyeokchung had a liquid-like appearance, but on closer inspection, they were monsters with small, grotesque mouths. Seeing them merge their bodies with one another, it was assumed they were in a jelly-like state similar to slimes.

Something Ted wouldn’t eat even if paid, yet Ilkkeugi was happily eating it.

It was the expression Ilkkeugi often made when eating spicy food.

‘Wait. If Ilkkeugi can eat these…’

“Dukkeugi. Samkkeugi. Go eat up all the Jamnyeokchung!”

Kkig! Kkigik.

Dukkeugi and Samkkeugi also belatedly came to the area around the fallen NPCs and began putting Jamnyeokchung into their mouths.

Kkiiit! Kkiiiiit!

But wasn’t Ilkkeugi threatening those very Dukkeugi and Samkkeugi?

‘Oh dear… Ilkkeugi.’

Ted simply watched the situation unfold.

Dukkeugi and Samkkeugi moved far away and began putting other Jamnyeokchung into their mouths. Perhaps the taste was just mediocre to them, as they didn’t make a fuss like Ilkkeugi.

Fearing that his food(?) might be stolen in the meantime, Ilkkeugi began absorbing the Jamnyeokchung like he was possessed. He pursed his lips into a circle and, with intense suction, *swooosh!*… used an absorption skill.

‘Could those disgusting things really taste that good?’

Just as Ted was puzzling over it, a status window popped up.

‘Hm?’

There was indeed one puzzling thing. Normally, the skill would raise stats along with experience the moment they ate. Because the food entering their stomachs at that moment was not digested, but absorbed.

But right now, even after eating, no particular status windows were popping up for the Goblin Trio. Moreover, Ilkkeugi’s belly had bulged. In other words, they had failed to it.

‘I guess this is happening because the type of food is different somehow… Well, anyway, this is good. It’ll all be over soon.’

The Jamnyeokchung that had burst from the nine NPCs’ bodies varied in size, but their number was around one hundred. Ilkkeugi, who had eaten over thirty by himself, was still eating. Which meant that three goblins should be able to eat all hundred or so Jamnyeokchung.

If the situation ended safely like this, he could return home safely.

…Just as Ted was thinking that.

A red status window rose above the Jamnyeokchung.

‘Uh-oh?’

It was a red status window signaling danger.

At the same time, a countdown began in the lower status window.

Even Ted couldn’t tell what it was. was a term he was seeing for the first time.

But red status windows only appeared in extremely dangerous situations, like when a boss monster entered phase 2!

“!”

Surprised, Ted unleashed at them.

The creatures flinched in surprise and turned to look at Ted.

“Eat the Jamnyeokchung as fast as possible! As fast as possible!”

.

Somehow, the moment he saw the skill name, Ted felt the Jamnyeokchung were going to explode.

After hurriedly ordering the Gold Goblins to eat, Ted began running toward the entrance of the burrow. If something exploded in this narrow space?

The goblins would simply be unsummoned and that would be that, but he himself was different. He would definitely take enormous damage!

‘No, no, no. The Resurrection cooldown is in progress, so if I die now, it’s over!’

The usage cooldown of the potion was 50 days. Ted absolutely could not die during that time.

Because of that, while the extremely tense Ted was frantically unfolding numerous footwork skills and running through the burrow—

Kwaaaaaaaaaaang—!!!

An explosion so loud it shook heaven and earth rang out.

At the same time, terrifying air pressure and heat slammed into Ted’s back. Though the heat only grazed him for a moment, Ted’s life force drained by over 20% in one second. It was because Ted had no fire resistance or explosion resistance whatsoever.

‘No!’

At this rate, he was done for!

Timing it carefully, Ted used to jump as far as he could.

But at that moment.

Having reached 95% a few days ago, after fighting several battles here, Light Step, whose mastery had finally reached 100%, began to evolve.

The moment Ted was surprised, the evolution finished.

Active (Mana cost: 200 / Cooldown: 10 sec)

For 3 seconds, you can move on two feet to any place where light exists. At the start of movement, a Dash with skill usage speed × 2 is applied for 1 second.

Movement speed increases by 1% for every 1% increase in mastery.

‘Huk! Please! !’

Seeing the skill pop up like that, Ted gritted his teeth and used when his life force had dropped to 15%.

Soon his body received the effect and shot forward at 3x speed for 1 second.

‘W-with this, I can survive…’

But as soon as the Dash’s 1.5x speed effect ended, Ted was engulfed by flames, became a fireball, and was blown out of the burrow.

* * *

‘Keurg…’

Ted, shocked, crawled out of the hole trembling.

‘I almost died for real…’

His life force had fallen below 10%, and just before death, triggered. Due to Indomitable’s effect, Ted’s attack power was converted into defense, allowing him to barely survive with 3% life force remaining.

He had survived, at least. Though his entire body was charred!

But the crisis wasn’t over yet.

Ted had about 250 life force remaining. Because fire had stuck to his body, he was afflicted with [Scorching], and having been struck evenly across his whole body by the exploding flames, he became [Battered].

Surprised, Ted hurriedly used a footwork skill and rolled around in the muddy water near the hillside at the hole’s entrance. And then he unleashed on a passing rabbit. Soon his life force, which had been nearing 1%, surged back up.

‘Whew… I almost died for real.’

To think he’d taken such damage even after Indomitable triggered…

Ted burned the skill called into his memory. If he ever encountered it again, he would run while putting much more distance between them.

Somehow surviving, Ted returned safely to camp.

‘…These bastards.’

As he moved, the guys including naturally came to mind.

He had almost died from a fatal penalty. If Ted died now, he would have to twiddle his thumbs in the netherworld for about 22 days. At such a critical time!

Although he had survived somehow, the losses Ted had suffered because of were not limited to that.

“Hey, Ilkkeugi. You okay?”

Kki-it… kii-it….

Ted had returned to the temporary barracks of the 1st Assault Unit and, just in case, tried .

But while Dukkeugi and Samkkeugi were fine, Ilkkeugi, who had shoved several times more Jamnyeokchung into his mouth, was clutching his stomach and rolling around.

As far as Ted knew, when a summoned creature was unsummoned, all status effects were automatically dispelled. But it seemed that wasn’t always the case.

Ilkkeugi was still lying down complaining of stomach pain. As if he had been waiting for this moment, thanks to some past grievance, Samkkeugi pressed Ilkkeugi’s stomach with a stick he’d picked up from somewhere. As a result, Ilkkeugi was truly suffering.

Ted quickly restrained Samkkeugi.

Ilkkeugi remained in that state all day. Every time he was unsummoned, Ted resummoned him. And then laid him on the bed and kept watching over him.

Just in case, he tried feeding him digestive medicine that NPCs took, but it had no effect.

The creature’s mental status window that popped up due to the skill .

The creature simply lay there, continuing to suffer.

But… as he kept watching Ilkkeugi like that, Ted felt something rising in his chest.

“Ilkkeugi. Did I or did I not tell you not to stuff your face like that without my orders?”

Kki-eek….

“This happened to you because you didn’t listen to me!”

Ted yelled at Ilkkeugi, irritated for no good reason.

At that, Ilkkeugi curled up and cowered.

‘Sigh, really…’

Seeing that, Ted lost even the strength to scold him.

Truthfully, Ted could endure being angry about the ambush. But for some reason, seeing Ilkkeugi in pain made him furious.

‘I am patience itself… Calm down. I don’t care about anything else. I can’t let these bastards get away with this.’

The fire in his chest wouldn’t subside unless he took revenge.

‘But I can’t be tied up here for long.’

When they had been hit by the lightning mine back then, experience had risen three times with slight intervals. Meaning all three had died. Then it would take at least about ten to twenty days until they resurrected. Ted couldn’t stay holed up here for that time.

There was nothing to be done about that. Because Ted had to finish the siege as soon as possible and go level up.

‘Still, I can’t just let the guys including go. Moreover, if guys like that keep remaining in Karon… the liberation of Karon will face difficulties one way or another.’

Right now, when everyone’s wish was the liberation of Karon. In their haste to liberate Karon, the had been half-heartedly letting the extermination of defectors slide. At least in his opinion, that was the case.

Ted needed a way to get revenge while also reliably catching the defectors in the current situation.

“You guys. Not now—once Ilkkeugi is all better, torment him.”

Kkig. Kkigik.

Leaving those words with Dukkeugi and Samkkeugi, Ted logged out.

* * *

Soon, Cheon Gyeongu waited for Cheon Si-u to log out before calling him.

—Hello.

“Yeah, hyung. It’s me.”

Cheon Gyeongu briefly summarized what had happened during the day. Then he asked his older brother for two things.

—Ah, yeah. So?

“Just station twenty people at the Gwoelreun Fortress. So we know when they log in—at every respawn point.”

—Hm… and what else?

“This is just my thought, but I think we need to catch the defectors who switched nations. Either lock them up in prison or kick them out.”

—Hm….

Cheon Si-u let the words trail without much of a response.

—We are already working on the second thing. However, it’s easy to root out NPCs who have defected, but catching users who have defected is hard. Still, I’ll keep trying. But anyway… my little brother, you seem really angry because you almost died thanks to the defectors.

The nuance of his voice changed slightly.

A subtly grating voice. This wasn’t a tone born from the current situation.

Cheon Gyeongu hesitated for a moment at those words before continuing.

“You’re trying to tease me again by saying I’m like a pot? That I boil over for nothing and then cool down?”

—No. Don’t get me wrong.

“Treat me like an adult, hyung. I’m thirty now.”

—Who’s treating you like a kid? Everyone knows you’re the number one contributor to this Karon independence movement.

Cheon Si-u quickly changed his voice to a calmer tone.

Matching him, Cheon Gyeongu let out a sigh. It was because he had been acting that way since he was young.

“This time the situation is different. Even you would have drawn a blade and rushed in if you were in my shoes.”

A heavily sunken voice.

In response, Cheon Si-u reacted seriously.

—What happened.

Cheon Gyeongu, pondering how to phrase it for a moment.

The hesitant man finally opened his mouth.

“My baby got hurt.”