After enduring the pitiful gaze pouring from Geuru for some time, Chuen finally managed to say a single word.
“Thank you, Han Geuru.”
“Geuru is On Geuru now.”
Geuru twisted her body as if a little embarrassed.
“Ah, right……. That’s really good.”
Right?
It was the way someone would speak if they had known Geuru very well for a long time.
Finding it strange, Geuru asked cautiously.
“How do you know Geuru……?”
Ah, Chuen let out a low groan, and her indifferent face tilted to the side.
The reason she knew about Geuru was entirely because of On Jurim’s request.
‘The person who took Han Geuru to Milal Orphanage is already dead.’
……It would be better not to say that.
“The ‘spirits’ tell me. Everything.”
No sooner had Chuen finished speaking than colorful goldfish flew through the air around them, circling her round and round.
“Whoa……. These goldfish tell you?!”
As Geuru marveled at the beautiful sight, Chuen said slowly,
“Yes. For example…… that sprout you carry around was raised for you by your actor friend. They say it grew together with the potatoes.”
“Gasp!”
So that was it? She really knew everything, didn’t she? Geuru clapped her hands over her mouth.
Chuen lowered her eyes as she looked at Geuru, who was so surprised she had lost her words.
“…….”
Had she perhaps learned too much, enough to make the child uncomfortable?
Most people tended to feel unsettled by Chuen, who knew everything about them inside and out.
So the child might find her creepy or be reluctant around her, too.
She had thought she had gotten used to it and no longer cared, but for some reason, her mood sank.
Just as Chuen was closing her mouth with an indifferent expression—
“You’re supweme amazing!”
Geuru kept praising her with “supreme,” saying she was supreme amazing and supreme incredible, and at the modifier she had never heard in her life, Chuen looked bewildered and said shyly,
“I wouldn’t say supreme…….”
Before she knew it, a gentle curve had been drawn across the mouth that had been pressed into a straight line.
A vivid emotion she had not felt when she watched the child from outside the Boundary through the spirits reached her now.
The child’s enthusiastic reaction in person made her heart flutter.
“……This feels nice.”
I think I understand why everyone loves you.
After murmuring so quietly it was like wind passing by, Chuen suddenly sprang to her feet and turned toward the furnace.
At the same time, one of Chuen’s goldfish opened its mouth, and a bubble popped out.
‘Hm?’
The bubble gradually grew larger as it floated closer, then trapped Geuru inside itself.
Suddenly imprisoned in a bubble, Geuru opened her mouth.
“Huh?”
*
‘If I sing one more song tomorrow, the production crew will at least give me some food, right?’
Yes, she was a suspicious woman, but first she should feed her, then call the police or wake the others.
Just as the tearful Lee Romi took the rice balls and turned around—
A man had approached right in front of her.
When his eyes met the startled Lee Romi’s, he opened his mouth.
[“Why aren’t you asleep?”]
‘Chinese?’
Pssht!
In that fleeting instant, the man sprayed an unknown liquid into Romi’s face.
“Ah…….”
Thud.
Lee Romi collapsed to the floor like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
The man was about to reach out toward Lee Romi, but a pale arm appeared from the side and stopped him.
[“Chuen.”]
[“Did you not come looking for me, Zhang Wei?”]
[“There seems to be a misunderstanding, but it’s not entirely wrong. In any case, you are also part of my objective.”]
With his wrist held by Chuen, Zhang Wei shook her off with an unpleasant expression and pulled away from her.
The tension between the two filled the air.
Zhang Wei watched Chuen with his fists clenched, beginning to steady his rough breathing.
“Hoo…… hoo…….”
His ragged breaths faded until even the sound of breathing could no longer be heard.
[Activating skill ‘Night Parade of One Hundred Ghosts.’]
In the meantime, Chuen activated her skill, and as one goldfish seeped into Chuen’s body, the spirit’s mind and power began to dwell within her.
Opening her eyes, Chuen slowly spread her feet shoulder-width apart and lowered her center of gravity.
Her hands slowly but surely clenched into fists and opened again as she began gathering the energy within her body.
Sssss—
Her breathing grew deep and regular.
As the air pulled taut, Zhang Wei also tensed his muscles.
The Chuen before him now was a master of physical techniques.
But he himself was a hunter who had held a dan rank. Subduing her would not be too difficult.
‘More importantly…….’
Zhang Wei sharpened his senses and tried to find Jurim’s presence.
Every night, Jurim went out quite far, which was convenient for Zhang Wei as he plotted his move, but the fact that he could not know when he would return was a major risk.
If, by some chance, Jurim returned earlier than expected……
‘I have to finish this in one strike.’
All he had to do was attach the tracking device to one of On Jurim’s belongings, subdue Chuen, and take her to the Chairman.
The tracking device would melt and disappear the moment it touched skin, so even On Jurim would never notice. Then, not only Jjapso’s identity but even Hyeonak’s secrets could be grasped by the homeland.
That was the mission given to Ministry of State Security agent Zhang Wei.
Swish—!
When Chuen launched the first attack, he instantly widened the distance.
Then, after throwing up a smoke screen so the nearby mana could not be detected, he took out the item Lee Soyeon had handed him.
[Metallic Armor Changer (S)]
A round sphere filled with viscous liquid centered around a magic stone.
When he placed it near his chest, mana swirled, and Zhang Wei’s body slowly began to change.
With a metallic sound, something wrapped around his body.
Thin metal covered his skin as though forming new muscle fibers over it.
Chuen moved to stop it, but in an instant, an ironclad arm that had hardened solid blocked her attack.
The iron armor took shape along his arms and legs, each joint moving organically in harmony with his form.
He slowly raised his head and faced Chuen.
Then the outline of the armor became even clearer. Zhang Wei’s helmet, his entire body wrapped in sleek metallic fibers, resembled a skull.
[“Hoo— so this is how it feels. I could get addicted.”]
[“What on earth is that…….”]
[“A gift personally bestowed by the Chairman.”]
Seeing Chuen’s wavering eyes, he smiled in satisfaction.
At the same time, however, he had failed to realize that his transformed appearance had provoked someone.
As Zhang Wei took one step forward, the exchange of attacks began again.
Chuen was pushed back by his powerful assault and had no time to regain her senses.
Thunk—
From behind, a thick, bullet-shaped sponge flew in and bounced off Zhang Wei’s shoulder.
“……?”
He looked in disbelief toward where the sponge had come from, and there stood a child aiming at him with a toy Nerf gun that looked like something a magical girl from an animation would carry.
[Crystal Magical Nerf Gun (E)]
A friend to children with no real destructive power. Sponge bullets are infinitely recharged.
Increases the owner’s accuracy by 100%, and has a low chance of inflicting a slow debuff for 2 seconds on the target hit.
“Ha—!”
The moment Zhang Wei snorted at the cute light-purple Nerf gun—
Whoosh—!
A bullet flew at a speed his eyes could not follow and slammed into his shoulder.
He hurriedly lowered his head and saw that the area around his pauldron had been caved in.
Crackle!
Crack—
An electric field flowed out from the bullet mark, and the armor began to split.
[“What is this……!”]
While he was flustered, another sponge bullet flew at him.
Zhang Wei lightly swatted the sponge aside with his other hand.
But that was not the end of the attack.
The chick drone opened its mouth toward its target.
From the chick drone, swollen up like a dandelion seed—
Whoosh—!
An electric-field-guided bullet at Mach 7 was fired.
[“Krrgh!”]
There was no time to dodge.
No matter how hunters were a new breed of humanity that had surpassed human speed, avoiding something at that speed was impossible.
In an instant, the metallic fiber armor on his left and right arms shattered and fell away.
Zhang Wei was more flustered than he had ever been.
If this had happened during an exchange with Chuen, he would not have felt this way.
But to be hit by toy bullets like those.
There was no way to describe this situation except absurd.
Just then, Geuru put away the Nerf gun and began trotting closer with a fork held in both hands.
No matter how one looked at her, she was only an adorable child, but Zhang Wei, startled, took one step back.
In a situation where the drone’s bullet could fly at any moment, the sight of the child holding a fork was terrifying beyond measure.
[“Am I dreaming right now? Why does that child have a drone……?”]
Even if this was Hyeonak, they gave a five-year-old such a dangerous weapon?
At the sight of his unconcealable shock, Chuen, standing between Geuru and Zhang Wei, let out a laugh.
‘That’s because that child is the drone’s owner.’
And the owner of the Mephisto Series Prototype Mk.1, brimming with excitement, was running at full speed toward the battlefield where the exchange of blows was unfolding.
‘Why is she here?’
At this, both Chuen and Zhang Wei were flustered for different reasons, but right now, there was only one thing in the child’s eyes.
‘Miracle Change!’
The eyes of the five-year-old crafter sparkled.