Geuru checked the photo. Why do they keep asking about something like this?
It's cool!
Onsuhyeong
“All right, I'll take care of this too. What would be a good name?”
“Mmmm.”
Geuru furrowed her brow, thinking of a cool name.
*
Inside the mansion’s dark and spacious room.
A boy who had been immersed in his game for a long while tapped the keyboard of the phone he had turned to look at sideways.
[Guild] BaldWizard: u fckin bastard this fckin game is actually worth it
[Guild] GeuruOppa: thx lol
[Guild] GeuruOppa: games r all bout physical, work harder
[Guild] BaldWizard: team diff fckin ruined game lollll
[Guild] BaldWizard: accept pt, ranked go
[Guild] GeuruOppa: nn gotta leave guild
[Guild] BaldWizard: why leave guild?
[Guild] GeuruOppa: not this one
[Guild] GeuruOppa: my irl guild lmaoooo
[Guild] GeuruOppa: gotta head to work
[Guild] GeuruOppa: gotta hang with my Geuru too >_<
[Guild] BaldWizard: irl guild my ass lol stop lying
[Guild] GeuruOppa: no u baldy dumbass
[Guild] GeuruOppa: Hyeonak is busy saving the world ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و
[Guild] BaldWizard: Hyeonak?
[Guild] GeuruOppa: ok hes kinda famous
[Guild] BaldWizard: if ur real Hyeonak im Gnosis u fckin retard
[Guild] GeuruOppa: dont believe? go to Hyeonak hq then
[Guild] BaldWizard: stfu
[Guild] GeuruOppa: scared?
[Guild] GeuruOppa: ah its time
[Guild] GeuruOppa: hey
[Guild] GeuruOppa: im out
[Guild] GeuruOppa: bai bai
When GeuruOppa logged off, BaldWizard clicked his tongue and turned the game off.
It had now been about a year since he came to Korea.
The game he had started, claiming he would learn practical Korean, was in fact an ill-suited means for achieving that goal.
What he had learned was praise for playing the game sick, etiquette asking after one’s parents, and Korean swear words usable in all sorts of situations.
Setting aside the countless words made of fricatives and affricates that somehow stuck to his tongue, the only thing that remained was his friendship with a guy called GeuruOppa.
It was entirely thanks to GeuruOppa that he had grown attached to the game; without him, he would simply lose interest and log off.
If friendship could be built even through a LAN cable, GeuruOppa was practically his one and only friend.
A snorting, breathy laugh escaped the boy’s mouth as he thought of GeuruOppa.
“Hyeonak, my ass.”
When he turned around, the mannequins that had been bowing their heads all raised their faces at once.
More than fifty mannequins stood in perfect rows and columns to either side.
Each had a different appearance, and outwardly they were indistinguishable from humans.
Inside the spacious room where sunlight did not enter.
The sight of human-like mannequins lined up in a row was quite chilling.
Even before such an eerie scene, the expressionless boy crossed his arms and tilted his head to the side—
“It is true that I am Gnosis, but.”
—the mannequins tilted their heads in exact unison, following his movement.
Beneath his soft brown hair, heterochromatic eyes of blue and amber stood out.
It was then.
“Argh—! Damn it!”
A man’s scream rang out beyond the door.
‘Caught again, huh. That stupid bastard.’
The boy who had rebuked him inwardly slowly descended the stairs and headed toward the man.
*
On a single-person recliner sofa placed in one corner of the well-lit reception room, Naohyeong was clutching his eyes and groaning.
“He must be pretty pissed.” Serhi entered the reception room, frowning deeply, and asked as he looked at the suffering Naohyeong.
“The blonde again, that guy?”
Ash-mixed blond hair and drooping green eyes. He must have been done in by the ‘Gnosis Hunter’.
“That son of a bitch!”
Korean swear words really had a way of sticking. Serhi picked his ear.
“How the hell does he find out?”
Naohyeong bit his nails with an anxious look.
“Because he's better than you.”
He said it nonchalantly, but even Serhi was curious.
Naohyeong’s ability was to plant his own eyes (ability) in others, sharing their vision and brainwashing them.
Detailed control was difficult, but if he gave them a purpose, he could make them follow it so that it was completely unnoticeable on the outside.
Like a praying mantis infected with a horsehair worm seeking water, it was so secretive that even the person themselves did not realize it.
Yet he kept getting caught by the Gnosis Hunter.
Naohyeong glared at Serhi fiercely. But Serhi merely crossed his arms and shrugged.
Isn’t it time you learned already? In this world, power is everything.
The blonde monster who had followed Gnosis and come to Korea had instantly risen to #2 in the hunter rankings, causing a stir.
‘It was all thanks to hunting Gnosis.’
Serhi had only set foot into Gnosis at the very end of the previous plan, so he could not know exactly how many of them the guy had killed.
But he knew at least that the man loathed everything related to Gnosis. And he had the ability to back it up.
He likely could not be opposed with ordinary strength.
Serhi was still adapting to Korea and had never once met him, but Naohyeong, a Korean who had joined up in Korea, had run into him several times while planting his eyes.
And having tasted defeat again and again, he was gradually losing his sanity.
“That bastard… I’ve transcended my limits. I’ve surpassed my rank…!”
In fact, Naohyeong had been a C-rank hunter in Korea. Revered among ordinary people, but merely average among hunters.
He had lucked into a large guild, but being the tail of the dragon was poison to someone like Naohyeong.
Naohyeong wanted to be special.
That was when he met ‘her’.
“You can become special enough. Do you want that?”
Of course he wanted it!
Thus he took Gnosis’s hand.
Naohyeong did not know how it was possible. But clearly, she had forced him to reawaken.
The liberating feeling of escaping his narrow domain was exhilarating.
His stats rose by leaps and bounds, his skill effects were amplified, and he gained new skills as well.
But before long, he encountered an even greater wall.
He had planted eyes in the Awakened Management Bureau to move Malikian, but they were cut down one after another by the Gnosis Hunter.
Having his eyes cut caused tremendous pain. Every time he met him, Naohyeong had to pick himself up stained with pain and misery.
“T-Teacher?”
If only the teacher granted him power once more, then the situation could change. He was confident he could become stronger than that bastard.
But Serhi simply shook his head.
“She’s busy. She doesn’t have time to care about someone like you again.”
A young brat speaking so rudely in banmal. He didn’t know his exact age, but he must have been around sixteen or seventeen.
‘They say foreigners look older than their age, but isn’t he younger than I thought?’
How long did he have to watch a young brat ordering him around like a superior?
‘To think I’ve been reduced to babysitting such a little punk.’
But Serhi simply checked the time on his phone and chewed gum.
“Prepare for the auction. The date is coming up soon.”
As if warning him not to have useless thoughts until he won the item. At those words, Naohyeong glared at the boy.
Serhi popped his bubble gum and smirked.
“What. Triggered?”
“I told you to stop those weird games! What do you mean triggered? To an adult!”
[“You old fart.”]
The boy who had cursed in his native language turned away with a cold face.
“Hey, that’s a curse word! Huh? Hey! You little brat!”
*
Those attending the auction began gathering at the resort one by one.
As it was a gathering of the wealthy, the organizers had formed a dedicated VIP team to attend to the clients from the lobby.
“Chairman On, welcome.”
A staff member from the dedicated team bowed and welcomed Chairman On’s party.
Then, seeing the partner who had come with Onsuhyeong, he opened his eyes wide.
‘A child?’
Platinum blond that appeared almost beige; light coral irises.
The child, who appeared to be of mixed heritage, had eyes so large they seemed about to fall out, and her tiny face was packed with delicate features, making her look like a doll crafted with painstaking effort.