Chapter 18

“Do you think this makes any sense?”
“I’m not sure what you mean…”

Yang Seung-ho looked at his chief secretary with a dissatisfied expression.

“Hyeon-seok. You’re speaking casually right now.”
“…Yeah. I am.”
“You’re too stiff.”
“So were you. You only loosened up a little after that incident.”

Seung-ho scratched his head.

“Was I? Anyway, that’s not what’s important. This. I’m talking about this.”

Chief Secretary Kim Hyeon-seok took the paper Seung-ho held out and examined it.
A black crow logo was printed prominently across the top.

“The Three-Legged Crow Card?”
“Yeah. The card I gave him.”
“He hasn’t used it at all.”
“No, he did use it.”
“Huh? There’s no transaction history.”

Seung-ho spun his chair around and looked out at the city lights spread beyond the window.

“He borrowed a yacht in Incheon.”
“A yacht? Sounds like he’s using it just fine.”
“For one day. Without even a captain or a chef. Looks like he took it out himself, went for a spin, and brought it back.”
“Hmm… Himself? Maybe he went fishing.”
“No. No. That’s not how you’re supposed to use the Three-Legged Crow Card.”

Seung-ho spun his chair back toward Hyeon-seok.

“If I gave you a Three-Legged Crow Card, what would you do?”
“Me? First, I’d take over the Hidden Presidential Suite. Then I’d hole up there for about a month where no one could find me. After a month, I’d crawl back out and hit the department store. I’d walk through from the suits to the sneakers and say, ‘I’ll take everything I touched.’ I saw someone say that in a drama, and it sounded cool. Then I’d tour Michelin-starred restaurants all over the world. Haah~ I’d make up for my early twenties. Shopping at department stores during the day, opening the finest wines in a hotel suite at night… Haah~ If I could live like that for just one year…”

Seung-ho’s eyebrows twitched violently.

“…Is working for me really that hard?”
“…No.”
“Sounds like it is.”
“……It’s not.”
“You realize your answers are getting slightly slower, right?”
“………They’re not?”
“Haah~ Fine. Anyway, that’s what I’m talking about. Normally you’d buy yourself an imported car, get some suits tailored at a department store, pick up a nice limited-edition watch, eat some Michelin-starred food. That’s the normal way to use it. But…”

Seung-ho tapped the statement on his desk as he continued.

“He’s not using it at all. I don’t think he realizes it even works as a credit card. This won’t do.”

This time, Hyeon-seok’s eyebrow twitched.

“What won’t? What are you planning?”
“I have to tell him.”
“Tell him what? How?”
“How to use the card. By visiting him personally and explaining it politely.”

Hyeon-seok frowned at the smile on Seung-ho’s face.

“You’re insane.”
“Exactly. I need to teach him how to spend money like a madman.”

Hyeon-seok closed his eyes and shook his head.
Seung-ho was the kind of man who did whatever he set his mind to.
That was also why he had nearly reached the very top of Korea’s foremost business conglomerate.

“Take it easy on him. You’ll shock him.”
“Kehehe. Aren’t you looking forward to seeing his face when he gets surprised?”
“…Well… a little?”

The two exchanged conspiratorial smiles.
Their eyes gleamed in the moonlight as they eagerly imagined Jun-gyeong’s surprise.

After finishing his morning routine, Jun-gyeong lay on the wooden platform, holding the blue bead up to the sunlight.
It had already been a week since the grueling battle aboard the ship.
His body had improved by leaps and bounds after absorbing the Thunder Bead.
But his synchronization rate itself hadn’t increased.
Rather, the mismatch between his body and nervous system had been corrected. The nervous system that had failed to keep pace with his body’s development had rapidly come into harmony with it through the Thunder Bead’s effects.

“The Kappa’s Inner Core.”

His body was finally ready.
Only after a full week had his battle-worn, destabilized body finally begun to settle.
Jun-gyeong found that unsatisfying, but this wasn’t a body built through training since childhood. It had developed rapidly through the inner core of a monster, so there was little he could do about it.

His nervous system would probably lag behind again, just as it had when he absorbed Lilith’s core, but he was not particularly worried. Training and diet could bring it up to speed as quickly as possible.

He sat up on the wooden platform, looked down at the distant city, and steadied his breathing.

“All right. I’ll absorb it.”

Crimson karmic flames rose from his fist, and the inner core instantly vaporized before being drawn into his body.
Before, his muscles and skeletal structure themselves had changed. This time, they didn’t.
The change occurred within.
A sensation of Qi filled his lower abdomen.
Beginning at his dantian, the Qi rapidly circulated through the blood vessels throughout his body.

“Khk-”

Had he not steadied his breathing and corrected his posture, something could have gone seriously wrong.
The currents of Qi surging through his body split apart, one racing toward his head and the other toward his tailbone.

BANG! BANG!

Loud crashes rang through his head as though the currents were slamming against his Qi meridians from within.

BOOM-! SHAAAAA-

At the same time, a rush of exhilaration filled his entire body.
His body felt full to bursting with something, yet somehow lighter than before.
With his eyes closed, he savored that exhilaration and sense of liberation.
At the same time, the book opened before his eyes.

It hadn’t increased as much as before.
But his synchronization had finally broken through the twenty-percent barrier it had stubbornly refused to cross.
He had expected as much.
The higher his synchronization climbed, the more slowly it would increase.
And the inner core’s benefits didn’t end there.

Just as with the Dokkaebi Pouch, knowledge of how to use it was instantly engraved into his mind.
A smile appeared on his face.

“This is useful too.”

It allowed him to send his voice directly to anyone he wished.
Of course, the recipient’s spiritual power also had to be awakened, so for now Ok-hee was the only person he could contact.
Still, he was satisfied to have a replacement for the earpiece communication that had abruptly cut out during the recent battle.
He immediately used the Transmission to contact Ok-hee.

“Can you hear me?”
-Huh? What is this?
“So you can hear me.”
-That’s what I’m asking. What is this?
“If you can hear me, that’s enough.”
-No, wait, what…

The moment he cut off the Transmission, Ok-hee’s voice disappeared with it.

“So I can control the conversation at will. I like it even more.”

And there was one more thing.

Another Dokkaebi Power similar to the one gained from the Thunder Bead.
Along with the power of lightning, he had now gained the power of water as well.

Just then, the musty stench of filth assaulted his nose.

“Hm?”

He opened his eyes and looked around.
But the stench was not coming from his surroundings. It was coming from his body.
Some black substance had seeped through his skin, coating his body and caking onto his clothes.

“Looks like this body has eaten quite a lot of unhealthy things over the years.”

The internal energy accumulated within him had forced out the impurities that did not belong in his body.
He immediately stripped off his clothes and headed for the shower.

As he washed away the impurities that had seeped from his body, he took stock of the changes within.
The changes after defeating Lilith and absorbing her core had primarily been external.
His strength increased, his muscles grew tougher, and his ligaments became stronger.
Those were external changes brought about by increased Body Synchronization.

Then came the internal changes to his nervous system after obtaining the Thunder Bead.
As his nervous system caught up with his body’s synchronization, those changes supported the external improvements and dramatically increased his abilities.
The Kappa’s Inner Core he had obtained this time stimulated both at once.
The core increased his Body Synchronization and formed internal energy, while the power of Water guided that energy from his dantian through the Qi meridians throughout his body.
The internal energy swept not only through his major Qi meridians but even the fine meridians extending to the tips of his fingers and toes, driving the waste from his body just as it had now.

Once the filth washed away, his skin looked almost translucent in its clarity.
Smooth skin without a single blemish.
Yet beneath it, dense muscles and supple ligaments shifted and breathed like a living beast.

And hidden within those muscles and ligaments was his internal energy.
That power, lying quietly dormant not only in his dantian but throughout the fine meridians of his body, would multiply his strength several times over in the future.

There was only one disappointment.
Jun-gyeong took a deep breath, exhaled, and spoke softly.

“I won’t be able to increase my internal energy any further.”

The world was too polluted.
The air and environment were nothing like the world he had lived in before.
Back then, he could absorb the Qi of nature through breathing and build his internal energy. But the air of this world was so polluted that breathing it only chipped away at one’s lifespan.
Air pure enough to refine into internal energy no longer existed anywhere in this world.

Jun-gyeong washed away his disappointment along with the filth and stepped outside.
Regretting it would not change something beyond any individual’s power.
For now, it was better to appreciate what he had than dwell on what he lacked.

Another crisis awaited him when he stepped out of the shower.
It was the result of his internal energy settling into place and affecting the fine meridians throughout his body.
His posture straightened, his body came into balance, and his proportions changed.
As his spine straightened, his legs became slightly longer and his waist unbent.
His cervical spine aligned, correcting his forward head posture and straightening his previously rounded shoulders.

The physical changes were extremely subtle, unlike when he had absorbed Lilith’s core.
But even those slight changes had a major effect on how his clothes fit.

His pants had become too short, and the buttons of his shirt would no longer close over his chest.

“Troublesome.”

Everything in his wardrobe fit the same way.
He could tolerate pants that were a little short, but he had no shirt he could reasonably wear.
In the end, he threw on sweatpants and a short T-shirt, then looked at his wardrobe and let out a deep sigh.

“I suppose I really do need to buy some clothes.”

Ever since his clothes had first become too small, Ok-hee had been hounding him to go to a department store.
She had been positively delighted, saying that the time had finally come to use the Three-Legged Crow Card.
He had found her reaction rather cute, but shopping for clothes was unfamiliar to him, so he had never gone.
To him, clothes were something someone made for you, not something you went out and bought.

Jun-gyeong picked up his smartphone, then shoved it back into his pocket.

“Can you hear me?”
-…Yes. What is this?
“It’s called Dokkaebi Transmission.”
-Is this one of the Martial God of Hell’s powers?
“Seems so.”
-Wow~ That’s amazing! This is great. But I doubt you contacted me just to brag about it. Why? Do you need something?
“Well… I think I need to go buy some clothes.”
-Clothes? As in clothes you wear?
“Yes. I think I need to go to that department store.”
-Hmm~ A department store. Sounds good. It does, but I’m going to be a little busy from now on today…

Jun-gyeong nodded.

“All right. Can’t be helped if you’re busy.”
-Sorry. Ah! I can watch through the CCTV from here and recommend clothes that suit you.
“Forget it. I’d rather not look like a lunatic muttering to himself.”
-…Then are you sure you’ll be okay shopping alone?
“Don’t worry. I know how to shop too. I have Han Jun-gyeong’s knowledge.”
-Heh~ All right. If anything happens, you know what to use, right? Your smartphone. No, wait. You can use this now. Dok-kae-bi Trans-mis-sion.

Hearing the scheming note in Ok-hee’s voice, Jun-gyeong slowly shook his head and left the house.
As he stepped out of the villa, he looked toward the bottom of the hill in the distance.
There had already been something bothering him for the past several days.
And today, he finally understood exactly what that sensation was.
This too was a new change brought about by gaining internal energy.
His five senses had sharpened, and his vision felt as clear as though his eyes had been newly opened.
His gaze settled on a black van far down the hill.
There were people inside watching the villa.

Jun-gyeong slowly descended the hill.
Casually, as though nothing were wrong, with the light steps of someone out for a stroll.
Toward the black van.