032 – The Tier 3 Calamity Ability User #2
Yeomhun found himself approaching an awkward situation.
The thought that someone like himself, who had easily evaded even national pursuit, was currently being manipulated by mere students whose ID ink hadn’t even dried was unbearable.
His pride recoiled, but unfortunately, he had neither ‘cigarettes’ nor ‘time’.
“…….”
In front of Yeomhun, there was a female student awkwardly dancing.
It was a truly awkward dance.
As he observed this clumsiness, Yeomhun felt a slight sense of identification with her.
“Hey, were you also someone who was ostracized?”
Though he asked this, there was no transmission of meaning.
The sound had been cut off.
The female student’s ability seemed to affect sound or hearing, he judged momentarily – then uneasiness quickly enveloped Yeomhun’s body.
‘There’s no way I’d know if a police siren is on or off like this.’
Despite his frustration, Yeomhun couldn’t help but laugh.
Laughing when tense or flustered was his old habit.
‘I need to quickly escape here.’
However, the male student did not leave him alone.
“Haha, you can’t leave!”
With that, the male student lunged in a low stance. Thinking he was aiming for his groin again, Yeomhun tried to kick him away with his leg, but the boy pushed forward and caught Yeomhun’s leg, making him stumble.
“Namjin slide tackle!”
It was a textbook tackle.
Thought Yeomhun had practiced escaping from this position to the point of breaking his ribs under the supervision of a harsh instructor, he still thought he’d be okay—.
“Now! Now!”
The boy stretched out his hand toward Yeomhun’s gas mask.
He was attempting to remove it.
Yeomhun was greatly alarmed.
And then, from somewhere else, a pink-haired girl appeared and began beating Yeomhun’s torso with a frying pan.
“d*e! d*e! d*e! d*e!”
“Argh! Hey! Argh! I’m getting beat too! Argh! I’ll take off the gas mask! Chang-sik! Now! Now! CHANG-SIK!”
Eventually, when Yeomhun’s gas mask was removed, a boy who had been hidden until now appeared, holding a bunch of banknotes, and approached Yeomhun.
‘Banknotes? What are these bastards planning to do?’
There didn’t seem to be any kind of “rule” to the students’ actions.
Just pure, illogical chaos.
That’s why Yeomhun felt fear.
—These bastards are insane.
“Changing banknotes into chocolates is a first, they say! Just a sec! Hold on! Hold on a bit longer! The banknotes my father gave me to buy dinner! Banknotes! Ah! Change, change! Whooshoo-!”
The student called Chang-sik blew on the banknotes. As he did, the banknotes transformed into a small pile of coin-sized chocolates.
A transformation-type ability user? But what does this have to do with those chocolates…?
“Bangdaengi! Now! Roast the chocolate with fire! Fire! You’re terrible at cooking, so you can do it! You’ll definitely emit toxic gas with a bang! You can do this!”
“Tahhayaaaaaaa!!!”
The girl, shouting like a pterodactyl discovering prey, piled the chocolates onto a frying pan. She then quickly roasted them near a house that was burning close by.
Does chocolate really burn this quickly?
The issue wasn’t that.
“Acrolein, benzene, formaldehyde. These are toxic substances that can be emitted when chocolate burns! Also the same substances that come out when Bangdaengi cooks tteokbokki at my house. If these are projected directly into the respiratory system…”
“You bastards! You school bastards! Let go of this! Let go! Aaaaaargh!”
At that moment, Yeomhun realized what the bold students were planning to do.
Despite his frantic struggles, the roasted and horribly scorched chocolate was ultimately thrown onto Yeomhun’s face, nose, and screaming throat.
“Grrrraaaargh-!”
# # #
“Grerrr… Grerrrk!”
Having been attacked by carcinogenic substances, Yeomhun desperately rubbed his neck and nose, suffering greatly.
Thanks to this, he displayed superhuman strength, and all of us restraining him were flung away as if by a spring. But it didn’t matter.
Given how his respiratory system had already been extensively damaged, there was no way he’d withstand Bangdaengi’s “Chocolate filled with ill-luck, malice, and curses.”
Whirrrr… Wheeeeee…
The distance was too far for sirens to be heard.
It was over…
That’s what we thought.
“This you bastards—.”
In a burning voice, Yeomhun shouted, and he pulled something small like a pebble from his pocket and bit it. I realized it was an “Idea Stone.”
Glug—.
Yeomhun swallowed the Idea Stone.
His face turned red, and his eyes rapidly became bloodshot.
I knew what this symptom meant.
It was the sign of having consumed an unrefined “Idea Stone.”
“The concept I stole from ‘Clouds’ now dwells within me. Clouds— Hooaaaa—.”
Yeomhun spewed out hot gas like clouds from his mouth.
Hwaaak, hwaaarrr— buoyantly.
It was no ordinary smoke that’s for sure. The roads and telephone poles it touched melted with a hissing sound.
“It’s evolving! The concept is evolving! They’re now breathing out fog-like breath! Touching that fog won’t just result in burns!”
“Power is overflowing! I should’ve done this sooner! Long ago! Am I too a multi-ability user now?! Argh! You carry the cigarettes from now on!”
People who consume unrefined Idea Stones are said to gain their power in full but lose their minds completely. These people are called “Demons.”
Fighting someone who’s gone insane like this would be absurd.
Just as I thought this…
Ziiiiing-.
“Keeaaak!”
Suddenly, a strong heat came flying and pierced through Yeomhun’s abdomen. It had thoroughly seared him.
It happened so fast that no one could react.
“Hanamjin, you said you felt uneasy, and you were certainly about to cause trouble.”
“You guys, turns out you’ve already had practical experience without me.”
Looking around, I saw Superintendent Kim Jang-dong from the “Superhuman Management Bureau” and Yu Yeo-reum from Class F walking through the flames towards us.
It was a familiar sight.
Chang-sik had done well contacting Chief Kim with the business card I gave him. But I didn’t expect Yu Yeo-reum to come, so I was a bit shocked, and at the same time, it was insane.
Aren’t you supposed to vaporize a demon who’s gone completely insane? How are you going to kidnap someone like that?
“Gruuuh…”
The arsonist Yeomhun collapsed and began coughing up the Idea Stone like phlegm.
The expected result.
“Of course, this happens when you eat something poisonous without fear. It’s almost the same as swallowing poison. You’re surviving on instinct because you’re an Awakened One. But now you’re on a countdown.”
Becoming a demon means d*ath.
How much longer does Yeomhun have to live? A few months at the shortest, a few years at most.
“…Haaahh, isn’t this what you wanted? You want me dead, don’t you? If I’m going to d*e anyway, why don’t you burst my head open with your own hands? Isn’t that what you want? I know. You and I are of the same kind.”
“Me?”
“You had no hesitation for violence. People who cross the line, like me and those dumb villains, tend to be that way. Like brakes that are broken. So, how many people have you killed?”
Yeomhun screamed pitifully and chuckled weakly. His trembling lips from fear indicated his laughter was forced.
「Name: Yeomhun
State: 《Despair and Fear》 – Gripped by intense fear as d*ath approaches.」
So this b*stard laughs when he’s tense or flustered.
I finally understood the laughter I saw in the burning department store. He was just nervous and flustered back then.
“d*mn it, I don’t k*ll you because I prefer beating you! Hit me once! No, twice! No, thrice!”
“Arrgh! Guaaaaaahk! Just k*ll me! Arrgh! Aaaaaargh!!!”
Yeomhun was even stupider than I’d imagined.
How could such a small, cowardly man like him set a department store ablaze?
Looking at Yeomhun, who was now drooling and unconscious after being hit in the groin, many questions still remained unanswered.
“Cricket. Why did you team up with bastards like these? What are you even doing?”
Wang Juhyun’s flunky, Samajun.
I don’t know why this guy is here.
In response to my question, Samajun barely regained his senses and chuckled.
”…Do you think explaining will make you understand? Can you handle it? If you learn about the power behind us…”
What? A minor talking about having a backer? This is really a crazy world.
Was Yeomhun just a coward and a punk setting fires in the department store because of that backer?
“Yeomhun was just one little ‘matchstick.’”
It felt like someone lit the matchstick and threw it. I sensed some kind of conspiracy here. Maybe it’s related to what Seugal mentioned, the traitor.
Wiiioonng-wiiioong.
Police cars and fire trucks arrived, sounding like noisy cats. Only then did everyone freely express relief and excitement.
“Kids, we did it! I told you I’d carry the team! I! I did it! It’s me, Baek Yeo-ul! These guys are nothing exceptional!”
Puck-puck-puck.
Excitedly, Baek Yeo-ul started hitting Yeomhun’s and Samajun’s heads with her frying pan. Although the police and firefighters intervened, they couldn’t stop the Awakened One, Baek Yeo-ul.
“It’s my first time turning banknotes into chocolates! I don’t know how boundless my transformation ability might be!”
“Two tickets…”
Everyone was celebrating the victory in various ways.
Only I couldn’t fully rejoice.
“Hey, guys! See you later! I’m going!”
Already near midnight!
I had left Seugal alone for far too long!
It’s settled!
Hufufu-dash-dash.
I quickly ran back home.
Worried that Seugal might have extended her chains and escaped, I hurried back. She was sitting with her arms crossed wearing a calm expression when I returned.
“Hey, pervert. Why are you so late? Are you really serious about training me?”
“I thought you might have extended your chains and fled.”
“How could I escape with Yining guarding me?”
—Guee-eeng.
No matter what, it seems she didn’t escape. Her legs feel completely limp.
“Autumn, I had a recurring dream.”
“Dream? What’s that supposed to mean? Did you buy food for me?”
“I don’t think I’ll have that dream anymore.”
Shhh. I looked at the ‘Cloud’ Idea Stone I stole earlier.
‘Leap’ and ‘Cloud.’
Doesn’t that feel intuitive?
I planned to feed it to Yining, have her cleanse the poison, and then I would absorb it, but an issue arose.
—Guee-eing.
Yining, who ate my ‘Cloud’ Idea Stone, didn’t regurgitate it! Stranger still, her body started wobbling—.
“What’s going on with that thing? Hey! Pervert! What have you done to Yining? What did you feed her?”
“Yining! Spit it out! I didn’t give you that to eat! Just absorb the poison and spit it out!”
Mungsil-mungsil.
Yining transformed into an incredibly fluffy cotton-candy shape of a cloud! She had perfectly assimilated the ‘Cloud’ concept!
—Yining-yah-yeng.
From a waterdrop-shaped slime to an otherworldly demon resembling cotton-candy clouds!
Pazzzzip!
She even shot lightning like a real storm cloud and knocked down some flies!
“Hey? Yining has more tricks than the pervert does.”
—Guee-eing.
I was dazzled and excited about absorbing the ‘Cloud’ concept but now felt dizzy realizing Yining took advantage of it.
However… hmm, this way, even if the world ends, I can use appliances with Yining’s help!
Even the air conditioner I could only lick my fingers at due to the lack of electricity will now be usable! Fluorescent lights! Refrigerators! Washing machines! Triceratops dolls! Turning Yining into a generator will make everything usable!
I was undoubtedly the luckiest man alive!
Feeling this way, the weekend quickly passed to Monday!
I had exhausted a great deal of energy hunting down Yeomhun, and I slept through the whole Sunday, which was incredibly frustrating.
Seugal was pressing the call button and acting very viciously.
Still, the reason to cheer on Monday—.
“Hanamjin, Choi Chang-sik, Baek Yeo-ul, Oh Deok-hui. You’ve received a commendation from the police. A distinguished official from the police station will personally present it to you, so please be courteous—.”
“Captain! Can we use the Treasure Exhibition? Can we upgrade the Night Brooch?”
“Hanamjin! Be polite! d*mn! You students collaborated to capture the top wanted criminal, which is this miraculous achievement everyone is talking about. Such an unusual event, so—.”
Conclusion—Treasure Exhibition opens!
It’s the news that I can acquire the tools necessary to kidnap Yu Yeo-reum!
Now, what treasures await me?
