Chapter 189

Chapter 189

Park Terse had not taken a step outside the house Cha Jin-Hyeok had provided to him. He devoted all his dedication and time to bonding with his new friend, Mr. Gobble, previously known as the Swallowing Croaker.

After his special efforts, Terse had reached a level where he could communicate with Mr. Gobble to a certain extent. However, rather than just communicating, it was more about Terse understanding Mr. Gobble’s inner thoughts and feelings.

“Those guys are probably affiliated with the Black Alliance, Mr. Gobble.” Tears welled up in Terse’s eyes. He could sense the experiences and pain that Mr. Gobble had suffered in the facility.

“I will protect you, Mr. Gobble.” He put his index finger into the fishbowl and reached toward Mr. Gobble. Mr. Gobble, as if understanding his feelings, rubbed against his finger.

“Ah, my lovely Mr. Gobble.” Terse expressed his affection by gently tapping Mr. Gobble’s dorsal fin with his index finger. “They kept feeding you weird and filthy stuff, didn’t they, Mr. Gobble?”

He already knew what they were feeding it, the Unidentifiable Fibrous Material. Terse had given all information about it to Angel Girl Song Ha-Young so that she could continue researching what the material was.

“Today, Angel Girl is supposed to visit us, Mr. Gobble. It would be nice if there was some more good news for you.”

Suddenly, a person jumped out from his shadow and said, “Are you still crazy about that fish?”

Terse screamed in shock! “AH! The doorbell is not just a decoration, you know?”

“Have you ever seen a Thief ring the doorbell?”

“This is a home invasion.”

“Thanks for the compliment.” Ha-Young casually sat on the sofa. Despite making these heavy movements, strangely, she made no sound. “You speak so respectfully to the fish, but you speak informally to me.”

“It’s not a fish. It’s Mr. Gobble. I wish you would call it by its name.”

“Fine, Mr. Gobble. Anyway, as we suspected, Mr. Gobble and the Black Alliance are related, and it’s almost certain that they are connected to the Paper Sorcerer Makendra. The Unidentifiable Fibrous Material is also definitely the material her Paper Soldiers are made with.”

Ha-Young despised Makendra. Due to Makendra exerting her influence around the world, the Black Rose Alliance led by Ha-Young had suffered. Ha-Young had been in the process of expanding the Black Rose Alliance’s influence worldwide. She had set up several branches with great efforts, only for Makendra to completely destroy them.

“That pervert is definitely looking for something. Yeah, but let’s put that aside. Why is Makendra taking out her frustration on my alliance members when she’s the one who can’t find what she wants?” Ha-Young said.

Makendra had destroyed three branches of the Black Rose Alliance, killing dozens of overseas dispatched personnel in the process.

“If she’s looking for information, she could do it quietly. Even thinking about her makes me furious!”

“Did you come here to gossip? I’m a bit busy at the moment,” Terse replied.

“You’ve been home for the past three days. What are you busy with?”

“I have to bond with Mr. Gobble.”

“...” Ha-Young shook her head, thinking he had become insane. “And the extracted digestive fluid?”

“It’s over there.”

Ha-Young noticed the black briefcase. It was an artifact made of aluminum with added refrigeration functionality. Inside it were tubes shaped like blood collection tubes, half-filled with green liquid. Terse called these Treasure Tubes.

“Was it difficult to extract?” she asked.

“No. If I bring the Treasure Tube close to Mr. Gobble, it spits out the digestive fluid on its own.” Terse demonstrated that.

“Wow, it does work!”

“Yes. Mr. Gobble also feels much more comfortable. Thank you!”

“You were raging about how barbaric it was. I guess you’re fine with it now.”

“That’s because I didn’t understand Mr. Gobble back then.”

Mr. Gobble was suffering from a disease caused by the terrible torture of being forced to eat the Unidentified Fibrous Material continuously—it produced excessive digestive fluid. Periodically drawing out the correct amount of digestive fluid was much better for Mr. Gobble.

“But what are you going to do with this?” Terse asked.

“Why do you think Makendra did this to Mr. Gobble?”

“Are you sure it was Makendra?” Terse was also angry at Makendra since she was the one who had been cruel to his cute and lovely Mr. Gobble.

“...Is that so?”

“Of course.” Jin-Hyeok lifted the Treasure Gem and broke it above his head. A small amount of the gem’s content, the digestive fluid of the Swallowing Croaker, trickled down.

Mulinus recoiled in horror. “W-What the hell are you doing?”

‘Oh wow! What a reaction! It’s perfect for my video.’

“See? I’m immune to any poison below the level of the Snake King.”

Michelle clapped her hands. “You made exactly what I wanted! It looks good for Chul-Soo to use too.”

Pleased, she took out a thick leather pouch from her bosom.

“I didn’t count it, but I brought my piggy bank. It is much more than what we initially talked about,” Michelle said while winking at Jin-Hyeok. “Please show me something fun with this, Chul-Soo. I like your edited videos, but I prefer your livestreams. You understand, right?”

“I will keep the promise.”

***

“I will keep the promise.”

Jin-Hyeok decided to title his livestream ‘Justice Served.’ In the past, titles like ‘SSS-Rank this and that’ were trendy, but nowadays, short and impactful titles were in vogue. It worked out very well for Jin-Hyeok.

He started the livestream, and viewers quickly began to pour in. Notably, he had sent an invitation to Michelle, so she was the first to enter.

Makendra tilted her head in confusion. “Promise? What promise?”

“You don’t need to know.”

“Heh, still so cheeky. It’s quite adorable how unshaken you are.”

“I chose the first option.”

“One, watch them get brutally torn apart and then get chopped up yourself.”

‘If I choose the first option, that Makendra freak will attack the Seo sisters first. For a moment, her focus will be divided toward the sisters.’

Jin-Hyeok seized the opportunity and swung his Greatsword of La’kan.

Whoosh!

His sword sliced through the air. Just as he expected, Makendra’s abilities were much stronger than his. He had attacked her, aiming for the gap, but could not even graze her.

‘But I achieved my objective.’

Jin-Hyeok was not really trying to attack her. He just needed to create a slight opening. At that time, Ha-Young would rescue the Seo sisters.

“Playing quite a clever game, aren’t you? Well, fine. It’s fun to crush something that squirms!” Makendra went on with her rant, and Jin-Hyeok continued his livestream in his own way. He gave a brief explanation as to why Ha-Young was here.

“Fortunately, Angel Girl was hiding around here. She bears a grudge against Makendra and has been monitoring her movements. When Makendra started moving toward this palace, Angel Girl followed her here.”

Jin-Hyeok zoomed in on the Seo sisters on the screen. Suddenly, he lost his fierceness.

‘I don’t want to see them like this.’

The Seo sisters were in an appalling condition. Such injuries were too familiar and really nothing big, but somehow, he did not want to see them. It felt like he was under some strange mental attack.

Nevertheless, as a Streamer, he tried to regain his fierceness. He captured the Seo sisters on screen. The paper chains that had bound them were gone, but the Paper Soldiers still surrounded the sisters and Ha-Young.

“Unfortunately, they failed to escape,” Jin-Hyeok said to the viewers.

It was not really a failure. With the sisters’ injuries, expecting the group to break through the Paper Soldiers’ encirclement and escape was never a realistic hope.

“But Angel Girl has a special ability.”

Jin-Hyeok’s livestream, Justice Served, had just begun.