Chapter 338

The very first thing the other man said was this.

“You’re wondering why I’m wearing these indoors?”

He answered the patient’s unspoken question without hesitation.

“It’s because of you.”

For a moment, he looked almost dumbfounded himself. The man lowered his sunglasses with one finger, briefly revealing the [Dragon’s Eye] beneath them.

“To be honest, I usually don’t need to wear these very often.”

“You mean the sunglasses?”

“Most people don’t know this, but the function built into the [Dragon’s Eye] can actually be controlled by the user.”

“Ah.”

“But for some reason, starting a few days ago, it’s been like flashbangs are going off all over central South Korea.”

Bang.

Kang Changho clenched one hand and then suddenly spread his fingers, mimicking an explosion. That was enough for me to understand the problem he was dealing with.

“Aha.”

The cause, as he himself explained, was the [Dragon’s Eye]. It allowed him to visually perceive the power of Awakeners.

Of course, there were few items capable of replacing such a function. But since it was fundamentally impossible to shut it off completely, it occasionally became inconvenient.

“Does my mana look that intense to you, Hunter?”

Meanwhile, Kang Changho shifted his posture and crossed his legs. Sitting crookedly on the sofa, he exaggeratedly curled the corners of his mouth into a smirk before answering.

“Like a blue giant star.”

It was an unfamiliar expression. Before or after my reincarnation, I had never heard those words before.

Judging from the context alone, he seemed to be comparing the energy radiating from my body to something enormous and blue.

“What a strange thing to say.”

Kang Changho grinned so broadly that the corners of his mouth lifted high.

Then, just as quickly, his expression turned sour.

“To explain a little further, the sunglasses I’m wearing now were specially made to block the light from Awakeners that gets reflected through the [Dragon’s Eye].”

“Oh.”

“Like I said before, my eyes don’t cause much inconvenience in everyday life as long as I make an effort not to look.”

“I see.”

“So normally, I only wear these when I’m driving—when I need to look at traffic lights—or sometimes in the middle of summer.”

“I see.”

Come to think of it, sometime around last summer, I did remember that Earthling wearing those accessories rather often.

Or maybe not.

“Isn’t it uncomfortable having something sitting on the bridge of your nose?”

While I was still wondering about that—

“But if our dear Mr. Kim is going to shine this brightly, then from now on, uncomfortable or not, I don’t really have much choice.”

The man sitting on the sofa spoke.

“Let me ask you something. Hunter Kim Giryeo, what exactly happened inside that gate where they said the Beasts appeared?”

It was a question I had expected.

“The light coming off you has become so intense that I have to wear sunglasses indoors. And that isn’t the only strange part. It’s not merely the amount. That mana of yours, which used to flicker like a candle in the wind, has suddenly gone completely still.”

For the record, this body still had some growth potential remaining.

But the amount was so insignificant that it might as well have been a drop in the ocean.

Thinking about it now, it was obvious that the [Dragon’s Eye] had been observing a mage’s potential for growth all along.

But once someone underwent a second awakening, the artifact must have classified me—an alien—as someone who had already exhausted his potential for change.

That was probably why the constant fluctuations had all but disappeared.

Considering how the item functioned, that was likely how the present situation appeared from Kang Changho’s perspective.

“I suppose there’s no hiding my growth from that item.”

In that case, there was no point in being needlessly evasive.

“There’s no great secret behind it. Inside the dungeon, I ended up clashing with the Beasts several times. As I kept fighting them off and defending myself, at some point I simply became stronger.”

For the record, I had absolutely no intention of revealing that Kim Giryeo, the original owner of this body, was the only known potential case of re-awakening in modern times.

‘I have no obligation to explain the concept of second awakening in detail to someone like him.’

Well, that was part of the reason.

But if I was being truthful, the main reason was simply that I couldn’t be bothered.

So I gave him the shortest possible explanation of what had happened inside the dungeon.

“You’re saying you went through a crisis and simply became stronger?”

At that, Kang Changho leaned halfway toward the armrest of the sofa.

“Hmm.”

Naturally, it did not take him long to reach a conclusion.

Someone else might have doubted me.

But not that man.

At the very least, he had always believed in the possibility of psychics breaking through their own limits.

And on top of that, the very mechanism behind Awakening on Earth supported my story.

Stress.

Crisis.

Shock.

Those things had often served as catalysts for turning ordinary humans into superhumans.

So the claim that I had grown stronger after being pushed into danger did not sound particularly far-fetched.

“I see.”

The other man accepted the explanation with surprising ease.

“To be honest, from my perspective, it isn’t even particularly surprising. It feels more like a prediction finally coming true.”

“Yeah.”

“Fine. Let’s say that explains what happened to your awakening stats. But there’s something else I’ve been hearing lately. Apparently, multiple people are saying that Hunter Kim Giryeo used a large-scale water skill inside the dungeon... Sorry, but could you explain that part as well?”

I had not expected the follow-up question to come quite so quickly.

“Aha.”

Come to think of it, I had once fabricated a story about my attribute in front of Kang Changho.

Something about being a psychic whose power automatically defended against external threats, or whatever nonsense I had come up with at the time.

The absurd healing ability I displayed during the battle with the fake Beasts could still be explained by connecting it to the so-called “self-protection type” attribute I had mentioned before.

All I had to say was that healing effects worked unusually well on me.

In fact, that explanation seemed to have caused a minor misunderstanding at the hospital regarding my regenerative ability.

But flooding an entire gate with water was another matter entirely.

That openly violated the Earth ability-users’ supposed rule of “one person, one attribute.”

Naturally, it looked suspicious.

‘Maybe I’ve scattered too many lies around... Now the contradictions keep surfacing on their own.’

But what was I supposed to do?

Sitting on the hospital bed, I thought for a moment.

Now that I was overflowing with power, there was no longer any reason to tremble before a mere S-rank.

Even if I snapped, ‘None of your business,’ right here and refused to say another word, that Earthling would not be able to do anything about it.

The problem was that my lungs still had not fully recovered.

They had been like this for the entire past week.

So I decided there was no reason to invite an unnecessary argument.

Besides, this particular issue could probably be dealt with through a little improvisation.

“The water skill I used inside the gate? I acquired it from a skill stone.”

In the end, I offered an excuse with barely a trace of sincerity behind it.

Causing a catastrophe of that scale with a power that was not even one’s primary attribute would normally have sounded completely absurd.

However, the bluish-purple-haired Hunter seemed to accept it rather quickly.

Perhaps that was because he had access to far more information than most people.

“Okay.”

Whether it was a martial artist or a modern psychic, the amount of damage a human could inflict was ultimately heavily influenced by their weight class.

Kang Changho brought up the Kagoshima raid as an example.

Thinking back on it, the binding power I had displayed there had indeed been formidable.

He accepted the explanation without much resistance, apparently reasoning that someone with my natural talent could produce extraordinary results even with a secondary ability.

‘Wow. Even excuses this sloppy work now.’

Back then, fabricating even a single lie had made me so nervous that my palms would sweat.

Perhaps the most basic qualification of a con artist was sheer audacity.

The more confident the trickster, the more likely the deception was to succeed.

Just as I was becoming absorbed in that train of thought, Kang Changho, having apparently resolved all his questions, added another remark.

“Even if you’ve been blessed by your awakening, letting this much energy spill into the air... From where I’m sitting, it’s honestly a bit of a headache.”

Oh, right.

For reference, what he meant was simple.

At the moment, I was making absolutely no effort to conceal my awakening level, and the owner of the [Dragon’s Eye] was expressing his dissatisfaction with that fact.

Unfortunately, my lungs were still in poor condition after several explosions.

And even if those accidents had never happened, I probably would not have gone out of my way to accommodate an Earthling like him.

‘I’m not an F-rank anymore. Suppressing this enormous amount of mana all the time would just be a nuisance.’

I made no attempt to conceal the power that had grown to SS-rank.

As a result, the other man was apparently still suffering from the glare even through his sunglasses.

Yet contrary to my expectation that he might become irritated, the man on the sofa soon let the matter go and changed the subject.

“Well, anyway.”

The knight’s oath had already been dissolved long ago.

And fundamentally, we were not close enough to have any reason to spend much time sitting face-to-face.

“Let’s end the small talk here.”

Kang Changho spoke.

“I know seeing me face-to-face probably isn’t especially pleasant for you either. But I came in person because things can get lost or misunderstood online. So I’d appreciate it if you could at least understand that.”

I nodded.

“And I assume you already know why I told you to contact me once I was back on my feet.”

“You said the compensation money was ready, right?”

“That’s right. Compensation for demolishing your one-room apartment. The payment from selling [Justitia] came through recently, so I can finally give it to you in cash.”

The conversation had finally reached the subject everyone present had been expecting.

“That’s right.”

After all, that man had a history of demolishing an entirely intact building.

“So, the amount I’ve prepared is...”

Even in hindsight, that degree of decisiveness was enough to make a terrorist weep with admiration.

“First, I’ve set aside separate relocation expenses and consolation payments not only for you, but for the other residents as well.”

“Hmm.”

“You used the [Infinite Power Core] in that tiny apartment. So naturally, its value has to be added on top of the ordinary market value of the unit and the cheap furniture inside it.”

“Yes.”

“The final value I calculated for that one-room apartment comes to, at most, five billion won. But since I picked a fight with another S-rank, it wouldn’t be fair to compensate you only for the property itself. Including compensation for emotional distress, I’ll send you exactly forty billion won.”

Forty billion won.

Back when I had still been poor, that would have been enough to buy an astonishing four million boxes of gimbap.

Objectively speaking, it was more than sufficient.

For the destruction of a single one-room apartment, it was far beyond reasonable compensation.

With forty billion won, I could probably buy up a considerable number of homes in this country.

“Hmm.”

But there was one small problem.

The thing was, alien or not, I had grown rather fond of Earth’s money.

‘The man who just sold [Justitia] is offering only forty billion?’

Personally, I disliked the idea of assigning monetary value to things that should be absolute.

But in a capitalist society like this one, ironically enough, there was hardly a more effective punishment for a criminal than taking his money.

Besides, I already bore a grudge against the man who had spent so long tormenting this Archmage.

So when I saw an opening, I decided to prod him a little.

Perhaps I could squeeze some more money out of him.

“Forty billion is a little...”

I narrowed my eyes.

“I feel like there ought to be another zero on the end.”

I even sneered, openly mocking him for offering so little after supposedly selling [Justitia].

Four hundred billion won.

Still, if he ended up coughing up that much, even an S-rank Hunter might find himself perilously close to becoming a debtor.

That was when Kang Changho adjusted his sunglasses and immediately began to explain.

“If the amount I just offered were meant as a settlement for assaulting Hunter Kim, then you’d have a point.”

“What?”

“But I already compensated you for the misunderstanding and the unnecessary interrogation, didn’t I?”

“You’re not talking about... the breach of contract?”

“That too. But before that—the wish. I clearly apologized by promising to grant °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° you one wish, remember?”

That was his argument.

Even a sacred court, under the principle of double jeopardy, did not punish a person twice for the same offense once judgment had already been rendered.

Kang Changho, in fact, turned the question back on me.

Hadn’t compensation for the incident in which he had injured me already been settled through the wish and the termination of the pact?

Besides, the forty billion won he was offering now was closer to compensation in a civil suit.

And compared with the amount a court would likely award based on the actual damages, it was an extraordinarily generous figure.

“Forty billion won is already more than enough for that room. And now you’re suddenly asking for an amount comparable to the annual budget of an entire city?”

“Hmm.”

“Did you hear somewhere that I was selling some sort of miracle cure or something?”

“No.”

“Well, that’s unfortunate, but I can’t hand over that much money simply because I made a mistake. And for your information, most of the money I currently have came from selling [Justitia]. If I spend all of it now, I’m going to have a serious problem.”

“A serious problem?”

It was then that he gave a reason I had never expected to hear.

“I’d have to go hunting.”

“Yes?”

“If I run out of money, even I’ll have to start working. Just like any other Hunter in the business, I’d have to clear gates the normal way.”

Well...

If you considered how the world worked, of course that made sense.

And yet...

‘Is he insane?’

A thought that had already crossed my mind countless times this year surfaced once again.

If an ordinary Earthling had said such a thing, there would have been nothing strange about it.

But this was Kang Changho.

And more importantly, he was someone who had supposedly started life from an entirely different position.

“So that’s why you’re being stingy with the compensation? Because you don’t want to work?”

“Haha.”

“Well. Fine. Let’s say, as you just said, that you barely ever go hunting, so your current income is low.”

I stared at him.

“But if you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, shouldn’t you have had plenty of money to begin with?”

I was just about to ask whether all that talk of his privileged background had been exaggerated when Kang Changho suddenly cut me off.

“Silver spoon? Ah, that. I actually have something to explain about that too.”

Even with the sunglasses on, the glare still seemed to be bothering him.

During the conversation, I occasionally caught the man on the sofa closing his eyes altogether.

“From the way you’re talking, it seems Hunter Kim Giryeo also knows that my father was a businessman.”

“Yes, yes.”

“But the media exaggerates everything. Honestly, my family was never all that impressive.”

He smiled naturally.

“The [Nan Steelworks] I almost inherited—”

Judging by his expression, he looked as relaxed as a man on vacation.

“—wasn’t even remotely close to joining the trillion-won club. In fact, it was a relatively small company ranked far down within the steel industry.”

What followed, however, was hardly a cheerful story.

Kang Changho shifted in his seat, crossed his arms, and carefully chose his words before continuing.

“On top of that, most of our major clients happened to be concentrated in one particular sector. So immediately after the Dungeon Shock, we got swept up in the downturn in shipbuilding and took a direct hit along with it.”

“A downturn? That’s the first I’ve heard of it.”

“Really? Well, back then there wasn’t a company anywhere that wasn’t struggling. I suppose it wasn’t particularly newsworthy, so it got buried.”

“Hmm.”

“Then let me explain. Back in those days, gate-detection technology wasn’t nearly as advanced as it is now. Ships that were unlucky enough could simply be overturned when monsters suddenly emerged from the sea.”

“Aha.”

“Monsters rarely flew high enough to reach the altitudes used by aircraft, but the situation at sea was different. When not only small boats but even enormous oil tankers started getting wrecked, how could the market possibly avoid a slump?”

There was only one conclusion to be drawn from all of this.

“Anyway, my family was never the grand capitalist dynasty people seem to imagine.”

Kang Changho stated quite plainly that he did not, in fact, have all that much money.