17.
He had to get out of here.
His brother was waiting for him, so he had to get out of here as fast as possible. Bak Yerim was here because their conquered dungeon had been nearby, but she was inexperienced and had weak defense. The moment she is pierced by this unknown bird, it would be a wound which forces her to stop fighting.
Faster. He had to do it faster.
If only he could–
"Fly."
Han Yoohyun didn't turn around. It could be an opening for the bird to exploit, but his hands twitched nonetheless at the sound of a foreign voice. His eyes stayed locked onto the bird which was trying and failing to bat the icy mist away. Bak Yerim's persistence was praiseworthy for a fifteen-year-old girl who Awakened only a little more than a week ago.
"If you step on the Azure Willow Leaves, you can fly."
He wanted to turn around. He didn't. It didn't matter who had this information. The bird had to die, and this person gave him an easy way to do that. After he found the signal of his brother's stolen cell phone would he dig into this matter. But not now.
He had to go out and find his older brother—the only one who loved him wholeheartedly, the one he had to let go[-].
Han Yoohyun used the Azure Willow Leaves and flew.
18.
Yoo Myeongwoo looked nervous. He wondered why, because all he did was inform Han Yoohyun about his skill, but maybe it was a little awkward to talk to a complete stranger with intimate knowledge that only someone who deeply analyzed a skill would know. Han Yoojin had to admit that he would have been nervous too, if a stranger asked that of him.
"Thanks," he said and didn't even grumble when an arm wound itself around his shoulder blades again. Yoo Myeongwoo was a lot more weirdly clingy than he had anticipated. Perhaps he would, too, if he saw someone almost get killed by a giant bird. With a sigh, he pointed to the gate. "Let's go out, Yoo Myeongwoo."
"Is.. Are you alright, Yohan– Um, Lee Yoohyun–?"
"It's Han Yohan," he interrupted patiently. He added, "It's also not my real name."
Yoo Myeongwoo chuckled at that. He questioned why. It was blatantly clear that he didn't trust the other enough to give out his real name, but he seemed relieved instead. Han Yoojin already promised not to run away if Yoo Myeongwoo told Han Yoohyun the special feature of his Azure Willow Leaves, so why the relief? "Thanks for telling me," the man thanked with a smile. He couldn't relate at all to this sentence. There wasn't anything to thank for. A frown replaced the smile abruptly. "Are you– Is everything alright?"
"Yes, of course."
No, it wasn't. The day was terrible, he felt terrible and it will stay terrible, too. Fear Resistance wasn't a depression suppressor, so the familiar feeling of his gut sinking wasn't exactly a welcome surprise. But he also didn't feel distressed. It was more.. disconnected. As if the person in his skin was another person unrelated to him. Someone who didn't know this exhausted, cold looking Han Yoohyun.
It wasn't a good feeling.
"Let's go out," he repeated.
"You're pale," Yoo Myeongwoo remarked as if he was a prophet. As if he knew that he was hiding from his younger brother who left him all alone but still chose to save his useless brother, nonetheless. "You shouldn't push yourself."
"I'm fine." He wasn't.
Yoo Myeongwoo also didn't seem convinced by the amount of frown on that face. Although Han Yoojin didn't let it deter him and lightly tugged the other towards the gate instead. The explosions have stopped. They should leave quickly.
There was a tiredness making itself known inside his limbs. It shouldn't be there yet; he was still twenty-five in this body, but he felt as if a dense, murky heaviness tugged his limbs down, making the effort to move a hundred times harder. Yoo Myeongwoo's arm was the only thing that beckoned him forward after some steps. One step, two steps. The gate looked far away with all the corpses strewn across the floor. They had tried in vain to reach the closed gate, sprinting out to the open without cover and were plucked like unmoving flowers by the Gold Beak Maiya.
Only his experience and calmness saved both Yoo Myeongwoo as well as himself from that fate. The moment he spotted the Gold Beak Maiya—his eyes instantly found the other man's form. The practice instructor had tried to rein the panicking rookie Hunters in, but the effort had been futile. Almost everyone died of the more than fifty people, including the practice instructor themselves.
'This didn't happen in the future,' he remembered thinking in the heat of the moment.
It didn't happen. It would have been a big hit in the news: 'Hunter Association Fails to Hunt an F-Class Dungeon,' or perhaps 'Fifty Hunters Dead in an F-Class Dungeon,' it would have been named. Naturally, the five-years-into-the-future past him who would have been deeply in debt, hated by the public and in a bad relationship with his younger brother, wouldn't have known about this in detail, but the general knowledge should have been there because of its huge shock to the public—the last dungeon shock being years ago, after all.
'It's weird.'
No, it was highly suspicious. Sung Hyunjae, the system operator, the Gold Beak Maiya—every incident had a common factor.
'It's me.'
The regression. It was just a couple of days ago that he regressed, but a lot of things changed already or went differently than he remembered. He couldn't recall meeting Sung Hyunjae before, yet it sure felt like it happened. The system operator never showed themselves, leaving questions unanswered. The Gold Beak Maiya shouldn't have shown up in this F-Class dungeon, and even if a wayward monster found its way into a low-class dungeon, the chances of that happening were fairly low—even five years into the future. Gates should be stable right now. They weren't.
'They apologized.'
The system operator constantly apologized after the Gold Beak Maiya appeared. A bug or error. No, a mistake? They were able to open the gate again. That at least showed that it hadn't been intentional. The system operator would have just let the bird kill them otherwise. He had to talk to them again.
19.
They left the dungeon safely without any interruptions by persistent journalists. If Han Yoojin had to name the level of dismissal Yoo Myeongwoo and he got, it would be like naming them Extra 1 and Extra 2 in a movie.
His brother and Bak Yerim weren't so lucky. It was a light years difference of treatment but this time it was a welcome one. He only wanted to get away as fast as possible and see Peace in the apartment.
Yoo Myeongwoo, whose complexion was sunburnt and dry by the close proximity of Han Yoohyun's fire attribute, appeared like he went through a grinder. Han Yoojin guessed he looked hardly better. It wasn't every day that a dungeon ended badly in which more than a dozen Hunters died. To be frank, it was a miracle that Yoo Myeongwoo could still tug him towards somewhere.
This 'somewhere' which he didn't know. He didn't recognize this neighborhood. "Where are we going?" he asked. They didn't get into any cars or subways. A hospital wasn't that way, either.
Yoo Myeongwoo shot him a look he couldn't decipher. "My apartment."
"Wha– Why?" More importantly, didn't Yoo Myeongwoo want to be alone? A possible traumatic event just happened, and the guy should want to digest it alone. Han Yoojin didn't know the man personally, but he appeared gentle and introverted—seeing exactly how he had Awakened and all. Plus, they were practically strangers which should also make the possible trauma awkward.
"I want to talk to you. Ah, it'll be brief," Yoo Myeongwoo appeased, maybe seeing some expression on his face that gave his annoyance away. "After that I won't bother you anymore."
Way to make someone feel guilty. Han Yoojin didn't protest, however. The compromise sounded fair and he still had to tell Yoo Myeongwoo his quest to sharpen ten thousand bladed tools. The way to the man's apartment concluded without any problems and in silence. There was not much to say yet and the less relation he had with Yoo Myeongwoo, the better.
"So," Han Yoojin began, sitting in a tiny apartment undoubtedly only for a single person, "what do you want to talk about?"
Yoo Myeongwoo had to sit on the floor because of his lack of other sitting arrangements, so he was in a position where he had to look up at him. "I– I was–" he stuttered and then harrumphed quietly into his fist. The man looked genuinely nervous. "I wanted to say.. that I'm sincerely sorry for spooking you the other day."
"I wasn't spooked," he blurted unintentionally out. What? Spooked? It sounded like he was a cat that had been frightened. He hastily added, "I didn't– I had no intention to reveal that it was me." Who saved you, was implied but he didn't say out loud. "You caught me at a bad time."
"You don't have to explain the circumstances," Yoo Myeongwoo chuckled, again for some unfathomable reason. His expression was clear of any negative thoughts. "I'm relieved that you.. are still alive." What? Han Yoojin wanted to ask what the other was talking about, but the man bulldozed on, "To be honest, I had almost given up reaching you again," he confessed with a refreshed face but droopy eyes. "And then I– I recognized you and then that fire bird.."
His voice spattered out. Yoo Myeongwoo's expression fell. His shoulders slumped and his head thumped against his chest. He appeared like a veteran soldier who lost everything in the resulting war he fought for.
"I thought," Yoo Myeongwoo whispered quietly into the silence, "that you'd died." And then, as if coming alive for the first time in centuries, his soft voice rose sharply in helplessness. "I couldn't– I wasn't able to– to do anything!" He gestured wildly into the air, hoping to get his complicated feelings of the ten minutes they had to hide from the Gold Beak Maiya across. "I stood there, helpless, unable to do anything and Yohan, you– you–"
'I.. what?' Han Yoojin thought and realized he really, really didn't want to hear the answer–
Yoo Myeongwoo, ignorant, continued on with shaking and wild eyes that stared at him with a piercing gaze, "You pushed me."
Han Yoojin opened his mouth to refute, to argue, to say, That didn't happen. I was only panicking, and you were in my way. However, a lump had grown in his throat without his notice and thus, nothing came out of his mouth except air. It appeared like he was hesitating in Yoo Myeongwoo's eyes, so he was only able to show his denial via helplessly shaking his head.
"You pushed me," Yoo Myeongwoo repeated in an awed voice and there were tears gathering in the corners of his eyes.
Han Yoojin would like to exit the situation right now. But suddenly, as if predicting the direction his thoughts were turning to, the man gently grabbed his right knee. The grip was light and easy to escape from, but it felt like a silent warning. If he hadn't had Fear Resistance, he would have felt a cold shiver racing down his spine. Yoo Myeongwoo wouldn't take a knife out of nowhere and transform into a hidden serial killer, right?
"You.. You saved me." Yoo Myeongwoo continued on like an old, broken record. The tears trailed down his cheeks as if underlying the deep-rooted relief on his expression and his quivering lips. "You pushed me and saved me, and you broke the contract and– and.." A hiccup. Then a sob. And then Han Yoojin got Yoo Myeongwoo clinging around his midriff and pressing his tear stained face against his stomach. Yoo Myeongwoo sobbed hysterically into his stomach, barely understandable, "And you almost died saving me!"
There was chaos in his head, in his heart. His head felt cool, but his heart ached with an emotion he couldn't name. His arms were full of a sobbing Yoo Myeongwoo and he was rooted on the spot. And under all the muted panic that tried to consume him, he had a single, stray thought, 'Yoohyun-ah, did you also—thoughtlessly, unthinkingly, carelessly, recklessly–'
Acted. Moved. Went. Left. Sacrificed. In the heat of the moment, in his last moments, in the seconds he saw the Lauchtas that was going to strike him down, did he–
Han Yoojin shakily gathered his wits together after Yoo Myeongwoo's monologue and quietly reassured, "I wasn't going to die."
He was. Both before the Lauchtas and Gold Beak Maiya—he had been before death's door, and even then, before his regression, he had been on the verge of death many times before. He had almost died, and Yoo Myeongwoo, who had been an ordinary Unawakened man a few days ago, recognized the fact; he almost died, right in front of him, and couldn't have done anything. In fact, a lot of people had died inside the dungeon, but Han Yoojin had been the one who he knew.
"I wasn't going to die," he echoed again and, therefore, lied.
He made up some imaginary plan which considered that he had an item in his Inventory that he would have been ready to use by playing as a bait, but in reality, he had been ready to die. To die and never let his brother find out the truth. To die and give Yoo Myeongwoo the chance to hide again. If the system hadn't opened the gate in time—he would have died. Definitely, surely, certainly, positively.
Without a doubt, he would be dead right now.
'It's chilling,' he thought without a chill enveloping his body, without a single trembling limb. There was no fear. His own looming death didn't affect him at all. And thus, the lie even seemed believable. 'I thought Yoo Myeongwoo's reaction was weird, but maybe..'
It was him who was weird. Yoo Myeongwoo's worry, his tears, his clinginess—wasn't it normal to act like that after seeing someone get killed and then seeing someone you know approach the death's door? Han Yoojin wondered how his common sense got screwed to the point where he couldn't understand other people's feelings and thoughts. It was normal to worry. A lot of people died. Someone Yoo Myeongwoo knew didn't die, but almost did. It was a big relief.
L-Class Fear Resistance sure was terrifying. It was almost not worth the loss of his common sense if the passive skill hadn't helped him stay rational against the Gold Beak Maiya. Because of that and his five years of experience, he managed to save Yoo Myeongwoo and himself.
"Yoo Myeongwoo," he called out to the man half dozing on his lap. An occasional hiccup escaped Yoo Myeongwoo after he started quieting down at his admission to the completely fake plan. "Thank you." He brushed a hand through the other's hair as Yoo Myeongwoo sniffled roughly. "For worrying about me."
It was a lot to think about.
20.
"Where are you going?" Yoo Myeongwoo asked him and his face looked like a strange mix between distressed and dismayed.
"We'll stay in touch," he appeased with a small smile and didn't answer the question. The other's expression shouldn't look endearing, but it was. "Please try to sharpen ten thousand bladed tools, yes?"
"Yes!" Yoo Myeongwoo's arm twitched as if wanting to salute like in the military.
"Take enough breaks and tell me if my acquaintance starts to bother you. I'll take care of them then." An acquaintance who he not so subtly blackmailed into lending a grinder machine for Yoo Myeongwoo's sharpening progression. That should shorten the six months of constant work into roughly two months of work if Yoo Myeongwoo worked diligently. "Work hard. But not too hard."
Yoo Myeongwoo nodded. He then stretched his arms out into his direction. Han Yoojin reluctantly let the other hug him. Hopefully, that wouldn't become a habit and only a comfort gesture.
21.
It became a habit. Dammit.
22.
Peace wasn't exactly happy with his late return to the apartment, but perhaps because they could sniff the blood out of his clothes, they didn't put up much of a fuss.
He trained Peace the next three days in a warehouse the Dokkaebi lovingly called their 'super-duper secret hideout' and vainly tried to ignore the pointed wordplays the system operator sent him to move his ass into a dungeon. It was true that Han Yoojin had a lot of questions to ask like, they wanted him to gather fifty S-Classes? Did his apartment look like a farm? There was no way he could gather fifty S-Classes! That was how many S-Classes existed, tops! He couldn't just march to these S-Classes and say, 'I'd die for you'!
[Influence completed targets (5)]
..Though three people, one Dokkaebi and one Peace had already gotten influenced by his keywords. Magic Beasts were able to be influenced, but forty-eight were no joke, either. He had to raise the Magic Beasts and to do that they first had to be found, acquired alive and tamed before they found their way to him. It was basically free labor for the system operator. What the heck should he do with forty-eight Magic Beasts anyway? His apartment wasn't that big and letting all of them stay in a dirty warehouse gave him the hives.
In addition, there was just no way he would get away with it. The Haeyeon Guild found itself in a cautious state right now—having a newbie S-Class to train and because of an anonymous note he sent them through the Dokkaebi when he told them to retrieve his old cell phone. The note had contained the following information; the A-Class dungeon in that specific location was going to be a slime dungeon.
Haeyeon's stocks went through the roof a few days later.
With a huff, he plopped down onto a couch where Peace was idly rolling a ball between their paws. A deep sigh left his lips and he murmured, "Maybe I shouldn't have sent them the information.." Han Yoohyun hadn't looked well in the broadcast about their newest discovery. If he had to describe it in words, it appeared like his brother had been suppressing his bottled-up annoyance about the goldmine of money he found. He wondered to himself, "..Does he eat enough?"
"Keureureu," Peace replied and nuzzled his hand.
Unbidden, a smile lifted the corners of his lips. Peace was too cute.
23.
Correction: Peace was too cute, and therefore, they made the internet explode.
"Why did you think it was a good idea to open a social media account?" Han Yoojin questioned the Dokkaebi who thought that it was a good idea to create a social media account for Peace. Which, a day later, resulted in the local media making a broadcast about the mysterious tamed Magic Beast account. At least it was in English. And didn't have anything to do with him, because the one-year long campaign against him and the resulting cyberbullying five years into the future had been extremely malicious. But– "What if the Haeyeon Guild Leader finds out?! He's paranoid after your break-in!"
"Don't worry!" the Dokkaebi assured confidently through their call, snickering between each word as if knowing about an inside joke. "I made sure to connect my IP to IPs all over the world with a VPN! It's foolproof!"
"He'll know." That genius little brother.
"Even if he does, it's not like our little Peace is gonna be found!" they argued vehemently.
"I plan to give them back," he said and next to him, Peace let out a terrifying growl like they didn't agree at all. Han Yoojin petted their head until they were purring and nuzzling his hand in bliss again.
The Dokkaebi made a disagreeable sound. "No, no! Don't take Peace away!" It was them who took Peace away, though. "I would agree to rent Peace out, but not give away!"
"And what will you do if I give them back?" he deadpanned flatly.
"I'll scream," the Dokkaebi threatened slowly through the cellphone and then proceeded to screech.
24.
The apartment was soundproof now.
And it seemed like the Dokkaebi and he would establish a rent-a-tamed-Magic-Beast[1] business. That was fine, that was good. Han Yoojin suddenly had the unexplainable urge to commit suicide to leave this scenario[2]. However, even Peace appeared to agree, and he was too weak against a sad Dokkaebi plus Peace.
They named it Mirific Monstrosities.
Just for the record, the Dokkaebi named it like that, being the boss of the business—Han Yoojin had no interest in taking the role after seeing the numerous messages sent to Peace's social media account. He would rather be the nameless Extra 1 that quietly raised the tamed Magic Beasts. At least his jobless days were over now, and he had a very questionable job as a Magic Beast Trainer that couldn't be defined by the law yet.
"It's only illegal to have them outside and with Unawakened people but it's not illegal to have them in dungeons or as pets," the Dokkaebi had argued soundly, as if they hadn't teleported over and broken a brand new TV in their resulting tantrum, and placed themselves firmly in the grey zone of law.
The whole thought process was, unfortunately, sound and legal too. If the Dokkaebi could guarantee the captivity of the tamed Magic Beasts and the safety of Unawakened people, they could do whatever they wanted. And they did, because they got the resources necessary, too. Han Yoojin almost wanted to pat the Dokkaebi's back in amazement. However, the moment he did that, he would never hear the end of it.
At least the fifty S-Classes sounded reasonable now with that business.. No, wait, it was still too unreasonable to demand that from him!
"Keuheung," Peace mumbled and sounded weirdly smug. They snuggled into his side like an overheated leech. As if the summer heat wasn't enough already. "Keureureu."
"..." Han Yoojin didn't move away, however. Peace was too lovable.
25.
[Sharpening the blade of 10,000 bladed tools (Progress 6,610/10,000)]
Did the system operator make a mistake again and add a zero too much, or why did his eyes try to deceive him. It couldn't possibly be that Yoo Myeongwoo managed to sharpen more than six thousand knives in a period of a little more than three days. Never mind that it wasn't humanly possible to do more than five hundred in two days.
'..What the fuck,' he not so eloquently cussed in his mind, flabbergasted beyond expectation. 'Is he human? He is, isn't he?'
Han Yoojin even used the Seed Leaf skill on Yoo Myeongwoo, but it still stated that the other was a human. What the actual fuck. What kind of scam was this development. If Yoo Myeongwoo continued at this neck breaking speed, he would be finished in two days. He expected the other to finish in two months, minimum, but somehow Yoo Myeongwoo became a beast. He was amazed and horrified at the same time.
'..Myeongwoo doesn't count as a tamed Magic Beast,' he had to remind himself, his mind getting complicated. Unknowns to him, this would be a phrase he would have to repeat to himself more than expected in the future. 'What happened to 'don't work too hard'?'
"Myeongwoo," Han Yoojin called out, "how many hours did you sleep the last three days?"
"..." Yoo Myeongwoo averted his eyes. There appeared to be dark eye bags under his eyes, and his complexion, which should have looked tan, was pale instead. He could even spot the greasiness of the other man's hair.
A heavy sigh left his lips and he covered his face with his hand. Thus, Han Yoojin missed the moment Yoo Myeongwoo's expression fell into a guilty countenance. "Is there a problem with my acquaintance?" he asked into his hand instead of what the fuck, why are you not sleeping and instead working non-stop like you want to die by burnout?
Yoo Myeongwoo cleared his throat with a sound similar to a person who didn't talk to anybody for the last three days. "I couldn't– I mean, no, Song Minwoo-ssi[4] didn't bother me."
"That's good." He would have killed the bastard otherwise. "Then what bothers you?"
"Yohan.." Yoo Myeongwoo began hesitantly and Han Yoojin freed his face of his hand to meet the man's uneasy gaze, "I know I said I won't bother you anymore after the F-Class dungeon, but I have to confess that I'm not able to sleep anymore."
"..What?" he replied, astounded. That wasn't what he expected the other to say. He thought it would be more about nervousness because of the incoming SS-Class skill.
"I can't sleep," Yoo Myeongwoo bluntly repeated, his eyes unexpectedly intense where they bore into him. "Because I always have to think about you."
'..What,' Han Yoojin deadpanned in his mind, all thoughts about the other man's loss of sleep leaving his brain. Instead, he began to seriously contemplate the functionality of his five senses. First the downright horrific screech of the Dokkaebi, then the six thousand sharpened tools in three days and now a love confession.
It is true that he declared that he would die for Yoo Myeongwoo—and then almost literally did with the Gold Beak Maiya. However, he was certain that his life wasn't a drama where the saved person would declare their love to their savior. So, what was this sudden love ballad[+]?
"Yohan, you're red," the damn guy who certainly wanted to die by his hands and declared his love towards him, pointed out, a faint hint of worry in his voice.
Han Yoojin tried in vain to suppress the flush that probably crawled down onto his neck already. If he opened his mouth to say anything, a waterfall of incomprehensible nonsense would leave his mouth. However, his previous experience, where he got tongue-tied during their talk, resounded in his brain and thus, he knew he had to say something this time.
"What.." he said as slowly and as tonelessly as possible, "do you mean.. think..?"
See, he didn't embarrass himself. He only felt a little bit like dying because of humiliation. It was nothing compared to the years of being ostracized. If only his face stopped feeling so hot.
"I can't sleep because I'm uneasy."
Right, Yoo Myeongwoo couldn't sleep because he constantly thought about– what.
"..Uneasy?" Somehow, his voice didn't sound as relieved as the feeling of the tsunami of relief crashing into his brain.
"You keep–" the man stuttered and made a sharp hand gesture to the presumably dumbfounded and mystified expression he could visualize on his own face. "Yohan, you keep– You die when I close my eyes and I can't– can't rest." Yoo Myeongwoo shuddered in his seat even though the AC was on, a dark, haunted look flashing through his face and Han Yoojin's heart did a weird twist in his chest at seeing the normally naive and kind Yoo Myeongwoo make an expression like that. The next words were a near whisper, "I can't.. relax at all.."
"Live with me then," Han Yoojin blurted out. Wait, no, that wasn't it!
However, Yoo Myeongwoo's eyes lit up, his mouth curled into a beaming smile, his whole face brightened and Han Yoojin, who wanted to take the offer back because, wait no, Peace also lived here and the Dokkaebi came by twice a week now and how should he explain that, conceded when the other man shyly asked, "Can I?"
He sighed heavily into his palm and his shoulders slumped down in resignation, but his lips were curled into a matching smile. "Sure.."
26.
Mirific Monstrosities made their debut by showing off how he trained Peace by almost getting his arm dislocated with how hard he had to throw the ball. Of course, the video wasn't only showing that but also scenes where Peace slept, played alone, ate, snuggled on him, barred their teeth at the Dokkaebi when they roughhoused too hard—the arm dislocation had been the most memorable because of how many takes it took.
Sometimes, a stray object flew into a shot and they had to retake, sometimes someone breathed too loudly—why the hell did they buy such a sensitive microphone then?—and then there was Peace.
Peace was an absolute angel the moment they weren't filming but the second they did—pure mayhem. Furniture died by fire, equipment got shredded and he already forgot the times he had to drink a potion for his poor twenty-five-year-old F-Class muscles. Perhaps Peace was a little agitated because of Yoo Myeongwoo, who was a new face, but something didn't sound right about that. Peace's gaze was just too focused on the camera in his hand.
The mystery of Peace's behavior stayed unsolved by their 1863th[3] take and the fourth day of their impromptu promotion video shots. By then, even Yoo Myeongwoo looked sick of holding the microphone up and the Dokkaebi vibrated crazily in their seat even though it was their idea from the start.
They solved it at the time he started to edit the video. Han Yoojin was seen in every shot—though the face was always censored or not seen at all—but the shot with Peace getting training didn't feature him at all. One saw a ball fly out of the off in inhuman speed and then Peace who easily followed the ball and caught it midair. Because Han Yoojin had to hold the camera in this sequence, there was nothing of him to see and because of that, Peace started acting out.
"..I want to turn back time," the Dokkaebi whined, pathetically sprawling on the couch. The red dokkaebi mask on their face looked strangely droopy.
There even appeared to be a tiny bit of resentment in Yoo Myeongwoo's eyes when he gazed at Peace who was happily devouring their magic stone. It was clear that they would have been finished two days ago if the Magic Beast hadn't acted up. "I don't see a vending machine here," the man joked lightly. "And we didn't drive someone over[5]."
"That can be arranged," Han Yoojin added in a solemn tone, remembering his driver license five years into the future.
Almost if they shared a hive mind together, the three people's gazes landed on Peace.
27.
The promotion video made the internet explode again.
The first scene showed a happy Peace who scarfed their meal down, somehow not dirtying their shiny red fur. Their big eyes and their twitching ears painted a picture that melted multiple hearts through the web. With Han Yoojin's mediocre video editing skills which he only acquired because of his activities with shady businesses, the Peace of the video jumped up and smoothly transitioned into another Peace who ran along a wide grassy field with a blue clothed person in a Horned Flame Lion mask. Another person joined their sprint in a dark grey hoodie and their hood on.
Then, their business's name, Mirific Monstrosities, blended in a variety of rainbow colors and a generous amount of red glitter.
The next scenes depicted Peace in numerous daily life activities: Peace who hunted a Tooth Mole and shredded it into pieces in less than a couple of seconds; Peace who followed the instructions of the grey hooded person to sit, give their paw, to kill another helpless Tooth Mole, to bury the corpse of the Tooth Mole; Peace who purred in pure bliss while being petted; Peace who snarled at the blue clothed person and the blue clothed person who snarled back; Peace who joyfully jumped into the arms of the grey hooded person; Peace who slept inside a big campfire as if bathing in it; and then Peace who jumped up to catch a ball that flew out of the off.
The screen cut to black for a second and then Peace appeared on top of a stone in a neon pink tutu adorned with white frills and a humongous war bonnet that had bright yellow feathers attached to the headgear. "Gyareureureu," Peace grumbled out. Their expression seemed less than impressed with how they acutely stared straight into the camera. However, something the camera didn't catch appeared to have happened, because Peace abruptly perked up and then yowled into the sky with an energetic, "Geureureureung!"
The light dimmed, the camera swung upwards into the star filled sky and cut slowly to black again with the silhouette of a howling Peace as the last seen scene. The sentence in English, 'Peace, a 2nd Class Unicorn subspecies Horned Flame Lion,' slowly emerged into the corner of the screen and then the video ended.
It trended in less than an hour worldwide.
Yoo Myeongwoo and the Dokkaebi weren't proficient in English, so they couldn't read most of the comments, but Han Yoojin could. It was quite a mess. There were no other words to describe the chaos they caused in the Unawakened and Hunter community. A Horned Flame Lion that had the potential to grow into an S-Class boss monster and was currently in the process of maturing, was being held by a business no one ever heard of before.
Most comments of the Unawakened people were of the negative variant. Between outraged questions of who they were, there were also outright threats to call the secret government security of this specific country the commenter lived in. Personally, he thought it was pretty cute. Then there were the curious people who asked all the right questions; who they were, what gender Peace had[~], if there were other Magic Beasts already, how it was possible to contact them etc.
And then there were Hunters who asked and said all the uncomfortable questions and statements.
[Seseong Sung Hyunjae: Where can I find this fine establishment?]
[Ark Nathan Laurent[×]: Why, didn't the Haeyeon Guild Leader acquire a Horned Flame Lion two months ago?]
[Knights Evelyn Miller: Don't try to start a conspiracy.]
[MKC Choi Sukwon: He's right, though. What does our esteemed Haeyeon Guild Leader have to say to this Haeyeon Han Yoohyun?]
[Haeyeon Kim Minui: Please don't bother our Guild Leader with such outlandish questions.]
Han Yoojin wanted to cringe into his couch after reading only a handful of comments, but Peace was sleeping on him right now so he couldn't. 'Outlandish' wouldn't cut the current situation, 'insane' would be more fitting. The Ark Hunter hit the situation right into bullseye. Exactly how did the Dokkaebi think to explain how a baby Horned Flame Lion appeared out of nowhere?
His cell phone pinged again. Sighing, he opened Peace's account again to read the new comment under increasingly heated arguments from accusing Hunters.
[Mirific Monstrosities Boss: We found it on the streets!]
[1] rent-a-girlfriend reference
[2] orv reference
[3] orv reference again
[4] what a surprise, its orv again
[5] gintama reference that makes no sense at all
[-] so i remember a chapter in hyh pov where it said sth like "he had no choice but to let go" and in part 159 he asks hyj "how do you think i let you go?"
[+] reference to canon hyj
[×] made up some guilds and hunters
[~] no gender, written by author, thats why i always write "they" and same thing with the dokkaebi—i know tls write peace as "he" btw
funny fact; i read that hyh's willow leaves could also be seen as green/blue/azure willow leaves? i asked someone about it, seems its preference. but in another language i speak in, the words mean both. like, you say "yeah that color here, blue/green" and the other person is like "u mean the blue/green like the sky or the other blue/green like the leaves?" u basically say both and there is no other word. ofc u can say it like "jade blue/green" or "ocean blue/green"
