Chapter 177: CH 177

“Oof!”

As Cruze outstretched her right hand to lift something, her aura power morphed into the shape of a hand and grabbed the Drake’s corpse, which had fallen atop a nearby flying shuttle’s deck.

Even in the New Continent, the rules dictating the distribution of items remained the same. The user who played the biggest role in defeating a monster was given ownership of its remains. The only problem was that the battle had occurred in the sky over a vast sea. Many of the monsters hit by her bullets had fallen to the sea floor.

“Well, I’m glad I at least got this. Most of the corpses and their gear have fallen into the ocean.”

Cruze grunted and put the Drake’s body in her inventory. She couldn’t take the complete Giga before, so she made sure to expand her inventory capacity; hence, she faced no issue storing the entire Drake.

“Can I ask you a question?” Lancelot said as he approached Cruze.

While using an aura blade to shave the molars she’d pulled from the Drake’s mouth, Cruze replied.

“Unless it’s a weird question, go ahead.”

“How can I gather and concentrate the aura power that I emit outside my body?”

Cruze had been looking down at the Drake’s molars when she turned around and faced Lancelot, frowning.

“That’s a strange question.”

“…”

“What do you want? How could a Master aura power user ask such a nonsensical question? Could it be that you entered the Master level without knowing how to gather and manipulate aura? What type of aura power are you specialized in?”

“I haven’t decided yet.”

“What?”

Cruze looked at Lancelot with a puzzled expression. If this were the first time they’d met, she could perhaps chalk up his reply as something weird but understandable. Yet, she had seen Lancelot fight before. Though his attack style was simple, and he didn’t use enough aura power, Cruze felt that Lancelot was quick, and his aura power was relatively pure. So, she didn’t think much of it at the time.

“Wait a minute.”

Having said that, Cruze grabbed Lancelot’s hand, and her aura power began to seep into Lancelot’s. Aura power was the manifestation of one’s Consciousness. She soon withdrew her aura.

“Did you ask Thousand Scents the same thing? I’m a genius, but she still knows more than me.”

“…”

“Hmm. Did you ask me something you already knew the answer to? Hey, do I look like I have a lot of free time on my hands?”

“Thousand Scents didn’t offer an answer.”

“Every question doesn’t need an answer, but if you still want to hear it, I’ll tell you.”

Lancelot clenched his jaw once Cruze let go of his hand with an annoyed expression plastered on her face. He already knew what she was about to say. However, he had no choice but to be quiet and listen.

He had spent 2,000 days in the training room. In terms of years, he had spent five years training nonstop. Yet, even after such a long time, he didn’t see much change. Obviously, his spear technique became more refined, and minute movements became possible, but his fighting power hadn’t changed much from the day he realized the meaning of stabbing.

He felt as though he didn’t make any progress; he didn’t ascend the staircase by a single inch. Lancelot was determined to climb up, step by step. However, what he believed to be a staircase was, in fact, a wall that couldn’t be climbed.

“You’re dumb.”

She used simple words to describe his plight. It was also something he was well aware of. Yet, it was still difficult and almost unbearable for Lancelot to realize that everything he had done up to now could be summed up with only two words.

“But I tried. I continued without any breaks… am I not able to progress?”

“In terms of effort, a penguin or an ostrich can’t fly like an eagle no matter how much they flap their wings.”

“…”

Lancelot was left speechless. He felt as if something was caught in his throat, choking his breath. Cruze shook her head.

“To be honest, I have nothing to teach you. It’s like talking to a blind man about eyesight. Wouldn’t it be better to remain content as a Level 10 user? From what I can tell, it seems like Masters are treated like royalty in this game.”

Cruze wasn’t wrong. Even if Lancelot didn’t level up again, he could still live without much difficulty and play the game. He wasn’t an idiot, and he always worked hard, so he didn’t have to worry about supporting himself in real life.

“However-”

“Ugh. End of story. The end. Loading!”

With a shout, Cruze’s aura power gathered in the air and turned into a gigantic fighter jet.

Whoosh!

Lancelot stood silently and watched the fighter jet instantly vanish into the horizon. He suddenly felt all the energy and power draining from his body. His will was wavering as if the promise he swore to himself was weakening.

Slap!

Then, he slapped his cheeks.

“I wasted my time… wasted it. I promised to train and move forward, even if it took me ten thousand years, but I’m already wavering from that commitment after only five years.”

He was fortunate to have realized the meaning of stabbing after 100 days of constant practice, and he knew that he had lucked out. However, he also knew that such a lucky occasion probably wouldn’t happen again during his lifetime.

“Since I’ve found that there’s no quick fix, it’s settled. I’ll continue fighting here and earn some experience points, and then I’ll go back to training again.”

He remembered what Cruze had said a moment ago. A penguin or an ostrich can’t fly no matter how much it flapped its wings; their inability to fly like an eagle wasn’t because they didn’t try.

Lancelot gave a defeated smile. Her words were correct.

Regardless of the effort exerted, a penguin couldn’t fly.

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*** Collapse ***

After waking, Yongno booted up his computer and browsed the internet. He wanted to find information related to the Institute, but he couldn’t because he was being monitored.

‘This is frustrating. I don’t have any information on them.’

Yongno was always home, and even if he went to the supermarket, he would be back in five to ten minutes. He hadn’t placed any cameras in his home or anything similar, but even so, he could feel their gazes. They had probably monitored his entire call history and attempted to hack his PC after their meeting. However, Yongno was primarily able to shield himself because he didn’t talk to anyone, and now that he knew they were watching him, he would be careful about what he did on his PC.

‘In the end, the only way is by using magic.’

Initially, by using Enhanced Eyesight, Yongno realized that there were two people directly monitoring him, using a telescope to observe from a distance. To Yongno, it was incomprehensible to send two agents to watch someone for no particular reason, so he knew something was up.

‘I thought it was all resolved back then….’

It was because of Kang Sang that Yongno was released from the laboratory safely back then. Kang Sang appeared when Yongno’s spirit was completely shattered after undergoing a harsh experiment, an experiment that didn’t even care about human rights. At that time, Kang Sang distorted the memories of the researchers to make them forget about Yongno and manipulated the lab data. In addition, by erasing Yongno’s memory, he saved Yongno’s shattered spirit.

“It’s better if you don’t retain these memories, right?”

‘Right. I wish I didn’t have those memories. It’s all useless now anyway.’

Even as he sighed, Yongno continued to circulate his magic. Since there were no overarching systems in the real world like there were in DIO, to create a magic circle, Yongno had to use his own magic power. Unfortunately, Yongno couldn’t gather or hold magic power himself; he had to use the mark that Mary had left on his forehead to convert the real world’s mana into something usable.

‘In Dynamic Island, I have thousands of low-rank magic stones and cores, but to not even have one in the real world….’

However, Yongno’s hard work and training over the past few days weren’t meaningless, as he had succeeded in creating a magic circuit on the back of his right hand. Though he couldn’t make a gem like in DIO, by utilizing the magic circuitry approach, Yongno could create a magic power container. This container couldn’t recharge itself, so Yongno had to remember to do so whenever he had time. While it was annoying and burdensome to take this extra step, Yongno knew that this approach would be helpful in the end.

‘I need to use my Magic Eye to subdue and infiltrate the mind of one of the agents. Even if the agent is just a low-ranking minion, I can probably garner some basic information on the lab and Institute’s opinion toward me.’

Ding Dong~ Ding Dong~

While he was thinking this, the doorbell rang, but Yongno almost never ordered food to be delivered. He couldn’t recall the doorbell ever ringing since Eunhye went abroad. For a moment, Yongno considered who might be at his door.

“First of all, it might be my older sister… but she wouldn’t just abruptly show up without any forewarning. The atmosphere feels a little off right now, too.”

Yongno’s sister, Boram, sensed that something was wrong between Yongno and her family after the minor conflict during the holiday visit. She’d asked Yongno about various things afterward, but Yongno didn’t really give any conclusive responses, so their relationship and contact had slowly petered out in recent days. Based on this, Yongno could only come to one conclusion regarding who the visitor was. Yongno picked up the intercom receiver.

“Who is it?”

[Courier service.]

“Unfortunately, I never have any deliveries.”

Then, Yongno immediately hung up the receiver. He wanted to see how the other side would respond. Their actions would tell Yongno who was at the door and give him a better understanding of their tendencies and capabilities. Based on that assessment, Yongno felt that he could formulate multiple options.

Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep… Ring!

“They’re punching in my key code. I guess this is the worst-case scenario.”

The digital door lock, which was a method of opening one’s door by entering a password, was easily unlocked, and soon, the door opened. People entering someone’s home like this, knowing that the owner was home, clearly had no interest in doing anything legal.

“Damn it. You’re sure acting fishy. It’s not like we broke the door down to enter.”

A man in a suit with all his hair slicked back entered the house. He possessed a neat image overall, but the smirk on his face was reminiscent of a snake’s expression.

“Well, I don’t think this’ll work… but you know this is trespassing and illegal, right?”

“Sure, but don’t test us, kid. You’re lucky that we’re not meeting in a dark basement.”

Two people came into Yongno’s apartment. A slightly skinny guy was first, followed by a tall guy with an imposing body. Yongno thought:

‘What’s their purpose? What could they possibly want from me?’

Although Yongno had been involved with the laboratory and Institute, that was the past. Additionally, Kang Sang erased most of the related information. He lived a quiet life with no roommates and had limited contact with others, so why would agents be barging into his apartment? However, Yongno soon understood why they were so interested in him.

“Now, shall we call a friend of yours?”

“Who are you talking about?”

“Hey, it’s not good to make someone repeat themselves when you know full well what they’re talking about.”

Click!

As they spoke, one of the agents pointed a gun at Yongno’s neck. Of course, the gun wasn’t loaded with live ammunition. It didn’t matter if someone was a part of a state institution; killing a person with a firearm would be quite difficult to clean afterward.

“Ah….”

The calmness that Yongno had maintained until now was immediately blown away, and his body soon began to tremble. He recognized the model of the gun.

“Don’t annoy us any further. It seems that the researchers are showing extraordinary interest in you… something about apparently entering the lab but not having any records regarding your visit. There are some who are excited that there’s a great secret hidden in you.”

Yongno knew the model of the gun and the type of ammunition it contained. It was an anesthetic dart; it was what Yongno was hit with when he was taken to the Institute’s laboratory. If he got shot with that thing again… if that happened….

Tremble. Tremble.

Yongno was terrified. The fear came from deep within him, but his logical reasoning side was also shouting at him.

‘No! Impossible! My father is the Chief of Staff!’

It was impossible to imagine that even the most heinous of people would do anything to the Chief of Staff’s son. Even if someone was a soldier and not a politician, the Chief of Staff wielded an immense and wide range of power that couldn’t be ignored.

‘But… it’s also true that these guys are here right now and pointing their guns at me. Doesn’t this mean that my father understands and is tolerating this situation to some extent?’

Yongno felt as if his mind was imploding. His head, which was always clear and bright, was drenched in fear and refused to work properly. Moreover, Yongno could hear a voice whispering from deep within him.

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