Hell's Handbook

Chapter 95: Robbers

The blond man was fairly tall and muscular, and the two daggers he held, shone with a green glint. The blades had clearly been soaked in poison.

“Your Mandarin isn’t too bad, huh!” Su Jin was initially surprised at how well this blond man spoke Mandarin, but when he remembered that the he was a Handbook owner, it didn’t seem surprising anymore.

“Besides Mandarin, I also know seven other languages. But none of that is important. My friend and I are just here to borrow a few things.” The blond pulled a chair over, turned it around, sat down and rested his arms on the backrest.

“What, you’re here to borrow our lives?” Su Jin felt like he didn’t seem very imposing since he had to be carried by Kano Mai.

The blond shook his head and his expression grew serious as he said, “You can call me Ron. In general, our policy is not to kill those who are willing to cooperate with us. We’re not bloodthirsty murderers who kill others for nothing.”

Su Jin made a face. “If that’s the case, then why are your other friends still hiding around the house? I hardly call this a no-kill policy.”

Ron was rather surprised and concluded that these two must have some sort of skill that could observe their surroundings without the use of surveillance cameras. Those were useless, since any owner making use of their special items and techniques could not be caught on camera.

.

But he wasn’t worried. If the two of them could still get away under such circumstances, he might as well kill himself.

“They’re just there in case anything goes wrong,” said Ron as he shrugged.

Su Jin pursed his lips, then said, “In that case…what do you want to borrow from us?”

“Oho! We want to borrow…every Spirit Power item as well as any other useful items.” Ron grinned at them but maintained a good distance from the two, in case they decided to attack him even at their own expense.

Su Jin and Kano Mai weren’t expecting this response. These men were basically a group of robbers who targeted Handbook owners. They were a little caught off guard, but they weren’t particularly surprised. It wasn’t hard to understand why these men were doing this. It was much easier and safer to rob someone of what they had rather than fight your way through a Challenge desperately and slowly use the points received to exchange for items.

“I can give you what you want, but I have a question. How did you end up targeting us?” asked Su Jin quietly.

“You don’t need to know the answer to that. Hand over all your things now!” Ron had a murderous glint in his eye now. He was clearly losing his patience.

But there was no way Su Jin was going to hand over every item he had on hand. Those were vital to his own survival in the Handbook world. Besides, he didn’t think these people were going to leave after taking their items. The murderous aura surrounding Ron was simply too strong. This wasn’t just based on Su Jin’s observation, but based on what his Psychokinetic Spirit Power had detected. It sensed a bloodthirstiness in this man.

It seemed like there was no way out for Su Jin. This situation was even worse than anything he had experienced during the Handbook Challenges. His limbs were paralyzed, so he had lost 90% of his fighting abilities. His Psychokinetic Spirit Power was powerful, but there was no way he could kill seven Handbook owners in one shot. He figured that he might be able to kill three of them at the same time, then he would run out of Spirit Power and still end up getting killed by the other owners.

“Mai, there’s something I’ve not told you all this time,” Su Jin suddenly said to Kano Mai.

Kano Mai stared blankly at Su Jin in surprise. Ron was equally surprised that Su Jin wasn’t more concerned about the situation he was in right now. Kano Mai took a deep breath and said, “What is it?”

“Actually…I…I’ve always had a crush on you!” said Su Jin suddenly.

Kano Mai’s entire body literally shook. That was the last thing she expected Su Jin to say. She knew how much Su Jin liked Ye Yun.

But Su Jin smiled faintly and said to her, “Put me down.”

Kano Mai immediately put him down. Ron looked oddly at the couple in front of him. How was this a good time to get romantic?

“Mai, compared to those things, it’s more important to stay alive! Give them whatever they want! Also, help me to take my Handbook out,” said Su Jin with a sigh, as if he was resigned to his fate and was really prepared to hand everything he had over to these robbers.

Kano Mai helped Su Jin to take his Handbook out and Ron watched Su Jin very closely to make sure that Su Jin didn’t try anything funny, since Su Jin had to take his Handbook out for this transaction and he might try to attack.

But what puzzled Ron was why Su Jin was in this state. Ron had seen Su Jin before and Su Jin was perfectly mobile. How did he suddenly become a paralytic?

Then again, that was none of Ron’s concern. He concluded that Su Jin had run into some accident in the real world and got himself badly injured. In other words, even if Ron hadn’t come looking for him, Su Jin was definitely going to die during his next Challenge. A completely immobile person would never survive a Handbook Challenge.

Just then, Kano Mai suddenly did something to the Handbook. A portal door suddenly appeared and Kano Mai jumped right in.

“Hell’s Bar!” Everything happened too quickly and Kano Mai had disappeared by the time Ron let out a shout.

Su Jin had a pleased smile on his face after Kano Mai had jumped in. If those words hadn’t distracted Kano Mai and caused her to waver, he wouldn’t have had the chance to control her mind.

Kano Mai was someone who had gone through several Challenges and had a very strong will. It wasn’t easy to control someone like her at all. But Su Jin’s sudden confession had shocked her so much that Su Jin was able to control her mind and made her enter Hell’s Bar against her own wishes.

Inside Hell’s Bar, Kano Mai nearly went insane when she realized what just happened and wanted to dash out again, but Su Jin’s voice rang in her head, “Silly girl, you are NOT to come back! I have a way to protect myself. If you come back, you will only ruin my plans. Have a little more faith in your team leader!”

Su Jin had left Kano Mai a message when he sent her into Hell’s Bar because he was afraid she would hop right out again and his efforts would have gone to waste.

Back inside the house, Su Jin had a pleased look on his face because he had made use of his psychokinesis perfectly. Using it to control another person’s mind was not a technique he had learned or practiced before. Trying it out on Kano Mai had been a desperate attempt, but it had turned out better than he had expected.

Ron was furious as he stared daggers at Su Jin. He couldn’t believe one of them had managed to get away despite being cornered like this. If anybody else found out about this, it would be such an embarrassment. Thankfully, this was his own private operation, so nobody else would know besides his own small group.

Actually, Ron had his eye on Su Jin because he was part of the group watching Starlight Orphanage. They were pretty sure that anybody connected to Ye Yun was no ordinary person.

Ron was supposed to report such findings to the organization he belonged to, but he felt that it wouldn’t be too hard to handle Su Jin on his own. After all, if he took Su Jin down secretly, everything Su Jin had would be his and he wouldn’t have to take only what the organization allowed him to.

“Great! Just great! Your companion has fled but I highly doubt you’re able to do that in this state. Are finally prepared to cooperate?” asked Ron as he tried to suppress his anger.

“I’m afraid not!” Su Jin made a face as he gave the command, “Gold Armor! Rumor!”

A golden beam flickered as the Gold Armor covered Su Jin. Ron cursed inwardly. He didn’t expect Su Jin to still choose to counterattack even at this stage.

“Get him!” yelled Ron. Ron couldn’t afford to kill Su Jin now because once Su Jin died, his Handbook and all the items inside would disappear as well. He needed to hold Su Jin down and keep torturing him until he surrendered all his items. Ron was very sure that nobody would be able to hold up against his tactics.

“Air of an Overlord!” Su Jin immediately activated his armor’s skill, sending out an invisible force from his body. All seven owners were stunned and their world spun for one second.

“Move! Move!” Su Jin gritted his teeth and perspiration dripped from his forehead as he filled Rumor with his Psychokinetic Spirit Power. He couldn’t move, so Rumor was his only hope.

Rumor started moving, to Su Jin’s delight. He was right in believing that he wasn’t completely helpless. And even if he were to die, he was going to drag a few of them down with him.

But just then, Ron and the rest snapped out of their dizziness. They were so horrified by what just happened to them. If there was another owner here while they were experiencing that dizziness, at least one of them would have died by now. Once they snapped out of their daze, they charged towards Su Jin and couldn’t see anything else but him.

“Time to die!” Rumor flew out along with whatever remained of his Spirit Power.

All seven owners felt like they weren’t in control of their bodies anymore and Rumor flew right through two of their hearts.

“Crap!” Su Jin felt an excruciating pain in his head. He had overestimated himself after all. Even with Rumor’s help, he could only kill two of them.

The remaining five were even more horrified now. Su Jin had turned out to be way more powerful than they had expected and the possibility of Su Jin being a veteran hadn’t even crossed their mind. In fact, if Su Jin were fully mobile, they would all be dead by now.

“What are you afraid of? So what if he’s veteran? He’s just one paralyzed guy! Get him!” yelled Ron. He was afraid that his team would lose morale because Su Jin was a veteran. After all, the organization would have sent a different team to deal with veterans.

Su Jin lay on the floor with despair in his eyes. He had always thought he would end up dying in a Challenge. But now, it looked like he was going to die in the real world.

The other five felt relieved when they saw the despair in Su Jin’s eyes. That meant that Su Jin wasn’t able to defend himself anymore and had given up, so they charged towards Su Jin again.

Just then, the doorbell rang and a man’s voice called out, “Hello! Is Mr. Su Jin at home?”

Everybody say…PLOT ARMOR