The Novel’s Villain

[These chapters can reach up to 3k words, going to price them accordingly.]

7. The Big Picture of Young Master(3)

Jin-woo tried a lot of things with the leftover meat. Besides the grilled meat, several more recipes were also born, such as salads, beef jerky, beef tartare, and seasoned meat. It was delicious, even raw, but it was fantastic to eat cooked. It wasn’t that difficult because the maids moved very quickly to assist his every need. He also gave some to Rachel, Moo-jin, and the Mercenaries. Quite a few of them passed out as soon as they took a bite.

The taste had increased several times, going beyond satisfaction to a sense of pleasure. They could never go back to the way they used to be.

Anyway, Jin-woo was using all the leftover wolf meat as stored food, and he went towards the Emperor of Greed with a sense of great satisfaction. Leveling up was also very smooth. After tasting Jin-woo’s home cooking, the Mercenaries risked their lives for the hunt. Some of them suffered some pretty serious injuries, but strangely, they all had crazy smiles on their faces.

“The yield has increased by one and a half times compared to the previous day. It’s four times more than the first day.”

Yoo-na looked at Jin-woo with a meaningful smile.

‘He works very hard.’

All he did was detoxify and hand over the meat or occasionally cook it. While making the recipe, he experimented with everything, and thanks to them, his level was increasing explosively. Casual-hunting and cooking went well together.

Jin-woo nodded. It seemed that using these life skills wasn’t bad.

[C] Steamed Fire Lizard

“A taste of real fire!”

A fire lizard dish with a hot taste. Revives enthusiasm and burns hot.

*Experience increases by 10% (12 hours)

Aside from the joy of buffs. As they headed towards the urban development site, he had reached level 35. Although it was lower than Moo-jin or Rachel, he showed incomparable growth thanks to his unmeasurable talent. Because his level up was so fast, the Magic Eye of information was still in the process of catching up. It was growing slowly so that his body wouldn’t be burdened. Nevertheless, the power of growth felt great.

‘It feels like being a newbie using a max-level character.’

Because he fully understood the acquired technique, some parts became available as his physical specs increased. If it were now, it wouldn’t be easy for Choi Hee-yeon to play against him.

‘I just need to push it with overwhelming specs. When the settlement is complete, will I reach the semi-Knight level?’

He may be behind in terms of experience, but his physical specs were overwhelming. No one would believe that he was a competent person whose abilities were first measured not long ago. A novice who had to do ability research hard at the training center of competent people became a semi-knight in a few days. What was even more frightening was that he was still growing.

Therefore, they arrived at the urban development site smoothly. A vast meadow was spread out before them. The horizon, a sight rarely seen in Korea, stretched out endlessly past a huge lake. Far off in the distance was a mountain that seemed to pierce the sky. The phrase, ‘mountain in the back and a river in front,’ immediately came to mind.

It was the best land to build a city.

“How about the hunt?”

“Find it quickly!”

“Quickly…hurry up!”

The Mercenaries had been functionally turned into zombies.

[D] Madness

They had been forced to eat powdered food for two days because they couldn’t find the right ingredients. They looked much more exhausted than before. The powdered food developed by the Frontline Group was more nutritious than regular food so that they wouldn’t starve, but strangely, the mercenaries were all skin and bones. That was how mentally difficult it was for them.

The power of the increased taste, which lasted for several days, was that intense. When the increased taste effect disappeared, an emptiness came again, and they started looking for Gate food. For those who once tasted such sweetness, eating powdered food was like torture. Rather, it tasted like eating vomit.

‘Um…’

Jin-woo didn’t mean for this to happen, but anyway, everyone worked hard, so in the end, it was okay. Unlike the mercenaries, Jin-woo felt like he was on vacation. He took a good rest while enjoying the scenery and absorbed the experience points, so it was safe to think that he was just on a regular outing. It was also interesting to observe the monsters as if they were at a zoo. As Jin-woo looked out at the scenery for a while, Yoo-na approached him.

“It is close to the Gate entrance, and there are no monsters around, so it’s the perfect land to build a city.”

“No monsters?”

“Yes, plants and animals exist, but there are no threats. Oddly enough, it’s only in this area.”

As Yoo-na said, the atmosphere was different. It looked so peaceful. They said you couldn’t find a place like this at other Gates either.

‘Is it because of the Emperor of Greed?’

That was very likely. Jin-woo thought of the original story. It was a Chinese spy who caused the incident that blew up Anyang. A relic that detected the flow of mana reached where the Emperor of Greed was sealed. It was a compass-shaped artifact, but it was destroyed after Jin-woo obtained it. The decision was based on the judgment that it would be better to remove it because of a risk of leakage.

China made a move as if they had caught the scent of something. They had become a powerful country on their own. There were plenty of Chinese characters among the competent people who were jealous of the main character.

‘That compass was stolen too.’

Jin-woo, of course, paid an excessive amount to buy it. Thanks to that, it brought quite a rise in his Waste stacks. He didn’t care if he had the compass or not, though. After all, his Magic Eye proved much more effective.

Jin-woo looked around with his Magic Eye.

‘It’s over there.’

He could sense the flow of mana through the meadow, spread shallow like a mist. It was a huge amount even at first glance. It seemed that the monsters didn’t approach thanks to that mana.

Jin-woo grew nervous. The Emperor of Greed was like a time bomb. If he did it wrong, not only Korea but also the world could be destroyed. Because now, the protagonist was also still an ordinary person.

‘But I’ll have to see it for myself.’

It seemed he could just move along with the flow of mana. Looking at the flow of mana, it was connected to the huge mountain in the distance. The cliff that looked like it had been cut with a knife was very impressive. It reminded him of a fantasy movie that he had seen before.

“Let’s move.”

“Do you have a destination?”

“Um, just follow me.”

Jin-woo took the lead and moved along with the flow of mana to navigate. It passed through huge cracks in rocks and tall grass that completely blocked his view. Jin-woo, who found his way without hesitation, didn’t seem like this was his first time here. He almost looked like a professional explorer.

He focused all his attention on detecting the flow of mana. Nothing else caught his eye as he remained wary of the Emperor of Greed. Rachel glanced at Jin-woo, skillfully finding his way, and then drew a bit closer towards a maid. There was a strange pattern on the maid’s hand, a familiar pattern for those who knew.

Skin Collector. She was an assassin from Russia who made plenty of trouble for U.S. intelligence officials. Her nickname was the Skin Collector because of how she peeled off the faces of those she assassinated. The maid sighed slightly as Rachel clung close to her. They had spoken a few times since they met.

“Sister, I think this place is off the map. Can you tell me where we are going?”

“I don’t know. This is certainly an unexplored area. Don’t even think about asking the Chief of the bodyguards. She doesn’t know either.”

“Really? It seems that Mr. Jin-woo knows all the roads…he must have come here often.”

The maid turned her gaze to Rachel. It wasn’t the same doll expression as when they first met. Whenever she looked at Jin-woo or talked about him, a certain heat formed in her eyes. All the maids had been like that since he had fed them.

The maid opened her mouth and then closed it again. Then she became anxious when Rachel appealed to her desperately. The Skin Collector was quite talkative. She enjoyed chatting while looking at the skin she collected. Rather, she began to collect skin because there was hardly anyone to listen to her chatter.

It was torture that she hadn’t been allowed to talk for years. But while she was with Jin-woo, she could escape from the restrictions placed by the General Manager and taste heaven.

“I won’t bother you anymore.”

“…Perhaps before I came here, he must have come here when he was young.”

“When he was young? It must have been dangerous…”

“He must have come to survive. The General Manager said the same thing. I heard Master experienced hell and that he destroyed it himself…he was five years old when he first came here, but his maid, whom he thought of like his sister, tried to assassinate him.”

“Assassination!? Humph!”

Rachel’s voice grew louder, but she caught herself and lowered it as she read the mood.

“Assassination?”

“Yeah, I heard he’s been suffering ever since. He came here on purpose to protect his men from assassinations disguised as indiscriminate terrorism. It is said that he already had such a deep heart when he was five years old.”

“I-is that so?”

As the maid said, everything seemed to be true. Rachel nodded. Indeed, he was the only genius in the world to be certified as possessing unmeasurable talent. Rumors that he was on par with Choi Hee-yeon shortly after first holding a sword were almost accepted as orthodoxy among the competent people. After all, he was acknowledged by the Sword Master.

The story that the maid was telling was written by the General Manager himself in ‘The Biography of Great Lee Jin-woo.’ It was the only book in the Gate that the maids could read. There were twelve volumes in total, and the General Manager’s writing skills were surprisingly good.

The maids thought it was just a nonsensical story. Who would believe such a false and hypocritical story? However, after seeing Jin-woo in person, they all started to accept it as the truth. As soon as they thought of those stories as true, their respect for him started to grow. Of course, the General Manager met Lee Jin-woo when he was twelve years old.

“It is said that he came here to learn how to protect himself. He survived this place where there wasn’t even anything to eat. I guess that he probably figured out the detoxification then.”

“Ah…!”

In Lee Jin-woo’s biography, it was written that he endured the pain of death and poison. Maybe he had created something to detoxify it based on that experience. It was very consistent with the current situation.

Rachel looked at Lee Jin-woo’s back. Her eyes reddened when she heard what the maid said. That was how sentimental she was.

“Well then, who the hell was trying to assassinate Mr. Jin-woo? Did the Frontline Group just leave it alone?”

“The incarnation of evil, the great devil, the great slaughter Lee Min-woo…”

“If it’s Lee Min-woo…”

“He is a bloodless, tearless demon who was trying to steal everything from Master. I am a very notorious criminal, but I can’t compare to him.”

The story about Lee Min-woo continued, about how he was a pervert who liked to torture children and women or how he was a ruler of the underworld. Of course, that wasn’t true. The General Manager thought that Lee Min-woo was an enemy to be eliminated, and because he was stuck in the Gate, he received a lot of misinformation. All of the incidents that Lee Jin-woo committed in the past were also blamed on Lee Min-woo.

Rachel knew Lee Min-woo well. He was known as Lee Jin-woo’s older brother, but the information that he was Jin-woo’s half-brother wasn’t a big secret. Thus, her hatred of Lee Min-woo began. As the maid said, he was the incarnation of evil. She seemed to have a memory of hearing that he had caused a bloodbath in the Frontline Group.

Rachel was in tears when she heard that Lee Jin-woo’s recent rise to prominence after all of his hardships was about protecting his life.

“…It is too much.”

Lee Min-woo had already become the worst entity in her mind. The maid nodded as if in sympathy. Then, she was startled and coughed when she felt Yoo-na’s gaze suddenly on her.

“…Please forget what I said a little while ago.”

“Yes! I didn’t hear anything.”

The maid nodded at Rachel’s words and went ahead. Rachel looked at Jin-woo, who slightly turned his head. He looked around with a serious look on his face, but he appeared particularly sad in her eyes. How much pain was he hiding?

The sight of him being betrayed by his trusted subordinates and the deaths of the subordinates who believed in him was unbearable. Even though he was a genius, he could never be a genius in his heart.

“I can’t believe there was such a reason….”

“Can we cope with it?”

Rachel’s subordinates, who were listening behind her, spoke quietly. Moo-jin lost himself in thought, then approached Rachel.

“Maybe the clause on the ban of talking is for our sakes.”

“If Lee Min-woo or his aides know…”

“We won’t die well. We would be tortured. Anyway…it looks like we’re in the same boat now. The ridiculous amounts and compensation all make sense. Make sure you control your subordinates well.”

Rachel nodded at Moo-jin’s words. They couldn’t bring all of the loot so that they would pick it up on their way back. Its worth was so great that it made them numb. However, such responsibility and sacrifice came with big money. That was the fate of competent people who weren’t protected by ordinary laws beyond the general public.

“Still, I don’t regret it.”

“Same here. Phew, I’m a little relieved to know.”

Jin-woo, standing ahead, signaled that he had found something. The two smiled slightly at each other and quickly approached him again. Jin-woo finally reached the place where the mana originated.

‘Ah! Did I move too fast?’

It felt like he had crossed a long distance very quickly. Jin-woo didn’t grow tired at all because he absorbed the high-purity mana. Rather, the more he moved, the more he felt that each cell in his body was awakened. Because of this, he was able to maintain a high level of concentration for an extended time.

As he came out of the reed forest, he saw a huge cliff. The white surface was impressive, but some places were exceptionally straight as if they had been cleanly cut. There were small gaps with certain patterns, giving the impression it was a puzzle that could only be found in a game.

Yoo-na looked at the cliff.

“It looks like some sort of cryptography.”

“Wow, this is a high-level technique! It’s nothing compared to what’s been discovered so far!”

Rachel, approaching Jin-woo, said so with a hint of excitement.

Jin-woo could tell. The Emperor of Greed, known to be the most powerful of all Emperors, was sealed in the depths beyond. Jin-woo looked at the cliff with his Magic Eye.

[??] Test of Greed

‘He who devours all things, his greed knows no bounds. Even the dimensions are his prey.’

He must be sealed forever.

He could obtain the qualification to go to the sealed place of the Emperor of Greed. If he replenished the mana of the seal after obtaining the qualifications, the seal could be extended. Currently, a large amount of mana was leaking out as the seal couldn’t endure forever. If the door were forcibly opened, disaster would occur.

*Test Pass Rewards: Key of Greed, Seal Stabilization, Magical Treasure Mine

Jin-woo clenched his fist tightly. It was the most welcome news of all the news he had heard and seen.

‘It’s a good thing I’m here.’

There was no way he was going to die. A comfortable, peaceful life was caught in his sight.