Ch.159Chapter 6. Kill the Dueoksini (3)

“Kaaang.”

I shattered every last orb.

“Phew!”

“Satisfied?”

“Yeah. Finally feeling relieved.”

As soon as Taowu released her transformation, she immediately threw herself into the hot spring, and I followed suit.

“Ahhhh. Being here feels better. Manager Do, are you okay? Seems like you used a ton of magical power today.”

“I’ll recover after resting for a day.”

“That’s assuming you’ll be soaking in the hot spring for all 24 hours, right?”

“…If I fall asleep with my face in the water, please pull me out.”

I submerged my body in the water up to my shoulders.

‘I moved too much today.’

Humans have endurance limits, and there’s only so much one can do with willpower alone.

“I wish I could recover faster.”

“What about the ‘Dragon Ball’ the chairman gave you?”

“Strictly speaking, that doesn’t restore magical power. It reduces mana consumption.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“…I hate to say this, but it only works for me.”

The Dragon Ball has no effect on the Four Executives.

The most effective thing for them is unity with me, dwelling in my body and feeling what it’s like to be alive as humans.

“Manager Do, your magical power is seriously low. Isn’t there any way to increase it?”

“That’s why I’m soaking in the hot spring now. Trying to recover magical power as quickly as possible.”

“True, but there must be other methods. Like using the Goblin’s club to steal magical power from ability users.”

“That might be possible.”

My head is overflowing with techniques to steal magical power.

But most of those techniques have ethical issues and are rationally objectionable, making them difficult to use carelessly.

Like the ability to chew someone’s heart to take their magical power and abilities.

Or the ability to drink someone’s blood to make the magical power in their blood your own.

There are many other methods I could think of right now, but they’re not things to be discussed freely in an open space.

Above all, if any of those had been viable options, I wouldn’t be soaking in a hot spring right now trying to recover magical power.

“Hey, Manager Do? I found it.”

The Tavern Owner placed a plate of neatly cut fruit beside me and Taowu, extending a tablet forward.

“Just as you said, Manager Do, it was on Bluebird. When I searched for radical patriotic zealots, it came right up.”

“As expected.”

Even in an era that underwent a great transformation in 2000, social media is well-developed in what’s supposed to be 2025.

There’s Bluebird, which some criticize as brain-eating, along with Facebook, Discord, and Blind.

And there’s one SNS that’s mainly used on the dark web, inaccessible to ordinary people.

Teragram.

This SNS, a mix of 140-character microblogging and social networking, is only used by those who have dipped their toes into the dark world.

“Thanks for your hard work, Tavern Owner.”

“It’s nothing. Checking these things is my job.”

Looking through Teragram is like sticking your head in a sewer, but the Tavern Owner found the most foul-smelling garbage demon’s hidden side in that sewer.

“What is it? What did you find?”

“I found Dueoksini’s alt account.”

“…Alt account? What’s that?”

“It’s an account where someone pretends to be a businessman in public, but behind the scenes posts all kinds of lewd comments and gossip. Full of random chatter and slander about others. For example…”

The Tavern Owner picked up a piece of fruit with a fork and extended it toward Taowu’s mouth with both hands.

“It’s like if a librarian named Do Ji-hwan has an SNS full of book talk, but secretly uses another account as ‘Goblin’.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

“And then writes things like ‘My boss works me so hard I want to transfer to another team.'”

“What? Did you really write that?”

Taowu glared at me sharply, while I silently chewed on a pear.

“The Tavern Owner knows more than I expected.”

“Really?”

“I’ve never badmouthed anyone behind their backs on social media.”

“Then?”

“I criticized them openly to their faces.”

“……”

I, Do Ji-hwan.

The man who writes 5,700-character reviews against those who make him incarnate into their novel worlds.

“Why talk behind someone’s back? If you’re going to criticize, do it openly and proudly. That way, the ability users who hear the criticism won’t suffer mental damage.”

Speaking from behind anonymity? Fine.

But in this world, doing that could easily turn ability users into demons, so I really hope people in this world would refrain from saying strange things that mess with ability users’ mental states.

For example.

“Take Platinum Sun. People say if it weren’t for Platinum Sun, the demons would have been killed quickly without purification, preventing casualties…”

“Right?”

“…Speak of the devil.”

Behind me.

Ymir appeared, opening a spatial portal and standing there with a grin.

“What brings you here suddenly?”

“I heard you’re going to deal with Dueoksini? I found out while talking with Yi-seon.”

“…Yoon Yi-seon isn’t someone who would talk carelessly about such matters.”

“She responds immediately when I just hint at things.”

Ymir is too perceptive.

“Hey, Taowu?”

“What?”

“I want to deal with Dueoksini right now, but this person can’t because he’s out of magical power, right?”

“…I can’t talk freely about goblins to outsiders of the Syndicate.”

Taowu got up, taking a bite of pear.

“But it’s different if you’re an intern of the Syndicate.”

“Intern…?”

“You need a concept other than Platinum Sun. If you can change your magical power color, change it from gold to brown or something else.”

Taowu gestured to Ymir and pointed at me.

“If you work as an intern under Manager Do and learn about the Syndicate, you can decide later whether to join us or not. The Syndicate welcomes anyone with ability.”

“…That sounds interesting. Cooperating with the Syndicate as someone other than Platinum Sun.”

“It’s nothing new for interns to be spies.”

“Excuse me, Director Taowu? If we do this carelessly…”

“What’s the problem? Manager Do will take responsibility.”

“Ha.”

This is ridiculous.

“…I’m trying to deal with Dueoksini, but as you said, I’m short on magical power. To handle this properly, I need to recover as much as possible.”

“I’ll restore it for you right now.”

“…Huh?”

“Manager Do, have you heard that saying?”

Ymir exchanged a glance with Taowu, then slowly reached out and grasped my head with both hands.

“Patriotism heals, you know?”

“…What are you—”

“One of my abilities is ‘Magical Power Supply’.”

“……”

No way.

One possibility flashed through my mind.

“You can supply magical power with that?”

“Of course. In this great country, why wouldn’t it work? Especially on Ulleungdo.”

Ymir extended her legs beside me and entered the hot spring.

“The spirits of our national heroes will lend us strength to deal with Dueoksini who has thrown this country into chaos. Right?”

“…Why are you coming in with bare legs while saying such—”

“Tsk. Are you going to keep being so tactless?”

Ymir covered my mouth with her hand.

“The most urgent thing is dealing with Dueoksini, right? Taowu, could you help me?”

“Don’t call me Taowu, call me Hyun Se-rin. Age-wise… I’m your older sister, so feel free to be casual.”

“…? Well, okay. Then.”

Splash!

Ymir entered the water and moved closer to me.

“I’ll fill your magical power in two hours, then we can go deal with Dueoksini right away, okay?”

“…Tavern Owner. The tablet, please.”

I borrowed the tablet from the Tavern Owner and wrote down simple instructions.

“Contact Yoon Yi-seon’s smartphone with the plan and ask for cooperation. And as soon as preparations are complete, send a ‘declaration of war’ to Dueoksini.”

“In two hours?”

“…It might be finished even sooner than two hours.”

Since it’s come to this.

“Let’s finish with rapid charging.”

To deal with Dueoksini.

* * *

At that time.

Somewhere on Sejong Island.

Crash!

The young man tumbled down the stairs.

As if his legs had lost all strength, he fell limply down the stairs and remained motionless at the bottom with his neck bent at an unnatural angle.

“…Ugh.”

Despite his broken neck, the young man got up as if nothing had happened.

Though his body was still staggering, he was alive despite having fallen in a way that should have killed him instantly.

“Grrrr.”

The young man collapsed onto the sofa.

He reached for the remote control on the coffee table and turned on the TV.

-Who is the villain Dueoksini?

“Tsk!”

The young man clicked his tongue as soon as he saw the news headline.

Chewing on what looked like a sweet bean jelly taken from the refrigerator, he glared at the panelists in the news with displeasure.

“Don’t attach ‘villain’ to the name Dueoksini…”

The young man, Dueoksini, took out a tablet placed beside him.

Ignoring the panelists in the news who were condemning and criticizing him, he immediately connected to the internet to gather information about himself.

“Ah, the world is full of insults about Dueoksini. Yes. Being cursed by humans is a joyful thing. Hehe.”

Dueoksini was enjoying people’s discomfort.

Even though that discomfort was mixed with disgust and hatred, he enjoyed those emotions even more because of it.

“But.”

Dueoksini’s expression hardened as he saw other reactions in the community.

“These trash dare to insult the sacred Platinum Sun…?”

A hero who should be praised was being insulted.

Before Dueoksini’s rampage, people were badmouthing the entity known as Platinum Sun.

“These crazy bastards! If Platinum Sun purified demons, they should praise and glorify him, but what are they saying? More damage? Trash who just want to criticize no matter what!”

Dueoksini trembled all over on the sofa, grinding his teeth.

“I’ll find these people’s email addresses and definitely drop demons on them…! How dare they insult Gold Magistrate Platinum Sun? The new hero of this country who space-traveled from Ulleungdo to Daejeon to purify demons! And even…!”

Dueoksini fell back over the sofa with an ecstatic smile.

“A foreigner at that! Ah, this country where even foreigners have our spirit instilled in their souls…! So wonderful! Excellent!”

Dueoksini was clapping with his feet when his expression suddenly hardened.

“Such trash who forcibly criticize heroes shouldn’t exist in a country like this. Yes, indeed. Such people are traitors who would sell out the country… Huh?”

Beep beep.

An alarm sounded.

An alarm that shouldn’t have come.

A tweet had been posted to his alt account through the dark web.

“Wow, this crazy bastard. Crossing the line?”

Dueoksini immediately sat up.

“I can’t let this go without killing them. Hey, where do you live?”

Dueoksini immediately moved his thumb, engaging in what’s known as a keyboard battle.

“…Sejong Island? How dare a mere student.”

Dueoksini’s eyes rolled back.

-Is it true that the accident caused by Dueoksini was actually China attacking Great Korea? If so, Dueoksini must be Du Wanyong. Probably hired by China to ruin Korea.

“Yi Wanyong sold the country to Japan, you historically ignorant kid!”

Dueoksini immediately put on his mask and rushed outside.