Ch.31Deceived

“Wasn’t it thrown for me to drink?”

“That’s not it, hmm, it’s fine, I actually like it, it means you’re a man with high adaptability… Ouch.”

Gu Seo-ryong tapped my foot under the table.

Annoyed, I stepped on her foot to tell her to stop bothering me.

Gu Seo-ryong nimbly moved her foot away, then wrapped one of her legs around mine.

“Why do you keep wrapping yourself around me?”

“Don’t you know what this means? You’re so innocent.”

Since there seemed to be no hostility, I decided to ignore Gu Seo-ryong’s leg and devoured the newly served barbecue in just five bites.

Then, Gu Seo-ryong placed another piece of meat in front of me and said:

“By the way, how did you escape from CXI?”

“I opened my eyes and found myself in W City.”

“Huh? What? No way? You just woke up and were here?”

“That’s right.”

“What? So you were disposed of?”

“They did call me a failure.”

“CXI is a failure…? Did they succeed in creating a monster stronger than you?”

“I don’t know.”

Right up until I killed the researchers, they kept putting other monsters injected with stimulants in front of me, but none of them felt particularly threatening.

“Then why dispose of you?”

“Probably because I wouldn’t listen to them.”

“Hmm, I guess even the sharpest knife is useless without a handle… Still, I’m a bit disappointed. I thought CXI escaped like I did.”

“Did you escape on your own?”

“That’s right. Want to know how?”

When I nodded, Gu Seo-ryong made a mysterious expression, got up, and sat on my thigh.

“It’s nothing special~ Even researchers are humans, right? Men who’ve spent their lives studying until wrinkles appear on their faces can’t resist women. Seduce them, tame them, ‘I’ll listen to whatever you say, please get me out of here, I love you~’ And oh my, they start listening to me bit by bit. I gradually applied mind control on the high-ranking researcher who listened to me well, and then one by one with the other researchers… When I finally came to my senses, ta-da! Experiment Gu Seo-ryong had already been released outside.”

“You were lucky.”

“Oh my, could you call it skill instead of luck? Seduction is a woman’s weap—eep!”

“Don’t touch me.”

“M-ma’am!”

I grabbed Gu Seo-ryong by the neck as she tried to embrace my head.

Immediately, the men in suits serving nearby drew on their abilities, but when Gu Seo-ryong raised a finger to her lips, they all stopped moving.

“Hmm, so CXI doesn’t like being touched?”

“No, I don’t mind.”

“Then what’s this about? Our Deun-deun, won’t you tell me why you’re upset?”

“Your hand smells unpleasant.”

“My, how perceptive.”

Gu Seo-ryong removed her hand from my head and shook off the venom that had formed at her fingertips onto the floor.

I carefully observed the tips of Gu Seo-ryong’s fingers.

“I was just playing around because I remembered the old days while we were talking. I apologize. It wasn’t even a lethal poison, just something that would make you… want to listen to me a little more?”

“I’ll let it slide just this once.”

That’s as much as I’m willing to pay for the meal with Gu Seo-ryong.

After I pushed Gu Seo-ryong off, I was crunching on the bones of the meat when she spoke with excitement in her voice.

“Hohoho… what should I do? I want you more and more…”

“Ma’am… excuse me, but we’re in the middle of a meal.”

“Oh my, looks like they’ve arrived? Bring them here.”

At that moment, a man in a suit came up the stairs to the rooftop, approached our table, and bowed his head.

I quietly observed the loan shark who followed behind him, and the loan shark, whose eye was swollen as if someone had hit him, opened his eyes wide in surprise when he saw Gu Seo-ryong and me sitting next to her.

The loan shark was forced to kneel in front of me by the men in suits, pressing his head to the ground.

“I-I’m sorry…! I didn’t know you were such an important person! I was d-disrespectful…!”

“Where’s the necklace?”

“I, that, I only received it as tribute! I didn’t steal it! I…”

“Darling? Don’t you understand the question? I asked where the necklace is.”

“Answer properly!”

When the loan shark tried to explain his innocence rather than the whereabouts of the necklace, Gu Seo-ryong signaled to a man in a suit.

Immediately, the suited man grabbed the loan shark’s head and slammed it back down on the floor, causing the loan shark to bleed from his broken front teeth.

“Ugh! Urghhhh… it, it wasn’t me… it wasn’t me…”

“The necklace?”

Seeing that he still wasn’t giving a proper answer, I got up and squatted in front of the loan shark.

When our eyes met, the loan shark trembled with fear, and with bloody foam in his mouth, he finally gave a proper answer.

“T-t-t-that… I’m s-sorry… I already… gave it to… Min Ji-hee, that bitch…”

“Who is Min Ji-hee?”

“Min Ji-hee… the manager of Building 108.”

“Looks like he gave the necklace in exchange for sleeping with a prostitute? I told you, don’t accept anything but cash.”

“I apologize. We will re-educate—”

“Go find this Min Ji-hee and bring her here too. Check if she has the necklace.”

After saying this, Gu Seo-ryong approached the loan shark with venom forming at her fingertips again.

Sensing a slight killing intent from her slightly upturned lips, I stopped Gu Seo-ryong.

“Are you planning to kill him?”

“Huh? Of course! He stole something from an important guest, didn’t he?”

“That’s an excessive punishment for theft.”

“Aaaaaaaargh!”

Before Gu Seo-ryong could act, I grabbed the loan shark’s hands and crushed them.

Making a sound similar to chewing pork belly full of cartilage—crunch, crunch—the loan shark let his crushed hands hang limply, screamed, then rolled his eyes back and fainted. I stood up and said to Gu Seo-ryong:

“People say that the punishment for stealing is having your fingers cut off.”

That’s what people said to laborers who tried to steal other workers’ wallets when I was working with them.

This punishment is sufficient for theft.

Leaving the unconscious loan shark behind, I stood up, and Gu Seo-ryong asked with confusion:

“Why not just kill him? He stole your precious item.”

“This is enough.”

“Punishment is for those who will change their ways after being disciplined, but the people in Kowloon Walled City aren’t that cute.”

“I don’t like repeating myself.”

I, the concerned party, said this was enough.

I glared at her, conveying that I would be quite displeased if she tried to kill him unnecessarily, and Gu Seo-ryong stuck out her long tongue and licked her fingertips.

“Hmm… alright. My, how you reek of masculinity.”

“That’s impossible, I bathed today.”

“Ahh? What’s that supposed to mean? Are you trying to seduce me now?”

“What are you talking about.”

I returned to the table and picked up meat with my blood-soaked hands.

The fear in the suited men’s eyes grew as they watched me grab handfuls of meat with both hands.

Their gazes were fixed on my hands, but I paid no attention and continued eating.

For a monster, human blood is like chicken stock that enhances the flavor of food.

“That was delicious.”

“You’re done already? We still have drinks and dessert.”

“The necklace comes first.”

“Hmm, how insensitive of me. Of course you can’t move on when your precious item is in another woman’s hands.”

“By the way, what’s for dessert?”

“Do you want some?”

After mentally weighing the necklace against dessert, I nodded.

I could retrieve the necklace anytime, but free dessert is like the ice cream a foreman buys after work—if you don’t take it when offered, it disappears like smoke.

“Ice cream, cake, and… hohoho, chewy, sweet rice cakes filled with honey?”

“Rice cakes.”

Suddenly remembering the taste of honey rice cakes I ate as a child, I swallowed the saliva pooling in my mouth.

Gu Seo-ryong grinned and made a strange sound.

“Ahah… indeed, you get quite aroused after seeing blood, don’t you? How about it? Want to go have dessert together? I’ll tell them to retrieve the necklace from this Min Ji-hee woman on their own.”

“Hmm… alright.”

Perhaps because the smell of blood had increased my appetite, I accepted Gu Seo-ryong’s offer, thinking it wasn’t a bad idea.

“Hohoho… good. Then follow me. You all? When you get the necklace, clean it thoroughly and bring it to me.”

“Yes!”

“Wouldn’t you like to wash your hands? Or do you enjoy leaving handprints?”

Gu Seo-ryong stuck close to me and volunteered to guide the way. As we entered the elevator, she took out something like a tissue and handed it to me.

I took it and wiped my hands, which were soiled with blood and grease, then tossed it away like trash.

“Oh my, that was my favorite… well, never mind.”

“How could he use ma’am’s handkerchief so carelessly…”

“Ugh… ma’am with a tall, handsome, well-built superhuman like him… damn, what an unfair world.”

The suited men who saw this whispered quietly among themselves as they followed behind.

I followed Gu Seo-ryong’s lead toward the apartment building.

Inside the apartment, I could sense the presence of many people, and animal-like moans echoed from various places.

“Is the entire apartment mating?”

“Hehe, that’s the kind of place this is. This is Kowloon Walled City’s brothel. A place where anyone can sleep with someone if they pay. Of course… except for me.”

“I see humans even pay money to mate.”

“Oh my, have you never… ahah, I’m looking forward to this!”

Gu Seo-ryong clung to me unpleasantly, rubbing her body against mine.

Since she wasn’t trying to use her nails or anything this time, I let her be and followed her to an apartment where we stopped.

Even from the common entrance, it was different from other places—the entrance was adorned with dragon and snake statues.

“We’re going to a room, so don’t disturb us. Oh, if someone comes with the necklace, tell them to send just the necklace up.”

“Understood.”

“Well then… shall we go up?”

As we boarded the strangely sticky elevator, Gu Seo-ryong wrapped herself around my arm.

Annoyed by her constant clinging, I pushed her away and said:

“You’ve been clinging too much.”

“Ahaha! How cute, are you suddenly feeling shy?”

With a ding, the elevator arrived, and a large room appeared before us.

The top floor of the apartment, seemingly converted from an entire floor, was filled with black, gold, and red colors.

Snake-shaped sculptures, carpets with intertwined snakes, a bed surrounded by sculptures of nine intertwined dragons, windows overlooking the entire apartment complex, and dragon-shaped humidifiers emitting moist steam throughout the room.

Perhaps the high humidity in the room was why the elevator felt sticky.

After pushing Gu Seo-ryong away, I looked around wondering where the dessert was.

“Where are the rice cakes?”

“Right here~?”

At that moment, I heard the sound of fabric falling behind me.

When I turned around, I frowned at the sight of Gu Seo-ryong’s pale naked body.

Gu Seo-ryong ran her hands over her body as if showing off her curves.

In sync with the vibrations from the club outside, Gu Seo-ryong’s monster core vibrated.

Unable to hide my disappointment, I sighed.

“You… deceived me.”