Chapter 134: The Hideout

Episode 134

“……”

Kim Jinsung stood motionless, his gaze fixed on the shackles.

“Put them on, quickly!”

Jacob shouted, urging him.

He pressed the blade deeper against the child’s neck, drawing a trickle of blood.

“Ugh… Sob…”

The child, overwhelmed with fear, started to cry.

Kim Jinsung looked at the scene, then picked up the shackles and began to put them on his wrists.

Jacob smirked triumphantly.

“Hehehe…! Good! Now kneel and raise your hands above your head…”

**Thud! Thud!**

“Aaaaaargh!!”

Before Jacob could finish his sentence, two consecutive explosions of flesh were heard from his shoulders.

He screamed and writhed on the ground.

His severed arms lay scattered beside him.

The children, freed from his grasp, sat on the floor, staring blankly at Jacob.

They then looked up at the person who had attacked him.

‘…Huh?’

‘What…?’

The children’s eyes widened in disbelief.

They saw Kim Jinsung looking down at Jacob with an emotionless expression.

They instinctively turned their heads towards the factory entrance.

They saw another Kim Jinsung removing the shackles.

‘…H-how is this possible?’

‘Are they twins?’

It wasn’t just the children who were confused, looking back and forth between the two Kim Jinsungs as if watching a racing competition.

Everyone in the room was doing the same.

**Thud! Thud!**

“Aaaaaargh!!”

Another explosion of flesh and Jacob’s scream were heard.

This time, it was the Kim Jinsung who had removed the shackles, striking Jacob’s thighs with his hands.

“Ugh… Aaaaaargh…!”

Jacob groaned in a shaky voice, still alive despite having all his limbs severed.

The master of Nature Animal, who had ruled the B16 district with his drug-enhanced body, had fallen.

Kim Jinsung looked down at him with emotionless eyes, then turned his head to the side.

“…This bastard is the one who enslaved you, right?”

Everyone just nodded, too afraid to answer properly.

Kim Jinsung turned his head back towards the CEO’s office and continued,

“The Paladins will arrive in about 30 minutes.”

“……?”

“That means you only have now to get your revenge.”

“……!”

People swarmed behind Kim Jinsung as he started walking.

Just as they surrounded Jacob, ready to unleash their pent-up anger,

“Oh, just so you know, his skin is pretty tough.”

Kim Jinsung, heading towards the CEO’s office with his clone, said as if he had just remembered something.

“His eyes, tongue, the gaps in his torn skin… Those parts are still soft like an ordinary person’s.”

With those words, Kim Jinsung disappeared into the CEO’s office.

“…N-no! Don’t stab my eyes! Please…! Aaaaaargh!”

Kim Jinsung, not wanting to hear Jacob’s screams of agony, slammed the CEO’s office door shut with a bang.

* * *

“Gasp, gasp, gasp, gasp…!”

Karen was running through the alleys of the residential area, gasping for breath.

He had been running for so long that he was out of breath and his legs had gone numb, but he couldn’t stop.

The Haste magic had worn off a while ago. His current running speed was only slightly faster than an ordinary person’s.

If Kim Jinsung had noticed and was chasing him, he would have almost caught up by now.

Karen planned to hide in his safe house before that happened.

‘It seems like he’s not chasing me right away… But I can’t be sure. I can’t let my guard down until I reach the safe house…!’

Karen was currently in the residential area of the B19 district.

His safe house, which he had prepared during his time with ‘Ukobachi’, was just a short distance away.

‘Gasp, gasp, it’s around here… Ah, there it is!’

He spotted a familiar commercial building and ran towards the entrance.

He went straight down to the basement and stood in front of an old iron door, quickly entering the passcode on the digital lock.

**Beep.**

As the door opened, Karen immediately entered, closed the door, and engaged all three locks.

He finally caught his breath after activating the protective barrier around the entire safe house by pressing the security button.

“Phew! I’m finally safe…!”

He cheered and threw himself onto the bed against one of the walls.

Dust billowed up as it had been a long time since anyone had used the place, but Karen felt more comfortable than ever.

He was happy to finally be free.

‘…Ah, right. It’s not time to rest yet.’

He felt the hunter shackles on his ankles and forced himself to sit up.

He then started rummaging through the drawers.

“Where is it… There it is.”

He found his trusty ‘Skeleton Key’ and inserted it into the lock of the shackles, struggling to open them.

**Click.**

After a while, the lock clicked open, and the shackles were finally released.

“Yes! I still got it!”

Karen, having removed both shackles, tossed them into a corner of the room as if he couldn’t stand the sight of them.

‘Now I can finally use my mana… Huh?’

Karen’s face hardened as he tried to draw upon his mana.

His mana wouldn’t budge.

‘…Don’t tell me I’m still under Jin’s Mana Seal skill?’

Karen couldn’t help but cover his face with his hands in disappointment.

He had thought the skill would naturally dissipate as they got farther apart, but it wasn’t the case.

It seemed to be an advanced skill that remained active regardless of distance.

‘…No. There’s no need to be disappointed. I can just find a dispel specialist and pay them to remove it.’

Of course, it was uncertain whether he could afford it with the remaining 1 billion Blanc.

Prices in Sselepoh fluctuated unpredictably.

The price could have skyrocketed beyond his means.

‘It’s fine. It’s not like it’s a tracking spell… Huh?’

Karen’s face suddenly froze.

If there was a tracking spell on him, hiding in this secret safe house, which only he knew about, would be pointless.

‘…Let’s check.’

He turned and walked to a corner of the safe house.

There was a capsule the size of an adult male.

He approached the machine labeled ‘Debuff Magic Detection Capsule’ and pressed the power button.

It was a machine that detected debuff skills cast on the user.

It could detect almost any magic or skill, except for those developed recently, and it could even remove simple or common ones. It was an expensive piece of equipment.

‘It detects everything that uses mana. I spent all my fortune buying this.’

He remembered paying an exorbitant amount of money to buy this machine. It was the most expensive item he had ever purchased in his life.

– Ready.

Karen entered the capsule.

He then pressed the ‘Start Scan’ button inside.

After about five minutes of scanning, he came out.

The scan results appeared on the front screen.

– No debuff magic or skills detected.

“…Huh?”

Karen’s voice was filled with confusion.

He muttered to himself in a trembling voice,

“Why didn’t it detect the Mana Seal…?”

If he was still under Kim Jinsung’s Mana Seal skill, it should have been detected in the scan results.

‘Could it be that it’s not active? But then it doesn’t make sense that my mana is frozen…’

Karen’s mind became a jumbled mess.

‘Could it be that the machine couldn’t detect it? Because it’s a recently developed skill? But Mana Seal skills are quite common…’

The more he thought about it, the more confused he became.

‘Could the machine be broken?’

He even considered the possibility that the machine was malfunctioning due to not being used for a long time.

‘Should I call a specialist and get it repaired? But where did I buy this machine…?’

Karen took out his smartphone and opened ‘Sselepohnet’, the internet browser used in the New Continent.

He then focused on searching for the machine’s manufacturer.

At that moment,

“……?”

He felt the surroundings darken and looked up.

“……!”

Karen looked around with disbelief.

The entire safe house was suddenly pitch black, like a black hole.

“…What… is this?”

“Warp Hole.”

“……!!”

Karen froze like a statue at the voice coming from right behind him.

Jin.

It was the voice he least wanted to hear at this moment.

‘W-when…?’

**Swoosh.**

“Aaaaaargh!!”

Karen screamed and collapsed as his legs were cleanly severed.

He couldn’t get up again.

“Ugh… Ugh…”

As he groaned in pain on the floor,

Kim Jinsung picked up Karen’s dropped smartphone and checked the messaging app.

After reading the messages between Karen and Cesare, Kim Jinsung said in a cold voice,

“I was wondering why you were tapping your smartphone so much in the bathroom. So that was the reason.”

“……!”

Karen’s eyes widened in shock as he lay on the ground, groaning.

‘Did he know I was sending messages…?’

A notification appeared before Kim Jinsung, who was looking down at Karen.

—

▶ Upgrading the ‘Mana Seal’ skill to ‘Ability Seal’ through skill enhancement.

▷ Ability Seal – Seals not only the target’s mana but also their unique abilities and skills that can be used without mana.

– The user can always check the location and status of the target under Ability Seal.

– Continuously consumes mana to maintain the target’s Ability Seal.

▶ 10,000 Beast Karma points have been used for skill enhancement.

—

Thanks to the upgraded Ability Seal skill, Kim Jinsung knew that Karen had escaped to this safe house in the B19 district, far from the factory.

That’s why he didn’t chase him immediately and only used the Warp Hole to move after completing the quest.

“Impossible…! How… Ugh!”

Karen shook his head in disbelief as Kim Jinsung held a sword to his neck.

“I know exactly how to kill someone like you.”

Kim Jinsung vividly remembered Karen still being alive even with his brain half-destroyed.

He then recalled the time he had killed Quagmire.

“I just need to cut you into small pieces and burn you.”

“……!”

“I dealt with a similar guy like that before, and he died without regenerating.”

Kim Jinsung adjusted his grip on the sword after saying that.

Karen desperately clung to Kim Jinsung’s leg and pleaded,

“S-spare me! Please! I’ve been following your orders! I diligently provided information you didn’t ask for! And…!”

“I know.”

Kim Jinsung’s voice was still cold.

“If you hadn’t called those muscleheads and lured me into a trap, I might have considered it.”

Kim Jinsung spoke quietly.

He couldn’t forgive Karen for betraying him and trying to save himself.

He wasn’t merciful enough to give a second chance to someone who had stabbed him in the back.

“Don’t trust anyone in the New Continent. Trust only your own strength.”

“……!”

“You must have planned this operation with that thought in mind. I understand, but you failed, so you have to take responsibility.”

With those words, Kim Jinsung adjusted his grip on the sword again.

“Wait! Just listen to me…!”

**Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!**

Karen’s last attempt to plead was cut short as Kim Jinsung’s sword moved swiftly.

—