Chapter 822: Is She Crazy? (3)

Watching the two people who had fallen onto the ice with me, I calmly brushed the ice off my knees and stood up.

During that brief moment, I didn’t forget to check the contents of my Hunter Lust Management System.

『015.

Name: Geum Jangmi

Awakened Ability: False Pain

…

…

….』

『016.

Name: Geum Dallae

Awakened Ability: Fruit of Oblivion

…

…

….』

They’re definitely registered. Both of those bitches.

I roughly checked their names and awakened abilities in the system and then put it away. After all, the personal information of these bitches wasn’t really my concern.

I just saved this information to track these women later; their affection level towards me was irrelevant.

‘Still, I might be curious about what they hate.’

Knowing what they hate could be useful later for torture… no, punishment.

With that thought, I pretended to be unfazed and offered an apology to the two women still sprawled on the floor.

“I apologize, I’m not very used to skating yet. Are you both alright?”

“Fuck! D-Don’t make me laugh! Anyone could see you fell on purpose!”

“I’m telling you, I didn’t. As a sign of apology, I’ll help you get up. Take my hand.”

“G-Get that away from me! You’re going to grab it like last time…!!”

“That’s why I said it’s phantom pain. If you hold my hand again, you’ll know for sure.”

With those words, I grabbed Geum Jangmi’s hand again as she flailed on the ice floor, and naturally, this time too, her hand was crushed by my grip.

-Crackle, crackle!

“Aaaagh! Aaaaaaaagh!!”

“What’s wrong, Geum Jangmi-ssi?”

“Let go! Let go of me, you fucking bastard!”

“You’re going to fall.”

“Aaaagh! Fuck!! Fuuuuck!!!”

Perhaps unable to bear it a second time, Geum Jangmi finally pulled her arm free from my hand amidst rough curses.

Of course, this time too, I let her feel the pain of her hand crushing right before letting go, then used instant recovery magic to heal it before releasing her.

-Thump!

“Aaaagh!!”

Geum Jangmi, who had been half-lifted by me, slammed onto the ice floor again with the recoil.

At her utterly pathetic sight, a laugh naturally escaped my lips.

“Pfft.”

“Y-You fucking, fucking bastard….”

“…Unnie, I think it’s best we avoid him for now. That guy is something… something strange.”

Her younger sister, seemingly thinking a bit faster, suggested they quickly leave the area. In addition, Geum Jangmi, seemingly lacking the confidence to deal with me any further, quickly pushed herself up from the floor.

“You, I won’t let you off later! You goddamn fucking bastard!”

“…….”

Unlike her sister, who hadn’t exchanged a word with me or Sihee until the end, the older sister cursed furiously and skated away from me.

Well, it wouldn’t have been difficult to chase after those women right now and forcibly apprehend them, but there was no need to go that far.

Since it was the Foundation’s ice rink, equipped with CCTV all around, it was better to refrain from actions that clearly looked intentional to any observer.

Pretending to shake hands, pretending to slip and fall, pretending to help them up-these actions couldn’t be confirmed as intentional on CCTV, but chasing after fleeing women and knocking them down would clearly reveal the intent.

‘Besides, I’ve already planted the means for tracking them.’

These were women who had not only harassed Eunbyul for years but had even gone as far as kidnapping her recently.

Naturally, I wouldn’t end it today; I planned to take my time punishing both of them.

After all, neither of those two women could escape my Hunter ability’s real-time location tracking system.

“…Wasn’t that a bit too dangerous?”

Sihee murmured to me, silently watching the Geum sisters flee the ice rink as if escaping from me.

I understood the general meaning behind her words, but I calmly replied, implying there was no need for Sihee to worry.

“Why?”

“Why, you ask… Those sisters are practically running Geumhyang right now. What you did, Sungchul-ssi, is essentially making an entire corporation your enemy.”

“They started the trouble first.”

“I-I’m not saying what you did was wrong, Sungchul-ssi…. It’s just, I’m a little worried…”

Well, both women possessed troublesome awakened abilities. It wasn’t unreasonable for Sihee to be so concerned.

“It’s fine. I answered using a pseudonym anyway. Even if they figured out I’m Sung Taekyung, they couldn’t openly do anything.”

“…Those women are perfectly capable of acting openly. On the day Nari was kidnapped, there were at least twenty other servants at the Dokyung mansion besides Nari. Relying solely on their awakened abilities, think about how many dirty deeds they’ve committed behind the scenes.”

With that, Sihee explained their misdeeds to me with a slightly worried expression.

I recalled seeing the restricted upper floors of the mansion when I visited the Geumhyang residence before; it certainly seemed they hadn’t always used their awakened abilities for righteous deeds.

“They’ve kidnapped executives from their business partners, forced them into contracts, and erased their memories. They’ve also frequently erased the memories of colleagues they entered dungeons with and withheld compensation. There are many other suspicions surrounding them…. Of course, they meticulously destroy all evidence, so everyone just keeps quiet and avoids getting involved.”

No wonder everyone else had cleared out of the ice rink earlier.

If they were committing such wicked deeds, the Foundation hunters’ reactions earlier weren’t strange at all.

Well, even so, it meant little to me, as I could temporarily block mental attacks.

“If they try anything, I’d welcome it. I could deal with those troublesome women threatening Eunbyul’s safety once and for all.”

“It’s not that simple. No matter how sturdy your body is, Sungchul-ssi, that woman Geum Jangmi’s ability directly inscribes pain onto the body….”

“For the record, the part where I mentioned she used phantom pain earlier wasn’t exactly a lie.”

“…Yeah?”

“My awakened ability includes a way to temporarily block mental attacks. Using that, I ignored the phantom pain and subdued her instead.”

Sihee’s eyes widened at my words about blocking and subduing mental attacks. Her gaze seemed to hold a hint of relief.

“…Really?”

“Yes. So even if they come back, neither Geum Jangmi nor Geum Dallae poses a significant threat to me.”

“You have that kind of ability, Sungchul-ssi… Ah, come to think of it, you could use purification abilities, couldn’t you? I didn’t expect holy magic to have such an application.”

Actually, it wasn’t the purification ability that blocked it, but Esila’s autonomous function, but there was no need to explain my secret friend in my head, so I let her think that.

“That’s a relief, at least. If you have a means to counter mental attacks, Sungchul-ssi, then I don’t need to worry quite so much.”

“Actually, it’s possible that I might bring more danger to you, Sihee-ssi, because of me.”

“You don’t need to worry about that. I was prepared for that possibility from the moment I took Nari in. Besides, as long as I stay properly alert, I don’t think I’ll be subdued by those women.”

…Well, since Sihee uses a bow, her physical abilities are excellent.

And that woman Geum Jangmi, while dangerous with her awakened ability, didn’t seem particularly gifted physically, so Sihee probably won’t have too much trouble.

‘I’ve basically gotten all the necessary information, so there’s no need to hesitate about dealing with them anymore.’

The reason I grabbed Geum Jangmi’s hand earlier without much hesitation was partly because I thought she wouldn’t immediately use phantom pain, but there was a bigger reason.

If Geum Jangmi really was a crazy bitch and had used phantom pain on me without warning, there were things I wanted to confirm by experiencing that phantom pain firsthand.

First and foremost was the activation range of her ability. The fact that she cast phantom pain immediately upon shaking hands suggested physical contact was one condition, and I wanted to check if it could be activated even with thick gloves like these.

And if it did activate, I wanted to gauge the level of pain and how much of it I could endure.

I wasn’t too worried about Geum Dallae’s awakened ability, which didn’t work on high-level ability users, but if I ever had to face Geum Jangmi in a proper one-on-one battle, I needed to understand the awakened ability she used.

The information I obtained was twofold: first, that physical contact, even through gloves, counts as contact and can trigger phantom pain; and second, that while I don’t know the exact level of pain, Esila’s ability allows me to block it for about 10 seconds.

‘I no longer need to worry about how to subdue them; the problem now is what comes next.’

How to handle those women to smoothly resolve the situation Eunbyul is in. That was my sole new focus.