episode_0064

The moment I saw Geum Taeyang, I threw a punch.

But.

That bastard Geum Taeyang dodged it effortlessly.

“Tsk tsk~”

“You think I’d let such a weak, slow punch hit me? Nipple boy.”

“You little—!”

“Call me Cain! Or Lee Junseong if you prefer!”

“What’s wrong with calling a nipple boy a nipple boy? Huh, nipple boy?”

“You damn son of a bitch, Geum Taeyang!!!”

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

No matter how many punches I threw, I couldn’t land a single hit on him.

My level was D-rank.

Sure, I’d gotten stronger by stacking items,

but even then, C-rank was my limit.

Meanwhile,

Geum Taeyang, equipped with his suit, had stats at A+ rank.

In-game terms, he was on par with a max-level Alice.

That he got utterly wrecked by early-game Alice was so absurd even he must’ve found it ridiculous…

But it was unexpected for me too.

I’d only given early-game Alice a few pieces of advice,

yet she grew so monstrously strong that she not only caught up to late-game max-level Alice but surpassed her.

So.

Geum Taeyang isn’t weak.

It’s just that Alice became too strong and stomped him.

Experiencing it firsthand made it even clearer.

Geum Taeyang is strong.

His speed was on another level.

Ting!!!

“Ugh!…”

His body was disgustingly tough—so much so that my fist hurt more from hitting him.

“Hahahahaha!”

“With that level of strength, you can’t do anything to me! Nipple boy!”

But.

I had allies.

“Alice! Grab him!”

“Roger!”

Alice seized Geum Taeyang’s legs and froze them, locking his movements.

“Lia!”

“Yeah!”

And then, one finishing move.

Grabbing Lia beside me, I swung her like a baseball bat with a full-powered strike.

Thwack!!!

So?

What happened next?

Of course, activated, shattering the suit and leaving Geum Taeyang on the brink of death.

“Guhk!…”

“You let your guard down, Geum Taeyang!”

“You crazy…”

“Who the hell uses a heroine as a weapon?…”

Thud!

Geum Taeyang collapsed, crumpled in a corner.

Drip, drip.

Since he couldn’t die, I sprinkled some potion into his mouth.

“Just a few more hits.”

“Hey… time out!…”

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

I landed a few satisfying punches right on his face.

“Never! Call me! That nickname again!”

“O-okay! Stop!”

“Stop?”

“I’m sorry! Big bro!”

“Hah…”

“Should’ve said that sooner.”

Geum Taeyang is a human with A+ rank combat power.

But.

Without his suit, he’s just some guy.

‘Because he optimized his stats around the suit.’

Physical abilities?

Didn’t even bother raising them.

The suit itself had body-enhancing functions.

Magic abilities?

Never even learned them.

Just using the weapons equipped on the suit could unleash firepower on par with high-tier magic.

So?

What stats did Geum Taeyang raise?

HP, MP.

He focused on vitality and mana.

By maximizing energy-related stats,

he grew stronger by increasing the energy supplied to the suit.

‘Basically, he’s like a human battery.’

He grew by slotting himself in like a battery to boost the suit’s firepower.

So.

A battery alone is pathetically weak.

‘Combat-wise, he’s probably D-rank.’

His HP/MP is quite high,

but without anything else,

once the suit was destroyed, he had no choice but to get beaten up.

“Oww… hurts like hell.”

“That’s the price for calling me that nickname.”

“Hey.”

“You exposed my nickname too.”

“That’s that, and this is this.”

At least I didn’t go around telling Geum Taeyang’s people his nickname was [Geum Taeyang Who Eats Mother-Daughter Rice Bowls].

Meanwhile,

that bastard Geum Taeyang exposed my nickname to my people.

Isn’t that reason enough to beat him up?

“Hmm…”

“Fair enough. I deserved it.”

“So why’d you come?”

“Did you come here just to get beaten up?”

“No.”

“I came to help.”

“Help?”

“First, some info.”

“The four of us—East, West, South, North—agreed to help you see Marianne’s happy ending, or at least not interfere.”

“How’d you agree on that?”

“We have ways to communicate.”

At first, when I got possessed, I thought I was the only one and acted alone.

But then I accidentally met the second possessor.

From then on, I considered the possibility of a third or fourth possessor.

So I thought:

Let’s form an alliance among those we know.

If the third possessor seems like an enemy, we fight together.

If they seem like an ally, we recruit them.

That’s how we built an alliance up to the fourth possessor,

and even set up a way to stay in touch periodically.

…Or so Geum Taeyang explained.

The East, West, South, North guys had wildly different tastes,

but they were on decent terms,

so forming an alliance was easy.

‘Having different targets also helped.’

If two of us had been after Marianne, we’d have been destined to fight.

But.

What if our targets were different?

No reason to clash,

and we could even help each other pursue our own goals.

…Thinking about it,

it was incredibly lucky that the East, West, South, North guys all had different targets.

‘They weren’t interested in Marianne or the hero party.’

Most of them weren’t even into women.

The muscle gay liked men,

the TS-female-corruption guy was a pervert obsessed with his own pretty appearance,

and the chuunibyou Dark Flame Master guy was into middle-aged cool guys, right?

‘Last time, I think he said he liked a cold, aloof sniper character shrouded in darkness…’

‘Or was it a scheming, narrow-eyed character who was actually a hero trying to save everyone…?’

Anyway.

He was into men.

So none of them were after Marianne or the hero party.

The only remotely dangerous one was Geum Taeyang?

But.

Even he was mostly safe.

He got off on rescuing mother-daughter pairs suffering under their husbands.

He’d only take interest in me if my relationship with Serena & Lia completely fell apart to the point of divorce.

In other words, unless we fought badly enough to consider divorce, he wouldn’t care,

and he wouldn’t even attempt NTR.

…Thinking about it,

there’s no better alliance than the East, West, South, North guys.

But.

They’d help me for free?

Doubtful.

“Right.”

“We have ulterior motives for helping you.”

“You’re just admitting that?”

“No reason to hide it.”

“Then tell me.”

“Sure.”

Geum Taeyang spoke lightly.

“First ulterior motive.”

“There’s a goddess who threatened to punish us later if we didn’t help you.”

“Ah…”

It’s true that the Goddess of Light, Serena, has my back…

But the East, West, South, North guys also carry the sin of knowing the human version of Serena would die yet doing nothing to save her.

If they want to avoid divine punishment later, they’d better work hard now.

“And one more.”

“What?”

“Got any kimchi? Share some.”

“That’s your goal?”

“Yes.”

“That’s the goal.”

“What about cola?”

“I already got some, but…”

“If you could supply it regularly, that’d be great…”

“In exchange for full support?”

“Exactly!”

“Hmm…”

I could spare some cola,

and if I summoned kimchi just once, I could mass-produce it.

Not in insane quantities,

but enough for the four of them.

So.

Not a bad deal.

“What can you help with?”

“The safest bet is combat support, right?”

“If we take care of the bosses in each country, it’ll make things easier for you.”

“True.”

Eight hero candidates.

Eight nations.

And exactly eight mid-bosses to match.

The mid-boss of the Holy Nation is the Pope & Succubus Queen,

and the other nations have similar figures.

They’ll take care of them for me?

Nice.

Though,

I plan to handle the two nations with the elf spirit mage noona and the cat beastkin loli assassin for the hero party myself.

“Sounds good.”

“There are four of us East, West, South, North, and four nations to handle. We’ll take one each.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

The East, West, South, North guys will handle the mid-bosses in the nations with male hero candidates.

I’ll handle the ones with female candidates.

Great.

Workload halved.

“Anything else?”

“Item support?”

“We got possessed earlier than you, so we’ve collected plenty of good items.”

“What’ve you got?”

“In my case, mechanic equipment.”

“Mechanic equipment?”

“I already gave some to Lia and Alice…”

Tap! Tap! Tap!

As soon as he said that, Lia and Alice pulled out the mechanic equipment they’d received from Geum Taeyang.

“How is it?”

“Not as good as my main gear, , but decent, right?”

“Decent…?”

Mechanic equipment.

It exists in the game too.

Gear crafted by dwarves, the artisan race that can make anything.

While the rest of the world is medieval fantasy,

the dwarven nation alone has a mechanical civilization.

…That said,

the dwarves’ combat power doesn’t surpass other nations.

It’s about the same.

‘High floor, low ceiling, I guess?’

Like channeling electricity wildly into a kitchen knife to make a lightning blade?

Not bad.

It’s not like the knife breaks just from some electricity.

But.

What if you did that to a computer?

It’d break.

Mechanic equipment is like that.

Medieval gear can be enhanced with magic,

but mechanical gear can’t.

It’s so delicate that even a slight leak of magic can ruin it.

That’s why it has clear limits.

With just a gun, you’re C-rank.

With tanks, battle suits, or robots, you can reach B-rank.

But A-rank is impossible.

Geum Taeyang is A+ rank,

and the dwarven uncle, one of the hero candidates, is A-rank too.

But Geum Taeyang is an RPG veteran,

and the dwarven uncle is an artisan blessed by the goddess.

For most, it’s out of reach.

Ordinary mechanic equipment caps at B-rank.

“But my mechanic gear is A-rank!”

“A-rank is still useless.”

“?”

Lia is a cheat-stacked monster,

and Alice has grown strong enough to be called S-rank.

So.

Mechanic equipment, which only offers A-rank power,

is more of a hindrance.

“……”

“Got anything better?”

“Ugh…”

“The only things better are my main gear, , and… the cursed ones.”

“Cursed ones?”

“They’re stronger than , but the curses are too severe to use.”

“How bad?”

“A battle suit that drains life force so badly only Sophia with a Blood Stone could survive wearing it.”

“Then just give it to Sophia.”

“It’s for men.”

“For men?”

“I made it for myself.”

After creating , I tried making an even stronger suit, even using curses.

But it was a massive failure.

The performance was insane,

but the curses made it unusable garbage.

…That said,

the materials were too rare to just throw away, so it became a regrettable white elephant.

“So the performance is solid?”

“The performance is insane.”

“If I’d made it for women from the start, I’d bet my balls it could solo the Demon King.”

“Oh…”

“Then hand it over.”

“Didn’t you hear?”

“It’s for men, so Sophia can’t wear it.”

“What if she can?”

“Th-then I’d consider giving it… but how?”

“With this.”

I pulled out the Holy Grail of Sacrifice.

Then.

Geum Taeyang screamed.

“You crazy bastard?! The Holy Grail of Sacrifice?! You wanna die?!!”