BXBX NOVEL Chapter 301: Missing People (2)
’Damn it, this old geezer!’
From the moment the Heavenly Buddha muttered to himself, Yoon-seok quickly maneuvered himself between the two. The moment this cave was destroyed, Henigus was also dead. The technical devices filling up this cave were his weaknesses.
「By Lady’s Commandment, the power of Adbhutadharma Palm decreases by 30 times.」
The amount of magic shot from his palm was significantly reduced. Yoon-seok, who stood between Henigus and the Heavenly Buddha, swung his sword to deflect the rest.
“Hey, little one. You should run away. I’ll do anything I can to protect this place.”
“How can I trust you…?”
Indeed, both the Heavenly Buddha and he might look the same from that little boy’s perspective. However, there were times in life when you had to take important chances.
“Do you want to get killed by that monk?”
“…I’ll trust you.”
Henigus soon disappeared from the cave, using the same skill he had used to flee earlier.
’Did I manage to buy some time…?’
Relieved at the thought that the urgent fire had been extinguished, Yoon-seok stared down at the Heavenly Buddha.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“…I, too, have my circumstances.”
Even though the Heavenly Buddha said so, he couldn’t look him in the eye. Perhaps he was ashamed that he couldn’t keep his word. Why would he do that? Was it that important to kill Henigus?
‘…No. If that were the reason, he would have watched until I killed him.’
Yoon-seok’s mind raced.
’Now that I think about it, the timing was strange….’
When Yoon-seok reached some sort of agreement with Henigus that the Heavenly Buddha received his order. If it wasn’t a coincidence…
“Are you trying to shut him up?”
The Heavenly Buddha didn’t reply. His expression was difficult to read, so it was impossible to confirm whether his guess was correct. Well, if their conversation continued…
“Ahem. I will get going now!”
“Where are you going? You don’t even know where he is now.”
“Do you think that kid can escape from Maitreya’s Eyes?”
With that said, the Heavenly Buddha disappeared before his eyes. It seemed like he used that magical realization he had learned before.
Left alone, Yoon-seok felt more desperate.
’…Maitreya’s Eyes?’
That’s what he said, but it was obvious. He came all the way here alone, so he had a way to track Henigus. Maybe he was helped by someone who gave him instructions just now.
’Why is everything so messed up?’
The situation quickly became complicated. Unlike the Heavenly Buddha, Yoon-seok didn’t know where Henigus escaped and could not catch up right away. In other words, it meant that he couldn’t protect him even if he wanted to.
’What should I do?’
Henigus wouldn’t survive against that crazy monk. Ever since he awakened through mental victory, that monk became a monster. Perhaps because Henigus knew that, he fled even though he didn’t want to.
“…At most, five minutes.”
Yoon-seok made his final decision. If the Heavenly Buddha were after Henigus, it would end in five minutes at most.
’What can I do in the meantime?’
However, rather than feeling empty, Yoon-seok thought about what he could do. And in the meantime-
“…”
The clockwork devices around the cave caught his attention
Yoon-seok’s worries didn’t last long. If life was a series of choices, the more efficient the choices were, the better. It was right to boldly give up or take what you can.
’Let’s start checking first….’
Yoon-seok used the computer and looked over the things he hadn’t confirmed before.
—Success rate: 0.991%.
—Success rate: 7.84%.
—Success rate: 2.24%.
Led by Lee Su-yeon, then the King of Steel, Lavan Vargas, and the Overlord of Bow, Yoon-seok checked whether the Tower classified them as malicious codes and checked their success rate. And the result:
’Is it just the three of us?’
Only the King of Steel, Cheon-ma, and Yoon-seok were designated, irremovable individuals.
’How much time has passed?’
Three minutes passed since he started searching. He had no idea what situation Henigus and the Heavenly Buddha were currently in, but, rather, he had to take action before it was too late.
‘…There will be a chance to find what time bomb meant.’
Planning to ask Elle about this later, Yoon-seok forcibly pulled out the dimensional stone connected to the monitor and put it in his bag. And…
Booooooooooom-!
The cave started collapsing, taking the clockwork devices with it.
「You killed an Arena ranker.」
「A special reward is given.」
Although he was a little disappointed to send off Henigus this way, he didn’t regret it. The strange timing was just a coincidence. Perhaps the person who gave the order to the Heavenly Buddha didn’t want to silence them but wanted the time, although that seemed unlikely.
「Obtain the murdered victim’s time.」
Anyway, the deposit began before a special reward was given. The digits on his wrist rotated like a slot machine as the numbers rose drastically.
’When will this end?’
It seemed like it’d continue for more than a couple of minutes. No special compensation had arrived yet. However.
’Will it get deposited into the waiting room like a trial?’
That was likely.
’Then what should I do now?’
Yoon-seok stared blankly into space for a moment. Now that Henigus was dead, he had no reason to find the Heavenly Buddha. Unless the Heavenly Buddha were to find him, they had no reason to bump into each other.
‘…Let’s finish what we’re here for.’
Now he had two things left to do here: recruitment of the healing specialist and collect 2.4 billion T. Of course, the former came first, and the latter felt more like a sub-quest. Well, somehow, Henigus and the Heavenly Buddha became the main task.
Since that somehow ended.
「Grape Jam requested to communicate.」
「Would you like to accept?」
Anyway, Lee Su-yeon reached out to him just in time. He wondered if Yongyong, whom he sent on an errand earlier, had reached them.
— Oppa, are you alright?
Looks like she called him after hearing the news of the ranker’s death.
—I’m fine.
—That’s a relief. Did something happen?
It was a simple question of concern, but for some reason, Yoon-seok felt himself smiling. What happened?
—…There was one thing.
First of all, he happened to get a new colleague, filmed a 10-day escape play in another world, and took a step closer to the secret of the Tower. However, it was too much to tell right now. And to be honest, things weren’t fully organized in his head yet.
—What happened?
—It’s complicated, so I’ll let you know when we meet. Where are you now?
—District 1.
—Why did you go back?
—It’s complicated too… anyway, I found the person we were looking for.
—Really? That’s good. I’ll be there in a bit.
Afterward, Yoon-seok asked if Yongyong was there, and to stay with him because everything would be over by then, then ended the call.
District 1 was still the same, except for the large sinkhole dug in the city’s center.
’…Is it over there?’
Yoon-seok descended toward the sinkhole. This must be the meeting point Lee Su-yeon mentioned. Well, although she didn’t say it was this big.
“Oppa!”
As soon as he landed, Lee Su-yeon approached and welcomed Yoon-seok.
“What about Yongyong?”
“He’s inside with unnie.”
“Inside?”
“Yes. I heard you taught him before coming here?”
Taught? Who was she referring to?
He was very curious, but Lee Su-yeon was one step faster.
“Oh oppa, your watch changed, though?”
“Watch?”
Tilting his head for a while because he had no idea what she meant, Yoon-seok soon glanced to his wrist. His time was still going up.
“Ah, I picked it up on my way here.”
“Oh my, you’re lucky.”
Was it an illusion that Lee Su-yeon’s eyes began to glint? Yoon-seok dry coughed and rolled down his sleeves. However, the glint in her eyes didn’t fade.
“…Do you want it?”
“Really?”
As soon as Yoon-seok reluctantly brought it up, Lee Su-yeon was delighted. He was just joking because of the awkwardness… what was this reaction?
“…Is there a way to transfer it?”
“Yes. Didn’t you know that, oppa?”
“…”
When Yoon-seok closed his mouth, Lee Su-yeon smiled as if she had read his thoughts.
“Oppa, give me your wrist.”
“Like this?”
“Yes.”
When he raised his wrist, Lee Su-yeon put her wrist to his.
—Do you want to transfer your time to the other party?
It was possible to transfer. There was no notification about this, so how did she find out? Well, it was obvious. She must have experimented with this and that while he was away.
“Since you said you’d give it to me, I’ll take 1,000 hours.”
It wasn’t a big deal since he already hit the hundreds of millions, and it still was going up, but why did he feel like he was being scammed? Putting that aside, Yoon-seok wrote the time on the trading window without hesitation.
—1,000T is transferred to the other party.
Should he say that it was the price of information? He tried to think positively. Now that he knew time transfer was possible, he needed a hard-working servant to farm more time…
No, it could be compensated when they recruited this new colleague.
‘I’ll have to tell them to hunt better when we meet later.’
Yoon-seok looked to Lee Su-yeon’s thin wrist. Currently, she owned about 9,000 T. He’d been curious since earlier.
“…Why do you have so much time?”
Before they separated, Lee Su-yeon only had about 30 hours. He thought if she hunted a monster or something within that time, that still wouldn’t be enough.
“This and that happened to our side.”
“…In the process of persuading others?”
“Yes. In the process of persuading.”
Of course, although she hadn’t been in another world as he had, apparently not everything had gone smoothly for Lee Su-yeon’s side.
“Anyway, let’s get going. Unnie is going to get mad.”
Yoon-seok followed Lee Su-yeon down the sinkhole. Then another city hidden in the darkness came into view.
“It’s a refuge area. Even though there were no people in District 1, they all sought shelter here.”
“Ah, is this the place?”
“…You know this place, oppa?”
He did. After Lee Su-yeon left, he accidentally found the entrance and stopped by for a while. Well, although he left again without seeing the city hidden inside.
When Yoon-seok said this, Lee Su-yeon let off a bitter laugh.
“And I had to go through so much just to find the entrance….”
“There are times like that. You still found it, didn’t you?”
Yoon-seok quickly changed the subject because he felt like something bad might happen.
“So, where should we go? I wanted to see who the healing specialist is.”
“We’re almost there.”
Yoon-seok followed Lee Su-yeon into what looked to be a government building located in the city’s center. The building was half destroyed, though.
“H-Hic!”
As soon as the Imperial army saw them, they rushed to escape.
“You’re here!”
“You’re here, Father!”
After opening the half-destroyed iron door and entering the room, Cheon-ma and Yongyong smiled brightly and welcomed Yoon-seok. They enjoyed their reunion for a moment before Yoon-seok looked around for the healing specialist.
“So, this person… no, ‘this’ is the healing specialist…?”
He didn’t think they would be human because he heard before they were from a different dimension. But even so.
“What are you doing? You saw the lord you have to serve from now on, aren’t you going to greet him?”
“H-Humble E-Elder Lich Alvern Palmer g-greets the C-co-Sect Leader…”
Wasn’t it too much that their healer was undead?