Chapter 428

I sat up and released the breath I’d been holding.

“God, I’m dying.”

Pretending to be unconscious for four days took a considerable amount of patience.

Especially while hooked up to a whole array of state-of-the-art medical equipment.

Besides, it wasn’t exactly a good time to return to Murim.

Even if I went back, I’d just be stuck aboard the swift ship, staring stupidly at the Yangtze.

I was better off wrapping things up properly in the modern world. As long as I had the System, time was on my side.

Crack. Crack.

As I rolled my stiff neck from side to side, Team Leader Choi let out a quiet laugh.

“If anyone had seen this on CCTV, there would’ve been quite an uproar.”

“That’s a terrible thing to say. If that had happened, I would’ve bitten my tongue and killed myself.”

Fortunately, there were no CCTV cameras, so my tongue was safe.

Then again, I was wearing a brain-wave detector that alerted the medical staff the instant a patient regained consciousness. CCTV would’ve been redundant.

“I have to ask—how on earth did you fool that machine?”

I shrugged.

“Oh, the brain-wave detector? This isn’t a machine.”

“Excuse me?”

“Well, it is, but the thing actually powering it is a Magic Gem.”

“Then did you use mana…? No, internal energy?”

“Yeah. I made it malfunction. A little adjustment like that wasn’t difficult.”

After opening my Middle Dantian this time, my control over my internal energy had improved tremendously.

If I couldn’t even fool a few medical devices, I would’ve been so frustrated that I’d have gone to check the temperature of the Han River¹.

“Anyway, what do you think will happen with the Wu Heixing situation? From what Grandpa Jongseok said, it sounds like he’s made preparations.”

“This must be the fiftieth time I’ve told you: he isn’t Grandpa Jongseok. He’s Chairman Xiao.”

“What’s wrong with Grandpa Jongseok? It sounds nice and friendly.”

“…Sigh.”

Shaking his head, Team Leader Choi picked up an apple from the fruit basket beside him.

He drew a dagger that looked expensive at a glance, peeled the apple with practiced ease, and held it out to me.

“I don’t think you need to worry about Wu Heixing. Public opinion is on our side, and Chairman Xiao seems to have been sharpening his blade.”

“Chairman Xiao? Honestly, he seemed a little soft to me.”

Crunch.

I bit into the firm apple, and sweet juice filled my mouth.

If Chairman Xiao Yang had been as hard as this apple, the Crown Prince Party wouldn’t have remained at the center of power for so long.

As if he had read my mind, Team Leader Choi said, “Did you know Chairman Xiao was once branded a reactionary and sentenced to five years of hard labor in a pig slaughterhouse?”

“That happened?”

“I heard the Crown Prince Party targeted him when he tried to push through political reforms after the Great Cataclysm. But look where he is now.”

That told me everything I needed to know.

Chairman Xiao had a personal grudge against the Crown Prince Party, and after enduring years of hardship, he had risen to the highest position in the country. In other words, he had an iron will.

“When the time comes, a blade sharpened for years has to be swung. To the Crown Prince Party, Chairman Xiao will be the most dangerous swordsman of all.”

“Then Wu Heixing’s father…”

“Considering his political standing and the public sympathy surrounding Wu Heixing, execution is unlikely. He’ll probably be sent to a political prison camp or a pig slaughterhouse. But given his age, he’ll spend the rest of his life there.”

First Wu Heixing, and now his father.

So this was how father and son met their end.

It wasn’t my imagination. The apple really did taste sweeter today.

I grinned and wiped the juice from the corner of my mouth.

“Lying here for four days was worth it.”

Team Leader Choi peeled a second apple and handed it to me.

“Your judgment was correct. If the press had learned that you woke up after only half a day, there would’ve been no avoiding suspicion.”

According to the news Team Leader Choi had given me, Lee Jungryong had not even left behind a body, and his death was considered certain by the public. Wu Heixing, who had died with his neck broken, had been caught in the aftermath of the battle and discovered as a gruesome corpse.

If I’d woken up perfectly fine after half a day under those circumstances, the press would’ve had a field day tearing me apart.

“When you first woke up, even I had trouble regaining my composure… Had you already anticipated all this before you dealt with those two?”

I answered while biting into the apple.

“I didn’t think that far.”

“What?”

“No, my body was tired and my head hurt, so I just told them not to announce it yet. If people found out I was awake, there’d be hell to pay inside and out.”

“…”

“What?”

Team Leader Choi stared at me as though I’d betrayed him, then quietly looked away.

“…It’s nothing.”

“Come on, lose the wounded expression. The result is what matters.”

Just as I said, the result couldn’t have turned out better for us.

Never mind Wu Heixing and the Crown Prince Party. We had legally eliminated our greatest obstacle, Lee Jungryong, and prevented an even greater catastrophe by defeating the Arch Lich.

The praise and adoration of people around the world were just a bonus.

I’d heard the notification about my Fame rising so many times that it was starting to drive me insane.

Like right now.

System

The attention of the entire world is focused on you!

Your Fame has risen dramatically!

There is too much information to process. From now on, Fame-related notifications will be combined and delivered once a month.

“……You should’ve done that from the start, you bastard.”

The sigh slipped out before I could stop it, and Team Leader Choi tilted his head.

“Pardon?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. More importantly, how’s my family?”

My mother and Hayeon had arrived in China only a few hours earlier aboard a chartered plane sent under Chairman Xiao Yang’s special orders. They had even been escorted by dozens of fighter jets, receiving treatment beyond that afforded to a state guest.

“You don’t need to worry. Your mother is resting, and your younger sister…”

“You don’t have to tell me about her. She’ll be fine on her own.”

“……Ah. Yes.”

I couldn’t bring myself to keep my condition secret from my family, so I’d had Team Leader Choi quietly tell them that I was completely unharmed and already awake.

Even so, I was worried about their first visit, which was coming up soon.

One or two smacks on the back won’t settle this.

I’d rather fight several thousand monsters.

I’d left nothing but a single message in the family group chat saying I was going to China. Just imagining the fallout sent a chill down my spine.

“Team Leader Choi.”

“Yes?”

“When my family comes to visit, you absolutely cannot go anywhere. Understood?”

“…?”

“Promise me you’ll stay right beside me and protect me.”

“Ah. All right.”

And two hours later—

“You little brat! You little braaaat!”

“Mom!”

“M-Ma’am!”

Team Leader Choi stepped in front of my mother as she charged at me with a tearful roar unlike anything I had ever heard.

He became the first victim of her back-smacking assault.

“M-Ma’am, please calm down…”

“Move! Are you going to move or not?!”

Smack! Smack!

“Urgh! Gah!”

“Jin Taekyuuung!”

Then a kick from a fearless soon-to-be college freshman, freshly liberated from the college entrance exam, struck him squarely between the legs.

It was an unfortunate accident.

Wham!

“…Oh.”

“…Ah.”

Team Leader Choi, his eyes wide, muttered in a hollow voice.

“M-My special underwear… It doesn’t burn, it doesn’t get wet, and it even has a semipermanent cleaning spell…”

Goodbye, Team Leader Choi.

You should’ve enchanted it with reinforcement instead.

Thump. Thud.

I paid my respects to the modern-day knight-errant brought to his knees by pain, then resolutely prepared for the storm coming my way.

Open Inventory. Equip Fire Dragon Armor.

I felt the armor of the divine weapon gently envelop my chest, stomach, and back beneath my hospital gown, and closed my eyes.

At that exact moment, someone’s palm slammed into my cheek.

Smack!

Wait. A slap in the face wasn’t part of my calculations…

I regained consciousness after a week.

No, it was announced that I had regained consciousness.

After another week of complicated medical examinations and various loose ends, I held a brief press conference before a sea of microphones and cheering people.

“Mr. Jin, we have screened out the reporters most likely to cause trouble. Simply call on the reporters selected in advance and answer their questions.”

But contrary to Chairman Xiao’s assurances before the press conference, a few reporters hungry for a sweet scoop swarmed in like bees.

“Mr. Jin! We’ve heard that you and Wu Heixing, one of the casualties of this battle, were on bad terms. Is that true?”

The security guards moved to drag the foreign reporter away, but I stopped them with a gesture.

“I already told the investigators everything, but I’ll say it again. It’s all true.”

Flash! Flash!

Flashes several times brighter erupted, along with a burst of murmuring. A Chinese reporter’s lips twitched with a malicious smile as he asked another question.

“Why? What was the reason?”

“The little bastard was rude from the moment we met.”

“What exactly did he…?”

“He called me a peninsula bangzi² and cursed me out. So I called him a chink bastard, and he tried to attack me after the meeting ended.”

The smile vanished from the Chinese reporter’s face.

“A chink? That’s a slur against Chinese people!”

“Oh. Is it?”

I gave a vague nod, then gestured to the security guards.

“Get that chink bastard out of here.”

“Let go of me! This is suppression of the press!”

“Suppress that bastard’s mouth while you’re at it. I’ll talk to Chinese people, but I don’t talk to chinks. He’s exactly like that Wu Heixing bastard.”

Right then, someone among the mass of reporters raised a hand and asked a question. This one was Chinese as well.

“Then did you continue to clash with Wu Heixing afterward?”

“I wouldn’t call it a clash. I beat him to a jajinmori rhythm³ with the spirit of Korea behind every blow, and he quieted down. We got along well enough after that.”

“Then…”

“Yes.”

I continued solemnly.

“Wu Heixing was killed by the Arch Lich. There was nothing I could do, and I survived thanks to the top-grade potion he left behind. Once again, I offer my condolences for his death.”

There. Condolences.

I had to say what needed saying and patch up what needed patching. No matter what crimes Wu Heixing had committed while he was alive or how rotten his character had been, admitting that I’d killed him would only hurt me down the road.

Besides, hardly anyone would believe that Lee Jungryong had lured Wu Heixing into conspiring with him.

People tended to turn away from inconvenient truths.

I imagined the disappearance of a hundred-terabyte USB containing all the treasures of humanity, and tears welled in my eyes.

“And… above all, I feel profound sorrow over the death of Hunter Lee Jungryong, a hero of the Great Cataclysm and the great Senior I respected more than anyone. He was truly a good man.”

“Ah…”

The press-conference hall instantly grew solemn. I wiped away the tears rolling down my cheeks and delivered the line I had prepared.

“Although our time together was brief, I will never forget him for as long as I live. I offer my condolences to everyone who died in this war. I’m sorry I couldn’t save even one more person.”

One sentence that brought the wave of criticism to an end.

Considering the gravity of the matter, the press conference was absurdly brief, lasting only around thirty minutes. It was broadcast worldwide by terrestrial and cable networks in numerous countries, as well as through an iTube livestream, drawing a combined live audience of three billion viewers.

Before I could even begin to feel the impact, I went to find someone.