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He ordered a full set of equipment.
An Arctic illusion fox leather coat, wrist and ankle guards and a belt, a vest and pants, Yuyeop Bido to unleash One Flash, Poku Ihwajeong and bleeding needles for Flying Falls, butterfly-shaped Blood Butterflies....
I have to wait a week.
In the spare time, I should gather plenty of antidote ingredients.
So he gathered poisonous herbs, processed them, and made concentrated extracts.
The sales of the mosquito antidote are also going smoothly.
Sales have dropped somewhat, but even so, if things go a little sideways, it still sells out.
The media also belatedly threw themselves into coverage.
At the local newspaper, Gurye Freedom Daily.
But something feels a little strange.
Even though Baeks Drug Shop was sweeping through Gurye's pharmacy market with the mosquito antidote, it was strangely quiet.
Other pharmacies or pharmaceutical companies must be taking enormous losses, so by now, shouldn't some kind of action be coming out?
They are either flustered, testing the waters, or desperately analyzing the medicine.
Trying to make a generic, in other words, a copy medicine.
For medicines needed for raids, the approval procedure is simplified, but patent rights are basically nonexistent. As long as the medicine's ingredients are not exactly identical, it does not violate the patent.
For example, they could copy and produce a similar antidote, then just mix in a few vitamins and pass without issue.
But even if they analyze it, would they be able to figure out the processing method of the Primordial Boundless Poison Spirit Art?
'It'll take at least about two years.'
It might even take longer.
The mosquito antidote.
For several years, it will become a solid cash cow.
Taeju ate breakfast in his hotel room through room service.
A luxurious life he was experiencing for the first time in his life.
It was not even this good when he was in Paju Territory.
In fact, it could not even be compared.
Because Paju was a poor territory.
Now that he had eaten, he was just about to get ready and head out.
But then!
Ring ring!
A phone call came in the moment he put on his outdoor clothes.
'Is it President Baek?'
It was not.
–Hey, Mr. Kim!
" ... Ah! Hello."
It was the broker he had known during the brief time he worked as a porter.
–Is it always this hard to see your face? Did you quit the work? Are you sick somewhere?
"Yes, I was taking a short break. You've still been doing well, right?"
–Haa, I've been fine, but lately the demand for porters has gone up so much I'm going crazy. There are many places looking, and not enough people. Because of the mosquito antidote, the number of Magical Beast raid teams in Gurye has increased tremendously.
"You must be having a hard time."
It seemed to be the butterfly effect of the mosquito antidote.
In reality, Free City of Gurye was entering yet another boom period.
Raid teams were pouring in everywhere.
The Jirisan jungle region was one of the places in the Samhan Empire famous for its high density of Magical Beasts.
Until now, satisfaction with hunting had been the lowest because of those damned mosquitoes, but now it was different.
–So I have a favor to ask.
"What is it?"
–One porter bailed on us. Just help me this one time.
" ... Uh."
–Could you fill in as a porter just this once? I'll make sure the pay is generous.
He hesitated.
He no longer had to do porter work.
"All right. I'll help you, just this once."
–Oh! Thank you. Thank you so much.
He just could not refuse.
When he had first come to Gurye with not a single coin and started working day labor as a porter, the one who had helped him in many ways was this very broker. Of course, that was also because he had done his work well.
There is a saying that you should repay kindness tenfold.
Maybe not ten times, but at least this much should be granted.
Of course, grudges are repaid a hundredfold.
Taeju took out his large-capacity porter backpack.
He had originally been planning to throw it away.
He left the hotel and headed to the meeting place.
The spot where, long ago, the Jirisan National Park parking lot used to be.
'Those must be the people.'
The broker had sent him a photo of the raid team leader on his smartphone.
"Hello. I'm Kim Taeju, here as the porter substitute."
Then the team leader twisted his face and snapped at him.
"Fuck, why are you so late? Do you know how much time got delayed because of you?"
" ... I told you I came as a substitute."
"So what? What about it? Stop yapping, put on the backpack, and follow."
Looks like I came to the wrong place.
Now he understood why the porter who was originally supposed to come had bailed.
'They reduced the number of raid team members by a lot.'
Usually, fifteen people was the standard.
But the current number was seven.
Two porters, three Mana-Compatible, and two Awakeners.
They say raid team sizes are shrinking because of mosquito antidote sales, but this was too much.
"You're going with this number?"
"Huh? A porter bastard getting cocky ... you wanna die?"
"Hey, hey, hey, hold it in! If you kill this bastard, who's going to carry the luggage? And you! If you grumble one more time, I'll chop off your arms and legs and throw you to the Magical Beasts as feed. Got it?"
"....."
They say birds of a feather flock together. The two Awakeners were exactly the same.
The Mana-Compatible who came along as combat support were no different.
"Looks like the Gurye porter bastards have it easy enough to live, huh? Seriously! 'You're going with this number?' It's the first time I've heard a mere porter say something like that."
"Cut it out. He might run away at this rate."
"Kikikik, he already came all the way here, what's he going to do? If he runs, he dies by my hand."
"Tsk tsk, let's get moving before the Pros get irritated."
Awakener or Mana-Compatible.
What the hell are these bastards?
He had lived as a porter for quite a while in his own way, but this was the first time he had seen guys this rude.
Inside Taeju, killing intent gradually surged upward.
'I should kill them.'
Not here, but somewhere quiet.
If he infused the military dagger with toxic energy and stabbed them with a quick thrust, they would not make it even seven steps before dying.
Would the Mana-Compatible and Awakeners last a little longer?
'It'll be troublesome if evidence remains, so I'll kill all six with poison, and melt the corpses with flesh-melting acid....'
Ah! I do not have flesh-melting acid yet, right?
Wouldn't it be fine to leave the corpses in the jungle?
Just like before, the Magical Beasts would devour them.
At that moment!
'Huh?'
He suddenly came to his senses.
He had been taking killing people far too lightly.
'Why am I .... '
He had even included all six except himself, including the fellow porter who had done nothing wrong.
Simply because he thought he should not leave evidence behind.
'I need to be careful.'
Taeju knew why he had done that.
Another self.
The influence of Supreme Poison Demon Dang Gun-ak.
The poisonous heart that, when meeting people he disliked, chose killing over simply letting it pass.
'Huu!'
With a deep breath, calming his killing intent, Taeju slowly moved his steps from the rear of the raid team.
A middle-aged fellow porter quietly approached and spoke to him.
"Young brother Taeju, you endured that well."
Now that he looked, it was someone he recognized.
He remembered having worked as a porter together with him before.
"Ah! So it was you, elder brother."
"Yeah, now that we've entered the jungle, even if it feels like shit, just endure it. If that bastard gets upset, we could really end up as Magical Beast food."
" ... You don't mean they'd actually do something like that, right?"
"I don't know about other Awakeners, but those ones are more than capable of it. The rumors are already widespread."
"You knew who they were?"
"They're called Kwon Dongseok's raid team, drifters who recently flowed into Gurye. Those Mana-Compatible are part of the same gang too."
As expected.
No matter how weak public authority is in Gurye, if they acted like that, there was no way they could build a proper raid team.
"But what rumors ... "
"There's talk that some of the porters who went with those bastards a few days ago disappeared."
"And the Autonomous Committee just let it slide?"
"Do they have proof? No complaint was filed either, so it just got brushed aside."
In any case, in conflicts involving ordinary people and Mana-Compatible, or Awakeners, ordinary people were bound to be at a disadvantage.
After adapting to mana, the population had exploded at a frightening rate.
The population of the Samhan Empire alone had exceeded 600 million.
The larger the population, the more lightly life is treated.
That goes without saying for ordinary people, and if a Mana-Rejector dies, they do not even investigate the cause of death.
"But elder brother, why did you come here? There should be plenty of other places looking for porters."
"How was I supposed to know that bastard was the team leader? If I'd known, I wouldn't have come. Mr. Park, who bailed, probably came here, saw that bastard's face, and turned right back."
"Ah .... "
He got caught good.
Anyway, since he was already here, he might as well do the porter's job.
The raid team entered the Jirisan jungle.
As always, the hunting target of this pickup raid team was the blade-fanged marten.
Since it was born a marten, its hide sold for a high price.
Its fangs too.
The hunt went smoothly.
The number of team members was small, but perhaps because they had taken the mosquito antidote, the combat personnel freed from protective insect suits moved well.
Slash!
Thud!
When the Awakeners dealt with the martens, the Mana-Compatible skinned them and pulled out the fangs, and the porters stuffed the byproducts into their backpacks.
"We got an energy core."
"Oh! Bring it to me!"
"This feels great. Taking off the protective insect suit makes me feel like I could fly."
"Kikikik, not having to worry about mosquitoes really makes this easy."
Then they looked at Taeju.
"Hey! You asked earlier if we were going with this number, right? Did that answer your question? A lowly porter bastard getting scared over nothing...."
"That's why all you're fit for is porter work."
Taeju did not answer.
If his killing intent rose again like this, he might really kill them.
'It feels filthy, but this should end quickly.'
It really did seem that the mosquito antidote had brought a revolution to Magical Beast raids.
Just five combat personnel were going around hunting martens.
But that was only possible when the hunting target was the blade-fanged marten.
Before long, the raid team ran into a Magical Beast famous for being difficult to handle in Jirisan.
"Grrrrrrrr...."
A heavy, low growl from deep in the throat.
A creepy sensation that made every hair on his body stand on end from the tips of his toes to the top of his head.
"Uh .... "
"Wh, why is that here?"
Red-furred wolf.
A large body, stiff hide that blades barely cut into, and aggression beyond compare. The most terrifying thing about this creature was...
"Grrrrr."
That they always moved as a male-female pair.
"Awooooooo!"
"Awooooooo!"
Together with the distinctive howling of wolves, two red-furred wolves appeared at the front and rear at the same time.
"Th, this is fucking crazy!"
Kwon Dongseok, a beginner-ranked Awakener, had no idea what to do.
He had never intended to go anywhere near wolf territory.
A red-furred wolf was difficult to handle even with four beginner-ranked Awakeners.
He had only planned to kill martens, fill the backpacks, and head back.
His fellow Awakener Jang Wonjun asked in a trembling voice.
"Do, Dongseok! Wh, what do we do?"
"What do you mean what do we do? We run."
But they could not show their backs.
Wolf-type Magical Beasts had a habit of attacking the person who turned their back first.
How could they break through this crisis?
There was a method they had always used.
Use the most useless ones in the raid team.
The red-furred wolves slowly narrowed the distance.
Kwon Dongseok first signaled to his friend Jang Wonjun with his eyes.
Jang Wonjun also knew what Kwon Dongseok was trying to do.
Throw out bait and run.
That was how they had always overcome crises like this.
The combat support Mana-Compatible were also exchanging glances and moving slowly. Was this their first or second time doing this? Just like that, they surrounded the two porters.
Since there were two of them, they would shove one toward the wolf in front and the other toward the wolf in back.
The moment the wolf-type Magical Beasts pounced on the porters, they would run without looking back.
Taeju also noticed what they were trying to do.
'Ha! Look at these bastards?'
This openly?
Then again!
This was the Jirisan jungle.
There was nothing strange about two porters dying to Magical Beasts, and the dead tell no tales.
"Push!"
Kwon Dongseok shouted at the Mana-Compatible while pointing at Taeju.
Right then!
Flash!
A long silver streak extended from Taeju's hand and connected to the crown of the red-furred wolf blocking the front.
Thud!
The military dagger buried itself into the wolf's head up to the hilt.
And yet an afterimage still remained.
It had been unbelievably fast and precise.
"Huh?"
"It, it died?"
"Th, this is insane!"
The Awakeners and Mana-Compatible doubted their own eyes.
What was this?
Something flashed from that insolent porter's hand, and then one wolf was dead.
Taeju walked forward step by step.
He pulled the dagger from the head of the fallen wolf.
And then.
The military dagger came out snapped cleanly in the middle.
Even if it was military issue, it should still have had some Magical Beast byproducts mixed into it.
"Ah, it broke. As expected, military supplies are...."
Kwon Dongseok and Jang Wonjun stared blankly at Taeju.
How on earth?
A red-furred wolf was hard to fight even when two Awakeners attacked together.
But a mere porter had handled it that easily?
"Grrr ... Grrngh!"
When its mate died, the remaining wolf growled with eyes full of hatred.
But it seemed to have noticed the difference in strength as well, because it could not recklessly move and only bared its fangs while hunching its body low.
The rage contained in the cry of the red-furred wolf.
Just hearing it made Kwon Dongseok and Jang Wonjun shiver.
But they could survive.
If that unidentified porter killed the remaining one as well.
As if everyone were thinking the same thing, the entire raid team was staring only at Taeju.
At last, Taeju opened his mouth.
Looking indifferently at Kwon Dongseok and Jang Wonjun.
"Fight."
"What? Uh ... yes?"
"I took care of one for you. You deal with the one that's left."
"N, no, what do you mean by ...."
"I said fight! We're porters, and you're the ones with the combat role."
Gulp!
Kwon Dongseok swallowed his dry saliva.
How were they supposed to handle the rage of a wolf that had lost its mate?
"Co, could you kill it for us instead? I'll pay plenty in return. I'll hand over all the Magical Beast byproducts and the energy core...."
That was when it happened.
Whip!
Something grazed Kwon Dongseok's right cheek and flew past.
With a sudden sting, something warm like liquid ran down the side of his right face.
He raised his hand and touched it.
"Aaaaargh!"
Bright red blood gushed out.
His right ear was gone.
Clink clink.
Rolling coins in his hand, Taeju spoke again.
"Don't even think about running. Unless you want a coin embedded in the back of your head! So fight!"