CHAPTER 83: RAGE AND REPRIEVE

The number of slots varied from person to person, and as it turned out Min-ho was given the lowest number possible.

’My luck had to run out at some point,’ Min-ho thought, suddenly realizing how he hadn’t given the Glitch in his System much thought.

Like how it was possible in the first place, and why he of all people had gotten it.

’These questions won’t get me answers,’ he thought, then decided to do something more productive.

He equipped the Relic, then went over to the new armor he acquired.

Looking at it, he hesitated for a moment. His armor was broken, its durability had been used up. He needed new armor, and he didn’t know if this one would be worthwhile, or scrap. But one thing he did know was that he didn’t have Coins to spend.

He took in a deep breath then expanded it.

[[Kento’s Shroud]]

[Rank: E, Tier: 2]

[Durability: 100/2,000]

[Enchantments: Rage]

[-Rage: Any damage received will be converted to strength that will be directly fed to a weapon. The stronger the weapon becomes, the more damage the armor and its bearer will receive. Will increase damage received along with weapon damage by one rank. Rage can be expelled at any time with a thought]

[Description: The armor of the great and powerful Kento, warlord from the land of Bjorkemia. Kento in his lifetime had conquered half the nation of Bjork, pushing forward to control the entire nation. And he would have succeeded had he not trusted the wrong people. Even in death, Kento’s rage had burned a place in his armor, readily waiting for a bearer to bask in that fury]

When Min-ho saw the Tier of the armor, his eyes widened and his heart pulsated.

’Incredible,’ he thought, finding it hard to believe what he was seeing before his very eyes.

Finding such an armor this early on was rare. With this armor, he would be able to take on Third Tier Spectors by himself. The damage they would deal to him would be next to nil. He’d be practically invincible.

Though this sounded very good in Min-ho’s head, a moment’s thought revealed something to him.

Just because he could bear the brunt of Third Tier attacks didn’t mean he could dish it out.

Which meant soloing a Third Tier didn’t make much sense unless they had weak spots. And even if they did, with how these things were designed, getting to said weak spot would be next to impossible unless he had backup, which would in turn defeat the purpose of the armor.

No matter how he looked at it, it didn’t make much sense for him to have it.

Yes, he wouldn’t get injured, but that didn’t really matter if he couldn’t hurt the enemy.

Min-ho pinched his nose bone, then exhaled sharply.

The best plan would be to give it to Jang-book. With this armor, he would be able to solo Third Tiers more efficiently, which in turn would feed into the rest of his team.

This idea made the most sense.

Looking at the armor description, Min-ho felt an innate childlike instinct inside of him latching onto it.

With a sigh, he dismissed the screen.

’Its durability was shoddy anyhow,’ he thought, then he went to his Affinity menu.

[[Monarch’s Will]]

[Affinity Type: Passive, Affinity Rank: E]

[Monarch’s Will: If a subject is made through the kissing of a hand, the Monarch will be able to control the subjects to a certain degree and gain a percentage of the subject’s collected Coins without affecting their own total. Percentage increases by increments of 10% for every two subjects gotten. Increments will cease to continue once the limit of 20 subjects has been reached]

[Uses Available: Unlimited, Whiplash: Death’s Revenge]

[Death’s Revenge: If a subject under the Monarch’s rule dies, the death of the subject will be shared with the Monarch depending on his taxing percentage]

[Subsidiary Affinities: Command, Enhance, Sacrifice]

[Dismiss]

[Subjects: Cho Im-hee, Han Dok-su, Han Ji-su, Ji Jang-book, Gong Hang-wa, Lee Seo-bi]

He skipped over much of the descriptions and went over to the ’Subjects’ section.

His eyes narrowed to Im-hee, and his heart thumped when he saw the new text above her name.

’Dismiss?’ he pondered, his heart sinking when he remembered what condition she was in.

He knew it was the smart thing to do to dismiss her right here and now. If she... if she died tomorrow, there was now a 30% chance he would die along with her.

He knew this much... yet, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

’Fool.’ He bit his lip.

Steeling his nerves, he fell his gaze on his two new Subjects, Hang-wa and Seo-bi.

He hesitated for a moment, then he opened Hang-wa’s System menu.

[Name: Gong Hang-wa, Rank: E]

[Affinities, Equipment]

[Inventory, Shop]

[Coins: 792,250]

His eyes fell on the Coins, and a pit grew in his stomach.

’It’s numbers like these that make me uneasy,’ he thought, as dread pooled in his soul. Furthermore, the Coins were growing by the second.

He began to wonder truly how he would handle them when it came down to it.

He was banking on his Subsidiary Affinity ’Command’ to get him out of the pickle jar. But if it didn’t work, there would be three Second Tiers with dangerous Affinities coming for him and his team.

And if his Subsidiary Affinity did work how he was expecting it to by some miracle, they would still have Shin-ji to deal with. A Z-Streamer whose Affinity was a complete mystery to him.

This thought alone made him more anxious.

Sae-wee said they needed the trio at one point, which meant they wouldn’t make their move anytime soon...

’But what if she’s wrong?’ he thought, his dread growing.

With a sigh, he shook the thought off and focused on the immediate matters at hand.

He would get to it later, right now he needed to grow Dok-su, and he needed to get Coins in the System Center.

Opening Dok-su’s System menu, he selected his rank, then dunked in 50,000 Coins.

[-Rank-]

[Rank: E, Tier 3]

[Coins Until Next Tier: 270,000/500,000]

’We’re more than halfway there,’ he thought. ’Soon we’ll have two Second Tiers.’

He dismissed the menu, then went back to his main menu. He stared at the Developer Options for a moment.

It wasn’t grayed out anymore. He just needed to head in and accumulate enough Coins to further grow Dok-su. It was that easy.

His heart thumped.

’Then why do I feel so uneasy?’ he thought, then took in a deep breath.

"You’re still awake," a voice froze him in place.

It belonged to no one he was familiar with.

He immediately turned to it, and found the Z-Streamer with green hair rising.

He sat cross-legged as he stared at Min-ho.

"There’s something I have to tell you."

***

Aggressive yet blissful moans ravaged the air, the sound of wild yet controlled slamming and thudding accompanied.

In an empty room, on top a pile of sleeping bags unrolled and stacked together to create a semblance of a bed, were Seo-bi and her new Nightshade partner intertwined in passionate lovemaking.

Or at the very least it was passionate for him.

Most of the moans filling the room escaped from his lips.

Seo-bi tried to enjoy herself, she even told her partner to be as rough and insane as he wanted.

Yet no matter how hard she tried, her thoughts were just on Min-ho.

[You Have Received A Diamond Gachapon Worth ’15,000’ Coins]

[You Have Received A Spaceship Worth ’10,000’ Coins]

[You Have Received A Magic Mansion Worth ’5,000’ Coins]

Looking at her notifications and finally having enough, she let out a large moan and rolled the man to the side so she sat on top of him.

She panted hard, staring at Seo-bi while thinking to himself, ’Fuck, she’s incredible, I could die now a happy man.’

Seo-bi smiled, then bent low.

She had told him to avoid kissing her on the lips the whole time, but now she was ready.

She hovered over his face for a moment, taking in his warm breath. Then she smiled once more before kissing him full on the mouth.

The man felt his entire body tingling, he could feel his nerves getting excited like he was at it with her again.

Suddenly, the kiss turned sour. He opened his eyes as a deep pain bellowed in the pit of his stomach.

It felt like his entrails were being pulled up his throat.

The pain grew by the second, he wanted to scream but found he was frozen in place.

His eyes turned red as the pain exploded.

[You Have Received A Diamond Gachapon Worth ’15,000’ Coins]

[You Have Received A Diamond Gachapon Worth ’15,000’ Coins]

[You Have Received A Diamond Gachapon Worth ’15,000’ Coins]

Seo-bi pulled her lips back, and a green light shot out from the man’s mouth, nostrils, and eyes—his essence being sucked into her.

She sat up and bent backward, arching her back as the last of it seeped in. The feeling that overcame her was something more profound than ecstasy.

Maddening in a way that made her chase it ever since her first taste.

She shivered, then took in a deep breath.

As her eyes remained shut, she only thought how much better it would feel if she did this to someone she really liked.

’You’re mine, Min-ho.’ She smiled, then licked her lips.