For quite a long time, he heard from Kim Shin-ryeong about the Celestial Assassin.

Because Kim Shin-ryeong still kept in touch with Master K from time to time, the news reached her naturally.

The Celestial Assassin’s cancer battle record he thus learned was far longer than Kang-hoo had imagined.

It had been three years since it began.

Looking back, the original story had never mentioned the Celestial Assassin’s health.

Furthermore, after the point when he stopped appearing in the story, there was no account of what became of him.

Right. Simply put, it was the typical trait of a character the author forgot to write more about later on.

He clearly existed in the worldbuilding of the work, but with not a single line of mention—no way to know if he was alive or what he was doing.

If the Celestial Assassin’s fight with cancer had also existed in the original, it meant that at some later point he died.

‘I wrote enough for it to become reality, but the parts I didn’t write were filled in with a plausible reality.’

A hollow laugh slipped out.

There were no loose seams in the world.

The parts that couldn’t be rendered into prose were densely patched by the unconscious and by new facts.

He also felt it was strange.

Wasn’t it absurd? Fragments of the original that even the original author didn’t know?

But because they weren’t written, he couldn’t know them. And the unwritten world still had to become reality.

Who filled in this empty space? God? Another self of his? Another author?

Knowing full well it was a question with no answer, he shook it out of his head rather than dwell on it.

Anyway, the important thing was that his beloved master, the Celestial Assassin, had little life left.

“It’s not for nothing that he’s so fired up about you. With not much time left, he wants to leave a trace.”

Kim Shin-ryeong’s eyes turned slightly red. Even she, full of ill feelings, seemed to pity the brevity of a human life.

“Ah……”

Only then did Kang-hoo recall the times he had seen Ju Haemi’s eyes swollen.

He had wondered what had made her cry, and if it was because of the Celestial Assassin’s illness, it made perfect sense.

Besides, K’s gaze whenever he looked at the Celestial Assassin had always been faintly wistful—as if steeped in regret.

And he understood why the Celestial Assassin had pushed himself to the limit, throwing himself into training.

It wasn’t that he was hot-tempered; circumstances had been cornering him. Every single second must have mattered.

Drip.

In that instant, a single tear slid straight down Kang-hoo’s cheek.

It surprised both Kang-hoo himself and Kim Shin-ryeong who was watching. It was also the first tear he had ever shed.

“Seeing tears from you—someone who looked like he wouldn’t shed a drop even if pricked—is really unexpected.”

At Kim Shin-ryeong’s words, Kang-hoo also nodded. He had thought he didn’t even have tear ducts.

“It seems I’ve grown attached. My master has become truly precious to me. I mean it.”

“You must mean it. That tear just now isn’t something you can squeeze out on purpose. That makes it hurt even more.”

Whether Kang-hoo’s tear acted as a fuse or not, Kim Shin-ryeong shed even more.

She empathized with Kang-hoo, who stood to lose his master soon. Pity welled up.

Then, with a sigh as if resigning herself, she muttered.

“I don’t like that man, but his talent is a shame to waste. If he lived longer, he could help you more.”

“……!”

Right then.

Kang-hoo recalled one of his own abilities he had forgotten.

So buried in grief for his master, he had overlooked something utterly obvious.

【Fourth, it assists in the complete cure and complete recovery of three people in total, including yourself.】

That was the fourth boon of the Angel of the Battlefield, which he had successfully unlocked when he killed Ishihara Yuji this time.

He had even been granted three chances.

Even if he used one, two opportunities would remain. He would have room to use them for those dear to him.

‘Yeah. This was it.’

This would do!

Kang-hoo felt certain.

Was this a mere coincidence?

Or was it what stories and films often call heaven’s grace—a sign the heavens aren’t indifferent? That’s how it felt.

He made up his mind on the spot.

He would use the boon to sweep away in one go the disease coiled around the Celestial Assassin’s entire body.

After that, he couldn’t guarantee how long the Celestial Assassin would live. Death didn’t only come from disease.

But he felt there would be no regrets at all.

Clench.

His fist curled up on its own.

‘With my own hand—with the ability I possess—I can reverse and extend the limited life of someone I love!’

It felt like his power had brushed a realm touching God or something near it; an inexpressible rapture surged through him.

There was nothing more to worry about. The way to save his master was already in his grasp.

Only—

He wanted to keep it secret from everyone.

Like Santa Claus who slips into a house at dawn on Christmas Day and leaves gifts without anyone knowing.

Kang-hoo wanted to offer his master a quiet gift like that. A gift dearer than anything.

----------------------------------------

“You need a suit?”

“Yes. It’d be nice if you could account for durability, but I don’t mind if it’s omitted. What’s more important is mobility.”

“Hm? Wouldn’t that just be no different from a full-body tights? It’d feel like a skating outfit, no?”

“That’s exactly what I want.”

“……You don’t have any weird kinks, do you?”

“……Do I look like I would?”

When Kang-hoo shifted the topic to the suit, Kim Shin-ryeong looked surprised.

No wonder—full-body suits weren’t common in the hunter world.

On film or in animation, they looked rather cool. Sometimes a single suit solved everything.

But real-world tech had lots of constraints.

Make the suit thick and you lose mobility; make it thin and you lose durability.

You had to catch both rabbits, yet with current technology, catching even one was hard.

Above all, if you only wanted one rabbit, there was no need to wear a suit. It would only get in the way.

Especially, a suit like in superhero movies—flying in the sky and emitting energy—did not exist.

Thus, there wasn’t a single hunter who felt a need for a suit.

Even Jang Si-hwan, who enjoyed creative challenges, had no interest whatsoever in suits.

“Can I ask a question?”

“You can ask two.”

“Why do you need a suit? Unless I get a fundamental answer to that, I don’t think we can move to the next part.”

“If there’s a suit that fits the conditions I want, I have a way to maximize its value.”

“Can you show me?”

“I can.”

“I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

“No need. Though it’d be even better if you did.”

“Convince me. If I don’t see the need for a suit, I don’t share what I’ve researched and analyzed.”

“Just a moment.”

“Oh my.”

“No need to go that far.”

When Kang-hoo suddenly shrugged off his top, Kim Shin-ryeong covered her mouth with a startled voice.

But her eyes carefully traced the bare torso filled with lean muscle.

Of course, they both knew this wasn’t a situation for sexual vibes to pass between them, so nothing untoward happened.

“Because of this.”

What Kang-hoo showed Kim Shin-ryeong was the skill he had learned from Yuji—Carapace Transformation.

When he invoked it, Kang-hoo’s abs hardened even more, as if he were wearing ab-shaped armor.

“……May I touch it?”

“Of course.”

Slide. Sliiide.

Kim Shin-ryeong kept running her fingers along Kang-hoo’s abs.

It was absolutely not to satisfy any private desire; she was examining what form the abs had taken.

“It feels like it turned into crocodile leather.”

“It’s a similar ability.”

“But that’s your body changing, right? How is that related to a suit?”

At her question, Kang-hoo put his clothes on at once and then invoked Carapace Transformation again.

The next moment—

“You can do that?”

“I could, as it turns out.”

“It’s a skill?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Kim Shin-ryeong couldn’t close her gaping mouth. His T-shirt had turned hard like armor.

Although Yuji had possessed the Carapace Transformation skill, it had remained unknown because Yuji rarely operated publicly.

Moreover, he hadn’t had the spare mana to maintain it steadily, and his mastery hadn’t been at the maximum.

But for Kang-hoo, as long as he excluded the pain from mana overuse, he could use it as long as he liked. His mastery was at the cap.

“So you’ll use that skill to reinforce a suit… right? Meaning the suit itself becomes a kind of reinforced suit?”

“Exactly.”

“This is kind of insane.”

With a disbelieving look, Kim Shin-ryeong kept feeling Kang-hoo’s T-shirt. It was stone-hard and weighty.

If he could reinforce worn clothing in this way, then implementing a reinforced-suit form was entirely possible.

“The budget doesn’t matter. If possible, I’d like to get started quickly.”

“Hold on. Just follow me for now. I do have a prototype—never been used, though.”

He followed Kim Shin-ryeong, keeping a sensible distance in his stride.

The villa was so large that even just walking after her took over a minute.

They even slipped through a gap inside what looked like a study and passed several more rooms before arriving at the intended entrance.

Outwardly, it was just a dressing room, but when she pulled a few long coats forward, a door opened.

Like in movies where a secret door opens when you tug a book in a study—here, it was linked to the long coats.

Drrrrrk.

A staircase leading downward came into view.

Contrary to expectations of a musty, damp smell, the passage was bright and fresh.

It was filled with fragrant flowers as if someone had tended it not long ago, and the lights that illuminated the interior gave it a nice mood.

More than anything, there wasn’t a speck of dust on any of the lights.

Whether it was Kim Shin-ryeong’s touch or someone else managing the place, there was no way to tell.

All the way down the stairs—

Display racks kept appearing on both sides.

Inside them were countless weapons and pieces of armor.

There were no finished products—everything was disassembled or in a reassembly state.

Even at a glance, items worth hundreds of billions of won were scattered like loose parts.

Could those things be given new life and rebuilt to function as items?

If not, was Kim Shin-ryeong just sowing a colossal sum of money under the name of research?

When they reached the basement—

“Wow.”

Kang-hoo let out an exclamation.

What filled the whole underground floor was none other than countless prototypes.

From design onward, there were all sorts of suits that looked specialized in completely different areas.

If he hadn’t been told they were prototypes in advance, he would have thought they were finished products ready to buy and use anytime.

“The core functions aren’t installed yet. Simply put, they’re empty cans—blank states.”

“Wow… that’s incredible.”

“It’s a bit more than you expected, huh? This area houses suits conceived from multiple angles to enhance mobility.”

“Even at a glance, there are over thirty.”

Kang-hoo inspected the suits, giddy like a customer in a shop overflowing with pick-and-choose ice cream.

To most hunters, these wouldn’t even pass for clingy tights and would have been thoroughly ignored.

But to Kang-hoo, there were loads here that could be reborn as solid reinforced suits through Carapace Transformation.

Yeah—this place was an absolute hidden gem.