While Kang-hoo was soothing the inevitable backlash that always ca after eating Mad Solarkium,
Celestial Assassin was mixing the tongue of the Gale Ironwood that Kang-hoo had handed him with the bile of the Swarm Queen and so herbs.
The herbs were materials easily found north of Ground Zero and were practically nothing more than weeds.
“What are you making, Master?”
“I told you to wait, didn’t I?”
“I’m just too curious.”
“Train your patience. You’ll find out as soon as you drink it anyway, heh-heh.”
Celestial Assassin, who was hard at work making sothing, looked absolutely delighted. Right now he really did look like a child.
“Now I finally feel alive again.”
Lying comfortably on a rock and looking up at the sky, he saw it was endlessly clear and high. Not a single cloud.
The only thing he still hadn’t gotten used to was how utterly quiet it was all around. There was none of civilization’s bustle.
According to the official North Korea report published by the Public Safety Bureau two years earlier,
the chaos that had continued for months after Judgnt Day had driven half of North Korea’s population to their deaths.
That was due not only to attacks by monsters erging from dungeons, but also to the long war between newly empowered North Korean hunters and the soldiers mobilized to preserve the regi, which greatly increased the number of innocent civilian casualties.
In the process, a hybrid mutant species called “hybrids” had appeared, and that had been the deciding blow.
Although the numbers weren’t precisely tallied, it was said that half of the survivors had beco hybrids.
Of course, since hybrids were incapable of reproduction, their numbers would eventually decrease over a long period of ti…
but with only a dozen-odd years having passed so far, it was inevitable that it would take ti to reach complete extinction.
‘It’s not like North Korea has no capable hunters at all. We just can’t pinpoint their locations.’
In the original work as well, there had been a fair number of hunters from North Korea, including several that had caught Jang Si-hwan’s interest.
The problem was that the story had ended with all the North Korea threads left unresolved.
That didn’t an those people had vanished, so if you combed through North Korea like a fine-toothed comb, there was a chance you could eventually et them.
Of course, that would require a huge investnt of ti and effort. It wasn’t sothing that could be done on a whim.
At that mont,
“I’m done! Finally!”
At Celestial Assassin’s emphatic shout, Kang-hoo quickly pushed himself up. There was a cup in his master’s hand.
“Um… are you sure this is sothing I can drink?”
There was just one thing that made him hesitate: the liquid in the cup was a dark reddish brown.
The tongue, bile, and herbs had all been ground and mashed together, so the color that ca out did not exactly inspire appetite.
“Drink it. Honestly, it tastes absolutely vile, but the mont you drink it, you’ll understand why I said it was important.”
“Thank you, Master.”
Gulp— gulp—.
He took the cup and downed the contents without hesitation.
If sothing tasted bad, the more leisurely you drank it, the more dangerous it was. It was better to chug it before pointless gagging kicked in.
“Ugh.”
Even so, nausea hit him imdiately. No matter how quickly he swallowed, there was no avoiding the texture and taste that touched the tip of his tongue.
In the instant when Kang-hoo, having drained the cup, was grimacing with his face twisted up in pure suffering,
“……?”
He suddenly felt his body respond in less than twenty seconds and opened his eyes wide.
“Do you feel it?”
“Is this a stimulant?”
“Stop asking and just feel it.”
The manifestation was exactly the sa as when he had taken Gaksinhwan.
His brain function started to explode upward, to the point he felt like he could handle even the most complex calculations.
On top of that, the flow of ti seed to slow down, and everything he focused on ca into sharp, clear relief.
Conversely, for anything he chose not to focus on, surreal distortions appeared in his vision, like ice cream lting away.
On top of that, unlike Gaksinhwan, he could also feel physical changes taking place.
His bones, muscles, and every joint’s coordination were forcibly activated, improving his movents.
This state continued for quite so ti.
Since Gaksinhwan’s duration was ten seconds, he thought this would also end around then.
But even after a full minute had passed, the effects were still going.
They weren’t waning at all.
If anything, as he adapted to his changed body, he felt like he could draw out even greater efficiency than at the beginning.
“Stay focused until it’s over.”
Perhaps sensing that the shocked Kang-hoo was about to ask sothing, Celestial Assassin shook his head.
Kang-hoo then closed his eyes and fully surrendered himself to the depth of the effects provided by the dicine his master had given him.
Ti flowed on like that for a full five minutes.
Only after that much ti had passed did the drug’s effects fade, and Kang-hoo, wearing an incredulous expression, asked his master,
“What… is this?”
“It’s sothing I nad ‘Mua-je’. It ans it throws you into a state of mua-jigyeong, a state of no-self.”
“This is the first ti I’ve seen a dicine that keeps in a super-awakened state for this long with absolutely no backlash afterward.”
“Well, of course it should. I made the dicine myself—how could it possibly end up as so low-grade trash?”
There was full confidence in Celestial Assassin’s eyes as he thumped his chest. It was worth being that proud.
“Mua-je…”
“To be honest, I was surprised too. I thought anything over a minute would already be long, but five full minutes?”
“Is there a reason for that?”
“The more sensitive you are to mana, the stronger Mua-je’s effects beco. It’s like how soone sensitive to caffeine can’t sleep after a single cup of coffee.”
“Ah, so my innate problem is actually a strength when it cos to the drug’s effects.”
“In the end, yes. Since I’m sure there are no side effects, it’s effectively all upside.”
“…I still can’t really believe it.”
Even though the effects had worn off, his body felt refreshed, like he had just slept deeply and woken up.
It seed to act on his body as sothing far beyond a re stimulant.
Could it be that his congenital mana hyper-sensitivity—normally his biggest headache—was pulling its weight for once?
“Does this motivate you?”
“If this doesn’t motivate , then I’d just be a deadbeat with no drive.”
The effects of Mua-je were so dramatically good that his heart stirred just as Celestial Assassin had said.
“As long as we have the tongue and bile, it’s easy to make. Of course, getting those two things is the hardest part.”
“I have one portion of bile. I still haven’t used the one you made for before, Master.”
“I have plenty of bile, so that’s fine. Let’s try to find as many Gale-neck Trees as we can while we’re staying here.”
“Yes, Master.”
“And do sothing about those eyes. Even lovers don’t look at each other with eyes burning that intensely.”
Watching Kang-hoo’s eyes blaze with enthusiasm for making more Mua-je, Celestial Assassin waved his hand dismissively.
At the sa ti, he couldn’t help but think the effects were indeed astounding, worthy of that level of awe.
Because really— he had expected the awakening effect to last one minute at most, yet it had continued for five whole minutes. It was only natural that such ecstasy would be unforgettable.
‘A prodigy is a prodigy, for better or for worse.’
Celestial Assassin smiled.
His disciple was like a mutant whose congenital flaw had turned into an asset when it ca to the drug’s effects.
He had thought he had learned a lot about him up to now, but it felt like there were far more blanks left to fill in going forward.
‘If I can keep producing Mua-je—even if not in true mass production—then there’ll be no need to hoard Gaksinhwan anymore.’
Kang-hoo’s expectations were high.
He had no guarantee he could obtain more Gaksinhwan from Jeongmun Pharmaceuticals, so he had been using it with extre stinginess.
According to the original story, it would be comrcialized about a year later, but not everything followed the original flow.
That was why he had thought a backup plan was absolutely necessary, and his master had brought him an option that was more than a re alternative.
Mua-je.
He felt that, going forward, it might beco as much of a ga changer for his combat ability as Mad Solarkium had been.
And usually, premonitions like this didn’t turn out to be wrong. Kang-hoo was certain of it.
After that,
Kang-hoo stayed a bit longer with Celestial Assassin in the Hoeyang County area and pushed his level up to 385.
They hunted the Gale Ironwood, of course, and even took down the Swarm Queen that had co farther south than expected, so they secured plenty of materials.
The Mua-je they made on-site together ca to a total of seven, and Kang-hoo fully learned the production recipe.
Now, even without his master, he could make it anywhere as long as he had the ingredients.
If it were up to his heart, he would have loved to go past Hoeyang County and continue farther north, but he stopped.
The reason was that the ti had co when all of North Korean territory entered the “peak yin period.”
During this phase, monsters—including hybrids—didn’t just rampage; their very nature and environnt changed.
Hallucinations, illusions, hearing things that weren’t there, losing your sense of direction regardless of any of those, and ntal disruption—all of that beca commonplace.
Even Celestial Assassin didn’t operate during the peak yin period. There was no need to go looking for trouble for no reason.
Afterward, once he returned to the villa, Kang-hoo spent a full day with Celestial Assassin in intensive review and discussion.
Aside from the ti they spent eating and having a cup of tea, every mont was devoted to heated debate—ti well spent.
Reluctantly concluding this round of training, Kang-hoo decided he would return to North Korea during the upcoming “minimum yin period” instead.
According to Celestial Assassin, before that, a fourth round of training that would push him to his limits would take place.
Kang-hoo, for whom his master’s threats to brace himself were nothing new, just gave a slight nod.
Even on this North Korea trip, he had been doing absurd, unrealistic training every day—moving without touching the ground, not exposing himself to sunlight, and so on.
So it was only natural that he felt little stirrings from ordinary stimuli now. Unless he was under pressure to the point he might literally drop dead, it just didn’t move him.
Kang-hoo’s next destination was Busan.
Before setting out for Germany with Ayane on their second commission, it was a visit ant as a final tune-up.
Kim Shin-ryeong was away from her workshop for an enchantnt project, so he couldn’t get a gun from her.
But in Busan there was Kang Bok-hwa, and he figured he could get his hands on plenty of decent mana-shot rifles from her market as well.
When he happened to contact her, she was in the country too, so he chose that direction partly to take care of things and partly to see Jung Yuri’s face.
On the way down, Kang-hoo first stopped by Suwon and t Han Seung-hyeok of the Onnuri Guild to borrow a dungeon as he had in the past.
Since the Baltman Dungeon was optimized for learning “trick” skill books, it didn’t take long to learn Deadly Strike.
He stuffed Han Seung-hyeok with a thick wad of cash so he could ask him for favors again later.
Two billion won. It might have been a lot of money for him, but for Kang-hoo, it was pocket change—a cheap investnt.
From Suwon Station Bus Terminal, he boarded a safety bus and headed toward the Gyeongbu Expressway.
Sitting in the very back of the bus, Kang-hoo reclined his seat as far as it would go and watched the view outside the window.
Perhaps because the glass was a specially treated bulletproof window, even though it was clear, he could feel its heavy thickness.
With his earbuds in, Kang-hoo turned on a Huntergram channel that bundled and reported hunter-related news.
It was a mid-tier news outlet that maintained a neutral stance and wasn’t biased, so he had been listening to it for so ti now.
And just then—
Woooong!
Beyond the hill visible outside the window, a group of hunters ca into view.
From the illegally modified truck to the nurous bikes they were riding, they had all the hallmarks of a criminal gang.
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