Chapter 41

Chapter 15. Daedongyeojido, Part I

Translator: Khan

Editor: RED

1.

A vacant lot for a building, which had been full of silence for a while, was now filled with the atmosphere of a construction site.

“Get rid of this lump of flesh! It’s disturbing!”

“Need two more people here!”

“We need three people here! Hurry up!”

At the center of the atmosphere was the dead body of a giant snake.

The Black Snake, which had doled out fear and despair, was now paying for it.

People were clinging to it like ants, gnawing apart its body, little by little.

There were different ways.

“The chainsaw has stopped! Oil! Give me some oil!”

There were those who were cutting off its head using a heavy-duty chainsaw, and some people were digging out the flesh beneath its skin with pickaxes and shovels.

“Be careful, watch out for the forklift!”

There was also a crane driver removing the accumulated flesh with the crane which was in the construction site .

It was hard, of course.

“Oh, it’s harder than hard work on a construction site.”

“I’d rather do delivery service up and down. What kind of body…”

But still, it was full of vitality.

“But it’s better to be this tough.”

“I am in sweat after a long time, and it’s good to live now.”

They could see how precious it was to be able to do something hard while sweating.

“Mealtime, it’s mealtime!”

Oil was poured onto their burning energy.

“The menu is ramen, Rice Cake Ramen!”

A huge cauldron, found in a nearby restaurant, showed up with boiled rice cakes and instant ramen noodles, and saliva filled everyone’s mouths.

“Let’s eat and then work, let’s eat!”

Everyone stopped what they were doing for a while, and started enjoying the meal together. The breaths of those eating hot ramen rose from all over the vacant lot continuously.

It was a warm sight to see.

However, Jang Sung-hoon’s expression of the scene was not so positive.

“Brother, would you like a bowl?” Bang Hyun-wook asked Jang Sung-hoon, but there was no answer. Jang Sung-hoon looked at the body of the Black Snake being dissected, with a hard face.

“Brother Sung-hoon!”

“If you want to eat, you eat alone.”

“You’re not really going to eat, are you? Don’t ask me for some.”

Bang Hyun-wook ran away with those words to the line in front of the cauldron. Jang Sung-hoon, still watching the scene, once again stiffened his expression that had relaxed for a moment.

He looked at the body of the Black Snake with that hard face. At this moment, Jang Sung-hoon had one worry.

‘Where should we go?’

There was much to be done in the future.

Once we have made an item using the body of the Black Snake, made the Mac Clan into the Mac Guild, created Clans under the Mac Guild, and selected a representative of the public…

There were important things to do after that.

‘The first priority we face right now is to have a self-sufficient system: to secure land for farming. It is necessary to save more survivors because it requires a lot of labor. This winter will pass like a shot, just doing these things.’

‘The next problem is…’

‘If the words of Lee Jin-sung, the dead head of the Messiah, are true, there are stronger monsters than the Black Snake around Bucheon City. As we have seen, monsters are classified according to the color of their eyes. The lowest grade is red, the next grade is orange, and the above grade is yellow. The monsters are likely to be rated according to the seven colors that make up the rainbow.’

‘According to that grade, the Black Snake that covered Bucheon City in fear means the third weakest type of monster. It’s the third one down there.’

The dragon, which had appeared in Bucheon City for a while and just before the death of Kim Tae-hoon in the future, had dark-blue eyes.

‘He’ll never die if he steps on the yellow one, but if he steps on the green mine, it will be game over.’

Currently, the grade of monsters that Kim Tae-hoon could kill was the yellow-grade.

Even he barely killed it. If he met a monster with green eyes, he would inevitably die.

‘Even he just stays still, it will be game over, in the end.

‘However, we can not stay in Bucheon City forever. If we stay in Bucheon City, we will be attacked by monsters coming here someday. If we are trapped in Bucheon City, it is not much different then being a farm to a monster.’

‘We have to move.’

‘In the end, we have to move. To live, we must move on without stopping. But as said before, no one knows what threat is! It is like walking a minefield without any clues or information!’

“It’s a real fuck.” Jang Sung-hoon threw up curses at the situation.

If it was a difficult problem, he would be worried about finding the answer, but the problem he faced now was not a difficult problem.

No answer could be found, even if one was worried about it.

“Brother!” Bang Hyun-wook came up with a bowl and walked toward Jang Sung-hoon.

“I don’t want to eat,” Jang Sung-hoon said in a slightly irritated voice.

“Big brother is here.”

“What?” At the following words, Jang Sung-hoon had to make a surprised look. “Has he done it already?”

Jang Sung-hoon saw everyone, eating their delicious ramen noodles, rise from their seats and bow their heads.

It was the return of the king.

Kim Tae-hoon, appearing just like that, immediately walked over to Jang Sung-hoon and said, “I’ll start after a cup of coffee.”

2.

“Oh, my God.”

“No way, did he really do this alone?”

Two men, dressed like butchers, with plastic aprons, rubber gloves, and meat-carving tools, were briefly distracted by the sight in front of them.

It was the path of dead bodies spread out before them.

There were bodies lying on the road, not of humans but monsters; of not just one kind, but a variety of them!

What was more surprising was the condition of the bodies.

“The condition of the bodies…”

“Is this possible?”

They all had a hole in the head, or their heads were cut off.

The only choices given to the bodies were the two. Except them, nobody was found choosing another option.

If they had been a rag by the explosion of a bullet or a powerful bomb, there would have been no reason not to believe it.

So those who came to deal with the dead bodies, forgetting what they had to do, stared at the path of carcasses for a while.

Bang Hyun-wook was also present among them.

Bang Hyun-wook, who was on duty to protect people in case of attack by unknown monsters, looked silently at the scene created by Kim Tae-hoon.

“Tut.” He clicked his tongue briefly. ‘I can’t even be his right toe, let alone his right arm.’ After clicking his tongue briefly, he swallowed the complaint through his neck, and then his eyes sank briefly, with a mixed expression.

In the mind of such Bang Hyun-wook, the memory of December 31st came to mind.

He remembered when he responded directly to Kim Tae-hoon’s words, “If you want to live, just follow me.”

Since then, Bang Hyun-wook has thought that he was the only Awakener who could help Kim Tae-hoon.

He thought that he couldn’t replace Kim Tae-hoon, but he was the only one who could fill the place when Kim Tae-hoon disappeared.

‘What have I been doing?’

But now he knew that all his thoughts were nonsense.

‘In the meantime…’

Bang Hyun-wook looked at the back of his right hand, and some kinds of emotions began to shake intensely in his heart as he did so.

And that time there was another man whose emotions were fluctuating as intensely as his.

“Oh, my God.”

=========

3.

“Whale, how much did you eat?”

Looking at the outside image, it was a plain, detached house, a two-story house with a garden.

The inside of the house was filled with all sorts of artworks.

It was another world in the eyes of Jang Sung-hoon.

“I heard that the Whale had collected whatever he needed, but I didn’t know he had gathered this much. Looking at the level of the collection, I guess he was a kleptomaniac. He wouldn’t collect things like this unless he was interested in stealing them.”

Jang Sung-hoon, who was looking at the artwork on every side, had a bitter smile on his face.

“It’s funny to say this, but it’s no wonder that if the world, where these people lived in a grand style, collapsed, there was nothing wrong with it.”

His complaints stopped there. Jang Sung-hoon did not forget why he was here. He immediately took out his smartphone.

“It’s going to be a tiresome job to take photos one by one because there are so many.”

The only reason he came here was to find relics that would help them in the war with the monsters in the future.

That was all.

Kim Tae-hoon picked up a small bottle of liquor close to him, instead of answering Jang Sung-hoon.

He handed it over to Jang Sung-hoon. Jang Sung-hoon received it reflexively and cocked his head.

‘Why did Kim Tae-hoon suddenly give it to him?’

At the doubt, Kim Tae-hoon answered briefly, “It’s a relic.”

“Yes?”

Kim Tae-hoon began to look around instead of answering the question, with his black Eyes shining. The Eyes of Black Snake were in action.

The active Eyes of Black Snake turned the landscape of this place into another world, with a different meaning for Kim Tae-hoon.

With the Eyes of Kim Tae-hoon, he could see the relic. As soon as he looked at the relic, it was like he was wearing smart glasses, and could see its ability.

The same was true of the painting Kim Tae-hoon now saw.

It was just a beautiful woman painted during the Joseon Dynasty. There was no way of knowing whose painting it was. However, it was different in Kim Tae-hoon’s Eyes.

==[Blessed Portrait of a Beauty]

– Relic Grade: Grade 5

– Relic Value: Rare

– Relic Effect: It is possible to create a blessing in which the Strength of an object can be increased by consuming Mana.]==

The Eyes of Black Snake could see the hidden value of the Portrait of a Beauty.

In the meantime, Jang Sung-hoon took a picture of a small bottle of liquor that Kim gave to him by his smartphone and realized the situation.

“Can you see the value of the relics in the Boss’s Eyes?”

Instead of answering, Kim Tae-hoon looked around and pointed his finger at several items.

Jang Sung-hoon no longer asked questions. He took pictures of the pieces Kim Tae-hoon pointed at and carefully packed them.

The search for relics that was expected to take a long time progressed quickly.

Jang Sung-hoon’s turn came after taking the most visible relics right away.

“It can’t be all there is to see. I’m sure he has hidden the most valuable pieces all over the place. Of course, the most classic hiding place is the wardrobe.”

Jang Sung-hoon found places where the original owner of the house, Baek Sung-taek, had hidden other pieces, starting with the wardrobe, inside its thick door, as well as hidden in the flowerpot on the veranda. Among them, the jackpot was behind the wallpaper.

“Actual treasures are not hidden in the safe.” Jang Sung-hoon started tearing up the wallpaper, after searching all the places he could easily search.

A writing, which was quietly placed behind the wallpaper, appeared.

Dae Poong Moo Ae (大風無碍): it meant “There is nothing rough before the great wind.”

In front of the simple and clear writing, the name and seal of the owner of the writing were printed intact.

“… Oh, my God.”

Staring at the writing, Jang Sung-hoon had the most surprised look on his face.

“That’s ridiculous. This can’t be the original… How did a receiver of stolen goods get a piece of an unpublished work by Choosa…”

Choosa Kim Jung-hee.

It was the name with such a significant weight that Jang Sung-hoon had to look surprised.

On the other hand, Kim Tae-hoon was not surprised. He warned Jang Sung-hoon, “Take the writing and step back.”

“Yes? What are you saying…?”

‘Swish’, Kim Tae-hoon’s right hand turned black while he waved it back and forth, telling Jang Sung-hoon to back off.

Black Skin.

Kim Tae-hoon, displayed a power that dyed his right arm right to his shoulder, immediately began to press his power against the wall, not anything else.

Bang! With just one punch, the solid wall had a giant hole in it.

Splatter! The debris started to fall to the floor, and the things hidden inside the wall were revealed.

……………………………………………………….

Daedongyeojido (also Daedong Yeojido: 大東輿地圖, lit. “The Great Map of the East Land”) is a large-scale map of Korea produced by Joseon dynasty cartographer and geologist Kim Jeong-ho in 1861. A second edition was printed in 1864. One source describes it as the “oldest map in Korea”. Daedongyeojido is considered very advanced for its time and marks the zenith of pre-modern Korean cartography.