Deadly flower (1)

Yoo Jonghyuk frowned.

After losing track of Zhou Mingrui, he had discovered a hidden dungeon. However, the trials there were a bit special.

[Difficulty: A.]

[The hardest trial for you will be chosen.]

Unexpectedly, his 'trial' was to swallow worms and foods that looked even more disgusting one after the other.

For him who even refuses to eat others' cooking, it was really unbearable!

In the end, with a terrible nausea, Yoo Jonghyuk passed the trial and faced the master of this dungeon who had made him go through all this.

"A-Ah… Spare me…!"

The regressor with a stomachache was in a bad mood and coldly swung his sword at the old witch.

Enraged, the old witch pointed at him.

"Be damned! You heartless being, you will die because of the person dearest to you!"

The regressor didn't listen to her curse and killed her when he received an odd notification.

[You are cursed.]

He paused.

[You are affected by the Hanahaki disease.]

Xin Jian was covering her mouth in a mix of disbelief and amusement since Yoo Jonghyuk's trial had been shown before.

Xin Jian: What am I seeing??

Meanwhile, Zhou Mingrui confirmed that Yoo Jonghyuk wasn't chasing him anymore and breathed a sigh of relief.

He then followed his spiritual intuition and headed to the tunnel where the specters were located.

Xin Jian: Your spiritual intuition has a serious problem…

***

When he received a notification that he had failed the scenario to cross Dongho Bridge, Cale got out of his hiding spot.

The other two should already be far away.

He pushed the corpses in disgust and looked at the dried blood on his clothes with a frown on his face.

Finally, he got up and sat down on a nearby bench before waiting for the dokkaebi. He was already familiar with the procedure when one failed a scenario.

Soon after, a fluffy creature appeared next to him.

[Huh? There's another survivor? How unexpected… Let me check this problem.]

Cale looked at the dokkaebi touching the air, probably trying to figure out why his presence had been undetected by the system for a brief problem, before it turned toward him.

[Huh… So, about the scenario's compensation. Since you failed the scenario, I will take your life.]

As its eyes glowed red to add a more threatening effect, the crimson-haired teenager stared at the dokkaebi who was trying to scare him, unimpressed.

[Huh? You aren't scared?]

"…The failure for this scenario wasn't death, it means that I won't die just because I failed the scenario."

The creature laughed.

[Fine! Haha. How smart. Then, you have to pay me 1000 coins.]

Cale frowned. He didn't have 1000 coins.

He glanced at the sky but didn't receive any sponsorship from his constellation.

The teenager turned back toward the dokkaebi.

[What, you can't pay? Then I will have to kill y-]

"Kill me then."

[…What?]

The dokkaebi glared at Cale menacingly.

"I said, kill me then. I don't have 1000 coins."

[…]

The dokkaebi seemed mad.

[Fine, I can't kill you because the constellations would be angry, but you still have to pay me.]

Cale smiled devilishly. He now had the advantage in this conversation.

"Then lower the price. Since I don't have 1000 coins, you have to let me have to pay you less."

The dokkaebi frowned.

[900 coins.]

Cale spread his hands, he thought he understood a little why his constellation didn't sponsor him this time.

"You'll have to kill me then."

[…800 coins.]

"I have only 300 coins."

[700 coins.]

"It's impossible."

Bihyung glared at him.

[…500 coins then! I can't go any lower than that!]

Cale was silent for a moment.

[The constellation 'Believer in Mysteries' sponsors you 1000 coins.]

"Fine then."

Cale paid 500 coins to the dokkaebi who understood that it had been scammed.

He then went through the door that had been opened by Yoo Jonghyuk and saw the living corpses that were lying on the ground. The intact ones had fallen as if their strings were cut off, but the majority of them had been decapitated by Yoo Jonghyuk.

Cale thought about his future plans.

He had already shown his Shield, Wind and Fire Ancient Powers to Yoo Jonghyuk. He should try to not use his other Ancient Powers in front of the regressor just in case.

For now, he should also strengthen his Ancient Powers. To be able to kill the hunters, he had to get stronger.

Cale made his trademark scammer smile and didn't cross the bridge. Instead, he continued down the Han River to the nearest bank.

Even though it was now useless in this apocalypse, shouldn't the banks contain a lot of money?

[A few constellations are wondering what you are going to do.]

If he could hear the Cheapskate's voice now, the latter would surely have been very happy.

'Since the Ancient Powers are embedded in my soul, even if I die, they shouldn't be reverted to their original states.'

He confidently entered the nearest bank, the place completely empty.

'Which means that I can continue to get stronger while the hunters' strength will remain the same.'

In terms of skills, it meant that if he leveled up his Fire Ancient Power from level 1 to level 2 and regressed, his Fire Ancient Power would remain at level 2 instead of going back to level 1. Since they were a part of him, his Ancient Powers would regress with him, like how a part of them was able to travel to another world with him in the Sealed God's test.

[Some constellations are questioning your actions.]

Cale picked up the cash in the safes. Because of the current development of money, there were far less coins compared to the number of banknotes. However, he only needed coins.

After gathering the money, he came out to the edge of the Han River and burned the water until it was transformed into something nearly as hot as lava, then threw all the coins into the water while laughing maniacally.

[The constellation 'Secretive Plotter' asks if you finally became insane.]

"Haha, hahaha, hahahaha!"

Cale continued to laugh while feeling his Fire Ancient Power becoming stronger.

In the end, there were no coins left and the crimson-haired teenager calmed down.

He clenched his hand.

'I should now be able to kill that hunter.'

And if it wasn't enough, then he'd get stronger and come back again until he could finally beat him.

Suddenly, he received an indirect message from his constellation.

[The constellation 'Believer in Mysteries' suggests you to sell the remaining banknotes in the dokkaebi bag.]

[The constellation 'Believer in Mysteries' adds that even though it is useless now that there is an apocalypse, some people are still attached to this useless 'money' and would pay for it.]

Cale nodded.

After his constellation helped him open the dokkaebi bag, he sold a part of the banknotes at a low price each and planned to adjust the price for the remaining ones depending on the situation.

That way, he could earn a lot coins.

[The constellation 'Believer in Mysteries' says that you should hand over your coins to her the next time you're about to die.]

[The constellation 'Believer in Mysteries' tells you that she can give them back to you when you resurrect so that they don't disappear when time is turned back.]

Cale nodded. He then invested coins into his stats and continued to wander around in hope he could find a hunter to test his new strength on.

However, he didn't come across any hunters until night fell, but came across an unexpected sight.

There, people were dragging an unconscious child and talking among themselves.

"Is this really fine?"

"Yeah, this is a lawless world anyway, the police and the military wouldn't have time to care about this when everyone has already become criminals."

"How much do you think we can fetch for this kid?"

Cale frowned as the conversation continued.

He already had a rough grasp of the situation.

So early in the apocalypse, people were taking advantage of the absence of any form of authority that could punish them to commit illegal acts.

In other words, the concept of the 'coins farms' had begun not long after the end of the first main scenario.

Then, the red-haired teenager caught a glimpse of the child's face and paused in his tracks.

Had he ventured so far away from the train or did the first main scenario there happen much earlier for them?

The child also belonged to the orphanage. He had often tried to bully Xin Jian when she was reading alone, but Xin Jian ignored him most of the time.

If he saved him, he may be able to learn Xin Jian's current whereabouts, or at least clues about other people who survived in the orphanage and could lead them to her.

Cale approached the kidnappers, prepared to save the other.

"Hey, kid! What are you doing here?"

One of them smirked and stopped his companion.

"Wait, this one is quite pretty. We could fetch a good price."

The others agreed and laughed before holding their weapons.

"Come here, kid. We don't want to hurt you."

Cale stared at these bastards, unimpressed, and thought that they should seriously train their acting skills at least a little.

He didn't even know how the child on the ground was fooled. Did they gang up on him when he tried to run away?

Cale smiled eerily, giving chills to the ones who were watching him.

Then, thunderbolts came down from the sky in front of them.

"Stop here." He demanded.

A few stepped away in fear. However, the others, undeterred, ignored his warning and continued to advance.

Cale turned them to ashes with a wave of his hand, letting the others cowardly run away while begging for their lives. In a mere few seconds, he had gotten rid of the kidnappers.

Then, he turned to the child unconscious on the ground and clicked his tongue.