Chapter 14 – Otherworld’s Moon (4)

"Mmm. It's cooked well."

Hansoo stabbed at the meat with the kitchen knife that was almost completely dull and tasted it while chewing on it.

Meat from which the toxins were perfectly removed by being boiled with blood and having been mixed with the Green Worm's pancreas.

'There's a lot of juices coming out too.'

Hansoo spoke whilst eating leisurely:

"Most of the toxins within the goblin meat disappear if you boil it in goblin blood. Just don't eat the intestines or the liver."

But the weren't in a situation where they could focus on that.

The moonlight was accurately showing the mob of people charging at them.

Mihee gulped as she saw the people running at them from afar.

"Are you perhaps going to protect us when a fight breaks out between us and them?"

"Mmm. Perhaps if we're friends?"

Sangjin's expression became bright at those words.

Who else would be his friends other than them in this place?

He and Mihee had abandoned Taesoon and picked Hansoo!

But Mihee clenched her teeth at those words and spoke:

"…How do we become that friend?"

Hansoo laughed at those words.

"It's not like a driver's exam, why would there be a condition to become a friend. You might have become a friend suddenly at one point."

You don't become a friend who can trust each other and protect each other by fulfilling objectives.

You become a friend by protecting and trusting each other in every situation

'Just like those guys.'

Sangjin then realized his misconception from Hansoo's words and then spoke as his face reddened:

"…But then how do we deal with those guys?"

Hansoo shook his heads at those words.

"You should take care of yourself at least."

Sangjin was enraged by Hansoo's careless words.

"Damnit! Then why are we hanging around with you!"

But Hansoo only shrugged his shoulders.

"You should figure that answer out by yourself. The fact is that being with me is more dangerous."

"…"

Sangjin clenched his teeth at those words.

That was actually a fact.

They followed after Hansoo and fought down the dangerous train station.

If they didn't go with Hansoo and instead hung around the bigger crowd it would've been safer.

And Hansoo didn't have any notion of keeping them safe.

Sangjin watched the people running towards them from afar as he clenched his teeth.

Then he breathed in and out and started to walk over.

"I thought that we could go to the end together but you're just too much. I thought that you were my friend but you do not care for me."

Sangjin started to walk towards a direction after ending his speech.

And thought inwardly at the same time.

'But… I didn't do anything bad like that bitch Taesoon so if I come back after removing myself for a while he would probably take me back in.'

Hansoo laughed at Sangjin who was taking shelter in order to first dodge the terrifying storm.

'Seriously huh.'

Once they tie them together in school for a few years, the word friend seems to have gotten much more common.

Hansoo talked to Mihee as he looked at Sangjin who was leaving.

"Aren't you going too? That's the best solution if you want to be safe."

Mihee shook her head at those words.

"…You won't take me back in if I leave."

'She's really quick to catch on.'

Mihee clenched her teeth while Hansoo laughed inwardly.

'This isn't the situation to look for an umbrella to escape the rain.'

The other friend hadn't realized the essential truth yet.

They are instinctively looking for a safe place because of the dangerous situation.

And since Hansoo seemed safe they had stayed there.

But Hansoo didn't have the idea to protect them and they shouldn't be doing that anyways.

They should not be looking for safety here. They needed to grow.

They needed to rush their growth.

To deal with the strong predators that will flood them.

And it wasn't only beasts.

If you did not want to get eaten up by humans you needed to become stronger at a faster pace than others.

And Hansoo was talking very plainly.

He said he wouldn't protect them but did not speak of not learning from him.

Didn't he say it before?

He won't take them with him but he wouldn't mind them following.

'If they rely on something here… they will really die.'

Mihee came next to Hansoo, who was thinking, and started to cook the goblin meat after boiling the goblin blood.

'This is a gamble.'

She had too many things to learn.

And to do that she needed to follow and learn from Hansoo, who had psychic powers, and hunt along with him.

If she could survive today next to him then she had another day's worth of things she could learn.

'I don't know when an unexpected variable like that moon come out.'

Mihee, who had strengthened her resolve, started to sharpen the knife to deal with the ones coming towards them.

............

"Huff. Puff."

The four who had ran zealously finally ended near Hansoo.

Sunmi made a ridiculing expression as she saw the view in front of her.

'… Did he come to camp? And why is he using the pot separately.'

Sangjin was nowhere to be seen and only Mihee and Hansoo were left.

The two were boiling something in the pot and were chewing on that.

Sunmi clenched her teeth at this.

'These despicable guys. These two knew a way of  preserving the food.'

It's no wonder they had left in such a leisure.

These guys probably knew that all the food had burnt down to nothing.

Sunmi, who had been grinding her teeth, breathed in and out and then shook her head.

'No. This is better actually'

If he knows the method he only needed to share it.

'And we didn't do anything wrong like Taesoon right?'

Actually Taesoon being taken by them was a benefit.

That senseless guy was holding up his confidence even in a place like this.

If she was Hansoo she would not let someone who acted like Taesoon alone.

'Yeah. If you want to go through this harsh world you need a trustworthy friend.'

Her mind was much more at ease after deciding.

And once her mind was at ease, hunger was rising up.

'Damn. I just realized that I couldn't get to eat anything.'

She was in a situation of tension for the whole day along with the intense exercise that she didn't usually perform made her energy usage much more severe.

And it seemed like that the surrounding friends were in the same situation from their mouths watering from seeing the meat over there.

Sunmi spoke out after setting her mind.

"Huff. You were here. Could we eat together?"

Hansoo smirked and rose from his seat.

And held the needle as he drew a circle around the area 3m away from him.

Shiik. Shik.

"…What are you doing?"

"Don't come in."

"What? Are you seriously going be that petty?"

Sunmi spoke out from utter disbelief.

They weren't grade schoolers or something, to draw a circle because they bickered a little.

And they were simply bystanders.

And the main culprit wasn't even here.

But Hansoo didn't reply as he went back to his seat and started to chew as he continued his meal.

Sunmi spoke out after staring at Hansoo for a while:

"If I enter, what are you going to do?"

Hansoo replied softly.

"Oh I don't know. But from my psychic powers it seems that it won't be that good."

"… That bloody psychic powers shows such a thing too huh."

As Sunmi grinded her teeth, Hansoo just shrugged his shoulders.

"I know other things too. Like if you stay here it would be dangerous for you?"

As soon as Hansoo spoke the four quickly looked behind them.

They had forgotten momentarily from the security and distraction from the food in front of their eyes.

That they were being chased.

The mob was screaming in rage as they were running towards them.

"Look at those bitches! They are cooking by themselves."

"I know this would happen! Those bitches are the ones that went into the convenience store first!"

"You dare to trick us?"

And in front of the mob, there was a half beaten up Taesoon.

Jisun shouted in glee.

"Taesoon! You were saf‒"

"Shut up! You despicable bitch! You dare to leave me behind like that!"

Sunmi, Jisun and the others were startled at the enraged shouts that was resonating through the air.

They were indeed in a hurry but they did indeed leave a friend behind.

But Jisun rebutted in a hurry.

"No it isn't like that! Listen to me! We were going to come to Hansoo and ask for help!"

"This crazy bitch! You dare say that!"

Taesoon shouted as he grinded his teeth.

By that point he would have been badly beaten up.

If he didn't beg, and didn't say he would go under them then it wouldn't have ended this easily and he would've become minced meat.

'Fuck… to guys who are weaker than me…'

There's no strong against a number.

And that was the reason why he could not forgive them even more.

'These bitches. I wanted to be together.'

He could not forgive Hansoo, the four bitches and even Mihee who had betrayed him.

And for that he was willing to go through a little bit of humiliation.

Whilst Taesoon was looking over in rage, the shouts of the people were getting louder as well.

But at that point Giltae came out as he shouted.

"Woah. Woah. Calm down first everybody. The new guy should calm down too."

It was the words of one person but they were rather intimidated.

'He has controlled the mob rather well.'

Hansoo nodded at the guy who had spoke to him when he first left.

Since he came with a bunch of scruffy guys who treated him as the boss so controlling a mob wasn't that hard.

Since he didn't seem like a normal person.

Giltae smiled as he looked at Hansoo:

"It's good to see you again. A young person has such abilities. Where did you get the meat?"

Hansoo bobbed his chin at those words.

"Why are you looking for meat from me when there's meat everywhere"

Giltae looked around the corpses that had been stacked around him.

'…He ate that?'

Giltae hadn't already tried that out.

Since he ordered a few to try it out.

But that food was not something you could eat.

The toxicity was so strong that the ones who had eaten are still having diarrhea and were suffering from dehydration.

They will probably die. Since dehydration in a situation like this meant death.

But he was eating that in ignorance.

Giltae organized his thoughts and spoke:

"It seems that the younger brother knows the method of eating it."

At those words Hansoo nodded as he spoke so everyone could hear:

"If you boil it in goblin blood you can eat it. Go and try it."

A simple intel such as this wouldn't hasten the process of the invasion of the Abyss.

Giltae pondered inwardly as he looked at Hansoo.

'Did they say this bitch had psychic powers…'

As they approached here, that Taesoon guy had babbled everything out.

That the guy called Hansoo seemed to have psychic powers.

And thanks to that they had all gotten stronger faster and attained the food from the store.

'And he obtained something valuable in there right?'

Giltae made his decisions quickly.

He didn't know what would happen the next day when the distance between them is spread apart further.

And even though he had established a large group but most of them were normal people so they were hard to utilize in a fight.

'If we're going to fight then today's the day.'

He had no intention to kill.

Why would he kill somebody with psychic powers.

And no matter if he flew about he was only a normal person around twenty years of age.

If he receives some beating and some knife cuts he will be in trauma and become submissive.

And then he can suck out his bone marrow.

'The fact that he's in such a leisure is a bit troubling but…'

But he could figure that out and that would be that.

Giltae, who had made his decision, gave a wink.

"The new guy should go over and take a bite. Talk a little too. I heard you guys were friend. If you are friends that he should at least give you a bit of meat right?"

Taesoon,who was grinding his teeth, started to walk over proudly.

'If you indeed have some hidden motives then you shouldn't be able to act recklessly in front of this crowd.'

Taesoon took large steps as he headed towards Hansoo's pot.

And Hansoo, who was watching this, chuckled.

'I'm sorry that I couldn't keep it even for a day, this seems like the end of it Eres.'

From the way these guys were acting, it seemed like Eres' will would be hard to keep.

Since he was closer to Keldian anyway.

There was a reason why he was closer to him.

Mihee, who was watching Taesoon walk over towards the circle Hansoo had drawn, suddenly felt a chill spike up from behind her.

Hansoo's expression was changing at a rapid rate.

Well, to be more accurate he was still smiling but the expression was turning scarier as his eyes were changing.

Deeper and at the same time, colder.

And Mihee knew instinctively when she saw this.

He wasn't angry.

This was his true nature.

He had simply been holding down on it until now for some reason.

She then realized that no matter how selfish Taesoon and the others acted in front of Hansoo they had never blocked his way or disturbed him in any way.

And Mihee, who had thought up to that point, urgently responded.

"NO! Don't come in! Don't cross that line!"

But then Taesoon grinded his teeth as he shouted:

"You just wait right there."

And then Taesoon recklessly crossed the line.