Chapter 183: By the Hand of the Insect 1
"Whiiiiiiiine!!!"
It wasn’t like Yane was in pain just because she had eaten her own tail.
In fact, Yane’s body, following Shia’s, had an incredible resilience—enough that even if her head were severed, she could reattach it and fully recover.
Naturally, eating her tail didn’t mean it wouldn’t grow back; it would only take a few minutes at most.
A body that wouldn’t die easily, even if it wished to. That was the essence of being the Saintess of the Dead’s familiar.
Well, it was only natural that Yane, unaware of such details, would burst into tears.
Yane’s body, which had ascended, was close to perfection, but mentally, she was far younger—probably even less developed than a preschooler.
Babies cry for many reasons.
Sometimes because a puppy used them as a pillow, or because they hated holding hands while walking home, or because an adult opened a door for them when they wanted to open it themselves.
Some children even sob because they lost a receipt from the gas station, or because they received a new hat as a gift.
Simply put, it’s unpredictable.
"Heee... whiiiine..."
After crying for a long time, Yane finally stopped.
Of course, traces of sadness still lingered, making her throat feel heavy, but Yane’s centipede tail had fully healed, swaying around as usual, without any lingering pain.
"...Et... Drone..."
After pulling herself together, Yane noticed the numerous chat windows disappearing from her view.
The viewers, entertained and charmed by Yane’s wailing at first, would likely not stay amused if the crying continued for dozens of minutes or over an hour.
Humans tend to pick faults in every little thing. There were countless malicious netizens eager to take digs at the streamer or create rumors while Yane cried.
Therefore, Hunter AI Drone had analyzed the chat and various other big data sources, concluding that it was unnecessary to continue broadcasting Yane’s extended crying live.
So, around five minutes after Yane started wailing, it had made the decision to end the stream on its own.
In sitcoms, movies, or media in general, light-hearted crying often served as a humorous element to wrap up episodes, so the AI’s judgment was actually quite reasonable.
"Eek..."
Although she’d felt good while eating, Yane now wore a slightly gloomy expression, tidying up her surroundings once the broadcast had ended.
Though she didn’t fully understand the concept of cleaning, she remembered that every time Shia ended a broadcast, she’d complain, "Ugh! I hate cleaning!" and then pack up the cooking oil, dishes, seasonings, and such to put them in the transport drone.
‘So annoying...’
Already, Yane was quickly learning the concept of annoyance.
If Shia were to hear that Yane had left cooking oil or a large fryer behind in the dungeon, she’d likely pinch Yane’s plump thighs or tug at her cheeks until they stretched, so Yane needed to restore the inside of the transport drone to its original state.
But...
[Oh, little child with two feet upon the earth.]
Suddenly, Lirisia’s voice called out to Yane...
[Come here. Your feast is prepared...]
"Whine!" (No! No! I’m busy!)
[Huh?]
Maybe it was due to the painful memory of responding to Lirisia’s previous call, only to be made to clean up dungeon cabbages, but Yane flatly rejected her request.
The idea of a fake master ordering her around, instead of her true master, was irksome enough as it was. And besides, she wouldn’t even help with the cleaning!
Anyway, Yane, instinctively avoiding danger, finished tidying up and exited the dungeon.
Had she been more familiar with the path, she could have found her way out using her feelers, scent, or sense of sound, but Kuma Kingdom’s dungeon was filled with a hallucinogenic cherry blossom fragrance that dulled the senses. Although it wasn’t potent enough to entirely numb her senses, it did interfere with her usual tracking methods, so she had to rely on the path indicated by the AI drone.
Though unintentional, Yane had managed to make her official debut (of sorts) in an unfiltered live broadcast.
For the viewers, Yane’s massive body and formidable strength alone would’ve been enough to capture their attention, but her kindergarten-like innocence and naivety likely came through strongly as well. Ending with her accidentally frying her own tail and crying about it was probably an amusing enough conclusion for the viewers to enjoy.
"Whine..."
By the time she exited the dungeon, the sky had dimmed to dusk.
As night fell, a few Hunter parties were entering the Kuma Kingdom dungeon and passed by Yane, briefly giving her dazzling appearance a glance, but they didn’t make any further contact, likely because they were preoccupied with their own matters.
Although there were people around, Yane’s head drooped with a forlorn feeling, as if left alone in the world, and she climbed into the large transport drone.
"Hey!"
"Huh?"
At that moment, a Hunter Association agent in a suit, who was managing the Kuma Kingdom dungeon gate, came running toward Yane.
"Excuse me! Hunters aren’t allowed to ride on the large transport drones."
"...Huh?"
"...I see you’re a mutant-type awakener. Do you find speaking difficult?"
As Yane tilted her head, the agent seemed to realize she could understand to some extent.
"No matter the case, large transport drones are for transporting goods. Hunters are not permitted to ride on them."
"...Eek..."
"Even if you make that face, it won’t work. You’re fine on your feet, so you should walk."
Eek...
Though she didn’t fully understand the reason, Yane lowered her head and reluctantly got off the transport drone at the agent’s insistence.
She had thoroughly enjoyed sitting like a toasted loaf of bread in the wind, but now, deprived of that joy, sorrow swept over her.
In the end, Yane started trudging along, accompanied only by a large transport drone that couldn’t understand her language, and an AI Hunter assistant drone she still hadn’t fully figured out how to use.
"Eeeeeek... so, lonely..."
It had been bearable with the viewers, but now that she was alone, loneliness crept up again.
Neither the transport drone nor the Hunter drone could fill this loneliness.
What she needed was Yoon-jung.
For Yane, it was Yoon-jung she needed.
Even more so than her master Shia, Yoon-jung took much better care of Yane.
Due to a series of misunderstandings that had piled up, Yoon-jung treated Yane almost like a granddaughter… well, to be precise, as though Shia had given birth to Yane, and Yoon-jung saw her as her grandchild.
This misconception stemmed from Yoon-jung overhearing some of Shia’s remarks that could easily lead to misunderstandings and deciding, "Shia must have parts of her past she’d rather not reveal… Let’s not pry." So, she refrained from asking Shia about the details.
As a result, Yoon-jung would feed Yane, brush her hair, shop with her when Shia wasn’t around, and even take her to Korean language classes—taking care of Yane with the utmost dedication.
Naturally, Yane had developed a strong attachment to Yoon-jung and showed signs of mild dependency.
In fact, one of the first words Yane learned at the Korean language academy was Yoon-jung’s name.
She might not be able to write much else, but she could write her own name, Shia’s, and Yoon-jung’s in Hangul perfectly.
"Eek... Yoon... jung..."
From then on, whenever Yane felt lonely or bored, she would seek out Yoon-jung, and seeing the sun setting reminded her that she needed to fill her daily dose of Yoon-jung.
With that thought, Yane climbed up a tall building without making a sound.
The concrete structures and the spells and barriers of the city interfered with Yane’s senses, so she climbed high to spread her senses and try to locate Yoon-jung’s presence, smell, aura, or sound, which were imprinted in her body.
"..Eek..."
Ziiing...
Yane’s antennae trembled and, at some point, pointed in one direction.
She had found Yoon-jung.
Detecting Yoon-jung’s presence, Yane’s eyes sparkled, and a smile spread across her face.
Just the thought of meeting Yoon-jung lifted her spirits.
Leaping between buildings and scaling walls like parkour, Yane’s excitement over meeting Yoon-jung made her oblivious to the drones following her, prompting her to unleash her full speed.
The drones would follow her route, but the large transport drone was generally slow, and the Hunter assistant drone, when outside the dungeon, had an automatic speed limit, so it could only follow Yane at a slower pace.
And then, a short while later, Yane witnessed an unpleasant sight.
"Hey, Yoon-jung, how long has it been..."
"Eek?"
Clinging to the wall, Yane could see someone reaching out to Yoon-jung.
Strangely, the moment she saw the man, who was unfamiliar to her, a strong sense of discomfort surged within Yane.
Why?
It had been fine with Menelapie and others…
But the moment that man touched Yoon-jung, something dark, unpleasant, and sticky seemed to stir inside her.
That unpleasant feeling was emanating from the man
, and Yane frowned at the fact that such an icky thing was touching Yoon-jung.
"I'm so happy to see you that I could cry. Aren't you?"
"What are you doing here, all of a sudden..."
"Suddenly? We didn’t have such a distant relationship, did we, Yoon-jung?"
Who is he? What is he doing?
What’s he doing to Mama Yoon-jung?
Get your hand off her.
Don’t speak.
Disgusting.
Annoying.
Eek...
But Yane’s mind was still that of a child.
No matter how much she felt the unpleasant thing drawing near Yoon-jung, she had no thought of taking action herself and had no idea what to do.
What to do. What to do. What to do. What to do...
Eek...
[Seems like you have a lot on your mind.]
At that moment, Yane lifted her head at the familiar voice that resonated in her mind.
Could it be that Shia had somehow sensed Yane’s distress and discomfort?
[I have a pretty good idea of the situation.]
It wasn’t her imagination.
The powerful emotions and fervent plea from Yane, Shia’s familiar, had become a prayer that reached her.
[Just in time, I finished brewing the third batch of hangover cure.]
Hangover cure?
What’s that?
Is it tasty?
[The hangover cure can wait. Instead, let me give you this today.]
What is it?
[Don’t worry. It’ll suit you well.]
Something connected across the bond between master and familiar.
Yane sensed something like a dark red stone approaching her body.
[No. Problem. At all.]
There was no problem.
Trusting her master’s words, Yane let her body relax.
It felt ominous and dark, but strangely, she didn’t sense any danger.
No, it truly wasn’t dangerous.
On the contrary… it felt rather pleasant.
○○○○○
Crunch!
After crushing the unpleasant man’s head within seconds, Yane couldn’t hide her slight guilt.
She felt she’d shown too violent a side of herself in front of Mama Yoon-jung.
Though Yane could be mischievous at times, she felt she should never act like that in front of Yoon-jung.
“Ya...ne…?”
Yoon-jung mumbled, as if unable to believe what she was seeing.
Yane had always been big-bodied compared to her youthful mind.
But now, the sight of her tearing a person’s head off like it was a toy and licking the blood from her sharp claws felt intensely out of place.
It looked like Yane, yet didn’t feel like Yane.
The Yane Yoon-jung knew had never been so brutal, nor did she wear such a seductive, almost depraved expression.
And the strange gem embedded in her chest only made her appearance seem even more foreign.
“Kiheeing~”
Then, when Yane’s gaze met Yoon-jung’s, she smiled brightly, like an innocent child. That smile and her pure, purple eyes were unmistakably Yane’s.
Yoon-jung strengthened her resolve.
Yes, that bastard deserved to die.
“Hehehe... eek…”
Not sensing any hostility from Yoon-jung, Yane happily turned her head, her eyes beginning to glint eerily.
A sinister violet light, as if infused with deadly poison, began to glow throughout her body, and a faint trail of venom dripped from her lips as she grinned.
Although she didn’t seem intent on killing, the subtle hostility emanating from Yane was enough to make even hardened guild members tense up.
“......”
Jeong-baek, the captain of the Myungwoon Corps dispatched from the Mountain Guild, clenched his fist at the sight.
As the leader of the corps within the world’s largest guild, Mountain Guild, he was an awakened swordmaster of A-rank with strong skills in aura usage and combat sense.
Jeong-baek knew that within the same rank, combat power could vary greatly based on experience and skill proficiency, and he was considered among the top tier of A-rank awakeners.
Although his orders from his master had been to secure Yoon-jung, he wasn’t foolish nor lacking in strength; he aimed to make the most rational and fitting decision based on the situation.
‘She appears to be a mutant-type awakener... but her energy feels unusual. Mana? Spirit power? Aura? It doesn’t seem to belong to any known system. Rank... there’s not enough information to tell. She doesn’t seem to be registered as a Hunter... For her to kill a guild leader from the Sanwoomul Guild in an instant and stand before me suggests an A-rank at minimum.’
“Captain Jeong-baek, should we kill her?”
“Quiet, and stand back.”
“But...”
“Do not make me repeat myself.”
“Yes, sir!”
Jeong-baek ordered the members who were preparing to engage to step back and sighed.
‘Initially, we hadn’t planned to use force to bring the Target in... but things have gotten complicated. I should have never assigned this to that bastard from the Sanwoomul Guild... Sigh.’
Glaring at the corpse of the former Sanwoomul Guild leader whose head had exploded, Jeong-baek drew his sword.
Even though that man had been expendable trash, his crude nature had made what should have been a simple task needlessly complicated.
“Hey. Don’t you think there’s no need to fight here?”
“Eek...?”
Yane tilted her head at his words.
He had drawn his sword, so why was he talking nonsense?
“We came here from the Mountain Guild to recruit Park Yoon-jung. We had no intention of resorting to violence or kidnapping.”
“...........”
However, Jeong-baek tried to demonstrate his harmless intentions by planting his sword in the ground and slowly walking toward Yane.
Seeing him discard the dangerous weapon, Yane tilted her head to the other side.
Since he had discarded his sword, it appeared he didn’t intend to fight, so Yane refrained from attacking.
“Park Yoon-jung, I’ll ask once more. Our Mountain Guild formally seeks to recruit you.”
Standing in front of Yoon-jung as if to protect her, Yane blocked Jeong-baek’s approach.
“We are willing to offer you the best treatment and support within our Mountain Guild, granting anything you desire...”
“Do I look like a pushover to you?”
“.......”
Despite his gentlemanly tone, Yoon-jung’s response was cold.
“You just stood by while that perverted bastard was dragging me away by force. Now that a fight’s about to break out, you change your stance and suddenly want to recruit me formally? If you had spoken kindly from the beginning, maybe I’d have considered it.”
“..........sigh.”
Jeong-baek could feel how badly the situation had twisted.
Initially, the plan was to bring the Target to the Mountain Guild through mutual agreement.
That approach would have been most beneficial for both the Target and the guild.
But an easy, careless thought of ending the task quickly, even if it required force, had ruined everything.
And now things had indeed... become rather messy.
‘Come to think of it, Wang Soyeong and Bai Weishen went missing in Korea for unknown reasons, and ultimately, we didn’t manage to bring in the Target either... I should have expected complications.’
When things go wrong, only one option remains.
“Sigh, people have one common misconception.”
“Eek?”
Then, Jeong-baek pointed his finger directly at Yane in front of him.
“People believe that the weapon of a sword-wielding awakener is always their sword. Without it, they think our combat power drastically diminishes, aside from physical strength.”
Bang!
“...!”
At that moment, a mass of aura shot out from Jeong-baek’s fingertip faster than a bullet.
Although Jeong-baek primarily wielded a sword, his true ability lay in unleashing aura through his body and sword energy. If he could release sword energy, naturally, he could also condense and fire aura with his bare hands.
It had been a moment when Yane had unwittingly allowed Jeong-baek the opportunity to strike first as she approached.
In the slowed time, Yane’s eyes widened, and Yoon-jung, too shocked to respond, was left in disbelief.
An aura shot like that, if unprepared, would prove fatal even for an S-rank Hunter.
Thud!
With a dull impact, Yane’s head was pierced by the aura mass, and from the close-range blast, her body slowly tilted backward.
“Yane!”
However, the worst of what Yoon-jung imagined did not happen.
“Kihi...ehehe…”
With a twisted movement, Yane, whose waist had bent backward, straightened her upper body again, and Jeong-baek’s eyebrow twitched at her unexpected resilience.
Yane’s forehead had indeed fractured, like broken glass, from the impact of the aura mass, but those cracks were gradually healing.
‘That hurt...’
Before Yoon-jung could fully process her relief, Jeong-baek shrugged nonchalantly.
“I thought one shot would be enough. She’s tougher than expected.”
Clink!
As Jeong-baek spread his hand, the sword planted in the ground responded to his aura and flew into his grip.
It was a blade crafted from dungeon minerals that retained memory of its wielder.
“Well, no matter. I’ll subdue both of you and take you away. Prepare for combat, everyone.”
“Yes, sir!”
With that command, the nearby members assumed combat positions.
Though Yoon-jung felt tense, Yane calmly scanned her surroundings and briefly closed her eyes.
Yane kept her eyes closed for three seconds.
What should I do, Master?
They attacked first.
They touched me and Yoon-jung.
They’re bad people.
I’m sure they’re bad people.
What should I do?
Hmm?
[Kill them. All of them.]
Really?
[Without leaving a trace.]
Got it.
Her master’s emotions flowed into her.
Shia’s desire to tear apart those who had dared to touch Yoon-jung seeped into Yane’s heart.
Good.
Good.
I like this, too!
“Kieeee~”
With her master’s permission, Yane’s lips curled into a grotesque smile.
The violet venom-like light etched on Yane’s body surged in intensity as she clenched her fists, focusing on Jeong-baek and his men surrounding her.
[Celestial Dragon’s Miracle]
Crunch!
A dark, venomous energy gathered swiftly in Yane’s hands.
In that moment, she almost looked like her master.
[Annihilate Innards]
And as soon as Yane clenched her fist, a filthy, viscous, dreadful aura exploded outwards in every direction.
Boom!