The Buffs I Raised Are Too Strong - Chapter 14
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Episode 14.
[This just in. Yesterday at approximately 3 p.m., a terror attack by an Awakener occurred at OOO Mart.]
[The perpetrator’s name is Kim Wi-gang.]
[Originally a member of the Slasher Guild, he was expelled from the guild around November of last year……]
Click―.
The TV switched off.
And with it went the news I’d been watching with some interest.
“……I said, TV?”
“No. It’ll give you trauma.”
“But I’m fine, I’m telling you?”
Either way, no.”
Scritch-scritch―.
With the TV off, the hospital room fell quiet except for the soft sound of an apple being peeled.
“Here, eat.”
“Mm…….”
Before it reached my mouth.
I caught sight of the apple slice, sculpted into a neat little rabbit shape.
‘For someone whose trade is with a blade, she sure does peel apples well.’
Crunch― munch-munch.
“Mm…… this is suffocating.”
The Baek-ryeon Guild’s private emergency room.
A VIP room, no less.
With not a scratch on me, I’d been confined here by force — by Guild Master Baek Yul-heon and my sister both.
“Confined? And who told you that you’re fine? You were standing in the middle of a burning building. If you weren’t an Awakener, you’d be dead from smoke inhalation by now!”
“Hmm…….”
True enough — I did inhale quite a bit of smoke while searching everywhere for an exit.
My sister, still seething even as she spoke, suddenly hurled the knife she’d been holding.
“Dammit! If I see that bastard outside, he’s dead!”
Ting―! Tung―! Tang―!
Thunk.
“……Eek.”
The knife, ricocheting through the air like a boomerang, came flying back and embedded itself in the blanket at my head.
“Tsk.”
She calmly pulled the knife free from the blanket and resumed slicing the apple.
‘……If I stay here much longer, it won’t be the injuries that kill me — it’ll be my sister.’
I was heaving a sigh of self-pity when.
Someone opened the door and stepped inside.
“Ah, So-hyun. You’re here?”
“……You’re late.”
“Uh, oh? Ah…… I’m sorry.”
Her voice had gone cold.
Baek Yul-heon approached me cautiously and whispered.
“……Is something wrong?”
“The news about the mart terror attack was on TV a moment ago. When the perpetrator’s face came up, she went berserk.”
“……I see.”
Ahem.
Baek Yul-heon gave a small cough and broke into an affable smile.
“How are you feeling, So-hyuk? Any trouble with your body?”
“Well…… aside from breathing in some smoke, they say there’s no problem.”
“That’s a relief!”
“Actually, I feel fine. I’m just stuck here because of my sister.”
Sting―.
I instinctively glanced away from that sharp stare.
“No, no! According to what Chae-rin said, you two even faced him directly. The fact that this ended as well as it did is nothing short of miraculous.”
“Mm…… I guess it is…….”
“Ha! Hyun Chae-rin?”
The moment Baek Yul-heon mentioned Hyun Chae-rin.
My sister expressed her irritation with a sharp tone.
“Why is it that she clams up the moment I ask her something?”
“……Because she probably figures that whatever she says, she’ll look bad?”
“What?”
“No, I didn’t…….”
‘At least ask more gently when you’re going to interrogate someone like that.’
He was pressing for details as if conducting an actual interrogation.
There wasn’t much incentive to answer.
Baek Yul-heon laughed heartily.
“Ha ha! Still, thanks to Chae-rin, we didn’t have a single casualty.”
“Well…… she did do well.”
“The Bureau people will probably back off a bit because of this. You did great work, So-hyuk!”
“Ha ha…… I didn’t really do anything.”
The OOO Mart terror incident.
Officially, it was Hyun Chae-rin who brought down the culprit, Kim Wi-gang.
It worked perfectly—both to conceal my identity
and to elevate the Baek-ryeon Guild’s standing.
A criminal apprehended by Hyun Chae-rin’s dramatic arrival!
That narrative was simply too effective.
‘She threw a fit when I first suggested it, but…….’
Hyun Chae-rin was clearly a perfectionist.
She seemed to despise being misunderstood about work she hadn’t actually done.
‘She still insists that she’s the one who captured the criminal…….’
In the end, I spent dozens of minutes laying out all the advantages it would bring the Baek-ryeon Guild
before she reluctantly nodded along.
I’d coordinated the story with the guild leader and my sister, confirming that Chae-rin had apprehended the suspect.
“Turn on the news. By now Chae-rin should be doing her interview.”
“……I’ll put it on.”
“Good.”
Click.
The barren hospital room suddenly filled with the sound of the television.
“Oh, there she is.”
Unlike the costume-like black outfit she’d worn at the mart,
Hyun Chae-rin was dressed in casual everyday clothes.
‘From this angle, she just looks like an ordinary college student.’
A far cry from how she’d appeared at the mart.
The news headline read:
‘The 15-Minute Miracle. Zero Casualties Despite the Threat of a Deranged Awakener.’
“Wow, she’s pretty, Chae-rin!
“But her expression…….”
“Hmm, well…….”
Baek Yul-heon cheered enthusiastically,
but both my sister and I could sense it.
‘She’s in a bad mood right now.’
“Sister…… that smile…….”
“……Yeah.”
A completely artificial smile.
If you weren’t looking carefully, you’d miss it,
but the veins above her forehead were visibly tense.
“Why is she acting like that? She caught the criminal and she’s doing an interview—shouldn’t she be happy?”
“……I guess so.”
The two beside me might not understand it,
but I could make a decent guess.
‘She can probably tolerate the official statement, but doing an interview about something she didn’t actually do—that has to leave a bad taste in her mouth.’
Quite an unusual temperament.
That’s what I thought.
―Well then, next question! How were you able to arrive at the scene so quickly, and what method did you use to apprehend the criminal? I’m so curious!
―……How did I catch him?
Until just moments ago we’d been talking about Hyun Chae-rin,
but now I found myself absorbed in the broadcast.
Hyun Chae-rin paused thoughtfully at the reporter’s question.
―……Heh.
She answered with a playful laugh.
―I received a lot of help from an ordinary person at the mart. Truthfully, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that person did about 90% of the work.
―My, how modest! I’m really curious who that ordinary person was?
―Haha, I’d love to meet them again if I ever get the chance.
“Cough, cough……! Hack, hack.”
“So, So-hyuk! Are you okay!? Is it the smoke? Is your chest hurting?”
“So-hyuk! Call a nurse! Get a nurse!”
‘I just choked on something…….’
It seemed the misunderstanding wouldn’t clear up easily.
* * *
‘Glad So-hyuk seems fine.’
Leaving Jeong So-hyun and Jeong So-hyuk in the hospital room.
Baek Yul-heon excused himself, citing business.
His expression turned cold in an instant.
“Yeah, it’s me. The results are in?”
―Yes. You can verify everything as soon as you arrive.
“I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”
The car door slammed shut.
Baek Yul-heon got into the vehicle.
Yu Secretary, seated in the driver’s seat, handed him a coffee.
“Not for me. You drink it and stay awake.”
“I’ll have it ready for you on the way back.”
With no further words exchanged.
The car pulled away.
“……Yu Secretary, take it easy on the accelerator, would you?”
“I’m driving carefully.”
The engine roared―whoosh.
Tires screeched―Screeeech!!
Yu Secretary wove through surrounding traffic as if enjoying an F1 race.
The remarkable thing was that the coffee in the front seat didn’t even ripple.
Baek Yul-heon arrived ten minutes ahead of the expected thirty-minute estimate.
“……Yu Secretary. Next time, just get here on time…….”
“I’ll go on ahead.”
The car drove off.
Baek Yul-heon sighed, watching the vehicle disappear.
Then, composing himself quickly, he turned his gaze toward the building before him.
‘Seoul Special Awakener Detention Center.’
Ever since towers and Awakeners began appearing all over the world.
Crime committed by Awakeners naturally increased exponentially.
Each time such incidents occurred.
The Awakener Management Bureau was added.
A specialized agency for handling Awakener-related incidents.
And then the Special Awakener Detention Center.
As Awakeners grew stronger by the day.
The nation had no choice but to respond swiftly.
Especially this Special Awakener Detention Center, most recently established.
Since this facility’s opening.
Awakener-related crimes and terrorism targeting ordinary citizens had plummeted exponentially.
‘Why, you ask?’
One would soon find out.
“I am Baek Yul-heon, Guild Master of the Baek-ryeon Guild.”
He raised both hands behind his head.
And approached slowly.
Instantly, Awakener-response weaponry locked onto him.
―Please wait a moment.
As if scanning something.
Several green lasers swept across Baek Yul-heon’s body.
―Clearance confirmed. You may proceed.
All systems―whoosh.
Every system that had been targeting Baek Yul-heon shut down.
‘I’m telling you, my heart stops every time I come here.’
It’s a facility designed to detain Awakeners.
Security of this caliber is considered essential.
This place is even a B-rank Awakener-exclusive detention center.
The higher-tier facilities are on Ulleung Island, Jeju Island, and the like.
They’re built on islands with no land connection.
“You came quickly!”
“Let’s get inside. This is killing me.”
He stepped into the building.
Baek Yul-heon’s younger brother greeted him at once.
“Is everything ready?”
“Yes. I’ve obtained authorization and secured everything from anesthesia to emergency restraint systems. There’s nothing to worry about.”
“Good. Well done.”
Kim Yu-geon walked ahead of Baek Yul-heon and opened the door.
“Go right in.”
“…All right.”
He entered the chamber.
What greeted him was an enormous glass partition.
The room looked like an operating theater.
“Will you be wearing protective gear?”
“No need. You said he’s anesthetized.”
“Well, just to be safe.”
Kim Yu-geon donned the protective equipment hanging on the wall, piece by piece.
Baek Yul-heon pressed himself against the glass partition, peering inside.
‘…So it’s him.’
The figure visible through the glass was
none other than Kim Wi-gang.
The perpetrator of the OOO Mart terror incident.
“Ready.”
“I’m going in first.”
Hiss!
White vapor leaked from the sliding door like something out of a movie.
The door slid open.
“Wow… It really is spacious.”
…
Baek Yul-heon looked down at Kim Wi-gang lying sedated.
There was only one reason he’d come here.
Kim Yu-geon, who worked at this facility, had said something strange to him.
“You’re sure about what you told me before?”
“After coming all this way, just look for yourself.”
Thump-thump.
Baek Yul-heon clutched his trembling chest as he approached Kim Wi-gang.
Whether from the anesthesia
or for some other reason, the man’s face was covered with white cloth.
‘Looks like a corpse.’
Slowly—
he carefully peeled away the cloth.
“…!”
Flutter—
The cloth Baek Yul-heon had released drifted through the air before settling at his feet.
His hand trembled where he’d dropped it.
Since Baek Yul-heon couldn’t find words,
Kim Yu-geon began his explanation.
“Hyun Chae-rin’s primary weapons are her legs and a short sword. With her signature acceleration ability, she cuts down her opponents before they can even react.”
…
“Looking at the surface, Kim Wi-gang has only one notable external injury—a severe twist to the jaw from a powerful blow.”
…
“As for the short sword, there’s not a single slash mark. We thought maybe the wounds came from her legs, but wait—the autopsy shows the damage came from fists?”
…
“Conclusion: it wasn’t Hyun Chae-rin who captured this man.”
Baek Yul-heon muttered under his breath.
“……That’s not what I want to hear.”
“Ah! My apologies! There was something more important I’d forgotten.”
Trudge, trudge.
Kim Yu-geon approached Kim Wi-gang rapidly.
And then.
“Tap.”
He tilted Kim Wi-gang’s chin upward.
“…….”
“Isn’t this a familiar wound?”
Beneath Kim Wi-gang’s chin lay.
A jagged scar and charred blackening as if from electrocution.
“I’ve spent years with him—I know it the moment I see it.”
“……Yeah, looks like it.”
That scar was.
Unmistakably Baek Yul-heon’s ability.
“It matches the Pung-rae Kwon Beop perfectly.”
The Buff I Raised Is Too Strong
Author |
Naengmyeon Hwachae
Publisher |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Editor-in-Chief |
Editorial Department
Published by |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dream Books
Address |
7th Floor, Gwangseong Building, 28 Bongeunsa-ro 114-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
UCI |
G720:N+A063-20260731072
Blog |
blog.naver.com/dreambookss
Twitter (X) |
@dreambookss
Submissions |
[email protected]
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission from Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dream Books.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————