The Buffs I Raised Are Too Strong - Chapter 27

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 27.
I nearly laughed without thinking.
“Ha……!”
No, I actually did laugh.
Because that’s how people work — when confronted with a situation they simply cannot fathom, laughter comes first.
‘What on earth did he just say to me?’
Don’t ignore the people who worry about me?
Under any circumstances?
‘Does he even know what my circumstances are?’
I found myself speechless at the man’s attitude.
I’d been with Baekryeon for less than a month.
We hadn’t known each other long either.
He probably didn’t even fully understand my abilities.
So what gave him the right to lecture me like this?
Heat began to rise in my head.
The blood rushed to my face, my skin flushing crimson.
‘Does he realize I could use the exact same tone he just used to argue back at him?’
For one thing, I hadn’t disrespected Baek Yulheon, the guild master.
I had simply maintained a professional demeanor, stripped of emotion.
That was actually the standard relationship between a guild master and an Awakener in any guild.
Of course, it wasn’t hard to tell that he worried about me.
He’d actually come to my place several times.
He called constantly, almost to the point of being burdensome.
But worry like this — now, in this situation — was only a burden.
Clinging to the guild with no results to show, stuck in neutral…
What would actually change?
In the end, I’d only watch as people around me grew distant one by one, and watch myself crumble.
Refusing meetings, rejecting calls.
This was the only way I had.
I wouldn’t share any connection with them unless I returned stronger.
If my relationship with them broke in the process, so be it.
Or rather, in a way, I thought that was better.
Useless Awakeners are discarded.
People choose whoever benefits the guild.
That’s how it should be.
That’s the world we live in.
An Awakener’s worth is power alone.
Nothing else matters.
‘……But why?’
Why hasn’t he given up on me yet?
Coming here in person, no less.
Why is he trying to save me?
“…….”
I couldn’t open my mouth.
That was all I wanted to know.
What I was supposed to say was already decided.
Once I got the answer, I could drive the man away and return to the deal…….
‘The deal…….’
“Ugh…….”
Suddenly, I felt my breath catch.
Sending Jung Sohyuk away, returning to that place.
Having to talk to them again in that suffocating dread.
And then, letting that disgusting thing crawl into my body.
‘Ah…….’
I hate it.
Revulsion bubbled up from somewhere deep within.
I wanted to say no right now and go home.
Refuse?
Break the deal?
But would anything actually change?
But to begin with.
Is such a thing even possible?
If I refuse, can I go back?
Safely?
“……Hyeon Chaerin?”
“Hah, hah, hah……!”
How much time had passed?
My head throbbed.
In the end, I hadn’t managed a single word in response to Jung Sohyuk’s lecture.
And perhaps I hadn’t wanted to.
I’d simply wanted to run from the brutal way he thrust reality into my face.
I have to make this deal.
I can’t let myself be persuaded by Jung Sohyuk and abandon it.
‘Wait.’
A deal?
Now that I think about it.
What did they ask of me in return?
Click.
“What’s……? A blackout?”
Jung Sohyuk glanced around frantically.
The lights had gone out.
Had the entire Black Market lost power?
I looked up at the ceiling. No.
Only the electricity in this space where Jung Sohyuk and I stood had been cut.
The moment I realized it.
The click of dress shoes echoed through the darkness.
“Haha, quite the conversation you two were having?”
“Ugh……!?”
I felt Jung Sohyuk shift into a defensive stance, startled.
Goosebumps spread from the nape of my neck where that voice had reached first.
That sticky, laughter-laced voice.
It was the last thing I wanted to hear right now.
“Hmm…… something’s odd. Why is the Suggestion coming undone?”
“Suggestion……?”
“Ah. You don’t need to know. Or… is it perhaps because of you? You said you were an Awakener, didn’t you? What exactly is your ability?”
“…….”
“Reluctant to speak, I see. Heheh, ah, my apologies. I’d be the same way.”
Closer. They were drawing closer.
My instincts screamed at me to move, to flee this spot.
But there was nowhere to run.
A wall blocked my path ahead.
Jung Sohyuk kept searching the darkness in every direction.
Without the lights restored, he couldn’t see properly—I could feel him stumbling several times.
‘It’s useless.’
What would happen now?
Would they capture us, force some creature into my body?
This isn’t a deal.
It was never a deal to begin with.
No true deal exists where only one side receives.
Not anywhere.
Why?
How did I not realize it?
How?
‘Suggestion.’
“……How long has it been?”
“Pardon?”
Their footsteps halted at my question.
I continued, my voice trembling.
“How long have I been under Suggestion?”
“Hahaha! Now that’s quite surprising. This is the first time I’ve encountered someone under Suggestion asking me that with their own lips.”
“Faster……!”
“Calm down. My head’s throbbing a bit. I’ll answer you. Let me think…… when did it start.”
“…….”
Silence stretched between them.
Then came a soft chuckle.
Click.
The man’s expression came into sharp focus.
“When you fell for this foolish letter and came to meet me…… that’s when.”
“…….”
A small piece of paper lay in the man’s hand.
The origin of everything.
The letter that had been left outside the door.
It had been simple curiosity.
Caught in that suffocating situation, I’d simply wanted to clear my head somehow.
And this was the result.
“Hah…….”
A sound came from behind me.
The sharp intake of breath.
Jung Sohyuk’s eyes—fierce in a way I’d never seen before—bore down on the man.
‘……what happens to him?’
I didn’t matter.
It wasn’t as though Awakeners never fell into traps and suffered for it.
It was entirely my mistake, so there was no helping it.
But Jung Sohyuk?
He’d only come to save me.
“……Let’s make a deal.”
“?”
The man tilted his head, puzzled.
“A deal? In this situation?”
“Yes.”
“……Ha! I’m sure you’ve learned the hard way that a transaction only works when both sides stand to gain?”
“…….”
A transaction where both sides benefit.
I knew that.
It didn’t matter if the one benefiting wasn’t me.
“……Acceleration.”
Whoosh—
The man’s gaze turned toward me, slow and deliberate.
I met his eyes and spoke.
“Move, and I’ll kill you.”
The small knife in my hand.
Its tip pointed precisely at the carotid artery.
The man, seeing his companion restrained, spoke with a sneer.
“……Is this a threat?”
“Yes.”
“Hah. You know that doesn’t work on me, don’t you?”
Even with the blade at his throat, he didn’t blink. He smiled as though he’d expected exactly this, his gaze drifting toward the man.
Was he even human?
No matter how much he trusted that man, how could anyone not care in the slightest about his own life?
I felt my hand beginning to tremble.
Never in my life had I tried to actually kill someone.
“……I can kill this one and run.”
“Then I’ll kill the man over there.”
“Will you care?”
“Mm…… Truth be told, even if you do escape, it won’t be much of a problem. I wasn’t ignorant of your ability. I’m already prepared.”
“But in that process, I can create chaos. And since you’re conducting business here, I doubt you want to draw attention.”
“Hmm…….”
Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump—
My heart hammered wildly.

It was bravado, to some extent.
Most of the people here were stronger than me.
Before I could even create a mess, I’d be subdued or killed.
The moment I tried to run was the end.
Either these locals would kill me, or these men would take me alive.
But whichever I chose, one thing was certain:
Jung Sohyuk would die.
‘I have to save this man, at least.’
Jung Sohyuk was someone valuable to Baekryeon.
From the way the Guild Master spoke about him, from the changes that came after he joined the guild—
He was someone who couldn’t die here.
“I won’t resist at all. I’ll come quietly. More than that, I’ll help you. Use me like a slave if you want.”
“Huh?”
The man asked, as if caught off guard.
“Then what do you want from us in return?”
“Nothing.”
“…What?”
“If there’s one thing, I’d like to leave here. As quietly as possible.”
A silent demand—that he leave Jung Sohyuk alone.
The man’s eyes widened.
He covered his mouth with one hand and closed his eyes.
It looked as though he was trying to stifle a laugh, or perhaps simply lost in thought.
Ten seconds. Twenty seconds.
The man opened his eyes.
He seemed to have grasped the true intention behind my words.
But he said nothing.
“Ha, haha. You didn’t strike me as that kind of person. Maybe I’ve been looking at the wrong one all along.”
“…So?”
“Deal’s done. We’ll see you safely outside.”
Done.
A satisfactory outcome.
With this, Jung Sohyuk and the other two should be able to leave safely.
As for me—I won’t die, at least.
If I leave now, everything’s resolved.
‘…It should be fine.’
No matter how much I prepared myself, how much I steeled my resolve,
or tried to comfort myself that it would be okay—
Fear is still fear.
Drip.
A tear traced down my cheek.
The man’s expression hardened.
Did my tears displease him?
I wasn’t planning to defy you all anyway, so there’s no need to glare like that.
“…?”
No.
That’s not it.
Something’s wrong.
‘He’s not looking at me.’
He’s looking somewhere else.
At empty space, as it were.
An illusion?
Or—
‘His Status Window?’
I thought as much because he resembled others when they were viewing their Status Windows.
And at that very moment—
“You bastard!!”
Whooosh—Crack!
A sound like a lightning strike.
The EDM pulsing through the air like smoke vanished in an instant, blown away by the sheer force of it.
And familiar.
‘Guild Master?’
No.
It was his ability, but not him.
He squeezed his eyes shut as if terrified.
Then he drove his fist forward with all his strength.
Into the fist of the man who, just moments before, had been someone to protect.
The tears that had been gathering spilled away.
The Buff I Raised Was Too Strong
Author |
Naengmyeon Hwachae
Publisher |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Chief Editor |
Editorial Department
Published by |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dream Books
Address |
7th Floor, Gwangseong Building, 28 Bongeunsaro 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 reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dream Books.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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