The Only Enhancer - Chapter 164
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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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Episode 164
164 – A Meeting? A Double Date? (1)
0.
Hong Myeong had been dragged away from his experiments without warning, confused about what was happening, but when he heard that two men and two women would be hanging out together, his face lit up with anticipation. Then he saw Yu Ji-min and Gwen.
The moment he laid eyes on the stunningly beautiful Gwen and Yu Ji-min, his expression became goofy as he stared at them both.
Hong Myeong naturally possessed good instincts. In fact, people like him had far sharper instincts than most.
If they didn’t read the room well, they wouldn’t have gotten beaten up so much during their school days.
Based on the instincts he’d honed through years of getting hit, it seemed clear that Gwen had feelings for Min-jun.
An undeniable fact! Upon seeing the incredibly beautiful Gwen, he briefly thought it would be nice if she were his partner, but he quickly realized that someone as stunningly gorgeous as her was surely meant for Min-jun.
So then, was Yu Ji-min next to Gwen his partner?
After finishing his thoughts, Hong Myeong looked at Yu Ji-min.
While Gwen was an incredibly beautiful woman, Yu Ji-min was also quite beautiful.
She was a beauty Hong Myeong had never seen in his entire life.
Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have even been able to stand near someone like her, let alone speak to her. But by following Min-jun around, such opportunities came his way.
Moreover, he hadn’t just gotten this meeting—he’d even awakened.
Though his trait hadn’t fully manifested yet, Min-jun had said it was possible he’d awakened as a trait-less awakener, so they should observe how things develop.
Based on his own case, Min-jun had said they’d need to watch for at least a day.
‘This is amazing! I’m so glad I came! The guild master is truly my benefactor!’
While Hong Myeong was thinking this way, naturally Yu Ji-min’s perspective needed to be considered as well.
Yu Ji-min wasn’t the type to be picky about appearances, but the outfit worn by someone who’d heard they were going on a meeting was training pants paired with a casually thrown-on sweatshirt.
Honestly, if she’d just worn jeans, she might have let it slide, but training pants seemed to cross the line a bit.
She’d been given an hour and thirty minutes’ notice—why show up dressed like this?
Sure, Pinto had stayed behind, but that was understandable. Still, because of that, her neglected appearance was bound to show.
Hong Myeong wasn’t particularly handsome. To be honest, he was on the ugly side.
His face wasn’t grotesquely distorted or anything, but standing next to the handsome Min-jun, and wearing training pants on top of that, he definitely looked worse than he actually was.
A comment was on the tip of her tongue, but she had to suppress it through superhuman patience.
Hadn’t she come out today to support Gwen? So she had to hold back.
She’d thought she might as well make the most of the situation, but it seemed that wasn’t going to happen.
Hong Myeong clearly seemed desperate to make a good impression on Yu Ji-min, but that wasn’t how Yu Ji-min felt.
‘Let’s just set the right mood and go with it.’
Yu Ji-min thought the same way, deciding to ‘just go along with it,’ and she sighed inwardly with regret as she looked at Min-jun and Gwen.
To anyone’s eyes, they were a perfectly matched pair.
Gwen boasted beauty that was beyond question, and Min-jun was quite handsome as well. As for their abilities, what more needed to be said?
Wasn’t he the richest person in the world? So Yu Ji-min felt a bit envious but simply moved on.
What else could she do? There was nothing she could do about it anyway.
It was her mistake to expect Min-jun to bring someone equally good-looking just because he was handsome.
She sighed inwardly again, but she decided not to be rude to her partner. Though she was meeting Hong Myeong for the first time, rumors about him were already circulating within the Reinforce Guild.
‘They said he was a civilian brought along for protection, right? But it seems like he’s… awakened?’
Indeed, from Hong Myeong standing beside Min-jun in his training pants and grinning bashfully, she could sense a faint aura of mana.
Though his power was weak because his trait hadn’t manifested, he had that distinct look of an awakener—just barely.
Yu Ji-min gazed at Min-jun with undisguised surprise at the revelation.
She’d heard he was an ordinary person, yet he’d awakened as a Hunter overnight?
What were the odds of such a coincidental awakening? And more than that—they’d brought someone who’d become a Monster’s target here for protection, and that very person suddenly awakened.
Well, it was possible. No one truly understood what triggered an awakening.
But why did she have this nagging feeling? Yu Ji-min couldn’t shake the suspicion that Min-jun might have been the catalyst for this awakening.
After all, he strengthened limit levels, enhanced traits—if someone said there was something he couldn’t do, that would be the real shock.
While Hong Myeong and Yu Ji-min were lost in thought, exchanging glances, Gwen and Min-jun finished their brief discussion about where to go and turned to address them.
“Shall we head out then?”
“We’ve already picked from the places you mentioned earlier!”
“Ah, Gwen. Okay, got it. Should we all go together, or separately?”
“Oh! I, I’m fine with anything.”
At Yu Ji-min’s words, Hong Myeong agreed he was fine with anything too, while Gwen and Min-jun exchanged a brief glance before responding to Yu Ji-min with their decision.
“Since we’re all here together, it’d be better to go as one group.”
“Going together sounds good.”
As both spoke simultaneously, Yu Ji-min regarded Gwen and Min-jun with noticeably softened eyes.
It was almost strange they weren’t dating yet.
Min-jun’s demeanor was hardly different from his usual self, but something felt off.
His gentle attitude and the way his gaze lingered on Gwen was quite pleasant to witness.
Observing this, Yu Ji-min sensed something interesting might unfold today, and Hong Myeong, watching her reaction, could pick up on it too.
He’d vaguely known about Gwen and Min-jun’s relationship from the start, but seeing it firsthand now made it undeniable.
Without thinking, Hong Myeong sidled up to Yu Ji-min and whispered quietly.
“Those two…”
“Yes, yes. I know, so keep quiet. He can hear everything.”
“Oh! Right.”
Yu Ji-min gave Hong Myeong a gentle reprimand.
How could he be so careless when Min-jun’s senses were that sharp?
In matters like this, the most important thing was for those around them to remain discreet.
In any case, since they’d decided to travel together, Yu Ji-min quickly contacted the Reinforce Guild’s secretarial team, who promptly brought around a waiting limousine and guided them inside.
Hong Myeong marveled at the sight, but no one in the group paid it much attention—they simply accepted it as natural and moved on.
“Come to think of it, this is the first time I’m meeting you, isn’t it?”
“Ah, Gwen wouldn’t know. This is Hong Myeong—the Guild Master brought him in recently for protection related to the Deep Sea Faction.”
“Yes, that’s right. Hong Myeong is one of their objectives.”
“Ah, I, my apologies for the late introduction. I’m Hong Myeong. It’s a pleasure.”
“Oh! No, no. I should have introduced myself sooner. I’m Gwen Cooper.”
“I’m Yu Ji-min. I’m assigned to Reinforce’s first team.”
As Yu Ji-min and Gwen exchanged greetings, Hong Myeong accepted them with a slightly flushed expression.
When was the last time he’d been greeted by such beautiful women?
His reddening face was entirely natural. For someone like Hong Myeong, who’d barely spoken to women in over twenty years, this was perfectly understandable.
Still, hadn’t Hong Myeong changed now?
Wasn’t he in the midst of achieving a complete success story since joining the Reinforce Guild?
I’ve awakened, received a room at the guild—though it’s more like a rental arrangement, really—and in essence, I’m living a life that’s practically a success story.
And now I’m even meeting beautiful women like this.
So Hong Myeong thought that after the introductions, he might be able to join in the conversation a bit.
Of course, that was merely wishful thinking.
“Ah! Min-jun, so when I look at the parts we’ve developed this time, if we want to enhance the golems’ performance, we need not just alchemy but also magical engineering. So I’ve asked Andrew to help, but both Baya and Andrew said it can’t be finished in a short period.”
“Hmm, it’s true that Andrew tends to have quite a lot of work. Since it’s such a critical characteristic, it’s unavoidable, but wouldn’t it be better if we made Baya’s body first?”
“Since you said she’s bound to the guild master, her productivity should increase, right?”
“That’s right! Baya is an incredible magical engineer! If it works out that way, it’ll be amazing!”
I couldn’t even grasp what the topic was in the first place, and it was so complicated.
Hong Myeong had no choice but to sit quietly without joining the conversation.
They weren’t trying to exclude Hong Myeong from the topic out of thoughtlessness. Rather, Min-jun, being a workaholic, had first asked about the progress, and things naturally unfolded this way.
With work-related reports and discussions flowing, there was no opening for Hong Myeong to interject.
Of course, even if it had been casual conversation, Hong Myeong probably wouldn’t have been much different.
Anyway, once they’d reached some conclusions, Min-jun pondered whether he should create a body for Baya, then nodded and spoke.
“Then it seems like it would work if Andrew creates the first golem and we embed Baya’s essence into it.”
Besides, since her soul is mortgaged and she’s devoted to serving me, there’s no real problem with creating a body for her. Of course, for the sake of fairness, I plan to create physical bodies for Uldin and Morgana, who joined later, much further down the line.
For now, manufacturing golems as workers to organize North Korea takes priority.
“Let’s handle that that way, and this time when Ma Chong-sa Natalia came, I did issue her a basic mana gun, but it seems like she’s somewhat dissatisfied even though she hasn’t said anything.”
At the mention of Natalia, Yu Ji-min and Gwen’s ears perked up.
Min-jun noticed it and wondered what that was about, but thinking she might just be interested since she was new, he let it pass.
Meanwhile, Hong Myeong glanced at Min-jun upon seeing the two women’s reactions, and in that moment, he could sense something.
‘So this Natalia person is some kind of rival?’
You could clearly feel that Gwen was concerned about it.
Though Hong Myeong didn’t quite understand why Min-jun didn’t notice it, he simply sat quietly and observed.
When Natalia’s dissatisfaction was mentioned, the first to step forward was none other than Yu Ji-min.
“What? Dissatisfied? Hmm, she did seem quite skilled, but shouldn’t she be grateful for what she was given and use it?”
Since she spoke somewhat sharply, Min-jun didn’t really say anything in response.
However.
“Of course, I was grateful when I received it, but the mana gun you gave me seems to have a fixed performance ceiling for what I can unleash right now. I think that’s probably why she’s dissatisfied.”
“Hmm, well, then maybe it’s not dissatisfaction but rather impatience?”
“Impatience?”
“Since she probably thinks she needs to look good to you, she wants to grow stronger quickly, but with a mana gun that has performance limitations, it’s hard to grow fast—I think that might be it.”
“Hmm, that could be the case.”
As they discussed Natalia back and forth like this, Gwen and Min-jun were opening up the conversation, while Yu Ji-min watched the two of them with an expression of disbelief.
I mean, Gwen is helping but somehow getting swept up in it anyway.
‘I mean, she should step up when I say something, so what is this?’
Well, it doesn’t look good to belittle her, so Yu Ji-min let it go and was leaning back in her chair when.
Hong Myeong spoke to Yu Ji-min quietly.
“You seem to be lacking a bit of perception.”
After saying that, he looked at Min-jun, and Yu Ji-min nodded in agreement.
For the first time, I found myself thinking the same way as Hong Myeong.
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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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