The Second Coming of Gluttony - Chapter 17

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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 17. Dangerous Treasure Hunt (5)

Thwack!
“Ugh!”
Blood sprayed. Jung Min-woo’s massive frame tilted, then crumpled to the ground. An instant later, Hyun Sang-min materialized from empty air, twin Steel Clubs gripped in both fists.
“You bastard….”
Kang Seok flinched and tried to rise from the chair, but found himself pinned. Shin Sang-ah had locked her hands around his waist with ferocious determination, her full body weight pressing down as if she’d been possessed by a spirit of vengeance.
“Seong-jin!”
She threw her head forward and cried out.
“Hyah! Hyah!”
The next moment, Kang Seok could only stare in disbelief as the chair came down toward his face. The dull crack of impact twisted his head sharply to the left.
“Nnngh….”
Stunned, he slumped sideways, a groan escaping his lips.
“…Who the hell are you to talk about our sister like that?”
Lee Seong-jin, chair still in hand, glared down at him with a snarl.
Suddenly alone, Lee Hyung-sik stared stupidly at Hyun Sang-min spitting on the ground.
“Take a nap.”
The Steel Club swung. Lee Hyung-sik’s torso flailed wildly like a dancer spinning, then went rigid.
Seo-ra, about to hurl a Spell Ball, just gaped at the three of them. As she blinked silently, she caught sight of something: Kang Seok’s eyes rolling, his hand surreptitiously drawing out Paper—and Shin Sang-ah’s face, teeth bared like a lioness, lunging over him.
“Ahhhhh!”
Her teeth tore into flesh. Kang Seok’s head thrashed frantically. Shin Sang-ah, unfazed, climbed onto his writhing body and raised her hand high.
“In all my life!”
Slap! Her palm came down hard across his cheek.
“I’ve never seen a freak like you—obsessed, absolutely deranged over women’s naked bodies!”
Slap!
“You sick son of a bitch!”
Crack.
The third blow came from her elbow driving down into the soft space below his nose. Blood erupted from his nostrils like a fountain.
Stretched flat like a frog, Kang Seok trembled uncontrollably. Her rage unsated, Shin Sang-ah rose with a snarl and lifted her foot with all her strength.
“Surely not….”
Hyun Sang-min, in the middle of delivering finishing blows to Lee Hyung-sik and Jung Min-woo, flinched. He closed his eyes as he watched her heel come down hard between Kang Seok’s legs.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!”
Still possessed of voice, Kang Seok let out a scream that tore through the air.
Then Seo-ra felt it—the spell dissolved. When the caster’s mind shattered, the magic naturally ceased to exist.
Squelch, squelch.
At those wet, dragging sounds, Seo-ra snapped back to herself.
The Ghost. Of course it would come—the commotion they’d made would draw it inevitably. She was confident she could handle it, but she needed to prevent any accidents.
Quickly, she shoved Yoon Seo-ra into the Safe Point, then pulled the frenzied Shin Sang-ah back.
“Shin Sang-ah, Shin Sang-ah! Stop it!”
“Let me go! Let me go! You don’t know what this bastard has—!”
“The Ghost! The Ghost is here!”
“…What? Mommy!”
The moment Shin Sang-ah saw the Ghost’s grotesque form, her entire demeanor shifted—she burrowed into Seo-ra’s arms. Once she’d calmed her down and both had slipped into the Safe Point, the four of them could finally exhale. It felt like they’d survived the eye of a storm through sheer luck.
“Phew. Never thought I’d actually beat someone to death.”
Hyun Sang-min drew out a cigarette with clumsy fingers and offered it to Seo-ra. She’d been about to pull out her own, but accepted his instead.
“So what about those bastards in the Corridor?”
“Bring them in?”
“Then you and I are done for.”
Hyun Sang-min grumbled.
Soon both men turned to look through the window set into the wall, watching the Corridor. The Ghost had drawn near and was slowly feeding Jung Min-woo into its maw. Watching his head being crunched first, Seo-ra clicked her tongue.
“How did that happen?”
“Huh? Oh, I traded looks with that student over there. And I signaled Shin Sang-ah.”
Had he really? Seo-ra was taken aback—she’d had no idea. Hyun Sang-min let out a quiet laugh.
“Why, did you think I’d betrayed you?”
“How did you signal?”
“Like this—I just let it show a little.”
Hyun Sang-min fingered the torn half of the Paper. That’s when it happened.
“Krhhhhh!”
The door creaked open, and Kang Seok thrust his face through the gap. He was dragging himself forward with one arm, desperate to get inside.
The two of them couldn’t hide their shock. He’d regained consciousness already, despite that beating. The Status Window had shown a notably high Durability Stat, true, but this was fast.
“Get out of here!”
Shin Sang-ah bolted forward the moment she saw him and kicked him square in the face.
“Agh! Please… save me…!”
“Save you? You shameless bastard. You don’t think about what you’ve done?”
“I’m begging you…!”
“Won’t you leave? Won’t you?”
She stomped down on his outstretched hands over and over. Finally, he couldn’t hold on any longer and slipped backward like receding tide.
The Ghost, which had already devoured two others, seemed delighted with this unexpected prize. It seized Kang Seok—blood-drenched and writhing—in one swift motion.
“Eat that one slowly! Savor every scrap of flesh!”
The Ghost’s enormous eyes blinked once. Then it began to crunch down on Kang Seok from the feet upward, chewing methodically. Hyun Sang-min trembled.
“Was she insane, or something?”
For a moment, he’d almost agreed with that assessment.
“She’s eating the whole thing herself. What about your share?”
“Watching is enough for me.”
“I feel the same way, honestly… Damn it, but what do we do about that thing?”
Hyun Sang-min pressed his palms against his face.
They’d dealt with Kang Seok, but the Ghost coming up here was the real problem. Waiting at the door wouldn’t lead anywhere. And they couldn’t stay in the Safe Point for a thousand years either.
“We kill it.”
“Huh?”
Her voice was matter-of-fact.
Kang Seok’s screams, which had been growing louder by the second, abruptly stopped. When she glanced out the window, all that remained was a corpse already consumed up to the chest.
She rapped on the glass, and the Ghost jerked its head back, its jaws gaping wide. Seeing the half-chewed flesh lodged between its teeth wasn’t pleasant, so she quickly hurled a Spell Ball straight down the massive throat.
The effect was immediate. The Ghost, having swallowed the Spell Ball without warning, convulsed in a way it never had before. Its limbs began to shudder and slide across the ground. Its pupils rattled visibly in their sockets, and from the gaping maw came thick smoke that it coughed and retched out.
‘Maybe one isn’t enough.’
“What did you throw?”
“A Spell Ball. Poison gas.”
She answered simply and pulled out another Spell Ball, then asked, “By the way, what was that thing that appeared out of thin air earlier?”
“What thing?”
“The one that just showed up in mid-air.”
As she spoke, she took aim and released it. The red-tinted Spell Ball cut through the air. This one also landed inside the Ghost’s mouth.
“That? I got a scroll from a Random Box. Concealment.”
“Concealment?”
Hyun Sang-min nodded, watching the Ghost intently.
“The duration is reasonable, but it breaks the moment you attack the opponent.”
“It costs 500 Survival Points.”
“Hey, look—let’s not worry about that. You helped us out, after all. And I need to keep something in reserve for the last stand…!”
Bang. An explosion cut off the rest of his words. What now? Hyun Sang-min yanked off his Sunglasses and peered out the window in alarm.
Kiiiiieeeee!
The Ghost. That dreadful Ghost was thrashing on the ground. With each explosive blast, its entire body erupted with lumps and swelled in garish colors.
“Did you… did you have something like that too?”
“It started moving right when I needed it to. Ah, it’s running away.”
She gave chase, and another Spell Ball found its mark on the Ghost’s retreating back. Pop! Light exploded outward, and dozens of spider-web strands shot forth, binding the creature tight.
“…….”
Hyun Sang-min decided to watch in silence. He was already drained, and he’d run out of shock to spare.
‘This should kill it.’
The final Spell Ball transformed into a clear liquid as it fell. It poured down in streams onto the Ghost, unable to budge an inch.
“What happened?”
Shin Sang-ah arrived belatedly and asked.
“Killed it.”
She pointed down the Corridor and spoke.
Of the four Spell Balls, the most potent had been the hydrochloric acid. It had dissolved that horrible creature in seconds.
All that remained in the Corridor was a formless mass of what had once been, presumably, a Ghost.
“Wow… Really….”
Faced with her disbelief, she elaborated.
“The Guide was right. If you get just a few Spell Balls, you can breeze through it easily. I just happened to get lucky with a good combination.”
“Spell Balls? A combination?”
“Yes. I spread the poison gas through its body, amplified the explosive force with combustion, bound the fleeing Ghost with spider-webbing, and dropped hydrochloric acid on it.”

Shin Sang-ah’s mouth fell open, and she quickly covered it with her hand.
“…That’s a bit brutal, don’t you think?”
Seol and Hyun Sang-min exchanged bewildered glances at her.
Even Lee Seong-jin, slumped against the wall, looked at her in disbelief.

The quiet dawn.
At the Safe Point, with only eight people left, two men were having a low conversation.
After the chain of events had ended, Shin Sang-ah came to her senses and treated Yoon Seo-ra. Yoon Seo-ra had miraculously survived, but Shin Sang-ah couldn’t guarantee anything about her damaged arm—she admitted it was uncertain, saying the treatment had come far too late.
After conferring among the four of them, the group decided to wait until noon. They’d be waiting for Yoon Seo-ra to wake, but the main reason was sheer exhaustion—bone-deep, unrelenting exhaustion.
Seol watched Lee Seong-jin, Yoon Seo-ra, and Shin Sang-ah sleeping soundly nearby, then spoke quietly.
“That man—I don’t see him anywhere.”
“Huh? Who?”
“The guy wearing glasses.”
“Oh, the one who abandoned his family. Why—you thinking of going after him again?”
Seol didn’t answer, just kept draining his drink in steady gulps.
After an awkward silence, Hyun Sang-min tapped ash from his cigarette.
“Mind if I ask you something?”
“Yeah?”
“Back when you were facing off against Kang Seok—you were about to pull out a Spell Ball, weren’t you?”
For the first time, a smile appeared on Seol’s perpetually calm face.
“You were going to pull it out but didn’t, right?”
Seol nodded, as if confirming once more.
“Why’d you do that? I mean, it worked out fine in the end, but still.”
“You said it yourself. That people show their true nature only when cornered… I wanted to see it once.”
This time, it was Hyun Sang-min’s turn to fall silent.
Another quiet moment descended.
A moment passed.
“Damn. So he passed the test?”
Both men burst out laughing simultaneously.

(To be continued in the next installment)

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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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