Chapter 57: Goblin market

"This place is strange. Why won't it open?"

Go Nam-tae tilted his head, his brow furrowed in concentration.

This was the second time he had faced such resistance while trying to open a door to a fixed coordinate.

Something sticky, clinging to the air, was obstructing the door from opening.

"I've never heard of a Labyrinth or a crack opening near the goblin market..."

Crack-prevention defense systems are operated in major national facilities and areas with high foot traffic.

Because of that, he could not create a crack that tore through the air.

'The last time in front of the president's bedroom... I hope that was alright.'

Go Nam-tae wiped cold sweat from his forehead, having only learned the truth of that fact later.

In any case, it wasn't as oppressive as the Labyrinth he had opened the previous day.

Go Nam-tae pushed with all his might— pop! No, he began to open the door more carefully.

Skreeeech.

With the feeling of the energy gripping the door frame being torn away, the door clicked open.

Requesting the coordinates from Park Ki-beom had been an excellent choice.

The scene of the market was visible at a glance beyond the door.

However, as soon as the door opened, Go Nam-tae sensed something was wrong.

The sticky magic wavering in the air was pricking and tingling at his senses.

At a glance, it didn't look any different from usual.

Lights twinkled on every street, cheerful music poured out of every shop, and delicious scents wafted from the restaurant district, tempting passersby.

Yet, that vibrant atmosphere was crumbling from the center.

In one alleyway, people were walking slowly, stumbling about.

People who had lost focus in their eyes were heading straight ahead without any expression.

The sight reminded him of a scene from a zombie movie.

As if contagious, people in the very next alley, and then the next, began to act the same way.

"My goodness, could this be..."

Go Nam-tae hurriedly reached out toward Heung-bok.

"Heung-bok, could you give me a few leaves?"

'Yes, Boss!'

Go Nam-tae stopped just as he was about to toss Heung-bok's leaves through the door.

The area beyond this was covered by surveillance cameras everywhere.

If his guess was right, something falling from above would be visible.

"Toto, is there anything you can send secretly to the ground over there?"

At that question, Heung-bok answered before Toto could.

'I can do it!'

"You?"

'Yes, you just have to roll this downward.'

Heung-bok shook its stems, and small pumpkins the size of walnuts dangled from them.

'If you throw these, you can use them like my own body for a short time. You can even make leaves.'

"You're truly amazing, Heung-bok! Then I'm counting on you."

'Yes, Boss! Toss them!'

Go Nam-tae threw the baby pumpkins through the door.

People were crowding together like bean sprouts in a steam basket, but the small pumpkins dodged expertly and landed on the ground.

The pumpkins that hit the ground shattered immediately, each spitting out a single seed.

The seeds tossed outside pierced the hard concrete floor and took root.

A moment later, the ground broke open, and pumpkin vines began to push through.

The moment the leaves that sprouted from the vines fell onto the ground, an anomaly occurred.

Pop, papapapop!

Golden light spread as if blanketing the floor, and above it, ominous lights rose up, clamoring and fleeing from each other.

He had already seen a scene similar to this before.

Go Nam-tae muttered, gritting his teeth.

"...A curse, indeed."

He had known before because one of Heung-bok's leaves had accidentally floated away, but this time, he knew because he had anticipated it beforehand.

That tingling sensation he had felt—that was the curse.

As time passed, people were increasingly gathering toward the center of the market.

That was the very source of the curse.

The more people gathered, the thicker the curse became.

Perhaps because of that, the pumpkin vines that had just sprouted reacted to the curse until the very end before withering and collapsing.

Go Nam-tae immediately opened a compartment he had carefully kept in the corner of his storage.

"I never thought the day would come when I'd use these on Earth."

These were the purification pumpkins he had been collecting.

Go Nam-tae took a deep breath and took out 10 of them.

"I hope this isn't short of what's needed."

When he had removed the previous boss's curse, Go Nam-tae had been able to use his own power, but this had to be solved using only Heung-bok's pumpkins.

[It is unlikely that the previous boss would have personally spread something from Earth.]

[That amount should be sufficient.]

"Is that so?"

Go Nam-tae tossed the pumpkins generously.

The pumpkins that fell among the people immediately began to absorb the curse.

The identity of the curse was an attempt to seize people's minds and extort their life force.

As soon as the purification began, it started losing power rapidly as the gathered life force was snatched back.

In the center square of the market where hundreds had gathered, people slowly began to come to their senses.

"...Why did I come all the way here?"

"You're going to fall! Don't push."

"Oh, it's suffocating. Why are there so many people here?"

"Was some celebrity here?"

"But why is the floor cracked like this?"

The time people spent gathered in the square was about 10 minutes.

It was abnormal, but since it sometimes happened when a celebrity appeared, the people didn't feel anything was wrong.

Before another 10 minutes passed, most of them dispersed, and the street returned to normal.

Go Nam-tae's magic bar began to sound a warning.

It was because Go Nam-tae had been forcibly maintaining the door.

He tossed one last small pumpkin through the closing door.

"Haaaah!"

As soon as he let go of the door he had been barely holding, Go Nam-tae collapsed.

-Boss, you look so tired again today! Why do you suffer so much?

Dan-hong, who was wiping his sweat while dropping dark, bead-like tears, asked.

"It's the place I have to return to. I can't just stand by and watch it get contaminated."

-Boss, where are you going while leaving us behind?

For a moment, Go Nam-tae was tense.

The speed at which Dan-hong's beads were falling was unusual.

Fortunately, he was able to answer while reaching out in time.

"I'm not leaving you behind. If I'm going, we're all going together."

-Is that so? Then that's okay. My heart was pounding!

Dan-hong sighed, pressing her chest, and asked again.

-But are we going to go live on Earth?

"Hm? That is... if we go and don't like it, we can just come back. We can think about that when the time comes."

-Hehehe. You're right, Boss! We can go with Boss and come back with Boss.

As if she hadn't been crying, Dan-hong flew through the sky and sat on his shoulder.

-Boss, get some rest. I'll make delicious rice cakes!

'No! Wait until I make them!'

Dan-hong, the budding rice cake artisan, also had a strong sense of adventure.

She was a child who said she hated cheonggukjang, but didn't know if she might like it if it were made into a rice cake.

But his desperate shout only lingered inside Go Nam-tae's mouth.

-Boss, Boss!

Dan-hong's voice was getting farther away.

-I'll make the rice cakes delicious, so wake up by then!

'Cheonggukjang is a no-go...'

Go Nam-tae just desperately hoped to wake up quickly.

---

"Welcome!"

Park Seong-beom welcomed a man, smiling until his mouth nearly tore.

The man, looking down at Park Seong-beom who was near 190 centimeters, shook his hand.

"Ugh, ugh!"

At the momentary pain, Park Seong-beom lost his composure and screamed.

He frowned involuntarily, but soon plastered a pleasant smile on his face and chatted glibly.

"My son-in-law, you're so full of strength, it makes me feel secure."

"Oh, Dad."

"Thank you, hahahaha!"

On the surface, it appeared that Park Seong-beom was recruiting Barkan, but looking at this scene, it was clear who had the upper hand.

Even Park Ha-na, who was loyal to her father, was smiling toward Barkan at this moment.

There was no need to explain who was being eaten and who was doing the eating.

However, Barkan had not yet officially revealed his claws.

"I prepared a small gift for my father-in-law on the way here."

"A gift?"

"Yes, a gift to make my father-in-law's body a bit stronger."

Park Seong-beom’s eyes twitched as if he were having a spasm, trying not to frown again.

To him, a B-rank hunter, being called "weak" was a lifelong trauma.

Yet now, Barkan was pointing directly at that weakness.

Father-in-law, father-in-law, at every turn.

Since they were using translation items anyway, the excuse that "it's because the languages are different" didn't work.

In a word, Barkan was looking down on him.

But Park Seong-beom could not cast him aside.

The fact that his daughter, Park Ha-na, was obsessed with the man was not even a matter to consider.

It was because Barkan was an S-rank hunter who could make even Park Ki-beom concede a step.

He was the key that would put the Saeron Guild in his hands.

That was a card Park Seong-beom could never give up.

"Oh, make my body stronger? What kind of thing is it?"

"It's a gift that can turn a B-rank hunter into an A-rank hunter overnight."

"What!"

His suppressed anger flew away completely at those words.

Barkan was rude and self-centered, but precisely because of that, he had no reason to lie.

"Wh-what is it?"

Just as Park Seong-beom was about to ask impatiently, Park Ha-na intervened.

"Oh, Dad, really. The gift is in the works. It's ripening right now."

"Ripening?"

"Shall I give you a hint?"

Park Ha-na, who said she would give a hint, turned on the TV out of the blue.

Park Ha-na’s expression, which had been smiling while changing channels, was gradually stiffening.

Park Ha-na switched from the TV back to the monitor screen and illuminated a certain place.

There, people were coming and going busily, showing a lively atmosphere.

"Th-this...!"

Park Ha-na looked back at Barkan in confusion.

Barkan’s expression was also as stiff as stone.

Barkan raised his hand and shouted briefly.

"⟟∴⟒⊑⟒‽"

One of Barkan’s subordinates, who had been standing right behind him, disappeared with a whoosh.

"Th-this guy...?"

The moment Park Seong-beom cautiously called out to Barkan, Barkan’s burning gaze struck him directly.

If he had said one more word there, a fear that he would be killed right then and there washed over him.

Park Seong-beom broke into a cold sweat and looked back at his daughter.

However, Park Ha-na was also looking only at the screen with a grave face.

A moment later.

Barkan’s subordinate returned and reported something to him.

Barkan, even more surprised by the subordinate’s final words, shouted hurriedly.

"Ha-na, replay the scene from the beginning."

"Yes, Barkan."

Park Ha-na complied with the order as if serving a superior.

They hadn't been captured on screen from the moment they entered the market until they left, but everything else was captured.

The curse had activated properly.

The draining of life force had also started properly.

However, at some point, light flashed suddenly, and everything disappeared.

Behind the screen, a giant tower stood like a background.

---

The pumpkin Go Nam-tae had thrown last was a special one.

The seed the pumpkin spat out dug into the ground again.

It was a pumpkin with a power slightly stronger than the seeds he had sprinkled to detect the curse.

The pumpkin began to extend its roots under the center of the curse.

1 meter, 2 meters, ... dozens of meters.

The roots that dug into the ground in an instant found it.

Below where Barkan had driven his sword, there was a bead that served as the medium for the curse.

If one looked closely inside the bead, one could see a small doll wearing a cone-shaped hat on its head and pointed shoes on its feet.

It looked like a miniature version of the curse doll Go Nam-tae had found.

Surprisingly, the doll was moving as if it were alive.

Green stems blocked the path of the doll trying to escape from the cracked bead.

Thud!

The stem pierced the doll's body, which was trembling.

Ssssss.

The moment the doll crumbled slowly and disappeared like smoke, the stems disappeared as well.

It was the moment Barkan’s "gift" of choice was erased from the world.