Chapter 53.

Evil Society was one of the most notorious Djinn associations in the world, being officially recognized by the UN and the Hero Association as the number 1 wanted group . Although there were groups that were more vicious and wicked than Evil Society, the latter was just too widely known throughout the world .

But that didn’t mean that someone purposely spread their name . Their notoriety was the result of their evil doings . They caused countless incidents in countries all over the world . From the Artifact Scramble incident in China to the Suwon Battle in Korea, they participated in human-Djinn wars of every scale .

“Say that again . ”

Evil Society’s hideout was surprisingly not far away .

In an artificial cave under Russia’s Vladivostok waters was the hideout Evil Society has kept secret for over 40 years . As the years went by, the technological advances made the cave a state-of-the-art facility that looked nothing like a cave .

“My apologies . ”

“No, don’t apologize . I said to say that again, Silasen . You said… a cheetah messed with our plan?”

“No, it was a panther . Um, a man wearing a panther mask . ”

Artifact retrieval was Evil Society’s first and foremost task . In the first place, they were an organization formed by devils to steal artifacts .

Homer’s Ring was the artifact that Kim Hakpyo, Evil Society’s artifact retrieval team leader, desperately wanted .

This ring of wisdom amplified all abilities related to magic power, such as magic power control, adaptability, and materialization . It was an incredibly useful artifact for Djinns who had abnormally high amounts of magic power .

“You mean a panther that looks like this?”

Kim Hakpyo showed a sketch of the masked man depicted according to Silasen’s description .

“…Yes . He wasn’t an ordinary individual . ”

“I know . I heard you lost a subordinate . ”

“Yes, we lost Sidius . From what we observed from his life clock, he seems to have been killed in one blow . ”

“…”

Sidius . Although he had a weak defense, because of his superb swordsmanship, his attack power was something even Kim Hakpyo acknowledged . He was supposed to be capable of handling up to low-intermediate rank Heroes, making him one of the organization’s rising stars .

“He wasn’t a Djinn?”

It was surprisingly common for Djinns to kill each other .

“No, but he didn’t seem to be a Hero either . ”

“Then he must be a mercenary or a hunter . Look into it . Of course, don’t think about confronting him alone even if you find him . ”

Homer’s Ring was something Kim Hakpyo vowed to obtain when he heard about it from the Collector . And when it came to his vows, he had no intention of breaking them .

“His weapon?”

“Yes?”

“Sidius’ magic sword, it’s expensive . Did you retrieve it?”

“Ah… no . ”

Magic swords were created by humanity but could display the same power as an artifact depending on one’s magic power . Naturally, it was extremely costly . Low-rank artifacts went for 500 million won, and naturally, so did magic swords .

“I see . That makes sense . Someone who knew to take the ring wouldn’t have missed something that expensive . ”

Kim Hakpyo accepted the reality . Only a fool wouldn’t take 500 million won lying on the ground .

His anger then turned to Silasen .

“By the way, why are you announcing to the world that you’re a Djinn?”

“…Yes?”

“Your god damn appearance . ”

Kim Hakpyo pointed at Silasen, who was still maintaining a Djinn’s black skin and blood-red pupils .

“I’m asking WHY you’re revealing that you’re a GOD DAMN DJINN!”

Kim Hakpyo’s fury resounded, shaking the cave’s interior . Silasen quickly turned back to normal .

“M-My apologies!”

In truth, he had just made an honest mistake of forgetting to put his disguise back on . After Devil Transformation, Djinns looked completely different from humans, so they had to put on a disguise to hide that they were Djinns .

However, the Djinns’ society wasn’t so lenient when it came to mistakes .

Silasen fell to his knees in a hurry .

**

“…What am I supposed to do with this?”

Sunday night .

I pondered as I examined the magic sword I picked up . It was a spoil of war I obtained from defeating a Djinn, but it was completely useless to me . Not only was I unable to wield magic power like normal people, I also didn’t have plans to use a sword which required me to fight in close range .

Of course, I would be able to sell it for a vast amount of money, but even if Violet Banquet guaranteed my anonymity, I felt uneasy about a Djinn buying it .

So for now, I put the magic sword away in my drawer .

“And what do I do with this?”

This time, it was Homer’s Ring . Because it hasn’t been awakened yet, it looked shabby as though it was forged with mud, but in reality, this ring was quite a unique artifact .

===

[Homer’s Ring] [Artifact] [Unawakened]

A ring worn by Homer in the past .

Contains hidden abilities .

===

Awakening this artifact would be easy for a Djinn, but it was a bit tricky for me . Thankfully, I didn’t need to use the normal method for awakening this artifact .

Using my Setting Intervention, I just deleted the “un-” part of “unawakened” .

[49 SP will be used . ]

It didn’t require too much SP, likely because the method for awakening the ring was rather simple . You just had to put in a certain amount of magic power, probably about 1 . 5 times the amount Chae Nayun currently had .

Once I saved the setting, the surface of Homer’s Ring cracked and split . A beautiful platinum colored ring appeared from beneath the dirt husk .

===

[Homer’s Ring] [Artifact] [Awakened]

A ring worn by Homer in the past .

Resonates with nature and endows its wearer with clear energy .

「Intelligence Increase – increases the wearer’s intelligence by 0 . 001 points every 24 hours up to a maximum of 0 . 365 points . 」

「High rank magic power amplification」

「Camouflage」

===

Homer’s Ring not only amplified its wearer’s magic power, it also increased ‘intelligence’, an invariable stat . Since the intelligence increase had a limit, one only needed to wear it for a year to receive its maximum benefit . 0 . 365 points of intelligence was equivalent to about 7 IQ .

“I guess I need to hold onto it for at least a year . ”

Homer’s Ring wasn’t a binding item . If I gave it away after increasing my intelligence for 365 days, the intelligence I gained from it wouldn’t disappear .

At the same time, it was inefficient for me to continue holding onto it . The source of my magic power wasn’t Kim Hajin, but the Stigma drawn on my upper arm . Obviously, there was no way to equip the Stigma with the ring .

…But just in case, I tried rubbing the ring on my upper arm .

“…What am I doing . ”

I put it back on my finger .

Homer’s Ring better suited Kim Suho and Chae Nayun . Purely in terms of efficiency, Chae Nayun was the best candidate as she beat Kim Suho in magic power .

“Now…”

For the first time in some time, I checked my stats .

===

[Strength 2 . 56]

[Stamina 2 . 575]

[Speed 3 . 250]

[Perception 4 . 215]

[Vitality 2 . 665]

[Magic power 1 . 925]

===

The stats other than speed and perception had stopped growing .

I had reached a wall . A wall referred to a bottleneck in growth . The first wall was between 2 and 3, the next was between 4 and 5, the next was between 6 and 7, and so on .

Most people faced these walls on every 2 stat points, and cadets usually had their upper limit around the 12 to 13 area .

“My magic power isn’t going up at all . ”

It was likely that my magic power would stay at that level forever, but that didn’t discourage me in any way . After all, my magic power came from my Stigma .

Next, I saw some encouraging alerts .

[You managed to throw a weapon that is difficult to wield!]

[Beginner’s Luck applies! Your wire throwing accuracy and power increases . ]

[Your Gift, Master Sharpshooter, becomes grade 6!]

===

▷「Master Sharpshooter」

[Intermediate rank] [Spirit attribute] [Evolving — Grade 6] [Proficiency EXP 0%]

—Master Sharpshooter’s Training

*Can wield all long ranged weapons more skillfully .

—Thousand-Mile Eyes

*Can see far away and predict a target’s movement path well .

*Increases speed and perception by 1 point .

—Bullet Time

*In combat only and once every 24 hours, you can spend up to 80 seconds in ‘Bullet Time’ .

—Sharpshooter of Reversal

*Depending on Kim Hajin’s invariable stat, ‘luck’, you can deal bonus damage against a stronger opponent .

===

Master Sharpshooter finally evolved from low-intermediate rank to intermediate rank .

It was faster than I expected, but the Gift’s real growth was only now beginning .

Most likely, the same amount of effort I put in to go from grade 10 to grade 6 would be needed to go from grade 6 to grade 5 .

“With this, I should be able to beat Chae Nayun . ”

Murmuring, I was about to close the laptop when I suddenly remembered something .

“…I almost forgot . ”

My family, or to be more precise, Kim Chundong’s family .

It was unlikely that the co-author left Kim Chundong’s past in a blank slate, especially when it was the easiest setting he could modify .

I immediately grew curious .

Kim Chundong was admitted to Cube . Although he was an extra in my novel, in the real world, he would have been an elite . Furthermore, genes played a huge role in determining one’s Gift . In other words, Kim Chundong’s parents weren’t likely to be ordinary people .

I entered Violet Banquet .

Tak, tak . From the numerous available categories, I clicked on [detective agency] .

[100% trustworthy information agency, ‘Veteran’ . ]

[Information agency, ‘Echo’ . Anything you want to know is at our disposal . ]

There were several sellers, but agencies displayed on banner ads weren’t top tier agencies . After all, well-known and self-confident agencies didn’t need to advertise their product .

The real deal was here .

[Private Broker Yoo Jinhyuk]

Yoo Jinhyuk . This man was the best of the best in this field .

When it came to individuals in particular, there was nothing he couldn’t find out . Naturally, his service was extremely expensive . Just his base price was 50 million won .

“…Oh right . ”

I was about to put in a request when I remembered something .

“I don’t have money . ”

I had already invested everything I had into stocks .

Wiing—!

At that moment, something sitting on my drawer began to vibrate .

Once again, it was Evandel’s Seed .

The tiny seed even stood up vertically and shook its body . It was protesting that it was hungry .

“I know, I know . ”

I took out a new gauze and gave it to the seed .

**

[Monday 1 P . M . ]

The eventful weekend passed and a new Monday came by .

Rather than Monday’s usual class, the exam we couldn’t complete was continued today . Thus, cadets met in the exam room from two weeks ago . While groups 14 to 25 took the exam, other cadets were busy writing their reports .

‘Family affair…’

However, only Yoo Yeonha was immersed in thoughts completely irrelevant to the exam .

Family affair .

What Kim Hajin said the day before kept bothering her .

Kim Hajin had immediately recognized Belbet’s face, but it didn’t make sense for him to know Belbet’s face out of numerous criminals .

From her research, she found out that Belbet was a conman who worked exclusively in Europe . In other words, he couldn’t have had anything to do with Kim Hajin . It made more sense to conclude that Kim Hajin memorized the face of every international wanted criminal .

‘But why…’

After thinking about Kim Hajin’s strange obsession with wanted criminals, Yoo Yeonha came up with a hypothesis .

A horrible thing had happened to him in the past, but he didn’t know who the culprit was . So to find the culprit, he had the International Wanted List memorized .

Of course, this was only a hypothesis .

But…

‘Orphan . ’

Adding in another keyword, the hypothesis became more logical .

Kim Hajin didn’t have parents . That was something almost every cadet knew because Shin Jonghak’s lackeys often harassed him as a parentless bastard .

‘So that must mean…’

Kim Hajin’s parents were dead . No, they were killed . Because of this, Kim Hajin had memorized the faces of criminals and was hiding his power to find and kill the culprit .

It made sense .

Yoo Yeonha added another keyword to her notes .

‘Sad past’

“Yeonha, what are you writing?”

Chae Nayun suddenly asked at that moment . She peeked at Yoo Yeonha’s notes with tired eyes as though she just woke up from a nap .

“Family affair? Orphan? Sad past? …Are you adopted?”

“…Are you crazy? I’m just curious about something . ”

“Hm… . Well, I guess you’ve always been curious about random things . You know, you always tenaciously dig up things you can just ignore without gaining anything . You’re kind of a dunce . No, you are a dunce . ”

“If you’re going to sleep, just keep sleeping, Nayun . ”

Yoo Yeonha spoke as she gritted her teeth . Chae Nayun let out a big yawn, then leaned against the back of her chair .

“Huaam~ Yeah, I should . ”

The heckler went away, and Yoo Yeonha fell back into the boundary of delusion and thought .

If Kim Hajin really had a past like that, she felt she could use it as an advantage when trying to recruit him in the future .

It was illegal to investigate a cadet’s background, but that just meant she had to avoid being caught .

That was how much she wanted to bring Kim Hajin into her guild . With the last incident, she became even more convinced . Kim Hajin was perhaps even more valuable than Kim Suho . At least, that’s what Yoo Yeonha thought .

“Hmm…”

Someone that could investigate Kim Hajin’s family background .

She knew of one such person . If he wanted, he could even draw up the family tree of a cockroach .

The only question was whether he would help her .

“…”

Yoo Yeonha turned her smartwatch on .

On the bottom of her contacts list, a number she had kept sealed for the past 5 years was printed .

[Uncle Yoo Jinhyuk]

Yoo Yeonha closed her eyes tightly and sent him a message .

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