HACKED 79

When he was first locked up, Gumiho had swords and arrows pierced through his body. It was a makeshift measure in case his impulse to murder flared up.

But now, those have all been removed. I couldn’t keep the Incarnations’ main weapons tied up forever just to restrain Gumiho.

Does that mean Gumiho is currently in a state of freedom without any restraints…

‘Not a chance.’

Active Skill: ‘National Treasure of Nakrang’

: From ancient times in the Nakrang Kingdom, there was The Drum that Sounds on its Own and a trumpet that would sound whenever enemies invaded. The drum was called Ja-myeong-go, and the trumpet was called Jamyeong-gak.

Cast by designating a 2D plane area. There are no restrictions on the shape or width/length of this area, but the total area must be 100㎡ or less. Once successfully cast, the effect persists until the caster cancels the skill or is forcibly cancelled. If an entity performs an offensive act within the designated space, the sound of a drum will ring out. This drum sound is about the volume of a standard large drum being struck, but exceptionally, the caster can hear it regardless of where they are.

This is Ja-myeong-go’s skill. Originally, I planned to lay it out at the entrance of the Pantheon, but thanks to the wonderful feature called the intruder alert system, I had the leeway to use it elsewhere.

The target of the skill is, naturally, this room. To be precise, I laid a square area of 10m by 10m on the floor. Since the width and length of this room are smaller than 10m, this is more than enough.

What if Gumiho steps out of this area? He cannot open the door of this room because I have locked it using my authority as the Compiler. If he tries to break down the door or walls with force, it would constitute an ‘offensive act,’ and the drum sound would ring.

If it were a skill targeting ‘Gumiho himself,’ there is a high possibility it wouldn’t have worked due to his mental resistance. Gumiho is a 5-star, and Ja-myeong-go is a 3-star. Even if he usually lets it happen without resisting, he might instinctively repel it if his impulse to murder flares up and he loses his reason.

On the other hand, skills activated by designating an ‘area’ are relatively harder to resist. In exchange for being hard to resist, the physical binding force is also weak. Isn’t 10m by 10m a distance one can easily escape with just a short walk? That is <No Lifer> style balancing.

“How did you summon that man? I’ve looked for him a few times before too… but despite having no Taoist power and being unable to use sorcery, he was so elusive that he was hard to find.”

“Why would you have a reason to find him? Were you going to file a civil complaint?”

Gumiho replied with a charming, bright smile.

“I wanted to kill someone, but there wasn’t a suitable opponent.”

“Ah, I see.”

Of course. I quickly changed the subject before any more psycho remarks could come out.

“I called <Nameless Star> via the terminal.”

“Calling?”

Instead of an additional explanation, I held up the terminal and showed him the message window.

<UserMyeong808> : Hello, hacker.

<UserMyeong808> : You’re inspecting this too, right? lol

<UserMyeong808> : 5th floor, left hallway, third room.

<UserMyeong808> : I’ll give you 5 minutes.

It’s not a particularly grand feature; it’s just the ‘Chat with Myself’ function.

<Nameless Star> had hacked my terminal entirely and was spying on it in real-time. So, I sent this message with the certainty that he would see it. However, it was a bit chilling when he actually appeared in less than 5 minutes.

‘In the offline world, several people take turns monitoring me, and in the online world, that bastard monitors me. Where on earth did my privacy go?’

The only answer, after all, is to find a way to return to reality as soon as possible. At this rate, I’ll go crazy from cohabitation stress like a hamster that wasn’t guaranteed one-hamster-per-cage.

“I’ll stick to the point. I’m going to recover you right here. It would be good for both of us if you could lie down in the recovery room and take a nap, but we don’t have time for that right now.”

“Is the situation very urgent?”

“You probably heard earlier, but intruders have broken in. Officially, I am in a state of ‘having gone to wash my face to calm my surprised heart after hearing that news.’ If I’m late, both you and I are screwed. You know San Gun’s personality, right? I might really die. Of course, I could be killed by the enemy before that.”

In my haste, I poured out words like a rap. Gumiho stared at me intently. His red eyes, stained black in parts due to contamination, narrowed.

“It sounds like that tiger is still devoted to My Husband. But why did you go out of your way to find me? Me, who is out of my mind and in a mess of a physical state.”

“I have to clear your status ailment. You need to fill your kill count. Do you want to live locked up here for the rest of your life?”

“…I thought you were trying to imprison me permanently because you hated the sight of me.”

“Am I crazy? To shove a precious 5-star into a back room. Hurry and kill the remaining nine-hundred-something people so you can get back to normal and work like a dog.”

What kind of country is South Korea? It is the country of ‘I requested to resign, but it was not permitted.’ It is also a country where I can’t stand to see the person next to me playing while I’m being ground down, so eventually, we all get ground down together in harmony.

I, the master, am working my ass off, and yet an Incarnation is cooped up in a room idling around? I absolutely cannot tolerate that. I will somehow clear this bastard’s status ailment and work him to death.

“…”

Gumiho was silent. He seemed happy, or perhaps not. It was a strange expression.

In any case, this was a situation where every second counted. I was about to urge Gumiho again when he muttered with his gaze fixed on the floor.

“As expected, I should have been first.”

“What?”

Gumiho suddenly raised his head. His pale face was revealed through his long, loose white hair. Pitch-black cracks were draped over his cheeks like spiderwebs.

“Very well. Please recover me quickly, My Husband.”

“Do you want to suck some blood or something? It’s a bit creepy even coming from me, but everyone seemed to like my blood.”

‘I’ll just consider it as having donated blood once. I’m not… healthy, and I’m not… robust, but anyway, I’m an adult male. It’s not like I’ll die from having a little blood sucked.’

I held out my hand with the heart of Ho-X-Man, who tears off his own head to share it.

“Here. Have a bite.”

“Are you serious?”

Gumiho asked, tilting his head with an expressionless face. I hesitated for a moment.

What if his status ailment suddenly activates in this situation? My arm might disappear entirely in an instant. Then the genre would change to slasher horror or a monster disaster flick.

Gumiho was faster than me withdrawing my hand. He turned his head and bit a mouthful of the skin on my wrist. For an instant, my body went stiff with fear.

“Ah…”

But there was no pain. Blood didn’t splatter, nor was my arm severed. Soft lips were pressed against the thin skin on the inside of my wrist, precisely where the pulse beats.

He rubbed his lips against my skin, sucked, and eventually licked it. The sound of wet flesh brushing against each other was explicit. It was so full of sexual intent that it was impossible not to notice even if I tried.

‘This isn’t right.’

I snapped to my senses. I came here for the purpose of giving him first aid so I could use him as a combatant, not to enjoy a dizzying and scandalous secret tryst.

“Wait a minute. What are you doing right now?”

Stopping in the middle of tampering with my knuckles and fingers with his lips, Gumiho rolled only his eyes to look at me. As our eyes met, he gave a habitual eye-smile. The white eyelashes draped over his red pupils fluttered slowly.

“Why don’t you just suck blood instead?”

‘If an Incarnation is in a hurry, they can have a little of their master’s blood. That’s a hundred, a thousand times better than them lunging to devour me in another sense.’

Yes, in fact, I’ve always thought well of hematophagy. There are two birds I like most: the first is the Bird that Drinks Tears, and the second is the Bird that Drinks Blood.

“But I like this better.”

“How long do you plan to recover by just biting and sucking the outer skin? I heard that for you guys, consuming the master’s body fluids is the most effective.”

Even as I spoke, a bit of a reality check hit me. Is this situation, where I am pleading with the other person to please eat my blood, right?

“Blood isn’t the only body fluid.”

“Can’t you just pick the intuitive option? Why try to go the hard way when there’s an easy path. I told you, we don’t have time.”

No sooner had I finished speaking than something sharp touched my finger. It was Gumiho’s fang.

He lightly bit and then released my ring finger with just enough strength not to cause a wound. Even while knowing this wasn’t the time, the sight of my finger bitten between red lips felt suggestive.

“Ugh.”

A short groan escaped. Gumiho smiled as if he knew that would happen.

“My Husband, you are so sensitive… I don’t think it will take long. I’ll finish up quickly and let you go.”

It won’t take long? As a man, that is quite—no, extremely—wounding to my pride.

“I will work hard.”

“No, don’t. Don’t work hard!”

Ignoring my sincere cry, Gumiho grabbed my wrist. Because of his sensual, beautiful face and gentle way of speaking, I often forget, but he was a robust man with a build much larger than mine. And his hands were large, fitting for his build.

My arm, caught with ridiculous ease, was bent upward and pinned to the wall. Almost simultaneously, a solid thigh wedged itself between my parted legs.