LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 119
Chapter 119
It was indeed far.
The gate he had been introduced to this time was located in Sejong.
Upon arriving at Bihaksan, Suho pinpointed the exact location through a call with Choi Yoon, and shortly after, he was able to meet up with Choi Yoon, who had arrived first.
“Over here, here!”
Choi Yoon wasn’t alone.
She was with the owner of the Bihaksan Gate, a group with a different vibe than Bang Dueok’s gang.
When the gate owner, ‘Kim Won-hoo,’ saw Suho, he let out a wry laugh.
“Well… So it’s really Ahn Suho?”
The fact that Ahn Suho was the buyer had already been mentioned in advance.
The last time they hadn’t mentioned it, Bang Dueok had suddenly harbored ill intentions.
Kim Won-hoo extended his hand for a handshake with Suho.
“My name is Kim Won-hoo. You might have already heard, but since you’re the buyer, I’m considering selling the entire gate, not just entrance tickets. What do you think?”
An outright sale.
It meant he was willing to transfer the gate entirely.
Normally, private gate owners would profit from ticket sales, but because Suho was the buyer, he was trying to hand it over in full.
In Kim Won-hoo’s mind, Suho would surely conquer his gate.
Suho nodded and said.
“If the price is reasonable, I’ll buy it.”
“How much are you thinking?”
“That’s for the seller to decide, isn’t it?”
“Just give me a hundred million won. I need to make some profit too.”
“A hundred million…”
A hundred million won.
Hearing the amount, Suho chuckled.
What nonsense.
Is a hundred million won a common dog’s name?
“How about one million?”
“One… One million? Did I mishear that?”
“No, you heard correctly. You may think a hundred million is fair, but I don’t believe this gate is worth that much. Instead, I’ll set a different condition.”
“A different condition?”
“You can have all the monster by-products that come out.”
“Hmm?”
It was exactly as he said.
If he had to pay a hundred million won just to clear a gate, he’d rather go to Seo Giwon’s Virus Dungeon. Why even bother with this gate?
The reason Suho was going to this gate instead of the Virus Dungeon was for experience points.
The virus monsters in the Virus Dungeon matched the level of the challenging player.
‘Since the levels are the same, the efficiency of gaining experience decreases even if I spend the same amount of time hunting.’
Although Suho was a Martial Class player, his skills and strength were already at the One-Star Class level or higher. So he was willing to spend a little money to clear a gate.
But that didn’t mean he intended to spend an excessive amount.
In his past life, Suho’s money never seemed to run out, but his present self wasn’t at that level yet.
‘Still, that doesn’t mean I can act like a rogue.’
Once or twice, he could slice through the people here and seize the gate.
But if he continued handling matters this way, no one would entrust their gates to Choi Yoon anymore.
‘They’d hide their gates instead and trade in secret.’
No matter how reputable Choi Yoon was, being a part of the Union with the highest domestic credibility.
So, in the long run, he needed to avoid such behavior.
Money could be earned again, but tracking down hidden, unofficial gates wasn’t easy, even for a regressor.
So he offered an alternative.
After contemplating while stroking his chin, Kim Won-hoo nodded.
“You know what kind of gate this is, right?”
“No, I don’t.”
“If you did, you’d regret it.”
“I don’t care. Just give me exclusive rights to the boss monster.”
“For a million won?”
“Yes.”
“If that’s the case… Alright, but we really won’t help you at all in the gate?”
“Yes, please don’t assist me at all.”
The negotiation concluded.
Seeing the negotiation proceed without even consulting her, a shocked Choi Yoon pulled Suho aside.
“What are you doing?”
“We negotiated, didn’t we?”
“Yes, I heard, but isn’t this a loss for you?”
“Paying a hundred million is an even greater loss.”
“This is a werewolf gate. It’ll be filled with wolves. Don’t you know how expensive werewolf hides are?”
Werewolves.
And their hide.
He knew it was valuable.
Was it only the hide that was expensive?
The head, teeth, and claws of werewolves were all costly.
But so what?
He came here to gain experience points, not to collect by-products.
Suho replied indifferently.
“I don’t care. From now on, I’d like to handle all transactions this way, minimizing costs.”
“Good grief…”
“There’s no problem, right? They agreed to it too.”
“Well… Yeah, but… Ah, I don’t know. In all my life, I’ve never seen a deal like this. But you should know—this kind of deal is only possible because it’s you, Suho.”
Usually, sellers don’t enter the gate with the buyers.
If the gate raid failed, they wouldn’t recover any expenses and would just die meaninglessly.
But Suho had already soloed multiple sealed gates both officially and unofficially.
Naturally, they had confidence in him.
At last, Kim Won-hoo spoke.
“If you don’t mind, could you give us an hour? Since we got the deal suddenly, we’ll need at least that much time to gather our team and equipment.”
“Understood.”
Considering it was a team assembled on short notice, an hour was a reasonable wait.
Suho decided to take a short nap during that time.
As he walked toward his car, Suho spoke.
“I’ll close my eyes for a bit, so wake me when you’re ready. Take more than an hour if you need to.”
“Good grief…”
Suho reclined the passenger seat and immediately fell asleep.
***
By the time he opened his eyes again, two hours had passed.
“This is ridiculous.”
Have they never been in a professional setting?
He had said they could take a little over an hour, not nearly two hours.
Nonetheless, since he had agreed, Suho got up from his seat.
“Ha, I’m really sorry… Preparing at the last minute took a bit longer than we expected.”
Kim Won-hoo apologized.
Fine.
Since he apologized, it was acceptable.
If he hadn’t and instead acted shamelessly, Suho would have been genuinely upset.
Suho nodded and said.
“It’s fine. My proposal was abrupt. Is everything ready now?”
“Yes, we’ve finished preparing.”
A glance confirmed that they had indeed prepared thoroughly.
After all, Kim Won-hoo had maxed out the number of entrants with his harvesting crew.
Suho asked nonchalantly.
“No combatants at all? Don’t you trust me a bit too much?”
“If a citizen doesn’t trust a civil servant, who else would they trust?”
“That’s true.”
If they always trusted him this way, it would be nice.
At the moment Suho touched the gate.
[ Entering the gate. ]
[ Retrieving gate information. ]
[ Full Moon Forest ]
– Entry condition: Level 99 or below.
– Maximum entrants: Up to 16 people.
The gate’s name was Full Moon Forest.
He’d never entered it, but he had heard of it.
Without much thought, he plunged into the gate, and the Kim Won-hoo group followed him in.
***
Upon passing through the gate portal, a thick darkness enveloped the surroundings.
This place was clearly called Full Moon Forest, yet there wasn’t even a glimmer of moonlight—quite odd.
‘It’s because of the clouds.’
Looking up at the sky, he saw it was blanketed with clouds.
So the moonlight couldn’t shine on the world below.
It didn’t matter.
Even if this place was shrouded in darkness, darkness wasn’t much of an obstacle for Suho.
[ Due to the Original Vampire effect, you are unaffected by the restrictions of darkness. ]
Suho grinned as he observed the skill’s effect.
He was reminded that his body indeed held the blood of a vampire.
‘Can I really be called a vampire if crosses, silver, and garlic don’t affect me, even if I’m an Original Royal?’
What did it matter?
As long as he qualified as a vampire by the system’s standards.
Suho summoned his Blood Weapon and addressed Kim Won-hoo.
“Everyone, just stay put and begin working only when I signal. While I’ve ceded the rights to the by-products, I didn’t guarantee everyone’s safety.”
“We understand. We didn’t bring only clueless people along, so be careful yourself.”
“Yes, then I’ll begin. You might need to keep up the pace.”
Finishing his words, Suho pulled arrows from his pack and planted them into the ground.
Then, he grasped the summoned Blood Weapon with his left hand.
The Blood Weapon he summoned this time wasn’t a sword.
It was a Blood Bow.
A blood-red bow.
Suho placed the arrows he’d planted into the bowstring of the Blood Bow.
Then, as if by magic, the arrowheads ignited with flames.
Kim Won-hoo’s eyes widened at the sight.
“Wha…?”
“Here we go.”
Whoosh!
Suho shot the arrow.
The flaming arrow arched through the forest, and as soon as it landed, it ignited the surrounding leaves, rapidly expanding the flames.
“Not bad.”
The arrows Suho used were specially bought incendiary arrows.
They reacted to mana, igniting without oil, and had greater combustive power than regular fire,
able to spread as long as there was fuel.
Suho continued shooting more arrows without pause.
Within moments, the surroundings were engulfed in flames, and Kim Won-hoo, his eyes nearly popping out, demanded.
“Wh-what are you doing?!”
“Wolf hunting.”
“Pardon?”
“We came to a werewolf gate, so we’re here to hunt wolves. I didn’t come here to play around. You said it would take an hour to prepare, but it took two hours, so time’s running short.”
“But… setting the whole place ablaze like this…!”
“That’s why I said to follow closely. Now, as the werewolves flee from the fire, I’ll slice them down one by one. Oh, and don’t worry. As long as you stay behind me, you won’t burn to death. I’ll extinguish any fire that comes near us as we go.”
“What do you mean by that?!”
“I’m going.”
With a grin, Suho’s eyes sparkled.
At that moment, a skill activated.
[ Mana Detection activated. ]
With the upgraded Mana Detection skill, he could now detect a wider range of mana.
And no matter how much monsters suppressed their mana, they couldn’t hide their distinct murky aura.
Especially not in a forest ablaze.
– Keeeeeh!!
There.
Suho summoned his Ghost Shadow Spear and hurled it toward the source of the howling sound he heard.
Crash!
[ You have defeated a Werewolf. ]
One-shot, one-kill!
A promising start.
Suho immediately summoned his Blood Sword and charged straight ahead.
***
[ You have defeated a Werewolf. ]
[ You have defeated a Werewolf. ]
[ You have defeated a Werewolf. ]
[ You have defeated a Werewolf. ]
…
The hunt continued relentlessly.
The inferno Suho had started showed no signs of stopping, spreading through the forest with a relentless intensity, as though it intended to consume everything.
The werewolves, overwhelmed by the sudden catastrophe, scattered in all directions, only to meet their end.
And Kim Won-hoo, clinging closely to Suho’s trail to avoid death, hung a hook on each werewolf carcass and tied them to his belt as he ran.
‘That… that maniac…!’
A maniac.
Was there any other way to describe Suho?
For indeed, Suho fought like a madman, ran like a madman, and controlled the flames like a madman.
He had been tearing through Full Moon Forest for quite some time when it happened.
[ The moonlight surveys the forest. ]
A system notification appeared before his eyes.
At the same time, the thick clouds dissipated, and bright moonlight fell upon Full Moon Forest.
Wherever the moonlight touched, the flames receded.
– Awooooo!!
[ The boss monster has appeared. ]
The forest’s master had finally shown itself.