Chapter 116: Ki-simche
A few months ago.
Golem.
Soul-sucking Mage.
When I saw things that were common in my hometown appearing in the solar system, the first thought that crossed my mind was:
‘Oh my, the Alphauri’s claws have reached Earth too! Let me bite my tongue and die before I get caught!’
At that time, I was exhausted from working late nights, you know.
Like a cat startled by a cucumber.
I was in disbelief, wondering if an Alphauri had followed me all the way here.
‘Hiiik!’
But after calming down and thinking about it, that thought was utterly ridiculous.
How did I even end up on Earth?
By using reincarnation magic, of course.
So who developed that reincarnation magic? That would be me, the first in history, right?
Well, these days, I’m trapped in this trashy body of Kim Gi-ryeo, but…
Let me say again, I used to be the top genius mage in my hometown.
But could someone reach out from this faraway planet, surpassing such a great mage?
‘No way.’
That’s impossible.
As someone who stood at the forefront of all Magic Studies, I can assert that intergalactic travel for the Alphauri is 100% impossible.
They even struggled to observe Earth due to their technological limitations, and now they’ve supposedly created something called a Gate and affected our world?
Honestly, they’d need at least a few hundred more years to pull something like that off.
‘Besides, the Gate has been here since before I reincarnated, so the timeline doesn’t match up.’
Then who on Earth is the owner of the Gate?
Now there’s only one hypothesis left.
“Hm.”
I moved my arm and pulled out my phone from my pocket. Then I scrolled through the search bar and typed in a few words.
[Gate Monster Encyclopedia]
Sure enough, a few pictures appeared in the results.
‘Aha.’
Among them, a creature with blue joints caught my eye.
With just this single picture, I was convinced of the identity of those who created the Gate.
‘No doubt, those monsters are behind this.’
How should I express that group here?
Star wanderers?
Too poetic.
Nomads?
Pathetic.
After long deliberation, I decided to translate them as ‘Ki-simche.’
The ‘Ki’ means hunger (飢) and ‘simche’ refers to the heart (心).
In other words, they are a tribe hungry for human hearts.
And the main characteristic of these Ki-simche is…
To put it simply.
Earth is currently being parasitized by a peculiar group that roams the universe, feeding on the mental anguish of intelligent life forms. The end.
‘Absolutely.’
At first, I didn’t get it, but now that I think about it, their tactics to lure prey are quite similar.
The rare items found within the Gate? Anyone can see that it’s their baiting strategy!
Plus, the Ki-simche tend to create bait boxes based on the information from the planets they’ve passed through.
It seems that’s why materials and animals from Alphauri occasionally appeared in the Gate.
‘Goodness…’
Those invaders who once targeted my hometown are now threatening this land flowing with milk and honey.
But I’m sure they didn’t expect things to turn out this way.
‘Life is full of surprises.’
Why do I know so much about these Ki-simche?
Also, why did the invaders I met in Alphauri travel all the way to this distant solar system?
All answers converge into a single point.
Because they once came close to extinction on Alphauri.
To be precise…
By a Great Mage.
‘Hmph.’
I’m from the First Mage Commander of Alphauri.
My main duty was the defense of the planet.
So what do you think happened when a cosmic parasite visited the homeland of such a mage?
To summarize succinctly, that race faced mass slaughter at my hands.
No, saying ‘slaughter’ might be too harsh.
Still, they were the ones who trespassed into another’s territory first.
‘So they took a beating from me, and then they probably fled all the way to this distant galaxy.’
Ki-simche (飢心體).
Once you realize their true identity, the meaning of the Gate becomes clear.
As mentioned earlier, the Ki-simche nearly faced total annihilation because they crossed paths with me.
‘They must be cautious.’
The Gate serves as a kind of dining straw.
The Ki-simche deliberately create dungeons to keep distance from Earth.
If they casually exposed their main bodies, it could result in a massacre of their kind, just like before.
‘For now, they should stick to sipping through their straw.’
Considering their limitations.
I’m pretty sure that once I manage to seize a proper body, I can initiate a second massacre.
I decided to check the Hunter Market for some items using my phone.
[Search term: Dragon’s Lung]
[Search results: 0 items]
‘Darn.’
But seeing the situation unfold, it seems like my reunion with them will be far in the future.
*
The next day, at lunchtime.
About a day had passed since the iron-gate incident.
[Breaking news: The exploration of the 13th Month’s Maze in Africa, which had yet to return, ended in failure.]
I nonchalantly chewed on some potato chips while listening to the breaking news.
It wasn’t shocking news, after all.
‘Just like I enjoy these snacks, do the Ki-simche find the emotion of fear delicious?’
I had briefly researched their ecology before.
These Ki-simche have quite the picky appetite.
It’s surprising enough that they derive energy from others’ mental activities, but they downright prefer the pain and fear of living beings.
‘They treat joy as mere empty calories.’
Do you know what the purpose of the EX-Class Dungeon is?
Sure, it’s meant to test humanity’s intelligence, but a more critical role is to grasp the emotional structure of Earthlings.
What we love.
What we cherish.
They diligently build up this information to squeeze the host’s heart more harshly.
‘Hmph.’
However, looking at how they’re cautiously trying easy EX-Class Dungeons, it seems they haven’t been here long.
Maybe because they’ve studied it to death already, I just wasn’t interested.
I lazily finished off the remaining potato chips.
–Dding~ 🎊
But if a sound piqued my curiosity, it changes the game.
“Is that a text?”
Tick.
I grabbed the nearby phone to check the notification.
[From: Seo Esther]
[Please check your bank account. I just deposited the exploration share! (∩_∩)]
Well, well.
*
‘Esther often adds strange symbols after her texts, and I never really get what they mean.’
Pitter-pat. Pitter-pat.
Every step I took made a sound like breaking ice beneath my feet.
‘But if I ask out of the blue, I’d look like an alien…’
When I stepped outside, the street was already covered with a thick layer of snow.
The ice crystals falling from the sky.
Having observed nothing but submerged glaciers in my homeland, this spectacle was refreshing.
‘Oh, it’s still snowing.’
Kim Gi-ryeo strode forward, marveling at the falling snowflakes.
The sole reason for braving the cold was simple.
He intended to spend the deposited share immediately.
He just lacked funds. There were always countless items he wanted to buy.
‘The 3 billion I wrangled from the Association President, let’s consider it a bribe for the trash…’
Currently, his extra pocket money was about 200 million.
‘Should I buy more items to strengthen and have Gu Seo-hyeong work on them?’
He had become the 4th S-Class and his Hunter ranking skyrocketed, allowing him to freely stroll through the VIP Floor. Now, it was only a matter of spending money as he pleased.
However, the closer he got to the Hunter Market, the stranger the atmosphere became…
‘What’s with the line?’
Kim Gi-ryeo paused, eyeing the crowd clustered at the front gate.
But on a closer look, it didn’t seem like a line related to the market at all.
They had been simply milling about without much movement.
‘What day is it today?’
With an arched brow, Gi-ryeo passed by them.
“Oh.”
However, as he moved to the front, everything became clear.
At the end of the mysterious crowd stood the most famous Hunter in the country.
‘Jeong Ha-seong?’
Ha-seong was surrounded by people, discussing something, but I wasn’t particularly curious about their conversation.
Gi-ryeo casually tried to ignore the attention.
But then.
“-Hunter Gi-ryeo!”
Well, when Jeong Ha-seong spotted him, he suddenly exclaimed, surprising everyone with his enthusiastic greeting.
Gi-ryeo was taken aback momentarily, and then Ha-seong shyly approached, managing to utter a few words.
Did he return home safe yesterday?
Wasn’t it snowing a lot today?
Had he eaten yet?
To his surprise, the questions were quite unnutritious.
“Yeah.”
However, a scammer like me couldn’t allow a true S-Class to be slighted. So, Gi-ryeo forced himself to appear cooperative.
“Did you eat?”
“Oh, yes. I did…”
But lingering too long in this conversation was troublesome.
The young man with the black hair had been fumbling aimlessly from the start.
“Why? Do you have something more to say?”
Gi-ryeo finally urged him to get to the point.
Hearing that, Jeong Ha-seong finally brought up the main issue.
“Mr. Kim Gi-ryeo, would you consider joining our guild?”
But after hearing the first sentence, Gi-ryeo thought there was far too much omission in the process.
“What? Guild?”
“To be honest, I was thinking of inviting you right after we finished the 13th Month’s Maze. But it seems better to propose it now, like this, by chance.”
“……”
“Since I’ve caused some trouble, it feels unfair to ask you for a separate chat…”
Gi-ryeo cut him off for a moment. There was one thing he needed to confirm.
“Did you have a guild, Ha-seong?”
Then the number one ranked Hunter promptly answered back.
He was actually the representative of a company called [Garion].
It was quite different from typical guilds, as most employees were solely dedicated to supporting S-Class roles.
“If you join our guild, we can meet whatever conditions you desire.”
Ha-seong placed his hand over his heart and said.
“Of course, you’ll be prioritized in profit sharing as well.”
“Are you trying to hire me?”
“Ah! No, I was a bit hasty in my wording, but the guild would just assist you without taking any portions of the cost.”
He continued with quite an impassioned plea.
“To be more precise, I wish to work as a team with you, Mr. Kim Gi-ryeo.”
But, as you know, the blond man standing here was just a pretty shell.
Naturally, he didn’t have the ability to tackle gates where true S-Classes roamed.
Thus, Gi-ryeo was going to decline the offer, but the sudden flow made him blurt out an honest response instead.
“I appreciate the offer, but isn’t that going to be tough? Our skill levels are simply too different, you know…”
Pause.
Gi-ryeo realized his mistake almost after finishing that sentence.
He was the 4th S-Class.
So externally, he didn’t have a huge skill gap compared to the Hunter right in front of him!
‘Aaaah! I unconsciously compared based on my actual rank!’
However, once the words were out, they couldn’t be taken back.
In the past, he could have just wiped Ha-seong’s memory with some brainwashing spell, but in this F-Class body, he simply lacked the power to cast such magic.
Everything went blank for him.
So, in his flustered state, he used an age-old tactic.
“Ah, anyway, I’m busy so I’ll be going!”
He awkwardly navigated the conversation and executed the thirty-six stratagems of fleeing.
What would the end of an explanation lacking proper context look like?
Naturally, Gi-ryeo’s blunder caused a tremendous stir.
【 Hunternet > Free Board 】
[j*: Did I just see something?]
[k*: Weren’t they on bad terms??]
[블*: [Breaking News] Garion Guild Entry Cut-off S-Class [Breaking News] Garion Guild Entry Cut-off S-Class [Breaking News] Garion Guild Entry Cut-off S-Class]
However, the flow was slightly strange.
