Player who Returned 10,000 years Later
chapter-77

Hong JunTae…

He was a Korean politician who had a lot of influence and authority.

Baek HwaYeon frowned at his sudden appearance.

"A petition... What do you mean?"

"We just submitted a petition. We cannot let you have that legendary-rank equipment."

"This item was acquired by the Hwarang Squad while doing a mission. Leader Jang HyunJae is the one who has authority over it, and he has recognized the contribution of player Oh KangWoo."

"He awakened as a player only a few months ago! What contribution are you talking about? Baek HwaYeon... Didn't you do this to obtain the legendary-rank equipment?"

He looked at Bae HwaYeon with suspicion.

Baek HwaYeon's expression hardened.

"What are you talking about?!"

"Hng. You greedy young people always shout like that. How dare you take us as idiots just because you're in charge of the Hwarang Third Squad? Did you think we don't know what that item is worth?!"

"I've said it numerous times, he did enough to be worth of receiving this as a reward!"

"How dare you say such bullshit!!!" Hong JunTae angrily shouted.

"Anyway, the petition has passed, and the President said I should investigate if there was any corruption in the rewarding process."

"Ugh."

Although the Hwarang Squad was part of the government, they were an independent organization.

But even if they were independent, they couldn't go against the President's orders.

JunTae acted as if he were looking around, and then he finally looked at the Black Pearl Coat.

A legendary-rank item with a price that couldn't even be estimated.

You could see his eyes fill with greed. While turning his eyes from the coat, he spoke to himself loudly as if he wanted someone else to hear what he was saying to himself.

"Tsk. What a mindless bunch of people. This is why they put the blame on someone as great as Mr. Kim JaeHyun."

"He's a criminal who offered living people as offerings to the Demon Cult…"

"Hng! How can we be sure of that? Maybe you fabricated the evidence."

"Congressman Hong!"

Hong JunTae moved his hands as if he didn't want to hear anything.

"Anyway, I already ordered an investigation, so don't even think of escaping."

He was speaking as if something shady had really happened.

KangWoo, who was listening to the conversation between the two, smirked.

'So he used to receive gifts from Kim JaeHyun.'

It was easy to see why Hong JunTae was acting in that way.

KangWoo could smell the greediness.

Hong JunTae, who was looking around, walked toward KangWoo.

"You're that rookie of the Red Rose Guild? Don't get hurt while being greedy. Just shut the fuck up and stay that way. Understood?"

He raised his hands and tapped KangWoo's cheeks.

"Oof..."

KangWoo couldn't help but laugh at Hong JunTae's attitude.

KangWoo wasn't someone who was going to remain silent after being treated like that.

'You should answer evil with an even greater evil.'

—That was how he had survived for over ten thousand years.

KangWoo spoke in a low voice.

"What a noisy dumbass."

"What...?"

"How old are you? How dare a kid touch an adult's cheeks?"

"..."

Hong JunTae didn't know what to say to KangWoo's words.

It didn't matter how you looked at him, KangWoo was in his twenties.

Then why was suddenly he talking as if he were the older one?

"Has this guy gone mad…?"

"Guy? Did you say ‘guy’? Ha, what a rude bastard. What did your parents do to raise such a rude kid?"

"Auch!"

KangWoo grabbed Hong JunTae's cheeks.

Although he'd grabbed them softly, players had bodies that went beyond the superhuman.

—That's why they had different criteria about what was soft.

When he let him go, Hong JunTae fell to the ground.

"Y-you crazy bastard!"

Hong JunTae's face had become red. He grabbed the back of his neck and shouted to his bodyguards.

"What are you all doing?! Grab that guy!"

He had put his hands on a congressman…

They could even kill him and say it had been done for safety concerns.

The four men behind Hong JunTae started to move.

Swipe-

They each took out their weapons.

'So the four of them are warrior-types?'

Because they were in charge of the protection of a congressman, you could easily see that they weren't your average players.

'It seems like they all have finished the sixth Awakening.'

Even so, for someone like KangWoo, who had strength above that of a ranker, they were nothing.

"Ha-ab!"

The man in front charged toward him.

The weapon he had was a gauntlet, and he targeted KangWoo's head with gauntlets that had thorns.

Tap-

* * *

"Hmm?"

It was a soft movement as if he was catching a baseball. The man put more strength into his arm while frowning.

"Wh-what?"

He couldn't move. It was as if he was stuck between rebars. KangWoo grabbed his hands and pulled him in; then hit him with his knee.

Paf-!!

"Cough!!"

The man bent down, and blood spurted out of his mouth. The man ended up losing consciousness.

"Wh-what the...?"

Hong JunTae paled.

His bodyguards were high-level players who had finished the seventh Awakening.

There was no way someone who had become a player only two months before then could win against them.

"Should I help?"

"No. It's been a bit since I warmed up, so…"

Unlike Hong JunTae, Chae YeonJoo was calm.

It was as if she knew that things would turn out like that.

"Wh-what are you doing?! Isn't he a member of the Red Rose Guild? If you don't stop him, I will ensure you get involved in this incident!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, but KangWoo isn't a guild member, so I cannot give him orders," Chae YeonJoo said with a smirk on her face while raising both hands.

"Wh-what are you…?"

Smash-! Slam! Boom!

"Cough!"

Before Hong JunTae could come to his senses, the battle was almost over.

KangWoo used the Authority of Divine Power to throw all of the bodyguards across the room.

The bodyguards were thrown into the wall and screamed in pain and lost consciousness.

"They weren't even good enough for warming up."

KangWoo clicked his tongue in disappointment and walked toward Hong JunTae in a relaxed manner.

"Hiic! D-don't get close to me!"

"Ho. This is why someone who’s young shouldn't be greedy."

KangWoo crouched in front of Hong JunTae and looked him in the eyes.

"Hmm? When I was young, working honestly and hard was the only answer. Working hard! I lived only by believing in that one thing."

"..."

Hong JunTae frowned.

"It hurts me when I see young people these days..."

"Y-you! Are you making fun of me?!"

"Making fun? Do you think I'm playing right now? I'm giving you some honest advice. How dare you answer like that."

"Y-you m...!"

Hong JunTae trembled in anger.

He was going crazy because of KangWoo treating him as if he were a little kid.

"I'm sixty this year! Sixty!!"

"Sixty?"

KangWoo smirked.

"Not only has the blood on your head not dried up, but your head hasn't even formed yet."

"Y-you!!"

Hong JunTae swung his fist toward KangWoo.

Leaving age aside, he wasn't even a player, so there was no way he could deal damage to KangWoo.

Paf-!!

"AAGGHH!"

Hong JunTae screamed in pain.

It seemed like the bones of his fingers had broken. He was crying while holding his hand.

"Does it hurt?"

"Sniff."

"You're still young—that's why it hurts. This pain will definitely make you grow."

Hong JunTae, who didn't know if he should get angry or scream in pain, twisted his body around.

"Oof. So what are you going to do about this?"

Chae YeonJoo walked toward him.

"You know you've done something serious, right?"

He had touched a congressman.

In a sense, it could be something more serious than having touched Kim JaeHyun.

"It's okay. I have ways to solve this."

"Are you going to blow away his memories like you did with Kim YeongHoon...?"

"That could be a way, but if I did that, we wouldn't be able to solve the petition issue."

"Then what are you planning to do...?"

"You'll see."

KangWoo placed his hand on top of Hong JunTae's head. The demonic energy from the Ten Thousand Demon Core was concentrated in his hand.

His expression turned serious because he was using a very difficult Authority.

"Cough! Cough! Wh-what did you do—"

He had finished the Authority. Hong JunTae looked around while grabbing his head.

"But nothing changed?"

Chae YeonJoo looked at Hong JunTae with a confused expression.

"How much money did you receive from Kim JaeHyun in bribes?"

"It started six years ago, I received two million USD each year... Huh?! Wh-what am I saying?!"

Hong JunTae's eyes widened, and he covered his mouth with his hand.

But that didn't stop him from talking.

"On top of that, I received 1.3 million USD a few days ago to help conglomerates evade taxes..."

His explanation kept going on.

Even one of those things being revealed to the media would be enough to destroy his life as a politician.

"This..."

"I made him be able only to speak the truth."

KangWoo looked down at Hong JunTae, who kept going on about how many bribes he'd received.

Although he kept saying it wasn't real, his true self was really pathetic.

" N-no! This isn't true!"

His face pale, Hong JunTae ran out of the room.

Chae YeonJoo looked at KangWoo in disbelief.

"But... He only has to remain silent to bypass this... Right?"

"No way. I obviously thought of that. I made it so he can't resist telling the truth."

"Why did you do that?"

She looked at him, confused.

KangWoo probably had other ways to stop the report.

"What would happen if the representative of a political party became a whistleblower? Once that happens, all sorts of corruption cases related to big corporations or guilds will come to light. Then, we can stop all cases of people trying to meddle in our business."

It wasn't just a bomb…

Something similar to a plague would happen in the political world.

"..."

"Why?"

"U-uhm... KangWoo... You said that all sorts of corruption would be revealed... Right?"

"Yes, indeed."

KangWoo nodded.

Chae YeonJoo avoided his eyes anxiously.

"If… if that happens... I'll also be in trouble."

"What?"

"H... How I investigated you... How I gave a player who hadn't reached the seventh Awakening an S-rank gate permit... Oh, also, Echidna was her name? That girl's ID..."

"..."

KangWoo remained silent.

He felt that he'd received a message that said, 'you've just killed your teammate.'

KangWoo turned around to the door that Hong JunTae had left open.

A clean and clear Korea?

At that moment, he realized he had made a huge mistake.

"Grab that bastard!"

A clean and clear Korea didn’t suit him well.