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After saying goodbye to Naeyong Choi, Taehyun left the school campus. In the past, he truly believed that one couldn’t do anything in society without a high school diploma. But not anymore.

His current priority was to learn more about his Devour skill. ‘Is it related to the King somehow?’ The crimson-haired man had remained leisurely even in front of the SSS-Rank monster, Asmodeus. The meaningful message left behind by the King implied that they may meet again, but he didn’t know the man’s name, skills, or what he even was.

Taehyun shook his head, he needed to focus on the matters at hand. ‘Three days until the gate break. I need to get into shape before then.’ 

The April 4th incident was an A-Rank gate break. Hyuksoo Bae was but a boy, not even an official Player, so he was able to deal with him easily. ‘But the monsters of the Abyss are on an entirely different level.’ It was common knowledge that fighting even the weakest Abyss monsters would be a challenge without a proper combat skill.

Upgrading his status page was essential for his future plans. Unlike the default status page which only displays the rank and skills owned, an upgraded status page displays physical abilities and mana as statistics, just like a player inside a game.

‘Is the license test in 2 months?’ Obtaining a Players’ Association license granted a free upgrade, but he couldn’t wait that long. ‘I need to quickly learn more about the power I obtained. I also need to be wary of running into the Yvelians.’

Yvelians. Those who used their awakened powers with ill intentions. Before Taehyun had regressed, there were many Yvelians in action, and countless Players and civilians had lost their lives at their hands.

They weren’t limited to just New Korea. Monsters and Yvelians were enemies to everyone on humanity’s side, and that should still be the case even now.

“Attracting attention will come after getting stronger.” As he thought of the many rookies who had lost their lives in vain, Taehyun came to a stop.

He was standing in front of a house containing memories of his past. “This place is still the same as ever.” The house he had lived in from his third year of middle school to his third year of high school.

His aunt’s house.

After entering the password, he stepped into the house with a habitual greeting, “I’m back.” There was a musty smell in the house as if it had poor ventilation. “They must have been rushing again.”

His aunt worked at night in a restaurant, and his uncle at a construction site. Though they struggled financially, they were kind enough to take in Taehyun. They had treated him, who had never awakened his powers, like their own son. However, quite unfortunately, they never managed to able to escape this state of poverty.

‘Aunt. Uncle. I’ll pay back all the kindness you gave me this time.’ He promised himself that in this life, things would not only be different for himself but also for those who sacrificed themselves for him.

“Aunt and Uncle will be coming home late... and is Jaeyoung not coming in today either?” Passing the familiar space, he opened the door to his room. His possessions were scattered messily across the room, and the posters of star Players taped onto the walls came into view.

“Right, I used to have a dream.” Believing that one day, he would awaken his powers, he studied countless skills and techniques. Those around him mocked his efforts, saying it was useless, but he hadn’t given up on his dream for ten full years. And through that tenacity, he became a porter despite being unawakened, so it wasn’t completely useless.

“Just wait and see, I’ll catch up in the blink of an eye.” Taehyun balled his fists as he stared at the S-Rank Players on the posters.

He was currently E-Rank, but since he had no difficulty defeating Hyuksoo Bae, a C-Rank Awakened, his actual combat power should be similar to that of a B-Rank Awakened.

“An E-Rank that’s similar in strength to a B-Rank. I might be the strongest E-Rank Awakened to exist.” Smiling to himself, he turned on his ancient laptop. Though he had regressed, it was impossible to remember everything. So he planned to recollect his memories using news articles.

Bee-be-beep. Just then, he heard the front door opening. ‘Is Aunt already back?’ With the sound of floorboards creaking, the footsteps headed towards the bedrooms.

Standing up from his seat, Taehyun left the room. “Are you back already, aun...”

“Holy fuck! You scared me!” Taehyun narrowed his eyes at the unexpected curses directed at him. There was only one bastard who talked to him like this in this household.

Jaeyoung Hwang. His aunt’s one and only immature son, and his cousin. A menace.

“What are you doing?” Seeing that Jaeyoung was hiding something behind his back, Taehyun let out a sigh. He now remembered the commotion that happened when this bastard stole his aunt’s savings and ran away.

‘That was April 1st, wasn’t it?’ It was an unforgettable event, as that money had been saved up for Taehyun’s college tuition.

“Hey, it’s none of your business, so buzz off.”

“Sigh…” Taehyun let out another sigh. He didn’t plan to go to college anyway, now that things have changed. So, in that sense, Taehyun didn’t need that money. However, Taehyun wasn’t the type of person who would ignore wrongdoings happening in front of him.

‘He was cuter when he was younger. This is why you shouldn’t hang out with bad influences.’ Internally clicking his tongue, Taehyun ignored the other boy’s remark and stepped into the room.

Jaeyoung hadn’t been like this from the start. There had been a time when the boy was timid and stuck close to Taehyun, calling him Hyung. But being unintentionally neglected by his busy parents, with Taehyun getting swept up in his own troubles, Jaeyoung ended up straying into the wrong path.

‘He fought with me several times, too.’ Recalling the bad memories, Taehyun couldn’t help but sigh once more and shake his head.

Seeing that, Jaeyoung shouted angrily, “Didn’t you hear me? I said to buzz off!”

“Sigh... Jaeyoung, do your…” Taehyun had just begun to speak when another voice came from outside.

“Hey! Jaeyoung Hwang! Hurry up!”

“How long is he going to make us wait?”

“We’re losing patience now~”

The deep voices did not sound like they belonged to those of Jaeyoung's age.

“Damn it!” Hearing the calls, Jaeyoung flinched in surprise and rushed out. Taehyun followed after him and found three boys around his age wearing leather jackets. Their expressions hardened when they met Taehyun’s eyes, as though they hadn’t expected another person to be inside the house.

“Hey, I thought you said no one was home.”

“Who is that?”

“Ah, you don’t need to worry about it. He’s just a cousin that’s mooching off of us.”

“Ah~ The loser that didn’t awaken his powers?” Realizing who he was, they began to snicker loudly. An unawakened. That term alone removed any wariness they had of Taehyun.

“Did you get the money?” The boy who seemed to be the leader of the group extended his hand, asking Jaeyoung.

“Here it is. This should be enough for the application fee and three months’ worth of membership fees.” Jaeyoung handed him the envelope in his hand.

“Oh~ Jaeyoung, my boy. Welcome to the group.”

“You’re now a member of the Back Cross.” The other two boys patted Jaeyoung’s shoulders proudly.

Watching such a scene, Taehyun couldn’t help but laugh. “This is hilarious.”

“What?”

“Hey, I’m not hearing things right now, am I?”

Unlike the other two boys, who instantly glowered at him, the leader who had been counting the money smirked. “Oi, Mister Jaeyoung’s cousin. What did you just say?” The bastard who was talking to him in a mixture of a polite and aggressive tone looked at most around his early twenties. Taehyun didn’t like the mean look on his face.

“Tch.” Finding no worth in answering, Taehyun clicked his tongue and scanned the three guys he determined were thugs. Looking at their wiry bodies, they didn’t seem to have done any physical training.

“Hey, Taehyun Kim! Are you out of your mind?” Unlike Taehyun, who was completely calm, Jaeyoung shouted at him in confusion.

But Taehyun just walked towards the thugs without any hesitation. “Hey. It was fun, wasn’t it? Playing gangster. You think the world is so easy because you make kids steal their parent’s pocket money, don’t you?”

“You little...”

“That’s a lot of yapping from a fucking unawakened!”

Loser, unawakened. In the past, he didn’t get involved in any matters because he was tired of being called those names. He just had to endure it until he awakened his powers. To keep quiet until he had the strength to fight back.

But that had never been the case. Once he kept quiet, he became accustomed to that state, and that attitude had remained up until his death. He wanted to be different this time.

“Jaeyoung Hwang, did you really take Aunt’s hard-earned money just to play gangster?”

“Shut it, loser!” Jaeyoung shouted back, but Taehyun smoothly ignored him. The answer was clear, anyway. And the same seemed to be the case for the so-called Back Cross thugs. “I think Mister Boomer here is being a bit harsh, don’t you think?”

“That uniform, you’re from Gungook High, aren’t you? Sigh... I heard they’re all four-eyed nerds over there. No wonder their guys are out of line,” the thugs snickered amongst themselves.

Slipping the envelope containing the money into his jacket’s inner pocket, the leader asked Jaeyoung, “Hey Jaeyoung Hwang, decide. Are you joining the group or not?”

His cold gaze made Jaeyoung flinch. “O-Of course I’m joining.”

“Really?” He grinned. “Then it’s alright for me to beat this guy up, right?”

“Wait... That’s…” But the other guys were faster.

[Skill usage detected. Afflicted with Bind (D). Resisting with unidentified power. Resistance successful.]

Looking at the message that popped up, Taehyun whistled internally. Bind. Though its strength differed by rank, it was a skill with many uses; always making the top rankings in the annual statistics for the most exploited skills.

‘D-Rank, huh? So he’s strong enough to act like a thug.’ But what was more important than that was the fact that Taehyun was resisting the effects of the skill.

Just then, two more messages appeared.

[Skill usage detected. Afflicted with Poison (D). Resisting with unidentified power. Resistance successful.]

[Skill usage detected. Afflicted with Bleeding (C). Resisting with unidentified power. Resistance successful.]

He’ll need to see whether this was related to the Devour skill later. Right now, he had to educate the guys in front of him first.

Bind, Poison, and Bleeding. They were all curse-type skills that had no physical form. ‘That’s even better.’ It would be a good chance to check whether Devour was able to absorb curse-type skills as well. However, his plan was met with an unexpected problem.

[Unable to use Devour due to lack of stamina. Cooldown: 50 Hours, 58 Minutes, 55 Seconds.]

‘What? Why is the cooldown so long?’ He only had a moment to think about the matter.

The thugs also seemed to have questions.

“Hey, are you sure you used your skill?”

“Gimme a second. It’s been a while since I’ve used it.”

Ignoring their conversation, Taehyun activated his other skill, Stone Skin.

[Skill Stone Skin has been activated. Duration: 10 minutes.]

10 minutes. Though they were both E-Rank skills, the mana they each cost was on a completely different scale. It was easy to see just how difficult it was to handle the Devour skill.

‘Interesting.’ If it had been easy to handle, it would have been that much easier to fall from its effects. In that case, it was not a bad idea to slowly build up his experience from the ground up.

Though it wasn’t on Hyuksoo Bae’s level, where the stone emerged on the surface of his skin, he could feel that his body had hardened.

“What? This guy looks completely fine. Are you sure the skill worked?”

“Hey, there hasn’t been a single person that our curses haven’t worked on.” Unlike the two lackeys, the leader’s eyes narrowed, realizing that something wasn’t right.

“Hey... He’s just bluffing. He’ll fall right over if we just touch him like thi...”

Punch! Thud. In an instant, the guy who had been walking towards Taehyun collapsed after taking a hit. He was knocked unconscious by a single punch.

“…” Taehyun hadn’t been expecting such strength. Even though the skill had decreased to E-Rank in accordance with his mana rank, it was still this powerful.

'This is pretty cool.’ Feeling his stone-hard fist, the corner of Taehyun’s lips curled upward. It seemed like it wouldn’t be long before he’d be able to upgrade his status page.

Notes:

1. Hyung (literal meaning: “older brother”) is a Korean term used by a younger male to call an older male friend or brother.