Chapter 641
Thwack…!
Jinhyuk’s eyes gleamed as he held a blade in each hand.
Like a beast searching for prey.
Anyone would do, as long as they could help him draw out these weapons’ full potential.
Orun and Hephaestus flinched, lowered their eyes, and turned away.
Seeing them cower so obediently, it was clear they didn’t want to become the new blades’ prey.
Tch.
Too bad.
It would’ve been satisfying to slice up blacksmiths with bodies packed full of muscle.
Jinhyuk clicked his tongue and walked out of the smithy.
The moment he stepped outside, a cool night breeze brushed against his skin.
‘It’s definitely here somewhere….’
Someone skilled enough to test him, yet discreet enough to keep quiet even if they saw some of his abilities.
The candidates were very limited.
Jinhyuk moved slowly, sensing the mana around him.
He toyed with his newly acquired weapons, thinking about how to become stronger—how to face the primordial beings and those above them more effectively.
Then something struck him like lightning.
‘Could it be…!’
One of this dagger’s effects: Shylock’s Cruel Bargain.
It was tied to Shylock’s Unique Holy Spear—Shylock, the miserly merchant who ran a merchant guild like Rick.
If he used it, he might be able to greatly increase the success rate of his random boxes.
He’d planned to use it after buying other items that could manipulate probabilities, but perhaps he could move that timeline up.
He also had a trump card.
Jinhyuk’s thoughts raced as the possibilities snapped into place, forming a route that minimized variables and produced the best outcome.
Good.
That decided what he would do right now.
[Activating the First Blade’s special effect!]
Whoooong!
With a bright flash, the space in front of him split open horizontally.
A gaping crack.
A Balrog with a massive physique stepped through.
He wore a businesslike suit that looked pathetically close to bursting.
It was as if a game character had been brought to life.
In particular, the overwhelming pressure rolling off his five-meter frame made it hard to tell whether he was a businessman or a close-combat tank.
“Hmm. A sudden forced summoning… How unusual.”
Shylock wiped his glasses with a handkerchief.
For a moment, he looked flustered—pulled from his office mid-work and dropped into another space without warning.
Only for a moment.
After sweeping his eyes around and assessing the situation, he found the culprit.
“So that’s what happened. Player Kang Jinhyuk. Did you call me?”
“Hehehe. It just happened… more importantly, you know me?”
“If you haven’t heard your own name in the Tower of Trials, you’re a spy. Even the interns in my guild have heard of you.”
“Ahem. Well, I am a bit famous.”
“Not exactly a compliment… Still, meeting the center of the storm isn’t a complete waste of time. Of course, it would’ve been much better if you’d come to me from the start.”
Shylock’s lips twitched.
Jinhyuk roughly understood what he meant.
Shylock led the Infinite Wheel.
It was the second-largest merchant guild in the Tower, after Rick’s. They’d once been similar in size and power, but once Jinhyuk grew close to Rick, the balance tipped quickly.
It was proof of how much weight a high-ranking player carried.
“We can build a good relationship from now on. If you help me, of course.”
“Hmm. That’s a tempting offer.”
Shylock’s gaze dropped to the golden scales.
Ominous mana seeped up from the scales, their surface engraved with intricate patterns.
“Oh ho. This is….”
His eyes wavered.
And then—
Wild laughter erupted, echoing through the castle.
“Kekeke… Kehahahaha! Someone made this. Interesting. Really interesting.”
The gentle, gentlemanly merchant vanished. In his place stood a Balrog with vertically slit pupils, bristling hair, and a face consumed by madness.
“This contract can be a valuable treasure if used properly. But if you demand more than you deserve, even a god will risk their life. Are you truly confident you won’t regret it?”
“I’ll protect my own life, so don’t worry.”
“Good. Then let’s begin the deal.”
Shylock spread his hand. Withered skeleton statues rose from the ground.
Rumble!
Skeletons clutching massive books emerged from all directions, eerie light flickering from their eye sockets.
Rattle…
Black chains writhed as well, scraping and clattering.
A truly ominous restraint.
‘It’s troublesome, so I tried to avoid it if possible….’
He had made this contract in the past, but every time, it came with unpleasant experiences. More than once, the cost outweighed the reward.
But this time was different.
Jinhyuk pulled out a cube covered in ‘?’ from his subspace.
The SSS-Grade Random Box he’d received as a reward. A top-tier gacha item that could grant countless items, skills, or opportunities.
“Heh heh heh! I know what you’re thinking, but increasing the probability isn’t cheap. Especially for such a good box.”
Thud!
The moment the random box was placed on the scale, it tipped sharply to one side.
Jinhyuk immediately poured out every coin and mana stone he had onto the opposite side.
Rattle!
A huge amount of coins and mana stones spilled out.
Even so, the scale didn’t budge. It stayed tilted.
Damn it. It wasn’t like he was putting up a building.
To think the results of someone’s hard work amounted to only this much.
Shylock’s relaxed smile made it clear he’d expected it.
Jinhyuk wanted to wipe that expression off his face.
He took out Balmung from his subspace and set it on the scale.
Rumble!
This time, the scale rose noticeably.
“……What!”
Shylock’s eyes widened in surprise.
But it still wasn’t enough to reverse the situation.
The scale had partially balanced, but he’d still have to pay at least twice as much to get what he wanted.
‘But it’d be a loss to spend more than Balmung here….’
No matter what he could get from the random box, it wasn’t worth investing Frost Spirit’s Spear or any other item of similar value.
Then….
Jinhyuk wrote something on a slip of paper and placed it on the scale.
The paper fluttered down and landed softly.
In an instant, the scale tipped completely the other way.
No—more than that.
Crash!
The ground shattered beneath the paper, fragments bursting upward into the air.
It was an overwhelming imbalance unlike anything before.
“What… did you write?”
Shylock slowly reached for the paper. And the moment he read it, greed and excitement twisted across his face.
Yeah. Of course he’d be thrilled.
Jinhyuk bit his lip tightly.
‘A miser without blood or tears.’ ‘The owner of a major merchant guild.’ ‘The eternal runner-up’—Shylock had many nicknames.
But one of the lesser-known ones was ‘human experimenter.’
One of his main sources of income was experimenting with—and further refining—the many poisons and curses he developed or secretly acquired, then selling them to VVIPs for obscene prices.
For a top player in the Tower of Trials to offer up his own body as a test subject, it was naturally irresistible.
Shylock ran through the curses and poisons he’d recently acquired, imagining endless possibilities as he debated which to use first and what to test first.
And what he liked most was….
In this deal, if the subject died, he didn’t have to pay the price.
‘Manipulating probabilities isn’t cheap. I want that human’s body, but… what a shame.’
It was common for the head of a major merchant guild to have one or two trump items, and Shylock was no exception. He possessed a treasure that transcended the system’s boundaries.
He had gathered it with immense difficulty, spending thousands of years of effort.
But now, an opportunity had come—one that let him protect that treasure while still taking his profit.
“You mustn’t resent me even if you die?”
Shylock wore a bitter smile.
“You’re the one who can’t take back your words later.”
[The contract has been established.]
[The number of human experiments is 3 in total. If you survive all 3 attempts, you will be able to acquire the ‘Radiance-Devouring Gem’ held by Shylock!]
Rattle!
Chains wrapped tightly around the ankles of the two.
Now there was no way out.
⁕⁕⁕
In the dead of night, after the festival had ended and everyone was asleep, unfamiliar shadows appeared before the mansion where the Veteran Corporation members were staying.
“We have arrived.”
One of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse—the Horseman of Death—surveyed the area.
Strangely, there wasn’t a single guard around the mansion.
Not Lee Taemin’s drones, not Teresa’s Sanctuary, not even one of the many Ataraxia vampires Alice commanded.
That was inevitable.
This place had already been cleared by a single monster.
“You’re late.”
A handsome man with white hair stepped out of the darkness.
Velus.
Alice’s right-hand man, and the de facto second-in-command of Ataraxia.
“The defenses were surprisingly tight, so it took some time.”
Unknown brushed the dust off his body and continued.
“Where’s Alice?”
“She’s sleeping quietly in her room. The surrounding blood relatives have also been taken care of neatly.”
“Indeed, you have excellent skills for someone who isn’t an operator. It seems the choice to join forces instead of eliminating you was the right one.”
“You flatter me. From the start, I didn’t want to walk the same path as those outdated fools. Stagnant water eventually rots.”
Velus smiled and extended his palm toward the mansion.
The door inside stood wide open.
The intruders slipped in at once and split into two groups.
Unknown and two Horsemen headed to Teresa.
Velus and two Horsemen headed to Alice.
They kept the noise to a minimum, moving quietly—prioritizing surprise and the objective over a full-scale battle.
But the moment each group entered their respective bedrooms—
An unbelievable sight unfolded.
“I’ve been waiting.”
“You’ve come.”
Alice and Teresa faced the intruders, fully armed.