Rust - Chapter 61



Only Krnovel

RUST [RUST]-61

Maru hugged the sword tightly.

I felt the hard sheath. The feeling of the cold blade hidden within that hardness. The confidence that I could pull it out at any time and survive anywhere. The feeling of being alive. The feeling of being able to live. That was the feeling the sword gave me. When did it start?

‘Why did you tell me?’

‘I will not forget the favor. Whether intentional or not, Mr. Maru helped me catch Director Kim Soo-hyun, and it is true that I was able to save a lot of energy because he helped me get rid of Executive Director Choi and his direct subordinates.’

That alone wasn’t enough. If he had literally stopped the treatment in the middle, he would have died. In vain, due to the unfamiliar symptom called cytokine storm.

‘Hotel Charlotte, this Sim Eun-young remembers Eun-won. And now. Just as I remembered Eun-won, I hope the other person remembers the favor toward me.’

Maru pulled out his sword a little.

SKING – The blade was pulled out with a squeaking sound.

The old man’s knife was certainly a good knife. It was probably custom-made using special steel. It had some dents, but it wasn’t completely damaged to the point of being unusable.

Eeeeeee-ing-

It seemed as if President Sim Eun-young’s face was reflected on the shaking blade.

‘Test results. Maru-ssi can exert 3-4 times more strength than ordinary people. He will probably be able to exert greater power in the short term. And in return for this powerful increase in physical ability, he expends a tremendous amount of energy.’

That was the secret behind the sudden increase in food intake.

‘If the amount of food you eat has increased, it’s not a big problem. The important problem is that if you exert yourself for a certain amount of time, you will fall into an extremely dangerous situation. To explain, if the time you increase your physical ability is long and passes a certain point, your body will collapse on its own.’

Was it rhabdomyolysis? The name of the symptoms that occur when you exercise too hard. It was a more serious symptom that progresses rapidly. Muscles melt, organs are damaged and destroyed, and the body collapses in an instant.

‘That’s a problem, but it’s also a problem when immunity and regenerative power suddenly jump around. The moment the delicate balance is disturbed, the strengthened immunity attacks the body, and the regenerative power overreacts to the injured area.’

‘For example, let’s think about a case where a blood vessel cell is attacked by a white blood cell and damaged. What would happen if the enhanced regenerative power rapidly regenerates the damaged blood vessel and makes it thicker? The blood vessel would narrow. Eventually, the blood vessel would become blocked.’

So, what this means is that the strengthened immune system attacks itself, and the similarly strengthened regenerative power messes up the regeneration process, leading to self-destruction.

Maru pulled out all the swords he had pulled out.

Choreok!-

Eeeeeeeing-

Transparent swords scattered throughout the room.

======

======

Manager Lee Ki-young had a hard time guessing the intentions of the female president. It was definitely a good opportunity. A chance to put a leash on it, or a chance to get rid of it.

But since he was giving out ‘information’ so coolly, it was good that the ‘favor’ was certain. That meant that the ‘reward’ would also be certain. However, it was good that the ‘reward’ was certain only under one roof. Is there a need to give a reward when they are not the same family? And that’s information that is life-threatening?

Although it was not an enemy, he was a little frustrated as to why he had so easily handed over information to something that might swing its sword at any moment. Perhaps reading the manager’s frustration, Sim Eun-young spoke softly.

“Is it that frustrating?”

“Huh? No. I just didn’t understand.”

‘Understand… Right, I understand, don’t you?’

Is it true that humans drift between understanding and misunderstanding? Sim Eun-young smiled brightly.

In a capitalist society, understanding and misunderstanding were not the essence of the situation. The essence that came before understanding and misunderstanding was profit and loss. If it was profitable, it was understood. If it was detrimental, it was misunderstood. So Sim Eun-young thought that an explanation was necessary for the slightly old-fashioned vassal.

“If you refer to that person as ‘it’ as the manager said, do you think ‘it’ would be able to wear a leash and stay quiet?”

At Shim Eun-young’s question, Manager Lee thought. That thing is just sitting there with a leash on? Ah- Manager Lee understood. The moment you put a leash on it, it’s like setting up a time bomb.

“And how long do you think the information we know will be valid? Sooner or later, he will realize something is wrong, and he will think of us who have been examined for treatment. What if he misunderstands then? ‘At the Hotel Charlotte, they knew something and hid it.’”

Hehehehehe- Manager Lee Ki-young couldn’t help but laugh inwardly.

It’s the worst. If you think that he hid his weakness even though he knew about it? Why would he do that? Was it to hit him in the back of the head? That’s probably how you would judge it.

“And what if he came into contact with another conglomerate or government agency in World or Korea and got tested and found out his condition? Hotel Charlotte?”

“I see. My thinking was short-sighted.”

“Yes. Given our current situation, I think telling him the truth is the best course of action.”

“Sometimes, ‘honesty is the best policy.’”

Manager Lee Ki-young had no choice but to nod at Sim Eun-young’s soft voice.

“That doesn’t mean we have to just sit back and do nothing. Now that we’ve made the offer, let’s see how they respond.”

======

======

“Wow- I- I’m speechless.”

A guy who was alive and well in a place where swords danced and bullets flew suddenly got hit by a psychocaine storm and almost crossed the Jordan River? Maru corrected Ki-soon’s panic.

“It’s not psychocaine, it’s cytokine. And it’s not the Jordan River, it’s the Samdo River.”

Ki-sun’s eyes became squinty.

“So, what I’m saying is, if you had been unlucky with either psychokines or cytokines, you would have died.”

“Even if I say it myself, that’s true.”

Ki-sun patted her chest at Maru’s calm answer.

“Okay, keep up the good work. If you do a little more, I’ll go crazy and die before I can live my life. Anyway, you’re saying that you have to eat well, right? You’re saying that you shouldn’t overdo it. What kind of martial arts is this? You have to hide 30% of it.”

Fortunately, the Hotel Charlotte helped us procure and ship food, so we were able to maintain a more bountiful table for longer than planned.

“Rather than that, read this.”

Maru handed the file to Ki-sun. As soon as he opened the file, Ki-sun started nagging him while reading it.

“Why did a guy who almost died come out so early? Shouldn’t he just have stayed in the hospital room and recuperated today?”

Maru touched his forearm. His forearm was clean, as if he had never been hurt. The deep wounds that required more than 20 stitches had disappeared without a trace. The wounds on his thigh, shin, and shoulder were the same. Remember Eunwon? Maru thought, Eunwon is not easy.

“A proposal? Charlotte Hotel CEO Sim Eun-young wants to entrust us with a request? Weren’t we supposed to just end it by not being hostile to her?”

“It’s just a suggestion, and the reason why I made that suggestion is written in detail, so read it all the way through and think about it. I’m complicated too.”

Ki-sun’s eyes darted left and right. How many times did he exclaim in admiration and exclamation as the documents fluttered? Ki-sun closed the file and made a dumbfounded expression.

“Wow- The CEO is no joke. She’s fucking scary- Shit. This is what it’s like to be the CEO of Charlotte Group. Wow, if only I had quit a long time ago. I would have been thinking like this too, wouldn’t I?”

Ki-soon slowly pushed the file away as if she was looking at something terrible.

“So what do you think?”

“No- what the hell. What are you going to do with this big sister who’s got it all planned out? What are you thinking while you’re doing this?”

Is that so? Maru instinctively knew that he had to sympathize with Gi-sun at times like this. When Maru nodded, Gi-sun’s mouth exploded.

“What is that called? Yeah, a critical state. When that happens, you need to take an antidote? A purifying agent to get out of the emergency situation, but there’s not much of it, and you have to go to the pharmaceutical company headquarters in Tokyo, Japan to get the recipe? You have to get the recipe for the medicine you’re going to take, but they told you to go while you’re in Japan. Don’t go. This can’t be happening.”

“······.”

“And to open the door to that pharmaceutical company’s underground confidential storage room, you need to bring one person.”

“······.”

Ah- Really. You are an amazing older sister. Really. Ki-soon scratched her head. But there was merit in another aspect.

“This is really about buying a yacht from a senior and incorporating it into the Hotel Charlotte corporation. Wow, I can’t believe I thought of that in such a short amount of time.”

If you become a Charlotte Group ship, it will be easy to get around Japan. Even if you encounter a Japanese patrol ship, it will be difficult to do anything about the Charlotte Group ship. Do you take relief supplies from the Charlotte Group? This is relief supplies from a Korean individual. The difficulty of passing this will be very different.

This was especially true when I thought about the Japanese police who arrested Koreans carrying cash during the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. But I couldn’t just leave the Japanese police alone when they asked me to open my luggage, so they started stabbing me.

“I thought we wouldn’t run into each other because they say Japan’s security is in shambles, but we definitely run into each other. Whether it’s the Self-Defense Forces or the police. Considering that possibility, I think I need Charlotte’s business card.”

The identity of the woman who was told to take him there with her was a shadow warrior. In other words, she was a stand-in for President Sim Eun-young. Judging from the fact that she was to think of herself as President Sim Eun-young herself from the moment she landed in Japan, it seemed like she was trying to send a stand-in to Japan to crack down on internal affairs. She also took the pharmaceutical company’s confidential storage room as a side job.

In any case, it was true that it was convenient to go to Japan as a bodyguard escorting CEO Sim Eun-young on the surface.

“We can get help from the yakuza under the boss. If necessary, we can mobilize our forces, so there will be less danger for us.”

So, the problem was that there was no particular reason to refuse the request. It felt like I was asking for it while keeping an eye on the situation.

“Ah- This. There’s really nothing to find fault with.”

Ki-soon scratched her head again. But this is really. Something is really. It’s creepy. Judging from the way the boss acts, she’s probably not the type to cheat, but she’s not the type to tell everything either.

Wooooow

Wooooow

Ki-soon’s cell phone vibrated. It was the secretary’s office at the Charlotte Hotel.

“Yes. This is Kim Ki-sun.”

[We have secured the two Argo amphibious vehicles and two amphibious quad skis you mentioned. We will deliver them to you right away, so please check them when you receive them.]

Oh- It really only took half a day?

[The president has sent additional medical supplies, first aid kits, and even a solar charger for emergency power generation. I would appreciate it if you could check it together.]

“Ah. Yes, thank you.”

The boss is really hot and fast, but…

“So what do you think?”

“Wow, no matter how much I think about it, the boss’s older sister is top-level.”

Ki-soon shook her head.

“You’re being treated like this, and even having your mouth brushed is weird. By the way, is that medicine you’re told to use in case of emergency safe? You’re not going to get your nose pierced with it, are you?”

“If I move with about a 30% margin of error like you said, there won’t be any major problems, so I don’t think I’ll need to use medicine, right?”

“Did you give a detailed explanation?”

“Yes. It’s a kind of neutralizer, an antidote. I’m using it now and it’s gotten a lot better.”

Ki-soon nodded at Maru’s answer.

“It’s not addictive, is it?”

“It’s about detoxifying and neutralizing the side effects of the medication. My condition is similar to the side effects of the medication.”

Ki-sun’s eyes narrowed.

“Fuck- somehow. I thought you were acting out of your mind. You must have taken some drugs somewhere. When you were setting yourself on fire and shucking and making a scene, I should have known it was drugs.”

*quietly

It has the meaning of ‘hesitating slightly in embarrassment’, ‘hiding slightly in embarrassment’.

It is not a word used now./