CH 162

“Oh, what’s that?”

“It’s some sort of spell to move across the water, I think… but he’s moving so fast. It looks like he’s a mage, so he must be using a spell, right?”

“Dang, he’s sure moving with flair. Seems like he’s an expert.”

“There’s a user like that?”

Unlike when he hid under another party’s boat to move around, Merlin openly zigzagged past the boats. Like a figure skater, Merlin glided across the surface of the water, and his speed was so fast that the boats couldn’t catch up, so he obviously gained everyone’s attention.

“It seems I’ve arrived.”

Merlin could see a shimmer from afar as a large group of gem fish approached the area where the users were gathered.

Whoosh.

Merlin pounced and shot toward the school of fish before anyone else could react. Unlike before, he now moved with half his body submerged in the water.

“What’s up with that guy? He doesn’t face any water resistance?”

“Is he an elementalist?”

“Regardless of what he’s doing or who he is, won’t he die if he collides with the fish? Perhaps he doesn’t know what’s happening because he didn’t participate in yesterday’s event.”

The largest gem fish was nearly three meters long, so the force it could post was substantial. Gems were relatively heavy minerals, to begin with, and when such a vast number of them were grouped together, the force generated would be greater than any car accident. The event yesterday, or 12 days in DIO, had over a thousand boats sunk due to the damage caused by the gem fish. However, before Merlin met the gem fish head-on, the surrounding currents changed.

Boom!

“Huh? W-what’s that?”

“Eh?”

Rather than hit Merlin, the gem fish started slamming into each other. Merlin had split the currents into two and made them flow toward one another. In doing so, Merlin was able to make the gem fish in each current collide.

Bam!

Boom!

In just ten seconds, thousands of gem fish turned into gems and floated to the surface. As event monsters, the fish would instantly become gems when they took a certain amount of damage. The gem fish had a great amount of momentum behind their collision, causing masses of gems to appear on the surface.

“G-get the gems!”

“But those are….”

“Shut it! Finders keepers!”

The boats nearest to the front started moving. They assumed that Merlin wouldn’t be able to pick up the thousands of gems strewn across the surface. However, at that moment, all the gems began gravitating towards one place, as if they were iron shavings being attracted to a strong magnet. Every gem headed for the inside of Merlin’s robe.

Whoosh!

“What… just happened?!”

“Dang….”

The tens of thousands of users who saw the scene couldn’t help but stare with dumbfounded expressions. Everything happened so fast that they didn’t even have time to react.

“Faster than anyone and different from everyone, I live my life as a drifter under my own beat~.”

While humming a tune, Merlin rapidly headed toward a different location. In this event, the gem fish numbered in the hundreds of thousands. So, the number he just caught was only one percent of the total amount.

Whoosh!

“Ack! We need to get at least a few in the next area!”

The countless gem fish were grouped into schools of thousands. The next closest school was about 500 meters southeast of Merlin’s last location. The users’ boats were positioned in a relatively straight line. As such, there were a few boats closer to this new area, but when they were about to move….

Whoosh!

Bam!

Boom!

Just as before, Merlin wiped out the school of fish and collected their gems. He had moved 500 meters in the blink of an eye, and since he could reach max speed instantaneously, he was faster than an arrow. His movements were so swift that the observers could only see a blur.

“A-ack! Who the hell are you?”

One of the more angered users shot an arrow at Merlin. The user understood that he’d be considered a Murderer (a user who PKs and is penalized accordingly) when he fired, but the arrow didn’t even near Merlin. From the start, Merlin was quicker than the projectile, and with his accelerated thought process, he could react to the threat with ease. Despite his immense speed, he completely understood what was happening around him. Unless he was attacked by an aura-less strike, an attack that was faster than his mind, or an AOE skill, it was impossible to hit Merlin.

Whoosh!

Bam!

Boom!

“What’s with this guy?! He’s taking all the gem fish!”

“S-somebody, stop him!”

Regardless of the other users’ shouts and screams, Merlin went around and hunted the various schools of gem fish. All the available gem fish in the area, and their gems, went into his robe.

“Catch me if you can. Bala~bala~bam.”

With an expressionless face, Merlin gathered all the gems atop the sea. Later, some users cast AOE spells at him, but Merlin avoided all those attacks and continued his hunt.

“Dang it, this is so frustrating!”

Whoosh!

“Hmm, it seems like I won’t be able to catch any fish if I stay on a boat.”

At that moment, the sound of rotating helicopter blades and sword-qi strikes rang out. DIO’s top users, Cruze and Arthur, had mobilized.

“Ah, I should avoid them.”

Without any hesitation, Merlin changed directions and left the area. Though the sea was his playground, it wasn’t a good idea to compete against Cruze and Arthur, as no matter whether he won or lost, there wouldn’t be much profit in the end.

Whoosh!

“Wow! What’s with that guy!”

“Someone, stop him!”

“Such bad manners….”

The users were only able to stand still and watch as Merlin collected 1,200,000 gem points.

Merlin had collected 90 percent of the total gem points available.

***

“Wait, what’s he doing?”

Yongno exclaimed as he got up from the sofa. Since Merlin didn’t cover his face while executing his crazy plan, there were bound to be plenty of screenshots and videos on the internet. Yongno didn’t attend school or stay in touch with many people, but that didn’t mean that there wouldn’t be anyone who recognized him. Among the 90 million Korean population, over 60 million played DIO, so it was likely that someone would realize his identity. Moreover, this current event had hundreds of thousands of participants.

“Well, he wasn’t exploiting a bug, so technically, he didn’t do anything wrong. Still, he should be careful.”

As he sighed, Yongno took off his earphones, soon realizing that his surroundings seemed different than usual. He smelled something scrumptious from the kitchen and sensed that someone was there.

“Oh, you’re up. I predicted that you’d be up exactly at the 12-hour mark. Seems my prediction was spot on.”

“… What’s going on? What are you doing in the kitchen?”

“I was hungry. By the way, why’s your fridge so barren? You only have instant food.”

A pot of kimchi stew was bubbling on the gas stove. A diced egg omelet, a few other side dishes, and a steaming bowl of rice were laid on the dining table.

“Well, I’ll help myself to your spread… but don’t you have to go home soon? I thought you’d have a busy schedule as a popular singer.”

“I’ve decided to go on strike. They’re bringing me a string of weird things to do without even asking for my input. They’ve also made several inconsiderate requests to my agency’s CEO, so my relationship with the agency has become a bit estranged.”

As she grumbled her complaints, Leaf brought the pot of kimchi stew to the center of the dining table with natural ease, as if she were used to it.

“Huh? Do you cook often?”

“My mother passed away ten years ago, so of course, I cook often. My aunt detests cooking.”

Leaf spoke the depressing words emotionlessly. Yet, rather than not being sad at her mother’s passing, her actions instead showed that she had accepted this loss and moved on. Whether it was due to her demanding early social life or not, Leaf seemed to have a relatively mature outlook and personality.

“In the end, you’re still a niece who's being taken advantage of by her relatives.”

“W-well… what can I do? They’re my legal guardians. Should I run away from home? Should I shout at them like an angsty teenager going through puberty?”

“I’m not sure about the shouting part, but you’ve already run away from home, right?”

“Run away from home? Me?”

Seeing Leaf’s thoroughly confused expression, Yongno sighed.

“Isn’t what you’re doing right now running away from home? Also, you’re staying at a guy’s house when you don’t even know anything about him.”

“Uh, is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Well….”

Yongno ate while watching Leaf organize her thoughts. The meal was relatively well prepared and tasty. It wasn’t akin to something made by a professional chef, but it was at the level of a veteran housewife’s meal.

“Thanks for the meal. You should leave now.”

“Huh? Yeah, I should.”

With a gloomy visage, Leaf began transferring the dishes into the sink. As he watched her put on the latex gloves, Yongno could tell that she was planning to do the dishes.

“You… really don’t want to go back home, do you?”

“…”

Leaf didn’t offer an answer, so Yongno continued.

“Do you want to just escape everything? Singing and all?”

“No, that’s not it. It’s just that… as you said, I ran away from home, so I’m going to hear an earful when I go back and face my aunt and uncle-in-law. Also, the scheduled events for this morning and afternoon have probably been canceled… dang. The more I think about it, the more it scares me. I’ve always thought about running away, but this is my first time doing it.”

Her words made it seem as if she was deeply conflicted, but her facial expression was lively and bright. It wasn’t that she seemed to feel liberated; her face gave a vibe like the saying, ‘nothing I can do over spilled milk.’

“So, you plan on resting for a while?”

“I can’t do that. I have an important concert tomorrow evening. I’ve prepared for it since last year, so I can’t miss that event.”

Leaf balled her fists and raised them in a show of determination. She was trying to hype herself up. Of course, nothing was resolved… but it seemed that she had grown after this experience. However, in Yongno’s eyes, her actions looked pitiful.

“Hmm, I didn’t take you as the good student type.”

“Good student?”

“Yeah. The way you frame your problem and the way you reach an answer… you’re not planning on going back home and apologizing to your aunt, are you?”

“What do you mean… I’ll definitely apologize… the fact is, I did run away from home.”

“Tsk.”

Yongno clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction and started rummaging through his room. He hadn’t cleaned in a while, so everything was a mess.

“They’re not your real parents in the first place, but even if they were, you shouldn’t live your life with such a burden. There are so many other families where the parents are stressed because of their rambunctious children. Obviously, if you don’t have money, then you’ll have to do whatever it takes to survive, but in your case, you have money and are getting fleeced….”

Leaf responded angrily.

“T-then, what are you proposing I do? Revolt like a teenager and continue to run away from home? I have a job and schedule, so I can’t just-”

“Did I tell you to come up with such a middle school-level solution? As an adult, you should use adult solutions.”

Yongno spoke in a matter-of-fact way, but Leaf was totally lost, and it showed in her facial expression.

“What do you mean adult solution?”

“Gain independence.”

Leaf spoke in an exasperated tone.

“I-independence? But I have my contract, and I don’t have the ability to become independent immediately. Moreover, my aunt will never allow me to-”

“Here, this is a present. I bought it on a whim, but I’m glad I found a use for it.”

Then, Yongno put a bracelet and necklace on Leaf. He then showed her how to use the items.

“Eh… but… do I really need to go that far?”

“If you’re not planning to continue living the way you’ve been living, you’ll have to make good plans. If you’re wishy-washy, it’ll become more unbearable.”

While saying this, Yongno began scribbling something on a paper. Confused, Leaf asked, “What are you doing?”

“It’s a script. I don’t know what your aunt and uncle-in-law are like, so I’ll come up with various scenarios. I think I have a general idea.”

“A script….”

Regardless of Leaf’s dumbfounded expression, Yongno continued writing the script. He didn’t plan on doing this, but as if he had some epiphany, he continued to write without pause.

“Oh, by the way, are you good at acting?”

“No, not really.”

“Dang.”

Though Yongno was a bit disappointed, his expression didn’t change.

“Alright. Here, practice this.”

“…”

Although Leaf felt doubt, anger, resistance, and desperation, she couldn’t refuse Yongno.

Eventually, five hours later, she returned home.