Possessing Nothing Novel (쥐뿔도 없는 회귀)

Chapter 97 - The Search for Envirus

(T/N: biwon could also mean 'secret garden' usually in a palace)

A giant man rushed toward him. He had misunderstood and thought that Lee Sungmin was still unaware of his presence. He didn't know that it was a fatal misunderstanding yet.

Lee Sungmin took the spear from behind his back. By the time he pulled the spear forward, the man was already in front of him. The man struck his rock-like fist at the body of Lee Sungmin.

Lee Sungmin stepped back a few steps to avoid getting crushed by the fist hurling toward him, before moving faster than the fist, grabbing it with one hand and thrusting his spear outward. The giant man's arm got caught up in the rotation, and-

Ududuk!

There was a terrible sound. The giant stood still in shock as his sturdily built right arm could be seen spraying blood and flying away.

"I thought you were supposed to be deaf."

Lee Sungmin murmured. Even though he ripped off the man's right arm, Lee Sungmin's expression was indifferent. The pupils looking up didn't hold any emotion in them.

"Or so I heard..."

"Keueueuuu!"

The giant breathed heavily. He clenched his jaws with a face full of pain. Then he twisted his body and shook his left fist. The torn–up flag in his fists proved that he was an expert who had crossed the peak.

However, compared to Lee Sungmin, the giant's level was not very high. Lee Sungmin lifted his head and raised his spear.

It happened in an instant. A fast-paced, nearly invisible spear pierced through the giant's left shoulder. He flew back before he could scream and struck a tree as he fell. The shocked tree, or more accurately, a monster in the shape of a tree, opened its mouth and tried to chew the giant's body.

"Kkeuaaak!"

The giant screamed as the tree bit his back. Lee Sungmin headed forward, and Kuromaru shouted from behind him.

"P-please! Please save the elder!"

Lee Sungmin looked back and shook his head. Kuromaru hurriedly added.

"If you can save the elder... I will tell you everything I know."

Lee Sungmin listened quietly and wrote on the floor with the spear he was holding.

– That's strange. Didn't that man try to kill you?

"Even so... He is like a teacher to me."

It wasn't really necessary for him to listen to Kuromaru. Even if that elder died, he was confident that he would be able to beat Kuromaru and get the answer he wanted.

Lee Sungmin accepted Kuromaru's request anyway. He took the elder's body out from the tree monster, which had been chewing his body, and healed his wounds. Kuromaru looked at Lee Sungmin bandaging the ripped away right arm of the elder with frightened eyes. The elder had already fainted and was not moving.

– Now let's have a conversation.

Lee Sungmin wrote on the floor.

As Kuromaru had taken an elixir to resist his blindness, his hearing had not yet returned. So Lee Sungmin demanded that he 'tell him everything' rather than annoying him by writing it all down. Thanks to that, their conversation was very one-sided.

Kuromaru chattered, and Lee Sungmin just listened.

The name of the dead man was Hayato. Hayato was like a brother of Kuromaru since childhood, but that wasn't what Lee Sungmin wanted to know. It wasn't Lee Sungmin who killed Hayato.