Chapter 163
Suho suddenly appeared between the two people.
It wasn’t a magic trick.
He had simply deactivated the Monochrome Solitude he was using.
As Suho suddenly appeared between them, both of them jumped back in surprise.
At the same time, the head of the Joseonjok… Jang Seongchun, drew a machete from his waist and spoke.
“Who are you?”
“Would you even understand if I told you?”
“What did you say?”
“I’m Ahn Suho, Assistant Team Leader of the Special Management Team 2 of the Gate Division in the Korean Hunter Association.”
“What?”
“Why ask if you won’t understand even if I tell you?”
Even upon hearing the name Ahn Suho, Jang Seongchun only squinted, still not grasping the situation.
However, Noah was different.
He was Korean, after all.
“Damn!”
Without a second glance, Noah turned and ran.
Right.
At least you’re Korean; you should know who I am.
Suho immediately threw a Shadow Bind towards Noah.
However, the Shadow Bind didn’t hit Noah’s shadow.
It struck the back of Noah’s thigh.
“Argh!”
Noah, his back thigh pierced, tumbled to the ground.
At that, Noah’s subordinates shouted in unison.
“H-Hyungnim!”
Noah shouted as if cursing them.
“What are you looking at?! Go kill him!”
“Yes!”
Hm.
They drop the honorifics when they’re desperate.
The moment Suho nodded at that thought, a machete came flying from the opposite direction.
It was from Jang Seongchun.
“Die, you bastard!”
The blade had flown from his blind spot.
Yet Suho dodged it with remarkable ease, twisting his body.
Then, he clenched his fist and delivered a short, powerful blow to Jang Seongchun’s face.
With a crack! sound, Jang Seongchun’s eyes rolled back.
Suho grabbed the dazed man just before he collapsed, pressing the Acupoint Strike on his waist.
This way, he wouldn’t be able to put any strength in his waist and thus couldn’t stand up.
It wasn’t only Jang Seongchun.
Suho also gave a solid punch to each of the men charging at him one after another.
There was no need to use Blood Weapon.
In fact, he shouldn’t use it.
Once he actually started hitting them, he realized that if he brought out Blood Weapon, they’d die before he could even arrest them.
By the time he finished knocking down the last member of the Joseonjok group, Jang Seongchun, who had been the first to go down, barely regained consciousness and trembled as he shouted.
“Y-You damn bastard…!”
The bastard’s usual cursing.
Suho pressed his Acupoint Strike to shut his mouth.
Then he approached Noah, who was still immobilized with his wounded back thigh, squatted down, and met his gaze.
“Beast Mas… no, Kim Noah. Your former name was Kim Chunsam, right?”
“H-How do you know me…?”
“How do I know? I work for the Korean Hunter Association, after all. Of course, I’ve been keeping an eye on you. Consider yourself lucky. If someone else had come instead of me, you’d have been beaten to a pulp before getting arrested.”
It was true.
At the time, the special forces followed the motto of “as long as they don’t die, it’s fine,” so they’d beat suspects within an inch of their lives, force a healing potion down their throats, and then arrest them.
Suho turned his gaze to the animals loaded in the truck.
“By the way, you’ve gathered quite a lot. Don’t you feel any responsibility as a fellow Korean to protect our country’s native animals?”
“……”
Kim Noah remained silent.
Looking at him, Suho spoke.
“Not going to answer?”
“……”
“Seriously… do you guys only listen when you’re in pain? You brought this on yourself, you know?”
Suho clasped his fingers together, then pressed a Acupoint Strike on the crown of Kim Noah’s head.
“Arghhhh!”
Kim Noah began to convulse as if every fiber of his body was being tortured.
“If I treat you kindly, you don’t listen.”
Suho shook his head and stood up.
Then he walked over to the truck filled with animals and made eye contact with them.
‘He really gathered a wide variety.’
Indeed, there were many kinds of animals.
Along with Jindo dogs and Sapsal dogs, there were various birds, and even some goats and musk deer, whose origins were unknown.
Clicking his tongue, Suho muttered.
“Tsk tsk… Since the Great Cataclysm, the number of endangered species has increased so much. As a Korean, instead of preserving and protecting them, you plan to sell them overseas?”
Most of the animals sold like this end up as ingredients for elixirs.
Especially in China, where the vast population supported a large number of alchemists, the collaboration between Chinese alchemists and Kim Noah once caused Korea’s native animals to go nearly extinct.
But since Suho had managed to arrest Kim Noah now, that tragedy of his past life wouldn’t repeat itself.
However, there was still one small problem.
It was, as Jang Seongchun had pointed out, that all the captured animals were strangely quiet.
It wasn’t due to drugs or skill effects.
The animals were simply choosing not to make any sound of their own accord.
The reason was simple.
‘This is the power of the Beast Master.’
Name: Kim Noah.
Alias: ‘Beast Master.’
He was also known by the nickname ‘Korean Druid,’ which was due to his ability, ‘Animal Communicate,’ that allowed him to converse with animals.
And he was quite the smooth talker, although that was according to animal standards rather than human ones.
Thus, all the animals here had fallen for Kim Noah’s sweet talk and were voluntarily keeping silent.
It was unknown what he had told them.
Suho only knew this was typical of Kim Noah, who always used this tactic to silence animals in his past life.
There were two reasons why he silenced the animals.
First, to ensure quiet transportation.
Second, as a precaution against any unforeseen circumstances.
Suho approached the groaning Kim Noah and released the Acupoint Strike.
“Huff… Huff…”
Though he was finally free from the pain, Kim Noah could do nothing but gasp for air.
Suho spoke to him.
“Mr. Chunsam, it hurts a lot, doesn’t it?”
“……”
“Wow, Mr. Chunsam, you’re pretty stubborn. Are you going to keep your mouth shut?”
“……”
“I don’t mind you keeping quiet, but why don’t you release the animals’ mouths too? Don’t you feel sorry for those innocent creatures?”
“……”
Kim Noah maintained his silence to the end.
However, despite keeping his mouth shut, his eyes were those of someone clearly shocked.
It was understandable.
Kim Noah had never revealed to anyone that he could communicate with animals.
Suho spoke.
“Tsk tsk, why are you so surprised? Your ability is Animal Communicate, isn’t it? There’s no reason to wonder how I know. Our Korean Hunter Association isn’t so easily fooled. So just listen to me while I’m speaking nicely.”
“……”
“Wow, still silent to the end? Kim Chunsam, you think I don’t know your intentions? You’re doing this so you can use those animals later in a plea bargain, aren’t you? Am I wrong?”
“……!”
Kim Noah’s eyes widened even further.
The look on his face asked, ‘How did he know?’
Suho’s words were true.
In his past life, Kim Noah used animals as hostages to negotiate his sentence.
Although negotiating with terrorists was strictly forbidden, an exception was made to protect Korea’s native animals, which had significantly declined since the Great Cataclysm.
‘The animals Kim Noah took hostage wouldn’t make a sound, and they wouldn’t eat either.’
Who knew what he’d said to them.
Because of this, Kim Noah, despite being an Awakener, served his time in a regular detention center rather than in the Cheongok Prison.
Suho let out a sigh.
“Sigh, I guess there’s no other choice.”
If that was the case, there was only one way.
Suho shook his head and placed his hand on Kim Noah’s head.
Then he activated a skill.
[ True Blood Drain has been activated. ]
Swish!
The skill activated was True Blood Drain.
Suho recalled the details of True Blood Drain.
[ True Blood Drain ]
– Grade: S+
# A blood-draining ability enhanced through True Blood.
# Allows the extraction of the target’s blood, mana, and unique abilities separately.
When Suho first checked the options for True Blood Drain, he couldn’t believe his eyes.
Extracting a target’s unique abilities?
He had seen many skill mimicry abilities, but it was his first time encountering a skill that could directly copy someone else’s traits.
[ Successfully copied the ‘Animal Communicate’ ability from the target. ]
With True Blood Drain activated, Suho successfully extracted not only Kim Noah’s blood but also his unique trait, Animal Communicate, storing it within his True Blood Orb.
Suho then checked the information on the True Blood Orb.
[ True Blood Orb ]
– Grade: S+
# A storage ability enhanced through True Blood.
# Stores blood extracted through Blood Drain, supplies it automatically, and can store up to two copied unique abilities.
# Currently stored ability: ＜Animal Communicate＞
The ability Animal Communicate was clearly listed in the True Blood Orb’s information.
Seeing this, Suho grinned.
Then he shifted his gaze to Kim Noah and spoke.
“Want to see something interesting?”
“……?”
Kim Noah, unable to understand Suho’s words, simply rolled his eyes.
Suho then approached the animals in the truck and spoke.
“Hello?”
One simple greeting.
And the copied ability activated.
[ Animal Communicate has been activated. ]
The moment the ability activated, Suho’s greeting was conveyed to the animals.
And as soon as Suho’s greeting reached them, the animals, who had kept silent until now, opened their eyes wide.
“Huh?”
“Hm?”
“Huh?”
Each reacted differently.
Amused by their reactions, Suho chuckled and spoke.
“What’s got you all so surprised? Never seen someone who could talk to you before?”
At first, they thought they must have misheard.
But when Suho’s question followed, the animals realized they hadn’t misheard and began reacting even more intensely.
“What the…!”
“No way! Insane!”
“Another human who can talk to us besides Noah!”
“Wait, are you one of the chosen ones too?!”
The chosen one?
What was this about now?
Suho asked.
“The chosen one?”
“You don’t know the chosen one? The person sent by Mother Nature to save us! We call them the chosen one!”
“Huh? But something’s odd. Noah said he was the only chosen one who could talk to us…?”
“How is this happening?”
“I… I don’t know…!”
“My head hurts.”
“What are we supposed to do now?”
The animals suddenly descended into chaos.
Hearing their conversation, Suho finally understood how Kim Noah had manipulated the animals.
Kim Noah wasn’t a smooth talker.
The animals were just stupid.
When you think about it, the animals’ IQs were lower than that of children.
‘The only high-IQ animals are orcas and chimpanzees, and none of those are here.’
Realizing Kim Noah’s secret trick, Suho looked at him with disdain.
And Kim Noah looked more shocked than ever.
“H-How did you…?”
“What do you mean, how? Brace yourself. I’ll make sure you suffer long and hard in Cheongok.”
“W-What… No, don’t…!”
“Oh, yes.”
[ Acupoint Strike has been activated. ]
“Aaaaagh!!”
Suho pressed down on Kim Noah’s crown point again, and as Kim Noah writhed in agony, Suho called Pi Seongyeol.
Then, while waiting for the special forces to arrive, Suho explained the situation to the animals.
He told them that Kim Noah was a fraud and that they had almost been sold overseas.
“This is crazy….”
“No way….”
“The natural emissary sent by Mother Nature was actually a scamming bastard….”
And that day, the animals’ world shattered.