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Side Story Chapter 64 - Den of the Night Demons (1)

"Whoa, something smells delicious. What meat is that?"

Oh Kang-Woo, who woke up later than the women, came out of the room as he scratched his stomach.

Han Seol-Ah smiled as she cooked the meat on a frying pan and answered, "I\'m making 1++ hanwoo sirloin steak[1]."

"Dayum, nice."

Kang-Woo could never have dreamt of such a high-quality cut of beef before his days in Hell.

"Hehe. Since you\'ve been working hard lately, I bought the best cut in hopes of cheering you up."

"DARLIIIIIIIIIING!"

Kang-Woo hugged Seol-Ah from behind as she cooked the meat. Cha Yeon-Joo ended up moving in with them after Lilith finally managed to convince her; after that, the extent of his stamina was getting tested every day.

"M-My. Th-The meat is gonna burn, Kang-Woo."

"Hehe. It\'s okay."

Repaying his Darling\'s goodwill was more important.

"Stop fucking around so early in the morning and stay still, dammit."

Yeon-Joo, sitting at the dining table, glared at him. Kang-Woo smirked as he stuck to Seol-Ah\'s back.

"Kehehe. Are you jealous?"

"J-Jealous, my ass!"

"C\'mere. Looks like our Yeon-Joo wants a hug too."

"Fuck off!"

"Haaa. Where did the cutie from last night go...?"

Kang-Woo recalled last night\'s memories, his eyes filled with sorrow. Yeon-Joo was breathtakingly cute in the bedroom, likely because she had not been at it for as long as Lilith and Seol-Ah.

\'Too bad I can\'t show it to you guys. It would blow your minds.\'

"You started calling me oppa from around the seventh time..."

"Sh-Shut the fuck up!!"

"Hehehe. C\'mere, my cutie Yeon-Joo."

"Argh! Screw off!"

She kept cursing at Kang-Woo to go away but slowly placed her arms around Kang-Woo\'s waist once he went up to her to hug her.

\'This is Yeon-Joo\'s unique charm.\'

"...ss me," Yeon-Joo mumbled, her face as red as her hair.

"Huh?" Kang-Woo stared at her as he tilted his head.

She shouted in anger, "I-I said, kiss me! I was the only one who didn\'t get one this morning!"

\'Holy fuck. How can she be so cute?\'

It was not just Yeon-Joo; Seol-Ah and Lilith also grew cuter and lovelier each day, making Kang-Woo go insane.

\'I heard the fire of love dies down over time.\'

However, Kang-Woo was confident such a thing would never happen when it came to these three women.

"Alright, your wish is my command!" Kang-Woo shouted.

"D-Don\'t fucking kiss me!"

"You literally just asked me to."

"Wh-Whatever! Just don\'t!" she shouted in belated embarrassment as she pushed Kang-Woo away.

However, she couldn\'t overpower Kang-Woo anymore now that his strength rivaled that of Balrog. He grabbed Yeon-Joo\'s wrist and kissed her.

"My, my. Yeon-Joo has become rather bold~?" Lilith smiled widely as if she were having the time of her life.

"Hm! Meat! Seol-Ah, let\'s eat already!"

The usual Echidna would have also clung to Kang-Woo and pestered him to kiss her as well but she was laser-focused on the beef being cooked in front of her. She was snorting in excitement with a knife and fork in her hands.

"Hoho. It\'ll be ready soon."

Seol-Ah placed the cooked steak on the table.

"Thank you for the meal~"

They had a family meal as usual under the boisterous atmosphere. The highest-grade sirloin steak melted in Kang-Woo\'s mouth. The sauce Seol-Ah made synergized perfectly with the beef as well.

\'Screw whoever said ingredients didn\'t matter in cooking. Money rules.\'

Kang-Woo couldn\'t stop smiling. They finished their meal soon after and Kang-Woo decided to help Seol-Ah clean up. As they were in the middle of it, he noticed Seol-Ah staring blankly at her smartphone.

"Hm? What are you looking at?"

"Mm. I\'m registering my credit card. I haven\'t tried online shopping, so it\'s a little difficult for me."

"Oh, what are you trying to buy?"

It was rare for Seol-Ah, as terrible with technology as Lilith, a literal demon, to shop for something online.

"Mm..." Seol-Ah slurred. "Kang-Woo."

"Yeah?"

"What do you like more, cats or dogs?"

"Why are you asking that all of a sudden?"

"Hohoho. No reason," Seol-Ah giggled as she covered her mouth. Her eyes were gleaming with ecstasy and her laughter felt like an abyss that should not be meddled with. "Hmm. I think a cat would suit you better than a dog."

"What\'s this about?"

\'Why are you wondering something like that out of the blue?\'

"Kang-Woo."

"Y-Yeah?"

"I love you."

Seol-Ah hugged Kang-Woo and barraged his face with kisses to the point that he was worried he would die from internal bleeding. She smiled as if she couldn\'t be happier and hugged Kang-Woo even tighter as she closed her eyes.

"I love you too, Darling... no, wait a second. Don\'t change the subject. Why did you ask me that?"

"Ah! Look at the time! I promised Yeon-Joo and Echidna to go shopping with them today!"

Seol-Ah blatantly avoided answering the question and stormed into her room after taking off her apron.

"..."

Kang-Woo, left alone in the kitchen, stared at Seol-Ah\'s back anxiously. He thought he saw a pervertedly laughing Layla overlapped with Seol-Ah for some reason.

\'Nah, I\'m sure it\'s nothing. My kind Darling would never. Yup, yup, yup. No way in hell.\'

"Hm? Why the long face, my king?" Lilith asked.

"Huh? Oh, it\'s nothing. More importantly, the other girls are going shopping. Are you not joining them?"

"Hoho. I have to report abnormal Gate phenomena to you, after all."

"Oh."

Come to think of it, Kang-Woo had yet to receive a report from Lilith today.

"Alright. Finish your report quickly and join them."

He wanted to send her on her way right now but he couldn\'t afford to miss a single day of checking every abnormal Gate phenomena. Incidents always tend to happen in moments of negligence.

"Fufu. As you wish, my king." Lilith nodded as she handed Kang-Woo the documents she prepared for today.

"Mm."

He looked over it but there didn\'t seem to be anything out of the ordinary today either.

Just then, Lilith narrowed her eyes as she was looking through the documents with Kang-Woo and remarked, "My king. There is one piece of information which has yet to be determined whether it is an abnormal Gate phenomenon or not."

"What is it?"

"Multiple casualties have occurred inside a B-rank Gate in Daegu."

"Hm. So?"

Players dying inside a Gate was so common that it wasn\'t even worth reporting.

"Well... the state they were in is a little strange. The number of casualties for that Gate is far higher than the average as well."

It piqued Kang-Woo\'s interest.

"Strange how?" he asked.

"They were dried up like mummies."

"Dried up?"

\'Is it the work of some slime variant or a vampire?\'

"Yes, I hear they were nothing but skin and bones," Lilith answered.

"Hmm."

"And that is not the end of it."

"What else?"

"The victims are all male." Lilith continued calmly, "Even for mixed-gender parties, only the men were kidnapped and killed."

"Hmm," Kang-Woo expressed. It was indeed suspicious. "Wait, you\'re saying this isn\'t an abnormal Gate phenomenon?"

Such a thing could only be described as one.

Lilith nodded and answered, "Whatever is causing this incident isn\'t coming out of the Gate."

"Oh."

Kang-Woo more or less understood.

\'Abnormal Gate phenomena can only be detected once the otherworldly beings come out of the Gate.\'

Gates were like tunnels that linked Earth and the outer worlds. In other words, the otherworldly being couldn\'t be detected on Earth if they stayed in the tunnel.

"In that case, it\'s likely a monster that establishes a territory and doesn\'t come out of it," Kang-Woo surmised.

"I agree."

"I see..." Kang-Woo narrowed his eyes and stroked his chin.

\'If they\'re not coming out, then there\'s not much reason to investigate.\'

There was no point in going out of their way to kill otherworldly beings that were not direct threats to Earth. They were already having difficulty tracing every otherworldly being that came out of Gates; they did not have the manpower to dispatch to investigate beings that did not come out of Gates.

"Lastly." Lilith sighed softly as if she couldn\'t comprehend it and continued, "Unidentified corpses were discovered along with those of the Players who entered the Gate."

"An unidentified corpse?"

\'What the hell is that supposed to mean?\'

"Yes. There were several corpses with no record of them entering the Gate. We tried matching their DNA and fingerprint with the database but couldn\'t identify any of them."

"..." Kang-Woo remained silent.

Players were obligated to register their DNA and fingerprint to acquire their ID from the Player Association. No, even if they weren\'t Players, all Korean citizens had their fingerprints registered in the government database.

\'Could they be foreigners...? No.\'

Foreigners needed a corresponding license to enter a Gate in Korea, and their identities were naturally recorded in the process. They could have faked their IDs and secretly entered the Gate but that wouldn\'t explain why there were so many unidentified corpses.

\'I might as well check anyway.\'

"Any chance they were foreigners?" Kang-Woo asked.

"I have already searched through the international Player database. No matches."

\'Yeah, no way Lilith didn\'t think of something so simple. In that case, if the corpse wasn\'t that of a Korean or a foreigner...\'

- My name is Kim Tae-Ho. I am a seven-star apostle of Ishvalda.

A memory popped up in Kang-Woo\'s head— one of the people from another world whom Kang-Woo met at the Temple of Truth.

"This... deserves an investigation," Kang-Woo remarked.

As long as corpses of people from another world were discovered, he couldn\'t leave it be only because they weren\'t coming out of the Gate.

"Shall I dispatch a team?" Lilith asked.

"No." Kang-Woo shook his head. He stood up and answered, "I\'ll go."

He was spending his days wasting away as he was sucked left and right like a stud horse— this was a great opportunity.

\'I\'ma say goodbye to my bum life!\'

1. Hanwoo beef has its own grading process like Japan\'s \'A\' classification. For hanwoo, it ranges from 3 (lowest) to 1++ (highest). ☜