As blue beads poured out from the lizard, Park Tae-sik, who was about 20 steps away shouted,
“Brother, he found beads.”
Kang Dong-taek screamed at me,
“Hand it over!”
I swallowed a bead immediately. Kang Dong-taek glared at me, the said
“You’re dead!”
Fortunately, the blue bead’s effect was instantaneous.
“Oh-oh.”
My muscles began to grow, and I began flexing them. Min-ji Park was starting to get annoyed and shouted,
“Collect the beads, and let’s go.”
Park Tae-sik tried to steal the lizard away from me, but I reacted quickly and dodged his hands.
Kim Byeong-woo was too busy fighting and killing the other lizards to notice what was going on at our side.
Park Min-Ji said urgently.
“Did the effect were off?”
” Not yet.”
Assuming that your power is currently at one and eating one blue bead increases it to 1.5, then eating another 1.8, you could conclude that eating the same colored bead repeatedly lessens its effectiveness.
More blue beads came out of the lizard.
“Give me that!”
Park Tae-sik threw his fist and tried to hit me, but he was stopped neither by me of Min-ji.
A lizard aimed at Park Tae-sik and me, luckily I was still immune to the poison. Park tea-sik, on the other hand, was not.
“Ahh.”
Park Tae-sik was paralyzed, and his skin began falling off, revealing his red flesh underneath. I swallowed the remaining beads in my left hand.
“Ah!”
Park Min-Ji said in surprise, I looked backed and apologized,
“I thought those were for me.”
“I needed those…”
Now that I was stronger, I tried to hunt another lizard for more beads, before Kim Byeong-woo slayed them all.
Once I managed to catch one, I cut it. The lizard’s head fell off the neck. The cross-section was surprisingly smooth.
Park Min-Ji said it was greasy inside.
“You’ve caught another lizard, don’t be greedy and eat it all by yourself like the last time. ”
I split the belly of the lizard with an ax and pulled out a bead.
“It’s blue again.”
I threw this to Min-ji Park. She swallowed it and then thanked me.
She became excited and exclaimed.
“Oh, wow, this feels awesome!”
I turned to Min-ji and said,
“I’m not giving you any more beads.”
Kim Don-taek wouldn’t approach us as long as the lizards were still around, but he’ll kill me once they’re gone. Before that happens, I need to get more beads and become stronger. I’ve already wasted enough time. I took my ax and knife and prepared to go hunting. Before that, I chopped Park Tae-siks neck off, that’s one less enemy to worry about.
I continued fighting. I was showered in poison whenever I stabbed a lizard’s neck. Some, like the 4th lizard I slayed, did not have beads; however, one lizard contained a red bead. At that point, I was starting to feel exhausted; upon ingesting the bead, my fatigue immediately went away.
The red bead’s effects were instant like the blue bead. I was yet to see another black bead.
Thanks to the red bead, my mind and body felt refreshed, and I was able to capture two more lizards, but neither one had beads in them. I pushed through and kept hunting, but only a few lizards remained because Kim Byeong-woo was able to defeat 20 lizards by himself.
I grabbed my knife and sneaked towards the lizards that were already dead. Other people still didn’t know the quick way to get the beads. They still took off the lizard’s scales one by one, but using that method was too time-consuming, with the number of lizards present people didn’t have time to extract the beads anymore.
Kim Byeong-woo also left the dead bodies because, unlike other people, he prioritized catching them. He was confident in his strength and knew that people wouldn’t try to steal from him.
I approached one of the lizards that Kim Byeong-woo slayed; it had multiple small wounds.
Glancing around, I checked if anyone was paying attention to me. I crept near the lizard’s stomach. My heart was pounding since I was technically stealing from Kim Byeong woo. I felt like a poacher.
Damn, this is hard. I carefully pushed my hands into its stomach.
Oh, there it is!
I pulled out a white bead and quickly swallowed it to prevent others from stealing it.
“Huh.”
Suddenly I felt something, at first, I thought that there was an earthquake since everything was spinning, but the people around me weren’t shaking. I was staggering around like I was drunk, suddenly my brain couldn’t catch up to my senses. My stomach began to ache.
I tried keeping my balance, but I was forced to lie down. I observed my surroundings; my hearing became better than before.
The battle against lizards ended while I was still lying down, now the people started fighting over the carcass and who would get the beads in them. They started claiming ownership by spitting on the bodies.
The arguments started becoming more physical, soon there were swords involved, and people began screaming and bleeding. Suddenly a head flew into the sky.
Who threw the severed head into the sky?
I had a gut feeling on who might’ve done it.
Kim Byeong-woo, right?
No wonder there was a torso next to Kim Byeong-woo. The people who saw the head fly off were frozen like icicles.
Kim Byeong-woo began to approach the lizards he slayed. In one instance, a man was standing next to some lizard bodies and was claiming that they were his, but when he saw Kim Byeong-woo approaching, he got scared and retreated. Seeing the severed head would scare anyone, even I didn’t dare to lie to Kim Byeong-woo.
Kim Byeong-woo was faithful to his rules. He didn’t help others, but he didn’t even hurt them unless provoked. Unlike Kim Byeong-woo, If Kang Dong-taek had the same power, he would have taken all the beads. Kim Byeong-woo only took what he caught by himself.
I observed Kim Byeong-woo as he dismantled the lizards; it was clear that he knew the proper technique. While watching him, I realized that my eyesight had also got better. Before, my vision was about 0.8, but now it had to be about 1.5.
In any case, the people stopped fighting when they witnessed Kim Byeong-woo’s aggressive actions. I was a bit disappointed because I was hoping that the Dongpa group would fight off several other groups, therefore weakening it.
People started quickly dismantling the corpses by copying Byeon-woo’s technique.
The ones who got beads swiftly ingested them or gave them to their companions that also devoured it. It was a wise move. Everyone needed to prepare and get stronger since war was upon them.
Kim Byeong-woo only took enough beads that he needed. Kim Don-taek took the most beads, followed by Choi Yu-mi, then Kan Yoo-sik, then, surprisingly, me. That black and yellow striped bead had helped me so much.
When the slaughter was over, people started grouping themselves. I counted the survivors; there were about a hundred.
Dong-taek Kang began speaking, he said,
“We need to establish new rules.”
Choi Yu-mi replied by saying,
“We can still follow the angel’s rules.
“He ended the tutorial early.”
“It could be a girl, not a guy.”
“Did it have horns. Usually, males have horns.”
Su-Yeong took off her glasses and said,
“That’s not important right now.”
When I saw her take off her glasses, I guessed that she also ingested a white bead.
“What does it mean now that the tutorial is over?”
Kang Dong-taek replied saying,
“He lifted the ban on crime. I can commit crimes.”
Choi Yu-mi commented,
“Crazy guy.”
Kang Yoo-Sik nodded to agree. Then he took a step forward towards Choi Yu-mi, and the older men followed him.
Is he the leader of the senior citizens? Did they form an alliance?
Su-Yeong spoke up.
“I’m exhausted, let’s stop fighting for today.”
The damaged infrastructures, along with the dead and injured people, would usually be tended by the angels, but none came in today. I decided to call him or her the devil at this point.
Kang Dong-taek looked at the three leaders and frowned. Dong-taek may have been the strongest, but attacking the other group leaders would put a target on his back.
“Fine. I’ll see you tomorrow, but someone is getting beat up today.”
I had a bad feeling he was talking about me.
Dong-taek started approaching me while I was still lying down; I heard him coming closer, thanks to my improved hearing. I could feel his eyes on me.
“Get up.”
I closed my eyes tightly and played dead.
“I told you to give the beads, but you ignored me and ate it yourself.”
The footsteps stop once he was near me.
I stood up, scratching my head. I sat at the side of the road and ripped a lizard’s mouth open. I stabbed my knife into the yellow pocket inside its mouth and rubbed its poison all over my ax.
Kang Dong-taek walked over and asked.
“What are you doing?”
My weapons were now covered in poison, I looked over at him and said,
“Nothing.”
“Are there any beads that are stuck?”
“No.”
“Then, you’ve just signed your death certificate.”
“You’re good at joking.”
“I’m not kidding.”
He looked around for someone to order.
“Kill? Oh no, don’t kill me, cut my legs off first, and colonize me.”
He saw one of his men, Song Byeong-cheol, and told him to attack me. He tried stabbing me with a knife but was too slow because he didn’t get any beads. I swung my ax into his bare chest.
“Ahh!”
The thug screamed in agony. I heard someone screech behind me. This time it was a thug with a good physique, like an athlete. He was charging towards me with a spear. My ax was still stuck on the other guy’s chest, so I pulled out my knife.
“Uh.”
As the thug tried to spear me, I dodged and hit the back of his neck with my knife. He was quickly subdued; he must have ingested a purple bead because, despite his big body, he was defeated easily.
I watched Dong-taek throw a tantrum.
“You stole and ate my beads.”
The bully is making himself out to be the victim, I wanted to split his head open with my ax, but my strength was fading. I took two steps back and then shouted at Choi Yu-mi,
“Are you just going to watch? Let’s work together to kill this bully.”
More thugs appeared, but they didn’t approach me.
Choi Yu-mi also did not move.
“Are you siding with him?”
Choi Yoomi shook her head.
“To be honest, I’m more afraid of Byung-Woo Kim than this bully.”
She said while pointing at Kang Dong-taek.
“That bully can be controlled, but Kim Byeong-woo is impossible.”
At that time, Seo Su-Myung walked towards me. I said to him,
“You are wise.”
Seo Su-Myung shook his head.
“I have no intention of helping you.”
“Then why are you approaching me?”
“To watch the fight. I’m gathering information.”
Kang Yoo-sik was my last hope.
“Let’s fight together and deal with those ignorant gangsters who want to harm the young and old. Those bastards have no mercy.”