Chapter 390: Kang Taewoo’s Bear Hide

However, if the other party had been working somewhere like a blacksmith's shop, remaining in one place would not necessarily raise any suspicion.

After all, the map covered such a large area that moving around within a small space would not be enough to show that the other party was moving at all.

It was only because his territory currently had practically nothing in it that Kang Taewoo's unmoving green dot seemed so strange.

Thinking about it, Kang Taewoo was not an especially unusual or valuable NPC. He probably did not possess any particularly precious items, so it was normal for his substitution technique to have such an obvious flaw.

As Joo Joowon climbed the mountain, he tried to work out Kang Taewoo's location based on the available information. He discovered that Kang Taewoo was indeed still inside the Hwarim Nature Reserve. It seemed that he had not followed Joo Joowon.

What exactly had he gone there to do? He still had not returned even now. Was he not afraid that Joo Joowon would discover him?

After thinking about it, Joo Joowon decided that it did not really matter. NPCs had their own lives, too. He had no reason to stop them from doing whatever they wanted, as long as their actions did not affect him.

Curiously, he walked over to the green dot representing Kang Taewoo on the map and took a look around. He quickly found the target.

Calling it finding the target was not entirely accurate, because it was simply too obvious. A bear hide had been spread out directly on the ground. It would have been difficult not to notice it.

The corner of Joo Joowon's mouth twitched.

So the so-called substitution technique simply involved taking off his bear skin coat?

Then what exactly did Kang Taewoo look like while he was outside?

Was a ball of cotton running around naked?

Joo Joowon bent down and picked up the bear hide. Its short, reddish-black fur felt quite pleasant to the touch, a little like the flannel pajamas he used to wear. It was also surprisingly heavy when he lifted it, almost like carrying a thick military overcoat.

Joo Joowon had once bought himself a cute dinosaur onesie. Later, because its tail kept poking him, he had thrown it to Byeol to use as a bed.

The bear hide looked just like a onesie. The only difference was that the bear's head had not been designed as a hood. Other than that, it was just as oversized and soft. The only inconvenient part was that there was no zipper behind the butt, making it rather troublesome to use the bathroom.

Byeol could not help jumping onto the ground and circling the bear hide to sniff it. Unable to resist, he gave it a lick.

The bear hide did not carry the kind of obvious and aggressive pheromones that Gaemi had. That was why Byeol had merely hidden nearby and observed Kang Taewoo in secret when he first arrived, without feeling any particular hostility toward him.

Now that he was so close, Byeol finally discovered that the scent was truly wonderful.

The top note was a sweet fragrance almost identical to the honey Joo Joowon had fed him in the past. The middle note was a faint human scent belonging to a female two-legged creature, one that was not particularly easy to identify. The base note was much more distinct, carrying the fragrance of a harmless plant that made animals feel comfortable.

Byeol was usually not interested in things like catnip or silver vine. Normally, he would only eat a little cat grass to help him cough up hairballs. This was the first time he had ever smelled something so pleasant. It was surprisingly addictive for a cat.

However, Byeol was a very reserved cat. He quickly managed to restrain himself.

He knew that two-legged creatures all possessed a magical tool that could record their actions and replay those recordings for other people to watch, even long after the events had taken place.

Previously, Byeol had not understood any of this. Whenever he heard a cat meowing from Joo Joowon's phone, he would become irritated and suspect that Joo Joowon had adopted another cat. Now, however, he could finally understand what was going on.

For precisely this reason, he did not want to leave behind any embarrassing records of himself, even though he had already created more than enough of them in the past.

However, Byeol had noticed that the phone his human servant used to carry everywhere had disappeared.

This meant that his embarrassing records were gone, too. As long as he was a little more careful from now on, there would be no problem.

Joo Joowon did not notice Byeol's little actions. The bear hide was simply too large, and when Byeol stood behind it, Joo Joowon could not see him at all.

He pondered what kind of item the bear hide was and how it could fool the map's detection system.

Or perhaps it was not actually fooling the system at all. Could it be that the puppet race itself was special, and that the puppet bodies they inhabited were considered their true bodies by the system?

Joo Joowon shook the bear hide. He genuinely could not tell how it differed from the Kang Taewoo he had seen before. Its scent was the same, the sensations he picked up through his mental power were the same, and even its aura of life was identical.

"Lord, did you need something from me?"

Before Joo Joowon could figure things out, the bear hide he was holding suddenly spoke, startling him so badly that he almost threw it away.

A completely limp bear hide with absolutely no stuffing had suddenly started talking out of nowhere. It was difficult not to be frightened by such a thing.

Joo Joowon steadied himself before asking, "It's nothing. You are...?"

"I'm sleeping, of course," Kang Taewoo replied matter of factly. His voice even carried a hint of confusion. "Isn't it obvious?"