Chapter 300: Paranoid Ren

"Um... I think she’s pretty. I accepted the mission because she’s pretty! Her Excellency Go Eunseo is pretty!"

"Pooh!?"

Korea’s Princess, Eunseo, was watching the live broadcast inside a helicopter over Seoul and nearly choked on the Fleshlight Man’s sudden declaration.

"Tsk."

Chief Security Officer Ben, who was on board with her, clicked his tongue.

"As expected, this person is not someone the princess should keep close to."

Eunseo didn’t say anything.

A young and pretty head of state was sometimes ridiculed for being useless.

At this point there was nothing strange about it.

’Why is my heart pounding?’

Eunseo was so happy inside that Ren had called her pretty.

The so-called "Princess," with her long blue-purple hair worn in a half-up style.

The nickname "Princess" was also a title derived from her beautiful appearance, but in fact she had originally carried a different title that had been refined since she took office.

During her Hunter days her nickname had been 『Queen of Killing』.

In other words, she had been a queen, not a princess.

And a very terrifying one at that.

[Red-Eyes Empress] Along with Regina Dean, she was one of the main figures who had led the golden age of hunters.

No — she was still leading it.

One was Korea’s only SS-class Master Hunter.

One was Korea’s female president.

’But I don’t want to just sit back and do politics.’

Whenever she got tired of smiling prettily while wearing the enemy’s attention, she came out into the field. It was simple because here there were only enemies to kill.

Eunseo thought as she looked down at the "dangerous area" in the sky above Seoul, where red mist was spreading.

"How is the current situation?"

Creda, the female bodyguard sitting across from her, answered.

"The mist spread is still ongoing. It’s getting bigger and bigger."

"Like when a sphere of space almost ate Korea?"

"Yes."

The biggest reason Korea was able to enjoy relative peace as it did now was because there had been an existence that exercised overwhelming force against the invasion of external gods who tried to exert all kinds of influence.

Sword Saint Justia.

Twenty years had passed since she died.

Regina Dean was evaluated as the strongest hunter of all time, but no one knew what it would have been like if Justia had still been alive.

...The story was bound to keep coming up. She was a hero who had played an active role in Korea’s most turbulent times.

’Now that hero is gone.’

The cosmic family had exercised influence only in four specific countries, including Korea.

Why had they suddenly reappeared?

Why now?

Looking down at the city center where the red fog spread, Eunseo sighed.

"You shouldn’t think about going down yet. It hasn’t stabilized."

Ben spoke as if he had read Eunseo’s mind.

"I know, Mister. Right now we have no choice but to believe in the Hunters and the Heroes."

Fog was known to be a phenomenon caused by huge gravitational waves passing through the same coordinates.

When the situation was unstable, the best approach was to infiltrate only a few people and work hard to stabilize it.

If it passed on its own, that was good luck. If it didn’t, then they would have to exert their full strength.

If they messed with it from the start they would be caught up in that gigantic gravitational wave and never come back alive.

Because this was valuable information learned through bloodshed in the past, Eunseo was only looking for the right timing to enter.

’I believe in you, Liliana.’

"Don’t you believe me, Mr. President?"

...!

Suddenly the image of the handsome Ren infiltrating her delusions made Eunseo’s cheeks turn red.

Tori!

What was she thinking, treating someone else’s boyfriend like that?

Her delusions did not stop. An exhausted Ren approached her and pushed her against the wall.

"I want to protect the president’s bedroom tonight."

"Eve...!! W-wait! If you do that—"

It was a ridiculous imagination, and even inside the delusion she felt embarrassed.

"Why are you spacing out? The bathroom?"

"No, Uncle."

’Phew.’

Eunseo sighed internally.

’...Is it because I haven’t slept enough?’

A desired person.

Eunseo’s head, which had begun imagining fox tails and ears, grew even more complicated.

*

[Quest: [Galaxy Miner Treatment]]

Countermeasures against the miners of the universe, the Galactic Miners. Remuneration is 120 coins per head.

When we came out of the base camp we moved to the place the quest marker guided us.

The space was distorted; even if you walked for a long time the same landscape repeated and it was easy to get lost.

We found an alien creature five meters tall roaming the roadside.

"Wait. Lean in."

Yuna spotted it at the same time and crouched low.

Should I hit it first?

I just needed to land the Soul Excretion.

"How does it look?"

"Perception/Red."

There were no other miners around.

Only one alien creature with a five-meter height and malformed long limbs stood in the open.

And...

’That guy is keeping his body protected with magic.’

Right now, with my current strength, there was no way to break the magic shield and touch the body directly.

If I used a moonlight slug I could crack the shield.

’Don’t hurry. Let’s take it step by step.’

"Fleshlight Enhancement."

I applied a Fleshlight buff to Yuna, who would fight the miner.

"How is it?"

"Okay! The power feels enormous."

"You break the shield and I’ll put the bullets into the gap."

"Ha... can I do it?"

Elle looked crushed with anxiety right away.

Yuna grabbed the hand of her girlfriend, who had been confident before the important engagement, and encouraged her.

"Elle! We set it up together so Ren can finish!"

"Uh, yeah! Set up... it’s a setup. This is... right."

...

If two girlfriends were doing that for me, it was lovely enough to make me want to hug them both.

If I only wanted efficient hunting in Lustbound, the end of the game would have been leaving everything to Si-eun. I could have become the Fleshlight Demon King who led an entire Fleshlight Corps.

But then the Fleshlight Squad would never have existed here. Only one commander who led thorough life-or-death soldiers would have remained.

If that was the cool option, then to become stronger it might have been better.

But right now I liked the Fleshlight Squad that grew together with me.

I wanted to raise these two.

"I’ll try it."

"Are you okay?"

I gently stroked Elle’s cheek.

Elle grabbed my hand and nodded firmly.

"Huh."

"Fantasy. How about strengthening someone other than me? The magic becomes stronger that way."

"I thought about it too. If we can’t finish in one shot it’s too dangerous."

It was true that Yuna needed to become stronger in preparation for anything that might happen.

"Elle, prepare your strongest magic. That’s the signal."

"Huh."

We made as many approaches as possible.

"I’ll shoot from here."

Elle stood up and began preparing her magic.

Under tight tension the maximum power of [Void: Santan] was loaded.

Yuna focused on her feet so she could dash in at any moment.

I was nervous as well.

In order to insert the strongest attack right after the best attacks of the two of them, I kept touching my body while maintaining tension.

We waited a few seconds in complete stillness.

Elle and Yuna were also in super-intensive mode, focused on penetrating the magic shield.

Elle’s trembling had completely stopped.

The moment the "shot" left her staff I felt that it was similar to the weapon I used.

That wasn’t natural. Because it was a shot.

The point was, why had her magic taken that form?

When I realized she had thought of me while casting it, I felt a strange warmth.

Fuhuaaaaagh!

"Kiik!!"

Elle’s magic struck the miner’s torso exactly.

The magic-attribute shield scattered!

But it was still not enough. The body was not completely exposed. Pale remnants of the magic-attribute shield still clung like fog and prepared to interfere with my attack.

Even so, the creature recognized us in one second and began to leap.

"Yuna!"

"Huh!!"

Yuna, enhanced by the Fleshlight buff, charged in and cut at the shield Elle had already weakened.

Chew!!

It opened!

[Tactical Shooting activated]

I aimed the Benelli and stopped breathing.

The aesthetics of a shotgun were normally about rough aiming, but this was active duty.

I erased every useless muscle movement and fired straight into the center.

Taang!!

"Soul Excretion!"

The slug struck.

The miner that had been running stretched its legs and collapsed as if shocked by high-voltage current, unable to overcome the S-class Benelli’s impact.

It was a creature of great durability; even after being hit dead-center it only shed blood the size of a fingernail.

However, the jelly was out of control.

"Elle! We did it!"

"Did we really do it?"

Yuna and Elle hugged each other.

"Kyaa!"

"We did it! We did it!"

Cute girls...

"The finish is still left, Elle."

"Finish? Ah!"

Elle quickly jumped toward the jelly.

"Become a Fleshlight!"

"Become a Fleshlight."

Pop!

Elle picked up the chubby Fleshlight with a bright face, looking exactly like a dog playing with its master.

"I brought it! Fantasy!"

"Good job. Good girl."

I stroked her head while scratching under her chin without thinking.

Elle held the Fleshlight and smiled as if she was the happiest person in the world.

"Now, shall we earn some money?"

Yuna said, eyes shining.

Yes. The important thing was money.

As proof of conquest we cut the miners’ ears and stored them in the inventory.

"The jelly is made into a Fleshlight; we cut the shell and take it! This is a perfect benefit."

"You could build a tower with empty bowls of malatang."

"Let’s go!"

By the time we met the third miner the tension had decreased a lot.

We maintained good concentration and began targeting the miners before they could do anything.

As long as we went in with the setup of Yuna and Elle, the rest was simply a shotgun shot followed by one-shot, one-kill Soul Excretion.

It was going to become stupidly efficient.

"Become a Fleshlight."

One, two, three...

The Fleshlight Squad found and processed them all morning.

"Whoa."

Was this a good form?

"Your magic has gone down, Ren."

"Ah. I should have left a little bit for the way back."

"It’s proof that you worked hard!"

Yuna looked very happy.

It must have been shocking to have dealt with twelve A+-grade monsters.

"Let’s go back and eat."

We returned to base camp for settlement.

Eirin, the big-hearted receptionist, greeted me with a smile.

"Hunter Ren. Are you here?"

That polite greeting — I wanted to make it exclusive to me in the bedroom.

"I caught a lot, Receptionist-noona."

"I’ll help you with the settlement. ...Wow!"

When I took the miners’ ears out of the inventory her eyes widened in surprise.

I didn’t know if she was really surprised or if it was just service reaction.

As a man I dared to say it looked like she was eager for us to go back to the hunting grounds and catch even more!

"You’re really amazing, Hunter! You’ve collected so many in just one morning."

"Haha."

"We will help settle a total of 1,840 coins, including quest clear rewards and loot rewards."

Could she take my student ID?

"Yes, it’s done."

You could deposit and withdraw money even in a place where phones barely worked.

Had the bank’s computer system been strengthened with the Magic River? ...

I checked the coins on my student ID while thinking such useless thoughts.

[Veyron Academy Student ID]

[Class D]

[Ren]

[Possessed coins: 2,678,549]

Hmm. I confirmed the deposit had gone through.

I divided the shares between the two of them.

"Take 650 each."

"That much?!"

Yuna happily clung to me.

"I love our leader so much!"

"Am I the leader?"

"The one who gives money is the leader!"

That was correct.

"You take some too, Elle."

"Uh, yes. Thank you..."

I kept the remaining 540 coins.

Now I had 2,677,249 coins.

Quite a lot of coins had been collected from the rewards of the Xenovia subjugation and the usual Fleshlight sales.

’I’ll earn even more if I sell the Fleshlights.’

In fact the total of thirteen Galactic Fleshlights was my main source of income right now.

How much would it be if I sold all of them?

Just imagining it made me happy.