Task Force Secret Weapon (5)

The blue cow was completely silent as the light inside of it faded. It was now clearly inactive.

“Isn’t it a monster?”

“Sort of. It’s an artifact.”

“Huh…” Shin Eunah listened to Kang Shin-hyuk’s brief explanation, convinced by his words.

“I thought the level of this watchman was oddly high for a world with low combat power.” Watchman. That was this guy that guarded those remnants of this fallen world.

“Is that why you were confused by this guy appearing?”

“Hm. Based on the record on the tombstones, it’s clear that these people didn’t have the ability to tame monsters of this level, so I was relieved…but then a monster that was at least S-rank showed up.”

“Is it S-rank? That’s no joke.” In fact, Shin Eunah’s palms were sweaty. The thought of Kang Shin-hyuk being seriously injured was too much for her to bear. Of course, with her ability, stopping the blue cow would’ve been child’s play. But even momentarily putting him in danger was too much.

“Don’t let pride take you off your guard.”

“It’s okay. This wasn’t even a monster, and it was thanks to its spiritual power that I was able to find it.” He doubted that those in this world before would’ve ever imagined someone could take control of it. They couldn’t completely control it themselves, after all.

“Oh, I should take a look at it.” Kang Shin-hyuk placed his forehead on the cow’s. On the outside, it looked like a golem-type monster, but it was definitely an artifact, so that meant it should be possible to appraise it for information.

[Blue cow]

[SS-rank]

[Special Abilities-Lightning, Lightning Speed, Thunder God]

*Lightning – Fires lightning at an enemy. When cast under the sky, its power doubles. This doubles again if it is raining.

*Lightning Speed ― By consuming spiritual power, you can move as fast as lightning.

*Thunder God ― A body forged by lightning. It ignores lightning strikes and will absorb external energy to recover itself. It becomes reinforced anytime it absorbs lightning.

[The form of a beast that threw itself into a lightning storm to protect God. As the years passed, it wandered through the world and found itself in the hands of those not worthy. It won’t be easy to repair it to its original form without a blacksmith that deals with spiritual power.]

That phrase seemed to point directly at Kang Shin-hyuk. Perhaps that was a result of it appraising him in return. As a test, he breathed a little spirit into the cow. That blue spark inside of its eyes gained a bit of life, but there was no dramatic change.

“Hm…” Kang Shin-hyuk couldn’t believe he had tried to defeat this guy head-on. If it had been in top-shape, he might’ve died.

-Kuooo…

The blue cow let out a gentle cry in response to his spiritual power flowing in. It entered his inventory without any issues.

“Thank you, senior. I didn’t know I would get something this good.”

“That’s not a normal occurrence, even for S-class gates. It’s all thanks to my grandpa’s abilities.” Shin Eunah shook her head and approached the center of the cavern, where a small stone floated. It looked like the tombstones in the cavern had been compressed into one small stone.

“It’s all the information that was held here.” When she retrieved that final remnant, vibrations began to spread throughout the entire cavern. No, they were going throughout the entire gate.

-The gate [Belatos (A)] has been cleared. The gate will be destroyed, and everything inside will be ejected.

“Ah.”

“The purpose of this gate was to convey this information. Now that it has…”

“That’s why the gate was stable up until now. But… won’t it be an issue if people see what we did?”

“If grandpa wishes to, I can hide it.” Shin Eunah said so while firmly holding the stone as if to break it.

“No, it’s okay! It’s okay, Eunah… I’ll let my senior take the lead. It would be nice to hide my existence, but some people have already seen us…that’s right, after training a rookie, we accidentally discovered the secret of the gate and defeated the boss.”

“Once again…” Shin Eunah was staring directly at Kang Shin-hyuk, whose eyes were shining a brilliant gold.

“Say it one more time.”

“Yes?”

“Eunah.”

“Oh, that…” As the memories of Anvil’s memories became clearer, he had felt it more natural to call out her name without hesitation.

“Well…senior Eunah?”

“Good.”

“What?”

“Call me that in the future.”

“…Even in public?”

“Hm.” It did feel a bit more familiar than just calling her senior, but he nodded as soon as he saw her tremble.

“Then…okay, senior Eunah.”

“Good.” Kang Shin-hyuk shook his head, wondering what the hell was good. He could feel the pressure building up around his body as the gate prepared to eject them.

“If possible, we’ll just leave.”

“On to the next gate.” He remembered that this trip was supposed to be only a measuring of his ability, after all. He let out a sigh at Shin Eunah, who was using strange words like date and tent, as they were kicked out.

***

After grasping Kang Shin-hyuk’s abilities, Shin Eunah took him on a tour through all sorts of gates for an entire week. He had originally thought that they would be working at it every night, but instead, she had planned it out to be all day every day in the name of educating her junior.

“It’s over. There’s no shortage of work for a task force member.”

“I’m tired…” The moment she announced it was over, Kang Shin-hyuk slid down against the wall. He had experienced more than ten gates over the course of the week, one of which he had handled alone.

“The difference between simple talent and being a superhuman is like this.” In this world where talent is overflowing, it answered why those with abilities should train themselves. If they just wielded strong power, they were nothing more than simple beasts that were dangerous even to themselves. A real superhuman had to grasp who their enemies were, recognize those that should be obeyed, and have a mindset to cope with all types of situations. That was what Kang Shin-hyuk was learning over the past week.

“I knew from the start that a superhuman and a member of the task force were different.”

“Yes, you are my grandpa, after all.” Shin Eunah responded with a smile. Kang Shin-hyuk, knowing her real nature, only blushed a little at it.

“Don’t call me that when there are people around…”

“It’s okay, I have a barrier up to prevent people from hearing or seeing us.”

“It’s not that sort of problem…”

“I’ve prepared a hotel, so let’s go and rest.”

“No, I’m going back to my dorm.”

“Ooh.” Shin Eunah pouted a bit at him, shooting down her proposal so quickly. He had no intention of falling for it, however. He had already suffered plenty this past week in taking care of her demands every day. Asking him to let her sleep on his knees, or sing her a lullaby, or asking him for food. She was completely treating him like her grandfather.

“Eunah, you’re an adult, right? You have to grow up.”

“But you’re my grandpa.”

“Which is why I was playing along a little, but it can’t go on forever.” Shin Eunah quieted, and Kang Shin-hyuk felt a bit relieved that he had calmed her down. He was quick to find out that she hadn’t fully given up, however.

“Then, how about a kiss?”

“…” Shin Eunah’s expression was very cute as she held onto his shirt with one hand and tapped her cheek with the other. But, ultimately, it looked more like a high school girl asking for her boyfriend to kiss her than a granddaughter asking her grandfather.

‘What’s the verdict?’

-Death penalty.

‘That’s the verdict?!’

-Death penalty.

The administrator was determined, but Kang Shin-hyuk resolved himself. This was the compromise she proposed if he wouldn’t go to the hotel with her. Even his Anvil side was saying that it was okay. He gently kissed her cheek before pulling back.

“Is that enough?”

“Yes.” Her cheeks were red as he flopped around in embarrassment.

-Execution. Execution. Execution.

Only

“Let’s all calm down…” He could vaguely smell her citrus perfume, and a fatal sense of incongruity arose in his mind. Something clashed with his senses as Anvil.

‘Perhaps… senior Eunah…’ No, he shook his head to clear his thoughts.

‘No, it can’t be.’

-Do you know that when you say something can’t be, it increases the chances of it actually occurring?

“Stop raising flags.”

-Execution!

Kang Shin-hyuk finally returned to his dorm room and slept for twelve hours.

In the evening, he heard the news of a big newcomer to the Superhuman Association.