# Chepter 012

“Ugh, this is crazy. What’s wrong with me these days?” said the man.

He was Lee Taesung, 1st Team Leader of the Special Villian Division of Seoul Metropolitan Police Department. He was grabbing his hair off with a sigh again.

“Captain’s going to be pissed off again. Dammit,” said Taesung.

“Bro, why don’t we go eat? It’s lunch time,” said another man.

He was Kim Chulmin, Taesung’s partner, who just got back from a restroom, cleaning his wet hands off of his pants.

“How can you even think about eating right now, huh? We got a body today morning again!”

“But you still gotta eat or we all die,” said Chulmin.

“Ugh, you son of a…”

Chulmin grinned at Taesung, but he knew how Taesung felt more than anyone else. Murder cases have begun to surge in the past month. Actually, increase of murder cases itself may be nothing special. Real problem was that all the killers were in a similar state. They all had sickly red eyes, cackling like maniacs as they munched on the red candy that was gaining popularity these days as health supplement. As such, the media was covering all murder cases as ‘Candy Murders.’

“Why are all these crazy bastards making fuss with their red eyes!” shouted Taesung, when a phone rang. He reached for the phone and answered.

“Yes, this is Taesung Lee of the Special Villains Division,” said Taesung.

[Sir. This is officer Kyunghoon Choi from the B-2 Precinct,] said the man over the other end of the phone.

“Oh, yes. How can I help you?”

[There was a suspect of Candy Murders found in front of our precinct, so we have arrested him,] said Officer Kyunghoon.

“What the f… what are you talking about? How did you know he’s a suspect?” said Taesung in disbelief.

[We have run him through our database, and found him to be Minsuk Kang, a wanted man. Also, there was a bloody dagger and red candy placed next to him, sir.]

It was an unbelievable situation, but the precinct was not going to lie about something like this.

“Alright. I’m on my way,” said Taesung and hung up the phone. Chulmin looked surprised and asked.

“Bro, did the precinct just call to say they apprehended a suspect?”

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

“Did the suspect turn himself in?”

“I’ll explain while we’re on the way. Call the Information Department and ask for every surveillance footage in the area and suspect’s movement.”

***

“That is truly weird. This alley was his last route on the surveillance.”

There had been a total of ten bodies from the factory to the alleyway around it. This was the worst case of Candy Murders until now.

“Ugh, I don’t believe it. I thought we’re onto something this time,” said Taesung. He was looking at the quiet alleyway.

“Yeah. That Minsuk is surely the one behind all these murders. But what made him lie at the front of the police office?”

“That’s what I can’t understand. Damn,” said Taesung at Chulmin’s question.

Kang Minsuk was a bastard who had ten previous convictions of murder, rape, and robbery but he was not an easy guy to deal with. Who could have dealt with such Minsuk and placed him in front of the police office without being caught on the surveillance camera? That was absolutely impossible unless it was an S Rank Hunter.

‘And no S Rank hunter will suddenly play the hero unless they’ve gone crazy,’ thought Taesung.

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Chulmin then laughed at Taesung who had a frown on his face due to headache.

“Well, who cares? At least we have less things to piss off our captain today. It’s good, right?”

Chulmin shook his head.

“Ugh. Here I am, having a man like you as my partner. NNNGH!”

“Why bro? I didn’t say anything wrong,” said Chulmin.

“It’s not only about today that Captain’s pissed about! We have no clue about why these bastards that munches on candies suddenly turn their eyes red and walk around killing people!”

That’s when a rumbling sound came from Chulmin’s stomach. He rubbed on it.

“We got trashed by the Captain in the morning, and even skipped lunch…”

“Alright. Let’s go eat first and go question that bastard,” said Taesung.

That’s when Chulmin noticed the sign of Lucky Diner in the distance.

“There’s a restaurant at the corner. Let’s eat there.”

“Hey, do you really want to eat at an alleyway like this?” asked Taesung.

“Why? Maybe the owner had seen something. Lucky Diner! It’s just what we need, after all,” said Chulmin.

Taesung then thought that Chulmin was a character hard to hate, which he always thought about.

“Alright, alright. Let’s go.”

But the Lucky Diner they looked close up did not look like a place that would bring luck to them. The raggedy sign was fitting at such a creepy alleyway, but it also worked to deter customers away.

“Chulmin, should we go somewhere else? I mean, they are better-” Taesung tried to change Chulmin’s mind, but Chulmin refused.

“Place like this is usually better.”

Chulmin then opened the door and walked in.

“Ugh, that bastard.”

Taesung followed Chulmin into the Lucky Diner.

***

“Huh?”

Gyungho had just finished Sullungtang when he added radish kimchi soup, when Chulmin walked into the restaurant.

“Welcome,” said Gyungho immediately.

“Oh, didn’t know you were having dinner,” said Chulmin.

“It’s alright. I’m done,” said Gyungho.

Jisook also stood from the table, and greeted Taesung who walked in behind Chulmin.

“Welcome,” said Jisook.

“Oh, hello.”

“Please sit,” said Jisook.

Two of them relaxed at a clean interior that they had not expected from outside and sat down.

“Bro, it looks much better inside. There's a good smell too. I always make the right choice, see?” said Chulmin.

“Yeah. Then what should we… they only have combination meals here,” said Taesung.

There was ‘Combination Meal - 20,000 Won’ written on the menu on the wall.

“Wow, they must be confident about it. Excuse me, can we order?” Chulmin called to Gyungho.

“Would you like two combination meals?” asked Gyungho.

“Yeah. What’s in it? I’m not good with seafood,” said Chulmin.

“Just a moment,” said Gyungho as he went back into the kitchen.

“Boss, what's on our special menu today?” Gyungho asked his mother.

“What is the question for, Mr. Employee?” asked Jisook.

“The customer says he’s not good with seafood,” said Gyungho.

“How about we just bring out the sullungtang that you claim to have made yourself? It tastes better than most that I had,” said Jisook.

“Alright.”

Gyungho nodded. The stew was tasty, but also was very good for health due to it being made from Ironhorn Bull.

“How about sullungtang? We have that made already,” said Gyungho as he got back out to the hall.

“Oh! Soup and rice! Bro, are you okay with that?”

Chulmin got excited as he loved some soup and rice.

“Yeah, it sounds good,” said Taesung.

“Mom, two sullungtang please,” shouted Gyungho towards the kitchen.

“Does the menu always change?” asked Chulmin. Gyungho nodded.

“Yes. We bring out different soups, stews or side dishes that are in season for each meal,” said Gyungho.

“Wow! It’s cheap, and also close to our work! We should be regular here. Don’t you think so, bro?”

Gyungho smiled and nodded at Chulmin’s exaggerated reaction.

“That will help greatly.”

“We’ll come to our next company dinner,” said Chulmin.

“If you come in a group, we can make the menu you wish,” said Gyungho.

“Really? Bro, we really need to come here for the next company dinner,” said Chulmin.

“Yeah, I suppose,” said Taesung.

That’s when a voice came from the kitchen.

“Gyungho!”

“Oh, I think it’s ready. Hold on a second,” said Gyungho. He soon then returned with a tray full of dishes. Steamy steamed rice with sullungtang that had a savory smell. And a radish kimchi on a small dish. There was an egg roll that Jisook quickly cooked. It was small, but a full dinner table.

“Wow, this exceeds my expectations by a large margin. You know I love soup and rice. I know it's real when I smell it. This smells better than the restaurant that was passed down for three generations we went before,” said Chulmin.

“This isn’t a specialized soup place. Why are you comparing it like that. Isn’t this just a frozen food?”

Gyungho, who was standing by the kitchen, smiled at their conversation.

“Frozen? Bro, my nose detector is telling me that this can never be frozen.”

“Alright, alright.”

Taesung added salt and pepper while Chulmin was mumbling about in excitement, and took a spoon into his mouth.

“Hmm…”

It surely was not a frozen food that can be bought at a market. Chulmin got especially excited as he noticed Taesung being surprised by the taste.

“I told you. If a stuck up guy like you flinches at one spoon of soup, then it is really something,” said Chulmin.

“Are you done talking? I thought you were hungry. Be quiet and eat.”

“Hmph.”

Chulmin then added salt into his soup too, and took a bite.

“Wow. A sullungtang this clean?”

Chulmin, a soup lover, was more confident in his taste for soup than anyone else.

‘I can even drink this like water,’ thought Chulmin.

But it wasn’t tasteless like water either. Even the most famous sullungtang restaurant had that greasy feeling to it even if there’s no smell, but this soup did not have that. It only had that deep and savory taste.

“This… how can a bone soup… should I say it’s refreshing? What do you think, bro?” said Chulmin.

“It’s good,” said Taesung.

“Huh? That’s it?”

“It's food and it’s good. What else do you need? Hurry up and let’s get back to work,” said Taesung.

“Ugh, you really don’t think about anything other than work. How can you just end it with ‘good’ on a soup like this?”

“What do you think then? I can’t think anywhere else because you only think about talking, and I have to do your part of thinking too.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, boss. It’s all my fault. HAH!”

Although they looked like they were fighting, they actually cared for each other. After having some more, Chulmin put down the spoon and sighed.

“I just met my dream soup, but thinking of the captain being pissed just lost my appetite. Do you think there’s some cult behind these Candy Murders?” asked Chulmin.

“I don’t know. Hmph,” said Taesung.

Gyungho, who had been listening to their conversation, became curious at that point.

‘Candy Murders? Are they talking about that guy from lunch time?’ thought Gyungho. Gyungho thought of Minsuk when Snowball’s voice came to his head.

[Gyungho. I leveled up from eating the food and recovering my energy.]

Gyungho turned to look at Snowball who was eating sullungtang at the kitchen corner.

[Level up? Do Guardians level up too?] asked Gyungho.

The Earth changed like games, but he did not know that it applied to the Guardian, who was the administrator of the system.

[Yes. I integrated the system to the entire Earth, so I am an administrator but also a user,] said Snowball.

[Yeah? Anyway, congrats.]

[You sure sound unimpressed.]

Gyungho was not impressed because there wasn’t anything that seemed to have changed.

[Anyway, now that I am level 2, I have a way to recover my Divine Energy faster.]

[What? Were you level 1?] asked Gyungho.

Gyungho did not say ‘this whole time’ at the end, but Snowball felt more meaning behind what Gyungho had said.

[I had to use all my Divine and Life Energy to create the system, so I was demoted. It was much higher,] said Snowball.

[Yeah, don’t be so defensive. So, how can you increase Divine Energy?]

[Take a look.]

A message popped up right in front of Gyungho’s eyes at once.

‘What the hell?’