Chapter 179 – I Thought I’d Get Caught

“Meow, meow, meow.”

Theo walked without hesitation into the fourth room on the right, which was at the very end along the hallway of the lost and found warehouse. Inside, there was a giant mountain of junk about the size of Pink Fur.

Hop.

Theo boldly threw himself into the mountain of junk. Since he could now wash very easily using his water-attribute ability, there was no reason to shrink back because of dust.

“Where is it, meow?”

Theo moved around as if swimming inside the junk, following the pull of his front paw.

And,

“This is it, meow!”

Theo picked up a bronze plaque about the size of his palm. He felt that Chairman Park’s satisfaction level would be close to a perfect 10, meow! Chairman Park’s satisfaction level was a new indicator that Theo had acquired by observing Se-jun all this time.

“Puhuhut. Chairman Park will be grateful to me, meow!”

Theo joyfully left the lost and found warehouse holding the bronze plaque.

“Are you really going to go with that?”

Taru asked, looking at Theo, who was covered in dust from head to toe just to bring out a single rusted bronze plaque. Although he knew that Theo would not change his mind just because he asked, he could not help but ask because Theo looked pitiful.

“Yes, meow!”

As expected, Theo answered firmly this time as well. Perhaps this guy was coming here just to throw away money.

“Understood. Then see you again.”

“Meow? I won’t come anymore, meow!”

At Taru’s words, Theo gave an unexpected response.

“Huh? Why?!”

Taru was flustered. When he told him not to come, he kept coming, but now that he told him to come, he said he wouldn’t?

“There is nothing more to take from here, meow!”

Even though he always took trash? It seemed he had his own standards.

“Then, if you come next time, I’ll let you enter a different lost and found warehouse.”

Noticing that Theo seemed to particularly like items in poor condition, Taru tempted Theo with a warehouse where discarded items from the lost and found warehouse and items judged not even worth putting in the lost and found warehouse were gathered.

Since there were many trash-like items there too, he was sure Theo would be interested.

“Meow?! Was there another lost and found warehouse, meow?!”

As expected, Theo reacted.

“Yes. So make sure to come again next time.”

“Understood, meow! Then see you next time, meow!”

Theo left the lost and found warehouse and quickly moved to the 40th floor of the tower.

***

“Shifting Earth.”

[You have planted 500 mana cherry tomato seeds in the soil containing mana.]

[By the effect of Mana Sowing Lv. 6, the probability of the sturdy mana cherry tomato seeds taking root increases.]

[By the effect of Mana Sowing Lv. 6, the growth speed of the mana cherry tomato seeds increases for 24 hours.]

[There are 7,733,817 times left until the completion of the job quest.]

Having sent Theo down, Se-jun was diligently planting cherry tomatoes to complete his job quest.

At that moment,

Cueng?

[Dad! Where is Cuengi’s grandmother?]

Cuengi suddenly began to look for his grandmother.

“Grandmother? My mother?!”

Cueng!

[Yes! Cuengi’s dad’s mother is Cuengi’s grandmother!]

“Why are you asking about grandmother all of a sudden?”

Cueng!

[The monkey uncles said that if there is a grandmother, she will give lots of delicious snacks and tell interesting stories!]

It seemed he had heard something from the monkeys. But Cuengi, were snacks lacking? Se-jun felt a bit disappointed at Cuengi, who was looking for snacks again even though he provided plenty.

And separate from that…

“Grandmother…”

At Cuengi’s words, Se-jun recalled his family. These days, he was conveying greetings and money as secretly as possible. This was because there were forces approaching his family to obtain the crops he sold.

Although most were just watching, there were also forces that did not.

So Se-jun asked Han Tae-jun to protect their family, and Theo used one of his favors to have Han Tae-jun protect Se-jun’s family.

Thanks to that, bodyguards disguised as neighbors were secretly living in all of Se-jun’s apartment’s adjacent, lower, and upper units, and bodyguards disguised as apartment security guards and cleaners were working.

Of course, disguised bodyguards were also working at Se-jun’s father Park Chun-ho’s workplace and Se-jun’s younger brother Se-dol’s school.

To hire all of them required an enormous cost, but selling just a few of Se-jun’s crops could maintain 100 times the current scale of security.

“I want to eat the kimchi stew my mother made.”

Se-jun said in a longing voice. He used to annoy his mother often, complaining if she only gave him kimchi stew every day… but now, he wanted to eat that kimchi stew, which had been so tiresome, the most.

Cueng?

[Doesn’t Cuengi have a grandmother?]

Cuengi seemed to have misunderstood Se-jun’s expression.

“Why wouldn’t you have one? It’s just that you can’t see them right now, but you have a grandmother, a grandfather, and an uncle too.”

Cueng? Cueng!

[Really? Yay!]

At Se-jun’s words, Cuengi was delighted, doing the butt dance and shoulder dance at the same time. The number of people who would give Cuengi snacks has increased!

“Shall we practice what to do when you meet grandmother?”

Cueng!

[I’d love to!]

At Se-jun’s words, Cuengi nodded his head vigorously. First impressions were important! Cuengi’s special training to get lots of snacks from his grandmother began.

“Now. ‘Hello, grandmother. I am Cuengi.’ Saying this, you do a bellybutton bow. Watch Dad closely.”

Se-jun put his hands on his stomach and bowed at a 90-degree angle.

Cueng! Cueng!

[Hello, grandmother! Cuengi is Cuengi!]

Following Se-jun, Cuengi placed his front paws on his stomach and bowed his head 90 degrees.

But

Tilt.

As he bowed his head, his center of gravity rapidly shifted forward. I cannot fall over! Cuengi, who thought he wouldn’t get snacks if he couldn’t do this.

Cueng!

With a solemn expression, he put strength into his toes and dug them into the ground. Cuengi was one to solve minor problems with his physicality.

“Good job.”

Cueng?

[Is that it?]

At Se-jun’s praise, Cuengi asked in confusion.

“Yes. If you do just that, grandmother will immediately clutch her heart and collapse.”

His mother, Madam Kim Mi-ran, had a weakness for cute animals. But the strongest cutie beast, Cuengi, even doing a bellybutton bow? This was 100% death by heart attack.

At that moment,

Cueng! Cueng!

[I don’t want that! Even if Dad hates grandmother, Cuengi will not harm grandmother!]

Cuengi, who had misunderstood Se-jun’s words, said. It seemed he thought Se-jun hated grandmother and was telling him to harm her.

“What?! Puhahahahat!”

Se-jun burst out laughing at Cuengi’s words. His thoughts were so cute.

Cueng!

[Cuengi is serious! If you hate grandmother, Dad is a bad guy!]

Cuengi got angry and pulled out his club.

“Uh?! No, that’s not it…”

Se-jun hurriedly calmed Cuengi down and made him understand.

Cueng?

[Does grandmother like it that much when she sees Cuengi?]

“Yes. Absolutely. She will probably give you snacks until you ask her to stop.”

Cueng?! Cueng!

[Really?! Cuengi wants to see grandmother quickly!]

At Se-jun’s words, Cuengi wished he could see his grandmother even a day sooner.

Afterward,

Cuhehehe.

Cuengi sometimes laughed to himself, perhaps imagining meeting his grandmother.

“Cuengi, play by my side.”

Cueng!

[Got it!]

Se-jun let Cuengi play and planted cherry tomatoes again.

And as lunchtime approached,

“I should stop here.”

Se-jun moved first before Cuengi’s belly clock rang.

As Se-jun was walking to the kitchen like that,

Thud.

A vibration that shook the ground was felt. It was from the direction of the cave where Flamie was.

“Flamie, what’s going on?”

Se-jun asked as he went down to the cave,

[Master! A tuna suddenly came up today as well!]

Flamie pointed to the tuna that had come up to the pond with its leaves.

“Oh! Really? We can eat it for lunch.”

‘But is there something here? For tuna to keep coming up on their own…’ Se-jun examined the tuna with curiosity. It was a smaller tuna than last time, but it was still about 10 meters in size.

“I should chop it up first and put it in the subspace warehouse.”

As Se-jun was diligently butchering the tuna,

Clink.

something fell from the tuna’s mouth, and a succession of cheerful clinking sounds was heard.

“Huh?!”

When Se-jun looked at where the sound came from, a gray coin and two green coins, a total of three coins, had fallen there.

[Kraken’s Gray Coin]

???

[Leviathan’s Green Coin]

???

At a glance, they were the coins dropped when an Apostle of Destruction died.

“Why is this here?”

Se-jun felt something strange. A tuna ate an Apostle of Destruction? It made no sense. For that, this tuna was a weak one without even an inner core. Of course, it would be impossible even if it had one.

Then did the tuna swallow these coins? And three of them? It was too strange…

While Se-jun was lost in thought,

Cueng!

[Dad, Cuengi is hungry!]

Feeling hungry, Cuengi began to search for Se-jun.

“Got it! Just wait a little bit.”

Se-jun quickly put the coins in his pocket and put the remaining tuna in the subspace warehouse.

“Flamie, I’m going up.”

[Yes! Have a delicious lunch.]

“Yeah.”

As Se-jun hurriedly went up to make lunch,

[Whew. I thought I was going to get caught.]

Flamie breathed a sigh of relief.

***

“Meow, meow, meow.”

Theo, who had found an item with Chairman Park’s satisfaction rating of 10, arrived on the 40th floor of the tower, humming excitedly.

“Puhuhut. Today, I will completely shake down the humans’ pockets too, meow!”

Theo proudly and majestically walked toward the hunters’ camp.

At that moment,

“Surround him!”

Suddenly, about 100 masked hunters dressed in black appeared and surrounded Theo.

“What is this, meow?”

“Why are you blocking my way, meow?” Theo asked, looking at the masked men surrounding him.

“Are you Theo?”

Among the masked men, the only man with the number ‘2’ written on his mask asked, looking at Theo.

The man wore only trousers with his mask, and the tattoo of the Three-Headed Society engraved on his muscle-bound left chest was clearly visible. One of the three snake tattoos was blue.

“No, meow!”

Theo answered confidently.

“What? Don’t lie! We know you are Theo, the cat traveling merchant!”

At Theo’s response, answering without being flustered at all, the masked man who had just asked shouted excitedly.

“You are wrong, meow! I am the Great Black Dragon’s subordinate, the deadly Dragon Claw yellow cat, Theo Park, meow!”

Flash!

Theo corrected the masked man’s error and pulled out the Dragon Claw.

“That’s the same thing! It is him! Capture him!”

“Yes!”

The masked men rushed toward Theo. However, the opponent was Theo, who was a being of the 75th floor of the tower, armed with the Dragon Claw, and had grown tremendously strong after eating the nourishing food prepared by Se-jun.

Slash, slash.

With Theo simply waving his front paws a few times, no being was left standing around him. The masked men were cut down along with the surrounding ground by the powerful mana blades emitted from the Dragon Claw.

“This is what happens when you disturb Chairman Park, meow!”

Theo shouted, satisfied with having wiped out the forces that interfered with Se-jun. Strangely, he had been struggling because his body was overflowing with power, but expending power like this made him feel a bit more comfortable.

At that moment,

-You! You are quite something.

A giant blue snake crawled out from the corpse of the masked man with ‘2’ written on it.

Crack.

Centered around the blue snake, the surrounding ground began to freeze.

***

“Come to think of it, did Theo go to the restroom after eating the nourishing food?”

Se-jun, who was grilling the tuna, recalled yesterday’s events. Se-jun had put about 50 elixir: cherry tomatoes containing powerful mana into the tuna fish porridge made for Theo’s hangover.

Because it was white, it did not show even if he put in a lot. Theo, who had consumed such nourishing food that could raise his magic power by 500 if only his potential supported it.

“He probably pooped when I wasn’t around, right?”

Se-jun thought that couldn’t be. If he thought about Theo digesting all of that, he felt like his stomach would hurt a bit.