chapter 4
The well-cooked noodles were divided into 3 bowls and the soup was poured.
He rummaged through the refrigerator, took out kimchi and pickled radish, and poured the rice left over from the rice cooker into the air.
“Will your brother bring me some? My legs tremble just looking at the ex-president…”
Judging by the frightened expression on the senior assistant’s face, it seems that he is really afraid of the boss.
“Okay, I’ll get it for you. Don’t wait, let’s go to work first.”
“Thank you, brother!”
I left the kitchen with a tray of ramen on top.
The boss and his men were at the end of the hallway.
Instead of knocking at the door, I shouted.
“Ramen is here!”
“come in.”
When I went inside, the president was sitting at the top of the table.
A large bag was placed in front of him.
It was an aluminum case bag used to carry cameras and the like.
For some reason, I thought I shouldn’t touch it, so I avoided the bag and put the bowl.
“Enjoy your meal!”
After setting the table, I was about to turn around when one of the big guys stopped me.
“Ah! I need to get the money for the ramen.”
He handed me two 50,000 won bills.
“thank you!”
received it with both hands.
What if I get off work a little late, I barely cooked ramen and earned 100,000 won, so I got it.
It was much better than my old job where I worked overtime every day without receiving a single penny.
I was about to leave the room with such satisfaction, but someone else called me to stop.
“hey!”
This time he was the boss.
I looked back and saw that he was smiling mischievously.
“Can I just take that and go!”
Then he opened the bag in front of him.
‘oh my god!’
There were three large gold bars in the bag.
It was much bigger than the 1kg one I saw at Incheon International Airport.
<999.9 FINE GOLD 10kg>
It was a whopping 10kg gold bar.
At that moment, I remembered what the senior assistant had told me.
‘Smuggling gold?’
The boss picked up a gold bar.
Seeing the tendon sticking out of my forearm, I felt that heaviness.
“Come on! Ramen prices!”
The boss tossed the gold bar towards me.
‘Crazy man!’
A gold bar flew towards me in a parabolic trajectory.
Of course, it must be a joke to throw hundreds of millions of won worth of gold ingots for the cost of cooking ramen.
The problem is that I caught it reflexively without even knowing it.
I was so determined never to touch gold!
‘Why did I do that?’
It was too late to regret it.
Because the gold is already gone.
When the gold bar disappeared, the boss made a surprised expression.
“Hey, where did the gold bar go?”
“that is···.”
When I couldn’t answer properly, the boss started glaring at me with glinting eyes.
I was quite anxious.
They said he was a madman who was in a good mood but then became violent for no reason… I didn’t know what he was going to do now that the gold bars worth hundreds of millions of won had disappeared.
“Where did you hide the gold bars!?”
He seemed to think I had hidden the gold somewhere.
The president’s complexion turned red from red.
It looked like it was about to explode.
The big guy who gave me 100,000 won a while ago looked at the boss’s expression and said to me.
“Oh, do you know how to do magic? The gold bar hissed and disappeared. Are you kidding yourself because you’re afraid the boss will be bored?”
“No, that’s not it…”
“Isn’t that a joke? So are you playing with us now? It’s not polite if you treat it as a joke just because the boss played a joke on you. Hurry up and return the gold to the boss and apologize.”
The nuances of the man’s words seemed to be trying to prevent the boss from exploding and causing things to escalate.
I also sincerely wanted to give back.
But it’s already gone, so what?
jump-
When I couldn’t take any action, the boss eventually left the seat and got up.
He picked up another gold bar from his bag.
Then it came stride toward me.
It felt like he was about to hit me with that gold bar.
I’d rather be beaten with a hammer. A 10kg gold bar will never end with minor injuries.
The two big guys got up from their seats and stopped the boss.
“Boss, be patient! We will thoroughly educate him!”
“Move! You bastards!”
When the boss waved his hand holding a gold bar, both of them flinched and stepped back.
“You bastard, you’re dead!”
The boss came running and grabbed me by the collar.
I tried to shake it off, but I couldn’t get away with how strong his grip was.
“Hey you bastard! Try twisting this too!”
He held the gold bar high.
humming-
Then, with a full swing, he swung the gold bar and hit me on the head.
If it was a normal person, it would have been the worst death.
But I was fine.
The spot stamped on the gold bar didn’t even feel like being hit, let alone hurt.
As soon as it touched the top of my head, the gold bar disappeared.
“Not this son of a b*tch again!”
When the gold bar disappeared again, the man’s expression became distorted.
He gripped my collar tightly.
Then he got ready to punch.
There was really no way to escape this time.
‘Because of the beggarly psychic powers, what kind of sh*t is this!’
It was then.
Bam pam ppa ba ba bam-
Suddenly, music started playing.
Para bam bam bababa bam-
It didn’t come from far away, but it rang vividly in my ears as if I was listening to it with earphones on.
‘This song is…’
Among the four seasons of Vivaldi, ‘Spring 1 movement’ resonated.
It was the only classical music I knew the title of.
It was strange to hear strange music all of a sudden, but there was something even stranger.
The boss who was about to punch me didn’t budge.
‘Why are you doing that?’
Whatever the reason, it was a chance to get away from him.
I tried again to shake off his hand.
But somehow, I couldn’t even move my body.
I couldn’t even lift a finger as if my whole body had been paralyzed.
‘What the hell is this phenomenon?’
The boss and I weren’t the only ones standing still.
The big ones also stopped.
Even the steam rising from the ramen stood still in the air.
‘Did time stop?’
Parabarabara bambam bam-
But the music continued to be heard.
And a human voice was heard.
It was the same voice I had heard in my dream while taking a nap yesterday.
[You have gathered more than the standard amount of gold.]
[The Elixir extraction system has been activated.]
I asked the owner of the voice.
I couldn’t move my mouth, so I asked in my heart.
‘Who are you?’
[This is the manager who manages the elixir extraction system. From now on, please consult with me about everything related to the Elixir. And if you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them.]
I had a mountain of questions, but the first thing I wanted to know was why everything stopped.
‘Why are you here now? why did everything stop? Did time stop?’
[It takes a huge amount of elixir to actually stop time. Unfortunately, I don’t have that much elixir at the moment. A small amount of elixir is working on the cerebrum. Because the speed of thinking has increased, things around you seem to move slowly.]
It’s not that time has stopped, it’s that my brain’s rotation speed has sped up tremendously.
I don’t know how that is possible, but I could understand the meaning itself.
Looking back, the president’s fist was not completely still, but was slowly approaching.
The problem is that only my brain speed has increased, but my body speed remains the same.
I could clearly see the fist flying, but I couldn’t move my body to avoid it.
‘It would be nice if my body could be faster as well.’
[Unfortunately, I don’t have that much elixir yet. It takes time to extract the elixir from the gold.]
‘So what? All I can do is hit it fast or hit it slowly?’
[The surest way to get out of the current crisis is to use ‘Alan’s Emergency Card’.]
‘Alan’s emergency card? what is that?’
[Alan, the greatest alchemist of all time, always said. Where there is gold, there is always danger. So, even in a state where all power is exhausted, a crisis escape plan that can be used as a last resort has been established. That’s ‘Alan’s emergency card’.]
‘How do you use it?’
At that moment, three cards came to mind.
Each card had pictures of unknown meaning drawn on it.
[Choose one of the three cards. The first card is <Remove>. All nearby enemies are destroyed. Then you’ll never get into trouble with the same enemy again. This is Alan’s favorite card.]
It meant killing the boss and all the big guys.
‘What’s the second card?’
[The second card is <Escape>. It can disappear from this place like smoke. However, with this card, you can temporarily escape the crisis, but it is not a fundamental solution.]
I didn’t like to just run away like this.
It was clear that the boss would relentlessly pursue me to get the gold bars back.
‘What’s the third?’
[The third and last card is <Deceit>. Can control target’s behavior and manipulate memories.]
I made the decision right away without thinking too long.
‘I’ll do it with that, the third card.’
[You have selected <Deception> among Ellen’s emergency cards. The effect is activated right now.]
In an instant, everything around began to move again.
The steam of the ramen, which had stopped in the air, spread out in all directions again.
My body was also able to move again.
“Everyone stop!”
The boss and the big guys stopped at my command.
<Deceit> works.
“Let go.”
At one word of my words, the boss let go of my throat.
“Everyone have a seat.”
The boss and the big guys returned to their original seats and sat down.
Like a marionette, he acted in compliance with what I told him to do.
I approached the bag placed in front of the boss.
There was still one more 10kg gold bar left inside.
‘This is how it happened…’
He touched the gold bar with his finger.
hiss-
The gold bar is gone.
In an instant, I felt a strange feeling that I had never experienced before.
[The additional effect of the elixir extraction system works.]
[If you absorb gold from now on, you will feel full.]
It was not the feeling of eating food, but the feeling of fullness felt by absorbing gold bars.
It was a very pleasant feeling.
‘I ate well!’
The bag that contained billions of won worth of gold bars is now empty.
I ordered the boss.
“Close the bag.”
clap-
he closed the bag.
“Listen to me from now on.”
I will manipulate their memories.
“I just gave you ramen and went out. Forget everything else. Nothing happened in the first place, did you understand?”
The guys nodded.
I looked at the boss and continued.
“You guys have not opened your bags yet since you entered this room. After you finish eating the ramen, open it then.”
The boss nodded.
‘It’s really simple!’
Using his surreal power, he cleared the situation just a little too easily.
That’s 100% in my favor.
When I leave the room, they will start eating ramen as if nothing happened.
The boss will open the bag only after he finishes eating the ramen.
And only then will you be shocked to know that the gold bar is gone.
Without knowing why the gold bar disappeared.
‘After that, whatever happens.’
I came out of the room feeling relieved.