God-Tier Enhancement: My Upgrades Never Fail-Chapter 142: Episode 28_A Master of Self-Control (1)

1.

Han Simin felt unstoppable.

He had already counted his chickens and hatched them, convinced there had to be at least another 210,000 gold worth of ore in there. What was there to be afraid of? This time, even as monsters swarmed at the appearance of a human—whether to protect the mine or not—he didn’t brace himself for death.

He prepared for a fight instead.

“Come at me, you sons of bitches! How dare you block my path! I’m going to beat you so bad you won’t know which way is up! Yeah, come on, try me! I will never bow!”

He sounded like some champion of justice raging at the homeowners while he was the one breaking into their house. Anyone watching might honestly mistake him for a battle-hardened hero. If the monsters could speak, they would have unleashed every curse they knew. Just thinking about how they had been tormented by the Otter lately was enough to give them chills. That was why the mine’s defenses had been strengthened.

And now, the culprit had appeared.

“Kuwoooor!”

“Grrr!”

“Woof, woof!”

The monsters’ morale shot through the roof. If they let this guy in, they were done for. The Otter, who turned into a merciless tyrant at the mere sight of ore, might very well beat them to death with the stuff.

A standoff between the one trying to loot and the ones trying to protect. Neither side had any intention of backing down. In the real world, this would escalate to more advanced cursing and shouting, but in a game, it did not.

They fought. A very simple and definitive way to decide the winner and who was in the right. It didn’t matter who technically held the original ownership. Only the victor got to have everything.

Han Simin, who normally avoided stepping in personally if he could, grabbed his hammer and charged.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have come alone.”

There were so many enemies that, in his heart, he wanted to unleash the rabbits. But he had taken off on Squeaker for reconnaissance, so the rabbits weren’t with him. He felt a twinge of regret and self-reproach for losing his cool for a moment.

But it was fine. He was confident he could win.

“Squeaker, transform! Let’s go! You’re tanking!”

“Ppaeaeeek?”

Squeaker resisted his heartless order to dive into a pack of more than thirty monsters, but it didn’t have a choice.

“You little shit, do you have any idea how much I spent to boost you ten levels? Huh? If I’d invested that money into my own buffs, I’d be fighting alone right now. And now you’re going to pretend you don’t owe me and shove your master into the meat grinder?”

“Scree.”

What could it do? Even if it felt wronged, when the boss said jump, it had to jump.

Transformed, Squeaker charged in bravely.

And then took off into the air.

The monsters were confused.

Every gaze naturally followed it up. Unfortunately for the monsters, none of them could follow Squeaker into the sky.

Which left one target.

“Hey, hey!”

“Scree!”

It was an excellent tactic, making full use of the dragon’s wings. Aside from the tiny little problem that all the aggro had now shifted.

“Kuwoooork!” 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

“Grrr!”

The monsters lunged at Han Simin. His grip tightened around the hammer.

’Can I do this?’

His stats were grotesquely high compared to other players; on paper, he was strong enough to take on level 130 monsters and win. But that was only in theory. In the hyper-realistic world of 『Fantastic World』, battles were never decided by stats alone. If the gap was huge enough, it could erase all variables, but right now, he was one man against many.

His stats were only a bit higher; it was by no means a favorable situation. If they surrounded and trampled him, he would die just like anyone else. Even with Squeaker’s help, it wouldn’t change much.

So he was nervous. Should he run?

Normally, he would have made that choice and looked for a different way to fight, but right now, he was completely blinded by the sight of that massive mine.

’Let’s just crash into them once.’

He had looted the gold mine and massively leveled up his buffs. He felt like he could do it.

That didn’t mean he charged in like an idiot. He eased back a step and brought his hammer down on the first one to rush him.

Bam!

“Kuwo-oong!”

A massive impact. But it wasn’t as overwhelming as he had feared.

That was enough.

“You’re all dead, you bastards!”

With the confidence that he could win, his personality exploded right along with it.

After he had swept through them and was emerging from the mine, he ran into the Otter.

* * *

“Kkwo-oong?”

From the Otter’s perspective, there were countless corpses, and one human and one bird coming out with a huge sack slung over his shoulder.

“Huh?”

The human cocked his head as well. ’What’s with that ridiculous-looking otter?’

“Hey, what are you?”

“Kkwong?”

“You look all cute and shit. Beat it. I’m busy.”

His confidence was sky-high. His upgraded specs had given him swagger, and this time, he was also relieved that what he had brought out was something Squeaker couldn’t eat even if he offered it, which meant he wouldn’t lose a single coin.

On top of that, he was excited just thinking about how much he could get if he sold all the ore he was hauling out. The ore was called Rainbow Ore, and he had never even heard of such a thing before, so it had to fetch a good price. There was always the chance it would be worthless, but he chose not to think about that.

’Still, it came out of the Unknown Mountains. I’ll sell it somehow.’

No, he was confident he could sell it. If the NPCs wouldn’t buy it, he would sell it to players. There were plenty of people in the world who went crazy for anything labeled “the first of its kind.”

So he walked on without a worry. He was in such a good mood that he was willing to let the free EXP that had just walked up to him go.

“Get lost, man. I’m in a good mood, so I’ll let you live.”

“Kkwo-oong!”

But the Otter refused his mercy. When he tried to sidestep it, it moved to block his path.

“Hey, hey. You’re gonna die like that, man. I’m a really scary guy, you know? See this little bird-sized thing here? She’s actually a dragon. A dragon. If you crawl into that tiny body, the parasites will eat you alive before the stomach acid even has a chance. You get me?”

“Kkwo-ooong!”

“Whoa! Shit, you scared me.”

Despite his attempts at persuasion, the Otter grew angry. It shook the ore in both its hands furiously to express its rage. He couldn’t understand the words, but somehow, he felt it. The emotion packed into the gesture.

In other words...

“This is yours?”

“Kkwo-ooong!”

Something like that. He had no idea why he could understand. Maybe it was just the guilty conscience of a thief. Whatever it was, the Otter sent a clear affirmation and came closer, menacingly. Its intent was obvious: if he didn’t put the sack down, it was ready to use force.

Han Simin involuntarily took a step back.

“Don’t come any closer. Stop. Freeze. I’m scary when I get mad, you know?”

He could just smash it with his hammer. But he didn’t want to shed blood on such a good day. On top of that, he had an instinctive unease. It felt different from the monsters that had been roaming around in packs.

’What if it’s stronger than me?’

The mountain range was such an unknown that he couldn’t help but be cautious. He had somehow managed to handle the monsters earlier, but what if this Otter was a named monster? He wasn’t afraid of dying, but he was terrified of losing the ore he had just gotten.

So he hesitated for a moment. He had time. The Otter didn’t rush him; it approached slowly. A few seconds. That was more than enough to choose one of two options.

“All right, you little punk, let’s do this.”

Han Simin set the sack down on the ground. If he had known this would happen, he would have emptied out his subspace before coming. He felt a twinge of regret, but that wasn’t the issue right now. He carefully raised his hammer.

“Kkwo-oong!”

The Otter nodded in satisfaction. A faint smile even formed on its face, the look of someone pleased that their orders were being followed.

Han Simin was bewildered.

Naturally, seeing that expression right in front of him didn’t sit well.

“What the hell are you?”

“Kkwo-oong!”

What happened next was even more absurd. The Otter twitched its short fingers, and the sack full of ore flew toward it on its own.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa?”

“Scree?”

Even the sack hanging from Squeaker’ neck was pulled along. It had been tied on so tightly that Squeaker was dragged along with it.

“Wh-what the hell, you bastard! Thief! Thief!”

The thief had just had his stolen goods stolen back. Rage shot to the top of his head before he knew it. Were humans always this selfish? He had just watched something he had already decided was his get snatched away right in front of his nose; of course he was furious.

“Hey, you little—no, you damn otter bastard!”

Any thought of testing the waters vanished cleanly from his mind. Blinded by anger, Han Simin charged without a second thought.

“Scree!”

Squeaker, sharing her master’s emotions, transformed and launched a body slam. Even as he charged, a flicker of unease crossed his mind, but he wasn’t too worried. Just looking at it, it seemed like the kind of thing that would start bawling and drop to its knees after a few good hits.

Clang—

His hammer and the Otter’s ore collided. With a massive boom, the Otter took a step back. If this were a wuxia novel, that would be proof that Han Simin was one level above.

“Kkwo-ooong!”

This time, the Otter grew angry. What a brazen thief. More than anything, the fact that it had been threatened awakened something within it.

“Kkwong! Kkwong!”

The ore in its other hand, went into its mouth.

Pop—

With a soft glow, the ore vanished into its maw. But the standoff didn’t change.

“You crazy bastard. Why the hell are you eating perfectly good ore?”

Only Han Simin’s curses flew. The Otter, not understanding, didn’t care. It simply began pulling ore out of the sack it had summoned and eating it.

“Kkwong! Kkwong!”

“Hey! Stop eating that! Please. It’s mine.”

Han Simin had no choice but to step in. At this rate, it would eat everything. He didn’t even have time to wonder why it was eating ore. It was eating that fast.

Urp.

The thick sack had already shrunk to about a third of its size. His vision went dark as a bonus. Panic set in.

This time, he attacked calmly.

“Squeaker, hit it from behind!”

“Scree!”

If they attacked from the front and back, it wouldn’t be able to move. Their confident assault rushed toward the Otter.

He’d forced it back a step. This time, he would crush its windpipe.

Whoosh.

His enhanced strike crashed down on the otter. Once again, the otter raised its ore-clutching paw.

Nothing seemed to have changed. With Squeakers joining the fray, the advantage was clearly on Han Simin’s side.

But he failed to notice a subtle change.

No—he noticed it too late.

“Huh?”

The ore looked a little bigger. And brighter. Or was he just imagining things?

’Who cares about that?’

What mattered was smashing this thieving little bastard in the face.

The ore and hammer collided.

BOOM.

His motion, strength, and angle were identical to his previous attack. The result, however, was completely different.

“Guh!”

The force of the impact was beyond anything he had imagined. It felt like he had just punched a concrete wall. If he had simply struck it and pulled back, he might have been fine.

But this wasn’t a wall. It was a monster.

“Arghhh!”

He was sent flying backward. His pride was wounded, but that wasn’t the real problem.

Gasp!

His HP bar plummeted.

At the same time, the rage that had clouded his mind subsided, replaced by cold, hard reason.

’Fuck. What the hell is this?’

* * *