Death… And Me

Chapter 4146: Zuco and the Curse

Where did the rumor of the curse come from? Obviously, that came from Nyxara. That was the idea she had. Since they knew that Hyeoumu’s Jade Color wouldn’t change after being infused with Divine Energy, they could use that information in their favor. The main point was that the lie about the loss of lifespan couldn’t be proven to be true or false.

The twins’ group had no reason to refuse to put that idea into practice, and they got the Big Five of the Cloco Divine Ocean to spread that rumor. Sure enough, it eventually reached Zuco, the one Sea Demon Beast that had Hyeoumu’s body in his care.

That wasn’t everything, though. As the rumor circulated, a new piece of information was released by the Big Five. This information, obviously, was official. Different from the rumor, which most didn’t know where it originated.

In the Werdlem Network, one could select the day, time, and method of exchanging the turtle for the reward. That wasn’t available before. After all, everyone expected someone to simply contact one of the Big Five to talk about the Turtle. Through this method, they could at least offer some degree of safety to whoever might have the turtle. It was a way of saying they were being truthful with their intention of paying correctly.

Zuco, now in doubt about whether the loss of lifespan was true or false, eventually got to that page. ”I can select?”

He began to think deeply about how he could make use of that. Was there some way he could prevent himself from being pursued or his identity from being found? It was then that he had an idea.

In the Werdlem Network, there were plenty of ways to exchange messages without revealing your ID. The twins’ group used the Werdlem Network in that form several times. If you wanted to find someone’s ID, you would need to have control over the Werdlem Network to look deep into the logs of the system.

Naturally, even Zuco didn’t think the Big Five of the Cloco Divine Ocean had that kind of authority. Zuco made a quick recording of the Turtle, making sure that no clues of the location could be found through that video. Then, he used the Werdlem network to deliver that message to one of the Big Five. Around an hour later...

Rean and the others were in the Celestial Soul Dimensional Realm, looking at that exact video. ”How is it, Hick, Nyxara, Soltrex?”

The three Primordial Demon Beasts nodded. ”Yeah, that’s Hyeoumu’s body, no doubt. It is really, really small, but the shape is unmistakable.”

For them, that was all the confirmation they needed. Unless the person who sent this recording knew exactly what Hyeoumu looked like, they couldn’t possibly have faked it. First of all, even if the sender did know what Hyeoumu’s body looked like, how would he know the twins were looking for it? That had to be someone who didn’t really know anything about Hyeoumu or the twins’ group.

”What else is said there?” Roan asked.

Rean continued. ”He said he does indeed want the reward, but above all, he wants to know how to remove the curse. He said that ever since he ’connected’ to Hyeoumu’s body, it has always been in this Jade Color. As we suspected, he thinks that the color is related to the curse itself. Of course, there is no such thing as a curse or loss of lifespan.”

Rean’s attention turned to Hick and the others. ”Is there a way of making Hyeoumu’s body come back to its normal color?”

Hick confirmed. ”Yes. It is pretty simple, actually. Just feed his body some high-quality jades. It should react with the Jade Form of his body and cancel it out.”

”That’s simple indeed,” Rean nodded. ”Should we tell this guy about this?”

Roan shook his head. ”If we do, he will have no reason to give us the body back.”

”That’s also true...” Rean pondered a bit. ”Alright, how about we tell him we can pay half of the reward ahead of time, and then he can simply leave Hyeoumu’s body somewhere and tell us about it later? We can tell him we will cancel the curse when we get it back, too.”

”What if he takes the reward and disappears instead? He will definitely use one of those Werdlem Network Pages where you can pay others without the exchange of IDs, like the gambling ones back in A1,” Kentucky commented. ”Once he takes the payment and leaves, we won’t be able to track him down anymore. Half the reward we promised is still a fortune to anyone in this Cloco Divine Ocean.”

”But if he does that, we won’t lift his curse,” Rean commented.

”And who said he truly believes it is a curse?” Kentucky countered.

”Simple,” Rean continued. ”If he didn’t think the curse was real, he wouldn’t have come out as soon as the rumor began to spread. Of course, I can’t be a 100% certain that he will honor his part of the deal, but I think it is worth a try. First of all, half of the reward is indeed a fortune to anyone here in the Cloco Divine Ocean, but it isn’t really much to us. It’s not like we are losing a lot here.”

”So we will have to rely on a little bit of luck in the end,” Roan said, not very happy. ”I guess that’s the best we can get at the moment. Contact him back and see if he accepts the deal. Let’s see if all the trouble we are going through is worth the 200000 Celestial Points. If it is not, then this won’t end with just this.”

Rean nodded, connecting to the Werdlem Network and passing the answer.

---

Zuco was waiting in his cave, just watching the turtle swim randomly, when he suddenly opened his CD. Sure enough, Rean’s counteroffer was in the message. Rean explained to Zuco that he wouldn’t tell how to lift the curse since Zuco could simply decide to disappear after he did that. But he was willing to pay half of the reward ahead of time, so even if Zuco’s lifespan was cut in half, the reward would more than make up for the loss.

Zuco narrowed his eyes, but he wasn’t surprised he wasn’t told. If he were in Rean’s place, he wouldn’t have passed the information over either. He thought for a moment, especially about half of the reward, and made his decision. ”Let’s give it a try.”