Chapter 156

└ Even if an americano cost twenty thousand won, customers would go, “Oh, sure, that’s fine...”

└ Did they go around charging twenty thousand won? lol

└ What does that mean?

└ A face that chases away troublemakers

[Title: Here’s something else]

It’s maddening how good his English is

[Title: This is that thing]

Showing the Awakener the most meaningful place first to lull them into a false sense of security, then Blood Fiend appears~!

└ I heard he awakened while roasting beans

└ No, no—while planting coffee trees

└ A cousin-in-law’s friend heard he was swinging a pickaxe and awakened

└ At that point, he might as well be someone else, right?

└ Wasn’t it when he met a bear in the mountains that he awakened?

└ How many theories are these people going to invent?

└ It’s real

└ No, it’s true!

└ Pickaxe stories are the most absurd... If you’re going to lie, at least feign some sincerity

└ Agreed—pickaxe theory is the worst

└ I’m telling you it’s true! They say a pickaxe flew at him out of nowhere, he felt his life was threatened, and awakened!!

└ This guy has no hope of reform

└ (Ban him.jpg)

Meanwhile, Roy, watching Taeeon from the waiting room, also sensed what situation he was in.

‘It’s that day.’

On the day Taeeon awakened, unlike Yeonwoo, he had seemed relatively calm in accepting his fate—at least on the surface. Now it was clear Taeeon was no exception. After all, who could easily forget the terror of facing a Blood Fiend for the first time? I’d heard that the Detention Bureau and the various guilds keep psychologists on staff to help Awakeners cope—it’s especially common for field teams, who face fiends regularly. Yet some fears never dull, no matter how often you repeat them. If seasoned Awakeners struggle with fiend encounters, the fear felt by those with less than a year of awakening goes without saying.

‘Does that mean most participants end up reliving their awakening day all over again?’

Roy wondered what scene he himself would face—after all, he had no memory of his own awakening here.

‘Whatever appears, I can just burn it to ashes.’

As Roy dismissed the thought with a snort, the first Blood Fiend emerged on the screen.

Kieeeek!

With a tearing scream, a grotesque face suddenly popped up between the coffee trees. Taeeon’s face drained of color in an instant. Seeing that near-panic expression, more than a few solo-room S-class viewers appeared in the live chat.

Although some comments cheered Taeeon on, Roy, oddly, only saw those insulting ones. If they’d been in Taeeon’s shoes, they wouldn’t have been able to stand, let alone fight. Tch. Irritated, Roy curled his lip and averted his gaze from the chat.

✧

Taeeon now found himself staring straight into eyes as red as the coffee cherries. Strangely, despite locking eyes, the Blood Fiend didn’t charge immediately—which somehow felt even more terrifying, as if it were savoring the moment before the chase. His feet felt glued to the spot, as if running would be pointless—he knew better than anyone that fiends would pursue a fleeing target.

‘Stay calm. You knew this fiend would show up.’

Even if he ran, unless he surrendered midway, the fiend would follow him relentlessly. Running now would achieve nothing. After all, Yeonwoo had done it. If he, the older brother, ran without even trying... it would be deeply embarrassing.

“...”

Clenching his fist, Taeeon steeled himself and swept his eyes around. Every direction was filled with coffee trees. The dense rows blocked his view, so he couldn’t predict where the next fiend would appear. Judging by Yeonwoo’s case, it wouldn’t be just one—it would be dozens at least. Now that he’d resolved not to flee, he’d have to rely solely on his own power to handle whatever came pouring through the Green Gate.

‘But how?’

He’d faced fiends before, but never alone. When he nearly died at the coffee farm, Roy appeared to help, and during the last survival trial, his teammates were always there. Even when afraid, he could step forward knowing someone had his back. But now...

‘There’s no one.’

Taeeon glanced behind him at the coffee plantation stretching endlessly. Not a soul in sight—only the empty rustle of leaves in the wind reminding him no one would come to help. Biting his lower lip to still his trembling, he swallowed hard.

Then—

“Kieeeek!”

As if it couldn’t wait any longer, the fiend charged at Taeeon. He dropped to one knee and slammed his hand onto the soil, imagining the ground shaking violently.

Kugugugung—

With a roar, the earth began to quake.

“Kiek!”

The charging fiend lost its balance and tumbled forward. But that wasn’t the end. The ground beneath it caved in, cracks splitting open, and the fiend’s body was sucked into the fissure. A landslide of dirt collapsed on top, burying it alive. Its red eyes vanished.

‘Yes...!’

Having dispatched the first fiend with ease, Taeeon exhaled a relieved breath and looked up with newfound confidence, bracing for the next one. Yet he did not yet know that the quake he’d just triggered would serve as a signal flare, awakening every fiend hidden across this vast field...

“Kieeek!”

“Kieeeek!”

At those cries, Taeeon reflexively turned around. Through the foliage, two pairs of red eyes glinted.

‘They’re fiends.’

Just like with Yeonwoo, the sequence repeated: as soon as he’d slain the first, more arrived one after another. Anticipating their approach, Taeeon prepared to use the same tactic again.

“Kieeeek!”

“Kieeeek!”

“Kiek!”

But the cries came from all around, and the once-green plantation began to tint red. The coffee cherries that had dotted the branches like points of color multiplied as if copied and pasted.

“...!”

He didn’t need to draw closer to know those spreading red spheres were not cherries. A primal warning flared in his mind—Awakeners’ heightened senses signaling imminent danger. Stumbling back a step, Taeeon spun to survey his surroundings. And he realized: he was completely surrounded by fiends.