27 House (1/2)
The night Hayden was fighting the raven, atop a distant high-rise building, eleven figures can be seen on it. They all wore hanboks of varying color accordingly to the animal masks they were wearing.
From left to right, there was the snake, hare, hawk, raccoon, wolf, koala, blue jay, turtle, white fox, tiger, and a black fox. They were all evidently women.
”Somebody new has appeared, do you know him, Kumiho?” The one sporting the koala mask spoke in Korean. ”He has a similar mask to yours.”
”I don't know him at all…” The one called Kumiho, who was wearing the white fox mask, shook her head. ”There are many people in South Korea wearing the same mask as a guise, but this is the first time I've seen a man wearing the same white fox mask I have.”
”He's not from here.” The one wearing the snake mask conveyed her opinion. ”There is no one who can fight toe to toe with a Level 2 cognizant like that as a Level 2 wielder. Plus, his physical strength and toughness, those are not of a Level 2 wielder's even though his level is Level 2.”
”Indeed,” this time, the hare was the one who voiced herself. ”That guy is merely a Level 2 wielder, to defeat a Level 2 cognizant… Could he be one of those?”
The moment the hare said that, the other ten turned to look at her with shock. Kumiho expressed her thoughts, ”That seems to be the only explanation… If he's an enemy, he would be dangerous if he grows, if he's an ally, he would be a valuable ally. I suggest we don't make a move for now.”
The rest agreed. That was when they saw Hayden blocking the frost beam with a thick essence energy pole, minimizing the damage he got from the beam, then defeating the bird. The blue jay opened her mouth, ”This guy's combat capability is on a whole another world…”
At that moment, they saw Hayden soar through the skies, moving at a great speed. The eleven of them observed Hayden, who was looking downwards.
Following Hayden's gaze to the Han River, they saw the four speedboats. They realized why Hayden wanted to escape to the sky.
”He's pretty smart,” the hawk said aloud. ”He used his advantage of flight and escaped in the sky up above instead of running away.”
The rest didn't commentate anymore as they noticed Hayden rotate his head, staring towards them. The eleven was a little startled that Hayden could actually see them from this distance, or, at least assuming that he can.
”Interesting,” the fox mumbled. With that, the eleven of them watched Hayden as he moved towards the other end of the Han River. Chuckling, the fox said, ”He's wary of us?”
”Looks like it,” the koala nodded. ”Well, we have no business here anymore, let's go. Hurry, as there's someone approaching at a staggering speed. It's probably one of her lackeys.”
On that note, the eleven of them simultaneously ran, jumping from one building to another. About a minute later, a man wearing a traditional black dopo, which was typically worn by Confucian scholars in the past, and a black gat that shadowed his upper facial features, appeared in the place the eleven were standing on.
”Tsk, I was too late. What are you guys planning, Lunar Assembly?” The man whispered to himself. ”And who is that guy? A Level 2 wielder killing a Level 2 cognizant alone… Intriguing…”
With that, he vanished without a trace. Previously, Hayden was causing a ruckus on the world of wielders in the Philippines, now, he was becoming the focus of the world of wielders in South Korea. If Hayden were to know this, he would definitely spurt blood.
I was simply protecting myself, why the hell are people wanting to hunt me down more and more!? He would say something along those lines.
…..
The next day, December 18, 2057, Wednesday, Hayden and his family went all around Seoul again for the first half of the day, visiting tourist spots here and there, taking pictures, and eating more of the local cuisine.
For the latter half of the day, Hayden informed his parents that he was going to buy a house and that there would be no changing his mind. With little opposition, Hayden left the hotel and hailed a taxi to go to a property agency he researched beforehand.
Entering, Hayden was met by a pretty fancy lobby. It was fortunate that even with the holidays nearing, there were still people working in a property agency.
Approaching the woman behind the desk, Hayden inquired of properties. He was asked for his budget, to which he replied that he was looking to buy a property of about a million credits, his maximum being 2,000,000 credits.
Naturally, the woman was shocked. Hayden was so young and he was buying a property that expensive? Who the hell was this tycoon?
Seeing as this was classified as an urgent matter, the woman went out of the desk and walked to the back, entering what seemed like an office. A few minutes later, a woman went out and greeted him.
In a few short exchanges, Hayden discovered that the woman was actually the owner of the property broker firm he was in. 'What the hell are they doing, the owner personally going to show me around? What is up with this? Is it because I'm too young?'
Stifling his own befuddlement, Hayden was presented properties and was asked to choose three of his liking. All of the three properties he chose were above 1.5 million credits, with the highest priced at an estimated 2.3 million credits.
The two set out on the owner's personal car and drove to the first property, the cheapest one, which was still in Seoul, specifically, in Gangnam.
The property, although relatively cheap, was incredible. It was fully furnished, had a garage, a small front lawn, a backside pool, three bedrooms, one master, one normal, and one guest, a decent living room, a regular kitchen, and two bathrooms, one upstairs, and one downstairs.
Although it was pretty good, with its style according to Hayden's taste, and already being fully furnished, the neighborhood it was in made Hayden shiver, which apparently hosted parties and all that. After all, they were in Gangnam, one of the more party-oriented districts in Seoul.
The next property was in a better location than the former. It also had better amenities, had a bigger garage, and four bedrooms. Hayden would have picked this house if not for finding out that when one goes out of the subdivision, one would encounter a night district, which repulsed Hayden.
The last and most expensive property was in another city. The firm owner explained to Hayden that the owner of the house came to them as its owner actually did not trust the real estate companies in their own city.
It was in Seongnam, the neighboring city of Seoul and the second largest city in the Gyeonggi Province. In Seongnam, they went into a village that had quite tight security.
”So far, so good.” Hayden disliked the night life and parties, and so far, there was none around the area. The village was quite peaceful, another plus to Hayden.
Arriving at the house, Hayden and the firm owners alighted. The land the house occupied was spacious, the front yard was pretty large, with the backside having a pool.
Outside, there was the garage that can fit three cars, a front lawn that had a fountain, benches, wisteria trees, and lights, along with a flower garden. This made a good impression on Hayden as the lawn was well-kept.
Also, the house was significantly larger than the previous ones. It was not that the previous two homes Hayden looked at were small, it was that this one was more like a modern mansion! He deduced that the location of the house greatly increased the price, and as the houses he previously looked at were in Seoul, moreover, in the most on-demand neighborhoods, it was not strange for this one in Seongnam to be better in terms of price.
There were two floors in the house with a basement, with the furniture still in it, though if it was going to be sold fully furnished, it would be priced at 2.5 million credits.
Hayden opted to look around first. On the first floor, the second one enters, there was the living room and the stairs to the second floor. The design of the house was modern and simplistic, making it incredibly beautiful in Hayden's eyes.
There was also Eternal Insecticide Plants all around the house, a childishly sounding name for a plant, yet, was incredibly useful. The Eternal Insecticide Plants were artificial plants that, staying true to its name, wards off insects such as cockroaches, flies, and mosquitoes, a must in any household.
It was free along with the house as the owner placed it there for the comfort of themselves, and now that they were going to move out, they wanted the person to buy this to now benefit from it.
From this, Hayden could safely assume that the person selling the house was kind. Moving on, Hayden checked the living room's furniture.
There was a gray sofa, a fireplace, a 60-inch television mounted on the wall, a glass coffee table, and more. Hayden noticed that the furniture was well-arranged, the gray carpet well-groomed. He couldn't help but think that the owner had similar tastes to him.
This can be seen once more when he saw the kitchen, the bathrooms, and other stuff. All in all, in the first floor, there was a home gym, the living room, a kitchen, the main bathroom, and a beautiful simplistic dining room that overlooked the pool.
On the second floor, there were three bedrooms, one master, two regular bedrooms, each having a balcony and walk-in closets. There were also two bathrooms, one for the master bedroom, and one for the general floor, an empty study with exquisite bookshelves, as the owner took the books, two empty rooms that can be customized, and a general balcony atop the gym.
The firm owner informed Hayden that the sheets on the beds were newly replaced, the pillows were recently bought, and that the beds were self-arranging. Hayden was impressed, the previous owner put a lot of thought into this.
When he went down the basement, he became shocked as there was a huge walk-in freezer, a large storage room, and one big empty room.
Hayden turned to the firm owner with a puzzled look, who then shrugged, her expression saying 'don't ask me.' Why the hell would anyone want to sell this amazing house?
”The owner wanted to sell this house because he is getting pretty old and doesn't want to live in this huge house alone anymore,” as if reading Hayden's mind, the firm owner told him. ”As for why this is considerably cheap, even we are puzzled. Our company merely acts as the middleman, getting 20% of the price sold, usually, we would be the one setting the price, yet, the seller was adamant to keeping it at the price he apparently deemed it to be.”