From left to right, there was the snake, hare, hawk, racc.o.o.n, 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, k.u.miho?" 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 k.u.miho, 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. k.u.miho 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 a.s.suming 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 a.s.sembly?" 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 h.e.l.l 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 h.e.l.l was this tyc.o.o.n?

Seeing as this was cla.s.sified 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 h.e.l.l 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 s.h.i.+ver, 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 s.p.a.cious, 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 bas.e.m.e.nt, 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 c.o.c.kroaches, 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 a.s.sume 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 gla.s.s 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 bas.e.m.e.nt, 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 h.e.l.l 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."

"I see," Hayden nodded his head. He dropped the matter anymore as he was a bit afraid that the firm owner would abruptly jack up the price.

If the firm owner hears his thoughts, she would definitely want to pummel Hayden. What do you think of our freaking company? We're not scammers for goodness sake!

Satisfied, Hayden decided to take it. There was nothing else he could ask for a house to be honest, this could be said to be his dream house! From 2:00 to 5:00, Hayden signed the contracts, finished all the paperwork, paid, acquired the deed to the land, and got the keys to the house.

A sense of accomplishment welled up within Hayden's heart. In a mere six months, he has his own house, in a foreign country to boot. Another matter popped up in his mind.

"I should also buy a house in the Philippines," Hayden shook his head. The house they were living in was fairly old and was unbefitting of his status, though it was not really that bad there. "Well, I wouldn't want to sell that house anyways as I grew up there, made many memories in it. That's also where I awakened, I guess, in a way, it's kind of my birthplace…"

Hayden nodded, deciding to instead buy a high-rise apartment and live on the penthouse on top of it instead of buying a new house. "A few renovations to that house would suffice…"

Finis.h.i.+ng his business in the company, Hayden returned to the hotel, checked out, and took his parents to first buy a car. He bought two cars, one for himself, and one for his parents to use. His parents were first opposed to this, but ultimately relented with Hayden's convincement.

His reason? That this was going to be a family car and can be s.h.i.+pped back in the Philippines. Only with his a.s.surance did his parents agree to buying an SUV priced at 130,000 credits.

The SUV was red in color, had a self-driving function, can drive on off-road terrain, has the standard, patented, absolute stability system that makes people on the inside feel as if they're on perfectly even terrain even when they're not, and was overall beautiful. It was a perfect family car in Hayden's opinion.

At the same time, Hayden bought a black sports car that was extremely sleek, one of the most attractive car he has seen. It had the self-driving function, a built-in, self-updating, world-map, has a maximum speed of 310 kilometers per hour, gla.s.ses made of Greek Tempered Gla.s.s, a bulletproof type of gla.s.s that has toughness that can withstand even Shojin Steel bullets from a pistol at least once, and the car was made of Forged Plastic, a light yet unusually resilient plastic that can supposedly withstand even the worst of the car crashes.

Meanwhile, there were also a ton of other functions that weren't mentioned, such as the adaptive heating seats, the holographic HUD below the line of sight of the driver, blind spot monitors, and an electric battery, making it a hybrid car.

Even though there were many functions to this sport car, it was actually merely priced at 1,000,000 credits. This was due to the inflation of the cars in the car-making industry, making those smaller-scale car manufacturing companies close down, with the big names dominating it freely with the creation of the World Government.

Plus, with the surge of the middle and high-cla.s.s people, the car manufacturing companies thrived and focused on public transports as, these days, only the really stinking rich people took personal cars, with most people, even in high cla.s.s, taking the public transport more and more.

Of course, this was not enough as some people wanted to flaunt their wealth, though, it was actually due to this reason that made the personal car business lose interest. There were too few people who desired to flaunt their wealth anymore! Only celebrities who don't want to be flocked by people or those that truly wanted to display their wealth were the ones that bought personal cars.

Needless to say, Hayden didn't actually want to rub his wealth in other people's faces, buying the car solely due to its sleekness, high functionality, and that he sometimes got claustrophobic, choked by large crowds, despite his status as a wielder.

It was convenient as well that the car company offered the registration of the car directly for making two purchases above two million, and in about an hour, the cars were already licensed, with the race car under his personal property in his Ident.i.ty Number, while the SUV under a family registration.

Whilst waiting for the company to register the car, him and his parents went to a grocery store to buy a ton of groceries.

"This is a must." In the store, Hayden was checking out red wine.

"Want to celebrate?" His father precipitously showed up, holding up a pack of local brand beers.

"No, no, dad," Hayden shook his head. "Let's celebrate harder for a bit, let's drink red wine."

Before his dad could even refute, Hayden interrupted him, "No, no, red wine, or do you want soju? Just this night, dad."

Sighing and smiling warmly on the side, his father looked at his son, gratification and a glint of pride appeared in his eyes.

Returning to the car dealers.h.i.+p company, the cars' registration was fully processed and can be driven without breaking any laws. The downside to this is that as a foreigner, Hayden was required to fork out 10,000 credits in total for the road tax annually, though Hayden didn't mind.

Giving his parents the address and helping them loading up the groceries they purchased, Hayden boarded his car to drive.

"I love this car…" Driving the car, Hayden was wowed again, full of admiration. "But, seriously, d.a.m.n, practice self-control next time."

Hayden nodded, promising to himself that when he becomes even richer, he would practice more self-discipline as splurging money like this was not going to do him any good.

…..

Reaching his destination, Hayden showed his stunned parents around the house. "Kid, how much did you spend on this house?"

"Don��t worry about that, dad," Hayden smiled, patting his dad on the back as he showed them around. "We have the money, so you don't have to mind this as it's a home, a long-term investment."

Besides, other than the land property tax of 75,000 per year, and the water, electricity, and internet bill (1), there was nothing else that Hayden actually needed. All in all, annually, Hayden only needed to pay 100,000 credits for this property, 75,000 if he's not currently living in it.

He convinced his parents to not take this into account and to not ask what the price of this house anymore. Letting them settle in, Hayden stepped out of the house for a second to take a breath of fresh air.

The wintery air entered Hayden's nostrils, embracing it. He liked the coldness and the moisture of the air here in South Korea, contrary to his home country that had fresh yet warm air. It was not that he disliked the tropical atmosphere in the Philippines, it was just that he naturally prefers the cold, frigid air here, especially since there are literally two seasons in the Philippines, dry season and wet season.

Returning inside, Hayden took out the red wine from his car, which was still pretty cold, and invited his mother and father to drink the soju and wine he bought.

His mother, someone whose alcohol tolerance can simply be described as the worst, declined, wanting to bring them pulutan instead (Pulutan is a Filipino term for any kind of food eaten as an accompaniment for alcohol).

...

For hours, in the general balcony, the father and son duo drank, his father ranting to him how proud he was, how far Hayden already reached in his life, how was life hard on his father the past few years, and just how thankful he is.

Hayden accepted this with all his heart as he understood himself how hard it was for his father all these years. Finally, his father pa.s.sed out due to being too drunk, thus, Hayden a.s.sisted him to his bed.

"You know son, I'm proud of you," while he was carrying his father, his father spoke. "It's good that you don't have to worry about the countless vicissitudes in life anymore, you… you are the best son I could ever ask for…"

On that note, his father fell on the master bed. Hayden, who heard this, had watery eyes as of this moment, a smile was on his face. "Thank you, dad…"

Turning around, he went to call his mom, told her of his father's condition, and went out to their front lawn. Without turning on the garden lights, he walked to the gardens and proceeded to lay down on the gra.s.s.

"Such a beautiful sight," Hayden stared at the night sky riddled with stars and the moon. "I hope there wouldn't be anyone or anything that would disturb me anymore…"

Snorting, he remembered the cognizant raven he fought yesterday. Usually, he loved animals, it was just that the raven attacked him with the intent to kill him, so he fought back, such is his personality.

Then, his mind wandered to the eleven figures watching him fight the cognizant, his face contorting in puzzlement. "I wonder, who are those eleven figures…? There's no way it's CHORUS, right? No, heh, no…"

Dwelling on the matter, he chuckled here and there, denying his a.s.sumption that the eleven figures are CHORUS. "Heh, no, impossible."

...

1 World Lore Time: With the creation of renewable energy and water vapor condensers and total water purification systems that can remove 100% of the impurities in pee and human waste, as well as salt.w.a.ter, the electrical companies and water distribution companies have been closed down by the World Government, merging all of them all around the world into a single organization, with divisions on each major region of a country, or, at least, one on each country, depending on their size. With this in mind, electricity and water has become unbelievably cheap, with a kilowatt being merely 0.1 credit, and a cubic meter of water is 1 credit.

Meanwhile, internet companies have become bankrupt with the creation of the seventh generation of communication systems, with the World Government providing unbelievably fast and free public internet. Needless to say, the most powerful multinatonal internet companies are still in play as the public internet is still inferior to its speeds, with premium paid internet reaching up speeds of possibly 5 zetabit per second, which is the next after petabit, with petabit being preceded by gigabit (which refers to our modern internet speeds of gigabit per second, or gbps); while the maximum speed of the free public internets are still at a puny 100 petabit per second per region, and with the number of people using it per region, it couldn't be anything but slow.

And yes, there are already hard drives that reaches up to storage s.p.a.ces of 100 zettabytes compressed to s.p.a.ces of a single modern (our modern) hard drive, with rams reaching up to 48 petabytes, video ram reaching up to 1 zettabyte, and such.