97th Floor of the Tower.
“Is that where Taru’s friend is, meow?!”
Theo asked, looking at the village in the middle of a wasteland in the distance.
“No. That’s my hometown, Rhino Village, over there. Do you see the mountain at the end of the village?”
Taru pointed to the mountain behind the village.
“I see it, meow!”
“There, at the entrance of the mountain, is my friend’s workshop. And… Theo, please don’t call me by my name in the village. I just want to meet my friend quietly.”
Taru readjusted the hood he was wearing to hide his face.
“Got it, meow! Then let’s hurry, meow!”
Theo, eager to buy the jars and return to Sejun triumphantly, hurried Taru along towards the entrance of the village.
“Has it been 100 years?”
Taru, who had not seen his hometown in a long time, followed Theo leisurely after admiring the scenery of his homeland. The mountain served as a landmark, so there was no chance of losing Theo the way to his friend’s workshop.
Just as Taru was walking without worries,
“Ha! Don’t lie to me, meow!!!”
Theo’s angry voice could be heard arguing with the village guards.
***
‘I’ll buy the jars and go back to Chairman Park’s knees, meow!’
Theo, eager to return to Sejun with the jars, ran swiftly and arrived at the entrance to Rhino Village.
But
“Stop right there!”
“If you want to enter the village, pay a toll of 100 Tower Coins!”
The guards blocking the entrance to the village demanded a toll from Theo.
“My village doesn’t charge a toll, so why are you demanding one, meow?”
Theo confronted the guards blocking his way. 100 Tower Coins was a trivial amount compared to the money Theo had, but to be extorted like this was something a fool would do. Puhuhut. I’m no longer a fool, meow!
“What did you say?!”
“Should I just beat this tiny one up?”
The huge guards threatened Theo.
“Puhuhut. How dare you, the great…”
As Theo was about to reveal his identity to intimidate the guards,
“What’s all this noise?”
A being even bigger than the guards appeared.
“I’m… I’m sorry. Lord Radun, this cat refuses to pay the toll… I’ll take care of it quickly!”
The guards spoke with tension in their voices as Radun, the leader of Rhino Village, appeared.
“Kukuk. No need. I’ll personally teach this brazen creature the fear of the world.”
Radun rolled up his left sleeve to show off the black dragon tattoo on his forearm, as if boasting.
“Oh! That’s the great black dragon tattoo that Lord Radun got from fighting the Minotaur King for three days, and he was acknowledged for his strength, a tattoo personally engraved by the Minotaur King himself!”
“Probably, Lord Radun, who came back without a single wound, is much stronger than Lord Taru, the Storm Tank who fought and survived against the Minotaur King 100 years ago.”
The two guards whispered about Radun’s tattoo.
‘Kukuk. Yes. Praise my greatness more!’
Radun shifted about to show off his tattoo better in response to the guards’ words.
Radun recalled that when the Minotaur King recently visited the village, he boldly suggested a one-on-one fight in a secluded place when the villagers were watching but as soon as he went to the secluded place,
Thump!
“Please spare me! I surrender!”
He quickly knelt and surrendered to the Minotaur King.
The Minotaur King, upon seeing Radun’s submission, told him to serve loyally upon seeing anyone with the black dragon tattoo in the future and showed Radun the tattoo on his chest before leaving.
However, as soon as the Minotaur King left, Radun boldly forged a similar black dragon tattoo on his left arm and returned to the village, lying that he had received it from the Minotaur King.
Since then, Radun’s influence grew significantly, and he lived like a king in Rhino Village.
Thus, every day, Radun would roam the village after lunch to see the villagers who feared him. It was then that he noticed Theo.
‘Good catch at the right moment.’
Radun thought it was time to pick one out and show his fearsomeness. He marked Theo, who was standing up to the guards, as his prey. Theo looked weak enough to highlight his own strength.
“What is this weird tattoo, meow?!!!”
Theo was furious upon seeing the black dragon tattoo engraved on Radun’s arm, because he knew the only person who had the extra scales of Kaiser was Sejun, whose right-hand man was Theo himself.
The Minotaur King did not have the extra scales of Kaiser. Naturally, Radun’s black dragon tattoo was fake.
Moreover, the tattoo was so poorly made that Theo felt insulted on behalf of the black dragon tattoo engraved on his own foot.
“How dare you lie about being Chairman Park’s subordinate with such an ugly tattoo, meow!!! I’m so angry, meow!!!”
Trembling,
As the black dragon tattoo given by Sejun was insulted, Theo trembled with anger. Of course, to the other party, it seemed like he was shaking with fear.
“Haak! Don’t lie, meow!!!”
Theo shouted at Radun, filled with rage.
“What?! What lie are you talking about?! You little!”
‘How did this guy find out?’
Stung by Theo’s outcry, Radun hurriedly attacked to silence Theo.
“I’ll teach you a lesson, meow!”
Snap!
Theo also unsheathed his dragon claws as he saw Radun’s fist coming toward him.
Then
Bang!
Taru blocked in front of Theo, taking Radun’s punch with his face.
“Meow!? Ta… friend, are you okay, meow?!”
Theo, about to call Taru by his name, remembered Taru’s request not to do so and quickly changed his address.
“Theo, I’m fine. I don’t know what’s going on, but let’s try to talk this out first.”
Taru reassured Theo and spoke to Radun.
And then,
“Theo, what’s happening?”
“When I tried to enter the gate, they blocked the way and demanded a toll, meow…”
“What?!”
Taru was shocked to hear the reason for the fight. Why would Rhino Village charge a toll?! It was not the Rhino Village he remembered from the past.
He wanted to question why they were collecting a toll, but as someone who had abandoned and left the village, he did not want to interfere anymore.
“Here’s 200 Tower Coins for the toll. Take it.”
“Huh?! Yes!”
Taru handed the money to the dazed guard and quickly entered the village.
“Vice Chairman Theo, let’s go.”
I’ll see you later, meow! Heeding Taru’s call and deciding to take care of the jars first, Theo glared at Radun before following Taru into the village.
“Why does the village look so deserted, meow?”
Theo walked down the main street of the village, commenting on its lack of life as if no one lived there.
“I don’t know either. Let’s head to the workshop for now.”
Wanting to ask his friend about the village, Taru hurried to the workshop.
As they passed through the village and arrived at the foot of the mountain
[Triceratops Workshop]
The sign for the workshop was in sight.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
As Taru knocked on the door and entered the workshop
“Excuse us!”
Theo followed Taru into the workshop. Inside, various pottery made of big and small clay and stones were displayed.
“Meow! Chairman Park would love this, meow!”
Theo commented while looking at a stone pot carved out of rock.
“Puhuhut. This looks good too, meow!”
As Theo was picking out items Sejun would like,
Crash!
A sound of a jar breaking came from the back of the workshop.
“Meow?!”
No way, meow! Who is breaking my jars, meow?! Reminded of the reason for his visit by the sound of the jars breaking, Theo hurried toward the source of the noise.
And then
Crash!
He found Triceratops, Taru’s friend, breaking a jar with a hammer.
“What are you doing, meow?!”
“Is this your first time seeing a jar being broken?”
Triceratops, who was breaking a flawed jar with a crack in it, responded indifferently to Theo, who was showing anger.
Then,
“Triceratops.”
Taru, who had followed behind Theo, called his friend’s name.
“Huh?! Is that you?!”
“Yes, it’s me. Taru. It’s been a long time.”
“Taru!!!”
Triceratops charged past Theo towards Taru as if he was about to confront an enemy.
“Meow? Didn’t you say he was a friend, meow?!”
Theo was confused
“Triceratops!”
Taru also ran towards Triceratops with an equally fierce momentum.
Bang!
Their shoulders collided, making a loud noise. It seemed like someone could have been killed by the impact, but,
“Hahaha. How long has it been?!”
“Taru, have you been well?”
The two casually shook hands and exchanged a strong embrace, a rough greeting befitting of a rhinoceros.
A moment later,
“So you came to buy jars?”
“That’s right, meow! I want to buy 1500 jars, meow!”
“Hmm… 1500 is exactly how many I’ve made so far. Alright, I’ll sell them.”
“How much, meow?!”
“Since you came through a friend’s introduction, I’ll give you a special deal and only charge for the labor. It’ll be 0.5 Tower coins each.”
Honestly, the amount was not even enough to cover the labor cost. Triceratops, with Taru accompanying him, gave Theo an incredibly generous offer.
But,
“Give me a discount, meow!”
Theo, unaware of Triceratops’ generosity, tried to haggle three times.
“Sigh… just take them.”
Since there were hardly any merchants looking for jars these days, Triceratops decided to hand them all over to Theo.
“Thank you, meow! In return, I’ll give you this, meow!”
Theo handed over a handful of five-colored beans to the fool who had given him the jars for free.
And,
“Help me, meow!”
Theo boldly asked Taru and Triceratops for help while packing the jars into his bag.
“Thanks, meow!”
After Theo thanked them and stepped out first,
“Triceratops, thank you. Take this.”
Taru handed a bundle of money to Triceratops. It was the money Theo had spent on drawing the lottery.
“But what’s happening in the village?”
Taru finally asked about the situation in the village that had been bothering him.
***
“Puhuhut. Now I can return to Chairman Park, meow!”
Theo left the workshop proudly after acquiring all 3000 jars as Sejun had ordered him to buy.
“Over there, that’s the guy from earlier!”
A voice shouted towards Theo.
“What, meow?”
Looking towards the source of the sound, Theo saw Radun giving orders to his subordinates – the same ones from the village entrance.
“Yes!”
Dadadada.
At Radun’s command, the guards quickly moved to surround and close in on Theo.
‘Perfect. I’ll capture this guy as a hostage and catch him.’
Radun smirked evilly at Theo. He had been humiliated in front of his guards earlier when Taru, despite being hit by his punch, was completely fine.
So he summoned all his guards to capture Taru, but fortunately for him, the weaker Theo came out first.
But,
‘I was going to teach him a lesson anyway, good timing, meow!”
Theo felt equally grateful for the chance as well.
Theo jumped,
Snap!
“Meow meow meow! Meow meow meow!”
He quickly drew his dragon claws in mid-air and swung at Radun,
Sssss.
and landed lightly.
……
If not for Theo’s noise, no one would have noticed the Meow-meow Storm Fist that took out the enemy.
“Puhahaha.”
“What did you do?”
The guards laughed at Theo.
Then,
Puck!
With an explosive sound, Radun disintegrated into dust and vanished.
“Huh?!”
“……”
The laughter of the guards, overwhelmed by Theo’s strength, faded away.
“Eh?! Theo!”
Taru, who had come out of the workshop, spotted the guards surrounding Theo.
And,
Bang!
He quickly ran over, pushing through the guards to stand in front of Theo.
‘How dare you! How dare you!’
Trembling with anger, Theo still hadn’t cooled off from his rage towards Radun, who had dared to brand himself as one of Sejun’s underlings.
But,
“Don’t worry, Vice Chairman Theo. There’s something I didn’t tell you—I used to be the boss on the 97th floor of the tower. Come at me! I, Storm Tank Taru, will take you on!”
Taru, thinking Theo was shaking with fear, revealed his true identity to reassure him and roared,
“Aaah! Help!”
The guards, regaining their senses, scattered in a panic.
‘Hmph. My reputation isn’t dead yet.’
Taru took pride in thinking that the guards ran away because of him.
“Vice Chairman Theo, let’s go.”
“Understood, meow!”
And so, Theo and Taru left.
“This needs to be planted, doesn’t it?”
Triceratops planted the five-colored beans given by Theo, unaware that they were mixed with kudzu fruits… Thanks to that, the food worries of the starving residents of Rhino Village were resolved.
****
