“Shit! What the hell is this?” Lee Gun kept cursing.
His ire was directed at his reflection in the mirror. The square mirror reflected the face of a ten-year-old boy.
Lee Gun tried to pull at his cheeks as he looked at the mirror. In the end, he screamed. “Damn it! Why do I still look like this?”
Yes. After he had finally gotten rid of the last Zodiac, he had returned to the Serpent Bearer’s holy ground (the living room of the Sagittarius temple).
He had to upgrade his equipment using all the data that he had gathered, and it had been a while since he had worked through the night in his workshop.
He had trudged back home at dawn to go to sleep. Lee Gun had done so because he knew he’d be back to normal when he woke up from his sleep. Of course, he thought about finishing his equipment despite being tired, yet he decided against it.
‘This is pissing me off, so I’ll go to sleep.’
His tiny hands had no problems making weapons. However, he would get pissed off when everyone kept taking pictures of him, saying he looked cute. This was why he had come here to sleep.
‘I’ll be back to my normal self after I wake up from my sleep.’
The notification had confirmed this.
[You will return to your normal self in three hours.]
So what the hell happened? Six hours had passed, and it was one in the afternoon. Lee Gun had gotten up from his sleep because the slime woke him up.
Lee Gun threw his pillow. “Three hours have already passed, so why the hell do I look like this!!!”
When Lee Gun became angry, slime had turned into a mirror to show what Lee Gun looked like. Slime’s body was jiggling. It seemed to be enjoying this situation very much.
[“Clump of Creation Clay” is enjoying its master’s appearance.]
[“Clump of Creation Clay” says Master looks adorable when you are angry.]
“I’m not adorable at all! You want to die!” In the end, Lee Gun stormed out of the room.
‘Shit! Something went wrong.’
Lee Gun became serious as he quickly went toward the kitchen. His friend would have a better grasp of this situation, and he probably had a solution.
“Hey, Taeksoo!”
Hugo was surprised when Lee Gun showed up. It looked like Hugo already wanted to say something to Lee Gun. “Ah! Gun. You’re here right on time! Regarding your appearance, you showed no signs of changing back even after three hours, so I did some research.”
Lee Gun’s face brightened. “Yes. I knew you would have found a solution already!”
“These are Sungjae’s clothes from when he was young! I still had them! I think they’ll fit perfectly.”
“…???!” Lee Gun’s expression was a sight to behold.
Oblivious to it, Hugo brought out the clothes with a bright expression. Some of them were even kids’ clothes with bunny hats. Hugo brought out several types of clothes that he had stored away. “Do you want to try them on? I think you’ll look good in them.”
“Hey…”
“What? You can’t continue to wear clothes that you’ll have to continually pull up. Personally, I think you’ll look the best in the penguin pajamas.”
Murderous intent appeared in Lee Gun’s eyes as Hugo pointed the camera toward him.
Chun Jiwoo looked aghast at this scene. She became angry as she lightly slapped her husband’s back. “My god! How can’t you not think about the situation from Lee Gun-nim’s perspective? He is angry!”
“!”
Lee Gun looked at Miss Jiwoo as if to say that she was the only one he could trust.
However, Chun Jiwoo took out something as if to say, “Don’t worry!” She then said, “I bought new clothes from the children’s department! You won’t be inconvenienced for the next couple of months with this.”
“…”
Lee Gun massaged his forehead. It seemed they really liked him in this state. Of course, they were like this because only his outer appearance had changed. He had no trouble using his abilities.
Moreover, they knew certain aspects of his attributes were enhanced by his small stature.
“It has been a while since I picked out children’s clothes. It made me think about the past. I liked it.” Lee Jaewon had a bright smile on his face as he reminisced about when he had helped raise Yooha and Sungjae.
Chun Jiwoo agreed with him. She was happy as she looked at Lee Gun. “I feel like I have gone back in my thirties, when I was picking out those kids’ clothes. Thank you very much, Lee Gun-nim!”
When Chun Jiwoo’s face became red, Lee Gun just sighed. Thanks to the blessing of the Zodiac, Chun Jiwoo was like Taeksoo. The couple looked like they were in their twenties or thirties. So Lee Gun had no idea what she was talking about.
In the end, it didn’t matter. His enemies might think he had a handicap since he became smaller. However, his speed had become much faster. Moreover, his bible was filled with new abilities. He also had suddenly developed a decent attribute.
[Attribute: Imagination]
– Creation ability will flourish (When manufacturing, the chance of a new rank appearing increases)
– In battle, you will develop random abilities
‘I have no idea why it appeared.’
Lee Gun glanced at the slime. It was oddly jiggling in joy as it looked at Lee Gun. Anyway, his abilities were fine, but his biggest problem was…
‘I’m too short to reach anything…!!’
Yes, the shelves and doors in his holy ground were made according to his height. Therefore, he kept running into numerous problems.
‘Even the elevator…!’
Yooha had to lift him.
‘This is humiliating!’
This was why he had to return to his original body!
[The disciples are confused by the different sides of the Serpent Bearer.]
[The persistence of Confusion has increased by 1 minute.]
[The persistence of Confusion has increased by 1 minute.]
[The persistence of Confusion has increased by 1 minute.]
[The time needed to return to your original body has increased to a total of 17 hours.]
In the end, Lee Gun became angry. “Really!! Hey, is this the first time you’ve seen a kid?! Why are you confused? I can’t return to my normal self because of you guys!”
[Kyaa!! Baby snake-nim’s temper tantrum is so cute…!]
“Damn it! How can someone with such a foul mouth be so cute?!”
Lee Gun was suffering because of his fanatic disciples. It made him tremble.
‘At this point, it’ll be faster to kill Confusion.’
He now understood how Guisoon felt. However, that wasn’t the most infuriating part.
“Hey!! When the hell did you take that?”
“!”
Lee Gun’s eyebrows twitched when he heard the voices coming from the other room. The Chun siblings and Kevin had their blades out, and they were fighting in the next room.
Hugo’s party became surprised by the sound of fighting, so they quickly rushed toward the next room.
“Lee Gun said he needed the molt, so I agreed to move it! However, why are you trying to take the other items?”
It seemed the Chun siblings had gone to retrieve the molt under Lee Gun’s order. However, they had been caught emptying the vault in real time.
Kevin had chased after the siblings, who had run away using Teleport. The angry Kevin pointed toward the bag of goods. “You guys are noble Zodiac Saints! How dare you steal!”
“Hmmph! What are you talking about? You said we can take what is inside the vault!”
“What? I told you to take the molt. Who told you to take the other items?”
“It doesn’t matter since we took a select few!”
“??!”
The expressions of those watching the fight were a sight to behold.
‘Wait a moment. Those were all inside the vault of the Virgo Saint?’
Hugo, Lee Jaewon, and Goat reared back in shock. It was to be expected since all the items were something that one would find in the rooms of the Chun siblings.
The items included Lee Gun figurines, his equipment from the early days, his old notes, his clothes, and rare footage of his raids.
Dumbfounded, Hugo looked at Kevin. “You act like you aren’t one, but you are a Gun fanatic?”
“What are you talking about? I gathered all of this when I was investigating Lee Gun’s death. I just needed his DNA!”
The Chun siblings became angry as if Kevin had incriminated himself with his words.
“See! You spent so much money to gather them, yet you don’t know how precious these items are! Look at this one first! Do you realize how highly this is worth amongst the fans? Uncle Lee Gun drew this monster at the age of twenty-two. The buff contained within it—”
Kevin looked flabbergasted by Sungjae’s words. He became angry. “Twenty-two years old? He drew it at the age of twenty-three. He signed differently, idiot!”
The mouths of Hugo and Lee Jaewon fell open.
“Kevin. You really are a fanatic.”
“I’m not!! I gathered all of this to analyze my rival!”
“The world has a term for that. It’s called being a fanatic…”
Goat shook his head from side to side.
Lee Gun clicked his tongue as if he had seen enough. He picked out his equipment from the bag. “There is some useful stuff in here.”
He could remodel them into something useful.
At that moment…
Brrr!
Lee Gun’s eyes turned round when he received an urgent emergency message. The important thing was who had sent it.
‘President?’
He did leave his contact information and told the president to contact him anytime in case of a problem.
‘What’s going on?’
There was no way the president would contact him unless it was something urgent.
‘Moreover, it’s an emergency email.’
Lee Gun’s eyes turned round when he opened the photo attached to the email.
“This is….”
It seemed the observatory had taken this photo. The photo was blurry, but it showed a familiar large monster.
‘Red Eye?’
No, it wasn’t Red Eye. It was a completely different color from Red Eye, which was blackish-red. Moreover, there wasn’t just one of these monsters.
Lee Gun got an ominous feeling when another problem reared its head.
Beep beep beep beep!
“!”
The Zodiac Saints received an emergency alert.
Everyone was surprised when they saw the content.
“Wh-What the hell is this?”
It seemed the observatory had quickly sent a map to the Zodiac Saints. The map showed the movement of the monsters.
However, everyone’s face turned deathly pale when they saw it.
“W-What is this crazy number?”
“Gun!”
Lee Gun also furrowed his brows after looking at the map.
‘It’s an invasion.’
The black dots were heading toward human territories from all directions. They were coming in droves, where there was no hope of escape.
It couldn’t be compared to the last invasion. The situation was like the time when humanity had been looking at extinction. It was similar to the invasion led by Red Eye.
‘No. It’s more dangerous and ominous than that one.’
Lee Gun furrowed his brows as he looked at the picture sent by the president.
‘Can it be?’
Yes, the ones in the picture were the siblings of Red Eye. They were the four great calamities under the rule of Confusion. They were here to destroy mankind.
They gathered the monsters that had been dispersed and even led monsters from outside of the earth.
* * *
It was around that time.
[Are you sure about this, Master?]
[The invasion of humanity goes against the Time monarch’s intent. You might clash against Time.]
The young man laughed in contempt.
“I don’t care. Time cannot mess with me anyway.”
[!]
This man was Red Eye’s father. Moreover, he was the father who had grown other calamities like Red Eye. He was Confusion.
Abundance, Abyss, Negligence, and Oblivion were beings created by Time to establish his power.
Confusion was different. He was a great monarch on par with Time, since Time and Confusion were brothers.
Of course, they weren’t on good terms despite being brothers.
‘Just because I am of his blood, I was swept up in his return.’
“Also, it isn’t as if I’m on the wrong path. Time will consume all the Zodiac Saints and the Zodiacs. Then he will destroy all of humanity.”
In the past, Confusion had lent out Red Eye, the youngest sibling, to Time.
Time had made Red Eye take the lead, and in all the timelines, Time consumed all the Zodiac Saints and Zodiacs to acquire power. Then, he killed all the humans on the earth.
This meant the two of them had the same goal. However…
‘Lee Gun. He can get rid of Time.’
Since they were under the contract of brothers, Confusion couldn’t get rid of Time. However, someone with the power of Death could possibly kill a great monarch such as Time. Of course, there was no way he could kill Time in his current state.
Confusion’s subordinate seemed to have read his expression. It furrowed its brows.
[It seems you have something else in mind.]
“I’m thinking about the bastard who possesses Death. He’ll be a sight to behold if he can raise it to the highest stage.”
[!!]
[When you say the highest stage, are you talking about the fifth stage of the normal Divine status?]
“No. When his emotions became unstable, Death was as strong as the great monarchs.”
Confusion had been monitoring Lee Gun all this time, and he had felt it. It was especially true in his fight against Abundance.
While Abundance was their creation, it wasn’t a pushover. However, Death’s power had changed in quality from normal when Yeonwoo became involved.
“I’m sure of it. If we break his mental state, he’ll be able to destroy Time and this world.”
[!]
“Of course, there is a chance that he doesn’t have that much power, so I’ll have to test him out.”
Confusion laughed as he looked at the picture of where he had sent the calamities. “You’re my first target.”
His gaze headed toward the Sagittarius temple.
