I put a leash on Catastrophe

* * *

In his past life, Zhi-wu had nothing and just went between home, work, and school every day, so he had few opportunities to meet new people.

Rather, only after the world collapsed did he start interacting with many people.

Although many countries were destroyed when the Great Calamity appeared, five countries where people still remained survived until the very end, and one of them was Korea.

Due to the calamities advancing southward, people were forced to retreat further south, losing most of the country’s territory, and the state system was paralyzed, but the survivors still called themselves Koreans.

Anyway, in Korea, where less than a hundred thousand people remained, Zhi-wu met many people. One of them was Grandpa Kim, who worked as a broker.

He mainly dealt with illegal rather than legal affairs and said he was quite well-known in those circles. In his own words, he was the president of the criminal world.

He was a man who initially flared up at Zhi-wu’s half-joking words, but when he offered him a drink, he obediently held out his glass.

Of course, he still grumbled:

The old man’s eyes wandered in emptiness, but it seemed he wasn’t seeing the crumbling shelter, but remembering his glorious past.

Many couldn’t forget their past glory, but he was one of the worst.

Many disliked him but left him alone, fearing he might die if disturbed, considering his advanced age.

Zhi-wu, having discovered him, intervened out of curiosity, and at some point, they were able to become friends, and he was able to hear many stories about the past from him.

‘He said he was the head of the Korean branch of the black market, where stolen goods and contraband were traded.’

Later, when hunters appeared, the black market became a place where hunter equipment was traded, but now it was a place where stolen goods were bought and sold.

This was exactly the place Zhi-wu needed.

‘The jewels the pharaoh gave… It will probably be difficult to sell them all?’

He thought it would be enough to sell only 1/3. Zhi-wu put several handfuls of jewels from the box into a black plastic bag and tied it tightly.

For handling jewels, this was very modest, but he decided it would be better than carrying them in something luxurious and risking being robbed by pickpockets, which would be very unpleasant.

“Okay, I’m going… Why are you standing like that?”

Zhi-wu, who was about to leave alone to sell the jewels, was surprised to see the two stuck to his back.

It was obvious that they weren’t just seeing him off, but were going to go with him.

“I can go alone, just wait here.”

“We can’t let my lord go alone.”

Martin seemed to be worried about Zhi-wu, who was much weaker than the two of them. Interestingly, was the pharaoh following him for the same reason? When Zhi-wu looked at him with this thought, he smirked crookedly.

“Fool. We can’t move away from you more than a certain distance.”

The pharaoh explained that when they tried to move away from Zhi-wu at a greater distance, an invisible wall appeared before them, preventing their departure.

“I experimented with this before you woke up, and now that the restrictions have tightened, this distance might have decreased even more.”

If that’s the case, he had to take them with him. Thinking about it, Zhi-wu decided it would be more comfortable to keep them in front of his eyes than to leave them and worry about what might happen, so he decided to go out with them.

“But there’s something you must do.”

He demanded that they, as before, use their abilities to not attract the attention of surveillance cameras and people, and that they not perform any unexpected actions, calmly completing the walk, but the pharaoh’s reaction was cool.

In America, they kept a low profile because of the incident, but here in distant Korea, he didn’t want to do this. The reason was simple.

“Although by hiding our bodies, we can prevent worms from approaching, hiding like a field mouse digging in a hole after awakening is not interesting.”

He wanted to enjoy the view of the world he was going to destroy while it was still intact.

Zhi-wu was speechless at these absurd words.

‘Martin has physical strength, but no magical abilities. To hide bodies, the pharaoh’s cooperation is needed.’

Maybe he should give an order by force? When Zhi-wu momentarily thought about this, looking at the pharaoh, their gazes met, and he smiled coldly, as if reading his thoughts.

“Better discard the thought of coercion.”

Point of no return. This word came to Zhi-wu’s mind as soon as he heard this warning.

Of course, if he used his ability, it would be easy to give an order to the pharaoh, ignoring his will, but…

‘The relationship will be completely ruined.’

That smile was undoubtedly a warning about this.

Although he might be called naive, Zhi-wu didn’t want to ruin the relationship with the pharaoh as much as possible. Though, perhaps it was already too late, considering that he had already applied his power of subordination to him.

‘At least if in the current state… slowly help him develop sympathy for humanity…’

He had hope that the pharaoh would not act as the king of Great Calamities. Therefore, he decided to purely abandon this idea.

“Alright.”

“…”

“I swear, if you don’t try to harm people or show an uncooperative attitude towards my affairs, I won’t think about coercion either.”

Judging by the pharaoh’s gaze, he didn’t seem to trust this. Well, considering what he had done, it was inevitable, thought Zhi-wu, mentally chuckling at himself.

“…If you don’t want to hide your body, you need to blend in with the surroundings.”

The main obstacle to this was the clothing of both. At least Martin had a slightly unusual shirt and trousers, but they were close enough to modern clothes not to cause big problems.

But with the pharaoh, it was different. He was more undressed than dressed. Also problematic was his hairstyle – unlike the short-haired Martin, he had long hair down to his waist.

“With the hair… many men grow long hair nowadays, so we can let that pass, but you need to put on clothes.”

“What? You’re telling me to put on clothes?”

“Yes. Otherwise, you’re definitely not going out.”

If it’s not cosplay for some event, the world considered people in such attire to be perverts. Zhi-wu didn’t want to walk the streets with such a person.

Hearing Zhi-wu’s resolute words, the pharaoh turned red as if he had received a huge insult and gritted his teeth.

“You… you’re telling me to cover my body like these low beings?”

According to him, the more honest a person is before the gods, the more natural it is not to cover the body. By the pharaoh’s standards, Zhi-wu’s clothes were nothing but a commoner’s appearance.

Looking at the pharaoh, who was trembling with insult, Zhi-wu sighed.

He acknowledged that cultures might differ in different worlds, but no matter how you looked at it, he couldn’t walk with him like this.

“In this world, it’s considered low to walk without clothes, naked.”

“What?”

“They think only those who are so poor they can’t buy clothes, or those who have mental problems, do that.”

Besides legal issues, Zhi-wu deliberately chose examples that could greatly shock the pharaoh to get through to his heart. Fortunately, this seemed to work, and the pharaoh’s face, which was red with anger, turned pale.

“Poverty…? Me, poor?”

For him, who had handed over many jewels to Zhi-wu, saying that he was lowering his status by needing money, the thought that he might be taken for a beggar seemed extremely humiliating.

He looked at his body and suddenly came to his senses. Apparently, he remembered that he was wearing ornaments.

The size of the gemstones on the pharaoh’s necklace and on his belt was as big as a child’s fist, so words about poverty didn’t fit.

But Zhi-wu had an answer for this too.

“In our world, people don’t wear such large gemstones.”

Not only because of the weight but also because large gemstones don’t help in everyday life.

“Looking at your necklace or belt, people won’t think you’re wearing something expensive. They’ll whisper that you’re walking half-naked but adorned with fake jewels.”

“Fake!”

“If you don’t want to be considered a person who walks half-naked due to poverty but tries to show off with fake jewels, it’s better to just wear clothes.”

He doubted if this would work, but looking at the pharaoh who didn’t object and just frowned, Zhi-wu sighed with relief.