Mercenary Black Mamba

Having completed the evacuation measures, Dino now firmly stood in front of the residence's entrance and lightly waved its front paw. It was a gesture meant to warn the others that anyone showing even a hint of want to go back inside would get a severe beating.

The crowd that got unceremoniously booted out of their own rooms in the middle of the night meandered around in the open unable to complain, just groaning helplessly. What could they even do when a creature as scary as the Cerberus was guarding the door?

"Heeheehee!" Samdi was letting out an insidious cackle.

If it had been him chasing these people out, they would have showered him with way too many complaints. Trying to explain to every single one of them would have driven him crazy too. Besides, the act of explanation itself would've been too troublesome – he certainly could not go around saying, 'Our master is in the middle of the deed, so make yourself scarce', could he?

Punching them once would have quietened down any discontent, but too bad, he could not hit family members.

Dino was not necessarily what you would call an animal, but it was still an animal nonetheless. What could anyone say to an animal that could not talk but still shot you murderous glares?

After regaining his ego through Monk Dae-woo's Buddhist powers, Samdi was becoming craftier with every passing day.

THUD-!

The house began rumbling just then.

"What the...?!"

Samdi was surprised by that, and hurriedly guided the crowd out toward the lake. Those who knew what was going on had bright expressions, while those who did not know had the faces of someone chewing on bugs. And so, they were chased away to the lakeside like a herd of pigs.

*

Despite her resolve, this was turning out to be far beyond her imagination. When Edel's expression distorted, his junior flinched and quickly retreated.

Even though she was swimming in a hazy state, her mind sobered up immediately. It felt like the heavens would fall if she let go of him now. This sense of danger that she might regret this for the rest of her life took a hold of her.

'Even God has raised a son, so I probably… Will not die!'

Edel steeled her resolve once more, then wrapped her legs tightly around his hips to pull herself closer. Finally, she raised her hips higher.

And then, a lightning bolt pierced straight through her midriff.

"Keuk!"

An involuntary cry exploded from her lips. Even though she had prepared her mind as much as possible, the pain of her body being penetrated was impossible to describe in mere words. The closest comparison she could make was probably a massive stake being driven in with a hammer. Her squeezed-shut eyelids were flashing with thousands, no, tens of thousands of lightning streaks.

Mu Ssang had received enough training with Hae-young, but Edel was a pure virgin who had not even kissed a man before. Knowing it and actually doing it were two completely different things. She had no idea that her first time would be this painful.

Experienced ones would argue that technique mattered, not the size. Of course, those people would be right, normally speaking. But even the most exacting techniques could not overcome the overwhelming physical difference. After all, you used a thick pestle to pound into a large mortar, not a fire poker.

The entrance of a large member led Edel's senses to escape her.

'Oh, god! Daddy, I think I'm about to die! It's too big, it won't fit inside!'

She summoned all of her strength to hold onto his back, her whole body trembling nonstop.

Shwa-aaah-

It was at that moment that the resonance wave passed through his junior as a passageway to flood into Edel's body.

The resonance wave began healing the damaged flesh down there, then spread to every corner of her body next. Her cells began vibrating at the molecular level, causing the accumulated waste material and impurities to break down.

Her revitalized cells began craving for nutrition. Blood rushed along furiously to distribute oxygen and glucose.

"Ah, aaaaah~!"

An ecstasy different from the pleasure of love making swept across Edel's entire body. The delight experienced when one's body is upgraded to its best possible state was not something a human could grant, after all.

Edel let out a long moan without even realizing she did.

God was indeed great — no, evolution was truly great. Her body, after experiencing an internal cleansing, adapted to the size of his Equus-like member. The searing pain passed in the blink of an eye. Edel began writhing from the ecstasy of her soul being satisfied.

The waiting proved to be difficult, yet the reward ended up being plentiful beyond words. In less than a minute, Edel's physique reverted to that of an eighteen-year-old.

What would happen if the rumor of your body becoming a decade younger just from a single love-making session got around? Never mind women troubles, Mu Ssang might become besieged by millions of female would-be rapists.

The bed was soon filled with suggestive grunts, intense heat and lewd scents. The aircon Ombuti imported from South Korea was working overtime to spit out cold air, but it still failed to cool down the intense heat.

"Aaahk?! Again?" Edel cried out.

From then on, the bed had to suffer lots more until daybreak. But it was not only the bed – even the Yoa House rocked and shook as if earthquakes were afoot.

A Haengjaseung (trainee monk) who knew the taste of meat but had to abstain for the past six years would obviously not leave a high-quality feast unfinished. The previously-innocent esteemed daughter of noble family had turned in her virgin card – actually, it would be more apt to say that card got shredded apart into million pieces at this point.

Mu Ssang was rueful about the impending daybreak, but Edel welcomed it with all of her heart. Despite saying something about her being able to die happy now, in reality no one in their right mind wanted to die after such an experience.

*

Whether history was being written during the night or even if the 'harmony' had been broken, the unchanging and uncaring sun still rose up.

The Yoa House was deathly quiet that morning. Usually, the residents would have had their breakfast before the sunrise and started their daily activities by now. However, despite the sun having risen up well over a footspan over the horizon, not even a single spider could be seen scurrying about.

In the terrace of Yoa House's drawing room...

One of the two rocking chairs greeted its intended master. As for the mistress of the other chair, she was currently slumbering away like a sated lioness.

Mu Ssang plopped down carelessly on the chair and began mumbling to himself. "Bloody hell. That was hard work, alright."

His expression remained pouty as he spoke.

Handling a glass plate with a forged steel club was never going to be easy. A human body could not endure the strength and vigor of an Epidium like him. He could not even properly release his pent-up needs due to how cautious he was. Hae-young used to struggle mightily back when he was much weaker. They needed several months just to get used to each other.

Not only that, but the massive amount of poison the tarantula-type monster in the jungles of Ituri had injected him with also proved to be a problem. The poison's component, Atrax, was a natural aphrodisiac dozens of times more potent than Viagra.

The legendary Lao Ai, allegedly capable of using his junior as the axle for a wooden carriage, was nothing compared to him. Honestly, Mu Ssang feared that he might punch a hole into a boulder at this rate.

Edel might find it difficult to move around for the next few days, but in return, all of her internal impurities incinerated away. Now that her health and immunity had improved by a great deal, she probably would not come down with a common cold anymore.

Even though Mu Ssang did not get much out of the session, Edel struck gold in this exchange. Although, he could not help but adore her for enduring his assault with her frail body.

"Tuning with her, huh~. Rudrey got she wanted, but what about me! I guess Novatopia is my fate?"

Mu Ssang groaned deeply.

He was a Homo Sapiens Epidium. Putting aside whether or not he could have kids, one woman did not even come remotely close to fulfilling his needs. One slip-up from him and he might end up offing the woman he cared for. He confirmed it without a shred of doubt last night: he was simply not meant to have a sweet little married life with only one woman.

Get several wives, then? Back in Korea, such a thing would have been against the law, but more than that, the glares would have been too troublesome to handle even for him. However, nothing was stopping him in Novatopia. He was the law here.

"Ombuti and Bakri might jump up and down in joy, I guess. Hehehe!"

A small chuckle leaked out of his lips.

*

The sun peeking out over the horizon poured out its spear-like rays, brightly illuminating the lake's surface.

The emerald-hued lake spread before Mu Ssang's view, surrounded by palm trees and forests of tall reed grasses. Beyond the lake were 'erg' and 'reg', sandstone pillars standing tall along with mushrooms, winds sucking up the desert sands, then minute particles of sandstone blowing around like a snowstorm...

What a strikingly foreign scenery this was, far removed from South Korea with its pristine waters and mountains.

It was easy to see why Ombuti constructed the temporary administrative offices in this location. This whole area was a natural resource that could earn a ton of cash just by renting it out as a shooting location for a movie or a commercial. Another reason why he was so mindful about preserving the nature of this place.

Winds blowing in from the Northeast of Sahara dumped the smell of withered soil on his senses before going away. The Harmattan of the West Sahara would shift to the east around June. Although not as intense as when it was assaulting the West Sahara, it was still strong enough to endlessly dump sand in this location – the reason why Orifice was so hung up about creating a windbreak forest.

At around nine million ㎢, Sahara's size was about the same as that of the United States of America. Its borders were indistinguishable, and the whole desert continued to expand every year, leading to some scientists to posit that it could even be as large as 13 million ㎢ instead. Such a size meant that it was a hundred times larger than Korea.

Novatopia was just a little green dot in the middle of a vast sandstone-and-sand world. Twenty-five thousand ㎢ was basically the same as a pebble on the front yard.

Mu Ssang scanned the lake's vicinity where the masses caused a commotion throughout the night. He did not need to activate his Inner Eye for the distance of between six hundred meters to two kilometers. He could even spot the fibers of a coconut shell rolling around on the ground from this distance.

"It seems to have worked, then. Yup, that's how it's supposed to be."

The corners of his lips sneakily curled up.

Not a single bottle of booze or bits of tissue were lying about. Considering the level of the indigenous Africans' awareness, this should be considered a miracle. His strategy of putting on a performance about receiving punishment was the major factor for this outcome.

The citizens of Novatopia were definitely freaked out by the show he put on, which ensured that they would clean out the location of their commotion before going back home.

He then spotted dozens of trucks traveling tirelessly on the other side of the lake, clouds of sand left behind in their wake. He heard the noises of heavy machinery chugging along, liberally interspersed with the localized version of Arabic going 'ttu, tti, tta' as well as French going 'veng, shong, ahng'.

The words spoken by different individuals contained meanings they wished to convey, but the jumbled mess of languages turned into meaningless noise like the sounds of a honey bee's beating wings.

When languages gather, they would lose meaning, but when people's wills gathered, a great 'meaning' would be given life. This great 'meaning' created the flow of events, leading to the creation of history. And Mu Ssang was the 'big soul' serving as the focal point that attracted the great meaning.

"Where flowers wilt, fruits will ripen, is it?"

Not one empire nor emperor thought about planting trees in the desert of Sahara for the past thousands of years. Not Egypt, not Persia, not even Rome. Never mind those ancient empires, even the Great British Empire or France simply saw Sahara as just that, Sahara. No one dared to even start a greening project in this unforgiving desert.

But here he was, a country bumpkin with a bum leg, starting an unprecedented greening project that no one in history ever tried.

And the dark-crimson desert was already transforming into a verdant forest. A man should at least achieve this much in his life, no? Mu Ssang felt a sense of accomplishment in his heart.

"Your excellency, your coffee will get cold, sir." Yijihana carrying a tray woke his boss up with a voice as soft as a mosquito buzzing.

"Ah. I almost forgot."

He had forgotten about the coffee while daydreaming. He picked up the slightly-crude ceramic cup, then deeply inhaled the aroma. The coffee's aroma managed to shove aside the smells of the desert and the lake to enter his nose. It was as quiet and still as a mother's gaze, just as strong yet still tender.

If the coffee brewed by Edel was delicious, then Yijihana's coffee had an additional texture of 'feeling' added on top of its taste.

The addictiveness of coffee rivaled that of cigarettes. Unlike green tea or black herbal tea, each cup of coffee had their own stories to tell.

A cup of coffee could bring out the words you always wanted to say. It could lead to a confession of one's love, and it could even act as a partner to many of your emotions. Green tea might have class, but in terms of popularity or the ability to communicate, nothing could beat coffee. This was the reason why a coffee cultivation field was being created in Ennedi despite all the challenges.

"Chef!"

"Y-yes, sir! Your excellency!"

Mu Ssang's soft call was still enough to shock Yijihana into standing at attention in a hurry.

"Be at ease. You might make me choke on this coffee, you know."

"Ah! My apologies, sir."

"Chef, humans are animals of fate. Strangers meet and get to know each other, and after knowing each other well enough, they eventually become friends. And after staying as friends, they will grow close enough to become family.

"That's why you mustn't use the term 'Your Excellency'. I get nasty goosebumps whenever I hear stuff like that. I call folks that eat the food from the same pot as me as my family. My family calls me Wakil. That title might mean 'master', but it's actually a lot closer to being 'protector'. That's why I'd like you to call me Wakil, too."

"Thank you, sir!"

Yijihana got down on all fours. He couldn't dare to use the name Dubaiburupa to call his master, so he settled on 'Your Excellency' instead. But this great and noble being acknowledged someone as lowly as a chef as part of his family.

Deeply moved now, Yijihana could not figure out how to express his gratitude.

"I felt a mother's affectionate gaze from this coffee. What was on your mind while brewing it?"

Yijihana was stunned to hear that. While brewing this morning's coffee, he was indeed thinking about his grandmother, about how hard she toiled to raise him up, and how much he missed her.

Dubaiburupa was the first person to read what was on Yijihana's mind by tasting the coffee he made.

"Thank you for your compliment, sir. To get the right taste of coffee, I have been giving my all for many years. There's no end to coffee's taste, as it can be sour, bitter, savory, smooth, or rough. I pondered and contemplated on ways to present the most delectable coffee to customers with my every waking moment.

"And from a certain moment on, I began following the natural flavor of coffee rather than trying to extract it. Instead of relying on brilliant skills, I chose to adapt to coffee's inherent flavors.

"Fifteen years later, my coffee began reflecting what's in my heart, sir. No matter how excellent the ingredients were, the coffee ended up tasting unrefined if my heart at the time was in turmoil. But when I was happy, the coffee would end up tasting joyous.

"And now... I'm not brewing coffee to present it to a customer. I only wish to be true to my heart, sir."

Yijihana finished speaking then stood back, ready to serve. He was quietly worried about the mood of the great and noble souring because of the words of a lowly man like him.

"Aha! Your heart was in it!"

Mu Ssang let out a quiet little exclamation. It was at that moment that a lightbulb lit up brightly in his mind. Unconsciously, he entered the state of deep meditation and contemplation.

"Even though I exist, I rely on other's understanding to categorize all things and separate what's good and evil...! Beom-So-Yu-Sang Yak-Gyun-Je-Sang Bi-Sang Juk-Gyun-Yeo-Rae... (A Buddhist mantra; it means "All things in existence are fleeting and in vain. When you see all things but perceive what they are not, then you shall soon witness Buddha.")

A verse from the Vajra Sutra came out from Mu Ssang's lips. He somehow gained an enlightenment of the Buddhist scripture that elucidated the concept of existence in a quantum theoretical sense.

There was an old saying, 'Maeng-Gu-Wu-Mok'. It meant that understanding the Vajra Sutra was as difficult as a blind turtle floating around the water chancing upon a driftwood. That was why Mu Ssang was genuinely happy about this.

'If only master knew. He would have been overjoyed...'

The way of Buddhism was tough. Especially the Vajra Sutra – its meaning depended on one's interpretation. And even if you managed to interpret it somehow, it did not automatically lead you to grasping what it actually meant. It had been so many years since he grappled with the meaning behind the concept of Eung-Mu-So-Ju Yi-Saeng-Gi-Sim. (It means: one should not be attached to any thoughts arising in one's mind, or one's mind must be independent of thoughts arising within.)

Some people carelessly use the phrase, 'As easy as being a Buddhist monk'. However, becoming a monk was no cakewalk. There was an old saying, 'In-Sin-Nan-Duk Bul-Beop-Nan-Bong', which meant it was difficult to be born as a human, but even harder to become a monk.

Before you could become a monk, one must pass the stage of Haengjaseung (trainee monk; also an ascetic monk). That term denoted a trainee monk who was determined to enter the monkhood and was doing the miscellaneous chores around the monastery.

However, you were a 'trainee monk' only in name, as you were basically a glorified temple worker, a person who had to take on the hard labor that sustained a monastery – such as cooking food, tending to the vegetable garden, serving as a caretaker and even guiding people wishing to pay alms to the temple in question.

The duration of Haengjaseung lasted around three to four months at the shortest, and one year at the longest. Only after you have shaken off the identity of a Haengja, will you then be given the Ten Rules of Samanera as well as your Buddhist name.

Once a Samanera completed their prescribed Buddhist training, they were given the Rules of Upasampada and became a full-fledged monk. In a way, Mu Ssang was a Samanera who had not shaved his head.