CLS-Chapter 412

Chapter 412:

People tend to greatly overestimate the position of strategist.

The strategist that exists in people’s minds is one who can overturn unfavorable situations with just their mind alone, create something from nothing, and snatch victory regardless of the war situation through mysterious and ingenious tactics.

But in reality, such things are impossible.

The reason strategists in history are famous is precisely because such events rarely occur in practice. If all strategists were like Gong Ming, why would we praise Gong Ming? If all strategists were like Han Shin, why would we discuss “the more the better”?

Looking at actual history, there aren’t many cases where strategists had a major impact on war. What determines victory or defeat in war has always been overwhelming military power, not cunning strategies.

But people always demand from strategists.

Win with fewer troops.

Minimize our casualties to the extreme.

Come up with mysterious and ingenious schemes.

The refrain “Your ancestor did it, so why can’t you achieve what your ancestor did?” comes as a bonus.

All descendants of the Zhuge family have fought against such prejudices.

Some cleverly exploited people’s longing for such strategists to gain profit. Others collapsed under the burden of such expectations.

As for Zhuge Mun-in, he was someone who appropriately straddled both sides.

He knew that fulfilling everything the world demanded of strategists was an incredibly difficult task, but his philosophy was that if you couldn’t achieve it, you couldn’t become a strategist whose name would resound throughout the world.

Because it’s difficult, it’s worth challenging.

You must be able to win with fewer troops to be a strategist. You must be able to overturn unfavorable situations to be a strategist. If you’re going to win easily with more troops, there’s no need for strategists.

However, there was one thing.

There was one thing absolutely necessary to achieve all of that.

Information.

That’s right. Information.

No matter how great a strategist might be, they cannot create something from nothing. All the great strategies and great tactics that turned the world upside down started from information.

The reason Zhuge Gong Ming could turn Red Cliffs into a fiery hell was because he knew when the southeast wind would blow before anyone else. Like this, information is always the foundation of strategy.

The Zhuge family had long understood the importance of this information.

In the end, to get ahead of others, you must know more than others, and to know more than others, it’s important to monopolize information. But the Zhuge family didn’t develop into information merchants. Not because they lacked the ability, but because they were so excellent that they knew how to classify useless information with razor precision.

Storing and managing information that I don’t need just because someone might want it someday was inefficient work. Moreover, the Zhuge family wasn’t desperate enough for money to need to sell information for profit.

Therefore, their method of obtaining information developed differently.

Night operations, infiltration, theft.

Their methods were more similar to the Hao Clan than to the Beggar’s Sect.

The difference from the Hao Clan was that while the Hao Clan wanted to obtain any information without discrimination but lacked the ability to touch what they couldn’t handle, the Zhuge family even possessed such abilities.

They secretly cultivated informants.

Those who could infiltrate anywhere and approach anyone.

The Zhuge family called them Dragon Feathers.

And Wu-il was an outstanding talent even among those Dragon Feathers.

The greatest talent who was definitely evaluated as the next Dragon Feather leader. Therefore, he assisted the young master.

His mission was to complete the orders given by the young master and extract any information the young master desired.

Until today arrived, Wu-il thought there was no mission he couldn’t accomplish. Even if he were assigned the mission of infiltrating the imperial palace and bringing back the emperor’s hair, he was confident he could do it.

But today Wu-il learned.

That there are missions impossible through human power.

‘So then…’

The mission he was assigned was simple.

Find out what kind of person Wei Yan-ho is.

Carry living, vivid information in his head that couldn’t be filled just by examining his activities.

When he was assigned the mission, Wu-il was confident.

This was originally his specialty. Finding out what kind of disposition a person has isn’t that difficult. Humans are confident that they move completely according to their own consciousness, but in reality, human behavior is dominated by the unconscious.

And that unconsciousness is bound to be expressed in some way.

From walking style to gestures, and every single way of speaking, that person’s disposition was bound to be revealed.

This mission wouldn’t take long either.

Just one day.

If he was given just one day, he could find out all of Wei Yan-ho’s inner self and depths that even Wei Yan-ho himself didn’t know. He was that confident.

However…

‘You have to wake up first before I can see or do anything!’

Wu-il was experiencing hell.

Where else would hell be? If it’s painful, it’s hell. Anyone would feel it was hell if they hid in a smelly ceiling and watched a grown young man lying down sleeping for ten shichen straight.

How can a person sleep for ten straight shichen? A day has twelve shichen, so if you sleep for ten shichen, how do you manage daily life?

Moreover, that human wasn’t even sleeping for ten shichen. It had been ten shichen since he hid, but that crazy bastard had been sleeping since before then.

Wu-il forcibly suppressed the trembling in his shaking hands and looked down through the gap in the ceiling.

There was a giant grub on the bed.

Wei Yan-ho, wrapped up in blankets like a giant grub, was sleeping while making wheezing sounds. Of course, he only resembled a grub in shape. A grub would be a thousand times more diligent than that rotten bastard.

‘What the hell is this guy?’

What’s important for those who extract information?

This too is information.

Perfect understanding is impossible without preliminary investigation of the target. Therefore, Wu-il had already perfectly completed his investigation of Wei Yan-ho. Of course, this included content about Wei Yan-ho being an unprecedented lazy bum in the world.

Wu-il was already in a state of having perfectly memorized even the content about the laziness Wei Yan-ho had displayed up until now.

Even so, it was utterly unbelievable.

‘How can a person be like that?’

Wu-il could definitely feel the difference between reading something in writing and seeing it with his eyes.

Although he had confirmed the content in documents several times, seeing a person sleeping like that right before his eyes made his insides collapse and his heart feel constricted.

‘He’s not dead, is he?’

Right. Let’s say he can sleep. Let’s say a person can sleep that much.

No matter what, if you’re going to lie down and sleep for ten shichen, shouldn’t you at least toss and turn once? How can he maintain the same position for ten shichen like that?

If that bastard used that bed for just one month, it seemed like that bed would sink down exactly in the shape of his body.

No matter how wide the world is and how many crazy people there are, even with Wu-il’s numerous experiences, there was a crazy person here he had never encountered even once.

Right here.

‘How long do I have to wait?’

Wu-il fell into worry about what to do if Wei Yan-ho never woke up like that. It wouldn’t happen, but right now he was in a state where normal thinking was impossible.

Anyone would become delirious if they hid in a ceiling and looked down at someone sleeping for ten shichen.

“Mmm.”

That was the moment.

Wu-il’s body trembled with a start.

That statue-like bastard was finally showing a reaction. After a whole ten shichen! After a whole te~en shichen!

‘I need to hold my breath.’

Wu-il began to tense up.

From what he had observed so far, it was absolutely unbelievable, but that bastard was a peerless master. He might be the strongest among all those Wu-il had been monitoring. To deal with such people, you had to hide even the sound of your heartbeat.

“Auugh!”

Wei Yan-ho slightly pushed away the blanket and stuck out his head.

The sight of him not waking up refreshed despite sleeping for ten shichen was making Wu-il suffer. It was suspicious enough to wonder if he had some illness.

Grumble grumble grumble grumble!

Then, a thunderous sound burst from Wei Yan-ho’s stomach.

“I’m hungry…”

As soon as Wei Yan-ho opened his eyes, he frowned.

“…But I’m also sleepy.”

Serious worry began to appear on Wei Yan-ho’s face.

As long as he was human, he couldn’t just sleep like this forever. Humans need to eat to live. While Wei Yan-ho could avoid moving even one step from his bed if eating wasn’t necessary for survival, even he couldn’t escape the limits of being human.

“Mmm.”

Wei Yan-ho stirred his body several times as if troubled.

‘Is he moving?’

Wu-il tensed up and looked down at Wei Yan-ho. His work would begin from now. Finally, at last…

“Ugh.”

But Wu-il’s expectations were shattered to pieces.

Wei Yan-ho pulled the blanket all the way up, covered his head again, and lay back down.

‘Su-surely… he’s not sleeping any more?’

No, how can he sleep more after this?

He’s still human.

He’s a human who eats the same rice and lives the same life, so how can he sleep more from here?

Can you call that a lazy bum?

A lazy bum was still a term referring to a human. But in Wu-il’s eyes, Wei Yan-ho no longer looked human.

“Ah, I’m so hungry…”

At that moment, Wei Yan-ho stuck his head out again as if to prove he was human, slightly lowering the blanket. It seemed like he was trying to check if there were servants outside the door.

“…There’s nobody?”

Wei Yan-ho let out a deep sigh.

Whether they had left for other business, or whether they had temporarily left their posts because Wei Yan-ho wouldn’t wake up, either way, no servants were visible.

“How annoying.”

Wei Yan-ho spread both arms and lay sprawled on the bed. He was hungry, but he had no motivation to walk out on his own feet to find food. Moreover, didn’t they say this place didn’t have a separate dining hall?

Then what should he do?

“Hmm.”

Wei Yan-ho, who had been pondering repeatedly, looked at the ceiling and opened his mouth.

“Excuse me.”

Wu-il narrowed his eyes.

‘Who is he talking to?’

“Excuse me.”

‘Is there someone else here besides me? That can’t be possible, right?’

Wu-il was someone who could confidently say he was among the top ten in the world for covert operations and infiltration. For someone to be nearby while deceiving such Wu-il’s eyes and ears was absolutely impossible…

“Excuse me. You there rolling your eyes around.”

“…”

Wu-il’s eyes expanded greatly.

‘Su-surely not?’

That couldn’t be.

He had been perfectly suppressing his presence using the secret Turtle Breathing Technique since a while ago. It might be different if he were moving, but with his presence suppressed like this, detecting his existence was…

That moment.

The eyes of Wu-il, who had been looking down through the small gap in the ceiling, and Wei Yan-ho’s eyes met. The moment their eyes met, Wei Yan-ho grinned and opened his mouth.

“Sorry, but could you go and bring me some food?”

Wu-il’s heart began beating like crazy.