Chapter 10 :

<10>

“If …”

Se-geon leaned his sweat-soaked body against the corner and looked up at the sky. Even if it could be called the sky, all there was were a gray concrete ceiling and a fluorescent light hanging from it, weakly soothing the darkness.

“What is it?”

Deok-yeon wiped his hair with a towel as he changed his clothes.

“If there is a need to kill someone, how should I act?”

“Kill.”

Deok-yeon answered like that the moment Se-geon spoke. Se-geon lifted his head, looking puzzled.

“If the premise is that you need to kill someone, there’s nothing more to see. I don’t know in what case you would need to kill a person, though.”

“… I see.”

Se-geon said so and looked up at the fluorescent light. Because of the shadows, it was hard to see clearly, but his mouth was smiling.

* * *

Kuk, kekekekek

In the underground parking lot of Hanshin Securities, rough-looking men who seemed far removed from stocks were gathered. They were all people under the influence of the Sang-dong faction, gathered for today’s deal.

To be precise, it was closer to retaliation than a deal. For those whose pride had been trampled by Se-geon yesterday, this was the only way to restore it.

That was why they had brought as many as six people and were waiting in advance in the parking lot. Since the shop was a public place, they couldn’t deal with Se-geon there, but in a place like this, there was no need to care that the other party was a minor.

“This is ridiculous. Are we really all gathered here because of one minor?”

“I don’t know. Senior Cheon told us to do it, so we have to.”

Cheon Yeong-hu had run into trouble and could only send his subordinates, unable to come out in person. He had to report to the police station to clean up the mess Se-geon had caused yesterday.

Since the Sang-dong faction was already dealing with troublesome items like firearms and drugs, it was actually fortunate for the Sang-dong faction that it ended at this level.

“By the way, that bastard is late.”

One of them muttered as he opened his phone and checked the time.

*

Inside a bluish monochrome monitor, a man in a black suit held a phone. The phone’s screen lit up the colorless monitor.

“These idiots, they really live well as gangsters. Are they planning to trade firearms in front of a CCTV? Of course, they probably didn’t bring the goods.”

The person looking at the monitor muttered like that. And of course, he was Han Se-geon himself, the very person who had promised to make the deal today.

“So Cheon Yeong-hu didn’t come out. He’s much more cunning than he looks. You guys should consider yourselves lucky. I’ll keep you from going behind bars.”

Se-geon muttered and pressed the eject button attached to the CCTV. Perhaps because it was a very old device, a super beta videotape came out. Se-geon took the tape, placed it on the table, and looked at the guard lying face down.

The guard, who had been put to sleep with a generous amount of chloroform, reminded him of a frog dissected in middle school. He probably wouldn’t feel any pain even if he were dissected for real.

He did feel sorry for this man, who would be dismissed or fired because of this, but Se-geon was in a situation where he had to fight at the risk of his life, and he had no room to worry about someone else’s job.

Instead, though it might be a weak excuse, Se-geon placed the chloroform bottle he had used on the table. Of course, he did not leave any fingerprints.

“Alright, then shall we go.”

Se-geon muttered like that, carefully closed the door to the guard room, and went outside.

The thugs waiting for Se-geon in the underground parking lot were six in total. Four were in the car, and two were outside, looking around nervously. Since Se-geon still hadn’t shown up, they couldn’t hide their anxiety.

“That bastard, is he not coming?”

“Hey, then aren’t we the only ones getting screwed?”

The thugs outside complained like that and checked the entrance to the parking lot. They hadn’t even brought the guns for the deal anyway, so there was no problem, but if Se-geon didn’t come, it would be troublesome for them.

“What did you say?”

At that moment, someone inside the sedan spoke in a threatening voice. Most of the other thugs flinched and stiffened.

“N-no, it’s nothing. Please don’t worry about it.”

“Yes, he will definitely come out. Just wait a little longer…”

As they were talking like that, the high engine sound of a motorcycle was heard. They all fixed their gaze on the entrance of the parking lot.

“Huh? Is that him?”

They saw a motorcycle and its rider casting a long shadow at the entrance. The person on the motorcycle had something long slung diagonally across his back, but it couldn’t be seen clearly because of the shadow.

Buaaaang!

The man on the motorcycle pulled the accelerator and looked down at them. His eyes couldn’t be seen because of the helmet, but instinctively, they could tell that he had no intention of resolving this through conversation.

“No, that bastard!”

The thugs were enraged by the opponent’s attitude, but at that moment, the motorcycle charged in. It came straight down the slope from the entrance of the underground parking lot, its momentum ferocious beyond words.

Kwak!

Se-geon rammed into one of the thugs without saying a word. Although the RX-125 Se-geon rode was light even for a motorcycle, getting hit by it was still no joke. The thug weighed over 90 kilograms, but with a single blow, he was sent flying and crashed into the van behind him.

Perhaps because the van had an alarm installed despite how out of place it was, it started blaring loudly with a piiiiing sound.

“You bastard!”

Another thug who had been outside immediately pulled a handgun from his clothes. What Se-geon was wearing was a racing suit. It was tough enough that cutting it with a knife would have no effect, so he had drawn a gun instead—but at that moment, a scream came from inside the car.

“You idiot! This is the middle of Yeouido! You crazy bastard!”

Almost at the same time as those words, it became Se-geon’s turn. Keeping the accelerator pulled, Se-geon swept the opponent’s legs with the spinning rear wheel. It was a kind of power slide, and with a single strike, he sent the thug collapsing to the ground. The sound of bones breaking was buried beneath the motorcycle’s exhaust.

“Aaaaargh!”

“You, you crazy bastard!”

The thugs inside the car cursed like that and tried to open the doors and come out. But parking the car against the wall had been a fatal mistake. The doors could only open toward the motorcycle—and Se-geon, brimming with killing intent, was already waiting there.

Buaaaang!

Se-geon pulled the accelerator to the limit and lifted the front wheel. Then, as if chopping firewood with an axe, he slammed the front wheel down onto the car’s side mirror.

With a cracking sound, the side mirror was torn off, and at the same time, the rear wheel of the RX-125 was lifted up. The moment the front wheel landed on the ground, he squeezed the front brake and kicked off the ground with his foot.

Thud!

As if struck by a hammer, the rear wheel smashed into the side window. The thugs who had been about to open the doors couldn’t withstand the impact and were thrown out of the car.

“Guaaaah!”

The safety glass cracked, and the motorcycle’s rear wheel embedded in the slanted surface spun with a buaaaang, as if it were a chainsaw.

Kardrdrdrk!

The window shattered, and shards of glass poured into the car. The thugs spat out curses, but none of them dared to get up. In the meantime, Se-geon scraped along the side of the car with the rear wheel, then circled around to the front and climbed up, smashing his way from the hood.

“No!”

While the thugs inside cried out in shock, Se-geon’s RX-125 crushed the hood in one motion and struck the car’s front windshield.

He lifted the wheel and slammed it down, and the front glass burst apart, fragments spraying inside. The thugs covered their heads and screamed, and in the meantime, Se-geon climbed all the way onto the roof of the car and then turned to the side.

Thump!

The heavy motorcycle slid down from the roof along the side of the car and dropped to the ground. Now the doors were so badly crushed that they could no longer be opened. The thugs could hardly believe what they were seeing—how a single motorcycle could destroy a car this effectively.

Buaaaang!

Se-geon stepped on the accelerator and sped forward. As Se-geon’s motorcycle briefly moved out of their sight, the thugs let out sighs of relief. The rhythm of the destruction had been so efficient that, in only a short moment, the car had been completely mangled.

“Kgh!”

“Huh, what?”

One of the thugs slowly raised his head when he saw his companion making a face as if he had bitten his tongue. The tension of that moment was so horrifying that it felt like sticking one’s head out of a trench on a battlefield—and the scene that came into view was truly the worst possible sight.

Se-geon was charging toward the car while skillfully changing direction, holding a fire extinguisher he had pulled down from a pillar with one hand.

“You crazy bastard!”

“You son of a bitch!”

The wording was different, but their feelings were the same. Se-geon put the speed of the motorcycle into the throw and hurled the fire extinguisher toward the car. The extinguisher became a red shell.

Kwa-jijijik!

The red fire extinguisher smashed through what little glass remained and flew into the car. With an impact like a mortar round, the thugs lost consciousness as well. However, even in that chaos, one thug who had not collapsed caught the fire extinguisher with one hand.

Even though it was a medium-sized fire extinguisher, it was something no human should be able to catch—and yet he caught it with one arm!

At that moment, Se-geon felt a chill run down his spine.

“You little bastard! Do you want to die?”

The thug said so and kicked the door open. The door burst apart as easily as if it had been blown away by explosives. Perhaps because his emotions were running wild, when the thug crushed and tore the fire extinguisher with his fingers, the pure white powder inside burst out explosively.

No matter how one looked at it, this was not human strength. No—he could not be human. Even Se-geon, who had undergone murderous training while using growth hormones, could not break a fire extinguisher. Let alone with grip strength alone.

“Hah! So, are you finally showing your true colors?”

Se-geon’s voice trembled inside his helmet. It was not fear. It was the feeling of finally grasping something he had dreamed of—ecstasy.

‘Found you.’

Se-geon shouted that inside his heart. It had been worth targeting the Sang-dong faction and pushing all the way here based on the stories he had gradually picked up from Deok-yeon. The ones who had massacred Se-geon’s family were vampires of the Sang-dong faction. That was why Se-geon had recklessly declared war on the Sang-dong faction.

“I’ll kill you!”

Se-geon took advantage of the moment when the vampire thug was engulfed in the extinguisher powder and drew a sword from the cloth strapped to his back. It was a massive tachi measuring a full 140 centimeters in length. Although it was an unremarkable stainless-steel blade, it had more than enough killing power to take a human life.

“Kgh!”

Perhaps because it was a low-VT vampire, the creature was easily struck by the tachi, its eyes blinded by the powder. Riding the motorcycle, Se-geon slashed at the vampire’s neck in one swift motion. But the vampire raised its arm and blocked the attack.

Pak!

With a single blow, the bone broke and blood spilled from the arm. Still, a sword swung with one arm was not enough to cut through bone.

“You bastard…!”

As expected, having one arm half severed did not faze the vampire at all. Moreover, a motorcycle only moved properly when the right hand controlled the accelerator, so it was not exactly suitable for wielding a sword while riding.

“Damn it!”

Se-geon jumped off the motorcycle and swung the tachi sideways. The vampire thug raised its leg and blocked the attack again.

Crack!

With the sound of a leg breaking, blood sprayed out. Gripping the tachi with both hands, Se-geon twisted his body and swung in the opposite direction, smashing into the vampire’s abdomen. The side without bones gave way more easily, and the blade tore into the internal organs. But at that moment, the sword snapped.

“Had enough fun, you lump of blood!”

The vampire laughed like that, even with a blade buried in its stomach. But in that instant, Se-geon grabbed the broken hilt, twisted his body the other way, and stabbed it straight into the vampire’s neck.

“Kuagh!”

“Move instead of talking!”

Se-geon said so and lifted the fallen motorcycle back up. It was an RX-125 his older brother had cherished, and Se-geon had treasured it as well—but from being knocked over just now, terrible damage had been inflicted on the cover and the main frame.

But this was no time to worry about that while facing a vampire. Se-geon immediately mounted the motorcycle and headed for the exit.

“You bastard!”

The vampire, ripping out the tachi embedded in its neck and throwing it aside, shouted and lunged toward Se-geon, but Se-geon rode the motorcycle upward and avoided the attack.

‘Damn it! Breaking this easily, you cursed stainless steel!’

Se-geon cursed inwardly and squeezed the front brake, lifting the rear wheel. As he climbed the slope, Se-geon tried to raise the rear wheel and crush the opponent—but even if it had only just become a vampire, its reaction speed was no joke.

“Kwak!”

The creature leapt upward in a single motion and tried to rake Se-geon’s back with its claws. But Se-geon ducked his body forward and avoided the strike.

“Die!”

The vampire grabbed a pipe on the parking lot ceiling with one hand and attacked Se-geon below. But at that moment, Se-geon rotated the raised rear wheel sideways, pivoted in place, and leaned his upper body to the side, evading the vampire’s attack.