Chapter 14 :

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Even after parting ways with Deok-yeon, Se-geon’s daily routine had not changed much. He couldn’t do things that required a partner or a lot of money, such as shooting practice or sparring, but he never skipped physical training.

Wearing a lead vest and sandbags, Se-geon climbed up to the mineral spring on the mountain, then pushed himself hard enough to raise his heart rate to 200 by jumping rope. After doing various weight exercises, he went straight into shadow boxing.

The weight machines at the mineral spring were not in good condition since they were exposed to wind and rain, but the fact that they were free was a pretty big advantage.

“Hoo!”

Se-geon wiped away his sweat and sat down on a bench. It was time for everyone else to go to work or school, so there were only a few elderly people around. Sitting on the bench and looking up at the sky, he saw several magpies flying about against a backdrop of pure white clouds.

They were birds that built nests on power poles and caused massive damage to Korea Electric Power, but the way they flew through the sky didn’t seem entirely hateful. Se-geon absentmindedly stared up at the sky and steadied his breathing.

The late-autumn sky was truly blue and high. Recently, smog had been rampant in Seoul, but at least near Gwanaksan the air was still clean. Looking up at that clear sky, Se-geon brushed back his sweat-soaked hair. The green-dyed hair, colored according to the flow of his part, actually suited him quite well. The only problem was that it made him look a bit prematurely old, but since he was someone who had used growth hormone therapy, he couldn’t really complain about that much.

“I shouldn’t just sit around like this. I should go look for a motorcycle. Even if it’s not out yet, I should at least check the estimates.”

Se-geon muttered to himself. The money left in his bank account was about five million won, and on top of that he had about two bags of vampire blood. Assuming he could sell them for five million, that meant he had assets worth roughly ten million won.

Ten million won was a lot of money, but for Se-geon, who had to live off it and also buy equipment, it was far from enough.

Even if there were supposedly a lot of vampire bastards in the Sang-dong faction, you couldn’t exactly write down people you hadn’t even caught yet in your asset ledger.

“Should I get a part-time job?”

Muttering that, Se-geon imagined various kinds of work. It would be ridiculous for a vampire hunter to work part-time at a convenience store or a pub, but given his current situation, it really seemed like he might have to do just that.

The motorcycle repair costs were likely to be pretty high as well. Even if the bent frame could be restored, it would still be prone to breaking and its durability would be reduced.

Replacing the frame meant pulling out the engine, removing all sorts of parts, and rewiring everything—in other words, completely tearing it apart—so the repair cost would be enormous. Se-geon took a deep breath.

* * *

“I knew it.”

Jeong Yong-jin nodded as he held the phone. After calling several repair shops, just as expected, one RX-125 had come in. When a vehicle was brought into a shop, you had to present a driver’s license or registration, so it was hard to hide your identity.

The person Cheon Yeong-hu was looking for was indeed Se-geon.

The RX-125 that had been brought in didn’t look particularly different on the outside, but judging by how much money had been spent on the suspension and discs, the owner wanted the suspension and discs replaced together with the frame. The license plate showed clear signs of having been frequently removed and reattached, and the user seemed to have good maintenance skills.

The name of the person who brought it in was Han Se-geon. The guy who hadn’t been seen for the past year had suddenly become a bold bastard who attacked gangs.

“That’s him.”

Yong-jin muttered as he closed his phone. He had been amazed by Han Se-geon’s skills, and he still remembered racing through the streets at night together and laughing, but they hadn’t been close enough to bare their true feelings. If anything, Se-geon had been more of an object of envy and jealousy.

So if it was eight million won, there was no choice but to sell him out. But how had that former greenhorn beaten gangsters half to death and stacked them up in hospitals? And on top of that, he had a gun?

“No way. Is that really true?”

Beside Yong-jin, a brown-haired woman asked with sparkling eyes. She wore a bracelet on her arm, a small piercing in her nose, and earrings dangling heavily from her ears. They looked heavy enough to tear her ears, but she shook her head from side to side without a care.

She was Hwang Seon-yeong, Yong-jin’s current girlfriend. Since she had always found Se-geon cute in the past, she couldn’t believe that he was the one who had dealt with the gangsters like that.

“Aren’t you worrying too much? Yeah, Se-geon rode motorcycles better than you and was better-looking, but is it really worth caring that much? …… And anyway, he was a colleague, wasn’t he? I don’t think selling him out for money is a good thing.”

As she said that, she opened a can of beer.

“A long hit to right field! It’s sailing far!”

Like something out of a video artist Nam June Paik’s work, old televisions were stacked up in one corner of an underground parking lot. The bluish glow of the screens illuminated the faces of the people gathered there. They had piled up discarded TVs from a junkyard, but like this, it really could pass for video art.

Perhaps because it was an underground parking lot with poor reception, the noise was severe. For a while, they stared at the screens as if bewitched by a fox.

“He definitely was a colleague.”

Some of them seemed to agree with her opinion, but most were captivated by the eight million won.

“Sure, if it’s that guy, he’s rude enough to wipe out gangsters and all, but how does he have skills like that? And a handgun, no less?”

“Yeah. Let’s just tell them and take two million won. There’s loyalty to consider, and it sounds dangerous too.”

“Even if it’s two million, once we split it, it’s not much.”

At those words, Jeong Yong-jin snatched the beer can from Seon-yeong’s hand.

“Ah! I haven’t finished drinking tha—”

Seon-yeong protested, but Yong-jin ignored her and hurled the can with terrifying force, smashing the televisions.

“Damn it! Who cares! This is Korea! No matter how crazy he is, he won’t just use a gun recklessly! And colleague? Do you think that bastard ever once thought of us that way? That arrogant little shit! Whether the Sang-dong faction kills him or not, let them do whatever they want!”

“So you’re going to catch him? If he really has a gun, he might shoot when he’s cornered.”

“No…… I don’t intend to use violence.”

He said that while clenching both fists.

“I have to settle the match we never finished back then!”

At that, the bikers looked at one another’s faces. Yong-jin had steeled his resolve, but they didn’t see it that way.

“Did you really not finish the match? You got completely crushed by Se-geon.”

“Exactly. Honestly, is there anyone among us who could beat that guy on a motorcycle? I don’t think so.”

“…….”

A young man wearing a flight jacket and jeans was pushing his way through the crowd. A shadow of chronic fatigue lay on his face, giving him a cynical expression that made life itself seem bothersome, but his gait was strong, and aside from mental exhaustion, his skin showed no particular injuries or wounds.

The only unusual thing was that his hair was dyed a dark green. It was clearly dyed with hair dye, but it was a bizarre color choice.

“So, you see…… that guy.”

“Oh my. I can’t believe it.”

People brushed past the young man as they walked. Every time he moved, the cheerful chatter of passersby was sucked into his ears. The young man himself didn’t spare a glance for anyone around him.

Not until the Bloodstone Pendulum hanging from his neck gave a slight twitch….

“Ah!”

Startled, he looked around. It was because the pendulum that sensed the presence of vampires had moved. But there was still sunlight—vampires? The only vampires that could move properly without losing their power under the sun were the twenty-four True Vampires.

“True Vampire…….”

Except for the True Vampire hunter Sylvester, True Vampires were beings that humans could never hope to face. They manipulated human minds, transformed into mist or bats, controlled wind and rain, and called down lightning.

Compared to True Vampires, the low-VT vampires that had appeared in Korea so far were nothing more than powerless beasts, lacking both nobility and strength.

Did that mean that one of the True Vampires had appeared in Korea again? The young man was startled and looked around through the crowd.

But a True Vampire might not be detected by the Bloodstone Pendulum at all, and if it were detected, it wouldn’t end with such a mild vibration. In that case, there was only one answer.

‘Is it Psychedelic Moon? Or someone in the middle of mutation.’

A human who had taken Psychedelic Moon, a stable mutation factor, would be detected by the Bloodstone Pendulum. And even a human in the process of turning into a vampire due to an unstable mutation factor would be detected as well……

‘Either way, it bothers me.’

The young man in the flight jacket muttered that, but he didn’t stop walking. He left the main road and turned into a side street. There were fewer and fewer people, and instead there stood a large factory. It was a large repair shop, something rarely seen in Seoul these days. It mainly handled cars, but it also repaired motorcycles.

“You finally here?”

At that moment, a familiar voice called out to the young man from the entrance. When he turned his head, he saw a large number of motorcycles lined up there. And astride a Kawasaki Vulcan 800 that still looked sturdy was Jeong Yong-jin.

“It’s been a while, Se-geon. You’ve changed so much I almost didn’t recognize you. What’s with the hair? The dye job is insane.”

“Is that so? I don’t know you people.”

Se-geon shrugged as he said that. Then Hwang Seon-yeong, who was sitting on the back seat of Yong-jin’s Vulcan, made a big fuss when she saw Se-geon.

“Wow, you’ve gotten huge, Se-geon.”

But Se-geon ignored her excitement and looked at the bikers.

“What’s this about? Why are you all gathered here? No matter how I look at it, I don’t think this is a coincidence.”

“You’re still as rude as ever. You little punk who hasn’t even grown into your age yet.”

“Coming in a crowd like this after a year can’t be just to air complaints like that. If you have no further business, why don’t you step aside?”

Se-geon said that and tried to walk forward. At that moment, however, Jeong Yong-jin stepped in front of him, blocking his path.

“Of course we didn’t come just to complain.”

The Se-geon he was seeing again after a long time had changed into a truly terrifying man. He had always thought of him as scary and strange, but now his eyes were sunken as if he were on drugs, and only the light in them was sharp like a blade. He looked less like a human and more like a murderer straight out of a horror movie.

Matching that transformed appearance, Se-geon spat out a single sentence with a razor-sharp expression.

“I’ll kill you.”

It could have been dismissed as a worthless threat, the kind even street punks casually throw around. But that icy voice was filled with killing intent that even movie actors could never imitate. In an instant, the surroundings fell completely silent. Since everyone knew through Cheon Yeong-hu that Se-geon had a gun, no one dared act recklessly.

“…….”

At that moment, Se-geon’s eyes went to the bandage wrapped around Yong-jin’s arm. It didn’t look like a serious wound, but Se-geon felt a strange sense of incongruity.

‘No way.’

Forcing himself to ignore the bikers, he headed toward the repair shop. The factory worker, who had been nervously worried that a brawl might break out at the entrance, hurriedly printed out an estimate when he saw Se-geon approaching.

“Uh, so if we straighten the frame, it’ll be about 560,000 won. If we replace the frame entirely, with the frame cost and everything else, we’d have to charge about 880,000 won……”

Even as he spoke, the worker kept glancing outside, clearly bothered by the bikers waiting there. Se-geon then pulled out a thick stack of ten-thousand-won bills and placed it on the desk.

“Write me a receipt. I need to ride right away, so lend me a motorcycle.”

“Pardon? You want to borrow one?”

“I need to make those guys understand.”

Se-geon said that. It was a somewhat unreasonable request, but it was better than having bikers camped out in front of the shop. So, biting the bullet, the worker headed toward the motorcycle storage area where newly delivered bikes were waiting.

“They all belong to customers, so please handle them carefully.”

“Hmm. Sure.”

Se-geon replied and looked over the bikes in the storage. There were Kawasaki KDXs, Honda CRMs, and even brands like Italy’s Ducati, which were hard to see in Korea. But what caught Se-geon’s attention wasn’t those flashy foreign bikes—it was an old MX-125.

The MX-125’s frame itself was old, but the engine, suspension, and other parts were brand new. No matter how you looked at it, it was a modified bike. After examining it briefly, Se-geon realized something astonishing.

“That thing…… it’s got a V2 two-stroke racer engine mounted on it, doesn’t it?”

A lightweight frame bike like an MX carrying such a monstrous engine was imbalance taken to the extreme. When Se-geon showed interest in the bike, even the worker—who had opened the storage in a whatever-happens-happens mood—hurriedly tried to stop him.

“Th-that one’s a problem. There aren’t many people who can ride it.”

“How so?”

“Even if you twist the throttle halfway, the rear wheel can’t handle the power and slips out, and the front wheel lifts. And since it’s a two-stroke, it’s too much for someone who’s been riding an RX-125.”

The RX-125 had a stable four-stroke engine, so switching to a wild, explosive two-stroke would be hard to adapt to. In the same gear, at the same throttle angle…… a four-stroke engine doesn’t have much variation in RPM, but a two-stroke has a huge range. And instead of power building gradually, it surges abruptly, making it a bike meant for professional off-road racers.

Riding such an unfamiliar, balance-defying monster bike, there was no telling what kind of accident might happen. But Se-geon gave a faint smile.

“This is my specialty.”

He said that and climbed onto the monster bike. The Hyosung MX-125 was an old model predating the RX-125, but it looked like nearly everything except the headlight had been replaced in a full overhaul. Engine, oil system, suspension, brakes, absorbers, spokes, wheels, bearings, clutch……

“At this point, you could call it a custom bike without exaggeration. Where did you even get a V2?”

Se-geon asked the worker. The worker let out a deep sigh and replied.

“It’s mine. I was lucky enough to get it, so please, don’t wreck it.”

“Ah. I’ll ride it carefully.”

Se-geon said that and twisted the throttle. The bikers waiting at the entrance stared at him in shock.

“What the hell is that?”

“An MX-125? No…… the parts are completely different.”

Se-geon rolled the monster bike to a stop in front of Yong-jin. He had only ridden it briefly for about ten meters from the storage to the entrance, but it already felt like he was riding on the back of an enraged tiger—control was that difficult. Clearly, just mounting a good engine and good parts didn’t automatically make it a good bike. Still, Se-geon kept his expression in check as he looked at Yong-jin.

“The Sang-dong faction put you up to this, didn’t they?”

“Oh? You figured it out right away. That saves me the trouble of explaining.”

“How much did they offer you?”

“Eight million. Not enough to split nicely, but still not a small sum.”

Yong-jin answered Se-geon’s questions surprisingly readily. Se-geon let out a sigh and started the motorcycle.

“So you all gathered for eight million. You’re really cheap manpower.”

Se-geon looked at the bikers with genuine pity. The look he gave Yong-jin, in particular, overflowed with compassion—because he knew the fate that awaited him.

A human who triggered the Bloodstone Pendulum would soon become a vampire, and if someone became a vampire without realizing it, they would crawl out under the sun, be struck by direct sunlight, lose consciousness, and eventually burn to death without leaving even a corpse behind.

But Se-geon only pitied him; he had no intention of saving him. Once the vampiric transformation had begun, there was no way to save him—not even for a god.

“Killing you would be a hassle. You said bikers have their own rules, right? Let’s settle this by those rules. How about a chicken race, like before?”

“No. I’ve seen your skills well enough. Let’s do a cannonball.”

A cannonball was the simplest race—whoever reached a set destination first won. It was a contest almost entirely decided by the machine’s performance. Challenging Se-geon, who was riding an off-road bike, to a cannonball while mounted on a Vulcan 800 was shameless…… but Yong-jin knew Se-geon’s skill well enough to choose the one format where he still had a chance. In any other race, he couldn’t possibly beat Se-geon.

“Fine. I’ll accept.”

But what Se-geon was riding now wasn’t a replica—it was a true monster bike equipped with a genuine racing engine.

Vrooooom!

“If it’s a cannonball, where to?”

“To the entrance of the Gyeongin Expressway! Ready?”

As he said that, Yong-jin picked up an empty can and held it in his hand.

“When this hits the ground, that’s the signal to start!”

“That works.”

Se-geon replied, holding the brake while letting the engine idle. Yong-jin did the same, then threw the can. A little leftover coffee spilled from the mouth of the empty can, spraying a long, dark-brown arc as it spun.

Clang!

At that moment, both of them released their brakes and shot forward at full speed. In clutch control, reaction time—everything—Se-geon was superior. But perhaps because of the explosive start, the front wheel lifted immediately, his body nearly thrown backward.

The high-pitched engine scream of the two-stroke echoed like a siren.

Aaaaaaang!

Even so, Se-geon kept charging forward with the front wheel raised. Astonishingly, the MX-125 surged ahead, instantly overtaking the Vulcan.

“What the hell is that?!”

Yong-jin screamed as he chased after Se-geon’s MX-125, which was rocketing ahead.

Vrooooom!

The two motorcycles tore through the streets in broad daylight. Se-geon and Yong-jin—one year later, their second, and likely final, showdown had begun.