“Thirty-three people dead… If you count the ones injured in accidents while chasing them, it’s more than five…?”
Nam Taegu sat at the head of a table and chair he’d set up in a corner of the Emart Living section, which everyone was using as their main lodging and dining area, now serving as their conference hall. He stared at the whiteboard.
Excluding the people they’d brought as slaves, the total number of combat-capable members in the organization was 153.
Of those, a quarter had disappeared.
All the members sitting in the conference room bowed their heads like sinners at Nam Taegu’s words.
“It’s not even monsters… Thirty-nine of my brothers have died or been injured by people. What do you think, Cheolwoo hyung?”
“I have nothing to say, boss.”
“No, that’s not it. It’s not that you have nothing to say, hyung, you bastard! You bastards! You need to come up with a way to catch them.”
The moment Nam Taegu spat out his curses in a burst of rage, Black Aura flared out from around him before he even realized it.
With that thick murderous intent, the already funereal atmosphere in the conference hall became stifling with tension.
“Hyung, if it’s you, you can find those bastards, right? You’re the smartest among us, you’re the one who got us Bucheon Station too.”
As Nam Taegu looked at Jeong Cheolwoo with reddened eyes, Cheolwoo let out a silent groan and forced himself to speak.
“While tracking them several times, I confirmed that they turned their cars toward Jungdong Station or Songnae Station… We’ve stationed as many people as possible in those areas…”
“Okay! I get what you’re saying. So, we hide out over there, and if we see a similar group, we grab them, right? That’s it?”
“Y-yes, boss.”
“I’m going too.”
“Boss! That’s…!”
As Cheolwoo hurriedly tried to stop him, Nam Taegu raised his hand to halt him.
“Enough, I know what you’re going to say. But hyung, think about it. Right now, those bastards are the most dangerous. You know that? They’ve done more damage to us than when we fought the 17th Division.”
Nam Taegu said this as he clenched his fist.
Black Aura surged out thickly.
The powerful aura, or more precisely Strong Vital Energy, that could sever even the leg of a Giant Hunter in one strike.
Nam Taegu’s ability was something he gained from an online game called Gaia.
In this game, set in a world divided between East and West, where four factions fought to become rulers, the faction Nam Taegu played was none other than the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
And among the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s advanced skills was the very ability Nam Taegu now possessed.
Faced with such overwhelming destructive power that could cut and destroy anything, he was now dreaming.
To take over Bucheon, and just as so many fists of the past bore grand nicknames, he wanted to be called by the nickname Heavenly Demon.
And someday, he wanted to rename Bucheon itself to Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
There were many obstacles, but he believed he would achieve it someday.
Why?
Because until now, there hadn’t been a single person stronger than him.
“Let’s go, guys!”
“Yes, boss!”
***
“Sss….”
Deep in the night, Yohan stepped out of the shelter.
After a light stretch and a deep breath, Yohan began to walk slowly toward the mountain behind him.
After only a few steps, as soon as he reached the entrance, Yohan unleashed the Shadowstep of Projection Step.
Projection Step’s Shadowstep is classified into three types.
- Mark, Stone, Break.
Shadowstep was probably created for the fastest possible movement, but in truth, only Mark fit that purpose, Stone and Break, as their names suggest, were Shadowsteps made for attacking.
As soon as he entered the mountain, Yohan began moving rapidly toward the peak using Mark’s technique.
Once he felt he’d put a good distance between himself and the shelter, he dashed through the thick woods, using the method of Stone.
KWAANG!
With a sonic boom like a jet taking off, Yohan shot forward, the trees around him splintering and cracking from the force of the energy waves radiating from his body.
As he raced through the trees, when he saw a huge boulder ahead, he immediately used the Break technique to come to an abrupt halt right in front of it.
KUAANG!
The energy built up while running with the Stone technique shot forward alone as Yohan stopped, smashing into a massive tree and causing it to explode.
“Phew…!”
After that wild dash, Yohan swung his arms back and forth, stretching as if he’d just finished a stroll at a mineral spring.
Unlike the Asura Blood God Palm, which could end things with a single swing, Projection Step required constant movement and thus constant practice.
The problem was that to practice all the Shadowsteps, he needed a place where people rarely went.
In that sense, the mountain was truly the perfect training ground—no one would be suspicious even if there was some noise.
Once Shadowstep training was over, he moved on to the actual footwork training of Projection Step.
He imagined a virtual enemy and swung his spear and fists without pause.
“Sss….”
Unfortunately, lacking any real spear or fist techniques, everything he tried felt awkward.
It was the classic case of satisfying one thing only to find another lacking. Yohan couldn’t help but feel bitter, wondering if he’d gotten too used to his newfound abilities.
He stopped his training after a while and descended the mountain, this time heading down below the shelter.
The only alleyway that led into the shelter. As soon as he passed the apartment complex at its threshold, he climbed up onto the rooftop of the clustered houses and began darting through the residential area with the Mark technique of Projection Step.
KROAR!
KRAAAK!
“Man, they’re really going at it.”
In the alleys of the residential area, just like high school delinquents brawling, a group of Orcs and a group of Kobolds were fighting.
The physically stronger Orcs seemed to be overwhelming the Kobolds, but as soon as another group of Kobolds joined in, the tide of battle turned in an instant.
From a human perspective, they’re all monsters and could be considered allies, but even monsters fought to protect their own territory.
As Yohan watched the fight near its end, he got up to move on.
Just then—
“Monsters are fighting. Should we just pass by or take them out? What do you guys think?”
Voices of people could be heard.
Yohan stopped in his tracks and crouched down to look below.
He saw a black Starex van.
On the side of the Starex, the flashy words “Bucheon Tourism Night” were painted.
Yohan instinctively became cautious, lowering his body and sharpening his senses.
“Are they from the Bucheon Brothers Clan?”
A moment later, big men poured out of the Starex.
Dressed in the unmistakable style of gangsters, they blocked the road and, without mercy, unleashed their abilities on the victorious Kobold group, taking them out in an instant.
“It’s such a hassle with all these monsters around since the game won’t end, boss.”
“That’s what I’m saying. I heard there are Ogres over in Sosadong, but now it’s too dangerous to go there.”
“I heard that place was always dangerous because of all the foreign workers, boss.”
“Right… Those damn Chinese are dangerous. I thought they’d be our greatest enemies, but now all sorts of weirdos are showing up…”
Hearing their conversation, Yohan was certain they were with the Bucheon Brothers Clan.
‘They’ve been doggedly chasing us, and now they’ve tracked us all the way here? Should I take them out?’
Yohan cautiously raised his hand, gathering his inner energy, but then stopped.
If he took them out so easily, it would only alert them that someone was here.
“They might have just come this way by coincidence.”
Thinking that, Yohan decided to look around the area a bit more, just in case.
There were quite a few schools nearby.
From Seongju Middle School to Bucheon Girls’ Middle School, elementary schools, Bucheon High School, and Bucheon Technical High School—all were clustered in the area.
If you walked, it was more than ten minutes from the shelter, but for a quick adult stride, it was only about five minutes away—a cluster of large schools.
“Huh… There was a shelter here?”
After wandering for a while, Yohan’s eyes widened as he looked at Bucheon High School.
Even at a glance, there were at least a dozen military vehicles and tents set up on the field, and the walls and gates were surrounded by all sorts of obstacles like Wire Entanglements.
‘How did I not know about this place?’
As he thought it over, Yohan realized something was off.
Even if it was just before dawn, there should be sentries and guards on watch, but there wasn’t a single sign of people.
Yohan moved closer to Bucheon High School.
He gathered his inner energy and sharpened his senses, but couldn’t detect any human presence.
“Hm?”
Just then,
At the sound of a car approaching Bucheon High, Yohan crouched down and turned his gaze toward the source.
It was another black Starex.
“Is that the same van from before?”
The Bucheon Brothers Clan thugs all had that typical blocky haircut and gangster style, so Yohan didn’t recognize them at first and just watched as the Starex stopped in front of the school gate.
“Looks like the military guys were scared of us. They still haven’t taken the stuff they left behind when they pulled out. Can’t we use any of that?”
“From what I heard, boss, they were planning to take everything after the looting ended, but it got postponed because of the guys we’re after.”
“Is that so? But look at that truck. Just from the looks of it, it must be decades old. Is it even usable?”
“I never served in the army, so I don’t know, boss.”
“You didn’t serve either? Got a record?”
“Went to the Boy’s Juvenile Detention Center when I was young, boss.”
“You too?”
The guys, bonding over both having been to the Boy’s Juvenile Detention Center, chatted away—giving Yohan some useful information.
He didn’t know what supplies or how much there were, but just the military vehicles he could see would be useful if he could get his hands on them.
As Yohan eyed the tempting equipment, he listened in again on the gangsters’ conversation.
“Anyway, today’s the day we search Songnae and Jungdong, right?”
“Yes, boss. This afternoon, boss.”
“We’ve got to catch those bastards soon. You know how many of our guys died because of them?”
“Yes, boss.”
Yohan frowned at that.
It was obvious who “those bastards” were.
‘Us.’
He’d gone out on reconnaissance just in case, but he didn’t think they’d really target his family and come searching.
No matter how big the neighborhood was, if the Bucheon Brothers Clan conducted a serious search, it was only a matter of time before they found Yohan’s unusually distinctive shelter, built out of Lego blocks.
“If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve disguised it to look normal.”
With a complicated heart, Yohan smacked his lips and dusted himself off as he stood up.
Now that he had this important information, it was time to hurry and come up with a plan.
Whoosh!
Yohan used Projection Step, slicing through the wind as he rushed back to the shelter.