Lee Dojin’s voice trembled, wracked with terror and despair.
But even such a scream could not stop Sang-woong’s actions.
With a crack, his ankle bone was so thoroughly crushed it could no longer be recognized.
Sang-woong didn’t stop there. As if following a predetermined script, he continued without hesitation to the next step.
He pressed down once again on Dojin’s remaining intact ankle with his shoe.
“You, you insane bastard. S-stop it already.”
Lee Dojin twisted violently, fighting back with all the strength he could muster, unwilling even to imagine the pain of having his ankle crushed again.
But under Sang-woong’s shoe, his feet couldn’t budge an inch.
Only after both ankles had been mercilessly shattered did Sang-woong, as if his business was finished, mercilessly drive his fist into Dojin’s lower abdomen.
“Keugh!”
Lee Dojin’s mouth gaped wide as a hopeless groan, stifled by pain, burst out.
Clutching his stomach, he curled up in agony and collapsed to the floor, sobbing in despair just like his underlings.
Sang-woong, as if everything was finally over, threw the steel pipe he’d been holding to the ground.
The dull thud shattered the silence.
Then, he calmly pulled his phone out of his inner pocket and called someone.
“Sang-woong, is something wrong?”
The gentle voice of a woman, filled with worry and concern, came through the phone late at night.
It was Kyung Yoon-seul, who traded Detoxification Potions with Sang-woong.
Sang-woong replied in a composed voice, assuring her he was fine.
“That’s a relief, then. Please, go ahead.”
There was a subtle tension in Kyung Yoon-seul’s answering voice.
“It’s nothing major, but my information leaked. Some guys came after me.”
Sang-woong explained the situation calmly.
“What? Your information was leaked? Where are you right now? I’ll head out immediately!”
Kyung Yoon-seul, quickly grasping the seriousness of the situation from Sang-woong’s words, shouted urgently.
She planned to immediately contact her little brother and lead the Taeseong Guild members to rush to his side.
“Yoon-seul, I’m safe. Please, calm down for now.”
Sang-woong tried to reassure her.
“Are you sure you’re really safe? You’re not being threatened right now, are you?”
But Kyung Yoon-seul still pressed him anxiously.
“Yes, I’m safe.”
Sang-woong answered with a confident voice.
“Phew, that’s a relief. Still, who were the people who targeted you, Sang-woong? Our side will step in and make sure they never bother you again.”
Kyung Yoon-seul spoke, suppressing her anger.
The Taeseong Guild was greatly benefitting from Sang-woong’s Detoxification Potions.
That made Sang-woong’s safety more important than anything else.
However, Sang-woong’s next words were perfectly calm.
“I already gave them a warning.”
“What? What did you just say…”
Kyung Yoon-seul was momentarily speechless at his unexpected reply.
“I’ve already taken care of it. Actually, could I ask you to handle the cleanup? If I take action myself, it’ll probably become quite a hassle.”
Sang-woong spoke as if making a light request.
Truthfully, he could have resolved it himself without calling them.
It was self-defense, and he wouldn’t be punished for it.
But if a fight of this scale made the news, it would clearly cause a lot of trouble in the future.
A heavy silence flowed through the phone.
Kyung Yoon-seul found it hard to accept the current situation.
“You handled those guys yourself? How many were there?”
She asked carefully, her voice trembling.
“Hmm~ I think it was a bit over thirty.”
Sang-woong thought for a moment, then answered indifferently.
“Thirty? Are you saying you just took care of thirty people by yourself?”
Kyung Yoon-seul’s voice rose in disbelief.
“Yes, somehow it turned out that way.”
Sang-woong answered as if it were no big deal.
Another awkward silence descended.
Kyung Yoon-seul even began to wonder if Sang-woong was just playing some ridiculous prank on her.
An Alchemist, handling more than thirty people on his own?
It was utterly unbelievable.
But Sang-woong had no reason to lie or joke with her at this hour.
“Yoon-seul. Yoon-seul?”
When there was no answer, Sang-woong called her again.
“Ah, yes. My mind’s just a bit muddled… Are you really not joking about this?”
Kyung Yoon-seul’s voice still sounded as if she couldn’t believe it.
“I understand why you’re shocked. But I’m not joking. Hold on a moment.”
Sang-woong accepted her incredulous reaction as only natural.
Anyone would find it hard to believe his words so easily.
So Sang-woong took photos of the devastated Hunters sprawled helplessly across the floor and sent them to her.
“Chua!”
Upon checking the photos, Kyung Yoon-seul gasped so hard it was audible.
For a moment, she was too shocked by the unbelievable scene to speak.
“I’ll head there right away. Please send me the address by text.”
Kyung Yoon-seul spoke urgently.
Now, she realized that Sang-woong’s words were not just empty boasts.
“Thank you.”
Sang-woong offered his thanks briefly and hung up.
As soon as she hung up, Kyung Yoon-seul immediately called her older brother, Kyung Taeyoung, the Taeseong Guild Master.
“Uh, Yoon-seul, what’s going on at this hour?”
From his younger sister’s urgent voice, Kyung Taeyoung instantly sensed that something serious had happened.
“O-oppa. There’s been a problem with the Alchemist.”
Kyung Yoon-seul explained the situation in a trembling voice.
“What? What kind of problem?”
Kyung Taeyoung replied in a worried tone.
Kyung Yoon-seul sent her brother the shocking photos she’d received from Sang-woong, and calmly explained the unbelievable situation.
Kyung Taeyoung was just as astonished as his sister, both by the horrific scene in the photos and her trembling voice, realizing the gravity of the situation.
“An Alchemist possessing such overwhelming power…”
He couldn’t yet make any conclusions without knowing the opponent’s exact skills, but for someone to take on so many people alone, it was obviously extraordinary.
He quickly got dressed and headed out to pick up his sister.
“Oppa! Over here!”
Kyung Yoon-seul waved to Kyung Taeyoung’s car.
Kyung Taeyoung quickly stopped the car and opened the door for her.
“Let’s go, quickly, oppa.”
The car set off at once, racing toward their destination.
“By the way, did you hear anything about who those people were?”
“No, oppa. I don’t know any more than what I told you earlier.”
As Kyung Taeyoung drove toward the address Kyung Yoon-seul had given, he fell into serious thought.
“Yoon-seul. We’re buying out the entire supply of Detoxification Potions that Alchemist makes, right?”
“Yes. Why?”
“I just wonder if the leak is connected to our side somehow.”
“Ah, I see. Sang-woong wouldn’t have gone around spreading it himself.”
Huff.
Kyung Taeyoung let out a heavy sigh, his expression stiff.
“I kept telling everyone to watch their mouths.”
He’d emphasized strict confidentiality when handing out Detoxification Potions to the Hunters who needed them most.
But people differed in how seriously they took this, and with the potion’s remarkable effects, someone must have spread the story.
He already knew that rumors about the Detoxification Potion’s effectiveness were starting to circulate.
He’d been worried that an incident might happen, and today, it had finally come to pass.
Still, the one good thing was that Sang-woong hadn’t been harmed.
“Oppa, what’s wrong? You don’t look well.”
“It’s just… if the source of the rumor turns out to be our side…”
If the deal ended because of this, it would be a huge blow to the Taeseong Guild.
“What do we do, oppa!”
“We have to meet and talk. We’ll apologize if needed and do our utmost to fix things.”
“If the deal ends, I doubt even big oppa would sit still about it.”
Thanks to the potion Sang-woong had given him, Kyung Beomjun, the eldest and head of the Taeseong Group, was growing new hair.
Not only that, he’d been suffering severe insomnia from overwhelming stress, but now he was able to sleep soundly every night.
As the owner recovered, Taeseong Group’s management efficiency rose sharply, and employee morale soared.
If the deal with Sang-woong were cut off, it would be disastrous.
Carrying their worries, the car sped toward the Night Club.
“Sang-woong!”
Kyung Yoon-seul pushed open the club’s large door, calling for Sang-woong.
“Ah, you’re here. I’m sorry to have called you out so late.”
Sang-woong stood to greet Kyung Yoon-seul.
“It’s good to finally meet you in person. I’m Kyung Taeyoung, Guild Master of Taeseong Guild.”
“Hello, I’m Park Sang-woong.”
Sang-woong shook Kyung Taeyoung’s hand in greeting.
“First, let me apologize. It seems the rumors leaked from our side.”
Kyung Taeyoung apologized immediately.
Although it wasn’t yet confirmed that the group who attacked Sang-woong was related to these rumors, the fact that rumors were spreading was undeniable.
So he set aside pride and apologized first.
Sang-woong was taken aback, but also pleasantly surprised.
This was the Guild Master of Taeseong Guild, one of the top ten guilds nationwide.
For someone like that to apologize first was no small matter.
“It’s fine. Frankly, it was inevitable that rumors would spread.”
Sang-woong answered nonchalantly.
There are no secrets in this world. With so many potions in circulation, it was only natural for some rumors to emerge—he’d already anticipated this.
He reassured Kyung Taeyoung and revealed his request.
“I’m sorry, but could you handle the cleanup in a way that my name isn’t exposed? And as for thanks for this matter, I’ll see to that separately.”
Sang-woong bowed his head slightly in request to Kyung Taeyoung.
“And on that table over there, you’ll find the evidence of their crimes. They’re not just your average scoundrels. Please make sure they pay for everything they’ve done.”
Even with just the evidence Sang-woong provided, Lee Dojin would likely never breathe the air of society again.
“Understood. If we call in more people, it’ll get noisy, so please head home first.”
“Then, I’ll take my leave. Thank you for your trouble.”
Sang-woong said goodbye to Kyung Taeyoung and Kyung Yoon-seul, then returned to the restaurant.
Following Sang-woong’s request, Kyung Taeyoung used his connections to quietly handle the incident so that not a single line appeared in the news.
During the cleanup, Kyung Taeyoung realized just how powerful Sang-woong truly was.
At the scene, Hunters of grades 6 through 8 were sprawled about, all incapacitated.
If it were him, could he have fought and won against all of them?
He wouldn’t know for sure without fighting, but honestly, he couldn’t confidently say he would win.
What’s more, Sang-woong, who had taken down all of them, was almost unscathed.
His clothes were torn and he had a few scrapes here and there, but considering he’d fought so many Hunters, it was hard to believe he’d sustained so little damage.