Reaper's Steps
Kim Kyung-su stood there in a daze, slowly looking around.
The nine runners who were supposed to be guarding this place had vanished without a trace.
There were no signs of a fight, not even a smear of blood to show someone had been dragged away by force.
Only abandoned tools and spilled powder rolled across the floor, left behind like the remnants of a master who had gone missing.
He searched the factory from end to end like a madman, tearing through the inner warehouse and even the restrooms.
Not a single rat was in sight.
“No, they didn’t run. There’s no way. Nine people couldn’t all do that at once.”
There was only one conclusion.
They’d been hit.
And yet he couldn’t make sense of it, no matter how hard he thought about it.
What force could possibly take out this secret factory, and wipe out every last person inside it in one shot?
Names of rival organizations flashed through Kim Kyung-su’s mind.
No. Those bastards wouldn’t even have time to worry about us right now. Then who the hell is it?
An ominous premonition wound tighter and tighter around him.
A few days ago, Jo Gi-hoon, nicknamed Chicken Gangjeong, and Kim Jong-chan had simply disappeared.
They were the kind of men who had neither reason to flee nor the guts to betray anyone.
And yet, whether they’d gone up to the heavens or sunk through the earth, not a single trace of them could be found.
And yesterday?
Even Lee Chi-sang, who had faithfully served as a siphon for Cheolsu-pa, had lost contact.
Kim Kyung-su had already confirmed that Lee Chi-sang was gone.
He’d even abandoned the family he cherished more than his own life.
It wasn’t as if he’d run off with the money, either.
It was as though his very existence had been erased from the world.
“Jo Gi-hoon, Kim Jong-chan, Lee Chi-sang... and now the runners too?”
There was no way all of them had conspired to betray the group and flee at the same time.
A chill crawled up Kim Kyung-su’s spine.
Someone was targeting Cheolsu-pa.
And doing it in an extremely subtle, extremely lethal way.
Then the smartphone in his pocket suddenly felt unbearably heavy.
What am I supposed to tell the boss...?
But there was nothing Kim Kyung-su could do.
All he could do was pray that his head wouldn’t come off.
A penthouse overlooking the glittering night view of Gangnam.
Every light inside was off, and only the pale moonlight pouring through the floor-to-ceiling windows illuminated the living room.
In the center of the room sat a man on a high-backed leather sofa.
A jet-black iron mask covered his entire face.
City lights reflected coldly off the smoothly polished metal surface.
Without moving an inch, he looked down at the man prostrated at his feet.
“Kyung-su.”
The voice emerging from behind the iron mask was low and dry.
It sounded emotionless, almost mechanical, yet carried a metallic weight that seemed to scrape at the listener’s eardrums.
“...Whose doing is this?”
Kim Kyung-su, the deputy boss and field commander of Cheolsu-pa, had his forehead pressed to the floor and couldn’t even breathe properly.
The arrogance he usually wore as an Awaker was nowhere to be found.
His shoulders trembled as if a massive boulder had been set on top of them.
“I-I don’t know, boss...”
The sound of Kim Kyung-su swallowing hard rang out unnaturally loud.
He knew better than anyone that pathetic excuses only made things worse.
Cheol-gamen was the kind of man who despised deceit more than incompetence.
“What about Gi-hoon and Jong-chan?”
“That’s... still unclear.”
“And the siphons?”
“...”
“What about the runners who were at the factory?”
The longer the silence dragged on, the colder the air in the room became.
It wasn’t a simple drop in temperature.
It was the killing intent radiating from Cheol-gamen’s body.
Kim Kyung-su fought down the nausea squeezing at his lungs and forced himself to speak.
“I’m sorry, boss.”
Cheol-gamen slowly tilted his head.
Within the empty sockets of the mask, a fierce light flickered.
Wherever that gaze landed, it felt as though frost might form on the spot.
“Kyung-su, I’ve known you for a long time.”
Cheol-gamen’s fingers tapped the sofa armrest with deliberate regularity.
Tap, tap, tap.
To Kim Kyung-su, that steady sound felt like the drop of a guillotine blade coming down on his neck.
“And I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to kill you this badly before.”
Kim Kyung-su’s body convulsed visibly.
The fingertips braced against the floor went white.
“The rival groups haven’t even moved, and now Cheolsu-pa’s about to shut down all our major operations. Our information network is severed, our production line has vanished, and we don’t even know who the enemy is.”
The low voice tore at Kim Kyung-su’s heart.
He’d weathered all sorts of storms as Cheolsu-pa’s second-in-command, but he had never experienced disappearance on this scale.
No traces. No witnesses. No bodies.
A complete, perfect erasure.
It was nothing short of a catastrophe.
“Kyung-su, this is your last chance.”
Cheol-gamen rose from his seat.
His enormous shadow swallowed Kim Kyung-su, who was still bowed to the floor.
“I’ll give you one week. Find the source of this mess within that time. If you can’t...”
Cheol-gamen walked past Kim Kyung-su and headed for the window.
“Then make me a culprit if you have to and bring him to me. Unless you’d rather replace him with your own life.”
Kim Kyung-su pressed his face harder against the cold marble floor and answered in a broken voice.
“I’ll find them. I will... I’ll find them, boss.”
Cheol-gamen gave no reply, only stared out into the darkness beyond the glass.
Heavy, damp silence filled the penthouse.
* * *
Back home, Su-hyeok opened Hell Shop at once.
He’d looted the manufacturing factory and gathered as many Hell Points as he wanted, so now it was finally time to get his hands on the skill he’d been waiting for.
Reaper's Steps
A special movement technique used only by the Reaper.
Instantly move to a desired point within your line of sight. (10m radius)
Required Hell Points: 100
Su-hyeok’s hand moved without hesitation toward the purchase button, and he clicked confirm without the slightest pause.
For a moment, a faint black radiance wrapped around his body before quietly fading away.
He didn’t feel any dramatic physical change, but there was a reassuring sense of fullness settling somewhere deep in his chest.
You have achieved the accomplishment of purchasing every item in Hell Shop.
You gained 100 Hell Points as an achievement reward.
Locked products have been unlocked.
New products have been added.
Oh?
He’d been worried that once he bought Reaper's Steps, there’d be nothing left to spend points on in Hell Shop, leaving him at a loss for how to use any points he earned from now on.
But the moment he bought out every item, the locks came off automatically.
And on top of that, he got 100 Hell Points as a reward just for the achievement. It was a delicious haul.
Su-hyeok checked the newly updated product list with growing anticipation.
[Items]
Mantle of the Dead (NEW)
Enhancement Stone (Judgment) (NEW)
Locked
Locked
[Skills]
Echoes of Hell (NEW)
Reincarnation of Karma (NEW)
Chains of Sin (NEW)
Locked
Locked
An extradimensional storage pouch bound to the Reaper.
It can store items regardless of size and retrieve them discreetly without restriction.
Required Hell Points: 200
A special mineral that strengthens the Reaper’s items with judgmental energy.
Required Hell Points: 500
[Echoes of Hell]
You can converse for five minutes with the voice of a soul fallen into Hell. The target cannot lie to any question asked by the Reaper.
Required Hell Points: 400
[Reincarnation of Karma]
Inflicts horrifying hallucinations on the target, drives them into extreme fear, and then sends them to Hell.
Required Hell Points: 600
[Chains of Sin]
Forces down the target’s physical abilities and mana in proportion to the sins they have committed. Invisible chains slow the target’s movements.
Required Hell Points: 1,000
As Su-hyeok read through the descriptions of the newly stocked items and skills, his eyes grew wide.
Every single one of them carried absurd abilities that could fill the glaring gaps in his current combat power and intelligence-gathering ability.
But just as outrageous as their performance was the Hell Point cost they demanded.
“What is this, some kind of mass slaughter invitation?”
This wasn’t a price he could cover by taking out punks and couriers one or two at a time in back alleys like he had been.
“So I either keep learning slowly while saving up points over a long time... or I go on a mass killing spree to learn fast.”
To keep up with the suddenly astronomical rise in Hell Points, the way Su-hyeok hunted would have to change just as drastically.
“I could wipe out entire criminal hideouts the way I raided that secret factory... or just keep dropping Judgment Punishments on anything that catches my eye.”
Both options were far riskier than the quiet, hidden way he’d been moving so far.
But there was no way he could give up with abilities like those laid out in front of him.
If taking those risks meant he could harvest every one of those sweet rewards, wasn’t that worth gambling his life for?
Su-hyeok got to his feet and loosened his body with a few light stretches.
First, I should test Reaper's Steps myself.
It was far better to use something once than to read the description a hundred times.
After all, there was a reason people said seeing once was better than hearing a hundred times.
Su-hyeok went up to the villa rooftop so he could verify the text description with his own eyes.
The cold air of dawn brushed past the tip of his nose, but all his nerves were focused entirely on the skill he had just gained.
He stared at the old water tank on the far side of the roof, roughly ten meters away.
Then he activated the skill in his mind.
Reaper's Steps.
For an instant, his vision seemed to blink black, and then the scenery around him changed completely.
There was no sensation of wind slicing past him, no rebound from kicking off the ground.
It was, quite literally, instant movement.
The rooftop entrance where he had just been standing now felt impossibly far away.
“...This is insane.”
Standing atop the water tank, Su-hyeok looked down at his own hand and let out a low breath of amazement.
Perfect teleportation with no delay whatsoever.
Already, his mind was racing through countless ways to exploit this cheating skill.