The Past
The moment the two men stepped inside, the air turned heavy. Something dangerous lived in their eyes. On instinct, I moved a step ahead of Kang Hanna and Lee Jia.
"Well, well. Pretty girls in a dump like this. Must be our lucky day."
The tall one twisted his mouth into a smirk. The greed under his voice set my teeth on edge.
Trash.
I frowned and clenched my fists. Beside me, Hanna was visibly tense.
"Hey, how about you share? You really gonna hog all the good stuff for yourselves?"
The other man snickered, his eyes crawling over Jia's body.
Jia shrank behind my back as if terrified. I could hear her breath shaking.
"Get lost. This isn't a place for you."
I warned them, voice low. They didn't care. They took another step closer.
"Aw, come on. Let's all be friends. In a world like this, fewer enemies is better, don't you think?"
The tall one's eyes flashed, dangerous.
I'll have to deal with them.
My hand was already moving toward my weapon when something I hadn't expected happened. One of the two went wide-eyed. He stared at me with his mouth hanging open.
"Uh… wait. Boss Dohyun?"
I stopped short. Boss? I didn't know this bastard.
I narrowed my eyes and looked him over. A face I'd never seen.
"Who the hell are you, and how do you know my name?"
Suspicion and wariness edged my voice. Hanna and Jia pressed in close behind me, and Lee Jaemin clenched his fists, rigid with tension.
The man looked flustered for a second, then put on a slick smile.
"Aigoo, Boss. You don't remember me? I used to work under Brother Ma."
Brother Ma? Ah. That son of a bitch, President Ma.
Memory flickered past. For a short while I'd worked under a loan shark. He must have seen me then.
"Boss, who is he? Why the fuss?"
The tall man beside him leaned in and whispered.
"What? You don't know Boss Dohyun? There was this gang boss who borrowed money from President Ma and told him to come collect if he dared. Our man walked into their organization alone with a single iron skewer, jammed it through the guy's mouth, and walked back out with the money. He's a legend in our crew."
The whisper reached my ear.
Hearing the old story made me frown.
Back then, while I was testing theories on how to earn Points, one of my hypotheses was violence against people. To test it, I'd gone to work under a loan shark, running daily collections.
That loan shark had been President Ma.
The pay was fat, but I never earned a single Point, and President Ma turned out to be an even bigger piece of shit than I'd thought. So I quit.
"Dohyun, what's going on? You know those bastards?"
"Oppa, what's wrong? Who are these people?"
I gave a small shake of my head.
"No. Just some guys I saw for a minute, a long time ago."
I let out a long breath.
The man who'd recognized me suddenly bent at the waist.
"Boss, I'm sorry. We were rude. Are you staying around here?"
I hesitated, then answered. I had no intention of handing him anything about myself.
"No. Just passing through."
At that, his expression shifted, subtle. Disappointment flickered through his eyes.
"You still working under President Ma?"
At my question his face locked tight with tension for an instant, then slid back into that oily smile.
He nodded.
"Yes, sir. We've set up over by Dongwa Intersection. Boss, if you're willing, how about joining us?"
Dongwa Intersection lay a kilometer west of where I lived. Close, if you called it close. Far, if you called it far.
"Thanks, but I'll pass."
Disappointment crossed his face again. He recovered quickly and kept talking.
"But you'd be safe if you were with us…"
Something hidden sat under the words. I'd refused, so he was trying another angle.
I shook my head, firm.
"Thanks, but I like things the way they are. I'm not joining you."
His face hardened. His eyes went cold for a heartbeat, then the slick smile returned.
"Ah, I see. But Boss, it's hard to hold out alone in a world like this. If you were with us…"
"Enough."
I cut him off. My voice left no room for more discussion.
"I already said no once. Don't make me say it twice."
Only then did he nod, as if giving up.
"Understood, Boss. We'll be on our way."
He ducked his head and slipped out of the convenience store.
While the two men turned and walked out, I watched their backs, sharp. Only after the door shut did the tension ease a little.
Hanna came up beside me and whispered.
"Those bastards. You actually trust them?"
I shook my head.
"Not at all. If anything, we need to be more careful."
Jia glanced around, uneasy.
"Um… shouldn't we get out of here quickly?"
I nodded.
"Yeah. You're right. But you all stay put and keep gathering supplies."
I grabbed my sword and bolted out of the store.
"Hey, Park Dohyun, where are you going?!"
Hanna's sharp shout hit my ear. I ignored it and kept running.
When I came around the alley, I stopped and scanned the area. Where had they gone? Then, far off, footsteps.
Found them.
I ran toward the sound.
Their voices started to reach me.
I pricked my ears and focused on the conversation. The faint voices from the far end of the alley grew clearer.
"Boss, is it really okay to just leave? Women like that don't come around often… and the delivery date's coming up, isn't it?"
Unease clung to the first man's voice. I bit my lip and listened.
"I know, you idiot. But the two of us can't handle it. That's because you never saw that guy when he was working."
Irritation and caution mixed in the other voice. The word delivery kept circling in my head.
"Then…"
"We report to President Ma, bring the boys, and tear this whole area apart."
Just as I'd thought. Trash. He'd worked that long under that son of a bitch President Ma. Of course he was trash.
"But he said he was just passing through."
"You moron. With a load like that, where are they going? They've got a nest nearby, guaranteed. All we have to do is find it."
That settled their fate.
I have to kill them.
I couldn't send them back to President Ma. That would turn into a headache. No question.
A cold, emotionless certainty filled me.
"Hey, though. Those women were something else. Especially the one with the bow."
The tall one spoke, and the other chuckled.
"Yeah? Isn't that one too young? Me, I was getting hard for the bitch in the cop clothes. Thinking about pinning that lady pig who used to haul us in like rats and fucking her whether she wants it or not… ngh. Just the thought and my cock's already straining."
These bastards.
Hearing them leer at my people, I decided they would die ugly. I closed in without a single footstep.
"Hey. You hear that?"
"Huh?"
"Just now, something—"
No time to hesitate. I burst from behind the wall and charged.
"What the—fuck!!"
The tall one shouted. Too late.
Imperial Swordsmanship Lv. 2
The forgotten swordsmanship of the empire manifests in the user's body!
One Shot One Hit! Lv. 1
Accuracy and critical damage increase!
Shhk!
The blade sheared the air. Blood fountained from his neck.
"P-Park Dohyun? You son of a—!"
The other one finally recognized me and fumbled to meet me with a steel pipe. I was faster.
Thud!
My foot slammed into his gut. He choked out a gasp and went down.
"You… you bastard…"
The fallen man tried to get up with the pipe. Useless.
Shhk!
"Gyaaaaah…!"
The sword opened his arm. The pipe hit the ground with his scream.
"P-please, spare me, B-Boss Dohyun…! We worked together, didn't we? We're the same crew!"
I didn't listen to his begging. All I saw in front of me was trash that needed disposing of.
"Crew? Don't lump me in with garbage like you."
Ice poured off my voice. Terror spread through his eyes.
"You… you son of a—!"
Shhk!
Seeing no way left to live, he spat a curse at me. I took his head.