Doctor Woo (2)
“Ha-young!”
The man who burst through the hospital door was Cheon Myeong-jin.
He had rushed straight to the hospital upon hearing that Cheon Ha-young had collapsed at school.
Cheon Ha-young lay sleeping.
“Father-in-law.”
Jeong In-sook spoke urgently, her eyes brimming with tears.
“They say Ha-young… Ha-young has been poisoned.”
Cheon Myeong-jin was usually an intimidating figure, but when his daughter fell ill, he was the only one she could rely on.
“Father-in-law, please save Ha-young.”
Cheon Myeong-jin calmed the agitated woman.
“It’s alright. Don’t worry.”
Cheon Myeong-jin took his granddaughter’s wrist to check her pulse. It was wildly irregular, and dark spots were beginning to appear on her face.
If she didn’t receive the antidote within two or three days, the damage would be irreversible. He had thought she could hold out a bit longer, but the poison was advancing to stage four faster than expected.
Cheon Myeong-jin infused his pure inner energy through her wrist.
Cheon Ha-young’s expression eased. But it was only a temporary measure.
Thanks to the pure energy, Cheon Ha-young opened her eyes and regained consciousness.
“Ha-young!”
Jeong In-sook rushed to her daughter’s side.
“……Mom, Grandpa.”
Cheon Ha-young’s voice was weak. Even without seeing the worried looks on Cheon Myeong-jin and Jeong In-sook’s faces, she could sense in her hazy state that her body was in bad shape.
“……I’m not a martial artist…… If I die, I can’t become a star…… Dad……”
She trailed off, unable to say she wouldn’t see him again, and lost consciousness once more.
The situation was dire.
Cheon Myeong-jin stepped out of the room. Joo Won was waiting outside.
“Has Doctor Woo been found yet?”
“Not yet. We’re using every method available to track him down.”
“Find him quickly! There’s no time! Put a bounty on his head if you have to—do it now!”
“Yes, Alliance Leader! I’ll go help too.”
“Go!”
Joo Won dashed off.
Cheon Myeong-jin peered back into the room through the glass window in the door.
Seeing Cheon Ha-young unconscious again, he clenched his fist until his knuckles turned white. If he lost her, he would never forgive those bastards.
If he could trade his life for hers, he would give it without hesitation.
Just hold on a little longer, Ha-young.
Jang Cheon was swiftly clearing the building.
He could already sense the presence of enemies in rooms beyond the walls.
But now, having seen their approximate positions and actions on the screens, his movements carried no hesitation whatsoever.
As Jang Cheon ascended the stairs to the third floor, a man was coming down from above.
“Huh?”
By the time the man noticed Jang Cheon, his body was already leaping over twenty steps in a single bound, hurtling toward him.
There was no time to block or even scream.
The last thing he saw was a single flash of sword light slicing across his vision.
Jang Cheon caught the man as he tumbled down the stairs and quietly set him down.
Jang Cheon opened a door. A man watching TV inside turned his head.
“What……?”
Before he could utter a curse, Jang Cheon’s sword flashed.
Jang Cheon didn’t open every door. Empty rooms he passed quickly. Some doors he pierced with his sword without even opening.
Thud!
Jang Cheon’s blade punched through the door.
He pulled out the bloodied sword without checking the body.
No need for visual or energy confirmation—the sensation in his sword-gripping hand told him the enemy behind the door was dead.
Even Baek Dok, Doctor Woo’s trusted lieutenant, was no exception. He was in a fourth-floor room on the same level as Doctor Woo.
At least he fared better than the others.
He had at least tried to draw his weapon. But as he reached for a poison grenade, his throat was slit.
The poison grenades used by poison experts were like smoke bombs. They themselves had immunity to the toxins inside.
Still, choosing a poison grenade against an opponent in a gas mask showed just how panicked he was.
Jang Cheon slowly walked toward the room at the end of the hallway.
The woman was terrified.
She could sense it instinctively. The man before her was a psycho. His eyes were different from an ordinary person’s.
“Please, spare me.”
Doctor Woo made an irritated face.
“Why start with ‘spare me’? Don’t you have something more useful? Like ‘Oppa, you’re so handsome.’ That might boost your survival odds by one percent.”
“You’re handsome, oppa. Really handsome.”
“Really?”
He flinched for a moment, then the woman shouted.
“Yes. Totally my type.”
“Say it again.”
“Oppa, you’re handsome. So handsome.”
“Heh heh heh.”
Right then, a voice came from behind.
“Perverted bastard. You look like a maggot.”
Doctor Woo’s body froze solid. He slowly turned around.
Jang Cheon stood there, wearing a gas mask.
“No. Maggots are better.”
The voice from the gas mask sounded like Darth Vader’s, but the words were clear.
Doctor Woo shouted.
“Kill me, and this woman dies!”
Doctor Woo assumed Jang Cheon had come to rescue her. The moment he tried to take her hostage.
Ping!
Thwack!
Jang Cheon’s finger strike flew out, hitting the woman’s forehead. She collapsed backward.
“Gasp!”
Seeing blood trickle from her forehead, Doctor Woo was even more shocked. He hadn’t anticipated this at all.
“What the hell are you?”
If Jang Cheon had entered the room, it meant all his men were dead. In other words, a master.
Jang Cheon said quietly.
“I need the antidote for PSV49.”
Doctor Woo flinched at the question but quickly regained his composure, as if realizing Jang Cheon knew everything.
“The Alliance Leader sent you, huh. Humans are pathetic, aren’t they? Risking the entire Murim Alliance for one little brat.”
Jang Cheon strode forward and raised his sword high.
“Hand it over, or die.”
“I have it. Right here.”
Doctor Woo pulled out the antidote and handed it over.
The moment Jang Cheon took it, a gust of wind erupted from Doctor Woo’s ring.
It sprayed directly into Jang Cheon’s face—a small dose targeted at one person. The woman, collapsed behind, was unaffected, as was anyone else.
At the same time, Doctor Woo scrambled backward.
“Nice gas mask. Blocks most poisons. Especially the Clayce Corp’s PGS11 you’re wearing—top-notch.”
Doctor Woo nailed the manufacturer and model perfectly.
“You know what poison users like us hate most? Gas masks. The anonymous poisoner forums are full of gas mask rants.”
Yet Doctor Woo remained smug. There was a reason.
“So we obsessed over how to neutralize them.
Who do you think wins? Simple: antivirus vs. virus. Which strikes first? The virus.
Virus comes out, antivirus patches to counter. Same with us.
Poison emerges, gas mask filters adapt. New poison, new filter. We’re the virus side.
The poison you just inhaled? Fresh one—no counter-filter yet.”
Jang Cheon stayed silent, so Doctor Woo raised his voice.
“Bottom line: that mask’s useless. You’re done for. Don’t believe me? Circulate your inner energy.
It’ll feel empty, your meridians aching like they’re snapping. Can’t even twitch a finger.”
Jang Cheon asked.
“This antidote—is it definitely for PSV49?”
“Cocky bastard, even on death’s door. Yeah, it is.”
Jang Cheon slowly removed his gas mask.
Doctor Woo grinned wickedly.
“Smart move. Dying with that on would be pathetic. You’re pretty handsome too—such a shame…… Huh?”
Doctor Woo stopped, staring at Jang Cheon.
“You? Have we met? I know you.”
Then it hit him—a face from the past.
“JC?”
Jang Cheon’s mercenary days codename. They’d called him JC after his initials.
“Long time no see.”
Doctor Woo’s eyes shook.
“What are you doing here?”
“Business.”
“What?”
Stunned, Doctor Woo asked.
“You knew it was me coming?”
“Forgot mercenary rules already? Scout the enemy first.”
Doctor Woo remembered Jang Cheon clearly. Though only two years together, Jang Cheon was an exceptional mercenary.
The whole team owed their lives to that young man multiple times.
“Even you, JC—you’ll die anyway.”
“Do I look like it?”
Doctor Woo’s face hardened. Jang Cheon didn’t look remotely near death.
“You sparked my interest in poisons. I studied a lot after.”
“No way? You achieved the Ten Thousand Poisons Immunity Body?”
“Who knows. Haven’t tested all ten thousand yet. But so far, none work on me.”
Doctor Woo trembled. It was certain now. No need to check other poisons.
The one he’d just used was his trump card. If it failed, no poison in the world would work. That was his pride.
To a poison master, the Ten Thousand Poisons Immunity Body was the ultimate predator. Yet, paradoxically, something every poisoner dreamed of witnessing firsthand. Not like this, though.
“Spare me. Thanks to me, you got poison immunity, right?”
“I could thank you now.”
“I’m no threat to you anymore. So let me live?”
Shiiik.
Puuk!
Just as “please” escaped his lips, Jang Cheon’s sword plunged into his heart.
Staring into Doctor Woo’s resentful eyes, Jang Cheon said.
“I’d like to. But the world doesn’t revolve around me alone.”
Shluck.
Pulling out the sword, Doctor Woo spewed blood from his heart and toppled backward.
Jang Cheon pressed the acupoint on the fallen woman to revive her.
She came to.
Doctor Woo would have freaked out. The “dead” woman was alive.
But she hadn’t died. The finger strike was dual: one sealed blood flow, the other drew blood on her forehead.
This was a supreme technique no one could attempt—or even imagine.
Beyond the move, the split-second judgment in crisis was even more extraordinary.
The woman startled at the gas-masked Jang Cheon—he’d put it back on before she woke.
“Don’t be scared.”
Still terrified, she stared at him.
“The man who tried to harm you is dead.”
She didn’t know what to say, frozen in fear.
“Go home. No need to report to police. It’s all over.
You won’t forget today easily. In a month or two, see a therapist or counselor.”
His Darth Vader voice carried genuine concern.
The woman bowed deeply, suppressing surging emotions. Realizing she was alive, she expressed her gratitude.
“Thank you for saving me.”
Tears streamed from her eyes. Tension released, delayed terror flooded in.
She knew: without this masked man, the psycho would have killed her.
“Definitely get counseling.”
“Yes.”
She might struggle with today’s trauma forever. But remembering her survival’s fortune would let her overcome it.
After sending the woman out, Jang Cheon cleaned up. He scoured Doctor Woo’s body and the entire building, collecting all toxic substances and vials.
Just in case the antidote wasn’t real.
With cleanup perfect, Jang Cheon, Phone, and the four-man team exited the building.
As Phone reached to remove his gas mask before getting in the driver’s seat, Jang Cheon urgently said.
“Wait!”
Phone and the four froze in tension.
Jang Cheon’s Darth Vader voice carried warning.
“Don’t take off the gas masks.”