Chapter 50
Chapter 50
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: Panteleon
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“Royce told me a lot about you.”
Sssss... A cigar thicker than his thumb burned away. The middle-aged man, his face covered in scars and his left eye hidden behind a pitch-black eyepatch, scanned the man up and down as if appraising him.
“They say you handle jobs cleanly. As long as the pay matches what’s asked, you don’t back out no matter what, and once the talk’s done, you don’t whine about the money.”
If the Righteous Heavenly Alliance has its Five Great Clans and Five Great Sects, then the Black Dragon Society has the Six Evils.
The Hao Sect is one of the major sects among the Six Evils. If judged purely by numbers, it ranks at the top among them, though its martial prowess isn’t particularly strong.
What the Hao Sect specializes in isn’t martial arts or combat, but information. Deeply embedded in the underworld, all sorts of intel flows into the Hao Sect.
At the same time, the Hao Sect brokers requests that can’t be handled in the light of day.
“Well, if Royce introduced you to this old man, your skills and character are guaranteed. So, did you hear about me?”
“One-Eyed Dog Badger, Guzen.”
The man with the hood pulled low answered.
“They said you’re a raccoon dog of an uncle. You love money and might gouge a bit, but your work gets done reliably, right?”
“Young punk’s got no manners.”
“What about the guy who started with the rude talk first?”
Guzen’s eyebrow twitched at the retort. He hooked the cigar between his fingers and glared at the man. A sharp glint flashed from beneath the pulled-low hood.
“The one in need here is you, isn’t it? I’m not hurting for options. There are countless guys in this district dying for a one-on-one with this old man.”
“Try sifting for jade among a pile of worthless pebbles that can’t stand out or line up proper.”
“Hmm.”
Guzen’s furrowed face relaxed.
“Not a sucker, just like Royce said.”
The cigar moved to his lips. Guzen rolled the smoke in his mouth before exhaling upward with a smirk.
“Yuri. Better to call you by name? Or do you prefer Thunder Cloud?”
Yuri kept his hood on, staring at Guzen with a bored expression. He waved away the smoke drifting toward his face and replied.
“Call me Thunder Cloud.”
“Hmm, that’s what I thought too. Yuri’s not a bad name, but it sounds a bit weak.”
Guzen chuckled loudly and set the cigar in the ashtray.
“Alright, let’s get down to business. No need to tense up—it’s simple. We both need to know exactly what the other wants, right? Thunder Cloud, you know what kind of place this is, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
This was Panteleon, the metropolis ruled by the Orsia Family, the Cartel’s de facto leaders.
Among the great cities, it was the largest by far—its area and population rivaling a small nation.
“Panteleon.”
Guzen smirked and opened the window. —Aaaah! As a scream rang out right on cue, Guzen closed his eyes and nodded along, savoring it.
“You must’ve seen and felt plenty coming into this city, but step out of the central district past Zone 3, and screams are just daily life. Still, screams are better than the alternative. Here, most problems end with a scream.”
The central district, home to the Orsia Family, Selvis Magic Tower, and even a Righteous Heavenly Alliance branch, looked worlds apart from the rest. Zones 1 and 2 were decently safe, but as Guzen said, past Zone 3, law and order collapsed into chaos where screams were routine.
The Orsia Family had ruled as the Cartel’s overlords for ages, nobility among nobles, and they governed the city on strict aristocratic principles. To them, Panteleon’s “citizens” were only those in the central district and up to Zone 2.
In fact, citizenship was only issued up to Zone 2, and even that was tiered below the central district’s.
There was a reason the Orsia Family couldn’t be outright condemned for this.
Just 50 years ago, Panteleon was only the central district—a plain old city, not a metropolis.
Fifty years ago, a rift opened in the nearby great city of Ranalsa. The sudden rift spewed monsters that had no business in a major city, and even the city’s rats and stray beasts, even buildings, twisted into monstrosities under its influence.
But the problem didn’t stop there. Monsters from rifts were ranked by the potency of the evil god’s divine power saturating them, and the rift in Ranalsa brimmed with power incomparable to Logos’s—strong enough to corrupt even death itself. Those who died in Ranalsa’s rift rose as undead, living corpses.
Rifts first appeared in this world 50 years ago. Ranalsa wasn’t the first, but its people were still unfamiliar with “rifts” and had no idea how to handle them.
In the end, the great city of Ranalsa fell to the rift overnight. The Orsia Family and Selvis Magic Tower barely contained the monster outbreak when rushed in, but the city’s fall displaced millions of refugees.
The refugees hoped to settle in Panteleon, but the Orsia Family refused at first. The plight was heartbreaking, but taking in that many was no light decision.
Even after the refusal, many refugees camped outside Panteleon’s walls, forming a shantytown.
That shantytown became today’s Zone 1.
‘In the game, Zone 3 was the end.’
Panteleon now stretched to Zone 5. It would’ve been fine if they’d stopped at absorbing the refugee camps, but droves beyond the refugees craved the benefits of what was seen as a noble city. Pretending to be refugees, they infiltrated Zone 1, and the zones kept expanding.
By now, only up to Zone 2 counted as “citizens” because the Orsia Family had given up controlling the outer zones. From Zone 3 onward, they weren’t considered Panteleon citizens.
Yet the zones kept growing.
High birth rates in the lower zones played a part, as did fools chasing vain dreams of reaching the central district someday.
And plenty drawn by the “lawless land” allure.
“I don’t get why you’d want Zone 4 over the barely livable Zone 3, but hey, if you wanna go, I’ll send you.”
Guzen said with a laugh.
“But I can’t get you a pass for free.”
“Figured as much.”
“Solve a few minor issues for me, and I’ll hook you up with a pass.”
“You sure you can get it?”
Guzen’s smile deepened at the snarky question.
“I’m One-Eyed Dog Badger Guzen, one of the Hao Sect’s zone leaders in Panteleon’s Zone 3. Five—how’s that?”
“Five?”
“The minor problems you’ll handle for me. Clear five, and I’ll get you the pass clean and simple.”
“Crazy bastard.”
“Cra... what?”
“No interest in wiping your ass five times. Three.”
“Gonna haggle with guts, huh? Heh, Thunder Cloud, you’re not taking a Hao Sect zone leader for a chump, are ya? I ain’t a chump, but I like your young fire—let’s say four.”
“Three.”
“Four!”
“Three.”
“Zero.”
Guzen’s eyes widened at the sudden interruption. Yuri wore a similar look. He tilted his head, then startled and patted his waist.
“...?”
Guzen blinked, then glared at Yuri. He was a Fourth Tier martial artist, after all. Now he sensed the presence by the window.
He’d only noticed ‘now,’ which chilled Guzen. The voice had spoken first, deliberately revealing itself. They’d been hiding there all along, unnoticed. That meant—
“No way, Thunder Cloud, you bastard... you here to kill me?”
“Weird misunderstanding.”
“Misunderstanding? If it’s not, then what the hell is it? Call off that window assassin right now, or the Hao Sect will—”
“It’s a misunderstanding, I said.”
“What’s so misunderstood, you sneaky dog? You been plotting from when? Royce in on this too?”
“Real misunderstanding, calm down...”
“Why’s your misunderstanding face looking like that!”
Guzen finally lost it and bellowed. It was natural—he’d take it that way. A voice from the window, presence revealed, and Yuri barely flinched.
“One-Eyed Dog Badger! I don’t go down easy!”
Guzen roared, grabbing the sword at his feet and swinging at Yuri. An emergency slash, but sword qi formed in time, cloaking the blade.
Yuri sighed deeply as the sword arced cleanly toward his neck. At the same time, inner energy surged from his dantian, erupting as lightning.
Crackle!
With the snap of electricity, Yuri’s fist moved. The hooking punch crushed the sword qi and struck the blade. Clang! The blade snapped in two from the hit, grazing Guzen’s cheek and embedding in the wall.
“Huh...?!”
Lightning traveled along the blade to the hilt, numbing Guzen’s hand. He dropped the sword in panic.
‘What the—?’
He’d heard about Thunder Cloud from Royce. Estimated Fourth Tier, martial artist wielding lightning arts.
Guzen was Fourth Tier too.
Yet in one clash, his sword qi crumpled like tofu, and the blade shattered.
Plus that numbing lightning on his hand. Not impossible for a Fourth Tier martial artist... but pulling it off in an unprepared strike was shocking.
Knock knock.
As Guzen stiffened and tried to back away, a small knock sounded by his ear. Regrettably, it wasn’t his outside subordinates. It came from the window he hadn’t checked yet—someone knocking on it.
“All done? Can I come in?”
Only then did Guzen turn to the window. A short-haired woman in a black mask covering her mouth stared right at them.
“...”
Guzen couldn’t guess her identity at all.
“Come on in.”
Yuri sighed deeply and answered.
The window opened.
Ha-ryeong, mask still on, hopped over the sill into the room. Ignoring Guzen’s glances, she waved cheerily at Yuri.
“Yuri, sis is here.”
“...”
“Been a while—feels great seeing you. Am I the only one excited?”
“...”
“I’m so pumped I’m humming, but our Yuri looks meh. Our Yuri? Sis’s tune is killer.”
“You actually nuts?”
Guzen’s face twisted at their exchange.
“You little shit, a misunderstanding, huh?”
“Misunderstanding, so don’t curse.”
“Doesn’t feel like one? She called you ‘little bro’!”
“Feels like she could be sis.”
“Then what’s the misunderstanding...”
Slap!
A hand flew out of nowhere, smacking Guzen’s cheek. It stung sharp, not brutal. Clutching his slapped cheek, Guzen stared at Yuri in shock.
“The most rattled, shocked, messed-up one right now is me, so shut it.”
“You... you—”
Slap!
Another slap whipped his head around. He thought while taking it. Is this guy really Fourth Tier? Didn’t seem so. Just a slap, but he couldn’t track it. Fourth Tier fists are fast, lightning arts even faster, but this was too fast...
“One more word, and I’ll just—”
Two slaps in a row. His prized sword in pieces. And an obvious assassin in the room here to kill him. This was a Hao Sect building, no less. Even if not martial powerhouses, the Hao Sect was a major force among the Black Dragon Society’s Six Evils. And here he was, a zone leader, getting bullied and facing death...
It all made One-Eyed Dog Badger Guzen feel wronged. He clamped his mouth shut to avoid more slaps, but his shoulders trembled as he glared at Yuri. Yuri couldn’t spare him a glance.
Like he’d told Guzen, Yuri was rattled, shocked, and messed up right now. He sighed deeply and turned to Ha-ryeong.
“What’s with the sudden ‘little bro’?”
“Calling you ‘big bro’ feels off.”
“Let’s stick to how it was before.”
“Two years must’ve felt long.”
Ha-ryeong clapped toward the blade still stuck in the wall.
Yuri stared at her with narrowed eyes instead of answering. Her face stayed the same under his blatant gaze.
“Wanna catch up, but we should move first. ‘Daytalk’s for birds, nighttalk for rats,’ they say—but here, the raccoon dog’ll hear.”
Ha-ryeong spun around with that. She strode up to Guzen, drew a dagger from her waist, and shoved it in his face.
“...!”
Guzen recognized the engraving on the dagger. Snake and scorpion. That was the Tang Family’s mark, rulers of the Killing Gate.
The Hao Sect and Killing Gate were both Six Evils, but worlds apart. Unlike the info-brokering Hao Sect, the Killing Gate dealt solely in assassination techniques, true to its name.
The Tang Family dominated that fearsome Killing Gate. The Killing Gate was the Tang Family, and the Tang Family was the Killing Gate. No one outside the Tang had ever led it.
‘The Snake-Scorpion Dagger—only direct lineage from the Tang main house carries it...’
Gulp. Chilled by dread, Guzen swallowed hard. A mere zone leader like him couldn’t defy the Tang Family.
[Take today to your grave.]
Guzen swallowed again instead of answering.
[Zero.]
“...?”
[I’ll come tomorrow. Have two passes ready.]
Guzen whipped his head toward Ha-ryeong at the follow-up. But she was done talking to him.
“Let’s go.”
She’d entered through the window but exited boldly through the door.
Yuri was still rattled, shocked, and messed up, but he followed Ha-ryeong out for now.