Laying the Groundwork (2)
There was only one thing I needed to do in a place crawling with trash like this.
Round up every useless bastard in the world just like I was doing right now, and deliver them to Imir. Even trash could prove useful in the end — if it was useful for me.
Thwack!
"Hah... that makes ten."
The tenth piece of trash I'd teleported to Imir's lab. Now, ten more remained within my detection range — two of them Mid-Lower rank, two at Mid, and surprisingly, one who had already surpassed Mid-Upper and would reach Upper rank given enough time.
It was almost incomprehensible that someone with that kind of power would be doing trash work in a back alley like this.
Upper rank might be laughable to me right now, but Upper-rankers were still people recognized for their strength, names that carried weight.
Well, that worked in my favor. The stronger and more recognized they were, the more they'd contribute to bringing Cheon Yu-seong down.
And conveniently enough, there were some trash over there getting drunk.
"So I went to that loud-mouthed brothel yesterday, and man! All the women had bodies so ripe and perfect, I couldn't help but lose my mind and keep pounding them without thinking."
"That brothel — you mean the 'Fountain of Wisdom'? How the hell did you get in there? That place is insanely expensive. I heard all the women there are Highest rank."
"Hey, friend, you really wanna know?"
'Fountain of Wisdom...'
The brothel they were talking about — Moonlight — was a place I knew well.
Just as I was thinking about the Fountain of Wisdom, a piece of useful information reached my ears.
"I'll only tell you this, so don't go spreading it around."
"Yeah, yeah, cut the suspense and just say it. Did you get some high-paying job or something?"
"You're so impatient. You know what Lightning is, right?"
"Lightning? What the hell is th—"
"You. How much do you know about Lightning?"
At the word Lightning, Cheon Seong stepped out from the shadows where he'd been leaning against the wall.
"What? How did a little kid like you get all the way in here?"
"What were the guys at the entrance doing, letting some brat wander in here?"
The two men frowned, wondering about the fate of the ones at the entrance. Those guys were probably already writhing in agony, unable to control their own bodies, having a very entertaining time with Imir — but there was no need to mention that. No reason to.
I could have just subdued them, but I'd made an unexpected choice — I wanted to enjoy myself.
"I'm a dispatch agent sent by the manager of the Fountain of Wisdom. I'm using an artifact to change my appearance, so don't worry about that."
"You're a dispatch agent sent by the Fountain of Wisdom's manager? Ha! That's a funny story. How am I supposed to believe that?"
Of course, unless he was an idiot, there was no way he'd believe me. I needed to give him proof.
"What do I need to do to make you believe me?"
"If you really are sent by the manager, tell me who the manager is."
At the man's question about the Fountain of Wisdom's manager, Cheon Seong scowled.
"You. You're asking about the manager's identity even though you know that information is top secret? The brothel's rules should have been explained to anyone who uses it beforehand."
"Hmm, since you know that, you're not just some reckless kid who happened to wander in. Then tell me about my information. If you're really sent by the manager, you'd have heard about that too, right?"
As expected, the man who had questioned Seong about the Fountain of Wisdom's rules to test him now demanded that Seong provide information about himself.
Just as the man said, if Seong were truly a dispatch agent sent by the manager, he would have been given information about the brothel's patrons. Otherwise, he'd need to provide equivalent proof.
But of course, Cheon Seong was no dispatch agent from the Fountain of Wisdom's manager. He had no information and no proof to offer, so he stood silently, watching the men. And at his silence, the two men quietly reached for their weapons.
As the two men glared at him, Cheon Seong finally spoke.
"Ha. This trash really shouldn't have pushed its luck."
Using my brain to extract information didn't suit my nature at all. It was much more my style to beat someone to the brink of death, rip out their fingernails, gouge out their eyeballs, and torture the information out of them.
Anyway, the whole "enjoying myself" thing had just been a sudden whim. Facing a bastard who was making things unnecessarily complicated, Cheon Seong dropped the act and threw off his mask.
"Ha! What the hell is this kid saying... Kuh!"
KWAAK!
The man who had been speaking suddenly collapsed under crushing pressure, his head slammed into the ground with brutal force. The impact shattered the concrete floor, sending fragments flying in all directions.
"Shut your mouth, trash."
"You bastard!!"
Enraged at what had happened to his companion, the other man charged at Cheon Seong — but Seong effortlessly stopped him, grabbed him by the throat, and lifted him into the air.
"You guys always use the same routine. Can't you show me something different for once?"
He was so tired of the same old behavior from the bastards he'd been subduing that it had become boring.
"I'd rather you'd run away. At least then I'd have the fun of chasing you... But you two can't even give me a little entertainment."
"Kuh... kuh... khh... Let... me... go... khh!!"
Cut off from oxygen, the man's face turned red like an inflating balloon, then gradually blue. Finally, deprived of enough oxygen, his body went limp. He wasn't dead — just unconscious.
"Tsk. Already over? How boring."
Since leaving the academy, it had been so boring it was almost painful. If anything, leaving the academy had felt harder.
"Hey, how much do you know about Lightning?"
"Kuh... kuh..."
"Oh right. You can't talk."
After necrotizing the nerves of the unconscious man's body and teleporting him away, Cheon Seong released the gravity magic he'd been using to pin down the other man, who was still face-down on the ground, and asked about Lightning.
"You... you... what the hell are you... what are you!"
"I already heard that. Anything else? How about you just tell me about Lightning, or take one of those Lightning pills from your pocket and come at me?"
The man flinched.
At Cheon Seong's words, the man trembled and glared at him.
"You... how much do you know about Lightning?"
"How much? I think I know enough."
Lightning (霹靂)
Naturally, the Lightning being discussed here wasn't the kind that fell from the sky. Simply put, it was the name of a doping drug.
When taken, Lightning allowed users to unleash mana at double their normal capacity, and their physical strength surged dramatically — granting them power and regeneration comparable to an Orc, dozens of times stronger than an ordinary adult male, if only temporarily.
From what I knew, Lightning lasted for one hour. During that hour, a Lower-ranker gained power comparable to Mid-Upper, and a Mid-ranker reached the very edge of Upper rank. Judging by those effects alone, it was an incredible drug — but Lightning came with extremely severe side effects.
That was that everyone who took Lightning became addicted, dependent on it to survive. The drug addiction that was Lightning's aftermath was something even the so-called Holy Maidens of the past couldn't cure, no matter how hard they tried. That result never changed, regardless of who was involved.
Even when Holy Maidens, Saint Knights, and regular knights were captured and forced to take Lightning, they couldn't overcome its addictive properties. They transformed into zombie-like creatures, endlessly seeking only more Lightning.
So in a way, it could be said that I was fortunate that when I was captured by the Tang family, despite all the poisons and torture they inflicted, their fundamental principle — never using drugs or poisons made by others — meant I was never forced to take Lightning.
And the reason the drug was called Lightning was because users' entire bodies turned black, and their nerves and mana circuits gradually burned away as if struck by lightning itself.
Once someone took Lightning even once, they kept seeking it out and taking it again. Their skin grew darker and darker, their mana circuits burned away, and eventually they died — unable to move, their entire body turned black, still searching for Lightning until the very end. It was a drug that guaranteed death.
"So what are you going to do? Take that Lightning?"
"...Don't... regret... it."
"I already heard that, and it's gotten old. Just come at me already."
Click!
At Cheon Seong's words, the sound of teeth grinding came from the man as he pulled a yellow pill from his pocket and put it in his mouth.
Crunch!
The man bit down on the Lightning, and a storm of mana erupted from him.
"Aaaah! Just like I thought — this power feels the best no matter how many times I feel it!!!"
The man's killing intent threatened Cheon Seong, his aura wrapping around him.
From Mid-Lower rank to power comparable to Upper rank. But that power was nothing but feeble against Cheon Seong.
"Time to fix that arrogant attitude of yours—"
"Come at me if you're gonna. Since you seem to know about Lightning, I'll let you talk."
"You dog-like little bastard!!! I'll kill you, tan your skin, and grind your organs and flesh into feed for pigs and dogs!!!"
Enraged by Cheon Seong's dismissive attitude, the man charged.
His mana crackled and surged like actual lightning, and a dark, murky purple aura wrapped around his axe.
Of course, the lightning-like mana was a symptom of Lightning users, the purple aura was his innate ability, and the murkiness was naturally caused by taking Lightning.
Excluding Ryu Se-rin, every bastard I'd fought so far had been, at best, a way to pass the time.
But this guy looked interesting. Those who used Lightning to reach Upper-rank-level power were always a bit stronger than basic Upper-rankers.
So this guy right now was—
"Good enough for a warm-up."
WHOOSH—!!
From Cheon Seong erupted pure power and a pitch-black killing intent — the source of domination — completely different from the murky aura of the Lightning-addled man.