I Became an Apocalyptic "Physical" Therapist (120)
Army had traded exactly one exchange of blows with Oh Gu-sik before the smile drained from his lips.
He'd gotten a similar feeling once before. Back when he'd sparred with All Kind. But Army's instincts were telling him that the man standing before him now was far more dangerous.
"Who the hell are you?"
"I already told you. You got a hearing problem too?"
"There was a guy like you in Sabbath? He wasn't in any of the intel."
"About that file—"
Whoosh!
Oh Gu-sik cut himself off mid-charge and snapped his head back, dodging the axe that came flying at him.
"You sneaky sons of bitches."
"Why?"
"You start talking and then swing? Who does that?"
"Can't handle that much multitasking? Then die."
This time it was Oh Gu-sik who counterattacked.
Shwing! Skreeee!
Knife against knife, steel shrieking against steel. The one blocking Oh Gu-sik's path head-on was Army. Army fought with two guarded daggers, while Oh Gu-sik was carrying weapons different from the ones he'd used back in Black Shelter—a small hand axe and a long, slender knife. An unbalanced loadout by any measure, but he wielded it beautifully. So beautifully, in fact, that Army felt himself being pushed back in their very first exchange.
"Lucky me today. The list says you people are fair game."
"You're not here to kill?"
Sabbath's numbers were far fewer, but the fight stayed even because Oh Gu-sik had the two executives—Army and Sonjabi—pinned down. With their two key officers occupied, Yeong Chi-soo was plugging the gaps in manpower.
On top of that, the Mosquito Gang was earning their pay, true to their reputation. A gang ruled by Queen—in other words, from a certain angle, no different from fanatics. Rumors about the Mosquito Gang were plentiful, but a few things everyone agreed on. One of them: they didn't joke around when it came to money. Queen loved money, and she delivered exactly as much work as she was paid for. The gang's members threw themselves into combat without a shred of hesitation or fear.
And then there was the wild card that Yeong Chi-soo—a genuinely rare existence—created.
Even fully geared for battle, Chi-soo still looked unimpressive. Small frame, slight build. Not skin-and-bones exactly, but the impression of frailty was impossible to shake. Even with equipment strapped on, he looked almost no different from his days in Black Shelter. The power he was showing now, though, was a very different story.
Chi-soo's weapon of choice was marbles. Steel balls the size of candy. Heavy enough that simply throwing them made for a real threat—but nothing like the force of flinging stones. An ordinary person might go down, but one-shotting Awakened Survivors was a stretch. In a group battle like this one, however, those steel balls turned out to be surprisingly devastating. Their killing power was a notch lower, but that was precisely why they were so hard to block.
Exactly as pre-arranged, half of the Mosquito Clan moved to keep the advancing Oh Gu-sik from being surrounded, while the other half oriented around protecting Chi-soo. That let him hurl his steel balls with total peace of mind. Candy-sized metal spheres came flying in from every conceivable angle as he harried the Ganjeolgot fighters in the thick of it.
Thud!
Armor-clad survivors who took a hit grimaced in pure pain. This wasn't enough to kill a survivor. But it bought a beat of separation—and above all, a ball to the face or another vital spot could knock a man clean out of the fight.
Less than three minutes into the battle, Ganjeolgot had already figured out that Chi-soo was the linchpin.
"That telekinesis! We gotta take out that son of a bitch!"
The Ganjeolgot man who called him out paid exactly for the favor of pointing so precisely. Crack! A steel ball struck him dead in the eye. AAAAAGH! Awakened or not, no one could stomach the pain of a ruptured eyeball. His head dropped from the agony—and in a situation like this, that split second of vulnerability was as good as asking to be killed. WHAM! A mace came down on the back of his skull.
Watching that, Sonjabi finally started drawing his weapons properly.
"Alright, you bastards! This is it for today! You gonna dawdle? Or do we finish this fast and go home and party? We gotta wrap it up quick, right! Don't get picked off—push in!"
At that one shout, Ganjeolgot's movements turned far more aggressive. The tide was shifting. Oh Gu-sik felt it—and so he shouted too.
"Chi-soo!"
One word. Even with the battlefield deafening around them. Even with Chi-soo pouring every ounce of focus into his telekinesis—he picked out his master's voice with perfect precision. The instant he heard it, Chi-soo wrung out every last drop of strength, veins bulging on his forehead. And from the backpack he'd been lugging, even more marbles came spilling out.
Trtrtrtrruk.
Countless steel balls poured across the ground—then rose back up and came crashing down on the charging enemies like a claymore mine.
"GET DOWN!"
Before the battle began, the Mosquito Clan members who'd joined up had exchanged a few simple hand signals with Oh Gu-sik. This was one of them: if Chi-soo's backpack opens and the marbles pour out, hit the dirt no matter how deep in a fight you are. Oh Gu-sik lowered his stance to match—not dropping flat, but sinking into a squat and aiming for Army's legs.
Army and Sonjabi retreated, crossing their arms over their faces.
Tuk! The instant the steel ball barrage ended, Army hurled a knife at Oh Gu-sik. Ting! Still half-crouched, Oh Gu-sik awkwardly deflected the dagger. Then Sonjabi flung a saw-blade throwing weapon that whistled as it flew—whwhwhwheeng!—an exotic piece of hidden ordnance. Oh Gu-sik didn't even try to block it; he rolled clear. The saw-blade curved in flight like a knuckleball. Weapons like that could actually backfire if you blocked them wrong—their irregular movement meant a poor deflection could send them ricocheting into your own face. It wouldn't be a mortal wound, but the enemy's numbers were overwhelming. This wasn't yet the stage for trading flesh for bone.
"Tch!"
The moment he rose from his evasive roll, Army forward-rolled too, scooping up his fallen knife and closing in. A blade knifing in deep for his throat. Oh Gu-sik batted the strike away with his axe and backpedaled further. But Army pressed in several more steps—certain he'd found his opening and determined to cash it in for good.
Survivors are human in the end. Even in armor, take a clean hit from a reinforced weapon and your momentum has to falter. Army knew it. One solid hit and it's over. We've got the numbers.
Fwoosh!
Army's upper body pitched forward like a sprinter at full drive. Oh Gu-sik blocked and retreated, then his brow furrowed. A sharp sting had flared across the nape of his neck. No time to check it. If an ally hadn't hit him, someone had pulled a trick. What—the hidden weapon Sonjabi threw earlier? Oh Gu-sik caught the smug grin Sonjabi was wearing. A boomerang type, was it? He kept deflecting Army's strikes.
Oh Gu-sik was, without question, the superior fighter—he was handling both Ganjeolgot executives at once. But his last scraps of breathing room collapsed the moment Sonjabi uncorked his next move.
Sonjabi threw the saw-blades again. Not one this time. Three, at minimum, by Oh Gu-sik's count as he warded off Army. Possibly more. He'd already judged it: dodging all of those while attacking was impossible in his current state. Annoying as hell... that I'd have to use this here...
He pulled out the card he'd kept hidden away. The power of a Seal—a seal cunningly concealed within the dragon tattoo on his back. It flared with light for an instant, and wind bloomed to life around him.
"Huh?"
Army's brow creased. He'd scented an opening and thrust in—but at fifty centimeters, the blade went no further. A powerful wind was pushing his hand away. Oh Gu-sik didn't miss the gap.
Shluk!
His attack carved straight through Army's wind-barred arm. Blood geysered from the wound. If Army had withdrawn his arm a half-second slower, the blade might have taken the wrist clean off.
"That won't be enough."
"I know. You weren't the target."
"...?"
Oh Gu-sik accomplished three things simultaneously. One: he drove Army back with his attack. Two: he knocked Sonjabi's incoming blades out of the air with wind. And three: he hurled his axe with tremendous force—straight at Sonjabi.
The axe struck Sonjabi square in the chest and sent him flying backward, unable to rise. He'd aimed for the head and caught the chest instead—not instantly fatal, but a fast return to the fight was out of the question.
Wheng!
In the moment Army glanced toward Sonjabi, Oh Gu-sik charged.
If it had been Army alone, he'd have held nothing back. The only reason Oh Gu-sik had shown any restraint was Sonjabi's presence.
"Sonjabi! What are you doing, you piece of sh—!"
At Army's roar, Sonjabi rose to his feet. A recovery speed hard to believe from a man who'd taken an axe to the chest and been blasted backward—conscious again after barely thirty seconds.
"Who the hell are you worried about right now?"
But thirty seconds was plenty for Oh Gu-sik. Plenty to strip the collar of a half-baked survivor like Army. And thank to Army's own distracted gaze, the job had gotten that much easier.
Wheng!
Army's movements turned desperate, wide, frantic. And then Oh Gu-sik vanished from his sight entirely. "...?"
Oh Gu-sik had feinted a charge, then suddenly dropped his body into a blind spot. The astonishing part was that even in a posture crouched nearly crocodile-low, there wasn't a hint of awkwardness and not an ounce of lost speed—a move that demanded monstrous strength and balance. He sank low in an instant, slithered in, and clamped on. He'd already planted multiple strikes into Army's lower body—ankle, shin, thigh. The moment Army's attention split toward the pain rising from his legs, Oh Gu-sik was already behind him. Create a blind spot, fragment the enemy's focus through the lower body, take the back, and open the throat. This was exactly why Won-goo kept such a careful eye on him.
Oh Gu-sik was simply too good at killing people. Too good at improvising unfamiliar patterns. He knew far too well how to fight survivors.
"Hey! Hold on—"
Swish!
Once he had the back, there was no hesitation—the blade simply came around. Despite that ferocious exchange, his knife didn't carry a single scratch. It was nothing short of a chilling kind of sharpness.
Tuk.
Army's head separated cleanly and dropped.
"If you lose, you go quietly. So much talk..."
"It's Badugi."
"In what sense is he Badugi?"
Gong Won-goo murmured it from his ambush position, and the crew's ears perked up. They'd been lying low in the forest like dead rats. A standard ambush ran a high risk of detection, so they'd even burned through an expensive item—a small flag planted at Won-goo's feet. It suppressed presence for a set duration. Since it only dampened sound leaving their position, it wasn't perfect—it didn't hide their forms. But even just killing the noise multiplied an ambush's effectiveness enormously. Proper camouflage for the spot. Sound cut off. Even the most brutally trained soldier had limits when it came to erasing sound—especially in a forest, where in utter silence, anything could degrade into a deafening roar.
"See that? The big spot over one of his eyes."
"So Badugi's called Badugi... because he actually looks like a baduk stone? That was it?"
"What other reason would there be?"
"And here I thought it was because he's a strategist. You know, like the game."
"Could be that too? But now's not the time to litigate it. If it's Badugi, that's good for us. He's one we can afford to take down and eat. Everyone, battle ready."
Even though everyone was already prepared, Won-goo added one more thing.
"Keep Badugi alive. That bastard's ability is too valuable to waste."
The crew answered with nods.
"We move in on the count of ten. Hye-ji."
"Yes, Director."
"You're starting us off."
"Yes."
"Ten—"
Flash.
Geum Chul-soo abruptly shot his hand up. Won-goo didn't make a sound—just scowled at him.
"What?"
"It's... I think it's an earthquake."
"An earthquake? How big?"
"A massive one, I think."
"You sure?"
"Yes."
"Ha... We have to pull out with that right there?"
Rrrrrrrrumble!
The tremor hit before he'd even finished speaking. An earthquake.
"Ha..."
With a look of sheer incredulity, Won-goo looked back at Badugi. Badugi's party was already speeding back the way they'd come, the instant they'd sensed the quake.
"Unbelievable. Chul-soo!"
"Yes."
"We're withdrawing! Everyone, back the way we came—move!"
Paaaak!
"DUUULAAAAAK!"
The ground heaved up without warning. There'd been only the faintest omen of the earth groaning.
"What the hell—Chul-soo! Is this actually an earthquake?!"
"I did tell you it was massive."
Dulla went flying off into the distance.
"Dulla revives anyway—ditch him! Move, now!"
DRRRRRRK!
PAPAPAPAK!
The ground surging upward wasn't enough—it was now cracking open and tilting, as if it were alive and moving of its own will.
"Hyun-sung!"
"Yes, hyung!"
"Get the Tail Dog tails out!"
"Yes, hyung!"
"Everyone, tie in!"
They lashed themselves together with rope made from linked Tail Dog tails, then moved fast with Won-goo at the center—vaulting and swinging like they were running parkour. Mercifully, everyone's coin enhancements were solid, and they cleared every obstacle without strain. Even so, Won-goo's expression was grim.
This was exactly why so many survivors died in Field hunting. You never knew what would erupt. Even weather-trackers like Geum Chul-soo sometimes couldn't detect phenomena until they were practically on top of you—they surfaced that suddenly. Exactly like right now.
"Gong So-jaaaang! Gong So-jaaaang!"
As they pushed through the deepening quake, a familiar voice rang out. Pacific, closing in with movements bordering on acrobatics.
"Where the hell did you sell Fresh off to?"
"He got split up. Come with me!"
"Get over here fast, you bastard! This is bad—real bad!"
"Right behind—"
KWAAAAAAANG!
A sinkhole opened up on a scale that made the earlier ones look like nothing. It wasn't all that deep, but the width was no joke. Bigger than even Pacific's physical limits could handle—a sinkhole nearly the size of a small athletic field. And it had opened up precisely behind Won-goo. Pacific, caught in it, toppled for a moment before pushing himself upright.
"Ha... Well, I'm screwed."
Like riding an elevator down, the sinkhole kept sinking deeper beneath him. And in that situation, Pacific actually laughed.
"Hey! You okay down there?!"
Won-goo leaned out to check on him and threw the Tail Dog tail—but it came up short.
"Jump, you bastard!"
Pacific knew his physical limits better than anyone. At this rate of collapse, there was no answer. Even with a running start he'd fall short and drop. So he tore open the subspace bag he always kept strapped beneath his wheelchair and hurled it with everything he had.
"Everything's in that bag!"
"You lunatic! JUMP!"
"Live on! Gong Won-goo!"
"PACIFIIIIC!"
Won-goo's roar tore across the distance, but Pacific had already closed his eyes.
"Didn't see this ending coming..."
He faced death with a strange calm. He could render judgment that fast precisely because he was such a veteran.
Tuk.
An unexpected presence registered. It was Won-goo's voice—the one that had been distant moments ago was suddenly far closer.
"Pacific! You planning to open your eyes or what!"
"...?"
He opened them to find Won-goo diving toward him, hand outstretched.
"Grab my hand, you goddamn idiot! We ALL die if you don't!"
Won-goo screamed himself hoarse.
"Have you lost your mind? Why'd you come over here?!"
"Just take the hand!"
Thap!
Their hands locked. Pacific had grabbed on in a daze, but he couldn't fathom what the man intended. Won-goo had even severed his own Tail Dog rope before dropping—they'd both die if they fell, wouldn't they?
But what happened next blew clean past Pacific's expectations. The instant his hand met Won-goo's, everything went dark—and they moved somewhere else entirely.
Wheng!
The two men vanished like a hologram winking out.