Interim Settlement
Everyone stared at Won-goo in disbelief. He, for his part, was utterly calm.
"If you don't believe me, bet on it. I'm putting my money on 'the old man will be back soon.' Anyone want in?"
They only stared blankly at him.
"Jin-seon."
"Yes?"
"If the old man comes back with the backpacks, the deal still stands. Right?"
"As long as we get those back, it doesn't matter."
"Okay. Hye-ji, make sure that book on the floor gets kept safe. It's basically the old man's security blanket."
On the floor lay the book Mu Beob-sa always carried with him. Since everyone had their assigned positions, people tended to mistake it for a spellbook.
Veterans, however, could tell at a glance that it wasn't one. Spellbooks were not written in Earth's languages.
The book Mu Beob-sa lugged around was written in English.
"No torn pages?"
"Doesn't look like it. But what kind of book is this?"
"Ask the old man for the details. No, wait—if you ask, it'll turn into a long story. Save it for when you're bored to death and the two of you are alone. It's just a book. The old man's got a complex about his short academic record, that's all. Just remember that much."
"Boss, we've finished up. Shall we get ready to move?"
"Move? We stay right here. If we blunder around now, we'll just tangle up his route. The old man's no slouch with directions—he'll find his way to us."
"Director, is the Mage really that formidable...?"
"Jo Mu-sa, you've been getting more and more suspicious lately."
"That's not what I mean..."
"Not what you mean, my ass. So did I say something wrong, then? I ride the old man hard, but he's still one of ours. Do I look like the type to leave family out to rot?"
"Of course not."
"If I say he's fine, he's fine. The man received special training, I'm telling you. And his talent is monstrous."
"But the Mage's Gift is magic..."
"Right, he's not an enhancement type, so his physical stats lag. But if your technique is overwhelming, that doesn't mean a thing. He's got a dark past. His life before the world turned upside down was even bleaker. He made a promise, see. To use his hands only in moments when his life was on the line."
"Is there a part of this that prevents you from simply letting me go?"
Mu Beob-sa wasn't bound. Weapons were merely pressed against his body by Ralph's people.
"No. You're what we trade back for Ralph."
"I know a thing or two about Director Gong. He won't be making that trade—that's the part I'm seeing here."
At that, Sde grinned and closed in on Mu Beob-sa.
"Role."
"...?"
"Your Gift. What is it?"
"I use magic."
"Shall I take you piece by piece, tongue first, so you can't use it anymore?"
"That's a part I'll have to decline."
"You've got a peculiar way of talking."
And Sde swung his saw. A casual swing, but it was threatening—and fast.
Mu Beob-sa realized at once that this was no mere intimidation. It was a genuine attack.
An attack meant to sever his arm.
In that sliver of a moment, Mu Beob-sa exhaled through his nose and moved.
Dropping low, he slipped out of the ring of weapons at tremendous speed, hugging the ground as if crawling, and raked his blade across the ankle of the man beside him as he passed. In Mu Beob-sa's hand was a very small dagger.
A curved blade, exactly the size of something easy to hide.
Its sharpness, however, had nothing to do with its size.
"Huh—?"
Before the syllable finished, the man's body tilted as his severed ankle gave out, and Mu Beob-sa used him as a shield to reposition himself.
Ssswik!
And then Mu Beob-sa simply opened the man's throat.
From the left carotid artery to the right.
No hesitation.
No change of expression.
No killing intent to be sensed, either.
The same face he'd worn while making small talk.
He might as well have been catching up on overdue homework.
The instant one of their own went down, the rest threw themselves at Mu Beob-sa.
They had lost a comrade to an attack none of them had dreamed possible.
Without regeneration like Ralph's, even an Awakened Survivor could not have survived a wound like that.
It hadn't merely cut the carotid—it had carved so deep the head nearly lolled loose.
"You son of a bitch!"
Sde attacked, practically vaulting clean over his own comrades.
His fury was ferocious enough to spray killing intent from the corners of his eyes.
But Mu Beob-sa evaded it with nothing more than a few steps backward.
What was even more chilling was that he had retreated by exactly the margin that let Sde's overhead strike miss by a hair.
Whoosh!
"Your movements grow larger when you're excited—that's the part I notice."
Thud!
The instant Sde's downward blow spent itself, Mu Beob-sa answered with a front kick.
Even throwing the kick, his balance didn't waver in the slightest.
Like a man rooted to the floor, he stayed steady even on one leg.
Which made it easy to respond to the other enemies' attacks as well.
Parrying every incoming strike with that tiny dagger, he counterattacked.
Sde could tell from those movements alone.
A master.
This wasn't a matter of physical stats.
This was a realm earned through countless hours of training and experience.
More than that Director guy...
"You... who the hell are you?"
"I believe this is the part where I asked to be released."
"G-Get lost!"
"That isn't possible at the moment—that's the part. It's been a while since I had a chance to earn my keep."
And with that, Mu Beob-sa pushed forward instead. As if his read on every one of them was already complete.
"See? Told you I'd come."
"If you were watching, then isn't helping the part that comes next?"
Mu Beob-sa was dragging people toward them with visible effort.
He'd hauled two of them across the floor, and both were still faintly breathing.
"Where's Sde?"
"Ran. He possessed quite a talent for running away—that's the part I observed."
"Honestly... old man, you couldn't catch even that one? Don't tell me you let him go on purpose."
"Is there a part where I would release him deliberately? And shouldn't you be thanking me for my efforts—that's the part I'm owed."
"Efforts, my ass. I finally earned my keep for once. Think about all the freeloading I've done. That conviction of his, or promise, or whatever it was—I'm the one who's been honoring it on his behalf all this time."
"..."
"But why only two? There aren't more?"
"You should count it as fortunate that you never met me before the apocalypse, Director Gong—that's the part I'd advise."
"I was an ordinary little citizen. When would I ever have crossed paths with you? Enough nonsense—were there no subspace backpacks?"
At that, Mu Beob-sa drew two subspace backpacks out of the pouch at his waist.
Items imbued with subspace technology were, by design, impossible to stack.
You could not nest subspace backpacks inside one another to haul around an absurd volume of goods.
The pouch at Mu Beob-sa's waist, however, was a special container that could hold even those.
Its only flaw was that its interior was so small it filled up after a few backpacks.
"Jin-seon, come take a look. Is this them?"
Yang Jin-seon was already approaching before he even finished calling. She opened one of the two backpacks and nodded.
"That's them."
"Then head on back. That's the better call, right?"
"Yes."
"Can you find your way?"
"We can."
Won-goo nodded. "Ttugi, bring me the pouch backpack."
"Yes, Boss!"
Lee Hyun-sung hurried off and returned with it in no time.
"How many should I take out?"
"Just seven of the hundred-count ones."
Hyun-sung pulled out the pouches—each one filled with one hundred silver coins.
"It's not much, but put it toward seeing them off."
"You really don't have to do this."
Yang Jin-seon shook her head and demurred.
"Take it. The world's gone to hell, but we're still Korean, aren't we? Don't turn me into some vulgar bastard—take it."
Jin-seon couldn't readily accept it and glanced around awkwardly.
"Don't mind the others. My people aren't that heartless. Right?"
"The Boss is right."
Hyun-sung answered without a beat of hesitation. Only then did Jin-seon take the pouches.
"I never expected things to get this tangled up. I'm sorry."
"What does the Director have to be sorry for? We came in knowing everything. The shortfall was on our side."
"Even so. This one didn't pan out, but let's do good business again sometime."
"Yes."
He had invoked their shared Korean identity, but gestures like this had long since vanished from the world since the apocalypse began.
Under the current law of the land, an incident like the one just past meant Yang Jin-seon should have been the one paying Won-goo.
She'd been operating independently and had nearly died; it was Won-goo who had saved her.
That was why she'd squirmed.
"Hold on."
"Yes?"
Jin-seon turned back around.
"You said the old man let Sde slip away. That slimy bastard... feels like he'll come back around for a cheap shot."
"That's a part not worth worrying about."
"You think?"
"It's fine. He took quite a beating—he'll be devoting himself to nothing but recovery for a while."
Everyone turned to look at Mu Beob-sa again.
"So you couldn't kill him?"
"Before the world turned upside down, a wound of that degree would have ended things beyond all doubt—that's the part. But these days, I'd judge that he lives."
"Of all the ones to let get away, you lost the most fucked-up one of the lot."
"He has a rather particular ability. There was nothing to be done about that part."
Come to think of it, there was hardly a trace of battle anywhere on Mu Beob-sa. A bit of blood spattered on his clothes, and beyond that, spotless.
A chill crawled up their spines without warning.
The results shown by the unremarkable-looking old man had been anything but unremarkable.
"It's safe, so head in carefully. And you remember, right? Today's business..."
"We won't breathe a word. But we are launching an investigation into those bastards."
"That's your business."
The Yang Sisters nodded and slipped out of the dungeon.
"Let's tidy up on our end too."
"Boss, what do we do with that bastard? Do we patch him up?"
Lee Hyun-sung asked, pointing at Ralph. Won-goo's answer was flat and final.
"No. That bastard's a breed beyond curing. Cut his head off."
"Yes, Boss."
"Wait!"
Ralph, who had lain there as good as dead, sprang upright shouting. Every member of the crew stared, thunderstruck.
His recovery was genuinely astonishing.
"Are you a lizard? Just how many coins have you eaten to regenerate like that?"
"Wait. Hear me out."
"I know exactly what you're about to say. You've got a fat stash of coins hidden somewhere. That what you were going to pitch?"
"..."
Ralph went mute as a man with a mouthful of honey.
Thud!
Won-goo brought the warhammer down on the fallen Ralph's head without mercy.
"A lot! More than this whole dungeon would spit out!"
"Oh?"
"Yes. Someone like you—you'd know, right? Roughly how many coins I've eaten. To have eaten this many, think how many dungeons I must have cleared."
"So, quite a lot?"
"A lot. I've done everything you ask. A contract? Write it up for however much you want."
Won-goo cackled.
"...?"
"I've lived through this scene too many times, that's all. Ah, Jun-sik was a little different. That one had some actual spine. But you're not like him. You..."
"We all do what we must to survive, don't we?"
"But you enjoyed it too much."
"I'm telling you, it's a lot! A real lot!"
"All that money, and the way I see it, that bastard Sde will come knocking for it first."
"Even Sde doesn't know where it is!"
"And that's why you want to live?"
"Yes. I won't come within a mile of this area. I won't entangle myself with your people ever again. And if you're still nervous, I'll add more on top."
Won-goo laughed loudly once more. Then he crouched down and peered into Ralph's face at close range.
"Killing, stealing, defiling. You did it all, and now that you're alive, you want mercy? Ralph. Is your family name Shim, by any chance?"
"...?"
"Because there's not a shred of conscience in you, is there. This bastard."
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Won-goo's beating continued without pause. It was a barrage that should have flattened him into paste—yet Ralph was still alive.
"Ttugi!"
"Yes, Boss."
"Start with the legs. Send him off as painfully as you can."
"Understood, Boss."
Ralph's screams, thick with malice, rang out. But Won-goo's crew didn't hesitate for a single moment in their work.
They didn't stop.