The Bear That Tears Men Apart
The door burst open with a violent bang.
“If it was the Boss Lady, she sure as hell wouldn’t barge in like that.”
Baekgom found it suspicious. ‘Better safe than sorry.’
He rose to his feet, drawing inner energy from his dantian so he could fight at any moment. The moment he confirmed the person who opened the door wasn’t Woo Hyun-woo, he would charge in and take them down. Was the enemy strong? Weak? There was no time to worry about crap like that.
‘The hallway’s narrow anyway. Perfect conditions for the White Bear Form Fist. No need to drag this out—I’ll end it quick.’
The first thing to determine wasn’t the opponent’s strength, but friend or foe.
“Mister, who are you?”
The man who opened the door was not Woo Hyun-woo. Eris looked at him and asked who he was. It was 11 p.m. The opponent was someone even Eris didn’t recognize. The crude violence of smashing the door open.
‘Then he’s an enemy.’
Kill him.
White Bear Heavy Strike
BOOOOM!
Baekgom charged without a shred of hesitation, swinging his fist horizontally. The movement was massive, but to the man it looked impossibly fast—he couldn’t react in time. Even though it struck his ribs, what exploded wasn’t the sound of bones breaking but a deafening roar. He had circulated his inner energy to momentarily amplify his body’s speed.
“Guh… ugh…”
The man couldn’t even speak properly from the pain. He coughed up blood and collapsed. Having shattered his ribs and wrecked his lungs, there was no way he could survive.
“Killing him doesn’t really feel like anything. Fuck it, he was a piece of shit anyway. Who cares?”
But the man wasn’t alone. There was another guy behind him, and that one was holding a pistol.
“What the—what the fuck?”
Baekgom spat out a curse in confusion. The man loaded the gun and muttered,
“The boss definitely said there were no combatants… Guess they got some new ones. Still, you’ll die if you get shot.”
If you get shot, you die. That was common sense. No matter how strong an executive of an organization was, a bullet would kill them. And a combatant from Fantasia? It was obvious they’d die too.
Thinking that, the man pulled the trigger.
Baekgom watched the trigger being pulled. In that instant, his dynamic vision sharpened and time seemed to slow down. If you get shot, you die. To not die—
“Hah!”
Baekgom let out a shout, stomped the ground, and dropped into a horse stance.
BANG!
The bullet fired. The gun had clearly aimed straight at Baekgom’s head. But it couldn’t pierce him.
White Bear Outer Hide
Ting. Clink…
The bullet bounced off his head with no power and fell to the floor.
“What?”
The man who fired the gun froze, unable to process what had just happened. Baekgom didn’t miss the opening.
He had been told to make sure to kill anyone holding a gun.
White Bear Palm Strike
Baekgom swung both arms wide and slapped the man’s ears with his palms.
CRACK!
An explosion that didn’t sound like a human clap erupted. The man’s brain burst, his eyes rolled back, and he dropped to his knees.
‘It’d be nice if it ended here, but…’
He could sense more people behind him. He didn’t know how many, but if he kept fighting like this, his inner energy would definitely run dry. So he wouldn’t play fair anymore.
‘Killing doesn’t feel like anything anyway.’
Baekgom swiftly snatched the pistol from the fallen man and aimed it. As expected, a new man was stepping through the entrance.
“Aigoo, Brother Doo-sik. Why’d you fire already? I told you to take a hostage…”
The man walked in with a relaxed smile, apparently unaware of the situation ahead. What he actually saw were two collapsed men and Baekgom pointing a gun at him.
“Huh?”
BANG!
The distance was close. There was no way to miss. The moment Baekgom pulled the trigger, a hole opened in the man’s head and he died on the spot.
The fourth man behind him realized something was horribly wrong and tried to run.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going, you son of a bitch?”
White Bear Charge
Baekgom charged violently and grabbed the man instantly. Having reinforced his legs with inner energy, the man had only taken a single step before he was caught. His strength was overwhelming—the man couldn’t break free. The gun barrel pressed against his head.
“Ugh! How can something this small be so strong…”
“You know what? Even if you possess someone, you keep all the strength you had before possession, you dumbass.”
“How would I know? I’m not even a possessor.”
“Then you should just die without knowing, you fuck. Want me to send you straight to where your brothers are?”
Baekgom deliberately clicked the trigger threateningly. The man flinched hard at the sound.
“Hiiik! Spare me!”
When the man screamed, the six men waiting outside to enter all flinched. Seeing that, Baekgom infused his voice with inner energy and roared,
“Don’t move! I’ll blow this bastard’s fucking head open!”
His voice reverberated like thunder, striking their ears. Overwhelmed by the sound alone, the men couldn’t do anything. The one who heard it loudest was the man being held. But perhaps because he thought he was about to die anyway, a courage he never had before surged up and his mouth moved.
“Are you even human?! How can you say you’ll blow someone’s head open so easily!”
Baekgom was genuinely surprised at himself. He had killed a person for the first time and felt nothing. But if he got caught up in words like that, it would damage his reputation. He wouldn’t back down an inch.
“You bastards came here to put a fucking hole in our heads, but I’m not allowed to say that? Huh?”
Baekgom kept clicking the trigger as he spoke.
“If you came here with some balls, then do something instead of standing there like pathetic losers.”
“Ugh…”
The men hesitated, unable to move recklessly. Baekgom knew exactly what that meant.
“Ah, you can’t do anything because of this guy? Then I’ll just send him off.”
BANG!
Baekgom finally pulled the trigger.
“No more hostage. Come at me again.”
The man’s body went limp as blood sprayed out. Baekgom tossed him aside like trash. The men didn’t miss the chance and drew their guns. They hadn’t seen that bullets didn’t work on Baekgom.
“Hah!”
Baekgom shouted again, stomping the ground and dropping into a horse stance. A storm of gunfire erupted.
RATATATATATANG!
The noisy bullets flew at his body. But they couldn’t leave a single scratch and simply piled up on the floor.
“That’s all you’ve got? I thought you had something besides guns, damn.”
The men’s guns were already empty, clicking pathetically.
“Th-the guns don’t work?”
They hadn’t brought spare magazines, so they couldn’t reload. Not that it would have mattered even if they did.
‘My inner energy still has plenty left.’
Baekgom relaxed his stance and shrugged.
“If you act tough relying on a chunk of metal like this, you die.”
He crushed the pistol he was holding with both hands.
Crack… crunch…
Baekgom’s display of dominance was effective. It was impossible in the men’s common sense to crush a gun with bare hands.
“Waaaaah!”
The men screamed and started running for their lives. But one step—
“Aaaagh!”
One man. Two steps—
“Keeeek!”
Two men. Three steps—
“Kyaaaaah!”
Three men… They were far slower than Baekgom. Running was pointless. Every single one died in one hit and became cold corpses on the floor. He left only one alive to ask questions.
“Hey, you fucker. Which son of a bitch sent you?”
Baekgom grabbed the last man’s arms and asked.
“Answer quick. If you don’t talk in five seconds I’ll rip you apart. Five, four, three…”
“T-the Fighting Dog! The guy who called the Fighting Dog sent us!”
“Ah~”
Baekgom roughly understood the situation.
“S-spare me! I told you, didn’t I?”
“Huh? When the fuck did I say I’d spare you if you talked?”
“Ah.”
The man realized it at the same time he was torn apart in both directions.
Whoa, Baekgom really is tearing people apart.
Watching through situational observation, I was speechless at how overwhelmingly strong he was. It was completely different from me frantically running around and smashing Banana Men.
But how the hell is he fine after getting shot? His combat power is way lower than mine?
It wasn’t that Baekgom’s combat power rose when he drew on his inner energy. The combat power number already seemed to include inner energy.
“So that’s why combat power isn’t everything in a fight.”
It looked like there were ultimate techniques that didn’t get reflected in combat power. Like the poisoned needles and strange formations Sacheon Heuksa used—they weren’t reflected in combat power either.
“What the hell have you been saying this whole time? Tearing people apart, combat power not being everything…!”
“You really don’t know who Baekgom is?”
“Baekgom is an animal, isn’t it?”
“Well, if you mean cute like an animal, I’ll accept that.”
His behavior isn’t cute, but his appearance really is. If Eris looked like Baekgom, I probably would’ve fallen for her hard. Might have even put a collar on her and raised her.
“Baekgom is a new member of our Fantasia organization. A really cute-looking girl.”
“A girl? You’re trusting just a girl?”
“You don’t even know that? In noir, you have to be careful of children and the elderly. The fact that children and old people survive in such a harsh world means they’re anything but ordinary.”
Actually, that saying fits murim better. But since this world doesn’t have murim, it’s meaningless.
“N-now that you mention it, I think I’ve heard something like that…!”
Why the hell is he acting like it’s a real saying?
“But I’ve never heard of such an organization member joining! Does it make sense that they joined today of all days when I’m carrying out my plan?”
“Why the fuck would I lie, you dumbass? If it was really dangerous, the longer this drags on the worse it gets for me.”
“And even if it’s Baekgom or whatever, they’d die if shot! All ten men I sent have guns!”
“Ah, that? I didn’t know either, but guns don’t work on her. If you don’t believe me, go check for yourself. They’re probably all dead by now.”
At my words, Geumnara hurriedly pulled out his phone and made a call. But of course no one answered. They had already been sent straight to the afterlife by Baekgom.
“Pick up the phone… I told you to turn off silent mode if you took a hostage…”
He kept calling. Still no answer. As time passed, Geumnara’s face grew paler and paler.
“How long are you going to stay in denial? Your plan is over.”
“Ha… haha…”
Geumnara laughed as if in despair. Then, as if he had lost his mind, he reached into his inner pocket.
“Fine, let’s say this Baekgom or whatever made the guns useless and all my subordinates are dead…”
He pulled out a gun.
“But a gun should still work on you, right?”
Is this bastard actually crazy? I took down all the Banana Men by myself. Why is he acting like this when he knows that?
“If I kill you, that’s enough, you son of a bitch!”
He screamed at the top of his lungs, loading the gun and trying to pull the trigger. I walked up to him casually, grabbed the hand holding the gun, and said,
“You really think that?”
“That a gun will work on me?”
I squeezed both the gun and his hand at the same time and laughed.
—There’s no way it would work, you braindead fuck.