How to Kill a Man
Lee Kang thought it over for a moment.
Wake her up?
Or just sleep on the floor?
The answer came quickly.
Why would I sleep on the floor?
Lee Kang walked over to Lee Seol-ah.
He bent down as carefully as he could. Seol-ah seemed to be in a deep sleep. Her breathing was even, and her eyelids did not stir.
Lee Kang slid his hands under her shoulders and knees.
Then he lifted her slowly. Seol-ah’s body was light.
It was the body of someone who had gone hungry for a long time. Even if she had started training and eating again, there was no way she would put on weight overnight.
Lee Kang moved Seol-ah to the floor. Fortunately, she did not wake. Only when her body shifted slightly did her small feet flail weakly in the air a few times.
The toes that kicked at empty air brushed lightly against Lee Kang’s arm.
“……”
Lee Kang paused for a moment, then carefully laid Seol-ah down again. Curled up on the floor, she tucked herself small once more. Her face was still that of someone asleep.
After confirming that, Lee Kang lay down on the sofa at once. Seol-ah’s warmth was still left there.
Warm.
Not bad.
With that thought as his last, Lee Kang fell asleep almost immediately.
The next day.
Tap.
Tap.
Something nudged Lee Kang’s body.
At first, he thought it was a dream.
Tap.
Tap.
This time it was clearer. Lee Kang forced his eyes open.
“……What is it?”
Lee Seol-ah was in front of him.
She was looking down at Lee Kang with emotionless eyes. And she was lightly tapping his arm with a small fist.
Tap.
Tap.
“……”
Lee Kang looked up at Seol-ah for a moment, then yawned widely.
“Haaahm.”
Then, as if nothing had happened, he sat up.
Seol-ah was still watching him.
Lee Kang ignored that gaze and rolled his neck. His body felt a little stiff here and there. Still, thanks to sleeping on the sofa, it was far better than the floor.
He looked at Seol-ah and said, “Are you going to join the Black Moon Sect?”
Seol-ah’s expression turned slightly puzzled.
“Wasn’t I already a member of the Black Moon Sect?”
“That’s true enough.”
Lee Kang waved a hand lightly.
“But I need to register you in the system. Just nod or say yes, got it?”
Seol-ah looked at him for a moment.
She did not seem to fully understand what he meant. But as though deciding to do as Lee Kang told her, she gave a quiet nod.
“I accept.”
Lee Seol-ah has joined the Black Moon Sect.
Sect experience has increased.
Sect Level: 1 [400 / 1000]
Lee Kang narrowed his eyes.
Four hundred per sect member?
It was hard to tell whether that was a lot or a little.
For a Sect Level 1 standard, it seemed like a fairly large number. But sect experience could also go down. If Seol-ah left, it would drop right back down.
Lee Kang filed that away.
“All right.”
Seol-ah gave a quiet nod.
The two of them got through breakfast with cup ramen.
Steam rose from the noodles after hot water was poured in. Lee Kang loosened the noodles with his chopsticks without much care. Seol-ah held her cup ramen carefully, watched him eat once, and then followed suit.
It was a simple meal.
Still, it was warm food.
After they finished eating, Lee Kang made rice tea for the first time in a while. He poured some into a cup and handed it to Seol-ah.
Lee Kang and Seol-ah took careful sips of the rice tea.
A savory fragrance spread through his mouth. Lee Kang set the cup down and said, “From here on, I’ll tell you how to deal with Mak Family.”
Seol-ah’s gaze fixed on him.
“Mak Family posted a wanted notice on the Gallery, looking for my location. That was a long time ago.”
Lee Kang continued in a calm voice.
“But as you know, neither of us has gone out at all while training. And since we don’t know many people outside, they can’t find the location of our Black Moon Sect just by asking around.”
“So no one found it.”
“Right.”
Seol-ah thought for a moment, then said, “Then if we just stay still, the Mak Family will back off on its own, won’t it?”
Lee Kang looked at her.
“Why do you think that?”
“They wouldn’t keep sacrificing an entire family just because of one person, Lee Kang.”
Lee Kang nodded.
“That’s true too.”
She was right.
No matter how stubborn Mak Daehan was, keeping people out searching cost something. It took time. It took manpower. He could not keep chasing one Black Moon Sect forever.
Especially in this apocalyptic world, that was even more true. But still.
“Hapjeong Station, where the Mak Family is, is too close to Mangwon Market, where our Black Moon Sect is.”
Lee Kang lowered his voice.
“If we keep moving around, we’ll run into them sooner or later. And since Mak Daehan has openly provoked us like this, I have to pay him back as the Black Moon Sect’s leader.”
He also had a slightly different thought in his head.
I wouldn’t normally do this...
Normally, he would have hidden.
He would have dragged things out as long as possible, waited for the other side to grow tired, and if necessary, abandoned the base.
But things were different now.
The sect system had opened.
He needed fame.
And he had to raise Seol-ah.
He could not just have her train. She needed real combat too. He had to show her how to kill a person, how to avoid being killed, how to deceive, how to survive.
Looking at Seol-ah, Lee Kang said, “There are many ways to kill a person.”
Seol-ah listened quietly.
“The first is bait.”
In the area near Mangwon Market.
Mak Uni, a member of the Mak Family, was wandering around the Mangwon Market area looking for Black Moon Sect members.
At first, he had been fairly motivated.
Mak Daehan had said there would be a huge reward if they found the Black Moon Sect, and it sounded like an easy job, something that would be over quickly, like a first-come, first-served game.
But as time passed, his enthusiasm cooled fast.
How many days has it been now?
He had been searching the Mangwon Market area for quite a while. During that time, plenty of tips had come in. The problem was that most of them were lies from people chasing the reward.
One bastard claimed he had seen the Black Moon Sect and sent them to a completely wrong alley. Another pointed at some suspicious-looking person and insisted it was Lee Kang. One even joked that he himself was the Black Moon Sect leader and nearly got beaten to death by the Mak Family for it.
By now, most of the Mak Family was close to giving up.
But Mak Daehan was different.
He kept ordering them to check every lead.
No matter how flimsy it looked, if it was around Mangwon Market, they had to verify it.
That was why Mak Uni was out today too.
Damn it. It’ll be another wasted trip anyway.
Another tip had come in through the Gallery comments today.
It said someone who looked like a Black Moon Sect member had been seen near Mangwon Market.
Mak Uni did not believe it.
But he had to check. Mak Daehan had told him to.
With an irritated expression, he looked around the alleyways.
The Mangwon Market area was still a mess. Collapsed signs, half-open shop shutters, walls smeared with blood, low curses and footsteps coming from somewhere nearby.
Searching for one person in a place like this was insane.
Mak Uni clicked his tongue.
“Black Moon Sect, my ass...”
He wandered deeper into the Mangwon Market area at a lazy pace.
Mak Uni reached the area the informant had pointed out.
It was the entrance to an old alley.
There were half-collapsed signs, piles of trash, and a wall of old brick running along it. Human presence was sparse, and shadows lay thick in the depths of the alley.
Mak Uni looked around, then stopped short. Someone was waving from inside the alley.
It was a girl.
Black hair. White eyes.
And a face so absurdly beautiful it was almost unreal. She looked like a black flower blooming in the ruins. Mak Uni nearly felt like writing poetry about her looks without meaning to.
What the hell?
Seol-ah was not merely pretty. She was not the kind of face you saw in a market alley. She did not even look like a modern person.
That was strange.
A tip came in through the Gallery, but she’s not modern?
Even her clothes, her atmosphere, and her eyes all felt different. She definitely was not from around here.
But none of that mattered.
She was beautiful.
That was enough. Mak Uni’s mouth opened into a grin on its own.
“Hehe.”
He forgot his irritation from a moment ago and walked toward Seol-ah.
“Are you the one who sent the tip?”
Seol-ah did not answer.
She simply stood in the alley and watched him.
Even that silence pleased Mak Uni.
A quiet beauty, huh.
He grinned slyly and took another step closer.
That was when it happened.
Thud.
A heavy sound came from deeper inside the alley.
Mak Uni turned his head slightly, then quickly dismissed it.
In old alleys like this, strange noises were common. Signs fell, bricks rolled loose, rats or stray dogs kicked through trash piles somewhere out of sight.
It was probably nothing.
More important was the girl in front of him. Mak Uni looked back at Seol-ah.
“So you’re the one who saw a Black Moon Sect bastard?”
Only then did Seol-ah slowly raise a hand.
And point over Mak Uni’s head.
“Please be careful.”
“Huh?”
Mak Uni looked up with a confused face. A single brick was falling from the sky.
“……”
For a moment, Mak Uni blinked.
Then the corners of his mouth lifted.
“Ha.”
He bared his teeth in a grin and grabbed the staff on his back.
One brick.
That was laughable. If anything, this was perfect.
He had a chance to show off in front of such a beautiful woman.
Mak Uni raised his staff and took a stance.
“Watch closely.”
He intended to smash the falling brick out of the air.
He planned to pour power into the tip of the staff, shatter the brick, and laugh as if nothing had happened.
At that very moment,
Mak Uni failed to notice.
Behind him.
Inside the alley’s shadow, someone had quietly appeared.