Chapter 13
Chapter 13
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 013
Chapter Title: Extreme Reeducation
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Lee Jung-woo threw on the worn-out hoodie he'd tossed carelessly onto the sofa.
It wasn't flashy armor or a dignified robe.
But the moment he moved, Belial felt an overwhelming weight, as if he were shouldering the entire abyss of the empire and stepping out.
Yes. His lord was angry.
"Belial. Pull the Crow's Nest location from the souls of those bugs Helena caught."
"It's in the basement of an old industrial complex in Incheon, my lord."
"Got it."
Jung-woo stepped out onto the balcony.
He didn't seem to have any intention of summoning a dragon.
Without hesitation, he stepped off into the empty air from the fifteenth floor.
His body mocked the laws of gravity as it fell lightly, then melted into the shadows and vanished.
Shadow magic space transfer.
The fastest and most secretive path to coordinates imbued with the emperor's will.
Incheon Namdong Industrial Complex outskirts, an underground bunker disguised as a waste disposal site.
Crow, the head of the nation's largest information network—the Shadow Network—was surrounded by a forest of ultra-high-performance monitors.
Dozens of screens streamed in real-time data on everything happening in South Korea.
Without taking his eyes off the screens, Crow twitched his fingers.
His B-rank ability, Information Adhesion.
It instinctively read and categorized the flow of digital information it touched.
Even better, it could unwittingly extract information from anyone or anything it came into contact with.
'Reports... why aren't they coming in?'
There was no word from the agents who'd promised field updates every thirty minutes.
A chill of unease ran down his spine.
The rougher the job, the higher the pay—but this one felt especially off.
Seo Jun's voice had carried an urgency and greed that echoed like a ticking time bomb in his ears.
He'd already dispatched his three most capable shadows to the scene.
BOOM!
It didn't take long for his anxiety to become reality.
The bunker's sole entrance—a 50cm-thick steel door made of special alloy that could withstand even A-rank awakener attacks—was crumpled like paper and blasted inward.
With a deafening roar, the steel door flew like a cannonball, smashing several servers inside before embedding into the wall.
"W-what the hell?!"
"Intruder! Everyone, battle stations!"
The dozens of organization members inside scrambled in shock, drawing their weapons.
As the dust settled beyond the doorway, a man appeared.
Wearing a threadbare hoodie.
Utterly ordinary, yet profoundly alien.
It was Lee Jung-woo.
The moment Crow saw him, he stopped breathing.
That lunatic he'd only seen on screens—how did he know this place? How did he breach that door?
But he was a pro.
Suppressing his fear, he shouted.
"Fire!"
Bang! Rat-tat-tat!
Dozens of bullets and awakener attacks rained down on him.
Fireballs, ice spears, lightning lances tore through the air.
Jung-woo waved his hand lazily, as if annoyed.
An invisible barrier unfurled, halting the incoming bullets and spells dead in midair.
Like a frozen frame from a movie where time had stopped.
"Idiots who don't even know the principles behind their own powers."
He muttered under his breath and snapped his fingers.
The halted projectiles reversed course at their original velocity.
"Gah!"
"Ugh! Why're they bouncing back...!"
Those pierced by their own bullets and spells screamed as they collapsed.
Jung-woo strolled in leisurely amid the chaos, like he was on a walk in the park.
His target was clear: Crow, pale and frozen as he watched it all.
Crow instinctively maxed out his ability.
B-rank top-tier rare skill: Information Adhesion.
To survive, he needed the enemy's weakness.
'Please... anything, even the tiniest gap!'
The moment transparent tendrils of information reached for Jung-woo, he smiled.
"So this is your ability? A bug daring to peek into the abyss."
Crow shuddered at the words.
How does he know my power?
Jung-woo, having already extracted soul intel from Helena's captives, knew plenty about Crow.
"Gurk... Graaaah!"
Jung-woo did nothing.
Crow's ability had merely brushed the faint membrane of mana cloaking his body.
Crow clutched his head and writhed on the floor.
It wasn't just blocked.
A torrent of information surged into his brain: three hundred years of history, millions upon millions of undead souls, the origins of death and magic intertwined.
His mind burned in agony.
'Th-this... it's just...'
Blood streamed from his eyes, nose, and ears as he convulsed. Jung-woo approached.
He ignored the surviving members entirely.
Grabbing Crow by the hair, he yanked his head up.
He locked eyes with the face twisted in terror and pain.
"Why'd you pull that shit? What's your goal?"
"I-I'm... sor...ry... please... spare me..."
Jung-woo wasn't interested in excuses or apologies.
He seized Crow's right pinky like a hook and twisted it backward until it snapped fully.
Crack.
"Aaaagh!"
The sound of shattering bone echoed.
The vivid sensation of pulverized joints in his grip.
Jung-woo gripped Crow's wrist again.
"Answer."
"Khuh... S-sorry... It was... an order. I took... a commission."
"What commission?"
"J-just... info gathering... I don't... know much... it was ju-aaagh!"
Crack.
"Sure, I'll buy that. You might not know."
Crow's screams gave way to greater fear of the monster before him than the bone-crushing pain.
"But who placed the commission?"
"..."
As Jung-woo grabbed his remaining middle, index, and thumb at once,
"Hng... S-Sob, Black... Black Forest! Black Forest Guild Master... Seo Jun!"
The moment he heard the name and title, Jung-woo's hand paused for the first time.
Cold reason flashed in his eyes.
With his rage slightly cooled, a predator's curiosity emerged.
'Black Forest Guild Master...? Not some info broker, but the guild head?'
Intrigued, Jung-woo released his hair grip.
Crow slammed into the floor, gasping raggedly.
'Seo Jun, huh...'
Even icons like Choi Kang-hyuk had slipped Jung-woo's mind, let alone Seo Jun.
Celebrity names barely registered in his frontal lobe anymore.
"Tell me everything about this Seo Jun guy. Spill it all. Or next it's your neck."
Amid pain and terror, Crow desperately racked his brain to survive.
He wouldn't waste this chance, pouring out all he knew in a trembling voice.
"S-Seo Jun is... head of one of the four great guilds, an S-rank awakener. From the slums... believes only power and money are justice. Brimming with ambition and cunning. He harbors deep resentment toward Choi Kang-hyuk... and probably saw you, Lee Jung-woo, as a stepping stone to grow his own faction...!"
"S-rank awakener... ambition... cunning...?"
Jung-woo murmured the words, a pleased smile creeping on.
'Guys like that are more fun to beat senseless and torture with false hope than just kill outright.'
"Useful intel. As a reward, I'll let you go."
Hope lit Crow's face at the cold words.
In that instant, Jung-woo seized his jaw and forced his mouth open.
"...Think I'd say that?"
Jung-woo's fingers plunged deep into his mouth.
"Urk... Gack, hack!"
"Like information, huh? Live off it."
Jung-woo's eyes turned icy.
"You've feasted well with that tongue all this time. Time to pay up."
"Mmph... Mmmph!"
Crow grabbed Jung-woo's wrist with both hands, resisting futilely.
Jung-woo clamped down on his tongue.
Deep, near the root.
And yanked without mercy.
Riiip.
Muscle and nerves tore with a gruesome sound, ripping Crow's bright red tongue clean out.
"Euuuugh! Aaaack!"
Crow spewed blood, unleashing bizarre gurgles from his throat.
Even annoying beast or orc howls would sound better.
Jung-woo tossed the extracted tongue aside like filthy trash.
Wiping the blood from his fingers on Crow's clothes, he muttered.
"Shut up already."
Dissatisfied, he stomped on Crow's wrists.
Crunch.
Another horrific bone-shattering sound filled the bunker with Crow's agonized scream.
"Uuuuughraaah!!!"
"Even an emperor of the empire once agonized over information. Enemy schemes, traitors' whispers, the people's unrest. But in the end, I realized: before overwhelming power, all intel is just garbage."
Jung-woo crushed both hands under his combat boots until they were useless, then discarded him like refuse.
Crow convulsed on the floor in shock, soaked in blood and tears.
A normal person would've died from shock long ago, let alone a B-rank.
Just as he thought it was over, Jung-woo's voice returned.
"But you look useful."
Jung-woo slowly crouched before his eyes.
Smiling faintly, he extended a hand over Crow's head.
Jet-black darkness mingled with eerie green mana at his fingertips.
The grotesque power of death and regeneration intertwined—dark magic.
"On second thought, that pathetic ability of yours could serve as pretty good eyes and ears here on Earth."
"U... uh... uh..."
"Choose. Die miserably and serve as an undead loyalist, or become my dog and gain a new tongue and hands."
"...!!"
"Loyalty's loyalty to me either way. You know that, right?"
Jung-woo chuckled dryly.
Crow had no real choice, of course.
He frantically nodded his convulsing body.
Fear leaked thick fluids from every orifice.
Forcing himself upright, he pressed his forehead to Jung-woo's boots in total submission.
"Smart choice. Consider yourself lucky."
At Jung-woo's gesture, green mana enveloped Crow.
His crushed hands' bones and muscles reformed with grotesque sounds; a new tongue sprouted in his empty mouth.
Pain vanished, but the soul-chains binding him sent deeper chills.
Moments later, Crow stared in horror at his perfectly restored hands and tongue.
No S-rank high-level healer could regenerate this fast or flawlessly.
Testing his new tongue with a shaky voice,
"Th-this...!"
Jung-woo murmured into the air.
"Belial."
Whoosh.
The shadows behind Jung-woo rippled, revealing the empire's 2nd Legion Commander and chief mage, the Elder Lich, bowing.
The surviving, groaning members forgot to breathe at this second monster's arrival.
Jung-woo nodded toward the prone Crow.
"Train this one properly. Make him grok down to his rotten core how efficient and merciful the empire's ways are. Bring him back to me enlightened. Got it?"
"Kekeke... Worry not, my lord. When next you meet, he'll be your most loyal hound."
Belial cackled, fully grasping the implications.
"Oh, and train any usable ones among the downed trash. The near-dead? Use 'em for experiments or as kindling for the soul forge later. Whatever."
"I am honored, my lord."
Satisfaction gleamed red in Belial's empty sockets.
Jung-woo smiled contentedly.
With nothing left to say, he tossed one final line at Crow.
"Tell that Seo Jun punk I'll collect my debt someday. Tell him to keep his neck clean and wait."
He'd postpone the hunt for now, saving the toy for more fun.
Leaving those words, Jung-woo vanished into the darkness as silently as he'd come.
Only Belial, Crow, and the groaning dozens remained.
Belial approached the blood-soaked, trembling Crow and lifted his chin with bony fingers.
"Well then... shall we begin your imperial freshman orientation?"
"First lesson: Despair."
Two days later.
The Shadow Network had been completely reorganized into a new entity.
Crow rallied his members.
Far more efficiently—and ruthlessly—than before.
Now, his top priority was one man alone.
Once regrouped, he led a convoy of black sedans straight to the heart of Seoul: Black Forest Guild headquarters.
The lobby desk clerk blocked him, but Crow ignored her.
"Tell Guild Master Seo Jun that Crow requests an audience."
A different killing intent emanated from his black-suited followers.
The guild lobby air froze solid.
Soon, the vice-guild master arrived urgently to escort him.
At Black Forest's top floor.
Seo Jun's face hardened at the sight of Crow.
"You little shit... you screwing with me? No contact for over two days! If you're gonna take the money, how the hell do you...!"
Crow cut him off in a dry, emotionless tone.
"My new lord has a message for you, Guild Master."
"New lord? What bullshit—who's your lo—"
"I'll relay it verbatim."
Ignoring Seo Jun, he recited Jung-woo's words perfectly.
"Someday I'll collect my debt, so keep your neck clean and wait."
Crow's voice was the same, but the emotions within had utterly changed.
Deep terror mingled with awe for an unstoppable being.
"...That's the message. Please... don't get any clever ideas."
Crow bowed politely and turned away without lingering.
Seo Jun stared blankly at his retreating back in disbelief.
A sudden dread hit him.
"Ah, fuck..."
"We're screwed..."