16
Chapter 16: The Swordsman
"Did you kill Machil?"
When Dong Bong-su gave no answer, Gi Dae-hyo spoke again.
Looking to the side, he saw Gi Man-ji wearing an expression of surprise at Gi Dae-hyo's unexpected question. If this were an ordinary murderer, there would have been some change in his expression—something that said 'I'm a killer.'
Of course, Dong Bong-su's expression remained unchanged.
Gi Dae-hyo quietly stared into Dong Bong-su's cloudy eyes.
Those vacant eyes with unfocused pupils, darting everywhere as if terrified by his appearance. Nevertheless, Gi Dae-hyo persistently peered into Dong Bong-su's eyes.
Gi Dae-hyo's eyes, glaring at Dong Bong-su as if to pluck them out, seemed to say this:
'You are the culprit. No, you must be the culprit!'
Gi Dae-hyo had worked in law enforcement and intelligence gathering his entire life, and in this field, he had lived confident that he was superior even to the Beggar Sect, the Haomun, and the government. Today, all day long, he had visited every location where the suicide epidemic had occurred.
The harvest was...
Nothing.
His son Gi Man-ji had told him that perhaps all of this really was caused by an epidemic, but Gi Dae-hyo asserted that couldn't be the case.
If it were a epidemic, shouldn't there be traces of the epidemic? Black spots, the stench of decay—weren't there no signs of any epidemic whatsoever?
It couldn't be an epidemic.
Then if it wasn't an epidemic.
'Who was the culprit? Who should it be?'
He had examined every location, and each crime scene was a locked room just like that room at Bongyang Inn. No signs of intrusion anywhere, just the suicide victim left alone. It was contrived. Too perfect to be perfect. As if, were there a god, that god had committed the murders.
He stared into Dong Bong-su's pupils once more. Those same vacant eyes, impossible to tell what they were looking at.
'No. That bastard can't have eyes like these.'
Gi Dae-hyo had come to find Dong Bong-su to confirm one last possibility.
Not only had he meticulously examined the scenes, but he had met with everyone who had been in the rooms adjacent to the locked rooms where the suicide victims were found. Everyone except Dong Bong-su.
Before coming here, the only remaining suspect had already been Dong Bong-su.
And now.
Even that last suspect had been cleared.
"Hoo—. Let's go."
"What? Ah, yes. Father."
Upon hearing Gi Dae-hyo's words, Gi Man-ji wore an expression showing he had no idea what was going on, then left the stable.
Before leaving the stable, Gi Dae-hyo turned his head to look at Dong Bong-su once more.
'As I thought, it's not him...'
Hands and feet that looked like they'd break if stepped on, a chest that seemed like it would shatter if touched wrong. That body absolutely was not one that had trained in the Bone Shrinking Arts. No, there was no way he could be a hidden expert of the unorthodox faction to begin with.
A body far weaker than even the average neighborhood thugs. That was Gi Dae-hyo's assessment of Dong Bong-su.
"Hoo—."
Leaving one final sigh, Gi Dae-hyo disappeared.
He would probably not fall asleep easily tonight. Conversely, Dong Bong-su, the 'suicide epidemic carrier' and the very person who had massacred groups of thugs, would sleep soundly under the same roof.
Dong Bong-su's eyes watched his back until Gi Dae-hyo had completely left the stable. Through the open door, thick moonlight entered and licked across Dong Bong-su's clear and eerie eyes.
A pity. Gi Dae-hyo should have seen those eyes.
Those eyes of Dong Bong-su that cast brilliant shadows even in the moonlight.
Creeeak. Thud.
The stable once again became a world of quiet darkness.
Dong Bong-su's shadowed eyes could now hide their light in that pitch-black space.
For a while, he remained in that position, mentally organizing the new law he'd been working on earlier. Then, as always, he lay down in his nest of spread straw.
"It looks like things will get busier starting tomorrow."
Many new prey had appeared.
On the night when the moonlight shone mysteriously.
The suicide epidemic vanished without a trace from Bongyang.
And starting tomorrow, a new wind of slaughter would sweep through Bongyang.
***
New Murim Online 4th Law: When taking items out of the Inventory, they can be extracted from any part of Dong Bong-su's body.
New Murim Online 5th Law: When leveling up, white light bursts from the body, and all wounds on the body are completely healed. At the same time, all stats increase slightly.
New Murim Online 6th Law: A proficiency system applies to skills. That is, the more a skill is used, the more proficient one becomes.
New Murim Online 7th Law: The Passive Skill Spirit Eyes identifies risk factors that approach within a 20-meter radius of Dong Bong-su and alerts him.
***
Not long after the suicide epidemic disappeared.
This rumor began to spread throughout Bongyang.
— A nameless vigilante has appeared and is executing Black Agents!
Black Agents referred to members of the Black Group organizations. Ordinary people commonly also called them by another name: Chunap.
No matter how much they praised each other among themselves as back-alley vigilantes or Dark Guardians, garbage was garbage.
According to the Black Agents: Illegal activities are our way of survival!
Human scum who spouted such fine-sounding bullshit that even a dog suffering from heat wouldn't bark at, while dominating Bongyang's back alleys and markets. That's what the Black Agents were.
People in the markets continued their livelihoods, and to avoid starving to death, they had no choice but to pay money to the Black Group under the guise of protection fees and continue their businesses. Though dissatisfaction overflowed inside them, threatening to spill from their mouths at any moment, what could they do?
Poverty was a crime. Being weak was a crime. Having no choice but to endure and live despite it all was the greatest crime.
However,
Starting one day, Black Agents had suddenly begun dying. When the first one or two died, people simply thought it was a power struggle among the Black Groups themselves. But then one became two, two became four, four became eight...
And eventually.
The White Tiger Group and Red Wolf Gate of the Three Color Black Groups that had ruled Bongyang's back alleys were annihilated, leaving only the Black Snake Society.
People didn't hesitate to call him a vigilante. They praised him as a true vigilante who performed righteous acts from where he couldn't be seen.
The rumors spread like wildfire, and eventually rumors even circulated that the nameless vigilante had also eliminated the suicide epidemic.
Going further, before long, all righteous acts occurring within Bongyang City had become his achievements.
Now whether the rumors were true or not no longer mattered. He had already become a perfect hero of righteousness in the hearts of Bongyang's people.
People remained curious about him, but no one knew his true identity and no one had seen even his shadow.
Thus, people called him.
The Nameless Vigilante.
***
The Nameless Vigilante set out on the night streets again today to perform righteous acts.
He headed toward Nakwon Village, the last remaining crime-ridden area in Bongyang. Nakwon Village was located at the northern edge of Bongyang, a place where dilapidated houses clung together like an anthill. It was called a village in name only—it was a breeding ground for all manner of evil and was practically the core of the Black Snake Society's lair.
This place was so frightening that even during the day, no one except the Black Snake Society's Black Agents frequented it, so what more need be said about a night like this?
A desolate atmosphere pressed down on the entire village.
Was it an illusion?
The suffocatingly dense atmosphere flowing through seemed somehow even more bleak than usual.
The Nameless Vigilante secretly infiltrated that sinister Nakwon Village.
At one moment.
"Urk!"
A short scream signaling the beginning of righteous acts echoed through Nakwon Village.
"He's here! Attack! Attack! Kill him!"
As if they'd been waiting for that very moment, black shadows emerged from all over Nakwon Village simultaneously, creating a commotion. They were the Black Snake Society's Black Agents. They had been waiting for the Nameless Vigilante to appear.
Now that the Nameless Vigilante had appeared, they had to do their utmost to kill him just to survive.
"Uwaaa!"
"Kill him!"
"You son of a bitch! Die!"
Befitting Black Agents, they spewed all manner of profanity as they rushed like lightning toward where the initial scream had been heard.
There was indeed one masked figure in different attire from them, lean in build. That must be the Nameless Vigilante.
The Nameless Vigilante seemed to have anticipated their appearance, for as soon as they emerged, he leaped toward the Black Agents.
Shuk! Sak! Puk!
Slashing, cutting, stabbing.
With a few concise movements, over ten Black Snake Society Black Agents sprayed blood and collapsed to the ground. The corpses lying under the moonlight soon grew cold.
The Nameless Vigilante didn't stop there but continued running forward, slaughtering all the Black Agents in his path. Following behind him, dozens of remaining Black Agents pursued, brandishing swords, sabers, and spears.
"Die!"
Puk.
The tall man who had been following closest at the front thrust his spear toward the Nameless Vigilante's back. The light sound of air escaping—had he pierced the Nameless Vigilante's heart?
"...Huh?"
He hadn't.
That was merely his wishful thinking. The one who actually died was the one who had thrust the spear. In his eyes floated a light showing he had no idea what had happened.
"Grrk..."
A low groan escaped from his mouth, but it couldn't be fully expelled. Because a sword deeply embedded in his mouth was tearing through his uvula.
Before departing for the afterlife, he suddenly had this thought:
'How did a sword come out of the back of my head...'
But even such idle thoughts couldn't continue to the end. The sword embedded in his throat split his brain in half.
His comrades were still at a slightly distant distance, so they hadn't seen at all how he died. That was their fatal mistake. Perhaps if they could have seen it, they would have known the opponent was attacking using strange irregularities rather than normal methods.
Thud.
The remaining Black Agents leaped toward the Nameless Vigilante over the head of the tall man falling to the ground as a corpse.
"Uwaaaaaa!"
Did they think if they just shouted loudly, the opponent would obligingly submit? They rushed at the Nameless Vigilante while screaming madly.
Shuk! Sak! Puk!
The same concise sounds the Nameless Vigilante's sword had made earlier rang out in the area. The difference was that this time, the sounds were made by the Black Agents' weapons rather than the Nameless Vigilante.
"We, we did it! We caught the Nameless Vigilante!"
They were excited.
They definitely felt it in their hands, and before them was someone wearing a mask. The Black Agents' weapons that had been swung and thrust were embedded all over that person's body. Blood gushed out of the masked person's body like a waterfall. With that level of blood loss, there was absolutely no way to survive.
"Did, did we kill him!?"
Someone among them said so. Most around agreed. But one with sharp eyes discovered something different.
"N-no! Th-there's a Black Snake Society marking on his shoulder!"
At that, the rest of the Black Agents also focused on the masked man's shoulder.
Indeed, through the masked man's torn sleeve, a black snake tattoo was visible. It was the initiation tattoo engraved when first entering the Black Snake Society.
Which meant!
"Sh-shit!"
Without anyone going first, profanity burst from the Black Agents' mouths. And that became the collective last words of them all.
Sarak.
A flashing sword light swiftly swept across all their necks.
Tuk.
In the lower body of the corpse the Black Agents had thought was the Nameless Vigilante, a crack suddenly formed, and soon the space between the crack slowly widened. And eventually, the masked man's head left his neck and embarked on a journey to the ground.
Tudududududuk...
At the same time, all the Black Agents' heads also fell to the ground in identical fashion.
Having had their necks cut so instantaneously, they were still alive after hitting the ground. Their eyes were still trembling.
Tororororor.
The head of the masked man they had thought was the Nameless Vigilante rolled into the very center where all their heads were gathered. Perhaps due to the impact of hitting the ground, the masked man's mask had already come off.
That head seemed to mock them all, sticking its tongue slightly out of its mouth while glaring at them. Even with their heads severed, the Black Agents recognized the masked man's face.
That face was one they all knew well.
He was their gang leader Kang Hae, who had guarded the entrance to Nakwon Village, and was the first one to scream.
How...
They all closed their lives with that question buried in their hearts.
After hosting a heads' neighborhood meeting, the Nameless Vigilante quietly moved toward his next target.