Bushin (2)
Vwooom—KWA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KA—
A searing line of light gouged through the earth as it shot outward.
"Aaagh!"
"Wh-what the hell!!!"
The air itself swayed and people went sprawling. Sand and dust erupted as though a typhoon had swept in, and the ground itself rocked.
BOOM!!!!!!!!
From the mountain far in the distance came an explosive burst of splitting air.
Vwooom—
The backwash of the blast swept over the crowd.
"Aaagh!"
"Don't tell me... a World Monster?"
Every face in the crowd turned grave. They had all lived through something like this before.
Three years ago, the World Boss—the sand dragon Magna—had blasted away nearly half of Bohana, one of the Five Great Kingdoms. The shock of the breath that dragon had unleashed back then felt uncannily like this.
Gulp—
Expressions grim, the crowd stared hard at the source of the explosion.
When the hazily billowing dust finally cleared, they could see it.
The ground had been carved in a single straight line, as if a missile had swept across it—and at the end of that line stood a mountain, bored clean through in a perfect circle.
"Whoa..."
"......"
It was astonishing—but something about it was strange. Both the direction the explosion had come from, and the scar the shot had plowed through the earth.
"What the...? Looks like it was fired from right here."
"Wasn't it that woman? I could've sworn she shouted something just now."
Just as the crowd tilted their heads toward Min Joo-hee, one man alone—Kim Baekcheong—knew exactly the direction from which the shot had been fired.
Trickle—
Blood ran down Kim Baekcheong's torn cheek.
'Wh-what the hell...'
Baekcheong turned to look beside him, his face drained of every drop of color.
A woman in a business suit held her staff raised, cold sweat streaming down her.
But the woman wasn't what mattered. It was the bastard standing behind her.
A beggar who couldn't even afford a shirt looked at his own fist and tilted his head.
"Huh. Missed."
Looking vaguely disappointed about something, he was walking straight toward him.
'No way. That bastard did all this?'
Repardo vanishing without a trace, and the explosion just now—that bastard had been at the center of both.
Could it really all have been that guy's doing?
'Impossible. That makes no sense.'
Killing Repardo he could believe, but the annihilating blast fired moments ago was another story entirely. Destructive power on that scale was something you only saw in a World Boss's signature patterns.
Flinch—
Just as Baekcheong was still gnawing on his suspicions about Woobin, the man had somehow already arrived right under his nose.
"Wh-what?! You wanna throw down?!"
Confidence had vanished from Baekcheong's face long ago.
Woobin gave no answer. He simply extended his hand.
Gulp—
Baekcheong staggered backward a step at the sight of that hand.
The motion was achingly slow, like a hand reaching out to pet a lost puppy. And yet—why? He couldn't dodge. His body wouldn't move.
Thump—thump—
It was the very moment Woobin's palm stretched toward Kim Baekcheong's shoulder—
"HALT!!!"
A great shout rang out, and dozens of knights immediately surrounded the area.
"Huaah—"
The pressure that had been crushing Baekcheong vanished in an instant.
He collapsed to the ground without even realizing it, clutching his own trembling hands.
'What the hell IS this bastard?'
Lee Jeonghoon, the hero charged with Busin's defense, could not tear his eyes from the scene spread out before him.
'What is all this...'
A mountain pierced through as if by a dragon's breath, with even the clouds swirling around it in a perfect ring—the sight was nothing short of overwhelming.
All the report had said was that a squabble had broken out between heroes. What on earth had happened here?
"It's those people over there."
The Busin guard who had filed the report pointed to one spot with his index finger.
"Wake up! Mr. Woobin, I think she's lost consciousness!"
A white-haired woman lay collapsed on the ground, another woman shaking her awake. Behind them, the man reported as this incident's culprit sat slumped on the ground.
'Kim Baekcheong...'
A hero whose reputation as a notorious thug preceded him. He had been transferred to Elid a mere four years ago, and yet the rumors had still found their way to Jeonghoon's ears.
He didn't know the details, but the situation looked to have more or less resolved itself.
Jeonghoon strode up to Baekcheong and shouted, "Cause any more trouble, and I will bar you from Busin entirely."
"Fuck. Now what do you want."
At the sudden warning, Baekcheong hauled himself upright with a face full of grievance. His hands trembled faintly—he was clearly in poor shape.
"I am Lee Jeonghoon of the Chulgyeol Guild, commander of Busin's security detail. Do you have a problem with that?"
Chulgyeol—the mid-sized guild that had been climbing near-vertically as of late. Its name alone was enough to quiet Baekcheong without much effort.
"Under normal circumstances this would end with a warning, but given the situation, you will have to come with me."
"What? Those bastards started it—why me? I'm the victim here!"
Baekcheong shrieked as if he'd been gravely wronged, jabbing a finger at the three of them.
"One look at them will tell me everything I need."
A rag-covered man was pressing a Holy Grail to the fallen white-haired woman. He couldn't even afford proper armor, but the aura rolling off him was anything but ordinary. And the woman beside him—
'This year's batch?'
Office attire and pale skin. She looked gaunt and grimy, as if she hadn't washed in days, but her expression alone said everything: this woman was still a pure soul, not yet stained by Elid.
The moment the Holy Grail was held to her lips, the white-haired woman's eyes fluttered open.
Striking white hair, worn old armor. He could sense the distinctive mana carried only by Elid's natives.
Those three had picked the fight? The claim was pure bullshit, and now he was certain of it.
"I've already received the incident report. You ran down residents with your mount, then suddenly dismounted and beat them."
"Yeah, I hit them—but that bastard killed my mount!"
"And the resident you assaulted?"
"She was the one who pulled a blade first! What, am I supposed to just take hits from an NPC?! Hey, all of you saw it! Somebody say something!"
Baekcheong cast about desperately for support. But not a single person answered his plea. They only shook their heads, refusing his version of events.
"You wanna die?! Where do you get off shaking your head at me?! I'll rip that head right off your shoulders!"
Baekcheong exploded at the resident who had denied him. The resident flinched in terror and bolted.
"What are you doing? Grab him!"
Jeonghoon subdued Baekcheong on the spot.
Thirty heroes bore down on him, crushing him under their pressure.
"Flying off the handle will only make things worse. Come along quietly. Follow the proper procedure and you'll be released right away."
Unless a man was completely out of his mind, he had no choice but to comply. Kim Baekcheong was different.
Kuuuuung—
The ground shuddered faintly for a heartbeat—then BOOM!!! With a massive impact, ten of the knights pinning Baekcheong were blasted away.
"Procedure, my ass."
"Haah... honestly. Don't come regretting this. Today is an important day, so I won't be letting anything slide."
Jeonghoon drew a pair of daggers from his inventory. Nothing more than drawing weapons—and yet a heavy, suffocating pressure settled over the area.
"You're the one who shouldn't regret this. Apologize now, while you still can."
Baekcheong, brimming with confidence, pulled a single item from his inventory.
It was a letter emblazoned with an ornate shield crest.
'That's...'
Jeonghoon's expression shifted in an instant.
A grand festival was being held in Busin today. That letter was a golden ticket issued only to the festival's highest-ranking officials.
He had no idea how Baekcheong had come to possess such a thing, but one fact was certain: an enormous power stood behind Kim Baekcheong.
A distasteful man, no question—but so long as he held that ticket, he was a VVIP guest who had to be treated as one in Busin.
Jeonghoon slid his drawn weapons back into his inventory.
"My apologies for failing to recognize you sooner. We will escort you personally, at once."
Jeonghoon bowed his head in formal courtesy.
"Yeah. Now that's how you act."
Baekcheong wore a satisfied smile as he turned his gaze.
"Wait right there. I've still got unfinished business with that bastard."
As Baekcheong moved toward Woobin, Jeonghoon stepped into his path.
"You deaf? Get lost."
"We will handle those people on our side. If this escalates any further, it becomes a problem for us as well. I ask for your understanding."
"Don't wanna."
Baekcheong smirked. At the sight, Jeonghoon whispered a reluctant proposal into his ear.
"There are too many eyes watching. Take it inside the castle and settle it quietly. I'll have a private space arranged for you."
At those words, the fury filling Baekcheong's face melted away.
"Well, since you put it that way... consider yourself lucky."
Baekcheong snickered as he looked at Woobin.
"Restrain him."
At Jeonghoon's command, the downed knights began closing in on Woobin.
Woobin narrowed his eyes at the sight.
'......'
The absurdity of it—victims rewritten as perpetrators. It was an everyday occurrence in Elid.
The problem was that he had no idea what humiliations awaited him if he was hauled off like this. But breaking out by force wasn't an option either—the opposition was Busin's own security. If things went wrong and his name landed on a blacklist, the day might come when he couldn't set foot in Busin at all.
What should he do? Blast the ground open with Fist Strike and run for it?
'Haah... no other choice, I suppose.'
Woobin drew a single item from his inventory.
Ding—
◈ Description: A handwritten signature from Hwa Minseo, Master of the Chulgyeol Guild. The bearer's credibility is guaranteed by Hwa Minseo, Master of the Chulgyeol Guild.
It was nothing but a sheet of paper bearing a single name—an item with no effects whatsoever. And yet this paper carried a special meaning.
A letter of guarantee.
Ordinarily, it might have served to vouch for his credibility among factions under Hwa Minseo's influence—but to a man who had just announced himself as Chulgyeol Guild, it would carry a very different weight.
And sure enough—
"Hold on, stop!"
Jeonghoon stopped the knights short and hurried over to Woobin.
"Might I examine it for a moment?"
As he studied the handwritten signature, Jeonghoon's face hardened into stone. He had confirmed it was genuine.
Woobin leaned in and whispered something quietly into Jeonghoon's ear.
At those words, Jeonghoon's eyes narrowed to razor-thin slits.
Before long—whoosh—Jeonghoon's figure blurred from sight, and THUD!!! Kim Baekcheong's body crumpled to the ground.
A jail cell thick with the musty stench of mold.
"You sons of bitches! Aren't you going to take these off?!"
Baekcheong bellowed himself hoarse, straining against his bonds. Restraint devices on both his arms and legs squeezed him tight.
Ding—
[All stats are reduced by 99%.]
No strength would come.
Everything was a daze. Why the security commander had suddenly changed his tune, why he'd been locked away in here—all of it.
"FUCK!!!!!"
Just as his fury was boiling over—
Tap— tap—
From far off came the sound of someone approaching.
"Aren't you going to undo this? If you knew why I'm here, you'd all be dead men..."
Baekcheong was mid-struggle when he saw the arriving man's face—and his mouth snapped shut.
The man said nothing. He simply looked down at Baekcheong.
At that, Baekcheong pleaded with a face gone deathly white.
"I-I'm sorry. Something came up outside for a moment, so..."
But no answer of any kind came back.
"Aaagh!!!"
Only Baekcheong's screams and the faint light seeping in lit up the man's cloak.
Emblazoned upon that cloak was a crest he knew all too well.
The sturdy yet ornate shield emblem that belonged to Savers and no one else.