Casino Commotion (3)
Even with the Asians readying themselves for a fight right in front of him, the hulking man lost none of his composure. If anything, his eyes gleamed like a chef presented with a fresh batch of ingredients.
How should he cook these? What preparation would earn a reputation as a truly delicious meal? Things that looked like they'd fold in half under the slightest pressure, and yet here they were, getting lippy with him?
'This might work out even better.'
One of the most reliable weapons in any intimidation was fear. Demonstrating, firsthand, the horrific fate that awaited anyone slow to comply! These men had walked in on their own two feet to make his threats that much more credible.
Swish. The hulk who'd been eyeing Baek Jinwoo actually took a step back.
'No sense in stepping in myself against small fry like that.' Then he swept his gaze across the room.
"That all of you?"
About twenty had stepped forward in all. A mere twenty out of two hundred and twelve. Among them were Oh Je, the group of Asians, and the ordinary tycoons who'd joined in on the bravado.
"Twenty of you can't even read the room—now that's a remarkable statistic in its own right. Boys."
The hulk gave a small nod.
"Start by breaking one limb apiece. If they still resist after that, you have my blessing to kill them. Show these people why they should fear us."
"You got it, Boss!"
"Heh heh heh."
About five of the fifty terrorists stepped forward. They seemed to feel five was plenty for twenty. To be fair, the gap in weight class was enormous—call it a picture where, despite it being five versus twenty, the five looked like they'd do the steamrolling.
At that very moment, Baek Jinwoo stood with his fists clenched, deep in concentration.
'I picked up the basics from Hungyo.' He hadn't learned it hands-on, but the man had at least walked him through where the pressure points lay.
The flow of the Twelve Meridians, the acupoints along the Twelve Regular Meridians, the Eight Extraordinary Vessels, the Conception and Governing Vessels... Hungyo hadn't burdened him with the complicated names, but he'd sent his energy flowing through each one and marked its exact location.
Death points like Baekhoe, Gimun, Dangmun, and Jemun were lethal enough that a clean strike could kill. Numbing points like Jugeol, Cheonju, Biyu, and Gokji brought tingling and paralysis the instant they were touched. Mute points like Geonjeong, Amun, Bongan, and Ipdong could leave a man helpless or strike him speechless. Beyond those came sleep points, fainting points, and more—eighty-one major points in all. Honestly, mastering every one of them in so short a time was out of the question.
So Baek Jinwoo had chosen to specialize.
'The Baekhoe point.' The most iconic of the numbing points. Its common nickname: the noggin. It sat at the very crown of the head.
'I'll drill that one spot and nothing else. When an opening opens up mid-fight, I hit it and put them down clean.'
"Everyone, fall back."
Baek Jinwoo told the guild members who'd been readying themselves for the brawl, then took one more step forward.
"Whoa."
"Look at the nerve on this guy."
"Kekeke. Stepping up first was bold enough, but don't tell me you're planning to take us on all by yourself? Huh?"
One of the five terrorists leaned his face in until it hovered right in front of Baek Jinwoo's. Thunk! Forehead smacking against forehead.
"So what." He shoved in, making it as unpleasant as possible. "What're you gonna do all alone? What, you want me to hit you first? Fine then—hit me as hard as you can. It'll probably tickle. KHAHAHAHA!"
"..."
Baek Jinwoo didn't so much as twitch. Something felt off. Why was the man posturing with his guard completely down? Baiting him into a counter? Or did he seriously want to eat the first punch?
"What, can't do it? Scared now? Huh?" The man even thrust out the very crown of his head—the exact spot Baek Jinwoo had memorized.
Well, look at that. 'Works for me.' No need to overthink it. In a flash, Baek Jinwoo's right arm came up, knife-hand rigid, and cracked the terrorist square on the crown of the skull.
Too fast for the eye to follow, but by his estimate the whole motion had taken about a tenth of a second. And then—
CRUNCH!
A strange sound rang out. Not the clean thud of a strike... More like a watermelon splitting open?
'Huh?'
The hulk who'd been shoving him around playfully crumpled to the floor without a word. Flinch! Baek Jinwoo took a step back. The four remaining terrorists—and even the boss—went stiff. That mountain of a man, down in one hit? Worse—
"Hey."
"Yo, you alright?"
A nearby terrorist prodded the fallen man with his toe. Not a twitch. Sensing how bad things were, one of them hurriedly pressed two fingers to the man's throat.
"...Boss," he murmured, his voice trembling. "This guy... he's dead."
"...?"
Baek Jinwoo was every bit as flustered. Wait. He'd learned the numbing points instead of the death points specifically so he wouldn't have to get his hands dirty... One tap to that kills a guy? Since when were human heads that flimsy?
"My Lord..." That was when Hungyo came up beside him and murmured into his ear. "You may need to moderate your strength. When I said they might make decent practice, I was judging by the standards of ordinary martial artists... These men are weaker than they look."
"Hah." Baek Jinwoo let out a sigh. His first kill, and a complete accident at that... yet remarkably, it barely registered. He'd watched old man Park Chang-seok hand out summary executions back in the café days, and he'd personally blown a gang to pieces since.
'Those men are nothing but trash.'
Whatever else was true, the moment they'd started weighing innocent lives on a scale and committed terrorism, they had become evil itself in Baek Jinwoo's eyes.
"Y-you son of a bitch!" Perhaps enraged at losing a comrade in the blink of an eye, one of the brutes nearby whipped his arm around in a massive haymaker.
SWOOOOSH! A strike so fast it split the air—and yet, strangely...
'Was it always this slow?' To Baek Jinwoo it looked slow enough to dodge mid-yawn.
'Death points, numbing points...' He probably didn't need any of it. These men were weak enough to beat down while goofing around.
Tilt! Baek Jinwoo slipped the punch with the barest tilt of his head. 'Ease up on the power, right?' Arm loose, he snapped a short strike into the man's abdomen. The target: the liver. Naturally, he rotated his hips to add a touch of torque.
Even hitting that gently—
WHUMMMP!
A dull boom rang out, and the brute lifted clean off the floor. "Kgh—KGHAAACK!" Something foul sprayed from his mouth as he clutched his stomach, gagging, unable to draw breath. Tears streamed down his face, testament to just how much it hurt.
What the hell. This was honestly disappointing... All that swagger, and this was the extent of their skill?
"..."
"..."
Silence settled over the room. Even the boss hulk shed his playful expression, his face hardening into stone.
"Well, this is awkward." Baek Jinwoo muttered, lightly dusting off his hands. "I'm afraid you're all a little too weak to be threatening us. Don't you think?"
'This won't do at all. I'll have to hold back even more.' Whoosh, whoosh! Baek Jinwoo shook out his wrists.
Gulp. The boss hulk swallowed hard.
'Is that even possible?' An ordinary human—not a summon, a person—killing a man outright with a single knife-hand strike, then floating a heavyweight's bulk into the air with one casual punch? 'What is this, some third-rate kung fu flick?'
The hulk understood now: the time for posturing was over. The others could wait; that man had to be dealt with immediately.
'He just punches unusually hard, that's all.' In his book, the legendary 1-versus-13 brawl that circulated like an urban legend had no place in reality. Swarm a man all at once and dogpile him, and even famed fighters like Fedor or Ngannou would be helpless.
"Boys!" The hulk pointed at Baek Jinwoo. "Go kill him!"
"Yes, sir!"
At the boss's crisp order, the terrorists—sensing this was no ordinary situation—charged as one.
"Not so fast!"
"Fine by me—let's dance!"
At this point it was a full-blown brawl. The hostages, too, had just tasted proof that Baek Jinwoo was their only hope. Terrified as they were, the instinct was to step in now and help him put down as many terrorists as possible. But before the hostages could even find their footing, Baek Jinwoo moved first.
Whoosh! THWACK! SWISH! CRACK! Baek Jinwoo was a blur! He slipped each incoming punch along the shortest possible path, then rode the momentum to drive fists and feet dead into vital points. THWACK-THWACK-THWACK! With every light blow, the brutes went sailing around the room like wax dolls. It never even became a brawl. Baek Jinwoo tore through them like a tiger turned loose in a warren of rabbits.
"Wh-what..."
"Is that a human being?"
"You're telling me that's a person, not a summon?"
One after another, the hostages who'd been about to join the fight raised their phones instead. How could anyone pass up footage this rare? Hong Ari and the other guild members, who'd been spoiling for a fight themselves, simply stood there gaping.
'A monster.'
'A monster, through and through. Then again, those meatheads only touch iron for a quick gym session... while our Guild Master runs and jumps for hours every day with the weights on.'
Science couldn't explain how that slight frame produced such force, but the guild members were long since used to it. That was just how he was built. That was Baek Jinwoo of South Korea.
"D-dieeeee!" A terrified hulk threw his whole strength into a punch, but—
Whoosh! Baek Jinwoo folded at the waist and snapped his toe up under the man's chin. CRACK! His neck bent backward, and the hulk rolled across the floor without managing so much as a proper scream. Baek Jinwoo was different. He was something other than an ordinary man.
"Ah, my bad. Didn't hold back enough there."
The fallen hulk's body quivered and convulsed. That last blow had clearly done a number on his cervical spine. He wasn't dead, but he might well spend the rest of his life hauling around a slipped disc and a whole catalog of spinal ailments.
"That's why you read the situation before you rush somebody."
By now, even the brutes didn't dare charge him. The assault had lasted only moments, yet more than half of them lay on the floor, drooling or vomiting. Some had broken ribs; others were out cold.
'He's... insane.''Is that even real?''One man can do all that?''And he doesn't even look tired. How are we supposed to fight a monster like that?!'
It was a gulf of class, plain and simple. Was this what it felt like to meet an impossible boss inside the Tower of Ordeal? The terrorists had all frozen solid, at a complete loss. One of them even began backing away.
"You idiots! This is what happens when you charge in barehanded one at a time like morons! Move! Go grab the hostages!" With the fight slipping out of his control, the boss hulk exploded in frustration.
"Hostages? Think carefully."
Thud. Thud. Baek Jinwoo spoke quietly as he walked, but every terrorist heard him perfectly. With every nerve in their bodies locked on him, that much was only natural.
"You want to obey your boss and live the rest of your life disabled? Or turn yourselves in right now and do your time in prison?"
The terror of overwhelming force. Even their fearsome boss's orders couldn't make them lunge at Baek Jinwoo. Even as he marched straight toward the boss himself... one of the brutes scrambled backward, afraid their shoulders might so much as brush.
Pfft. Baek Jinwoo laughed. Were these really the same men who'd been strutting around threatening them just minutes ago?
"Wh-what the hell are you bastards doing!" The boss hulk panicked. "He's coming right at us! Get him! I said GET HIM!"
Get him? Get him how? 'I'll be getting you first.'
The gap between them had all but vanished. TAH! Baek Jinwoo kicked off the floor and burst forward, swift and clean as a shot.