The Budding Regret of the Dragon King Squadron
"Boss! They're coming! I smell money!"
"Kieeeeee! Drive, drive!!"
Bikes roared, kicking up clouds of dust. At the lead, Ji Se-hwa spotted the target. A luxury sedan. The license plate matched. "Blast them all!"
Ji Se-hwa unleashed a merciless spray of submachine gun fire at the sedan. As the intel suggested, it was heavily armored. She aimed for the tires. The contract was to immobilize the vehicle and hand over the passenger. She and her crew were punks, but they lived off the bounty money from such jobs. Ji Se-hwa wasn't special; thugs like her were everywhere in the slums, and such groups were called "Punks."
One might think only villain organizations hired Punks, but that wasn't always the case. This city was rotten to the core. Whether it was corporations or politics, by the time a job was subcontracted down the line, it often ended up in the hands of Punks.
"They're holding up! Let's show them the true power of the 'Vierdens'!"
One of her subordinates fired an RPG with gusto. A massive explosion followed. No matter how sturdy the armored car was, it couldn't withstand an RPG; the roof was torn off, and the chassis buckled.
"Hey, what if you kill them?! The contract said to take them alive!"
"Oops, big trouble! Did their heads fly off?"
"Just tape it back on! It might look like fresh sashimi!"
The subordinates cackled. That was when the anomaly occurred.
"Grrrrrr―!!"
A green beast suddenly manifested inside the sedan. In an instant, the beast leaped out and pounced on a bike.
"What— Aaaaaaagh!"
In a heartbeat, a subordinate was shredded by claws. Ji Se-hwa clicked her tongue. "Damn it, we were set up! Scatter, you idiots!!"
This contract wasn't a simple kidnapping. They had used the Punks as bait to trigger the ability awakening of the person inside the sedan. Punks were the lowest of the low in society anyway. No one cared when or how they died.
"Uwaaa! It's chasing us! Boss, save me— Aaaack!!"
Her subordinates were being torn apart one by one. Ji Se-hwa emptied her submachine gun, but her ammo ran dry in seconds.
Boom!
The beast lunged toward her bike. It swung its claws at the engine, and an explosion erupted.
When Ji Se-hwa finally regained consciousness, she spat out blood-tinged saliva. All her subordinates were dead. Only she had been lucky enough to survive. "Today is just a total shitshow."
Dragging her broken ankle, she barely made it back to their hideout, an abandoned bowling alley. The Vierdens are finished, too. You couldn't survive more than five years in this business anyway. Death was always nearby. It just happened to be today.
"Hey, Ji Se-hwa! Come out!"
The outside was noisy with the sound of exhaust pipes. Ji Se-hwa clutched her bleeding body and stepped out of the bowling alley. There, she saw twenty or so bikes and a group of Punks.
"Let's bet the bowling alley on a race like usual, you fucking bitch! What, you look like a beggar? Perfect timing!"
A rival biker gang. A red-mohawked punk spat insults. Ji Se-hwa wanted to punch his face in right then and there, but she didn't have the strength. Fine. If I'm going out, I'll go out in style. I'll leave behind a legend.
With that thought, Ji Se-hwa climbed onto a spare bike. "Bring it on, you trash. We're going to Cliff No. 4, like always."
"That's the spirit!"
The rules of a biker duel were simple: a game of chicken. They start at the same time and race toward the cliff at full throttle. The first one to hit the brakes loses.
Ji Se-hwa and the mohawk stood at the starting line.
Bang!
With the gunshot, their engines shrieked. Two bikes shot forward.
"Go!"
"Leader, kill her!"
"The Vierdens are done for!"
The speedometer climbed. 100, 140, 160. 'Sh-she's crazy. She still hasn't hit the brakes?!' The mohawk broke into a cold sweat. The cliff was right in front of them. The limit was approaching.
'Damn it!!'
In the end, the mohawk hit the brakes first. But Ji Se-hwa showed no sign of stopping. Finally—
Kwang!
Ji Se-hwa’s bike hit the guardrail and soared into the air. Below was a bottomless abyss. Ji Se-hwa wore a relaxed smile, flipped the mohawk the middle finger, and plummeted.
And then—
Snap!
She felt a strong tension on her neck. Her body flew through the air.
Kwang!
Ji Se-hwa’s bike crashed and exploded below.
"What the hell!"
Ji Se-hwa turned her head. There, a red Dragon-kin was holding a tree with one hand and her neck with the other. He had just saved her life.
"What are you doing, you asshole! I was about to write a legend!"
"A legend, my ass. You punks have a life expectancy of five seconds; fat chance of that being passed down to posterity." The Dragon-kin mocked her.
"What am I supposed to do now that you've irresponsibly saved me! I have nothing! My subordinates are all dead, I have no money, and no bike!"
Just then, grumble— Ji Se-hwa’s stomach let out a thunderous roar. Hearing that, the Dragon-kin dropped his transformation. For a moment, Ji Se-hwa instinctively clamped her mouth shut. She was overwhelmed by the face of a strikingly attractive man.
"You like gukbap?"
The man, Jung Ui-seok, taught her many things. That the power of the Leviathan dwelling within her was a talent not meant to be wasted on a mere Punk. That if she had the will, he would teach her how to fight as a Hero. After eating a hot bowl of gukbap, her body warmed up, and her will returned, at least a little.
Though, as soon as they left the shop, she got into a fight and ended up brawling. Watching that, Jung Ui-seok’s reaction wasn't praise or scolding. He simply took Ji Se-hwa to a nail salon.
"What is this?"
"Pretty, right? If you keep punching people, these will get ruined."
"You're insane. You bring someone with a broken ankle here instead of the hospital?"
"I was afraid you'd pick a fight with the doctor at the hospital."
Jung Ui-seok smiled slyly. Seeing his expression, Ji Se-hwa found herself smiling too. The blue nail art carefully applied to her left fingernails. She admired the sparkling sight for a long time.
"The surgery was a success."
Ji Se-hwa opened her eyes slightly. Unconsciously, she lifted her left arm and examined it carefully. A sleek titanium body. It moved delicately, just as she thought. Only, there were no fingernails at the tips of those fingers.
"Se-hwa, are you okay? I restrained your body to the bed because I was afraid you'd thrash around. It's because of your personality, so understand." It was Shin Yu-kyung’s voice.
Ji Se-hwa replied with a blank expression. "I'm fine."
"...Really? I thought you'd be angrier."
"I'm fine."
Ji Se-hwa stared blankly at her left arm against the backdrop of the ceiling.
"You were attacked by Vengeance and Dark Matter, right? Can you tell me the situation in detail? It hasn't been announced yet, but the media has caught a scent. Dark Matter has been promoted to SS-rank, and of the five people with you, two are dead and the others are hospitalized."
"Hey, Yu-kyung unni."
"...Unni, you say. It's been a while."
"Jung Ui-seok, he was a good guy at first."
"I won't deny that."
"Why did things turn out like that with us?"
"Well, he was obsessed with money, and after Han So-mi died, he fell into drugs..."
"No, not that. I mean, with 'us'."
"...Thinking about it now, I don't really know. The war against the Kingdom of Darkness was hard, after all."
"Jung Ui-seok started getting angry more often, too."
"Yes. At some point, it seemed like he couldn't control his rage."
"Even if he was like that, he must have been in pain when his arm was cut off, right?"
"What are you talking about?"
"...No, it's nothing. I want to cover myself with the blanket, can you untie this?"
Ji Se-hwa spoke like someone who had lost a piece of herself.
"Other countries replied that they wouldn't provide any support?" Kang Ye-rin ground her teeth.
"Didn't I tell you? I said you can't trust any of those bastards, whether they're white or black! All they want is to snatch our S-Squadron title. That's the only way they can get funding through international agreements."
"Phew. What about the domestic A-rank heroes? I told you to gather them all."
"I know, I know. Why are you so impatient?"
"Because the Galactic Empire is hovering over our heads! The association is full of people who have no real combat experience because they're too busy playing crew!"
"Blue is like that too, so take it slow. I heard they're training twelve hours a day lately. That damn Vengeance is targeting the Dragon King Squadron for some reason. You be careful, too."
"Haa... The Dragon King Squadron needs to stop all other activities and focus on training. Did you terminate the contract with that New Red?"
"What are you talking about? I told you that wasn't possible."
"I'm going crazy. You can't fight with that thing attached!"
"I said it's not possible! The contract condition is that they must sortie together for over 70% of all missions. Their domestic debut is the day after tomorrow."
"Hey, Association President!!!"
Finally unable to hold it in, Kang Ye-rin slammed her fist onto the table.
"Do you really want to see everyone die?! If you were going to do that, why did you kill Jung Ui-seok!!"
"U-ugh. B-but. I didn't know another evil organization like that would appear..."
"If you knew, then what?! What does that have to do with anything!!"
"Th-that bastard Jung Ui-seok went too far! His performance was so high that the Washington Association was trying to promote him to SS-rank! From SS-rank up, I can't even control them with my authority! Who would this association belong to then?! It was obvious it would fall into his hands!!"
Hearing that, Kang Ye-rin’s fuse blew. The woman in front of her was admitting she had framed him because she was afraid of her power being diminished.
"You devilish bitch."
Kang Ye-rin lunged at the Association President and began slapping her face.
"Ack! Y-you crazy bitch! A h-hero hitting a civilian?!"
"Are you a civilian? Your actions are that of a villain!"
"V-villain?! Aaaack! Y-you're an accomplice too, you dog bitch! Did I kill him? You four killed him and came back!!"
Hearing that, Kang Ye-rin’s hand stopped. She felt bitter. What she felt most bitter about was her own karma, which she couldn't refute.
"Ugh, uwaaaaaaaa!!"
Kang Ye-rin screamed and collapsed to the floor. She knew. Even if she did this, even if she screamed as loud as she could, nothing would ever come back.
"Haa, haa." Choi Min-seo clutched her chest as she walked. It was painful, stifling, suffocating. Her body was fine. Health wasn't the problem. It was her broken heart.
"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts."
She descended the stairs. Deep into the warehouse where light never reached. Strict security. The place with Level 0 security that only the Association President and she could enter. Choi Min-seo opened the door.
"Ah, aha, ahahaha."
A mountain—no. Even if you scraped together all the quantity that existed in the world, it wouldn't be this much. In front of the paradise of Pestam, Choi Min-seo laughed, and laughed, and laughed again.