The Mad Butcher's Forbidden Pepperoni
High-grade intel. Sniff, sniff sniff. Like a starving beast pinpointing its prey, his thick nostrils flared ceaselessly. The hulking man, Black Moon's 1st Branch Chief Jang Yuk. He gripped a massive cleaver dripping with blood.
"……."
His pupils had contracted to pinpricks. Veins bulged on his neck like writhing worms, ready to burst.
Intuition (Rank: A) warns you.
The target's sensory organs have been amplified beyond limits due to drugs.
Narcotic enhancer. The illegal doping drug produced in their factory. He'd injected it himself—nearly a lethal dose.
To a monster whose senses had been forcibly maxed out, stealth or presence concealment was meaningless. Even my heartbeat would thunder like war drums.
"Lee Han, why'd you stop? Before that muscle pig notices…."
Adel whispered from behind me, voice hushed. I cut her off and strode out from the shadows.
"No need to hide. We're already made."
"What? Hey! Are you nuts?"
Adel freaked, grabbing at my coat. But I was already in Jang Yuk's line of sight.
"Not a total dimwit, huh."
Jang Yuk slowly turned his head. His glazed eyes pierced right through me.
"I smell it…. A disgusting yet mouthwatering scent."
He licked his lips.
"Your blood smells different. Thick, like prime monster meat perfectly aged. Just biting into the raw flesh would make the juices burst."
"What a bloodhound. How much of that shit did you pump?"
I glanced around the enclosed space. Ogre carcasses dangling from the ceiling. Unidentified spices on his workbench.
Jang Yuk didn't snap at my taunt. Instead, he grinned like a deranged artist eager to show off his masterpiece, eyes wild with madness.
"Drugs? Kukuku…. This ain't some street-corner crap. It's seasoning for gourmet eats."
He scooped a handful of red powder from the bench and snorted it.
"You normies wouldn't get it. The research I poured into tenderizing this ogre's tough muscle fibers."
Jang Yuk's gaze drifted hazily into space. He wasn't talking to me anymore—just some phantom in his delusions.
"Yeah, I found it. That ancient recipe from lost tomes. Mix mandrake root juice 3:1, sprinkle abyssal salt, smoke for 72 hours—"
Adel's shoulder twitched behind me.
"Hold up."
She popped out from my back and took off her horn-rimmed glasses.
"W-what'd you just say? Mandrake root juice and abyssal salt?"
Jang Yuk ignored her, lost in ecstasy as he continued.
"That's right. The only path to the ultimate pepperoni even gods would crave. Juices exploding in your mouth, that sharp, nose-tingling aroma. A legendary recipe no empire emperor ever tasted."
"Fucking insane."
Adel was baffled. Her purple eyes darted wildly.
"Lee Han, you hear that?"
"Hear what."
"That's the lost imperial supply secret recipe! The one thought burned in the Magic Tower library fire!"
Adel clenched her fists. Fear? Terror? Nah, nothing that fancy. Just raw, gluttonous obsession and greed to reclaim that flavor.
"How the hell does that muscle pig know it?"
Her gaze locked past Jang Yuk onto a tattered parchment scrap on his bench.
"That's it! The original!"
Adel fiddled with her ring.
Her eyes turned full mad scientist.
"Lee Han."
"What."
"Give me a shot."
She wiped drool from her mouth, dead serious.
"I need every bit of that recipe in his head. Squeeze every neuron dry if I have to!"
"…Ha."
Not justice or revenge—just flipping out over pepperoni. Unreal.
"Hey! Muscle pig!"
Adel pointed at Jang Yuk.
"Hand it over! That recipe's wasted on you! I can make it better!"
Finally, Jang Yuk's focus shifted to her. His face twisted ugly, like his artistic soul was insulted.
"You dare covet my sacred research? You thieving bitch cat!"
"Cat, dog—pick a lane! You don't even have the skills to finish it right!"
Adel bellowed.
Jang Yuk, annoyed by the pest.
"Shut up. Kill 'em. Strip the meat, boil the bones for stock."
Dozens of men burst from the shadows. Villain butchers in bloodied aprons, wielding chainsaws and hooks. All eyes bloodshot from drugs.
"Kihehe! Meat! Human meat!"
"Fresh liver! Slice it up!"
They charged with beastly roars.
"What a pain, seriously."
I told Adel, who'd brought this on herself.
"Adel. Mooks are yours, right?"
She irritably twisted her ring, which morphed into a staff.
"You bet! Hey, don't splatter blood on my pepperoni!"
Her staff aimed at the factory wall. The main control panel.
Adel von Kryber infiltrates the factory control system.
Physical Forced Access
"Stop! No—reverse!"
—Whirrrrr!
Purple mana cables linked the massive factory machines, which screamed to life. Conveyor belts spun backward at insane speeds.
"Wha? Wh-whoa?"
The charging villains tripped. They lost balance on the runaway walkway, unable to close in.
"Sausage launch!"
Adel's ring glowed. Ceiling-mounted sausage-filling nozzles swiveled toward them.
—Pssshhh!
"Gah! What the—?!"
High-pressure sausage casings fired like nets. Tough natural hog intestines wrapped the villains tight.
"Lemme go!"
"Ugh! It's sticky!"
"Argh! Stuck in my chainsaw! D-don't activate!"
Dozens mummified in casings, rolling helpless on the floor.
"Daring to mess with food? You don't even deserve to be sausage!"
Adel fumed.
With the minions down, I walked toward Jang Yuk.
"Hear that? Our inspector’s pissed."
"…You brought a freakshow bear, huh."
Jang Yuk dragged his cleaver, sparking flames on the floor. Scraaaape.
"Cheap tricks crumble before real power."
Slaughter Field (Rank: A)
Controls surrounding butchering tools with telekinesis.
"This is my turf. No holes for rats."
—Claaaang!
Hooks from the ceiling rained steel toward me. Like a storm of iron.
"Die."
I didn't dodge. I stepped wide and punched.
—Boom!!
Shockwave ripped air. Hooks smashed into an invisible wall, scattering.
"Hoh?"
Jang Yuk's brow twitched. Unbelievable power from an F-rank hunter's fist.
"Not bad illusion. But this?!"
He swung his cleaver like a windmill, charging. Crude arc, but drug-fueled strength and speed topped B-rank.
Clang! Kaang! Crack!
My dagger sparked against his cleaver midair. Conveyors sliced, concrete pillars cleaved like tofu.
"Hahaha! Yes! Perfect feel!"
Jang Yuk laughed maniacally. Drugs numbed pain and fear—he was a runaway train.
"Lee Han! Watch the saw behind!"
Adel's scream. He'd feinted a frontal clash to distract, aiming a machine saw at my back.
—Whirrr!
Lethal spin targeted my neck.
Intuition (Rank: A) detects blind spot.
I ducked and spun. The saw grazed my hair, flying at Jang Yuk's face.
"Such outdated tricks!"
He slapped it away barehanded. Steel-hard skin.
"Gotta admit, the drugs give you tankiness."
I sidestepped lightly, flowing past his attacks. Truth was, I could've ended it anytime. But I was studying his patterns—how a drug-overclocked body reacted. Needed the data.
"Just running?! Man up!"
Jang Yuk yelled, impatient. Drugs eroded reason, amping pure violence.
"Time to wrap this up."
I stopped. He lunged, seizing the opening.
"Gotcha!"
His massive grip clamped my shoulder and waist. Crushing pressure like a trap.
"Kukuku, can't muscle out. Gonna grind you!"
He hoisted me and bolted for a corner industrial grinder. Monstrous teeth whirred, devouring ogre bones to dust.
"Your chunks become dog food!"
—Whiiirrr!
My body shoved toward the maw. Clothes snagged and tore.
"Lee Han!!"
Adel's scream. I grinned amid the roar.
I whispered in Jang Yuk's ear.
"Too late—the drug's wearing off, huh?"
"What?"
"Strength ain't showboated like that."
Instead of bracing the blade, I gripped his collar.
Strength explodes temporarily!
Crunch.
Jang Yuk's eyes bulged. He'd been overpowering me—yet now he floated.
Absurd, overwhelming strength gap.
"I-impossible. Grrgh!"
"Sorry."
I aimed him not at the grinder, but the steel wall beside.
"My muscles are a bit too tough. Wreck your machine."
—KABOOM!!
I slammed him. Factory shook. Thick freezer wall cratered. He embedded like a fossil.
"Kahk, cough!"
Blood spewed; he slumped. Bones pulverized. Suppressed pain hit at once—eyes rolling back.
"Done."
I dusted my hands and turned. Scene cleared.
"Ugh, mercy…."
"B-blood rushing to my head…."
Adel's gravity-reversal spell had minions bat-hanging upside-down from the ceiling. Sausage-wrapped and floating—quite the sight.
"Clean work."
I nodded approval, yanking Jang Yuk from the wall. Propped the half-dead bastard in a chair, bound tight with Adel's mana chains.
"Now, down to business."
I slapped his cheek to rouse him.