Hero Is Born (6)
The violent gang that had seized control of Ilsan Hunter Corporation was the Chi-do Gang.
Its boss was Cha Chi-do.
Born the son of a prostitute, he had stabbed a man in his teens and ended up in a juvenile detention center.
The place was hell.
Every day, the former judo player who served as the head guard beat Cha Chi-do senseless, and the wardens simply looked the other way.
When had it started?
Cha Chi-do had been plagued by a vicious ringing in his ears.
Biiii...
Tormented by the strange sound that seemed to drift in from nowhere, he would groan under his blankets every night.
“You bastard! Shut up!”
The head guard trampled him without mercy.
At last, Cha Chi-do snapped and drove the broken tip of a toothbrush into the man’s throat.
“Ghk. Khaaaak...”
Clutching his neck, Cha Chi-do climbed onto the guard as he collapsed.
Then he tore the man’s ear off with cruel, methodical violence.
A desperate scream rang through the prison.
Cha Chi-do looked down at the ear resting in his palm.
The blood-soaked dumpling-shaped ear had a strange, almost uncanny form, unlike that of an ordinary person. When he touched it, the ringing in his ears mysteriously grew fainter, then stopped altogether.
That was when it began.
Cha Chi-do’s obsessive fixation on ears.
“Mr. Apostle of Justice.”
He spoke while staring at the man in the purple helmet standing before him.
“What do your ears look like?”
The other man gave no answer.
He merely gathered mana and focused his mind.
Everyone knew Cha Chi-do as a psychopathic killer.
But there was no doubt about his skill.
That was precisely why he was even more on edge now.
The atmosphere changed.
Until just a moment ago, when he fought with his fists, he had seemed so straightforward it was almost boring.
Now, though...
For some reason, he feels lighter. Like he could fly off in any direction at any second.
Cha Chi-do hated situations that turned unpredictable.
First, I’ll rattle him. If I see an opening, I’ll kill him at once.
Forcing himself to stay calm, Cha Chi-do smiled.
Then he scratched at the scar beside his eye with the tip of his sashimi knife.
“See this scar? Do you know who gave it to me?”
His lazily held knife suddenly tightened in his grip.
At a glance, the blade looked like an ordinary fish-cutting knife, but in truth it was a cursed sword handed down through the demon bloodline.
Its blindingly white blade and featherlight weight, almost like plastic, were its defining traits.
Cha Chi-do’s talent was Quickness.
A speed-type talent, it specialized in the Instant Kill Drill, a thrusting technique delivered at near-sonic speed.
Cha Chi-do took a step forward.
“There was a cop who came to arrest me. He’d been recruited through the special A-class Hunter program, and he was a pretty skilled, promising young man.”
A sinister aura began to pour from his body.
Unlucky mana flickered along the sashimi knife.
“He hurt me, and I got really angry. Do you know what I did then?”
Cha Chi-do smiled thinly.
“I dissected his organs and sent them to his family.”
Even while taunting me, he didn’t forget to watch for my reaction.
“Purple Helmet. Do you perhaps have a family? If you’re going to die, why not tell me the address in advance? I’ll have it delivered by courier.”
At the word “family,” the other man reacted.
He flinched, then lifted his gaze.
The skin at his neck was fully exposed beneath the helmet.
Now.
Cha Chi-do charged.
Goodbye!
He unleashed his Instant Kill Drill and struck precisely twice.
Pak!
But in that instant, Cha Chi-do knew something was wrong.
The blade hadn’t even brushed his opponent.
He dodged?
He caught the sashimi knife spinning in the air and staggered, regaining his balance.
The man in the purple helmet slowly turned his head.
Coincidence?
Impossible.
The Instant Kill Drill had never failed even once.
Then...
...he’s faster than me? That’s impossible.
A voice drifted out from inside the helmet.
“The address? Sure, I’ll tell you. Write it down. Seoul, Eunpyeong District...”
Cha Chi-do clenched his teeth.
“Instant Kill Drill: Hell!!!”
He thrust the sashimi knife forward in a frenzy.
Pak-papak-pak-pak!!!!!!!
One thousand stabs rained down in a relentless barrage.
About two or three seconds passed.
“Hah... Haaah!!!”
Cha Chi-do gasped, dazed and empty-headed.
It had been a killing blow executed with the utmost focus, with every ounce of mana in his body poured into it.
And yet the enemy hadn’t even suffered a scratch.
“Instant Kill what?”
He wasn’t being careless.
The other man was calm to the point of serenity.
“You trying to deliver chicken or something?”
And with that, the purple helmet vanished.
The speed was beyond what the eye could follow.
“I’ll do the same to you.”
A voice reached his ear, faint but clear.
“Judgment of the Superhuman.”
With a heavy crack, Cha Chi-do’s jaw was wrenched sideways.
His front teeth rattled out of his mouth and scattered to the floor.
“Kuh.”
With complete composure, the other man plucked Cha Chi-do’s canine out of the glove he had embedded it in.
“That’s my name from now on. Remember it. You’re going to die anyway.”
“...”
Blood streamed from beneath Cha Chi-do’s jaw as his hair stood on end.
The smile vanished from his lips, and fear began to seep slowly into his face.
Biiii...
The nightmare ringing from his childhood rose again in his ears.
* * *
“Aaaagh!!!”
Cha Chi-do clutched at his ears and screamed.
“Shut up!!! Shut up!!!”
He thrashed wildly, losing all reason as he flailed in fury.
Serves you right.
That confirmed it.
Infinite Acceleration surpasses Cha Chi-do’s speed.
No—more than that, it crushed it completely.
To experience the power of a hero I’d once admired firsthand...
It felt like stepping into a comic book.
“Shiiit!”
Cha Chi-do smashed the sides of his head like a lunatic, as if a cockroach had crawled into his ear.
He was not weak.
If I hadn’t had Speeder’s power, my body would’ve been full of holes by now.
That’s how amazing Infinite Acceleration is.
If only I hadn’t been able to see the knife aimed precisely at my throat, even if it moved slowly.
When Infinite Acceleration was active, I could move freely within my own private tempo.
At this speed...
I did some rough calculations in my head, but I still couldn’t get a real sense of it.
Snorting, Cha Chi-do shouted toward the door.
“Hey! You two outside! Get your asses in here right now!!”
He no longer bothered using honorifics with his men.
A moment later, the door opened and the two men acting as guards came in.
Each had something slung over one shoulder.
...Submachine guns.
I had seen them the moment I entered, but I hadn’t expected them to use them.
Cha Chi-do jabbed a finger at me.
“That bastard. Spray him down!”
His front teeth were all gone, so his pronunciation had turned sloppy.
The situation was almost comical, but I couldn’t laugh.
The long-limbed guy behind me and his underlings stiffened and backed away.
At Speeder’s speed, bullets were nothing to fear.
I can dodge them just fine.
But...
At this rate, the lanky guy and his group will be in danger.
Cha Chi-do’s subordinates stared blankly at him.
“Huh? Boss. Right now? You really want us to spray him?”
“You want to die too? Hurry up!!!”
“Y-yes, sir. Just a second. I need to take off the safety fir—kgh!”
Cha Chi-do’s sashimi knife pierced the man’s throat.
He had no patience to wait for a bumbling subordinate to get ready.
The stabbed man collapsed, coughing blood.
The remaining subordinate jerked in shock and raised his gun.
“I-I’m ready!”
Cha Chi-do barked orders at the rest of his men.
“All of you, go grab that bastard.”
“What?”
“If you don’t want me to kill you, do what I say!!!”
His men had no choice but to creep toward me.
Cha Chi-do snatched the submachine gun from the subordinate lying on the floor.
He aimed it at me.
“Fine. Let’s see just how fast you really are.”
Before he could pull the trigger, I had already finished what I needed to do.
Purchase Speeder’s Infinite Acceleration.
Let’s go.
I kicked off the ground and shot forward.
Mana rushed through my body and concentrated in one leg.
I had only taken a single step.
And then an unbelievable scene unfolded before me.
Kwooo...
The bullets fired from Cha Chi-do’s submachine gun spewed sparks as they drifted forward in slow motion.
The man rushing at me with an axe raised high had a droplet of saliva floating in midair from his mouth.
The fat bastard swinging a machete in a horizontal slash had his jowls wobbling absurdly, like ripples in syrup.
Fantastic.
Cha Chi-do’s underlings moved in a slow-motion scene straight out of a movie.
It was the kind of masterpiece you only ever saw when Speeder’s trademark, super-high-speed movement, was in play.
And just like that, the tables turned.
When someone once asked Einstein to explain the theory of relativity in simple terms, he said:
“Time spent with a beautiful woman feels like one minute, but time spent on a hot stove feels like one hour.”
That was right.
My flow of time and theirs were no longer the same.
“Uwaaaah...!”
“Ughhh!!!”
I drove a fist into each of their jaws in turn as they made those ridiculous sounds and moved at a crawl.
I didn’t even need to use Judgment of the Superhuman.
A punch thrown while moving at that speed was heavy enough on its own.
Swish, swish, whoosh!
Although I had carried out quite a few actions, the bullets fired by the subordinate beside Cha Chi-do still couldn’t reach me.
I grabbed the machete that had fallen to the floor and hurled it.
Whoosh. Whiiing...
The long blade flew toward the body of the subordinate wearing the submachine gun.
At that trajectory, he would probably be cut down before he could even fire.
That left only one problem.
Cha Chi-do, who was spraying bullets over there.
Tung. Tung. Tuung...
The golden rounds drifted through the air and came toward me.
I snatched up one of Cha Chi-do’s fallen subordinates.
Then I hurled the body straight at the bullets.
The corpse became a shield and took the rounds meant for Cha Chi-do.
Unlike when he ran around with a sashimi knife, Cha Chi-do with a gun was too slow to react.
Giving up his specialty and choosing another weapon instead...
Foolish.
Perperperperpuk!!!!
When time resumed its normal flow, everyone, Cha Chi-do included, collapsed at once.
To their eyes, it must have all happened in the blink of an eye.
“Urk.”
Cha Chi-do, who had been thrown backward, tried to get up, but I was already on top of him.
In my hand was his own main weapon, the sashimi knife.
Thud!
I drove the blade into his thigh.
I deliberately did not use Infinite Acceleration.
I wanted to give him hell as slowly as possible.
The way to make someone understand pain is simple.
“Feel it yourself.”
Thud! Thhk! Thud-thud-thud!!!
“Ghh! Aaaagh!”
I stabbed into both of his thighs without pause.
By the time Cha Chi-do’s legs were mangled into ragged strips...
“...Heh. Hehehe.”
He was grinning like a madman and clutching at my pant leg.
“You. Have you ever killed anyone?”
It wasn’t that he couldn’t feel pain.
Cha Chi-do’s face was slick with cold sweat, yet he looked possessed by madness.
“Hehe. You’re scared, aren’t you? You can’t quite bring yourself to kill me. You’re doing this because you’re afraid to finish it, right?”
His grinning face sent chills through my entire body.
I shook him off, got to my feet with the sashimi knife in my hand, and everyone held their breath and looked at me.
In particular, the lanky guy’s eyes were bloodshot with revenge.
I tossed the sashimi knife in front of him.
Clink.
The meaning behind it was obvious, and the lanky guy understood it instantly.
He picked up the knife and walked toward me.
As I stepped aside, he passed me by.
Behind me, a final scream rang out.
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