Butterfly Effect (2)
The twins hired by the Dio Guild were identical brothers, born when a single egg split in two.
Their names were Wi Ro-seo and Wi Ro-ya. Their devout Christian mother had named them after the twins from the Bible, Esau and Jacob.
According to Genesis 25, Esau had been a sturdy hunter with red hair.
Was that why? The older brother, Wi Ro-seo, had an almost unnatural fixation on red. Even the shirt he wore at the airport was a red Hawaiian shirt, and now he had changed into a red yukata.
His younger brother, Wi Ro-ya, on the other hand, preferred blue.
"Wait."
Lee Yu-seol called the twins to a halt.
Everyone there obediently listened to her, since she was effectively the leader of this operation.
After getting out of the truck and standing at the fork that split toward Factories 1 through 9, Lee Yu-seol had decided to head for Factory 7.
There was a comparatively powerful Awakened there.
The tall one is the most likely candidate for the Purple Devil, at least.
But the twins abruptly headed toward Factory 9 instead. It was sudden, and it was entirely of their own making.
"Didn’t you hear me? I said Factory 7. Not Factory 9."
The twins answered at once.
"We’ve got something we want to check over here."
"We’re a set, me and my brother. So naturally, I have to follow him."
The twins shrugged as if they didn’t see what the problem was.
Lee Yu-seol frowned.
Honestly, they do whatever they want.
As far as she could sense, there was nothing special about Factory 9. She couldn’t detect a single Awakened there.
Lee Yu-seol turned to face the twins.
"What do you two think you’re doing over there?"
The twins didn’t back down.
"You two? Team Leader, your language is a little rough, isn’t it?"
"We move the way we move. Got a problem with that?"
An invisible tension crackled between Lee Yu-seol and the twins.
As the two sides began to ooze a sinister aura, the Dio Guild members nearby stiffened and clamped their mouths shut.
Only Seo Gwang-pal was grinning to himself.
Kekeke. To think even the great Lee Yu-seol can’t make a move. So those twins really are something.
Watching the woman who usually looked down on him get flustered was deeply satisfying to Seo Gwang-pal.
At last, Lee Yu-seol let out a long sigh.
"Fine. Do whatever you want. But once you’re done investigating, you’re rejoining us. I’m not making any more concessions."
"Sure. Let’s go."
"Okay, brother!"
Watching the twins recede into the distance, Lee Yu-seol gritted her teeth.
"Damn bastards."
Seo Gwang-pal cut in with a sly smile.
"You all right? You’re just going to let them run off like that?"
Under ordinary circumstances, with Lee Yu-seol’s temper, there was no reason she shouldn’t have exploded by now.
"Let it go. The chairman told me to."
Lee Yu-seol had two reasons for holding back.
First, the orders of the Dio Guild chairman she respected.
And second...
"Those two are the kind that tear things apart like eels in mud. Before long, the place they’re in is going to be reduced to ruins."
Turning away, Lee Yu-seol gestured sharply.
"The rest of you, follow me!"
"Yes!"
And so Lee Yu-seol’s team and the twins headed off in different directions.
After walking for a while, one of the twins glanced toward Lee Yu-seol’s group.
"Brother. Why are we going this way, anyway?"
At his brother’s question, the older twin grinned.
"You know Akira Ryuji, right?"
"Hm? That Japanese guy we took care of?"
He was the yakuza boss they had assassinated after taking a contract before coming to Korea.
"What about him?"
"I heard this gang here is dealing in the same stuff the Akira faction was distributing."
Wi Ro-seo’s guess was correct.
Cha Chi-do had recruited a manufacturer who had worked for the Akira faction, and based on that man’s technique, he had begun mass-producing Black Pearl.
Factory 9 in the Ilsan Hunter Industrial Complex was where the Black Pearl was being made.
"Black Pearl’s here?"
"That’s right. While that Dio Guild bitch chases Purple Devil’s tail, we can just sit back and enjoy the honey."
Wi Ro-seo drew a thumb across his throat.
"First, once we get into Factory 9, kill everything you see. I’ll set the place on fire with my power. If we’re lucky, that Purple Devil or whatever will crawl out toward us. We steal the drugs, we get paid by Chairman Go for completing the job, and we feast on the spoils. How’s that? Three birds with one stone."
"Oh! As expected, Brother!"
"You little punk. Just trust me, little brother."
The twins threw an arm around each other’s shoulders and headed for Factory 9 in high spirits.
Because I’d ridden in on a motorcycle, I’d arrived quickly.
The entrance to Factory 9 was hidden behind a giant container box, leaving a narrow, dead-straight alley leading inward. You had to pass through here to get inside.
It was quiet around the place, which meant they probably hadn’t arrived yet.
I was standing in front of the entrance, keeping watch, when—
step, step.
A group came walking toward me from the opposite side.
They were wearing red and blue yukata.
"Huh?"
"Brother. That purple mask..."
One of the twins pointed at me.
"Isn’t that the Purple Devil?"
"Looks like it. Well, well. The pumpkin rolled right into our lap."
Why were they here?
Doesn’t matter.
They’d come here with the Dio Guild, so they were obviously on the same side.
Which meant they were my enemies.
I faced the twins and said, "Go back."
With my heel, I drew a line in the ground.
"You’re not taking a single step past here."
The twins glanced at each other, then burst out laughing.
"Pffft! You’re even crazier than the rumors said."
"Wow. For a second I thought Zhang Fei himself had come charging out of Changban Slope."
Don’t let the exaggerated speech and flashy clothes fool you.
They’d ignored Lee Yu-seol’s orders and split off on their own.
Which meant they had to be skilled.
The twins lowered their stances like dancers hitting a synchronized pose.
"Brother. Ready?"
"Go!"
The twins lunged at the same time, and in that instant I spun through the possibilities in a split second.
What are their abilities?
Seo Gwang-pal, the giant, Cha Chi-do—over the course of fighting Awakened, I’d learned how important it was to identify an opponent’s power in battle.
I’d done my homework on Lee Yu-seol already.
But I knew nothing about the twins.
I was also nowhere near as experienced as they were.
In situations like this...
I concentrated mana into both fists.
First strike, first victory.
Then I shot my fists out at the same time.
Judgment of the Superhuman (Special) has been activated.
BANG!
Mana burst from both hands like pellets from a shotgun.
"Ghk!"
"Kkh!"
The twins smashed into each other in the narrow passage and were blown backward far down the alley.
They rolled across the ground for quite a while before finally stopping.
They ended up right where they’d first appeared.
I pointed at the line I’d drawn on the ground with my chin.
"Told you. You weren’t getting past."
I’d been talking big, but the real reason was to check the message floating in the air.
Judgment of the Superhuman (Special) ticket: 10/3
The skill I’d received as a reward was shining bright.
Seven uses left.
The twins staggered to their feet.
The yukata they’d been wearing were already reduced to ragged tatters.
"...You shoot force blasts with your fists?"
"An energy type, like us?"
They’d decided I was the kind of Awakened who released mana externally from his body.
Good. Just as planned.
Fighting while deceiving one another in a brutal game of wits—
that was real combat.
The twins, who had just taken a solid hit, wiped the smiles off their faces.
"Brother."
"Yeah."
Now serious, the two exchanged silent signals with their eyes.
Both twins swung their arms in a circle through the air and thrust their hands forward at the same time.
It’s like they’re mirror images.
For a moment, I was almost impressed.
From the older brother’s hand, red flames sprang up.
From the younger brother’s, a blue shard of ice the size of a baseball formed in an instant.
Fwoosh!
Shhhhk!
The flames burned hotter and hotter, while the ice shard sharpened into a spike.
The place I stood was a one-way alley blocked by container boxes. That made it easy to stop enemies from advancing, but depending on the situation, it could just as easily become a disadvantage.
Right now, for example.
The twins unleashed flame and ice spear at the same time.
Damn it.
Normally, when you’ve got a spear pointed at you, you raise a shield.
But there’s nowhere to dodge. So then...
I answered their attack with a counterattack.
Boom!
Using Judgment of the Superhuman, I shifted the trajectories of the fire and ice rounds.
The flames ricocheted away and struck the concrete wall.
The temperature was so high that the steel began to run down like lava.
The ice spear tore straight through the barrier and punched a hole in it.
...
If I’d taken that head-on, it would’ve been a lethal wound.
On top of that, their coordination was nearly perfect.
Their attack angles and timing were seriously tricky to read.
The twins repeated the motion again.
"Hey. Purple head. Don’t tell me that’s all you’ve got."
"Heh. We’re just getting started."
The flames born in the older brother’s hand swelled, splitting into more than ten fireballs.
The younger brother’s ice ballooned out like a basketball, multiplying the number of spikes.
Could I block all of that completely the same way as before?
"Before we kill you, I’ll ask. Do you know anything about the Black Pearl in Factory 9?"
"Tell the truth, and we’ll end this right now. We won’t keep messing with you! Kihih."
The twins’ goal was Black Pearl.
I grinned beneath my mask.
Stupid bastards.
I’d already taken care of all the Black Pearl.
Even if they headed for Factory 9, there’d be no drugs left there.
Actually, this works out nicely.
I decided to turn the pack of hyenas chasing the bait against itself.
"Hey. Knockoff. Copy and paste."
I pointed at them one after the other.
The provocation seemed to work; the twins’ faces twisted in a scowl.
"Hyenas can eat rotten meat without getting sick. Know why?"
Who would’ve thought all that trivia I’d picked up from a lifetime of working in a factory would come in handy in a fight?
Life really was funny.
"A hyena’s gastric acid is an insane 1.5 pH. That stomach acid’s strong enough to kill off bacteria and germs."
The older brother let out a dry laugh at my sudden nonsense.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
They were sly and greedy.
If I dug too clumsy a trap, they might slip out of it.
Go straight through.
I took a step forward.
"The drugs are gone. Dumped into a vat of hydrochloric acid boiling like stomach juice."
The twins, who had been smug up until now, went rigid in an instant.
"...Really?"
The older brother’s face turned ugly.
One step, then another.
I closed the distance between us.
"Of course. Heroes are always honest."
In reality, I was a liar, but I tossed out my final piece of bait anyway.
"There are still some things left. I hid them well."
I didn’t stop moving.
"Brother! He’s playing us. Just kill him!"
At the younger brother’s signal, a long-range barrage came flying in.
Just as hellfire and razor-sharp frost were about to engulf me—
I used Super Kid’s second ability.
PURCHASE COMPLETE.
God's Aura has been activated.
Boom! BOOMBOOMBOOM!!!!
Flames grazed my face, ice shattered against my body, and the fragments burst apart on impact.
The twins’ all-out finishing blow could not pierce the God's Aura that had spread across my whole body and formed a protective shell.
No—it couldn’t even scratch it.
This is the moment. I’m invincible.
That said, the sensation of the flames and ice against my face was hot enough to scald and cold enough to freeze.
God's Aura was only a thin layer of protection.
I had no idea how long it would keep holding.
I took the full barrage across my body and accelerated even faster.
Whoooosh!
Fire and ice collided and turned the air into a dense wall of steam.
"Hahaha! He’s flying in like a moth straight to the flame to die!"
"Brother. That guy’s completely nuts."
The twins seemed to think they’d landed a clean hit and were already celebrating their victory between themselves.
Five meters. Four. Three...
Only when I was right on top of them did they finally notice something was wrong.
"What the hell? He’s still alive?"
"Brother! Something’s off. That bastard doesn’t have a single wound..."
Out of the steam, I shot both hands forward and grabbed them by the napes of their necks.
"Ghk!"
"Urgh!"
The twins thrashed in my grip.
"Got you. You little troublemakers."
The purple mask twisted like a demon’s face, and a grin spread across it.