Butterfly Effect (4)
The war between the Dio Guild and Yeong-cheol Suho-dae ended almost absurdly fast.
Gi Yeong-cheol, his face badly ruined, and his men were forced to their knees in a line.
Seo Gwang-pal prowled back and forth in front of them.
“You’re fucking nothing! What the hell are you acting tough for?”
If Gi Yeong-cheol and Seo Gwang-pal had fought one-on-one, what would have happened?
There was no need to guess. Gi Yeong-cheol would have crushed him.
But a professional force like the Dio Guild against a bunch of amateur thugs?
The outcome of a team fight was obvious.
“Go on, try acting up again!”
Seo Gwang-pal drove his foot into Gi Yeong-cheol’s abdomen.
“Ghk!”
Gi Yeong-cheol folded over without resistance and hit the ground.
His men gritted their teeth, but it wasn’t enough to turn the tide.
Lee Yu-seol watched it all from behind with her arms folded.
“Hmm.”
She didn’t join the fight.
She simply observed Gi Yeong-cheol closely.
The way he fought, freely reshaping his body like a mirage, had been fairly impressive.
But once Seo Gwang-pal and the other Dio Guild agents swarmed him together, he collapsed without much of a struggle.
He’s too weak for the Purple Devil.
Was that man really the one she was looking for?
Or was she missing something?
Gi Yeong-cheol lifted his head, blood streaming from his mouth.
“Cough... heh. Guess there’s no winning against a pile-on. Or maybe I’m just getting it all back now.”
He gave a bitter smile as he remembered his younger days, when he and his comrades had all rushed an A-class hunter together just to bring him down.
“What are you talking about? You gone crazy from getting hit too much?”
Seo Gwang-pal grabbed Gi Yeong-cheol by the hair and yanked him up.
“Hey. You’re not the Purple Devil. That bastard was too short compared to the guy I met back then. And he didn’t use any of that weird bullshit either.”
Gi Yeong-cheol forced his swollen, bruised eyelids open.
“He’s hiding here, isn’t he? Don’t tell me one of your underlings is him?”
Gi Yeong-cheol chuckled and answered, “What the hell are you on about? Purple Devil? What is this, some kids’ pretend game?”
In truth, he had a vague idea of who the Purple Devil was.
The day Cha Chi-do died.
During the clash, Cha Chi-do had stabbed a knife into the Purple Devil’s abdomen.
The next day, Choi Yongki, who worked at Factory 4, had a wound in the very same spot.
Could that really have been a coincidence?
The Purple Devil might be Choi Yongki.
He couldn’t be certain yet, but every piece of the story fit too neatly together.
Either way, Gi Yeong-cheol decided to keep what he knew to himself.
If it hadn’t been for Choi Yongki, not only he himself but also the younger brothers who followed him would have been slaughtered by Cha Chi-do.
I can’t betray my lifesaver.
Having made up his mind, Gi Yeong-cheol shouted at the top of his lungs.
“How about you and me settle this one-on-one, you bald bastard!”
Meeting Gi Yeong-cheol’s fierce glare, veins bulging in his neck, Seo Gwang-pal flinched and stepped back.
Experience, skill, even manliness.
In no respect was Seo Gwang-pal better than Gi Yeong-cheol.
The only thing he had going for him was one thing.
The powerful backing standing behind him.
The Dio Guild.
Seo Gwang-pal glanced back subtly.
Lee Yu-seol was still silent.
But Seo Gwang-pal knew.
She’ll step in eventually.
Representative Go Ju-hun had given the order personally.
They had to bring back the Purple Devil.
Even if the two of them had gotten on each other’s nerves, they were in the same boat now.
Once he’d finished calculating things in his head, Seo Gwang-pal relaxed again.
“No thanks.”
He moved to another spot.
All the way to the end of the line of kneeling men.
He stopped in front of one of Gi Yeong-cheol’s underlings.
“Hey. You lot. Hold this bastard.”
Seo Gwang-pal called over two D-class agents lower-ranked than himself.
They did as they were told and hauled Gi Yeong-cheol’s man to his feet.
“Watch closely.”
Seo Gwang-pal grinned at Gi Yeong-cheol.
Then he slammed his head into the underling’s face.
The ugly, meaty crack of impact rang out.
The other man’s nose caved in, and blood smeared across Seo Gwang-pal’s forehead.
At the same time, the elephant mask he wore buckled so badly its shape was no longer clear.
Gi Yeong-cheol’s underling lost consciousness and dropped.
“Heh-heh! Okay. Next!”
Seo Gwang-pal didn’t stop.
One by one, he hauled up Gi Yeong-cheol’s men in turn.
“Listen up, you lanky fuck. Keep your mouth shut till the end. I’m having too much fun right now!”
Seo Gwang-pal felt a thrill every time he bullied the weak.
Thud. Crack. Crunch.
Faces caved in, arms snapped, ankles twisted the wrong way around.
Screams burst from all around them, and Factory 7 turned into hell.
Gi Yeong-cheol trembled with fury, clenching his teeth so hard they hurt.
Damn it. Damn it! Damn it!!
He stood at a crossroads.
Should he expose the Purple Devil’s identity and save his men?
Or should he accept a little sacrifice for the greater good?
Yongki. What am I supposed to do?
By the time Seo Gwang-pal had broken one of the underlings’ ribs.
“This is getting boring.”
Lee Yu-seol cut in.
She was sick of him dragging things out just to satisfy his personal cruelty.
She, too, had lowered her cap and covered her face with a mask to hide her identity.
“Tch.”
As she stepped forward, Seo Gwang-pal clicked his tongue and stopped.
Lee Yu-seol pointed somewhere.
“What’s that building?”
Just behind the factory was the dormitory where the foreign laborers stayed.
Gi Yeong-cheol kept his mouth shut.
Seo Gwang-pal tightened his grip on the underling’s ribs and forced an answer out of him.
“Ugh! It’s where the workers rest. The guys who pulled an all-nighter yesterday are sleeping in there.”
Lee Yu-seol beckoned to one of the Dio Guild agents.
He was a B-class hunter.
She pointed at the building with one finger.
“There.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The agent spread both arms.
Mana materialized in his hands, forming a bowstring.
He bent the bow and took aim at the building.
Gi Yeong-cheol’s eyes went wide.
“W-what are you doing?”
Whoosh!
The mana arrow left the bowstring and shot through the air, punching into the building’s window along its trajectory.
BOOM!!!
Seconds later, a blast sounded beyond the window, and smoke began to rise.
The shooter’s talent was Firecracker.
Its raw power was weak, but once the arrow landed, it triggered a chain reaction and burst like fireworks, scattering flames everywhere.
The agent didn’t stop and kept firing.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Colorful arrows stitched the sky and smashed through the windows one after another.
“......No way.”
Gi Yeong-cheol muttered dazedly.
Screams came from somewhere inside.
“H-help! Somebody help!”
A foreign laborer opened a window and shouted.
“Ugh!”
He had inhaled the green smoke and was foaming at the mouth.
Looking closer, his skin was covered in a rash of red blotches.
It was the poison effect from one of the different arrow attacks.
From another window, flames burst up, and black smoke poured into the air.
“Aaaagh!”
“F-fire!”
“S-shit!!!”
Another man burst out through the front door.
Flames had caught on his hem, and his hair had burned black, smoke curling up from his scalp.
Seeing that, Seo Gwang-pal snickered.
“Oh! We’re comrades, huh!”
The man with the singed clothes was clutching something precious in his arms.
A stray kitten that had been wandering around the factory.
Not long ago, he had taken the little thing in and been living with it in his room.
“F-fire! P-please, call it in!”
The foreign laborer grabbed Seo Gwang-pal, who happened to be nearby, by the shoulder.
“Don’t fucking touch me!”
Seo Gwang-pal smashed him in the back of the head with his fist.
The foreign laborer collapsed while still holding the kitten.
The kitten raised its fur and growled at Seo Gwang-pal.
He didn’t even care. Instead, he shouted at the dormitory, now roaring with flames.
“That’s it! That’s what I’m talking about! This is real revenge!”
At last, Gi Yeong-cheol screamed.
“Enough. Stop it! You motherfuckers!!!”
With Gi Yeong-cheol howling in anguish, Seo Gwang-pal grinned sourly and grabbed one of the underlings.
“Not yet, asshole. I’m going to show you exactly what happens when you defy us.”
He seized the man’s arms and hid behind him.
“Hey, archer. Over here. Human target! You little shit! Don’t move! What are you gonna do if you hit me?”
The agent with the bow looked at Lee Yu-seol.
She nodded.
Then the agent shifted the bowstring.
Seo Gwang-pal forced the underling’s mouth open.
“Now, say ah. Aahh. I’ve been curious about this for a while. What happens if one of those arrows goes down your throat and into your stomach?”
Blood tears welled in Gi Yeong-cheol’s eyes amid the chaos.
“You...!”
Had he ever felt this powerless before?
If he had known it would come to this.
Instead of drinking, gambling, and stealing.
He should have trained until he bled.
He should have gotten stronger.
He should have become...
He shouldn’t have used his Awakened power for evil.
He should have tried to protect someone instead!
...No, what’s the point of regretting it now? I’m nothing but trash.
Gi Yeong-cheol’s eyes reddened.
I’m sorry, Yongki. I can’t...
He raised his head.
“I’ll talk! I’ll tell you who the Purple Devil is! Please, just stop!”
But Seo Gwang-pal didn’t care.
“Too late. Fire! Now!”
Whoosh.
The mana arrow sliced through the air.
“What the hell is this cat bastard doing?”
At the same time, Seo Gwang-pal tried to kick at the kitten hissing at him.
Even then, the arrow flew without hesitation toward the underling’s mouth.
Tap.
And then—
“......!”
Everyone held their breath.
The arrow that had been headed for the underling.
The kitten.
Both had vanished.
It had happened in the blink of an eye.
He didn’t know where he had come from, but someone new had appeared.
A man wearing a purple mask stitched together from rags, dressed in a clumsy-looking suit.
In one hand, he held the mana arrow.
With the other, he gathered the kitten into his arms with astonishing tenderness.
“Huh?”
Seo Gwang-pal lost his balance and sprawled onto the floor.
Lee Yu-seol’s eyes widened.
“...Found you.”
The one she had been searching for so desperately.
The real one had finally appeared.
* * *
When I saw smoke rising from far away, I knew something had happened over there.
I was glad I’d already moved Cha Chi-do’s valuables out of the dormitory.
He even went so far as to set the building on fire.
The group came into view in the distance.
It was Gi Yeong-cheol’s crew, kneeling in front of the Dio Guild.
The twins muttered, “There they are.”
“Those are them.”
I gauged the distance.
80 meters? 90?
Pretty far.
And the situation looked pretty urgent too.
Move.
I said to the twins, “That bomb. If it gets more than 100 meters away from me, it’ll explode.”
“Huh?”
“R-really?”
I lowered my body and took off in a sprinter’s stance.
“Follow me.”
At that instant, I activated my power.
TING.
I purchased Speeder’s Infinite Acceleration.
Ten million won.
The moment the balance was spent, I kicked off the ground and shot forward like a spring.
Everything around me slowed to a crawl.
I caught a man as he leapt from the building, unable to bear the smoke pouring through the fire.
First, save one person.
I lowered the fallen foreign laborer gently to the ground.
Then I ran.
And ran.
I lifted the kitten that had been trembling at Seo Gwang-pal’s feet.
Finally, I snatched the arrow out of the air just as it was about to hit Gi Yeong-cheol’s underling in the mouth.
In just over a second, Infinite Acceleration ended, and time returned to normal.
“......”
I looked around.
Gi Yeong-cheol’s men lay on the ground like discarded rags.
The dormitory was blazing.
The foreign laborers were retching and groaning as they fled in a panic from the burning building.
For them, this place wasn’t just somewhere to earn money.
Like me, it was a precious foothold in life, the only escape route out of poverty.
The Dio Guild had shattered a place like that in an instant.
Just to get back at me, they trampled countless people underfoot.
Heat and rage surged up from my gut and shot straight to my head.
Seo Gwang-pal looked up at me and stammered, “P-Purple Devil?”
I clutched the mana arrow in my hand.
Crack.
“Yeah. You maggot-faced bastards.”
I unleashed every ounce of the hot mana coiling inside me.
“I’m the Purple Devil.”
