Chapter 30
Chapter 30
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: What About Fang?
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*Click!*
"If you wanna die, take another step!"
"Hey, your recovery's no joke."
Geon-woo, who had been pulling back his hood, felt the gun barrel pressing into his lower abdomen and quickly raised both hands.
But it was all for show—he didn't seem genuinely startled that Fang had woken up and aimed the gun at him.
No matter how cornered they got, top-tiers like Geon-woo or Fang never lost consciousness for long.
If a brief blackout couldn't shake off accumulated mental damage, they could never become elite mercenaries or agency leaders.
"What happened? You got taken down by a tracker?"
Geon-woo lowered his hands and asked Fang.
The hood, slightly lifted, fell back down, revealing only vague facial contours inside.
"What're you staring at? Curious if I'm a guy or a girl? Fine, I'll tell you—I'm definitely a man. I've been through all sorts of crap since I was a kid because of this pretty face, but I'm a full-fledged guy. Ngh."
Fang grunted as he forced himself up and leaned against the collapsed steel frame.
"Alright, let's say that's true. I don't really need to know your gender anyway. So, the tracker?"
Geon-woo raised both hands above his shoulders again and asked Fang.
Fang pulled out a pendant hanging from a metal chain around his neck.
"This is the tracker."
"What're you talking about? If that's the tracker, why didn't you toss it and keep wearing it around your neck?"
Geon-woo looked at Fang with an expression of utter confusion.
"I'm not some punk who goes down easy. This time, it took a pretty complicated process. Several steps led to a toxic substance being synthesized inside my body."
"Synthesized?"
"Through breathing, drinking, contact—harmless components entered my body that way, and when they all combined, they formed the compound. Once I felt something off in my body, they showed up."
"They who?"
"I'll explain that later. First, this."
Fang held out the tracker slightly.
Geon-woo glanced at it, then back at Fang.
"Why the tracker?"
"It's not just a tracker—it's a signal emitter that keeps the synthesized poison in my body from flaring up. I stole it from them."
"There's something like that?"
"It wasn't originally made as a tracker. They had it to use after capturing me alive. When I snatched it, they started tracking the signal coming from here. That's why it acts like a tracker."
"A signal that stabilizes the compound in your body? Something like that exists?"
"It does, or I wouldn't have fallen for it. Not ordinary stuff either—seemed to involve user abilities."
"So that thing you put off earlier—who the hell did this to you?"
Geon-woo pressed Fang again for the identities of those who had trapped him.
"Pelian, Cheonsuwan, Ivan, Alphonse, Tucker."
"What?"
Geon-woo was stunned by the names coming from Fang's mouth.
Those five were five out of the eight first-generation Ark Capsule users, just like him and Fang.
"It's not about the people. England, China, Russia, America, France."
"So their governments are behind it?"
"More precisely, governments worldwide—no, politicians specifically. They're using those five to control 400 million superpowered people."
"Guys like Pelian or Cheonsuwan becoming government dogs? That's weird. The others too—they're not the type to move on patriotism."
"Right. Those five are teaming up with existing political powers to get close to that influence. You know how it is—not aiming for the top spot that changes every time, but the steady second or third place."
"And secretly becoming the real rulers?"
"Exactly. That's why they targeted me."
"Why? What makes you so special?"
Geon-woo asked, puzzled why Pelian, Cheonsuwan, and the others would go after Fang.
"You think I'm a nobody? Doesn't it occur to you I could be the ultimate assassin if I wanted?"
"Hmm, your stealth skills are top-notch."
"You have a habit of underestimating me, but if I got serious, anyone would lose sleep over their beds."
"So they wanted to turn you into their slave. Too valuable to just kill."
"Right. But they got careless."
"And you stole that and ran?"
Geon-woo nodded toward the signal device around Fang's neck.
"Yeah."
"So?"
"Huh?"
"What do you expect me to do? Just get you out of here? But that signal device means they'll find you soon."
If he couldn't ditch or destroy the signal device, Fang would get caught or killed before long.
Judging by how his enemies had been attacking him earlier, it was probably death.
"You said there's poison in my body."
Fang looked at Geon-woo and said something off-topic.
"So?"
"You have strong poison resistance!"
Fang yelled in response to Geon-woo's repeated questions.
"Huh? You want me to give you that kind of resistance too? You think that's possible right now?"
Poison resistance was a side effect of Geon-woo's jiangshi physique.
To give Fang the same level, he'd need to apply a pretty advanced stage of Gangsigong.
But.
"Is it hard?"
"Not hard—impossible."
"Really?"
Fang's voice was calm, as if he'd half-expected it, his earlier excitement wiped clean.
That excitement had seemed almost deliberate.
"No way to build resistance in your body to expel or overcome the poison. If we had years, maybe a slim chance."
"Can't hold out that long. They'll figure out how to jam this signal soon. If I'm obviously going to be an enemy, better to eliminate me clean."
Fang shook his head.
He'd pinned his last hope on Geon-woo, but now he seemed to give up, his body slumping.
Geon-woo, sensitive to every muscle twitch, could tell Fang was crumbling inwardly despite appearances.
"Still, there is one method we could try."
Geon-woo spoke to him in a slightly hesitant voice.
"A method?"
Fang looked up at Geon-woo.
Geon-woo noticed tension returning to Fang's muscles.
"The drugs you were taking—there's something stronger and more potent. Using that might expel the poison... but."
"But what happens?"
Fang pressed, sensing the side effects from Geon-woo's trailing off.
"You'd enter a half-human, half-jiangshi state."
"What's that?"
"Don't get it? Your body becomes half-dead. Vital functions diminish too."
"Then how do you live? Oh, by the drug's power?"
Fang guessed the answer to his own question.
"Yeah."
"Can't recover fully?"
"It'll take time, but you can return to normal. Your boosted physical abilities from the half-state will drop, though."
"Who cares about that?! That's a no-brainer! Do it—now!"
Fang shouted excitedly, as if wondering what the problem was.
But Geon-woo shook his head again.
"You're forgetting something. This is if it succeeds. It could fail."
"Oh, right. There's a failure risk? Slipped my mind."
"So think it over and choose."
"Got time to think?"
"No. Decide now."
"Then what's there to think about?!"
"Don't ask me. Ask the enemies closing in."
"Damn it! Fine! Do it! If there's even a slim chance to live, of course!"
Fang yelled firmly, though in a low voice.
"Hmm, alright. Then let's head somewhere safer. A place where they can't follow easily."
At Fang's decision, Geon-woo immediately began sinking the space they were in deep underground.
*Rumble rumble rumble!*
"Whoa, this is..."
"High-speed elevators drop 4 meters per second, right? This is similar."
Fang marveled at the gravitational shift from the rapidly descending space section, and Geon-woo boasted proudly.
*Boom boom boom! Kwang kwang kwang!*
After dozens of seconds, the descent stopped, and the sound of the passage sealing above echoed.
"Alright, shall we start?"
"Here?"
Fang scanned the messy space of crumbled concrete and bent steel beams at Geon-woo's words.
"No point in staying long. We'll bury it after anyway."
As he spoke, Geon-woo activated his dimensional space ability from the giant's remains.
*Whoooong!*
"What's that?"
"......"
Ignoring Fang's question with silence, Geon-woo pulled out mana lamps and jiangshi refining drugs from the dimensional space.
He lit the area with the mana lamps, then used his telekinesis to mold dirt and stone from one wall into a stone coffin.
"Get in and lie down."
Geon-woo pushed the stone coffin in front of Fang.
"Lie in there?"
"Swallowing pills takes too long to absorb, and the effect's weak. So we'll immerse you fully."
"Don't tell me I have to strip too?"
"Hmm, even with clothes, they might dissolve."
"......"
"What? We're both guys."
"......"
"Hurry up and get in. We need to start."
Geon-woo urged him on, unfazed by Fang's glare from under the hood.
Moments later, Fang slowly climbed into the coffin and lay down stiffly.
"Pour the drugs in and seal the lid right away."
Fang lay rigid in the coffin, his voice carrying clear intent: do it, or else.
Geon-woo chuckled at the sight.
"Got it. Not like it's hard. Honestly, I have no interest in checking out another guy's body."
With that, Geon-woo poured various drugs into the stone coffin with Fang inside.
* * *
= Preparations complete, my lord.
"Good."
*Crack!*
At Ilryeong's report, Geon-woo crushed the pendant in his hand.
That pendant had been suppressing the synthesized toxic substance in Fang's body.
"......"
After destroying the signal device, Geon-woo spent a while focusing on something.
Then, shortly after.
= Success. Dokryeong has perfectly synthesized the compound poison. We can use it anytime now.
After placing Fang in the coffin, Geon-woo had rushed back to Onbiroad.
Nothing beat Dokryeong's poison absorption for extracting the poison from Fang's body.
He returned to the island, used the Ark Capsule to go to Onbiroad, then came back up to the underground cavern, moved to where the jiangshi were, stored them in the dimensional space, and returned to Earth.
Days had passed in the process.
In that time, those who'd lost Fang had broadcast signals to jam the pendant, but by then Fang was in a comatose state inside the stone coffin.
Near death, he was safe even when the pendant's suppression vanished and the poison flared—his minimal vital functions bought time.
In the interim, Dokryeong from Onbiroad absorbed the poison from Fang's body.
And now, the final step: destroying the pendant.
Dokryeong gaining a new poison was a bonus.
= The enemies are retreating.
Ilryeong reported on the surface users' movements.
The surface enemies confirmed the pendant signal had stopped and left without lingering.
They likely assumed Fang had succumbed to the poison, or figured fighting him without the pendant offered no chance of victory.
Plus, the burden of operating long in Korea.
= In any case, Dokryeong obtaining a new poison is a huge gain.
"We can poison enemies undetected by splitting it into seven harmless components, like what hit Fang?"
Dokryeong had replicated the exact poison that afflicted Fang.
The poison, ineffective before due to the pendant signal, now activated fully after its destruction.
= Yes. Even ability users who detect poisons won't spot this compound midway. And the synthesized poison is extremely potent—ordinary resistance or immunity won't hold.
"We got a real gem thanks to Fang. Still, that suppression signal bothers me."
= A slight modification should render the signal useless. Research won't take long.
"Good to hear."
= Yes, my lord. Lucky us—a new weapon falls into our hands.
"Then time to head back. Pendant's gone, so no tracking worries."
= Uh, what about Fang? Take him to the island?
"What? No need, and we shouldn't. Just leave him somewhere suitable. He'll handle himself when he wakes."
= But why... I assumed you'd bring him.
Ilryeong asked, puzzled.
"We don't know where his Ark Capsule is. Without it, he's half-useless."
= Ah, I see.
"Debt's cleared anyway. And no benefit to me seeing him crawl out."
= Understood, my lord.
At Geon-woo's words, Ilryeong dropped the topic of Fang's fate.
About ten hours later.
Fang pushed open the stone coffin's lid and sat up in a cave Geon-woo had made with telekinesis in a mountain near the industrial city.
On the coffin lay familiar green workout clothes and white sneakers.
His neck felt bare where the pendant had been.
He'd definitely had it on entering the coffin.
"......"
Fang bowed his head, stroked his neck, and stayed silent for a long while.