The Corporate Reapers
The fluorescent lights in the dining hall flickered violently, accompanied by a sharp buzzing noise before plunging the room into darkness.
Terror flooded the faces of the special forces operatives as tension gripped the air.
Thick, murky malevolent energy seeped through the cracks in the doors and windows.
The sinister aura of the snake ghosts summoned by the Miao tribe shamans wrapped around the entire hotel like a colossal tomb, suffocating everything inside.
"All units, weapons out and stay away from the windows! Do not step outside the spiderweb barrier that Kang Suho set up!"
Team Leader Nam Gyuho's urgent shout echoed through the dining hall.
The special forces operatives flipped tables to create cover and chambered rounds in their pistols.
Click. Clack.
But the barrels at the ends of their guns trembled faintly in the empty air.
They instinctively understood that modern firearms were nothing more than toys in the face of invisible shamanic terror.
Samada Miku gently stroked the anxious White Wolf beside her.
"Baekrang, calm down. If you get worked up, you'll scare the people here."
It had already been an hour since Kang Suho left.
Miku was startled to realize she was now waiting for him.
Whenever she thought of him, the memory of him shoving his cock into her mouth kept resurfacing.
Moisture began to pool between her legs.
But she quickly shook her head hard.
'Sex is insane…'
Memories of her time in Japan flashed before her eyes like a panorama.
Born as a direct descendant of the legendary ninja clan, the Samada, she had been chosen as the master of Baekrang from a young age due to her exceptional spiritual power. With her grandfather even becoming her guardian spirit, her future had seemed set in stone.
But the real problem had erupted elsewhere.
The Japanese archipelago had committed an irreversible act of madness.
To solve the unprecedented low birthrate that had reached the level of a national disaster, the government had mobilized hidden shamanic factions and unleashed forbidden sorcery.
They had released lust demons across the entire country at a national level.
At first, it was dismissed as mere deviance around red-light districts. But as more and more women became possessed by the lust demons, they spilled out onto the streets.
The lust demons contaminated the entire nation in the blink of an eye.
Humans whose reason had been paralyzed, leaving only beast-like instincts for copulation and reproduction.
Instead of trying to control the madness, the government rewrote the laws to accommodate it.
Adultery and rape were essentially legalized under the pretext of encouraging childbirth, while abortion and pregnancy termination procedures were treated as serious crimes equivalent to treason.
Day and night, streets were filled with frenzied men and women entangled together. Female students were dragged into back alleys instead of attending school, reduced to state-sponsored breeding mothers forced into mandatory pregnancies.
And Miku's mother had been the most tragic victim of this national insanity.
Because of her exceptional beauty, Miku's mother had become a constant target for the men of her clan possessed by lust demons and the neighborhood thugs.
To protect Miku's virginity, her mother had spread her own legs instead.
She had been forced to endure repeated unwanted pregnancies, spitting out late-born children like a vending machine until both her body and mind were completely destroyed.
"Miku… protect your virginity. You must…."
After giving birth to her third child from another man, her mother had been murdered in a date-violence incident.
That day, Miku had clutched her mother's cooling corpse and wept tears of blood.
She had fled the deranged nation of Japan, smuggling herself into Korea and naturalizing as a citizen.
The condition for her naturalization had been to assist the National Police Agency and the government for five years.
Officially, she had been certified as a first-class shaman affiliated with the National Safety Council, but that was only the result of thoroughly concealing and suppressing her true spiritual power.
Miku was confident that she possessed strength surpassing even special-class shamans—perhaps even beyond that.
"Grrrrrr…."
What snapped her out of her thoughts was the low, rough growl of Baekrang lying beside her.
Miku stroked the white fur on Baekrang's neck and scanned the surroundings with tense eyes.
Detective Nam Gyuho and his operatives were still staring fearfully at the darkness outside the windows.
The white spiderweb barrier Kang Suho had created remained firmly sealing the dining hall windows and entrance.
No matter how much snake ghosts the Miao tribe shamans poured out, they would never be able to physically break through the barrier of this spirit-class vengeful spirit.
Yet Baekrang wasn't looking outside the windows. Instead, the wolf had its fur standing on end, staring at the tightly closed main door of the dining hall.
'Grandfather. Besides Suho outside, can you sense another presence?'
'…This is strange, Miku. Beyond the turbid yin energy of the snake ghosts, something completely alien is approaching. It definitely carries the aura of sorcery… but I can't feel the pulse of a living being. It's like the spiritual pressure of cold machine parts.'
Grandfather's voice carried a heavy tension.
He was right.
Miku could feel it too through the energy brushing against her skin.
If the malevolent energy of the Miao shamans felt sticky and bloody like a beast, the presence approaching beyond the door was cold and inorganic killing intent.
"Team Leader! Something's wrong at the main entrance! It's coming closer!"
Operative Lee Jun, who had been watching the entrance, shouted.
"Don't shoot recklessly! There's the spiderweb barrier Kang set up! Hold your positions!"
Detective Nam ordered, gripping his pistol tighter.
But at that moment, their fragile faith shattered completely.
Ziiiiing—!
The thick layers of Mongsil's white spiderweb barrier that had been sealing the dining hall's main door.
Over that absolute wall of spiritual power, a thin red laser-like beam suddenly swept across in the shape of a cross.
And just like a hot scalpel slicing through butter, the spiritual spiderweb was cut cleanly, crackling and burning away into the air.
"What… the hell?!"
"The barrier's been breached!"
The special forces operatives cried out in shock, all aiming their guns at the main door.
The spirit-class venomous spider's barrier had been sliced apart by a single physical beam of light, without any talismans or incantations.
Creeeeak.
Beyond the shattered spiderweb, the heavy dining hall door slowly opened.
From the darkness came the rhythmic, heavy sound of military boots.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Men armed from head to toe in matte black cutting-edge tactical suits and bulletproof armor.
Their faces were covered with heavy special goggles resembling night-vision devices, and across the lenses, blue waves of spiritual energy rippled ceaselessly like a frequency.
Twelve of them.
On their chests and shoulder guards, a vivid red logo resembling blood was clearly stamped.
[Jepstein Corporation]
'Jepstein Corporation?!'
Detective Nam Gyuho screamed internally.
During the investigation of the Cambodian criminal complex, there had been intelligence that supplies were being sent to Jepstein Island.
A massive American multinational military-industrial complex that combined global arms manufacturing with the occult.
"Everyone freeze! We are not your enemies! We are the Korean Police Special Forces!"
Detective Nam shouted at the top of his lungs, pistol still raised.
But the Jepstein mercenaries treated Detective Nam's warning like the barking of a street dog and spread out mechanically into the dining hall.
"Drop your weapons."
The mercenary captain at the front, built like a grizzly bear, spoke.
His voice buzzed metallically through the white helmet's voice modulator.
The special forces turned their heads toward Team Leader Nam Gyuho.
Nam raised one hand and slowly lowered his pistol to the floor.
The rest of the operatives followed, setting down their guns and raising their hands in surrender.
"You people have no idea how important this place in Cambodia really is. Heh heh."
The mercenary captain pointed his gun at an angle toward the floor and spoke coldly to Detective Nam.
"Do you know how valuable this production base—supplying highly concentrated special-class vengeful spirits—is as a power source to our Jepstein Corporation?"
"What are you…?"
"Public authority that interferes with the interests of a multinational corporation is naturally incinerated in the name of capital. We'll make it look like the work of the Cambodian gangs. Perfect cover."
At those words from the mercenary captain, Miku realized the inevitable reason they had appeared here.
The Korean special forces' operation to rescue Woo Minjung and raid the Crown Prince Logistics Complex.
If it succeeded, the supply line of special-class vengeful spirits that Jepstein had been importing cheaply from Cambodia would be cut off.
Furthermore, it would trigger an international scandal that would shake the very morality of the multinational corporation.
That was why, before the operation could begin, they had directly dispatched Jepstein's shamanic mercenary unit to annihilate the special forces and erase all evidence.
'Grandfather, look at their weapons. Those aren't ordinary guns.'
'Indeed, Miku. The barrels are densely engraved with shamanic circuits. The energy emanating from inside isn't gunpowder… it's highly compressed spiritual power from vengeful souls.'
From the muzzle of the special rifle held by the mercenary captain, blue will-o'-the-wisp-like particles of spiritual energy flickered.
These were products of arcane engineering—implanting holy relics or powerful fragments of vengeful souls as the weapon's power source instead of firing bullets, launching spiritual energy itself as ammunition.
"Restrain them all. These ones have quite the backbone. They'll make excellent material for processing into proper special-class vengeful spirits."
The mercenary captain gave the short command.
The special forces operatives who tried to pick up their weapons and fight back were sent sprawling by the mercenaries' fists.
It was then.
"Grrrrraaaawr!!"
Miku's shikigami, Baekrang, roared and leaped toward the mercenary squad.
Shaman Kim's yellow talismans began forming a defensive array, creating an opportunity for a counterattack.
"Open fire! Shoot!"
Detective Nam also gave the order without hesitation.
Bang! Bang bang bang! Bang!
The special forces' pistols spat fire, raining bullets toward the Jepstein mercenaries.
But before the bullets could even touch the mercenaries' tactical suits, hexagonal blue holographic barriers unfolded layer by layer across the surface of their suits and deflected everything.
"Goddamn it! Those aren't bulletproof vests—they're barrier shields!"
While the operatives despaired, the mercenaries' arcane rifles began their counterattack.
Thoom! Thooom!
Instead of sharp gunshots, heavy shockwaves that tore through the air rang out.
The blue spiritual bullets fired from the muzzles slammed into the overturned tables in the dining hall.
Kwaaaaaang—!!
"Aaaargh!"
The defensive barrier Shaman Kim had created was torn apart like paper.
Where the spiritual bullets struck, explosions erupted along with a vicious curse-laden malevolent energy that spread outward.
Operative Lee Jun and two other special forces members who had been taking cover behind the tables were hurled into the wall by the explosive shockwave.
"Jun!"
Detective Nam screamed as he cradled his bloodied subordinate.
It was an overwhelming difference in firepower.
The police operatives armed with physical weapons were no match for the monstrous mercenary unit that used vengeful souls as fuel to spew their power.
In that moment of crisis,
"Grrrrr!!"
Miku's Baekrang bit down with a crunch on the head of the foremost mercenary.
Though it had crushed one, sparks flew with a crackle! from the severed neck area.
"He wasn't… human…?"
Wham!!
But Baekrang's ambush was easily suppressed.
The mercenary captain grabbed Baekrang by the neck and slammed it to the floor.
The heavy enchanted armor he wore, loaded with various shamanic enchantments, was practically immune to Baekrang's fangs and claws.
"So there was a Japanese shikigami user. It was you, huh?"
The mercenary captain's gaze lewdly scanned Miku up and down.
At the same time, the mercenaries surrounding Baekrang concentrated their fire.
Crackle crackle crackle!!
"No! Baekrang!!"
Miku formed hand seals with both hands and rushed toward the suffering Baekrang.
"Oho. Not a bad-looking bitch at all. Before I turn you into a vengeful spirit, I think I'll have some fun with you first."
"Do not underestimate the secret arts of the Samada clan! Secret Technique—Heavenly Sketch!"
Miku's spiritual power fused with Baekrang's silver fur, creating a massive white storm barrier.
But the captain smirked and raised his heavy sword upright.
"What can a mere special-class vengeful spirit mutt possibly do?!"
Miku witnessed her secret technique, Heavenly Sketch, being helplessly split apart by the heavy sword before the white barrier could even fully form.
"That's… impossible…"
Despair filled her eyes.
The vengeful souls dwelling within the Jepstein mercenary captain's sword.
The heavy blade, saturated with the power of vengeful spirits, had torn the shamanically created wall to shreds.
'Miku, run! Shamanic arts don't work on that captain! While this old man holds him off… at least you must survive!'
'Grandfather!!'
It was then.
Whoosh!!!
The mercenary captain's eyes widened as he sensed an overwhelming spiritual pressure.
He saw one of his subordinates split in half by a tremendous force flying in from behind.
"What?! You shattered armor reinforced with the Diamond Talisman?!"
The mercenary captain's goggles flashed red as warning alarms screamed wildly.
He whipped his head toward the corridor where the attack had originated.
Beyond the main door where the spiderweb had been torn away.
From within the pitch-black darkness, a single silhouette walked out with steady steps.
In his right hand, a translucent blue dagger spun wildly, humming with power.
"Fuck… what the hell is this bullshit now? Is writing 'Jepstein Mercenary' on your chest supposed to be some kind of brag? Why the fuck is a Jepstein mercenary unit here?"
Kang Suho.
He casually zipped up the front of his jacket and tilted his head toward the mercenaries with an irritated expression.
"Bastards who crawl into someone else's house without permission and start shooting— they taste best when you grind them up so fine they can't even be sorted for recycling."
Overwhelming spiritual pressure.
The true killing intent radiating from the predator of the Underworld swept through the dining hall. The seemingly invincible hexagonal holographic barriers of the Jepstein mercenaries began to crack with a sharp crackle.
Miku and Baekrang stared at that chilling figure, completely entranced.
"Miku. Are you okay?"
Kang Suho has returned.
At Kang Suho's kind words, Miku nodded frantically.
Her heart began pounding wildly in a completely different way than before.
It wasn't fear. In this insane, violent world, he was the one and only absolute being who could save her.
She felt something hot and sticky flowing down between her legs.
Her body reacts instinctively to her savior.
