As Expected, the Protagonist Is the Protagonist
“Dixon, no—it’s not like I’m going to the club to have fun…”
I explained the situation to Dixon. Han Yugyeong had probably already guessed as much, but hearing it straight from my mouth would put her more at ease. Instead, her expression twisted with deep worry—the exact opposite of what I’d intended.
“So you’re seriously going to a gangster hideout alone? That’s way too dangerous!”
Great. Now she was even more anxious.
Han Yugyeong scolded me for heading into danger by myself, but Dixon stepped in like a reliable wingman.
“Boss, in my opinion Mr. Jin can handle this just fine. You saw him take down two modified humans at the same time earlier.”
“Yeah. It’s not the whole syndicate—just the branch leader. I can deal with that alone.”
At our combined reassurance, Han Yugyeong let out a heavy sigh before finally nodding. We had already killed Park Sang-beom; the information linking back to us needed to be completely severed. Otherwise we’d end up facing half of BS Group, which was still too much for us to handle right now. That was why she had no choice but to agree.
The reason it was only half? BS Group had split into two factions—one led by Park Sang-beom’s father, Park Il-soo, and the other by Park Il-soo’s older brother, Park Il-man.
“All right… but you have to be careful, okay?”
“I will. I’ll come back without a scratch, so don’t worry.”
“If I find even one injury after checking you all over, you’re going to get it!”
Thanks to my Regeneration Trait, even if I did get hurt I wouldn’t actually be in trouble. I’d taken so many bullets, fists, and blades up to this point that the trait’s level had risen considerably. These days, even if a finger got severed, it would fully regenerate in about two hours.
On the way back to Seoul, Han Yugyeong seemed to be receiving a report from Lee Yeon-ju. From the snippets of their call I caught, it sounded like they’d brought documents along with several items—including a compact bomb developed by BS Defender, a subsidiary of BS Group.
Apparently there were other useful items besides the blackmail material. I hadn’t expected that.
“Now that I think about it, what should we do with the data on Park Sang-beom’s side? They were probably planning operations against us, so that’s another problem, right?”
“I’ll handle that. While you were retrieving Park Sang-beom’s body earlier, I heard from his secretary where they were coordinating everything.”
Han Yugyeong told me not to worry and that she would take care of it. She was probably planning to send Vanguard agents to destroy the documents.
After chatting about this and that, we finally arrived at Club Z.
Dixon parked the car and turned to me.
“Mr. Jin, we’re here. Be careful.”
“You promise you won’t get hurt?”
“Yeah. I absolutely won’t. I’ll be back soon.”
I stepped out of the vehicle. Even from outside, music thumped through the walls of the club, where an incredibly long line of people stretched down the street.
I stopped at the convenience store in front of the club and withdrew roughly a million won in cash. Then I bypassed the long queue and walked straight up to the bouncer guarding the entrance.
“What’s your business? If it’s nothing important, get in line like everyone else.”
The bouncer was a massive man nearly two meters tall with a vicious face that would make most people piss themselves on sight. No wonder the crowd behaved. Of course, his size didn’t intimidate me in the slightest. No matter how tall he was, I didn’t like being looked down on.
“I’m here to find someone…”
“I don’t care who you’re looking for—if you want inside, get in line.”
The stares from the people waiting burned into my back, but I simply smirked and handed the bouncer a thick envelope of cash.
“I’ll really just find the person and leave right away.”
Knocking him out would have been free, but with so many witnesses it would leave evidence. The bouncer peeked inside the envelope, then stepped aside and let me through. A chorus of curses rose from the line behind me.
The moment I opened the door, the pounding music grew deafening. Inside, the club was packed with men and women lost in psychedelic lights, throbbing bass, and drugs, dancing like there was no tomorrow.
The DJ on the second floor was a fully modified human—not for combat, but a lunatic who had implanted speakers and neon lights throughout his body. Scattered among the dancers were obvious drug dealers and men in suits who screamed “gangster.”
“From what I remember, it was the fourth floor.”
Eradicating the Yongcheol faction had been a required quest, so I already knew the club’s layout. The third floor held the VIP rooms, and the fourth was reserved for the faction’s executives.
I casually passed the third floor and climbed to the fourth. Two Yongcheol underlings stood guard in front of the door at the top of the stairs. A CCTV camera watched from the upper right corner of the ceiling.
I approached from a blind spot, twisted the camera so it pointed at nothing, and walked up to the door.
“This area is off-limits to civilians. Go back down.”
Many of the Yongcheol faction were ex-military, so their posture had a certain disciplined edge.
I kept my expression relaxed. “I’m here to deliver a message from Brother Mun-sik.”
“We haven’t received any notice…”
“Please tell Brother Kyung-tae.”
I threw out the name of one of the executives I could remember. The underlings exchanged puzzled glances, then pressed a button on the panel beside the door and spoke into it. A moment later came a beep, and the door unlocked.
“New guy?”
“Yes.”
“Brother Mun-sik must like him. Sending a rookie as a messenger—good luck, kid.”
“Thank you.”
They treated me like one of their own and immediately dropped the formal speech. I matched their tone and stepped inside.
The fourth-floor room was surprisingly large. Yang Kyung-tae—the manager of Club Z and leader of the Cheongdam branch of the Yongcheol faction—sat in the center, while a muscular skinhead who looked like the assault captain stood beside him.
The door closed and locked with a heavy click. Both men fixed their eyes on my face.
The skinhead spoke first. “Never seen this face before, boss.”
“Mun-sik sent you? All right, what’s the message?”
Of course they’d never seen me. If they had pretended otherwise, I would have been the surprised one.
I walked straight up to them.
“One of the executives suddenly passed away…”
“What? Who? It can’t be Brother Yongcheol… Young-hoon? Or Myung-jun…?”
“The deceased is Yang Kyung-tae!”
My practice acting with Ha Juyun must have paid off; neither of them sensed anything off about my story.
I shouted and lunged, driving my fist into the skinhead’s chin and dropping him instantly. Then I spun toward Yang Kyung-tae.
While I was dealing with his subordinate, Yang Kyung-tae had frantically drawn a revolver and aimed it at me. But my hand was faster than his trigger finger. The revolver was in my grasp in the blink of an eye.
It was fine if I got shot, but I couldn’t let the gunshot ring out. The room was somewhat soundproofed since it belonged to an executive, but a gunshot would still echo through the entire building. Maybe the club music would drown it out?
The moment I turned the revolver on him, Yang Kyung-tae raised both hands, sweat pouring down his face.
“Wh-where are you from? Cheol-gyu faction? Black Moon Society? Fuck… shit!”
“I only came here because I’m curious about something. Answer my questions and I’ll leave quietly.”
It was almost funny watching him desperately name rival organizations when he had no idea who I really was. He clearly never imagined his assassination target would walk right through his door.
“I-I’ll tell you anything! Just put the gun down!”
“Forget the gun. Tell me how much you know about the contract you made with Park Sang-beom this time.”
“Park Sang-beom… He asked us to eliminate someone… That request only came to our Cheongdam branch, so no one outside of us knows about it.”
“Why didn’t you report it to the higher-ups? A request from a BS Group heir should have gone up the chain.”
“Th-that’s…”
When he hesitated, I cocked the revolver’s hammer. Yang Kyung-tae blurted out the rest.
“If I reported it, I’d have to share the money with the higher-ups… so I kept quiet!”
I see. If the information had traveled further it could have become a real mess, but luckily it had stopped here.
“Where’s the target data you received?”
Yang Kyung-tae pointed at the laptop in front of him. I kept the gun trained on him while I powered it on. In his email was the file about me, sent from a disposable address. Since it was an assassination request, they’d been cautious and used a self-destructing email. No need to worry about tracing the sender.
Even if they had, Han Yugyeong’s Vanguard agents would have wiped it anyway.
“Is this everything?”
“Assassination requests are sensitive, so I only kept it in email…! I was going to delete it soon anyway.”
“Then delete it now.”
I erased the message, emptied the trash to remove all traces, and closed the laptop.
“I-is that enough? Are you from BS Group? Here to clean up Park Sang-beom’s dirty secrets?”
Yang Kyung-tae still had no idea who I was. But he had seen my face, so he couldn’t be allowed to live.
I channeled the Abyss into my index finger and drove it straight into the center of his forehead. His skull parted like wet clay. I pushed two knuckles deep into his brain, and Yang Kyung-tae died without a sound.
Next I stomped on the fallen skinhead’s head, feeling his neck bones snap. He was definitely dead. The two underlings outside the door met the same fate. I struck both their throats simultaneously with middle-finger knuckles protruding like when giving someone a hard flick to the forehead. The surprise attack was so fast they couldn’t even scream before they collapsed.
The CCTV I had twisted with psychokinesis was still pointed uselessly at the ceiling. I turned and left the building.
There was still one more person who had seen my face up close.
Outside the club, I pretended to be on the phone while loitering near the entrance. Focusing my mind, I summoned a small skewer from the bouncer’s shadow. It slithered up his body like a stealthy serpent and slipped into his ear.
“Urk!”
The shadow skewer turned his brain to mush. The bouncer let out a single choked groan and collapsed.
“Kyaaak!”
A scream erupted from the line. The area descended into chaos in seconds. I blended naturally into the crowd, pretending to stare at the fallen bouncer like everyone else. Leaving too quickly would look suspicious, so I lingered for a while before catching a taxi back to Han Yugyeong’s house.
On the way, police cars raced past us toward Club Z. Even if they investigated, they wouldn’t find any trace of me. I’d worn gloves and never appeared on camera. To them, it would look like the bouncer had been killed by a ghost.