In This Moment, I Am a Human Butcher

"What the fuck? Were you waiting for us? Looks like you were just hanging around ready to pop out, huh???"

—Screeeeeeeeeech!!!!

At Geum Tae-yang's imposing entrance, the Jjambba Tiger bike unit slammed to a sudden halt.

The man at the very front of the formation tilted his head and muttered under his breath.

Whirl! Whirl! Whirl! Whirl!

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

Tae-yang, for his part, paid the situation no mind and kept walking forward. He looked completely at ease, spinning his projected steel pipe around his wrist like he was just loosening up.

"Dong-myung, that looks like a suit, doesn't it? Think that bastard used to be special forces or special police?"

The man at the head of the bike unit was Seo Dong-myung—Jjambba Tiger's third-ranked blood and their field commander, the assault captain. One of the members right behind him carefully floated the thought.

From a distance the vehicle on Tae-yang's side had looked like a Hummer, but the closer they got, the more its quality felt off. That uneasy feeling was already thick in the air when a man in a reinforced combat suit stepped out—definitely no ordinary civilian.

"....."

Seo Dong-myung seemed to sense it too. As assault captain he had run more field ops than anyone else in Jjambba Tiger. In the apocalypse, when lives were on the line, he could read at a glance the faces and body language of people who had something solid to rely on versus those who didn't. Beyond the flash of the Reinforced Custom Hummer and the combat suit, what really caught his eye was the sheer presence of a man who refused to flinch even with a whole bike unit staring him down.

"Maybe we should stall for time until Captain Pan-ho or at least Dong-wook gets here?"

The moment Seo Dong-myung shifted into caution mode, a voice scraped right across his nerves. Another Jjambba Tiger member started babbling that they ought to buy time.

Grind!!

That did it. His temper twisted hard.

"Shut the fuck up. How long are you gonna keep tying yourself to that Shin Dong-wook bastard? We're the ones grinding it out in the field, and somehow that asshole ended up number two! You just gonna leave it like that? We take it back!"

Seo Dong-myung shot the man a sidelong glare and barked the order. In the early days of Jjambba Tiger, assault captain Seo Dong-myung had been the second-in-command. A good chunk of the bike unit following him now had originally been his own crew. But Shin Dong-wook, for all his bulk, was a natural bootlicker—and the decisive factor had been that he was the one who forged the link with Do Min-chul's group. After that, Seo Dong-myung had been completely shoved aside. That was why he was grinding his teeth, eyes bloodshot, determined to claw the number-two seat back.

"That bastard looks like an Awakened at a glance, so this actually works out. We take him down and burn it into Captain Pan-ho's head that what matters most in this apocalypse is the people who actually run the field."

Ambitious and battle-hardened as he was, Seo Dong-myung had already clocked that Tae-yang's current aura went past special forces or special police—it was the kind of composure only an Awakened could show. More than that, facing an Awakened who looked like no pushover was an opportunity. So far, inside Jjambba Tiger, no one except the boss Jo Pan-ho himself had ever won a fight against another Awakened.

Hmm... so the one in the middle is the leader, huh. Slimy-looking bastard with a nasty personality written all over him. Must be an Awakened.

Thud!

Tae-yang closed the distance to a set range ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and stopped. With his Sensitive Senses trait active, he could feel the psychological ripple running through the Jjambba Tiger bike unit. But Seo Dong-myung had already reined it in, and Tae-yang in turn recognized him as an Awakened. So he immediately activated:

The status window for Awakened Seo Dong-myung unfolded right in front of Tae-yang's eyes.

So out of that whole crowd, the only Awakened is this Seo Dong-myung guy.

And his class is Sharpshooter.

It had been a while since Tae-yang last used Awakener Scan against a large group—not since the tenants from Park Do-chul's building had come storming in. He had deliberately stopped at this distance for that exact reason. To scan multiple targets at once, every single one of them had to fit inside his field of vision.

Oh...? But wait...

Something in Sharpshooter Seo Dong-myung's kit snagged his attention.

Mana Crossbow? Once you hit D-rank you just get a weapon handed to you? Yun-kwon and Byung-tae are still stuck hunting zombies with regular crossbows.

Tae-yang had already fought a Sharpshooter-class Awakened named Cho Hee-chan. And at Jo Yu-mi's camp there were Na Yun-kwon and Han Byung-tae—Yu-mi's juniors by a year—both Sharpshooter-class as well. All three of them were still overall E-rank, so they had been fighting with ordinary crossbows and still were. Seo Dong-myung, listed as D-rank, was packing a mana-powered ranged weapon: a Mana Crossbow.

Auntie got a Supporter staff, and A-young unlocked a separate Suit Enhancement skill at D-rank... so D-rank really is the singularity level, huh.

Before heading outside, one of the things Tae-yang had focused on hardest was gathering intel on other Awakeners—how many there were overall, how far they had grown. He, Kim Min-jung, and Park A-young were such special cases that they made poor control groups. Online self-outings and the unofficial rumors floating around had been mostly useless. The best reference he had was Jo Yu-mi's camp, and even there most people struggled just to climb from E-rank to D-rank.

He felt how off the situation was and still charged in like a moth to a flame. With that kind of growth, a ranged ability or not...

Nod. Nod. Nod.

Seo Dong-myung's growth speed meant he had truly been grinding the field hard and that his combat ability was solid. Tae-yang gave a small nod, almost like he was offering respect.

"That fucking bastard's leisurely attitude is pissing me the hell off!!! Hey, fucking butcher that son of a bitch!!!!"

Seo Dong-myung, who had no way of knowing the deeper meaning behind that nod, took it as pure mockery. His face twisted and he barked the attack order at his men.

"Dong-myung, we're counting on you!!!! Let's go, boys!!!!"

"Fuck Awakened this, Awakened that—we end it with numbers!!!!!"

"In the end all he's holding is a goddamn steel pipe!!! He's wearing a helmet, what's it gonna do except break!!!"

—Vroooooooooom!!!! Vroooooooooom!!!

Backed by a D-rank Awakened, Seo Dong-myung's bike unit—roughly half of them the kind of problem cases that got labeled outlaw groups—let out war cries and charged. They all wore helmets with a decent level of armor function, but the rest of their bodies only had partial protectors.

And that's not all. Those bastards...

Watching the Jjambba Tiger bike unit charge like madmen despite their shoddy gear, Tae-yang realized something else.

They're on drugs too.

Even in the apocalypse their muscles were pumped to the max, and as they closed in he could see their eyes clearly. The steroids or aggression-boosting stimulants that outlaw packs loved to use—Jjambba Tiger members were on them as well.

"Kraaaaaaaaaah!!!! I'll throw the first punch!!! So you're a close-range Awakened after all!!!!"

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

—Vroooooooooom!!!

The one with the most drug-blown eyes came first, whirling a chain as he closed on Tae-yang.

"Those drugs..."

Huuuuuum...!

Tae-yang poured mana into his projected steel pipe in an instant.

"...only work in ordinary situations...!"

Fwoooooooooosh!!!!

Then he triggered Transcendent Step and launched a straight-line dash.

—Splash-splash-splash-splash-splash!!!!!!

Transcendent Step barely touched the ground by design, but with the heavy rain it kicked up a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠dramatic spray of water.

What the fuck is that?! Did he just use an Awakened ability? For something like that it's lasting way too long!!!

Seo Dong-myung's eyes went wide. His Sharpshooter trait Superior Vision let him see every detail. Jjambba Tiger's number two, Shin Dong-wook, was an Enhanced Human, so Seo Dong-myung knew the range of that man's Superior Step cold. Tae-yang's Transcendent Step had a far longer reach, and that alone was enough to rattle him. Then something even worse for his mental state happened.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

—Pwaaaaaaaaaaak!!!!

The projected steel pipe in Tae-yang's hand met the first Jjambba Tiger rider who had reached him with the chain.

"Gyaaaaaaaaaaah!!! My arm!!!!"

It simply sheared the arm clean off—right through the protector covering the elbow. A fountain of dark-red blood erupted from the cut.

—Pshhhhhhhhhh!!!

"What?! What the hell was that!! Why did his arm just get cut off!!!!"

"Fuck!!! What just happened!!!"

The drugs had jacked their aggression sky-high and the rain was pouring, so the Jjambba Tiger bike unit had been charging with tunnel vision. But watching an arm get severed and a blood fountain spray out was more than enough to yank their runaway minds back to reality.

That bastard's steel pipe! It was loaded with mana!!!!

The pouring rain and Tae-yang's sheer speed made it hard for ordinary Jjambba Tiger members to even register the attack. But Seo Dong-myung, with his Superior Vision trait, clearly saw the flash of mana on the projected steel pipe as it sliced through the first rider's elbow.

This isn't someone I can take down clean after softening him up!

—Swaaaaaang!!!!

Seo Dong-myung hurriedly shoved a hand into his status window, pulling the Mana Crossbow from his Inventory. The original plan had been to let his men tank long enough to create an opening, then draw the crossbow and finish Tae-yang while he was distracted. Now he felt that leisurely approach would get him fucked, so he switched tactics on the spot.

"Oh, so that's the Mana Crossbow. Looks cool."

—Grin!

—Thud!!

But Tae-yang's response was inevitably faster. All he had to do was stretch out his left hand toward Seo Dong-myung.

—Pwaaaaaaaaaang!!!!

"Eat this, you bastard!"

Tae-yang's Mana Bullet—that devastating long-range attack—launched straight at Seo Dong-myung.