Chapter 121
Is This Revenge
Ga-on nonchalantly replied as he pulled a folding knife from his pocket, tossed it high into the air, then caught it again. Then he took out another one and began performing tricks while crossing them over each other. One, but that alone seed insufficient, so he slipped in one more between them.
Before long, three folding knives intertwined with one another as they embroidered the air.
A skillful knife juggling act.
Dangerous enough to make one’s heart stop, yet before those dazzling hand movents―
“Whoa. Amazing, amazing!”
Hans forgot even to keep aiming his gun as he clapped in admiration. The mont one folding knife broke formation while exploiting that instant of carelessness, a flash of light flickered and vanished.
It had only been a millisecond-long glimr, yet the aftermath was far from insignificant. A blade that had not been there monts ago was now embedded in Hans’ forehead.
The giant body, still in the middle of clapping his hands together with a smack, collapsed a beat later.
Whether he understood what had happened to him or not, the broad smile blooming across his face never faded even in his final mont.
“I told you I’d kill you.”
Ga-on retrieved the folding knife from Hans’ forehead as he muttered those words. From the beginning, he had never intended to seriously engage in a battle of wits. The equipnt may have been expensive, but the one operating it was still just a child.
If he exploited that uniquely simplistic mindset, catching him off guard was hardly difficult. This was the optimal solution Ga-on had established while dealing with Peter Pan.
And so, after wrapping up the situation and preparing to leave in search of Jin Geon―
Clap, clap.
The applause that should have stopped rang out once more, forcing him to halt his steps.
“You’re exactly the butcher addicted to killing that I’d heard about.”
The one who appeared as if replacing the departed Hans was a young man with a gloomy impression.
“I can already imagine the kind of life you must’ve lived.”
Even his voice was eerie, as though shadows themselves had stuck to it. The resentnt within him could not even be compared to Hans’. But to Ga-on, he was rely a stranger―
“Who are you?”
He had no choice but to ask.
But perhaps he disliked that question, because a vein bulged on the neck of the young man dressed in a black suit. Nor was it only his face that turned red. Bulging shapes protruded over his clothes, as though he had equipped a Unit beneath them.
It was clearly uncomfortable, yet the young man seed strangely obsessed with that attire.
‘Mourning clothes?’
Who exactly was he mourning for? As Ga-on pondered, one person ca to mind.
“Ah. Lawian, that guy’s older brother. The one affiliated with Ryungyeong?”
“Yeah, that’s right. I’m Rajinga, the older brother of Lawian, whom you killed.”
“Revenge, huh.”
It was a common motive.
Objectively speaking, it was shaless behavior. Lawian had been the one to provoke him first, and the one who suffered because of it had been Ga-on.
The victim now being targeted again by the perpetrator’s bereaved family?
“How ridiculous. If you toy with soone else’s life, you should know the sa thing can happen to you in return.”
“I’ll return those exact words to you.”
Rajinga boldly declared as he stepped one leg forward. It was the classic stance of Chinese martial arts. Anyone could see the fighting spirit blazing from him, causing Ga-on to let out a short scoff.
Well, if he had known sha, he never would’ve stepped forward in the first place.
“If you brothers are this close, then leaving together peacefully might not be such a bad thing.”
***
Whoooosh――
Because of the elevation difference, the atmosphere surged upward from below. As though water itself were flowing in reverse. Since it was a space isolated from the outside world, the intensity was not overwhelming, yet even so, the wind scraping past his ears felt deeply threatening.
Standing a step away, Jin Geon brushed aside his wildly fluttering bangs and looked down beneath his feet.
The ground had sunk as deeply as a bottomless abyss. The endlessly collapsed terrain resembled a colosseum. No, most likely that was exactly what it was. The scale of the explosion from earlier alone made that clear. The results proved just how ticulously it had been calculated.
Without touching the foundation pillars supporting the underground structure, it had precisely targeted only the soft ground while avoiding the rocky areas.
And while leaving Jin Geon enough room to evade.
Such a result could never have co from coincidence. There were not many people capable of factoring his abilities into their calculations. No, at this point, calling it certainty would not even be an exaggeration.
“Well, he should be fine.”
Ga-on had defeated X without any assistance whatsoever. Not only that, he had analyzed his swordsmanship in real ti and stolen it. It was truly insane talent paired with an absurd body.
Was that not why they had valued his capabilities so highly that they promoted him to advisor despite violating the regulations of the Ergency Disaster Response Unit?
It was then that a familiar lingering scent brushed past his nose.
It was a sll he had encountered once before not long ago. Sure enough, when he turned his head, hazy smoke stretched out long like a tail.
“You’re persistent. To think you survived even amidst all that chaos.”
“So it was you after all, Nick.”
He was the man who had once declared he would kill Ga-on in order to verify his purity. His reckless nature that disregarded all consequences was clearly reflected even in his thods.
“It’s a tactic even written in the manuals. If you’re going all out, do it sowhere free from CCTV and other people’s eyes. I rely followed those guidelines.”
That didn’t matter right now.
“You need to stop imdiately. He’s not Yang Hu, he’s Chairman Baek Seol’s half-brother. He’s a mber of a gacorp.”
This was an issue that could potentially create friction with Baekdu. No matter how absolute the authority wielded by the municipal governnt was, there was no need to get entangled in unnecessary conflict.
Yet despite Jin Geon’s warning―
“So?”
Nick’s response remained ice-cold.
“I told you before, didn’t I? I’m not your subordinate. Don’t order around as you please. And he’s not the only one I’m targeting.”
“What do you an…….”
“Why are you pretending not to know? Who do you think gave this injury?”
Nick lightly rubbed his right eye. Though the eyepatch concealed what lay beneath, it was obvious there was a story behind it. Jin Geon had never asked out of consideration. But―
“You’re saying it’s related to ?”
“This is why I hate young masters. You really don’t know anything.”
The way he muttered sounded both like sorrowful crying and a growl struggling to suppress rage.
“You know your eyes are special too, don’t you?”
A culmination of advanced technology secretly created by the municipal governnt. A Unit that had stepped beyond the category of re machinery and into the realm of supernatural abilities, ‘Mimir’s Eyes’.
How could an ordinary individual possess equipnt that even the Mars Defense Force did not have―
“That…….”
Jin Geon had vaguely realized it was a form of special privilege.
And that his father was sohow involved in it as well.
“Take a guess. Who do you think was sacrificed during the developnt of that device?”
Mimir’s Eyes were artificial eyes, and Nick was missing one eye. The correlation between the two was obvious enough that the answer practically revealed itself.
“My graduation got delayed to correct my explosive temperant? You still believe that bullshit? I ended up like this because I got played by your father, Unit Chief! That damned bastard’s silver tongue.”
It had been Unit Chief who proposed the unauthorized experint with sweet words like: You can surpass every record and beco the best. It’s dangerous, but worth the risk.
At the ti, to Nick, who had lagged behind Jin Geon, it had been an irresistible whisper. But it had not taken long for him to realize those sweet words had rely been deception. In truth, Unit Chief had simply needed a sacrifice to test new technology.
To put it bluntly, a guinea pig for acquiring the relevant data.
Because of a single impulsive decision, Nick had no choice but to live with a narcotic painkiller-laced electronic cigarette constantly in his mouth. Even at this very mont, the incomplete artificial eye continued rejecting his body and tornting him with pain.
That was also why he had enlisted in the Mars Defense Force. What kind of person would continue working under the orders of soone who had manipulated him?
Everything had been a cruel inevitability.
Nick carrying a blade in his heart, and Jin Geon standing here now.
“You seem to trust your father, but don’t. He’s the kind of man who won’t go easy even on his own son.”
“So Ga-on was rely an excuse, and this was your plan from the start.”
“That’s right. From the mont you called , this conversation was already inevitable. Heh heh, looks like even that precious intuition of yours couldn’t save you this ti.”
In an instant, Jin Geon drew Dude and fired back, but Nick deflected the bullet with no more than the thickness of a single sheet of paper between them. His eye was certainly incomplete and unstable, but it was still a defective prototype created during the design process of Mimir’s Eyes.
Calculating a bullet’s trajectory was hardly difficult for it.
“I know your weaknesses perfectly well. After all, this body was assembled once before in order to create you.”
His intuition sounded the alarm.
Run.
To oppose him would only hasten death.
A premonition of death so intense that he had never experienced anything like it before.
It was then that Nick pulled out a small device. It was identical to the one Guo Hong had used. Jin Geon had assud it was a detonator, but it was actually a remote control device.
“There happened to be an ergency generator nearby. And a rather large one at that.”
Wooooong, wooooong―
A buzzing noise like a swarm of bees flapping their wings echoed from beneath the ground. Having undergone countless drills, Jin Geon imdiately recognized what it was.
A weapon whose electromagnetic pulse density increased according to the amount of supplied power: a pulse cannon.
“A gift prepared solely for you.”
Most of Jin Geon’s body was composed of chanical components. It would not be wrong to say he was right on the verge of becoming a cyborg. That was why he had nurous systems installed in preparation for electronic warfare, but if he were directly hit at close range―
***
‘Is he dangerous?’
Ga-on narrowly avoided the incoming fist and subtly widened the distance between them. The mont the fight began, Rajinga had clung to him like glue, forcing him into close-quarters combat.
Ga-on also pulled Qiongqi close to his chest, shifting from a two-handed firing stance into a center-axis retention stance, but Rajinga unleashed such dazzling attacks that he seed determined not to give him even a mont to aim.
Bang, bang, bang!
Every ti the propulsion device protruding from behind his elbows spewed flas, his fists accelerated endlessly, tearing through the air. The recoil should have been trendous, yet the reverse-thrust device implanted in his forearms neutralized the burden placed upon his entire arms.
Acceleration and deceleration, action and reaction in harmony.
Surprisingly, the prosthetic arms were not the truly dangerous part. What demanded real caution were the prosthetic legs.
Boom!
The mont the boosters connected to his thighs and heels synchronized with his footwork, explosive bursts of speed erupted forth. As an added bonus, he could abruptly change direction as though kicked by a giant.
Even Ga-on could not help but admire Rajinga’s movents as he effortlessly evaded the streaks of light being fired at him.
It was then that Rajinga stomped his foot down.
The sheer force behind it caused the ground to crack apart like a dried rice field. It was on an entirely different level from what Lawian had displayed.
This was one of the representative northern-style martial arts techniques: Bajiquan.
Using his lower body as a support pillar to draw forth imnse power, it was only natural that the force from his upper body―fajin―would be unleashed.
Its destructive power was fierce enough to pierce even steel plates barehanded, yet as long as one knew the preparatory motion, it was not impossible to evade.
The instant Ga-on lightly widened the distance and escaped the attack’s range―
“Got you.”
[Unauthorized Bajiquan Secret Technique: Gyeoksanta’u]
Rajinga’s detached arm shot forward with a violent tearing sound through the air.
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