The second the fight ended, Hwang Suksu hauled the brute’s corpse into the kitchen.
Looked like he really ant what he’d said about harvesting organs.
All I did was nick up the floor a little. I didn’t even break much.
I didn’t love the idea of doing the work while sobody else pocketed the side profit, but the mont he announced that the winner of a life-and-death match drank and ate free tonight, my complaints lted away on their own.
I ordered dongpo pork—my favorite nu in The Dark Den—and several bottles of expensive liquor I wasn’t even going to drink.
“Dongpo pork here really is the best...”
The dongpo pork Hwang made himself was dissolving in my mouth like warm butter.
“Damn, this is good...”
anwhile, the expensive liquor was disappearing into Bokja. She was already on her second bottle.
So we dug into at and booze, watching the rowdy chaos of The Dark Den around us.
“Hey! Give my money already!”
“Hope everyone who won drops dead!”
On one side, servers and custors were settling the betting payouts.
Guys lying through their teeth about how much they’d bet, dudes caught pickpocketing and getting their wrists chopped off, parasites clinging to winners begging for a cut—
If you ever want to watch bottom-tier underworld scum living their lives, there’s nowhere better than this place.
Every so often, people I’d never seen before wandered up and tried to talk.
“Hey, man! That was insane skill earlier!”
“Still won’t take off the goggles, huh? You got a warrant or sothing?”
“Oppa, you look pretty young from the jawline... wanna have a drink with ?”
If soone brought anything interesting, I’d pour them a glass like I was feeling generous.
If they were just spouting useless shit, I chased them off.
“Get lost. Staring at your dirty face kills my appetite.”
Most of them ca hoping for a free drink, got cursed out instead, and slunk away.
Man. This feels like the old days.
Back when I’d only just started living as a vagabond swordsman, I ca to The Dark Den all the ti.
To pick up rumors, scout jobs—
And because the dongpo pork was stupid good.
After Hwang Suksu turned up as a corpse in so alley, I’d stopped coming...
But that was all ancient history now.
“Hey. What’s with your face? You’ve been like that for a while.”
I tapped Bokja’s arm where she was sitting beside the bar table.
It was ant to be casual, but she jolted like I touched sothing I wasn’t supposed to.
“M-? What about ?”
She went stiff and started stuttering, which only made her look more suspicious.
Maybe she didn’t like drinking hangouts in the first place?
...No. That couldn’t be it. Even the first ti I t her, she’d been crazy for alcohol.
What the hell did you go through in just a year?
In my first life, the first ti I t Bokja was about a year and a few months from now.
After my parents died in that accident, after I spiraled and lived like garbage, and then heard Dr. Man on YouTube and crawled here for an artificial dantian procedure.
—Not enough money? Then how about I pluck a kidney while I’m at it? Or if you’ve got expensive liquor at ho, bring it. I’ll pay high for that.
The Kim Bokja I rembered already felt worn down by the underworld back then, so seeing this rookie version beside still didn’t feel real.
“Your problem looks like it’s basically solved. What else is bothering you?”
“...Of course there’s a problem. There always was, and there still is. Every ti one thing looks like it’s about to get fixed, a new problem pops up... fuck, life’s a joke...”
“You’re downing good booze and whining like a loser. Speak clearly.”
Bokja stared at with this weird look, sighed, and scratched her head hard.
“Hey... honestly, wasn’t that a bit too much?”
“...?”
“You should’ve told earlier. What your organization even is. What the conditions are. You should’ve explained the details first, right?”
“...?”
“I’m not saying I hate it. After seeing your skill, you look trustworthy, and I know you can’t survive in this world without backing. But doing it like this is a problem.”
What the hell is she even talking about?
Bokja kept asking about how life in the organization would work. I listened with a blank face... and then the realization hit late.
Wait. Don’t tell ...?
Now that I thought about it, her attitude toward had changed since earlier.
She wasn’t calling a punk and brushing off, and she looked like she’d been thinking all through the drinking.
...Probably since right after I killed the brute.
“Are there any rules I absolutely have to follow? Honestly, I’ve always lived pretty free, so I don’t know if I can...”
“Kim Bokja.”
The mont I said her real na in a quiet voice, she flinched.
Her eyes were flooded with irritation, but she didn’t start cursing out like usual.
That confird it.
She really thinks I’m going to pull her into an organization.
I checked once more that nobody nearby was eavesdropping, then lowered my voice further.
“There is no organization. I just needed an excuse so those idiots couldn’t keep bothering you. I made it up on the spot.”
“...For real?”
She stared at like, Can I actually believe this?
I snatched the bottle out of her hand and poured into her empty glass.
“And what kind of organization would a nineteen-year-old be in? You want to drive nails into your parents’ hearts?”
The mont I brought my parents into it, she looked conflicted... then saw how serious I was and punched in the side as hard as she could.
“Why the hell are you only saying that now!”
Watching her finally let her temper out was so funny I burst into laughter.
“Damn. I can’t believe I got intimidated by so high-school kid who can’t even drink properly...”
“I’m not drinking. There’s nothing worse for a martial artist than alcohol and cigarettes.”
“Hey! Cola over here! Want to order you milk too?”
“Quit your bullshit. ...Wait, do they even have milk here?”
“Hahahaha! You crazy bastard!”
That was when we finally started talking like normal people.
I had no intention of creating so organization in the future either.
I was sick of the underworld black path.
A life where you kill for money, worry every second about a knife in your back, and get thrown away the second you’re not useful anymore.
Not that righteous-path martial artists were all clean, but unlike my last life, I wanted to live in the light this ti.
“...You should earn enough and wash your hands of this world too. The longer you stay, the harder it is to get out.”
“Don’t get cocky. You’re younger than and talking like an old man.”
Fully reassured now, Bokja’s face relaxed.
Maybe it was just because she was totally drunk.
“You know... earlier you felt like a completely different person. Watching you kill soone like a bug... do you have any idea how shocked I was? I honestly got kind of scared after seeing that...”
“Did you?”
With her face flushed red while she complained, I scratched the top of my goggles with a finger.
I need to watch myself more. I’m becoming a righteous-path martial artist this ti.
I’d been llow the last few days around my parents, but the mont the environnt changed, my old vagabond personality had slipped out.
We talked a bit more.
We’d eaten enough, and I was starting to think about leaving.
“If we’re done, let’s grab the payout and go.”
“Already? There’s still booze left...”
I grabbed the back of Bokja’s neck and stood up, dragging her away from the bottles she was clinging to.
That was when—
“Leaving?”
A voice I didn’t recognize ca from behind us.
I froze on the spot.
My hand was already on my knife handle by instinct.
When I turned slowly, a stranger was smiling as he approached with a glass in hand.
“Did I startle you?”
He was tall enough that our eyes were level.
Sunken shadows under his eyes, a thin, gaunt build.
A clean shirt that didn’t fit The Dark Den at all, and glasses on his face—he looked like so neat, harmless academic who’d never been in a fight.
But the mont I saw the roaring red tiger inked under his rolled-up sleeve, my guard shot through the roof.
Blood Tiger Gang...
A group with fewer than thirty mbers—rare in the black-path world where numbers usually equal power.
But nobody could afford to look down on Blood Tiger Gang just because they were small.
Because every single one of them was a real martial artist who’d mastered proper arts.
That’s why, even with low headcount, they were always nad among Seoul’s top ten black-path gangs.
So a heavyweight was hiding in this shabby hole.
I hadn’t expected to run into a Blood Tiger Gang mber here.
And in my experience, any group with “Blood” in the na was full of lunatics. Getting involved never ended well.
“Looks like you noticed right away. Most people ignore it even when I show them.”
The man casually blocked my path and introduced himself.
“I’m the Fifth Tiger of Blood Tiger Gang. Childish, I know, but that’s our rule for introductions.”
“What do you want with ?”
In Blood Tiger Gang, the number before “Tiger” ant rank.
So this guy was one of their top five.
If I fight him now... can I win?
Even with twenty years of vagabond experience, probably not.
I hadn’t found a proper internal-arts thod yet, and my body wasn’t fully rebuilt.
He wasn’t so cheap thug. He was a true black-path martial artist.
Still...
This could be fun.
eting a real opponent made my skin itch.
Even though my face was covered by goggles, the Fifth Tiger read that tiny reaction like it was nothing.
“Haha. Your neck looks itchy.”
Smiling, he studied like he was genuinely interested, eyes practically drilling through the goggles.
“I’m getting more curious what’s under those. How do I get to see?”
“If you strip first, I’ll think about it.”
“...What?”
For a second he went blank, then exploded into laughter, tears even forming at the corners of his eyes.
“Hahahaha! Yeah, that’s not happening. That privilege is only for ladies here.”
He patted his belt playfully, then asked again in a calr voice.
“But you can at least tell your organization’s na, right? If soone took Red Rabbit—soone we were watching—we need to know who they are so I’ve got sothing to report to my boss.”
The Fifth Tiger smiled like he wasn’t moving until he got an answer.
What do we do?
Bokja whispered behind .
I nodded slightly to tell her not to worry.
“Our organization is...”
The bar was still loud, but I could feel people listening, waiting for my answer.
Everyone wanted to know who’d taken a freelance spell-caster multiple groups had been circling.
I hesitated a mont, then spat out the word that flashed through my mind.
“Blue Wolf Crew.”
“...Blue Wolf?”
Instead of carefully repeating the pronunciation, I tossed him the kind of facts he’d be itching for.
“An elite small-number crew like your Blood Tiger Gang. Brand new, so honestly we don’t have many mbers yet.”
I mixed just enough truth with just enough lie.
Since I’d created it five seconds ago, it was newborn.
And since it was just and Bokja, it was definitely small-elite.
“Brings back mories. Blood Tiger Gang started with five people too.”
Surprisingly, he nodded like he believed .
Maybe because I’d said we aid for small-elite like them—his eyes even softened a little.
But I wasn’t naïve enough to think that ant things would be easy.
He’ll try to pressure or offer terms to take Bokja. Worst case...
That was when the Fifth Tiger pulled out a business card and handed it to .
“Ever thought about joining Blood Tiger Gang?”
“...What?”
“I an it literally. A scout offer. I watched your fight. You’ve got talent. And even with your face hidden, you look pretty young.”
His smiling eyes weren’t on Bokja.
They were locked on .
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