Chapter 11: Yard-Pound Brothers

Knock, knock, knock.

The thick smell of cigarettes wafted out as the van window whirred down in response to Rohan’s knock.

“What the hell do you want?”

The hostile voice and glare were quite a sight. His hands twitched, as if prepared to draw a weapon at any moment.

“Why aren’t you answering your phone? The elders sent me to get an update.”

I spoke in a carefully leveled tone.

Knowing their client, as well as the possible methods and outcomes, allowed me to skip the intermediary steps.

Unlike the Protagonist, I was far from a perfect saint, so I chose to take a path that didn’t even exist in the game.

The mention of “elders” immediately lowered their guard.

The man in the driver’s seat pulled out his phone to check, then answered with a grimace.

“A call? We didn’t get any.”

“I don’t know about that. Anyway, they’re pretty angry that you’re not answering.”

“Well, it’s a bit hard for us if they get angry all of a sudden…”

The power dynamic was palpable.

The driver’s face crumpled as he expressed his difficulty.

He then turned to the man in the passenger seat, seemingly to seek his opinion, and began to speak.

Rohan’s certainty grew as he listened to their meaningless conversation.

Just as I thought.

He’d been sure from the moment they reacted to the word “elders.”

These were the same guys you encounter in the tutorial.

The Yard-Pound Brothers.

Men who would carry out any crime for the right price.

“Yard hyung-nim. I’ll tell them that then.”

It seemed like the conversation inside had concluded.

The driver turned back around.

“Nothing special. We didn’t receive any calls… You can tell them that when you go back.”

“If it ends like this, I’ll be the one who’s in trouble.”

Rohan felt his resolve solidify as he quickly scanned his surroundings.

As expected, the presumed Protagonist was nowhere in sight. It was late, and the alley was deserted.

I was going to do it anyway.

Rohan quietly took a deep breath beneath his mask.

Various combat techniques honed from his Hunter Era, catching Supernatural Criminals, filled his mind.

“Hey, just tell them it can’t be helped because she’s the daughter of the Grand Emperor of Snow. We also want to gather information quickly, but they say their kind can even sniff us out from inside the car. And we’re trying to be thorough to earn our pay, so…”

“Stop.”

A voice came from the passenger seat.

The driver stopped mid-sentence, shrinking back as if he had made a mistake.

“Pound. Your problem is that you always run your mouth.”

“Th-that’s… I’m sorry!”

“Forget it.”

Clunk! The passenger door opened and a man wearing loose clothing and with a mechanical prosthetic arm where his right arm should have been stepped out.

Rohan was familiar with his appearance. Yard, of the Yard-Pound Brothers.

The one who bossed around Pound, the driver.

Rotating his cheap prosthetic arm with a creak, creak, he started closing the distance. Hostility flickering in his eyes as if he were enraged.

Rohan just observed him calmly.

And once he was close enough, Yard opened his mouth discontentedly.

“Even if they sent you, I won’t tolerate being treated like this by some errand boy…”

“So?”

Rohan’s eyebrow twitched at the sudden informality.

Exercising utmost patience while remembering the promised reward, Yard exhaled deeply and continued.

“In the first place, they never gave us a number to look out for when we started this job.”

“Hmm.”

I nodded, as if saying, ‘Of course.’

Naturally, they were contacted with a new number each time.

These guys were just unaware. Those old geezers never saw them as anything more than disposable pawns.

Since the money was always good, they probably assumed they were dealing with meticulous clients.

“It’s only been two hours since we started this job. And you suddenly show up complaining… Don’t tell me you’re planning to find fault and cut our pay like last time?”

“You should be grateful even if they cut your pay.”

“What?”

“Because they’re letting you off easy for just sitting here and observing the Dormitory from this distance. If you got any closer, Frozenheart would have killed you in an instant.”

A vein bulged on Yard’s forehead.

He took a step closer and poked Rohan’s chest threateningly with his prosthetic arm.

“Brat, say that again. Who’s going to die?”

The bloody pride of men who lived outside the law.

Rohan chuckled under his mask at the tiresomely familiar scene.

“Is this bastard crazy? He’s laughing?”

“Yard hyung-nim! If we mess with him and things get complicated…”

“Pound. Just shut up.”

Rohan remained calm as he watched Yard, who was fuming and cursing.

He didn’t know how things would play out if he left them alone, but there was no doubt they’d become corpses the moment they ran into Noa.

After all, the difference in skill between the Yard-Pound Brothers and Noa wasn’t something that could be bridged with mere petty tricks.

One flick from Noa was enough to shatter their prosthetic arms and their skulls.

If I let them go, they’ll just cause more trouble.

Rohan clenched and unclenched his fists, checking his surroundings one last time.

He hadn’t even considered letting these guys live.

And above all, he had no intention of revealing his existence to “them.”

Good.

A timely quest appeared just as he made up his mind.

The rewards were completely different from the experience and currency offered in Abyss City, but these were the best rewards Rohan could ask for right now.

This takes care of the messy cleanup.

He didn’t know what the Positive Cliché reward was, but…

The very existence of the quest itself felt like adding fuel to his actions and will, rather than forcing him to do anything. He really liked it.

“Even if those guys sent me, I won’t allow some damn errand boy to treat me like this…!”

Watching Yard raise his voice in anger, Rohan moved his hand without hesitation.

Thud!

Rohan plunged his thumb into Yard’s eye without any warning.

“Aagh!”

Yard’s hands flew to his face in shock.

And in that instant, Rohan landed a kick squarely in his groin.

Crack!

His not-insignificant frame crumpled to the ground, writhing.

“—!!!”

He couldn’t even scream from the pain, only trembling.

His prosthetic arm scraped against the ground, clearly in agony.

“Y-Yard hyung-nim!?”

As Pound opened the driver’s side door frantically and struggled to get out, Rohan’s kick slammed the door shut.

“Ugh!”

Sandwiched by the door, the knife in Pound’s hand clattered to the ground.

Whirr!

Snatching the gleaming knife, Rohan immobilized Pound’s wrist with Mana, and thrust the blade down.

Thwick! A sticky sound echoed as a hole appeared in Pound’s neck.

“Gurgle…”

Retrieving the knife, Rohan turned his gaze away from Pound, who was spewing bloody foam as he slumped lifelessly against the driver’s seat.

Yard forced himself to his feet, clutching his soaked crotch.

“You fucking bastard!”

Whoosh! He swung his metal prosthetic arm with a dull thud.

Despite the momentum, the swing was too large to be threatening. It clearly showed the lack of professional training.

“You little rat…! Son of a bitch!”

Had his intelligence been shattered along with his eye and testicle?

Yard swung his arm wildly, spitting out crude insults.

I thought it might be a bit challenging, but this is literally tutorial level.

Rohan didn’t even feel the need to use his Skills.

The blade flashing as he dodged the punches.

A few seconds of utterly low-level scuffling, barely qualifying as a fight, ensued.

Yard’s breathing grew ragged.

“Huff! Ugh…”

His eyes flicked in the direction of Pound, slumped dead against the driver’s seat.

It seemed like the adrenaline was finally wearing off.

Too late.

Yard’s body was already leaking blood from the red lines drawn by the knife.

“Let’s finish this quickly. I need to go back and sleep.”

As Rohan closed the distance, twirling the knife, Yard suppressed his rage, a strange gasp escaping his lips as fear took over.

“Eek…!”

He swung his bulky prosthetic arm.

And even though it possessed enough power to flip a car, Rohan and Yard followed a predictable pattern.

Rohan dodged, and Yard got hit.

Thud!

Just like Pound, Yard, too, was stabbed in the neck.

He stumbled like a drunkard before collapsing to the ground, his life extinguished.

Good, good. No passersby.

Folding the knife and pocketing it, Rohan gratefully noted the lack of any witnesses as he opened the van door.

Thump! Thump!

After tossing the bodies into the van haphazardly, he climbed inside to rummage through the interior.

An action that would have been impossible in the game, but reality offered boundless freedom.

However, the results were disappointing.

Rohan clicked his tongue.

Damn paupers… Not even a single pistol.

Did they keep all their money in their bank accounts?

All he found after rummaging through their pockets and the van was a measly 6 coins. 60,000 won, about $45 USD. It didn’t add up.

He had no interest in the substances that looked suspiciously like illegal drugs.

Stepping outside the van, Rohan smashed the brothers’ smartphones and tossed them into a nearby trash can marked for disposal.

The notification window he’d been waiting for finally appeared.

Impressed, Rohan simply stood and watched.

Whoa!

He had assumed “trace annihilation” would just clean up the bloodstains.

But the Yard-Pound Brothers’ van itself vanished, and the ground with splattered blood was made spotless.

The coins and the knife he’d picked up remained, which was excellent. The bloodstains on his clothes disappearing was fantastic. And the smashed smartphones he’d thrown in the trash vanishing was perfect.

“Good work.”

The area was pristine, as if nothing had happened.

He felt like giving the service a five-star review.

Having completed the task, Rohan started walking back to the Dormitory.

On his way back, a thought occurred to him.

Ah, what am I going to do later?

Thinking about the future, he realized it would be nice to have at least one companion.