Crows (2)

With a torrent of curses, they all rushed me. All except Jin-seong.

The gangsters charged, and the members of my Transformation guild rushed forward to protect me.

“Oh, my.”

I must have misjudged my strength, because a hole opened up in the gangster leader’s stomach. Startled by the squishy sensation, I pulled back my fist. It came away slick with blood and various other bits.

The lightning that had been imbued in my fist was now coursing through his innards. Honestly, he looked like a goner.

“Gurgle, gaaack—”

The gangster leader coughed up a stream of blood.

…Still, the fact that he was somehow enduring this suggested he was an Enhancement-type with a self-healing skill.

Of course, one more hit and he’d be dead for sure.

I placed my foot on the back of the head of the gangster leader, who was curled up on the ground, continuously vomiting blood.

The gangsters charging me froze. They should have committed sooner.

“That crazy bitch!”

Crazy bitch?

I lifted the foot that was on his head and brought it down, stomping on the gangster boss’s ankle.

CRUNCH!

“Graack! Gack, ghhk!”

Silence fell over the encirclement. The only sound was the boss’s pained gasps as he choked on his own blood.

A man who I assumed was the second-in-command—the one the other gangsters kept glancing at—slowly approached with his hands raised to shoulder height.

“P-please, calm down.”

The tips of his fingers trembled faintly. His eyes wavered, shaken by the outcome of a battle that had ended in an instant.

“We’ll leave. We’re sorry.”

“What was your purpose in coming here?”

“…We’re sorry.”

I lifted my foot and stomped on his ankle again. The bone, which had been slowly mending, shattered once more.

Misunderstanding my actions, the second-in-command bowed even deeper.

“We won’t come back again. We’re sorry!”

By the way, this thing under my foot… if I hadn’t sent a current of lightning through him, this could have gotten annoying.

His recovery rate is pretty fast.

I could feel a squirming movement through my foot. But every time a crackling vibration passed through him, the movement slowed.

Just in case, one more time—

I sensed movement from the people surrounding me.

I looked up to see the members of my Transformation guild pushing past the gangsters and approaching. It was Park Se-hyeok, Kim Chan-seok, and the employee called Jin-su.

The gangsters tried to block them, but after they met my gaze, they meekly let them through.

“Hmm.” “Oh.” “Well, well.”

Park Se-hyeok was the first to speak.

“Killing him outside the gate would be a hassle.”

Next was Kim Chan-seok.

“Is he not healing?”

Looks like he knows something about the boss.

“Wow….”

And then there was Jin-su, who could only stare in awe.

Se-hyeok spoke again.

“Are you… going to kill him?”

“No. I was just planning to rough him up a bit, but he was weaker than I thought.”

He felt like a B or B+, so I controlled my strength just enough to subdue him in one blow. I didn’t think it’d be enough to punch a hole through his gut.

“Anyway, how do we clean this up? I don’t think he’s going to die.”

“He’s famous for his recovery skill,” Kim Chan-seok said. “…We’ll handle the cleanup. It was our job to begin with, anyway.”

“No! Th-that’s not…”

The lackey started to protest, then lost his nerve. But soon, as if he’d made up his mind, he pointed a finger at us and shouted.

“Our-our superiors won’t stand for this!”

Honestly, aside from the Awakener pinned under my foot, they were all pretty mediocre. Which is why they charged in, I suppose.

Watching the lackey’s trembling finger, I asked, “Superiors?”

“Yeah! They… like this—”

“No need to listen,” Kim Chan-seok cut in. “I know which organization he’s talking about, and they don’t care about this kind of stuff.”

“An organization? What kind?”

“Well… you know the Daesung Guild?”

“The one I’m thinking of? They’re running a crow operation? Aren’t they a pretty well-known guild?”

“Of course not officially. They do it on the sly, through the back door. We only found out after catching a few of their guys and questioning them.”

“Ah… so protesting to them would be… difficult.”

“They’d just deny everything, and besides—”

He whispered, “Our Guild Master hasn’t been active lately.”

“I see. Well, anyway, you can handle the rest, right?”

“Yes. Just keep that guy under your foot pinned down. We’ll take care of the others.”

*

Finally, I’ve won Se-hyeok over.

You could say the hard-working succubus has devoured yet another man.

And on top of that—

“Wipe that look off your face.”

Han Jin-seong, who was exempted from the ‘cleanup’ thanks to his connection to me.

I was walking with Park Se-hyeok and Han Jin-seong on either side of me.

“Ugh, which guild should I go to now…” Han Jin-seong muttered.

“Want to join our guild? No, forget that. Just join.”

I heard the Chinese gate we took over is a little short on manpower. Besides, you have to obey me anyway, right?

“What?”

“Se-hyeok.”

“Yes?”

“You can take care of him, right? He won’t be dead weight.”

“Well… the person in question’s opinion—”

“You’ll do it. Right?” I said, cutting Se-hyeok off and looking at Jin-seong.

“Haaah… I guess I have to.”

Han Jin-seong sighed in acceptance.

To be honest, I always figured he’d end up working under me someday. The only questions were when, and what our relationship would be like at that time.

“Great! To celebrate, it’s my treat today.”

In any case,

Incubus, successfully recruited!

*

“…I hadn’t been there long, so I don’t know the details, but they probably weren’t trying to take over the gate itself,” Han Jin-seong said, glancing repeatedly at Park Se-hyeok. “The law isn’t completely useless, and that guild isn’t a total pushover, so they were likely just trying to muscle in on some of the profits.”

Se-hyeok does look like an Enhancement-type. Of course, since he belongs to the ‘Transformation’ guild, one could guess he has a corresponding trait, but still.

Anyway—

“Is this kind of thing common? These parasites and crows, I mean.”

Park Se-hyeok answered, “I’ve heard it’s been getting more common lately.”

“Really?”

“Well… one theory is that since the highest-ranking Awakeners are becoming less and less active, there’s no one to maintain discipline among the lower ranks… Another is that whenever the number of Awakeners increases, conflicts naturally arise to cull the population, and we’re in one of those periods right now.”

“Highest-ranking Awakeners… you mean your Guild Master?”

“Yes. Our Guild Master, for one. They say the Guild Master of Elemental—the one with the elemental mages—also rarely shows his face, and the dean of Merci Academy supposedly never leaves her research lab. Something like that.”

“What, are they all in some kind of secluded training?”

…Elemental seems to be running just fine…

“Pardon?”

“Nothing. Anyway, so you’re saying this is an era of chaos?”

“Yes. Eventually, someone will probably show up, devour everyone else, and create a mega-guild.”

“A mega-guild…”

The words just popped out—

“Maybe I should give it a try?”

“What?” “Huh?”

Why are you so surprised?

“I mean, it feels like my guild is right in the middle of this chaos lately. Jin-seong, you wouldn’t know, but we dealt with parasites recently, and Se-hyeok here has been having trouble because of those crow flocks.”

“Can’t I, uh, can’t I sit this one out?” Jin-seong pleaded. “I hear you need a river of blood to build a mega-guild.”

“Jin-seong… It’s not like you have anywhere else to go. The place you were at might have been a subcontractor, but it ultimately answers to Daesung. You think a traitor to the Daesung Guild can find a good position anywhere else? And what’s this about a river of blood? That’s all—”

….

…On second thought, I guess I have seen a lot of blood so far.

During the brief silence, Han Jin-seong must have sensed something ominous.

“I’m fine with just living a quiet life, so please—”

“Shut up and get on board.”

You’re bound to me by a contract of absolute obedience, remember?

As if he knew, Han Jin-seong scowled and glared at me.

Then he opened his mouth and said—

“…In that case, I’m ordering more meat.”

“Eat up. I can buy you as much meat as you want. You too, Se-hyeok, eat plenty.”

“…About the mega-guild, were you serious?”

Park Se-hyeok, taking it seriously again.

“Honestly, it’d be tough. We run a black market. It’s illegal from the get-go, so all that talk about a mega-guild was just a joke.”

“It’s still possible, even if it’s illegal.”

“Devouring everyone? I don’t know… By the way, Se-hyeok, I didn’t know you were such an ambitious man, getting fixated on a mega-guild.”

Park Se-hyeok suddenly let out a sigh.

“Our guild has been a mess lately… There are factions, and the Guild Master is nowhere to be found, so there’s no mediation. The situation is just… strange.”

“So you want to try building a mega-guild?”

“…I was surprised by your power today, and, well, I’m not saying we should build one, but the possibility isn’t zero, so… yes.”

“Oho, I didn’t realize you thought so highly of me, Se-hyeok.”

He was against it when I first said I was making a guild. Of course, back then he was probably just against it because he wanted me all to himself.

“It would be difficult, honestly,” Se-hyeok said. “Like… that guy said, it would probably take a river of blood, and anyway, we’re an illegal organization right now, aren’t we?”

“Right.”

“But looking at our growth rate—”

“Se-hyeok.”

“Yes.”

“I… have personal circumstances that prevent me from being that active.”

Han-gyeol has to be active in Elemental, too. I just made team leader; I can’t be distracted by another guild.

“I know. But a guild doesn’t necessarily need its master to be present for it to grow.”

“The guild master does everything in the beginning, though. The river of blood—that’s all made by the guild masters.”

“…That’s true.”

“I’m not going to be proactive. I might take what comes to me, but honestly, I don’t even know if I’m doing a good job as a guild master.”

If I get too proactive and someone finds out this body is Lee Han-gyeol’s transformed state, it’ll be a catastrophe.

“…If you say so.”

In the silence, only the sound of sizzling meat—

Wait, there was no sound.

“When did you eat it all yourself?”

“W-well, you two were having such a serious conversation.”

“Haaah….”

“…Excuse me, more meat over here, quickly!”