Ch.1919. The Sea Dragon Squad’s Budding Regret

“Chief! There they come! I smell money!”

“Kyaaaah! Run, run!!”

Motorcycles raced forward, kicking up clouds of dust. Ji Se-hwa confirmed the target from the lead position.

A luxury sedan. The license plate matched.

“Blast them all!”

Ji Se-hwa mercilessly fired her submachine gun at the sedan. As their intel suggested, it was completely bulletproof. She was aiming for the tires.

The job was to immobilize the vehicle and hand over the passengers.

She and her gang were bikers, but they made their living by taking jobs like this for bounties.

Ji Se-hwa wasn’t special. Delinquents like her could be found in any slum, and such groups were called “punks.”

It might seem like only villain organizations would hire punks, but that wasn’t necessarily the case.

This city was rotten to the core. Whether corporations or political circles, after several layers of subcontracting, jobs often trickled down to punks.

“They’re holding out! Let me show you the power of the ‘Byerdunz’!”

One of her underlings confidently fired an RPG. A massive explosion. Even the sturdy bulletproof vehicle couldn’t withstand an RPG—the roof was torn off and the car body shook.

“Hey, what if they die? The job was to capture them alive!”

“Oh crap! Did their heads get blown off?”

“Try taping them back on! Maybe they’ll look like live fish!”

Her underlings cackled.

That’s when the unexpected happened.

“Grrrrrr—!!”

A green beast suddenly appeared from inside the sedan. In an instant, it leaped onto one of the bikes.

“What—Aaaagh!”

An underling’s body was instantly torn apart by claws. Ji Se-hwa clicked her tongue.

“Shit, we’ve been tricked! Everyone scatter, you idiots!!”

This wasn’t a simple kidnapping job. They had been used as bait to help awaken the abilities of whoever was in the sedan.

Punks were the lowest class of society anyway. Nobody cared when or how they died.

“Aaaah! It’s chasing us! Chief, help—Aaagh!!”

Her underlings were being torn apart one by one. Ji Se-hwa emptied her submachine gun, but she quickly ran out of ammunition.

Vrooom!

The beast leaped toward her bike. It swung its claws at the engine, causing an explosion.

When Ji Se-hwa regained consciousness much later, she spat out blood-mixed saliva. All her underlings were dead. She alone had been lucky enough to survive.

“Today’s luck is absolute shit.”

Dragging her broken ankle, she barely made it back to their hideout, an abandoned bowling alley.

The Byerdunz were finished.

In this world, surviving more than five years was difficult anyway. Death was always nearby. It just happened to come today.

“Hey, Ji Se-hwa! Get out here!”

There was a commotion of engine noise outside. Ji Se-hwa clutched her bleeding body and left the bowling alley. Outside were about twenty bikes and punks.

“Let’s have our usual match with the bowling alley at stake, you fucking bitch! What’s this, you look like a beggar? Perfect timing!”

A biker gang. Rival punks. A red mohawk hurling insults. Ji Se-hwa wanted to punch him in the face, but she didn’t have the strength.

‘Fine. If I’m going out, I’ll go out in style. I’ll make one legend at least.’

With that thought, Ji Se-hwa mounted her spare bike.

“Bring it on, you trash. We’ll go to Cliff 4 as usual.”

“That’s more like it!”

The bikers’ contest was simple.

A chicken game.

They would start simultaneously and ride full throttle toward a cliff. Whoever braked first would lose.

Ji Se-hwa and Mohawk stood at the starting line.

Bang!

With the gunshot, the engines roared. Two bikes shot forward.

“Go!”

“Leader, kill her!”

“Byerdunz is finished!”

The speedometer climbed. 100, 140, 160.

‘C-crazy bitch. She’s still not braking?!’

Mohawk broke into a cold sweat. The cliff was right in front of them. The limit was approaching.

‘Damn it!!’

Mohawk finally hit the brakes first. But Ji Se-hwa showed no signs of stopping.

And then.

Crash!

Ji Se-hwa’s bike hit the guardrail and went airborne. Below was a bottomless abyss.

Ji Se-hwa fell with a confident smile, raising her middle finger at Mohawk.

And then—

Snap!

She felt a strong tension around her neck. Her body flew through the air.

Boom!

Ji Se-hwa’s bike crashed and exploded.

“What the fuck!”

Ji Se-hwa turned her head. There was a red dragon-man holding a tree with one hand and her neck with the other.

He had just saved her life.

“What the hell are you doing, you bastard! I was about to write my legend!”

“Legend my ass. Those punk bastards have a life expectancy of five seconds—as if anyone would pass down your story.”

The dragon-man mocked her with those words.

“What are you going to do after irresponsibly saving me? I have nothing left! All my underlings are dead, I have no money, no bike!”

Just then, growl— Ji Se-hwa’s stomach rumbled loudly.

Hearing that, the dragon-man released his transformation.

Ji Se-hwa instinctively closed her mouth. She was overwhelmed by the rather attractive face of the man.

“Do you like soup?”

◈ ◈ ◈

The man, Jung Ui-seok, told her many things.

That the power of Leviathan within her was not a talent to waste among mere punks.

That if she had the will, he would show her how to fight as a hero.

After eating hot soup, her body warmed up, and her will returned a little.

Though they got into a fight right after leaving the restaurant.

Seeing that, Jung Ui-seok’s reaction was neither praise nor scolding.

He took Ji Se-hwa to a nail salon.

“What’s this about?”

“Pretty, right? If you punch someone, these will get ruined.”

“You’re messing with me. You bring someone with a broken ankle to a nail salon instead of a hospital?”

“I was afraid you might pick a fight with the doctor.”

Jung Ui-seok smiled slyly.

Seeing his expression, Ji Se-hwa couldn’t help but smile too.

Blue nail art carefully applied to the nails of her left hand.

She admired their sparkle for a long time.

◈ ◈ ◈

“The surgery was successful.”

Ji Se-hwa opened her eyes slightly.

Instinctively, she raised her left arm and examined it carefully.

A smooth titanium body. It moved precisely according to her thoughts.

But there were no nails at the fingertips.

“Se-hwa, are you okay? We’ve restrained you to the bed in case you lash out. It’s because of your temperament, so please understand.”

It was Shin Yukyong’s voice. Ji Se-hwa responded expressionlessly.

“I’m fine.”

“…Really? I thought you’d be angrier.”

“I’m fine.”

Ji Se-hwa continued to stare blankly at her left arm against the ceiling.

“Vengeance was attacked by Dark Matter, right? Can you tell me the details? The media hasn’t announced it yet, but they’ve caught wind of it. Dark Matter has been promoted to SS-class, and of the five people with you, five were hospitalized and two died.”

“Hey, Yukyong.”

“…You called me ‘unnie.’ It’s been a while.”

“Jung Ui-seok was a good guy at first.”

“I won’t deny that.”

“Why did things turn out this way between us?”

“Well, he became obsessed with money, and after Han Somi died, he fell into drugs…”

“No, not that. I mean with ‘us.'”

“…Looking back now, I’m not sure. The fight against the Dark Kingdom was difficult.”

“Jung Ui-seok started getting angry more frequently too.”

“Yes. At some point, he seemed unable to control his anger.”

“Even a guy like that must have felt pain when his arm was cut off, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“…Nothing, never mind. I want to cover myself with the blanket, can you untie this?”

Ji Se-hwa spoke like someone who had lost something.

◈ ◈ ◈

“You’re saying other countries have refused to provide any support?”

Kang Yerin gritted her teeth.

“Didn’t I tell you? Whether they’re white or black, none of them can be trusted. Those bastards only want to take our S-Sentai title. That’s how they get resources through international agreements.”

“Sigh. What about the domestic A-class heroes? I asked you to gather them all.”

“I know. Why are you so impatient?”

“Because we have the Galaxy Empire above our heads! The association is full of people with no real combat experience because they’re just cruising!”

“Even Blue is in that state, so take it slow. I heard he’s training twelve hours a day lately. That damn Vengeance is targeting the Dragon King Sentai for some reason. You should be careful too.”

“Haa… Dragon King Sentai should also stop other activities and focus on training. Did you terminate the contract with that new Red?”

“What are you talking about? I told you it’s not possible.”

“This is insane. We absolutely can’t fight with him!”

“I said it’s not possible! The contract stipulates that he must participate in more than 70% of all missions. The domestic debut is the day after tomorrow.”

“Hey, Association President!!!”

Finally unable to hold back, Kang Yerin slammed the table.

“Do you really want to see everyone die?! If that’s the case, why did you kill Jung Ui-seok?!”

“Ugh. B-but. I didn’t know such an evil organization would appear again…”

“If you knew?! What does that have to do with anything?!”

“W-well, Jung Ui-seok went too far! His performance was so good that the Washington Association was going to promote him to SS-class! I can’t control SS-class heroes even with my authority! Then whose would this association become? It’s obvious it would fall into his hands!!”

Hearing those words, Kang Yerin lost it.

The woman in front of her was saying she framed him because she was afraid of losing her power.

“You devil of a woman.”

Kang Yerin immediately lunged at the association president and started slapping her face.

“Ack! Y-you crazy bitch! A h-hero hitting a civilian?!”

“You’re a civilian? What you’re doing makes you a villain!”

“V-villain?! Aaack! Y-you’re an accomplice too, you bitch! Did I kill him? The four of you killed him and came back!!”

Hearing those words, Kang Yerin’s hand stopped.

She was furious.

What angered her most was her own karma that she couldn’t deny.

“Uugh, uwaaaaaa!!”

Kang Yerin screamed and collapsed on the spot.

She knew.

No matter what she did, no matter how much she screamed.

Nothing would come back.

◈ ◈ ◈

“Haa, haa.”

Choi Minseo moved forward, clutching her chest.

It was painful, suffocating, breathless.

Her body was fine. Health wasn’t the issue.

What was broken was her mind.

“It hurts, it hurts, it hurts.”

She descended the stairs.

Deep into a warehouse where light couldn’t reach.

Strict security. A place with level 0 security clearance that only the association president and herself could enter.

Choi Minseo opened the door.

“Ah, aha, ahahaha.”

A mountain, no. Even if all the quantities in the world were gathered, it wouldn’t be this much.

In front of this paradise of Pestam, Choi Minseo laughed and laughed and laughed again.