Ch.33Chapter 33 – Cerberus (1)

Starve Club.

It was a club located in an old shopping district in Incheon. Though it was already dark outside, a time when the club should have been bustling with dancers, the interior was eerily quiet without a sign of life. This was because the locals, knowing it was a place where gangsters gathered to drink, avoided going anywhere near the club.

Finally, a visitor appeared in the gloomy street where the Black Snake gang members resided. A man dressed in black with a black bag slung over his shoulder. It was Shin Jaehyuk.

Shin Jaehyuk manipulated his smartphone to send important evidence files to Cha Eunkyung. They were files related to organization members and illegal smuggling. He didn’t send anything about the laboratory or the Mine research. The case was too dangerous for the police to get involved, and there was a risk that evil research that shouldn’t exist could spread.

Above all, Shin Jaehyuk himself intended to kill everyone involved.

“Since I called the ‘cleaner,’ they should have handled the bodies properly…”

Gehenna, Mr. B’s organization and intermediary website, provided various useful services for fixers. One of them was the “cleaning service,” which eliminated evidence from work sites after a fixer’s job was done, no questions asked.

Shin Jaehyuk was grateful that his membership level on Gehenna was VIP. VIP level allowed him to call cleaners as many times as needed throughout the day without restrictions. He took out a mace from his bag, which had turned red at the bottom. The blood had hardened firmly on the head, making it look like it would take considerable effort to clean.

Shin Jaehyuk entered the unguarded club entrance while fidgeting with the handle.

“…There really is no one here.”

The interior, stained with red and blue lights, was quiet. Wasn’t Chairman Ryu Changgeun supposed to drink alone at this hour? The information extracted from interrogating Director Heo seemed to be correct.

He went a bit further inside. The spacious plaza where guests would dance had been modified to Ryu Changgeun’s taste. There were potted plants, glass cups, and several large stone tables placed for executives to sit at.

Deep inside the club was a long table for the bartender. Inside the table, one employee was trembling while pouring drinks, and a man holding an elegant glass was tilting his drink.

A man with a bear-like build and an intimidating aura. A long knife scar on his left cheek. He matched the description of the Black Snake gang leader that Director Heo had provided. Under his rolled-up shirt sleeves, the Black Snake tattoo twitched with each pulse of his veins.

He sensed Shin Jaehyuk’s presence and glanced at him.

“You’ve come. I’ve been waiting.”

Shin Jaehyuk frowned in confusion. He’d been waiting? Had he mistaken him for someone else? Kindly, the other man resolved his doubt.

“I got a report from my youngest. You killed all the research facility personnel by yourself? As far as I know, the Red Dragon gang doesn’t have such talent…”

He caressed the curved belly of his glass while picking up a grape. Ryu Changgeun chewed, feeling the juice burst in his mouth.

‘Oh, I forgot about the guy I knocked out.’

Shin Jaehyuk slightly furrowed his eyebrows. Come to think of it, he hadn’t sensed any magi from that person, so he had only knocked him out. If he had known he was involved, he would have killed him instead of just knocking him out. But what’s done is done. It seemed the guy was neither a Mine nor a researcher.

Ignoring Shin Jaehyuk’s reaction, Ryu Changgeun continued.

“There were rumors that the Red Dragon gang was taking foreign money, so I guess it was true. Are you a mercenary hired by them? …No, it doesn’t matter. Now it’s not an issue between organizations, but between you and me.”

“Why didn’t you run away?”

At that question, Ryu Changgeun finally turned to stare at Shin Jaehyuk. His rough face carefully examined Shin Jaehyuk’s expression before suddenly bursting into laughter.

“Hahaha. You clearly don’t know much about this world. Why didn’t I run away? Isn’t it obvious? In this business, we live and die by our reputation. Who would serve a fleeing wolf as their leader? A dog with its tail between its legs becomes prey for other packs.”

The opponent’s fighting spirit was palpable. It felt like he might launch a surprise attack at any moment. He seemed to be quite hated because of what he had done. Shin Jaehyuk quietly removed his bag and set it aside. It would be cumbersome in a fight.

“…And above all, I invested a considerable amount of funds in this project, and if the opposition finds out you ruined it, my position would be in danger… I have no choice but to capture you and redirect the arrow of anger toward the Red Dragon gang!”

Shin Jaehyuk shouted at Ryu Changgeun, who was growling like a wounded wolf.

“Why did you conduct such experiments? What was your purpose? Who’s behind you?”

“You’re quite curious. Questions are the right of the victor. If you win, I’ll answer everything.”

He put down his empty glass. Then he took out his phone from his pocket and handed it to the bartender.

“Contact the VIP. Tell him things seem to have gone wrong.”

The bartender, with trembling hands, typed on the keypad to send a text message. He was an employee who had been trained on how to handle such situations.

“I-I sent it…”

Ryu Changgeun silently chewed the remaining grapes.

“Ch-Chairman, can I leave now?”

“I really enjoyed the taste of the drinks you made. What a shame…”

“Huh?”

An unidentified shadow loomed over his head. The shadow, initially the size of a fist, grew increasingly larger. The terrified bartender tried to check what was above him—

Crunch!

A massive dog’s head bit the bartender’s head. As his bowed neck straightened, his body dangled in the air, flailing between the sharp teeth. Crunch, crunch, the sound of bones being chewed echoed from inside the jaws that had bitten the person. With each horrifying sound, the bartender’s body twitched like someone being electrocuted.

Crack! With the sound of a neck bone breaking, the bleeding body stopped moving and hung limply in the air. When the dog’s head finally opened its jaw, the mangled body, marked with teeth marks, fell with a thud into a pool of blood.

“..!”

Shin Jaehyuk shifted his gaze along the long neck to see where the dog’s head had emerged from. The neck with the dog’s head started from behind Ryu Changgeun’s shoulder, from his right shoulder blade. Moreover, there wasn’t just one head. On the opposite shoulder blade, another massive head had sprouted.

‘That’s like Cerberus from Greek mythology…’

Between the two demonic heads, the human head licked its lips.

“Hmm, your blood is as fragrant as the taste of the drink you made.”

“You—”

Shin Jaehyuk glared at him, who had casually eaten his own subordinate. But he didn’t move rashly. The two dog heads watching him from both sides were too threatening.

Ryu Changgeun smirked at his cautious demeanor and tore his shirt with his bare hands. Beneath it were countless scars and surgical marks, suggesting an unusual history.

And most threatening of all was the pulsating black heart. The magi overflowing from the devil’s heart could be clearly seen beneath the skin as it supplied the muscles throughout his body.

“It’s Cerberus, the boss from the A-class gate that appeared in Pakistan. I spent all my secret funds buying the corpse on the black market, and almost all my organs have been replaced with Cerberus’s organs, but as you can see, I’ve gained power that rivals any awakened.”

Ryu Changgeun stroked the hellhound’s head. Its eyes burned with a dark red flame, and a mixture of fire and poison mist emerged from its growling breath.

‘The left head is poison, the right head is fire. Dangerous… But if I can create distance, maybe I can somehow use the lightning spear—’

Ryu Changgeun took out weapons he had prepared for intruders from behind the table. They were guns. Holding one rifle in each hand, he announced the start of the battle.

“Thanks for waiting. Shall we begin?”

‘Shit!’

Dudududududu—

Tatatatatata—

The rifles in both hands spewed fire. Display cabinets of liquor bottles and glasses shattered, sending glass fragments flying in all directions. Shin Jaehyuk hastily recited an aria.

“You strengthen my faith, protect this soul from evil!”

A celestial barrier deployed, protecting Shin Jaehyuk’s body. When bullets hit the barrier surrounded by sacred energy, circular ripples formed on its surface, and the bullets lost their force and fell to the ground. With each impact of a bullet blocked, sacred power drained rapidly from Shin Jaehyuk’s soul.

‘This won’t work. The sacred power consumption is too high!’

Since the caster couldn’t move while the barrier was up, Shin Jaehyuk deactivated it. Several bullets hit his body. Enduring the pain, he quickly overturned a large table and hid behind it. The thick tabletop shielded him from the bullets like a shield.

‘Ugh! It’s my first time being shot, and it hurts quite a bit.’

He concentrated healing energy on his bullet-wounded abdomen, and as flesh grew from the inside, the bullets were pushed out of the wounds. New flesh formed, and the wounds disappeared without a trace.

‘What should I do now?’

Close combat seemed dangerous, so he had planned to face him from a distance by throwing lightning spears, but with the opponent drawing guns, he found himself at a disadvantage. As soon as he raised his body to throw a lightning spear, a rain of bullets would turn him into a beehive. Somehow, he needed to neutralize the guns and approach him.

Dudut.

Suddenly, the fierce gunfire stopped.

‘Is he reloading?’

Since it was his first time facing an armed enemy in reality rather than in a game, he couldn’t make an accurate judgment. He lacked information on how many seconds it took to change magazines or how many bullets were in each magazine. The absence of information bred hesitation.

But Ryu Changgeun, familiar with gunfights, didn’t waste this opportunity.

Something flew behind the table. A round object the size of a fist. A chilling intuition brushed the nape of his neck. Shin Jaehyuk instinctively rolled to the left.

BOOM!

The grenade exploded, shattering the table. Finally seeing the enemy emerge from cover, Ryu Changgeun pulled the trigger.

“Got you, you rat!”

Shin Jaehyuk ran, seeking cover while protecting his head with the mace head. Several more bullets hit his body, and bullets that grazed his skin shattered chairs and potted plants behind him.

He barely avoided becoming a beehive by hiding behind a pillar, but there seemed to be no solution in sight. He couldn’t keep running forever. Given that the opponent had been waiting for him, he likely had plenty of bullets and bombs prepared, making a war of attrition impossible. The only way to survive was to eliminate the guns from his hands.

But how?

“Eloah, Your light, through my hands!”

Summoning a lightning spear, Shin Jaehyuk jumped out from beside the pillar and shot lightning at the three-headed Mine. A bullet grazed his cheek eerily. Despite the danger, the master’s throw, with unshaken breath, flew accurately toward its target. The hastily created trajectory was too precise, too honest. So predictable that the opponent could easily anticipate it.

“Ha, useless! I already heard about that technique from my subordinate. My feet are faster than your arm swing!”

Stepping firmly, Ryu Changgeun threw his body sideways. As the Mine’s body, united with an A-class boss, kicked off the ground, the surface shattered, sending marble pieces flying. The decisive strike cut through empty space in vain and lodged into the wall.

Despite successfully avoiding the attack, Ryu Changgeun didn’t stop running and instead increased his speed. As he took erratic steps, the gun barrel also wavered, creating irregular trajectories of fire.

‘This won’t work.’

Shin Jaehyuk raised his barrier again. The attacks pounding the shield twenty times per second gradually drained his sacred power. He was safe for now, but at this rate, he wouldn’t last even ten minutes.

“Hahaha! You look anxious! Let’s see how long you can hold out!”

In a crisis, a single moment of wit could reverse the situation… Shin Jaehyuk’s brain sparked as he looked around for a way out.

‘That might work!’

Your light, through my hands. Shin Jaehyuk summoned a lightning spear.

“I told you that attack won’t work—!”

To prepare for the opponent’s attack, Ryu Changgeun momentarily stopped firing and took zigzag steps. Even while doing so, his hands moved busily, replacing the magazine. Shin Jaehyuk utilized that brief pause in the attack effectively.

The barrier went down, and lightning was fired. Ryu Changgeun leisurely avoided the attack.

“Stupid fool, now it’s over—”

“The fool is you; I wasn’t aiming for you!”

Bang! The lightning thrown by Shin Jaehyuk flew in a straight line and hit next to the fire detector on the ceiling. The fire detector, sensing the sparks from the lightning spear, began to sound loudly, and water sprayed from the ceiling sprinklers.

“A fire alarm? Do you think the police will save your life—!”

Shin Jaehyuk recited an aria.

“When water meets its master, it blushes shyly—”

Sacred spell, Blessing.

Shin Jaehyuk prayed to Eloah to bless the sprinklers. As the devout saint blessed the sprinklers, spiritual energy settled in the drainage. The water pouring from the ceiling transformed into holy water with a purple hue, like red wine.

“What— Argh!”

Ryu Changgeun lost his composure under the streams of holy water flowing over his entire body. Despite shaking his body, scratching his skin, and covering his face with his arms to block the water streams that dissolved flesh like acid, the holy water eagerly purified the devil’s flesh.

As the holy water flowed down his arms, dissolving tendons, the grip strength holding the guns gradually weakened. Finally, his flailing arms dropped the guns. Shin Jaehyuk’s eyes gleamed.

‘Now!’

He kicked off the ground and charged toward the three heads.