Ch.548Chapter 21. Blood Pack (8)

Violence is a crime.

Especially surrounding an entire public parking lot with wooden clubs to beat up a young man in his twenties—that’s a serious criminal act.

But the public authority that should prevent such crimes is nowhere to be found here.

For some reason, whether police cars get diverted, traffic gets blocked, or police stations receive standby orders, law enforcement doesn’t come here.

Rather, the authorities would probably prevent people from coming to this public parking lot.

They must have received orders from above to control the roads so that whatever happens here doesn’t spread elsewhere.

“I don’t know who you are, but even though I only graduated high school, there’s one thing I know for sure.”

The apparent leader, a thug-like man with a shaved head, pointed a baseball bat at me.

“No one who wears the ‘Madman’s Thousand Clothes’ is normal!”

“This is the Madman’s Thousand Clothes?”

“Yeah. Whether it’s modernized hanbok or everyday hanbok, everyone who wears that stuff is a lunatic!”

That’s slander.

It’s prejudice against hanbok, the K-traditional clothing.

“You’re not normal either! You kidnap someone else’s organization member and then use their card?! You filthy bastard!”

“I used dirty money earned from other people’s blood, so I don’t see any problem.”

“You son of a…”

The young man glared at me and gestured behind him.

“Besides avenging Chunsik, a crazy bastard like you needs a beating.”

The subordinates who came with the young man were all wearing black suits, and every one of them was covered in black except for their skin.

“You messed with the wrong people.”

“Haeguneul?”

“…You.”

“Do you think I messed with you by accident?”

I lightly tapped the van with my hand.

“I did it knowing full well. In fact, I know more than you do.”

“Who… who the hell are you?!”

“Me?”

I casually extended my hand forward.

“I’m a passing Sipsonbi. Remember that.”

“What…!”

“Trans…”

Oops.

I accidentally…

“…formation.”

Crack!

The door of the van I had reached for separated from the vehicle as if boiling.

“Shield of Justice.”

“……What?”

“It’s the Shield of Justice to beat down dirty villains who live off Haeguneul’s dirty money.”

“No, that’s a car door—”

Whoosh!

I immediately swung the Shield of Justice.

“Guhk!!”

The villain at the front collapsed after taking the Shield of Justice to the abdomen.

Simultaneously, Haeguneul’s organization members, combat personnel composed of ability users, charged at me with their weapons.

“You crazy bastard!”

“Calling a perfectly normal person crazy isn’t nice.”

Slash.

The space right next to where I was standing was cut away by a magical slash.

A blue trajectory like a crescent moon scattered.

That clean magical slash is at least C-grade.

“Too bad.”

“Kugh?! H-how?!”

“I told you. It’s the Shield of Justice.”

The slash cut through the air and tried to slice me horizontally, but the Shield of Justice blocked it completely.

“Villain attacks don’t work.”

“That’s just a car door!!”

“Though you’re my enemy, I’ll give you two pieces of advice.”

I gripped the handle attached to the Shield of Justice.

“One. A battle between ability users is a battle of ego stubbornness.”

“What nonsense…!”

“You don’t understand what I’m saying right away, that’s why you’re only C-grade.”

“!!”

The handle I’m holding isn’t a car handle but a shield handle, and…

“If I use it as a shield, then it’s a shield.”

“!!”

The car door has already been the Shield of Justice since the moment I started using it to beat down villains.

“Two.”

I threw the Shield of Justice toward a Haeguneul soldier who was pointing a sword at me.

“I’m an equal opportunity fighter.”

“Ku, huk?!”

“I don’t discriminate between male and female villains.”

Whack!

The Haeguneul soldier collapsed as soon as they were hit by the shield.

I jumped onto the floating shield, stepped on it, and released magical power behind me.

Kwaaang!

I pinned down the soldier who was about to swing their sword with the shield.

The soldier was trapped under the shield, and I lightly tapped the face of the soldier trapped under the glass window with my foot as I walked forward.

“Weak.”

“What kind of monster…!”

“Your salary can’t handle me, so bring someone with a higher annual income than you.”

Haeguneul soldiers’ salaries are proportional to their combat ability.

“Your annual salary is only 280 million won.”

That’s an incredibly high salary considering they’re in their late teens and early twenties, but remember that these people are “ability users” and essentially “hitmen.”

“You’re trying to stop me with just that level of salary.”

“Are you not actually crazy but just pretending?”

“To dismiss this as pretense. How foolish.”

“You don’t have friends, do you?”

“…….”

Ah.

I see.

‘A minor mental attack.’

I know this well because it’s my specialty.

No matter what the opponent says, if I try to shake their mental state with my words, that’s victory in a battle between ability users.

“Looking at how you talk and act, you’re clearly a loner who acts in ways that drive people away. What good is having powerful abilities? Do you have friends to play games with? I mean real friends, not ones you pay for.”

“Hmm.”

If I defend myself, I lose.

The moment I respond to the opponent’s words, falling for their rhetoric is admitting defeat.

“I see. No friends, you say. I admit it.”

However.

“What…? You’re admitting you’re a friendless loser…?”

“Sorry. Instead of making time for friends.”

Rather, countering the opponent’s attack is the true counter.

“I’ve been busy meeting with my patriotic partners.”

“……!!”

The young man’s face instantly contorts.

Not because he’s genuinely angry at my words—

“Even lies should have limi—”

“Oh my, but it’s true?”

Whoosh.

“First patriotic partner, enter~”

—but because he’s shocked that a sudden pillar of red flames has instantly engulfed his subordinates—his friends—and is burning them.

“This…! Sh-shoot, shoot them—!”

“It’s useless.”

A green wind whirls around, instantly subduing those who were hiding behind cars trying to draw their guns, snatching away the magazines they were about to load.

“I thought this might happen. Have they secretly developed a mine somewhere without our knowledge?”

Hyun Se-rin threw me the magazine that was about to be loaded into the gun with a sarcastic smile.

“Silver bullets, I see.”

Inside were bullets coated with silver.

“Bullets with silver plating? Pretty clever.”

“Let me see. Wow… are these the legendary silver bullets?”

“They can’t kill werewolves, but they could easily kill ability users who transform into wolves.”

These aren’t just bullets but “mana silver.”

When fired at an ability user, the thin layer of mana silver on the bullet penetrates the ability user’s protective barrier and then strikes their heart.

Haeguneul’s execution squad already had such formidable weapons.

This must be one of the research achievements obtained from secretly developing resources in the former North Korean territory, as mana gold was publicly introduced.

“Haeguneul is still foolish. Instead of giving these plated ones to field agents, they should have given them bullets made entirely of mana silver.”

“You, you…!”

“What? Curious about who I am? I am—”

“You garbage!! How dare you have two women by your side!!”

“…….”

He’s not angry about my identity, which knows even about the existence of mana silver, but is instead venting his fury at the two women beside me.

“You meet women instead of making friends? You filthy trash…! Even in this age where ability users rule, how nice must it be to have multiple women hanging around you!”

“Then why don’t you live like this too?”

“This…! Heh, hehehe…! Fine, then.”

The young man placed his hand on his Taegeuk Watch and twisted his lips into a sinister smile toward me and the two executives.

“I’ll call someone with a higher salary than me, an A+ grade…! You’d better be nervous! That person’s annual salary is a whopping 5.3 billion won…!”

“Oh. The salary keeps going up. But an A+ grade’s salary is 5.3 billion…”

I reached out to Yoon Hye-ra’s waist and pulled her closer.

“What’s your salary?”

“My salary is 53 billion dollars.”

“……!!”

The young man’s expression properly distorts.

“A-are you mocking me?!”

Is it because of the ridiculous salary figure, or because I made physical contact with Yoon Hye-ra?

“Kuh, hehehe! B-but you should know! Those women you have beside you, did they really do it with you first?!”

Ah.

He’s trying to attack our mental state in the most petty, dirty, and unpleasant way.

“The women who are with you must be worn out! Hehe, before you laid hands on them, they must have cried under other men countless times!!”

He’s trying to drive a wedge between us using the most effective method to create discord between men and women—the lowest method to shake our mental state.

“Hmm.”

But it has no effect.

“That’s impossible.”

“Haha, that kind of mental victory won’t help…!”

“I was the first for both of them.”

“…….”

The young man, the soldier of Haeguneul’s execution squad, contorted his face with an indescribable expression.

“Th-this…! B-brother!! Come quickly!! Kill this garbage right now!!”

Judging by how he’s screaming into his Taegeuk Watch, the “A-grade” he called will arrive soon.

An A+ grade ability user with a salary—no, combat power—of 5.3 billion.

“That’s Haeguneul for you. Only paying 5.3 billion to an A+ grade. Not even monthly.”

“What…?”

“Judging by how stingy they are, it seems they’ve captured some villain and are controlling them with that pittance. How can they perform at their best with that money?”

“What did you say…?”

“If they were at least getting paid well, it might be different, but when everyone knows how much others get paid and they’re only getting that much, they can’t give their all. And.”

I pointed to the sky.

“That 5.3 billion guy you call brother isn’t S-grade, is he?”

Vrooooom!

Something massive fell from the sky.

A dump truck crashed headfirst into the public parking lot.

“Ha, haha!! You idiot!! That’s my brother! He came….”

Thud.

From the top of the dump truck, a bald man wearing Haeguneul’s suit slid down and fell.

“Brother…?”

“I apologize. The road was blocked on the way.”

On top of the dump truck that was vertically embedded in the parking lot.

“I was delayed because I had to direct traffic.”

“As always, this country’s law enforcement arrives later than the reported time.”

“Y-you are….”

A young man with black hair and black eyes, dressed in a black suit, was gripping a long golden staff while standing with his back to the moon.

He was wearing a mask that was half black and half white, making his black hair and ability the only clues to his identity.

The only hints to his identity were that his magical power was S-grade and that his golden staff-like object was “mana gold.”

But I know.

Because he’s the “hero” I called.

“…Who is he?”

“…….”

Even the villain doesn’t know.

“Oppa, who is that?”

“…….”

Neither do Yoon Hye-ra and Hyun Se-rin.

“I am.”

His alias is.

“I am.”

His name is.

“A secret.”

The Secret, that’s his secret.

“I have no obligation to reveal myself to human traffickers. Especially to Haeguneul’s ilk who sell Korean bodies overseas.”

That obviously sincere, solid, and righteous hero.

The fact that he is Black Taejo is a secret that cannot be told to anyone.