Eradication Squad (1)

Ku-ung

I could hear the sound of tearing through the air echoing from the gate of Changgung, the main building of the Changheon Guild.

Has he come?

He asked me to handle the aftermath.

He said it would be enough if I went in about an hour after he entered.

It’s just past 50 minutes now.

I didn’t think the battle with So Daecheol would take that long.

Even if I were to lose, I was certain that it would be decided within an hour.

In the end, I won though.

I stared at So Daecheol, whose whole body was trembling.

“You crossed the line.”

“What… do you mean?”

“So, I’m thinking of crossing the line too.”

I had been pondering right up until I set foot in Changgung. If I won, what would I do with So Daecheol, the guild master of Changheon?

“Ten years ago, you didn’t climb the Tower.”

So Daecheol narrowed his eyes. He slowly opened his mouth. A stream of blood was flowing from the corner of his mouth.

“You know about the Tower, huh… Well, with that level of talent, you must have heard that much.”

The Tower that collapses if one doesn’t climb the designated floors every 10 years. They said that if the Tower collapses, there’s a high chance that Earth will literally face extinction.

“I… didn’t receive an invitation.”

The pitiful excuse I had expected flowed from So Daecheol’s mouth.

“I heard there’s a trigger word that allows entry even without an invitation. Why didn’t you carry out that method?”

So Daecheol’s eyes darkened.

“I am Sword Emperor So Daecheol. Why should I climb that place called the Tower that didn’t even invite me?”

“You must have been scared.”

This wasn’t just my thought alone.

-He must have been scared.

It was also Sword Empress Yoo Seol-ah’s opinion. Before coming here, I had asked the two people who helped persuade Awakened Management Bureau Director Kim Jeong-woo.

If I defeat and subdue So Daecheol, what should I do after that?

If I just achieve victory and leave him be, it was obvious he would sharpen his blade again and put a knife to my neck once more.

So I asked.

If I could impose whatever punishment I had in mind on Sword Emperor So Daecheol.

-Two of the Ten Venerables who had reached the transcendent realm at that time lost their lives in the Tower. One of them was Elder Sword Demon’s subordinate.

-It’s a battlefield where even martial artists who have entered the transcendent realm die. That’s what the Tower is. 10 years ago, the Sword Emperor, who had only entered the transcendent realm about 3 years prior, must have been scared.

Sword Demon Jung Yong-ha, who was beside the Sword Empress at the time, added that one sentence.

-Fear once felt doesn’t easily disappear.

-The Tower will probably open soon. And the Sword Emperor will likely try to avoid it this time too. A person who has already lowered their tail and fled once before a monster doesn’t easily face that monster again.

I agreed with those words too.

That’s why the conclusion I’m about to carry out now has come about. So Daecheol of the Ten Venerables will not be of much help to this world in the future.

Even if I’m excluding the speck of possibility that he might repent and reform, I just need to do that much more in his stead.

The resolve I had made before opening the gates of Changgung didn’t waver.

“So Daecheol of the Ten Venerables.”

I moved my right hand to So Daecheol’s abdomen.

“I’m going to destroy your dantian.”

With this, I put a period to our grudge.

“My, my sons won’t sit still.”

So Daecheol’s appearance no longer showed any of the pressure that had been emitting the Emperor Sword Form just moments ago.

“That’s for your sons to decide, So Daecheol.”

I heated up the Heaven Defying Divine Technique and concentrated a lot of Nature’s Energy in my right hand.

I extended my hand down to So Daecheol’s dantian area.

I could see So Daecheol’s pupils dyed with fear.

“W-Wait…!”

I spread my palm and struck down near the dantian.

Kwa-deu-deuk!

I cut off his life as a martial artist.

Foam was bubbling up in So Daecheol’s mouth. His whole body convulsed.

Cut arms and legs can be recovered with holy power, but a ruptured dantian can never be resolved no matter what method is used.

So Daecheol dropped his head to the ground as if he had lost consciousness.

I stood up.

Kwa-a-ang-!

Immediately, I heard the sound of Changheon’s main gate being forcibly shattered.

It seemed about 80 people who looked like Management Bureau staff and medical personnel had entered.

“……”

Those people looked around Changgung with faces that couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

It was indeed a shocking scene, with over a hundred martial artists crawling on the floor bleeding.

And among them was a middle-aged man with a very familiar face. It was Awakened Management Bureau Director Kim Jeong-woo.

He quickly ran towards me as soon as he saw me, with a literally astonished face.

Kim Jeong-woo slowly opened his mouth, looking at me whose pure white armor coat was completely covered in blood.

“…Did you take them all down by yourself?”

I nodded.

“Th-Then, what about Sword Emperor So Daecheol?”

“I destroyed So Daecheol’s dantian.”

“What?”

Kim Jeong-woo rushed past me and urgently checked the condition of So Daecheol’s abdomen.

I could hear Kim Jeong-woo muttering.

“This, this crazy…”

And then he rushed back to me again.

“Why on earth did you destroy the dantian of So Daecheol, a member of the Ten Venerables! Do you know how big the vacancy will be…!”

He must be talking about the Tower.

“I heard that vacancy wouldn’t have been filled anyway.”

“Still, there might have been some possibility!”

“I can fill that vacancy.”

Kim Jeong-woo stared at me with a dumbfounded face. He must have run out of things to say.

I walked past Kim Jeong-woo towards the main gate. It would be a lie to say I wasn’t tired. My whole body ached. But I walked as if nothing was wrong.

Medical personnel who could use holy power were urgently treating the Changheon Guild members whose arms had been cut off and ankles sliced.

The severed arms were reattaching very slowly.

It was an awe-inspiring ability that could only be called holy power.

I think there were prerequisites for recovery, right? The cut surface must be clean. And not more than three or four hours should have passed.

Right now, both of those prerequisites were being met.

They said even reattaching like that doesn’t result in complete recovery. There would be sensitive parts like nerves. I had heard it takes a recovery period of 1 year at the earliest, or over 4 years at the latest.

I stopped walking.

“I destroyed So Daecheol’s dantian. He can no longer be a Sword Emperor.”

Forget Sword Emperor, he can’t even imbue a single ounce of sword energy into a sword.

The bodies of the martial artists trembled.

“This isn’t the martial world. It’s South Korea where the law is still alive and well.”

I examined each of their faces one by one. The Changheon martial artists couldn’t meet my eyes.

“That’s why your necks are still attached. You understand that now, right?”

One of the martial artists slowly opened his mouth. His body was still shaking violently.

“We have… received mercy.”

Respect for the strong.

Because they were those who believed in that ideology above all else, they seemed to understand the meaning of my words.

The martial artist who said those words bowed his back and prostrated himself. Starting with him, all who could compose themselves bowed their bodies.

“There won’t be a second mercy.”

I walked for a long time after passing through the main gate. I had put the armor coat in my spatial pocket. I sat on a bus stop bench and closed my eyes.

But someone sat down next to me.

And suddenly put a hand on my shoulder.

It was a woman with red hair like Sword Empress Yoo Seol-ah. No, even redder than Sword Empress Yoo Seol-ah’s.

There was a sword scar on her right cheek.

“Welcome to the world of monsters, newcomer to the transcendent realm.”

The woman who uttered incomprehensible words continued speaking.

“Name, Lee Dojin. Iroaz Academy 1st year. 1st place in the entrance exam, freshman representative.”

“…Who are you?”

“I heard you just destroyed Sword Emperor So Daecheol’s dantian. How do you feel?”

Something began to flow out from the woman’s body. It was aura.

My body felt constricted. It was an aura on par with Elder Sword Demon’s.

I quickly concentrated Nature’s Energy and then burst it to drive away the aura.

“I asked who you are.”

“Eradication Squad.”

Eradication Squad.

I remembered hearing about it.

“The government’s villain eradication unit?”

“That’s right.”

“So, what business do you have?”

The woman smiled faintly.

“I’d like to have a chat at a cafe or something. Is it difficult today since you’ve already had a big fight?”

It was a clear fact that physical fatigue had accumulated. But more than that, the desire to find out why the woman in front of me had approached me was stronger.

“Let’s go.”

---

Lee Dojin stared at the red-haired woman, the leader of the Eradication Squad, who was downing an iced Americano in front of him.

“Why did you destroy So Daecheol’s dantian?”

“If I had left him intact, he would have tried to do something to me again. The power So Daecheol possessed. There was a need to completely destroy that. I don’t think his subordinates will remain when So Daecheol, who maintained his power through his position as one of the Ten Venerables and his martial arts, loses his martial arts itself.”

The leader nodded slowly as if agreeing.

“That’s right.”

The leader threw out one more question.

“Among the Changheon martial artists you swept away, there will be some who don’t heal well. Those who can return to their normal lives right away won’t even be half. Those who are unlucky won’t even respond to holy power.”

“I suppose so.”

There will be people who will struggle to function not just as martial artists, but even as humans.

“Don’t you think you’re a criminal?”

“It was self-defense. There should be video footage left in Changheon. They wouldn’t have just ignored the scene of So Daecheol pressing down on me. Even just looking at that should prove that they drew their swords on me first.”

Lee Dojin looked directly into the leader’s eyes with dark circles and added:

“And since they talked about the martial world with their own mouths, that level of damage is their own doing.”

The leader smiled faintly.

“You’re right. It’s their own doing. Even if there had been fatalities, the Management Bureau wouldn’t have charged you with a crime.”

“…Didn’t you come to interrogate me?”

The leader shook her head.

“No, these were just my curiosities. To gauge your tendencies.”

The leader placed two sheets of paper on the table.

The papers contained basic information about organizations familiar to Lee Dojin.

<New Humanity Society>. And <Red Sect>.

They were all villain organizations with which Lee Dojin had begun bad blood.

“How about joining the Eradication Squad?”

The leader of the Eradication Squad was smiling.