Initiation (2)

As soon as he put on the Hahoe mask, a black fixing device that protruded from the edge covered the back of his head.

Lee Dojin wearing the Hahoe mask stood in front of the mirror.

He didn’t have any particular impression.

It was the appearance of the yangban mask he had often seen in textbooks or media.

“It would definitely be scary if you cut people with a sword while wearing this.”

Bae Juha, standing beside him, nodded her head several times.

“It would be very scary.”

Deu-reu-reuk-

The leader opened a drawer under the mask display.

There were objects in the drawer that looked like badges. They were meant to be attached to the shoulder. They looked like metal on the outside, but had almost no weight.

“This is the Eradication Squad’s mark. Regular members have a red sword. And executives have a white sword standing like this. We used to distinguish with these. These days, the executives’ masks are so conspicuous though.”

The leader attached a badge with a white sword standing upright to Lee Dojin’s shoulder.

“There’s also an executive armor coat. I’ll give you that later. We need to place an order.”

“I understand.”

Lee Dojin was already overwhelmed with just these things.

He never thought he’d have to wear such things.

“It suits you well…”

Bae Juha muttered softly, looking at Lee Dojin’s face wearing the Hahoe mask.

At that moment, the leader’s phone rang out.

“What’s the matter?”

-We’ve spotted Kim Beomjin. He’s currently talking with people who appear to be from the villain organization, Hermes.

“Hermes?”

The leader slightly furrowed her brow.

One of the villain organizations. However, unlike the New Humanity Society or the Red Sect, it wasn’t such a renowned villain group.

Size: 30 people.

It consisted of mostly B-rank and a very few A-rank villains under Park Jonghyung, an estimated S-rank villain.

-Right now, there’s someone confirmed to be Park Jongjin, twelve subordinates, and Kim Beomjin. They seem to be entering Hermes’ main base.

“Where is it?”

-It’s a billiard hall on the outskirts of the city. It’s quite a large building. I’ll send you the coordinates.

“Oh, okay.”

After ending the call, the leader looked at Lee Dojin.

“A situation has come up that we need to deploy for now. We’ve found Kim Beomjin.”

Kim Beomjin.

Lee Dojin recalled the villain profile he had just seen.

“It’s your initiation.”

“Understood.”

The leader, still with a face full of dark circles, continued speaking.

“The basic principle is capture alive. But well, if the situation doesn’t allow it or if you really want to kill, you can kill.”

You can kill if you really want to, huh.

“Understood.”

“Juha, you go too.”

“Yeah… I wanted to. The principle is for two executives to deploy anyway, right?”

Ssuk!

Bae Juha swiftly pulled out a mask from her spatial pocket. It was a mask. A mask designed like a skull.

Bae Juha, wearing the skull mask, held out her cute hand to Lee Dojin.

“I’ll introduce myself formally… I’m Bae Juha, captain of the 5th unit. You can call me Skull. During missions, that is.”

Lee Dojin shook that hand with a blank face.

“I’m Lee Dojin.”

“I’m 16, so you can speak casually to me… Are you not going to decide on a codename?”

Lee Dojin’s face hardened, as he had never thought about setting such a thing separately.

“Well, it’s urgent now. Shall we depart?”

“Let’s do that.”

Lee Dojin put on the Hahoe mask again.

“But, are we going out through Red Town’s main entrance?”

The leader shook her head.

“There’s a back door.”

The leader pressed the open button on the iron door opposite the elevator. The door opened and Bae Juha entered the passage first.

It was an underground passage.

Inside the underground passage, a blue teleport was shimmering.

“Do we just enter?”

At Lee Dojin’s words, Bae Juha nodded.

Lee Dojin and Bae Juha appeared in an alley on the outskirts.

Lee Dojin stared at the teleport that disappeared while shimmering with strange sparks.

“That’s amazing.”

“It is amazing.”

Bae Juha walked forward.

“A car should be prepared.”

“Oh, I don’t have a license though.”

“A driver is prepared too.”

Bae Juha said that and left the alley. Lee Dojin followed behind.

As they exited the alley, as Bae Juha said, an SUV was waiting.

“Let’s go.”

Lee Dojin realized that the man holding the steering wheel was the barista who had heard the password from him at the counter.

Lee Dojin got into the passenger seat.

Bae Juha sat in the back seat.

When he had seen him just before, he was wearing an apron, but now he was dressed in a neat black suit.

“Are you an Eradication Squad member?”

At Lee Dojin’s question, the man shook his head.

“I’m a Management Bureau employee. I was just assigned to the Eradication Squad.”

“I see.”

“I’ll be serving you from now on. Ah, you can just call me R. R.”

“The tone of ‘serving’ feels a bit off though.”

The man chuckled.

“Do you know what rank Eradication Squad executives belong to in the revised civil servant grades?”

“No.”

How would I know that? I’ve never been interested.

“It’s grade 4 civil servant. Compared to that, I’m a grade 7 civil servant.”

An Eradication Squad executive was equivalent to a colonel in military terms, or a senior superintendent in police terms.

“And regardless of rank, if you show the badge on your shoulder, no one will easily disregard you.”

Lee Dojin stared at the mark standing upright with a blade on the black circular badge attached to his shoulder.

“It’s a more powerful position than I thought.”

“If it’s a scene where villains are rampant, you get priority scene control rights over the police and prosecutors. It’s not just somewhat powerful.”

…Did they put people in such positions so easily?

Lee Dojin became curious about what was going on in the head of the leader who was now smoking two cigarettes in a row by herself.

The driving skills of R, the Management Bureau employee, were quite smooth.

The car stopped in front of the building with the billiard hall.

R turned his head slightly and said to Lee Dojin and Bae Juha,

“It’s the 3rd floor. But… judging by the appearance, there’s a chance the entire building is owned by Hermes. You need to be careful.”

“Understood.”

Bae Juha and Lee Dojin, who got out of the car, went up to the building with the billiard hall.

The billiard hall was on the 3rd floor.

They passed the 1st floor and reached the 2nd floor when suddenly a door opened with a thud.

“Uh… who are you?”

A burly man looked at Lee Dojin wearing the Hahoe mask and Bae Juha wearing the skull mask and widened his eyes.

“There’s nothing with masks here. Get out.”

Lee Dojin ignored the man and looked at Bae Juha.

And he said.

Lee Dojin’s voice, strangely altered by the voice modulation device built into the mask, flowed out.

“What should we do?”

Bae Juha made a chin gesture.

“That strange spiral tattoo on his shoulder there. It’s proof that he belongs to Hermes. Confirmed villain.”

Bae Juha’s voice was similarly modulated.

“Ah, then it’s okay to eliminate him?”

“Subduing is the priority… I have restraints.”

“Understood.”

The man who had been blankly listening to their continued responses suddenly crumpled his face.

“What the hell are you crazy bastards talking about!”

And he extended his fist towards Lee Dojin standing in front. The fist was surrounded by blue fist energy.

He couldn’t understand what they were saying at all, but since it was clear they were enemies, he extended his fist with the momentum to kill them right away.

Lee Dojin’s eyes perfectly grasped the trajectory of that fist. He stepped with footwork. The man’s fist passed to Lee Dojin’s right. And he struck with a straight punch with his right arm concentrated with Nature’s Energy.

The straight punch concentrated with Nature’s Energy struck up the man’s chin.

Jjeo-eok!

The man’s body tumbled backward.

Click!

Bae Juha approached the man and immediately put restraints on both ankles.

“What the… hell are you guys?”

New men’s voices were heard from up the stairs. They had the same spiral tattoos engraved as the man they had just subdued.

Bae Juha struck the floor with the staff in her hand. Then a circular magic circle was drawn on the floor.

Uru-ru!

Numerous bones poured out from inside it. And when she struck the staff once more, the bones began to rapidly form shapes.

Clatter! Clatter!

A total of 12 skeletons were created in an instant. Bae Juha took out 12 spears from her spatial pocket. The skeletons bowed and received those spears.

“Kids, bite them.”

The skeletons began to charge towards the enemies holding the spears.

The skeletons ran up the stairs emitting strange light from their eyes.

Puk-! Puk! Pu-buk!

And those spears were mercilessly thrust into the battle suits the men were wearing.

The skeletons’ movements were extraordinary. They were not the movements of those trying to overwhelm with numbers. They were orderly like soldiers matching their pace.

Lee Dojin stared at the purple energy rippling from Bae Juha’s staff.

Command.

He could tell that it was none other than Bae Juha who was controlling the skeletons’ movements and giving orders.

Lee Dojin could understand why she was a captain handling one unit, a member of the Eradication Squad executives.

Necromancer, a black magician class handling legions.

The skeleton soldiers consisting of 12 people completely knocked down 8 organization members. In an instant, the organization members composed of B-ranks.

Lee Dojin, who was considerably surprised to witness with his own eyes an existence that had only been rumored to exist, regained his composure.

“I’ll go up first. Skull.”

“Yes… partner. Ah, please just subdue the Hermes organization members… They haven’t committed murder yet.”

“Understood.”

Lee Dojin quickly ran up the paths Bae Juha had opened.

He opened the door of the billiard hall. Inside, a man with a face he had confirmed several times just before was standing with a hardened expression.

It was Kim Beomjin.

Seu-reung-

Lee Dojin drew the black sword from its scabbard.

It was a black wooden sword that didn’t look like a wooden sword at all to others’ eyes.