****
He muttered like that and looked at his vampire subordinates with a dissatisfied expression. The Sangdong-pa, who had come into contact with vampires while brokering smuggling and illegal immigration, had succeeded in turning volunteers from among their subordinates into vampires in order to control that incredible power.
It was said to be thanks to special blood brought in from abroad, or perhaps those foreign vampires had directly bitten them to turn them into vampires.
In any case, even the ignorant Cheon Yeong-hu could easily tell that these vampires were different from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. They feared neither crosses nor garlic, and they were reflected in mirrors, of course, nor did they possess the ability to transform into bats or mist.
However, the most surprising thing was that they could withstand sunlight for a limited amount of time. Even though they could withstand it, when a vampire was exposed to sunlight, the conversion factor would be destroyed, causing them to rapidly lose VT, and the destruction process generated high heat, resulting in burns.
It was similar to how patients with fibrinosis suffer burns due to poor metabolism, but it was a much more radical and violent reaction, sometimes even causing the body to catch fire.
“I am Cheon Yeong-hu, the Managing Director of Sangdong Credit Loan.”
Cheon Yeong-hu said that and looked around at the kids.
“Who is your leader?”
Cheon Yeong-hu spoke while looking around the biker gangs with a sharp gaze. At that moment, one man stood up from among the bikers. Looking to be in his early twenties, he was riding a dark red Vulcan.
“What’s with all this bullshit? Huh? I don’t know if you’re a gangster or whatever, but you’ve ruined a kid without even knowing the reason. Do we look like some kind of hotbaji to you? Whadda ya want?”
“You’re a kid with no ssagaji. Well, I’m not in a position to be picky about such things right now. But to make things work smoothly, I’ll have to fix your manners.”
Cheon Yeong-hu said that and grabbed the biker leader by the hair. He was already in a bad mood after being broken down by Jeong Sang-dong. So, as soon as Cheon Yeong-hu grabbed the fellow with his coarse hands, he slammed his face with his knee.
Thud!
The moment his head was grabbed, the fact that he put strength into his waist to endure was actually his misfortune. The biker leader, hit directly in the face, was sent flying behind his Vulcan in an instant.
“Kuaaaaaack!”
“Hey, that bastard!”
“You really want to die today!”
As their leader collapsed, the surrounding bikers all became agitated. But at that moment, the vampires began to move. Like the denizens of the night they were, they wove through the darkness like arrows and knocked the bikers down with precise blows.
One of them picked up the biker leader, who had fallen and was covered in blood, and started by biting his arm—which wouldn't be fatal—to suck his blood.
“Kkueaaaaaaaaaaaack!”
The biker leader let out a scream, terrified by the sensation of all the blood in his body being sucked out. It was a pathetic scene for the leader of a biker gang who rode with death as a companion, but everyone shut their mouths upon seeing that grotesque sight.
“You have two choices. Will you take this money and listen to my story? Or will everyone here end up as a suspicious corpse having an autopsy performed by the jjapsae?”
“Uuuuuaaack. Ah… anything, I’ll do anything! Anything!”
Then the vampire detached its mouth. The fact that it could overcome the temptation of blood and pull its mouth away from the arm meant that this vampire was quite powerful.
Since they were the ones who boasted a rank in the Sangdong-pa second only to Cheon Yeong-hu, it would be troublesome if they couldn't at least do this much. Cheon Yeong-hu thought that and pulled a bundle of ten-thousand-won bills from his sleeve.
“For now, this is a down payment. Take it.”
Cheon Yeong-hu said that and flashed a business smile toward the bikers. From the drum, sparks crackled and popped, flying up into the black sky.
<><><>
Next to a small three-story building standing in a sparsely populated residential area, a sign for ‘Yeonjeong Gosiwon’ was flickering. It wasn't flickering because it was a neon sign, but because the fluorescent light inside the sign had reached the end of its lifespan.
“Aaah. I’m tired. Damn it.”
Se-geon headed toward the gosiwon carrying a toolbox.
After leaving Deok-yeon’s house, Se-geon had to find a new place to live. At first, he thought about getting a monthly or yearly rental, but the contract deposits and rental conditions were complicated, and since he didn't know when he might have to move again, it was quite bothersome.
So what he thought of was a gosiwon. Since Se-geon was alone anyway and it was cheaper than finding a house, he chose it, but since it was a building used by many people, there was a lot to worry about in one way or another.
He couldn't exactly carry around lethal weapons like guns and swords for all to see, could he? Moreover, the people living in the gosiwon all had no sleep, so he couldn't even move around secretly at night.
“Well, it can’t be helped since it’s cheap.”
He said that and entered his room. In the tiny room where it would be over if two people just lay down, there wasn't even any decent furniture. Was it because of that? Despite being a small room, it seemed wider to Se-geon than a vast desert.
Se-geon locked the door with a triple lock and even pulled the curtains. After all this screening work was finished, he pulled an ammo can out of the closet. The ammo can, containing Tokarev rounds made in Hungary, was a parting gift given by Deok-yeon.
Of course, it would look extremely strange if left in the middle of a gosiwon, but the ammo can itself was a 5.56mm rifle ammo can commonly seen even in the Korean military.
Since there were actually people who used such ammo cans in place of small lockers, he just kept it locked and put it in the closet. Of course, if he were caught, it wouldn't just end there.
“It’s a headache.”
After taking the rounds out of the ammo can, Se-geon began to grind the heads of the bullets with a file. The Tokarev’s 7.62mm rounds, like other Western firearms, used a projectile that had lead inside a copper alloy.
Se-geon ground away and removed the copper alloy from the bullet head with a file and put the bullets into a frame made using five two-thousand-won electric soldering irons.
In the part where the electric soldering iron joined, he detached silver and embedded it; by doing this, the lead inside the projectile melted and combined with the silver, and when the bullet head was filled with silver, excellent silver bullets were created.
If they were made entirely of pure silver, a soft metal like silver would damage the barrel, and since a vampire would die sufficiently even if it wasn't a full silver bullet, only the front head was filled with silver.
This alone was a sufficiently excellent hollow-point bullet, and since silver does not melt with an electric soldering iron, this was the limit of the technical method.
“Ah, damn it. I feel like I’m doing some kind of side job.”
These were words unbefitting Se-geon, who had been a young master of a wealthy family. He had never actually done anything like a side job before. However, even if he didn't have experience with side jobs, making each and every bullet by hand was a boring task beyond belief.
Click.
Se-geon also disassembled the Tokarev to clean it. It was a very old gun and the gangsters hadn't maintained it, so it was tricky, but Se-geon serviced the gun cleanly with the skills he had learned from Deok-yeon. Instead of adjusting the zero by actually firing it, he adjusted the zeroing using a cheap laser pointer.
He could make a laser sight using this, but he refrained because a laser sight had a high possibility of being detected by sensitive vampires.
“The silencer is more important than that though… should I have asked Kim Seong-hui ssi about a silencer too?”
Se-geon muttered that and touched the Tokarev’s slide. Since this Tokarev had no safety and was single-action, one had to be careful because handling it recklessly would lead directly to an accidental discharge.
“…….”
Suddenly, without thinking, Se-geon lifted the Tokarev and placed it against his own temple. He had been fiddling with it, so it should have been warm, but the feeling of cold metal was transmitted to his temple through his scalp. That stinging sensation was enough to clear his mind.
But… for some reason, he felt that pulling the trigger just like this wouldn't be so bad.
“…….”
Vrooooom.
As a truck passed in front of the gosiwon, the headlights invaded the window. It was a momentary light, but the family photo that received that light caught Se-geon’s eye. A family photo where everyone was wearing uncomfortable expressions, which could never be called a happy one. However, to the current Se-geon, it was proof of a destiny that he could never ignore.
“Heh! Damn it. What am I supposed to do.”
Like a person who had lost his mind, Se-geon sat leaning against the wall without turning on the light in the room and laughed.
“Hahahahahahaha.”
<><><>
“Yes. Um, this is an RX-125.”
The biker who was standing next to the hospital bed with a motorcycle catalog said that as he looked at the motorcycle the patient lying in the bed had pointed out. Then Cheon Yeong-hu, who was attached to his side, asked.
“Really? What is it? So.”
“Well, it’s difficult. The RX-125 is domestic, so it’s very common. Of course, it’s a relief that it’s not an item spread all over the streets like a VF or an Exiv, but still, it’s like looking for a grain of sand on a beach.”
The biker said that and intentionally looked at Cheon Yeong-hu. At that, Cheon Yeong-hu pulled out about ten ten-thousand-won bills and handed them to the biker.
“You son of a bitch. If you pull a stunt one more time, know that I’ll hang your head in Gwanghwamun, and I’ll dig through your relatives even to the 8th degree; I'll separate the men's heads from their bodies and sell every single woman to a galbo house.”
“…….”
The biker, terrified by Cheon Yeong-hu’s bloodcurdling words, shut his mouth. Then Cheon Yeong-hu cleared his throat and said.
“Finish it with what you just ate. Huh? Do you understand, you fucking bastard?”
Of course, since he had to get the work done, he couldn't end it at just a threat. Cheon Yeong-hu was a person who knew that well. As expected, the biker spoke with a serious face.
“No. If he threw the motorcycle, it must have been badly damaged… and if the frame is bent, there aren't many places that can fix it. At the very least, a neighborhood motorcycle shop won't be able to fix it, so it'll be a piece of cake to find out just by asking over the phone if an RX-125 has been brought in recently.”
“What if he throws it away and buys a new one?”
“W-well. That’s a problem, but… for now, let’s check it. Moreover, it wasn't a wheelie but a Tail Pop-up. With that level of skill, some kind of rumor must have spread somewhere.”
He reassured Cheon Yeong-hu in that way. In the meantime, the bikers waiting in front of the hospital room looked at their leader again to sort out the current, quite confusing situation.
Jeong Yong-jin, the biker leader whose blood had been sucked by Cheon Yeong-hu and by the vampires, hated this situation very much. But there was nothing to be gained by offending Cheon Yeong-hu.
“Then let's go. Ah, if you find the fellow, contact me. If you report him, I’ll give you 2 million, and if you catch him, I’ll give you 8 million, which is four times that.”
The amount Cheon Yeong-hu proposed was much reduced compared to the money Jeong Sang-dong had pulled out, but it was still definitely a lot of money for the bikers. No matter how much Yong-jin disliked Cheon Yeong-hu, he couldn't help but be enticed by 8 million won.
Moreover, if it was a fellow who could ride a motorcycle and send that many Sangdong-pa members to the hospital, he was interested.
“Now then. You know the cell phone number, right? Send word to that side. I said it was 8 million if you catch him, but the fellow has a gun. If you don't want to die, just call.”
Cheon Yeong-hu gave that warning and left the hospital. Then the bikers looked at each other and finally started their private conversation without hesitation.
“An RX-125? And he rides a motorcycle extremely well?”
“Isn't that perhaps Han Se-geon?”
They commonly thought of Han Se-geon.
<><><>
Since some time ago, rumors had circulated that a rider of quite amazing skill had appeared on the streets.
What he rode was an unremarkable domestic RX-125, but the rumors of a rider who casually performed incredible feats that startled people—such as coming down a slope of over 70 degrees on a camber and rising onto a stone the size of a beer can with a pop-up—eventually moved even the heavy-seated Yong-jin.
So Yong-jin and his biker gang ‘Speedway’ discovered Han Se-geon while he was practicing riding over railroad tracks near Sinchon Station.
“Look at this kid whose blood hasn't even dried on his head yet! Whose permission did you get to ride a motorcycle around? Huh? Don’t you know this area is all handled by us, ‘Speedway’?”
The bikers gave that threat as they examined Se-geon. Han Se-geon, who had just graduated middle school and become a high schooler, looked young even while wearing a helmet. But his guts were larger than any adult’s.
“Speedway? That’s a tacky name.”
Se-geon even ridiculed their group name, despite seeing much more bikers than himself. That was like lighting a fuse.
“This bastard! Fine. In that case, follow us! Let's decide the winner with a Chicken Race!”
Yong-jin challenged Se-geon to a match like that. A Chicken Race is a race to determine the ‘chicken’ (coward), and its types are quite diverse.
However, the method often used by motor riders is to run toward a wall at full throttle to decide the winner by who hits the brakes first. There were countless bikers who had become ghosts of the past while trying to imitate this match, which was widely spread in movies and cartoons.
But Han Se-geon easily accepted that match.
“Sounds good. But if I win, I’d like ‘Speedway’ to stop bothering me. Can you promise that?”
Se-geon said that and rode his motorcycle. That attitude was so arrogant that Yong-jin couldn't stand it. So he drew Se-geon into the construction site that was like their hideout. This construction site was a permanent construction site that had been abandoned because the construction company went bankrupt, and its walls were all made of thick steel and concrete.
“Even if a motorcycle crashes into it once, it won’t even flinch.”
He said that and looked at Se-geon. But Se-geon didn't seem particularly afraid.
“A Chicken Race, huh. It’s something that can be done without much technique.”
He said that and put on his helmet. Yong-jin gritted his teeth as he saw Se-geon. It was because he had made a statement disregarding the Chicken Race itself.
“Let’s see just how well you do!”
Yong-jin said that, got on his motorcycle, and pulled the throttle. The Kawasaki Vulcan 800 made a rough sound and shook the construction site. It was a sound and power on a different level from Se-geon’s motorcycle, which was only 125cc.
But a Chicken Race is determined by guts rather than the output of the motorcycle, and Se-geon’s guts, as could be seen from his attitude toward these bikers, were extraordinary.
However, Yong-jin had a responsibility as a biker leader. Even if he crashed into the wall, he couldn't lose to a kid like that, could he? Such responsibility is just a useless bravado once you die, but in a Chicken Race, bravado was the key to victory.
“Now, you know the rules of the Chicken Race, don't you, kid? It’s full throttle. If your throttle-pulling is even a little bit wimpy, it’s over, you lose!”
Yong-jin gave that threat to Se-geon. But Se-geon pulled the throttle without a word.
Vrooooom!
And at the signal, the two started at the same time. Se-geon belittled the Chicken Race, but there was a technique that strictly existed even in a Chicken Race. That was the technique to reduce the braking distance.
To avoid crashing into the wall while hitting the brakes later, one had to reduce the braking distance or escape with a turn. It was also important to accurately grasp one's own braking distance.
Vrooooom!
As expected, the high-output Vulcan pulled ahead. Because it was a rule of running 400m, the Vulcan could gain a lot of speed and time compared to the RX-125. Moreover, the off-road type RX-125 had weak tire braking power.
This alone was already a winning match, but Yong-jin hit the brakes first and intentionally turned and escaped in front of Se-geon. He had used a threat to intimidate Se-geon. But Se-geon just gave a snort and continued to run forward with the throttle still gripped.
“What’s with that guy?”
“Is he determined to die!”
The other bikers looked at Se-geon in surprise. At this rate, Se-geon would crash into the wall and be literally smashed to pieces. Those who until a moment ago had wanted to beat Se-geon to death finally felt the weight of life and trembled.
Of course, the most surprised one was the person who picked the fight, Yong-jin.
“Haaat!”
But Se-geon hit the brakes with a shout and twisted his body to the side. With the brakes engaged on both wheels, he performed a Lean Out (leaning the body outside of the motorcycle) and began a slide. But a motorcycle that had been running at full speed until just now wouldn't be stopped so easily.
Screeeeeech!
But then, a surprising thing happened. The motorcycle, which was sliding sideways on a slant, suddenly turned right on the spot. While keeping both brakes engaged, Se-geon had changed the gear to a low speed and stepped on the engine while letting go of the rear brake only.
When that happens, a turn with an extremely small radius becomes possible with the front wheel as the axis, but nine times out of ten, it’s bound to capsize. However, with an intense Lean In (leaning the body toward the inside of the corner) that made one worry if his waist would break, Se-geon kicked the ground with his foot and raised his body like a miracle.
The rear wheel of the RX-125, which had just been released from the brake and was grinding the ground, turned in a circle and completed the turn. It was so close that the rear wheel touched the rebar and a long tire mark was left on the wall. But Se-geon stopped safely.
“Tail Touch.”
Se-geon muttered softly. To touch the wall with the rear wheel of the motorcycle—this meant the match was already over. Se-geon won a very impressive victory over the biker gang, Speedway.
“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
“Waaaaaaaaaaaa!”
All the bikers stood up from their seats in surprise. They let out cheers of joy and honked their horns noisily. Heavens! It was something that happened right before their eyes, yet it was unbelievable.
Se-geon’s technique and guts were that outstanding, and with that level of ability, it was even thought that being arrogant was only natural.
Se-geon had convinced those who had animosity toward him all at once. Even Yong-jin, who had directly fought him, was enchanted.
“You monstrous fellow! That was truly amazing!”
So, they unanimously accepted Se-geon as a member of their group. Se-geon didn't want to ride with them, but thinking it wouldn't be bad to join the biker gang, he sped down the night roads with them.
<><><>
Looking back, despite his young age and arrogant attitude, Se-geon was a charming fellow. If he had been just a little bit more gentle, they could have become friends who shared a can of beer.
But a year had passed since then.
In a situation where they couldn't even remember his face clearly, with 8 million won in front of them, there was no way to find friendship or old sentiment. Yong-jin’s decision was, in a way, natural.
“Call every single repair shop and ask if an RX-125 has been brought in. And if the fellow is buying a new motorcycle, it would obviously be an off-road type motorcycle better than an RX-125, right?”
“He liked the Yamaha YZ, so he probably changed to that.”
The bikers said that and left the hospital.