There were two kinds of skills.
One could acquire them through scrolls obtained as rewards from Gates or climbing the Tower, or one could learn the techniques acquired in that way through oral formulas.
As they were supplemented and strengthened, those combat techniques became symbols of the Ten Great Guilds, and Songgwang Guild was renowned for its powerful fist-and-kicking arts.
THOOM!
Fighting spirit, as if it might explode at any moment, seized control of the hideout.
It was the presence created by the Heavenly Fist Rending Wave Heart Art, which represented the master of Songgwang Guild, the Tyrant Fist Chae Mu-sik.
Born as a skill, then named as a martial art after entering the worldview of awakened ones, as if from an old martial arts novel, the technique could be considered exceedingly high-level.
Looking at his attainment in the Tyrant Fist’s Rending Wave Energy, which had not been an exaggeration to call the foundation of today’s Songgwang Guild, Chae Seung-jin could certainly be said to have talent.
WHOOOSH!
Chae Seung-jin’s fist soon tore through the air and shot toward Jeong Hyeon-su.
‘He follows the Tyrant Fist’s teachings faithfully.’
His character was rotten, and he was endlessly vile, but at least he had not taken shortcuts in learning martial arts until now.
He would be capable of joining a real battle and doing the work of one person in a Gate raid.
With a fist born from such confidence, Chae Seung-jin shouted triumphantly.
“Kneel and beg right now. If you do, I will take it into consideration and make sure Garam as a whole does not get shaken—huh?”
Chae Seung-jin was startled by Jeong Hyeon-su, who had suddenly appeared right before his nose.
In a situation where he clearly should have dodged or blocked, Jeong Hyeon-su had instead dug inward.
A faint, light sensation brushed past Chae Seung-jin’s fingertips. It meant that, just before the fist reached his cheekbone, Jeong Hyeon-su had let Chae Seung-jin’s punch flow past him like the wind.
Chae Seung-jin reflexively drove his left fist upward.
It was a response similar to an uppercut.
WHOOSH!
The power carried in that short, snapping attack was extraordinarily fierce.
A follow-up strike born from instinct. It certainly was not bad.
In response, Jeong Hyeon-su brought his elbow down from above.
Garam was a guild that handled swords.
‘You stupid bastard.’
And yet, with that background, he dared to challenge him, the heir of Songgwang, in bare-handed close combat?
Not long ago, Chae Seung-jin had destroyed a stone golem rumored to be tough with a single fist.
Just as he expected a direct collision to occur at once.
SWISH!
‘Huh?’
Jeong Hyeon-su’s elbow changed direction horizontally.
It followed the path of harmony that Illusory Heaven True Energy boasted. For him, who had reached the realm of 10-Star, such a sudden change in direction was a variation he could unfold far too easily, no matter how untrained his body was.
Jeong Hyeon-su’s elbow immediately slammed into Chae Seung-jin’s cheekbone.
CRUNCH!
“Agh!”
Chae Seung-jin screamed and staggered.
The power of the Tyrant Fist circulating through his entire body scattered. Beyond that, a burning pain like boiling lava rose from his face.
Because of that, Chae Seung-jin’s fist missed Jeong Hyeon-su by a wide margin……
CRACK!
“G-Ghh…?”
Along with a sound that should never have come from his shoulder joint, pain surged in.
“M-My shoulder…?”
For him, who used fist-and-kicking arts, his most precious shoulder had been twisted grotesquely.
His father had emphasized flexibility and trained him in it ever since he was young, but his arm had been twisted in a direction impossible by his own will.
THWACK!
“Aaaaaaagh!”
At the blow from Jeong Hyeon-su’s shin that followed, Chae Seung-jin rolled across the floor.
Even though it was an attack he could plainly see, he had not been able to react at all.
When Chae Seung-jin saw his knee joint bent outward after his arm, his thoughts stopped.
This place was Cradle.
In such an environment, where cadets lived while jostling against one another, no one had expected such a merciless skill that would completely ruin an opponent.
Was it not common sense to stop after smashing someone’s shoulder?
But his opponent was Jeong Hyeon-su.
The Dark King, one of the few black-warrant criminals in the entire world, who had unified and ruled the underworld, had never once ignored an opponent who challenged him.
If he did not kill, he would be killed.
Jeong Hyeon-su knew all too well that this world was not one where mercy, once shown, would return as goodwill.
“Y-You insane bastard! While you are suspended… you did this to my shoulder and knee? You will be expelled from Cradle, and my father will never forgive Garam either!”
No sooner had he screamed in spite than Jeong Hyeon-su’s foot drew back with full force again.
Chae Seung-jin’s eyes widened.
CRACK!
“…!”
This time, he could not even scream. Jeong Hyeon-su’s foot had lodged itself in Chae Seung-jin’s mouth.
“Ghk! Ghhhk!”
Chae Seung-jin began to convulse.
Because the eyes of Jeong Hyeon-su, who was trampling him down, were far too savage.
“Were you not the one who set a trap in order to strike Garam? It is laughable for the side that declared war to act like this.”
Jeong Hyeon-su slowly pulled his foot back.
CLATTER!
Broken front teeth spilled onto the floor.
“You…ghh……”
“If you schemed with the intention of swallowing Garam, you should have considered this possibility. What are you going to do now? Ah, I should ask that bastard over there. Shall I wake him up?”
Jeong Hyeon-su continued speaking gently, as if admonishing him.
“If your father is going to retaliate against Garam anyway, then it should not matter what happens here, should it?”
Contrary to his gentle tone, the contents of his words were endlessly chilling.
Because they meant that, if Garam and Songgwang were going to become irreconcilable anyway, it would not matter even if Chae Seung-jin died here.
“Yes. That would be better. Since we have already crossed the point of no return, is it not a virtue of the battlefield to take the vanguard commander’s head?”
Jeong Hyeon-su smiled.
In a certain light, he had a fine-featured appearance that might have made women cry, but combined with the present situation, nothing could have been more terrifying.
“To begin with, I have no intention of living under the same sky as Songgwang.”
Jeong Hyeon-su picked up the chair placed at the seat of honor where Chae Seung-jin always sat.
He remembered Chae Seung-jin sitting in that chair in his previous life when Jeong Hyeon-su had come to plead the injustice he had suffered.
Recalling that memory, Jeong Hyeon-su brought the chair down.
BAAAAAM!
Those watching could only freeze with stiff faces, and Jeong Hyeon-su left the hideout with complete composure.
***
Jeong Hyeon-a barely managed to collect herself and followed Jeong Hyeon-su outside.
At the end of the path made by crossing through the cadets who had gathered after hearing the commotion, Jeong Hyeon-su stood.
“You are insane!”
“I will not ask you to believe me. But I promise you this. I will clean everything up perfectly.”
“Do you think that makes any sense…?”
“I am not running away. I will take care of the matter and come back right away, so stay here and wait.”
Originally, only one person knew the location of the original manipulated video.
Chae Seung-jin himself.
But now, Jeong Hyeon-su also knew where the original was. Of course, he was not going to recover it personally.
War with Songgwang could not be avoided, and in order to counterattack instead, Jeong Hyeon-su intended to mobilize the power of the underworld.
‘It will be an easy fight if I just make a simple information trade.’
It would be impossible to bring down Songgwang outright, but he was looking for a business partner who would handle the counterattack against the trap Chae Seung-jin had laid.
A busy district not far from Cradle.
Jeong Hyeon-su entered a Korean table d’hôte restaurant located there.
“Um… I am sorry, but we have not opened for business yet.”
“The basic table setting, with braised short ribs as the main dish. Beef ribs for the cut, and no boiled pork. For the braised dish, make it braised cutlassfish……”
“Pardon?”
“The stew will be cheonggukjang. Naturally, stone-pot rice, and for dessert, sujeonggwa.”
“Will anyone be joining you?”
“The moon is lonely, so it would be good to have a friend to hear its lament.”
It was still the middle of the day.
However, as soon as Jeong Hyeon-su finished speaking, the employee lowered every blind and locked the door.
As if he had expected that, Jeong Hyeon-su walked to the most secluded seat and sat down.
The employee’s eyes flashed sharply.
“Who are you?”
Inwardly, Jeong Hyeon-su felt a hint of regret. They had not been close, but it was a face he had seen in passing.
Kim Chun-sik, the current Korean branch head of Blood Union. In the future, he would become the master of Blood Union and a towering figure of the intelligence world whom Jeong Hyeon-su had met at underworld conferences. Seeing him now treat him like a complete stranger truly made him feel that he had regressed.
“You can tell by looking, can you not?”
Instead of showing that regret, he appealed to the fact that his own face was fairly well known, and Kim Chun-sik did not deny it either.
“I know that you are the eldest son of Garam. But you clearly……”
“Are you wondering how I know Blood Union’s contact method?”
Blood Union was an information guild that existed in the underworld.
It bought, sold, and distributed every kind of information forbidden by law, and it was also a group that troubled even the Association because they could not root it out completely.
Information was always bought. Of course, they were famous for the way they did business, taking revenge for false information.
Jeong Hyeon-su had attempted to make contact in order to meet privately with the branch head of that Blood Union.
“That is correct.”
“How disappointing. Since when did Blood Union ask such things of the person involved? Ah, well, I suppose personal deviations happen from time to time.”
Jeong Hyeon-su was pressing at Kim Chun-sik’s competence.
If he wanted to know, then he should act like an information guild. He should pay a price, or trace back the route through which the information had reached Jeong Hyeon-su using his own ability.
Naturally, Kim Chun-sik, who likely thought himself remarkable even at this time, was inwardly provoked.
“…You are not an easy person.”
“I will state my business.”
“Please do.”
He was suspicious to the extreme, but as the branch head, he had no authority to reject Jeong Hyeon-su, who had approached through VIP procedures according to the guild’s rules.
“I will hand over the current whereabouts of Edward Farrington.”
The branch head could not hide his inward shock.
“Edward Farrington, you say?”
“Why do you keep wasting time with useless mind games? I know that the British royal family is secretly seeking Edward Farrington as the leading suspect who stole a lost treasure.”
“No, that is……”
Jeong Hyeon-su abruptly rose from his seat.
“This will not do. I should go to Haomun.”
Haomun was an information guild created in China by borrowing its name from martial arts novels.
At Jeong Hyeon-su’s firm attitude, saying that he would go to a place fiercely competing with Blood Union, the branch head quickly worked his mind.
“Goodness, why are you being like this? It is not that I do not believe you. What you want is……”
“Recover the data hidden in Songgwang Guild heir Chae Seung-jin’s villa, and release it when I want you to.”
The branch head calculated it in his head. Of course, it did not take long.
At a glance, Chae Seung-jin was exactly as rumored, with a filthy temper, and the profit and loss clearly balanced out.
Touching the heir of one of Korea’s Ten Great Guilds was risky, but catching Edward Farrington, who was connected to a treasured artifact of the British royal family, ahead of their competitors was clearly advantageous.
“His location is the A-Rank Dungeon that appeared in the Amazon. It is a dungeon where a lich appears, and there is a secret passage connected through the thirty-second floor of the Tower, so it will not be difficult to find him through a dark mana tracking method. I would like the job handled as soon as you confirm it.”
It was endlessly detailed information. It was almost as if he had personally seen Edward Farrington enter that place.
It was hard to believe. But for the sake of the possibility, it was more than worth checking.
If Kim Chun-sik let it pass out of suspicion and Jeong Hyeon-su went to Haomun, only for it to prove true, Kim Chun-sik would have made an utterly fatal mistake.
“Do not worry. If the information you have provided is correct, we will handle it properly as well.”
“I hope this becomes a good trade.”
“I hope your information is reliable. Please remember that false information requires payment.”
“I will.”
In truth, Blood Union’s work could be trusted.
Jeong Hyeon-su had dealt with the acquisition of the original materials from the villa, which Chae Seung-jin had gathered in order to gain recognition from the guild master of Songgwang, through an information trade with Blood Union. The moment he stepped outside afterward.
“Young master.”
Large men in suits surrounded Jeong Hyeon-su.
They were faces he had truly missed.
“Oh…!”
Hunters of Garam Guild.
However, apart from his joy at seeing them, they immediately surrounded Jeong Hyeon-su and seized him from both sides.
“Let us go. The guild master told us to bring you back.”