Chapter 431

“Vile human. Who is that human?”

So there is one. A human with no sense of fear.

I muttered to myself and slowly looked around.

The desolate outskirts were far from the center, abandoned by everyone. Even the light illuminating the city as brightly as day had yet to reach this place.

And from among the ruins, a single person came walking out, casting a shadow.

“We must be bound by fate somehow. We keep running into each other.”

Go Jun answered my greeting in a cold voice.

“Not fate. An ill-fated bond.”

“Then what do you call meeting in a place like this? Coincidence?”

His answer was as sharp as a blade.

“Inevitability.”

“Clear enough. So have you been following me around like a stray dog since earlier?”

“When did you notice?”

“Since the Stone Age, you bastard. You stared at me so much that I thought you were going to bore holes in my face.”

I had sensed someone secretly watching me as soon as I left the Magic Formation site.

It was an unpleasant, clinging gaze, completely different from the curiosity and admiration everyone else directed at me.

And under the current circumstances, very few people would be openly hostile toward me.

“It was either you or those Crown Prince Party Chinese bastards. But they’re too busy cleaning up the shit they left everywhere… So the answer was obvious, wasn’t it?”

The words had clearly hit the mark, but Go Jun showed no surprise whatsoever.

“As expected. So you did notice.”

“As expected?”

“I thought you would. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have left Magic Johnson behind and come all the way out here alone.”

Well, look at this bastard.

Only then did I understand why Go Jun wasn’t surprised. He had deliberately sent me a signal—a signal to follow him.

This wasn’t surveillance or a lure. This was exactly the situation both Go Jun and I had wanted.

Of course, the outcome would be nothing like what he expected.

“There’s something I want to ask.”

Go Jun didn’t wait for an answer. He stared straight at me and continued.

“Was it you?”

It was a short, simple question, but the meaning behind it was unmistakable. I tilted my head and innocently asked,

“What was?”

“You know.”

“You don’t actually think I killed Uncle Jungryong, do you?”

The moment he heard Lee Jungryong’s name, Go Jun’s eyes shook violently. Without waiting for his answer, I covered my mouth with both hands.

“My God. How could you think something so horrible? Are you serious?”

“Enough of that disgusting act. Do you think I’m asking because I don’t know?”

“Then why ask? Didn’t you watch the press conference?”

“I did. You spouted nothing but lies and bullshit from beginning to end.”

Drip. Drip.

Drops of blood fell from the fist he had clenched so tightly that it had turned white. Go Jun glared at me with eyes burning with rage.

“There are only two people here—you and me. Tell me the truth with your own lips.”

“Vile human! How dare you leave out this Atlanta-born Stone King!”

That made one more monster present.

More precisely, there were two people and one monster. Though I wasn’t sure whether the Skeleton King could still be called a monster.

“Hmm.”

I scratched the back of my head as I studied Go Jun, then said,

“That’s right. I killed him.”

“……!”

“Lee Jungryong and Wu Heixing. I took care of both of them. Those lunatics had cooked up a ridiculous scenario. They planned to kill me without laying a finger on the Arch Lich. And the result… Well, you know how that turned out.”

Suspecting the truth and hearing it confirmed were two entirely different things.

Even if he had already guessed what happened, hearing the answer directly from his enemy’s mouth was another matter altogether.

I drove the final nail into the coffin for Go Jun, whose body was trembling violently.

“What else was I supposed to do with bastards like that? I bought them both tickets to the United States. Uncle Jungryong even got first class.”

“You… You dared do that to him…!”

Whoosh!

Killing intent erupted from Go Jun’s entire body, freezing the air around us.

I stared at the fingers twitching toward his sword hilt, then spoke abruptly.

“What are you doing?”

“……!”

Go Jun’s eyes flew wide open. At the same time, the killing intent swirling around us vanished without a trace.

No—it had been crushed beneath the wave of qi pouring from me.

The balance of power shifted in an instant, and I slowly stepped forward.

“You’ve improved by leaps and bounds since the last time I saw you. If you think about it, you’re far better than Wu Heixing. Just what I’d expect from the Disciple Lee Jungryong trained at his side.”

Step.

“But…”

Step.

With each step I took, Go Jun’s face grew paler.

The gap between our powers was overwhelming. A rabbit could not defeat a tiger. The moment he made even the slightest movement to draw his sword, my teeth would sink into his neck.

“You should check where you’re lying down before you stretch out your legs. Why would you settle into your own grave?”

Bang!

Compressed air exploded from the tip of the finger I had raised leisurely.

With a sharp crack, a stream of Finger Qi shot toward Go Jun, who stood frozen like a stone statue. Then—

Clang!

It sent the sword strapped to his waist flying far into the distance.

Go Jun’s rigid expression twisted, his eyes still wide. I let out a short laugh.

“What? Did you think I was going to kill you?”

“……Why?”

“If you want to die that badly, be more discreet next time—and come prepared to actually die. Don’t set some half-assed trap like you did today.”

My hand shot out like lightning. Go Jun had no time to react.

Bang!

The three streams of Finger Qi I fired pierced somewhere beyond the thick darkness. A moment later—

Thud-thud-thud!

Three unconscious figures in black dropped out of thin air in the distance.

They were all high-level Hunters trained in stealth and concealed by various kinds of magic, but none of them could escape my Qi Sense, which had grown even sharper after the opening of my Middle Dantian.

“What, were you filming me on the sly? You fucking hidden-camera creep.”

Tap. Tap.

Clicking my tongue, I tapped Go Jun on the cheek. A voice full of spite slipped between his clenched teeth.

“Do you think you people will get away with this?”

“You people?”

“We—the Ares Guild—will not fall. We will definitely avenge that person’s death…”

Smack!

A tooth flew out in a spray of blood. I seized Go Jun by the collar and slapped him again.

Smack!

Once more.

Smack!

And again.

Smack!

Inner-Family Heavy Hand.

Instead of tearing through his bones and flesh, the internal energy carried in my palm burrowed into Go Jun and rattled his brain.

He staggered like a drunk, unable to keep his balance. I grabbed him by the throat.

“Remember what I’m about to say. Remember it clearly.”

“Ghk…!”

A bloody foam burst out with his groan and splattered across my face. An unfamiliar man was reflected in his unfocused eyes, his expression numb as he continued speaking.

“You started this, but I’ll be the one to finish it.”

In the end, the modern world was also ruled by the logic of power.

Hunters possessed superhuman abilities, while others wielded equivalent authority. They made rules to suit themselves and broke them whenever they pleased. No matter what they did, no one ever showed them a yellow card or a red card.

When Lee Jungryong cut off Uncle Kkeokjeong’s arm to keep him in check, people like them had considered it only natural.

But—

“You shouldn’t have done that.”

A new referee had stepped onto the field, so the rules had to change.

And the new rules were very simple.

I pressed Go Jun’s Mute Acupoint and muttered,

“An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth.”

I twisted both his arms and pulled with all my strength, as though wringing out laundry.

Crack-crack-crack!

With a sickening tear of flesh, both arms came free from his body.

An enormous amount of blood poured out, and the whites of his bulging eyes showed. A silent scream spilled from his mouth, its Mute Acupoint sealed.

“It’s not over yet.”

I shoved my fingers into the ragged stumps of his arms. The Scorching Yang Qi in my hand seared his flesh, inflicting even greater pain. I pinned down his writhing body and grabbed him by the ankles.

“This won’t be enough for someone like you.”

Crack!

My Strength could reduce even a thousand-geun¹ boulder to powder. The bones in both his legs shattered at once, breaking into hundreds of fragments.

“……!”

His body thrashed soundlessly.

As Go Jun lost consciousness from the unimaginable pain, I poured internal energy into him.

Once the light returned to his fading eyes, I hammered my fist into his shattered legs.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

By the time I finally stopped punching, what lay sprawled across the ground was no longer a human being but a large lump of meat.

The faint breath leaking from his nose and mouth was the only proof that he remained alive.

The Skeleton King, who had watched everything from inside my Inventory, spoke in a trembling voice.

“Human.”

I answered dryly.

“What?”

“N-No. It’s just…”

His voice trailed off, but I already knew what he wanted to say.

“Yeah. It’s cruel.”

“……”

“But it was necessary.”

The helplessness of being unable to do anything. Pain so unbearable that death seemed a hundred—even a thousand—times preferable.

And the fear that I could do the same thing to them anytime I wanted.

I needed to plant all of that in my enemy’s heart and carve it into his bones.

Of course, there was another option that would leave the fewest loose ends.

Death.

My fingertips twitched before I realized it.

With just a little more force—only a tiny bit—I could kill Go Jun.

It was the perfect opportunity to eliminate even the slightest possibility.

But…

The timing isn’t right.

Doubts surrounding the truth never disappeared completely.

Conspiracy theories claimed that humanity had never landed on the moon, or that countless famous figures recorded as dead were actually still alive. This was no different.

If Lee Jungryong disappeared, followed by Wu Heixing and then Go Jun—and it came to light that I had “coincidentally” been here at exactly the right time—the rumors surrounding me would cease to be mere conspiracy theories.

So this was where I had to stop.

Now, after showing him the overwhelming gap between our powers and planting the fear of me deep inside him.

“I’ll say this one last time.”

“……!”

Go Jun’s body flinched. In a voice lower and more emotionless than ever, I bit out every word.

“Let it end with Lee Jungryong alone.”

My breath, hot as lava, brushed against him, and his prone body convulsed.

Like a rabbit feeling a tiger’s teeth sink into its neck.

“Hide your teeth. Sheathe your claws. If you do that… nothing will happen.”

If he had set out to kill, he should have been prepared to die.

Lee Jungryong had been my greatest enemy and obstacle. In the end, he had paid the price for what he had done.

What I was offering now was a chance to make peace.

No—a demand.

And Go Jun had only one choice left.

His head moved in the faintest nod.

I stared into his eyes, drenched in fear and dread, then pressed his Sleep Acupoint. After taking several high-grade potions from my Inventory, I poured them over his body.

Hissssss.

I watched his wounds rapidly heal, then suddenly turned my head.

“So… that’s more or less what happened.”

At that moment, a layer of space peeled away, revealing a huge Black man. Magic Johnson regarded me with a complicated expression before speaking.

“I think there’s a lot we need to talk about.”

“I was thinking the same thing.”

As we spoke, the Skeleton King muttered quietly.

“What about the club?”

That’s a gay bar, dumbass.