Chapter 17 : Hero is Born (6)
Chapter 17: Hero is Born (6)
The violent gang that had occupied the Ilsan Hunter Industrial Complex.
The boss of the Chido Faction, Cha Chi-do.
He had been born the son of a prostitute, and in his teens he stabbed someone with a knife and was admitted to juvenile detention.
Juvenile detention had been hell.
The cell leader, a former judo athlete, beat Cha Chi-do every single day while the guards turned a blind eye.
Since when had it started?
Cha Chi-do had suffered from a terrible ringing in his ears.
Beee……
Tormented by the strange sound coming from somewhere, Cha Chi-do had groaned every night and pulled the blanket over his head.
“This son of a bitch! Shut up!”
The cell leader mercilessly trampled Cha Chi-do.
Unable to endure any longer, Cha Chi-do stabbed the leader in the neck with the snapped-off end of a toothbrush.
“Keuk. K-keheuk…….”
Cha Chi-do climbed on top of the cell leader, who had collapsed clutching his throat.
Then he ruthlessly tore off the leader’s ear.
A desperate scream rang through the prison.
Cha Chi-do quietly looked down at the ear lying in his palm.
The blood-soaked dumpling-shaped ear had an odd appearance unlike that of an ordinary person. When he fiddled with it, strangely, the ringing in his ears lessened and then stopped altogether.
It had started from then.
Cha Chi-do had become obsessively fixated on ears.
“Mr. Apostle of Justice.”
He spoke as he looked at the man wearing a purple helmet standing before him.
“How are your ears shaped?”
The other man made no particular reply.
He simply gathered mana and focused his mind.
Everyone knew Cha Chi-do as a psychopathic murderer.
But there was no doubt about his skill.
Which was why Cha Chi-do grew even more tense.
‘……The atmosphere changed.’
When he attacked with his fists, the guy’s impression had been so straightforward it was boring.
But now—how should he put it.
‘He suddenly feels lively. Like he could dart anywhere at any moment.’
Cha Chi-do loathed situations that became unpredictable.
‘First shake him up. If I see an opening, I’ll kill him instantly.’
Cha Chi-do forced himself to relax and smiled.
Then he scratched the scar beside his eye with the tip of his sashimi knife.
“This scar here. Do you know who gave it to me?”
He tightened his grip on the sashimi knife he had been holding loosely.
The knife he held looked like an ordinary sashimi blade at a glance, but in truth it was a cursed blade passed down through a demon clan.
Its dazzlingly white blade and plastic-like lightness were its defining traits.
Cha Chi-do’s talent was [Swift Step].
A speed type that moved rapidly, and his specialty was the Instant-Kill Spike—an instant-kill drill that pierced like an awl at near-sonic speed.
Cha Chi-do took a step forward.
“There was a police officer who came to arrest me. He’d been specially recruited as an A-rank Hunter—a fairly skilled and promising young man.”
A ferocious aura poured out of Cha Chi-do’s body.
Ominous mana flashed from the sashimi knife.
“That man injured me, and I got really mad. Do you know what I did?”
Cha Chi-do gave a fishy grin.
“I dissected the man’s organs and sent them to his family.”
He didn’t forget to watch the other’s reaction as he provoked him.
“Mr. Purple Helmet. Do you have any family? Before you die, at least tell me the address. I’ll have the organs delivered by courier.”
At the word ‘family,’ the man reacted.
He faltered and lifted his gaze.
The area under his helmet fully revealed his neck.
‘Now.’
Cha Chi-do charged at his opponent.
‘Farewell!’
He unleashed the Instant-Kill Spike, stabbing precisely twice.
Papak.
But Cha Chi-do sensed something was wrong.
The tip of his blade hadn’t even grazed the man.
‘He dodged?’
He grabbed the sashimi knife that had sliced empty air and staggered to regain his balance.
The man in the purple helmet slowly turned his head.
Was it a coincidence?
Impossible.
The Instant-Kill Spike had never once failed—until now.
Then that meant—
‘……He’s faster than me? Nonsense.’
A voice flowed out from inside the helmet.
“An address? Sure, I’ll tell you. Write it down. Seoul, Eunpyeong District…….”
Cha Chi-do ground his teeth.
“Swift Step — Abyssal Drop!!!”
Excited, he thrust out the sashimi knife.
Pabababak!!!!!!!
No fewer than a thousand thrusts rained down in a relentless barrage.
After about two or three seconds—
“Haa, h-heuk!!!”
Cha Chi-do gasped, out of his wits, panting harshly.
He had executed an all-or-nothing ultimate strike, pouring his entire body’s mana into extreme concentration.
But the enemy didn’t have so much as a scratch.
“Swift what?”
It wasn’t that he was pretending to be relaxed.
He was utterly calm.
“Delivering chicken or something?”
With those words—
The purple-helmeted figure vanished.
Far too fast for the eye to track.
“I’ll do the same to you.”
A faint voice brushed his ear.
“Judgment of Courage.”
With a crack, Cha Chi-do’s jaw twisted.
His front teeth clattered out of his mouth.
“Guhk.”
The man casually plucked Cha Chi-do’s fang embedded in his glove.
“That thing just now—that’s my name. Remember it. Not that you’ll live long anyway.”
“…….”
Blood streamed from under Cha Chi-do’s chin as his hair stood on end.
The smile vanished from his lips and fear slowly spread across his face.
Beee…….
The nightmarish ringing that had tormented him as a child rose up again.
“Kkyaaa!!!”
Cha Chi-do screamed as he clutched his ears.
“Shut up!!! Shut the hell up!!!”
The bastard thrashed as if possessed, losing his sanity.
‘Serves you right.’
It was now certain.
Speeder’s <Infinite Acceleration> surpassed Cha Chi-do’s speed.
No, it overwhelmed it.
To personally experience the powers of the hero he had admired—
It felt like he had stepped into a comic book.
“Shiibal!”
Cha Chi-do pounded his own temples as if trying to crush some cockroach crawling in his ears.
He was by no means weak.
Had the aura of Speeder not been dwelling in me, my entire body would have been riddled with holes by now.
That was how astonishing <Infinite Acceleration> was.
‘Good thing I could see the blade aiming for my neck moving slowly.’
When I used <Infinite Acceleration>, I could act freely within my own timescale.
‘At this level of speed…….’
I roughly calculated it in my head, but I couldn’t make an estimate.
Cha Chi-do panted and shouted toward the door.
“Hey! You two outside! Get your asses in here!!”
He no longer used honorifics with his subordinates.
Soon the door opened and the two men who had been acting as security entered.
Each of them had something slung over one shoulder.
‘……A submachine gun.’
It was the weapon I had seen when they first entered.
I hadn’t expected them to actually use it.
Cha Chi-do pointed at me.
“That bastard. Spray him!”
His missing front teeth made his pronunciation whistle.
It was a comical situation, but I couldn’t laugh.
The lanky guy behind me and his subordinates flinched and retreated.
With Speeder’s speed, bullets didn’t scare me.
‘I can easily dodge them.’
However—
‘If I just avoid them like this, the lanky guy and his people will be in danger.’
Cha Chi-do’s subordinates looked bewildered.
“Huh? Boss, right now? Really fire?”
“You wanna die too? Hurry!!!”
“Y-yes. Just a moment. I need to disengage the safety fir—guk!”
Cha Chi-do’s sashimi knife pierced his subordinate’s neck.
He had no patience to wait for a clumsy underling.
The stabbed subordinate collapsed, spraying blood.
The remaining subordinate jolted in fright and raised his gun.
“R-ready!”
Cha Chi-do ordered the rest of his men.
“All of you, go grab that bastard.”
“What?”
“If you don’t wanna die by my hands, do as I say!!!”
His men reluctantly crept toward me.
Cha Chi-do snatched the submachine gun from the fallen subordinate on the floor.
He aimed it at me.
“Good. Let’s see just how fast you are.”
Before he pulled the trigger—
I had already finished the action I needed to take.
Ttirong.
Purchasing Speeder’s <Infinite Acceleration>.
‘Let’s go.’
I kicked off the ground and sprang forward.
Mana swept through my body and condensed into one leg.
It was only a single step.
And then a breathtaking sight unfolded.
Kwooo……
The bullets fired from Cha Chi-do’s submachine gun spewed sparks as they drifted slowly toward me.
One guy was rushing at me with an axe raised, and the spit flying from his mouth hovered in midair like droplets.
The fat guy swinging his machete sideways made the flab under his chin jiggle excessively.
‘Magnificent.’
Cha Chi-do’s subordinates moved in slow motion like something out of a movie.
It was a signature scene possible only with Speeder’s specialty—hyper-speed movement.
With this, the tide had turned.
Someone once asked Einstein to explain relativity easily, and he said:
“Time spent with a beautiful woman feels like one minute, and time spent on a hot stove feels like an hour.”
Exactly.
I now experienced time differently from them.
“Uoooh……!”
“Uuuh!!!”
I drove a punch equally into each of their jaws as they made strange, drawn-out noises.
There was no need to use <Judgment of the Superhuman>.
A punch thrown while moving at such incredible speed carried weight on its own.
Whish, whish, whish!
I performed quite a few actions, yet the bullets fired by the subordinate near Cha Chi-do didn’t even graze me.
I picked up a machete that had fallen to the floor and hurled it.
Whoosh. Whiiing……
The long blade flew toward the subordinate carrying the submachine gun.
At that trajectory, he would be struck by the blade and collapse before he could even fire.
All that remained now was—
Cha Chi-do, who was indiscriminately firing his submachine gun.
Thunk. Thunk. Thooooong……!
The golden bullets drifted through the air as they approached me.
I grabbed one of Cha Chi-do’s fallen subordinates from the floor.
Then I hurled the body toward him.
The corpse became a shield against the bullets and flew at Cha Chi-do.
Unlike when he ran around with the sashimi knife, Cha Chi-do didn’t react in time while firing the gun.
To abandon his specialty and choose another weapon—
‘Foolish.’
Pabababababack!!!!
When time returned to normal, everyone including Cha Chi-do collapsed simultaneously.
To their eyes, it must have happened in the blink of an instant.
“Ugh.”
Cha Chi-do, who had fallen backward, tried to get up, but I was already on top of him.
In my hand was his primary weapon—the sashimi knife.
Puk!
I stabbed the blade into his thigh.
I deliberately didn’t use <Infinite Acceleration>.
I wanted to give him hell as slowly as possible.
The way to make someone understand another’s pain was simple.
“You feel it too.”
Puk! Puuuk!! Pukpukpuk!!!
“Gaaaak! Kkyaaaak!”
I drove the sashimi into both of his thighs without rest.
By the time Cha Chi-do’s thighs were shredded—
“……Heh, hehehe.”
He giggled like a madman and clutched my pants leg.
“You. Ever killed someone before?”
It wasn’t that he felt no pain.
Cha Chi-do’s face was drenched in cold sweat as if consumed by madness.
“Heheh. You’re scared, aren’t you. You can’t quite bring yourself to kill me. You’re afraid of finishing it. Right?”
His creepy grin made goosebumps run down my whole body.
I shook him off and stood, gripping the sashimi.
Everyone held their breath as they looked my way.
Especially the lanky guy—his eyes were bloodshot with vengeance.
I tossed the sashimi in front of him.
Clang.
He understood instantly what that meant.
He picked up the sashimi and walked toward me.
When I stepped aside, the lanky guy brushed past me.
A death rattle echoed behind my back.