Chapter 92
Chapter 92: Some Things You'll Never Understand
Lee Won-ryong went outside.
I sat for a moment with a sour expression and muttered to myself.
"Ah, damn……. That startled me."
‘Rest well, he says.’
‘For a moment there, it sounded like he was telling me to go die.’
I snickered and reflected on his words.
My intention to build up the Red Dragon Gate was purely for my own convenience.
Giving them various missions, and rewarding or punishing them accordingly—that too.
"In the end, it's because it benefits me."
If you had to sum up the Red Dragon Gate men's way of life in a single word, it would be 'greed'.
They didn't want to study, and they didn't want to live as salaried workers grinding away, so they became thugs.
When the towers appeared and big money came with it, they became climbers.
What I'm giving them now is simply satisfying that greed.
"But greed alone isn't enough to earn loyalty."
You can make a horse run with carrots and sticks, but you can't make it run forever.
In the end.
"I need to give these men a purpose in life."
A shared sense of purpose.
I had to make them understand that achieving that purpose would also benefit them.
Of course, the purpose had to be for me—their leader.
They needed to feel that working for me guaranteed their present and future, and that their past would be compensated.
Only then would it become true loyalty.
"With this much, maybe I didn't even need to feed them the Gu Poison?"
Lee Won-ryong's loyalty was considerable.
Far greater than I'd expected—and deeper, too.
‘He might genuinely think of me as his lord.’
In truth, I'd had him pegged as Slave No. 1, so his loyalty felt like more than I'd bargained for.
"Maybe I should withdraw the Gu Poison."
It was a method I'd never once considered.
Gu Poison is still poison.
In my past life it was impossible, but now it might be feasible. I have the Great Law of Reversal, after all.
Hmm, but I'm still uneasy.
"Let's keep it as insurance."
Watching the loyal Lee Won-ryong reminded me of Jang Pilsam.
The one who'd handed over my poison herb field in my past life.
Come to think of it, that guy's hair was starting to fall out pretty badly back then. Heh heh.
* * *
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Fireworks burst across the night sky.
Hot air balloons bearing the words 'Super Climber K' floated lazily overhead, and drones formed the shapes of Murim Tower, climbers battling enemies, and then the letters 'KOREA' one after another.
The tournament had opened.
The K-pop idol group that had hit the biggest globally.
Bang Inspection Boys sang their hearts out beneath the bursting flares.
The camera swept over the audience.
Citizens cheering.
My parents and Bo-reum, seated in the VIP section of the opening ceremony, were caught on screen for a moment.
My parents clapping and humming along.
Bo-reum pointing at the screen, shouting, 'Mom, look over there!'
Bo-reum.
Tomorrow's the day she leaves for France to study abroad—I wonder if she's finished packing?
"Everyone's having fun. Good."
[Kim Tae-yang says he's having fun too. +50 Happiness]
President Park Jae-yeol declared the opening ceremony.
"Respected citizens, and all the climbers gathered here today. This tournament is not a simple competition. It is a symbol of the spirit that never gives up, the will to lift one another higher, and the challenge toward a better world. Today, we begin again. No matter how treacherous the cliff face, our climbers have always made a path through it. A journey that surpasses the impossible. At the forefront stands the Republic of Korea—and all of you. Now, let us rise together. Toward a new summit!"
A great roar of cheers followed.
The tournament that Korea had thrown its full effort into drew worldwide attention.
It was quite remarkable interest for something put together in such a rush.
But for all the fanfare on the outside, the contents were hollow.
The Iron Instrument God's Sword I'd donated was put up as the grand prize, but ownership wasn't being granted.
On top of that, the condition that one had to become a naturalized Korean citizen just to retain its usage rights was another problem.
A number of foreign climbers applied for naturalization, but none of any real renown.
Instead, it was climbers who had caused murders and other crimes in other countries that applied in droves.
"Chief Han, Him Raden, who killed 20 civilians in the Middle East, has applied for naturalization."
"Tell them no."
"Chief Han! Aizak, the head of a North European climber gang, has applied for naturalization."
"Obviously not!"
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already approved it, apparently."
"What? This is madness!"
Criminals arrived day after day.
The rushed tournament schedule meant entrants who should never have been allowed to register were getting through.
Even after vetting as best they could, people who'd forged identities and hidden their true natures kept being discovered right up until the tournament began.
President Park Jae-yeol and the cabinet's failures had been enormous.
Korea's atmosphere was riding high on the emergence of the Golden Tower and the return of the Iron Instrument God's Sword.
With only a year and a half left in his term, Park Jae-yeol was desperate.
Hoping for a constitutional amendment to allow re-election, he wanted to claim the current mood as his own achievement.
"Support the tournament to the fullest! No reports needed if it's for the tournament!"
He ordered the cabinet to spare no support.
Under pressure from above, a disaster unfolded as frontline civil servants began stamping approval on anything and everything branded Super Climber K.
[Korea's Climber Olympics Devolves Into Amnesty Olympics for Criminals.]
[Tournament Entrant Climbers Continue String of Crimes Day After Day—.]
Foreign media fell over each other to report it.
Korea, which had been rising as a global power.
The nations that couldn't match it descended like wolves on fresh prey.
Korea's soaring national image began to plummet once more.
Some articles even claimed that other countries had exploited the gap in Korea's immigration controls created by Super Climber K, deliberately offloading their own criminals into the country.
[Him Raden, Suddenly Released From Prison, Enters Korea Non-Stop?]
There were reports questioning whether the countries of criminals like Him Raden and Aizak—who had been behind bars—had backed their entry into Korea.
Violence kept breaking out, caused by the climbers who'd entered the country.
Police responded, but they were no match for beings who were superhuman.
Then, certain people appeared, subdued the rampaging climbers, and received thunderous applause.
They were the climbers of the Red Dragon Gate.
* * *
[An Entertainment District in Seoul]
Summer was closing in.
A group of foreigners were walking down the street, blocking the way.
Five foreigners—large-framed and tattooed even across their faces—looked anything but ordinary at first glance.
Short sleeves and sleeveless shirts.
The tattoos and scars covering their bodies made the citizens who saw them shrink back.
People walking by carefully averted their eyes to avoid any chance of making contact, while nearby shopkeepers all turned away, silently praying they wouldn't step inside.
The foreigners made a loud racket and walked into a two-story entertainment bar.
A moment later.
Crash!
With the sound of a window shattering, someone fell from the second floor.
It was the bar's owner.
He had a slash across his face, bleeding freely, trembling on the ground.
"Aaaaah!"
Screams rang out and everyone fled in a panic.
"Call the police!"
A moment later, sirens wailed as police arrived on scene.
The officers rushed quickly up the second-floor stairs—then immediately shuffled back down, hesitating.
"There are—hostages! Call for backup and get the tasers out!"
The foreigners came down the stairs holding blades to the throats of 2 female employees.
Pale military combat knives pressed against the necks of the 2 women.
Blood trickled from their throats.
"Drop the weapons!"
The police leveled their tasers.
But the foreigners only sneered at the sight.
"Look at that."
"Tasers."
"Puhahaha! So it's true what they say about Korea being an easy place to live—what are you gonna do with those toy guns."
"Heh heh heh. You should've brought machine guns, at least."
Wuuung—.
All of the foreigners were climbers.
From a North European gang.
The mechanical hum of artificial dantians could even be heard from their lower abdomens.
A sharp-eyed officer whispered to the one beside him.
"Watch out! They're climbers, gur—kk—!"
But the moment the officer turned his head, one of the climbers closed the distance in an instant and seized him by the collar.
"You really have no basics at all, do you? Don't you know you can't turn your head when dealing with climbers?"
Crack—.
The climbers tightened their grip around the collar.
Without firearms, the law meant nothing to them.
"Drop them now! If you do, we can still keep the sentence to—"
"Hey, what's he saying?"
One of the foreign climbers translated.
"Says if we surrender, we won't get a harsh sentence."
"Puhahaha! Stupid idiots. We already know there are no cameras here."
"Heh heh. Apparently some gang smashed them all a while back and they still haven't been replaced."
"So we just kill all the cops who showed up and run."
The officers leveling the tasers couldn't understand the foreign words, but at the very least, they recognized 'CCTV'.
And the murderous glint in those eyes.
The officer bit down hard on his lip—and fired.
"Damn it!"
Pk—. Crackle crackle crackle!
The taser was fired, but it was useless.
The climber spun quickly and used the captured officer's body as a shield against the taser.
The officer with the collar seized convulsed and went limp.
"……Damn!"
The officer who'd fired the taser quickly reached for the holster—but it was too late.
Grab!
The climber had already yanked out the handgun.
He smiled and aimed it at the officer.
"I hear the first shot in Korea is always a blank."
Shhk.
"Want to find out?"
"P—please spare me."
"What? I don't speak much Korean."
Neither could understand the other.
The officers could only tremble.
Then, someone walked over.
"You rotten lot. You going to put that gun down or not?"
The man walking over had richly permed hair swaying as he moved.
Eyes flashing, he was dressed sharp in a full suit.
He pointed at the foreign climbers.
"What do you think you're doing in the Republic of Korea!"
"What's he saying?"
"What a crazy bastard."
The foreigners laughed and aimed the gun at him.
"You want to die?"
"Justice shall not forgive this!"
The man delivered his cringe-worthy line without missing a beat, then yanked off his suit jacket and flung it at the climber.
Bang! Bang!
Blinded by the jacket, the climber fired quickly.
But only the jacket was left with holes.
The man was nowhere to be seen.
"What! Where'd he go?"
Just as the climber turned his head, what entered his field of vision was a hardened fist loaded with internal energy.
Crack—! Crunch.
The climber sailed through the air and crashed through the glass of a nearby shop.
Immediately, the other climbers pulled guns from their coats and fired at the man.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
This time, the bullets found their mark on the man's body.
The man dropped to one knee.
"Puhahaha! He actually got shot?"
"No cameras, right?"
"Yeah. Heh heh heh."
While they laughed and chattered.
Shhk—.
A shadow fell over them from behind.
"……?"
When they turned to look, the man who'd just been shot stood there.
The shirt was punctured with holes.
But underneath was a suit of armor gleaming in red.
"B—bulletproof?"
Smack—!
The man swung his fist and knocked down one climber, and simultaneously a kick shot out in the opposite direction.
His energy-laden foot shattered a climber's Artificial Dantian and rattled his organs.
"Bastard!"
The remaining 2 climbers pressed their blades tight against the throats of the 2 female employees they were using as hostages.
"Who the hell are you!"
"Don't come any closer! These women die if you do!"
Threatened with killing the hostages, the man showed a face that considered it for a moment.
The man murmured in a voice that only they could hear.
"Whether those women die or not doesn't really matter to me……. But my lord said not to let the civilians get hurt. Hmm."
"Wh—what's he saying?"
"I'll step back."
The man spread both hands wide and took one step back.
"That's it! Knew it. Hey, let's run."
The climber saw that and turned his head toward the colleague holding the other hostage—
"……Huh?"
His colleague was already collapsed on the floor.
Blood pooling across the ground.
In the spot where his colleague had been stood a man with a green-glowing gaze and a mask, grinning with a blood-smeared aluminum baseball bat in hand.
That was me.
The suited man was naturally Lee Won-ryong.
"Hello, light-eyed man. Give me the chocolate."
"Huh?"
Thwack!
In that instant, the baseball bat I swung struck him clean across the face.
Clatter clatter clatter—.
Every tooth scattered clean out, and with his neck wrenched sideways, the man flew and slammed into the wall.
Aiyoo, he might be dead.
Did I swing too hard?
Thud.
I planted the baseball bat against the floor with a loud crack.
Lee Won-ryong came over and asked,
"My lord. The bat sounded a bit strange?"
"I packed sand inside."
"Ahh! As expected of my lord."
Lee Won-ryong nodded with a look of admiration.
"The acting when you got shot was good."
"The armor is the real deal. Light and easy to move in, and bullets don't even pierce it."
"It's expensive. The cameras?"
"I saw the shopkeepers holding their phones. Our men are filming from various spots too."
"What did I say comes next?"
"When the applause starts, comfort the injured shopkeepers, and if there's a hostage situation it's all the better, so take off your jacket and drape it over them. Ah, where's my jacket?"
"Here it is."
I handed him the jacket I'd kept hold of.
"Augh. It's got holes in it. And it's a designer piece."
Just then, applause erupted.
"Waaaah—!"
"It's a hero, a hero!"
People cheered and came rushing out.
"Good."
Lee Won-ryong put on a resolute expression and walked toward the women who'd been taken hostage.
He draped his jacket over one of the women close by.
"You've been through a lot."
"Th—thank you."
The woman, her makeup ruined from crying, looked up.
Lee Won-ryong asked,
"What's your name?"
"Li—Lily."
"I'm Shani."
The woman who said Shani sobbed as well.
……Hm? A familiar face.
Shani had another leather jacket draped over her.
I looked to see who'd done it—
It was Elder Jo Je-bin.
Jo Je-bin grinned sheepishly.
"The young lady looked cold. Hehe."
‘Trying to slip in and get a bit of the spotlight, are we.’
‘Just like a weasel.’
I smiled and gestured to him.
Jo Je-bin quietly stepped up beside us, and I handed the baseball bat to him and whispered,
"Say that you're the one who hit him."
"……Yes?"
Jo Je-bin, flustered.
"You take the police questioning too."
"M—my lord?!"
I dissolved smoothly into the darkness of the alley.
Click click click—.
Cameras captured Lee Won-ryong and Jo Je-bin.
"Waaaaaah!"
Clap clap clap clap—!
Shopkeepers came forward and gave applause to the new heroes.
Lee Won-ryong called out with vigor.
"I am Lee Won-ryong, Gate Master of the Red Dragon Gate! Citizens, rest assured. The Red Dragon is by your side. We who were born blessed in this land, this beautiful land protected by Dangun—the Red Dragon Gate takes responsibility for guarding it—"
In the darkness, I pressed my hand to my forehead.
‘……Should I have had him practice the interview too.’
A few days later.
Lee Won-ryong and Jo Je-bin had become overnight stars.
As heroes who had subdued the criminal climbers flooding in from abroad.
As protectors of the weak.
The news kept reporting on them, and they were apparently set to appear next week on a famous talk show called 'Mu-Quiz'.
"If their past gets put under the spotlight, it won't be so great."
Well, Lee Won-ryong would handle it somehow.
It was enough that things were going well now.
Ding!
[Former Lily, now Seo-yeong, thinks, 'I really need to quit this work for good'. +1,000 Happiness]
[Former Shani, now A-reum, is wondering whether to send a message to the contact info of the suited men she'd kept. +1,000 Happiness]
Some things you'll never understand no matter how much you think about them.
That was fate.
And that's what made it interesting.