Chapter 116
Chapter 116
Yeah, I Like It Too
A violent gale swept past my ears.
As I fell along the pull of gravity, I locked every joint and bone in my body onto a single axis and induced rotation. Right now, at this very moment, the thing replacing a sword was my entire body.
This was an assault.
The opening strike had to be more imposing than anything else. And even if the enemy noticed it, it had to be so overwhelming that all they could do was stare blankly.
The instant all potential energy converted into kinetic energy, Ga-on became a meteor shower.
Kwaaang!
Unable to withstand the massive impact, the building itself caved in completely. Like a line of dominoes collapsing, it went from the rooftop to the fourth floor, then once more to the third floor—
The chain collapse only stopped after Ga-on’s feet touched the ground.
Though it was a pure explosion achieved without using a single explosive, the cloud of dust it generated spread thick enough to reach the sky.
There was no way they could have expected an attack to come from above.
The corpse caught beneath my feet proved it. But without letting my guard down, I pulled the trigger to finish things off before moving forward.
There had been dozens of bastards who formed the crew, but by this point most of them had already lost their lives. Some mistook it for an earthquake and ran outside.
However, at least one person seemed to grasp the situation perfectly.
“Ga-on!”
A small frame paired with a crafty-looking face—it was Johwang.
Perhaps even he couldn’t avoid the aerial assault, because scratches and wounds covered his body here and there, but all I felt was regret.
Regret that I hadn’t managed to make him die a violent death.
“First, let me declare one thing. I have no intention of letting a single person here leave alive.”
Then, as if proving that declaration, I exterminated the fleeing men one by one, but Johwang merely dug at his ear with a finger and frowned as though he didn’t care at all.
“What the fuck are you rambling about, you crazy bastard?”
“It means that even if you wanted to beg, there’s no room for negotiation. Not from the moment I arrived here.”
“You’re cocky as hell. Yeah, I guess you’d need balls that big to launch a midnight raid. But you know……”
The shape of the eyes staring up at me changed ominously. From circles to squares, then into diamonds.
Johwang’s eyes were Units. And not just ordinary ones—they were custom-made models linked to a Second Brain, drastically increasing both accuracy and evasion rate.
A mechanical device no different from treasure to a gunman.
“Who said I was gonna let you leave alive?”
And they were also the partner that had turned him into the Destroying Demon.
His wrist folding inward and his forearm transforming happened almost simultaneously. It took only 0.5 seconds for one entire arm to become a gun barrel. The muzzle tracing a smooth straight line spat fire even faster than that.
Drrrrrrrk!
The diamond-shaped pupils recorded everything about the opponent.
Stride length, body weight, movement radius—after analyzing every factor from multiple angles, the results immediately linked with the Slot to correct the trajectory of his shots. It only took an instant for Ga-on’s path, trapped within the laws of physics, and the direction of the gun barrel to gradually align.
One bullet finally grazed Ga-on’s cheek.
Unlike usual, the burning pain spread across my entire face. The filthy wound looked as though I had scraped against asphalt. It was so severe that it was hard to tell whether I had been shot or had fallen.
As I hurriedly removed the foreign object embedded in my face, something glimmered.
Mixed with blood and darkness—
“……Crystal?”
It was definitely a material I never would have expected.
“Not all of them, but famous problem solvers usually have their own trademarks.”
In Johwang’s case, that trademark was his bullets.
Crystal bullets.
Long ago, they were supposedly inspired by glass mines used by the German army during the Second World War.
Naturally, crystal wasn’t a material that split cleanly like lead or copper.
Rather, the more one tried to remove it, the more the crumbling fragments burrowed into the blood vessels. If the blood wasn’t drawn quickly, permanent aftereffects could remain.
Moreover, once crystal lodged itself inside the body, it was difficult to detect even with X-rays. On top of that, because light passed through it, distinguishing it from surrounding tissue was difficult, making surgical treatment problematic as well.
It was a weapon choice that perfectly reflected its detestable owner’s personality.
Pretending to brush his cheek, Ga-on regenerated the wound and let out a sinister smile.
It was certainly a deadly bullet against living organisms and organic matter.
But—
“What about inorganic matter?”
As if kicking a soccer ball, he kicked up the debris of the collapsed building and raised it upright. Just placing a wall between them drastically reduced the power of the Crystal Bullets. At best, they were no stronger than toy firecrackers.
Perhaps because they focused solely on inflicting damage, their penetration power and stopping power were terrible.
“Hey, you’re not the only smart one here.”
The moment Johwang shouted that, Lawian burst out while shoving away a pile of concrete with his back.
And in his hands was an extra-large railgun.
It was absurdly massive, something that looked like it belonged on a battleship. The preheating must have finished, because the buzzing sound of electric current flowing through it was extremely threatening. As expected, the straight barrel opened up, revealing coils wrapped inside.
“Launching an aerial assault was a commendable decision. But you chose the wrong opponents.”
Attached behind the barrel was a thick industrial cable. The railgun endlessly shone as it sucked in electricity from a generator connected underground in the building, like pumping hot water upward.
Soon, concentrated light fired out and spread like a net. The entire area brightened up. Yet unlike the flashy effect, there was no direct damage at all. At most, it merely stung like static electricity from a coat.
However, Ga-on realized the true power of the weapon a beat later.
Not only did the device that always remained waiting in one corner of his vision shut down, but Qiongqi in his hand also stopped functioning.
‘A Pulse Cannon?’
Commonly referred to as a circuit killer.
If the Pain Maker was an anti-personnel suppression weapon, then the Pulse Cannon was an anti-army suppression weapon.
A weapon that processed electromagnetic pulses internally and scattered them around the surroundings.
The truly frightening thing wasn’t its minimum output, but its maximum output. No matter how prepared someone was for electronic warfare, the damage varied depending on how much power the Pulse Cannon managed to draw in.
In other words, Ga-on was defenseless right now.
Johwang concluded that he was no different from an ordinary human.
“The reason you’re still fine after falling from up there is probably because you invested heavily in your musculoskeletal system, right?”
He didn’t suspect genetic modification. Instead of the unique scent of an enhanced human, he smelled sweat. If deodorant had been used, neither scent would have been detectable.
“So that’s why you pinpointed me with the Slot.”
“I won’t let you go even if you cry now, retard.”
The cooperation between two men specialized in biological damage and machine destruction.
It seemed Johwang leaving Fernandez’s shadow hadn’t been a coincidence after all. It was rare in the industry to find partners whose compatibility was this exceptional.
For a moment, the coordinated attack was moving enough to bring tears to one’s eyes—
“But it’s time to wake up from the dream.”
Boom! Leaving deep footprints in the ground, he charged forward. One shot per breath, Crystal Bullets rained into his body, but he ignored them all. In the end, they were merely tricks. As long as he endured the pain, victory awaited beyond it.
Tak!
Charging all the way beneath Johwang’s chest, Ga-on crushed the prosthetic arm with his bare hand before grabbing his jaw. Perhaps because his skeleton had been reinforced, it didn’t break and instead bent, but twisted was twisted all the same.
“Y-You…, how can your speeed…….”
Johwang, horrified, struggled to force the words out somehow.
Though they were artificial eyes, their intent was easy enough to read. It was the same gaze I had always seen. A gaze that refused to accept defeat, refused to accept reality.
“There’s nothing surprising about it. In the end, a tool is just a tool.”
The only thing one could trust in the end was oneself.
This was one of the lost possibilities.
One humanity had overlooked while becoming intoxicated with science and technology.
Whether he was slow to grasp the situation or mistakenly believed the Slot was still functioning normally, Lawian fired another beam of light.
The electromagnetic pulse spread grandly like fireworks. The sparks that bloomed for an instant melted away like snowflakes as they scattered.
“Come to think of it, Miss Siri had her neck torn off.”
As Ga-on subtly brought up Sera and tightened his grip around his neck, Johwang instinctively realized his future and began struggling desperately.
“W-Wait a second. Let’s tawk this out.”
“Let’s not embarrass ourselves. I declared it beforehand because I didn’t want to hear pathetic begging like this.”
I have no intention of letting a single person leave alive.
A statement he hadn’t even listened to moments ago now weighed down on him heavily. Just as Fernandez had guaranteed, Ga-on deserved to be treated with caution.
Not as some clumsy rookie, but as a completed powerhouse.
Who exactly was it that failed to know their place and crossed the line?
He regretted it now, but it was already too late.
“What’s your name?”
A meaningless question at this point. Still, believing Ga-on had somehow agreed with his wishes, Johwang hurriedly opened his mouth.
“J-Johwang.”
“Yeah, I like it too.”
But Ga-on mercilessly shattered that expectation and tore Johwang’s neck apart. Like a kite with its string cut, the head dropped down helplessly. It tried to roll far away down the slope, but Ga-on stomped on it and crushed it as though refusing to allow even that.
“How dare a bastard like you!”
Enraged, Lawian discarded the Pulse Cannon and pulled out a firearm hidden inside it.
It was a component part, an ultra-compact railgun designed for emergency use.
Tukwang!
A crude explosion rang out as a beam of light surged forward.
Standing before it, Ga-on reflexively extended both hands. One hand rotated clockwise, while the other rotated counterclockwise.
It took only an instant for opposing imaginary axes to form.
The speed of the metal projectile entering the space where the differing rotations canceled each other out slowed ever so slightly.
Something tried to surface in his mind, but even that brief moment was apparently too long, as the inspiration brushed away Ga-on’s thoughts and vanished.
All that remained were burned palms and forearms blackened with scorch marks.
A fatal injury, yet strangely enough, he didn’t even feel it was a waste.
“……What the hell did you just do?”
“Who knows.”
It had been an unconscious action. As his mastery of False Rotation Axis accumulated, instinct had begun to move ahead of conscious thought.
Which, in turn, was an invitation toward a new realm.
While savoring the previous exchange, Ga-on approached Lawian. Several suppressive shots followed, but they amounted to nothing more than useless struggling.
“Don’t come any closer! This is your warning!”
“You were a third party, yet more than anyone else, you wanted to become directly involved.”
Ga-on crumpled the ultra-compact railgun like a sheet of paper and kicked Lawian in the stomach.
Lawian slid backward smoothly as if standing on ice. But he quickly regained his composure and planted his stance. Perhaps he had learned Chinese martial arts, because his posture looked remarkably refined—
“But do you really think that works against someone bullets don’t work on?”
Ga-on grabbed the incoming fist and returned it right back.
In the form of a fracture.
“Kuheok!”
Right before the bone snapped, Lawian dropped to one knee and his shoulders trembled violently. The clear difference in superiority between them was unbearably humiliating.
That was why he spoke without hiding his fangs.
“Hyungnim won’t leave you alone after this. Beg while you still can. At least then, you’ll get to keep your life.”
A thoroughly overbearing attitude. It was hard to tell who actually held the upper hand.
“No, better yet, how about taking Johwang’s place? I’ll handle bringing in jobs. You’ve already seen the size of our crew—it’s not small.”
“No matter how big a soy sauce dish gets, it’s still just a soy sauce dish.”
“So you’re throwing away the opportunity that finally came to you? Don’t regret it.”
“You should worry about yourself instead.”
The moment Ga-on grabbed his neck to rip his head off just like Johwang’s, lights suddenly poured in from all directions.
It was as bright as though the sun itself had risen.
The instant he realized it, patrol drones swarmed in like a hive of bees and filled the alleyway completely, while flying cars carrying the Public Enforcement Corps Special Forces blocked off every escape route.
Though it was a rare sight to see the Public Enforcement Corps respond so quickly, Ga-on honestly couldn’t admire it.
This was the kind of force usually deployed only during wars between organizations, yet they had entered a back alley like this. There was no explanation other than someone having tipped them off beforehand.
“You are surrounded! Release the hostage peacefully and surrender!”