Chapter 25

“Young Master. Please step back.”

Taewoong opened the plated armor on both of his arms.

With the whir of his power engine coming alive, his arms began to glow red.

The air itself vibrated with a chilling tremor.

He had fully deployed his Grade-1 Artificial Body at maximum output.

“It’s going to shake quite a bit.”

The moment he said those words, Taewoong appeared right in front of one of the attackers and, without hesitation, drove his fist forward.

KUUU-KWAAAAANG—!

The next instant, the attacker who had raised his guard stance had his upper body blown apart.

A man who had never lost in close combat ended up like minced meat, his spine grotesquely exposed.

The attacker couldn’t even scream before death claimed him. Witnessing that ghastly sight, the blood drained instantly from the faces of the other lieutenants.

“Ah… Aaaagh?!”

“Damn it! Do it just like we practiced! Distract him somehow!”

TATATATANG—!

They fired their pistols in panic, but the bullets didn’t even leave a scratch on Taewoong’s body.

Even the attackers with artificial body enhancements tried desperately to coordinate and block his relentless assault. But their opponent was a bodyguard fully armed with a Grade-1 Artificial Body.

One punch crushed a head into pieces.

A grip shattered a shoulder to pulp.

A kick launched a leg high into the air, detached from its owner.

He was nothing less than a human weapon.

A machine built for military use, pushed to full power—there was no way some back-alley gangsters like the Geomgye could stand against him.

“You son of a…!”

In a flash, six Geomgye members were gone, and Dok Go-seong’s eyes went wide with fury.

Things had gone wrong.

No—this was worse than wrong.

The bodyguard might have been hesitating to protect Park Bok-ja for now, but once he truly unleashed himself, it wouldn’t even take five minutes before this entire place turned into a sea of blood.

‘Should I… take a hostage instead?’

The thought crossed Dok Go-seong’s mind for a moment, but he quickly shook his head.

That was madness.

If he so much as laid a finger on Chang-woon, even leaving a scratch on that noble’s body…

The Royal Guards would storm into every one of his businesses—no, into the entire underground district.

And then, it wouldn’t just be about losing a few members or dozens of underlings.

Everyone connected to him—his family, relatives, acquaintances—

All of them would be dragged off under collective punishment, tortured until nothing was left.

That left only one conclusion.

“Open the door! We’re escaping! Right now—!”

His decision was to flee.

The men waiting upstairs should still be there.

He had heard reports that an intruder appeared on the first floor.

An ability user, they had said.

But even so, it was only one man.

The building had more than ten floors, each packed full of his subordinates.

There was no way even an ability user had cut through all of them already.

Escape first. Then contact my patrons to keep my lifeline intact.

With that self-promise, Dok Go-seong opened the door without hesitation—

“Uhk?!”

The moment he did, he gasped for breath and stumbled backward.

Waiting for him outside was Moo-yeong, another bodyguard of Chang-woon.

And behind him—

The corpses of his subordinates, carved apart like butchered meat, were strewn across the hall.

“You… you killed them all?! You insane bastard…!”

SEOGK—!

Before Dok Go-seong could even finish his curse, Moo-yeong’s blade had already severed both his arms.

The sword then sliced toward his waist.

With a flash, Dok Go-seong’s lower body was cut clean off, leaving him writhing on the floor.

“Kuh… Kkuuuuhhh…!”

Thanks only to his artificial body, his life clung on, but he was utterly incapacitated.

With their leader neutralized, the remaining lieutenants froze in terror and raised their hands in surrender.

The fight was over.

“Young Master! As you commanded, I have eliminated every last one that dared interfere with your business!”

“Uh… R-right…”

Hearing Moo-yeong shout with shining, childlike eyes, Chang-woon forced an awkward smile.

‘I did say they were irredeemable scum and he could do as he pleased with them…’

But he hadn’t expected him to wipe out every last survivor.

While Chang-woon stood dumbfounded, Taewoong, having powered down his artificial body, leaned in and whispered:

“You see… Moo-yeong didn’t really perform well in the last mission. It seems that’s been gnawing at him…”

“So he overdid it? That’s why he made such a massacre?”

“Yes. While we were advancing, he muttered that these were heinous villains disrupting your business… and that he’d sever all their heads to dedicate to you.”

“No matter what, that’s going too far. Just look at him—his eyes aren’t even normal right now.”

It was clear Moo-yeong needed counseling.

Muttering that to himself, Chang-woon suddenly remembered Dok Go-seong and slowly approached him.

“Spare me! I’ll do anything! Please, just… please!”

Perhaps realizing there was no escape, Dok Go-seong, trembling with only his upper body left, begged pitifully.

A chilling smile spread across Chang-woon’s face.

“Don’t worry. We’ll make sure you stay alive for a long, long time.”

Of course, before long, you’ll be begging us to end your life.

With that cold afterthought, Chang-woon shut down every part of Dok Go-seong’s artificial body—except for the life-support functions.

“Wh-what… what are you doing…?!”

“Oh, hello?”

Gesturing to Park Bok-ja to start cleaning the building, Chang-woon placed a call somewhere.

And after some time had passed—

“The whole building’s covered in corpses. You sure it was a casino they planned to open here? Looks more like a slaughterhouse.”

The moment he saw the man who had come in response to the summons, Dok Go-seong’s face turned paler than ever before.

The man wore a half-mask that covered his face.

Not the kind used for disguise, but one made of real wood.

“H-Hahoe…?”

Impossible.

The one answering a noble’s call turned out to be a wanted traitor accused of high treason?

Dok Go-seong’s mind spun furiously.

‘Kim Chang-woon built a casino in the Central District while keeping close ties with the Hahoe rebels…’

If that was true—if his hunch was right—then the real purpose of this casino was…!

“T-treason…?”

“Ssshh. Uh-uh.”

As Dok Go-seong muttered the unspeakable word, Chang-woon countered with a mock-solemn look.

“Not treason—revolution. …Tch. Forget it.”

Anything more would just be a waste of breath.

Dok Go-seong looked at him with a face twisted in confusion and demanded again:

“Why… why in the world…?”

“Why would I stage a revolution? That’s what you want to know, right?”

Chang-woon stepped closer until his face nearly touched Dok Go-seong’s.

“That’s the thing. Even I think it’s a crazy thing to do.”

He sighed.

He could’ve just sat quietly in Hanseong, enjoying the wealth and honor he’d been born into.

Exploit the common people spread everywhere, swing absolute power as he pleased, and die fat and satisfied.

That would’ve been a truly happy life.

But what could he do?

“This country is rotten beyond repair. And in the middle of it, my life is even more hopeless.”

“……!”

“That’s why I do it.”

His eyes narrowed as a thin smile crept to his lips.

“Because if I don’t… I die.”

‘Greetings, Young Master! I am Dok Go-seong, a businessman in the Central District of Hanseong!’

The sight of that face brought memories from a past life surging back.

After Kim Hyunwoo’s attack killed Taewoong, this man had approached me, saying he’d “teach me the ropes.”

A jackal of a man, preying on my unusual status—neither a noble nor a commoner.

Working with Dok Go-seong, I began handling the nobles’ dirty laundry in earnest.

“At the time, I thought it was for the best. I had sworn to crawl at Kim Hyunwoo’s feet and do whatever he commanded. But with not a shred of aura power, there was nothing I could actually do.”

So I convinced myself that even these filthy jobs were a way to contribute to the clan, hoping they’d acknowledge me.

And indeed, I was capable. Even among the nobles, I grew notorious.

When it came to handling “unfortunate business,” they’d say, there was no one better than me.

But not anymore.

Now that I’ve been given this second life, I’ve chosen a different path from my past.

I saved Seo Taewoong, who was meant to die.

I recruited Moo-yeong, who once drowned in vengeance and became a villain.

I protected Yu Arin, the seed of revolution, and even succeeded in saving her father, Yu Sang-hyeon, sending him safely to Hamgyeong Province.

At this point, clinging to a piece of garbage like Dok Go-seong had nothing to offer me.

“Kh-hh!”

Meanwhile, behind me, Park Bok-ja slowly rose to her feet.

“You recovered quickly. After taking that kind of beating, most people would’ve fainted.”

“Faint? Don’t talk nonsense.”

With a hiss, she injected herself with a neural stabilizer.

Holding her trembling body upright, she dropped into the chair by her office desk with a thud.

“Don’t underestimate me. I’ve been rolling in the back alleys for decades. This is nothing.”

Finishing her words, Park Bok-ja pulled out a cigarette and stuck it between her lips.

“Unexpected. I knew you funded orphanages, but I didn’t realize you were that sincere about it.”

“Like that bastard said—it’s just senility setting in at my age.”

As if brushing it aside, she lit the cigarette and drew in a deep breath.

“Just a worthless whim.”

“A whim…”

I mulled over the words Dok Go-seong had once thrown at her.

‘You lived a life killing and stealing to your heart’s content.’

‘And now you think you can erase all of that? Pretend nothing happened and try to be a good person? You think that’s possible? Huh?’

He wasn’t wrong.

Not for her. Not for me.

There was no way such a thing could ever be real.

By the time Park Bok-ja’s cigarette had burned down, I spoke.

“There’s a Jesuit priest lingering on the outskirts of the lowest black market.”

She turned her eyes toward me.

“He says if you pray and repent, God forgives any sin.”

“……”

“If you’re interested, you could give praying a try.”

Muttering that, I walked out of her office.

The city center, with not a single ray of sunlight.

The view lit only by artificial lights stretched before me as I murmured:

“Still… you’re better off than me.”

And it was true.

That foolish bastard, that mongrel brat…

Only after the Grim Reaper took his head did he finally end up like this.

* * *

Central Residential District.

Unlike the lower sectors I’d seen until now, this place looked relatively clean.

Not the flickering old neon signs of the slums, but neatly maintained store boards.

Polished advertising slogans, even the occasional holographic projection flickering in the air.

Not quite the level of nobles who threw money onto the streets like confetti, but clearly a district where people with some wealth gathered to live.

Slurp. Slurp.

I sat in front of a convenience store, eating cup ramen while taking it all in, when a man beside me suddenly spoke up.

“The analysis came back. Didn’t even need to crack his skull open—there was backup data inside the artificial body.”

“He extracted his own memory data and stored it in there?”

“Most likely planning to use it for blackmail if things went south.”

Following his voice, I turned my head to see a tall man in his twenties.

It was Imetal.

Since his face looked exactly like the one I remembered from my previous life, it didn’t seem like he was using any disguise.

“The nobles’ illegal trades, the evidence of them buying and selling people for entertainment… among them, quite a few turned out to be individuals listed as missing in the police database.”

“Well, figures.”

In my past life, most of the jobs I’d carried out had originally been handled by scum from the underworld like Dok Go-seong.

“Let me ask you something, as payment for Dok Go-seong’s head. What do you plan to do with this information?”

“I don’t know. Maybe this time I’ll bring it straight to the Royal Inquisition Bureau and give them a little poke?”

I said it half-jokingly, but Imetal shook his head like I was spewing nonsense.

“Memory-extracted data isn’t admissible evidence unless it comes directly from the Bureau itself. Hand it over, and they’ll just throw it out as AI-manipulated footage.”

Imetal continued.

“Killing Dok Go-seong was the right move, but also a dangerous one. You know that, right?”

“Of course. It’s no different from sticking my hand into a beehive.”

The evidence could be destroyed, sure—but the fact alone that someone else had seen their dirty dealings was enough.

The high-ranking nobles who had been doing business with Dok Go-seong.

Among them, Cho Seong-hwan, heir of the Pungyang Cho Clan, would react the most sensitively.

Soon enough, there would be audits, inspections, investigations—constant harassment aimed at my business.

“If you’re aware of all that, then you’ve already prepared a countermeasure, haven’t you?”

“Of course. I’ve got one.”

I answered while chewing on a microwaved dumpling.

“Since I’ve already stirred the hive, I may as well burn the whole nest to the ground.”

“…How?”

“By making things so big that someone like me won’t even matter anymore.”

“…What?”

Hearing my words, Imetal looked puzzled, demanding clarification.

“To do that, first—I’ll have to take the Pungyang Cho Clan’s weak points to the one person who’d pay the most for them.”

“And who would that be?”

“Who else?”

The eternal rival of the Pungyang Cho Clan. The direct competitor of their heir, Cho Seong-hwan.

“The heir of the Andong Kim clan, Kim Hyunwoo.”

I drained the last of the ramen broth, twisting my lips in a grin, amused even at myself.

“Gotta tell my big brother.”

---The End Of The Chapter---

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