Chapter 13: Spoiled Second-Generation (3)
“Hey, bring more Black Rose.”
Jeon Su-yong, clad only in underwear and a red robe, said.
He was lounging on the sofa with women on both sides.
“Young master. You’ve already taken two vials. We can’t guarantee what happens if you take more.”
Dark Horse member Jeong Han-min bowed politely, asking for understanding.
Even villains had to yield before the second son of Shin Young Group.
Dark Horse was backed by SP Guild, which had close ties to Shin Young Group—acting out of line could cost your head.
“I’m fine. Do you know who I am? I’m Jeon Su-yong, you fucking bastard. Look how sober I am right now. See?”
He grabbed the shoulder of the woman on his right.
Whooosh!
He activated Enervation, draining her energy.
“Haaah…!”
The woman’s eyes rolled back, her body rapidly withered until only bones remained, and she collapsed limp.
“Haa… Even if they’re street girls, killing them like that is troublesome.”
Jeong Han-min let out a short sigh.
At the word “killing,” the remaining woman widened her eyes and screamed.
“Kyaaaaah!”
“Agh… So fucking noisy.”
Smack!
Annoyed, Jeon Su-yong slapped her cheek, but her head burst instead.
Unfazed, he looked at Jeong Han-min with hazy eyes and said,
“Hey. You know who I am?”
“…Yes, I do.”
“Even your boss Ma Du-hwan doesn’t talk to me like that. Got it?”
“I’m sorry, young master. Please forgive me.”
“Then bring more Black Rose. A whole box! And get more women too. This is boring—no fun!”
“I’ll bring the Black Rose right away. The women were the last ones just now, so it’ll take some time.”
“Hurry. As fast as possible!”
Jeong Han-min bowed and left the room.
‘That damn spoiled maniac. If his grade were lower, I’d have beaten some manners into him.’
As a 6th-grade villain, he couldn’t even dream of facing Jeon Su-yong.
Aside from being Shin Young Group’s second son, the gap in Hunter ability was too wide.
Jeon Su-yong had awakened normally at 9th-grade but became 6th-grade in just three days—a supernova.
A month later, 5th-grade, and during his prison stint, he reached 4th-grade.
Hunter grades are determined by combining physical abilities, mana, and unique ability proficiency.
So raising a grade was simple.
Improve physical abilities, mana, and unique ability.
Real combat with monsters was the most effective, though training worked to a lesser extent.
But there was one way to skip the process and grow rapidly.
Absorbing ‘magic stones.’
The ones crafted from monster brains and hearts.
Jeon Su-yong was a Hunter who grew insanely fast through massive magic stone absorption.
He’d absorbed an unimaginable amount in a short time, especially overconsuming blue magic stones from brains.
The problem was the side effects driving him completely mad.
Thanks to that, he had many skills and enormous mana reserves.
But his unique ability and skill proficiency were extremely low.
Because he only used them to toy with weaker Hunters or bully civilians.
Yet still reaching 4th-grade meant…
His physical abilities and mana alone were that level.
If he’d raised his unique ability proficiency, he might have been at least 2nd-grade.
The gap was too vast for Jeong Han-min to challenge.
‘This is why I didn’t want to come here.’
Even the vicious Dark Horse members avoided tangling with Jeon Su-yong.
In the end, the lowest-ranked ones got dispatched here.
Especially the newest, him—solely assigned to babysit Jeon Su-yong.
Jeong Han-min grabbed a box of Black Rose and returned to the room.
“Grrraaaah…”
Jeon Su-yong had already passed out, snoring thunderously.
“This fuck…”
A curse almost slipped out when—
“Kyaaaaah!”
A scream echoed from outside the building.
***
“……”
Silence fell in front of the abandoned building.
One villain lay collapsed, foaming at the mouth, his limbs’ joints grotesquely twisted.
Jin-young spread psionic energy inside the building to roughly grasp what was happening.
It couldn’t replace eyes and ears, but he could sense mana flows and presences.
Soon, he felt the villains who heard the scream start moving busily.
It was just bringing in one 9th-grade civil servant Hunter, so they must have all let their guard down.
Jin-young turned to Park Jeong-gyu and said,
“Let’s go.”
“…M-Me too?”
In his panic, Park Jeong-gyu accidentally used honorifics.
After seeing a stronger villain than himself crumpled in an instant, it was understandable.
“You seem to have a talent for rushing your death.”
“G-Going! I’m going!”
Jin-young entered the building with Park Jeong-gyu.
Inside was nothing but gray concrete walls and pillars.
Just then, organization members who heard their colleague’s scream came rushing down the stairs.
They narrowed their brows at Jin-young, then grimaced upon spotting Park Jeong-gyu beside him.
“Park Jeong-gyu. Did you betray the organization?”
“No, I—”
Before Park Jeong-gyu could explain, Jin-young cut in.
“What floor is Jeon Su-yong on?”
One of the villains, who had scanned Jin-young’s appearance, spoke.
He was the leader of this dispatched team.
“Which organization sent you?”
“I’m from Gangseo District Office.”
“This bastard… Let’s see how long you stay cocky.”
Anyone could see the black suit and name tag screamed civil servant, but the leader didn’t think so at all.
In situations like this, preemptive strike was the answer.
The other villains seemed to think the same, glancing at their leader.
The moment the leader nodded toward Jin-young.
Jin-young scanned the villains and activated psychokinesis.
Crrraack—
The ceiling right above their heads cracked, and chunks of concrete poured down.
“Shit!”
“Dodge!”
BOOM!
The villains scattered with quick movements, avoiding the attack.
Then they hid behind walls or pillars and shouted,
“Request backup upstairs quick! Wake Jeon Su-yong too!”
“Now you’re finally doing some work.”
Jin-young nodded satisfactorily.
The hidden villains didn’t stop there.
“You picked the wrong day today!”
One villain hiding behind a pillar aimed a large-caliber revolver at Jin-young.
BANG!
The shot was so powerful that an explosion rang out as the mana bullet fired.
Even roughly aimed, the bullet flew straight at Jin-young’s head.
Tzzzt—
But the mana bullet stopped in mid-air in front of Jin-young, spinning fiercely while emitting mana.
“12.8mm mana round? Shooting that at a person is illegal…”
“Crazy…”
In truth, shooting any caliber at a person was illegal.
But the villain who fired didn’t even think about that.
He’d seen plenty of Hunters block or dodge bullets. Even monsters who caught them with fingers.
But stopping one dead in the air? He’d never heard or seen such a thing.
The other villains watching from behind walls were equally shocked.
But they quickly regained composure and prepared to attack.
Whatever unique ability it was, mana wasn’t infinite.
Thud—
Just then, villains from upstairs jumped out through a wide-open window, entering the entrance to target Jin-young’s rear.
The next instant.
Shrrrieeeek—
The mana bullet that had stopped in front of Jin-young flew straight backward.
“……!”
The lead villain had no time to react to the unexpected attack.
Splaaat!
The mana bullet blew off his head, and he crumpled forward.
Whether they intended to use a colleague as bait from the start, a hidden villain shouted,
“Attack!”
Immediately, concealed weapons and mana bullets flew from all directions.
Park Jeong-gyu beside Jin-young was completely ignored in the fierce assault.
But this time too, they stopped around Jin-young.
“Don’t stop—keep firing! Push him to his limit!”
The villains had experience, so they didn’t halt.
Normal Hunters needed mana to use unique abilities or skills, and mana had limits.
They barely sensed any mana from Jin-young to begin with, but the villains had no time to quibble.
The only way was to exhaust him until his ability failed.
But after hundreds of rounds were spent and no more throwing weapons remained,
They realized.
“F-Fuck… Is he a monster…?”
Thousands of mana bullets and concealed weapons densely surrounded Jin-young.
It was as if he wore an inverted dome made of projectiles.
Close-combat specialists didn’t even dream of approaching.
Revealing themselves from cover now would be suicide.
Of course, hiding wouldn’t save them either.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh—
The thousands of mana bullets and weapons shot out in all directions.
Bzzzt— BOOM!
“Kyaah!”
Mana bullets collapsed a pillar in an instant, turning the villain behind it into a honeycomb.
The walls the villains hid behind crumbled rapidly.
Some had tried fleeing earlier.
“U-Uwaaah! Don’t come near!”
Splurt! Splaaat!
The concealed weapons bent directions freely as if guided, embedding into the backs of fleeing villains’ heads.
About a dozen villains cleared in roughly ten seconds.
Jin-young walked casually past the corpses toward the stairs.
Park Jeong-gyu, watching from the side, trembled in his legs.
“Not coming?”
“G-Going!”
Park Jeong-gyu wondered why he kept being dragged along but couldn’t refuse.
He forced his unwilling legs to follow Jin-young.
Jin-young ascended the stairs to the upper floors.
The villains who came down to the first floor were dealt with, but some remained on the fourth floor.
They were gathered in one spot—likely with Jeon Su-yong.
As soon as he reached the fourth floor, the villains came into view.
Surprisingly, they didn’t ambush or curse upon seeing Jin-young.
Jin-young soon understood why.
“Grraaaah!”
A freak in nothing but black panties and a red robe let out a long, guttural belch.
Abnormally bulging muscles and veins stood out more than other Hunters.
The man looked at Jin-young with slightly unfocused eyes and said,
“Who the hell are you? You with Dark Horse too?”
“I heard you were looking for me.”
At Jin-young’s words, Jeon Su-yong scratched his head.
“You don’t look like a woman. Definitely not Black Rose either.”
“Seems you’ve already gorged on plenty of Black Rose.”
Jeon Su-yong smirked at Jin-young’s remark.
Black aura billowed from his body.
Mana dyed black from Black Rose.
Jin-young had encountered several Black Rose-related incidents before regression.
A few civilians did awaken after drinking it, but they were a tiny minority.
Most couldn’t handle it and died from acute poisoning.
Hunters, however, didn’t die easily from one or two vials. Many drank one during raids for a boost.
But greed led to overdose deaths or agonizing ends from incompatibility.
A common trait in overdose cases: mana turned polluted black.
Skin also darkened, but Jeon Su-yong’s hadn’t yet.
“I had something to do, but got bored waiting and chugged some. Wanna try? This shit’s insane. I could pop a weakling like you with one finger. Heh heh heh…”
He picked up a rolling vial of Black Rose from the bed and emptied it in one go.
Muscles swelling in real time, black mana growing denser.
He didn’t stop there, continuously reaching for more Black Rose and chugging it.
The Dark Horse members watched with grim expressions.
They no longer cared about Jin-young’s presence.
Jin-young ignored the villains too, observing Jeon Su-yong closely.
‘From the news, he was definitely much stronger than this back then.’
At that time, parts of Gangnam District were shrouded in black fog, killing or severely injuring countless citizens and Hunters.
But the guy now just looked like a pathetic drug addict.
Perhaps the Black Rose’s effects were weaker than before, or the dosage was lower.
After downing five more vials, Jeon Su-yong seemed to regain a bit of his scattered mind.
“Oh, feels pretty refreshing? Kinda fresh. If I drink a little more here, it’ll be perfect. Got any left?”
“That’s already your tenth vial, young master.”
“I feel like some enlightenment is coming. If I drink more, something’s gonna hit.”
Jin-young observed him intently.
The blackened, polluted mana remained. Yet why had his mind cleared?
Jeong Han-min, attending to Jeon Su-yong, said with a troubled face,
“If you keep going, really…”
But his words couldn’t continue.
“Graaaah!”
As Jeon Su-yong let out a monstrous roar, pitch-black mana spread everywhere.
Tzzzt-tzzzt—
All the Dark Horse members froze solid.
“Guh…”
Their energy drained completely, eyes losing focus at the same time.
They stared blankly into space, mouths agape.
Thud!
The villains collapsed to the floor in unison.
Jeon Su-yong’s unique ability, Enervation, originally required contact to activate.
But amplified by Black Rose, it had become area-of-effect.
It didn’t just sap energy—it erased their minds too.
Jin-young was within the wide-area curse’s range.
But standing unharmed, Jeon Su-yong narrowed his brows.
“Who the hell are you?”
“Civil servant.”
“Civil servant? Ah, the Chae Jin-young I was looking for? But why are you fine?”
“……”
Before Jin-young could reply.
Whoosh—
Jeon Su-yong vanished from his spot in an instant.
Swish!
He suddenly appeared behind Jin-young.
One of his unique abilities: Blink.
Enervation was well-known from overuse on anyone, but Blink had been a hidden trump card for a long time.
Of course, Jin-young already knew.
He’d faced countless mages using blink-like teleportation magic in Renard.
He could predict the destination just from eye movement.
“Kneel, you ba—”
CRAAAASH!
Jeon Su-yong’s body, mid-punch, smashed through the floor straight to the first level.
Jin-young pulled the fallen body back up to the fourth floor.
BOOM!
Then flung him, demolishing a wall, before pulling him back in front of himself.
“You fucking— what the hell are—”
Crunch— Crack!
“Kyaaaaah!”
Jeon Su-yong’s joints twisted grotesquely in an instant.
Jin-young approached the man bound in mid-air with a calm face.
Just then.
Thump.
A familiar sensation stirred near Jin-young’s heart.
The black tentacles were craving Jeon Su-yong.