Chapter 14: Spoiled Second-Generation (4)
The tentacles reacting to a Hunter was a first.
What set Jeon Su-yong apart from ordinary Hunters was his excessive short-term intake of magic stones.
And possessing mana polluted by Black Rose.
Splaaat—
Black tentacles burst from Jin-young’s chest.
“W-What the fuck! Get that shit away from me!”
Jeon Su-yong still had energy to scream despite the humiliations from psychokinesis.
He was reaping the full benefits of chugging so much Black Rose.
Whoosh!
The black tentacles bound Jeon Su-yong’s limbs and torso.
“Let go, you fucking bastard!”
He couldn’t budge an inch, only screaming.
Soon, the tentacles began indiscriminately absorbing the black mana flowing through Jeon Su-yong’s body.
Jin-young sensed a familiar energy from the black mana.
The toxicity emanating from Creep in contaminated zones.
Come to think of it, there were beings among Hunters who wielded black mana. Though they could no longer be called Hunters.
Hunters fully corrupted by Creep: Mines.
Of course, Jeon Su-yong didn’t look like a Mine. He’d merely gained similar power through Black Rose.
‘Is Black Rose’s material related to contaminated zones?’
Jin-young was ready to stop if the polluted mana affected him.
But it didn’t mix into his body at all—only the black tentacles absorbed it.
Pulse— Pulse—
The amount of mana was so vast that the tentacles absorbed endlessly, finally finishing the feast.
Having devoured the black mana, the tentacles vanished once more.
Just like when absorbing the magic stone last time, his subspace expanded further.
“Grrrk…”
Jeon Su-yong, drained of all his mana in an instant, foamed at the mouth and passed out.
His swollen muscles from Black Rose returned to normal.
“What now? Passing out already. I have questions.”
As Jin-young pondered how to wake him,
『Kiiik.』
An unsettling yet familiar sound pierced his ears.
‘The Demon King?’
From his final day in Renard. The voice of the entity called the ‘Demon King.’
『De… mon… King…?』
The voice from nowhere echoed Jin-young’s thoughts.
‘Reading my mind?’
『Read… ing… my… mind…』
Listening closely, the unpleasant voice wasn’t coming from outside.
From within his body. Specifically, around his solar plexus.
‘The tentacles.’
『Tentacles.』
The black tentacles had started “speaking.”
Though it was ambiguous to call it speaking yet.
It was merely echoing Jin-young’s thoughts aloud.
But he couldn’t rule out the possibility of language development.
‘If communication becomes possible with this thing, I might uncover its identity.’
The tentacles echoed Jin-young’s words again, but he paid no mind.
He didn’t sense any malice from it. It felt like a blank canvas, unimbued with concepts of good or evil yet.
Jin-young applied psychokinesis to Jeon Su-yong collapsed on the floor.
Rumble—
His head shook as if getting a massage.
Soon, he screamed and snapped his eyes open.
“Haaah!”
Only then did Jin-young release the psychokinesis.
Jeon Su-yong, just coming to, blankly surveyed his surroundings, still disoriented.
Then, feeling something missing, he groped his body.
He could overlook his muscles deflating like a popped balloon, but…
“My mana. Fuck, my mana!”
Panic set in upon realizing his internal mana was depleted.
Mana depletes with use and naturally recovers over time.
But with an enemy right in front, having no mana would be disastrous.
Just like Jeon Su-yong now.
Moreover, his limbs were broken by psychokinesis, making close combat impossible.
Completely neutralized.
But his spoiled brat personality wasn’t going anywhere.
“What the fuck kind of trick is this? Huh? You think you can touch the second son of Shin Young Group and survive in Korea?”
“So talkative. Pulling out your tongue would kill you, so let’s just extract a few teeth.”
“W-Wha—”
Splurt—
As soon as a molar was yanked out, red blood sprayed.
“Guhhh… You fucking…!”
Splurt!
The opposite molar followed in quick succession, and Jeon Su-yong writhed in agony.
“I prefer gentlemanly conversations, you see.”
“Grrrh… Fuck…”
Jeon Su-yong had plenty of curses he wanted to spit, but pain limited him to single words.
“But when you keep acting like a spoiled brat, I can’t help but become one too.”
Just as Jin-young crouched in front of the fallen Jeon Su-yong to continue,
“Ptoo!”
The man spat bloody phlegm at his face.
Of course, the spit stopped dead in mid-air, never reaching him.
“What the…”
Jeon Su-yong stared in shock at his own phlegm hanging in the air.
It was his first time seeing Jin-young’s psychokinesis with his own eyes.
The phlegm then splattered back onto Jeon Su-yong’s face, dripping stickily down.
“Done? If you’ve got more, go ahead.”
Seeing Jin-young speak without changing expression, Jeon Su-yong’s defiance withered.
He became nothing more than helpless prey before a predator.
Surprisingly, this feeling wasn’t new.
SP Guild’s master, Min Hae-joon.
He’d felt something similar meeting him.
A being he couldn’t scratch no matter what.
One who wouldn’t hesitate to kill him.
That was the commonality Jeon Su-yong saw between Chae Jin-young and Min Hae-joon.
The difference: Chae Jin-young could kill him right now.
Jeon Su-yong didn’t want to die here yet.
Survive by any means. Then consume more magic stones and Black Rose.
He’d crush Min Hae-joon or Chae Jin-young.
“What do you want? Want me to take out Deputy Director Lee Ju-hong? This is all because of that fucker, right? Huh?”
“Oh, so it was Deputy Director Lee Ju-hong’s instigation?”
Jeon Su-yong was spilling exactly what Jin-young had planned to ask.
“Yeah. You sent a threatening email mentioning our guild’s relationship with him. That idiot probably doesn’t even know who he messed with.”
“You know?”
“……”
“Relax your face—joking. Anyway, that Deputy Director Lee is finally forcing my hand.”
Jin-young thought he’d hit the black market after this and grab some ledgers related to Lee Ju-hong.
“Just say the word. I’ll handle that bastard.”
“That’s fine. But I have questions.”
“Ask anything.”
“You know Dark Horse’s headquarters?”
“Don’t know.”
“Black Rose’s ingredients?”
“Don’t know that either.”
“……”
Jin-young stared at the answering Jeon Su-yong.
From interrogating countless foes in Renard, he could distinguish truth from lies blindfolded.
And Jeon Su-yong wasn’t lying. He genuinely knew nothing.
Considering his usual behavior, it made sense. Telling secrets to this spoiled brat would make them no longer secrets.
Still, Jin-young asked a few more things just in case, but came up empty.
“Not curious about picking up girls or tax evasion? Those are my specialties.”
“Guess you really need to die now.”
At Jin-young’s words, Jeon Su-yong’s eyes widened.
“W-What? Hey, fuck! Wait a sec. Don’t you need money? I’ll give whatever you want.”
“Save your pocket money.”
“Hey, you bastard! You think you’ll be safe after killing Shin Young Group’s second son? You’ll be erased from this world!”
“The one getting erased is you.”
Crunch—
Jeon Su-yong’s neck snapped, killing him instantly.
Jin-young compressed the corpse just like he did with the bald Lee Cheol-ho last time.
Not only that—he compressed all the Dark Horse villains, including Park Jeong-gyu, and stored them in his subspace.
He left the broken walls, bloodstains, empty vials, and scattered weapons as is.
Whether dead or alive, it would be clear a brutal fight occurred.
A battle between Jeon Su-yong and Dark Horse over Black Rose.
No one would know Jin-young had been here.
‘Except one guy.’
Jin-young casually drove away from Gimpo in Park Jeong-gyu’s car.
Not long after he left,
Step—step.
A man in a suit appeared at the scene.
***
A man surveying the gruesome site where not a single corpse remained.
Tall and sharp-featured, he held a black umbrella in his hand.
After looking around, he checked the mana detector on his wrist.
“Na Ji-hwan was telling the truth.”
Traces of mana left by the villains and Jeon Su-yong’s black mana were present.
But no trace of the mana from Chae Jin-young, who had taken them all down.
In chaotic battles, emitted mana could mix and become hard to distinguish.
But each person’s mana had slight differences in density or the patterns left when released.
An Intelligence Department agent should be able to tell them apart.
To kill so many villains and make the bodies vanish, far clearer mana traces should have remained.
Either an ability that leaves no mana traces, or one that doesn’t use mana at all.
Whichever it was, it was truly remarkable.
Even he, a standout in the Intelligence Department, couldn’t help but genuinely admire it.
If they had even one secret agent with this ability, the department could accomplish so much more.
But one thing bothered him.
“More like a beast than a human.”
Ruthless hands, no hesitation in killing.
Right now, that blade was aimed at villains, but if it turned toward the nation… or specific agents?
He didn’t even want to imagine it.
But if it became the department’s blade, aimed at villains and monsters, that would change everything.
Especially the contaminated zones gnawing at regions like Hongcheon, and the endlessly spawning dungeon gates.
Meanwhile, Korea’s Hunter talent pool was shrinking by the day.
“Where did a guy like this drop from?”
Of course, Korea wasn’t on the brink of destruction like nations that failed gate management and saw contaminated zones expand unchecked.
But compared to Hunter powerhouses like the US, China, and Japan, it was lagging.
The so-called G5 Hunter superpowers even had ‘Zero-grade’ Hunters beyond 1st-grade.
China and Japan, being neighboring countries, were always eyeing ways to poach Korea’s Hunter talent.
Amid this, major guilds pressured the government for their own interests.
In such a situation, recruiting an unidentified powerhouse into the Intelligence Department could shift the entire landscape.
Of course, under the premise that they could handle him properly.
Lost in thought, the man touched the wireless earpiece in his ear.
“This is ‘Imposter.’ I have a report regarding Target Number Zero.”
***
—Next news. Jeon Su-yong, Hunter and second son of Shin Young Group Chairman Jeon Young-su, went missing last night. It is currently presumed that a dispute occurred with the criminal organization known as Dark Horse at an abandoned building in the halted-construction Gimpo Shin Young Industrial Complex…
Watching the news, Chae So-young shook her head.
“All this fuss over Jeon Su-yong’s disappearance.”
“Why? Something happen?”
At Jin-young’s question, Chae So-young let out a short sigh.
“Ugh, don’t even ask. Our guild has a cooperative relationship with Shin Young Group, right? So everyone except raid personnel got mobilized to search for Jeon Su-yong’s whereabouts. But what’s the point of searching hard if nothing turns up?”
She shuddered recalling the day’s events.
Jin-young just shrugged and checked the documents on the table.
They were ledgers he’d swiped from the black market right after dealing with Jeon Su-yong and the Dark Horse crew.
He’d only hit merchants who’d done shady deals with Deputy Director Lee Ju-hong.
If he handed this evidence to police or prosecutors,
‘They’d probably dispose of it immediately and bury the case.’
With Lee Ju-hong’s power still immense, he couldn’t trust unreliable people with it yet.
But there were always those who stood against power.
Jin-young pulled a business card from his pocket, dialed the number, and made the call.
“Yes. Inspector Kang? Hope you’ve been well. This is Chae Jin-young.”