Chapter 23: Psycho (2)
“Now do you feel like cooperating?”
At Jin-young’s question, Oh Jong-yeon reflexively nodded.
All ten of his fingers were already broken, his arms twisted grotesquely, and his toes and legs were mangled beyond recognition.
A normal person would have long since died from shock due to the pain, but a 3rd-grade Hunter’s mental fortitude was formidable.
Jin-young released the psychokinesis that had been binding the man’s mouth.
“Why are you entering the Hongcheon Contaminated Zone?”
“……”
But Oh Jong-yeon didn’t answer.
Without hesitation, Jin-young twisted the man’s intestines violently in every direction.
“Grrk… Arghhh!”
Oh Jong-yeon screamed, vomiting blood from his mouth.
Unfortunately for him, a sound of this level didn’t leak outside.
The room had been designed for the discreet private lives of VIPs.
Soundproofing was top-tier, and naturally, there were no CCTVs.
Contrary to its original purpose, it was the perfect place to dispose of someone without a trace.
Jin-young took out a single potion from his subspace and forced it into the man’s mouth.
Not the cheap ones used at the district office—this was a high-grade American potion.
The moment the red liquid entered his body, the wounds across his entire body began to recover at a visible speed.
“No need to thank me.”
Swoosh—
Black tentacles burst out from Jin-young’s chest.
Seeing them, Oh Jong-yeon’s eyes widened in terror.
“D-Demon…?”
At first, that was the thought that crossed his mind—but it couldn’t be.
Demons (Creepers) couldn’t operate outside of Creeps.
Moreover, while these tentacles gave off an aura similar to the contaminated zone, there was a subtle difference.
As Oh Jong-yeon stared at the wriggling tentacles, his pupils began to turn pitch black.
A color like an endlessly deep abyss.
Some instinct screamed that he shouldn’t keep looking, yet he couldn’t tear his eyes away.
『■■■…』
“What…?”
『■■■■…』
Just as his mind was about to be swallowed by pitch-black fog and his consciousness severed—
Bam!
A compressed lump of sand struck Oh Jong-yeon squarely in the solar plexus.
“Huuurk!”
His mind, which had been plummeting into the depths of the abyss, snapped back in an instant.
The tentacles that had been protruding from Jin-young’s chest had already vanished.
Blood streamed from Oh Jong-yeon’s eyes, nose, ears, and mouth in thin red lines.
“I-I’ll talk… please stop…”
Having suffered considerable mental damage, Oh Jong-yeon even began to stutter.
“The Hongcheon Contaminated Zone.”
Jin-young asked again in a sunken voice.
“We… we plan to capture Creepers alive… and conduct research on them.”
“Research on Creepers.”
“How to tame them. And whether we can make them operate outside of Creeps…”
“You expect me to believe that? Do you really think the SP Guild can capture Creepers in the Hongcheon Contaminated Zone?”
Jin-young didn’t believe for a second that SP would undertake something this reckless without a plan.
No one had ever succeeded in capturing a Creeper alive—only hunting them.
And this wasn’t just any place; it was the notoriously deadly Hongcheon Contaminated Zone.
In the future, Creeper capture would eventually succeed—but not in Korea. It would happen in the United States.
“It’s not something we’re doing alone. ‘GODS’ promised to provide two 1st-grade Hunters as support.”
After a brief hesitation, Oh Jong-yeon confessed.
GODS. In Korea, they were called “Gods.”
Short for Group Of Dominant Species—a gathering of Awakened who believed themselves superior to ordinary humans.
Their goal was to place ordinary people beneath them and create a world ruled by the Awakened.
In short, a global villain organization.
If they were involved, then it made perfect sense.
Not only small and large villain organizations in Korea, but even many guilds had been absorbed or recruited by them.
For now, they operated under the guise of mutual cooperation, but most organizations had already been swallowed up by GODS.
“That doesn’t sound like the whole story. Weren’t you planning to sacrifice one of your own guild members?”
“H-How did you…!”
Oh Jong-yeon’s eyes widened in shock.
Suppressing the slowly rising anger, Jin-young continued.
“Speak.”
“We were going to test whether a Hunter who drank Black Rose could adapt to the contaminated zone… and whether they could coexist with Creepers or monsters.”
His gaze suddenly drifted to the small bottles placed on the table.
Black Rose.
Although the supply had been significantly reduced due to Jin-young’s raid, as long as the hidden production facilities remained intact, manufacturing would inevitably continue.
The SP Guild, to which Oh Jong-yeon belonged, maintained close ties with Dark Horse and thus had been among the first to receive Black Rose.
To ordinary people, it was an extreme poison, but for Hunters, it served as a decent enhancement potion—as long as they didn’t overindulge.
However, because it also provided intense pleasure, some Hunters became addicted and sought it out.
Just like Jeon Su-yong of the Blue Dragon Guild.
Jin-young levitated the five bottles of Black Rose in front of him with psychokinesis and spoke.
“So the target was Chae So-young.”
“…You… Ha… You’re that bastard Chae Jin-young.”
Only then did Oh Jong-yeon finally piece together what was happening.
“Why Chae So-young?”
“Among 5th-grade Hunters, very few have mana reserves as outstanding as hers. It means she can endure a larger dose of Black Rose better than most.”
“……”
Jin-young stared at him in silence.
Because of this man, his sister was going to suffer and die horribly in the contaminated zone.
The moment that thought crossed his mind, rage began to take over his entire body.
Thanks to the mental fortitude he had forged through thirty years of every kind of trial in Renard, he didn’t lose his reason.
But it had been a very long time since he felt anger this deep—enough to shake his emotions to this degree.
Oh Jong-yeon suddenly felt goosebumps rising all over his skin.
He was going to die anyway.
If he was going to die, he wanted to make Jin-young feel despair before the end.
“You want to save your sister, right? But do you really think you can handle both SP and GODS all by yourself? Your sister will writhe in agony, get torn apart and devoured by Creepers, or get violated by GODS’ Hunters until she’s nothing but a co—”
At that instant.
Crack—!
In an instant, Oh Jong-yeon’s jawbone shattered.
Jin-young simultaneously uncorked all five bottles of Black Rose with psychokinesis and poured them straight into the man’s mouth.
“Guh—kehek…!”
He tried to cough it out, but even the droplets that sprayed from his mouth were forced back in by psychokinesis.
The moment his overall abilities were enhanced by the drug—
Kwaaaaaah—!
Oh Jong-yeon’s entire body instantly turned into a mass of roaring flames.
His enhanced unique ability, Flame Manipulation, activated violently, threatening to incinerate the entire room.
Having lost his reason, he instinctively activated the hidden unique ability he had kept secret.
Ssssssh—
Pitch-black holes appeared in midair.
The oval-shaped swirling voids looked like miniature portals.
If he could reach one, he might have escaped—but bound by psychokinesis, all he could do was spew flames uselessly.
Jin-young suppressed the inferno with psychokinesis, then extended black tentacles from his chest.
Swoosh—
The greedy, writhing tentacles covered the burning body of Oh Jong-yeon.
They absorbed the polluted mana at an astonishing speed.
The more mana they drained, the more the flames clinging to Oh Jong-yeon’s body dwindled.
“Ughhh…”
With his jaw shattered, Oh Jong-yeon couldn’t even speak properly.
Having had every last drop of mana stolen, he no longer had the strength to resist.
Bang bang bang!
Perhaps because of the flames Oh Jong-yeon had unleashed, club staff who had realized something was wrong began pounding on the door.
But the door, sealed shut by psychokinesis, didn’t budge.
Jin-young compressed Oh Jong-yeon’s still-living limbs, crushing them into powder.
“……!”
Overwhelmed by the horrific pain of his flesh being crushed and disintegrated at the particle level, Oh Jong-yeon couldn’t even scream.
Pshwaaaak—!
Without leaving a single drop of blood, Oh Jong-yeon was reduced to a handful of dust and sucked entirely into the tentacles.
『You’ve obtained a new ability. How about trying it out while you’re at it?』
‘……’
Jin-young silently acknowledged the suggestion.
The tentacles writhed and created a small black portal in midair.
The unique ability Oh Jong-yeon had hidden: a makeshift portal.
The moment Jin-young reached toward the portal—
Shwaaa—
His body was sucked in, and at the same time, the portal shrank into a dot and vanished instantly.
***
Crackle— BOOM!
A burly, muscular man swung twin axes wildly, slaughtering villains left and right.
“F-Fuck! It’s a Berserker! A Berserker showed up!”
“Damn it! I told you we should’ve surrendered!”
The villains recoiled in terror as they watched their hideout being destroyed and their comrades butchered.
A bull-like man whose body had flushed bright red charged forward with his eyes rolled back in fury.
There were hardly any opponents capable of standing against him head-on.
Squelch! Pshwaaak—
In the end, the Berserker succeeded in slaughtering every single villain who tried to flee.
His subordinates, who had been hunting alongside him, kept a wide distance.
While the ‘Berserk’ state was active, he attacked indiscriminately—without distinguishing between friend and foe.
“Huuu…”
Finally, the ability wore off.
The overheated red body returned to normal, and black pupils reappeared in eyes that had been pure white.
Only then did the subordinates cautiously approach their returned boss, the Berserker.
“Everyone dead?”
“Yes, Boss. The ‘Twin Blades Faction’ has been completely annihilated. The remaining organizations will probably start surrendering one by one soon.”
“We’re almost finished taking over the entire North Jeolla Province, Boss!”
The newly risen villain organization ‘Tricksters,’ which had appeared in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province.
Its boss, Berserker, had been aggressively absorbing the villain groups throughout the North Jeolla region, rapidly expanding his power.
In rural areas where Hunters of 4th grade or higher were extremely rare, a 3rd-grade Berserker was nothing short of a catastrophe for small organizations.
“Good. Everyone’s worked hard. Clean up and let’s head back.”
“Yes, Boss!”
The villains of Tricksters began clearing away the corpses and loading the spoils onto trucks.
Berserker climbed into the back seat of a sleek black luxury foreign car.
The waiting driver immediately started the vehicle.
“Boss, there are instructions from headquarters.”
“Speak.”
The driver turned off the dashcam right away before continuing.
“Director Jeong says Senior ‘Dolsae’ is needed for this mission. Originally, Senior ‘Executor’ was supposed to be deployed, but his injury recovery is taking too long, so it can’t be helped.”
“What’s the mission?”
“You need to infiltrate the SP Guild’s Hongcheon Contaminated Zone restoration operation. Gather intelligence on whatever scheme they’re plotting. If it poses a threat to national security, stop it to the best of your ability.”
Berserker—agent codename ‘Dolsae’—furrowed his brow.
“So you’re telling me to go into a contaminated zone?”
“That’s exactly why Senior is being deployed. You have combat power comparable to Senior Executor, plus you’re already experienced in contaminated zones.”
“I really don’t want to go back to a contaminated zone, but if it’s the Director’s order, there’s no helping it. I’m not going alone, right?”
“No. Senior Advisor and the new agent, Psycho, will also be deployed.”
Hearing the codename, Dolsae scrunched up his face.
“Psycho? What kind of codename is that? Is he a lunatic?”
“I haven’t heard much either… Why don’t you check directly when we get back to headquarters?”
“A new agent after so long. Psycho, huh… Somehow that name makes me look forward to it.”
***
Ssssssh—
“Wh-what the…?”
Chae So-young flinched at the sudden black portal that appeared in the middle of the living room air.
Normal dungeon gates were blue and much larger, so she couldn’t help but be even more startled.
But the moment she saw the one person stepping out of the portal, she immediately relaxed and pressed a hand to her chest.
“Oppa, what in the world is…”
When her brother Chae Jin-young looked at her with an entirely different atmosphere, Chae So-young didn’t even think to ask about the unfamiliar ability.
“Don’t you have something to say to me?”
At the sudden question, Chae So-young tilted her head.
“Something to say…?”
“The contaminated zone.”
“……!”
Just those two words were enough to shock her.
She hadn’t wanted to worry her brother, so she had tried not to tell him.
But now that things had come to this, lying was no longer possible.
“I definitely told them I wasn’t going… but somehow, without me knowing, my name got added to the list… I’m sorry for hiding it.”
“So-young. The SP Guild is planning to eliminate you inside the contaminated zone.”
“What? What do you mean…”
Chae Jin-young operated the watch on his wrist.
A recorded conversation immediately began to play.
—We… we plan to capture Creepers alive… and conduct research on them.
It was the familiar voice of Oh Jong-yeon.
—Research on Creepers.
And then her brother Chae Jin-young’s voice followed.
“……”
Chae So-young listened to the entire recording in silence.
Her face showed considerable shock.
When Chae Jin-young continued speaking, her shock deepened even further.
“Everyone involved in this incident… will disappear. By my hand.”